Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Movie reviews and interviews
~~14
days to go until I leave for Denmark!~~
*First off, I just want to point your attention to the new feature of my blog: the George W. Bush countdown clock! I fully support anything that raises awareness of Bush’s imminent departure! So, if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself staring at the countdown, with warm fuzzy feelings welling up inside you as you realize that yes, Bush will be forever replaced (never to return!) as president in just 586 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes…that is, 35 minutes…no, wait, 34 minutes! Ah, how time flies as you’re wishing the president’s demise!*
At the beginning of last week, I went to see a couple of movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: World’s End and Zodiac. I saw Pirates on Sunday, June 3 with Ali and his friend Fraser. I was a little worried about the length of the movie when I saw a sign posted on the door that stated there would be a 10 minute intermission. I had never been to a movie that had an intermission in it before, and found it extremely strange. The movie itself actually proved to be pretty good. Compared to the second installment of the series, it was quite impressive. The storyline actually made sense and moved swiftly throughout the film, unlike the second movie. I can’t stress how much I really disliked the second film. However, when viewed together with the other two Pirates movies, it is beginning to grow on me a bit. But, on its own, Dead Man’s Chest was quite a snore-fest that didn’t entertain me at all. In addition to paying attention to the movie, I also had to deal with extreme cold. The movie theater was freezing, and everywhere that you looked, people were crouched into tiny balls in their seats, with their jackets and whatnot draped tightly around them like blankets. After the movie was finished, we were met by ushers handing out pieces of paper. Apparently, the heat was broken in our theater, so they were handing out free movie vouchers to compensate us for the inconvenience. Hey, it may have been freezing cold, but you really can’t argue with a free movie! Lol. I think next time I go to the Vue, I’ll dress in layers…just in case!
So that was Sunday night. On Monday night, Ross text me to ask if I wanted to go see a movie with him and Scott. Having nothing else to do, obviously, I decided to join them. Ross picked me up, and we headed to Cineworld, which is located near the beach. We got our tickets, and then headed over to the candy counter. All I bought was a juice, but I watched in awe as Ross continued to pile heaps and heaps of gummy candy in a bag. I swear, I thought that bag was going to cost him £20, but was amazed when the price came up to a mere £6 or so. I must admit though, some of the candy was very cute! Lol. They had gummy dolphins, of all things…how adorable is that? Cute candy is the best! So anyhoo, we went in to watch our movie, which was Zodiac. After nearly a half hour of adverts and previews, the movie finally started. It was kind of amusing, because every now and then I would find myself laughing at some small American thing in the film, and Ross and Scott would just be sitting there quietly, looking at me like I was a freak. I can’t help it; some things can only be understood after living in the USA. So, the movie was basically a murder mystery, where a bunch of different people were trying to figure out who the Zodiac killer was. It is based on a true story of a killer in California. I quite liked it, however, it seemed a wee bit too long. They could have easily cut out a half hour or so, without diminishing the power of the storyline. Also, the title Zodiac is a bit misleading. I thought that it meant that the killer would have used the zodiac calendar to organize his killings, but that didn’t turn out to be the case at all, and was only tied to the word Zodiac on his watch! I think a different name for the move would have been more appropriate. I’m not a film critic, so that’s just my opinion. Overall, though, I had a good time and it was an enjoyable night out.
As Wednesday, June 6 dawned, I had to get ready for my interview at the JobCentre. That was the fateful day that I had to go have my interview to begin the process of obtaining a national insurance number. I thought that I would have difficulty finding the actual building, but it is surprisingly close to my flat, so that was nice. I found the right floor and then had no idea where to go next. The layout of the office is a bit ridiculous. There are signs trying to direct people to the right place, but there is no central secretary, so once you get to your correct area, I had no idea who to talk contact to tell them that I had arrived for my interview. I just told the closest person to me and sat down in the waiting area. After a bit, a nice man called my name and we sat down at his desk. Luckily, the application process was fairly straightforward. He filled out the app for me while I sat there, and checked over all my required documents. (I had to bring in my passport, a letter from my potential employer, a letter from the university stating my acceptance and student status, and a lease or letter proving where I lived.) We had to meticulously reconstruct and record every time that I left the country and when I returned again from the stamps in my passport. I have no idea why they needed such minute details, but they did (for me at least…they probably just award the number to natural citizens of the UK with no questions asked, similar to the U.S.’s social security numbers!) So, with the application all filled out, I have nothing left to do but wait until they (hopefully) award me a number, and then I can finally work!
While I was out and about that day, I decided that I should probably take care of my council tax problem. For months, the council had kept sending me bills telling me that I needed to pay my council tax or face legal action. I knew I didn’t have to pay this, but in the end was just too lazy to go to Crown House and fill out an exemption form. However, I knew that I couldn’t put it off forever, and as the building was just one street down from the JobCentre, I figured the timing was perfect. So, I went in and told them about the situation, and basically just had to fill in a simple form to declare my exemption from council tax due to my status as a student. Ah, to be a student…it’s so nice, as you get discounts and don’t have to pay for a lot of things…totally unlike the States, where being a student gets you nowhere except further into debt! Yep, so everything should now be taken care of, and hopefully things will finally begin falling into place!
So, after all of this bureaucratic nonsense, I really needed some R&R. This came in the form of Shirley’s birthday party. Shirley is Charlee’s flatmate, and is really nice. She decided to have a party at the flat instead of going out, which suited me as well, seeing as how I’m completely skint at the moment! So, on Saturday, June 9, I met up with Charlee and her boyfriend Bobby, and then went back to their place. We got Chinese takeout, which was brilliant, as I hadn’t eaten anything all day. After dinner, Shirley opened her presents. One of them turned out to be Cluedo (or, for those Americans out there, the more familiar simple name of ‘Clue’). So, we decided to play that. Wow, I hadn’t played Clue for nearly 15 years or so! It was fun, and somewhat miraculously, I won the first game. I almost won the second game as well, but Charlee ended up beating me to the room! We drank, played games, talked, and had general merriment. It turned out to be a really fun night. Finally, sometime around half past midnight, I began the long, long walk home (as everyone had worked for nearly 9 hours at their prospective jobs that day and were completely knackered…except me, of course!). I got home a little after 1am, but was still wired, so I proceeded to make myself a drink (or 6!). I must admit, I was pretty trashed by the time I crashed my way onto my bed. I only found out the next day that I had apparently been guilty of drunk texting a few of my friends. Oops. I’m usually pretty good about not doing that, so I apologize to those guys who where on the receiving end of my drunken shenanigans! If it makes them feel any better, I spent the entire day on Sunday laying around half-comatose, recovering from my self-induced drunken haze!
So, that’s pretty much all that’s been going on around here. I did get my final grades from this term; however, as they’re not very good (but still much better than I ever could have imagined after those horrid exams!), I’m not going to announce them to the world. Just use your imagination.