Daily Shenanigans, 29/05/2014: Canterbury again?!

So even though I've actually really finished Uni now, I'm still finding myself in Canterbury more often than not! I woke up and spent a lot of the morning at Mat's which was fun. I got quite a lot of reading done too! After that, Mat and I went back to mine to get my sister and we drove her to Canterbury for her Driving Theory test! It meant a lot of waiting around but she did pass I'm pleased to say. I also popped into Uni to grab some recordings of my Uni project performance and I'm very pleased with how they've come out! After Bev's test, we headed back to Ashford to get ourselves something nice to eat, and then Mat and I headed out to watch his brother's performance as the March Hare in Alice In Wonderland. Incidentally, it was really good! In terms of blogging, I just about managed to find time to do my 'Life Of A Blogger' post, which was on the topic of Siblings. Because of this, we decided we would write joint posts which were a lot of fun to devise. Check both of those out if you're interested!

Tomorrow I'm in Canterbury again, I have work and then I'll be seeing Mat. Fingers crossed, if we have time, we'll be watching Maleficent!

Daily Shenanigans, 28/05/2014: My Multimedia Project grade!

Today felt extremely busy even though it really wasn't. I started the morning off with a bath, a little reading, copious amounts of packing for Mat's and generally getting ready for work. I ended up starting a little earlier but I didn't mind, it was so busy that my shift flew by! I also took some time this morning to properly plan everything I will read for the remainder of May, and the whole of June. I'm very excited to share some of those picks with you! After work I drove straight to Mat's and I have been spoilt rotten. He cooked me dinner, gave me chocolate and tea and we snuggled up to watch Britain's Got Talent.

The most exciting part of today however I have to say was finding out that I got a 1st for my Multimedia Project I've been harping on about for months. I feel so happy with that result, a lot of time, effort and stress went into making it to the standard I wanted it to be and it seems it paid off! I did get a bit more reading done this evening too which was good, I'm making acceptable progress with my current read I think. Tomorrow I'm going back to Canterbury with Mat and Bev to do a variety of bits and bobs but I should have time during the day to work on some blog related tasks I've set myself. It's also Life Of A Blogger day and as the topic is siblings, Bev and I have something a little special lined up. 

Daily Shenanigans, 23/05/2014: Uni is over!

It's official. Today marked my last Uni assignment and now it's over, so my final year of Uni is over. What does this mean? It means I can completely focus on this blog and catch up on all the reading I really need to do! I am so excited for Summer, for the future, and for being able to relax with a good book more! The performance itself went well I think. I have been in Uni since half 9 this morning, and didn't get out till half 7ish. Man I am tired, but I'm extremely happy. I suppose I also feel a little sad that my project that I've been working on for months is done and dusted with, but it'll be nice not to feel so much stress! Now is the time to go out and do more things, enjoy my new-found freedom and be more social! Hooray! So starting tonight, I'll be finishing 'The Three' and then moving straight onto Nicola Mar's 'A Red Tale'. After that, I'll be moving straight onto completing the rest of May's challenges (so reading 'Shadow & Bone' and 'Cinder').

Time to get on with the rest of my life!

Daily Shenanigans, 22/05/2014: Prop-Making.

A good majority of my day was spent being creative! To start with though, I had a bath and posted my Life Of A Blogger post, which was actually pretty difficult to write! I then continued making a prop for my show tomorrow. Next, my sister and I had stir fry for lunch which is something I have not had for ages. It was gorgeous! Then we headed into town to buy some more props and card/paper to make things with. My entire afternoon has been filled with cutting tings out, sticking things down, writing things out. I did enjoy myself though it got a bit boring after a while. As evening drew in, I quickly took the car out and picked Mat up from the station. He came home with me and spent the evening helping me get some more bits and pieces done ready for tomorrow. Strangely, I don't feel overly unnerved about my assessment, though I'm desperate for it to go right! Once it's over I will be very happy indeed! Right now I think it's a good idea I sleep. I'll be up early tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Daily Shenanigans, 21/05/2014: A few steps closer!

I'm extremely pleased with the progress I made today! Basically all of the programming is done and I've even sorted out most of the sound for my performance on Friday! I am starting to get a bit nervous now, there are still things to do and I have this unshakable anxiety that something might go wrong (I've been assured it won't). My morning mainly consisted of sorting out sound files, while the afternoon was entirely made up of doing things in Uni with my friend who kindly agreed to help me out! I've had a pretty decent day, though I've had an absolutely awful headache that only went away a few hours ago. On the plus side, I did get to watch 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I' so that improved the evening immensely!

Tomorrow I plan to get a bit arty! I need to make some props for my show and go to town to pay in a cheque. On a blog note, I also need to post my 'Life Of A Blogger' post. As you can see, I will not get a review up today for 'The Three'. I just need to be focusing on my Uni work right now, but I am making progress with it!

Daily Shenanigans, 20/05/2014: Off to a friend's!

I'll make this one quick because today has really tired me out. I was actually pretty productive in terms of getting some things for my project that needed doing done! I still have plenty to do but there's a bit of weight off of my mind. My 'Cabinet of Curiosities' book that I ordered a couple of days ago arrived this morning which made me really happy! I can't wait to get into reading it! I also ordered a few Kindle reads:

• One Hundred Years Of Solitude; Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• Beyond The Veil ('The Veil' Series, Book 1); Pippa DaCosta.
• Alone; Sean-Paul Thomas.

Some really exciting reads, particularly 'One Hundred Years Of Solitude'! I spent most of the morning working on my Top Ten Tuesday post and making a prop for my Multimedia show, followed by this afternoon at a friend's working on even more stuff for the same show! We did also play a couple of games to relax which was fun! Tomorrow I'm afraid it's off to Canterbury to really get on with the main programming for this show, so that I have very little more to worry about before the performance on Friday. Gulp!

Daily Shenanigans, 15/05/2014: 'Godzilla'.

I've had quite a busy day today but I'll try to keep this fairly brief as I'm knackered! I started off the day writing my 'Life Of A Blogger' post and drafting the answers to my 'Book Blogger Test' questions (I had to wait to get the picture, which is why the post ended up going up so late). Imogen, the friend that was coming over today, arrived not long after and I spent a lovely few hours with her talking about my Multimedia Project as well as catching up and playing games. It was a lot of fun and really good to see her again after such a long time! After Imogen had gone, Mat came over with the car and we made our way to the cinema to watch 'Godzilla' this evening!

I'll write a little something about the film. I wasn't expecting it to be all that good, but as far as remakes go, I was pretty taken aback by how much I actually enjoyed it. They made Godzilla look pretty cool, the use of Modern CGI effects for this one were well placed and I really like his new look. I also really liked the story-line as well. I watched the original film a very long time ago and don't remember much about it but I would be interested to see how the two compared. This felt very modern and pretty realistic, though I wasn't totally blown away and something about the end reaction felt a little off to me. I did enjoy the focus on other things, namely family, in this one. It turned the film into something more than just a disaster film. Also, Alexandre Desplat's score was gorgeous. Some really nice moments in there!

All in all, I've had a nice, relaxing day! Tomorrow I'm back to Uni to work on my Project a bit more (it's my final Uni assignment) and I'll get some more reading done. Whew!

Daily Shenanigans, 02/05/2014: Winter Is Coming...

Well today has been interesting to say the least, and very busy! There were three of my friend's pieces on today and one of them I was helping out with. I had quite a stressful morning today as the piece I was helping out with encountered a lot of problems throughout. It meant that I stayed later than I originally thought I would and got nothing done in terms of blogging, reading or uni work! 

I did have a much better afternoon. Mat is home and I'm staying at his! Hooray! It has certainly been nice spending time with him, he talked me into (finally) watching the first couple of episodes of Game Of Thrones. I would just like to say that show knows no boundaries! I mean none! It has made me even more eager to read the books as well, it was really good (if a little disturbing in places)! I am too scared to get favourite characters though, I sense they won't last long. Tomorrow I'm with Mat in the morning, then have the rest of the day to be  productive! 

Daily Shenanigans, 28/04/2014: Definitely feeling better!

I can confirm that the headache is gone. I repeat, the headache is gone. I can't believe how late we are in April, May is fast approaching! Time goes so quickly sometimes! I found it difficult to sleep last night, for some reason, so I was ultra tired this morning when I woke. I did feel a lot better though despite this. I spent most of the morning at home catching up on various pieces of Uni work that need doing. When I did go into Uni about midday, I found myself enjoying the train journey immensely because I got to read some more 'Days Of Blood & Starlight'! This book guys, this book! I enjoyed the first one so much, but I'm enjoying this one even more! I just really want to get through it and review it! I did receive my first Netgalley rejection today, but I was also approved for another title: 'Cuckoo Song' by Frances Hardinge.

I spent a lot of the afternoon/evening at Uni helping out with and watching my friend's Multimedia Performance, which was really good I might add! It was a really nice, relaxing afternoon actually. I talked to a few friends who I felt like I hadn't spoken to for ages and it made me feel a lot better about a lot of things. Yes I'm looking forward to when Uni finishes but I will certainly miss some parts of it. Tomorrow involves another trip to Uni (and work, which I am not looking forward to) but fingers crossed I can be extra productive! Oh and it's 'Top Ten Tuesday' day tomorrow so I need to think of a post for that too, I have a feeling I will find this week's topic exceptionally hard for some strange reason.

Daily Shenanigans, 25/04/2014: Exciting Netgalley updates!

Okay so we'll start with my day, which has been pretty action-packed! Firstly, I spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon in London, and reviewed 'The Hunger Games'. I enjoyed the book a lot and can't wait to get onto the next ones in the series! I'm currently reading Holly Black's short stories collection 'The Poison Eaters' which are pretty good so far, I'm about a quarter of the way through! When Mat and I came back from London, I wasn't at home for long before heading out again to Canterbury to watch my friend's Multimedia performance! It went well and gave me a bit more train reading time.

Now, onto Netgalley. I have had a heck of a lot of luck with this site, I'm not entirely sure how I've been approved for so many books, being a small blog with no current feedback! However, I'll update you on my more recent approvals which are all very exciting, because I honestly didn't think I'd get approved for some of these!

• 'The Queen Of The Tearling' ('The Queen Of The Tearling' Series, Book 1) by Erika Johansen
• 'Smiler's Fair' ('The Hollow Gods' Series, Book 1) by Rebecca Levene
• 'The Three' by Sarah Lotz
• 'Deep Blue' ('The Waterfire Saga, Book 1) by Jennifer Donnelly

I've decided to alter my next few reads about a bit. Yes I know, once again I'm going off my planned track but I didn't expect approvals on Netgalley to be coming in so thick and fast and I really want to get going on them so that I can keep up! So after my current read, I will of course read 'Days Of Blood & Starlight' which I've been waiting to read for a ridiculously long time! Then will be the first in a series of a book I was approved for on Netgalley, 'Hereafter' by Terri Bruce. I was actually approved for the second book, 'Thereafter', but I really want to read the first before I get going on that one.

I've also been receiving and sending some exciting emails regarding one of my 'Read Now' downloads and I won't reveal much now but expect updates on that when I have more information! I have a day off tomorrow so I expect to be very productive!

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. 

Daily Shenanigans, 18/04/2014: My first approved reads!

Well I've had a bit of a roller-coaster of a day, but a fair few good things have happened so I'll start with those. I got my NetGalley Bio typed out and saved at last, so I took the time to request a few reads and see where I got. One of the reads that I requested, 'Keane's Challenge' by Iain Gale has been one I've seen and wanted to read for a little while. I was surprised to see it was in the 'Read Now' section of NetGalley, which I assume means I don't have to be approved? I could download the title straight onto my Kindle so I was quite pleased about that. Another title that I did actually have to put in a request for was approved within a few hours! It is called 'A Red Tale' by Nicola Mar, and I shall be getting onto that as soon as I've got through a few more of my important April reads!

I also did download a couple of free books to my Kindle that have been on my TBR list for quite some time:

• 'Dying For A Living' (The 'Jesse Sullivan' Series, Book 1) by Kory M. Shrum
• 'Peach Blossom Pavilion' by Mingmei Yip

'Peach Blossom Pavilion' in particular is exciting because I saw it in Tesco the other day and almost bought it but refrained. Now I'm really glad I did. Good things come to those who wait I guess! While we're on the topic of books (and let's face it, this book mostly is), not only did I post my 'The Fault In Our Stars' review at last, I also managed to finish 'A Certain Slant Of Light', the review for which will be coming your way tomorrow! My next couple of reads are 'The Hunger Games' and 'The Poison Eaters', which I'm very much looking forward to getting into!

I did journey into Canterbury with a friend of mine today, in order to get some work done. Unfortunately there had been a mix-up, and actually, the Uni was closed so it was a bit of a wasted journey unfortunately! Still, it was a nice day for a trip out (always look on the bright side and all that) and I did manage to pop into Clarks to sort out my rota for the week after next! I've received a bit of bad news regarding my Multimedia Project this evening, but I'm determined to try and relax, and not let it worry me too much! It won't be too long until Uni is over and I can completely relax once and for all. No more stressing out over silly things for me, and more reading! Hooray!

Daily Shenanigans, 17/04/2014: 'The Amazing Spider Man 2'.

So my day was pretty average and laid back. I did a bit of Uni work, but mostly spent the day chilling with my sister, doing some blog stuff and doing chores. I wrote up and posted my 'Life Of A Blogger' post, which took me absolutely ages because I had a lot to say on the subject! I have a lot of actors and actresses that I admire and look up to, so this was always going to be a topic that I enjoyed writing about. During the afternoon, Mat came round and I'm afraid to say Phoebe has failed her MOT. It wasn't anything huge, just the emissions level was way too high. Still, annoying and it leaves me (and Mat) without our beloved Fiat until the problem is fixed!

Onto the silver lining, and the crux of this post. We still went to the Cinema and we still saw 'The Amazing Spider Man 2'. It was a fantastic film, I enjoyed it so much! Firstly I'll talk about the part that stuck out most to me (as it always does). The soundtrack. Hans Zimmer, you have done it again! It was a work of art and as soon as it is released (please soon, I don't think I can cope) I want it. I loved what they did for Electro's theme, there is some really cool stuff in there! Now: onto the film. The visuals were great, the plot-line so brilliantly orchestrated. Between this film and it's predecessor, I would say this is definitely my favourite. Some great acting came from Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and I felt the development in their relationship a lot more this time!

Some other stand out performances of course came from the villains. Jamie Foxx as Electro. He was so great, such a sad back-story and I completely understood him as a character, which is what I like in a villain. For me, they need to be complex, which Electro was. The same can definitely be said for Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn. I have never seen his acting before but I want more! He was amazing! There is a particularly unexpected and frankly pretty heart-breaking scene between the two of them which actually revealed their vulnerable sides. That's something you don't often see when two villains interact in a film and I really liked it. Talking of heart-breaking scenes, I won't give anything away, but I was a blubbering wreck towards the end. Be warned!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Uni again to help another of my friends with their project and to hopefully get some programming of my own done! I'll be pretty busy all day, but hopefully I'll get time to finish my NetGalley bio (I made a start) and request a couple of books to try it out! 

Daily Shenanigans, 16/04/2014: Recording!

The clue is in the title, I spent most of my day recording voices for my Multimedia Project, and so Blogging and reading has definitely taken a back seat today (though I did manage some on the train). The recording itself went fine, which I'm glad about! It's definitely a weight off my mind, but I still have a ton of stuff to do for this piece, and not a lot of time. Eek! Other than that, I've not done an awful lot else. I saw Mat this evening for a few hours after he had finished work, and I'll be doing the same tomorrow. Maybe even going to the Cinema, now that 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' is out! We'll see how tomorrow goes, as Phoebe is having her MOT check tomorrow afternoon and so we need the results of that first!

Well guys, I've joined NetGalley. I'm still working on my profile before requesting books, I want it to be perfect and professional! I'll be doing that tomorrow, along with my 'Life Of A Blogger' post! Also tomorrow, I've got to do a spot of shopping and I want to update my reviews and work on their layout a bit more. I'm forever changing my mind, and I feel a big blog make-over coming on so prepare yourselves! The last Goodreads Giveaway win that I'm expecting arrived today, 'Second Best' by Charmaine Pauls. She included a lovely note in the book and I can't wait to get round to it, (quite when I don't know but I will get there).

Daily shenanigans, 08/04/2014: I have the 'Divergent' series!

I had another good day today. Firstly, I didn't need to get up so early this morning, and when I did, I wrote my 'Top Ten Tuesday' post and replied to some others. Then I got ready for the day, needing to be in Canterbury to help my friend with some stuff for Uni at 01.00pm. The weather was a lot better today, a bit chilly, but better than the torrential rain we had yesterday. I read a bit more of my book while on the train, then made my way to Uni. It only involved doing some recordings, so nothing too drastic! Still, I got to see a few friends that I hadn't in a while and it was a lot of fun!

Also, on the way back through town to head home after, I went to 'The Works' to buy a prop for my Multimedia piece. While there,of course I had a little browse at the books. I found the entire Divergent series for £9.99! What an absolute bargain! Of course I snapped it up, I've been desperate to read those books for goodness knows how long! I'm so glad I bought them, and on the train home, I read a bit more of my book! I'll be getting a lot of it read tomorrow morning before work! I don't really have an awful lot more to say about today, it may have been nice but it was pretty uneventful. 

Daily Shenanigans, 07/04/2014: A good day at work?

I was a bit baffled by how much I enjoyed today, considering that it was a Monday full of pretty much nothing but work! But yes, I had a nice, if a bit tiring, day today and I got a surprising amount done. Thank goodness for the train, and the extra reading time that it provides! I finished 'The Invention Of Wings'. It is such a beautiful book and I loved it. A lot. It carries a powerful message about humanity, and it is sensitive and shocking all in one. But I'll stop raving, you'll have to read the review I posted a couple of hours ago if you want to know more of my thoughts on that!

My day really started out at Uni with my friend, and we got a fair amount done which was good. I'll be going in again tomorrow and Wednesday, but other than the fact that I was working on my ever looming Multimedia project, there really isn't much to say. From Uni it was straight to work, and like I said, I was surprised by how good a day I actually had. The shift did go ridiculously quickly, so that's probably why I'm smiling so much. Normally my shifts drag. A lot.

A pretty average day today, so I'll also mention that my next read is 'Demolition Queen: Champagne, Chaos & Murder' by Betsy Cook Speer. Yes, that is the book that was sent to me that I was massively excited about reading the other day. I can't wait to get into it! As mentioned yesterday, after that will be John Green's 'The Fault In Our Stars'. Bev (my sister) is itching to talk about it and keeps having to stop herself from spoiling it, so I shall read it sooner rather than later! I can't wait! Tomorrow is 'Top Ten Tuesday' day and I am excited about posting my list and reading others, as usual, so hooray!

Daily Shenanigans, 03/03/2014: Really. Slow. Internet.

I am so tired, and my internet is being ridiculously slow tonight so I won't make this long. I got up early this morning. I woke up feeling a bit apprehensive actually, though I can't really explain why. I drove to Uni and had a pretty productive Multimedia lecture. Firstly, the lovely girl in my class playing the 'Narrator' in my piece got to read through my finished script and really liked it. The guy playing my 'Wolf' showed me the voice that he planned to use for the recorded dialogue, and my goodness, it is perfect. If you want an idea of how it sounds, think Shere Khan from Disney's 'The Jungle Book' and you basically have it. It is exactly what I was after and I'm really pleased.

I finally got round to doing some programming too and working out exactly how I'm going to make everything work. I'll sort it out properly next week but it's nice to make some actual progress there as it was starting to stress me out a bit. I got a bit more art from Imogen which was good, and it looks like she's going to be able to do a bit of animation for me! Wahoo! I still have a lot to sort, but I've been given a show date now and so I know when it's happening and what time. It still feels very far away but I know this is going to creep up on me so fast. I'll be so glad when the next moth or so is out of the way.

After Uni, I had work and my shift went quite quickly which I was pretty glad about. I drove back home again, blasting the 'Frozen' soundtrack out at high volume and almost fell asleep as soon as I sat down in my living room. Oh, I also had the hairdresser come over tonight and she put a few layers in my hair, shortened it and it feels very swishy. I would like to do something a bit more exciting with it once all my Uni stresses are over but I'm not sure what yet. Not long ago I ordered 'Finding Sky' by Joss Stirling and 'Cinder' by Marissa Meyer (I'm splitting the cost of that one with Bev). A couple more reads to add to the ever-growing list!

No reading was done today (again). I did say it was going to have to take the backseat this month, I hope to complete all of my challenges for this month at least but can't promise anything at this stage. I'll do some tomorrow morning along with some more work and a bit of audition preparation (I'm almost 100% sure I'm doing it this time)!

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. 

Daily Shenanigans, 01/03/2014: 'The Book Thief'.

I didn't think I was going to have an awful lot to write about today, but as it turns out, in the last few hours a number of exciting things have happened. Before that, I'll just quickly note that 'Daughter Of Smoke & Bone' arrived this morning, so only 'Tithe' left to wait for. The rest of the morning/early afternoon was a mix of watching the newish movie 'The A-Team' with Dad, while doing a great deal on my script and sorting out my Kindle a little. I enjoyed 'The A-Team', Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson were pretty good and it was better than I thought it would be. Also, I'm glad I've got round to Kindle sorting as I really need to make a list of books that I need to get for it, there just isn't enough room in my shelves for many more books.

Mat came over after work, and about an hour later, we headed out to the cinema. Let me just say that 'The Book Thief' is my favourite book. No exceptions. Okay I obviously have other favourite books (Matilda, Pride & Prejudice, etc.) but this one I just adore. And when I heard they were making a film, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to see it. The film itself, I really liked. I think I ended up bursting into tears a good 4 or 5 times as it progressed (those who have read the book will know exactly which bits I mean) and it just took me back to the last time I had read the book and how much I cried. The acting was amazing, special mention to Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson for really bringing Hans and Rosa Hubermann to life. Especially Rush, he just captured Hans exactly how I had always imagined him. Cheeky, good-humoured but with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Ben Schnetzer as well was a very touching Max, and his relationship with Liesel translated well to screen.

Some minor niggles, obviously they don't include everything in the book. This was expected but it meant some of my favourite quotes and screens were missed out. Death, as a character, I felt could have been made more of. He's such a prominent part of the book, and my favourite to read, but he only has a few lines in the film. Overall though, it was an amazing film, poignant and vivid. It touched me emotionally and I would love to see it again after reading the book once more, to make a better comparison between the two, and to appreciate it more. I wasn't in anyway disappointed and I think anyone who loved the book should try and see it. Some of the images you imagine from the novel are just as harrowing on screen and will remain with me for a long time.

Coming back from the cinema, my friend who is composing the music for my piece has written the first draft for it's introduction. I am so excited about this, I've listened to it and am mega pleased! I feel a little less stressed today, things are coming together a bit now. I just want the next few weeks to be over so I can enjoy my Easter holiday and focus solely on my final project before breaking up for Summer. Many people have suggested I enroll on a writing course after Uni, but I would quite like a year out from education just to work and write without other commitments to worry about. I'll see where it takes me. Talking of commitments, I received an email tonight saying that more auditions for Jesus Christ Superstar are taking place on Tuesday evening. Now I feel a bit less stressed, my dilemma is back to haunt me. They have told us they want a song from the musical, sung by the character we would like to play and I think this would be a lot easier to practice for so I'm seriously considering it. We'll see. 

Daily Shenanigans, 24/02/2014: Ridiculously tired.

I had a grand total of two hours sleep last night. Don't ask me why, I just found it really hard to and had to get up at 6 in the morning. So this blog post is a bit early so that I can go to bed early tonight. First, I drove to Uni. No problems with Phoebe the Fiat today, so that pulled my mood in a more positive direction. 

When I got to Uni, I began working a little more on my Multimedia piece. My arty friend who is helping out sent me another cheeky picture, a rough draft of one of my introduction scenes. I am literally so excited about this project, and it's looking like she may be down this weekend, so hopefully I'll meet with her and will have more to report then! As well as this, I managed to get my background music sorted today. Another friend of mine and Mat's studies composition and agreed to knock up a few ambient tracks that can loop while my piece is being performed. I'm very happy with my progress today!

We had a momentary power cut today at work, which was a bit scary! It took out the shop lights over the road completely (luckily not ours) and quite a few of the traffic lights in the surrounding area (which I discovered while driving home). When I got home, my other two books that I ordered from The Works had arrived; 'Stealing Phoenix' by Joss Stirling, 'The Law Of Angels: An Abbess Of Meaux Mystery' by Cassandra Clark. I probably won't get to read them for a while, particularly as I will need to read the first books in both series first (Kindle here I come). Tonight, I plan to get a lot more reading done. With any luck, I will finish 'Pure' within the next couple of days because I really need to read 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower' too! Eek!