The Day of the Doctor

So the day of the doctor was 3 days ago (“the 24^th?!” You say. Why yes, running at +11 AEST really has us ahead). Anyway, long story short, I drove there encountering the picking up a meal (or snack depending on your views towards Maccas) followed by some sauce, a close shave with death, a long walk and a girl who didn’t want to relinquish my seat. And then I saw the TV episode in 3D with my circular polarising lens that allowed for head tilting without severe ghosting effects (as we discovered the other day at IMAX while watching Thor 2 in 3D, they use linear polarising so anytime you turned your head, BAM BLURRY IMAGES… but that’s a whole other can of worms).

The “Fun Driving” of a Newly Provisional Driver

As some of you may know, I recently got my P plates after about 4 and half years being a learner *round of applause*. If you’re thinking I could’ve gotten my full licenses in that time, you would indeed be correct. In fact my dearest sister was often harping on about how many of her friends could drive without supervision already and they were TWO WHOLE YEARS YOUNGER. Ish. My perfectly plausible excuse is the fact that I go to uni and work in the city, really who drives to the city? I love Sydney’s defective public transport system.

For this reason, we left about 40 minutes early, and so we stopped by Maccas to get some food. Only to find as we were leaving that they had not given me any sauce for my nuggets! Blasphemy. I executed a bold 3 point turn and parked haphazardly in front of Maccas for my sister to dash in and get some of that sauce. My haphazard parking had nothing to do with the fact that I’m dreadful at parking at all of course.

My adventure continues after a raced around a corner to beat an orange light and searched for an elusive parking spot. We were almost murdered in the process by an aggressive looking female who looked like she was about to be hospitalised for lung cancer or emphysema. How did we attract this dangerous woman’s attention? You might ask. Well, it all started when we both wanted that same parking spot, and despite the fact that I was closer and better positioned, she gave me a look that could only be interpreted as a death threat before proceeding to speedily snatch the parking spot away.

(she’s not actually this old but I’d like to think so)

I probably could’ve prevented her from parking there (though I would’ve taken a smidgen longer than the average driver) but between death and a parking spot, I chose life. Or at the very least a lot of shouting and a possible keyed car. She left at about the same time as us meaning it was very possible she also saw Doctor Who. I sorely hope that she is not the kind of fan Doctor Who attracts nowadays (perhaps it was her daughter, who she was accompanying to watch, or better yet she was shopping and it was all a coincidence). Otherwise, I cannot fathom how a once intelligent show has become watchable even by the insane.

The Pre-Movie Adventure

We arrived to find a girl had seated herself in one of our seats. After I told her that was our seat, she still didn’t move. It wasn’t like she was a scary woman who was going to challenge us for the seat, more just a 14 year old girl who quietly and somewhat blankly stared at me like she couldn’t comprehend what I meant. “K12? That’s our seat? See?” I say waving my ticket in front of her. “K12?” She replies somewhat blankly and starts looking at the seat numbering as though it was so confusing. And then she glances at the 4 empty seats next to her before looking up at me again. Blankly. Was that her “subtle” way of asking me to just move over? Apparently so. Because it wasn’t until I said “we have 5 people and there are 4 seats here so you can’t sit there” that she scooped up her popcorn, drink and her friend’s drink which was occupying another poor soul’s seat and clumsily vacated our row.

The Actual Movie

As the credits rolled, one word was going through my head. Amazing.

In all honesty I was probably convinced the moment David Tennant made his appearance (as was the rest of the audience apparently as he was greeted with a round of applause and cheering). I found the plot to be clever and humorous and to top it all off, Gallifrey is not dead! As someone who has been secretly hoping for the Doctor to somehow break the time lock and visit Gallifrey again, or at least see him interact with some Time Lords (that weren’t born from a TARDIS as per River Song) how much better could it get really? As an individual episode, it was exciting packed with possible unobjectionable fan services moments.

But then I think about its implications for the Doctor Who universe and future storylines and I can’t help but get a little angry at Moffat. It’s true he knows what fans want to see. Tennant for many. Gallifrey’s return for a fair few surely. Rose has her fair share of fans of course. And of course, Tom Baker’s surprise appearance that was sure excite more than a few members of the audience. But television often refuses to bring back fan favourites or explore certain storylines for a reason. Because as much as it brings joy in a fan fiction universe, at the end of the day it does nothing for the main story arc or worse regresses it.

Here are some of my pet peeves.

REALLY? GALLIFREY?! Even as I watched Matt Smith declare he was “changing his past” and my fan side rejoiced at a saved Gallifrey, another part of me despaired. Frankly I felt a little cheated. After almost 8 years of emotional anguish and I’m-a-villain-like-Adolf-Hitler-but-instead-of-a-whole-race-I-killed-two-whole-species because he felt he had no choice, it turns out he’s not so bad after all. While it’s all dandy on the technical possibility front as far as suspension of disbelief will allow (I may have missed something that only the best Doctor Who fans would’ve caught), it seems almost fraudulent. Like it was all for nothing. As though I’ve been sent an email informing me I have failed all my exams this semester pushing me into the pits of depression only to follow up with an email that it was all a mistake once I’ve regretted and forgotten. I’m sure there are fans out there that will disagree with me, but personally I would’ve rather he somehow found a way to break the time lock (without going insane like Dalek Caan) and rescued some/all of the Time Lords.

What happened to the Trenzalore/Doctor’s time stream plot? In the Name of the Doctor, he jumps into the time stream from Trenzalore and runs into the War Doctor. And next thing you know he’s a in his TARDIS reading about advanced quantum physics awaiting the arrival of Clara after which he is promptly picked up but UNIT to look acquiesce Elizabeth the First’s demands. So how did they get out of Trenzalore assuming the entire Doctor Who show follows the linear and subjective viewpoint of the Doctor’s timeline and isn’t just a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey episodes. So perhaps Moffat just planned a random fun but still relevant episode of Doctor Who for the 50^th anniversary. It still begs the question, where in Matt Smith’s timeline does this occur then? Perhaps the Christmas episode aptly named The Time of the Doctor will go back and address this Trenzalore plot black hole.

And of course, how many doctors are there? What number are we up to? Though we know the doctor often lies about his age and such, it’s been assumed his statement that he can only regenerate 12 times is fact and this has obviously been a topic of debate as of The Name of the Doctor. Before the 50^th Anniversary episode Moffat has been spewing all sorts of rubbish, namely the fact that “The War Doctor doesn’t identify himself as the Doctor so Matt Smith is still 11^th despite the fact that the limit is 12 regenerations not 13 bodies” as was in this article:http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/24/doctor-who-steven-moffat-clears-up-the-whole-doctor-regeneration-problem-sort-of-4199592/ and various other publications. And not long after I find this lovely article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-christmas-spoilers-matt-2847509 on the internet that COMPLETELY contradicts everything Moffat had been saying. That Matt Smith is indeed the 13^th and John Hurt’s War Doctor now counts as well as the metacrisis doctor that Tennant created and left with Rose in the alternate universe. Was that Moffat’s idea of a “clever red herring”? Perhaps he meant that despite the fact that Matt Smith is the Doctor after the 12^thregeneration, as a fan-base we should still see him as the 11^th Doctor.  Either way, they were more than just misleading statements. If he has so much time to create confusing lies, why doesn’t he go back and invest in patching up his string of plot holes? Where is the Moffat who wrote the fabulous “Blink” episode all those years ago?

I guess we’ll see what the Christmas episode brings (which by the way I’m going to join the many fans out there who believe it should be titled “Silent Night”). Despite my mad rant, I’m still a fan and as a positive watching I’m generally distracted enough by Matt Smith’s clever quips and quirk that I can ignore some of the issues with the overall storyline. Speaking of which, Clara was so amazing in her first two episodes in the Dalek asylum and as a Governess/barmaid… she’s sort of been a letdown ever since… I’ll leave off here before this turns into a chaotic novel critiquing what is still one of my favourite TV shows.

The Rest of the Day

Aside from a minor hiccup in getting to our agreed rendezvous point for dinner stemming from me assuming my friend would know the way and I could just follow her car, it was significantly less eventful that the trip there. The short story is my sister had to Google maps it.

PS: Whatever happened to the Zygon-Human peace treaty? I guess we can just assume it all worked out…

#givethewhoviansbacktheirday

I was going to call this post "The Day of The Doctor" but i thought that should be reserved for the actual Day of The Doctor. So instead I'm going to give a brief but entertaining

So apparently there's a bit of a fandom turf war between One Direction and Doctor Who fans because the Doctor Who 50th anniversary is on the 23rd November (London time etc of course - 24th for us Australians in terms of screening time). For some reason One Direction have declared that day "1D Day" where they'll conduct some massive live stream interaction something or other with their fans. This has spawned all sorts of angry posts declaring whose day it truly is.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/givethewhoviansbacktheirday

I also enjoyed reading a fun youtube comment war where a certain troublemaking One-Directioner had taken to comment on a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary trailer declaring how the One Direction fandom was clearly stronger than all those Whovians out there and therefore One Direction was better than Doctor Who. Outrage ensued.

And to add some more chaos to the mix, apparently its Miley Cyrus's 21st...

But anyway, there's been some NEW PREVIEWS.

Sadly can't link this because i'm terrible at utilising blogging functions properly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn9Ss9rZMcUly

Can't believe they actually managed to hide Paul McGann coming back as 8th doctor (if even for short moment).

#savetheday

Around exam time I usually stop my most academic-performance-damaging activity, but then I get very interested in other things. For example, I just bought a bodysuit.

In other news I've been avidly stalking the internet for anything related to THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR.

This most exciting video so far:

Because whatever BBC uses is archaic and for some reason can't buffer properly, I had to watch it painfully. Why, you might ask. Well, because we get limits on our internet in Australia and I have exceeded this, my speeds have been reduced to a painful pace.

Edit: the extended version is finally on youtube, thank the gods.

And Gallifrey guys!!!!

As a 10th doctor fan, I could not be excited for the return of David Tennant if only for 1 (mega) episode. I know there's some disappointment for the 9th not coming back but personally I always found him a bit too gloomy and serious. Can't wait for these two to compare... sonic screwdrivers. StevenMoffatpleasedon'tdisapointmelikeyoudidwithClara'scharacter.

It is actually so difficult to screenshot stuff on this non buffering video while capped.

I really wish I didn't have to sit these exams. With everything that's going on they seem so irrelevant. I literally have ONE measly subject (and grad apps but i'll worry about that later) before I'm (hopefully) on exchange. 

The end is so painfully close.

And now I must go back to topic 2 of my Monday exam. There is no food in the house. Woe is my life. #firstworldproblems.

The Ladylike and the...not-so-much

I am proud to report, one of our resolutions is relatively back on track, the exercising one. the one that is by far the most difficult to keep. However we have employed the same method as last time to motivate us into getting active.

New Shoes (which are PURPLE) to make us run faster, jump higher and reach further :)

These shoes remind me and my sibling's feet of better days. most likely 6-8 years ago in primary school when we still wore runners, when sport shoes weren't simply the odd fat shoes that seriously athletic people wore before we became more female instead of the androgyny young children often view themselves with and we discovered the infinitely more attractive yet more destructive forms of footwear suck as uncushioned flats, boots and the terribly painful yet stunningly attractive (according to culture) heels. As my fellow partner in crime so aptly put it, they were so on. Suddenly we didn't have to consciously keep our shoes from flying off our feet or tripping, it was the dawning of a whole new era.

MOAR MOTIVATION! Look at those abs ;)

However this time round, we are further motivated by the impending city2surf (the not so important 14k marathon) which is in 4 weeks. Gasp with me in dawning horrified realisation so that we may create a most likely scientifically impossible momentary drop in air pressure in our environment.

4 weeks, which is a month, which is from this day onward, 27 days till August 11. Time to take out the good old competitive spirit to whip us into shape and be ready fro the marathon. At least at this rate we'll be very very VERY fit for the color run?

In other news not related to the slow melting of muscle into fat a la Scarlett Johansson post-Avengers which is spurring the need to become active once more. Knitting has been added to the growing list of hobbies. Seeing as it was the first attempt in almost a decade, I believe the progress so far is quite
satisfactory, not too many dropped stitches or uneveness... I think.

Look! It's purple! Isn't it pretty? I think we're getting a purple theme here.

Furthermore I feel that it must be mentioned that I am trialling Lush's Angels on Bare Skin Cleanser which I have been using for about a week now... I'll get back to you on the verdict of it's usefulness to my horror of a skin which is dry and blemish prone and lazy and just overall everything that is wrong in the world... well maybe not that bad but close enough in my greatly exaggerated opinion.

#1 On Stranger Tides

I couldn't decide on a title because I really wanted to knock another POTC title off the list and I also really wanted start a bucket list. So as a wise child carefully selected by an advertising company once said...

I'm going to finish off my holiday pictures with a one from each city - no mockery about the declining quality please.

Because Florence was a dead city due to it being Christmas and Italians being highly religious, all we did was eat more pasta and celebrate Christmas. Instead of one of the billion selfies that always end up being taken in a club, here's a photo I stole from Kevin of the typical tourists holding up the leaning tower of Pisa.

Demonstrating a range of expressions

And then we visited Lucerne and caught a glimpse of the alps. Unfortunately, the weather was too unfriendly for us to climb Mt. Pilatus which was a little disappointing.

On the famous Chapel bridge that almost burnt down completely - even with its extreme proximity to water

And then the beautiful city of Paris. There are literally a thousand photos on my iPhone from Paris and I'm sure there are plenty more on the cameras. Everything is just so ridiculously symmetrical. And the grass is so green. The whole city is set out so perfectly, it might as well be a movie set. If I was bothered I'd dedicate a real post to Paris. But I have a poor track record, so I won't promise anything.

A demonstration of my "artistic" photography skills, captured by the exquisite iPhone 4S camera

And I'll break my rule with a 2nd photo from Paris because...

Look! The Relay store from Sydney train stations. But in Parisian gare (because I speak French now)

And finally wrapping up both our European adventures and the year in the splendidly miserable city of London.

Cold. Raining. Big Ben. Red Double Decker. Check, check, check and check.

And then I went back to America and back to Sydney and fast forward 6 months I'm starting a bucket list. The original title for my bucket list post was actually going to be "#1 Visit All The Continents In the World By 25" - so for those who thought the first item on my bucket list was to be on stranger tides - haha.

Noone actually thought so did they?

My future

Either way, for anyone whose keeping score and still unsure (I should become a rapper) - I'm 20 and I've been to Australia (of course), Asia, North America and Europe. In the next 5 years, I must visit South America, Africa and Antarctica. I'm so excited and will be truly disappointed in my 25 year old self if I fail.

In other news I promised a Cat Post to a friend in my mentally impaired pre-exam state and as I am no oath-breaker, watch out for that!

The Green Light

You know what's brilliant about this title?
That it refers to both Harry Potter (Avada Kedavra) and to The Great Gatsby which I recently watched.

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ——”

And I must say to all those people who didn't like the movie, I thought it was quite brilliant. The voice overs, the energy, the costuming it was almost my imagination come to life.

And to Leonardo Dicaprio, well darling you haven't aged a day since you last starred in a massive period movie, that being Titanic.

That being said, I'm curious as to how many people actually read the book before watching the movie because I might just poke my nose in the air, once more as I'm won't to do (but that may be because that my fringe has gotten so long it's eating my face but the time is never right to get it cut. I feel like Lucius Malfoy and his wig. I'm going to develop a crick and have arthritis before I'm 20) and say 'Why yes darling, I read it at the age of 15, it was quite the enchanting book and Fitzgerald just has a way with words doesn't he?'

In other news, the exercise regime is currently...on hiatus. I suppose that would be how you put it.

We currently feel and look like this cat called Snoopy from somewhere in Asia that reminds me of a loaf of bread

Exams and final assessments came along and we were like, when the assessment period is over. But now we need to start running for city2surf so we need shoes of quality to pound the pavement. Another brilliant excuse is that it's winter and it's too hard to get up and out of bed when it's so much warmer under the covers.

So now the lazy habits are taking over. Such as I've finished Sherlock Holmes and I have begun Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, it's one of my 'OMG! $6 for a Vintage Classics book? Oh my, keep your bloomers on darlings.'

I've also decided to report on my experiments with The T2 trials of blooming/blossoming tea leading to what is called Chrysanthemum Burst.

Chrysanthemum Burst. I'm too lazy to take pretty pictures these days, especially as I'm always in a mobile device and truthfully the image quality just isn't up to par.

It's the photo from the T2 site, but it looks much more... Exciting in real time. One of the things I think T2 are forgetting with this is that, one of the influencing factors for the blossoming tea market is the beauty which they haven't quite managed. It's looks very bland, sure it blooms but it's all muted greens and white. The others ones I've tried are all lovely, with bright yellow flowers or spots of pink.

The flavour is strong, it flavours more teapots than they claim unless you like the heaviness because to me, tea is a refreshing, it flavours the water. You take a sip and the taste washes across your palate, hinting at something more, something deeper, more subtle. Then you swallow and it goes down smoothly and warms or refreshes you. It's not like coffee or soft drinks where it's an explosion in your mouth.

I don't know how many cups I brewed simply refilling my pot and waiting for it to steep to perfection every time.

Side note for your entertainment: Second picture of Snoopy the cat which reminds me of Michael Ling and the captions just fit him to a tee.

At World's End

Picking up from where I left off about 5 and a half months ago, I think we were stuck in Prague, it was the 18th of December 2012 and the world was about to end (according to the Mayans) !!!

And so we thought, why not drink our sorrows away at the Oktoberfest capital of the world (Munich) with the incredibly heavy 1L steins?

HB for Hofbräuhaus

Oh and then we checked out all the Cathedrals that started to blur into one...

...checked out some crazy -3 degrees surfers...

...and bought our beautiful dirndls (the proper name for those beer maid outfits).

A sneak peak because there are no other decent photos

We also visited a crazy king's castle... 

Unfortunately this was the last photo I took before my phone decided it wanted to switch off

...and even climbed a mountain to get some amazing views from Marien's Bridge! The photos are out there somewhere but it pretty much looked like this:

and if you're wondering why that looks so oddly familiar... its because Disney loved the Neuschwanstein castle too!

Anyway, we got to Venice on the very last day of existence. So I spent all my money on a Prada bag.

I never said I was a photographer... 

But saved a few euros for Venetian masks...

Lace...

...and ceramic

Oh and also check out the Venice of course.

Literally the only photo I took in Venice - no time for photos on the last day of the Earth right?

And then the world just fucking ended.

The Runaway Jellyfishies

THE JELLYFISH GO TO THE CITY2SURF.

Team Mascot

On Sunday 11th August 2013, we'll be doing the City2Surf. This is our story:

"We are going to finish the race in under 90 minutes because we are super fit and all. 

Last year Grace did it in 105 minutes so there is hope. As we are shredding and we are going to start training and stuff for this, we will probably smash that target. Maybe.

To show our commitment to this cause, Carmen has drawn a picture just for this page!

Please sponsor us!"

The page is being a bitch and won't let us upload a photo where the image is in the middle, but that's what our team photo is supposed to look like.

Original Drawing - Debut Jellyfish

In other news, this will be the debut jellyfish in a series of jellyfish adventures.

Tea time, pinky fingers and general snobbery.

So it's been a few weeks and we are keeping our resolutions...somewhat.
On the exercise front, it has been a long and valiant uphill struggle. The yoga mats (for serious business) obviously helped as the brilliant colours of blue and purple motivated us to get moving. Well, that and the tediously repetitive encouragements from the work out video that my sibling and I use.

Expectation.

You can do this! She says.
I know you wanna stop but we're almost there! She says.
And in my head (because I'm too tired to do so out loud) I'm screaming, ASDFGHJKL!!! I didn't feel the drain and the urge to stop till you said that, you uncaring, cold hearted person!

And in the end, I think I've perspired out an ocean and my muscles are jelly(fish), so basically this.

Reality.

In other news, I have kept my tea resolution, and to assist in this endeavour I have purchased a teacup and saucer. Observe.

It is a very genius solution that entices me to drink tea like a posh lady with my pinky sticking up as immortalised by Angelica from Rugrats (I'm looking at you Danica!).

So this time round, I tried the new lemongrass tea form T2. The teas main and only ingredient is lemongrass and as such, there's not much to say unless you've never had the herb. And in that case, it's like mint tea without the bit of spice at the end.

Another realisation in recent weeks has been the slowly reigniting obsession with books, I seem to have no limits when they come about yet ever so persnickety about the condition and the covers which are printed. My favourite editions so far being the Omnibus Collectors Editions - becausethey're pocket sized hardcovers which are both pretty, well protected and convenient, the Barnes and Noble leather bound editions - cause they're darned gorgeous and colourful and Random House Vintage Classics - because they're beautifully simplistic and convenient.

$6!!!

Eating my way through it!

Quarter-Year Resolution

So we sort of abandoned this blog... there's a whole bunch of drafts with brief summaries of our days but aside from that, it seems we got caught up in the whirlwind of holiday and have thrown aside our plans to preserve our memories.

probably our blog's dream state right now

But fear not for those who wondered if we got kidnapped during the second month of our holidays (or just fired up at our despicable abandonment), we've decided we're gonna make 2 longish posts hi-lighting the rest of our holidays. You might've noticed we're both notoriously bad at giving good recounts of what happened overseas. It must be a genetic thing.

Either way, watch out! Also we've posted 2 completed posts from November that were just sitting in our drafts for ages for some reason...

Onto what's new since returning to the land of eternal heat, NEW YEAR, NEW US, NEW LIFESTYLE. Sort of late so maybe its more of a "life epiphany, but well, I turned 20 (quarter life crisis?) and Carmen started Uni. Its only natural that we make some big life decisions at this (great) milestone of our lives.

This year we will:

• Do our homework
• Attend all (or most) of our lectures
• Finally exercise after about 5 years of promising to - toned by bikini season
• Eat less junk food - currently aiming for less than 3 days where junk food is eaten
• Make some headway on our bucket lists - namely, "restaurants to try" (thats me) and "teas to try" (Carmen - weirdo I know) and "books to read"
• Establish a manageable (read - easy) vanity routine
• Blog sort of regularly

We bought yoga mats because this is serious business