What did you guys get up to this weekend?  I spent a lot of time reading this magnificent book in the warmth and snugness of my sofa nest while eating home made scones with jam.  Joy.  Here are the rest of my highlights from the past week…

• On Tuesday I went to a blind gig (a new term I’ve coined for seeing bands I’ve never heard of before.  Like blind dating but without the awkwardness).  The National are now firmly on my “listening to” radar as a result.
• Cinema (as always)!  On Wednesday I saw One Day which I really enjoyed (I know, I know) and on Friday I watched The Guard, which I recommend to anyone in need of a few laughs and some sharp wit.
• Spooky ghost touring on Wednesday night!
• On Thursday I watched trashy films on TV while mending/altering/customising some clothes.  Time spent with my button collection is rarely time wasted, I find.
• Taking myself off to Stockbridge for a wander, a panini and a rummage in the charity shops (and the rain) on Friday.
• My boyfriend and I had a little 80s party for two on Saturday night while we were getting ready to go out to an actual party.  My head has been full of classics like Rush Hour by Jane Wiedlin ever since.  Watch the video below and let me know if you have any answers to the following: 1) Why is it full of dolphins?  2) What’s up with her wetsuit?  3) Are they really trying to make it look like she’s playing guitar underwater?

• To fend off the post-party hangover, I ate a huge bacon, black pudding and fried egg roll on Sunday morning.  With obligatory lashings of brown sauce, of course.
• And on Sunday night I caught up with an old housemate over dinner.  The perfect end to a lovely weekend.

So this is my last week before I start my new job.  I’m nervous, and excited, and nervous some more (over surprisingly trivial things, like getting up early every day again, and what to make for packed lunches).  The Summer has been a bit of a mixed bag to be honest -- a couple of crap things have happened and I’ve wasted a bit of time stressing out over stuff that probably isn’t worth stressing out over.  Several projects I had envisaged have failed to materialise but then other things that I didn’t foresee have popped up in their place, which is nice.  All in all, I do feel refreshed and rested and ready to start something new, which I guess is a good way to feel.  This week I’m going to tick a few organisation-y things off of my list, see a few friends and probably treat myself to cake to celebrate changing seasons and new beginnings.  Oh, and I’m going to see The Arcade Fire play at no less a venue than Edinburgh Castle on Thursday.  Hurrah!

What’s on your agenda this week?

Image above from here.

I’m a pretty prolific cinema go-er, as you well may know.  My Last Week’s Highlights posts often feature at least one film I’ve seen and there are always plenty more that I wouldn’t mind watching given the chance…

…and the money.

See, the cinema is an expensive game.  Even if (like me) you only pay for a ticket and bring your own snacks (yeah, I’ll admit it corporate cinema chains, I SNEAK MY SNACKS IN!  Deal with it or slash those crazy prices!).

Anyway.  Edinburgh is an especially lucky city when it comes to cinemas.  Sure we have the usual big chain players, but we are also blessed with a generous sprinkling of independent cinemas.  Cinemas with old-fashioned red velvet chairs and gold-fringed curtains that swish open at the beginning of the film and closed again at the end.  My favourite cinema in Edinbugh – the Dominion – takes the experience a whole step further with its comfy two-seater sofas, each one replete with cushions, armrests that are actually as wide as your arm(!) and foot stools.  Real foot stools!  Squeak!

And I love the independents.  I love the fact that they are locally owned and managed by people who are genuinely into film.  I also love it that some have been around for decades, not attempting to take over the world, but simply plodding along, quietly showing their movies to those of us who care to watch them.  The independent cinemas represent a little slice of my ideal world – a world where old-fashioned, family run enterprises are the norm, companies are content to just ‘be’ as opposed to ‘grow’ and our towns and cities feel unique, and not just the same as we already know with different street names.

But here’s the thing.  This last year, I’ve been a student and so have had the benefit of a generous discount on my cinema ticket prices.  Which was great while it lasted, but lasting it no longer is.  The other night I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows mark II** with a friend and, my student card having expired, was resigned to handing over a small fortune just to see the film.  Forget drinks, forget snacks, the ticket itself was almost £10.

And I was so surprised/horrified at this that I went home after the film and did what I’ve always sworn I’d never do.

I signed up for a Cineworld Unlimited card.

I know, I know, principles out the window; moral code ripped in half; poor, independent cinemas floundering at the loss of my custom (OK, not quite)…  But you guys?  I can’t afford my principles!  I can’t afford to pay over a tenner each time I want to see a film, even if it does go towards a local, independent business and not a giant money-spinning conglomerate!  Who can?!

And you know?  As much as I like to moan about big companies taking over the world, I’m also not made of cash.  And the Cineworld deal is a good one.  For £14.99 per month I can watch as many films as I want, as many times over as I want.  No limits (but you got that from the title, didn’t you?).  Rainy Friday with no plans?  I can see three films in a row.  Don’t understand something the first time round?  I can watch it again the next day.  All I have to do to be saving myself money is go to the cinema twice a month.  Easy, considering I sometimes go twice a week as it is.

So there you have it.  I’ve sold my soul to the commercial devil.  I have no right to cry when the independent cinemas start closing down.  I am a Bad. Person.

But I’m also quids in…

What are your thoughts on independent cinemas?  Would you sign up for/do you have an Unlimited card?

Image above from here.

**LOVED the film right up until the final three minutes (you know the bit I mean, Potter fans) which I will forever count as some of the most uncomfortable moments I ever spent in a cinema.

Happy Monday to one and all!  How were your weekends?  I spent mine reading and drinking coffee in the park under an enthusiastically beating sun.  Strange for Edinburgh, but blissful anyway.  Here are last week’s highlights…

• Going to the cinema for the first time in about two months.  I’m usually a pretty dedicated big screen goer but until Friday I hadn’t been since the beginning of May.  Bridesmaids was quite the homecoming, however – I haven’t laughed at a film this much for a looooong time.  Anyone else seen it?  What did you think?
• Having two picnics in the park over the course of the week.  It’s a long-held belief of mine that picnics are good for the soul.  Especially ones that feature cocktail sausages.  Yum.
• Discovering a cycle path through some woods that I never even knew existed.  Only three miles away from my house!  Edinburgh is still amazing me even after all these years with its wily woodland-in-the-city ways.  Drinking cold beers in the park with my boyfriend afterwards and laughing at the antics of the neighbourhood’s dogs.
• Having a big old lazy breakfast on Saturday.  Croissants, jam, fresh coffee…
• Watching Wimbledon.  A lot.  Shouting at the TV.  A lot.
• Making a huge pot of veggie curry which seemed to last the entire week.  Three dinners and two lunches…it’s got to be one of the best ‘chuck in any old crap’ meals there is.
• Scoring a ticket to see Tom Hodgkinson at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.  Tom is the author of the brilliant How To Be Idle and its equally brilliant sequel, How To Be Free, both of which caused me to punch the air and shout “I YEARN TO LIVE THIS WAY!” numerous times as I read them.  I can’t wait to see him in person.
• More films!  Watching Into the Wild (I wrote this post about the book a week or so ago) on Saturday night.  Amazing film, even more amazing soundtrack by Eddie Vedder.  I cried bucketloads.

And that’s all I got!  What’s on your agendas this week my lovely people?  I’m planning sewing, coffee drinking and a bunch of fun stuff for my birthday this weekend, including cocktails, jazz, mussels and board games.  Happy days

Image above from We Heart It.

I’m tied up with horrible exams and assessments this week, so my poor wee blog is being neglected.  Freedom will appear on Thursday (yay!), but in the meantime here’s the trailer for The King’s Speech in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet.  This is just one of many reasons why I’m looking forward to 2011!  Happy Tuesday blog buds xx

My oh my Miss Thursday – how you do sneak up on me!

This week has been both slightly odd and immensely satisfying.  Mostly because I’ve spent the last four days in that dizzyingly exciting, magical space that’s only ever reachable when you are absorbed in a good book.  Hence the lack of posting, the huge pile of dirty laundry that currently adorns the floor of my flat and the myriad emails and texts that have gone unreplied to since the weekend.  It is, by all accounts, a major organisational failure, but I actually don’t really care this time.  I’ve been re-reading the final instalment of the Harry Potter series in preparation for the release of the penultimate film this Friday.  And it’s safe to say, I cannot WAIT to see it.  I couldn’t wait to see it even before I read this book for the second time and found myself once again carelessly flung from the boundaries of my own life into Pottersville without even a glance over my shoulder.  Now, having spent the last several days doing little else apart from reading and when I’m not reading, wanting to be reading, I can’t wait to see it even more.  Next Wednesday (I’m exercising some thrift-based restraint and waiting until I can take advantage of the Orange 241 offer) can’t come quickly enough.

The oddity of the week is that having been so deeply submerged in J K Rowling’s wonderful world of wizardry and all things magical, I’ve completely missed out on most of everything else that’s going on in the world around me.  Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement, for one, which is by all accounts unsurprising but seems to have generated an impressive media frenzy nonetheless (if, by the way you are one half of a ‘Kate and William’ duo yourself, I’d advise you to hotfoot it down to your local Domino’s Pizza joint with your beloved other half today – they’re giving you free garlic bread).  I’ve also glossed over the whole Irish banking/bailout fiasco which, from a cursory glance at the news, seems to have sprouted so many arms and legs over the past week that I’m not sure I really have the energy to sit down and learn about it.  That’s the thing about the news, isn’t it?  Miss a few days and you have to read like a nutter to catch up.  If anyone wants to provide me with a quick rundown of the past few days’ news please feel free!  I’ll pay you in gratitude!  Finally, my Google Reader, which I scrupulously cleaned out last week, is bulging once again, so some reading and commenting time is definitely in order this weekend.

In other news, last Friday, I went to a careers presentation by the UN, which was one of the most inspiring and ‘this is so amazing I could weep’ talks I think I’ve ever been to.  The work involved sounds both challenging and hugely interesting, and the thought of doing something with my life that is so completely and utterly worthwhile is quite the formidable plus point.  While you do need a hell of a lot of professional experience in your chosen field before you can even think about applying (makes sense really, given that you’re competing against the entire world), it has definitely given me some food for thought for later in life.  If anyone is interested or even remotely curious as to what’s available, there’s piles of useful information here.

Finally (at the bottom of the pile, where it probably doesn’t belong but where it routinely slips) there’s uni.  I seem to be accumulating piles of fresh homework on a near-daily basis at the moment, which is not only frustrating, but also quite upsetting (less blogging! no TV! fewer book/tea/mince pie sessions!).  Then there’s the ugly prospect of the end of term exams and presentations that’s gradually raising itself above the parapet.  I’m trying to ignore that for now, but I will say that it’s probably just as well I spent this week doing little else but reading.  Opportunities to do so over the coming weeks and months are looking increasingly thin on the ground!

What have you been doing this week?

Image above from Flickr – fromtherightbank.