London trip! (long post but full of detail)

What a bland title for such a complex experience...


Monday morning, it hits half 7 and my phone starts buzzing and I know I have to get out of the warm haven that is bed and shower. The shower at James' can be quite unpredictable but thankfully it was warm and woke me up enough to feel confident that the day would go well.
By 8 we were both ready, I'd eaten an apple and James had decided to surface and walk with me to the train station even though he didn't need to be up so early, which was very lovely of him.
My train was delayed so we had to sit on the rather cold station chairs and wait. I got on the train, listened to music and made my way to London.
Met Alex at Leicester Square tube station and we headed off to see an exhibition by Noel Fielding which was in a cafe. Strange one that was but still worth a look. 
It's wonderful spending time with Alex, he has so many ideas that he just wants to share, knows so many things an has had and has still some amazing opportunities. 
We headed over to Green Park where there are a load of smaller galleries that have work for sale. Some of these are works by prolific people like Richard Hamilton that are going for about £65,000, others about £500 by the less well known but often (in my opinion) more aesthetically pleasing, artists.
I saw some genuinely inspiring work, and some totally pants stuff too; it's good to see the range though, and that terrible stuff can sell for £16,000. 
We headed to Subway for lunch, just because it was near and we were very hungry. Laughing at the fact they bother to sell side dishes. Who would want them? We chatted about music, as you do.
After visiting some more galleries I'd covered all those on my list for the day by about half 4 so we just headed back to his flat.
Due to it being "Email Monday" I just chilled out and listened to the snippets of information and ideas he was sharing. Charlie turned up after a meeting he'd had and we all just hung out as I learnt various things. These included the Chromaroma thing that Alex had signed up to. It's an online multiplayer game played through Oyster Cards. Also found out that Sugar wanted a photo of Charlie for a poster which he refused. Listened to some sneak previews of songs. (New Chameleon Circuit demos!) Also, a load of other things I cannot share because even though no-one really reads this, I don't want to spread all over the internet because they're things that you tell friends and not everyone.
Anyway, we were all starving and there was no food in the flat so we headed off to the Tesco nearby.
A very odd shopping experience as I've never shopped with anyone who doesn't go for the bargains and only buys one carton of juice even when they're on offer. (Not BOGOF just 2 for £3 and one costs £1.80 sort-of-thing!)
While Charlie cooked us tea, Alex and I played Buzz. I failed miserably as I'm just not quick enough and make silly mistakes. Pasta, red pesto, and peas was a delicious tea as we watched a documentary I think was called 'Evangelical Right'. It was a mix of extremely interesting, disturbing, educational and funny. In some aspects downright scary and in others exasperating.
Followed up with some Wii time where I failed at Wii sports and gradually got better at Super Smash Bros Brawl until I even reached the point where it was just me against Charlie (Alex and the CPU were out) and it was 1:1 lives. Unfortunately, as I fail at computer games, and Charlie actually knew what he was doing, I lost.
The inflatable mattress I slept on was way comfortable.

I forgot to film properly in the NeriCoolikeLocation... which is a fail on my part.
I read Pick Me Up in the morning and we set out to see some more Art about 11.
We hit up the bigger galleries on Tuesday by starting at the TATE Modern. I got to see some Francis Bacon, the Sunflower Seeds and some other great things. We headed to a competition gallery that we'd been flyer'd for and on the Millennium Bridge we saw Ben Wilson (the guy who paints on chewing gum) working. I managed to film him chatting to another guy about his work and that'll probably show up in a video of mine and perhaps Alex's as I sent him the footage too. We headed to the Oxford Street area and found this genuinely lovely cafe in which I had a fantastic chicken, bacon, avocado and cranberry "french burger" and was asked by the waiter why I don't like cheese.
We went to the V&A to see the 'Shadow Catchers' exhibition which is photography by 5 artists, done without a camera, just a range of different treated papers and exposure techniques. What you see is the original and only photo. Just awe inspiring.
Saatchi rounded off out gallery visits and because we had about 2 hours spare we headed to Harrods.
A genuinely wonderful London experience that shop is. Alex spent ages looking at shoes (because he's been wearing slippers recently) and ended up (after lots of thought and advice) buying some Ugg shoe/slippers that are black and some GUCCI velcro shoes which were just because he doesn't have anything remotely waterproof otherwise! On the way out we met some American students who, headed by a girl called Crystal, had been looking for Alex and/or Charlie for 3 months. We chatted to them for ages and they were so lovely!
To the station, food and another delayed train home got me to Preston just after the time my 'Last-Train-to-Lancaster' should have left. It was late and Rach from SSAGO was there and then I was in Lancaster and James was there and I was so tired and we walked home and he had a sausage sandwich and we fell asleep.

Normality resumed on Wednesday when we had a lie in, went shopping, lazed around and ate and watched a film. We watched Drop Dead Gorgeous on iPlayer and it was cheesy and hilarious and pretty good actually even though some of the characters were a bit obnoxious.


Today, I'm back on the internet for the first time since Sunday. I've watched GLEE and adored the Singing in the Rain bit with Mike and Mr Shue.

Going to catch up with youtube for a bit, after lunch work hard, check my post and work some more, maybe watch SJA. Afterwards it'll be tea time and then GREG DAVIES doing comedy in town.

Looking forward to it.

Hope you liked hearing my adventure... stay tuned for more random Liz.

Spontaneity

On Friday, James and I went out for tea at Bella Itallia. Mmmm. Good job we have TESCO vouchers though!

On Thursday we saw the film "The Losers". It was one based on a DC cartoon and it was really very good.

On Saturday we saw "Prince of Persia" which was so Disney it hurt. Jake Gyllenhaal was good but the accents for everyone were just bizarre!

Tomorrow I'm going to London very early in the morning.

Today I'm writing my essay.

That's all.

:)

These strange things they call Wednesday

I'm well aware that this isn't posted on Wednesday. I ended up not having time to complete it.

Some Wednesdays I have the full day off, yesterday was one of these days.

We awoke at James', for once without an alarm so we procrastinated on getting the day started until 12.
We went shopping for little things like peanut butter and biscuits before I headed back to campus to get on with my essay.
Here I shall go into how amazing this laptop is. Without wireless on the battery lasts for 7.5 hours. Anyway, I worked from 1:40pm to 5:15 and I've nearly reached the lower word limit of 3000 words. I think it starts fairly well but it gets all difty and a bit terrible after the third topic. I really need to read through what I have and that will get me over 3000. Then I have referencing to sort too. So far everything that is a reference, or needs sorting, is highlighted in red.
Anyway, when I was yawning more often than typing I called it a day so I could return to my room and watch GLEE. OHGOODNESSITISAMAZING.
For tea we had beef and rice and peas. For pudding we had caramel and butterscotch Frappe which had been gifted to us by James' parents.
We started to watch Blade Runner, which I will review when we've seen the end.

Now it's Thursday and I have to read some Art History for tomorrow and then go print some stuff in the library before lunch then Art tutorials this afternoon.

:)

The clouds are really beautiful today

Sorry, I've been pretty lax with my blogging.
What is there to know?
I really need to do my washing soon, I'm almost out of knickers.
I should be reading for my art history right now because at 5 I'm heading over to James'.
Tonight we're going to see Isy Sutti do stand-up.
Mr Kipling Fiendish Fancies are delicious. They're all natural colours and flavourings but one TINY cake is 5% of my daily callories and 18% of my sugar. If I eat half the box (and a box is only 50p in Spar) that's 72%. Good job I've only done that twice this week. (Once watching Amilie and the other at the Fireworks).
OH YEAH, last night we went to see the fireworks. They're free in Lancaster and there were 4 viewing areas because they weren't letting people up by the castle where they were being done from. It was a wonderful show and they were so HUGE! Even from a distance it was spectacular. We missed seeing the A Team for them and I think it was worth it.
My essay is 1/3 done with 2 full weeks and 2 days to go. -2 days when I go to London at the beginning of week 6. I'm positive I'll get it done.

Film reviews!


Amelie.
I really enjoyed this film, it was immensely interesting and well thought out, quirky and emotional and fabulous.
Reading the text was difficult at times because some aspects of it go so quickly that if you want to look at facial expressions too then you miss a sentence or two.
I'd watch this again.

Robin Hood.
As a prequel, that I didn't know was going to be a prequel until I watched it, and didn't massively enjoy it. I mean, it was well made but it wasn't my cup of tea. As James said, he didn't really use his bow and arrow enough. I'll not watch this again unless it is the only thing on tv at the time, and even then I think I'd put a dvd on instead.

Thanks, now I'm going to do my AH reading.
:)

Blog title freedom!

So, now that it is no longer November my alphabet cycle has finished!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
This was fantastic, my favourite of anything Monty Python I've watched so far. It was quirky and witty and included shrubberies.
Well worth watching.

Heartbreaker.
This is a french film that we watched with subtitles. It was totally fantastic. It is about a guy who gets paid to break couples up, only if they are unsatisfied so that he never really breaks hearts, just sets people free. He works with his sister and her husband and they wear all sorts of crazy disguises and use technologies to manipulate the situation. Pretty awesome and well worth watching despite having to read subtitles throughout.

As for myself I'm pretty good, fairly happy with everything and pretty confident that my work is going to turn out ok in the end. I've been trying to work out what I want to do, haphazardly trying different avenues and techniques, collecting ideas and trying to figure out where to go. I'm getting put off track by having to concentrate on my essay so much which is due in in 2 and a bit weeks. So, at the moment I'm spending a lot of time reading about Francis Bacon as I have to write an essay on him. Well, I chose him from a list because I thought he would be interesting, he is but he also doesn't fit into many stereotypes which makes him difficult to write about, but also quite good to give many opinions and write critically about. Or he will once I get to the writing part!

SSAGO went bowling last night and I came 2nd twice! Pretty good. 102 points in the first game 119 in the second. It was great fun to get to know people better while we chatted in between goes. I've learned more names now! Also, I turned on the camera to record for my video, just thought, I'll record one and no matter what I get I'll use it. FIRST STRIKE OF THE NIGHT.

So, that's my life, I'm not NaNoing, just living my life as normal.

Will write back in here soon I hope!

xx

Zneet Znadder Zneet

Remember My Hero? The episode where they were all hypnotised to do silly things when certain numbers were heard? Well, blog title is a reference to it.

The Meaning of Life - Monty Python
This was a pretty bizarre film to be perfectly honest. I quite enjoyed it, it was laughable, but it was also very awkward and just not as good as the Life of Brian.

That is honestly the only film I've seen since the last post... which is actually crazy but it's just because the Uni cinema has been a bit of a let down this week. Lebanon and Sex in the City 2 were not on the "films to see" list of either James or I.

I'm bad at blogging really. I'm not fruity enough with my language. Good job that this is just a diary then.
That's what it set out to be and what it has remained.

Zirak-zigil

     D; one of the three peaks that towered over the mines of Moria (RELEVANT, YES)


Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring.
Technically I've seen it before but I didn't really concentrate on it, years ago. For a first proper viewing it was awesome. I adore it, as a series, already. Though I still don't think I'd be able to make it through the books. I did try, honestly, but at 12 or 13 I go SO TIRED of it. The film is a wonderment of acting, filming, editing, scenery, ideas and everything. Wow. Top notch. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Iron Man 2.
Fairly good film, enjoyed all the action, the technical mumbo jumbo, the fact that they were a bit like super heroes but it was all man-made tech. I haven't seen the first one but some of the people at SSAGO were telling me it's much better. James said it's comparably good so I'm still pretty happy to search out a cheap dvd of it at some point. It was all go, action, the characters were good but you don't get to know them. As with many action films it felt very much about the BATTLES.

Cemetery Junction.
Ruddy good film this for characterisation, for lovely ideas, realistic people and situations. Observational. I nearly cried so many times just because of the emotion being portrayed. The actors were good, fitted the parts and you got to KNOW them, unlike Iron Man, because the lack of MASSIVE PLOT and just life, let you. Also, Tom Hughes who played Bruce, looks like KickThePJ at odd moments. The advert made it look a bit terrible due to poorly picked clips. In reality it's gripping and the comedy is just right, not forced like in Funny People. (Which btw I saw last year and it was one of the worst.)

Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers.
We've watched this is 4 sittings because we start watching right as we're just reaching top tired levels. We had to stop and sleep. It's so good. I love the Ents and Gandalf and Smeagle. I think he's so sweet despite being a very creepy creature. Darn it I hate that ring. I know the whole story is about it but it's such a bloody arse about putting people in danger! I had a massive laughing fit when it got to the "What's taters ehy?" "POH-TAY-TOES" "Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew", bit.

Inception
I saw this with Caitlin over the summer but this was James' first viewing. The cinema was full, I'm pretty sure they turned a whole host of people away too. Even though we were so far back in the queue, and James was protesting that it would be ruined if we got a bad seat and that we should just go on Friday instead, we held out and still managed to sit in the middleish area. It was once again a wonderful feat of filming and action and effects and ideas. It still baffles me and still excites me. I jumped so many times at the loud or shocking things that I should have anticipated. Enjoyable, but I wont want to watch it again now for a good few years.

Lord of the Rings - Return of the King (extended version)
It's so good. I love the LotR world, fantastic. A wonderful film.
Just finished it now and have got a lot of work to do... Going to do that now.