A Few Favourite Films!

Hello!

I am a complete movie-whore... That sounds weird. I mean in the sense that I have watched soooooo many movies and I watch them over and over and over again. And probably again.

Obviously, there are a lot of movies in the world but here are a few of my absolute favourites (at the moment - this list will have changed in a few weeks!)

1.

The Avengers

Marvel. Superheroes. Thor. That is literally everything I need to say about this movie. Seriously.

2.

Brave

It's set in Scotland and, with my Scottish heritage, there is nothing I don't love about this movie. Especially the triplets; they're so frickin' cute!

3.

21

There's something about this movie that completely boggles my brain but it intrigues me so much that I love it.

4.

John Tucker Must Die

Until I went back to university, I had never even heard of this movie, then some of my flatmates and I watched it and I was like "Oh. My. God. How have I never watched this before?!" It's so good!

5.

The Little Mermaid

Everyone needs Disney movies in their life and this is one of my all-time favourites (along with Brave)! Not going to lie though, Ursula used to terrify me when I was little... Not anymore though... Not a lot anyway.

6.

The Holiday

A lot of people will say that this is the first sign of me getting into the Christmas spirit but this is actually the one movie that is set at Christmas time and I don't class as a 'Christmas movie'. Although I do probably watch it more around this time of year - it's something about all the snow; trust me, England rarely looks like that in the winter!

So those are the movies I've wanted to watch a lot lately, like a lot a lot. I only put The Avengers down but it's actually anything Marvel that I'm obsessed with at the moment, or in general - there is never a bad time to watch a Marvel movie! It's the one thing my brother and I can watch together and not argue about!

Katie x

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #5

Hello!

Since going to university my confidence has massively grown and my best friend likes to constantly remind me how proud of me she is (she's a cutie). I think this quote in particular is something I need to recognise and act on more to keep my confidence levels edging up!

"A simple "hello" could lead to a million things" - Unknown

I've always, as in my entire life, been that shy girl that doesn't talk to anyone and just muddles through, doing as I'm told and being ignored... Not going to lie, I liked that method a lot through high school! Now I'm at uni though, I need to be more confident and talkative and actually say hello to people because otherwise I'm going to be one lonely person.

The thing is, all I need to say is one little world, "hello", and I could meet some amazing people but, as I'm sure you know, I seriously over-think everything, so I sit and think I should say "hello" but what if they don't want to talk to me or they're perfectly fine without me butting in etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. They probably don't care if I say hello or not, they probably haven't even given it a thought but we could all find some amazing people in this world if we just say that one simple little greeting to people, no matter where you come from in the world, there is one word in any language that could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

So today's ending is going to be the same as the beginning.

Hello!

Katie x

Have you read the previous Mid Week Pick-Me-Up's?

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #2

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #3

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #4

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #4

Hello!

Today's little quote kind of links in with yesterday's post (HERE) but I love it because it's from one of my favourite books.

"Be brave." - Divergent (Veronica Roth)

Anybody who's read the book review I did HERE, on Divergent, will know just how much I love this book trilogy and this is definitely one of the quotes that stood out to me the most from it.

It's so simple. Just two words. "Be brave". I think it's perfect though. Those two words can mean a lot. It's so easy to be scared but it's not as easy to be brave; it only takes one scared person to make a brave person (oh, the irony).

Being brave can be as simple as saying yes or no to something you weren't sure of, or something you've never felt brave enough to do.

Be brave.

Katie x

Have you read the previous Mid Week Pick-Me-Up's?

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #2

A Mid Week Pick-Me-Up #3

A Little Story

Hello!

I decided today was another day to take a risk and post a snippet of a short story I wrote. This was a task we were once given in a seminar, but it's not only been very expanded from its original hundred-word-long version since then, it's also been completely redrafted and changed.

Let me know what you think (in the nicest way possible) and I'm completely open to constructive criticism!

(I posted a short story I'd written last month, too, if you're interested, just click HERE)

Quick warning - it's not explicit but some people might consider it a little scary towards the end...

The Boy

It’s not slippery like a slide should be; it just feels like I’m walking on normal ground, but I’m not. I’m walking straight down the glowing, red helter skelter, my feet barely touching it. It’s what I imagine walking on air to be like… or clouds, but Jane and Tom say that’s not possible; they’re my foster parents, not my real parents. Everybody thinks I’m being silly when I tell them I can walk on anything, anything, but I can. Even the lady at the bottom of the slide told me to stop telling fibs and that’s why I’m up here; to show her that I’m not telling fibs. Mummy and daddy are gone now but they would have believed me, I know they would have. Daddy always used to tell me that nothing is impossible. He wouldn’t have called me mean names. Tom sometimes calls me nasty things, like “freak”, or sometimes worse… A lot of the time they’re worse.

I’m half way down the slide now, just on the curve in sight of the bottom. The lady in the yellow shirt at the bottom is staring at me with her mouth wide open. Now she has to believe me; I’m not lying. Her bright red hair stands out as she shakes her head and looks back at me but I just carry on with my even-paced walk down, eager to talk to her… If she’s still there, that is.

When I reach the bottom she comes running towards me. The rest of the park is nearly empty with just a few people dotted around in odd places, but I know none of them have noticed me. I’m good at reading people. Apart from this lady; I don’t know what she’s thinking. I think that’s maybe why I chose to show her what I can do; she might be special like me and maybe that’s why I can’t tell what she thinks.

“Kid, how’d you do that?!” She still looks shocked and I can see the strain in her forehead as she tries to figure it all out, figure me out.

I try to make words come out of my mouth but nothing happens. I don’t talk much normally. I don’t ever talk, actually. Jane and Tom don’t like to hear what I have to say, so I don’t ever say anything. In fact, nobody really likes anything I have to say. Mummy and daddy would have listened to me. They used to love to listen to my stories.

“Come on Kid, you’ve got to tell me how you did that.” She stares at me, her gold-y, brown eyes looking me up and down every few seconds. “At least give me your name, Kid.”

The lady kneels down so that she’s roughly the same height as me. She wears a name badge that says “Elle” on it, obviously her name. I know I can’t tell her so instead, I grab both sides of her head, pressing my fingertips into her hair. She jerks before falling completely still as I let my story seep into her brain.

When I move my hands back to my sides she falls to the floor, staring at me.

“What’s wrong with you?” She whispers, shaking as she slowly starts creeping away.

Turns out she’s not like me. It’s a shame, really. I would have liked a friend. My hands move back to her hair and move down to press the blue line on the side of her neck until she goes limp. There’s nothing wrong with me.

Story Time!

Hello!

I thought I'd be brave today (just like yesterday's post, HERE, said I should be) and share a story with you that I wrote a little while ago in a creative writing workshop. It's only a very short one and we had to write it in both first and third person, so here is the third person version but I can always post the first person one later to give you a bit more insight, if you want! I have also expanded on the story since then, so there is a bit more to it now but this is the original, short version. Let me know what you think, I'm open to criticism too, just make it constructive, pretty please!

Bang, Bang.

The noise echoed through the tiny, corner shop, making it all the way to the small staff room at the back where Rose sat, staring into her steaming cup of coffee, her hands wrapped around it to absorb the heat. Her head slowly lifted up a minute after the loud bang, a frown spreading across her pale face. She sat for thirty or so seconds longer, staring at the door expectantly, but nothing happened. Resigned, she stood up and, slowly, headed for the door, the plimsolls on her feet dragging across the old, carpeted floor. She pulled the heavy fire door, the strain showing on her face from the weight of it, heaving out a big sigh as she let it swing shut, her cup of coffee still sitting half empty on the edge of the table where it was left.

She walked through the short hallway to the shop floor and stopped. She stood in the middle of the aisle staring at the visibly open cash desk. You could see the slight tremble in her hands as they hung, limply by her sides and the hairs at the nape of her neck were all stood up on edge, alert.

There was another resounding thud that resonated through the small shop, coming from behind where Rose was stood. Her eyes closed momentarily and her previously heavy breathes came to a halt. It was several minutes before she reopened her eyes again and gained her composure. Slowly, her body started to turn, her clumsy feet turning a second later. The movement stirred the resting dust bunnies, letting them mix and swirl in the air before finding somewhere new to hide; somewhere safer. As she stood staring at what had been behind her only a minute ago her breath got lost in her throat, caught on her terror. Less than a couple of centimetres away from her face was a gun, a calloused finger resting on the trigger.