Making a Murderer and stay-cation in Apsley: continued

Halloooo!!

What the actual hell? Where did week 6 go to? It seems to have disappeared so quickly! Must have been 'cause it's been quite busy. Well, the start of the week was not, but the last few days most definitely were!

So, as you might remember from last week's blog post, I'd moved temporarly to Apsley, Hertfordshire. One of my colleagues had to go to our L.A. office for nearly two weeks and we'd agreed that I would stay at her apartment for that periode of time. My main task was to keep her plant alive and of course make sure that everything was okay at the apartment. If you don't know, I'm still living in a house with about 7 other people. Eventhough it is very quiet at the moment (the loud people have been evicted) it's still not an ideal situation, unfortunately. So being able to stay over in an apartment all to myself is basically the dream. The past few weeks have been how I'd imagined my life would have been after I graduated nearly two years ago. Probably not as big or as beautiful, but at least a place to myself. I garantuee that I made the most of my week and a half stay :) Especially during the weekend...

I didn't leave the house on Saturday! Instead, I watched the Long Way Down, the sequel on the Long Way Round. It's a 10 episode series with each episode being 1hour. If I could get my drivers license A in 2016, that'd be pretty darn cool, if I may say so myself ^^

Sunday morning was a bit more productive. I actually left the apartment and made an hour long walk along side the canal. Isn't it just stunning?

Room with a view

The best days are the days when you have mud on your shoes

Besides that little morning walk, I also started watching the documentary Making a Murderer. Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. Absolutely mind blowing! If you haven't heard about the documentary, it is the story about Steve Avery, lived in Manitowoc county, USA, and how he is being accussed of murder. I say 'accused' as Steve keeps telling us that he is innocent. Interesting fact here is: Steve was wrongfuly accused of rape in 1985. He served 18 years in prison before being released in 2003 thanks to a retest of a DNA sample which proved his innocence. He then demanded a sum of money from the county to make up for his lost years. 2 years later, Steve was arrested again for the murder on a young woman. His entire trial is just appalling. If you can, definitly check it out.

On Sunday I had also a record breaking Skype call with none other than Molly. 5hours. 5HOURS ^^

Then, besides watching Making a Murderer, my aunt and two cousins came to London on Wednesday and Thursday so of course we had to meet up to have some dinner. It was a new experience, but I really enjoyed it :) It was fun meeting them in London. When I got 'home' I had to start packing my bag and cleaning the apartment, as I had to leave Apsley Thursday morning :'(

Friday evening another friend came over for the weekend, but more on that in next week's blog post. It's been very busy lately. Can't wait for next weekend though. Nothing but cinema trips planned!

Has anyone else seen Making a Murderer? I need to talk about it!x)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Long Way Round, Temple Church with mum and dad and HP book night 2.0

Halloooooo!!

Here it is. Weekly blog post number 5. Highlights of this week are: my parents came to visit me, I moved temporarly to Apsley, I discovered the series the Long Way Round and Long Way Down, I went to see the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies premiere and I attended another Harry Potter Book Night. It's been quite a busy week so lets get cracking:

The most exciting thing for me this week must have been the discovery of Ewan McGregor's and Charley Boorman's trip around the world. It works very contagious, let me tell you that. Even I wanted to hop on a bike and I don't even own a drivers license to ride a motor bike! It is on my bucket list though, and it has moved up quite a bit now x)

For those who are not familiar with the 'Long Way' series, here's a quick introduction: in 2004 Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman made a trip around the world on motorbikes, starting in London, going east, finishing the trip in New York. In 2007 the did the same thing, but from the very Northern point in Scotland all the way to Cape Town and they called it the Long Way Down. Now I'm waiting for the Long Way Up, from South America to North America :)



Monday evening I went to Leicester Square to have a quick look at the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies premiere. The movie hits theatres 10th or 11th February here in the UK and I'm very excited to see the movie. Absolutely not a zombie fan, but it's Jane Austen (kind of) and Lily James is Lizzy so that's enough to convince me :)

Thursday evening was another Harry Potter Book Night. You might remember me doing the same thing last year x) Kingsman: the Secret Service, Big Hero 6 and Harry Potter Book Night. All Waterstones around the UK have organised one of these for the 2nd year running and Waterstones Oxford Street Plaza was no different. This year, however, the groups were much smaller and the event was over much quicker. Although I did enjoy myself and was happy that I went, last year was a little bit better...

Besides all these very fun activities, the weekend must have been the best part. My parents came to visit me! I took Friday afternoon off to spent a bit more time with them. We visited the Temple Church, mainly because they've filmed the DaVinci Code there back in 2006 x)

Unfortunately our guide wasn't the best one around, so I kind of lost interest half way through, but looking back on it now, the church is pretty damn cool :)

There is so much history. So old! Dates going back to 12th century! The tiles are just beautiful. And the whole history of the Knights Templars, you know. Fascinating.

I had never walked in the area surrounding the church, but it is absolutely gorgeous and you completely forget you're in London ^^ Well, I did anyway.

On Saturday we visited the Queens Gallery (way to much people for my taste, so that was a shame for the pictures) and in the afternoon we've visisted the Churchill War Rooms. Now that was absolutely fascinating and I highly recommend going if you're in London! It takes you right back to the '40 and WWII. You learn so much about Chruchill's life and how he operated in the War Rooms. Absolutely fascinating. Beware that you can easily spent upto two hours in that exhibition!

Sunday morning was spent in Apsley House (how fitting, since I'm currently 'living' in Aspsley) were the Duke of Wellington used to live. You learn alot about his life, his career in politics and his 'relationship' with Napoleon. Again, when you're in London and that kind of stuff interests you, go :) My parents had to take the Eurostar back to Brussels at 6pm, so around 5pm we've said our goodbyes and we both headed our seperate ways: them to St Pancras, me to Euston.

Unfortunately I didn't have much pictures of the weekend. On Saturday, I wasn't aloud to take any inside the Queens Gallery and in the War Rooms I simply forgot (to much in awe of the whole exhibition). Sunday in Apsley House, I was again not permited to take any photos, so that really limited me. Now, I'm sure this post has enough images already thanks to the other events this week :)

And that is it for this weeks blog post :) Hope you've enjoyed it:)

As per usual, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

p.s apologies for the many typo mistakes! Too tired to correct just now.

Ooh the commitment. 1 question each day for 5 years.

Hallooooo!!

Today's is a bit of a different post. Not to worry, mum and dad, the weekly post will go up tomorrow :) But today it's exactly 1year that I've started writing in the Q&A a day diary.

Each day you answer 1 question. It can go from: "Who do you count on?" and "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" to "When is the last time you ate pizza?" and "What colors are you wearing?".

So each year you answer the same questions on the same days and after 5 years you can see how much your asnwers have changed over the years. If they've changed. Where you are in your life, where you were, how far you came, etc. You're never obliged to anwser a question so you decide what you write, how much you write, if you write, etc.

And I've been doing this for 1year now. 1 year down, 4 to go x) It is a commitment, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it. I'll be 27 when I'll answer the last question on February 5th in 2019. It'll be interesting to see how much I've changed :) And in perspective, it is just one question a day. Not that big of a commitment, really x)

You've got all sorts of variations on this diary: a Jane Austen version, One-Line-A-Day version, only for mums, etc. I've bought mine via Bol.com (which only ships to Belgium and Netherlands), but you can also find the diaries in your local bookshop, on Amazon, etc.

Weekly blog post will be on the blog tomorrow. (Tomorrow is only a day away).

Anyone else who is writing in the Q&A a day or any other version?

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Drama that will be released in 2016 (with a hint of horror and comedy)*

Halloooo!!

Sooo, with the premiere of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies this past Monday and its release date just around the corner, I thought it appropriate to upload another post about movies I'm excited to see in 2016. Drama is the genre for today's post, but not really. There's some comedy involved ;) (I hope)

First up: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
This movie will be released in the UK on Thursday 11th February 2016. Monday 1st February was the premiere at London Vue theatre on Leicester square. Unfortuntaley I didn't see the movie, but I saw Lily James, so I was happy ^^ The movie is explained in the titel. It's our beloved story written by Jane Austen, but just with zombies. I read the book back in November and I actually quite enjoyed it. I even wrote a post about it It's a truth universally acknowledged... - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (book 'review') So now I'm curious as to what they made of the movie. It's been 11 years since Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice came out, so this version is a welcome one :) It's not really drama. Well, the original story is, but now also action packed and even horror is involved :O

Second up: Eddie the Eagle to be let loose on us on 28th March 2016
I was fortunate enough to see this movie at a screening at the beginning of November 2015. I had a job to do of course, but I saw it nonetheless. It is not your usual block buster, but I think the message of Eddie's stories is a beautiful one: if you want something hard enough, keep trying 'til you succeed. The other question is: is there a limit? I'll probably will upload a 'review' when the film is released here in the UK. I haven't signed a NDA, so I could have spoiled it all back in November, but I'm not like that so for me it's a no brainer to wait until the movie is officially released in the world. It is such a heart warming movie to watch ^^

And lastly: Me before you will hit theatres on 3rd June 2016
Based on a book by JoJo Moyes. One of my colleagues highly recommends it, so I'll probably will read it before the movie comes out :) The trailer does look good already though.

 

2016 is going to be a goooood year :)

As per usual, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

* obviously about a billion other movies will be released this year. Films of all genres I'm equally excited about to see in theatres in the next 11 months. However, I possibly couldn't mention them all 'cause then this would be the never ending blog post and you'd be reading this for the rest of your life... ;)

Places to visit just about an hour outside London. Wait, whut!? Only 1hour outside London?

Hallooooooo!!

As promised in last week's blog post, no Star Wars in this one. Although I've been listening to the score written by none other than John Williams on my commute to work, but that's about it.

Work was crazy busy, so I just wanted to get home as soon as possible and get to bed immediately... As you can tell, nothing exciting happend during the week. So lets rewind to the beginning of the blogging week: Saturday 23rd January.

Saturday, my friend and I, ventured out of London. To the South coast of England. To a small town called Rye to be precise. (I keep saying: 'Rey'. A tiny bit of Star Wars keeps sneaking in x)). So Saturday morning at 8am we met up in St Pancras to take the train to Ashford intl and from there a train to Brighton, via Rye.

Before my friend made the suggestion to go there on a casual day during the weekend, I had never heard of it before. Apparently it used to be quite a busy town with the earliest dates I could find in 11th Century. Don't shoot me if I'm wrong! It was originally build as defence against the French (quite the irony as my friend is from Paris) and it had a little harbor that was part of a collaboration between other harbors called 'cinque port'. When you google 'Rye' a whole lot more history will show up, but I'm going to leave it here with the information and just let you enjoy the images below.

It's an iny tiny town with the cutest cobly streets and little houses. The view from the cliff is also absolutely stunning. One of the random things that caught my eye is that almost all the houses had single glassed window. You can't have it all I guess?

So my friend and I arrived at Rye station around 9.30am, had a little wander around town because we wanted to go to the information centre, which didn't open until 10am... We had some delicious breakfast at the Mermaid cafe and had another little wander around town. Around noon we took the bus to Camber Sands. You can't go to the seaside without actually seeing the sea. Apparently this is one of the few beaches in Britain that has sand instead of pebbles.

We walked all the way back to Rye, which is about 6km!

After that very misty walk (I had to take off my glasses in order to see something. Reverse world?) we found a little cafe in town centre and had a delicious crêpe and drank a very nice hot chocolate. It all worked out perfectly.

Apothecary Coffee House, 104A High St, Rye TN31 7JN

On the train back to London we both fell asleep ^^ But thank god is was Sunday the day after so no alarm clock, no obligations, just full 'recovery' of the previous day :) That was a very good weekend :) We'll definitely do it again but with a different location within 1hour from London!

That is it for this week's blog post. Hope you liked it :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara