Lady K's (Seemingly) Nonstop July

I have looked back over my personal blogs and it seems I'm averaging one personal blog per month. I have decided this is not good enough, not nearly good enough (spot the film quote) and I plan to rectify that this month. With a whole host of personal blogs! Woo! Whether my plan actually comes into fruition is a whole other story...


My first personal blog this month actually needs to take me all the way back to the start of July! To try and minimise boredom (on your part) I've decided to try and merge three blogs I had planned to do in July, into one giant post. With me so far? Good!


At the start of July I went home for a few days as my best friend of the north was renewing her wedding vows in celebration of her 10 year wedding anniversary. As I was maid of honour at her wedding 10 years ago I wanted to be there to help them celebrate 10 happy years together. The re-wedding went without a hitch (other than them getting hitched that is!) and a fantastic celebration followed, held at their house for family and friends. I already wished them a happy anniversary but I will take this time to say how blessed I am to have friends like these. Caring and loyal, not only to each other but those they hold dear. I am honoured to be one of the ones you guys hold dear.

Making the most of my brief time up north I also dropped in on my brother and sister in law who very kindly took me to visit my sister. My sister suffers from learning difficulties and now lives in a shared house with other girls who have similar disabilities. I don't get to see her as often as I do my friends and family up north, as unlike them she is not able to visit me in Brighton. This is unless she was accompanied by a carer. So it was nice to spend some time catching up with her. I got to hear all about the cruise she had recently been on with my dad and all of the lovely places they'd visited around the med. As you can see from my holiday snap, I also got to see my cheeky little nephew, which is always a treat for me.

On my way back to Brighton I decided to stop off in London as my favourite cinema there - The Prince Charles Cinema http://www.
princecharlescinema.com - was screening one of my all time favourite films since I was little, Labyrinth. Anyone who's previously read my personal blogs will know that this is the second time I'd tried to see Labyrinth at The PCC, but last time I failed as it was sold out. If you would like to read that particular entry go to: http://willow23s-firsteverblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day.html. Anyway, this time I wasn't leaving anything to chance so I booked Labyrinth tickets for me and my best friend of the south for the showing on the day I got back from Preston. In my excitement I probably didn't factor in much thought about the fact that I would have a massive case with me! But luckily for me the staff at The PCC are as lovely as the place itself and they allowed me to leave my case safely locked away in their store cupboard! Hooray for the lovely people at The PCC! Ditto, if you missed it and want to read my Labyrinth review, go to: http://willow23s-filmreviews2011.blogspot.com/2011/07/labyrinth.html. 

 The rest of July was pretty quiet, unless you count the Harry Potter Premiere that I attended on the 7th July. I won't go into detail about that as I wrote a whole separate blog about my Harry Potter Experience (http://willow23s-firsteverblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/lady-ks-harry-potter-experience.html) which goes into a LOT of detail! 

I will just say that I spoke to Evanna Lynch (the actress who plays Luna Lovegood), and I got hers and Ralph Fiennes signatures, and it made my day! ;0) 

From the 8th July to the 15th July every waking moment (the ones where I wasn't keeping my eyes open with matchsticks whilst at work) was consumed with Mr Potter as I set myself The Potter Challenge.

I went to see every Harry Potter film, from The Philosophers Stone to The Deathly Hallows Part 2, one film per day at the cinema and had to review every film before I saw the next one. I thought at one point (around the time I was reviewing Half Blood Prince) that I might die of a Potter overdose! But now it's all over I find I miss the bespectacled boy wizard. And so I'm now reading the books. I had already read books 1 and 2 before I started my Potterthon but have now read book 3 and am in the midst of book 4 as we speak.

The day after I'd finally finished watching all of the Harry Potter movies, one of my close friends held her hen party. A fun night of drinking, singing, more drinking and dancing. I discovered a new haunt called The Haunt, which plays cheesy 80s tunes every Saturday night, and just generally had a fabulous time. 


This then left me with barely a week to recover and sort my flat out before my best friend from the north, her step daughter and another friend, descended upon my tiny one bedroom flat for my Birthday weekend...

...but as it's late and this post is already very long, that will have to wait for another day! ;0)


*Thanks to A-ha for the use of their song title (Seemingly) Nonstop July.

Labyrinth

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091369/

Anyone who has been reading my reviews or personal blogs for a while now, will know that I went to a screening of The Princess Bride at the Prince Charles Cinema in London back in February.

On that day, the PCC were also showing Labyrinth as part of a double bill with The Princess Bride, but Labyrinth had already sold out when I found out about the screening. 

As Labyrinth is one of my favourite childhood movies, and as I had never seen it at the cinema, I had been keeping an eye on the PCC in case they showed it again. Of course, a trek to London to see a film I've seen countless times at home is a little extreme, but not if you already happen to be in London, as I was on the 4th July. Which was the date my waiting and hoping that the PCC would show Labyrinth again, paid off.

For anyone who is not familiar with this childrens classic, it's a tale of goblins, life sized mazes, forging friendships and David Bowie!!! The story is told through the eyes of Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), who has yet again been made to stay home and look after her baby brother Toby, rather than being allowed to go out and indulge in her love of fairy tales. Thinking how unfair this is, Sarah inadvertently requests that the Goblin King (David Bowie) takes her brother away. As Sarah didn't really believe the Goblin King was real, and didn't expect her brother to be taken, she undertakes a journey to solve the labyrinth that surrounds the Goblin King's castle and save her baby brother from becoming a goblin...forever.

I know everyone's opinion will differ on this film but to me it's a classic in every possible way. I hate musicals but I love the songs in Labyrinth (and not just because I'm an old school Bowie fan). I also love the goblins, who were brought to life by the brilliant Jim Henson, the man behind The Muppets, Fraggle Rock and The Dark Crystal and who worked on Sesame Street. It's thanks to him that the goblins in this movie are so lifelike, which enables them to become great friends with Sarah, and in turn the audience, as we fall in love with their quirks, Hoggle's cowardice, Ludo's big heart and Sir Didymus's bravery. 

Yes I will admit that Sarah is whiney and spoilt but who isn't at her age? It just makes her character all the more realistic. And the casting of David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King, was a stroke of genius. He makes what could have easily been a creepy character so charismatic. I would defy any other actor to turn this character around - he turns babies into goblins and asks young girls to love him while saying he will be their slave, not really the norm for a kids film!

If you've never seen Labyrinth, where have you been for the last 25 years?! It's a classic in every sense of the word and a must see for adults and children alike. 10 out of 10.

NB - I love that the trailer says that the film has 'the excitement of David Bowie'!

Viewing Date - 4th July 2011

Original UK Release Date - 28th November 1986 (I was 5)

Cast Overview:

David Bowie ~ Jareth

Jennifer Connelly ~ Sarah

Toby Froud ~ Toby

Shelley Thompson ~ Sarah's Stepmother

Christopher Malcolm ~ Sarah's Father

Director ~ Jim Henson

Writer(s) ~ Jim Henson (Story), Dennis Lee (Story) and Terry Jones (Screenplay)

Valentines Day

Where to begin with this one? I should probably start with Miranda and try not to get lost on the way. Miranda started out as my penpal and quickly became one of my best friends. She was one of the most uniquely quirky, wonderfully weird people I have ever had the pleasure to know. She was beautiful, funny, smart and one of those people who usually knew exactly the right thing to say in any given situation. And even when she didn't, saying the wrong thing usually turned out to be right. 


In 2008, at the age of 25, she killed herself.


*I want to stress at this point that this is not going to be an upsetting post. Or at least I'm going to try and not make it an upsetting post. I just need to explain a little of the back story here.*


February 14th this year would have been Miranda's 28th birthday. In order to remember Miranda in a not-so-morbid way, my best friend (who I met because of Miranda) and I decided to go to London for the day, and do things she would have done if she were here. Like going to the cinema, seeing an exhibition, wandering around the shops etc. 


I found out the night before that the Prince Charles Cinema was showing a special double bill of Labyrinth and The Princess Bride. For those who didn't know Miranda, this choice of films could not have been more appropriate for us to see on this day if she had chosen them herself. The only snag was that Labyrinth was sold out.


On the off chance that Labyrinth tickets would somehow become available in the 24 hours that followed, my best friend and I headed to London on Valentines/Miranda Day anyway. Once at the PCC (after we were told there were categorically no tickets left for Labyrinth) we decided to see the imminent showing of Blue Valentine. It seemed an oddly appropriate choice seeing as it was Valentines Day. 

I won't go into details (as these are on my review blog) but it was a suitable mix of sweet love story and depressing bitterness. But it also left you with a sense of hope. No bad thing on Miranda day. 


After trying our luck for Labyrinth tickets again - and being told there were none - we went to one of Miranda's favourite London haunts (is it politically correct to say haunts when now refering to someone who's deceased?) The Cinema Store. Now, normally I would keep such gems as this place to myself, but to be honest I think they could use all the custom they can get these days as they have closed one of their 2 stores. If you're a film memorabilia fan and you happen to be going to London please pop in and have a look around, they're on Upper St Martin's Lane. Or go here http://www.thecinemastore.co.uk/. 


Anyway, following our brief shopping spree, we had a lovely dinner in 50's style American Diner Ed's and then headed back to the PCC for The Princess Bride. 

One of my all time favourite movies. I honestly don't think there is any better cinema experience than when you are part of an audience who all love the film you're watching as much as you do. As this was also the first time I'd seen The Princess Bride on the big screen it was a wonderful end to an almost perfect day.


The only way it could have actually been perfect is if Miranda had been there to celebrate with us. But for all I know, maybe she was.