The Hobbit - 4 stars ****
Last week I finally got round to watching The Hobbit with my dad and sister. I read the book when I was ten, so have fond memories of the story, and was a little sceptical when I saw it was being made into a film, especially as for such a short book it is being done in three parts.
However, I was pleasantly surprised. Though it wouldn't be my film of the year or anything, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it to fans of the book. The scenery, costumes and prosthetics are amazing, and you can really tell a great deal of time, effort and money has gone into the production of this film. It was action packed, emotive, had aspects of humour and to say it is based in a land where goblins and orcs live, strangely relatable in terms of the challenges and fears faced by Bilbo.
That taken into account, it is not to say I didn't have any issues with this movie. Firstly, Martin Freeman doesn't really cut it for me as Bilbo, but maybe that is because I am such a fan of Ian Holm's later portrayal of the character, and they seem worlds apart. I understand that obviously he changes as a person on his journey throughout The Hobbit, but it is like watching two different characters. Perhaps they will meld more throughout the trilogy.
Secondly, I feel that although it is never boring, there is a lot of surplus information thrown at the audience that isn't wholly needed. For the die-hard aficionados, this is probably a major plus point, as a lot of the history of the ring's journey is included, but for the average viewer, it makes it clunky and difficult to follow.
One thing that I really rated were the choices of cast. All of the dwarves that accompany Bilbo on his quest were finely carved individuals, each with their own quirky characteristics and traits, which made for good viewing. In particular, Richard Armitage created a fearsome, dark character in Thorin Oakenshield, who gradually shows his softer, more vulnerable side.
I also liked how songs were included, as it split up the film into nice chunks and provided light relief from some of the more heavier going story lines.
Overall, this is a film that isn't quite of LOTR standard in my opinion, but I would buy it on DVD when it comes out nevertheless.
Illness & Satans!
This week's post will be ridiculously short, as I have been laid up in bed pretty much everyday with a horrible cold/ cough/ temperature, so have accomplished very little. Besides sleeping literally all I have done is eat, clean my room and have my nails done! I was in bed by 10.30pm on Friday, and woke up fairly early on Saturday with the intention of going into town, only to fall asleep on my bed again until two!
When I eventually got up I went to buy some false eyelashes and pick up a top I bought from French Connection that was being delivered to Waitrose, and then had some food before starting to get ready for a night out. It was my friend Dom's 25th birthday, so we went to Wetherspoons in Altrincham for a few before getting a minibus into town to go to Satan's Hollow. The main room basically consisted of middle-aged men swinging their unnecessarily long hair around in circles to heavy metal, but luckily the second room was playing old school skater style stuff like Blink 182, Bowling For Soup and Taking Back Sunday, so we had a laugh dancing around and reliving the Urbis days.
I went back to a friend's house and was there until mid afternoon today, before I had to brave the cold to get my car from Altrincham, which wasn't so fun! The rest of the day I've spent chilling out, and I've just had an amazing Moroccan meatball tagine with poached egg and cous cous for my tea - delish!
Andorra (Part 2)
On the Wednesday it was my final skiing lesson, and I pretty much stayed in bed until it started. We actually went on the slopes, and it was such a confidence boost to see my improvement from the first day. We each got a certificate which was cute, and then Bobby and I went to Pas 83 for some drinks. I stayed in there with the reps and the Lincoln lot and got a little tipsy on BOGOF gins doing drinking games!
That night it was the 'Mountain Meal', which was actually in Milwaukee, a bar around the corner from the hotel, not up the mountain! I wore a new blue sequin dress as it was a chance for us to dress up nicely for once. We had chicken wings for starter, followed by ribs with jacket potato and coleslaw, and apple cobbler and custard for dessert. It was all you could drink as well, so we definitely made the most of that! There was a band on afterwards and drinking games, so it was a really fun night. Unfortunately I swallowed my tongue stud which was a little annoying, Pete the rep did an announcement in case anyone had a spare!
Lydia got really drunk so Lizzie and I attempted to take her home, but halfway there she changed her mind so we went to Bilbord, the club we were supposed to be going to after. Noone was in there so we went for a quick one in Paddys, and when people still didn't turn up we went back to Milwaukee, where we actually stayed for quite a while longer. Everyone got so drunk! There was a face painter in there who did a cool multicoloured animal print on my face for 5 euro, and they had kareoke too - though I steered clear! We went on to Bilbord after, which was probably the first proper club we had been in, they played some good music and it was underground and had booths to sit in and stages to dance on. It was a very late night, and probably my favourite of the holiday as everyone enjoyed themselves so much.
The next day I felt rubbish so decided to take a day off skiing and just lay about all day! I eventually got up at about 4pm, and had a shower and started to get ready for the night out, which was scrubs themed - they were so comfy! Everyone looked really good, and we had pre-drinks at our room which was a lot of fun. We went out to Paddy's pretty late, and a few of us took part in a challenge where you were strapped into skis on the ceiling upside down and had to down a drink - taking one for the girls! We then moved onto Shamrocks where they were playing some brilliant dubstep so I had a little skank, and then we went to Bilbord again... at 3.30am! We were there for ages, and I eventually got to bed at about 5am.
The following day I went skiing with Lydia and a doctor she had met the night before called Matt. We did a red run a couple of times, and then Matt took me up to do the run I was going to have to do that afternoon after apres-ski at the panoramic bar at the top. It was pretty scary, and so steep! I was OK to begin with, and then I got my skis caught and my boot wasn't tight enough so I twisted my leg - I had to be rescued and taken down in a bodybag! I went back and got changed and then we headed up to the bar where we had a couple of mulled wines and watched a band play. Lydia and I got to take the chairlift down as we were the cripples (!) which was pretty funny drunk. We had a few after in Pas 83 and chatted with the reps, then went sledging, which was so much fun!
Everyone's spirits were a little low that night, the week was catching up with us, and most had peaked too soon. It was jungle themed, I was a 'snake', and we went out (very late!) to Shamrocks and then finished in Underground. Most people left quite early, but I was determined, so stayed out with random other stragglers and the reps. The next morning we had to tidy up the room and pack our bags ready to check out at 4pm. We got the coach at 5.40pm, and started the horrific journey home. I felt so ill I basically slept the whole way, leaving everyone with the lovely memory of me looking like death in my 70s style pyjamas!
It was such an awesome week, I loved every minute. I am so glad that even if it was a little belated, I finally dragged myself onto a ski trip, as I would certainly do one again, and Andorra was ideal for a novice like myself!
Andorra (Part 1)
On Saturday 29th December, I left Timperley with Lydia to drive to York at around 2pm. We got there for just after 4pm with a little McDonalds stop, and loaded our (very heavy!) luggage onto the coach. I was really hungover, so tried to sleep as soon as I got to my seat, which was a shame as I felt I couldn't really be properly introduced to everyone or join in some games that were going on. We drove for what seemed like forever, stopping a couple of times for food and toilet stops, and of course to cross the channel, before eventually reaching our hotel at about 5pm.
We were quite lucky as it meant we got there in time to pick up our skis ready for the morning, and had chance to unpack and have showers etc before going out that night. The other coach from Lincoln had a flat tyre, so didn't arrive until 10.30pm! We had a few drinks in the room, and then went to a bar around the corner called Underground. The drinks weren't that cheap (4€) but the measures were ridiculous so we couldn't complain. The music was really good as well as it was an indie club, so we stayed until pretty late.
The following day I had my first skiing lesson. It wasn't until 2pm, so I had a good lie in and washed my hair beforehand. Initially I was put in the advanced beginners group, but after a shaky and nerve-racking start at the top of a slope, I decided to join the complete beginners! I felt much more comfortable in that group, and we were just practising snow plough and using the carpet and rope lifts, so I knew what I was doing this time. After my three hours I was pretty tired, so headed back to the hotel room and got changed.
That night was New Years Eve, and it was neon rave themed bar crawl, so I started getting ready with plenty of time and had a couple of drinks before we all left for Paddys, our first stop. As the name suggests it is an Irish bar, and is pretty good, we had a few free drinks in the bars included in the crawl, so didn't spend very much. We moved on next door to Shamrocks, another Irish place which is tiny, and then to a bar called KYU next to our hotel. We were allowed to dance on the bar in there which was loads of fun, and there was a proper dancefloor so everyone was up having a boogie. We finished in Underground again, where the atmosphere was really good and everyone was enjoying themselves - we also did two countdowns for the UK and French time zones!
The next day I felt a little worse for wear, but forced myself up as Lydia, Steph (our roommate) and I had said we'd go for some lunch somewhere as it was New Years Day. We went to a little pizza place near the bottom of the slopes, where I had a lovely ham, artichoke, mushroom and egg pizza, even if I did save half for later on! My second lesson was really enjoyable actually, and I felt much more confident with my technique, the only annoying thing was we were constantly using the rope lift, which really knackered my arms.
I met up with Lyd and Steph once I'd finished and we went for drinks at a place called Pas 83 near our hotel, as it was where everyone went straight from the slopes. I just stuck to coke as I still felt grim, and we left shortly afterwards as everyone was pretty drunk and we weren't really making the most of it! That night we had a fairly quiet one, only the three of us went out and just stuck to KYU next door, the Lincoln lot were clearly on it, but we had a couple of drinks and were home by 3am (early by Andorra standards!). Luckily there was no theme that night so I wore my leather dress and we got some nice pictures!
That taken into account, it is not to say I didn't have any issues with this movie. Firstly, Martin Freeman doesn't really cut it for me as Bilbo, but maybe that is because I am such a fan of Ian Holm's later portrayal of the character, and they seem worlds apart. I understand that obviously he changes as a person on his journey throughout The Hobbit, but it is like watching two different characters. Perhaps they will meld more throughout the trilogy.
