Daily Shenanigans, 12/05/2014: The 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' premiere!

It's the day before my birthday and it has been such a good one! We got up this morning and quickly got ready for the Premiere which was due to start in the evening, but we knew it would be better to get there earlier. When we arrived (about half 12ish) there were already so many people there, most of them dressed up in some rather impressive looking costumes! They were being judged for a competition and seeing as there were no barriers in place at this point, we decided to go and get something to eat, then do a spot of shopping. I had some lovely pasta and we went to a cute shop in the London Trocadero, 'TokyoToys', where Mat bought me an Eevee and a Totoro as early birthday presents! Speaking of early birthday presents, he also presented me with a Thorntons Chocolate Egg this morning which made me very happy.

One thing we didn't know about the premiere however was that in order to get a good spot, you had to be there when they were handing out wristbands at whatever time that was. Without wristbands, we were given a space where the stage and screens could be seen well, but no chance of any stars being able to come over and sign or talk. Nevertheless, we still had a lot of fun! The stars in attendance, for those interested, were Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. It was really interesting listening to them talk to Johnathan Ross about upcoming projects and the film itself, and there was even a special appearance from Dynamo! I'm really glad I got to go and if I decide to go to another premiere in the future, I'll be sure to get a wristband next time!

I watched another couple of episodes of 'Game Of Thrones' this evening. It's getting pretty intense now and I'm just getting this awful feeling that my favourite characters will die while the ones I don't like will live on to cause more trouble. I shall have to wait and see! It's been such a good day and I look forward to seeing what my birthday has in store for me tomorrow!

Daily Shenanigans, 20/04/2014: Easter Day!

I'll begin this post by wishing everyone a happy Easter and I hope you all got the chocolate fix that you wanted/whatever else you wanted instead! I got a few Easter Eggs this year, mostly of the Lindt variety which I cannot wait to tuck into! Other than that, today was a pretty average day for me! The weather was appalling first of all, so much rain and the awful air pressure left my head pounding! I went round Mat's for quite a lot of it, which was nice. We spent the day relaxing, playing Assassin's Creed 4 and generally enjoying a quiet Sunday in. I managed to get my Weekly Wishlist up this morning, and read a bit more of 'The Hunger Games' but other than that I've had a pretty blog-free day today. I did buy 'Saving June' by Hannah Harrington for the Kindle, a book I plan to use to cross off a Bookish Bingo square! It looks great!

I had dinner back at home with my family this evening, and we had curry! I also received the finished music for my Multimedia Piece, which has made me very happy because I've been very stressed out about it and it's nice to see something finished! I just have to match it up with the various script points and programme it all in, a task that I'm not looking forward to but has to be done! Once it is, I'm sure I'll feel a lot better than I've been feeling over the last few days. Tomorrow I was originally going to be meeting with a friend of mine, but alas, she is ill and so I shall probably not see her. So instead, tomorrow will be my 'be productive and literally get as much done as humanly possible' day, so that I can work towards feeling a bit less anxious about things. 

Weekly Wishlist #9

It's Sunday, which must mean it's time for my Weekly Wishlist! I've been quite busy this week so haven't been able to write it in advance.

1) 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' Soundtrack. I made no secret of liking this Soundtrack when I posted about the film a few days ago. I really thought it was one of the better ones that I've heard this year in a film, and although it hasn't been released yet, I want it very much for when it is! My favourite theme was the one used for Electro, who was an excellent villain! There seems to be plenty of Electro-related tracks on there, so even more reason to be desperate to have a listen!

2) 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children', Ransom Riggs. I see this book everywhere. It has appeared on my Amazon recommendations more times than I can count and Bloggers all over have raved about how good this book is and how much I should read it. I've put myself on a paperback book ban which is very aggravating but necessary for shelf space. I think I'm going to have to consider getting it on the Kindle, I really need to read it!

3) 'Shiver', 'Linger' and 'Forever', Maggie Stiefvater. I have never read a book by this very popular author and I am deeply ashamed. I actually saw the first one, 'Shiver', a long time ago, and it was recommended to me by various friends of mine, but I never got round to getting or reading it! A lot of people have highly rated it (as well as it's sequels) and I really feel like I need to give some Stiefvater a try. So yes please to this book series!

4) Chocolate! Well it's Easter Day and so of course chocolate had to go on here. It is the great love of my life, the stuff that I can't live without and I adore Easter Eggs in particular for some bizarre reason. I got a couple this year of the Lindt variety (yum!) but the more chocolate the better in my opinion so it would be greatly appreciated in my opinion!

5) To go to the 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' Premiere. I have found out that the date has been set for the London Premiere for the 12th May, the day before my birthday! I have never attended a Premiere before, though I've always wanted to. But if there was ever a good first one to go to, it would be this one! Anyone who read Thursday's post on my favourite stars will know that the idea of potentially meeting Jennifer Lawrence or Ian McKellen (slim, but a possibility) makes me a very happy bunny! 

Daily Shenanigans, 19/04/2014: UK YA Day!

Well, my Twitter feed was abuzz with excitement today readers. Why? Because it is UK Young Adult Day! Now I have to admit that until today, I was completely oblivious that it existed but when I saw it did, I couldn't help but get excited! YA Fiction is my absolute favourite! If you want to know a bit more, I suggest you look on the Project UKYA blog, it explains a great deal better than I can! This post is more specific about their plans for April, i.e. why UK YA Day exists! I was pleasantly surprised to see that the day got a lot of support, and actually trended briefly on Twitter! Wowee! Thanks to the day's activities as well, I managed to win another book (some authors were hosting giveaways for their novels/series and I took part in a couple). 'Red Ink' by Julie Mayhew is on it's way to me and I'm very excited.

My other activities for the day? Well my book review for 'A Certain Slant Of Light' was posted, which I really enjoyed! I replied to some blog comments, did some work and went shopping! No, not book shopping for once. Actual clothes shopping! I only bought a few things, but a bit of retail therapy did me good as I've been pretty stressed out as of late. I bought myself a lovely new dress, a jumper and a leather jacket! I got a couple more titles off of NetGalley today, firstly 'Moonfall' by Vanessa Morton, and also I was approved to read 'Thereafter' by Terri Bruce. It is the second in the series, so I'll be getting the first one on Kindle to read before I start that particular one, but I am very excited about both books!

I also saw Mat today, and we exchanged Easter eggs as we were unsure as to whether we would be seeing each other tomorrow (as it turns out, we are). We both bought each other a nice Lindt egg (his was far more impressive than mine though) and I got him some Malteaser Easter Bunnies! He spent the evening fussing over me which was nice, I was showered with cups of tea, bourbon biscuits (my favourite) and chocolate while watching Britain's Got Talent! It was a lovely end to the evening. 

Daily Shenanigans, 13/04/2014: Tea, Chocolate and the Olivier Awards!

I have had a really good day today again, and quite a hectic one actually. My Dad bought a new Motorbike, and managed to sell his old one, all in the same day! The new one looks very nice, I don't know much about bikes but it's very cool and sporty looking! The weather was so lovely today that I actually myself went out for a drive with my sister, I really hope the weather stays like this, it's getting so hot now and beginning to feel like actual Summer! . We went to get a few bits at Tesco (which is incidentally where Mat works) and said hello to him as a surprise! Those bits included some more books which was really rather naughty of me because I have such a shelf space crisis at the moment. The two reads I picked up today were 'Half Bad' by Sally Green, and 'Mother, Mother' by Koren Zailckas. I've heard really good things about 'Half Bad' and 'Mother, Mother' I keep seeing in basically every book shop I walk into.

Talking of books: a progress update on 'The Fault In Our Stars'. I've finished the book! I won't say much, I'll save it for the review because Myra won't finish until tomorrow and I need time to recover/gather my thoughts/stop crying. The review itself will be up either tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on what we decide to do! Next on the TBR list is 'A Certain Slant Of Light'. I'm really excited about this one, I'm on a real roll with books at the moment and don't want it to stop. Incidentally, I'll be reading 'The Hunger Games' after that, which I'm desperately excited about. I love the films so much, it has basically become a crime that I haven't read a single one of the trilogy yet!

Right now, I'm sat in my room with some chocolate, tea and the Olivier Awards on TV. I'm a little sad because none of the shows/actors/actresses that I wanted to win actually won, but the ones who did win deserved it so I'm happy too. Plus, the intermittent performances were great! It's finishing now and I have work tomorrow, so I think I should probably get to bed and get some sleep. My whole day will pretty much be in Canterbury, so my weekend of relaxation is sadly over. I will be seeing Mat though, which is a bonus! 

Life Of A Blogger: 'Travel'

Well I haven't really done much travelling over the course of my life in all honesty! Certainly, I know that I have only left the UK three or four times in my life, as when going on holiday, our family mostly traveled to other areas of England and stayed at Holiday Parks. These were always huge fun, but I wish that I had been able to see a bit more of the world as I grew up.

I've been to France once on a day out with my parents, sister, Aunt and Uncle! I was quite young and I don't really remember it all that well, but I do remember the journey there on the Eurostar, which was all very new and exciting at the time! We only went to a Shopping Centre I think, not to see any sights unfortunately but I remember it was still heaps of fun! 

I also went to Belgium, a few years later, on a school trip! This travel experience I can remember a bit better. We went to visit the trenches and graveyards, as we were learning about the Battle of the Somme at the time. But afterwards we were allowed to go and do some shopping and I bought a lot of Belgium chocolate. That was a really fun, interesting day and I learned a lot! I do enjoy History so it would be quite fun to return one day.


In terms of actual Holidays, my first and only Family Holiday was with my whole family on my Mother's side for my Grandparent's Wedding anniversary. We went to Malta! It was such a beautiful country, the people were really friendly and it was really nice being able to spend so much time with people that I don't get to see an awful lot. We went to Valletta (the Capital) on one of the days and even went to a 'Festa' at some point which I really enjoyed! I still recall those memories back with a lot of fondness. On a random side note, the lemonade that the Hotel served was delicious, the best lemonade I have ever tasted. I can't find the photos for the trip at the moment so I'll put a nice photo of Malta up instead!

My second Holiday out of the country was actually only last year, in Corfu with my boyfriend. I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm so glad that we went! For those that don't know, Corfu is an Island just off the coast of Greece, meaning that Mythological figures were found just about everywhere. It was very romantic and we made the most of our week long trip! We toured the Island on a bus, went on two boat trips (one of which actually took us to Mainland Greece), relaxed at the beach and did plenty of browsing at the local markets! There was a beautiful shop near to the Hotel that we stayed at (it was a really nice Hotel by the way) that sold all sorts of beautiful, handmade statues! I fell in love with one of Artemis (the Greek Goddess of Hunting) immediately and the day before we returned home I bought it! It's on my window sill and just looking at it makes me remember just how amazing this holiday was. These photos are mine!

My last travel experience that I will mention isn't actually technically out of the UK, but it does involve travelling so in my eyes still comes under this category. It was last Summer again that I, and a couple of close mates, went to visit my friend who goes to Uni in Cardiff. I'd never been there before and was really surprised about how different it is to England! It was a wonderful place though and we had so much fun! We shopped, went bowling, visited 'The Doctor Who Experience' (which can I just say was awesome and well worth a visit), went to the Fairground and visited Cardiff Castle. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and thought it well worth a mention here!

While I'm on the subject of travel, I may as well talk about some places I would really love to go if I could. 

Firstly, America. Mat and I talked about actually going there for half a year and touring it, which would have been amazing! A bit expensive though, so alas, it looks to only be a dream. In particular, I would love to go to New York and watch some Broadway Shows, and Florida to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios! Call me a child but I never actually got to go to Disneyland like a lot of children did and so that will always be a dream of mine! 

Secondly, Japan. From early teens I have always loved the country. The culture, the beautiful scenery, everything about Japan looks so serene and beautiful! And Tokyo looks like such an awesome place to be as well! I will always want to visit their, even if only once in my life, just to see what it's like!

And that about sums up my travel experiences and aspirations! Though I haven't done an awful lot of travelling in my life up until now, I hope I'll get to do more in the future! Next week's topic will be 'Favourite Animals'!

Daily Shenanigans, 02/03/2014: Making progress!

Sundays are not normally known for being exciting. But this one was. Firstly, I won another Goodreads book. I'm getting quite good at this now, it's called 'The Ruby Slippers' by Keir Alexander. It really caught my eye when I entered for it and I'm really glad that I won it! I cannot wait till it arrives! I'm not making very good progress with 'Wolves' as it stands, but that's because I've been so busy today doing other things that I haven't had time to do any reading at all. Firstly, I wrote a January/February Wrap-Up Post for the 2014 'Real Book Challenge I've entered. I'm annoyed at myself for not doing it sooner but there you go, next time I will! Straight after, I wrote my 'Weekly Wishlist' (number 2). I do really enjoy doing these, they're something a bit different to do!

Right, so time for the really exciting stuff. I have finally finished my script for my Multimedia project. I feel like singing from the top of a mountain right now, I'm that excited and happy that it's done! It is my first script that is going to be performed to an actual audience and I just hope that everything will work out the way that I would like it to! As well as my own progress, I had a chat with my Music man and he's got some great ideas which I'm excited to hear, and my Art lady has sent me some more pictures. I won't share them all, but here are more complete versions of the environment shots I posted in an earlier post to give you an idea. What a talented lady!

I wish I could draw like this. All in all, a nice productive day. I've been spending a lot of time with my sister who helped me sort out the script properly and we even went on an 'Emergency' road trip to the petrol station for fuel (which I needed) and chocolate rations (to get us through the evening). I don't even mind that I have Uni followed by work tomorrow, or that it's tipping down with rain. Today has been so good that I feel a lot better and much less stressed than I did before. I think I will audition for the Musical on Tuesday, I feel like fate is trying to tell me something by offering the second open auditions. 

Valentines Day and Masterclass Week

My apologies, dear readers. I have been very ill over the last few days and so couldn't post. Therefore I have a lot of catching up to do!

Firstly, Valentines Day. It can only be described as perfect. I understand that many feel Valentines Day to be overrated (they are normally single) and in a sense I agree, it is very commercialised. However, those who actually tell couples off for being happy on Valentines Day are ridiculous. Many people put a lot of thought into their Valentines Gifts for their loved ones and can't wait to GIVE them. Surely such positive, thoughtless feelings are to be encouraged. I received a beautiful bunch of roses and a box of chocolates (yes I know, I know) which I was very grateful for. As cliche as they are, I've never had flowers for valentines day before and I imagine they were very expensive! But as well as this, I got my favourite present, a cuddly Simba and Nala from the Disney Store! It reminded me that Valentines Day is not just about buying the most romantic present you can find, but buying a present that you KNOW the other will love. It was also a dutiful reminder that I'm going to see The Lion King Musical for my birthday (AHHHSO EXCITED).

Now moving on from Valentines Day. This week has been Masterclass Week for my Performing Arts course at Uni (a sort of half term with optional classes) and I have attended a couple. The first was Puppetry with Steve Allen, who has worked with the Muppets and more notably in my opinion, created the prototype for Ludo in Labyrinth! (Ludo!) His class was fascinating and gave us an insight into how much hard work puppeteering can be (it absolutely kills the arms). We even had a go at making puppets from our hands (again like in Labyrinth, or the Adult Education advert).

The other class I attended this week was a Make-Up/Special Effects class and this on I was very excited about. I was not disappointed! The class focused on Wounds/Cuts/Bruises and was fascinating! You would be surprised how much you can do with a Snazaroo Kit, though I expect you can do a whole lot more with professional equipment. Here are a couple of examples of the wounds we created:

Gruesome huh? I certainly can't wait to do more of this kind of stuff!

As for the rest of my week, obviously I've been ill. But I have been able to finish 'ToraDora!' and watch a movie that I brought a while back and never got round to watching, 'Origin: Spirit Of The Past'. I'll talk more about those next post.