BIRMINGHAM – Breakfast, Spa and Rihanna Concert
Last Wednesday night (maybe it was the early hours of Thursday morning 18th July by the time we set off), my two Rachels and I, headed down to Birmingham to see R’n’B superstar Rihanna for her Diamonds Tour concert. The extravaganza was scheduled for Thursday but we wanted to make sure there were no hiccups, so arrived a day early to prevent anything from coming between our grey-haired sex bomb and us!
Pedal to the floor – 1hr and 45 minutes later – we arrived in BIRMINGHAM!!
We stayed in the Ibis hotel, which was surprisingly really nice! The foyer was lovely, the rooms were clean and tidy and security was quite high for a low budget hotel.
I
n the morning we headed down to Browns the upmarket chain café, in the lovely St Martin’s Square, for breakfast – reasonably priced, good quality food and service. We then made our way to the Bannatyne’s Health Club and Spa for our Swedish massage appointment.
The spa was such a good experience, probably one of the best spas I’ve been to, in terms of value-for-money – clean, friendly staff, top quality service and treatments, relaxing – exactly what you want from a day at the spa! Better value than the prestigious Sanctuary in Covent Garden by far! For £49pp we were given a 1-hour full body massage and access to all areas of the health club – sauna, steam room, gym, swimming pool and Jacuzzis all day.
We spent hours there lounging around, then slipped on our basket-ball jerseys, snap backs (outfit inspired by the 25 year old superstar) 
and a face full of make up, as it was finally show time!
We zoomed to the LG Arena, picking up a quick McDs drive-through on the way. Arriving fashionably late, just like the main girl herself, we tiptoed our way through the standing crowd. We annoyed quite a lot of die-hard Rihanna fans, as they had probably been queuing up the whole day waiting for the arena doors to open – you can just imagine the looks we received (Eeeek – not planning to do that again! – if looks could kill!) 15 mins later – The Bajan Rockstar took over the stage – mesmerised the crowd with her effortless stage presence and made every member of the audience fall even more madly in awe of her! Gosh she’s so sexy!
Her singing improves every time I see her live. Nothing is choreographed too much, she doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously and looked like she naturally enjoyed performing for us! She has a foul mouth though – swears in almost every sentence when interacting with the audience, but I guess that’s why she calls herself badgal RiRi – 
rough around the edges – rebellious and therefore… natural!? Well that’s my conclusion anyway – and I just love it! Her dance moves are something that should be left in the bedroom, but we are talking about THE sex icon RIHANNA – so again, I guess we should expect that!
Good trip – even if you don’t add in the concert, I’d suggest a quick spa getaway with the besties – A perfect girly time!
@TheRubyMaeMoore
Hotel: £16.30pp/£49 Breakfast at Browns: £10pp/£30 Travel (Petrol): £20pp/£60 Concert Tickets – £75pp/£225 Drinks at the concert: £12pp/£36 Car Park ticket at LG Arena: £8 Spa facilities and massage – £49/£147 McDonalds – £5/£15
Total – £569 which is about £190 per person
http://www.bannatyne.co.uk/healthandfitness/birmingham-brindley-place/facilities/
