August has not been a busy month. I have absolutely no excuse for the (lack of) quality or the (lack of) quantity. I'm just lazy.
Films
I spent most of this month watching The Lord of the Rings series, which I'm preparing a mammoth post for my film blog on, so this was what I fit around it...
ER series 1 - ER was no stranger to me when my Dad bought the box-set of seasons 1 and 2 – I had seen much of the final few seasons, but nothing of the earlier episodes. Being initially set in 1994, ER is almost as old as I am, and I have to say I LOVED it. From the very first episode, ER series 1 is reliably touching, funny, entertaining, exciting and simply an excellent, excellent programme.
The Rise of the Planet of the Apes - I’ve never seen the original Planet of the Apes, but I have seen the Tim Burton remake, and always thought it was pretty good. This, however, I think was better, with the amazing CGI effects actually showing more of Andy Serkis’s performance than you could really see through Helena Bonham Carter’s mask. A good story, with excellent control of your stomach muscles – don’t think I de-tensed until about two hours after leaving the cinema.
Australia - I know this film is mushy, but I just don’t care. Nicole Kidman is the best I’ve ever seen her as a sort of 1940s Bridget Jones, Hugh Jackman is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen him as a rugged cowboy-type and the little boy who plays Nulla is one of the best child actors I have ever seen. The story is too long, but a fantastic epic that manipulates your emotions with perfect precision – Baz Luhrman’s finest hour.
Oranges and Sunshine – I have to say that I did enjoy this true story, of a Nottingham social worker who accidentally uncovers the story of young British children being deported to Australia from the 1940s up to 1970. However, I don’t think it quite packed the punch I was expecting and hoping from it. Some brilliant acting though – particularly from Hugo Weaving and David Wenham.
Mean Girls – It’s been years since I’ve seen this teen classic, and it has not lost anything. The peak of Lindsay Lohan’s career but only the start of Rachel McAdams, this heightened-realism story of the bitchery, backstabbery and ultimate camaraderie of high school girls is an example of what teen movies SHOULD be...
Brassed Off - I love independent films based in the North of England, so I knew I’d love this, but it did not disappoint. The story of a colliery band in Yorkshire trying to stagger on through the closing of their mine is touching, heart-wrenching, very funny and the kind of cracking good tale I always expect from these films. Especially poignant given the recent death of the incredible Pete Postlethwaite.
Music
I listened to nothing new this month. I know I'm a disappointment.
Books
The Book Thief – I tried to read this a few years ago and gave up a few chapters in, for no real reason. This time, however, I couldn’t put it down. I’m not sure why this change of heart occurred, but this time I found this book unputdownable. Low on the laughs, but I cried like a baby, and the imagery and sheer originality of Death’s narration is second to none.
One Day – I read this shortly before going to see the film, and have to say that I did find it funny, endearing and thoroughly enjoyable but not, unfortunately, up to the standards of David Nichols first novel – Starter For Ten. Strange, since One Day has garnered much more attention, but whilst enjoying it, I found both of the lead characters infuriating at times, rather than sympathising with them.
Rebecca – for several years I thought I was named after this book and now, having read it, am massively relieved to discover that is not the case. I was expecting a deep, psychological, period story about the ghosts of memory, but actually found it to be a very exciting story of secrets and lies. I found the nameless main character maddeningly wet at times, but generally enjoyed this book far more than I was expecting to.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Organisation
On the organisation spectrum, I would say I sit somewhere healthily in the middle. I'm rarely late, occasionally put myself in charge of sorting out an event, usually get things done when necessary, but also have been known to sleep through my alarm and miss a train, forget a piece of homework exists or accidentally leave my possessions at various locations across Britain. Organisation is significant to me not because I'm particularly good or particularly bad at it, but because I LOATHE it.
Whenever I do try to organise something - be it as simple as a cinema trip or complicated as weeklong holiday - I do so with a constant expression of distaste, lots of shouting at computers, phones and people, and extreme reluctance. I just do not enjoy it one little bit because it's never simple. There's always someone important who forgot and booked a hair appointment on that day, or you can't order that thing over the internet because your bank's introduced some infuriating new security system, or you can't go on that trip because there's no way of getting home. Any sort of organisational task seems to end with me on the phone, either shouting at my friends for misunderstanding me, shouting at some poor person on a complaints line for not adequately explaining why my mobile is broken or shouting at someone at the bank for not telling me they had installed a new security system.
For this reason, the past couple of days have been hellish.
On Thursday, I got my A-Level results, which were fantastic and I was thrilled, relieved and ecstatic. I thought, "Thank God. Now that's over I don't have to worry about anything; I can just spend the rest of the summer relaxing until I head off to the University I wanted all along."
But oh, no.
What I hadn't realised is the VAST number of emails, phone calls, online registrations, buying of things and general chaos being accepted to a university brings with it. Now, I'm thrilled to be going where I'm going. Couldn't be happier. But that doesn't stop me being furious with them for creating a vast and complicated labyrinth of buttons, forms and processes that my brain doesn't seem to be able to cope with. Sod maths, why the hell aren't we students given an education in online registrations?!?!?!
And it's not as if these things can be ignored - I need to buy a wristband or I can't join in Freshers' Week, I need to accept my accommodation before the offer is recinded, meaning I need to get on the phone to student finance and find out when my loan comes through, and I need to sign up to the university website to get my university email address, which in turn will give me incomprehensible instructions to register on some other university portal I don't actually understand the purpose or point of.
Basically, I'm stressed. Technology is not and has never been my friend, which is turning out to be something of a burn in terms of going to university. And I know it will soon be sorted and I WILL be able to just relax and enjoy the rest of the summer. I just wish it could sort ITSELF out. Now. Please. Thank you.
Whenever I do try to organise something - be it as simple as a cinema trip or complicated as weeklong holiday - I do so with a constant expression of distaste, lots of shouting at computers, phones and people, and extreme reluctance. I just do not enjoy it one little bit because it's never simple. There's always someone important who forgot and booked a hair appointment on that day, or you can't order that thing over the internet because your bank's introduced some infuriating new security system, or you can't go on that trip because there's no way of getting home. Any sort of organisational task seems to end with me on the phone, either shouting at my friends for misunderstanding me, shouting at some poor person on a complaints line for not adequately explaining why my mobile is broken or shouting at someone at the bank for not telling me they had installed a new security system.
For this reason, the past couple of days have been hellish.
On Thursday, I got my A-Level results, which were fantastic and I was thrilled, relieved and ecstatic. I thought, "Thank God. Now that's over I don't have to worry about anything; I can just spend the rest of the summer relaxing until I head off to the University I wanted all along."
But oh, no.
What I hadn't realised is the VAST number of emails, phone calls, online registrations, buying of things and general chaos being accepted to a university brings with it. Now, I'm thrilled to be going where I'm going. Couldn't be happier. But that doesn't stop me being furious with them for creating a vast and complicated labyrinth of buttons, forms and processes that my brain doesn't seem to be able to cope with. Sod maths, why the hell aren't we students given an education in online registrations?!?!?!
And it's not as if these things can be ignored - I need to buy a wristband or I can't join in Freshers' Week, I need to accept my accommodation before the offer is recinded, meaning I need to get on the phone to student finance and find out when my loan comes through, and I need to sign up to the university website to get my university email address, which in turn will give me incomprehensible instructions to register on some other university portal I don't actually understand the purpose or point of.
Basically, I'm stressed. Technology is not and has never been my friend, which is turning out to be something of a burn in terms of going to university. And I know it will soon be sorted and I WILL be able to just relax and enjoy the rest of the summer. I just wish it could sort ITSELF out. Now. Please. Thank you.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
I Predict A Riot
I was intending to write a gushy post on my film blog tonight, but having spent the past few hours watching News24 religiously, I have to say that my heart really wouldn't be in it.
I've never written about current affairs or news on my blog before, quite possibly because it's been quite some time since I've found the news quite as embarrassing, disgusting and personal as this. The riots that have been ripping through Britain in the past few days have truly shocked me, and have actually succeeded in battering through my usual 'oh well, it's not happening to me', selfish attitude to affect me. I'm not sure why this is, but all I can say is that this seems so much more relatable to me, because it's people my age, in cities and on streets I've visited, doing things that I find utterly appalling.
It has genuinely saddened me to realise how many people there are in my country who apparently don't think twice about destroying independent businesses that rely on profit for income, burning family cars, looting local stores and generally behaving like mindless pack animals. It's not only horrifying, it's embarrassing. That these pathetic individuals cause chaos, for no reason they have bothered to assess or explain. It's also deeply embarrassing and misleading -- that this minority of young British people behave in such a way does nothing but taint the already damaged image of ALL young British people. I wish there was some way I could explain to these young adults, teenagers and sometimes flat-out kids that I - along with the majority of the country - find what they're doing pathetic, humiliating, ignorant and (frankly) very stupid. They really are rebels without a cause, and never before have I realised quite how pitiful such a thing is.
All that said, I have to say that it almost revives my image of my home to see all the people on the news, on the internet and on the streets who have gone out to try and fix the damage done by the cretins of the nation. The number of volunteers participating in the riot clean-ups of today have restored a little bit of the British pride that has been so badly damaged but the events of the past few days. I hope those people realise how fantastic what they're doing in, and how heartening it is for those of us lucky enough to be far away from the riots to see that there is at least one kind, intelligent and altruistic person out there for every ignorant thug.
Incidentally, my favourite completely unviable but hilariously confident solution to the riots so far has been my mums suggestion: "Chain the lot of them together, and tell them that they're not eating until they've cleared up their own mess." Sounds like a plan, to me.
I've never written about current affairs or news on my blog before, quite possibly because it's been quite some time since I've found the news quite as embarrassing, disgusting and personal as this. The riots that have been ripping through Britain in the past few days have truly shocked me, and have actually succeeded in battering through my usual 'oh well, it's not happening to me', selfish attitude to affect me. I'm not sure why this is, but all I can say is that this seems so much more relatable to me, because it's people my age, in cities and on streets I've visited, doing things that I find utterly appalling.
It has genuinely saddened me to realise how many people there are in my country who apparently don't think twice about destroying independent businesses that rely on profit for income, burning family cars, looting local stores and generally behaving like mindless pack animals. It's not only horrifying, it's embarrassing. That these pathetic individuals cause chaos, for no reason they have bothered to assess or explain. It's also deeply embarrassing and misleading -- that this minority of young British people behave in such a way does nothing but taint the already damaged image of ALL young British people. I wish there was some way I could explain to these young adults, teenagers and sometimes flat-out kids that I - along with the majority of the country - find what they're doing pathetic, humiliating, ignorant and (frankly) very stupid. They really are rebels without a cause, and never before have I realised quite how pitiful such a thing is.
All that said, I have to say that it almost revives my image of my home to see all the people on the news, on the internet and on the streets who have gone out to try and fix the damage done by the cretins of the nation. The number of volunteers participating in the riot clean-ups of today have restored a little bit of the British pride that has been so badly damaged but the events of the past few days. I hope those people realise how fantastic what they're doing in, and how heartening it is for those of us lucky enough to be far away from the riots to see that there is at least one kind, intelligent and altruistic person out there for every ignorant thug.
Incidentally, my favourite completely unviable but hilariously confident solution to the riots so far has been my mums suggestion: "Chain the lot of them together, and tell them that they're not eating until they've cleared up their own mess." Sounds like a plan, to me.
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