Blogmas day 2, 2014: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1

Halloooooo!!

Today will be a very very short blog post :)

The main event for me today was no doubt watching the Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1. Quite a few of my friends had already seen the movie and they were kind of surprised that I hadn't seen it yet. Well, today I finally catched up :)

I have heard a lot of different opinions about the movies. Some loved it, others thought is was boring, anti climactic. A lot of talking, planning, crying, not a lot of action. But it didn't lessen my excitement :)

I've read the books, but that is already two years ago. And I am surprised about how much I've forgotten already! In fact, watching that movie felt like I've never even read the book. Amazing! Because the fact is that I l o v e d the books, so now I couldn't let the books spoil my view on the movies :) But I am going to read them again once I finished my book series I am currently reading :)

Maybe you'd like to know what I think of the movie? Well, I can honestly say I loved it. Ok, there might not be as much action as in the previous two. And the ritme of the movie might be a bit slow (that is what you get if you split a 400page book into two 2hour movies), but man, I loved it. At times I had difficulties keeping my eyes dry. My jaw dropped. I laughed out loud. The acting abilities of every single actor/actress in that movie is just sublime.

Besides my overwhelming excitement, I was also a bit scared. Scared about the fact they split the last one into two parts. I mean, it's not like you have a Silmarillion and a few appendices where you kind find more source material for extra screen time. I am of the opinion that splitting Mockingjay into two part wasn't a necessity. It could have worked in one movie. But I can't help but admire how they made part 1 work as part 1. If part 1 had failed to deliver, than part 2 might have struggeld. But seeing the success, no doubt all the fans will pay the way too much money to go to the cinema to see the second part. And yes, that includes me.
 
The best part of going to the cinemas on an afternoon on a week day, is that the chances are very slim on a crowded cinema. Yesterday I had only 3 people join me to watch Love, Rosie. Today I shared the theather with only two. I love it :)

So, that was the main activity of the day :) After the movie I did some shopping in an attempt to make my room a bit more christmassy... I ended up buying more fairy lights and I have to say, I love the end result. Although it is still not really christmassy... Oh well, I'll be moving house in 3weeks, best to keep it as simple as possible :)

For old time sake, here is the trailer for the Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1 :)

I hope you had a lovely day!

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 1, 2014: the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies World Premiere #OneLastTime

Hallooooo!!!

I wrote my week 17 update as well !!!! Regency Era and Gender Equality. Or just scroll down :)

This is something new: a blog post every day until Christmas!! Well, I'll try :)

So, what have I been up to on Monday 1 December 2014? Let me see... I think it is save to say that the world premiere of the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies was the main "event" of the day. The last movie in Middle Earth. Let's start blogmas with an amazing event so that the other days look like sh*t... -.-

Still building up

the stage

One side of the "red" carpet

Gettin' ready

I asked one of the security guys where you had to stand if you just wanted to watch the event. He was kind enough to let me know that the premiere was a ticketed event and that only people with a wristband could stay. Everything else would be closed off for the public. And I believe they did a tremendous job. If they kept the square open for public, they wouldn't be able to control it and therefor it would have been too dangerous (+ the square was occupied with a Christmas market)

Premiere closed off

Sneak peek

Because my original plan was to stay on the square and watch everything from the big screens, I now had no plan what so ever. Inner dilemma: go home, do something else in the city, hang around Leicester sq and hope for the best,...? So obviously I did none of the above and I went to the cinema. Odeon Studios no less. Off peak is always cheaper and the guy at the box office gave me a Odeon Premiere Club which gave me 25% off just because it was Monday :)

As promised, it was a romantic movie based on the book writen by the same author of P.S I love you. Sam Claflin and Lily Collins were divine.

Lucky me, in front of the the Odeon Studios was the green carpet for the premiere and when I left the theater the event was full on. So I was able to have a sneak peek before I (and many others) was sent away :)

This was just one side. There is more around the corner...

Screenshot of an interview with Luke Evans

I only saw the first 20min or so, but luckily they sent out a live stream :) So in case you missed it: here is the link. It's a 2hour event, you'll see interviews with Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Aidan Turner, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Sir Ian McKellen and soooo many more!

So after I was send away, I went home to watch the Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug and write this blog post :)

Here is the song of the last movie of Middle Earth, written and sung by Billy Boyd.

 

So, I hope you enjoyed the first blog post out of 24 :) Keep posted!!

Thanks for reading!

xo - Sara

Regency Era and Gender Equality

Hallooooo!

Because last weekend and this week was quite quiet, this is going to be a pretty short weekly update :)

Saturday and Sunday
I had all the food I needed in the house so there was no reason for me to go outdoors. I was so exhausted of the previous weekend that I could use the rest. So that's what I did: sleep in, read my book, clean my room, "wasted" some time browsing on the internet. I even watch an entire season in one afternoon. If you are familiar with the Manor House or the 1900 House, then this will probably sound familiar too: the Regency House Party.

Manor House, 1900 and 1940 house are 3 reality shows by Channel 4. They send a family "back in time". They have to live for 12 weeks by the rules of that era. So I'd seen 1900 house and Manor house back in early 2000, but I hadn't seen the Regency House Party.

5 young ladies escorted by 5 governess' and 5 gentlemen spend 9 weeks in a Regency House and play by the rules of the Regency era (end of 18th Century, beginning of 19th Century, aka Jane Austen's time). The goal is to see if they are capable of finding a match playing by the Regency match making rules.

It is very interesting to hear what their experiences are. Especially from the point of view of the women. It looks like being a man in the Regency Era is one big party.

I am the most familiar with the Regency era via the world of Jane Austen and her romantic novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc. And Jane made it look very romantic. But what you don't see in those stories is how restricted life for a woman was. She wasn't allowed to have an opinion, they couldn't inherit any fortune and their goal in life was to find a most advantageous marriage. To put a modern day woman into such an environment gives an interesting mix.

It is true that women have come a long way. We are able to go to school, to work, be single after the age of 20 and not be considered a spinster, etc. But sadly that doesn't apply to all the women in the world and even in the countries where it might seem that women are equal to men, there is still no gender equality. And what makes me even more sad is the fact that we have to fight so hard for something that should be a norm in the first place.

If you haven't heard Emma Watson's speech about gender equality, I have linked it below for you.

  

It might seem a bit out of the blue that I mention gender equality in one of my blog posts, but whilst I was writing about the Regency House Party, I just had to mention the connection.

By Monday I was more or less rested, thank god :)

Goodbye
As for the week, it went by very quietly. Friday was my last day at Media Circus and my colleagues gave me the most delicious chocolats from Liberty. I say they are the most delicious, but to be honest, I haven't tasted them yet. They look too pretty!

That was that for week 17 update. As for the remaining 3 weeks until Christmas I'll be doing Blogmas x) A blog post every day :) So keep your eyes open for that :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara 

#Hogwartsinthesnow and #RegentStComesToLife

Halloooo there!

I hope everyone had a splendid week :)

This weeks blog post has excitement all over the place. It was truly magical. On Saturday I went to the Harry Potter studio tour (again) with my parents. Not just the regular tour, no, the Hogwarts in the snow- tour. It was the first day it was officially open for the public! Sunday was the Regent Street Christmas Lights Switch On event. So beautiful.

The video is finally here !! :)

The Monument and Warner Bros studio tour
So, Saturday morning, my parents decided to arrive in London St Pancras at 10am in the morning. Which meant I had to set an alarm on a Saturday... Ah well.

After a morning coffee and a danish biscuit from our local bakery (Bosmans!!!) off we went to the hotel to drop of our bags and head to Leadenhall Market. I'd never seen it in Christmas decorations and my mum liked to see the location where they filmed the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron.

Leadenhall Market all Christmassy

The entrance, still there

I've never seen the market open and active, but I guess that's because it is located in the more businessy part of London. Therefor only open during the week...

After Leadenhall Market we went to the Monument to climb the way to many stairs to the top. There you have this 360° view over London.

On the way up

Tower Bridge

The Shard

St Paul's Cathedral

The Gherkin!

Top of Monument

On the way down

The Monument was erected in memory of the Great Fire of London in 1666. I've talked about it in this blog post.

After Monument it was only a short walk to the Tower of London. My parents wanted to see the poppies.

After Tower of London it was lunch time! Well, late lunch time, as it was 2pm when we found somewhere to eat.

Anyway, by 4pm we were in London Euston. Plenty of time to catch a train to Watford Junction you might think. We thought the same, until we noticed every single train was delayed! Eventually we got on a train, which took us about 45min to get to Watford instead of 20min -.- Plus we had to stand and it was really hot. Not the most comfortable way of traveling, but it reminded me of when I had to travel to London from Lee. It was a 30min train ride and I always had to stand. Aaah, memories.

From Watford Junction to Leavesden Studios was a smooth ride and I hardly could contain my excitement when I got there. Of course, when you have an entry ticket for 6pm on a Saturday in November, everything is dark outside. Gives it a different sphere really.

Although our timed tickets were for 6pm entrance, we were lucky and we got to enter with a group earlier :) And I can't tell you how fast my heart was beating when the tour started. 1) for my own expectations and excitement. 2) I was so curious to how my parents were going to react. Especially my dad. He was very sober on the whole tour thing. He had only seen the first 2 movies and it is not really his cup of tea. But even his jaw dropped. That's when you know you get your money's worth :)

It says that the tour takes about 2hours to finish. We entered at 5:45pm and left at 9:15pm. And we hadn't gone through the shop yet! The last shuttle bus to Watford Junction left at 9:45, which, luckily, we made :)

You can compare it to Disneyland, I think. Eventhough I knew what to expect, I was so happy and excited. I think it'll never get boring :)

We were back in London at around 11pm, and the alarm clock went off at 8am because we wanted to go for breakfast at the Breakfast Club.

Some souvenirs

Breakfast Club and Regent Street Christmas Lights Switch On event
So Sunday morning I had the American Pancakes for breakfast.

I couldn't finish my breakfast

On our way to the Museum of London we passed the Gherkin. To touch the gherkin was on my to do list, so that is something I can cross off now :)

So geeky, I know :)

I wasn't really impressed by the Museum of London. Regent Street on the other hand. And no, I don't have to say that because I am an intern with the company who organised the event :) I genuinely had a jaw dropping experience.

We were looking at a full road closure of Regent Street with all kinds of activities on the street. By 4pm the show started with performances of Jersey Boys, Jack Pack, Jessie Ware and Union J. Take That, Emma Bunton and Jamie Theakston were the lucky once to push the button :) The Christmas lights are themed with the Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb characters. The movie will be in cinemas mid December :)

Monday I had lunch at Yo!Sushi with my parents and then it was goodbye because they had to go back home that evening and I had to work.

That was my very exciting weekend :) But I am happy that I can sleep in this weekend. I've been more tired this week than I have been for the last few weeks...

Anyway, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara