THANKS TOM AND MEG

I love to read be that books, newspapers, magazines or blogs. I can find that sometimes I just get frustrated by TV and just want to sit down with a piece of paper in front of me, or a screen filled with words, with no distracting noise and just read. Over the summer I have been reading a lot for my dissertation work and random magazines but there is one blog that has caught my eye more than anything else.

Scarlett Curtis' blog (here) is one that gives you hope and makes you feel as though it's ok to feel how you feel and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. You don't have to be suffering/recovering from depression like Curtis for the blog to help you in life. I experience anxiety in every aspect of my life and it can get a lot overwhelming and sometimes I find it hard to find something that just calms me down and allows me to relax. Although, I have been finding it a little bit easier after logging on to Scarlett's blog as she shares her experience and what she does to make herself feel better e.g. bake and watch films. 

What I think annoys me more than anything about anxiety is that it makes me frustrated and angry that I feel this way and then it turns into a vicious circle of frustration, anxiety and thus tiredness which just makes it all worse. It has been a long while since I sat down and watched a film from start to finish or even an hour of a TV programme as I feel guilty/lazy for sitting down while others are working. 

However, after reading Scarlett's post on her moving to New York and her list of films that sparked her love for the city I sat down and watched You've Got Mail. Granted I didn't watch it in one siting, I paused it to do some uni work etc, but gosh didn't it feel good to just chill for 2 hours and watch Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan fight over books in New York. The film is so comfy, it makes you feel comfortable and happy. I certainly understand why Scarlett watched it again and again. I mean, I just pressed the 'buy' button on iTunes so I can watch the film whenever and wherever. 

It's strange where you find comfort isn't it. Thank you Scarlett. Oh, and Tom and Meg. 

CHRISTMAS 2013 // JOHNNY CASH, XMAS CAROLS & CHAMPAGNE BREAKFASTS

I love Christmas, I think I have grown to love it even more after being away for most of the year at uni because you know that Christmas means home time :) I like the carols that are sung, the films that are watched and the excuse to just lie on the sofa for most of the day guilt free. The Thomas household Christmas is relatively relaxed with only the four of us (+ Hendrix) spending the day together with my Mam-gu popping in to have some lunch. I'm not a big fan of being confined in a space filled with people so a small family suits me well. Christmas eve is all about the preparation, the wrapping and champagne breakfasts with friends while Xmas day is all about the present opening, film watching, dog walking, christmas dinner eating and of course the birth of Jesus. 

I always wake up early on Christmas morning much to the annoyance of my brother. This year I woke up at half 7 but held out from waking everyone up until 9am when I started to sing Christmas carols (O Deuwch Ffuddloniaid // Oh come All Ye Faithful) for all to here. After much grumbling and eye rubbing my brother and I opened our stocking while my mum laid in bed and my dad came home from work. Muesli, croissants, champagne and toast were on the menu for breakfast and after the veg was chopped and everyone was showered and ready we ventured in to the living room where our bigger presents were waiting. With the cheesy/ cringeworthy Johnny Cash 1976 Christmas Special programme playing in the background I opened my prezies and I received an awesome leather bag from Foley & Agamo, a Lancôme beauty set, Dr. Martens (1460 Boot), my first ever onesie, CD's, books, my staple Miss Dior perfume and many other wonderful gifts. 

Before the pigs in blankets could have time to digest, myself and my mam headed off on a little walk with Hendrix just to get some fresh air while my brother washed up. Upon our return we watched the end of Toy Story 3, watched Despicable Me 2 in 3D (well, I had a nap through the majority of it), caught the end of Homealone 2 and laughed at the Mrs. Brown's boys and Father Ted xmas specials before heading off to bed. B-E-A-UTIFUL day. :) 

Here are some of my favourite gifts I received from Santa and family. Thanks // Diolch :) 

HANGOVER 3 & HARVESTER DATE // end of exams

Thursday afternoon was my last exam of first year. It was on the twentieth century leaders of the non West and it was pretty hard! As it was the first year that they had done this type of exam no one knew what to expect. I answered all the questions and it's only worth 30% so it'll be ok, hopefully. We didn't have much time to relax as Laura, Hollie and I headed to the cinema to watch Hangover 3. It was really funny and totally different to both the first and Second Hangover films. If you go and see it PLEASE stay 'till the end of the credits because that is actually The Funniest part of the film - wow!
For an after film meal we went to Harvester and met up with two more of our friends - Ellie and Dani, and had an awesome meal. :) yuuuuum. The next days my plans are like this - sleep, rest, rest, rest, relax, chill, Tesco, relax, sleep and some more relax, oh and also some reading :) Niiiiiiice.

SUN FOR DAYS

Last week was soooo sunny and hot. Most days I would revise in the morning and then I'd go for a walk before lunch and continuing my revision and every time when I'd arrive home I had to change in to my shorts because it was just so warm outside. Everyone was wearing their shorts, dresses and vest tops and sunbathing! It was a nice distraction from uni work and a nice way to spend my revision break out in the sun! Our whole block took our blankets out and spent the afternoons in the sun reading magazines, revising and drinking some Pimms.

 We also went to watch Iron Man 3 after my exam on Wednesday Evening. It was awesome! Like really awesome! I love Robert Downey Jr. On the way out of the cinema I saw Sulley and Mike. Love these guys! Looking forward to the new film!!!

CAMDEN & DJANGO

Last Friday my mum and I headed in to London quite early because we needed to be in Chelsea by 11am for a doctor's appointment. Once that was over with we went to grab a cinnamon roll and a coffee from a little cafe around the corner. While eating our breakfast we decided to go to Camden as neither of us had ever been there before. The place was filled with hipsters, rockers and nearly everyone in between. Vintage shops and rock Tee's filled the streets. I liked it. It was, as my mum said, filled with the same sort of stuff in every shop/stall, but I liked it. We walked around for ages looking at different stalls with jewellery, clothes, music. I did grab an awesome t-shirt which had Jay Z on the cover of Rolling Stones magazine on it which I love!

After walking around for ages we decided to have lunch in this little Brazilian restaurant just off the main street in Camden. We both had some sort of steak with salsa, steamed rice and salad. It was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten in my life. Yuuum :) I also had an acai berry cocktail which almost set my face on fire because it had so much alcohol in it (but once the ice melted and watered it down a bit it wasn't as bad!). We went all out and had a dessert - a butterscotch pannacotta with coconut shortbread. Delish!

With our stomachs full we headed back on the train :)

The next day we went to watch Django in Staines. What an awesome film! A nice little girly film - Naaaaat! We always end up going to action films such as the Expendables and Bond! Seriously, Django was awesome! Maybe better than Les Mis....? :)

 

 

 

OMG RYAN GOSLIN!

Monday afternoon we decided on an impromptu cinema visit. I'd been working all day since around 8am so I was in desperate need of a break! We were unsure what film to go and watch because most of the films we wanted to go and see don't actually come out until Friday. Eventually we decided on Gangsta Squad - the new Ryan Gosling film. A bunch of us caught the train to Staines, ate our Subways and finally got to the cinema. And oh my word - the film was actually awesome! One of the best I've ever seen. The whole thing was just so tense and emotional and exciting - crazy! The actors were awesome. The whole things was great! People were crying next to me and I felt like I wanted to shout at the screen sometimes because things were so tense! It was just an all round awesome film. Impromptu events are always the best. A day of work turned out to be quite an awesome day :)

LES MISERABLES!

On Tuesday after a 9am & 12pm seminar I headed in to town to grab some stuff, came home and before I had time to sit down I was out of the door again. The whole block (minus a few people) went to Staines. We caught the train and walked straight to Nando's where I had a chicken burger and Peri-Peri chips. Yuuuuum :) Once all of us had finished our meals we went over to the cinema to watch Les Miserables. I'm not a big fan of musicals and neither are many of my friends that went to watch the film but we went to see it because everyone was raving at how awesome it is. Oh My Gosh - It was actually spectacular. Not in a billion years did I think that I'd love the film. To begin with I was like "Oh God, they're going to sing throughout the whole film. I'm not going to be able to endure this for 2 and a half hours." However, 10 minutes in to the film I had actually forgotten that everything was being sung and was totally immersed in the awesome acting and plot. Surprisingly I had never read or been to see Les Mis before so I knew nothing about the plot so everything was a shock. I loved it and would be willing to go and watch it again and again. The 2 and a half hours flew by and before I knew it we were on the train back to university!

 Yes I did take a picture in the cinema, but it was during the trailers (Life of Pi) so that's fine, yeah?!

(Again I apologise about the quality of the pictures but my camera should be up and runing in the next few weeks. Yaaay :) )

CLEAN OFF . . .

. . . HARRY POTTER MARATHON. 

Yes so this Harry Potter marathon has been going on for almost a week now! Nearly every night we take out the pull out bed out from underneath my bed and we work our way through a HP film! We are living the lives of crazy university students guys! This is actually what I prefer because I wouldn't be able to go out every night and then get up at 7:30am to make my lecture on time! As it goes at the moment I'm not really able to go out because of my injury, I can't stand up or sit down for long periods of time, but hey ho. 

This week has been quite stressful whilst I try to get to grips with how to do the work. I've been fixated on re-writing my notes before doing anything else. This has now changes. I discovered that re-writing my notes took sooooo much time that I had very little time to actually do the work that I'm supposed to do! Therefore I now just read through my notes again and add and highlight things as I go along. 

I went to see the strength and conditioning coach earlier this week and was told that I probably will not be able to take part in any competitive sport for a year! A year! I don't think I've ever gone that long not doing competitive sport in my life! It's got to be done though I guess! As someone said - "you'll come back fitter and stronger in the long run". I sure hope they are right. 

On Wednesday, after a day of lectures and working in the founders library (this library is like the ones in Harry Potter and really old films you see - wood and leather tables with old style lamps on them. Books organised on wooden bookshelves!) and meetings with sports people we headed of to NANDO'S! This was only my second time at this restaurant and the reasoning for us going there was not only to have a nice flat family meal but also because we had won money off vouchers in the freshers fair. I had won a whole free meal - score! Once we got off the train and walked back home, we sat down and watched the inbetweeners movie!  

Last night my friend and I went to the film festival society meeting. In the next week or so we will be put in to groups to film our first short film that will be entered in to the 'Reed Short Film Competition'. You get to choose which role you would like (well, you put your top three in order of preference). I think my options will be this - 1. Editor, 2 Producer and 3 Director/camera operator. I'm looking forward to seeing what goes in to actually making a short film! 

p.s In the future, once all has settled down and I'm at least kind of sure what I'm doing and how I'm doing my work, I will be doing more posts! 

Here are some pics and instagrams from the last week or so. 

SATURDAY CINEMA

Yesterday I decided I wanted to go to the cinema either to watch the hunger games or to watch Elfie Hopkins. However most people I asked were busy, except for Nicola. The film started at 5:45pm so in the mean time I went up to Lampeter by 12pm grabbed myself an iced soya caramel late and went to watch some hockey. It was a tournament and my friend Carwen was playing and after an hour or so I picked Romeo up (carwen's little Jack Russel puppy) and took him home to have a play date with Hendrix (more info and pictures in next post)

Nicola came to pick me up at 4:30pm and we made our way to Aberystwyth Arts Centre to watch Elfie Hopkins. Aberystwyth Arts Centre has an independent cinema which is quite cool as it screens a variation of films and is also a small screen so it's quite 'cwtchi'. The reason I wanted to go and watch Elfie Hopkins was because it was filmed really close to where i live, near New Quay. The director, Ryan Andrews, also originates from around this way also. I was looking forward to watch this film as it had a great cast line up with actors including Jamie Winston (Elfie) Aneurin Bernard (Dylan), Ray Winston (Bryn), Rupert Evans (Charlie) and many more. Also i was looking forward to watching my first horror genre film in the cinema. If I'm totally honest I left the cinema quite confused. The film was apparently set in a small Welsh village even though only around 3 people actually spoke in a Welsh accent. The lack of continuity and attention to detail here took away from the credibility of the film just a little bit. The plot was, all in all, quite good and just seeing Rupert Evans on the screen was enough for me!

The film showed real pzazz by the end with Elfie destroying the Gammon Family once she has found out that they're actual cannibals. If the film had picked up a bit earlier then without a doubt it would have been a very very good film. Andrews(Dir.) showed his potential as an exceptional director in these last scenes and I am looking forward to go and watch his future films. The other funny thing for myself and Nicola was seeing our English teacher as an extra in the Gammon's house warming scene!

Even though this might not be the best film out this year, or even this summer, I enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed not only the film itself, but the fact that the director and the film came from Ceredigion. This excites me as I am able to see that yes, people from small villages in the middle of nowhere can actually achieve something like this, can actually go out and make a film, and can make a name for themselves as film-makers. This I really like.

After the film Nicola and I headed into town and grabbed some chips and walked on the promenade. Lovely!

This film gets 3 Lisa Loves.