'Blogmas' 2016!

So, I have blogged a lot less often this year than I would have liked, but that's ok. I've not given up and I'm proud of that!

The run up to Christmas has always been my favourite time of year. Not only in the materialistic sense (I hope!). I mean, yeah presents and chocolate and shopping are great, but they're not all that makes this time of year fab. I love Christmas songs and Christmas concerts, the smell of winter soup and potpourri. The cold evenings when you get inside, put the fire on and snuggle up watching TV with the family. The comfy woolly clothes and  dark nail polish colours. The frost in the air and seeing your breath. Choosing gifts and wrapping them up with ribbon, and the sparkly festive lights. Family time, laughter, hot drinks, roast dinner. Hope, magic, love.

Yup, cliché as can be and I'm not going to apologise! I love winter and the festive period.

Now, this time of year also means stress, revision and exams. But recently I was reflecting on how lucky (and a little nostalgic!) I feel at this time of year, and it fuelled the creative part of my brain. I suddenly wanted to celebrate, and add a wee bit of festive spirit to these last few weeks of uni. I mean, I've never been a fan of premature Christmas chat, but as soon as December arrives you just gotta embrace it!

And so, I have decided to try something on my blog that I haven't done before: Blogmas. Essentially, this involved a Christmas-themed blog post EVERY DAY of advent. That's 25 festive posts! I have watched many Youtubers' 'Vlogmas' s over the last couple of years and thought it would be a fun thing to try.


I can already tell it's not going to be easy. I mean, right now I struggle to upload something once a week, or even once a month! But I think its really important to keep those creative juices flowing and so, no matter how short or poor-quality the posts are, I am committing to uploading every day for the next 3 and a half weeks... eek!



I'm actually really looking forward to writing so regularly, and I hope you can enjoy these wee extra posts in the fun way they are intended. This is something totally new to me, so we'll see how it goes. And I would love to ready any suggestions or comments below!

Christmas Wishes,
Catriona xx

Film Review: 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them'

This semester at uni, I have taken on more outside of my studies. I've joined the swimming club, started writing for the student newspaper, taken on more work as a student ambassador and mentor, and started a part time job. I've always loved being busy, so in many respects I've thrived on adding these things to my weekly routine. However, the extra time commitments on top of the increased pressure of second year can sometimes take its toll, and while I do my best to stay positive and manage my time effectively, often the weekend comes and goes and I feel like I've achieved very little.

I was talking to my friends about this and I figured that there are lots of things we are supposed to do at weekends: sleep, eat, study, work, socialise, exercise and chill, to name but a few. And that it is absolutely impossible to do all of those things in 2 days!! Some of those things always slip, whether its not eating proper meals, not getting enough study done, not seeing my friends, or not getting any sleep!

Now, as much as I enjoy my job and my subjects, for the last few weeks, weekends haven't really been feeling like weekends. I mean, I try and work as hard as I can throughout the week and I need to remember to have some time just to do things outside of uni! I was therefore really looking forward to Sunday afternoon with 2 of my friends, because we had arranged to go and se the new JK Rowling film Fantastic Beasts at the local cinema!

Now, I haven't done a film review in a wee while, mostly because I hardly ever go to the cinema but also because films I lazily watch on Netflix sometimes don't go into my brain enough to regurgitate in blog form! But this was one of those special ones I had to log.

I was definitely one of the millions of children whose childhood wouldn't have been anywhere near the same without JK Rowling's Harry Potter books and films. My mum read every single one to us and sitting down as a family to listen to those ingenious tales was one of the many things that contributed to my total adoration of literature. We could only ever watch the film for the first time after we had finished the book, and so the anticipation of the new instalment coming out in the cinema or on DVD was always so exciting!

I haven't actually read 'Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them'. We have a copy in the house somewhere, but I never got round to it. I think a part of me felt as though the world of Harry Potter had to end, and feared that trying to re-enter it would ruin the magic. Therefore, I really had no idea what to expect when I showed up at the cinema on Sunday... I was both excited and a little apprehensive.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. The recognisable phrases, names and spells gave a familiarity to the film from the outset, and yet the story was entirely different. Set in the 1920s, long before the occurrence of Harry Potter's birth or encounter with Voldermort, the characters we know so well weren't even mentioned. But what I loved was that this film made the magical world even more real, because it set a context for its existence outwith the confines of the Harry Potter stories. In fact, the setting couldn't have been much different.... when the opening scenes made it clear that the film would be set in America, I was worried that it wouldn't be authentic, but if anything it was more so as it gave us an insight of the global scale of the magical world.

I won't give the story away. But I'll give a few wee antidotes of my favourite stylistic elements. I am the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of CGI in films. While I can appreciate the wonderful artistry behind it, animation doesn't usually engage me in the same way as real life. And yet, I have never had an issue with Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts was no different. The creatures felt real; they were beautiful and contrasted wonderfully with the actors and ordinary settings. The balance was magical: emotional but no soppy, romantic but not cliché. And I love that Rowling always has an element of morality in her work, but so subtle, not like a lecture. The pace was just right- I never felt bored or as though the storyline was dragging, and I loved the balance of dark storyline with humour and joy. One of the key elements of the plot (child witches/wizards unable to control their power) reminded me a wee bit of Meyer's child vampires in  the Twilight Saga.

Finally, the casting and acting was fantastic. All of the performances were pretty strong, particularly the leads. I really liked Eddie Redmayne as Newt (he has had an exceptional couple of years in the film world!) and was really drawn in by the lead female character Tina, played by Katherine Waterston. A quick search on IMDB tells me she has been in a fair amount, but I hadn't seen her in anything before and thought her performance was pretty perfect. I won't say much more, but I must say there was some excellent chemistry between characters, and there was one occasion when I wanted to shout out in the middle of the silent cinema: "KISS HER!"

I haven't decided if I'm going to go away and read the book, as much I'd like to, for the simple reason that this was the first of a trilogy, with another 2 films to come out of just the one book. I want to be equally as surprised and awestruck when the next two film come out. Usually, I don't really like it when several film are made of one book, particularly a book as small as this one. But I can grant an exception here, firstly because there will never be enough Rowling, and secondly because she herself wrote the Fantastic Beasts screenplay, which means the films really are a true reflection of her story, even if they aren't exactly the same as the original book. So maybe I will read it after all!

This film only came out last Friday, so is set to be in cinemas for a good while longer and I think you'd be daft not to try and catch it, it's worth every penny!

Grateful

I'm a very nostalgic person. It's something I've become increasingly aware of over the last few years, and particularly at this, my favourite time of year. It's not so much that I live in the past, or waste my life wishing I could get back days gone by, or at least I hope I don't! But I have always had a very vivid long-term memory, and I absolutely love talking about childhood memories, mostly happy ones, but even the not so happy ones. Often these revolve around primary school, and the fun things wed get up to.

Now that I'm a 'real adult' (who am I kidding, I'm going on 20 and feel more like 12!), and spend term time in my own house, doing all my cooking and cleaning myself, I have begun to reflect more often on how much my parents did for me growing up. I don't mean just the obvious things like providing me with, well, stuff! I mean EVERYTHING they did.

I think (and talk, my flatmates are very patient!) about every little detail, from the obvious traditions such as Christmas time and family holidays, to the more bizarre ones, like how grateful I am that I wasn't allowed to have and do certain things.

I wasn't the easiest child to bring up. It wasn't that I'm your typical 'wild' teenager or anything, I think most parents are expecting that one! It was more that I always struggled (and still do, lets face it) with the concept of being the child, not the parent or one of the adults. I was quick to voice my opinions and determined not to give up in a fight. I was always very independent minded and could be very negative towards authority, or even just advice, and was easily wound up and angered. Despite these outgoing traits, I was also rather an anxious kid, which I guess was hard work too. I was very afraid of things, and would get myself into a complete meltdown about the smallest things. All kids are like that to an extent, but personality certainly plays its role.

For these reasons, it would be easy for me to look back on my childhood and only remember the negatives: the times I ruined family days out by fighting with my parents; the times I fought with my sister; the times I refused to join in with the other kids because I was afraid of  whatever they were doing or immaturely viewed myself as one of the adults and therefore too old for silly games. But I don't. I really don't. Obviously, the times I hurt people will always be a regret, but otherwise I genuinely now think I was one of the luckiest children in the world.

For example, things that at the time made my parents 'strict', have actually shaped me into the person I've become. For example, I am SO glad that I didn't have a access to a computer, the internet or any games consoles until I was 11/12 years old, and that my parents restricted how much TV I watched, because I fell in love with reading and books, and spent hours inventing elaborate imaginary games, without which I would not have the creative capacity I do now. I love that my mum never let me put off my homework, because it gave me a desire to achieve high and work hard (I've lost some of that motivation over the years, now that its all too easy to put off, but that love of hard work and doing well remains!). I LIKED homework, I liked learning, I liked school.

I see kids sitting on their IPad, writing their Christmas lists, etc. and I don't criticise or judge the parent in particular, because its a different time and a totally different case which is none of my business, but I love that I was encouraged to play outside when the weather was nice, and I'm glad that I only ever asked Santa for one present, because I treasure the pure delight brought by all the surprises on Christmas day.

Little things that seemed petty, annoying, or uncool at the time are things I'm now grateful for, because they taught me that life doesn't just hand you every single thing you want on a plate.

These are just a few, brief examples and possibly mean nothing to others because we all have our own experiences and memories. But I suppose the point is that I'm glad that I can look back on my childhood, despite the inevitable ups and downs, and think damn I was one lucky, relatively carefree kid who has been set up in a way that can only be described as privileged. I don't just mean financial comfort, but in terms of attitude. My parents taught me to be kind, intelligent, appreciative, sensitive and I am, in a way only possible because they taught me how to be so, grateful.

Dear Diary...

Ok, so if the vomit-worthy title of this post didn't put you off (sorry, I probably could have come up with something better!) then welcome to another episode of me rambling about the weird things I ponder over here on Draft One!

I am the first to admit that my blog posts can be quite sporadic: none for months and then 3 in one day type of situation. It's not that I ever lose my love of reading and writing, but I do go through times when I'm short on time, motivation, inspiration, confidence and just general productivity! So this evening, instead of addressing the fact that I have A LOT of uni work to do, I decided to read back through some of my old blog posts, spanning almost 3 years. Some of these posts have only ever been read by me, others have had one or two views and comments, and others have been surprisingly popular thanks to social media platforms like twitter! But what they all have in common, is that they document a piece of me, what I was thinking and feeling in one moment, and I kind of love that!

Being a lover of writing and a stationary fanatic, I have started a diary/journal at the beginning of almost every year since about the age of 7, because I love the idea of pouring my heart out onto the page, and I also think it's a great way to just keep up writing. Creativity is kind of like a muscle, in need of regular exercise!

But every year, (with the one exception of 2007 when I managed to write a few sentences every single day in my Jaqueline Wilson diary!) I have, at some point between January and April, given up. Maybe I missed a day, or two, or a week, or two, or three and then it just didn't seem worth the effort of catching up anymore.

In fact, the same thing happened with my blog. The year I actually properly started my blog was the third consecutive January of starting it, but it took 3 attempts to fully commit. But when I did, I found that it was the perfect place to log things without the pressure of a daily entry.

Sometimes I wonder why I keep writing here, when I am fully aware that very few people actually read it. I'm not going to get famous by blogging pointless ramblings about my life. And it's not like I make tons of effort to spam my social media with weekly updates and links either. Why not? Lack of confidence plays a part I guess, but I think part of it is that, as much as I love the feeling of knowing people have read and liked a post I've written, there's a part of me that still views it as my place for practicing. For getting down my thoughts and seeing them on the screen as published posts.

The point of this post has got a little bit lost amongst my train of thought (I'm tired, and it's only Monday!) but I suppose what I wanted to say was that re-reading my old blog posts filled me with hope and inspiration, because it was lovely to look back on how I was feeling at the time, challenges I've overcome and dreams I've made come true. And now I want to read and write some more. Even if that resolution is broken by the end of the week, I know that the writer inside of me will live on.

Oh and I imagine a 2017 diary will be started and never finished. We can learn from our mistakes but tradition is tradition, right?

2016 Book #7 (Review): 'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven

I actually finished this book back in August, but it was the last non-uni course book I read! I am taking a module in Comparative Literature this semester so, as well as all the reading of academic articles I have to do for my other modules, I have a novel a week to get through for that! Maybe I'll do a joint post about them when my exams are all over. But for now, I apologise for the lack of blog posts. I really want to get into reading and writing for fun a lot more, but when you spend every day during the semester reading and writing as an arts student, sometimes coming home to Netflix is preferable for relaxing haha! That said, my literature module has served to reinforce within me my love for books. Like, they smell great too? Ok, I'm going to move on because I sound weird....

Anyway, I downloaded this novel for Kindle in the summer because I'd seen it in the bookshop a lot, and because I became aware of the Zoella Book Club by the Youtuber Zoe Sugg, which was her selection of 8 books to read for the WHSmith scheme over the summer. I had already read half (click on the titles to read my reviews  of 'We Were Liars' , 'Fangirl' , 'Billy and Me' and the book I always say is my favourite book of all time when people ask, 'The Sky is Everywhere' which I read years and years ago before it became popular!) of the books Zoe chose, so I thought it would be nice to work my way through the other 4. However, I never got round to reading the other 3, and now Zoe has brought out a new Autumn book club with 8 more titles! So now I have 11 to catch up on as well as all the other books I'd like to read haha! So I'm not necessarily going to read them all straight away or in the weeks you're supposed to as part of the book club, but it's always nice to get recommendations so I'll add her suggested titles onto my growing list!

'All the Bright Places' was a really great read. In fact, it was probably one of the best books I've read

this year so far. My first impression was a little mixed... the book is quite a hard read in the sense that it deals majorly with depression in young people and suicidal thoughts, and I was a little concerned that this would be quite triggering if I was reading when feeling less positive than usual. However, as the story unfolded I found that, while it was by no means an easy ride emotionally, it was also quite uplifting.

In parts the plot was quite unrealistic. I mean the romantic inside me would really love to believe that the boy who's constantly picked on and the popular girl who's become a recluse could coincidently meet exactly at the moment they both needed it most and be mutually attracted, and maybe it really is possible. I came to accept it because the story took a far more realistic turn, but you can understand why I was initially a little dubious haha?! I mean, if only life worked that way.

However, Niven did an excellent job of painting a picture of teenage emotion and confusion in a very real way.

One thing I really liked was that the leading male character, Finch, was the one mostly depicted as being in a vulnerable mental health position, which I thought made a nice change from the stereotypical young, depressed girl which has worryingly almost become seen as cliché in YA novels. It reminded me of the truth and honesty I felt reading John Green's and David Levithan's 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' and it too was based on an essentially unrealistic idea. Writers have got to be granted some artistic license in order to get these messages across I think. Otherwise, would we keep reading?

The story also brought up the issue of labelling. In our society, and perhaps even more so among young people, feeling as though we are labelled and must act accordingly is a terrifying reality. In 'All the Bright Places', Finch fears this labelling and it causes him to reject help, which is something I think I can relate to on a very personal level.

I haven't done a brief summary of this book because it's a hard one to summarise. While the story is important, the descriptions of and relationships between characters are even more so. However, I will say that there is a plot twist later on in the novel which causes the reader to learn something shocking about a secondary character who they had probably written off as a stereotype and unimportant to the story as a whole. I found this to be very powerful as it emphasised the idea that you really never know what anyone is going through.

On a lighter note, both of the main characters, Finch and Violet, write and enjoy read and writing immensely. They are creative people with a love for words and reading about young writers will always be inspiring for me because I too adore reading and writing and sometimes need a little motivation to get going with it again.

I really don't want to be the cause of any spoilers because I really hope that at least a few people will read this book on my recommendation, but it's fair to say that the emotional climax of the novel is the ending, and not in a very good way. The romantic inside me once again comes through as I sat at silently screamed at the words in front of me: WHY??!! However, I think the ending probably was necessary as it made the message of Niven's writing even more powerful and hard-hitting and totally avoided pegging this book as a cliché.

Overall, I was gripped. Read this book (armed with tissues!) and I hope that finishing it will have the same effect on you as it did on me: to cause you to look at life and appreciate every moment.