We must simply have courage and be kind - Cinderella

Hallooooo!!

I'd like to introduce you to Movietime Monday. It isn't actually anything new, as I have written blog posts about movies before, but I'd like to make it a more regular thing and try to post something every Monday :)

So, to kick off nicely, this blog post will be about Cinderella. The live action version of Kenneth Branagh to be more precise :)

Cinderella

**this post contains spoilers**

2015
Directors: Kenneth Branagh
Actors: Lily James, Richard Madden, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, etc
Length: 105min= 1h 45min
Family proof
Genre: live action fairytale

I guess there is no need for me to explain what the story is about? Cinderella is probably one of the most well know stories in the world, next to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. And unlike most of the remakes, this pictures stays faithful to the Disney animated version as well as the original story by Charles Perrault. It literally screams Disney from start to finish.

To capture my opinion of the picture in one phrase: I LOVED it, but...

There is no denying there are no 'flaws' in this movie. No movie is perfect, no director is perfect, no actor is perfect, no costume designer is perfect, no set designer is perfect,.. No one is perfect. So some people thought it was just a 'pretty picture of pretty people on a beautiful soundtrack, but that's about it. The trailer made it look way more impressive'. Or 'Out of all the other adaptations, this on is a disappointment'. Or 'Made for kids only, not adults'.

Now, the first rule of speaking your mind and opinions out loud, is that you must speak from the first person: 'I'. 'I find...', 'I think...' Not everyone shares your opinions and you can't just assume that they do.

So, that being said, I loved the movie, but I can't disagree with some of the negative comments. I'm not saying that I agree that the movie is a disappointment or only made for kids and not adults, but I do have my own remarks. Allow me to enlighten you in three points.

Firstly, on the costume design, I find the dress of Cinderella a bit, how shall I say it? Too much? It's a gorgeous dress, don't understand me wrong, but I think it might have worked just was well with a foot or two less of fabric. On the other hand, all the layering of the fabric made sure Kenneth Branagh didn't need to CGI the colours on the dress. That beautiful effect makes it all the more natural.

Secondly, Helena Bonham Carter's prostetics as old beggar lady kind of annoyed me. The movement of her face when she talked was just not natural to me. My apologies if this was intended, but it would be something I might have done differently.

And lastly, the fact that Kit didn't know Ella's name righ until the end. You can look at it in two ways. The first way is: "how on earth is it possible that you can fall in love with someone you don't even know there name of?!" But then, it is a fairytale. The second way: "if it's love, does it matter if you know the person's heart?" But then again, it is a fairytale. For me personally, growing up in the 21th Century, it just not imaginable not to know the name of the person you like/love. Especially what all the social media x)

As for the review of 'it's made for kids, not for adults', I do pitty that person. To lose your inner child. I'd say it is a perfectly suitable movie for anyone. Child or adult. Man or woman.

Now that I've explained the 'but...' part of my one phrase, I am more than excited to explain to you why I loved it :)

Firstly, Branagh stays so close to the original animated story. You can find quite a few scenes in the movie that are copied from the 1950 animated version. If that doesn't transport you right back to your childhood...

Secondly, as the original Disney animation is only about an hour long and we are dealing with an extra 45min in this live action version, Branagh took the opportunity to teach us more about Ella's background and he allows us to meet the prince. The fact that they meet before the ball is also something that doesn't happen in the animated version, but by adding that event, it makes the story much more contemporary and realistic :)

Thirdly, you have quite a few touching scenes in this one, so if you're a 'major wheeper', you might want to take some tissues with you. Especially the scene where the king is leaving his son. That shot from above, the position the prince is laying in, you can't help but want to hug him, comfort him. The prince truly looks vulnerable and that's what it makes so much more believable and admirable. 

Lastly, as I've mentionned earlier, the picture screams Disney from start to finish. The colour scheme, the sets, the locations, the costumes,... And of course, the story. But that is exactly why I love it so much. No weird plot twist right at the end, no wicked story lines added. Just plain and simple, a live action movie of the original animated Disney version of 1950. Branagh did a marveleous job.

Of course the acting performances by Lily James, Richard Madden, Cate Blanchett, Derek Jacobi, Stellan Skarsgard, Helena Bonham Carter, etc are to be admired here. With a different cast the movie will have turned out completely different and I'm not sure if it would be for the better.

Besides the superb sets, costumes, lightening, colours schemes, acting performances, etc. We must not forget the soundtrack. Patrick Doyle composed the music for this title and he did an absolute amazing job with it.

Now, to finish off this post, enjoy the trailer and a clip :)

Trailer

Clip

Featured

Fox 5 DC interview

I can't wait for the movie to be released on DVD so I can watch it again and again and again :) Oh, and I can't wait to see the live action verson of Beauty and the Beast !! :)

Thanks for reading!! ^^
xo - Sara

Year One

Hallooooo everyone!

This is not a weekly blog post about my past week, but this is a rather special one :) Exactly one year ago I posted my first blog post ever!

On 22nd March 2014 I moved to London to start an internship for my education in Communication Management. My original plan was just to film everything as I much rather watch YouTube videos than read super long blog posts... Whoops. But as my first vlog was edited I realised that that video needed some explanation... So I (rather quickly) went to blogger.com and created an account. I probably should have thought more about a name, but hey! It was only supposed to be an extention to my vlogs. And as I was supposed to move back to Belgium in July, there wasn't really a point in thinking too long for an appropriate name.

So, Sara lives in London was born. Every weekend I would upload a vlog accompanied with a blog post to explain what I was up to that past week. But as July approached, I realised I was in no way ready to stop blogging. Against my own expectation I really loved writing the posts every week! (but it really shouldn't have been. At the age of 14 I wrote about 5 diaries full!) So I started thinking about what else I could write. I mean, there is no point in blogging about what I've been up to when I was back home in Belgium. So, I wanted to try to create other content.

The first rule about blogging is: write about things that you love, are interested in. Well that's a piece of cake for me: traveling, movies and books. So even though I was to move back to Belgium, I still had a subject to write about. I'd still have this little place on the internet that is 100% 'me'. And that thought was a really comforting one.

Than the wonderful opportunity to do a second internship in London came along and I grabbed that chance. This meant that I could keep weekly blogging! But the idea of writing about movies that I liked had taken hold of me by now, so I decided to just write both. It's my blog after all :) And well, since I have gone from a temp internship to a full time job, I am planning to keep writing :)

Besides rediscovering my love for writing, and this is going to sound very corny, this blog has also helped me to become a bit closer to who I really am. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting there. For example, in the past I found it very difficult to say that I like fantasy movies and feel good movies and action movies and huge box office hit movies and ... People can really judge you through the movies that you like, so you tend to blend in and agree with the crowd. But as I am in my early twenties I thought it was finally time to learn not to care what other people think about me and just be as geeky as I wish to be about the Avengers: age of Ultron or the new live action Cinderella or the lasted animation movies or Harry Potter or the lastest book that I've read. And this doesn't exclude solely to movies and books, but also about the way that I dress, the fact that I enjoy going to the cinema by myself and travel by myself. That I love spending a day watching movies or series in my bed as much as going out and meet friends and family. That I love listening to movie soundtracks, because it makes my journey so much more interesting. But as I said before, it's still a work in progress and this blog is partly helping me getting there :)

Wow, this blog post went very deep all of the sudden :) To lighten things up a bit, here's is 4min video of my past year. I wasn't able to add every single moment, as not all of them were captured on camera, but it's close enough. Anyway, I had fun in making the video. It's such a beautiful way of keeping memories. I highly recommend it! :)

If you've been reading my blog (and I don't mean every single week, but every now and then) I thank you very much :) If you have any suggestion of what I could write about or visit in the next year, please let me know :)

As always, thanks for reading!!
xo - Sara

2 live action movies I'm very much looking forward to in 2015!

Hallooooooo everyone :)

Before I start this blog post: the trailer for Paper Towns has been released so I've added it to my 6 YA movies to get excited about in 2015 blog post. If you'd like to see that :)

Then, I am particularly excited about this week's mid week blog post!! 2 live action movies you should definitely keep an eye out for!!! It might be only 2, but for me probably the 2 most anticipated movies :) Let's dive in shall we?

First movie to hit theatres is Cinderella
In cinema 27 March 2015 (UK) (!!day after tomorrow!!) I possibly can not express my excitement for this movie. First of all: the teaser trailer was the best teaser ever. Secondly, it's a live action movie of a classic Disney fairy tale. Thirdly, Kenneth Branagh is the director. Fourthly, the trailer looks A-amazing. And lastly, an amazing cast (Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgård, Richard Madden,...)

These 5 points are, for me, a guaranteed recipe for success :)

Also, I've been basically non stop listening to My Blood by Ellie Goulding. Just so beautiful. I can't wait to finally see the movie this weekend. The teaser trailer came out in May last year, so 10 months is a looooong wait!

And secondly Pan
In cinema 17 July 2015 (UK) Back in November 2014 I saw the trailer for the very first time and it just caught my eye. It's not so much the same story but with real people (like Cinderella). But it is more the story of how Peter became Peter Pan.

July might seem like a long way away, but I guarantee that it'll be summer in a blink of an eye :) And then we'll all be able to see a bald Hugh Jackman. And next to Hugh, Amanda Seyfried, Cara Delevingne, Garrett Hedlund and many many others will make an appearance.

That's it for this week's mid week blog post. Short 'n' sweet I'd say :) Next week I'll cover the Sci Fi movies I'm very much looking forward to finally see in 2015 :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Little Venice, birthday celebrations, Spy screening and attending the interview with Kenneth Branagh about Cinderella

Hallooooo everyone!

Well this week was a rather 'special' one. I left "hey, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22" behind and started my 24th year in life. That's right, it was my 23th birthday this week.

A little recap for you: Friday my parent arrived in town. Sunday afternoon they left again. On my birthday I had cake at the office, Thursday evening I went to the screening of Spy and Friday evening was another 'Meet the...' at the Apple store on Regent Street! This time it was an interview with Kenneth Branagh, Richard Madden and Holliday Grainger about Cinderella.

Oh yeah, just to warn you: this is a photo heavy blog post :)

So to start of with Friday 13th March 2015
Nothing really exciting happened beside the fact that I had lunch with my parents instead of at the office. They had also provided me with some goods from Belgium and had brought me some birthday presents :)

Because we had quite a big lunch, we weren't hungry at 4:30pm, so we walked from the office to Saville row, because my parents wanted to see the tailor shop that was used in Kingsmen: the Secret Service. From there it is only a short walk to one of my favorite spots in London: St James's Church. A quick stop in Cath Kidston, Waterstones and Lillywhites and we were ready to eat some dinner. Pizza Express was once again a success :)

Weekend with the parents
Saturday morning started bright and early. I arrived at my parent's hotel at 9:30am and after some breakfast we took the metro to Camden Town where our walk to Little Venice would begin :)

We made a little stop at Primrose Hill.

After Primrose Hill we just continued with our walk next to Regent's Canal.

Primrose Hill wasn't our only stop. Because we were 'in the neighbourhood', we walked to the Abbey Road Studios :)

From Abbey Road it was only a 10 min walk to Little Venice where we had lunch on a boat.

 From Little Venice it was another 10min walk to Paddington Station.

And from Paddington Station it was another short walk to Kensington Gardens where we found Peter Pan and some beautiful swans.

 In Hyde Park we went to the Princess Diana Memorial.

By 4:30pm it was time for an afternoon tea. Because I wasn't really hunger, I wasn't really up for a full out afternoon tea. So my parents were OK to settle for some cake and tea instead.

After our tea and cake we walked to V&A but as it was 5:30pm already and they had an event starting at 6pm, the V&A closed at 5:45pm. What a bummer :( But, across the road, Harrods had a Cinderella window display going on, so not all was lost x) I can't express my excitement for this movie enough!!!!!!!!

For dinner we had chinese in China town ^^

Sunday morning started a bit with a bummer. We wanted to visit Spencer's house, but as we arrived we were told they worked with timed tickets and the first group that wasn't fully booked was at 12:30pm. My parents' train left at 3pm so we thought it too risky. I'm mean, it would have been managable, but then we wouldn't have got our lunch at Yo!Sushi and that is a tradition :)

The lady at Spencer's house kindly advised us to visit the War Rooms instead. I've seen some advert about that exhibition and I actually really want to see that one. So I was actually very happy we were to go there :)

On our walk to the War Rooms, passed Buckingham Palace and the Guards museum. As it was 10:30pm, the ceremony of the Change of the Guards was about to start. The musicians had a little warm up session and they played some awesome soundtracks x)

After they left, we proceded our walk to the War Rooms, but when we arrived there was a line to get in! And the tour is about 2hours long and we simply did not have the time. So instead we walked towards Trafalgar Sq. As we past Great Scotland Yard I showed my parents film locations that were used in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. If you're interested in more Harry Potter film locations in London I've written a whole blog post about them :) Just click here.

We ended Sunday afternoon with lunch at Yo!Sushi and a cup of coffee (or tea) at Costa in St Pancras as my parents had a train back to Belgium at 3pm. After we said goodbye, I went straight home, made myself comfortable in bed with a cup of tea and started watching the extras on the DVD's of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 and 2 :)

Birthday cake at the office
I was actually kind of hoping that my colleagues would forget about my birthday. We have this thing in the office that every time it's someone birthday, we all gather in the kitchen and sing Happy Birhtday to the Birthday boy or girl. It's an amazing excuse to eat cake in the office. I was kind of dreading the whole kitchen experience, so I had my fingers crossed they would forget about my birthday. But no, at 4:15pm, I was lead to the kitchen and a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' broke out... I have to admit it wasn't too bad. I survived my first birthday at the office :)

A lot of people might think it's pathetic that I didn't give a major party or celebrated with any other friends for that matter. Most of my friends still live in Belgium anyway. Hell, I was even laught at because I celebrated my 21st birthday by playing with my then 10yr old cousin outside. And I celebrated it the exact same way last year, for my 22nd. I kind of missed it this year to be honest :)

No, after work, I went home, ate some cake, watched Lady and the Tramp and opened the presents my parents gave me and a huge present from my sister. I'd also received a few birthday cards :) It was a very low key birthday and it was perfect. Some people like to go out for their birthday and scream the entire night; "It's my birthday!" Or have their friends scream all night: "It's her/his birthday!" I say: no thanks to that.

My little set up :)

Spy screening and meeting Pieter
Thursday evening was the Cinderella premiere and my original plan was to go watch the event as I usually do when the premiere is on Leicester Square. But since there was a huge white tent on Leicester Sq I doubted that I was able to see anything. So when the opportunity came around to go to a Spy screening I absolutly said YES to that.

I will most likely write a blog post about it when the movie hit theatres in June :) But until that (and I highly recommend it!) enjoy the trailer :)

Afterwards I met up with Pieter. A friend I know from way back in the day when we were 13yr old .
We had a nice catch up :)

'Meet the...' on Friday @ Apple store on Regent Street

Friday was also a very very exciting day: I was to attend an interview with Kenneth Branagh, Richard Madden and Holliday Grainger.

Kenneth Branagh (director of Thor and Jack Ryan: shadow recruit and our beloved professor Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) talked about the film making process of Cinderella, pre production of the dress, favorite locations to shoot, etc. Richard Madden (Robb Stark in Game of Thrones) talked about the challenges he had to face to make prince Charming a worthy partner for Cinderella and his fear of the dancing scene. And Holliday Grainger (Jane Eyre, the Borgias and Anna Karenina) gushed about how beautiful the ballroom scene was and her challenges in finding a synchronism in her double act with Sophie.

We weren't aloud to film, but I expect that the interview will be online soon. In the mean time, here's the trailer for Cinderella:

After the interview I was even more excited then before the interview and that was alot already! x) Can't wait til next week when the movie will finally be released in the UK!!

That's it for this week. My apologies for the very long blog post! x) I applaud you if you made it this far! Thanks!

Movies I've watched:
Pocahontas, Lady and the Tramp and Spy :)

New word: meticulous= exaclty

As always, thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

4 animation movies to look forward to in 2015 :)

Hallooo!!

As I promised in last weeks Wednesday blog post I'll be sharing all types of different movies I'm excited about that'll hit theatres in 2015. Today I'll be covering the animation movies ^^

Whoop whoop ^^

In my opinion one is never to old for a good animation film. Whether it be from Disney Pixar or Dreamworks :) A few of my favorite animation films are Wall-E, Tangled, Despicable me and very resently Big Hero 6 has joined :) But let's get started with the films that are yet to come :)

First animated movie is Home.
In cinemas 20th March 2015. Yes, I am very excited about this one. Oh looks just too cute and is voiced by Jim Parson, I mean... I've seen bits and clips and I think it's going to be an emotional one. I mean, it's from the same creators as How to train your Dragon and they were nominated for a freaking Oscar this year :)

I can't wait to see Minions!!
In cinemas 26th June 2015 and who is not looking forward to see the adventures of Kevin, Stuart and Bob in their search for a new villian to serve? Very curious about how the dialogues will work out :)

And Inside Out looks pretty amazing too.
In cinemas 24th July 2015 This one literally made me laugh out loud ^^ "Sir, reporting a high level of sass". "What are you doing!? I thought we were going to 'act casual'" Man, can't wait to see the rest x)

Lastly Hotel Transylvania 2
In cinemas 9th October 2015 Grandpa Dracula should be an interesting to see x) Not sure whether I'm going to see this one in cinema, but it's definitely on my 'to-watch-list' :)

The further the release date's away, the more chance there is it can change before then, but these are the dates I could find on IMDb :) Now fingers crossed none of them will be postponed til 2016 :)

Please also note that more movies will hit theatre than the ones I discuss here. This is just my personal selection of all the great movies that'll be released on the world this year ^^

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Conversation with Emma Watson about gender equality and Insurgent premiere

Halloooooooo,

In contrast of last week's blog post about my 'very exciting' weekend, this week's blog post has actually some pretty cool stuff :) Let's just dive in, shall we?

Converse art installation on Shoreditch High Street
Saturday 7th March I had another viewing planned. In Willesden Green. North London. And yes I live in South London. As London underground always likes to execute some improvements on the public transport lines, this weekend was no exception. Normally this doesn't bother me too much, but this it had to be, had to be, the Jubilee line between London Waterloo and Neasden. Let's just say that Willesden green is between those two stations. And so my adventure to North London began.

Because I had to take a replacement bus to Willesden Green station, I was going to be late at my appointment. Thank god Steve, the guy who was going to show me the house, was very understanding and he hoped that it wasn't too much of a mission to get there. 'Mission' was the perfect description of my journey from South to North.

Anyway, after a lovely chat with Steve I was back on my way to central London. Because it was 'only' 2.30pm and so beautiful outside, I decided to head to Shoreditch High Street (Liverpool street station, East London) to see a Converse inspired art installation. The shoe in questions is my go to shoe for basically everything and yes, I own quite a few pairs of them :)

I know, very alternative of me to go to a little art exhibition in Shoreditch, East London. And to be honest, I kind of felt very smart, as that excursion isn't part of my usual activities. I never go to alternative little art galleries, or near Shoreditch for that matter :)

After that little art cultural exploration, I just headed back home and guess what? I watched a movie! I know, just like the exhibition, so uncharacteristic for me! I keep surprising the world... Or maybe not x) Anyway, Saturday evening I saw 'Now you see me'. Again a recommendation of my cousin, Lies, and it's a good'un. A very 'Whut the hell' ending, but that's the brilliance of it. You can compare it a bit with the Illusionist and the Prestige.

International Women's day and a Conversation with Emma Watson.
Sunday I woke like a little kid on Chirstmas morning. Very very exicted. Friday evening I received the email that I was selected to be part of the audience for the live conversation with Emma Watson on gender equality.

How come I was selected, you might ask? Well, Tuesday evening 3th March I filled in the 'application' form. Not really an application though. You had to tell how you are making a difference in your community to work towards gender equality and if you could ask Emma one question, what would you ask? I filled everything in, but without any hope. I mean, surely thousands of people would send in their stories.

However, Wednesday afternoon I had an email in my inbox with the news I was short listed to be part of the audience. Out of more than 6000 entries! They asked me to confirm a few facts (gender, where I'm currently living and if I would be able to travel on my own expenses to London) and within the hour I'd sent a reply and now all I could do was wait for Friday afternoon when they would send everyone who was selected to be part of the audience an email.

Friday afternoon arrived and nothing. I'm not going to deny I wasn't a little bit disappointed, but aaah well. It's not the end of the world, right? However, when I got home, had eaten my dinner, watched Divergent, I checked any emails. And OMG. HELL YEAH, I was selected! Within 20min I had confirmed I'd be there and for the next hour I was dancing and jumping and squealing of happiness. I just couldn't believe it. I freaking made it out of the more than 6000 entries! So my excitement was real on Sunday morning.

But as every exciting event ever in the history of the world likes to taunt us, the event took place in the early evening, and we could only check in at 4pm. That meant an ENTIRE day of looking forward to it.

Luckily I had another viewing planned at 1pm in East India. I believe it was the billionth zillionth room I've seen so far. The room and appartement were a disaster, so that was kind of a bummer. But not for long, because I was to go to the Facebook office to attent a live conversation with Emma Watson :)

To kill some time between the viewing and the event, I wanted to try out a new cafe. Instead of giving in to my usual Costa habit, I wanted to try Yumchaa. The cafe on itself is very cosy and cute, but unfortunately the place was under staffed so the service was far from good. Kind of put me off of the idea of going back, but maybe it'll be better on a less busy day or if they have more staff? Anyway I had a lovely read in my book The Cuckoo's Calling and also in a new magazine that I've discovered recently: Sci Fi now. Normally I am not a fan of magazines, but this one's genuinely interesting :)

And then, at least, it was 4pm. Time to go to the Facebook office. It wasn't allowed to take pictures during the live broadcast, but here's the entire broadcast :)

It was so interesting and instructive. Many of my questions were answered and well, the topic is just very interesting, isn't? It affects us all. And to hear and actually see Emma talk about it in person, makes it even more obvious she is really passionate about it. I'm gonna sound like such a fangirl, but she truly is such an inspiration.

Insurgent World Premier
Tuesday and Thursday evening I had some viewings planned. That's 9 in total now -.- And still nothing.

Wednesday evening was the Insurgent World premiere. And just like during other premieres, I can't help myself to overhear people's conversations. You can easily pick out anyone who is just stopping to have a look what all the fuzz is about. Most of the time I can restrain myself in answering their questions, but when I heard someone ask; "Is that Kate Winslet?" I just had to reply "That's the author". It might be just me, but is baffles me that someone can't recognize even Kate Winslet.

I'm already planning my trip to the theater to see this one opening weekend ^^ 

Movies
So this week I've seen Now you see me, but also the Descendants and If I stay. Really liked the latter one.

New words: snazzy= to be well dressed; redundant= no longer necessary

So, that is it for this exciting week :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

6 YA movies to get excited about in 2015

Hallooooooo,

Here's another Wednesday blog post for y'all :)

As we all know, I like my Sunday trips to the movie theatre and lucky me, 2015 has some amazing movies in store. So far I've seen and talked about Kingsmen: the Secret Service, Big Hero 6, the Theory of Everything and Into the Woods. But we're 'only' March, so we have another 9 months worth of movies to look forward to! Over the next couple of weeks I'll talk about them, each time covering a different genre :)

click on the pictures for a very funny YouTube clip by Ilovehertjes

Today I'll be sharing 6 YA movies I'm personally very excited about that'll hit theatres this year. And yes, most of the movies I mention below target a teen audience. But just like Emma Lord, I prefer a good young adult story to any adult story. The reason why I mention this young lady is because she has written an article about 11 Reasons why Young Adult fiction is even better when you read it as an adult. I say amen to that :) I am also glad to read I'm not the only one x)

So, let's get started.

Insurgent
19 March 2015 (UK). Release of the second movie adaption of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I've only just seen Divergent for the first time. I know I know, I am behind on the YA franchises. But at the time Divergent came out, I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia and after that I wanted to read the Mortal Instruments. And because I just knew I was going to love Divergent from the moment I saw it, I had to put it on the shelf for a while 'cause a girl can only handle so many franchises at a time, right? So now that I've finished reading the Mortal Instruments, I finally watched Divergent and well, I was right. As soon as I finish reading the Cuckoo's calling, I'm gonna start reading Divergent. In the mean time, I am looking forward to see the sequel in movie form ^^

The  DUFF
6 April 2015 (UK) Just a light hearted, maybe a bit 'in your face', American high school movie :) Not sure whether I'll be going to the cinema for this one, but it's definitely on my 'to watch list' :)

Pitch Perfect 2
15 May 2015 (UK) Hell yeah I'm going to the theatre for this one. I enjoyed the first one so much, I considered taking up singing lessons again. But then common sense hit me just in time :) Now I just want to hear what acapella show the Barden Bella's will have in store for us :)

Paper Towns
19 June 2015 (UK) No trailer available just yet. I've read the book for work and it is a very sweet story. Nothing action packed or overly dramatic. Paper Towns is written by the same author who wrote the Fault in Our Stars, John Green. This might give you an idea what kind of story it'll be :) Here's the Fault in Our Stars trailer.

Quentin's neighbour, Margo (Cara Delevingne), appares on his window one night and takes him on a revenge tour to all her 'supposed to be' friends. The day after, Margo disappears, but has left a few clues for Quentin (Nat Wolff). Quentin says Aye to this quest and starts looking for Margot.

The Scorch Trials
18 September 2015 (UK) This is the second movie adaptation of the Maze Runner series, written by James Dashner. Appartenly there have been some changes to the story, so I am very curious how this one will turn out.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2
20 November 2015 (UK) Who needs an explanation for this one?! And this teaser trailer has got me hyped!!! :)

To be honest, I kind of forgot what happens in Mockingjay. It's been two years since I read the books. But I clearly remember the ending of the book and I can garantee we're all in for a treat :)

If you made it this far, well done and thanks :) I hope you are as excited as I am :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

International Women's Day

Hallooo!!

It's 8th March again :)

This will be a short blog post :) But because today is International Women's day, I just couldn't let it go unnoticed.

Today we celebrate women all over the world. In every size, form, young, old, small, tall, confused,... To celebrate the political, economical, social, ... achievements we've reached throughout human history.

Not to panic, there is also an International Men's Day on the 19th November :)

I'd started to write a very personal blog post, but I realised I just can't find the right words yet, so instead I'll give you 3 amazingly strong quotes.

Thanks for 'reading' ;)
xo - Sara

The search for a new home continues and the first birthday card

Hallooooo!!

Soooo, last weekend I've had this crazy exicting weekend and sooo much cool and exciting stuff happened... Ok, maybe not.

But before I start the blog, I'd like to share this cool 'fact': Whilst I was flicking through the pages of Style magazine on Wednesday morning, my eye fell on this add. And I thought: "that man looks familiar". Obviously it had to be an actor, as it was a movie advert, but it wasn't just any Hollywood celebrity. No, after a quick scan over the advert I saw: Michelle Williams and Matthias Schoenaerts. IMDb told me that 'Suite Française' is one of Matthias' lastest projects. And if you don't know: Matthias Schoenaerts is Belgian. That's why I thought it was so cool ^^

Matthias Schoenaerts and Michelle Williams

'Suite Française' isn't the only impressive movie lined up in the near future. Matthias will star in 'the Loft' next to James Marsden, Karl Urban, Wentworth Miller, etc. 'Far from the Maddening Crowd' next to Carey Mulligan, Juno Temple and Michael Sheen and 'A little chaos' next to Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Ehle and Helen McCrory. If I may give a little tip? Keep your eyes on him, 'cause he's going to do some amazing stuff :)

Viewing #3
Saturday morning started out as a very very laid back, chillaxed morning. I woke up, made myself a cup of coffee and had breakfast. Meanwhile I was watching YouTube videos and I was browsing on the interwebs for new blogs to discover.

Last week I contacted a girl by the name Emily to arrange a viewing (that conversation was before I went to see the room in Watford). We agreed on Saturday 28th February at 2pm, but I hadn't heard from her since. No confirmation, no address. So Thursday evening I'd sent her a first email with a request for confirmation and a place to be. No answer. So I basically already classified the room as a no go. Saturday morning I sent another email. You know, you never know. And sure enough she replied with a confirmation and an address. Well, that put my relaxed Saturday morning in a different gear.

Somehow I had planned everything perfectly. I thought I'd had to rush everything now that I had to leave my room and brace the outside world. But no, I had just enough time to take a shower, get ready, even to fiddle around in my room. I had a lovely easy walk to the train station and like a true Londoner I did not have to look at my tube Underground Map to see where I needed to go x)

The viewing was at 2pm, but I arrived at 1:45pm. The viewing actually lasted for over 30min. I had never experienced anything like it with the other viewings. I had a nice chat with the current housemates to see if I'd be a good match. When I left the house I had a really positive feeling, so I applied for the room. Because the current roommates would choose who's going to move in with them, it wasn't 100% sure I'd get it. I'd hear the news the next day.

So when I woke up Sunday morning, I had a 'it's Christmas kind of feeling'. Very strange. Today I'd know if I was going to move house or not. Just like Saturday, Sunday was very laid back. I baked some pancakes, watched more YouTube videos and wrote my previous blog post. At 15:08pm I received the deciding text message... But unfortunately I did not get the room. Bummer. Luckily I had another viewing lined up later that evening. So something to look forward to :)

Viewing #4
As the 4th viewing was at 8pm in North London (an area I'm not really familiar with) and was going to meet the two current tenants of the flat (2boys) I didn't feel entirely comfortable to go by myself. Camilla was kind enough to come with me :)

Just like the viewing on Saturday, I had a nice chat with the two tenants to see if I'd be a good match for the room. 30min later we left the premises and I had a very positive feeling about it. Camilla and I walked around to get a feel of the area. By 10pm I was home again and I had made up my mind: I was going to apply for the room as well. But, just like the viewing on Saturday, the current tenants are going to decided who's going to get the room. Well, I'm still waiting to hear back from them. Very nerve racking.

Work week
As for the rest of the week, it was kind of an odd week. Thibaut had left for Berlin, Hayley and Samantha have left the office as well and Camille gave her notice this week. 3 colleagues had a cold and well, the spirits were low. The stress and anticipation for news on the room didn't really help either.

On the bright side, I've received my very first birthday card on Monday. Two weeks too soon, but I don't care. It made me smile :)

So that's it for this week. Just to round up the blog post as usual, here are the movies that I saw:
The Words: mind blowing movie. My idea of the movie was completely wrong. The trailer isn't all that clear. Well, it is clear about one part of the story, but that's just one part of it. You'll just have to see it for yourself. Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Ben Barnes, Dennis Quaid, etc are starring in it.

Divergent: this has been a long time coming now. But last year when the movie came out I didn't know the story. Then I learned a bit more, but I thought "meh". Then my cousin, Lies, recommended it and I started to doubt. But I was reading The Chronicles of Narnia at the time and after the Chronicles of Narnia I wanted to start reading the Mortal Instrument series. And I can't read two franchises at the same time, so Divergent had to wait. So now, whilst I'm reading 'the Cuckoo's Calling', I dared to watch Divergent. And as predicted: I have to read the books now :) In the next couple of weeks the second movie in the series, Insurgent, will hit theathers. And hell yeah I'm gonna seem it :) But here's the Divergent trailer:

New word: peculiar= strange

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Pleasantly surprised: Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

Hallooooo!!

Another mid week blog post for y'all :)

So, last week Monday 23th February I (finally) started reading Girl Online by Zoe Sugg. I know I know, her book came out at the end of November of last year. And believe it or not, I basically bought it the day it came out, or a day after, can't really remember.

But, at the time, I was reading the Mortal Instruments series and no way I would stop reading those books before I'd finished the entire series. As I am not the fastes reader in the world, it took me about 3 months to read the 6 TMI books. Which meant that Girl Online lay in my wardrobe for about 3 months, gathering dust.

But, Sunday evening 22nd February I read the final chapters of The Mortal Instruments: City of Heavenly Fire. So instead of giving in to the urge of rereading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and start the whole series again, I considered one of my many other books that are waiting to be read.

Girl Online was the lucky one. So, after giving myself 24h to cope with the home sickness to the fictitious world and fictitious characters of TMI, I started reading on the train home from work.

So, what's the book about? It's a coming of age, young adult book about a 16year old blogger by the name of Penny Porter. The story discribes beautifully what a teenager has to deal with: spots, boys (or girls), changing friends and accepting yourself. But besides the classic universal teen problems every teenager ever in the entire history of humanity had to go through, she also talks about the presure teens of the '10 have to deal with: the perfect selfie, beauty 'standards' that are set all over the internet, living a picture perfect life, etc.

Penny has one funny gay best friend and is starting to out grow her best friend Megan. The later is something we've all experienced at some point in our lives. Penny is extremely clumsy, suffers from panic attacks and is also a blogger. As she feels the presure she can't be herself around the people in her life (besides her family) she starts up a blog. A little space on the internet that is 100% her. One cursial fact about the blog is that it's anonymous and she goes by the name Girl Online. When her parents take her to New York for Christmas, she meets Noah. And you probably all can tell where this is going, right? Well, Noah has a secret himself, which threatens Penny's identity on her anonymous blog. If you want to know exactly what happens and who it's ending, you'll have to read the book ;)

To be honest, I didn't expect the book to be very good. The only two reasons why it appealed to me was a) the main character is a blogger and b) it's written by Zoë Sugg.

It is Zoë's debut novel and I had my doubts about her writing skills. I do like the way she writes on her blog, but a blog is something completely different than a fictional story. Don't get me wrong, it's not badly written, but it's not on the level of Cassandra Clare, C.S Lewis or J.K. Rowling for example. I'd say it's more a Lauren Conrad style of writing. If you've read the L.A. Candy or the Fame Game series, you'll know what I'm talking about :) Although, now I come to think of it, that's exactly why I like the book. If Girl Online was written like one of the mentionned above, I think it might not have worked!  It's a super easy, light and very enjoyable read.

As for the characters: I missed some character depth. Some reactions and conversations just didn't feel natural to me and that might, in some cases, just ruin the book for me. The chapter division wasn't always as I would've done it and certain descriptions like: "I studied his face to see if he was lying" just weren't necessary for me.

But, as the story line was so sweet, it was able to grab my attention after chapter 3 and I finished the book within the week. I read every moment I could: on the train to work, during lunch time, on the train back home, before going to sleep,... I had difficulties putting the book down.

One can criticise a book as much as one likes. Too little character depth, no natural conversations or reactions, not always a smooth style of writing,... But if a book captures your attention, like Girl Online did with me, all the above doesn't matter. It's the story that counts. The ability to take the reader out of this world and into the book.

I'm living by 2 'reading rules':
1) Always read the first chapter of a book before you buy it. You'll notice immidately whether you like the writing style or not.
2) If the story doesn't grab your attention after reading the first 50pages, just call it a day. No point in proceeding.

Now, when I bought Girl Online, I didn't apply the first rule. Great mistake you might say! But then see the second reason I bought the book. That might explain it :) But rule nr 2, that was a no brainer. After chapter 3 I was off. Smiling stupidly when somehting cute happened, feeling embarrased when something extremely corny happened and that horrible feeling whilst reading the final chapters. I felt all the emotions one should feel whilst reading a good book :)

And that is my opinion on Girl Online :) Not sure whether this was remotely interesting for you, but I guess, since you're reading this, it did :)

You might also have noticed how much fun I had with taking photographs of the book x)

If you're interested, Zoe made a trip to the printers and made a video about it. I think it's pretty cool to see how a book is being made :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara