Calling all West Yorkshire music lovers, check out the Leeds Festival Fringe for what promises to be a bonanza of live unsigned bands in Leeds. The Leeds Festival Fringe supports the Martin House Children's Hospice
Full details will be coming some time in April
This Sunday the Vic are hosting an all day extravaganza of country, blues, folk and rock music, with the following line up: AuntieDope (watch out for God Bless America and UFO), Time of Hibu, How Wax Reserve, very special acoustic acts and there are rumours of free samosas. Starts at 4pm and entry is free.
The Victoria, 28 Great George Street, Leeds (next to O'Neills).
April is a busy month for the Fenton with 7 whole nights of live music, great bands and flowing beer:
The Fenton, 161 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds - 0113 245 3908
You can find fantastic teeshirt designs at Spreadshirt, including unique and rare teeshirt designs, funky teeshirt designs, funny teeshirts, movie themed teeshirts and much more. 1000s of teeshirt designs are available and at Spreadshirt you can even design your own teeshirt and have it shipped to you. Delivery is available throughout the Uk and we also found it to be very prompt. Our first order landed within 3 days.
You can find some of our favorite teeshirt designs below, but there are many more on offer on the website
Over the past few years I've dished the dirt on quite a few really poor dining experiences in Leeds, which makes it a real pleasure to introduce a really positive experience at La Iguanas for Valentines Day yesterday - good service, great atmosphere and great Mexican food.
Leeds city centre is really lacking in Mexican restaurants these days since the Cactus Lounge packed up its sombrero and high tailed it to Bradford, so with a date who loves Mexican there was only one place to try and Las Iguanas didn't disappoint. The Valentines Day set menu didn't have the chimichanga on it, but that we can forgive since we got excellent roast duck tortilla (Pato Taquito) and huge juicy mint, lime and chilli tiger prawns (Mojito Tiger Prawns) for starters. This was followed by a really good, albeit a little over leafy, Brazilian lime chicken salad in a crayfish and peanut sauce and divine burritos. And for dessert, the pistachio and white chocolate cheesecake is still making me drool and the Aztec chocolate fudge cake makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
With friendly and efficient service even on a very busy night and a complementary cava we really couldn't complain. Would have perhaps preferred to order a decent bottle of bubbly or even a sparkling rose, but we already had a few drinks inside us, so we let that one pass.
All in all, I think the upshot is that if you're in the city centre, you don't need to travel all the way to Dare in Headingley to get a really good Mexican.
Las Iguanas is situated right next to the Corn Exchange and within easy walking distance of the train station and major transport links and parking.
Unit 3
Cloth Hall Street
Leeds LS1 2HD
Tel: 0113 243 9533
Fax: 0113 244 3696
leeds@iguanas.co.uk
Fabric-ation are running the following craft, fashion, dress making and sewing classes in Leeds. Call 0113 243 9140 to book a course.
Join burlesque bombshell Anna Fur Laxis for a vintage hair and makeup session.
The workshop content will be tailored to the ladies who are attending and what they would like to go over, but in the main it will cover how she does her hair and makeup - using hot rollers, hot sticks and curling tongs, putting hair up into several vintage inspired hairstyles including victory rolls, using snoods/scarves/fascinators etc, vintage-inspired makeup, false eyelash application, and tricks and twists for make-up for parties & photo shoots.
Sat Feb 6th 2 places left
Sun Feb 7th 1 place left
February 13th 10.30-4.30pm
Following the success of our Christmas Candles class we have now decided to run a special one for the valentines season. We will be making candles, bath bombs, massage bars and lip balms using very simple recipes you can replicate at home. With essential oils and paraben and sls free ingredients in sensual and aphrodisiac fragrances. Make as many or as few items as you can fit into the day
Please note all our classes need to be prebooked. £35 + materials. Refreshments, but not lunch, included.
Have a sewing machine, but haven't got any further than a cushion cover? Then come along to our class where you will learn how to make a basic skirt. You will learn how to cut a pattern, and sew the skirt together, put in a zip and work a button hole.
Cost £40 + materials, please bring your own and a pattern. Refreshments, but not lunch, included. You should have already attended our 'How to use your Machine' class or have the basic knowledge of how to thread up and use a straight and zigzag stitch.
Feb 20th fully booked
Feb 21st 2 places left
Feb 27th 10-30-4.30pm
Here at Fabrication we are taking on the credit crunch with the spirit of the Blitz. Don't buy new, learn to alter, repair, customise and revamp your wardrobe.
You will learn to replace buttons, add new collars and cuffs, add trimmings, as appropriate to your garments and requirements. and turn unused garments into new objects. Either use bits and pieces you have found or root through our trim and button box.
This class will not only help you revamp your wardrobe but turn you into a canny bargain shopper. How often have you not bought the £5 sale trousers cos they were too long, or a fab markdown silk frock cos the beads were coming off or the zip was dodgy. After this that won't happen again.
Cost £35+ materials, includes refreshments but not lunch
Please note all these workshops take place in an upstairs room with no lift facility. All classes must be prebooked and paid for prior to the day. Places are ltd to 6 for clothes making classes so we can give you more attention.
If there is a class you want to us to run then let us know and if enough folks also want it then we will try and organise it. If you really want to attend one of our classes but work weekends etc then we may be able to run in an evening if enough people want to
Crochet Club 1st Thursday every month 6.30-9.pm
There seems to be lots of knitting clubs around these days but what about those of us who want to crochet. Well we have the answer. Come along to Crochet Club and bring your projects, wool, cake, gossip and tea. If you Knit, macramé, lace make etc you are also welcome.
Cost £6 inc refreshments and cake. You will need to prebook this event so we have an idea of numbers
Costume Clinic
Costume Clinic is for those making their own burlesque, theatre or historical costumes, of any description, who may need a hand to sort out problems they are experiencing with floppy bows, quick release systems etc or just an extra pair of hands and eyes to help them.
It will run the 2nd thursday of every month
Crafty Club 3rd thursday every month 6.30-9.pm
Because we all have projects we want to start/finish/ stop being bored of but get distracted by the telly/kids/hubby once a month we can get together, get inspired and finally finish them all with the addition of cake and gossip.
This is not a teaching workshop for a specific craft but a fun creative night just getting on with stuff 3rd thursday every month. Cost £6 inc refreshments and cake
You will need to prebook this event so we have an idea of numbers
If you are looking for a traditional and truly authentic Chinese dining experience in Leeds with a great ambience, then Ho's is the place to visit. The menu is diverse, imaginative and alluring and would not be out of place in Beijing.
As with any good Chinese restuarant, the menu is extensive and you will need to choose carefully to get the right blend of flavours. Its going to help if you have a party of four or more and avoid the set meals which are ever so slightly more geared towards the western version of Chinese food.
Don't be shy to ask for help if you need it since, it is admittedly easy to get it wrong if you don't have chinese friends available to advise you. A few tips though would be as follows. You will probably get more than you can all eat at one sitting and this restuarant doesn't provide the facilities to keep your food steaming hot throughout the duration, but live with that. Chinese meals are meant to be to feasts and a couple of hours at the dining table would be considered fast food in many places
Try and order a good variety of flavours and textures for your larger dishes including chicken, pork, beef and one seafood if possible to get the best range and make sure that these four include one rice dish, one soup dish and one noodle dish. Only get one that has been cooked with chillies. Your fish dish should really go in the middle, since fish have all sorts of special symbolic significance including prosperity, happiness and largess. I would really recommend any of the fish soup dishes. I'm not even sure what sort of fish ours was last time, but it was soft, tender flaked and mouthwateringly delicious.
For your smaller dishes it doesn't matter quite so much if you get the balance wrong, and there is a great deal to choose from. I can recommend the crayfish scallops, but I'm not sure I would have the honey chicken again as it felt a bit like a pedestrian interoper in what was an otherwise exciting explosion of tastes and sensations.
For snacks and drinks, alsio check out the bar and bakery downstairs.
Ho's Chinese Restaurant, 115 Vicar Lane, Leeds City Centre LS1 6PJ
On Saturday October 31st the far right is marching on Leeds just as they did on Birmingham a few weeks ago when the English Defence League protested outside the Bullring shopping centre: racist violence in Birmingham
We really don't want this coming to Leeds. There has been terrible trouble and violence with their other marches. Please take a moment to sign the letter - then maybe the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, will intervene and Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police will have the power to stop it.
I've tried to have 'political conversations' with people of this right-wing bent twice in the past - once I got punched and the other time I got hit over the head with a pint glass. They have nothing to do with politics they are just thugs and extremists, and we don't want them here.
This is not an undemocratic stopping of protest but our democratic right to stop violent extremists trying to tell us how to live and who to live with (and beating the sh!te out of anyone they don't like or agree with)
You can use the link here to appeal to the Council and West Yorkshire Police to prevent this march from happening before it is too late: Hope not Hate
We tried out Sam's Chop House for dinner this Friday for the first time in years, and I have to admit that it was a pretty good dining experience, and about as close to a simple traditional British menu as you can get in Leeds; something greatly appreciated by my Chinese dinner guests.
Every one was particularly impressed with the Colcannon potatoes with crispy bacon and poached egg, which scored very high for us all on taste texture and presentation. The salmon entrée was a little dry and flavourless though, as was the pork chop, which leads me to suspect that they were cooked from frozen, a surefire way to kill your food twice over. A chop should be juicy guys, not dry and compacted. This said, Sam's Chop House's take on the good old beef burger was very good indeed, with properly ground beef of the sort that fills you up even after eating only a small quantity. The dish came with two medium sized burgers rather than one huge one, making it very manageable to eat without them disintegrating, and offering scope for good presentation.
Aside from a few issues with the dishes, the staff were helpful and prompt and overall this was a more than acceptable dining experience at a decent price. Well done guys
Hide the Sugar Puffs! Honey Monster is coming to town! The huge furry yellow fella is visiting the White Rose and St Johns in Leeds where fans will be able to meet the big guy himself and try his new cereal, Honey Waffles.
Honey Monster will be at White Rose with his Honey Waffle Factory between 9 am and 7 pm on the 30th of May and 11am and 5pm on the 31st of May, and he will be at St Johns on the 6th of June between 8am and 6pm and 7th of June between 11am and 5pm where kids and fans will be able to meet everyone’s favourite TV monster. They will even be able to have professionally taken photos with him.
You can find Honey Monster and his helpers by looking for the giant Honey Waffle Factory which will be churning out samples of the new cereal all day, and while the factory is busy there will be fun games running and even the chance to win breakfast with the Honey Monster at your house!
Honey Monster's team of helpers will be on hand to make sure everyone gets their free box of Honey Waffles, a multigrain cereal glazed with just the right amount of sugar and honey to add a tasty start to your day, so for more information and a full schedule of Honey Monster appearances go to
Please God, please it can't be true, please tell me that Carol Ann Duffy isn't the new poet laureate. It can't be true can it?
I fed Alphabetti Spaghetti
To Pete Doherty,
And he pooed better poetry
into the lavatory
A slicker motion than Andrew ever dreamed of
Okay, so my hopes weren't that high. I didn't mind previous laureate, Andrew Motion so much, but Simon Armitage as Millennium Poet was painful. His intonation grates and his voice saws up and down like he's trying to cut poetry out of diction that is just plain unpoetic. Anyway, there were plenty of amazingly talented female poets around to choose for laureate this time - personally I'd have gone for Grace Nichols. Grrrrr.
If you are looking to find a partner in Leeds and surrounding areas and have tried the bar and club scene, or approaches such as speed dating, blind dates and so forth and it hasn't worked out then it might be time to check out some popular online dating sites. Every year thousands of people find love, ideal partners or just casual friends through online dating services.
So, why not shop around online for the partner of your dreams, someone who shares interests with you, and who is looking to find someone just like yourself. With online dating sites you have the advantage of being able to screen likely candidates and select only those who interest you the most. With many sites you can introduce yourself with a simple wink, chat through instant messaging and email, and learn about prospective partners before arranging to meet them.
When setting up your profile on an online dating site, it is important to remember to be as thorough as you can in describing yourself, your interests and hobbies and what you are looking for in an ideal partner. You should also include recent pictures of yourself so that people can get an idea what you look like. The more information you include in your online dating profile, the more interest you are likely to attract and the more chance you stand of meeting someone. Also, if you are a man, make sure that you take the trouble to email girls that you like the look of - on many dating sites girls are bombarded by winks and other automated pokes, so they are much more likely to get in touch with you if you take the trouble to email them with something that shows that you have paid special attention to them.
Once you have your dating profile completed its time to start searching the website - you should be able to search by region and also by the type of person you are looking for in some detail including hair and eye colour, marital status, whether or not they have children, ethnicity, hobbies and habits and much more. More often than not though, the online dating game all boils down to chemistry, and the person you find that turns out to be perfect for you, might not be the person you originally envisaged meeting.
You should also be aware of online dating scams. Even on the best dating sites out there you will find some bogus profiles, fake Russian brides and numerous other types of dodgy scammers. Remember that if someone looks too good to be true they probably are. This said, meeting people on online dating sites can be really fun, and you should enjoy getting to know the people on there, even the ones who aren't quite right for you.
So get out there and have some fun finding your perfect partner with an online dating service!
If you are looking for a niche dating website then FriendFinder has plenty to choose from, including Christian dating, Asian dating, Russian dating, dating sites for swingers and fetishs, and there are also plenty of Jewish matchmaking sites to choose from as well, many of which are run by Spark Networks.
I always find lunch at Browns an interesting experience from a demographic perspective at least. This is a restaurant that tends to be primarily frequented by upper working class patrons with lower middle class aspirations who have put a little more thought into where's right to go than they have into the question 'where's good to eat?'. In fact, this is a set who haven't quite made it to the top of Douglas Adam's culinary scale of evolution summed up as:
How do we eat?
What shall we eat?
Where shall we have lunch?
Okay so on to the food. I would sum it up in one word - 'acceptable'. This is not somewhere you go for flair, high dining or top-quality food, but it is functional, adequate and has flavour and taste. The grilled chicken needs a little more thought maybe. The current offering is a little too dry, which is exactly what happens to chicken when you grill it and top it with bacon and cheese - maybe some lemon would do the trick, or a little ali oli or even just a squirt of olive oil - make it juicy as well guys.
The service is worth a mention since the dining staff are helpful and friendly and noticeably made an effort to make sure we had a good experience. So they get my thanks. Let's put some pizazz in that menu though in order to take it to the next level.
Well a few of us went to see 'Let the Right One In' at Leeds Vue at the Lights last night' - and I'm just not sure a vampire movie is meant to traumatise you in quite that way. I'm going to be having nightmares about 1970s knitwear, woolly Jerseys, rollnecks and the like for months. It took us all about 40 minutes to guess whether the film was set in the 70s or whether there were just some particularly badly dressed Swede's having their blood drained to feed the appetite of that archetypally liminal and borderline menstrual twelve year old vampire girl. You could spend hours mulling over the symbolism, and at least from that point of view its not you're average salacious slashing, biting and shagging vampire fayre.
Anyway, the girl's henchman (father/ brother figure) is getting on a bit and keeps botching it when hunting for her dinner so she finds herself a substitute to groom in the form of a wet twelve year old boy who lives next door, and wins his affection by helping him to stand up to some bullies who have obviously seen Deliverance about a 1000 times - the opening words of the film are 'Squeal like a pig' according to the subtitles at least.
I suppose the demographic of the theatre was probably Swedish folk, knitwear fetishists, vampire movie lovers and the odd person who should probably be on the sex offenders register. If you think this is you, then go and see it and find out how it all pans out.
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