Open spot!

So, for those of you that haven’t heard: Guillermo Del Toro, the guy who was supposed to direct the two upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films, has abandoned the project. Jumped ship. Fled the country. Left the director’s chair. Unlike most people who have commented on the news article at stuff.co.nz, I couldn’t be happier. For years now, I have been angry with Sir Peter Jackson for deciding to make ‘The Hobbit’ into a movie. Not that I object against that book being made into a movie. No, the problem was that it was too soon. Because ever since I first read ‘The Hobbit’, I’ve been wanting to make a movie out of it. I love that book so much, and leaving the responsibility of making it into a movie in somebody else’s hands is to me like leaving your children with a homeless guy, and trust him to know how to look after them. Unthinkable. Even if Sir PJ was the producer, and would have final say about the look and feel of the film, and although I loved the look in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ - ‘The Hobbit’ was my movie.

When I first heard that PJ wasn’t going to direct ‘The Hobbit’ himself, after he had said that they were planning on filming it, I was beside myself with fury, at least up until they said who the director was going to be: Guillermo Del Toro. When they said that, I basically gave up all hope. But two or three years later, here we are – the movies (oh, and I despise the fact that they are making it into two films) are yet to be greenlit, the pre-pre-production has been going on forever, however no actors have been cast yet, and now the director has just left the show. And I’m cheering on the inside. Give me another couple of years, and I’ll be sitting in that director’s chair. If another director shows up in Wellington before that to direct the movies, I’ll start an underground guerrilla war to sabotage them.

I almost choked on my coffee when I checked my Twitter account this morning and saw that two people had linked to news articles about Guillermo Del Toro departing ‘The Hobbit’. These things almost never happen. The alleged reason was that he had committed to a movie project that was supposed to last for three years – and now we’re looking at six years in total (considering the fact that he’s been living in NZ for two years or so already, working on the script and doing pre-production, and the movies haven’t even been given the green light yet). He missed his family and needed to get on with other projects, so he packed his suitcase and was out of here.

I think I might have some lobbying to do at Weta these next few months…

Standing tall

I. Love. Wellington.

I won’t venture to tell you the entire tale about last weekend. It’s too grand to be put on my blog. On any blog.

I will, however, say something about it.

There I was, sitting by the bar at Public, my favourite place to hang out on a Saturday night. That place always comes with some good stories. The first time I met two lovely women from Auckland, whom I’ve been invited to stay with if I visit Auckland some time. This time I got dragged over to a table surrounded by basketball players. I was introduced to all of them, and I can honestly say it was some of the best company I’ve had for a while. They were all so tall, I felt tiny for pretty much the first time in my life! When they said they were a basketball team from Hamilton I pictured a group of amateurs. Silly me. Last night (Sunday night) I decided to do some research about the team, and it turned out that the Waikato Pistons (which is the name of the team) are the best team in the basketball league (or whatever it’s called), and that several of the players have played for the Tall Blacks, New Zealand’s national basketball team, and/or famous teams overseas. I was a little bit wow-ed. I’m glad I didn’t realise this on Saturday night. Tipsy as I was, I probably would have been a little starstruck. I know, how lame. So I’ve just figured out that when I’m a famous director I just have to be a little tipsy whenever I’m around all those big names, and I won’t be intimidated. Awesome.

Anyway, it was a night to remember. That’s for sure; I got home at 7 o’clock. In the morning.

I swear everything is still happening in slow motion. Still slightly hungover? That’s a possibility. Also, I’m still waiting for my voice to recover. Having to talk over the music for 5+ hours sort of killed it; not to mention that having to talk even louder in order for those tall guys to hear it way up there was a bit of a mission.

Thankfully I had the best Sunday possible, in Tawa, with the best company.

I wonder if I have time for another coffee or two, or three (or four?) before heading over to uni. Or maybe I should just buy a red bull. Yeah, that sounds better. I’ve also got a bottle of Coke. I better get ready. I just got out of the shower (aaah!) - I’ve had such a lazy morning; I got out of bed at 10.30 am. But I guess I needed that sleep, having suffered from sleep deprivation all yesterday (I got 4 hours of sleep Saturday night). It’s going to take me the rest of the month to recover from the weekend. Haha. I’m sure you all got that.

I better go.

Caught in my immobile flight

Oh, the choices I have to make…

I’m currently sitting in my flat, trying to write a really important essay about Atonement, but my motivation is hiding (I think it might be hibernating) somewhere, so instead I’m just wasting time and playing around with everything that I shouldn’t be doing at the moment, like updating my blog, taking photos and listening to music (some music from The Lord of the Rings just started playing, so now I want to watch that). As you can tell, I’m also keen to read Harry Potter rather than write about that other friggin book. Besides, it’s so unbelievably cold in my flat at the moment; I think that’s why my brain has shut down. I’m unconsciously trying to conserve energy to heat up my body. I’ve put on three layers of clothes, slippers, gloves, a scarf and my bath robe, I’ve had a cup of tea and held my hands under boiling water, and I’m still freezing cold. Good to know that winter is just getting started…

To be quite honest, writing this blog entry has revived some of my brain, probably because I love to write when it’s not for something that someone else is telling me to do – I should get back to my essay while it lasts.

Growing Wings

I have now lived in Wellington for more than four months, and needless to say things are only getting better. Which is something you should all be able to tell from my blog, and the fact that I don’t update it nearly as often as I would if things were not that good.

I feel like I’ve managed to settle in nicely, but of course, me being me, that is exactly what makes me want to “break free” again, so my latest idea is to move. To another part of Wellington. The reasons for this decision are many and, let’s say, occasionally on the strange side of the fence (one of the reasons involves a broccoli. Enough said?).

It didn’t take me long to decide where I want to move to. When I first arrived in Wellington I wanted a place close to uni, because I imagined that I would be spending most of my time there, but now I have seen what it’s really like. Mt Victoria is not that close to the university (see picture), but buses run on a daily basis back and forth between Mt Vic and uni, so no worries there. Besides, I’m planning on getting a job soon, and Mt Vic is much closer to the places in the city where I could see myself getting a job, which means that I’ll be able to work in the weekends without having to get my driver’s license and a car first to be able to get to and from work.

I sent a text to a guy this morning, about a room that is available in a 5 bedroom house on Mt Vic, which I really want to get. The rent is the same as I’m paying now, so that would be perfect. I just hope he’ll text me back soon…

It would be so cool to actually live with other students, in a proper house, with two (2!) bathrooms, a back yard with a deck and a bbq… That’s how I imagined living as a student to be like, so please, please, please text me back and say that I can have the room.

Hurra!

I thought today would be the day to make my title Norwegian, seeing as it is, after all, Norway’s National Day today, on May 17. I’m not going to celebrate it in any way, though. I could lie and say that it’s because I’ve got two lectures and a PASS class today (which is true), but the truth is I’m not celebrating because I just don’t care… I’m in New Zealand now, and here we don’t celebrate May 17, so why should I? It’s not like they’d give me a day off from uni to celebrate, either. But I’m still happy today, which is why I decided to at least write a blog entry about it, and not let it pass in complete silence. Fact is, I’m really happy. I’m handing in my English essay today, and after that my next essay is not due until June 3, so I can finally breathe again for some time. And I’ve got coffee appointments for later on today, tomorrow and Thursday, so I definitely feel very much at home in Wellington now. I’m currently sitting on my bed in my pyjamas, bath robe, and slippers, enjoying two cups of morning coffee whilst listening to nice music, so yeah, life’s pretty good at the moment.

Something I made yesterday and glued to my bedroom window.

(OK so maybe I’m just a little proud…)

Standing ovation

I think I’m finally getting the hang of this. Writing essays, I mean. My English essay on the gothic genre is due in tomorrow, and seeing as it’s not my favourite course (that’s an understatement, by the way), I decided it’d be best to start  writing it early so that I could go back to it and make changes after I’d had some time to re-consider. So I finished a rough draft about a week ago, but I had written heaps more on it before that, the only problem was that I didn’t really know in what direction I was going, so I wrote lots of random things that didn’t make much sense, so when I had completed the draft I had written more than 3,500 words, and the essay itself is only supposed to be 1,500 words… Then the plan was to develop that draft throughout the rest of the week, but it never happened (to my defense; I was concentrating on my media essay which was due in two days ago, and which was way more important to me). So today, after several internal discussions, the good person sitting on my shoulder beat the person sitting on my other shoulder, and I went to the library at 2 pm, only knowing that I had to stay there until the essay was finished. Once I started writing, the words just came flowing to me, and the essay had been completely re-drafted and re-written within the next 3-4 hours, and by the end of that time I was so pleased with it (and had half a dozen epiphanies about the text I was writing about) that I just plotted down my references, saved the document and went home. Seriously, it’s getting so easy to write an essay now, I love it. I have to applaud my accomplishments.

*Clapping.*

Thank you, thank you very much.

Bring it

I’m finally ready for winter. Last week I bought a bath robe, so I can wrap myself up in it when I step out of the shower and am hit by the sub-zero temperatures (OK, that’s an exaggeration, but you all know what I mean). I’ve been wearing it around the flat, whether it’s morning, night or in the middle of the day. It’s warm. But what I soon discovered was that a bath robe didn’t help for my feet, which are always cold. I’ve been looking at slippers for some time now, but I thought I’d be alright by just putting some warm socks on. Alas, how wrong I was. So yesterday I wen’t to The Warehouse and bought a pair of slippers. I love them. So, so much. I only take them off when I go outside or get into bed. Oh, and does anyone want to try to guess which colour they are? I spent about 15 minutes thinking about it last night, but I’m still not sure. They seem to be some kind of purple-grey or whatever.

If you know me, you’ve probably seen my incredibly flattering new profile picture on Facebook, in my bath robe. So you’ve seen it on me. But just for the hell of it, here’s another photo of it, in stand-by mode.

I think I might actually survive the winter living in a non-insulated flat now. I’m never cold anymore. I’m almost hoping for some really cold weather to hit us soon (we had 19 degrees yesterday, sigh) just so that I can see how well my slippers and bath robe are working to keep me warm.

 

By the way, yes, this is an attempt to make amends for my bad “attendance”. At least my intentions are good.

Weekend Blues

You’d all be forgiven for thinking that I’d quit updating my blog. These last few weeks I’ve been terrible at it. Who knew that that’d happen when I got a social life?

Anyway, today’s Saturday. I’m not sure what I’ll do today, but what I do know is that I should be writing my English essay which is due in on Monday (in two days, I know), but I really hate that essay, and I must admit I’m kind of hungover from last night. Last night was supposed to be amazing. I was going to watch the season finale of Supernatural and, as my bewildered mind told me, talk to a friend in Norway on the phone. For some reason I got the time zones mixed up, so I imagined that Norway was 12 hours ahead of NZ when actually they are 12 hours behind. Sorry about that, dear friend. Let’s try that again tonight.

I did, however, get to watch the season finale of Supernatural. Twice. (I had to.) This is what ultimately ruined my night. But don’t worry, I won’t say anything about what happens. But when I started watching it, I was eating pizza and sipping chardonnay. When the episode was finished, I started on the chocolate, opened some bottles of beer, gulped down some more wine and stayed in my room for the rest of the night. I couldn’t leave, my eyes were too red and puffy for me to be around other people. Unintentionally, I got a little drunk, so that eventually my subconscious self succeeded and I had to get into bed because I felt a wave of extreme tiredness wash over me.

When I woke up this morning, I felt lost, like I had nothing more to look forward to, and I also realised that I haven’t got any plans for tonight. But then again, I should be writing my essay. However, I still feel like getting drunk. Argh, Supernatural, what have you done to me?!?

The Great Escape

 

 

Ehrm -

 

Hello.

 

Please accept my sincerest apologies for my long absence. Sometimes life catches up with you and forces you to slow down. Everything happens at once. There is no way out of it, you just have to wait and see. Follow the current. There is no other option, the current is too strong, anyway. But now I’ve finally managed to paddle my way to the shore, after a long run down the river. I think I’m standing on my own two feet, but they are strangely weak. I stand up, and feel disorientated. The river has taken me too far, and I look back, seeing past all the things I missed, trying to see where the current got hold of me. It’s impossible, it’s too far back. The only thing I can do now is to look forward and start making my own way down the rest of the river. Stay out of the current, stop and think when the situation calls for it, and try to enjoy the ride. I’m travelling down a one-way lane, my mind focused on one thing only, keeping fellow travellers close but at a distance. This is my adventure, and I am not ready to share it with anybody else just yet.