Time to Make a Speech

It's very nearly the end of the year, which is kind of exciting because I will be spending most of the first 2 months of 2011 in Europe in the snow, very far away from home. It also means that is coming up to the last few weeks of teenage-dom for me as I'll be 20 in January. Everything is happening at the beginning of next year. I'm not sure what I should really do with all this information. Should I make a "Year That Was"- style sentimental account of the last year? Should I instead do an optimistic "Year That Will Be", outlining all the goals I have for next year and how I hope to achieve them? I don't think so, I'm not really a fan of either of those things, although I do feel that having goals and learning from your past decisions is important I don't think you should necessarily need to talk about these at length. So instead I'll just give a quick review of a movie a saw yesterday called The King's Speech.


I thought this film was probably one of the best I've seen in awhile. It was an inspiring true story that was executed perfectly through film, nothing included seemed superfluous or repeated, every shot was just as vital as the last. Often when I see films even the good ones have parts which I feel are unnecessary because they bring up plots points or ideas which have already been sufficiently explained or are just plain useless in the way of story telling (Where the Wild Things Are, I thought, was a repeat offender of this). Sometimes films just have parts which makes them lag and as a viewer (albeit one with a short attention span) just distance you from the story through sheer boredom.

The performances of the main two actors especially, Colin Firth who played King George VI and Jeffery Rush who played his speech therapist Lionel Logue were fantastic. Both performers commanded the audiences complete attention whilst on screen without stepping on each other toes, their performances were completely equal never having one outshine the other despite the opposite polarity of their characters. The story brought to light just how very important the ability to speak with confidence and clarity is in power relationships and how we are perceived by others. In a day and age when 'text speak' is infiltrating our spoken language this message is especially prevalent.  

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

ARGH.

So apparently perfume is really corrosive went spilt on varnished wooden floors. I mean I probably already knew this in the back of my mind but with these things you only really realise how problematic these chemical reactions are when say your perfume bottle falls on the floor without you noticing and spills a whole heap of perfume on the floor and you don't even notice this because it's under you desk chair and you can't see it until you move the desk chair so now you've made a permanent mark on the floorboards and your room  also smells of a perfume that you don't even wear anymore because the bottle is broken and you couldn't get anymore out (or so you thought).

Sometimes I hate my life.  

Free Time

Free time is something that I've had a lot of lately because of finishing work. However, today I think is the first day since then and before that I've just stayed at home all day doing not much. Yesterday I went to the Mountain designs to buy my clothes for my Europe trip which basically turned out to be me buying a whole winter wardrobe. None of the stuff is particularly stylish but I guess it's sort of hard to be stylish in sub zero temperatures. Hopefully, when I get to London I can get some more attractive and interesting clothing that is appropriate to wear in such climates. Honestly I don't know how you people in Canada and Europe can stand it wearing all those layers of clothes all the time and then having to take them off when you go inside. I feel this is something that I'm going to need to adjust to when I'm staying in Germany.

The days are going by so quickly and I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to cope in such a strange climate being away from everything familiar. I mean I suppose it'll be a good experience and everything being thrust out of my comfort zone but I must admit that I'm happy being comfortable and thinking about travelling and all that I need to do before I go stresses me out so much. But I guess I'm like that with everything. I wish I was like those people that got unbelievably enthusiastic about EVERYTHING despite numerous obstacles in the way of the exciting thing.

EDIT: I just got a christmas post card from my host parents in Stuttgart. I'm scared that I'm going to disappoint them somehow. They seem like such nice people.

Planning

Yesterday I finished my last day of employment in the cafe in which I have worked for the last 18 months or so. I was lucky enough to be given a gift voucher and cafe tea pot on my leaving which was very generous of my co workers. It is weird to think that I never have to plan my week around my work schedule or worry about getting a call from work asking to come in at the last minute. It's freeing of course, but it also kind of scary because it means I  no longer have an excuse to not prepare for my upcoming trip to Europe.

 At the moment I am just looking at things we can do whilst we are in London and I must admit I can't help but get incredibly excited about it. It seems that the hostel we will be staying in is quite close to the West End and if I can convince my friend whom I'm travelling with to go see a show every night then I'm fairly sure I'll make it happen if I can.  Living in Perth we get the occasional big show coming across for a week or so from Melbourne or Sydney but we don't even have a proper venue for them, the have to be played in a multi-purpose venue, which I'm told, is not that great. For this reason we never bother to see them when they come here we always just see them in Melbourne, when we go there. By happy coincidence, when I went to Sydney in year 12 for a drama tour we went to see most of the big musicals that are still running today. And when I went to London in 2004 I saw the Lion King in the same theatre that it is still currently playing in. I had forgotten that shows on the West End often run for years, it's not a luxury we have here in Perth. We don't have enough people or theatres to enjoy that type of entertainment on such a regular basis.

I'm also really excited about shopping in London. I currently have a wardrobe that is not even appropriate for an Australian winter, this being the case most of my clothes for this trip will probably be purchased from Mountain designs. But hopefully, when I'm in London and in Germany I shall be able to accrue some decent winter clothes which I can also wear at home. I'm hoping I shall not have to worry that I don't have an appropriate jacket to go out in ever again. And that I won't have to wear a cardigan that is missing buttons simply because I have nothing else to wear.

I'm glad that I'm getting more excited for this trip before I was a little apprehensive what with all the organising and stuff to be done but now I'm hoping that it will be worth it.

Summer Time Does not Last

I hope all you avid readers like the background change. I finally got to personalise the background a bit, it's a picture that I took around Easter down south when I was staying with a few friends. I think it's pretty awesome but I may decide to change it again a little down the track.

It's December which means it's Summer in the southern hemisphere and the last few weeks we have experienced so reallly hot days but also, like today some really mild, windy "Oh my God, I almost should have worn stockings/jeans/jacket today, it's that cool!" It's a little strange, but then that's weather for you.

I finished exams about 3 weeks ago and since then I've been hella busy, trying to book flights (all done), reserved accommodation (some done), got in contact with my host family (in progress), collecting scholarship money (done), and finishing up at work (only a few more shifts to go). If you're not sure what I'm talking about; I'm going to Europe in January specifically Germany with a little bit of London thrown in for good measure. Whilst in Germany I'll be studying at the University of Stuttgart for 6 weeks for a language/culture course. This means of course I'll also be experiencing the European winter for the first time and snow for only the second time. I am a little concerned as to how well I shall function in such conditions but I'm sure I'll survive.

For now though, I've just been trying to catch up with all my friends before everyone goes away (everyone is always travelling in the summer holidays). One friend is in Melbourne and going to Singapore and many other places, another is going to Morocco for an internship to teach English, another is travelling with me to Germany. I guess travelling is what you do when you are young.

I think that is all I have to report for now.

I hope you all have a great weekend <3