Live Music, Date Nights And All The Book Events- May 2024 Overview

I always love the month of May. Mainly because there are two bank holidays and it’s the month of my favourite musical event of the year, Slamdunk. And May 2024 was absolutely perfect, other than the intermittent weather.

I got up to so much during the month, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed or burnt out as I had a good balance. As I’m writing this post Luke has gone away for a long weekend to a convention, so I’m enjoying a leisurely weekend alone with the cats and I am loving it!

Things I got up to in May 2024

I had a fab month of live music in May 2024. It started off strong with Tenacious D near the beginning of the month. I headed to the Birmingham show with two friends and it was just to much fun, I was smiling throughout. Then in the middle of the month four of us headed to Milton Keynes for a night out featuring an emo covers band and I had the best night. I don’t go out drinking that often but I let my hair down and screamed along to all the 00’s/10’s emo hits. It was the best.

Then the month ended with Slamdunk festival in Hatfield. It’s always over the late May bank holiday weekend and yet again we were graced with fab weather. I saw a load of awesome bands including Honey Revenge, Set It Off, Mallory Knox and I Prevail.

Over the month I got to head to Milton Keynes theatre twice for events. Over the early May 2024 bank holiday I saw Aladdin which was absolutely fab. It’s one of my absolute favourite Disney movies and seeing it on stage was magical. Then later in the month me and Luke went to see Ed Gamble who was on top form. I absolutely love Ed and his humour and it was a perfect show.

Date nights

May 2024 marked mine and Luke’s one year wedding anniversary and I still can’t get over that it’s been over a year since our wedding.

Over the month we did a few date nights to celebrate and spend time together. We wanted to relive our first date but the burger place we went to has since closed down, so we went to a new spot close by. Another evening we went bowling and I wasn’t as rubbish as I thought I’d be (we’ll ignore that I had the barriers up). For our actual anniversary we went to KOD in London where you can get unlimited steak Sunday lunch which was fab. If you do go, go hungry!

We had a few other meals out and evenings together and it’s been really nice.

Things I watched, read and listened to

With a single days notice Bring Me The Horizon released their new album so I’ve been listening to that a lot. I do think the singles are some of the strongest tracks, but I need to listen to it on repeat as much as possible to really decide what I think.

I head to to see Taylor Swift in Edinburgh a few days after this post goes live so I have been listening to the Era’s tour setlist a lot!

We only got to the cinema once over the month to see The Fall Guy. I absolutely loved the film, it was funny, clever and had the perfect combo of Aaron Taylor Johnson and Ryan Gosling. Me and Luke have actually cancelled our Cineworld unlimited cards as we were spending almost £40 a month on the membership and a lot of months not getting enough value from it. With our Sky we get two free tickets a month and through our mobile contracts we can get some cheap deals so for the time being we think this is going to be enough for us.

TV wise I did binge the first half of Bridgerton season 3 and I loved it. Penelope is one of my favourite characters, and I have loved to see more of her. I’m counting down the days until I can watch the rest.

Everything book related

In May 2024 I had a whopping four book events, and three of them happened within 10 days of each other. At the very start of the month I went to see Natalie Haynes who did a talk all about Greek mythology. It was quite academic but Natalie is so engaging and so funny that I had such a fab time. Then the trio of events started with Lauren Roberts who wrote Powerless and Powerful and I absolutely adored those books. I couldn’t get over how young Lauren is, but the event itself was so much fun.

Then a few days later me and my friend went to Cambridge for the day to an event from Jennifer Saint. She is a Greek mythology retelling queen and author of one of my favourite books, Ariadne.

Then at the end of the month we headed back to the OG Waterstones Piccadilly. The event was with Susan Dennard who wrote The Luminaries, and Elizabeth May. This talk was pretty chaotic but so much fun, and it was awesome meeting the pair.

In read a lot of great books in May, but some of my favourites were:

• Powerless by Lauren Roberts. I read this (and the following novella) a few weeks before the event and I adored the Powerless world. It’s centered around a world where everyone has a power and those that don’t are exiled. But our main character Paedyn hides that she’s not got a power and it all gets a bit messy.
• Funny Story by Emily Henry is exactly what you’d expect from a novel by her. Nothing much surprised me about the storyline, but I loved every second of it. I loved the main characters, and was rooting for them throughout.
• The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard. This is book two in The Luminaries series and I really enjoyed finding out more about the world and the characters. With one book left I’m trying to figure out where the story will end.

Things that made me happy in May 2024 and some of my favourite things

We’re fully back in the season of F1 with three races across the month, but the Miami GP right at the start of the month filled me with so much joy as Brit Lando Norris got his first win. Me and Luke were watching at about 10pm on a Sunday evening and screaming with joy at the very end. It’s becoming a really interesting season and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

In made a pretty big purchase during the month and I am now an apple watch girlie. I wanted a new smart watch as my one broke, but I also wanted something that would help me with my fitness goals. And the Apple watch seemed the best choice. I do think that I’ve been more active since having it, and I absolutely love it.

During the month I also bought a new keyboard to use with my Mac mini and it’s so cute. I bought different keys and they’re all cat related, it just makes me so happy every time I look at it.

How was your May 2024? What did you get up to?