Daily Shenanigans, 09/05/2014: Essays complete!

It's over, my two awful essays are finally done! What a long few days it has been! I know I have been doing little updates but I have really missed this blog and I hope to do some more reading over the next few days to catch up a bit on my May TBR list! Speaking of books, I came home to find a book waiting for me! I must have missed the email but I won another Goodreads Giveaway, 'The Bees' by Laline Paull. I am really excited that I won this one, after reading the synopsis it sounded so compelling! I can't wait to get into it, and the bright yellow cover gives me another Bookish Bingo entry! Yay! This post will be quickly followed by my bed, I stayed up very late doing work last night and didn't get much sleep. Followed by a ten hour day in Uni and I'm knackered! Tomorrow I'm off to London with Mat for a few days so I'm really excited to finally be able to relax again before my Birthday. So excited!

Daily Shenanigans, 10/04/2014: My body clock is on strike!

Okay, it's official. My body clock is completely out of whack! I wasn't in bed until coming up to 2 o'clock this morning, so it's no wonder really. I was up only a few hours later, and have since spent the rest of the day falling in and out of sleep with frequent naps! I actually spent most of the day with Mat, having not seen him for a few days, and I feel pretty terrible that I slept so much to be honest. But it did make me feel better! Between my numerous sleepy moments, we played some games (particularly Pokémon) and I managed to get a bit more reading done! Oh! And before I saw Mat, I wrote my 'Life Of A Blogger' post. This week's topic was food, which naturally made me very hungry after I'd finished! I've had serious food cravings all day!

Other than that, I've generally just had a relaxing day with not an awful lot to tell! 'The Birds That Never Flew' by Margot McCuaig, a book that I won on Goodreads, arrived today. I'll have to find time to read it at some point soon! I don't have to be up for anything special tomorrow, so I'll be doing a lot more reading (and hopefully finishing my current book) and some blog post planning! I really want to get into the habit of scheduling more posts so that I don't have to worry too much about them! I'm writing this post a little earlier than usual because I really need to get to sleep a bit more than I have been recently.

Oh, also: I now have over 50 followers on Bloglovin', which to me, is nothing short of amazing! This fact makes me so happy, so thank you all for liking my blog and reading it!

Daily Shenanigans, 04/04/2014: The Postman has impressed me!

So today has been one of the nicest I've had in quite a while. That feeling of not actually having anything to do that day is a rare one that I don't encounter often! I ended up having a rather nice lay-in this morning, and spent the rest of the day relaxing a lot. I replied to some comments on my blog, read a few posts, read some more of 'The Invention Of Wings' (I adore this book so far, by the way), and generally chilled out. Mat and I played quite a lot of games, and even watched a movie on TV, 'Beautiful Creatures'. I have to say I did enjoy the film, but I would love to read the book. I think I would enjoy that a whole lot more.

I returned home pretty late this evening, and found that I had two parcels waiting for me. The first was 'Good Kings, Bad Kings', which was one of my Giveaway wins that I knew would arrive soon. The second was a bit of a shock. I hadn't expected it to arrive so quickly, seeing as I only emailed my Mailing address out yesterday. It was the book that the lovely Betsy Cook Speerg had asked me to review, 'Demolition Queen: Champagne, Murder & Chaos'. In light of the fact that someone has specifically requested me to review it, I've bumped it up the TBR list accordingly, and I shall be reading it after I've finished my current read. I can't wait to get into it! It shouldn't affect my reading schedule too much, and I want to review it ASAP.

Tomorrow is my Mum's birthday, and I'm seeing Mat in the afternoon after he finishes work. It promises to be pretty relaxing again though, there is nothing planned as far as I am aware, but we'll see! Oh, I also found out today that as well as Benedict Cumberbatch playing Hamlet next year (I heard this last week), Martin Freeman will be playing Richard III fairly soon. These are both in the West End and I am desperate to go and see them, I love these actors! So there is some more exciting news from today!

Daily Shenanigans, 28/03/2014: More book shopping!

I ended up going to Town today, as Mother's day is coming up and I needed to get a few bits and bobs. This took up most of my morning (other than a few chores and a bit of computer browsing) and while I was there, I inevitably ended up wondering into a bookshop. I told myself it was because I wanted to find a present for my Mum, and while I did manage to (her birthday is coming up too), we all know that there was some selfish reasons creeping in there as well. Man, books are so hard to resist! I bought a couple:

• 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry' by Rachel Joyce.
• 'Green Rider' by Kristen Britain.

The first, Joyce's book, has been on my TBR list for a long time. And as I bought it in an offer with the book for my Mum, I figured it would be a little treat for myself. Then I saw the Fantasy section. Now I have missed books set in different Kingdoms entirely, I haven't read one in a while when they used to be my favourite kind! I was going through my Goodreads reviews of some Tamora Pierce books and I felt this pang of longing for a made up world far away. This is my answer to that need.

As well as this, I found another few Kindle reads which I have downloaded and are ready to read when I get round to them, which I'm very excited about!

• 'Entangled' (The 'Spellbound Trilogy' Series, Book 1) by Nikki Jefford.
• 'UnEnchanted: An Unfortunate Fairy Tale' by Chanda Hahn.
• 'Moon Child' & 'By Blood' (Companion Novels) by Tracy E. Banghart

The first two I found while doing a bit more sorting of my TBR list, and having a browse of the Kindle Store. They were free and rated highly, so I saw no harm in giving them a try! Banghart's two companion novels cost £0.99 in all and came to my attention when a newsletter from her website arrived in my inbox this morning. It's a limited time offer to get both books for under £1, while individually they still cost £2.05 each, so get it while you can! I can't wait to finally get stuck into some of her work!

I spent the afternoon/evening at Mat's and we played some Playstation. As well as that, I got a bit more reading done and I'm actually almost halfway through 'The Telling Error'. If I'm good, I might have a review up later tomorrow for it, which I'm really hoping happens! I have so many thoughts on this novel! Oh and to top off a good day, I won another book from Goodreads! Two days in a row, that's amazing! Today's win was 'The Birds That Never Flew' by Margot McCuaig. Exciting stuff!

This post ended up being longer than I thought! Tomorrow I'm collecting a parcel from the Sorting Office (could be a book or DVDs, either way I can't wait to have them) and going to the cinema in the evening with Mat to see 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'. I'm very excited about this film and can't wait to share my thoughts!

Daily Shenanigans, 27/03/2014: Goodreads sort out!

I've had a bit of a lazy day today if I'm being honest. I didn't really have all that much to do other than a few chores around the house. Excitedly though, I won another Goodreads 'First Reads' giveaway! Today's win is an exciting one, 'Good Kings, Bad Kings' by Susan Nussbaum. It looks very good and I can't wait for it to arrive! 

I'm afraid I've been very bad with my reading today, though I will do some tonight before bed. I spent a lot of my day working on blog stuff, including today's 'Life Of A Blogger' post, for which the topic was 'Favourite Animals'. I really am enjoying this meme and look forward to next week's interesting choice, 'Handwriting'. As well as that, I caught up with my Bloglovin' Feed a little and managed to re-organise and tidy up my Goodreads account a bit. It's becoming a bit of a mess.

Other than that, today has been pretty uneventful. I have a couple of bits and bobs to do tomorrow before seeing Mat, including a trip up town and hopefully making a lot more headway with this book! I also have a couple of posts to plan, so lots to do!

Daily Shenanigans, 11/03/2014: We're only on Tuesday?!

Goodness me, this last couple of days has gone so slowly and has been so non-stop that I feel like a whole week has gone by. Today at least I managed to get a lie-in, which everyone keeps telling me I needed, but still made me feel like I'd wasted half a day. Needless to say that put me in a bit of a bad mood. I spent a small amount of time starting to write my 'Top Ten Tuesday' post (which I didn't get done until late this evening) and planning out what needed to be done that afternoon. After that my day became a bit more filled.

I spent a couple of hours at a rehearsal for a show, followed by a couple more hours at another Tech Slot for one of the shows on my night. By the time that started I was ready to go home. My extra sleep just reminded me how tired I was! I can feel myself getting a bit stressed, but at the same time, I also feel pretty relaxed about things. It's an odd sensation to say the least. After finally getting out at 7 o clock in the evening, I was pretty glad to be heading home on the train towards food, warmth (the Tech box is freezing) and bed! I managed to finally start 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' too while on the train, so that was a bonus!

When I got home, I found out that my latest Goodreads giveaway win, 'The Ruby Slippers' by Keir Alexander, has arrived already! I can't believe it's here before 'Tithe' which still isn't here. This book though, honestly it looks so good and is definitely one I'm massively looking forward to reading. It's an uncorrected proof copy which is sort of exciting! Having had a good read of the blurb though, wow I can't wait! I'd best get through my other planned reads (and this month) first though, eh? It's been quite a day and I've got another busy one tomorrow, another Tech Slot to attend followed by work!

Daily Shenanigans, 28/02/2014: De-stress Day.

Well I decided not to audition. I knew for a while that would be the decision I would make, but I just have too much going on right now. I didn't have a song fully prepared, would have to hang around for 7 hours waiting, wouldn't have got to see Mat tonight, needed to get on with things, and didn't feel excited enough about it to want to commit to it after Uni. In fact all I want to do after Uni right now is curl up and sleep for weeks. The only thing that made me feel like I should do it is that everyone else thought I should and I didn't want to let anyone down. But in the end, I have to go with what is right for me. I thought I would spend the whole day moping and filled with regret and disappointment in myself. Instead, I had a really nice day today! I think that just confirms that I made the right decision.

I had a tutorial this morning with my Stage Management Tutor, who told me that she was pretty pleased with my progress so far. This is a great weight off of my mind as I was worrying that I had missed things and show day is fast approaching. From then on, I did a bit of work for an hour or so, then before going home, popped into work to let them know a few things about upcoming dates that I couldn't be there for. Having sorted that, I had time to get a bit of reading done on the train home (I'm making my way nicely through 'Wolves'). The book itself looks big but isn't actually that long, so I'm about a quarter of the way through it now as I had to put it on hold to finish challenge books. I'm still waiting for 'Tithe' and 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' to get here, so unless they arrive tomorrow, it's looking like I'll be starting Ivey's 'The Snow Child' next. I may just pick that one as my first full-length March read anyway, I'm so desperate to get into it!

'The Hotel Fakir' (Adam Smolka) did arrive today meaning that all of my giveaway reads have now arrived. It's such a short book, literally about 70 pages long, so I think I can get through it pretty quickly. I know it wasn't in my planned reads but I do want to get through all giveaway wins ASAP because I want to review them for Goodreads, so I think I'll read that while finishing 'Wolves' and starting my next book. I have every confidence that it won't take much more than a couple of hours! It looks a bit different to my usual choices but certainly intriguing enough to give it a good go! Talking of Goodreads, I joined a new group. Check it out, it's called Into The Forest and centres around Myth/Folklore/Fairy Tale retellings/spin-offs! There's a challenge and a few lists of some excellent looking books to check out!

My evening was spent with Mat and I had a lovely time. After pretty much spending the week with him last week, I've found I have really missed him over the last few days. We mostly chilled out and it was great just to de-stress and not think about my growing pile of work and stress levels for a while. I'm seeing him again tomorrow, and we plan to go to the cinema to watch 'The Book Thief'! I am literally so uncontrollably excited for this film, it is my favourite book (no exaggeration, I could read it again and again) and the trailer looks fantastic. I can't wait to blog all about it tomorrow and give my opinion on it. I've thought about doing proper film reviews seeing as I go to the cinema a lot (same with the Theatre) but I figure that for now, a book blog is enough to be dealing with. It's much better to express my opinions in a daily post like this one.

Daily Shenanigans, 23/02/2014: Day of Rest?

Well it's Sunday, but contrary to most of the population I have not been resting. I have been blogging my little heart out! First, I completed my Liebster Blog Award post, which is up for everyone to have a read of. It was a fun little challenge to take part in, I'm so glad I got to do it! It took me a while to think up the facts and the questions, and in the end, it turned out I counted wrong so I had to go back and re-edit. Oops! Next I posted my first weekly wishlist! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and can't wait to do next weeks! Again, that took me a couple of hours to get the pictures in the right place and everything looking neat, so it was a lot of hard work.

As well as blogging, I've done a lot today. I woke up to find I had won yet another book (via Goodreads). This is getting to be a habit, but a good one! This one is super exciting because I am absolutely desperate to read this series, I've seen it around so much! It is 'Days Of Blood & starlight' by Laini Taylor, the second book in the 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' series. This series has been on my to read list for weeks and it was even going to be on today's wishlist! But now the second one is on its way, which brings me to my next news. I've been naughty again. Winning that book sent me straight to Amazon to buy the first. And while I was there...I may have bought a few more books. A list of today's purchases:

• 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' by Laini Taylor
• 'Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale' by Holly Black
• 'A Certain Slant Of Light' by Laura Whitcomb
• 'Poison Study' by Maria V. Snyder

In all fairness, all those books were going to be purchased at a later date if not now.  need some of them to complete various challenges and I just want them so much that I can't have my bookshelves without them. It was always going to be a matter of 'when' I bought them, rather than 'if'.

In other news, I watched 'The Last Stand' with my Dad, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. To be honest, I wasn't that bothered until I saw Jaimie Alexander was in it, then I had to watch it! She's a fantastic actress! It was actually a very good movie, I enjoyed it a lot. That is saying something because I don't really like action films at all. Also, I re-read Susan Hill's 'The Woman In Black' with Bev this evening and it gave me chills. Again. It's a horror story, for those that don't know and if you've seen the movie then be prepared still for a shock. The two endings are completely different.

My only regrets about today are that I didn't get to do any reading and the end of February is drawing ever closer  so I need to get a move on with 'Pure' and 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower'! Also, a note for when I next have some free time: I must sort my Kindle out! It is such a mess and I want to start using it properly rather than continually clogging up my barely tidied room with books!

Daily Shenanigans, 22/02/2014: My head is pounding!

This is going to be a short one because I've got a splitting headache! I woke up this morning, checked my emails and found that I'd won my third Goodreads 'First Reads' book, 'The Telling Error' by Sophie Hannah. It looks like a really good one, and I'm super excited about getting to read it! As well as that, I was nominated by my lovely sister at Tutus And Ballet Shoes for a Liebster Blog Award, so I'll be posting about that tomorrow and nominating a few blogs I follow in the process! It's just a bit of fun that gets smaller blogs some recognition and you get to find out a bit more about the people behind them in the process! Tomorrow, I'll also be posting my first 'Weekly Wishlist' to get the process, going out. That's something else I've been planning today.

Other than that, the rest of my day was very Mat filled! He had work this morning, but rolled up at my house about 4ish with a present! The game every Pokémon fan already has and we are way behind on! Pokémon X and Y for the 3DS. Needless to say, we spent our evening playing on that! Also this evening, after Mat had gone, I have been watching Markiplier's Charity Livestream. It's on for another good five or six hours if you're interested. Markiplier is a pretty well known Youtube gamer, whose videos I love watching and he does a lot of things for charity! Check him out if you're into that!

I really hope this headache is gone by tomorrow morning, I have a lot to do!

Daily Shenanigans, 20/02/2014: Spring Cleaning.

Well supposedly Spring is almost upon us (it still feels like Winter to me) and so it's the time of year to have a good sort out. My parents have been nagging on at me for a while about tidying my room (it is a mess) and so I made a start today. Currently, I have piles of books on the floor. Why? Because I have nowhere to put them. Or should I say, I had nowhere to put them. I managed today to clear away and bag up all the books I plan to sell, most of them being Uni books I simply don't need anymore. I now have lots of shelf space for the multitude of books that I buy! Yay!

After doing that job, I went to Mat's house for the day. We played games, like we usually do (both of us are a bit addicted to it) and caught up on some TV. Three cheers for 'The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year' and 'Top Gear'! I did also nap a lot today, my body clock is going stupidly out of sync. I keep going to bed late, waking up early and then sleeping some more in the afternoon. This must stop because I'm waking up in the nights too. Despite a fairly relaxed day, I found time to sort out the other book reviews to a layout that I want (finally!) and make a good start on Simon Ings' 'Wolves' which I'll read alongside Andrew Miller's 'Pure' so lookout for those two reviews in the near future!

Tomorrow I plan to do a bit more tidying in the morning before Mat comes to get me. Blog-wise I need to do a bit of planning and challenge hunting, and I need to update my Goodreads too. The lecture I would normally have is no longer happening, instead I'll have tutorials (but I won't have one tomorrow). I don't have work either, so a fairly free day for me! 

Daily Shenanigans, 16/02/2014: Chilling with the boyfriend!

I'm not really sure how to describe today. It was definitely a 'lazy' day and I did an awful lot of sitting around. But at the same time, it was oddly productive because I was sitting around doing something. I woke up quite late this morning, I didn't sleep all that well last night and so I grabbed a couple of extra hours in the morning. After that, Mat and I quickly got up, dressed and ready for our day of relaxation. We spent a fair portion of the morning on the DS playing Pokémon Black/White 2 (Victory Road at last, hooray)!

After a late lunch Mat decided he would continue with 'Assassin's Creed 4' while I got on with some actual work. Let me just say that I am getting on like a house on fire with that Multimedia Script at the moment! I think I might post a snippet on here so that you get a better idea of what it's all about! I did a fair bit and let Mat read it for his approval. Afterwards, I took a 'break' (meaning I stopped for the evening) and spent the rest of my time entering Goodreads giveaways (I am hooked), blog post planning, eyeing up Mat's vast collection of books and watching him play his game. No, I did not get round to sorting out my reviews on here. Yes, I am a bad person. Yes, I do feel guilty. But I think I can be allowed this one, it was meant to be a weekend with the boyfriend after all. I hope you can forgive me, if it helps I read a massive chunk of 'If On A Winter's Night A Traveler' before bed last night, so I have been sort of good!

I have to be up early tomorrow, it's back to reality for me! I have a lecture at Uni, followed by work! I anticipate a busy shift as it's half term now so I will most likely be knackered afterwards! 

Daily Shenanigans, 15/02/2014: I won again!

The day started off rather well for me! I woke up to find that I had won yet another Goodreads 'First Reads' giveaway! Hooray! This one is called 'The Hotel Fakir' by Adam Smolka. It's a short book (only 72 pages) and looks to be an interesting read which I look forward to! The rest of my morning was spent finishing short reviews of all of the books I have marked as 'read' on the site, and I am very glad that I've finally finished doing that! I plan to rejig the reviews I have posted here, as I think that the layout of my book reviews right now is a bit confusing and long. I would rather introduce some subtitles so that it is easier to organise my thoughts on each book! 

This afternoon, after Mat finished work, he came to pick me up and I am staying at his for the rest of the weekend. I will probably be meeting with him quite a lot this week, as it is his Reading Week and so he's staying at home for it. We have had a bit of a lazy afternoon into evening and I'm currently sat here blogging while he plays Assassin's Creed 4 (seriously, I've said this before, awesome game!) I plan to be quite productive tomorrow, I have to get some Multimedia done in time for my lecture on Monday, and hopefully I can sort those book reviews too (if I don't do it tonight). 

The rest of my evening will probably consist of a bit of reading. I really do need to catch up, I'm falling behind and the end of February is fast approaching! Also, I must start to plan what I'm going to read in March. I've had a sneak peek at my challenge categories and it looks like I'm going to have to go book shopping/borrowing if I am going to get books that meet the requirements. Not to worry, I love doing that!

Daily Shenanigans, 13/02/2014: Recovery after yesterday's trauma.

Today has been the opposite of yesterday, a.k.a, exactly what I needed. A quiet, relaxing day where I didn't need to be anywhere or do anything and could just sit down and work on things without too much disturbance and stress. And honestly, I actually got a lot done. I spent the morning writing some more script for my Multimedia piece, I've had a mental block for absolutely ages and suddenly I got a flash of inspiration! The relief that comes with that is indescribable. Once I had most of my ideas penned, I took a break and started to write out some blog-related planned posts and enter some Goodreads giveaways. Talking of those, my sister told me she had won a book this morning! 'The Madness Of July' by James Naughtie is on its way to her and having read the description, it looks like a good read! We have already agreed that entering these giveaways is sort of a joint effort in terms of reviews, as her blog is very book based too, so when it arrives and I get round to it, expect that one to pop up on the planned reads list!

The rest of my day was spent getting a bit more work done, sorting out some emails and making sure everything was prepared for Valentine's Day! I have been told that tomorrow's lecture has been cancelled, and so I have the whole day off! I did go for a drive this evening, following my Dad to the Garage because his car needs an MOT and he wanted transport back home. Phoebe the Fiat is still working fine, I had absolutely no problems tonight! Let's hope it was just a one off. I'll be driving to pick Mat up from the station tomorrow, so I'll see how that goes. On another quick, day-brightening note, I received a really lovely tweet from Strangeface Theatre after I ranted about being unable to see their show. They told me to look on their list of Tour Dates around Kent and see if I could make any. If so, they would see if they could swing me a free ticket! How nice is that? I'll be checking that out, and hopefully someone will come with me so that I don't have to go by myself. It looks like I maybe going to see the show after all though!

I don't have an awful lot more to say. Tomorrow is obviously Valentine's Day, and I'll be spending the afternoon/evening with Mat and going out for dinner (so won' be home to blog till late), but other than that, I don't have a lot planned for the day. 

Daily Shenanigans, 08/02/2014: Victory is mine!

I've finally done it! I've got all the way through Stephen King's 'It'! It has been a long journey, but I have succeeded in my goal of finishing it today, and now I am up to date on my 2014 Book Challenge. Hooray! The review I have already posted earlier this afternoon, so go and check that out if you want to know what I thought of the epic novel. I have already started working on my next read which, as promised, will be Andrew Miller's 'Pure'. Looking forward to this one, what I've read so far is intriguing to say the least. Also it's much shorter (a whole 1000 pages or so), which I think I need  while I recover from the last book before I dive into 'Inheritance' and 'The Wise Man's Fear' which are both long books too.

As for what else I've been doing all day, the short answer is not a huge amount. I woke up fairly late this morning (well, late for me) and managed to send out an email that has been bugging me for a while and took a great deal of weight off my mind. After that, I switched between browsing the internet, reading, updating my Goodreads account and just general procrastination. I've had a horrible headache that despite copious amounts of painkillers, has refused to go away all day and I've generally felt a bit drained today. My mood was much better when I woke up though!

This evening I've spent with Mat, who bought his 3DS round and we played some Pokémon (I was devastated, he didn't bring the Yu-Gi-Oh cards!) We were originally going to watch 'Robocop' at the cinema but decided against it because we were both tired and my head was still hurting. To be honest, it was just nice to relax this weekend and not have to go out anywhere. The weather is still absolutely terrible and it looks like it won't stop being rainy and windy for a while. I'm definitely looking forward to when the sun decides to come out, I miss walking and actually wanting to venture outside. I'm off to spend the rest of the evening reading with a cup of tea before bed, so I'm posting this a little early.

Daily Shenanigans, 06/02/2014: Goodreads First Reads winner!

Spent most of the day acting as a Taxi service for various members of my family due to the terrible weather. Honestly, it hasn't stopped raining since yesterday evening and I'm going to have to catch the train to Uni tomorrow because a lot of roads are flooded. Other than that, most of my day was filled with  the usual list of bits and bobs to do.

The most exciting part of my day was logging onto my Goodreads account and finding out that I had won a book from the numerous giveaways that they do! I was not expecting it at all, so many people enter them and I can't wait for it to arrive so that I can get stuck into it. The book is called 'Wolves' by Simon Ings, it was only released a month ago(ish) and I haven't heard many reviews about it so it should be interesting to read and of course I'll be reviewing it for you guys! 

I know this is a short post but I really don't have much more to say. I have basically finished 'It' and so a review of that will be up in the next couple of days. I'm off to Uni, then lunch, then seeing Mat (my boyfriend) tomorrow so there will be a lot more to talk about!

Daily Shenanigans, 04/02/2014: Being productive and facing fears!

I am on a roll with this promise keeping thing, I managed to be far more productive than I was yesterday. I got up early, drove my Mum to work, then came back and began my busy day of doing as much as I possibly could. This included a little Uni work (though not nearly as much as I should have done), emails etc. but as well as this I got a very decent amount of reading done. I'm now about three quarters of the way through 'It' so could have a review of that for you much sooner than anticipated. Speaking of reviews, a good majority of my morning consisted of writing book reviews (and entering a lot of Giveaways in hope) on Goodreads, for books that were on my 'read' list that I haven't (until today) managed to do anything for except rate them out of five. I feel so much better for doing this as it gave a definite fresh perspective on what my next few titles to read will be and allowed me to revisit fond memories of some of my favourite books. So, after 'It' I will be reading: 'Pure' by Andrew Miller, followed by Patrick Rothfuss' 'A Wise Man's Fear', the second book from the 'Kingkiller Chronicle' series, and after that I will finally get to read the fourth and final installment of 'The Inheritance Trilogy' by Christopher Paolini, 'Inheritance'. To check out my reviews of the others in the series, I suggest you take a look at my Goodreads account as I probably won't be revisiting them in the near future to give a full length review on here.

It is so nice to have some sort of plan to this, and I feel rather proud of myself for getting my act together a little more. I have got a list of the books afterwards and I think I have an order, but I know me and it will probably change, so I will give you all those titles as definite promises and get back to you on the next lot after I've made good headway through those. Another achievement of mine today is that I have upgraded my Cineworld Unlimited card (it needed renewing) into a Premium card. This means another year of films for me with some added perks! I felt this particularly needed mentioning as it involved me having to ring them up, an act that always leaves me shaking and in tears whenever I have to do it. I have no idea why but speaking on phones, particularly to strangers or companies has always frightened me and I was proud of my achievement today as it's a fear I am desperate to get over.

As far as tomorrow goes, I have Uni in the morning till early afternoon and then I desperately need to work on my script for my end of year project. I must remember that as much as I enjoy browsing the internet, updating my Goodreads account and writing this blog, I do have to actually do some work too. I probably, therefore, won't have an awful lot to report in terms of reading done but I may find some time after I have really worked to my own satisfaction. There you go, that's another promise I now must keep. It's worked so far, so I'm going to keep using this method as it seems to ward off my procrastination problem quite nicely.

Daily Shenanigans, 03/02/2014: Lazy day.

Today has definitely been one of my more unproductive days. I spent a good majority of the morning in just my pyjamas, catching up on some YouTube videos that I have missed over the last few days from my subscriptions (Namely Markiplier, if you are fond of Gaming Channels as I am, particularly Horror Games, then check him out. He's fantastic and does a lot of stuff for charity!) Upon realising that I had to leave for work in the next couple of hours, I hauled myself from the sofa and got ready to go. An uneventful drive, followed by an uneventful work shift makes for a very boring blog post unfortunately. But I told myself I would write these every day and I will keep that promise. This evening has mostly consisted of being lazy again, watching the TV ('QI' to be exact, seriously Stephen Fry just makes me so happy) and trying to think about what I would write about tonight.

So I have decided to try and be more productive and interesting tomorrow, in order to make the related blog post a little more worth reading. I'll be getting up early to drop my Mum off at work (such a good daughter, seeing as it's my day off) and I'll have most of the day to myself. I have a few things to do for Uni (naturally, when would I ever have a break from that?) then some major working on my Goodreads account and reading to be getting on with. I'm really getting back into 'It' very quickly so I am going to keep at that one for a while and see how I go. If progress is slow, I may post a review or two of previously read books so that I can really get a bit more variety into this blog. I hope also to start participating in a few challenges just to get things up and running! On Goodreads, I have pledged to read 35 books (aiming high...) this year in the 2014 book challenge and I'm already 1 book behind schedule. A lot of my planned reads are long, I may have to pick a few short ones to bump up that figure.

Hopefully I'll have a more interesting post tomorrow! I did score a personal best of 22 on 'Flappy Bird'. So I suppose that's something.

Where I've been: 'Coriolanus' and 'The Phantom Of The Opera'.

So, in a solid attempt to get this blog up and running again, I feel it's time to let you know what I've been doing with my time instead of this! Obviously, University has taken up a large portion of it. As mentioned in my previous post, I am in my final year and so am working on my end of year project, a Multimedia Performance that centres on the story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. I won't be performing, instead I will be directing and scripting the entire thing, as well as sorting out the programming for the multimedia aspect of it. I am so excited about this project, and have drafted in a good friend of mine to work on the art for it. As well as this for my other modules I am both Company Managing and providing Sound/Lighting Design for two separate nights of shows so as you can imagine I have been a bit of a busy bee!

I have however found time to do other things that I will share with you because I am so excited about them and need somewhere to vent this excitement. Firstly, on the 16th January 2014, a friend and I traveled up to London to see the Donmar Warehouse's adaption of 'Coriolanus' (currently running up until about Mid-February). It starred Tom Hiddleston as the lead, and other famous faces included Mark Gatiss (Mycroft from the hit TV series 'Sherlock') and Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas in the 'Harry Potter' film series). Readers I don't think I can quite put across just how excited I was to see this. I have always been a huge lover of Shakespeare, but to me, Tom Hiddleston is currently one of the finest actors of our generation and I have been a huge fan of his since watching him as Loki in Thor and The Avengers. Having watched his fantastic interpretation of Prince Hal/Henry V in the BBC TV Series 'The Hollow Crown', I knew I needed to see him in this, be it live or in the upcoming broadcast in worldwide cinemas. I was very lucky to get tickets to see him at the Theatre, as they sold out fast every time they were released.

The performance itself was stunning. The set was simple, yet effective and I found myself unable to draw my eyes away from the action for even a second, so lost was I in every cast member's performance. Deborah Findlay was every inch how I imagined Coriolanus' overbearing mother Volumnia to be played and I found her exceedingly entertaining. Gatiss was, as I imagined his Menenius to be, hilarious making his later emotional grief all the more difficult to bare. Hadley Fraser too struck me with his excellent and very brave portrayal of Coriolanus' sworn enemy Aufidius and I would very much like to see him act again. Finally, Tom Hiddleston's representation of the titular character, Caius Martius Coriolanus was quite frankly a breath of fresh air and showed fully Hiddleston's amazing ability to play a broad spectrum of emotions, and in doing so, create a complex character that an audience can instantly connect with. He made me laugh and cry many times as I watched Coriolanus' pride and passion draw him deeper into his inevitable fate. I have loved his many onscreen characters but to anyone reading I will say, if you ever get a chance to watch him act on stage then take it and don't look back. You won't regret it. All in all this adaption, directed by Josie Rourke, was a wonderful interpretation of a Shakespeare that is not often performed. Well done to all cast and crew!

After the Matinee performance, my friend and I decided we would go and eat, and then queue to meet the actors after the performance so that we may tell them face to face that we enjoyed it. We did manage to get an autograph from Alfred Enoch, who was also wonderful to watch, and he was lovely to chat to. Sadly, there was no sign of Mark Gatiss, who I suspect had snuck out of a different door. After much waiting (in the pouring rain I might add), Tom finally came out. My friend and I were at the front of the queue, along with a lovely girl from Latvia with whom we were sharing an umbrella, and I instantly felt terrible that the poor man was coming out to sign for us after two exhausting shows. His voice was a little hoarse but he was very friendly and seemed in fairly good spirits. I told him that I had really enjoyed the show, though I wish that I could have talked to him properly rather than having my mind go blank (yes, I was a little starstruck) but to be perfectly honest I'm just glad I managed to say anything at all in an existing language. He was very gracious and thanked me for my compliments. To be honest, it's all a bit of a blur, but I came away from it happy that I had finally got to meet someone that I really respect and admire and I hope I do get an opportunity to meet him again in the future.

I will also briefly mention (well, probably not briefly) that last week, on Monday 20th January, my boyfriend took me to go and watch 'The Phantom Of The Opera'. I was so, so excited about doing this because it is the show that got me interested in Musical Theatre, and subsequently Theatre in general, and I have been wanting to watch it since I was eleven and have never had the chance! I was so overwhelmed by it that during the Overture, I cried because my dream was quite literally coming true. But I managed to compose myself enough to say that it was a wonderful performance, definitely worth a watch. The costume, set, lighting, and sound were all beautiful and it was clear that a lot of work had gone into the whole production. The singing was just perfect,  and I came out of the Theatre with a huge smile plastered across my face and unable to stop singing. A true classic of the London 'West End'.

So there we have it, a general update on what I've done over the past couple of weeks. It's a bit Theatre focused, but other than Uni work that is really all I have been doing. With regards to the book reviews, my current reads are Stephen King's 'It' and David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas' which I shall definitely be reviewing so stay tuned for those when I finish them. I have a Goodreads account now so check that out if you want to see what I'm planning to read next and what, after I have gone through the books that I own, I want to buy. To fill any gaps, I'll also be letting you know each day, with a short blog post, what I've been up to and keep you all up to date with my future plans for this blog. For example, today's activities really involved sorting out my new Goodreads account and this blog, as well as doing a few bits and bobs for Uni, as this morning's lecture was cancelled. I hope you all enjoyed reading this rather long catch-up of my life, please do follow me on Bloglovin'!