Beauty and the Beast

Image from IMDB

So, my motivation seems to have come back in a small dosage this evening. After such an eventful (ha ha) day watching The Walking Dead, I feel more in the mood to do something productive tonight.

Slight spoilers ahead (only if you don't want to know about the additional scenes should you not read on...)

It happened to be my 23rd birthday on Friday and my lovely boyfriend thought he'd treat me to a film I was ever so excited about pretty much since I heard about its remake (even more excited when I found out who the cast would be).

I could only be talking about Beauty and the Beast!

From the opening scene, it was glorious.

Emma Watson was truly the perfect Belle. She was bookish (although not as much as dear Hermione), she was beautiful and she was kind. She symbolised the outcasts and the weirdos that we probably all hide within us at some point. Luke Evans was a marvellous Gaston - as cheeky and arrogant as his animated counterpart with a dashing smile and twinkling eyes. I wasn't as set upon Dan Stevens as I could've been (both myself and Adeel thought the Beast didn't look quite right - although my opinion changed by the end of the film). He was a very good fit and portrayed the Beast's struggles wonderfully. The other mostly voice parts were fantastic also. Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellan stole the show for me. I loved the contrast between them both - McGregor as the upbeat, positive Lumiere (that French accent though ♥︎) and McKellan as the grumpy, very English Cogsworth.  Although I knew Emma Thompson was also a voice, she'd made it so different to her usual one that I missed that it was her until the very end! She was also perfect as Mrs Potts. Josh Gad also deserves a mention as the humourous yet clingy sidekick of Gaston (I couldn't help but only here Olaf though!)

Now that the cast have been analysed in great detail, I will move swiftly on to the plot. For the most part it stuck exactly to the same storyline as the Disney animation which was brilliant. The costumes and the sets were fantastic. Absolutely magical and very attentive to detail! The thing I want to talk about though, are the little additions they slotted in neatly that weren't in the original. For instance, the opening scene (my memory doesn't believe this scene was present in the animation although it might've been) took us on a brief but detailed overview of how the Prince became cursed. It was a great start and one that gripped our full attention straightaway. The other notable addition was a small scene where Beast takes Belle to a place she would most like to visit - her original home when she was a baby. This beautiful addition to Belle's backstory is enough to break your heart but to also feel more of a connection to her character and to understand her motivations.

And now, I can't not talk about the music can I? I believe all of the original songs were sung by the new cast as well as a few new additions. At least, I'm certain Beast got his own solo this time. I just wanted to bounce along to them all, they were so good!

One more thing as this is certainly turning into quite a long review (comes from reviewing so soon after watching it I expect!) When I returned home I couldn't help but do my usual search to scan through everything the cast has been in before when I came across a few articles slamming the new version for it's failure to produce anything new and criticising it for the portrayal of a few gay characters. Personally, I thought the idea of a remake was to - you know - just make it again as it was, but being a live action should have been enough to make it seem all new and exciting, no? And as for the critics commenting on the gay characters - it's a Disney film, it is meant to be lighthearted and humourous for those of us adult viewers. Those critics take it way too seriously for their own good.

Small rant aside, this film was PERFECT. If you're a Disney lover, Emma Watson lover, musical lover, or just anyone, GO AND WATCH THIS.

A magical film that I can't wait to rewatch ♥︎

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Rating:

★★★★★★★★★★

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Feelin' Twenty Two

Okay, I don't really know how to start off this post because it happened so long ago. 

So I'm just gonna jump right in I guess.

To kickstart my twenty second birthday celebrations (17th March, St Patrick's Day), the team and I went to Nando's for lunch and my manager brought in two massive boxes of Krispy Kreme (yes, I went to work on my birthday, only a half day, as it happened to fall on a Thursday and that is my busiest day!)

So after Nando's, my usual lemon and herb butterfly chicken, with creamy mash and garlic bread (yum), I headed home with what was left of the Krispy Kreme's (there was no way I was leaving them at work, they would be demolished on the way to Oxford and in Oxford if needs must).

Now, this bit I cannot remember, so my helpful diary is assisting me. 

Once I got home, apparently I phoned my mum (standard), squeezed in a few episodes of Pretty Little Liars before Adeel came over and then we just watched Gogglebox. I don't even remember what we had for dinner (I don't think I wanted anything takeaway-ish because of the weekend ahead was sure to have lots of bad food).

The next day we woke up reasonably early and drove to Oxford. The drive was surprisingly short compared to what I thought it could have been.

We didn't need to check in until around 3 o'clock and we arrived in Oxford at about 12pm. So instead we went for a wander. Adeel showed me where he worked and we came across a few sites along the way to the town centre. It was absolutely freezing so we kept ducking into places before finally reaching Christ Church.

We  wanted to see this because of the Harry Potter scenes filmed here and it definitely did not disappoint. It was beautiful. We took a load of snaps and walked around the grounds (unfortunately we couldn't go into the hall as the students were on lunch or something).

Here are a few of the photos we took:

After that we were hungry and found a Burger King in the town centre. Because it was nearly Easter as well, I made Adeel keep stopping off so we could buy some nice eggs. We found a Harry Potter themed shop as well, am surprised I didn't buy anything from there too.

Heading to Eynsham Hall, our residence for the next few days, we found it was quite out of the way - the sat nav didn't even really know where it was (when we'd parked the image on the sat nav claimed we were sat in a big expanse of green in the middle of nowhere and told us to find a road so it could redirect us).

Eynsham Hall is a large manor, with stags heads lining the walls and olden furniture gracing every inch of floor. Our rooms were not in the manor itself but in a bunch of flat-like buildings a short walk away.

The rooms weren't all that impressive, pretty snug, but okay for just crashing in every evening.

After watching a couple of old episodes of Top Gear we decided to head back into Oxford to go bowling. I can't remember if we played one or two games, but it was quick with just the two of us. We then proceeded to play pool and air hockey in the arcade.

We almost went for dinner at Frankie and Benny's but there was a 45 minute wait and it was already about 9 o'clock so we grabbed some sandwiches/readymade pasta from Sainsbury's instead and headed back to the hotel to watch We're The Millers.

I didn't sleep all that well that night (I seem to have a weird thing where I have trouble sleeping in a new place for the first night) so the following morning we missed breakfast because of our unexpected lie-in.

Once we were up though, we got ready and drove to Bicester village. The shops were amazing, all lined out like neat little pastel coloured houses. We looked in quite a lot of them, me taking it all in in total awe as Adeel had seen it before.

I finally decided to purchase my first high end product - a DKNY handbag (I originally wanted a Michael Kors one but there was a queue outside the shop by the time I decided I wanted one and they were more expensive anyway!)

We stopped in one of their restaurants as we'd skipped breakfast and I had a really nice chicken and avocado burger thing (I think) with peppermint tea.

After we'd had our fill of browsing the shops (and going back to Ralph Lauren about 4 times before not actually buying anything), we headed back to Eynsham Hall and wandered around the grounds, taking lots of snaps and coming across a wedding party in the main hall.

Eynsham Hall is actually where an episode of Top Gear was filmed - or part of it. It was kind of why we ended up picking to stay here in the end, oddly enough.

It had a small maze by the water fountains which was creepy, but the grounds themselves were massive.

We stopped in the Gun Room Bar for a bit and ordered some food to take back to our room. Think I just had my usual, Chicken Caesar Salad. Adeel had a burger in which I stole his bacon from as he can't have it.

The Day After Tomorrow was on so we watched that and then called it a night.

The following morning, after a slightly better nights sleep, we made it to a buffet-style breakfast in time before we had to check out. I remember just having a pastry and some cheese and ham. Adeel went for a little bit more with hash browns, grapes, a pastry and a yoghurt.

We felt like the youngest people there, in fact I think we were, so we felt a little out of place the entire time but it was an enjoyable experience and a lovely way to celebrate my birthday.

Let's just hope if we ever revisit it's slightly warmer!



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Social Pressure

So, this post is going to seem hella out of the blue but it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately and wanted to get off of my chest. Plus, I'm not even too sure on how to write it without coming across.. weird, yanno?

It was my nan's birthday yesterday and I've been trying to go home a lot more as, well, they're getting on a bit and I miss seeing them as much as we used to as kids. We used to spend 2 weeks with my mum, 2 weeks with my dad and 2 weeks with my grandparents (6 weeks seemed like forever back then!) and then secondary school hit, and I just saw them less and less until I barely saw them at all when I was at uni. Granted, it was tougher considering I was in London and not a ten minute drive from them, but still.

It's just been on my mind a lot that I haven't seen them enough and I'm trying to make up for it in a way. I just don't feel as close to my family as some people do. Like, we have good chats and stuff when we're together, we just never seem to make the effort to see each other a lot. I don't know, we're weird.

Anyways, I digress.

So I shot over to St. Pancras International after work on Friday to be greeted by a whole hoard of people - there had been a signal failure further up the line causing delays. I cried on the inside but once I'd hopped on the train, we were actually only five minutes later leaving than scheduled - hurray!

We had a nice chill evening in watching Jurassic World and chatting away, settling in for the night in preparation for the following day.

After my sister had finally finished faffing about, doing God knows what, we headed over to my grandparents yesterday afternoon. We arrived before everyone else (just us and the grandparents) and settled in for my granddads infamous buffet-style dinner (he used to be a chef back in the day so I always look forward to the food!)

And then the others showed up, including my cousin and her baby.

Which leads me to my confession.

I'm really really broody. Like, I don't think I can control it right now, especially when I see my cousin's daughter. She is sooooo adorable.

But, well, basically, this post was meant to be addressing the fact that most women still feel the pressure to have kids even if they don't want them. I used to not want kids, as in I loathed the idea of them and any I came into contact with and whenever I aired the fact that I didn't want them, people would just look at me and be all "you'll change your mind, trrrrust me."

And then there are the others that are all "you should be grateful you can have kids, you're so selfish if you don't want to take advantage of what you can have, blah blah blah."

No.

I just think it's ridiculous that women have to feel like this, like it's hard wired into our DNA and we're meant to want this. Men don't have to want to have them, so why do we? We're allowed to play the field, be career or goal orientated.

Okay, so I have changed my mind but that's not because I feel pressured to, it's because I want to.

I'm still torn though. I mean I really really want them at the moment, but I'm also loving my job and don't want to take time off right now (plus there's the whole living situation and whatnot - which will hopefully be changing in the near future. Fingers crossed!)

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is I guess it doesn't help that I've been home a lot more recently for family birthdays and seeing my second cousin's adorable little face and the way my cousin has changed, it just makes me want it way more. Plus, A is so family-orientated that just seeing him with his little nephews and nieces makes my heart melt.

I don't know if any of this made sense or whether it was a random mishmash of my thoughts, but, yeah, I wanted to write it out, clear my head as it were.

I should definitely write spontaneously more often.

Let me know your thoughts!



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The Final Paris Adventure

Minus the other two, Yasmin and I headed off early to Montmartre to see the Sacre Coeur, bags packed and left in the trusty hands of our check-in receptionists (Yasmin had been the previous day - God knows what I was doing - but we wanted to buy everyone French novelty gifts!).

With the sky a tremendous blue and the sun shining down on us for the first time in our four days, we soaked it all up not wanting to waste a second of the beautiful March day. We headed around all of the typical touristy shops and stalls, finding a little cobbled square full of boutique cafes and antiques, spending our Euros as we went on plenty of souvenirs, chocolates and pastel coloured macaroons!

We came across the most beautiful chocolatier - stunning architectural French buildings were carved into slabs of chocolate and put on display behind glass cases, taking our breath away.

Before we wound our way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage for our return journey home, we perched ourselves on a rustic bench beneath the shadows of an overhanging tree up on the hillside, the Sacre Coeur above us, surveying the hustle and bustle of Paris in all of her beauty below us.

What a perfect way to end our trip and a great gift to myself for my twenty first birthday for the following day!

Although I was disappointed in myself for not being able to explore as freely as I would have liked or in being comfortable abroad in myself, I really did enjoy my time there and it was definitely a stepping stone to get my confidence up with travelling and facing my many fears (I mean since this time last year I have been to Dubai for two weeks with a combined time of 14 hours on a plane as well as doing many days/weekends out of my comfort zone, including a recent weekend to Oxford for my 22nd birthday! Although I'm happy to report that that wasn't so out of my comfort zone and I am slowly conquering my fears once and for all. Can't wait to bring you the posts on my time in Oxford!❤)

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What I'm Loving Right Now

So after the catastrophe of last week I thought I'd put together a short post of seven things that are small reminders of happiness or something I am currently enjoying through all the bad news (although this week has definitely turned around in some good ways!)

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

I am beyond excited to be reading this. I was recommended it just before Christmas by one of my housemates and I didn't even realise it was a novel! Jurassic Park is one of my favourite films (apparently I was even excitable in the womb as my mum saw it in the cinema when she was pregnant with me!). Review to come once I've finished it!

Coco Mademoiselle - Chanel

My boyfriend is an absolute babe. I, for some reason, became obsessed with wanting a Chanel scent just before Christmas and my boy was kind enough to gift it to me for the occasion!

F Scott Fitzgerald Notebook

Yet again my boy bought me a little somethin' somethin' just because he wanted to. He knows my love for notebooks is ridiculous and has added another beauty to my ever-growing collection.

V&A Teacups

Another gift from Christmas, except this time from my Dad and his girlfriend. They always buy everyone such cute and quirky gifts, I love them! They're so adorable.

Houmous

This is another weird one, but I've literally been eating this by the pot for a good few weeks, maybe even months now! I LOVE it!!!

Celebrity Big Brother

Okay so this one is a bit sad, but, hey ho, there is a tonne of drama this year. It's been a few seasons since I've watched it, but it's so full of ridiculousness that I can't help but watch it!

Agatha Watch

When me and Adeel were in Dubai we finally thought we would buy each other very, very belated birthday presents (mine is in March and his April and we were in Dubai at the end of November!), so I bought him an Apple watch and he bought me this rose gold beauty from a French brand called Agatha. I'm so in love with it, it's beautiful and goes with everything I wear and I feel so grown up for it! (If you look closely you can see that the second hand is in the shape of the Eiffel Tower - cute!)

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