2017 on my Blog

Well right back at the start of 2017 it was one of my New Year Resolutions to try and blog more. I think I managed that pretty well this year. As we say goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018 I thought it would be interesting to look back at this year on my blog.

I have chosen my favourite post from each month of the year to look back on. These might not have been the most popular post for that month, they might not be relating to the most significant thing that happened to me in that month, but they are what I consider the best of the month.

January

Wait, that actually happens in real life?

The post written the day after I bumped into a couple of friends in a coffee shop has some interesting musings on friendship as a student in the 21th Century.

February

Doll Collecting, I know it’s a bit weird.

I like collecting dolls. One year after I bought my first doll I wrote this post that is honest, geeky, personal and about collecting. I think this post just about sums up everything that I try to make my blog about.

March

Disney Live-Action Remakes – My Thoughts

An interesting post were I consider what I think of the Disney Live-Action Remakes so far and then suggest what I’d like to see. It’s also interesting as I wrote this post before Beauty and the Beast came out.

April

Doctor Who – Thin Ice Review

If you were following my blog between April and July you probably saw my Doctor Who reviews so I thought I should include one on this list. I think this review of Thin Ice was one of the best ones I wrote.

May

Lois Lane YA Novels – Review

The only book review I have written on this blog! I started reading the YA series of Lois Lane novels and very quickly got hooked on them, in this review I think I did a good job at writing about the trilogy.

June

Back from Uni

After finishing second year I wrote a brief post about being back from uni for summer break. In this post I was looking forward to what was going to happen so it’s interesting to read now that has happened.

July

Bargirl’s Batcave – A Doll Room Craft

Another doll post but a crafty one this time. In this post I shared how I made a Batcave for my Batgirl DC Superhero Girls doll. This project was more labour intensive than I’d anticipated but I was really pleased with the end result.

August

The Sarah Jane Adventures Appreciation

This post is a thoughtful and insightful review of a series that I sort of grew up with. The Sarah Jane Adventures meant a lot to me when I was younger and I would like to think that this post gave it the respect it deserves.

September

The Pep Rally and Other New Experiences in Canada

After my first full week in Canada I wrote a post summarising what I had been doing, including the Pep Rally. This post perfectly sums up that feeling of absolutely everything being new and exciting as I started my study abroad adventure.

October

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year I had my first ever Thanksgiving and I had a great time with my friends. I really enjoyed it and I shared that experience on my blog.

November

Image © BBC

New Doctor New Look

A very balanced and fair consideration of Jodie Whitaker as the first female Doctor and what that could mean for the future of the show.

December

Toronto in the run up to Christmas

I have really enjoyed going into Toronto whilst I have been living and studying in Canada. The trip at the start of December was another good one and I think the blog post about it was the best.

So that was my favourite blog post of the month for each month in 2017. I am really proud of what I have done with the blog this year and I hope that I can continue to update it as regularly as I have done with similarly interesting content in the New Year.

2017 has been a pretty great year, I have done lots of really interesting and fun stuff. I’m looking forward to discovering what fresh new adventures 2018 has in store for me.

Thank you for reading my blog and Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

Well, once again it’s Christmas Eve and once again December has flown by! I thought I’d just do a brief post to share a few thoughts about it being Christmas Eve.

Advent always passes by so quickly, and I think it goes even faster as a student. It does not feel like it was 24 days ago that I was in Canada in my residence having a Christmas party with my friends who I live with. This advent has been a weird one for me. It started in Canada when I still had classes, then I was into finals, then flying back home and now I am back in England.

I love Christmas, even at 20 I still get very excited by it. There’s some traditions that me and my family always do at that time of year, such as how I’ve watched Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve every year since I was about 5!

So have a Merry Christmas (or whatever else you celebrate) and thank you for reading my blog!

Being Back

Well I’ve now been back in England for a couple of days. As soon as I knew I had a relatively long Christmas break I knew that I would be spending it at home.

I left my residence around 10:30 AM (Canadian Eastern Time) on Saturday (16th Dec) and I wasn’t back in my home until around 2:30 PM (GMT) on Sunday (17th Dec). It was certainly a very long day! Though somewhat surprisingly I managed to not feel too jet lagged. The lack of jet lag surprised me as it lasted for days when I arrived in Canada but returning to England it just didn’t happen.

I have really enjoyed my first semester in Canada. I made some really good friends out there who I have enjoyed spending time with. I had some really good new experiences. Amongst the highlights are the Pep Rally, Niagara Falls, Toronto and Thanksgiving. All of these were unlike anything I have experienced in England and I made some great memories.

To my surprise I didn’t really experience any culture shock or home sickness. Literally all the pre-departure information I received said that at some point you will experience culture shock or home sickness but for me that just was not the case. Maybe it was because I was having a good time that even though I missed certain things about being home it never became overwhelming. Or maybe I’m just more resilient than I realised.

I really enjoyed my first semester out in Canada. I am so glad that I opted to do a full year as that means I have another semester to look forward to. But for now I am going to enjoy Christmas break. 

The Last Jedi Review

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, so begins another instalment of the Star Wars saga. I promise this review is going to be as spoiler free as possible however that might mean that at times I am a little vague.

I personally enjoyed this film. The Last Jedi is Episode 8 and the second part of the current trilogy. The Last Jedi picks up where The Force Awakens left off, and I mean right where it left off. There’s the continuation of that final scene with Rey and Luke on the island.

The Last Jedi poses some new questions which will be taken forward into Episode 9 and it also answers some questions from The Force Awakens. There’s a couple of things specific to Rey which were left open in The Force Awakens and will suddenly make sense. Yes, we do find out who Rey’s parents are, I have seen people guessing the correct answer but I’m not going to say who it is here…

The Last Jedi primarily follows the new trio of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron. Rey is as badass as she was last time. We got to see more of Poe this time round and he got some character development. Finn is still a very likeable character and he has good chemistry with the character he spends most of the movie with.

We are also introduced to the Ewoks of this trilogy, the Porgs. The Porgs are primarily there for comic relief and to look cute and sell toys. They do look cute. I want a Porg.

Leia was as good as you’d expect. You probably will end up feeling sad about Carrie Fisher’s death again as it feels so obvious that Star Wars was not finished with Leia.

To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I am writing a review, if you like Star Wars you’re going to go see this movie anyway but it’s good to know that The Last Jedi is a good movie.

The Last Final

It’s time for the finals to end.

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve made it through another semester of university. I had my last final today which rounds out my work for this semester.

Exams usually cause a lot of stress but I have managed to stay not too stressed this time round. My revision approach has been little and often which has minimised overloading myself with information and (hopefully) maximised effectiveness. To unwind and stay calm I have been reading comics and having a cup of tea before I go out to my exams. These things won’t work for everyone but they’ve worked for me.

In the past few days we’ve had snow and I’ve learnt that the cold never bothered me anyway (because I’ve been appropriately dressed for going outside in the snow). The novelty of walking in snow has still not worn off yet. I am glad that I’ve got to have some proper Canadian snow before Christmas.

Tomorrow I am going to see Star Wars Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. I will do a spoiler free review. I am very excited.

Finally Finals

Well once more its exam season, and this time I really mean it! Its finals!

I’m actually dealing with the stress pretty well but I just wanted to write a quick blog post to summarise how things have been going for me recently.

I’m keeping on top of my revision but also trying to be creative and intelligent with the ways that I am revising. My focus is on doing revision in amounts that are little and often so as to avoid overwhelming myself with information.

I have three exams, a final project and a take home exam all of which are due within a fortnight (two weeks). It’s new for me to have such an intense amount of work, back in the UK we usually have to write a final essay for a class and deal with what I call Coursework Season but there’s rarely a final exam as well.

In residence it’s actually been strangely enjoyable. Sure everyone is stressed out and working hard but we are still making time to spend with each other. In the past week I’ve watched Planet Earth II and Mulan with my friends on an evening, and on an afternoon I’ve been having coffee and cake with friends. It’s strange to say that exam season is fun but it kind of has been. I’ve mentioned before just how incredibly lucky I have been with the group of people that I am living with, it’s a great group and we get a long really well.

So that’s what’s going on at the moment. Even though everything is centred around exams I am still having a good time here in Canada whilst on my Study Abroad experience.

My Haul - Toronto in the run up to Christmas

This weekend I went to Toronto again. My aim this time was to explore some of the Christmasy things that were going on in the city but of course I still did some shopping!

As I mentioned in the main post, I bought Sir Jorgenbjorgen from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure in the Disney Store.

I also mentioned that I bought a couple of comics in the Black Canary comic coffee shop. This time I bought Vol 3 of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps and Vol 2 of DC Bombshells. I actually bought the previous volumes of both of these titles last time I was in Toronto! I think the fact that I am already getting the next installments shows you that I enjoyed both of these.

“Holy Itty Bitty collection Batman!” It has become something of a tradition for me to add another Itty Bitty to my collection each time I go to Toronto, this time I got Robin. This version of Robin is based on the 60s Batman TV Series, I love his hair!

So that was what I bought during my most recent trip to Toronto.

Toronto in the run up to Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas when I visited Toronto yesterday.

This was the last chance for me to visit the city that I have become very attached to before I fly home for Christmas break. My goal this time was to try and experience lots of wonderful Christmas things.

I got into Toronto slightly later than I usually do and it was close to lunchtime so I started off getting lunch at a Greek place in the food court of the Eaton Centre. I decided to save the serious browsing of the Eaton Centre until later on in the day though I did pop into the Disney Store and buy Sir Jorgenbjorgen from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.

Next I went to Nathan Phillips Square (that’s the one with the Toronto sign) as there was a Christmas Market going on there. It was a really interesting market to wander around and it looked very festive. There was ice skating going on in front of the sign which I didn’t participate in but it was interesting to watch.

Afterwards I went to the Black Canary comic coffee shop, I have to go there every time I go to Toronto! This time I had a Poison Ivy to drink and bought a couple of comics.

Then I went down to the Distillery District to visit the Toronto Christmas Market. This market was fabulous! It was a really large Christmas Market, pretty much taking up an entire block. It was really nice to wonder around and experience all that was on offer, there was also free stuff which was good! The Toronto Christmas Market even had live music performances which I saw one of. I was there for around an hour and a half so that gives you an idea of how much there was to see and do!

I walked back to the Dundas Square area, as it was starting to get dark the city was looking really nice with all the Christmas lights coming on.

I went into the Eaton Centre and had a proper browse like I usually do in a morning. It was busier than in a morning but I think it actually worked better doing it in an evening.

I returned to the Christmas Market in Nathan Phillips Square as I had wanted to see what it looked like at night. The answer is it looked amazing, the photo above doesn’t do it justice. I sat eating freshly cooked fries (really fresh there was a guy in the food truck pressing the potatoes to order) and watched people ice skating.

After that I headed over to the bus station to catch my bus back. I had a really great day, it was as festive and as fun as I’d hoped it would be. If you get chance to experience Toronto in the run up to Christmas then I would certainly recommend it.

My Haul – Christmas Decorations from Canada!

It’s the first of December! That means it’s the start of advent and officially (if you haven’t already) it is finally time to get the Christmas decorations out!

In the spirit of getting out the Christmas decorations I thought I would do a My Haul post to round up all the Christmas decorations that I have bought since I have been in Canada. I am going to be organizing this post in the order I bought them.

The first decoration I bought was an Adipose from Doctor Who. The Adipose are adorable blobs of fat and one of the strangest Doctor Who aliens ever. I’ve never actually seen Doctor Who Christmas decorations before but when I found this one I had to buy it!

I talked about my collection of Disney Princess Christmas decorations and how Rapunzel is my princess for 2017 in the Haul post about when I bought her in Toronto.

The Starbucks Christmas cup! Does this count as a Christmas decoration? Well it does to me! I have a collection of Christmas coffee cups which I have been gathering for the past few years, this year’s Starbucks cup is the latest addition and one of my favourites.

I love Raccoons, they are my favourite animals. I couldn’t resist this cute little raccoon skiing and wearing a Santa hat.

A Dollarama find! I got a pack of 8 mini disco balls which have ended up going in front of my doll display.

Anna in her outfit from Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, I mentioned her in the haul post from the trip to Toronto when I bought her.

How perfect for me is this Flash Christmas decoration? I knew I had to get him for my Christmas tree as soon as I saw him in Walmart.

I have loved the Peanuts comic strips and the Charlie Brown cartoons for years, Woodstock is my favorite character. Technically this one isn’t for me, Woodstock is destined to go on the family Christmas tree, but he’s too sweet not to include on this haul post.  

Wonder Woman stocking! Probably one of the coolest stockings you will see this Christmas. I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it.

Another one for the family Christmas tree. My Dad, my Mum and me all loved Zootropolis (or Zootopia as it’s known in North America) and when I spotted Judy Hopps I knew we needed her.

Finally (and appropriate for today) is my advent calendar. This year I have decided to go for the Star Wars one, mainly because it has Rey front and centre where she should be.

Well that was quite a long post! I’ve been collecting all of these for a number of weeks (since the end of September) and I am very pleased with what I have added to my collection of Christmas decorations.

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Review

Olaf's Frozen Adventure is a short that’s the latest instalment in the Frozen franchise and is currently playing before Pixar’s Coco. If you know me you know I LOVE Frozen so I had to talk about this Christmas short.

On the one hand this is shameless marketing to sell Frozen Christmas products. Anna and Elsa have new dresses which means Disney can make more toys (which I have already bought!). And possibly the actresses playing Elsa in the theme parks can have a slightly warmer dress for winter instead of that weird looking padded version of the ice dress.

However Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was actually a really entertaining little short. As the title suggests this instalment really is all about Olaf who continues to be funny and endearing. It’s slightly longer than the previous short Frozen Fever and is set in Arendelle during the holiday season. Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is full of little jokes and references to Frozen, much like Frozen Fever.

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure also adds something to Frozen. There’s something which expands upon what Anna and Elsa were doing during all the years that lapsed during Do You Want To Build A Snowman? Honestly this thing they added made me cry and I suspect that I will see Frozen in a slightly different way because of it. I think Anna got a chance to shine more than her sister this time round, which is nice because Elsa usually takes the spot light.

I think it says a lot about Disney that what is essentially a merchandising opportunity for their two most popular characters managed to be a heart-warming story. I think Olaf’s Frozen Adventure might have become a new holiday tradition to watch at that time of year.

Coco Review

Pixar have done it again. Pixar have made some fantastic films over the years and Coco is their latest triumph.

I am going to keep this review as spoiler free as I possibly can. If you want to experience Coco completely fresh then don’t read on, but otherwise I promise I won’t reveal any major plot points in my review.

Coco follows the story of Miguel Rivera on the eve of the Day of the Dead (also known as Dia de los Muertos) as he tries to follow his passion for music and learn more about his family. This is a movie about family, music, love and yes, it is also a movie about death.

Dia de los Muertos really is a perfect subject matter for a Pixar film. It’s a festival that’s colourful, about family and emotional, all of which are things that Pixar excels at. My assessment on how culturally authentic the depiction of Dia de los Muertos was is limited by my being a cultural outsider however I think Pixar did a good job at representing Mexican culture. I think they made a culturally authentic film that celebrated Mexican culture and avoided falling into stereotypes.

I would say in the canon of Pixar films tonally Coco feels most similar to Monsters Inc and Inside Out, both of which are some of their best films. There’s one moment towards the end which really reminded me of a moment from Monsters Inc. Whilst I would like to see Coco again before I make a full judgement I think it fits pretty highly up the list of Pixar films.

If you’re thinking about going to see Coco then I would urge you to go see it whilst it is still in cinemas. This is a movie that you will want to see on the big screen. Pixar are known for their stunning visuals and Coco is no expectation. There’s some scene which I can honestly only describe as breath-taking! I want to buy the art book and study every minute detail! Seriously, Coco is a really aesthetically pleasingly movie.

We all know Pixar movies are emotional. I think probably everyone who has ever seen a Pixar movie has cried at something (Bing Bong from Inside Out always makes me cry). Well, Coco continues that tradition. I’m not going to say what made me cry but I cried multiple times. Bring tissues with you when you go to see it. That said, despite the fact that Coco is an emotional movie it is not a sad movie.

Pixar have really done it again. I honestly think that this is one will be talking about and praising for many years to come.

Justice League Review

Justice League is a good comic book movie. This is a movie that is aimed at DC and comic book fans. Don’t go into it expecting a cinematic masterpiece, go in expecting an enjoyable superhero movie.

I am going to try not to give away any spoilers in my review however if you want to watch the movie completely unaware then don’t read any further.

At times the plot is either a bit incoherent or very predictable however this is a movie that is more driven by character and action scenes so I feel I can overlook that a little. Justice League is a relatively standard end of the world apocalypse that the heroes must come together to fight and save the world. The main villain was weak but I don’t mind too much as really this movie is about the heroes coming together and forming the Justice League.

For me Wonder Woman stole the show. This is probably not a surprise if you saw Wonder Woman. DC continue to get Diana’s character spot on and combine the badass warrior with her compassionate nature. Gal Gadot delivers another good performance. It was also nice to see more of her being Diana Prince this time round. (Though she still needs to get the Invisible Jet!)

Finally, once again we have an optimistic Superman! If you know Superman from any other media then this is that version of Superman. The positive hero who stands for hope and justice. He’s likeable, he’s funny and he’s a badass! There’s also a moment during a fight scene where he goes off to save the civilians which is just such a Superman thing to do.

I liked Batman in this movie. This is a Batman with tons of gadgets! He feels very much like the character we know from the comics, but he’s not unrelentingly grim. We get moments where he actually gets some good one-liners!

If you know me you know that I am a massive Flash fan, therefore it probably isn’t a surprise that I have very strong feelings about the Flash. I was against the take on him that the DC Cinematic Universe has been doing from the initially casting but I really wanted to be proved wrong. I wasn’t proved wrong. The Flash was good, he is quite likeable and has some decent one-liners but he is not Barry Allen. For me this version of the Flash feels like a weird hybrid of Wally West and Spider-Man which just doesn’t work. As a Flash fan this is annoying because Justice League is likely the first time that a general audience will be seeing the Flash and they’re going to be seeing a character who just is not Barry Allen’s Flash. Grant Gustin is still the best live action Flash.

I must admit that I really don’t know much about Aquaman so I’m not sure how much I can judge him. However I sort of felt like they were trying too hard to make him cool. But there’s moments which seem promising for setting up his solo movie. (Also he swims wearing jeans. Who thought that was a good idea? As anyone who has ever worn jeans in the rain can tell you, denim and water are not a good combination!)

I like the take they’ve gone for with Cyborg. He’s right at the start of his journey and he’s not yet the more fun hero he will later become, it’s an interesting set up that is clearly intended to be followed on from in later movies. Also, he gets to say his catchphrase Booyah!

There’s a lot of moments and lines in Justice League that are there to be fan pleasing. These sort of moments don’t take away from the main plot but they’re there to be spotted by the geeks and things like that make me smile. There’s also several appearances from the main hero’s supporting casts of characters. We see Lois Lane, Jim Gordon, Mera and Henry Allen, maybe these appearances weren’t entirely needed but they were definitely something that helped to round out the heroes and give another fan pleasing moment.

I saw Justice League in 3D because the 3D showing worked best for my schedule but honestly I would say that it was actually worth seeing in 3D. Wonder Woman’s action scenes are definitely worth seeing in 3D!

Stylistically I would say Justice League felt more like watching a comic book than any other superhero movie I have seen. For example there’s a scene near the beginning set in Gotham that honestly felt like it had been lifted straight from a comic.

A few things I would like to have seen are…

·         Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), even if it was just a brief appearance I really feel like Hal should have been there somewhere.

·         The Invisible Jet, I’m not going to stop talking about this until Wonder Woman gets her Invisible Jet.

·         I would have liked Jim Gordon to have referenced his daughter Barbara. I know that’s a very specifically geeky one but given a Batgirl movie is in production it would have been nice to get a little reference to Barbara Gordon.

But overall I enjoyed Justice League. It is a good, but not exceptional, comic book movie. Certainly I think DC fans are going to like it. Personally I am looking forward to seeing what comes next in the DC Cinematic Universe. 

My Haul – From A Day Out In Toronto

This weekend I had a day out in Toronto. As promised here’s a My Haul post about what I bought this time in Toronto.

Eaton Centre

I started out in the Eaton Centre where I got some things I like from Disney Store and Hallmark.

Disney Store

I bought the Christmas Anna plushie wearing her new dress from the upcoming short, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. As soon as I heard that a Frozen Christmas short was in production I knew it would mean new dresses for Elsa and Anna which would mean new toys of them. I was actually pretty disappointed with how the dolls look but I really like how the plushies look. I managed to get Anna for only $10 thanks to a couple of offers in store.

Hallmark

As has now become tradition I bought two more Itty Bitty’s from Hallmark. I bought Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and the new Avengers version of Captain America. If you know me it’s probably no surprise that I wanted to add these two to my collection.

The Black Canary – Comic Coffee Shop

Of course I bought comics whilst getting a coffee. I bought the next volume of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps after I enjoyed the first one which I got over summer. I also decided to get a comic which has been on my ‘To Get List’ for a while, DC Bombshells which is an alternate universe series where Wonder Woman leads a team of female DC heroes during WWII.

So that was what I bought this time. Itty Bitty’s, something from Disney Store and comics. I’m noticing the emergence of a pattern when I go shopping in Toronto!

A Day Out in Toronto

Yesterday I went to Toronto for the third time though this was the first time that I have been with a friend.

As I did previously, we caught a Greyhound into Toronto. I think I have previously mentioned how good the Greyhound service is but it really is true. Also now that it has got significantly colder it is nice that the Greyhounds have the heating on at just the right level.

When we arrived in Toronto we got a Starbucks and then went off to browse the fantastic Eaton Centre Mall. I’d forgotten how much fun it can be to go round shops with a friend. There will be a haul post about what I bought coming tomorrow. We had a really good curry for lunch in the Mall food court and then went out into the city for an exploration of the city. 

As it is now November most stores are getting ready for Christmas and there were some fabulous window displays. We also went down to the Old Town area of Toronto which is a new one for me but is definitely worth going down to for some really interesting looking old buildings.

After all that walking we decided that it was time for an afternoon break so we went to my favourite coffee shop – The Black Canary, comic coffee shop! I love this place so much, it is just so cool! This time I had a Black Widow to drink. I also bought a couple of comics which I shall share in My Haul post.

Once we had re-caffeinated and felt refreshed enough we decided to go back out and see some more of the city. Particularly this time we wanted to find out about the PATH, which is an underground walkway that connects most of Downtown Toronto. After several failed attempts and wrong turns we eventually managed to enter the PATH, now that we know where it is I would say that it will be worth remembering for when it gets even colder later on in winter.

The day was starting to get on and before we knew it we were having to start thinking about finding our way back to the bus station. We had dinner, a quick final browse in the mall and then walked back. Toronto looked really nice in the dark last night.

Both of us had a really good day out in a fantastic city. I love going to Toronto and I definitely want to go again. I’d like to go again soon once all the Christmas stuff is properly out as I suspect it looks fantastic!