Film Fridays: Gone With The Wind

Today is Saturday, and actually the end of Saturday, but it could not wait. This being said, I actually could have done this yesterday (on Friday) but I decided to not fulfill my responsibilities, as per ushe. Before I start with anything, I would like to confess that I had never in my life watched Gone With The Wind , and I watched it for the first time on Thursday and speechless.

I mean speechless in the sense that I sat for about 5 minutes after the movie had finished just staring blankly at nothing. Those ten minutes were then followed by a 30 second crying session after which I decided that anything that I have ever fought for in my life is not half as worthy as what others fight for.

In my opinion, good films have a few key characteristics. I came up with these out of my own head so, give me credit for that.

1. Good films can move you to feel the most intense form of whatever emotion you are experiencing at the time, and this may only be temporary but it happens. 
2. Good films inspire a certain willingness in you to do something. You're inspired to change something about yourself or to change something about something else.
3. Good films are easy to understand, or extremely complex, I do not think that there is an in between. A bit of both, maybe, but never an in between.
4. Good films make you experience some form of internal conflict about the issues or themes that are brought up in the film

These are just some opinions of my own because it is my blog so I can voice my opinions about the things that I like. Gone With The Wind had every single one of these characteristics and more, like hundreds and thousands more. 

I would also like to confess that I Clarke Gable is the love of my existence and he was not only the ideal man, but possibly the the ideal human being. Actually, I do not know what he was like in person, but as a character he is extremely likable because he portrayed a real human, with real human emotions going through real human strife. So I guess this is more about the character but same difference. 

I don't think that I have actually said that much about the film but the general idea is that it is amazing and it will leave you feeling things... lots and lots of things (most of which are feels).

That's All, Bye! :) 

How to South African

Seeing as I am South African, I have decided to create a youtube series where I just teach people how to South African (it's a verb).

Give it a watch, like, subscribe and share and all that jazz.

That's all, Bye! :) x

The romantic in me

There are very few things that bring out the romantic in me and although I try hard to deny it, there is a deep rooted part of me that cannot help but be romantic. I don't mean romantic in the sappy sense, I mean it in the sense that pertains the artistic era.To a certain extent I believe in revolt against the system, the plight of human condition and other such causes related to the romanticism of human kind.

I have compiled a list of various things that bring out this romantic side that I often try to subside. Although increasingly I find that I subside it a lot less and I am actually beginning to publicly admit my love for romance and slowly denouncing my affiliation to modernist ideals (one could be a bit of both though, right?)

So here it is, a list of literature and films that bring out the romantic in me:

1. Casablanca
2. Frankenstein (In a weirdly gothic way)
3. The Picture of Dorian Dray (In a weirdly gothic way)
4. It Happened One Night
5. Jane Eyre
6. A tale of Two Cities (Which I have just finished reading)
7. The Great Gatsby (although it is modernist, it still gives me the Romance feels)
8. The Reader
9. Schindler's list
10. The Breakfast Club

I am sure that I will continue to discover many more but these are just a few that pop into mind.

That's all, Bye! :) x

Poetry?

One of my goals for this year, besides becoming more cultured and experiencing the world, is to write more (hence this blog.) But I feel as though there is a lot more writing that I could do, and not just for myself but for other people to read and criticize or praise.

So I have created another blog (what??? two blogs?) where I will just post some of the poetry that I have written and I will try and post a new poem every week. It will be easy for the first few weeks because I have some poems that I have already written in advance so my job  -for now- is just pressing the post button.

Go and check it out, criticize comment and praise to your hearts content!
That's all, Bye! :)x

http://nometry.blogspot.co.uk/

Youth Day

I realise that I have been neglecting my duties of blog writing for a bit but I will make it up by writing about some of the cool stuff that I have been doing. But today's post is specially dedicated to youth day because it is youth day. Essentially it is a day that is celebrated in South Africa to commemorate the part that was played by the youth to end the apartheid regime and the educational system that came with it.

This day is significant not only because of our history but because of our future, because the future of the country is in our hands (I say our because I am a youth too.)

The country is also celebrating 20 years of freedom so it is all the more amazing. I think that milestones like these are what will help us as South Africans to realise just how far we have come, but also that we still have extremely far to go before the country has reached its full potential. I realise that this all sounds super cliched but it is honestly the truth and sometimes we forget these cliched things so I am just reminding us.

I uploaded a video onto my channel about youth day, it doesn't really go into much detail it was just a fun way for me to speak about my fears of the youth of today, but also the potential that we have. Click here to see my video and I hope you like it. :)

That's all, Bye!

"An Oggsford [wo]man"

After my amazing 3 week journey in London (I stayed a bit longer than anticipated) I am now in Oxford. And after being here a few days I have decided that Oxford is the perfect balance between the busyness of the city and the calm of the countryside.

We went punting on Saturday
- punting is when you get into a long-ish boat and you use a long pole to paddle yourself up and down the river. It is an absolute ball unless you fall in, which- luckily- I didn't.

It was great to see just how relaxed uni life is in Oxford and I must say it has got me super excited for university. That's not to say that this year should rush by though.

The best part is that the family that I am staying with, lives very close to town, so I can take a 10 minute bike ride into town whenever I feel like it and it is absolutely safe, and easy. I have cycled in to see some of the museums and galleries and just to experience city life.

I have already met some amazing people and I will have the chance to meet many more. I have a few seminars and a conference lined up because: "when in Rome," right? (By this I mean because Oxford is a university town, I have decided to learn things while I am here.)

My ticket out of London and into Oxford. The call the bus the "Oxford Tube" so as to confuse people into thinking that Oxford is just a few minutes away when actually it's about an hour.

We went for a picnic by the river, the same one that we went punting on and I was reading my book (Frankenstein, my absolute fave)

I made this all by myself.

This is me fixing my flowery bracelet. How summery everything looks! 

i'm not sure how clear this is, but it is a pub that's called the Cape of Good hope. Sort of makes me miss home. 

Another hopefully more clear picture of the pub.

the lovely family that I am staying with.

The exterior of the Natural history museum.

A sign that says: "Natural History museum"

I thought these were quite cute, they're little people on a little wagon.

Who needs air force ones?

A little snippet of the punting river, the tip of a punting boat and my shoes. 

Be prepared for more info about Oxford and some of the cool stuff that I will be doing. Even though I am only staying a week, I am sure that I will be up to plenty of things.

*also, the title of this post is a reference to The Great Gatsby, so if you have not read it then the blog title will not make sense to you. 

That's all, Bye! :) x

Mouth Watering Experience

Now the title of this post may be slightly misleading because it may seem as if I am going to do a review of a meal I had or something, but I'm not. I am going to be chatting a bit about some work experience that I... experienced during my last few days in London (you're probably thinking that this makes no sense but patience child, it is a virtue, or so they say.)

Basically I somehow met someone who used to work at a production company and she was able to set up a work experience sort of thing for me where I spent two days on the set of a food commercial, (ahhhh, now the title makes sense.) Basically, a company (I don't know if I can say who) was doing a whole food campaign and the production company that I was at, was filming it.

The most amazing part for me was how long it takes to prepare the set for each dish and each scene. The director was absolutely mind blowing, I mean, the attention to detail that he paid was extraordinary. He made sure that every little reflection and shadow looked perfect and it is mind blowing how amazing everything looked because of this. I was hungry like half all the time.

The set although you cannot see the glorious food, but the ad will be on air soon and I will point it out.

The beginnings of the set. 

And some not real ice... This is the most amazing thing in the whole world. 

It was such an amazing experience and I met some amazing people. The great thing is that they all had so much experience in the world of film, TV and advertising and they were always willing to answer whatever questions I had. I even did a coffee run, so I was basically running the whole show. 

That's all, Bye! :) x