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.

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.

Hipster Culture in TV & Film

So at the moment I'm writing a drama about a group of twenty-somethings living in London. Obviously I want it to be original and I've also decided I don't want it to be "hipster", which is hard because I've seen and relate to Lena Dunham's GIRLS quite strongly, and can't help but find parallels between that show and what I'm writing about (because I am a twenty-something living in a big city). Anyway, thinking about the hipster trend/culture led to me questioning where it all started and how it has recently seeped into so much film and television.  

First question: da fuq is a hipster?
Well, hipsters themselves cannot agree on this. The "movement" (if we can call it that) is not a new thing and has origins going back to the Beat Poets and, as the term suggests, the hippies of the 60's/70's. I'm going to call these "true" hipsters. They were the artists and creative people who worked casual coffee shop jobs and hung out on urban street corners, discussing their work and dreams, taking life one day at a time. They sought out the original and unheard of, rejecting everything mainstream and zealously guarding their discoveries from the masses. We're talking non-conformists without the get-up and go of the punks, but with safe, well-educated backgrounds to stop them becoming chavvy benefit-scroungers. Mostly, I feel like becoming a creative hipster was the "it" rebellion for kids from upper-class families - "Oh won't Mummy and Daddy be upset when they learn I'm wasting my Oxbridge degree working at a coffee-shop. They don't understand my need for creative liberation!"

"Nobody smile - smiling's too mainstream"

{Dear Diary} Aliens, Hot Wax and Mutant Kittens

The other day I was lying on a treatment bed and thinking about Life (as you do when pain is imminent). I was about to embark on my first week off since Xmas; after having a minor breakdown in front of my manager, it was finally agreed that I should take some time to chill the f out. Since some redundancies in the department, my workload had doubled and although I enjoy being busy, the strain was beginning to take effect.

But wow a whole 10 days to do what I want? They don't pay me enough to go anywhere nice, so I've retreated to Mum's in sleepy Dorset, where the only demands put upon me will be those from the new boyfriend (good demands). Some body maintenance was due - I went onto Wahanda.com and got a cracking deal on a hot wax. I also accidentally dyed my hair orange.

Oh Hey Steven Moffat

A while ago I attended a sell-out event by the Royal Television Society. The focus of the evening was one of British TV's biggest and brightest dramas - Sherlock. Joining us in the room were its writers/creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, producer Sue Virtue, BBC controller Ben Stephenson and actress Amanda Abbington. 

They were going to tell us exactly how they made such a huge, brilliant hit!