How Does She Do It?

After the New Year celebrations a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief and get straight back into the normal routine.  I can never do that because hot on the heels of New Year is my youngest son's birthday.  He was 13 on Thursday.  Most years its the first day back at school on his birthday (poor thing - I'm such an inconsiderate mother having him then - although he was due on Christmas Eve so its his own fault for hanging around). But this year because they didn't finish school until the Thursday before the Christmas weekend they don't go back until tomorrow (Yeah!).

So on Thursday we had a lovely day to spend together.  We went out for lunch with a friend of his from primary school and his mum who is my friend too and then we went to the cinema to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Later his friend came back for tea and a sleepover.

What a great film it was though.  It was two hours long but it didn't feel like it and when we came out we were all surprised by the time - surely a sign of a good film.  I do like going to the cinema - I love the feeling of entering another world for an hour or so where you can really lose yourself, but never more so than this one.  I felt it didn't have quite so complex a plot as the HP stories but that didn't seem to matter because you just got caught up with the characters.  Using different characters in New York in the 1920's also made it different enough to HP to stand on its own two feet, but created a familiar world where the wizards are in conflict with the non-wizards.  It had at the same brilliant cinematography as the HP movies too which is just fantastic.  We had quite a HP fest this Christmas with all the films being shown on TV and I just love the quality of the films.

But what I admire most is J K Rowling's imagination, she is just a genius.  The thing I struggle most with in writing is description.  Dialogue flows but description is something I really have to work on.  After seeing the films again I have decided to re-read the books, concentrating on how she puts those amazing scenes in words.  I think that will prove to be a masterclass in writing.  Wouldn't mind getting my hands on the screenplay for this one too.

Certainly something to be inspired by.

Paddington Bear

I was really excited to learn that there is a film coming out in the autumn featuring one of my favourite children's TV characters (I know I need to get out more don't I?)

When I was a child, I adored everything Paddington Bear: the books, the TV programmes, I even carried a miniature bear around with me wherever I went.  Paddington was my best friend, I told him my hopes, my fears and my dreams. I suppose he was my version of an imaginary friend. (Now, that sounds even sadder doesn't it?)

The film is being produced by the makers of the Harry Potter films, so I imagine it will be a slick production and from the few clips I have seen, I am already hooked.  

I'm afraid I'm going to have to rope one of my boys into going to the cinema with me - I'm not so sad that I will go and see a children's film without any children!  Do you think they might need the number for Childline?