News update: a year in the making

So it's been a year since my last update and a LOT has changed in that year. In short, I started a relationship with a very special man, did a 3 week tour of South America including: Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, quit my job without a new one lined up, hosted a massive weekend event for over 500 people and moved to the West Midlands. Here is an update of what I have been doing lately: 

Recent Engagement
Some of you will know that recently my boyfriend Dave Hadley, proposed to me during a holiday in Ireland and we are now engaged. ‘Engage’ is a word that is used in many contexts today. Whether we are talking about a child participating in class, a toilet cubicle that is taken or watching an episode of Star Trek; we are all concerned about being ‘engaged’. This is a new phase of my life and I hope to engage in my daily work whether that is with YFC, in the community house that I live in or in my marital preparations with Dave. My aim is to also encourage the young people that I work with to engage in their journey where they are.

Hawbush house

This is a community project that seeks to be a positive Christian presence in one of the poorest communities in England. It is about showing love and living life that is beneficial but also very community based. Out of a community of 10 who call the house a home; only 2 of us live there while another 1 uses the 3rd bedroom as an office. Through daily activities like: football, cooking, after school clubs, sharing meals, trips etc. this community of believers hope to share Christ’s love with each other and help the local families receive this love. John 13:34+35. 

YFC One first weeks

In my first few weeks with YFC, I have been learning a lot about my role and how that will work in terms of a year calendar. I have also spent 2 days on an exhibition stand sharing about all aspects of YFC. They say the best way to learn is to teach; so I tried to teach others about the ministry. Between myself and my boss Pete, we called over 190 people who had contacted us over the years about doing a Gap year starting September 13.
Met with all 12 of the volunteers that I mentor and promised to support them where possible.
We had a great response and planned to host an interview day on Saturday 27 April for all those who sent in their application form. 

My promise to you will be to update this blog more often and continue to share about how we are making a difference. 

Take care! 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Hello!

It has been almost 6 months since my last blog and it appears that they have been missed. Lately, I have been getting many questions about why I haven't been blogging and when my next one will be. The answer to the second question is: now. The first answer is a little longer.

The main reason why I haven't been blogging is time. When I got back from holidays, my work dynamic increased due to my new position, I joined an outreach team in the community, I started attending drama rehearsals again and made some new friends. I was too busy living life to write about it.

So, what has happened since Dubrovnik: well, we moved office buildings which has been amazing. The new place is just what we needed and came just at the right time. The same can be said about the new house that I moved to. I had a wonderful 3 weeks at home for Christmas and really struggled when it was time to come back. I finalised and ran an event for 550 people, which my dad came over to attend. It was so weird but great having him there, a real melding of my two worlds.

I am now working on plans for the summer festivals as well as hosting a few events in between. I am back at drama rehearsals for the musical Calendar Girls in October (don't worry, I have a 'safe' role). I am constantly meeting new people and learning more about myself and what I need to keep going on this mad journey.

My favourite part of the last few months has been all the photos and quotes. I will be including a post on that very soon.
A plus tart mis amis!

"We'e all going in a... summer holiday" in October

So it was finally my time to go on a holiday. A proper break. No driving around the country, no emails or updates, no rushing to meet people, just a break away.

Myself and Lorraine have become travel buddies over the last few years. It's so great to just send a quick message saying "I was thinking about going , you wanna come?" and the response is usually "Yep, let's do it". Needless to say, a lot of planning went in to this trip. Researching countries, resorts, types of hotels, comparing distance to town Vs distance to beach, etc etc. After much consultation, we eventually settled on the Radisson hotel and spa resort in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

We both wanted a break where we didn't feel guilty for just laying on the beach all day reading a good book, having a massage, then a dip in the pool before getting dressed up for a nice meal out. It was well deserved.

I started packing 3 weeks beforehand as I was doing a 10 day event tour of the UK. I packed again on the Monday before and numerous times that week (hey, I am organised remember).

I was working every day right up until my flight on the Sunday. Then it was finally time to head off. I got a quick flight back to Dublin to swop winter clothes for summer ones and meet lorraine in the airport at 5.30am the next morning. As usual, I was early and even got a compliment from the check in ladies about my hat. Lorraine followed soon and with an easy trip we finally made it to Dubrovnik.

We were welcomed in the arrivals hall by a tall gentleman holding up a framed sign that said "Mrs Cawley". He helped us with our bags to a very smooth, air conditioned white car just outside the arrivals hall. He whisked us off to the hotel where we were treated to stunning panoramic views as the car curved around the coast. We were welcomed and ushered through the check in process with ease. After a few minutes, we were being brought to our apartment in a golf cart.

The apartment was so modern and bright that we stood a-gasp after the porter helped us with our bags. After a quick run to the supermarket to stock up for the week and some lunch, we headed straight to the pool where we swan and fell asleep until the sun set. We then got dressed up and went out to dinner in one of the restaurants along the promenade.

On Tuesday, as the weather was still gorgeous, we decided go head in to the old city of Dubrovnik. We were convinced by the receptionist to take the hotel shuttle bus in and get the boat back again straight to the hotel. When we got to the city, we decided to split up. I walked down to the harbour and sat in the sun eating grapes and dark chocolate while watching the sea lap against the boats coming in and going out. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the afternoon.

On the way to meet lorri, I noticed the drastic difference between the new and old buildings. After the 1991 bombings from Serbia and Montenegro, they started to rebuild the city in the same style as the old one but with more modern materials. The beautiful White stone stands out for all the right reasons next to the old blackened stone.

After a delicious seafood risotto and traditional pink grapefruit gelato it was time to head back. We settled down by the harbour with a peach iced tea and waited for our boat to take us back to our hotel Marina.

We unpacked our days shopping to find that housekeeping had loaded our dish washer for us, bad move on their part... A quick lye by the pool to watch the sunset and it was time for dinner. We made ourselves some dinner of carbonara from scratch and settled down for a Grey's Anatomy marathon. Hey, isn't that what you're meant to do on a vacation. Vacate your normal life, take advantage of the climate where possible but most of all; relax.

That was our routine for most of our holiday. Sleep, eat, relax, swim, lounge, read, sunbathe, eat and sleep. Beautiful!

On Thursday, we decided to take advantage of the "last day of summer" as everyone called it, by taking a boat trip to Lopud island. The island was about 30 minutes away but a promise of sandy beaches. We did our usual: dip, sun dry, read, eat, dip repeat. The 'eat' part was amazing though. Just up from the beach there was a burger place that we were both dying to try and we were not disappointed. These burger were not only giant but they were also delicious. The Irish couple next to us said they have been raving about these burgers for 2 years since they have them last. During our boat trip home, we were slowly being gained on by a pirate ship but they decided that we weren't worth commandeering.

Friday was another chill day. I was still recovering from sun burn so I stayed in the shade. The weather decided to break and we got to view an amazing thunder and lightning storm. So, we decided to have a movie night. We went down to the local bakery and got a pizza, dessert, drinks and settled down to watch Scott Pilgrim.

Saturday was the one we'd been waiting for. We had booked ourselves in to get a back, neck and shoulder massage as well as a facial. It was my first time having a proper spa treatment so was a little nervous. It was pretty much what I imagined from tv. A foldout bed with a hole for your face, soft music and candles and lots and lots of towels. I lost count of the amount of towels I was covered in. The massage was 55 minutes and I almost fell asleep. The facial was another 45 minutes and from what I could tell, it was just putting lots of creams on, leaving then for a while, then taking them off. Still, I came out with the softest skin that I've ever had and a back with no more knots. Money well spent.
As we sat on the balcony, we had our final meal and toasted to a beautiful week of relaxation.

The morning we were leaving, we both woke up early. We checked out and arrived perfectly on time to be chauffeured straight to the airport.

Dubrovnik airport will live on in my memory for it's lack of customer service or security. A short queue was split between two security check points. As most of us were frequent flyers, we proceeded to take out our bags of liquid, laptops, take off jackets, shoes, belts etc. We were rudely stopped and herded through the scanners. I beeped as I was not allowed to remove my belt but I was hurriedly given my bag and then ignored.

We eventually found a seat in the tiny, overcrowded departures lounge while reminiscing on what a great week we had.

I would recommend Dubrovnik for the sun, the stunning old city and the seafood (not forgetting the gelato) but in terms of being looked after, the nicest person was the concierge at the hotel but only because she knew how much we paid to be there.

Summer 2011

Well, it looks like I haven't updated since my Harry Potter marathon back in July. I finally saw the last movie when I was up in Dundee, the night before my summer event run started. I thought it was a good ending to a series that had gone on for so long. I was glad that I saw the series as it dispelled a lot of negative assumptions I had about the genre. They are definitely NOT children's movies, even though the lead characters are kids.

After leaving Dundee, I started my events run first up in Scotland. St. Andrews hosted my first week long event where myself and a team of 8 volunteers, hosted a cafe promoting our charity. There were a few teething problems, especially at the beginning of the week when the catering team refused to buy 'Fisher and Donaldson' fudge donuts, due to the cost. Instead they substituted with an inferior cake style custard donut. Most people coming to this event, expect to buy at least 5 of these delicious treats throughout the week (some buying 5 a day) and with an audience of 2,000 people, they were silly not to oblige. Eventually they restocked with the 'real deal' and all was right with the world.



After buying yet another pair of wellies to cope with the muddy festival atmosphere, the sun eventually came out and so did many smiles, laughs, jokes and happy memories. I learnt some Dundonian (which I can still remember) and even got an invitation to Nigeria next year.

It was then time to move on to the next event. I packed up the car and after many goodbyes, I drove down to Carlisle on my way to Nottingham. It took me a day to get my head in gear as I flipped from one event to the other. Eventually, I arrived on site, briefed the volunteers and set up the cafe for another week of fun. One of my colleagues was also working at this event, which was a great help. My CEO and boss came to visit one of the days as they were doing a workshop; it was great to show them what I do at events. The volunteer team were so much fun and we even took a day trip to Sherwood forest on the day off and had a BBQ at our rented house. After inventing 'mocha mountains' (I am now a barista), writing math problems to the finance team and serving hundreds of speciality coffees; it was yet again, time to leave.



I loaded up the van with all the equipment and sent them on their way before driving to Northampton and meet up with the girls!

I was so happy and exhausted as I hugged the girls in the hotel foyer. After 19 days of not sleeping and eating properly, it was lovely to just lie on a hotel bed and catch up. We got all dressed up and went out to dinner, watched movies and made plans. After our last morning together, I dropped them at the train station and drove home to drop off the car and sleep for a day.

The two weeks in between my events went by very quickly with a movie weekend (6, my new record), a trip to London and baking for the office. Then it was time for the muddy, camping festival. This event started out drastically different than my others. The first thing I heard was a compliment about my driving! I had another colleague accompany me as we lead 4 volunteers to promote the charity on an exhibition stand. It was a mixed audience with hippy, activist types very excited about human rights, free speech and charity equality. I bought a hat with a tiger on it, as was the trend of the weekend and then tried to find the car and head home.



My friend Karl came to visit the weekend after and we took a day trip to Reading. It was lovely to be around the Dublin accent and catch up on life back at home. We went to the cinema, went out to dinner and got a box of Krispy Kreme donuts. They were awfully delicious. Being on a gluten free diet for the last 4 years has made me yearn for the wheaty goodness of donuts and other bad treats. I went gluten full last April in preparation for a blood test and I now have a renewed craving for anything that is bad for me. We ate 3 while watching a movie and another 3 the following morning over breakfast!



I head home this Friday for the first time in 5 months! This is the longest that I've ever been away from home and I'm really starting to feel it. I am very excited to catch up with everyone and planning a holiday for October. But more on that in a later blog.

Cheerio for now!

Harry Potter and the half blood prince

Since Cedric died in the 4th film, I have noticed the steady decline from 'happy-go-lucky' kids wizard movie to dark and scary, action movie. Number 6 in the series, I was expecting established characters, vast progression of story and a very entertaining movie; and I was not disappointed.

Once again, the school welcomes a new teacher. Instead of taking on the role of 'Defence against to dark arts' he teaches potions, while Snape gets a promotion to this doomed post. It also starts with the news that the evil student Draco has been given a special task by Voldemort.

Professor Slughorn had previously taught in the school and was known for attaching himself to talented students. Harry eventually finds out that Voldemort or Tom Riddle was taught by Slughorn and told him about the Horcrux. Harry spends the movie trying to get get the attention of Slughorn and get as much info about Tom as he can.

These Horcrux items are where Voldemort has stored part of his soul, so that if he dies, he can be reborn (just like in the 4th movie) using these seemingly normal items. He can create a new item for every time he kills someone, so that is an infinite possibility of items. It's Harry's mission to find all these items and destroy them.

My favourite part was when Harry walks into the dining hall with blood on his face. Ginny Weasley turns to the group and says "He's covered in blood again, why is he always covered in blood - I think it's his own this time". What a life this student has had that he's associated with being covered in other peoples blood.

The worst part of this film was the end where Harry is talking to Dumbledore after finding one of the Horcrux items. They get interrupted by Draco, the evil student on a mission, who is then joined by Snape and 3 of Voldemorts followers. Harry hides underneath as per Dumbledores rules and gets the nod from Snape that everything is going to be ok. Draco fails to attack Dumbledore so Snape steps in and Dumbledore goes flying out the window, falls down the building and lands in the courtyard.

Dumbledore DIES... what?! As well as Snape... lovely Snape, turning back to the dark lord Voldemort.

In retrospect, this week has not been the best time for me to be doing this marathon, but I have enjoyed it so far. Each movie has got better and better and I now see the appeal of the stories. The characters have developed so much and I can't wait for the final instalment tonight.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This movie begins after Harry Potter gets a haircut. The whole crew seem to have grown up a lot in between Goblet of fire. Maybe seeing someone around his age getting killed by the dark lord Voldemort who is set to kill Harry and eradicate all muggles has affected him somehow... (ya think?).

This story is set around the Ministry of Magic who control all magic and magic people in the world. They believe that Harry and Dumbledore lied about the dark lord returning in order to create propaganda against the current minister and eventually make Dunbledore to head. This is of course false and creates even more suspicion about the death of Cedric Diggory.

In order to control Hogwarts the ministry appoint one of their own who eventually takes over the entire running of the school. Professor Umbridge is hated by all as she not only bans the use of magic but enforces cruel and unusual forms of punishment for anyone who breaks that rules.

Harry is appointed the teacher of a team who call themselves "Dumbledore's army". They get taught by Harry on how to protect themselves against an attack from 'who know who'.

The best part of this movie was the new Irish girl. It's never mentioned that she's Irish but I can tell that accent instantly. Just because she doesn't go "Diddly iddly ie potatoes" doesn't make her English! It's never specified what role this unusual girl has in Harry's life but she joins his team and helps him to feel more normal.

Haunted by nightmares Harry realises that because Voldemort was brought back using Harry's blood, they are mentally linked. Snape helps to teach Harry how to block Voldemort attacking his memories. Using this link, Voldemort tricks Harry into breaking in to the Ministry of Magic and finding a prophesy that predicts his own downfall.

Yada yada yada, they have a big fight and Sirius dies...

The best bit(s) was when Hermeine once again stuck it to the boys and said that Ron had to the "emotional depth of a teaspoon".

My 'nit-pick' with this movie was when they use these flying horses to get to London. At the beginning of the film it was made perfectly clear that only Harry and his new friend could see these creatures... Then how is it that Ron, of all people, was able to ride an invisible flying horse to London and not FREAK OUT!!

Anyway, the dark lord is back and everyone knows now. Hogwarts is still in danger but at least Umbridge was taken off by Sentors.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

By now, I am used to walking into the cinema by myself, striding up to the ticket taker person, past all the queues for food and waltzing straight up the stairs to my seat (which is always free). Last night, there were 4 other people who were sitting by themselves, although, I don't think they were taking notes like I was (Oh this blog is clearly well planned out.... clearly).

There is only one trailer at the beginning of these movies... and guess what, it's for the latest Harry Potter coming out on Friday. As a noob, a simple muggle, it's frustrating for me to see where they are now, without seeing the story in between.

Goblet of fire, so far, is my favourite movie in this series. It delves straight into the story and it's a good story at that. Hogwarts is to host the Tri-Wizard championships. 3 schools from across the world (the world being England, France and Russia) all gather in Hogwarts to compete in trials testing the champions in all aspects of wizardry. One representative from each school gets selected from the Goblet of fire and they must be over 17.

Of course, Harry Potter is accidently chosen as a second champion for Hogwarts (he's meant to be 15). This already famous kid is now hated by his school for cheating to join a competition that could kill him. Oh yeh, I'm sure he did it on purpose (sarcasm).

Needless to say that Harry survives the first test of retrieving a gold egg from a dragon. Then he had to figure out how to open it to get a clue for the next challenge. This created the funniest line ever. Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts champion tells him that "You know the Prefects' bathroom on the fifth floor? It's not a bad place for a bath.".

Cedric Diggory is played by Robert Pattinson made famous from those Twilight films. *SPOILERS ALERT* I'm sure I'm not the first person to joke that when Cedric dies at the end of this film (haha), he is then reborn as a vampire for his next one.

The ball before the final challenge was a good scene. You could see the excitement in all the girls "Oh goodie, we get to go to the ball" and all the boys "Does this mean we have to dress up?". The trio seem to be discovering more than just magic as 'sparks fly' and the dialogue hints at a potential romance between Hermione and Ron.... awwww.

The overall hassle with Voldemort gets good when he is 'reborn', somehow. It's not really explained but this baby looking Voldemort goes into a pot of liquid, along with some of Harry's blood and he grows out of the water. So the 'Dark Lord' has now returned, his forces are growing and Harry is determined to kill him, aka Tom Riddle. Oh, surprise surprise, one of his followers is the father of the evil kid in school, who hates muggles. I saw that first off!

Not much to nit-pick with this one, it was clever, well written, funny and held my attention.

As Professor McGonagall would say, be good and don't behave "like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons!"

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This being the third film, I am starting to notice little things that are in every one. The way it always starts before the school term begins and Harry is staying with this horrible Aunt and Uncle. Oh what mischief can he get up to now! It just proves that wizards should not live with disrespectful muggles. The movie also ends when the kids break for summer. Each year it starts with the children growing another foot taller and looking about 2 years older (um, maybe because they are...).

The most disappointing start to the film was when Dumbledor welcomes everyone to a new term. "Dumbledor? That's not you... what happened". I never followed the casting of these movies but I do remember something about the actor passing away. Still, it's such a shame that the wardrobe department couldn't have eased the grief even a little by keeping Dumbledor's beard, hair and general clothing style the same. Are we meant to believe that an old wizard like Dunbledor would dye his beard a darker grey and tie it in a hair band? Once again, I digress.

The movie begins with the usual threat on Harry Potter's life. This somewhat uninteresting boy holds great power that everyone is either in awe of or hates. A prisoner manages to escape from the legendary prison of Azkaban. Harry gets told by several people that this prisoner, Serious Black, was a follower of Lord Voldemort and killed Harry's parents. He was also Harry's god-father.

The prison guards, these deathly creatures roam the school to protect the students from Serious. They end up attacking Harry, on numerous occasions, until he has the confidence to cast the ultimate spell against them. He gets taught by the new teacher how to protect himself from them and gets given a lot of chocolate every time he passes out. What a feeder!

The trio end up finding another type of trio. The 3 friends of Harry's parents. Serious Black, the new teacher and a man who turned himself into a rat to avoid capture, looked after by Ron all this time. The truth comes out eventually when the rat-man confesses to being the real following of Voldemort. I am still a little confused as to why Serious escaped in the first place... if it wasn't to kill Harry...

Stuff happens and Hermione ends up bringing Harry back in time to fix everything... I still didn't get that part but 'time travel' is such a cop out in terms of story telling. It's like ending a story with "And then she woke up and realised that it was all a dream...".

The funniest part of the movie was when Ron is having a nightmare and ends up sleep walking. He turns to Harry and says "The spiders... they want me to tap dance... I don't want to tap dance". You tell 'em Ron!

Another point that I noticed was the poor teacher of the 'Protection against the dark arts'. Every term there is a new teacher as they are either killed, run away or are banned from teaching. Needless to say that the children mustn't be learning very much with that much change.

Anyway, I must put away my notes from this film. As the twins would say "Mischief managed"!

Harry Potter Marathon: The Chamber of secrets

Ok, second film up, it's a sequel to popular opening film, so it'll have a better director, bigger budget and the actors will be more confident.

To start, I was glad that not only did we get to see the chamber of secrets but we got a bit of back story to the school and other characters. The shadow that is 'Voldemort' keeps appearing and I'm noticing a theme. I have a feeling he will turn up in every film and not be very successful in his attempt at immortality.

First, we get introduced to Dobbie, a little goblin creature who has come to warn Harry not to go back to Hogwarts. In my school, there was a girl who was nicknamed Dobbie because they said she looked like the cartoon. After seeing what Dobbie looked like, it just enforces what a cruel class I had.

The problem with suspense in movies series is that you know the main character is never going to die. Even when Harry is hanging out of a speeding car and could fall to his death, there is no fear because you know that he's in at least 5 more movies. I found that this ruined the action element of the film.

One of the oddest moments was when the new teacher releases a cage of Cornish Pixies into the classroom. I must have been the only one laughing but only because it reminded me of funny chats that we had in work. Also because I was given the name Pixie queen at an event one time.

There were some other funny moments, like finding out the caretakers cat is called "Mrs Norris" and the amount of times Harry ends up in hospital, far too much for a minor.


The best/worst moment was when Harry and Ron had to follow a trail of spiders into the forest. Ron said what we were all thinking "Why spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?". Soon after, they are in a cave in the forest with hundreds of spiders crawling everywhere. They had a terrifying chat to the leader of the spides, a giant one. Parts of that scene were difficult to watch as I'm not that fond of spiders and it felt like they were crawling on me.

Once again, I had a grievance with Quidditch. It is ALWAYS Griffindor and Slitheren who play against each other. It's like the other two houses aren't as important. Although Hufflepuff is the stupidest name ever, that doesn't deny them the right to play school sports.

I found this movie more enjoyable overall but not loving them as much as some people have.

And hey, at least I don't have mud blood!

Harry Potter marathon

So, hands up who has seen and enjoyed the Harry Potter movies or books... [looks around the room] Right, well you will all notice that my hand is not up. I was never drawn to the series. While most of my school were reading the books, I was more interested in music and drama than reading. It would take another series to get me back in to reading, but might talk about that another time.
Because I hadn't read the books, I wasn't too fussed about seeing the films. I thought that they were aimed at fans of the book series so I was not interested. They seemed childish to me and therefore uninteresting. I was finishing school, looking at starting a degree, it was time to start putting childish things behind me and that included popular culture. Besides, I was never one to follow trends!

However, I do enjoy a good movie marathon.

The other day while browsing my Cineworld app for something to watch over the weekend, I spotted that they were reshowing one of the older HP films. I looked at the day before and the day after and sure enough, they were showing all the movies in order one each day right up until the preview of the latest and last film. I love challenges and watching films so I decided to make myself watch one Harry Potter film every day for a week.

To my utter surprise and amazement, Cineworld were doing a special bulk deal for people like me. I managed to get 7 cinema tickets for £21. For anyone living in the UK who has paid £9 for a cinema ticket, knows that to get 7 for double that is quite good.

Well, here goes, my evaluation of the Harry Potter series:

Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone
First off, my disappointment with this film is that we never actually get to meet the philosopher. While the credits were rolling my anger at the misleading title was palpable, but alas, I digress. We did get to see a stone, which was the main point of the film.

Overall, it's an alright movie, made in the early naughties with poor CGI and young actors who haven't developed yet. However, for child actors, they were believable and didn't overact as much as I thought they would.

There were some 'in' jokes that I felt were added for the book reader, which I didn't quite get. Also, I seemed to be the only one to laugh at the punch lines as everyone else must have seen the movie before. Hagrid was the character that saved the movie for me. Portrayed by Robbie Coltrane, he played the jolly fat man who befriends the team of ragamuffins. His catchphrase "Oh, I shouldn't have told you that" was predictable but charming and he seems like a character that all grow to love. Naming a giant vicious 3-headed dog "Fluffy", that's so Hagrid!

The one thing that I didn't like was how often they poked fun at the Irish kid. Always blowing stuff up and making a mess of himself. Or else Hagrid describes a jolly gambling fellow down the pub... Irish again. Of course the Scottish guy had to be tall, handsome and good at sports. You won't poke fun at the Scots Rowling, but it's ok for the Irish?!

It was very much a movie set as part of a series. As a stand alone movie, it lacked the 'introduction-setting of characters-exciting incident-end' process that most movies go for. It delved into this erratic flow of story which felt like setting the scene for future movies to come. Hopefully, the next one finishes what the first one started.

Also, I know it sounds like nit-picking, but if I paid money to go and see a game of Quidditch and a Seeker grabbed the Golden Snitch within the first... um.... 40 minutes, I would ask for my money back! Having a Snitch is like having a 'cheat' button on video games, victory doesn't taste as sweet if you don't earn it.

Anyway, it's time for this muggle to head to bed. A long weekend of relaxing and watching movies ahead of me. [Crawls under invisibility cloak]

[update coming soon]