The big Spraoi round up
Spraoi officially started on Friday but they don't usually put much on until the Saturday and as it happened I was off Friday and bank holiday Monday but in the rest of the weekend. So Stephen and I got tickets for Tangled theatre for Friday night. All I knew about was that it was some kind of play being put on and it didn't cost much to go so in the spirit of getting some culture I was happy to go along. I didn't really have any expectations which is often a good place to start because you are more likely to end up pleasantly surprised. The tangled theatre consisted of two separate one person plays which doesn't sound like much but it was put together very well and so we had quite the entertaining night. The first one was called two battered sausages and it was just this girl in her twenties in a chipper talking about her relationship but the dialogue was very well written and the girl playing the part did a great job because I found myself totally drawn into her story, laughing at some parts but feeling bad for her in other parts but before we knew it was over. Its usually a good sign when you don't realize how much time has passed. The second one was called a lecture on health and it was one woman on stage delivering a lecture on health to the under-classes but all the information was slightly patronizing and hilariously incorrect. I laughed quite a lot during it and we left feeling thoroughly entertained. By this stage I was also a little tired from that morning at the gym so I probably would have been content to tick the culture for Friday box off and head home to my couch. I had already planned to go see some music with Stephen so I didn't. Mind you if it was up to me I'd rarely get out. We headed down to Sals bar on the quay but stopped en route to see Microguagua, a Spanish reggae band, they were pretty good, all mad dreadlocks and high energy music but in a good funky sort of way. After we'd taken some of that in we made our way down to Sal's to see a reggae dubstep act that was supposed to be pretty good. Don't ask me what dubstep is because I haven't managed to work it out yet. We were there for a good while and I was on the water because of my 7am start Saturday. It took ages for everything to get started and I hadn't realised there was some sort of sound issue because I remember commenting that it just seemed like they were playing a load of random records. It turns out that it was only like that because there was an issue with the microphone. I'm not sure I really got it once the music got going. The main guy was half talking/rapping over a load of different records but I hadn't a clue what he was saying. I'm going to say dubstep probably isn't my kind of thing.
Saturday came with all of the plans plus a full day of work and I had slept badly Friday night so I woke up like a rat. Then of course the heavens opened kind of putting a dampner on Spraoi so it meant that loads of people had arrived into town for the festival and then decided to take refuge in the shop. Ultimately it was good for sales but there weren't enough staff to cover it so it was downright scary at times. I spent my last four hours just running around and by time it was home time I just wanted to lie down. I compromised by lying on my couch with tea for half an hour before getting myself ready to head out to dinner. We were going for a meal for Stephen's friends birthday. I knew about 4 or 5 people at the meal and the rest were strangers. We went to a place called Bellissimo out the Dunmore road. It served Mediterranean cuisine and I had already checked the menu online and found something reasonably Laura friendly so I was pretty much sorted. We headed out there for 7.30 but then it was established our table wasn't booked till 8 and the guest of honor didn't arrive until nearly half past. During our wait time I had done much perusing of the menu after discovering the vegetarian option I was planning to get had disappeared from the menu and I was quietly panicking and also very hungry but trying not to let it show on my face. They had replaced the roasted aubergine with a tartlet of some description and while I wasn't certain what a tartlet was, I was pretty sure it involved some form of pastry which ruled it out. I didn't really fancy getting a salad as my main course but I didn't want to be difficult either as I hate making a fuss in restaurants. One of the girls suggested I just request and omelette with lots of veg so I went for that with some wedges and the crisis was averted. I had bought a small bottle of vodka in my bag because I wanted to have a few drinks out but it costs quite a bit to get vodka with a mixer and I really was planning to wait until we got to town but the food was taking a long time particularly given that half the table had starters and I was just waiting hungry. So I cracked and ordered a glass of soda water and then made Stephen sneakily top it up with vodka for me. I felt very classy indeed doing this in a very posh restaurant but at least we weren't caught in the act. Yikes that would have been mortifying. So I had a nice drink to keep me going until food time and then my omelette arrived. It was full of Mediterranean veg and I can honestly say I couldn't identify what veg I was eating which is weird for me but it was nice and it felt much better than making do with a salad. A few drinks later and we were all finished up and myself and Stephen decided to head into town. It was a big group at the table and some were headed for town where as others were going to a bar near the restaurant but I didn't want to miss the Spraoi festivities so we headed for Henry Downes bar for some sort of funk battle of the djs. It was basically two guys taking turns to pick the songs and seeing which one got a better crowd reaction but the music was good and it had a nice relaxed vibe as it seems to get a lot of the arty theatre crowd so much nicer than anywhere in the centre of town. Anyway we had a good night but ended up going home before the vodka had a chance to wear off and I really wanted to stay up at home to sober up a bit but I was much too sleepy.
Then Sunday beckoned and I woke up to all of the bad feelings in my stomach and had a bit of a lazy morning before work. I was feeling pretty rough so it was a tough few hours especially as the Sunday crowd were particularly reluctant to leave. I really wanted to go home to bed once work was over but I had already made plans to meet Stephen in Geoffs to see the Hot Sprockets play. By the time I got down there it was absolutely jam packed and I was too hot and cranky and in no mood to squeeze my way to the back of the beer garden where Stephen was waiting. They played an excellent set but I didn't really enjoy it with my overwhelming desire to lie down creeping in. After that I'd perked up a tiny bit and we went to a pub fairly close to where the parade preparations were because Stephen and one of his friends were going to be walking in the parade and I was still trying to decide if I would go home and hibernate on my couch or stay around to see Stephen in the parade. I left him at 7.30 and decided I'd head to the plaza and catch Torann, making a quick pitstop at centra for fruit, nuts and crisps or dinner as I was calling it Sunday. I found one of my friends down on the plaza and listened to Torann who did an awesome set. They do really high energy drumming and I've seen them play a good few times now. There's always a good buzz to it. I even stayed around for a little bit of the next band before making the executive decision to go home for a teenie tiny rest and a warmer jumper. It was a little after 9.30 when I made my way down the Quay for optimum parade viewing. The spot I had chosen (out of sheer laziness) happened to be where the parade was finishing up so It was over an hour later before I even saw anything vaguely parade like and I remember thinking that Stephen's costume had better be suitably hilarious to make this worth my while. I haven't actually watched the Spraoi parade in years but I must say I was suitably impressed. The costumes and the floats were fantastically done and I found myself scanning everyone in the parade in case one of them was Stephen. I wasn't entirely sure what his costume was going to be or if I'd recognise him. He didn't appear until the end and he didn't look hilarious at all but I enjoyed the whole thing so I can't be too cross. Then I got to watch the fire works display sober (unlike last year) and it was just wow. Really well orchestrated and just beautiful and by then I was more than fit for my bed but we had to go return Stephens costume and then he'd promised his friend we'd go for one drink so we spent at least an hour trying to find somewhere not awfully packed and eventually gave up and got takeaway. Eventually I got myself to bed and it was the best feeling in the world.
Today then was the best day of all. It was a bank holiday, I wasn't working, I had no alarm going off and the crowds had gone far far away. I woke close to 10 and got up for breakfast and then we pottered about the place before deciding to have a picnic in the New Street gardens. Its a pop up garden in the city centre that 100s of people worked on just to not have the plot of land sitting undeveloped for the next few months and it was a bit of an eyesore so it was a good call. Also I think its likely to only be around for another month or so before they do something else with the land and I hadn't been there yet. So we got nommy food and threw together a picnic at mine and headed down there to get some of the sun.
We had the place more or less to ourselves if you didn't count the homeless man sleeping in the corner. It was really lovely, just a little haven in the city and once we were done picnicing I moved us over to a little slope of grass so I could just lie down in the sun. You can see in the photo above that's me reading in the grass. We just lay there for ages and then I read for a while but eventually loads of other people arrived so took ourselves over to Geoffs beer garden as I wanted shoe string potatoes and Stephen wanted wine and it was lovely out there. We were getting a bit toasted out there so we headed back to mine for an absolutely epic nap. It was amazing and much needed and even now I'm still feeling a little groggy from it but in a sort of good way. I did eventually drag myself up to make dinner and drop himself home but I think even with all of the fun and excitement of the weekend that today was my favourite.
Also here is a photo of Stephen in costume
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