Rogue One

Well hello there.

Image from Pinterest

Last Sunday I didn't even realise I'd missed a post until late the following day which never happens. I was so caught up on packing my last fews bits and travelling home to drop them off that it slipped my mind.

And then Wednesday's post I did miss on purpose. I thought I would give myself the week off as I had a busy week packing up my belongings and a few rare social engagements!

And now, although I am sad that one of my colleagues left this week, I am happy to report I am all settled in to my new place -- if settled means I still have packing boxes everywhere...

---

Well, this review has been a long time coming as it came out in what, December??

Bare with me if I forget a few of the details for the plot!

Think this was a spur of the moment watch as I'd taken the day off work to go to Winter Wonderland with Adeel. Then when we were done we decided to head over to Leicester Square and squeeze in a quick film before my drive home for Christmas the following day.

I'm not a massive fan of Star Wars, think I prefer Star Trek (although the second and third weren't as good as the first), but I've enjoyed the newer ones for sure as well as the original series (not so much the prequels).

I enjoyed the plot. It was very action packed which makes a change I think. The other Star Wars have been more quest driven with the one overall bad guy, whereas this one was a brewing war between two sides with many epic battles throughout.

I did find the ending a bit of a shock though. But I guess you never expect to watch a film and see characters get killed off. Princess Leia's cameo at the very end was quite nice and unexpected.

Felicity Jones is really growing on me as an actor. She's so talented and I love watching her characters unfold. Jyn was a beautiful character. Her backstory was intriguing and nicely interwoven throughout.

Diego Luna also did a good job of portraying Cassian and I rather enjoyed K-2SO's comedic comments as well.

Overall, it was a good film but one that I can't say I'm that fussed about. For me, it didn't make any impact, it didn't add anything to the other films but hey, I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan so I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

---

Rating:

★★★☆☆

Bad Santa 2

Wow, this was a while ago. My badddddd.

Anyways, busy bee, starting to get my motivation back. Running beginning to go well again, been home quite a lot, viewing potential properties to move in to, that sort of thing!

Because of the potential move, I've also been going through all of my things, packing up stuff I don't need, preparing them for charity bags or just chucking them. 

Decluttering is making me feel soo good at the moment, it's so cleansing. Clutter really does take up space in your mind as well as physically in your house.

Well, enough of my new found minimalist-ness, on to the film review.

Bad Santa 2, oh dear, ahaha.

I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't wait for this to come out when I found out they were making a second one. The first is so so funny and I love watching it every Christmas even though it's so rude and dirty and not very Christmassy at all.

The second one, however, wasn't as good as the first but was fairly amusing. It was great to see all of the characters again and where they all were in their lives, especially Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly). He looks exactly the same but about ten years older, it's hilarious. Kathy Bates was also a great addition, playing Willie's estranged, unruly mother.

Billy Bob Thornton, as ever, nails his character as an alcoholic struggling to make money each month, choosing to become Santa once more to get a massive payout with none other than the guy who tried to kill him last time, Marcus (Tony Cox).

The storyline was funny but silly. Willie constantly has an internal struggle with his compassion, especially when it comes to Thurman (and somewhat his mother) so it's pretty similar to the first one in that respect.

Worth a watch just to see the follow up from the first one, but prefer the original and will continue to watch it every Christmas!

---

Rating:
★★★☆☆



☽

A Christmas Carol

By Charles Dickens

Narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Cranham, Miriam Margolyes, Jenna Coleman, Brendan Coyle and Roger Allam

Image From Goodreads

[In October 1843, Charles Dickens - heavily in debt and obligated to his publisher - began work on a book to help supplement his family's meagre income. That volume, A Christmas Carol, has long since become one of the most beloved stories in the English language. As much a part of the holiday season as holly, mistletoe, and evergreen wreaths, this perennial favourite continues to delight new readers and rekindle thoughts of charity and goodwill. With its characters exhibiting many qualities - as well as failures - often ascribed to Dickens himself, the imaginative and entertaining tale relates Ebenezer Scrooge's eerie encounters with a series of spectral visitors. Journeying with them through Christmases past, present, and future, he is ultimately transformed from an arrogant, obstinate, and insensitive miser to a generous, warm-hearted, and caring human being. Written by one of England's greatest and most popular novelists, A Christmas Carol has come to epitomise the true meaning of Christmas.]

I apologise for not posting this yesterday, I just had the craziest busy weekend and ran out of time to write it!

It may have been one hell of a crazy weekend but boyyyyy was it good.

I'll tell you more about it in Wednesday's post!🙊

---

A Christmas Carol was never really something I'd considered reading so I'm pretty glad Audible made it available for free over Christmas.

I love the film Scrooged, but for some reason I never put two and two together that A Christmas Carol is the story of Scrooge also.

I mean duhhhh. How did I not know that?

I loved the cast, a whole host of people for an audiobook! Genius.

Sir Derek Jacobi as Dickens was wonderful. He's so flamboyant and squeaky-voiced, it almost feels like a children's story and his voice is so expressive, it really makes you understand the characters without the need to see any facial expressions.

The story itself - obviously - is great. The four ghosts were equally comedic, terrifying and kind. The sound effects helped greatly with this, especially when Jacob Marley makes his first appearance - really creepy!

It was short and sweet and I think I might read/listen to it every Christmas now. It really gets down to what Christmas is all about - or what it should be about - and I want it to be a reminder for myself each year that I should be thankful for my family and loved ones over gifts and money. 

Because, let's face it, at Christmas it can all get a bit hectic and it seems the trivial things take over and the meaningful ones are forgotten.



☽

Festivities

I can't believe it's Christmas tomorrow. 

WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE?

I'm at home, hanging out with the family, a box of roses chocolates next to me and a cat on my lap.

It's been a chilled few days seeing family and friends and helping do odd bits around the house, but I wanted to share the day we went to Winter Wonderland as it's all festive and merry.

I met Adeel in central London reasonably early (okay, more like just before lunchtime, whoops) and we headed on in to Hyde Park.

He'd booked The Nutcracker on Ice so we wandered over to a tent lit up inside like you'd hope to see the night sky some time - little stars twinkling all over the ceiling.

We sat through an hour of a beautifully choreographed show with some absolutely amazing lifts and flips - ON ICE. There's no dialogue, but a smoke machine and fake snow. If that doesn't get you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will.

Afterwards we wandered around, weaving through the stalls and rides, picking up a duck wrap or two and some churros along the way.

We didn't stay very long all in all. In fact we later headed over to Leicester Square to watch Rogue One!

But I thought I'd leave you with some Christmassy photos.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

x

The Goodreads Book Tag

I have so many reviews to do that I might just erratically post them up until the New Year. I apologise in advance if I bombard you with them all!

Although there will be other more lifestyle-y posts or tags in between.

Today was actually my last day at work for the year (am working from home next week) and I'm so looking forward to this Christmas break. 

Hopefully I'll have some time to write all these posts up. And also to finish writing up the rest of my blasted novel! Whoops.

Anyways, I got this tag from Lindsay's blog, link here. Check hers out too!

Question 1:
What is the last book you marked as read?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I recently chose to re-read the entire series as I'd been dying to do so for ages and I thought Christmas was the perfect time of year! I'm currently most of the way through the second one, loving life.

Question 2:
What are you currently reading?

I'm always reading three books at once. I often get asked how on earth I keep up with them all but it's really rather easy. I listen to my audiobook whilst I'm getting ready for work, I read another one during my lunch break and then the final one before bed. They are all quite different as well which helps! Anyway, they are currently: The Fall (The Strain Trilogy, #2) - audiobook, The Secret History - lunch break - and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - bedtime.

Question 3:
What was the last book you marked as to-read?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I'm getting on really well with one of my colleagues at work and I asked her what her favourite book was (or one of them) and she said this one so I thought I'd add it to my list.

Question 4:
Do you use the star rating system?

I do for reviews on Goodreads, not on here though. I think it'll be interesting to see if I'll change my mind in the future about ratings/reviews I've given.

Question 5:
What book do you plan on reading next?

Well, that all depends on which one I finish first. If I finish the Harry Potter one then obviously Prisoner of Azkaban is next. Whereas if I finish the audiobook first then I'll have to wait until I get my next credit, but it'll either be the final part of The Strain trilogy or another Brandon Sanderson one. If I finish The Secret History though I'm tempted to pick up my copy of Frankenstein or maybe delve into a big fantasy series of Robin Hobb's.

Question 6:
Are you doing the 2016 reading challenge?

Yeees. I've mentioned before that I originally set it at 30 before upping it twice, once to 35 and then the final time to 40 as I kept getting nearer and nearer to my goal with a tonne of time left. I'm three books away from completing it whilst currently reading three books so I think I'll manage :)

Ooh, these are quite cool to do. I may see if I can find a few more tags and complete them. It's weird, I used to write out those questionnaire type things in the notes section on Facebook, and some of them were long.

Ahaha, how embarrassing those answers were...



☆

Favourite Books I've Read This Year

The weather may be warming up unfortunately, but Christmas is well and truly on it's way.

Today at work we had Christmas Carols over at Southwark Cathedral for an hour at lunch.

I didn't go last year being new to the company and all, but this year I decided to go along.

The service had a good handful of hymns sung by our colleagues, a couple of local primary schools and the whole audience joined in too.

It was beautiful.

There was one girl in particular who I recognised from work who did a solo at the beginning and she was amazing.

There's just something about a choir singing hymns that can always give me goosebumps.

I also baked my first Yule Log to take into work (my colleague baked mince pies) and we've been stuffing our faces for the past two days (picture is at the end!).

As this goes live I should be at our Christmas Party (yes, it's on a Wednesday, one of the reasons I didn't go last year!) and Thursday we'll be having a free Christmas lunch in the canteen.

And then I only have Monday left at work and I'm on my Christmas holidays!

Well, sort of. I'm working from home between Christmas and New Year, but that's fine by me.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS.

Anyway, as I've been reading a lot this year, I thought I'd do a little round up of my favourite first-time reads.

Initially, my goal was 30 books in a year but around August maybe(?) I upped it to 35 and then 40 because I kept getting nearer to my goal and still having a month or two left of the year.

It's now still on 40 and I'm currently 3 books away from completing it (am also currently reading three books so it's just a case of finishing them before December 31st!)

1. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - February 
Oh. my. God. I just loved this. I'm a hugeeeee fan of the films anyway and I only found out they were books last year so my dad bought me them for last Christmas. I devoured them and loved every minute of them. Although, like the films, the first one was better. If you're into dinosaurs, science-y lingo and action-packed adventure, you'll love this.

2. The Maze Runner by James Dashner - March
My friend bought me these for Christmas also I think (or a belated birthday present, I can't quite remember). I don't know if I watched the first one before I read them but I literally read all three in about a week. Twists, easy-to-read YA that you just can't put down. Follow Thomas as he is thrown into a world he doesn't know anything about and has to figure out how to survive the everchanging maze.

3. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - May
This was my first audiobook and I adored it way more than I thought I would. My friend (same one as above!) recommended it as an easy fantasy to get stuck into and boy was she right. Full of Gods, Princesses and an almost Greek-like empire, this story takes you on a rollercoaster of events which has you guessing at every turn. Not all the characters are what they seem or who they say they are.

4. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin - July
I sped through the first two in the series sometime last year and eagerly awaited this final instalment's release earlier this year. A fitting ending for an epic trilogy of vampires, love, friendship, loss and power in a dystopian world. I loved every single character, even the antagonists as they provided so much to this story. Cronin nails backstory, timejumps and has an incredible eye for detail I am well and truly inspired by.

5. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - July
This one I picked up at work having always been intrigued by war stories (not realising it was true at the time). It was horrific and heartbreaking, but also so honest and heartwarming at the same time. It's such a fantastic story that it's amazing to think it's all true. To think somebody actually lived this life detailed on 500 pages is unbelievable.

6. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - August
This is another audiobook, a long one at that, but one worth every page. Rothfuss is another writer I envy and aspire to be like. His ability to turn the mundane events into interesting encounters blew me away. A world full of magic, aspiration, friendship, growth with an undertone of darkness, The Name of the Wind will take you on an adventure like no other. The characters are phenomenal and so likeable. Kvothe is someone you will want to follow through the university on through his daily dealings in the Inn he now owns.

7. The Infernal Devices: Book 3, Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare - November
I know I wrote the reviews pretty recently, but I'll say it again - this prequel series is way better than The Mortal Instruments. It was refreshing to see a love triangle that didn't make me want to kill all three of the characters. Tessa was a strong, independent character who happened to fall in love with Jem - a kindhearted, broken boy - and Will - a fiery, sarcastic boy - but refused to hurt either of them intentionally or choose between them. This love story entwined with clockwork creatures, magic, fate and family is one brilliant finale for the series, one that left me for days after feeling lost and wanting to dive back into the Shadowhunter world.

I hope this recap has inspired you to pick up a novel or two! Goodreads has a cute little feature at the moment of a look back on the current year and I have read approximately 16,895 pages - insane!

Let's hope for a bigger and better goal next year.

My to be read pile still isn't getting any smaller...

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Image from Pinterest

I am getting so bad at this whole keeping-to-my-schedule-for-blogging-thing.

I just can't seem to find the motivation or the time at the moment to write any posts, not even the reviews.

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the most stressful and time-consuming as well.

You've got to do all your Christmas shopping, wrapping and writing cards. 

You've got to fit in all the Christmassy things you want to do like Winter Wonderland, markets, light switch ons and so on. 

But you've also got a five day work week and weekends choc-o-bloc full with seeing people you won't see over the holidays or trying to relax amidst all of the mayhem.

How are you supposed to do it all?!

Moving swiftly on.

We saw this strange film a few months ago now on Date Night.

We went out for dinner one Friday night at Frankie and Benny's and then popped over to the cinema to see Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

And it was indeed peculiar.

I don't really know where to start.

The plot was odd - a young boy can see creatures from a world most people cannot see. He finds himself thrown into this mysterious world and meets an awful lot of interesting people whom he needs to eventually help save.

Going in and out of this time loop business was enough to give me a headache. It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but so so weird.

Eva Green seems to excel at weirdness and she was no different in this. Terence Stamp (having last seen him as Mordred in Merlin) has certainly shot up - height-wise. His acting wasn't brilliant but it wasn't terrible either. Samuel L. Jackson was terrifying.

The creatures - hollows - were intriguing. I can't think what they reminded me of at the time but I liked that they were invisible to almost everyone, it added more tension.

Funnily enough - even though I don't think he really needed to be in the film, he didn't really have anything to do with it - I liked Chris O'Dowd's character as Abe's father. He added comedic value to the film in a sarcastic kind of way.

I thought it ended way to quickly considering the length of the film itself. I found the main parts to be dragging a bit but the tie-up happened in about five minutes. All too quickly if you ask me.

An interesting dark fantasy film with some intriguing qualities to its characters and plot.

I probably wouldn't watch it again though.

---

Rating:
★★☆☆☆

What I'm Loving Right Now

It's been a while since I've done one of these roundups.

I might try and make them a monthly thing next year so it seems a bit more consistent round here.

But, we'll see how that goes!

Also, in my last post I said I'd go over my week at home before realising there's not that much to go over, just a few photos to share which are in this post.

Anyways, here's what I'm loving right now:

1) Re-reading the Harry Potter series - mateeeeeeee, I love these books. I've been meaning to re-read them for some time of late but have just had so many other books piling up in my room that I felt it was stupid to re-read something that's, obviously, already been read. I stopped caring though. Fantastic Beasts has just come out, it's almost Christmas and there's just something about these magical books that are all Christmassy for me. LOVE IT.

2) Selection of movies on at the moment at the cinema - Apart from the annoying fact they moved Underworld: Blood War to FEBRUARY, God damn it, I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing Bad Santa 2, Fantastic Beasts, Allied and Sully.

3) Nearly finished all my Christmas shopping - I am usually pretty organised but last year (I don't know why) was awful. I mean I didn't buy my step-dad's presents until August, August ffs. Granted I wasn't seeing him til late August, but still. I just have three or four more people left to buy for and then I just need to wrap everything and write my cards and hey ho I'm done.

4) Have passed four years with Adeel and starting to plan more things for the future - I'm hesitant to say anything really because every time I do it doesn't happen, but we might have actually mentioned about three holidays next year and I AM SO EXCITED. I have been dying to go away and nothing has fallen into place so I've been awfully grumpy. These past four years have also been the best and I can't wait to spend many more years to come with the love of my life.

5) Even though I feel like I've had a bit of a shit couple of months, I'm really appreciating my friends and family right now, Adeel as well  - I don't know what's going on at the moment with everything, with me, my bladdy hormones flying everywhere. But I am so angry all of the damn time, I've cried a lot, and I'm just plain aggravated at the slightest thing. I've felt awfully alone and considering I'm in a houseshare in London, I really shouldn't feel that way. But I've met up and chatted deeply with my close friends and family so am feeling a bit happier now.

6) Eating healthier and running consistently still (ish) - Okay, so as I write this I may have just demolished a dominoes pizza and cookies and I may have also had a chinese a few days ago and not eaten much fruit this week or ran so far this week, but hellooo it's my week off. I've started alternating having sandwiches for lunch with salads (made by me, not those pre-made ones doused in dressing) at work and I'm trying to eat three or four fruits also a day, as well as having pretty healthy dinners and not eating as much sugar as normal. AND even though it's winter, we're still running about twice a week around other things that crop up. So, sort of doing well, aha.

7) Writing is really coming along - As in I literally only have a few more chapters to write up from my first draft and then I can just get cracking on editing and adding extra scenes in that I may have missed in my haste the first time. And then it's just trying to get published. Oh God...

8) I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - I missed last years show due to being in Dubai for two weeks at the end of November and I was gutted. This is the one show out of X-Factor, Strictly, Britain's Got Talent that I genuinely love. The others I can do without (in fact I do without most of them), but there's just something about watching celebs suffer out of their usual environment that's so entertaining!

Canterbury, Kent

I can't wait for the day when I won't be nervous before driving for more than ten minutes.

I drove to my dad's at the weekend.

I even took a half day off so that I could leave plenty of time before it got too dark and to beat the rush hour traffic.

But alas, that didn't work. Well, I didn't avoid the traffic that is.

For some reason, I saw that my petrol was at a half tank and I panicked, thinking an hour drive to Faversham would consume the other half.

What an idiot.

So instead of going straight onto the motorway, I looped around intending to go fill up before backing out literally last minute and having to join the motorway via the Beckton roundabout.

Now, most people have probably never had to use this roundabout but I listen to Heart every morning and there are always incidents on this damn roundabout.

And that day was no different.

Traffic lights were at green but no one could move.

We were all jammed into spaces in-between the traffic lights which coincidentally prevented anybody else from using other exits.

And then there was a lorry pulled over on the slipway with a police car diverting traffic around it.

I then proceeded to stall twice in a queue of traffic on the motorway (thank God we weren't really moving).

I got beeped at countless times for jumping lane last minute because that's one thing a sat nav on your phone does not tell you.

I stalled a further two times at one of the final junctions as I was pulling into Faversham.

BUT

I made it in one piece.

And the journey back on the Sunday was actually bliss (even though I was bricking it right before I left).

ANYWAY, this post was actually meant to be about the Saturday of my weekend with my dad when we popped over to Canterbury.

Two train stops from Faversham and you pull into a beautiful, medieval walled town.

The sun was shining. The park below the wall dotted with autumnal coloured leaves.

It was beautiful, and that was just entering Canterbury.

We wandered around the shops in the centre for a bit. 

Maybe I'm just used to a tacky town centre but this one was beautiful with a great variety of shops.

Cobbled streets. Christmas lights hanging ready to be lit. Timber-framed houses.

After a while - I may have picked up my first Christmas present of the year (you can never start too early) - we made a pitstop at Byron.

This was only the second time I've been in there, but, again, it was pretty darn good.

I went for the chicken burger with courgette fries this time. They were surprisingly good and not as filling as regular chips!

I really wanted an Oreo milkshake but I was too full. Sad times.

We did pop into a fudge shop on the way back though which made up for our lack of dessert.

I already can't wait to visit Canterbury again. You can take a river tour on the idyllic river, visit the cathedral, shop, eat or walk the Roman-built medieval walls.

A perfect autumnal day.