Would you know my name, If I saw you in heaven...

Well well well, people of the blogosphere I greet you with the air remorse, regret and that of an Uncle whom you have not seen for quite some time. It has been a definite age since last we spoke, much has happened, the world has changed, changed back again and decided it wants to be called Trudy in the time between my last blog post and this one. I am however, here now, and there is much that we have to discuss.

The elephant in the room. Let's start with that shall we? I went to America, I was there for 13 weeks. Three fun filled exciting Months! I am to return there soon after Christmas for a further 6 months. You would be correct in thinking this is very exciting! My American adventure began on a fun day in September as I drove to Heathrow terminal 3 to depart on a Virgin Atlantic flight to San Francisco international Airport. I cannot tell you what time I left this country because frankly I don't remember the details. I do however know that the aeroplane was called 'Lady Penelope' (This did inspire me to say Thunderbirds are Go! at Take off...). Glad to know that my brain is really making sure that I remember the important details about my trip. Flying across the globe on your own is not something that I will ever advise. to anyone, you know, ever, but I made it through the rain and got out the other side. That was when the fun began.

Studying at UCSC for a term (or quarter as they say) has been a huge experience. I have met some fantastic people and lived the American dream for 13 weeks. I have encountered some of the great creations of the country. Ice Cream shops? Literally a store that only sells Ice Cream in its various guises with various toppings. These things just are not commonplace in England, its too bloody cold, but as an Ice Cream lover I adore it. I have also seen that if the Americans think there is a possibility of converting something to a Drive through experience they will do it. We are talking banks and pharmacy's people, I was as shocked as you are let me tell you. A real thrill of America as far as I am concerned is American Diners! I adore them, just wonderful, and the milkshakes are out of this world! I constantly feel like Luke will arrive and start shouting at someone about something stupid whenever I am in one. They are excellent. If I could make them work in this country I would abandon the whole Computer Science shindig immediately. For more information on my American experience please buy my book, it is sure to be a Christmas bestseller, suffice to say that I am super excited to return to America after Christmas even though being back at home is wonderful!

So lets talk about Films, I always seem to do that. I enjoy talking about films. Since last we spoke I have seen four films that I feel I worth talking about! Let's start with Skyfall. Sensational. Bond is back in action and back with a Bang after Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The new Q is played excellently, I adore him. The dry humour is excellent and I hope that we will see much more of him in the films to come. Desmond is a hard act to follow but I think Ben Wishaw has got it in him to really be spectacular. I won't say much more because anything I do say will end up being laden with spoilers and I really don't want to be that guy. All I will say is that it was a traumatic experience for me to watch certain scenes.

With Ben Wishaw on the mind I shall segue seamlessly into talking about Cloud Atlas. Now this was a film I LOVED. It is excellently written with 6 separate and yet interlinked stories across 6 timezones with 12 key cast members playing different characters in each time zone. It is, in  word Brilliant. The makeup and effects are excellent transforming actors into the various roles, including Hugo Weaving as a woman, don't ask me why, I was traumatised too. Ben Wishaw is also in this film - It's been a good time for him recently what with this, Skyfall and the Hour all be huge successes - and he does very well. The main character that he plays is enough to bring the audience to tears as well as, in the theatre I was in, scream at the screen. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry make an excellent Duo teaming up in many of the timezones. the film highlights how similar circumstances can pan out differently depending on the environment, with a variety of themes and stories coming full circle in time, with characters getting gradually more evil in different plots. Reading this paragraph back it sounds confusing, and maybe I haven't explained as well as I could of, but let me make it clear, this film is a puzzle. Decidedly so, but a puzzle worth watching as it will leave you thinking for days to come!

Film number three that I wanted to talk about was The Perks of being a Wallflower. Now I have read various excerpts from the book and I have always been very impressed by how the book combats the complex issue that is depression so when I heard that it was going to be a film I was alarmed, I will be honest, I thought that Hollywood would ruin this book. The saving grace of this notion is that the screenplay of the film was written by the books author, who then also directed the film. The result of this unusual situation was excellence. The Perks of being a Wallflower follows one child through his depression has he finds friends that he will stick with for the rest of his life. It will make you laugh and it will almost definitely make you cry. It is excellent. The boy from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Logan Lerman, plays lead character Charlie very well and with real conviction but for me the performance that is worth noting is Ezra Miller as Patrick. I do not think there is a single person that can watch that film and not want Patrick as a friend. The character is excellently written and does not provide conventional support for Charlie, but rather constantly provides him with an escape, with a conversation that doesn't involve how he feels. As far as I am concerned that is a friendship like no other.

My fourth film is a bit more fun. Wreck it Ralph! Disney's latest animated offering does not disappoint. Fun for kids and teenagers alike the film is based around Arcade game characters with references to my childhood left right and centre. I sat next to you a boy of six and a chap of 21. We all enjoyed the film immensely, the two of us that are older laughed in different places, to the 5 year old but we both left the screening with ear to ear grins that can only be the result of a truly entertaining film! It made a huge amount of profit in its opening weekend and I cannot say that I am surprised, it is a fun film for all the family, with a Disney esque message, fun plot, excellent animation and lots of laughs. Perfect.

Well if you have made it this far I salute you, that's real dedication right there! You have read through all the drivel that I write about the past and now we must look forward to Christmas. Coca Cola have told us that Holidays are coming, Marks and Spencer's have told us that we need to buy lots of food and the television channels have told us there is good television to look forward too!

BBC are giving us Doctor who, should be a goodun as well as Call the Midwife and Miranda! Fun for all the family as well as a good deal of laughing I expect! Sadly no Sherlock this festive season which I assume we can blame Mr Moffat for, but I guess Cumberbatch being off filming for the new Star Trek can't have helped the situation. 2014 seems like an awfully long way away though. Especially after the drama of the Reichenbach fall! ITV give us Downton Abbey. Of course I am excited for that one. This season of Downton showed Maggie Smith at her very best as well as having suitable amounts of Drama to keep you hooked and I really hope that the Christmas special lives up to that!

I have my standard hit list of Christmas films to watch at some point when they are on the telebox:

• Mary Poppins
• Muppets Christmas Carol
• Sound of Music
• Polar Express
• Miracle on 34th Street

and who knows, maybe I will add a new one into the tradition.

I wish anyone who is reading this a Very Merry Christmas filled with Joy and too much food!

Tarrah.

Let the River Run

Time is a fickle old thing, it and I have shared an odd relationship over my lifetime and I can never honestly say that I have understood its ways. It is now, with A level Results day but one week away and many of my friends in the position that I was in this time last year that glance back, a rare moment in my life, at how time has treated me.

It definitely marches on that time, when I look at how much has changed in only a year it amazes me the Distance I have come, Ive been through the UCAS system twice, I ended up in the frozen North and now I am back in Highcliffe preparing to spend a year abroad in the United States of America. I know right? Crazy. As I look back 12 months on I have very few regrets, yes it would have been great if things had worked out slightly easier but I don't wish they had. My blood pressure might but I'm not too fussed.

Today was a good day for those in my life. Some excellent results and almost all are very happily no headed to where they wanted to go. Of course a few slip ups here and there but nothing that cannot be ironed out. If you ask me, that is ample cause for a slight celebration! 

In other less eventful news, and quite frankly less deep conversation I saw the Dark Knight Rises yesterday, I'll be honest (I know so many of you cling to this blog for my film reviews

) I thought it was outstanding, I did not think it was as good as The Dark Knight with Heath Ledger as the Joker, but it was still a great Film. Yes Sean Connery and Darth Vaders Love child did start to grate on me by the end but still, I cannot fault either the cinematography or the script, and excellent plotline and a fitting ending to Christopher Nolans epic trilogy. Gary Oldman is as always sensational, just saying.

I still really need to see the Avengers, but that might just have to wait until the I have rewatched the past two Batman Films and have got over my recent Gilmore Girls Phase (I had a craving). This reminds me, Bunheads, a new show on ABC Family starring the ever brilliant Sutton Foster and Kelly Bishop (of Gilmore Girls, hence the link) in a tv show about a Las Vegas Dancer (Foster) who Marries on a whim, goes to live with her new husband who lives with his mother(Bishop), but then the husband dies leaving the dancer there. Written and produced by Amy Sherman-Pallidino (The creator of Girlmore Girls) the script is as fast paced and witty as you would expect. The show is a joy to watch with some genuine laugh at loud moments. I am loving it.

I think that is about all I have to ramble about for the time being, but don't count on it. Im sure I will suddenly change my mind.

Ta Ta

No Business like Show Business...

"We're all thespians at heart really" was a comment just thrown away by a friend of mine earlier today, but it was a comment that hit me square in the face and so I thought to myself, this is a comment that deserves a discussion so a discussion I shall give it.

My initial thought is to scream no, no this is not true. A case in point would be BBC's new dramatisations of some of Shakespeare's historical plays such as Richard II which aired last week. The plays are billed that anyone can enjoy them even non-shakespeare lovers. I wouldn't say that that statement is strictly true, the adaptation is sensational but there are still parts that are rather heavy going and if you don't understand whats going on you really have to pay attention to get to grips with it. If you do get to grips with it though it does really highlight some of the bards greatest work, often work that people haven't even looked at since they were in school and even then they looked at it when told too and ignored it at all other times. I have always felt that schools teach shakespeare in an appalling manner, only when it is performed can you appreciate how delicately formed each line is but that is the subject for a whole other discussion in which I will probably end up sounding like some hideous person who adores Shakespeare but what can you do?

After this initial torrent of confusion my brian continued to spew out situations where really we are not all thespians at heart and then I stopped myself to ask the truly arty question "What is Theatre?" and before you get concerned that I am drifting off into an even more pretentious question than my original one never fear, I will be brief. I concluded that Theatre is really just some form of make believe that people can escape into, at which point it hit me. We are all thespians at heart. I have never met anyone in my live that does not enjoy escaping on some level, whether that be a week in Cuba or watching two and a half hours of ABBA hits strung together with a very loose storyline. Escaping is a fundamental part of our lives now.

I myself have often longed for escape and theatre in its various guises has often been a help to me. It allows you just to pretend you are someone else. DisneyLand is based on that very concept and that seems to have turned out okay. You are transported for a day into a land very different to our own where talking mice and singing bears are totally the norm and maybe dreams can come true, If thats not theatre I don't know what is. equally I know no-one that cannot relate to that and appreciate that on some level so yeah, I guess we are all Thespians at Heart...

I Just Wanna go Home

Coming home is undoubtedly one of the weirdest sensations I ever go through as a Human being, not because of anything that is at my home, just the circumstances regarding my return. Nine times out of ten I am excessively sad to be leaving wherever it is that I am, the process of saying Goodbye is never one I have participated in well, but then the moment I return home I am overwhelmed by a wonderful sense of familiarity, returning is like putting on a nice pair of slippers if you will.

Being at home I love, a chance to see people I have undoubtedly not seen for a great deal of time, party, catch up, share long and meaningful conversations about all the occurrences of the weeks of absence all culminating together so that the moment I am home, I feel on top of the world. Equally the moment I leave wherever I was before, I am overwhelmed by sadness of departure. As I read this back I realise that actually if I didn't have to travel everything would be okay.

To conclude, scientists, lets wrap up this whole Higgs Boson malarky and get right on the Teleportation problem.

Cheers

Hutt Out.

This is a life of illusion

So, here we are again gang, I am once again in a situation where, a. I have not blogged in an absolute age (slap on the wrist for me) and b. have examinations looming. It's enough to make you hate e entire education system as in many ways I already do!

Today is a Bank Holiday Monday but clearly no one let the University of York know that simple fact as I have a full day of 9 til 6 lectures. This I feel isn't too much of an issue as I did have a five week 'holiday' for Easter but it's still depressing to read on Facebook how everyone else is having a lovely day off living life to the full and Im stuck in a Numerical Analysis Lecture but what can you do?

So what's new with me I hear you all ask. Well assuming that you did ask I shall tell you. I have been wonderfully busy, for those of you that know me you will know that this is my preferred state! Second Term at York was particularly manic, lots of lectures, lots of practicals applications for studying abroad, meetings, writing a pantomime it really was all go. Then Easter, which rather than being the lovely break I'm sure I deserved I worked most of however such working provided me with some much needed funds! I was lucky enough to be appointed Assisntant Head Writer for the Pantsoc Summer panto, Hercules! This was particularly fun and now as we enter rehearsals ( the show is on in week 8 for any York people reading ) it is very surreal to watch words I wrote be interpreted and performed.

At the end of the Easter Holidays I jollied on up to Oxford on my route back to York for the exciting event that says the Exeter College Ball. This was a highly anticipated event and did not disappoint in any respect. A lovely weekend with an old friend and a chance to make some new friends, not something I have ever been good at truth be told but I think I did ok. Dodgems, A Heltar Skeltar and numerous live bands with some donuts and noodles thrown into the mix all came together to prove to be one of the best party's of my University career.

The have been rumours flying around that I am studying abroad next year and I can reveal that these are entirely true, it has been recently confirmed that I am to be a student and the University of California Santa Cruz come 'fall 2012' which I am super excited about. Thoug I have known I am going abroad for a while the exact location had for a while been unknown but now I do know and it is all suddenly very real and very scary. I have a multitude of paperwork that I have to complete before June the 1st, part of this is choosing my top five colleges. The university has 10 colleges, all with different themes and locations and of these I must pick my top 5, this process is made all the more difficult by the fact that this is where will be where I am living and the people I am living with next year. Having not visited UCSC (that's what all the cool kids call it I'm informed) I turned to Google for advice on which college to pick, this was only hindered by the fact that the Americans call university in general college so as I googled UCSC college choice I was greeted with a lot of information about choosing UCSC ofer other university's in America. I continue to investigate my top five and will I'm sure update you with my choice!

I am I in a very sorry situation where I haven't seen any new films for some time, I desperately want to go and see the New avengers movie however time just seems to keep getting in the way! I did however see Titanic in 3D which surprisingly I really enjoyed. The 3D was very well done and I found it all very immersive if you will pardon the in. I still maintain that it is one of Leonardo DiCaprios finest films! James Cameron is a very cleaver man.

While I have not seen many new films I have been watching the old telebox! I adore BBC's latest offering, The Voice, though this might just be related to the presence of Tom Jones on the television that has caused this. I must admit that I havent seen much of Britains got Talent is time around, mainly again due to time. Smash is my other new addiction, it is what I can only describe as Glee with grown ups and I think it had the potential to me much better than glee. By having a standard cast of well known performers who have previously been on broadway you know you are on to a winner from the beginning. This is helped by the presence of some excellent original songs, two favourites of mine have to be "let's be bad" and "Second hand white baby Grand". Both are excellent numbs and ell worth a listen. If you haven't tuned in to watch Smash just yet I advise you do, it really is great fun and gripping, though slightly trashy, television!

I think that's all for today really, congratulations if you fought through this mammoth post, you are a better man than I.

Ta Ta

Seas would rise when I gave the word...

So, we are back, its 2012. Who's excited? ... no, me neither. 2012 so far holds no promises greater than 2011. The year amy change but I can't honestly imagine anything else changing.

So lets start at Christmas, what a delight it was to go home, the process of getting home was quite the fiasco but once I got there it was a delight. Good to see the angels again as well as young Mr White. We had a carvery which was simply wonderful, nothing is better after student life than simply eating food and ever really stopping. I also went to sway to se the inhabitants, always an intriguing trip, new mysteries every time. The actual day itself was lovely, food that was simply to die for, tasting all the better after having been cooking for myself for so long as well as just being a lovely day in general with family.

Now it is time for my review of the television at Christmas time. Its always a brilliant time of year for TV but this year quite frankly the people who create these things just excelled themselves. My morning started with some classic Morecambe and Wise going on in the background, comedy at its best, proper timeless comedy setting Christmas day off to a cracking start...

"I'm playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order"

Then the festivities of the day took me away from the television, which is of course as it should be with the next television interruption being the Queens Christmas message. Now I have watched quite a few of these over the years and I have to say, I was rather impressed by the whole thing, the speech was one of the better ones, focussing on the importance of family which was lovely really. Next bit of christmassy goodness was Doctor Who, a heartwarming christmas special with lots of science fiction goodness. Strictly was equally lovely, a nice family show that everyone can sit down and enjoy.

The icing on the cake of a classic Christmas was Downton Abbey, It was simply divine. We were treated to some excellent storylines, answering many of the questions left at the end of season 2 but posing many more. Simply brilliant. Dame Maggie Smith stole the whole show with three words

"Do you promise?"

Brought the house down with all of Maggies glory. A True national treasure.

Boxing day I saw the new Sherlock Holmes film, It was a vast improvement on the first film but still not as good as Sherlock on TV which came back on New Years day and was quite frankly brilliant. More stunning adaptations from Steven Moffatt! Irene adler was portrayed very well and the whole things was just wonderful.

I have rambled about television for sometime now. I feel its time to stop.

Over and Out