March Round-up: The Hunger Games, Basil plants and Chinese cakes

I know... It's been a bit too long. In fact, I have not written a post for an entire week, which is the longest blogging hiatus I have had since the birth of this blog. It seems to be the same story, but I have been beyond stressed and busy with attempting to complete coursework and other silly shenanigens. Its not that I haven't had ideas for what to write about, I have just had no time to write! But fear not, since it is another school holiday, its time for Blog Every Day In Easter (BEDIE). To commence, I am just going to quickly summerise everything that I was planning to write a post on, and also do a round up of everything that happened in March. Click here for my February round-up.

In retrospect, March has actually been a pretty good month. Very busy and stressful, but good, nonetheless. I feel like now until the end of June, I will be saying this about every month.

In March I have:

• FINALLY FINISHED MY MUSIC COMPOSITIONS!
• If you do not do music GCSE at our school, you probably don't realise the significance and the sheer achievement of doing this. After spending a year and a half on my first composition, then a week on my second, I can finally say I will never have to compose ever again in my life. Hallelujah!
• Had the school "Magic" concert
• This was probably causing the most stress for me during the first half of the month. I had gotten to a stage where I would literally not have a single lunch or break time free, and it was quite overwhelming. In the end, I was in 6 items in the concert, and they all seemed to go pretty well. I am so proud of our Glee Club! I am thinking of uploading our performance onto Youtube and posting it on this blog - you guys want to see it? 
• Ace of Herts concert
• We sung in front of a few Mayors of local towns to raise money for homeless people. It was okay.
• Been to the Big Bang Science Fair
• This was actually one of the most suprisingly enjoyable outings that I have had in a long time. I doubt anyone is actually interested, but my basil plant is doing really quite well. It managed to germinate in a few days, and the first leaves sprouted after 5-6 days. Now after 2 weeks, the plants are around 3mm tall. Yipee! 



Is it sad that I'm really proud of this photo?


• Gotten back my exam results 
• With mixed feelings, as shown in this post.
• Hype for prom, yearbook and after prom parties have started
• Even though there are still 4 months till the summer holidays, plans and pressure for the end of compulsory education are already commencing, with prom, yearbook and after prom celebrations. I hope they live up to the hype. 
• Went to Bicester Village 
• Last Sunday, I went with my mum to Bicester Village, which is an outlet shopping "village", selling marked down designer goods, that are still beyond ridiculously priced - in other words, the worse place on earth ever for me. If you know me, you probably realise that I detest designer/branded clothes and that I rarely ever spend more than £1 for jewellery, £10 for a top, £15 for some bottoms and £20 for a coat/shoes. Here in Bicester, the most you could buy for a tenner is a keyring. It honestly makes me pity all the people who simply throw hundreds of Pounds towards these greedy multi-billion Pound businesses simply for a tiny emblem which is barely visible, on the corner of a shirt. If you have so much money, that you can afford to use it as toilet roll to wipe your arse, then go for it. But it's those people who work so hard for their money and save up so much to just blow it on something they view as being of such prestige and social significance, when I see it as such a waste, who I feel the most sorry for. As you can probably imagine, I stuck out like a sore thumb in this horrible place. 



What I wore that day (also what I wore for Mufti, though I doubt people care): Denim shirt £15 - vintage shop, Tie-dye top £0 DIY, Shorts £5 Indian shop, Necklace £0 sister's present, Docs £lots

• Seen "The Hunger Games"

• Last Wednesday, I went to see "The Hunger Games" with MP and my, oh my, it was so ridiculously good. Here are my thoughts on the movie compared to the book (in the last 3 days I have managed to read the first book) :
• I feel like the movie did have to chop out quite a few aspects of the book out, since it's already around 2.5 hours long. I don't they they had to compromise too much, but at some points, it was slightly confusing/ hard to understand what was occurring without Katniss' narrative. For example, I watched the movie before I read the book, and I did not get how the magic burn cream from the sponsors managed to miraculously heal her wounds, but then after reading it, I had a far clearer understanding. Same goes with the constant flash backs of Peeta throwing the burnt bread at Katniss - I highly doubt people who don't read the books would have understood the significance of it.
• The book is written in a 1st person narrative from Katniss' perspective so obviously we get to understand alot about her, and her emotions and feelings are strongly felt in the book. Of course a movie is always very much from a 3rd person perspective, which in some ways was an advantage, as it was possible to see the gamemakers controlling the game and reactions from around Panem of the games, which was quite interesting.  I also thought it adds another interesting layer to the underlying message of the story - the book criticises reality tv, and televising the torture of other human beings for the entertainment of others, when in fact, the very reason we are watching the movie is for entertainment. I obviously understand that it is a fictional story, but it just goes to show that seeing the suffering of others is something that humans do find entertaining, regardless of whether it is just fiction or not. 
• Since we don't know what Katniss' inner feelings really are, unlike in the novel. I do think Jennifer Lawrence's acting was satisfactory, but obviously she cannot telepathically convey her thoughts and feelings to the audience, so some of the pure emotion and her strength of character is lost.
• I thought the portrayal of the Capitol's pompous fashion sense and superficiality was excellently executed. The outlandish costumes designs, hair and make up were all spot on to what I would imagine the Capitol to be like, and it really highlighted just how disconnected they are to the rest of Panem.
• One criticism I have is that they should have made it more gory and bloody. I acknowledge that they wanted it to be a 12A, but in the novel, by the end, Katniss and Peeta are battered and beaten to a pulp with a multitude of wounds, scars and gashes. In the film, they look far to pristine and clean for two people who have been burnt by fireballs, stung by tracker jackers, and been close to death on numerous occasions
• Overall, I think it is a fantastic movie/book and everyone should go read/see it! I like the book because the story line is just so fast, exciting with so many turns of events. It's definitely one of those books that are really hard to put down. Also, the language used is not too complex, so I can read it leisurely without having to think to hard to process the storyline. I have also worked out why so many girls love "The Hunger Games" - it has a love triange involving 2 guys. 
• Made my mother an awesome birthday cake



I do realise it looks kinda rubbish as I had no good fruit apart from kiwi. I could not be bothered to make the orange segments look more aesthetically pleasing.

• Yesterday was my mum's birthday and I made an awesome Chinese style chiffon cake. We haven't even eaten it yet, but I'm sure it's going to be delish. I got the recipe from here.

Okay, I was going to do targets for next month, but I cannot be bothered as I've been writing for over an hour now! 

See you tomorrow!


Rebecca x
P.S. My mum is probably the funniest/most annoying person to ever sit next to whilst watching a film, due to her running commentary. Today, Avatar was on telly, and some quotes include:

• "Why do they have a long pony tail, they're like Chinese people!" <- speaking about the Na'avi.
• "Omg they have bamboo forests too, that's really messed up." <- regarding Pandora.
• 15 minutes into the movie...
• Mum: "Wow, that was quick! it's already finished!"
• Me: "It's just an ad break mum..."