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.