rogue one Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Watching: I always lose track of everything I watch so I started making lists on my phone. This month I watched; A Series of Unfortunate Events (binge watched the new series on Netflix the day it came out), Bad Moms, London has Fallen, Iron Man 3, Star Wars: Rogue One, A Monster Calls, Now You See Me, Now You See Me 2, Sausage Party, Miss You Already, Allegiant, Five Year Engagement, Mad Max: Fury Road, What to Expect When You’re Expecting and of course keeping up to date with all the various series that I usually watch.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): I thought after Christmas that things might quieten down a bit and they did… but only for a little while. After catching up on orders from the holiday period, I had a quietish week or so where I even got to try out a few new products but it soon got busy again and I haven’t caught up since. I think I’ve had approximately 100 orders for January. As well as all the usual, I made new Infinity Scarves which I hope to list soon and new Travel Wallets which I still want to perfect. I also made a Belle Christmas dress which was for Liv’s birthday at the end of the month.

And in other news…
– This month has been a combination of really dreary and wet, or absolutely freezing cold so the truth is, doing anything has been a bit of a struggle. We went swimming early on (before school started) and managed a trip to Disneyland Paris which was booked a while back, but otherwise I’ve just wanted to huddle in the house!
– Speaking of swimming, this term has been Lily’s class’ turn to go swimming on Thursday. I go with them as they always need parent helpers and last week Lily managed her 50 metre badge which I’m super proud of as she could barely swim last year when they started.
– At the beginning of the month, Chris managed to write his car off which meant rescuing him on the day and then spending a week looking for a new car. In the process we did get to try out a new place called Meat Inc. and we’re hoping to go there again soon! We also had a day out to see Rogue One (which we combined with looking for cars) and had lunch at Yo Yo’s for the first time in a while.
– As I mentioned, we went to Disneyland Paris and on the way home I managed to crash my car in the car park. This meant I had to pay almost £400 to get my car towed home and then another £35 to get it mended in the garage. It was a lot of hassle but it could have been worse I guess.
– Megan got a boyfriend (her first proper one) in December and though they didn’t see each other over Christmas, things are still going strong in January. We took Daniel to the cinema and Pizza Express and she has been invited around to his house for dinner twice after school.
– Also I attended Megan’s first secondary school Parent’s Evening, where I had appointments to see all the teachers separately. She is doing so well and on track for As and A*s in all her subjects. After leaving I burst into tears as I was so proud of her.
– I finally got around to using my new soup maker and made soup almost every day for a week. It wasn’t particularly healthy mind you as my favourite is broccoli and stilton.
– Over Christmas, Lily and I played a lot on the Harry Potter Lego games and for Christmas she got the new Fantastic Beasts set for Lego Dimensions. We spent all afternoon one Saturday building up the portal from Lego and then the rest of the evening playing on the game.
– Finally the end of the month saw Chinese New Year and so we “celebrated” by ordering Chinese takeaway!

Looking forward to in February:
– As far as I know, there isn’t much happening in February. I know we are hoping to organise a games night and give Nat’s fella Dan, a chance to meet our friend’s Jon and Becka.
– Also there is Valentine’s Day, but Chris is working in the daytime (as always) and the girls will have been at their dad’s overnight. I’m planning a lie-in, then my mum is picking them up and heading over and we’re going to play board games. Probably in the evening we’ll have a nice meal together as a family.
– Sing and The Batman Lego movie are both out at the cinema so hopefully we’ll see those. There is talk of a movie marathon day so that would be great!
– It’s half term this month and I love that for so many reasons. Firstly it means I don’t have to turn out on the school run both in the morning or in the afternoon (that saves me 3 hours of my day). Also it means I get to spend time with the kids (Chris is working every day, surprise surprise). Lily and I also have her school project to finish and that means baking so hopefully that will be fun too.
– Otherwise, I can’t think what else will be happening. It’s my sister’s birthday at the end of the month so we may well go out for that.

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Yesterday, Chris and I went to see Star Wars: Rogue One. I’ve never really been a Star Wars fan (I don’t hate it, I just was never fussed) but I have seen all the movies. Last year I went with Chris to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens and really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t especially fussed about Rogue One. I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised though.

When the movie first started, I wasn’t particularly sold on Jyn’s character. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her but I do worry if we’re just getting female leads (like Rey too) because we’ve tolerated male heroes for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all pro equal rights, but I just don’t want it to be a girl for token sake, rather than because they are genuinely the right person to be the lead. Anyway, Jyn just reminded me of Katniss Everdeen so I wasn’t really sold and in fact the first half of the movie didn’t really grab me. I cry at nearly every movie I ever watch and so when I tell you I didn’t cry when a certain person died on Eadu, you might be a little surprised.

However, when Jyn and Cassian go at each other on the way back to the council, and you’re kind of on both people’s side at the same time, it’s pretty obvious that Jyn is now going to start helping. Her speech at the council was actually quite emotional (despite being very typical of movies) and from then on, she was onboard and so was I. The gang getting together and becoming “Rogue One”, almost made me cry in itself but when it all really got going and everyone banded together, that definitely got me. I love a good villain and I’ve always been a champion of bad guys, but there is something about the Rebellion, that just gets me. The way that people fight, knowing there is a high chance they will die, is just very refreshing.

That said, and I don’t like to write these posts with spoilers, I was definitely surprised by many of the deaths on Scarif. I even leant over to Chris and said “its like Game of Thrones, no one is safe”. For the most part, I expected the storyline that happened and not just because you know what happens in the next movie. However there were several parts, especially deaths, that I didn’t. As I already mentioned, I loved the banding together of EVERYONE and the way they worked together to get the data out (and then even to safety in the big reveal last scene). I sobbed at the deaths, especially the (most?) surprising couple on the beach towards the end. It was completely devastating how it ended on Scarif to be honest, but somehow refreshing that it didn’t have a neatly tied up bow at the end too.

For me, the stand out performances were definitely Cassian and of course K-2S0 (he was amazing and hilarious and another sob!). The rest of the team making up Rogue One were pretty awesome too, the pilot, blind guy and his sidekick protector. I’ve never really followed the thread of who’s in charge when it comes to the Dark Side (it’s confused me through both the first trilogy and the second) so I can’t really comment on those (I don’t even know who is who) but Darth Vader was pretty cool. Watching 4-6 I never really understood how he was considered scary, because the movies always just seemed a bit outdated (I was in my twenties watching them) but I could definitely see it in this movie. However my biggest shoutout, has to be to a nostalgic feel. While the movie was made now, it didn’t feel too new. The pilots (fighting in and out of Scarif) all felt very much like they had in 4-6, as did Darth Vader. I loved that the filming just didn’t smack of better graphics, cgi etc all because it was made now and not then.

Overall I enjoyed the film a lot, though not as much as The Force Awakens (despite that feeling very NOW and modern and new by comparison to the other movies). I did like the way it fills the gap between 3 and 4, though honestly I still try and forget 1-3 exist.

Monthly Round-up – January 2017

Movie Review – Star Wars: Rogue One