“Les Miserables” – Film Review (*Spoilers*)

Let’s set the scene. I haven’t seen the stage show of Les Mis, but I’ve seen the 10th Anniversary and 25th Anniversary concert DVDs, as well as loads of videos on YouTube, which doesn’t equate to actually seeing it, but I had a pretty good idea of the plot and knew all of the songs very well before I went to see the film. 

I heard a lot of criticism – the amount was dwarfed by the amount of good reviews, but there was still a fair bit – of the film before I went to see it, and it got me nervous. I’d been excited for the film since it was announced at the end of the 25th Anniversary concert, and I followed all the news eagerly – casting and filming and everything about it – and I really, really hoped they’d get it right. When I saw that people weren’t impressed, my heart sank. 

The main issue people seemed to have was with the singing – so many were saying “It’ll never compare to Colm Wilkinson/Alfie Boe/Lea Salonga”, and I think they were forgetting that we are talking about the same show, but two very different mediums. In musical theatre, the voice is key, and people pay a lot of money to hear incredible voices and see incredible acting. With the film, that isn’t what I was expecting. I wanted astronomically good acting, and singing that was true to the emotions of the film, rather than – as Anne Hathaway put it, “going for the pretty version”. If I was to go and see “Les Miserables” and someone sang “Bring Him Home” in the way Hugh Jackman sang it, I’d possibly be disappointed – but if I went to see it in a film and it was sang the way Alfie Boe sang it in the Anniversary concert, I’d be equally disappointed, because in the concert it was powerful and beautiful but wouldn’t have suited the film (more on the singing later). 

Casting… would have been perfect, were it not for Russell Crowe. I mean, I don’t doubt that the man is a good actor, or at least he has his moments, but he was dire as Javert. He was the only thing letting that film down in my opinion, and I think there were plenty of other people who could have done a better job. His acting was… meh, at best, and his singing was completely devoid of any emotion. People are meant to be left crying after Javert’s Suicide, and yet behind us in the cinema a couple of people giggled when his body hit the weir with quite a thwack, because he just sang it… blandly. No emotion in it at all. The same went for “Stars”, that’s one of my favourite songs in Les Mis, and I was left completely underwhelmed by it. His singing voice isn’t fantastic, but the least he could have done was to put emotion in there – Javert is a cold, calculating character, but he isn’t a robot; he has emotions, and yet his character just had no effect on me the whole way through. 

Anne Hathaway stole the show as Fantine, she really did. She made such an impact in the short screen time she had, “I Dreamed A Dream” left me in tears because it was so beautiful. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t incredibly sang, but by god, it was emotional and powerful, and there was something so beautiful in the emotions she conveyed that I’d be willing to say it is the best rendition I’ve ever heard. I set a lot of store by emotions in songs, and she just blew me away. 

Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne as Cosette and Marius were great – I’ve never been huge fans of the two characters, because they both seem a little drippy – Eponine is my favourite female character, and Enjolras is so much more kick-ass than Marius, so they tend to be my favourite characters – but they were portrayed very well. Amanda Seyfried has one hell of a warble, which suited Cosette perfectly, and although at first I was a little iffy about Eddie Redmayne’s singing, “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” had me in tears again (I cried a lot during the film, get used to it now!), because he conveyed that emotion perfectly. 

Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen… where to begin? They were incredible. Hilarious as usual, perfect as the Thenardiers, assisted by excellent costuming. “Master Of The House” was brilliant, and Baron-Cohen’s lines – calling Cosette, “Courgette” was a particular favourite of mine, and delivered perfectly – served as the comic relief we needed in the midst of all the darkness of the film (it’s a pretty grisly film in places, Gavroche’s death was quite heart-breaking!). 

Samantha Barks as Eponine… wow, wow, wow! I am so glad Taylor Swift didn’t get the part, because it wouldn’t have worked. She wouldn’t have been able to carry it off, I’m sure of it. Considering she was unknown outside of Britain – and even in Britain, she was only really known by those who followed her progress after “I’d Do Anything” (her rendition of Defying Gravity on that show made me a fan!) – she lived up to the pressure heaped on her, and then some! “On My Own” was incredible, as expected, and her acting skills really came into play during “A Heart Full Of Love” and “A Little Fall Of Rain” (the latter had me in floods of tears, that song affected me more than most of them!). 

Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean was fantastic, a great choice. Singing was fantastic in that the emotion was always there, even if people have been complaining about his less-than-perfect vocals, but again I think that’s due to their unrealistic expectations more than anything else. 

Going back to the singing, I think that having them sing it live rather than dubbing in pretty versions over the acting was a genius move, and I’m so glad they did it. People have complained that it detracted from the film, but it absolutely didn’t, in my opinion. It added to it, bringing a level of emotion that you wouldn’t have gotten with dubbed voices. Again, the only singing I had an issue with was Russell Crowe’s, because it sounded like it had been dubbed and was completely devoid of emotion! 

Everything about the film was just utterly incredible, I don’t think it left anyone with dry eyes in the cinema – I shed many tears, and even my other half – who I don’t think I’ve ever seen cry at film or television before – was reduced to tears; I think either by “Bring Him Home” or “Empty Chairs At Empty Tables”, or the end (or all three, I know they all got me big time!). An astounding, incredible piece of cinema and I would recommend it to anyone, whether you’re a fan of the musical or not. 

Hello December!

So, December is upon us. NaNoWriMo (and November, for that matter) has come to an end all over the world by this point (I think!), and Winter has officially begun. Unless you’re in the Southern hemisphere, in which case I assume you’re off to the beach instead of reading my blog, you lucky things. But, if you’re up North and decide that you’d rather stay in and be warm and dry and snuggly with a cup of hot chocolate and a onesie (seriously, they’re PERFECT for winter!), maybe you’ll read my blogs. If you want something a bit more substantial to read, there’s always Christopher Maine’s “Tales from the Terra Firma Fleet” series to keep you going, and make sure you know where you stand ready for when my book will hopefully be published some time in 2013!  Y’know, just a hint there 😉

As for me, I don’t think December is going to be a quiet, peaceful one. It’ll be quieter than usual – no pantomime this year thanks to uni, but I’m missing it like mad so it’s not a good thing! – but it’s still going to be busy. I’m off to London on the 6th, going to see War Of The Worlds in Birmingham on the 7th, the first 13 days of December will be spent on Blood Brothers, then home from uni and I can finally relax… kind of! Then the real work on finishing and editing my novel can begin. Whereas in November I switched between the first, second and third “years” of my novel, I really want to work exclusively on the first from now until it’s finished.

We’ve ordered our tickets for Wales Comic Con; it’s held at my uni so it’s nice and easy to get to. Me and my other (better) half are cosplaying as characters from the “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series, to try and promote the books, and I’m really going all out – dyeing my hair blue (that’s not just for comic con; it’s more because I think it’ll suit me!), and getting a tattoo (which I want to get anyway, I’m not modifying my body purely for comic con!). Yes, the next tattoo is planned, just got to wait for the artist to get back in February so I can get it done! This’ll be my first experience of going to a convention like this, and also my first experience of cosplaying, so I’m pretty excited about it! Plus, Chris Barrie from Red Dwarf and Ianto Jones from Torchwood will be there; which is always good! 😀

This is basically a bit of a bumper update on my life as opposed to my writing, but it does come with a warning that I probably won’t be blogging much for the next couple of weeks, until Blood Brothers is over and I can relax and actually focus on my writing a bit more. After that, I really do want to start doing more writing blogs – not just updates about what I’m writing, but also more topics that people commonly encounter when writing, things like that.

Stay Shiny,

Maddy x

Well… that escalated quickly.

I don’t know quite what I thought the first week of uni would be like – perhaps a bit of a “settling in” period, a time where things are quite relaxed so you can get your bearings, nothing too hard or strenuous, just a few acting exercizes to get us warmed up and things like that. So, there’s an audition on Friday, for which we have to prepare a piece from Blood Brothers (a play I’ve never studied because I was in a higher set for GCSE, so we did “An Inspector Calls”), and a song. I live in halls and while I love singing, I’m not sure my flatmates would appreciate me belting out a big musical number to practice at any hour of the day. I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to have a practice some other time, because otherwise I could make a fool out of myself!

I’m not hoping for a main part or anything like that. I’m a first year, there’s about 60 of us on the course spread over 3 years and very few main parts, so it’s fairly obvious the big roles will go to the third years, which I think is how it should be – I’d be so annoyed if I was a third year, and a first year waltzed in and got a big role at my expense (although I guess that’s showbusiness!). I’ll be fine in the chorus, especially because I don’t know the play at all and it’s not one I’m particularly fanatical about (if it was RENT or Wicked or something like that, I think I’d be thinking a little differently!). If I can’t get a spot in the chorus, and when there’s so many people that seems like a real possibility, being tech would be just as cool, especially if they need people for costume or make-up. Since I’ve started doing face-painting, I’ve discovered a new love for costuming and stage make-up, even though in this play it’ll just be normal stage make-up.

So, it’s not exactly going to be an easy first week – not that I want it to be! I want it to be jam-packed and fun, but not too tiring. I’ve explained about the issues with my back, which should make things a little easier when it starts playing up so I don’t just run away and sit down randomly, they actually know where I’m going. It’s playing up again, which is a pain – literally! – and I’m not entirely sure why, because it still doesn’t feel like bone or muscle pain, even though they’ve said that’s what it is. I’m not registered with a doctor up here either, so it’s a little tricky to get anything done really. I’ve got plenty of painkillers though.

There’s been lots of stuff going on, and a few things going wrong with finance etc, so all those creases have to be ironed out, but d’you know what? I’m excited for the year ahead. I think it’s going to be crazy and jam-packed and I’m anxious not to plan anything in advance – I’m already hoping that fate will be on my side for things planned for the rest of this year, what with Idina Menzel in two weeks and then War Of The Worlds the week before the show (eek!) – so I think it’s nose to the grindstone time; better get working hard to secure my future!

We apologize for the interrupted transmission…

For a weekend that hasn’t actually been that busy, I somehow haven’t found time to blog regularly (or at all). I’m really enjoying watching the Olympics, especially seeing as I recognize the places where it’s being held (I love the idea of beach volleyball in Horseguards’ Parade) and there’s a certain sense of patrotism associated with it being on home turf. And how about the opening ceremony, eh? There’s been the old naysayers, “Beijing was a million times better”, but I honestly thought that Beijing was… alright. It didn’t blow me away, didn’t appeal to me, didn’t really show me anything much. I’d rather be associated with the Queen, James Bond, the NHS, Mr Bean, children’s literature and the creator of the internet than getting a 7 year old to sing but telling her another girl was going to take the credit and appear, because the actual singer wasn’t “pretty enough”.

I loved the tribute to the NHS; I thought it was beautifully done, and the lights on the beds were so skillful. How about those puppets too? The giant Voldemort rising into the sky, the beds flying up – everyone was amazing! I loved the way they lit the Olympic torch too; I thought that was brilliant and really captured the motto of these games – inspiring a generation. They’re the next generation of Olympians we’ll be seeing in 4/8 years time, and to have them featured was brilliant. Danny Boyle really showed his genius with that opening ceremony. I loved the children from the four nations singing national songs (although I’d have liked Cwm Rhondda to be in Welsh 😉 ) and the Industrial Revolution section, with those drums and that music, was phenomenal, and Pandemonium was certainly an apt name to it. Every bit of it – including the memorial to the war dead, the moment of silence with the poppies – was well done. I didn’t really understand the significance of the interpretive dance as a memorial of the 7/7 bombings; I think they could have done something a bit better there, but I’m glad they included a tribute to it, because it has been an important part of the journey since we won the right to host the Olympics seven years ago – the day after we had such jubilation, there was sudden shock and sadness, and it was right to commemorate that.

In other, non-Olympic related news, I can jog! Not incredibly far, but it’s a start. You can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/madison-matthews , please do if you can because it’s such an important cause! Training’s going well, I need to start getting some songs on my mp3 player to motivate me but I have a brilliant training partner in my other (better) half, who is also doing the half marathon (www.justgiving.com/dafydd-williams09) and he’s keeping me going, as is a steady supply of Mini Milk ice creams!

Rehearsals for the musical start a week tomorrow and I’m pretty excited for that, could do with making a start on learning my lines though. Three weeks of rehearsals sounds like a long time but it flies by, especially when you have music and dance rehearsals too, and you’re trying to put it all together! Still, it takes my mind of results day, which is less than three weeks away now!

On that note I shall leave you, with a vow to blog more frequently and my thanks for continuing to read and follow this blog, even though my sporadic updates may be a bit annoying! Your continued readership is much appreciated.

Exciting News!

So, there’s a few bits of exciting news to tell you all about! The first is that the first read-through and casting of the musical summer school this year was great; I’m thrilled with my part and the song I get to sing, which is a favourite of mine! The musical is going to be great and I think it’s going to be a fun few weeks, which will take my mind off the impending results day!

The second bit of good news is that one of my poems, “Stardust”, is going to be published in an anthology by ForwardPoetry, which I’m really excited about! It’s the third piece of poetry I’ve had published but this is my favourite I’ve written so far, so I’m excited to see it in print! I’m also making small amounts of progress on my new novel, and that’s always a good thing, so things are going pretty well. Plus there’s the fact that I am turning 18 on Friday 13th July. Don’t worry though – although I’ll legally be an adult, I’m never going to be a grown up. I’ve heard too many bad reviews about growing up, so I think I’m going to pass on that one.

On Song Lyrics, Growing Up and The Monsters Under The Bed

In particular, the truth of “When I Grow Up”, an amazing song from the RSC musical “Matilda”. The lyrics and music is written by Tim Minchin, so it’s hardly surprising that the song is so wonderful and clever, but the truth behind the lyrics have really got me thinking – I’m in one of those deep “everything makes me think” moods, but this song in particular has made me think about all the things we promise ourselves when we’re children – and how, when we do grow up, they’re suddenly not important anymore, and we forget about it. Here’s some of the lyrics – and the truth behind them!

When I grow up,
I will be tall enough to reach the branches
That I need to reach to climb the trees 
You get to climb when you’re grown up.

With this one, I think one of the biggest challenges most kids encounter is never quite being tall enough to climb that one elusive tree. You just know there’s going to be an amazing view at the top, and there might be all sorts of wonders in the higher branches – but you can’t quite reach it, and if you could grow up just that little bit more, you’d be able to reach it. Then, you hit your teenage years, go through a growth spurt, and although you can reach those branches easy peasy, suddenly the thought of climbing that tree doesn’t appeal as much anymore. You might still do it, just because you can, but at the end of the day, it’s just a tree. The views are okay, but nothing that you probably couldn’t have seen if you just stood on your tiptoes, and there’s nothing hiding in those branches other than leaves. 

And when I grow up,
I will eat sweets every day,
On the way to work, and I will
Go to bed late every night.

Ah, I’m sure many of us have shouted this at our parents at least once in our lives – “When I grow up, I’ll eat sweets every day”, or “When I grow up, I won’t have a bedtime!”. Then you get older, and the way you look starts to matter, and your health gets important, and the thought of eating sweets every day doesn’t sound so attractive. You also start to realize that sleep is one of the most beautiful treasures known to man, and you want as much of it as you can get – suddenly, staying up late doesn’t sound like such a great idea. 

And I will wake up
When the sun comes up

Like before – when you’re little, sleep is boring. You don’t get to play games when you’re asleep. You don’t get to go running or play football or with your toys when you’re asleep – you just lie in your bed and sleep. How boring, right? Until you hit your late teenage years, when a lie-in is the best thing in the world, and waking up any time before 10am is worthy of lots of complaining and grumbling and a whole day of being miserable. Gone are the days of jumping on your parents’ bed, demanding to go downstairs and watch cartoons or get outside and play. Now it’s your parents who are faced with the task of trying to drag you out of bed to go to school/college/work.

When I grow up,
I will be brave enough to fight the creatures
That you have to fight beneath the bed
Each night to be a grown up.

And then there’s some things that never change. Maybe it isn’t monsters under the bed that keep us awake, but there always seems to be something frightening, something that disturbs our sleep – be they in our waking lives or nightmares we dread. Worries about work or relationships affect us at any age, whether it’s hard sums and playground spats or an overdue essay and a friendship falling apart, or a dragon of a boss and an impending relationship breakdown. These things affect everyone, and maybe I’m reading too much into these lyrics, but I think they do an amazing job of showing that no matter how grown up you may think you are, there’ll always be a monster under your bed – and maybe that sounds like a bad thing, but I think it shows that in all of us there is a part that doesn’t want to grow up yet – a part that can still enjoy that perpetual optimism that when we grow up, we’ll be able to do anything, because we will be what all children, no matter whether they’re 8 or 82, see as the age when everything changes for the better – “grown up”. I think the correct term for that optimism is “hope” – and hope is never a bad thing. 

Olivier Awards 2012 – My Predictions

First of all I need to point out that I haven’t seen any of these shows nominated here (with the exception of “Wicked”), but I’m going on what I’ve heard, reviews I’ve read and music I’ve listened to (I’m heavily biased in favour of Matilda because it seems absolutely AMAZING!). So, these are my predictions for some of the categories of the Olivier Awards on the 15th April (some of them I can’t possibly comment on, because I’ve heard nothing about any of the nominees. 

Best Actress In A Musical – The Matildas. These four girls, from videos I’ve seen and songs I’ve heard, are incredibly talented. That, combined with their age, makes them my choice for this category. 

Best Actor In A Musical – Bertie Carvel. This one’s going to be tough in my opinion, between Carvel and Nigel Lindsay, who has been playing Shrek in Shrek The Musical, because both are such demanding roles and also big character roles, but from what I have read and heard, Carvel will edge it in my opinion. 

Best Performance In A Supporting Role In A Musical – Nigel Harman. Again, another one that will be a serious contest between Shrek and Matilda, which I think could be a recurring theme! As amazing as I’ve heard Paul Kaye is as Mr Wormwood (and I don’t doubt it considering his character as Vince in “Mongrels”), I think Shrek will edge it in this category because of the things I’ve heard about Harman’s performance. 

Best New Musical – Matilda. If Matilda doesn’t win this category, I will be both surprised and angry. From everything I’ve seen, it has everything that a long-lasting, fan favourite musical needs – amazing music courtesy of the fantastic Tim Minchin, amazing staging and choreography and a storyline based on a book that pretty much every child in Britain – prior to the time when reading suddenly became something that children can’t seem to do anymore – has read. 

Best Musical Revival – The Wizard of Oz. This one will be another tough one – if I was judging, I’d have a struggle between Singin’ In The Rain, which is an old favourite of a classic, and The Wizard Of Oz, which has been so well publicised thanks to “Over The Rainbow”, and has an amazing cast. If I was a judge and such biased judging techniques were allowed, based on its immense popularity thanks to Over The Rainbow, it’s amazing leading lady (Danielle Hope’s voice is phenomenal) and the fact that I know Russell Grant and he’s a fabulous person, I’ll have to say The Wizard of Oz!

Best Theatre Choreographer – Peter Darling. I’ve seen a video of the scene for “When I Grow Up” in Matilda, with the swings, and the insane dancing for “Revolting Children” – that is some mad choreography and I will be very surprised if Darling doesn’t win, although the choreographer for Singin’ In The Rain would provide some competition. 

BBC Radio 2 Olivier Audience Award – Les Miserables. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore Wicked, it is and always will be one of my favourite musicals, and when I saw it, it made me cry – twice! But I think that Les Miserables has been running for so long, and there’s no denying it is an astounding musical and I also consider that one of my favourites and an absolute must-see for me, it has such a massive following that I think it will definitely win. If either of the other two (Jersey Boys and Billy Elliot) win, I’ll be quite annoyed because I think Wicked and Les Mis are both so much more deserving of the award, but at the end of the day it is the audience award so the majority will have their say. 

 

That’s all the ones I really feel I can call properly at the moment. Of course, the judges could have absolutely contrasting views to me and I could be proved entirely wrong on all of them, but I’d really like to see Matilda sweep the board completely or as close as possible, especially in the Best New Musical, Best Actor and Best Actress categories, because from what I’ve seen of it, it looks amazing. 

I shall be watching or listening to the awards ceremony to see if I’m right or wrong!

Quick Update!

Here’s a quick update on my life. Currently trying to write but it ain’t going so well! I guess I’m distracted because I have a shiny new playstation 2 😀 all ready for university (if I get in) – and I’m buzzing from seeing Avenue Q last night (seriously, if you can, go and see it – if you want to know why, check out my review of it!). 

On Thursday I got the results for two of the A Level exams I sat – in Drama, the paper was disastrous because WJEC decided to play a trick. They set us almost identical paper to last year, which many of us didn’t revise because we thought it wouldn’t come up again (they’ve always done it in a sort of pattern before). So, I would’ve been very happy with a D in that exam, because I was certain I’d failed that one completely. However, to my surprise I opened the envelope and I got a C! I was only a few marks off a B, which is a bit “oh well”, but still, I’m thrilled with my result. 

And then in Psychology, where the paper was alright but I don’t think I revised as much as I could’ve done, and I was certain I’d mucked it up – I messed up a six mark question and was pretty certain I’d done the same for loads of others (I was hoping for a B), I got an A! So, I’m pretty happy on that front. 

Things are going well at the minute – I’ve got an offer from the uni of my choice, for the course of my choice, I’m getting closer towards getting there the way my results are going, writing isn’t going too badly and I have an audition tomorrow for a musical I’m really excited about – “Strictly Divas” at Coleg Harlech, directed by Russell Grant. I’m looking forwards to seeing the people I met during “Bliss” again and especially for being part of this new musical!

In short, life is awesome, I feel pretty good and hopefully, things are going to keep getting better 🙂

Theatre Review – “Avenue Q”, Rhyl Pavillion Theatre

Last night my mom and I were lucky enough to get front row seats for Avenue Q’s UK tour in the Rhyl Pavillion Theatre. I’ve known of Avenue Q for a while – I had the soundtrack for my birthday one year – but I’ve wanted to see it for a couple of years now, and it’s finally come on a tour which comes close enough and isn’t too expensive for us to go and see it! We went to the 5:30pm performance and although there was a fairly good crowd there, it was by no means packed. Our seats were almost exactly in the centre of the front row, absolutely brilliant seats, and because of the theatre’s layout, there was no craning our necks.

To be honest, I don’t think either of us knew exactly what to expect. We both knew that it was foul-mouthed puppets – Mom’s been telling everyone the past few days about how we were off to go and watch Muppet Porn, including my Nan – but I don’t think either of us realized quite how good it is. It’s like a social comment – they, uh, “tackle” issues such as racism (by concluding that everyone is a little bit racist and we should all just admit it), and education (exactly what do you do with a BA in English?) – with lots of comedy, amazing music (sung by an amazing cast who not only have to, like most musical theatre performers; act, sing and dance – they have to do it all whilst operating puppets. Some actually operate two or even three – and they do it all brilliantly) and just a dash of that essential puppet sex which makes Avenue Q what it is.

It’s not recommended for children under 12, and unless she’s got a great sense of humour, it’s not one I’d suggest taking your granny to for a “nice day out to see a show” – that said, there were some women “of an age” in the theatre last night, and they didn’t seem to be complaining as they left! – but if you want to laugh until you cry, maybe shed a tear at “Fine, Fine Line” (an amazing performance by Katharine Moraz, who has a stunning voice), and end up naming your new sat-nav “Lavinia Thistletwat-nav”… or maybe that’s just us?, book tickets to see this musical! You will not be disappointed, and, if you’re anything like us, the second you step out of that theatre you’ll be wishing you could get back in and watch it again. It’s one of those musicals you can just watch again and again and again – and you’ll almost certainly be spouting quotes and singing the songs for days afterwards!

Second time’s a charm!

So, here is another writing update! *fanfare* The second book is going much better than the first – it’s flowing better, bar a few pauses, and the word count is a bit more impressive – only thirteen chapters in, it’s the same as what I achieved during nineteen chapters in the first book (don’t worry – I’m going to iron it out during editing!). I think I’m enjoying this one more because there’s finally some interaction between some characters with others who they haven’t encountered before – the good guys are finally meeting the bad guys for the first time, whereas before it’s always been that at the start, they didn’t even know who or what they were fighting and then, they knew what they were fighting but hadn’t actually met them yet.

The chapter word counts are much higher, and yet I’m not really doing much different to what I did the first time around. The addition of a few new chapters in chapter one, which I’ll probably (maybe) get round to writing once I’ve finished the whole trilogy, should bring the first one into line with the second and the third, which I’m hoping will be the longest of all. I’m currently on around 58,000 with book two, which I think is slightly more than I achieved with book one.

This week might be a slow writing week for me – I’m doing a radio interview tomorrow afternoon, I’m at college all Thursday afternoon and evening rehearsing for my Drama practical exam and on Friday, I’m going to see Avenue Q the musical! Saving the best until the end of the week 🙂 So I probably won’t do much writing until Sunday (hopefully spending Saturday with my boyfriend, but he’s busy on Sunday so that can be my homework/writing day!). Normally I’d wish I had more time to write, but this way I can actually plan the next few chapters – I’ve been winging it since the start of the first book, so I really do think I ought to plan the last few chapters so that I actually have some kind of idea where I want it to go!