Sunday 24 August 2014

Make Up Make Up Never Ever Break Up

Except sometimes you really should.



The heartache of ending a relationship is a hugely complicated thing. I can't begin to imagine the pain of being dumped (thankfully I haven't had to experience that yet) but I do know that it's rarely a walk in the park for the one making that decision either. Just because you end a relationship it does not mean the feelings go away. And I also know a lot of people who are unhappy in their relationship but too frightened to take the leap.

I have been through 3.5 break-ups in my life. The first, when I was 16, happened over MSN chat; it was a calm, mutual agreement in which I told my boyfriend I'd seen Sammie K wearing his hoodie and that he hadn't texted me for 2 days. He suggested it wasn't working and I full-heartedly agreed. But I still felt a bit sad and "bleurgh" for about a week. Just as he had been my first forray into love, he was then my first into heart-break. I had no idea...

The second is the 0.5 in this break up equation. We only dated for about 6 weeks and I wasn't really aware it was even a relationship until in week 4 he confessed undying love (which I gently told him wasn't reciprocated). By week 5 he was clingy as hell and when I learned he'd asked his last girlfriend to marry him I broke it off in week 6. The resulting tantrum is what qualifies this non-relationship for break-up status: threats of suicide (that I did not believe for a second), full-on screams of anguish and a really quite unnerving ambush when I was home alone two days later. What I took away from this was don't date drummers, because they must clearly ALL be unhinged (a sweeping statement, but it would prove not to be untrue 5 years later).

At the end of that school year my cute, geeky friend that I set next to in Media Studies bought me chocolate and asked me to prom on one knee. I was a bit surprised but totally smitten. I finally gave up my closely guarded virginity (on prom night) and fell in love in a crazed endorphin and hormone tornado. We did not argue until our 1 year anniversary, when he was a grumpy asshole and made me cry for the first time. But you can't break up on your 1 year anniversary! So we made up and carried on.

Thursday 21 August 2014

Queen of the Tearling - from Book to Film

I treated myself to a new book the other day. It's called Queen of the Tearling and it is the debut novel of Erika Johansen. Picked it up in Waterstones, read the blurb and bought it on the spot: it's a fantasy adventure about a young woman thrown into danger and forced to stand on her own two feet. Couldn't really be more up my street.


Looking at online reviews now, it's got everyone very excited. The publishers snapped it up, everyone thinks it's great... Apparently I have good taste in books. Apart from the one douche who described it as a "female Game of Thrones" (rage*) it looked pretty promising.

Then I discovered that David Heyman, producer of Gravity and Harry Potter, aka most successful British filmmaker in my mind, had purchased the rights to the book, before it was even published. He's already lined up Emma Watson to play the lead (more on this later) and there is a premature IMDB page and everything.

Fast work Mr Heyman. I hate you a little bit because I wanted to get the rights to this book first (can you stop being so successful please and thanks?). But I also love you because you make awesome films. So at least Queen of the Tearling is being made by someone I trust to do it justice.