Autumn Views...

The Inbetweeners Movie- 3 stars ***

After three series screened on E4 that were hugely successful, a film based on the exploits of the four teenage boys dubbed 'The Inbetweeners' was bound to happen. This time, as opposed to following the foursome around their school and home lives as they desperately try to snare girlfriends, underage drink and make fools of themselves; the audience are transported to the glorious destination of Malia where, you guessed it, they try to snare girlfriends, drink (legally for once) and make fools of themselves.

Following a breakup with his first love, poor Simon is trying to get over his ex, while Jay is on a mission for 'clunge' and Will is desperately trying to lose his virginity. Neil, as ever, is content following the others around, making naively stupid comments and throwing some seriously funky shapes on the dancefloor.

I must admit, I was dubious. After seeing two different trailers, both fairly long, I thought it would be a case of paying £6 to watch extended versions of the jokes used to reel you in. Though this did occur in certain scenes, it was by no means the majority of the laughs available. It was original as ever and extremely relateable given that I was 18 myself not too many years ago!

There were more than a few hugely funny parts, and the opportunity for lots of memorable quotes to be stolen (I was guilty of this when on holiday recently). My particular favourite scene involved Neil dancing on an empty dancefloor in a seedy bar, and although the beginning was familiar from one of the trailers, I was not prepared for the events that followed- hilarious!

The only qualm I had was that it seemed in parts as though the writers were deliberately trying to get some kind of message across, which felt quite forced and unnecessary. Everyone I know has gone to see the film for a bit of a lighthearted laugh, so I really don't feel that a serious undertone was needed. Also, it did feel a bit drawn out to say that the storyline was fairly basic; the feature was 1 hour 45 minutes long.

Overall though I'd say it's a success. There have been much worse TV-to-film adaptations that have seriously flunked, and I'd be very surprised if this joins their ranks - it has already grossed 35 million pounds! See it for a laugh, not a life-changing experience.

Weekly Update!

Arrogance & Rollercoasters!

This week it was back to reality after my holiday, but that also meant seeing my awesome friends and boyfriend again! Chris came to visit last weekend, and I finally made use of the blowtorch that my parents bought me for my birthday when I made us crème brulees for our dessert. I served them with fresh raspberries and they were delicious. The following day we went for a shopping trip into Manchester and ate at Las Iguanas - their lunchtime special menu is such good value, we paid £10 for a starter, main course and a glass of wine each.

On Wednesday a group of us went to my friend Hana's house for a few drinks and some nibbles. It was lovely to catch up with everyone's news from over the past few weeks, especially as a few of them are heading back to university soon. We played arrogance, a drinking game with some interesting consequences (!) that caused a lot of giggles, and I headed home at 1am after lots of Bucks Fizz, Martini and white wine!

The following day I was up at 7am for a roadtrip to Alton Towers with Chris and a couple of his friends. Luckily I wasn't feeling hungover after the night before, or rollercoasters wouldn't have been too much fun! We got there at about 11am and went on the latest ride, Thirteen, which I was eager to get on after queueing for 4 hours last time, until it broke down when we were the next to go on the ride. It was good, especially the unexpected drop at the end!

One of the next rides we went on was the log flume, which was hilarious as it ended with one of our group getting completely drenched, so he stood out quite a lot amongst us dry ones! Throughout the rest of the day we did all the usual rides, including Oblivion, which never fails to make me fear my

life. I also got to go on Hex for the first time, as it has been closed the two times I have been before. It was bizarre but quite good, even if it did give me a headache. I also went to the aquarium there for the first time, and was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. We also had a pretty funny picture taken, with one of the lads in mid-air as he had been pushed off his seat after the flash!

We did Nemesis twice and Air before we trudged wearily back to the car at the end of the day, and I fell asleep on the journey home, I think the lack of sleep was finally catching me up. I spent Friday doing various chores and writing my next article for Candid, (keep your eyes peeled, up soon!) before working for the majority of the weekend. Another week gone!

Traveller's Tales...

Altinkum, Turkey (Part 2)

On our second weekend in Turkey, us four youngsters decided we would head out for a night on the town. We had made friends with a few guys who worked in different bars, so they promised to take us to the best and liveliest. We started with WooWoo pitchers in a bar called Big Nose (bizarre I know!) and had a laugh doing horrendously in their music quiz. Afterwards we went to a couple more bars, Galaxy and Flamingo, before ending in Palm Beach. All the bars were playing really good up-to-date music, and the drinks were a little pricey, but not too bad. We got a taxi home afterwards and crashed into bed a little worse for wear at 4.30am.

The following day we went to the Apollo Temple, some Roman ruins a short Dolmus (local bus) ride away. It was magnificent, and despite all being hungover, we stayed for about an hour and a half before going back home to eat and sleep! On Monday we were fully recovered, and so the four of us left the adults at home and ventured to the water park. It was quite small, with about ten slides, but they were fun and it was a welcome change from the beach or pool. There was a foam cannon and wave pool which we messed about in for a while before sunbathing on the loungers there. It was only £12 which included the journey there and back, so we couldn't really complain.

On Tuesday we went on the boat trip again, purely as we enjoyed it so much the first time. It was mostly the same, except we stopped at slightly different spots, one which was a tiny cove with a private beach. We arranged to go on a night cruise the next evening for our 'blow-out night' which is a family tradition where we can order whatever we want, however expensive it is. Because we had made friends with the crew they put it on especially for us 8, as we had missed the allotted day. We all got dressed up and enjoyed a beautiful home-cooked meal, and then Dad, Abbey and I went swimming in the dark!

The next day was our last, and so we were up early to catch the last of the rays before we returned home. Unfortunately we had a four hour delay on the flight back, but it was really nice to sleep in my own bed when we eventually arrived back in Timperley. I had a whale of a time, and we all got on really well- I can't wait for my next holiday already!

Traveller's Tales...

Altinkum, Turkey (Part 1)

As you may have noticed, my posts have been severely lacking for the past three weeks. This is not due to laziness (heaven forbid) but because I have been sunning myself in Turkey- which is almost as bad! It is the seventh time I have been to the gorgeously hot country, and the third time in the particular resort we stayed in, Altinkum. I went with my sister and parents, and another family that we are good friends with, who have two girls that are the same age as Jasmine and I.

The first few days were spent settling in and chilling out by the pool. Luckily I still had a little base tan left from Benicassim, so it must be the first holiday I haven't burnt on! We went for a walk to the marina on one of the days, that has only been there for three years, and has some very impressive looking yachts moored up. On the first Saturday we went to Didim market, a huge weekly market that sells everything from olives to bath salts to fake handbags! It is all under canopy so is not unbearable in the daytime heat, and great for a good haggle. Because we were staying in a self-catered villa, we made use of the many vegetable stalls which were much cheaper than buying from the supermarkets.

On Bank Holiday Monday we went to the night market, which has lots of gorgeous restaurants situated along the coastline, with a perfect view of the sunset. Unfortunately we made the mistake of doing the shopping first, so missed it! We did have a stunning meal though, I chose the beef fajita, which was brought on a sizzling hotplate and smelt delicious.

On Wednesday we went to one of the restaurants near our villa for a curry night which was fun. After we had eaten they had a quiz which the adults won, and then a game called 'Paddles' which was like 'Mr and Mrs' where we were in pairs and had to match our answers with our partner. It was something different to do and created a few laughs!

On Friday we went on a boat trip aboard a ship called 'Sunshine'. We stopped at five different spots and had chance to do a bit of snorkelling, and some jumping off the top deck. The weather was perfect, and the food we got on the

boat was really good, considering the whole day cost us just £10 each. Four of us went on a water ride called 'Big Mable', which was basically a massive inflatable chair that was dragged behind a speedboat, it was awesome!