Weekly Review: The Big Wedding... Seriously? I mean... REALLY?

Apologies for yesterday. All sorts of anger feelings were rushing through me, and when that happens, let's face it, who doesn't want to see a picture of an otter being awesome and funny? Anywho, you'll all be pleased to know that I am feeling much better today thanks to an evening of even more 30 Rock (I am now up to Season 6) and an early night. I am no longer irritable to the point of snapping at random strangers and then bursting into tears on them for no other reason, other than I am just angry and that's the only reason I cry in real life situations nowadays... It's weird, nothing else seems to cause me to leak tears in the actual life that I live in, but stick me in front of any fictional show/movie and I will burst into tears if one of the characters seem even in the slightest bit sad... I don't know what that really says about me, but there you go.

I did take a break from my 30 Rock watching last night to watch a new movie that has turned up on Netflix recently. It came out in the cinemas last year, and I vaguely remembered something about it due to all the big names that were in it. Once I realised what it was, I became quite excited, feeling confident in the fact that if so many amazing actors had got involved, it was going to be an awesome film. 

The film is called "The Big Wedding." Heard of it? 

Look at that cast. Just look at it. Robert DeNiro, arguably one of movies greatest actors, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams... all Gods in their generation of film. Then on top of that, you have Amanda Seyfried, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace (who I will always love, due to my obsession with That 70s Show) and Ben Barnes (who stole the hearts of everyone in the Narnia movies). That, right there, is a solid cast. In my eyes, I love every one of them. You can't go wrong with that cast, you just can't...

Or so I thought. 

I settled in, having not heard any reviews, and thought that I was going to be in for a treat. I have never been so bitterly disappointed in my life. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a rom com, so I wasn't expecting an Oscar worthy film or anything, but I at least expected it to be real or clever or funny or something. 

None of the above happened. Sure, there were moments where I let out something close to a chuckle (although none that I can remember now), and the beginning even seemed a little promising. But from the point that Barnes' character's birth mother comes into the film, not one bit impressed me. 

So, without spoilers, the basic concept of the movie is thus: Keaton and DeNiro used to be married and had three kids, two of which they made themselves (Heigl and Grace) and one they adopted from a lady in Columbia (Barnes). After 20 years of marriage, DeNiro cheats on Keaton with her best friend (Sarandon) and Keaton and DeNiro get a divorce. This is all back story to the movie. It starts 10 years after Keaton left DeNiro and she is turns up for their adopted son's (Barnes) wedding to Seyfried. With me so far? DeNiro and Sarandon are still together and Keaton turns up all happy with this arrangement and clearly over any problems or betrayal she may have felt over the best friend/husband affair betrayal... So far, I'm with it. That could happen. It has been 10 years after all. 

Where the plot twist comes in, bringing in all the "hilarity" opportunities with it, is that Barnes' birth mother is coming from Columbia for the wedding, and she is a very strict catholic who doesn't believe in divorce. Therefore, Barnes never told her that his adopted parents got divorced and so, instead of telling a random woman (who doesn't really seem to be that involved in their lives anyway, and will be going back to Columbia after a few days) the truth about the divorce, they all agree that the best course of action is for Sarandon to leave her home and Keaton and DeNiro to pretend to be married once more. 

...

And that is pretty much the level of ridiculousness this storyline offers. All the subplots and supporting characters' storylines follow the same level of "roll my eyes to the back of my head until they get stuck there" class. What this all inevitably means is that, within the first introductory scene with each character, you have taken on their ridiculous role and already know exactly how it's going to turn out. I won't give anything away but just tell you the opening scenes with each character and let you work it out for yourselves: 

Heigl:

She walks into a maternity ward to pick up her brother and passes out every time she sees a baby. When she wakes up she feels nauseous all the time. She has left her husband over problems with not being able to get pregnant.

Grace:

He is a man in his late 20s who hasn't yet had sex because he's waiting for love, only to be introduced to his adopted brother's biological sister who happens to be beautiful and promiscuous. 

Seyfried:

Her parents are upper class people who have apparently only just noticed that the man she's about to marry is a "beige" man, and comment frequently on this, yet no one seems to be calling them out on this... will they get away with it for the entire movie? Surely not. 

DeNiro:

He is a recovering alcoholic who is dealing with juggling two women in the "hilarious" scenario laid out above. He has been doing so well up to this point and reveals in the first scene that he hasn't had a drink in 10 years!!

...

I don't need to say anything else. You've all worked out the movie by now. The only thing worse than the complete predictability of the plot, is the ridiculously unrealistic way in which each character responds to this plot. It gets to a point that no matter how serious it gets, every one of them are like "ah well." 

By the time I neared the end,  I found myself screaming "what the hell??" multiple times at the screen, whilst disappearing off for more toilet breaks than I actually needed, just to get away from the madness. 

To say I was disappointed is a massive understatement. Mainly because, if I had a cast as strong as the one in that movie, I would have at least tried to make it good. I can't work out how each of them agreed to be in it. Were they bribed? Did someone have their family held hostage? Did they all get invited out to the same party where the casting director got them all massively drunk and then threw a binding contract in their faces and made them sign? Were they all too lazy to read the script before starting the movie? 

And here's the thing, they've all done low key rom coms before. These might not have been given massively good reviews, but I happened to like them anyway. I'm not that fussy when I'm in the mood for that genre: 

Topher Grace: How to Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

I didn't hate it. It had really sweet moments. I'll just say "different laughs" and leave it at that. I loved that shizzle. Also, that man, for some reason, looks sexy as hell when he kisses. 

Katherine Heigl: 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, Life as we Know it (although that movie is awesome by everyone's standards) 

All solid rom com movies, in my opinion (I am leaving out The Killers from this, as I didn't know what was going on with that movie).

Amanda Seyfried: ... 

Okay, looking back, I'm not really a fan of any of her "rom coms". Yes, I am including Mamma Mia in that. Sorry, I just can't stand that movie. But I do love her in most other movies she's done. Les Miserables, Mean Girls, Chloe and (dare I say it) I freakin love Alpha Dog for some reason. 

I could list the others, but to be honest, I was getting bored doing it, so, in comparison, you guys have probably already lost interest... but I think I've made my point. I'm really not that fussy with a rom com. I find that the trick to really enjoy this particular genre of movie is to go in not expecting anything amazing. All it's going to offer you is a bit of light entertainment, the possibility of the odd laugh and a couple of moments in which you will clutch your chest and go "awwwww." If that's all your expecting, then you're usually golden. And then occasionally, golden nuggets (such as anything Richard Curtis writes) sneak in and you are blown away. 

However, because my opinion is pretty low before I go into the movie, I find it really has to suck in order for me to not like it... that, or play the entire works of Abba all the way through which, for some reason, is music that makes me violent. 

This movie just moved constantly between predictable and ridiculous all the way through. It didn't make me want to turn it off at any point, (mainly due to my fascination on how much the standard of the movie continued to drop throughout, and I really wanted to see how far they were going to take it... turns out, pretty far...). 

It has, however, done a really good job at advertising the other movies these actors are in, because I now have an overwhelming urge to watch each of them in something that I liked so as to restore my faith in the reasons why I like them. As such, I am now planning on watching each of the movies mentioned above, as well as a selection from the other actors not mentioned. I need to make this right in my head again. I can't have this movie be the most recent thing I've seen of them all...

...

...I think I've just worked out the reason they all signed on for this movie... I bet all their other DVD sales shot up during this release... that's just sneaky. Very, very sneaky. 

Peace out my lovelies.

Just a bit of light relief for you all

Sup my lovelies,

Sorry guys but it's not going to be a long one today... having a bad day due to fighting with my bank... don't get me started. I'm not happy at all and fear that if I talk about it today, I will either get even more angry or I will say something I regret... plus I like to be happy on this thing as much as possible.

I considered just leaving it for the day, but I'm all determined with my new year's goal of one post every weekday so wanted to at least put something... As such, I've decided to just put in some awesome pictures that make people happy. So for all of your viewing pleasure, I introduce to you some photos of animals to make everyone's day brighter!!

1. Look how happy the otter feels having lovin' from his otter gals!



2. Hello Mr Llama! Yes I will be your friend, thanks for asking!



3. Guaranteed this cat would complete that before I did. 



4. Even though I know this would hurt, I kinda want tickles from this owl...



5. Me, every day around Youths.



and one more, an age old classic that never fails to bring a smile in the world of Random thoughts of a plum...

6. Oh Otter, you crack me up!



You are welcome world.

Peace out my lovelies.

Hello, My name is Lisa, and I'm Nomophobic... That's a N not a H... just in case you got confused and started to get angry.

So I spent the weekend in the countryside. I was one with nature, we cooked meat on open fires, we had to go to taps in the middle of nowhere just to get water, and there was a whole sawdust-instead-of-plumbing situation that was going on with the toilets. There was a very large part of me that wanted to be able to revel in it. I wanted to feel at one with my roots and confident in the knowledge that I could survive in the wilderness. I wanted to feel that I wasn't completely reliant on electrical appliances and indoor heat and such...

To a certain degree, I did feel that way. I enjoyed travelling to get water and trying to help build a fire before One-And-Only-Daniela slapped my hand away, scolding me for doing it wrong. There was even a moment, on Saturday night, where we had just cooked steaks and sausages on the outdoor fire and had prepared a meal. We were all sitting in the little porch area outside our yurt with candle lanterns all around us and a glass of wine in our hands. We were chatting and laughing and having fun, and all around me I could hear the trees rustling in the dark and birds chirping etc. I remember thinking that this was perfect. It was really nice and relaxing and not even that cold. However, I am also acutely aware that should we have stayed for even one more day out there, we would have started to become miserable. 

You see, in amongst all the gusto we had for trying to be one with nature, there were a lot more things that felt like sacrifice. Mainly our lack of phone battery. When we had battery, the signal was awesome and we could use the internet without any problem, we just didn't really have that much time in which our battery lasted. The reason for this was simple, especially for myself... although One-And-Only-Daniela and No-Nickname-Yet-Tshepiso did have a little more self control, I have no will power when it comes to my phone...

Yes, ladies and gents. I am that person. The one that will take her phone out wherever she goes and place it directly in front of her so that she can at least see it at all times. This doesn't mean that when I am with people I'm on it, but I have to at least see it. I also have to have it to hand the moment any company leaves me, even if it's just for the toilet, so that I can immediately use it to check facebook/twitter, play games, or just generally scroll through apps or photos. Yup... if you were to catch me at a bar on my own, there is zero chance that my head won't be buried in my screen... unless I look up to take a sip of my drink... although I have learnt to do this without looking up... it depends how drunk I am and how much I trust myself to not knock over the drink if I'm not looking. 

I also have chargers available at any venue where I know I'm going to be for a while. There is a permanent one at home and at work and a portable one for my bag should I need it at a third location. I'm not exactly proud of this, but at the same time don't really feel ashamed enough to want to change my behaviour at all. I've looked this up... apparently addiction on phones is called Nomophobia... because that word isn't going to confuse the hell out of everyone. Couldn't they have picked a word that sounded a little different from a particular bigoted type of people? Anywho, I digress...

So, with this in mind, you can imagine what this weekend was like in a place where electricity just doesn't exist. I considered buying a solar charger but completely forgot so, instead, found myself getting ready on Friday morning and only removing my phone from my charger 3 seconds before I left the house. Of course, although I knew that I wouldn't have a place to charge my battery, because of my addictive tendencies and my being aware that I still had an hour bus journey to travel before I got to where One-And-Only-Daniela was, I used my phone the entire journey, mainly because, in my opinion, that journey simply can't be done without listening to podcasts and playing games... I have a problem, I am aware. I know there are a large amount of you who might have felt it was more important for me to keep battery in case anything bad happens in the woods and we need to call someone, but, put simply, sensible considerations and forward planning like that don't occur to those with an addictive nature. All we really see is the fun we can have in that particular moment. That, coupled with the fact that it would also mean I didn't have to sit there awkwardly on public transport listening to the "Youths" and trying to translate what it is they are saying nowadays (it's getting harder and harder) for lack of anything else to do. 

So, by the time we reached our destination, both One-And-Only-Daniela and I were desperately running low on battery juice and No-Nickname-Yet-Tshepiso hadn't arrived so we needed some form of open contact for her. This was how we both ended up sitting outside our Yurt on Friday night, from 4pm to 12am, freezing cold and huddled around this small little device that had been given to us. It was like this mini furnace, you started a fire (not big enough to really warm you) and when it reached the right temperature then it would generate enough electricity to charge your phone. It looked like this: 

Now, this sounds like a really good idea, and in fairness, we would have been lost without it that first night, but working it turned out to be a little tricky. You see, unless we got it massively wrong, it wasn't really about creating enough heat but more creating the exact right amount of heat. There appeared to be one point of heat that would work as a charger, anything else too hot or too cold and the electricity would be lost again. This resulted in our constantly adding and removing twigs, switching the settings on the fan and staring at our screens with a look of hopeful joy for the 60 seconds it would turn on before it inevitably turned off once again... any normal person with about 25% battery left would have just switched to airplane mode, left the phone alone, give up on the charger and just check for any new texts every 10 mins or so. However, as I said, I quite clearly have a problem and, like all addicts, needed more juice. This process did just take longer as we only had one fire charger type thing between the two of us, so not only were we only getting a blissful 60 seconds of charge time every half hour, we were also splitting that charge time between the two of us. I don't know about anyone else, but I class that as a perfect use of our time on our first night on holiday...

The next morning, the batteries were dead once more, so we all mysteriously decided we needed food in a pub... AKA, a place with plug sockets. We arrived at this pub and immediately spread out to take over all power sources in the building. We found, we conquered, we listened out for that glorious beeping sound that meant the phones have turned back on and, once heard, we sat back, smiled and ordered our food in comfort. We then stayed there for longer than we would have... apparently only feeling like it was time to leave when all phones had reached 100%. We told each other that it was because we were having a good time, but we all secretly knew why we had stayed... it didn't need to be said. 

Now, as I said, I do have no control with that stupid electrical device so, although I knew it would be a day and a half until I would be able to charge my phone once more, I still found myself pouring over that thing as if I had been separated from it for months. I checked and uploaded something onto everything; facebook, twitter... even Instagram  and Snapchat and I never use those apps normally. I took pictures of our fire and yurt and, instead of being sensible and leaving it until I got home to upload, I shared that shizzle immediately. I called and texted people all over the place. When it came to listening to music, I decided that I didn't want to play the 500+ songs on my phone, no I wanted the ones on youtube. Because that made far more sense. Needless to say, I went through that battery within about 5 hours. By the time we collapsed into bed, I had nothing left on my battery and my phone was officially dead once more. 

I've just sat here for a while, considering justifying my actions, talking about how there was wine involved, and how I was in a group environment in a new place where there was more to share, but you know what? There's no excuse. Needless to say, I'm investing in a solar charger if I ever do anything outdoorsy again... I'm embracing my addiction. 

Hi, I'm Lisa, and I'm Nomophobic. 

Peace out my lovelies.

City girls in the country

Hi guys,

So I did it, I went away for a weekend in the middle of the woods and I didn't die once. That's something to celebrate!!

In fact I'll even go as far as to say that we didn't even bump into any mass murderers... there was no hiding from people with axes, no zombies that climbed out of the ground, no weird noises in the middle of the night... basically, everything that I thought would happen from watching Cabin in the Woods didn't happen... I guess they picked another group of friends to be the sacrifice for the world instead of us... is it wrong that I'm a little insulted we weren't classed as good enough? Nah, it's good.

Anywho, for those who missed it last week, I disappeared off to the middle of the countryside with One-And-Only-Daniela and No-Nickname-Yet-Tshepiso for the weekend. We stayed in a yurt and basically just spent three days playing with fire and drinking wine... somehow none of that resulted in us burning the yurt down which I definitely think means we deserve some kind of prize... it could have been so much worse.

I think it's safe to say that all three of us enjoyed ourselves, although we were all incredibly aware of being the 'City Girls' in the middle of a small village where everyone knew everyone else. We didn't exactly help the situation. Our one trip into their village high street involved the following things:

1. Arriving at the first pub we saw with a crazed look on our faces and a desperate plea for plug sockets as we needed to charge our phones.

2. Getting out One-And-Only-Daniela's SLR anytime we saw anything slightly country like, like a horse or a tractor, whilst commenting to each other about "how quaint" it all looked.

3. Arriving at their only food shop and inquiring over whether they had a butchers as we wanted meat. This was met by a very perplexed guy behind the till in his late teens looking at us as if we were mad.

When we explained that we were camping and wanted to do a barbeque, he shook his head and said, "We don't really have anything like that here. There's a bigger village about 15 miles out that has one." We weren't about to walk that, so bought the only meat there was in the shop (gammon steak and sausages, which actually turned out be really nice). When we went to pay for them the guy was still looking at us completely baffled.

"You guys are from the city aren't you?" He said.

"Yeah," we answered. "We live in London."

His face fell. "Why the hell would you leave a place like that to come and stay here?"

"What?" We said. "It's nice!"

"But you're from London!"

"It's nice to get out every now and then," I explained. "We've been walking a lot, which is also nice."

"Although we've got all this food on us now, I can't be arsed to carry it all back with us." One-And-Only-Daniela commented.

A woman waiting behind us found this hilarious as apparently the three mile walk back to our farm was absolutely nothing to complain about when you live in a place like this. Of course, as we were girls who can grab a bus, tube, train or taxi from pretty much wherever we are in London, this felt a lot more of feat for us, especially as we had all this food, and we had already walked it once on our way down to the village. One-And-Only-Daniela began explaining this to the woman with a tone that suggested she didn't appreciate what the woman had to say. As such, No-Nickname-Tshepiso jumped in before an argument started in.

"We're looking for a taxi company." She said. "Do you have a number?"

By this point, there wasn't a single person in the shop who wasn't looking at us like we were aliens. The guy behind the counter spoke up.

"We don't really get many taxis around here. Everyone just sort of walks to where they want to go or has a car."

Someone from behind us chirped in at this point. "You can try and get a taxi from one of the villages next to us and ask them to come here, but they'll charge you extra for it."

We agreed to this, and left the shop. We had to ask a man in the street for help on locating a taxi company as the internet wasn't being very helpful. He sort of shrugged and said that they don't have many taxis coming this way, but they did have a curry house just down the road... We thanked the man, not really wanting to bring up our confusion on how the existence of a curry house in their village helps up with our plight to get back to our yurt. Obviously it is the only restaurant (outside of the pubs) that they had, so it was something they were all very proud of. It did look nice from the outside, I have to say.

As amused as the people in the village were by us, they were also really friendly so we had an overall good experience of our little walk into the high street. It was very much a village of people who all knew each other, so we must have stood out to them all from the moment we walked into a room. We also managed to get a taxi back to the yurt, thanks to google coming through for us.

We had a good time, but considering not one of us were particularly outdoorsy we were making it up as we went along. There was a couple in another yurt not far from us and we bothered that man far too many times with advice on how to get our grill to work or for use of his axe. I think he really began to regret his offer when we all arrived of helping us should we need it...

Having said that, One-And-Only-Daniela soon caught the Fire Bug and took over all heat related activities. She built our outdoors fire and took over the furnace in the yurt. I tried to help a few times but she kept on telling me I was doing it wrong so I just left her to it after a while. As fun as it was, the moment we hit London again, and I saw a sign for a proper plumbed toilet, I wanted to cry with happiness. I love my electricity, I love my internet. I love my creature comforts, and I fully appreciate the fact that I live in this day and age instead of even just 100 years ago.

But it was good and I didn't end up in hospital with hypothermia this time, which is definitely a plus in my books. Also... Ug, I made fire!

Peace out my lovelies.

Fancy Things Friday: The Matt Smith Epic Speech. If my Doctor talked to me like that, I'd totally let him operate on me.

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

It will come as no surprise to anyone who has read at least a few of these posts that I have a particular TV Show I adore. There is just something about this show that makes me spontaneously laugh, cry, shout and gasp, all at once. I find myself looking back at episodes with a fondness that I can't quite explain and, this week especially, I have found myself spending my last final moments before sleep going back and rewatching all the best bits of the show whilst I cheer and weep myself to sleep... but in a good way.
 

I am, of course, talking about Doctor Who. I'm not going to go into the show in general on here, because I fear that after the 600th paragraph of my ramblings, you might switch off. Instead, I've decided to focus on one aspect of the show, mainly because this has been what my rewatching has been obsessed with this week, and that's pretty much how I decide what to write on this thing. I sit down, I think about my week and decide what thing in the past 7 days has warranted more than one day of my attention, coupled with that tell tale sign of craving for more once it's over. This week, I have been pretty obsessed with the speeches of Doctor Who, in particular with the ones including Matt Smith playing the Doctor. 

Now, before I go into my reasons for why these speeches kick arse more than I can possibly put into words, I thought I'd demonstrate (to those of you who hadn't caught it the first time round) a small explanation and visual imagery, if you will, over the love that I hold for this programme. 

About three years ago, just after the first Matt Smith Series had finished in Doctor Who, Younger-Brother-Daniel and I went to a little Whovian type shindig called the Doctor Who Experience. I, having just started this blog, decided I would put together a video of our day for everyone to see. We were still pretty hung up on the loss of David Tennant, but didn't hate Matt Smith and was excited about what he had to offer. This is how I get, in person, when Doctor Who related events occur in my life. Also, there is a very real chance that I have gotten worse than this in more recent days. 

Yeeeaah, so that happened. It was amazing. 

So, from that point onwards, my admiration for the eleventh doctor, AKA Matt Smith, grew and grew. My reason for this was simple; the combination of both Matt Smith talking stuff and Steven Moffat writing the stuff he said meant that amazing moments occurred. I knew we were into a pretty amazing time with this doctor after the first episode with him aired. He gave this speech that was so epic, my tiny brain almost exploded, and that would end up being the first in a very long line of epic speeches that would rock my world and send tingles down my spine. I'm going to put this speech down below. For those of you who haven't gotten into the world of Doctor Who yet, it isn't really a spoiler of any kind, just a clip of awesomeness. However, if you would prefer to enjoy the experience first hand without hearing this speech, then feel free to not watch it... although you must only do this if you are planning on watching it... this is important. If you are on the fence about the whole thing, then watch the clip and it will convince you of the show's awesomeness. Just be prepared for the lost hours you will inevitably experience as you become immersed in a world that is awesome. In my opinion, it's totally worth it, but people might begin to wonder where you have gone, so the odd text to loved ones to let them know that you are okay, just spending time with a Timelord, is a must.

Anywho, this clip is from the Eleventh Doctor's first episode and happens at the end of the episode when he sends an alien invasion away with the power of his words. Get ready for tingles, there will be tingles. And it will be glorious. 

His face on the "Basically... run" section... my days! I screamed and whooped at that TV screen over and over before collapsing into a mess of satisfied bliss. 

What followed in that series alone was more and more awesomeness. Every time a bad person turned up to threaten Earth, he would send them away with words that made me gape at him in shock. One of my personal favourites is the following. About halfway through this series, he comes face to face with one of the scariest enemies that Doctor Who has thought up in a long time. They're called The Weeping Angels. You may have heard of them? Again, this clip doesn't give off any real plot twists so is safe to watch, and in fact I thoroughly recommend you do as, if the above didn't convince you that this is the best thing you could watch, then this should. 

Oh I just, I can't even... I love it so much. 

There are so many more, but then we're hitting real spoiler land and I can't do it to people who haven't watched the show. You need to watch it first hand to fully experience the awesome and get yourself to the point that you saw me in my first video... which is totally a place everyone should be, and not something that anyone should feel ashamed of, at all. What I will do is put a video below of a compilation of some of the Eleventh Doctor's awesomeness. However, I strongly urge that no one who hasn't seen it watch it. Instead, get yourself on Netflix and begin the experience yourself. They've got all of the series except the latest one on there, and by the time you get to that point, you will want to buy the rest of them, trust me on that. So below is a very spoiler filled video, for all fans, watch and enjoy. It is awesome. Revel in the writing and the performances and remember all the awesome times that made the Eleventh Doctor who he is today. Also, if you are like me and have a tendency to enjoy a bit of fictional writing, be prepared for the inevitable inspiration this will bring to you. If I'm having a bad writing day, I always play one of these compilation videos, they do the trick quite nicely in filling me with all sorts of gusto to write new chapters... also to work on my own two part episode of Doctor Who, which I am certain Steven Moffat is going to want from me the moment we become best friends and writing partners. I like to be prepared. 

This doesn't cover all of them, and only goes up to Matt Smith's second series, but still... it makes my point. 

I am extremely excited about the 12th Doctor and what Peter Capaldi is going to bring to it. I am completely devastated that we've lost Matt Smith and still can't watch his last speech without crying uncontrollably, but then I was exactly the same when David Tennant left and we hadn't seen what Matt Smith had to offer yet. I know that Capaldi is going to be awesome, because, quite simply, casting the role of the Doctor is too big a thing for someone to get wrong, and Moffat has never disappointed with his casting choices as of yet. I won't post the final moments of Matt Smith's reign as the Doctor because I don't want to tempt any non watchers with it, you need to see it in order. Just trust me when I say it's perfect. 

As a writer, I have never been more inspired by a TV show. Yes, there are some episodes that slightly flop, it's written by multiple writers and I do have my least favourites, but overall it never disappoints. Also, I've spent this post talking about the awesomeness of Matt Smith's speeches and haven't even touched on how funny he is throughout the series. This is equally as awesome as the epic stuff. I am a Whovian through and through. I live and breathe the stuff.

If you haven't seen it and have decided to off the back of this then I have a few small tips for you: 

1. Start watching it from the 9th Doctor, Christopher Eccleston (Where it starts on Netflix). Although the show has been running for 50 years, there was a brief hiatus where it wasn't on anymore, and then it was revamped for a new generation. This is the best place to start. If, once you are done, you want to go back and watch the old episodes, do it then. But you don't need any prior knowledge of Doctor Who to get into it from 9th Doctor onwards. I, personally, have only seen a select few of the episodes prior to 9th Doctor. When it was revamped, it was designed to appeal to a generation of people who hadn't seen any Doctor Who, as well as all the previous die hard fans. You will get the most of it by starting there. 

2. There will be a brief moment, when you start watching the first couple of episodes, where you're not too sure what you are watching and you will think that it is pretty ridiculous. Just keep at it, because following that, you will then reach a state of still thinking it's silly whilst also having this uncontrollable urge to watch more. After that, you will come to realise what all the hype is about and will love it. This is my experience, as well as the experience of almost everyone else I know who has watched it. It draws you in and you can't help yourself. 

3. Get ready for what the Internet calls "Feels." You will laugh, cry, get angry, frustrated, happy, excited and, at certain points, not just cry but sob uncontrollably. The characters are so loveable and awesome that you will route for almost all of them. The companions are as strong as the Doctors and there will be some longing to have them as your best friends involved. Go with it. Although it may never happen (on the basis that they are fictional characters and so don't actually exist), the thoughts alone will keep you warm at night and leave you dreaming of being swept away by an alien Timelord in his TARDIS, which believe me, is never a bad thing. 

4. If you are anything like me, there will be moments where you catch yourself longing to talk to someone about the laws of time and space and debate over storylines, wondering if they make sense. In those cases, I have an email section in the right hand bar, send me your questions and theories, it's my favourite conversation to have and my friends have banned me from talking about it now on nights out because they either don't care, have never watched it, or have heard it all before. I'll just leave you with two words on this "Pandorica" and "Paradox." There are things about that that I have spent countless hours debating over. I'm still not happy with my responses. So any theories, please do let me know. 

5. Enjoy. And be ready for the uncontrollable urge to watch them all again after you are finished. Remember to take breaks in between, however, for the toilet and eating. Otherwise, you might forget and then get into all sorts of health problems. If you are settling in for a marathon, make sure your fridge is fully stocked and there is definitely nothing you have to do for the next few days, because you will lose track of time and if you have plans, you'll accidentally miss them and people will get mad that you didn't go to their wedding because you were hauled up with a bunch of fictional characters. NB:This is exceptionally bad if the bride and groom have never seen Doctor Who as they won't even be able to sympathise that this is a very real problem and just see the whole thing as "Some TV show" which apparently means you should know better at working out what time it is whilst watching it. This is a very real problem, NB again: In these instances, this is not the time to recommend they start watching the show. They will generally see this as a reason to get mad, rather than be intrigued and tempted to watch. 

Okay, that's all the tips I can think of. Go forth and enjoy if you haven't already. If you have, go forth and enjoy again, you can never watch Doctor Who too many times. 

Peace out my lovelies.

Huzzah! A Milestone I am overly excitable about...

So, by February I had officially written more posts this year than in 2013. This was no hard feat as I was not in the blogging mood (or mood for anything really) in 2013, as previously stated.

However, I was still pretty regular in the year of 2012, having not quite got to a complete hermit state by that time, and yet yesterday I have officially written more posts than I had in the entire of that year! And it's only April!! This is exciting for me, as it means that I'm actually sticking to something and not being distracted by that really sparkly thing that keeps playing around me... Is it Tinkerbell? If it's Tinkerbell, I really should be paying more attention, because I have wanted to see Neverland since I was 5 years old, and if I'm missing out on that experience because I'm blogging about how I might have an infection in my eye but it's probably nothing so therefore not really worth blogging about, yet I'm still doing it, then I'm going to be really pissed. 

For the purpose of this post, I'm going to say that it isn't Tinkerbell. Therefore I can go back to being happy at sticking with doing the writing thing in 2014. It's probably more serious like a problem with my eyesight or my brain or something, and that shizzle is better off being ignored... 

Yeah, so not only is this something I've stuck at now for three months, but it was also a New Year's Resolution that I had set myself. New Year's Resolutions, by rule of thumb, I usually find to be silly and not worth doing. Mainly because I'm really bad at them and it almost always involves a cliched gym membership that eats at my already non-existent bank account whilst I ignore the gym even exists until a miracle happens, like it gets burnt down and suddenly I'm out of the contract without any effort or severance pay on my part (true story, and no... I didn't burn it down myself. To burn down the place, I would have actually had to have gone there, which I can confirm I hadn't). 

However, this being the fourth month of the year now, I can officially confirm that this is the longest I have ever kept to a New Year's Resolution. My plan was simple, I would write in this thing 5 days a week for a year. I would introduce features and new things to talk about, I would combine funny, interesting, and deep things into my repertoire, and most importantly, I wouldn't give in... no matter how annoying it gets for those of you who are connected to me on any of the social network sites and have no interest in what I have to write. I will continue to litter your feeds with links to this blog. I will live in blissful hope that soon people will start reading it. And most importantly, I will do all of these things with a skip in my step and a wink on my face, and convince myself that it has nothing to do with wasting time and everything to do with becoming someone who writes for a living. 

My plan is to keep this going for the remainder of the year and monitor any changes it might make to my current "getting paid to write words for a living" status. At the moment, I won't lie, I would starve if I were to do this full time. And also I would not be able to afford internet so I wouldn't be able to write anything either, which would be counter-productive... Also, I wouldn't be able to afford a bed, the ability to wash in warm water, or indeed anywhere that would mean I could sleep indoors... which is almost as important as the internet thing. 

So, instead I'm continuing with my 'writing is my hobby' shizzle for  the time being and playing the waiting game... whilst also writing stuff. I'm also going to try really hard to get a Fancy Things Friday post up tomorrow by being proactive and writing it before I get busy. I'm going away for the weekend, as mentioned in yesterday's post, and we leave tomorrow to a place where Internet doesn't exist. I know people used to live without Internet all the time, but currently I am struggling to find a list of things I can do in the woods that doesn't involve electricity and am coming up pretty empty. If anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate it. Bearing in mind, it's a weekend with three ladies and no other population to speak of. At the moment, our plans consist of boardgames and wine. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty convinced we can fill the time quite effectively with just these two things, especially if the wine doesn't run out, but it would be nice to have a few more activity ideas under the belt should we need it. 

So, with regards to tomorrow's Fancy Things Friday, I am planning to write it in advance either tonight or tomorrow morning. There is one small problem with this plan. Although I am not a person who likes to be late (and pretty much makes it on time 9 times out of 10), I am also one of these people that finds herself procrastinating until the very last minute and then squeezing all her preparation time into the last few minutes before she leaves the house. Therefore, there is a very strong chance that, instead of writing a post tomorrow morning, I will be in bed catching up on Supernatural, New Girl and Big Bang Theory, with a little bit of 30 Rock thrown in there for good measure. Then I will realise that I am meant to be out of the house for a weekend away in exactly 15 minutes, which will lead to the Lisa-Frenzy-Special. The Lisa-Frenzy-Special includes the uncanny ability to shower, shave, pack a suitcase of clothes, and throw on make up in around 13 and a half minutes. It is then finished with an inpatient wait by the kettle as it boils and an inevitable third degree burn situation as a travel mug of coffee is filled whilst also simultaneously flying out of the door to ensure the train is not missed... I can't tell you how many times my housemates have come home to find the kettle thrown in our front garden bushes... 

So with all that bound to happen, I am loathed to promise you a post... I am hoping that my competitive nature, which is now determined to see this New Year's Resolution through to the end, will kick in and force me to write something... but my laziness may win out... we shall see. 

There, I feel I have suitably lowered all of your expectations of me. Also, I would be happy to go on record as saying this might be the most non-committal post I have ever written. Please be aware that there is a chance that I won't go on record for that, I only said I'm happy to do it, should it be needed... mind you, there is also a chance that I could become more non-committal in the future... maybe, I couldn't possibly say for certain though. 

Have a nice weekend? Or evening until I talk again? I don't know.

Peace out my lovelies 

Yurts and Maniacal Laughter

I'm going away this weekend. It's pretty exciting and big for me, because the last time I organised any sort of holiday that didn't involve visiting The-Parents was 4 years ago, when One-And-Only-Daniela and I went to Barbados. Since then, I have stopped having money to enjoy such expensive travelling and have resorted to spending any time I have off from work safe in the comfort of my own bed with my own TV shows and my own filth. It's good times. However since I am on this stint of trying to get my life into some form of exciting order, I have been working on sorting out the money front and clearing that pesky thing we people all know as debt. This is going very well for me, since I started making changes a month ago, and I'm hoping that I won't get bored again and fall back on my default spending spree, which is never more exciting than wasting as much money as I can on fast food.

At the moment, I'm into budgeting. Something that Marmie in particular has been on at me to do since I was 13 years old and got my first wage as a papergirl for our local newsagent. Because I have a stubborn streak a mile long however, I was never going to get into the habit of budgeting until it became a decision I made for myself, rather than being told to do it by someone else. So, I finally decided that enough time had passed since a person had told me to budget, which meant I could class it as my own decision, and I went ahead and started at the beginning of March.

So impressed was I about the whole thing and how much it de-stressed me knowing exactly where my finances were going each month, I found that I was catching a bug that spurred me on. Last month, I rode a high that I had not experienced before. It was the high of knowing exactly how much money I had in my account to last me until the next month. It was the high that meant I knew the money I was spending on nights out was okay, because I had planned to keep that money for that particular night. It meant that any time I went to the shops to buy groceries or anything, I wasn't coming out with this horrible feeling that I had no control over what was left, coupled with a fear that my bills wouldn't get paid this month. Yup, that was my life for the past 4 years. The recession has effected me hard, and instead of learning to cope with what I had, I panicked and buried my head in the sand, then went out and bought me a KFC to make me feel better about myself, whilst all the time pretending that that didn't count as a purchase and I was therefore going to be okay... all I had to do was not think about it.

Most of the time, with my life choices, I can safely look back and realise that, although I thought it was a good idea at the time, now I know better. However, with this particular choice, I knew all along that it was a crappy way of dealing with things but have only just got to a point where I'm in a good enough place to face it head on, and it has turned out to be not as bad as I had thought.

Anywho, this month, with the help of my new best friend, which is of course a budget phone app, I have managed to work my budget so that I could include an awesome weekend away to the country for One-And-Only-Daniela's birthday. We are going off to the woods somewhere and we are spending three days in a Yurt... What's that? I hear you ask? It's okay, I didn't know either. One-And-Only-Daniela found it and told me that she reckons that it would be fun. Basically, it's a fancy looking tent with furniture. Here's a picture of where we're staying from the outside:



Here's what it looks like from the inside:



Nice right? And you look at that and can be totally fooled into not realising that you have just basically agreed to do a fancy version of camping until after you have booked the holiday. When you realise, there is a chance you might be slightly annoyed that One-And-Only-Daniela has tricked you into doing something you have always sworn to her that you would never do, as the last time you had slept outdoors, you ended up being rushed to hospital in an ambulance with Hypothermia. All the while, One-And-Only-Daniela is rubbing her hands together and letting out a maniacal laugh at her trickery.

Naaah, I'm just kidding (not about the hatred for camping due to hospital thing, that shizzle totally happened). I'm actually properly excited about this holiday though. And this time will be totally different. We have a furnace and wood and, most importantly, we have wine. Wine will be keeping us warm. This was not available to my 17 year old self at a Christian Salvation Army Camp, which is the last time that I attempted anything "Outdoorsy."

I'm more concerned about the toilets, and One-And-Only-Daniela's need for night time pees coupled with her refusal to go anywhere without an escort when we're indoors, let alone outdoors...

Oh, and there is an awesome lake nearby that I totally hope to dive into at some point. Look at how pretty!:



...

Although, being a MASSIVE fan of the movie 'Cabin in the Woods', I can't help but draw on the similarities of this lake and the one from that film... you know the one I'm talking about? The one where loads of people get violently slaughtered on? You know, after they go off for a weekend away to the middle of the woods for a random getaway? And then most of them die? You know?

...

I'm 50:50 on this discovery. 50% absolutely terrified that I will be dead within the first 10 minutes, 50% feeling secretly mischievous by bringing said movie with me to play to One-And-Only-Daniela and No-Nickname-Yet-Tshepiso on our first night there and see if they make the same conclusions... fabulous, no?

Now excuse me whilst I go and take my turn in the hand rubbing and maniacal laughing, and formulate my plan for Project Scare the Crap out of Really Nice People Until They Don't Want Me Around Anymore. I can see no way this will go wrong for me.

Peace out my lovelies

I'm on my soapbox again: My ideal world

I imagine a world where everyone is free and accepting of all beliefs. Where to be a Christian doesn't mean that you have to force your way of living onto anyone else, and to be an atheist doesn't mean that you have to spend all your time trying to convince those with a faith that what they believe in is rubbish.

I like the idea of a world where you can have a group of people in a room, all holding different faiths, belief systems, ways of life, and sexuality and be able to converse with each other and say, "okay, well the way you do things doesn't really work for me in my life, but I respect that it does for you so I'm going to support you in it and not try to convince you that what you are is wrong."

We all come into this world different. We are all born into different families and different cultures. It's the most obvious thing about our world. Not one country behaves the same, we all know this from a young age. So why do we seem to find ourselves feeling threatened by it? Why can't we see that a person is a certain way and just be happy that they've found the thing that fulfils them? My whole life has been about trying to be a person that I believed others to be. Due to that, I have lost a large chunk of it striving to be something that I'm not and losing the chance to live to the full potential of who I am. I am now beginning to be in a place where I am happy and comfortable with how I see the world. Part of that is learning to be accepting that there are different opinions by lots of different people. These people don't hold the same likes, dislikes, passions and excitement as me, so why would I think that what works for me would be the same for them?

Short answer is it doesn't. We as people need to find the thing that works for us and learn to be accepting of it in a way that doesn't belittle other people. If you have your beliefs, have them, just don't spend your life trying to force others to see it your way. We are who we are. And the only thing that we should be spreading to others is positivity and encouragement. Life is too short to be angry all the time. We have just a short 80-100 years on this planet, if we are lucky, what is the point of living it in hatred and attack?

I hear a lot of people talk to me about how religion is the thing that has destroyed this world and prevented it from moving forward. People refer to it as being the main reason for war and terrorism and a lot of evil in the world.  And while yes, it is used as the reason for these things, I'm almost certain that it's only been used as an excuse. I am a full believer that, if religion didn't exist, and we were brought into this world without any form of religion at all, we as a people would have found something else to support our views and create war that way.

There is a three part episode of South Park that portrays this the best. In it, Cartman is cryogenically frozen and wakes up centuries in the future. In this time, religion has been eradicated completely but war was still going on. Instead, people have chosen to fight in the name of Science, or more in the name of what they should call their Science groups... as is the way for most South Park episodes, the whole thing is ridiculous whilst also making you go "Ooooh! You went there!!" and "SO true!!"

And here's where I fall on the whole outward bigotry and putting people down "in the name of religion" stance. I believe that people believe what they believe and in order to find the most effective way to hold any kind of standing on their bigotry, they turn to religion (which has proven to be popular for our entire time on the planet) and realised that they can use it to support their claims and make them feel justified in what is starting to become vastly unpopular opinions. All the while, all they really are doing is making more and more people turn against the prospect of religion, call it archaic and wrong and then, next thing you know, another argument/protest/war has begun and everyone is back to hating each other again.

Speaking as a Christian, I have a lot of issues with the above tactic. People get angry at me for being a Christian. I get pulled up in debates regularly by a lot of people. Most of these debates, I just don't see need to happen. They seem to be based on the assumption that, since I believe there is a higher power out there who created the Universe and us, I must also believe that that same higher power hates anyone who doesn't believe what I believe. I've talked about this before in my post about Christianity versus Homosexuality, and how ridiculous that whole argument is, but here's the thing: to me, being a Christian and believing in what I do can't possibly also mean that I am against people of different walks of life to me. The very basis of my belief system is that I believe God made everyone. If God made everyone why would he then be telling us to be against each other? He made us all equally, and He made us the way that we are. He also made us all to love each other! Enough with the whole selecting small amounts of the bible to use to attack people. How about using the majority of the things in the bible which promote love and support and encouragement? Where's that focus gone?

Also, I have my beliefs but I can fully appreciate pokes and jokes at what I believe. I also fully appreciate that I do not hold all the answers to everything... mainly because I recognise I'm only human and not a genius of any kind. I realise that it sounds ridiculous that someone could live in a boat with every type of animal whilst the world is flooded, and that there are absolutely ridiculous rules in the Old Testament of the bible that simply aren't applicable in the world today. I also love to hear other people's beliefs and ways of thinking. And (believe it or not) I love Science and hearing new discoveries about how this world is made. (I say love, my love reaches up until I stop being able to understand, then it gets downgraded from 'love' to 'appreciation' as I nod my head and fully accept that it would be really interesting if my brain could contemplate it.) I am open to realising that there is indeed scope for Christianity to adapt to the way the world is today. I mean, it happened in the Bible all the time. The New Testament is full of statements where Jesus has gone, "Yeah, we said that in the Old Testament, but that was then and now we have moved on. Times have changed."

A lot of my Christian friends, when hearing my views on homosexuality ask me what I believe if I won't believe in what the bible says about it. I believe very much in what the bible says overall. It preaches love and support. It says that we should love our enemy and our neighbour. It talks far more about that than it does about hate of homosexuality or anything else. I believe in what Jesus had to say in the New Testament, whereby he befriends the people who were under attack or disliked by religious people at the time, namely tax collectors and prostitutes. He didn't spend his time condemning people. He loved. I love. That's why I'm a Christian, and that's what should be the overall outsider view of the Christian church, instead of "God hates *insert different group of people here*".

Since writing my Christianity versus Homosexuality post in December, I was pointed towards a few LGBT churches in London. I've checked a few out and I've loved them. The last one I went to, there was a point where the whole church took five minutes out of the service to look at pictures of current dictators who are actively against homosexuality. In this time, we were all encouraged to pray for them. Not in a "I hope they get hurt horrifically" kind of way, but in a "I hope they find peace and a clarity to see that their words are hurting people around them" or just simply "I pray they find happiness and joy." I sat in that congregation, watching a group of LGBT Christians praying for happiness for a bunch of people who were actively hurting everything that made them who they are and I cried. I cried because that, in that moment, to me, was a perfect example of what Christianity is, and why I choose to believe in it.

Christianity isn't about bigotry and anger. Christianity is about love, acceptance and the ability to welcome in anyone, no matter who they are. People also accuse me of only being a Christian because that was all I was brought up in. It's true. I was heavily influenced growing up. My childhood is littered with memories of my parents, who are Salvation Army Officers, (which is basically a minister in the Salvation Army) devoting their lives to visiting prisoners in jail, finding homeless people places to sleep, spending hours visiting people in hospital who have no other family. Every Christmas, we would have at least two elderly people who would come and share Christmas with us so they didn't spend it alone. That was my Christian influence. Can anyone tell me that, if they grew up with such a positive view of what Christianity should be, that they wouldn't want to be a part of it still?

I am so proud to live in today's era. We are reaching a place in the world where the majority of people are against attacking ways of life. There are still hurtful and painful extremest views from all belief systems... with the exception of agnostics... I really couldn't think of a way that someone could be an extreme agnostic... unless they were extremely accepting that anything could be right... which kinda works as an extreme I feel... We have moved on in leaps and bounds just in the last several decades alone. And I look forward to the world I'll be bringing my children into, if I end up having any.

My biggest dream for the future however, is not that religion/faith/belief is eradicated. It wouldn't fix the problem at all. My biggest dream is that our minds are changed with regards to how we approach those who are different to us. I hope that we will continue to grow into people who enjoy to hear about other people's lives and learn to be a population who are happy, supportive and rejoice in each others passions, regardless of how different they are of our own.

Peace out my lovelies

I'm so cliche at times... but I'm choosing to roll with it.

I know that it's ridiculously cliche of me, but I am a gal who lives in London and genuinely adores this city more than anything else I know. I'm like the British version of Carrie from Sex and the City, except without the money to buy fashionable clothes... or the sex with rich men... but the city bit is pretty accurate. I love this place. I love how I can leave the house and go to all the best places of London in 30 minutes. I love that there is literally somewhere for everyone here, no matter what you're into. I see tourists walking the streets and sometimes I just want to point at them and go "Ha! Suckers! I live here 24/7. Enjoy your eventual flight home." ... I'm not saying that I would do that, but the impulse is pretty high.

This is generally how I feel most days, but today I'm feeling exceptionally patriotic. You see, yesterday I met up with a gal who had just moved here from Australia and needed to be shown around. Naturally, wanting to be a good host, I did the classic tourist route. This is the route down the River Thames, starting at Big Ben, walking past the London Eye, continuing past many a street entertainer and classic British Pub (where we stopped for food and a look across the Thames), passing London Dungeons, Tate Modern Gallery, National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Cutty Sark and then hopping on a short train ride to finish the tour at Buckingham Palace. Oh yes, you want me to show you around London? I'll fit it all in one day, ladies and gents... For anyone who might not be aware of where it is that we just travelled, imagine, if you will, the opening credits of Sherlock. Everything you see in there? That's where we went... except Baker Street, ironically.

Anywho, I've done this tourist tour quite a few times when friends have come to visit, and each time it just makes me love this City until I want to throw up all over it... Not to mention, we began the day in London's West End (where the majority of our theatres and culture is based), and accidentally stumbled onto the UK Divergent premiere. Now I haven't read the books, nor do I know anything about the films, but I did see Kate Winslet and a lot of teenage girls dressed up in ball gowns with tickets to see the show... clearly hoping that if they dressed up really nice, they would get picked up by this man:



Apparently this is the new teenage crush? I'm not sure. One-And-Only-Daniela has read the books but got so pissed off with them that she has told me I'm not allowed to read them, and everyone knows I do exactly what she tells me. Anywho, he was there and this was apparently a big thing. I didn't get much time to dwell on it however as I got distracted trying to explain to my new Australian friend why Leicester Square is spelt that way but pronounced Lester Square... I left it a while before I told her about Gloucester Road, or about the London "ghetto" speak of 'blud', 'fam', and 'allow that.'

Guys, if any of you have never visited London before, you need to. I've done London puff pieces on this blog before, but I couldn't help myself from doing it again. You ever find yourself in the area, you need to call me up and I will show you around this shizzle, I will show you around it hard.

Also, if you don't want to do the tourist thing, we can do the nightlife. You name it, I'll find a place for it. Because that's how awesome London is. Now excuse me whilst I go and attempt to get a job writing for a London Tourist Guide. You guys know I'd be all over that.

Peace out my lovelies.

Fancy Things Friday: My most Fanciest Fancy of all Fancies; Flight of the Conchords

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

It has occurred to me that since starting this feature, I have only really talked about the things that I have recently found fancy and not anything that has been fancy in my life for a long time. Today, I shall rectify this. Today, I shall talk about two men who have been fancy in my life since I found them when youtube was invented and it was only fan videos of them singing live. Back then, there were no albums, no TV shows, no 'available to purchase' songs. All we had was fan-made recordings of concerts from 20 rows back, sneaky downloads of unofficial recordings of songs, and one BBC Audiobook they did that was so wonderful, I must have listened to it 100 times... on repeat... daily. 

I am, of course, talking about Flight of the Conchords... my own personal reason for high expectations in men during my late teens and all of my 20s. Yes, when people were obsessing over finding perfectly sculpted men who sparkled in the sunlight and wanted to kill you, I was refusing to settle for a guy who had anything less than these following attributes: 

1. He had to have a best friend who he duetted with and harboured an unspoken deep down attraction for. 

2. He had to have a completely laid back, 'don't care', almost bored tone to his voice, even if he did care very much about what was being said. 

3. He had to have an uncanny, yet unending ability to come up with whimsical and awesome tunes about cutlery, racist dragons, making love for 2 minutes, the fear of robot domination in a time that has already passed, a woman called Jenny, or how everything just goes Boom whenever I am near... or, you know, something similar. 

4. He had to be able to play many instruments, including some that might not be as popular in today's society.

5. He had to love Flight of the Conchords. 

That's pretty much all I have ever been looking for in a man... Still haven't found him by the way, but if you are reading this and tick all of the above, I would love to hear from you. 

Anywho, when I Fan something, I Fan it hard. It's always been the way. From the moment of being introduced to them by my brother, who sat me down and made me listen to "Think About It, Think Think About It" all those years ago, I have been on a one woman crusade to get the world to know all about them. 

Of course, that was a completely different time, when there were a lot of people in the world who hadn't heard of them. Nowadays, they are much more popular and awesomely adored by the majority... or at least, if they aren't adored, they are known of. But as that was happening, I had one mission in life and that was to make sure that everyone I met loved them as much as I did. 

Now, due to them being the awesome people that they are, it happened to become one of the more easier missions to complete. Pretty much everyone I forced them upon had the opinion of, at worst, "Yeah, they're pretty funny, now what was I doing before you shoved this computer in my face?" or, at best, "These two are my soulmates and my life is so much better now I have them in it."

For those of you who (for some unfathomable reason) might not have heard of the awesomeness that is Flight of the Conchords, here's a quick rundown of who they are and what they do:

1. They're a two man folk band from New Zealand. (Fourth most popular folk band in the whole country, actually).

2. They're names are Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement

3. They sing amazingly funny songs

4. They have a fondness for animals on clothes

5. They are awesome

6. Their faces look like this: 

They sort of blew up in America after doing a live show on One Night Stand on HBO. Naturally, they rocked it and were awesome. Out of that, they got their own show. This is where most people recognise them. They basically did two series of awesome where they incorporated their songs into a sitcom type show about two guys called Bret and Jemaine who had travelled from New Zealand and are trying to make it in America as a band called Flight of the Conchords... I don't know where they get their ideas from. Amazing. 

The TV show used the already popular songs they had done, as well as mingling in some new ones created just for the show. Some of my favs from the series are: 

The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room

I'm not crying (It's just been raining on my face)

I've got hurt feelings

If you're into it

Leggy Blonde

I have to stop myself. There are so many more, so many many more. But then I'd just be listing all of them, and you might as well just go and watch the thing instead... something which you all should be doing anyway this weekend. In fact, I'd go as far to say that if you haven't seen their TV show, then take this weekend to do it. I don't care if you already have plans. Nothing can be as important as this. Also, in these episodes, you not only get to enjoy Bret and Jemaine but you get to meet their manager Murray and their number one fan Mel... and believe me, you need to know who these people are. 

Throughout my recruiting mission, I managed to find one friend in particular who became as hardcore a fan as I was. Together we managed to score tickets at their last UK tour and, although we were stuck in the rafters of the arena, and they both looked like ants to us, the whole evening was the epitome of  happiness. 

(Look how close we were!!)

... Now we reach the sad part of my tale. As it stands at the moment, both Bret and Jemaine seem to have put Flight of the Conchords to one side and are getting on with their own things. Amazing things like writing the music for The Muppets movies and winning an oscar (Bret) and starring in Hollywood movies such as Dinner for Schmucks and Men in Black 3 (Jemaine) but still, there is a massive Flight of the Conchords hole in my life and they are currently refusing to fill it... Sigh. 

Okay, so this has probably been the most manic of all of my Fancy Thing Fridays... which, in hindsight, is probably why I should stick to only writing about things I've recently found Fancy, you know, before it has time to manifest into an unhealthy thing, so as to at least seem like I'm not five seconds away from becoming a full time stalker who goes around collecting my favourite celebrities shredded hair and skin and keeping them in matchstick boxes underneath my bed... which I'm not. I haven't even thought about it. Not at all. 

If you are a lover of the Conchords, I thought I'd leave you with some videos that are equally as awesome as what has been mentioned, only maybe not as well known. You are welcome and enjoy. 

Feel Inside (and Stuff Like That)

Woo a Lady (from their last tour)

Have an amazing weekend. 

Peace out my lovelies.