Harry Potter and the Warner Bros. Tour

 Hello!

How is everyone?

I've had a good month! It has been, as I observed to a friend the other day, essentially a month-long birthday celebration, which is a fun way to celebrate a milestone like 21.

Me with my cousins, Neve and Huw, at the Harry Potter studio tour last weekend. (Uncle Will arranged us specifically to be in height order!)

To start with, I went home for most of reading week, which meant I got to spend time with my dad and Pippin. Not my mum, as she was on a teaching course, or Karys, who's long since moved out. It was nice to spend time with my dad - I sometimes feel I don't see him often enough these days. (Which is highly ironic, as I have in fact seen him every weekend in November!)

I came back to Reading half-way through reading week, just in time to attend a social thrown by the Reading University CU. The social wasn't for my birthday, it was just for anyone who wanted to go. At the social, I got drunk for the first time, which is ironic. (Technically tipsy, rather than drunk. Which, frankly, says rather concerning things about going the whole way!) I...do not recommend it. The sensation of feeling out of control was not fun. Though personally, the worst part was laughing and grinning at things which weren't that funny - that was terrifying. (Also, my dazed and out-of-it behaviour made the others present worried that I was upset at something. So that was fun.)

Here is a peaceful Pippin

My birthday celebrations were quite fun. The day before my birthday, I went to a games night with several friends, which was very enjoyable. The games night also wasn't for my birthday, but it was good to hang out with friends. One of the games we played was a game where we sat in a circle and each chose an animal, and each animal had to have an associated noise (such as chicken - cluck). You pass the noise on, for instance, chicken to lion (cluck to roar), and if you mess up you get booted to the lowest position (worm). The idea was to move round until you reached the point you started at. It was a lot of fun, especially because it gives you nice insight into how people decide animals sound. (The worm, for instance, was just 'wiggle', while making a wiggling movement with your finger.) We also played this absolutely hilarious ad-libs game, where each person, going round the circle, made up a sentence of a story, and the next person had to continue it. By the end, we came out with a story about a llama who escaped a zoo and ate his friends...except it turned out it was all in the head of a mentally ill man...or something. It was very confusing.

On the day of my birthday, I went for a meal out with my parents, Karys, and one of my flatmates, Josh, who lived with me last year as well. It was very nice to see my family! It was also, if I remember correctly, the first time Josh properly met my parents, despite us living together last year. After lunch, we all went to my flat, where I opened my presents.

Josh got on very well with my family, which was very nice. Bizarrely, and annoyingly, Josh and Karys separately, but unanimously, decided to tidy my desk as a 'birthday present'. (It was rather messy, to be fair.)

Me on my birthday

I spent most of the week following my birthday working and writing. On the Friday, though, I travelled up to Huddersfield for an event run by a Christian charity which helps Christians in areas where Christianity is illegal. It runs a youth weekend away yearly. The journey north was long and rather dull - I travelled by train. I took a train from Reading to Manchester, then I had to transfer to a different train to get to Huddersfield. Annoyingly, thanks to delays, I missed the second train, and I had to wait half an hour...

The first session at the weekend away was a talk from a Christian who comes from one of those countries. It was fun, though I was so tired that I kept falling asleep. There were around 16 of us, including the leaders; most of the young people there were in their late twenties. I think I was probably one of the youngest!

Over the course of the weekend, we listened to a couple more talks from Christians from places where Christians are persecuted; we also did a prayer session, which was very nice. In our free time on Saturday, we walked to a local pub - it was a long, difficult walk, up and down steep hills, but it was fun! It was nice to get to know the others better. I found out that one of the others is from Cameroon - so we had a really fun chat about our lives. 

On Sunday, we only had one session, which was another talk, I think. After that, we cleared up. The session ended at half eleven; despite that, I didn't end up leaving until around 1. One of the leaders, Annelise, drove me down to Oxford, as we both live in the area.

When I got home, I found that Karys was also visiting; it was nice to see her. I had supper with the family, then got on a train back to Reading

A few of the group taking a late-morning selfie (I wasn't there for it)

An extremely foggy Sunday morning

Most of the group, en-route to the pub. The rest got distracted by a horse and then abandoned. (I know, because I was in that group!)

Me and my new friend, Franceska!

I had a meeting with my dissertation supervisor on Monday 14th: he reckons I'm ready to start writing it! It's been taking its time, though. I've started the introduction, but I'm only about 450 words into the dissertation.

I also had a meal with friends from church on the Monday. They're friends of my parents, and they were also in Africa at various points. I invited a uni friend to join me. It was very fun - we spent a lot of time discussing modern society and religion. Made me think a lot about how I engage with social media and technology.

On Wednesday, my dad turned fifty! He has now been alive for half a century. I, however, didn't celebrate with him, as I went drinking with university friends to celebrate my birthday. It wasn't exclusively alcoholic drinks, though I did have a beer. It was very nice to spend time with friends!

That is an amazing view.

I went back to Oxford (again) on Saturday, partly so I could celebrate my dad's birthday. In the afternoon, my parents and I went on a walk - though it took us about half an hour to start, because they kept bumping into friends on the way. When we got home, we chatted with the Festens online; it was very nice to see them. In the evening, we went to a Lebanese restaurant for a meal, which was very fun. The food was amazing!

On Sunday, I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour with my cousins, as a birthday treat. My dad dropped me off on the way into St Albans - his birthday treat was meeting up with his brother. 

This was my third time going on the tour; the first time was with Uncle Will, when I was 10, and the second was a school trip when I was about 15. I feel like not much about the exhibits had changed since the last time I went. The building as a whole seemed more modern, though. It was very fun! I particularly enjoyed seeing Neve and Huw have a good time - it reminded me of me and Karys. They did a fair amount of squabbling, however. At one point, they started squabbling over Neve's toy, for some reason! One of my highlights of the day was over lunch. Neve and Huw tried to guess how old I was. They settled on 86. Later, Aunt Hel tried to give Huw some practice with subtraction; after telling Huw my true age, she asked him to find the difference between his age (4) and mine. Somehow, Huw came up with 108. (In hindsight, I think he was adding my true age on to the age he said I was, and somewhere an extra integer sneaked in!)

Another highlight was going round the exhibits of the prosthetics that the goblin actors wore; Neve and Huw declared that the ugliest prosthetics were what Uncle Will looked like. Poor Uncle Will...

Though at the same time, a few of the exhibits were very scary for poor Neve. To make matters worse, the tour goes on a set linear path, which means you have to go through certain sections, like the dark Forbidden Forest, with lightning flashing and spiders crawling around. So small children are forced to go through very frightening areas. I wanted to buy Neve a cuddly toy to make up for it, but they were all very expensive.

After we finished the tour, we went to a chocolate cafe, where everything they sell is chocolate in some way. I had an ice cream, and so did Huw and Hel. It was very yummy! Neve had a milkshake, and I can't remember what Will had.

Me, Neve, Huw, and Uncle Will in front of the Hogwarts Express. (This was during the Teddy Dispute,
as you can see by how Neve's holding the toy.)

Me, Hel and Neve. Behind is Hogwarts itself. (Very small, isn't it?)

Me, Will and Huw, in the Great Hall. (My leg really ached after that photo!)

Neve and Huw going to Hogwarts...

Neve and Huw leaving Privet Drive

Me wielding the Sword of Gryffindor to grab Hufflepuff's Cup!

Neve, Huw, and most of Uncle Will

Neve, Huw, and Hel

I spent most of last week trying to work on my dissertation (and trying not to freak out at how much I have to write by the start of January!) I did do some nice things with friends, though. On Monday, I went out for a meal with a friend, and I went on a walk with Josh. It was nice to hang out with Josh; though we live together, we don't often do stuff together. The 21st of November is an...emotionally confusing date for me, for reasons I won't go into, so it was good to hang out with friends.

I also spent time with Josh on Wednesday; we watched a couple of episodes of a TV show called The Boys. It's a deconstruction of the superhero genre, wherein most of the people with the money and the power to be heroes...tend to just be really, really corrupt and self-interested. So there's a band of vigilantes, the Boys, who go round knocking Supers down a peg or two - except, most of them have personal vendettas against Supers, so they aren't much better. The show's good, but very gory, and there's quite a lot of references to sex (both consensual and...otherwise...)

I met up with a friend, Luke, on Thursday; we had a nice catch-up, though it had to be cut short, because he had a lecture. It was good to see him!

Last Tuesday was another friend's birthday! I baked cookies for her on the day, which she and her housemates really enjoyed. We also went out for lunch on Friday, which was a lot of fun. 

The Seven, the local equivalent to the Avengers or Justice League (left to right, Starlight, the Deep, Queen Maeve, Homelander, Black Noir, A-Train, Translucent). Anywhere else, they'd be the villains the heroes fight. Here...they are the heroes. (From a societal point of view. Narratively, the Boys are the heroes. And Starlight is genuinely heroic.)

This weekend, I came home again, to celebrate my birthday with my extended family (Will, Hel, Neve, Huw, Granny, and my great-aunt Sally). It's been fun! I came up on Friday, though everyone was expecting me on Saturday. On Friday, we mostly just hung out and chilled. On Saturday morning, we went for a walk with the dogs (Pippin, Tessa, and Pippa), and I had a pleasant and profound chat with great-aunt Sal about friendships and relationships. Will, Hel, Neve and Huw arrived in the evening, meaning that the house was packed past capacity. So Karys and I had to stay with a famous writer. (Nick Page, who's written a lot of books on Christianity, lives adjacent to us!)

During supper, Neve and Huw were very cheerful; they kept telling jokes. The jokes were things like 'What's orange and round?' (Though technically, I volunteered that one!) They also guessed Karys' age as well. Somehow, my sister, almost two years my junior, is actually twice as old as me (they guessed 161!) I also got to read them a bedtime story, which was very fun! The story in question was one that Granny read to me and Karys when we were younger.

On Sunday, we went to church (except Karys); the service was on the start of Advent. It was an all-age service, and Neve got to take part! My parents led the service, and as an illustration of the story of baby Jesus being presented at the temple, they needed two volunteers to play Mary and Joseph. Neve got to play Mary! After church, we went out for a meal at a local pub. It was a very delicious meal - all the adults had roast beef (except my dad, who had roast pork.) Neve and Huw had fish and chips. They were well-behaved, though there were difficulties over the food (Huw seemed to be under the impression that he wouldn't get any!) As I observed to Hel, I got second-hand exhaustion from seeing Neve and Huw squabble. Overall, though, it was a lot of fun.

In the afternoon, before Will, Hel, Neve, and Huw left, we played hide-and seek, with Neve and Huw looking. They found me very easily... They also press-ganged the dogs into helping, using dog treats. Pippin did absolutely no work, but always looked hopeful at the end of a round. 

A picture taken this morning. Pictured is the exact moment Pippa got bored and went away, just as I took the photo, after about half a minute of standing still.

Overall, I've had a pretty good month. It's been a good first month of being 21! Ironically, I was having trouble thinking of what to do to celebrate my birthday - so it's fitting that I basically decided to do multiple things!

Random stats:

Friends dined with this month: Five (+16 for the others at the weekend away, I guess)

Teachers dined with this month: Five(!) (My parents are teachers, and I had a meal with them every weekend this month. And my church friends, and the uni friend I invited are, or will be, teachers, and I ate lunch with the same uni friend on Friday.)

Episodes of The Boys watched: Two

Dogs walked: Three (Pippa, Tessa, Pippin)

Trains ridden: Nine (One was the Hogwarts Express, though it didn't really go anywhere)

Words of dissertation written: 464