Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans

When I went to London last month, I bought a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans at the Harry Potter Studio Tours.

I somehow thought that the flavours that they advertised weren’t totally real, because, come on, who would like to eat a jelly bean that taste like dirt or pepper? Well, we did! Yesterday, after lunch, me and my 3 nephews decided to open that little box and I tried one – Black Pepper!!!! So it all started. Then I tried watermelon, lemon, dirt, earthworm, tutti-frutti and candyfloss. My eldest niece told me that she wanted a nasty one, so I gave her rotten eggs… poor girl! The other one ended up trying a sausage one, and they even tried soap!

They are amazing. We had such a fun time trying some of these flavours =).

Holiday season is here!

Everyone gets excited around Christmas, am I right? Here are some reasons why I can’t way for it to come…

I get to go home

Actually, I don’t even have to wait that long for this one, tomorrow afternoon I’m headed to Lisbon, for a two and a half weeks “vacations”. And this means…

   

I get to see my family

Who doesn’t like that? I miss them all so much, but most of all, I miss my nieces and nephew, and Christmas it’s their time :).

   

I get to bake

I like cooking in general, but I love love love baking! Anniversaries, Holidays and special occasions are the only times I get to seriously bake. So I’m planning to make an apple pie, Red Velvet cake with cream cheese filling and a chocolate cake (for the kids) and maybe I’ll get excited and bake some cupcakes =). It’s a busy few days before Christmas, but I have to admit that I love it!

   

I get to travel

Here’s another thing I couldn’t live without: travelling! I get to travel all the time, between BCN and LIS, but it’s not the same thing. So, for the New Year, I’ll be going to Casablanca with my mom. We travel together all the time, earlier this year I went with her to the US (Atlanta and NY), so it’s nice to do it again. Next year we have at least one trip together lined up, to Ireland, and we’re considering two more =).

   

I get some time off

Anyone who’s taking or took their PhD knows that this is not entirely true, you can never truly tune out the amount of work you have waiting for you at home and at the lab… but dammit, I had a couple of super overworked weeks, I really need a break… even if said break consists of running around buying Christmas presents for the kids and slaving myself in the kitchen! I do hope I get some time to re-watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and to finally see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. And to catch all the Christmas classics on TV =). When Christmas is done, I hope I get around to make some progress on my Harry Potter Gryffindor house scarf and to do some reading.

    

Doctor Who Christmas Special

In between all this stuff, I’m really excited for the DW Christmas Special. I’m obviously sad that Matt Smith is leaving, but I can’t wait for Capaldi’s Doctor to begin.

   

Sherlock and the New Year

Sherlock returns january 1st and I can’t wait!!!! =D

   

And last but not least… I get to sleep in my own bed!

Which is just perfect 🙂

NCIS: LA – Are you trying to break our hearts?!

I finally got my NCIS: LA episodes to date and, people, are they trying to break our hearts?! I’m obviously talking about Kensi and Deeks, who finally kissed on the last episode of last season.

 

It was long coming, because their chemistry is off the charts, but when this season begun they were kind of rocky. Understandable, given that Deeks was tortured and at the sight of his partner, she let him stay there so to not blow Michelle’s cover. Still, he has it bad and for a few episodes it’s not great. But then she visits him with food and a movie, and he falls asleep next to her.

So a few episodes later, when he asks her “out” and then tells her that he wants to be at his place with her, and she gets up and leads the way, we were all left hanging with that question: “did they or didn’t they?”. Next episode begun the next morning, with Deeks at work and Kensi arriving awhile later wearing the same shirt – so did they? If so, why was he so early at work? He left her alone at his house? After both of them not having their head in the game, aka, their work, because they were worrying too much about each other, they finally decide to talk about it and make it work!

Only to have it all ripped away by Hetty, who sends Kensi away without even the opportunity to say goodbye to her partner (and maybe more). – We all knew that Daniela Ruah would eventually be leaving for her maternity leave, but I still hoped that al least they got to say goodbye somehow…

 

So this week episode left us kind of sad, because Kensi is away and Deeks is kind of lost without her. But the end made it all worth while. Deeks sitting at his desk and Kensi preparing to go to sleep, both watching the same pictures and looking at each other’s photographs… ending with Kensi saying “Goodnight Deeks”… so sweet!

Psych returns in January

Oh Yeah! Only 6 days left for Psych special two-hour musical episode (Dec. 15), and now USA has sets it’s return date for January 8th. The 8th season will be comprised of 10 episodes (according to TVLINE.com).

 

Movie of the Week – Thor: The Dark World

I loved loved loved the second Thor, I dare say that I liked it better than the first one. Here are some reasons why…

  

Nº1 – A lot of action and Zachary Levi!

After the destruction of the Bifrost, Thor and his army are trying to restore peace to the 9 realms, which means a lot of fighting and they’re all looking great doing it! Bonus here: Zachary Levi is playing Fandral now. Although I do prefer Zack with his natural hair colour, it’s better than nothing!

    

Nº2 – So funny, Darcy!

I’m a self admitted Kat Dennings fan! She’s the only reason I watch 2 Broke Girls.

That girl is funny as hell. From the moment that she interrupts Jane’s date, or when she goes to get Selvig, or simple the fact that she, an assistant, got an assistant! She just cracks me up.

That said, she has some help on the comedy department from Stellan Skarsgård and Jonathan Howard, who play Selvig and Ian respectively.

   

Nº 3 – Marvel comes to London

I guess they destroyed enough of the United States, right? This movie is spent between London and Asgard. And when they bring those shields up in Asgard, I can swear that it looks similar to the images we see of Gallifrey… (but maybe that’s just the whovian in me…).

    

Nº4 – Malekith and Heimdall

Christopher Eccleston is amazing as Malekith and that voice, oh man! It’s hard to hear him and not think of The Doctor… =/

And Idris Alba?! I didn’t notice him that much on the first movie… but now…

    

Nº 5 – Loki

Not in this order, obviously, because Tom Hiddleston is a scene stealer. This is probably the only superhero movie franchise ever that the villain is way more popular than the hero. And that’s quite alright!

Tom is, as always, amazing in his role as Loki, and he even provides an pretty amazing Easter Egg, disguising himself as Captain America while he and his brother are escaping Asgard.

And, at the end, he finally gets what he always wanted: the throne (although not as himself, but we will have him any way we can). This is not so great when you realize that he most likely killed his own father.

Great scenes when he’s slapped by Jane and threatened by every single one of Thor’s friends.

 

Nº 6 – Frigga

Frigga (Rene Russo) is a real bad-ass! She stays with her son Loki, even though her husband does not allow it, she saves Jane and puts a hell of a good fight  against Malekith, scaring him for life, and after she dies, she gets a funeral worthy of bringing tears to anyone who sees it.

   

These are just some, but the whole movie is a treat… I’ve seen it a while back now, and I’m dying to have another go at it! Anxiously waiting for the third installment now…

The Day of the Doctor

WOW! That’s basically it… WOW!

It seemed an impossible task, to make a story that would appeal to all whovians, classic and recent era fans, and that made sense, had depth and packed an emotional punch like you wouldn’t believe… well, Moffat did it!

The story starts with Eleven and Clara (with a lot of Easter Eggs along the way… I would need a post just for them). We don’t get to see how he pulled her out of his timeline, but it’s obvious that he did… so moving on. They are “called” to assist UNIT, where they face an impossibility, a painting with the name of “No More” and “Gallifrey falls”, that is a moment in time captured by Time Lord technology… it’s bigger on the inside!

So, we get a glimpse of that day, and we meet John Hurt’s Doctor, that steals a weapon of mass destruction and flees, going to an abandon place to detonate it. But the interface has a conscience, and it assumes a form from his past, or it his future, she always gets those two mixed up… it’s Rose Tyler, although, in that form, she’s called Bad Wolf. She offers him the possibility of seeing his future self, to know what we’ll become if he destroys Gallifrey and the Daleks on that day.

From here we go to the Tenth Doctor that is courting Queen Elizabeth I, thinking that she’s a zygon! After proposing to her and finding out that the zygon was actually the horse, he realizes that he’ll be king! After a quick chase, and now with 2 Elizabeth’s, Eleven makes his way into his time and now the fun begins.

The War Doctor soon joins them and with a lot a sass from all of them, they find out a way of dealing with the Zygon problem, in the past and in the present, but not before Ten marries Elizabeth I.

With the Zygons dealt with, it’s time the War Doctor makes a choice, and he chooses to do it, to “push the button”. After Clara realizes that his incarnation hasn’t done it yet, the Doctors go to him, and the 3 of them prepare to do it, for he doesn’t have to do it alone this time… but, Eleven changes his mind, and they all know what to do!

“Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!” “That’s gonna happen…”

So, they decide to save Gallifrey, to “upload” it into a stasis cube, where they will be in a pocket universe, in a moment in time, but alive and with hope. To do this, they require all 1200 years of calculations, so we see all of them… all 13 of them…

Not knowing if it worked, the War Doctor goes his way (beautiful scene with all 3 TARDIS) and starts to regenerate once inside is TARDIS, because he was wearing a bit thin… he does hope the ears are a little bit less conspicuous… (no luck!).

Ten, realizing that he won’t remember this, asks Eleven where they’re headed, which he tells him: their tomb. Ten says that things could be changed and that he’s better change them because “I don’t want to go!” (heart broken all over again), to which the Eleventh Doctor says to Clara “He always says that”.

Clara leaves the Doctor alone with his painting and soon after he meets the Curator (a.k.a. Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor), who tells him the correct title of the piece “Gallifrey falls no more”… which means that it worked!

Now the Doctor has a destination, he wants to find it, he knows where he’s going!

   

I loved how it was a nod to the past, without forgetting to look ahead to the future. Many people complained that the classic Doctors should all have been in the special, and to a certain extent, they were, old footage was used to show them manipulating their respective TARDISES and the scene in the end (although clearly a montage) it’s a tribute to all of them. It would have looked weird to have them all in it, specially when most of them don’t look nothing like they did in the 70’s and 80’s.

Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt, what a treat! The bickering and ironic comments was amazing. Their chemistry was unbelievable, especially Matt and David, and I truly felt that they belonged there, together.

Billie Piper!!! Steven Moffat did an amazing job with that. He’s right, bringing her as Rose Tyler would be a mistake, because that story is finished and so well told. Bringing her back as The Moment was a truly genius idea, and Billie was better than ever.

London: Day 6 – Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

The title says it all, 23rd November, by 6th day in London, was Celebration day! So, I woke up too early (and that shouldn’t be allowed) and headed up to ExCel.

I never went to anything like it, so I was one of those people extremely interested in all of the cosplays, and there were some amazing ones. A lot of kids dressed as the 10th and 11th Doctor, but also, a lot of young adults dressed as classic Doctor, such as the Second or the Fifth. A lot of families all dressed as something… amazing.

The first panel I went to was the Special effects  led by SFX supervisor Danny Hargreaves and hosted by a guy that looked like a younger version of Alan Cumming and Peter Capaldi (don’t know the guy’s name… sorry!). Although I was a bit disappointed that this was a 1 person panel, it was amazing. We got to jump on our seats a few times… when a Dalek exploded, when a Cyberman burst into the stage, when said Cyberman blew up… and they even made it snow and threaten us with the rain effect as well, but luckily, no one got wet. They even set the stage on fire! Danny admitted that things don’t always go so great and that he even set David’s hair on fire once… yes, David Tennant’s hair!

The exhibition itself was a tad small, with a lot of amazing things, such as costumes, cars, props and so on, sharing a limited amount of space… also, I felt the 8th Doctor was snubbed, there was this place with all of the Doctors clothes and between 7th and 9th… nothing!

The BBC shop was also lacking a lot of things, you could find the official BBC products in other stands rather then on the Official shop. Still, it had an amazing Dalek and the Silence =).

The Regenerations panel was amazing! The classic Doctors are so funny. And a privilege to see them all, even though from far away! Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy talked for about 45 minutes, with the great Nicholas Briggs leading the panel. When asked if they could be any other Doctor (apart from their own), who would they choose, Colin promptly replied “Peter Capaldi!” and Peter Davison replied “David Tennant”, because he never saw an actor who enjoyed that part that much… but obviously he couldn’t be him, because it would mean he would have to marry his own daughter.

Right after, it was time for the Eleventh Hour panel, with Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman and the current producer (whose name I don’t know). Big histeria off course, it was the Doctor after all. Moffat said that people liked being lied to because they like the surprise factor (can’t argue with that!), Matt said that he didn’t know what he was thinking when he decided to leave the TARDIS, and it was pretty clear that each time that his replacement was mentioned, Matt was a little sad. Moffat said that he expects Matt to be back though, maybe in 5 or 10 years, for another anniversary, to which Matt promptly said off course! Matt had a difficult job when a little kid asked him why he uses a Fez, fezes are not cool, Matt obviously defended the fez, but the kid was not convinced!

There were a lot of other things to see, I was lucky enough to caught a panel with Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling in the Classic Lounge, after doing my shopping (nothing at the BBC shop, the only shirt I wanted, there weren’t decent sizes left). So I bought a sonic screwdriver… yes, now I have Hermione’s wand and Ten’s screwdriver… yuuupiiii! And I bought something that it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever use (unless I can convert a few people to become whovians or I meet some of them), that is de Doctor Who trivial pursuit… and I wanted to buy the Monopoly, but it wouldn’t fit my suitcase. And a mug, because everyone buys a mug, right?

There was only enough time to eat something and make my way to the extremely huge line to get into the main theatre to watch The Day of the Doctor, which was handsome!

London: Day 5

My fifth day in London, the 22nd November, was my day for parks and markets.

I went through the Camden markets (stables, Camden Town, Camden) and then I went through Regent Park, heading to 221B Baker Street to have a look at Sherlock’s shop museum (the museum itself I left for some other time).

Then I headed to Notting Hill, to Portobello road market. Around here I got into a Brazilian cafe, where I saw “pastéis de nata” indicated as typically brazilian… well, they’re not, they are very much portuguese. Then crossed through Hyde Park, which I always find fascinating. I only know two cities in the world that have such huge park in the middle of them that you totally forget that you’re even in a city!

At night (which means after 4pm basically), I went to Tower Hill and crossed the Tower Bridge. The London Eye photo is from another day, when I crossed the Westminster Bridge.

After that I went to the hotel, I changed hotels on this day, because of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who (before I got the ticket to watch the episode on Celebration). So, I went, bought my dinner, and sat down on my king size bed eating and watching the Ultimate Guide of 50 years of Doctor Who.