Movie: Disney Pixar's 'Brave'

I love me a Disney movie. They're my favourite kind. I had to see the new Disney Pixar movie 'Brave', set in bonnie-Scotland and about and red-haired princess. 

I wasn't too excited to see it really, before or after actually watching it. I just thought it was nice. Typically a nice movie with that moral message about controlling your own fate and all that....

Might not be one for the DVD collection, but we'll see how shiny the cover is when it comes out!

Book: 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld

After I'd finished reading all three of the 'The Hunger Games' books, I needed something similar to keep me going! After doing some searching online and watching a couple of YouTube videos I decided to buy 'Uglies' by Scott Westerfeld. Some of my friends told me it was more "teeny" than Hunger Games, and they were right, but it doesn't mean you can't enjoy it as an adult.

I'm not sure if I'll order the sequels just yet, but I did get more into the story as I read more into it, the beginning and build up seemed a bit slow so I'm expecting the next few books to carry on with that momentum.

Next up I've got some choices, I could finish another one of the many books I've started reading and not yet finished. Or, I could give 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth and 'The Maze Runner' by James Dashner a turn. I'm going on holiday to Spain on Friday, so I'm going to need lots of good reading material.

094. Meet up with my Uni friends five times (2/5)

It had been way too long since I'd met up with my friends, although I did see Katy back in February when we sent a couple of nights in Hull. I hadn't seen Steve and Vicki since we went to Peterborough last July, which is a very long time!
We always try to pick a location that's as equal distance as possible from all of us, me being out in Norfolk means that's a bit hard because there's nothing really close to me - other than London...
So, London it was! I'm 2 hours away and so was Vicki, Katy and Steve were a bit over 3 hours from Hull but it was direct so not that much of a pain. I'd actually been shopping and tried to see a movie the night before so had booked myself into a hotel in Epping that James and I had done before at Christmas time when we planned a double attack on Westfield Stratford and IKEA during the sales!
We met up at Kings Cross train station, the newly renovated section is amazing and platform 9 & 3/4 is actually real - who knew! Not everyone made it, Vicki got caught in traffic and missed her booked train - to buy another ticket was about £80, so she stayed home very sad, so Katy, Steve and I went on.
One of the must-go-to-places for comic fans like them was Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue - a heavenly place for all who love comics, anime and general sci-fi goodness. It rained while we were inside which meant my worn out Crocs couldn't cope with the slippy surfaces and a trip to Office for a new pair of Vans was required. With dry and comfy feet we then had lunch at GBK and shopped some more around Selfridges for Lola's cupcakes and even visited Hamleys to stare at the gorgeous sweets and buy teddy bears. By the time we ready to say goodbye we'd had a great day catching up and buying some cool new things.
I still plan to meet up with Vicki soon, hopefully in September, because it's been well over a year now since I've seen her - I'm sure we have lots to catch up with! We're both aunts now, so it'll be fun to swap baby stories.
I think our next group meet up will probably be around Christmas time - I wonder what city it will be next time? I'm thinking I may have to travel up north and stay in a hotel to really make travelling not so much of a pain as it's been in the past - and to make sure we go somewhere new and not the same ol' places all the time.

086. Make a birthday cake for someone

Two desk buddies at work had their birthdays one day after the other last weekend, so to celebrate I thought I'd brush off my cupcake skills and make something for them. It had to be GB themed with all the accessories I have to use up now the Jubilee and Olympics are both over!
It was like a little British tea party, which my Canadian desk buddy very much enjoys! We had a glass of Schloer for a little toast. The Schloer looked very much like wine!
I made just a 'plain' vanilla cake from the Humminbird Bakery 'Cake Days' book and whipped up some icing with the scraps of icing sugar and butter I had left - didn't go too badly and the cupcakes were a success (as always!).
Next time I make cupcakes I'd like a bit more time to make something a bit more interesting than just vanilla!

014. Go to a movie alone

Back in May I spent a day shopping in London the day before meeting my friends for a catch up. I intended to finish the day of shopping with a solo trip to the cinema partly to fulfill this on my 101 list but also to see Disney's Beauty and the Beast on the big screen for the first time in years!

I queued for ages to get my ticket at Vue Westfield Stratford, but with plenty of time for the start of the screening - I even had time for bit more of a wander and to grab some food before the movie started. Buying food didn't really go that well, I didn't end up with my hot dog - the service at the food counter was so slow and ridiculous that the woman in front of me slammed her money on the desk and didn't even wait for acknowledgment from the sales assistant. Rightly slow, it was just so bad! Anyway, I ended up with a bag of chocs and a large cup of cola.

It was finally time to take my seat! Turns out row B was right at the front, not the back! Row B in the Norwich Vue is at the back, so I have to be forgiven for not sitting in my allocated seat - I did have to move for a family, but sat one seat up instead. Ads and trailers started and that was great, some of the trailers seemed a bit questionable for a screening of a Disney movie but we went along with it, until...

Until the movie 'American Pie: Reunion' started playing! That is not a movie suitable for 5-year-olds! We all left the screening, much to my embarrassment - I was hoping to sit alone and enjoy the movie without being seen as one of those 'losers' who goes alone! haha. Especially because of the movie it was!

The cinema had cancelled the showing but were still selling tickets for it, they hadn't even advertised the new showing of the 'American Pie' movie either. After much hoo-haa and speaking to managers, angry mothers and their tiny children made it back into the theatre for the movie to start again.

I didn't go back in, I chickened out of the whole experience, got my refund, hopped on the Tube and headed back to my hotel in Epping. It had been a long day and I was actually pretty tired. 

Such a shame, but I think I'm going to count this as complete. Such a disastrous experience, I don't want to go through that again!

013. Eat at 10 new restaurants (8/10)

We originally went into Norwich city centre to go and watch the new Spider-man movie, we needed dinner beforehand so tried an old favourite - The Library. It was the evening for lots of Graduation celebrations so there weren't any tables available, instead we decided to go for a new place that we'd always wanted to try.

'Captain America's' in Norwich is a small place hidden away up some stairs and on the first floor, so it's not somewhere you can see into and see how busy/not busy it might be. This had always put me off, but we went for it anyway and waited 10 minutes in the bar for a table.

We both ordered burgers, the standard speciality for the restaurant and seeing as we'd stumbled across a special 40th anniversary evening and were getting 40% off our food bill, I ordered extra onion rings, James ordered a side salad and we went all out with Sundaes for desert.

It was a good choice, and so, so busy! We didn't know about the special 40% off discount, but it made for a pleasent surprise anyway. We finished off our superhero themed evening as we'd planned, by seeing the new Spider-man movie starring Andrew Garfield.

Project 365: July 2012

You can see all my daily pics uploaded onto Flickr. All pictures are taken with my iPhone 4S and shared through Instagram.