Summer Movie List

Hey guys,

I often find myself eagerly counting down the last few precious days left of school before summer begins, but a couple of days into the holiday, I become fed-up and bored. 

That's just what summer is. 

Expectations vs. Reality -unfortunately for us, reality always seams to win that battle.

Now, I am aware that many students (everyone who wasn't doing their GCSEs) broke up from school yesterday. So for those of you who are already experiencing this, I have compiled a little list of some of my all-time favourite movies (that you really should already have watched).

Granted, most of these movies were released before the year of be 2006. And I know what you're probably thinking. "but Jess... These were all filmed before we had good graphics and is probably going to be boring". 
One thing I've learnt along my movie journey is to never judge a movie by when it was made. Just because it's an old movie doesn't automatically mean the movie is of bad quality.

Another thing I have also learnt during this painfully dull week is that despite the fact that we may know if movies, we might not necessarily have watched them. I'm not even sure if I'm making any sense any more, but what I mean is -for example- everyone knows about the movie King Kong. Am I correct in saying so? But it was only a couple of weeks ago that I actually realised that I had never watched the original movie (which was very entertaining and dramatic by the way).

Grease (1978)

This should come to no surprise to you. Grease is an absolute classic.

 Musicals aren't usually my cup of tea. By this I mean if I was given the choice of watching a musical or eating Marmite, it would definitely take me a minute or two to come to a final conclusion.

But although I will always fail to understand the need for random, completely unprovoked singing and dancing in the middle of a scene, I love the movie Grease and it's not hard to see why. 
I mean... Who doesn't like themselves a young John Travolta?

The prestige (2006)

This is a movie that I've only watched recently.  I was at my friends house (Maya) earlier this week for a "movie marathon" -which didn't quite work out as I arrived late and one of our friends had to leave early.

I remember being very reluctant to watch this, but if you were there you wouldn't blame me for that. I only wish you had heard the way in which she described the movie to me!
You would have had the exact same reaction. Her summary of the movie was somewhere along the lines of "It's about two magicians who are at war with one another and one does something to the other. Okay, that was a bad explanation, but it is a really good movie".
Sounds amazing right?
No.

Despite the horrible (although quite accurate) explanation, as soon as she informed me that Hugh Jackman was starring in it, I was sold. 

In my brief opinion, the movie was surprisingly really good -at least "good" in comparison to my unbelievably low expectations for it.

The Truman show (1998)

Most of these movies were introduced to me by a friend or family member when I was little. I remember somewhere around 2009-10 my older sister first showed me this movie.
To be completely honest, I might be a bit bias when it comes to recommending this film because I happen to be one of the many people who think Jim Carrey is one of the funniest movie comedians there are and overall is just very amusing to watch. I'd definitely recommend his movies if you're in a sad mood and need a little pick me-up or just in the mood to laugh.
The Truman show is -in a nutshell- about a salesman who lives every day almost identical to how he lived his last. Every part of his life, from brushing his teeth to when he sleeps, is scheduled and planned, but one day he seems to notice this and (as cliché as this may sound) his life as he knows it begins to change.
Sorry if that was a bad description (I'm almost as bad as Maya) but I am just trying not to give anything away.

Ferris bueller's day off

I absolutely adore this movie. If you are sitting at home bored out of your mind (as I currently am) this is a light-hearted movie that, to be honest, is actually kind of a bad influence on me. It made me consider taking an unauthorised day off school (although I didn't) just like the main character Ferris Bueller. 

It's not my fault.

I just happen to love teen movies of any sort whether it's a: romantic comedy, a drama, a science fiction etc etc.

If you watch this movie and enjoy it, there is also a more modern remake of it starring a few known viners such as  Cameron Dallas and YouTubers such as Andrea Russet (if you are interested). 

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises

I'm not a huge fan of batman. There. I said it.
I find that a rich man in a bat costume and fancy car doesn't really scream HERO. You know? I just feel like there isn't much talent going on and anyone could be Batman. Forgive me if I start to rant but this just gets on my nerves. DC superheroes are nowhere as good as Marvel. *cue the hate from DC fans*
All personal feelings aside...

Heath ledger was an amazing Joker. Perhaps even the best Joker I've seen in any batman movie (which really means nothing coming from me as he is the only Joker I have ever seen in a Batman movie). 
For those of you who don't know, which I would find shocking, but the main summary of this movie is: A villain -who goes by the name The Joker- is wreaking havoc within Gotham (the town in which Batman is set) in attempts to finally take out Batman.

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p.s there are a lot of other movies that I absolutely love -such as War Of The Worlds- but to spare you the reading time (and increase the movie watching time...you're welcome) I had to narrow the list down.

Anyway, I've got another quote and picture for you all,

Hmm...HMM..

Ferris- Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it

Prom 2015

Hey guys,

This is quite a long post so I'll try and be as brief as possible.

The season of Prom is amongst us! And although my teachers insist on calling the event  a "leavers do" -which it no doubt is- the youth of our year are determined not to undermine the special event and  have persisted in calling the event our Prom.

Now, there are three main events every person will have experienced in their lifetime (well, I hope): A birthday, a wedding and a Prom. Three causes to splurge out on expensive items of clothing that we will undoubtabley only wear once, if we're luck twice, in our lifetime. So why do we do this? Surely it doesn't make any sense.

As you may or may not know, teens all over London have, or are yet to experience the phenomenon that is their Year 11 Prom.

On Friday 19th of June 2015, St Saviours and St Olaves (my now-previous secondary school) hosted a "Leaving party" -otherwise known as Prom- for the girls of Year 11.
To be completely honest, Prom is nowhere near what I had imagined. After years of watching those stereotypical teen movies of girls obsessing over the "perfect Prom night" and viewing other Prom pictures on the internet I was expecting extraordinary lights and fireworks. The whole package.
In my mind, Prom had to be the epitome of entertainment and social activity.

I seemed to be soo focused on the night of Prom itself I had hardly thought about the role I had to play in achieving my expectations. One of those being that I actually had to put effort into looking for the perfect dress, shoes and accessories.

The process of getting ready for Prom was 99% harder than I thought it was going to be.
I spent two weeks prior to the event rummaging through the interweb (my new favourite word) for a dress. This search led me to an Elie Saab trail dress. The image was stunning and thus my obsession with Chiffon was born.

I was determined to have a chiffon prom dress.

What I find hardest to believe about my whole prom dress search was the fact that I absolutely hate ordering clothes online -especially if I need the item quickly. One of the most evident reasons for this is the item may not come on time, leaving you with nothing or even worse, the items arrive on time but you have to send them back because you realise that it's too busty or isn't in the correct size.
There are just too many things that can go wrong when ordering online. This meant that if I found a dress online, I would have to only search for stores that had local shops. An example of this would be ordering a dress from River Island instead of Asos.

Mayas communal Garden

As I was obsessed with that Elie Saab dress, and it was clearly out of my price range, I became fixated with the idea that I had to have a replica dress custom made for me.

That fixation was short lived as I had left it too late for any seamstress to be able to make a decent looking replica dress (a week before prom). At this stage I began to panic internally.
What if I couldn't find a decent dress in time?

Do I decide not go to Prom?
That's when my mum stepped in and saved the day. Said we would go dress shopping that Thursday (a week before prom). One thing we should all know about my mum is that she is a huge fan of old fashioned shops that have been there for a while such as BHS and Debenhams -so unsurprisingly she took me there first. Soon after arriving at Debenhams, we got onto the escalators headed straight for the 4th floor. Having arrived at the 4th floor, we got off the escalators and began our search for my dress. The crazy thing is that fell in love with the first dress I saw but I said nothing to my mum because I felt that she might have thought it was over the top and expensive.
Roughly ten minutes into rejecting any suggestions she had for my dress, she became restless and told me to "go and pick anything up to try on".  This was the most ideal time to at least try on the dress I had seen, even if I couldn't get it, at least I could get it out of my mind.
To be brief, I tried on the dress and both my mother and I loved how it looked on me and purchased it.

A link to my Dress is below:

http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10701_10001_008010340034_-1

That same day, we entered a shop called Dune. Here I found a sales assistant who was my age (16). I have forgotten her name but she was a super sweet person and easy to converse with. We began bonding over how difficult our Physics GCSE exams were going to be and how ill-prepared we were for Prom. Whilst I was being social, my mum was browsing the shoes, browsing for something that had the potential to match my newly-purchased dress. A few seconds into my conversation with the nameless sales assistant, my mum came back with a pair of platforms.

http://www.dunelondon.com/daviner-metallic-detail-platform-court-shoe-0094508750001616/

The Crew

At first I was a little sceptical. I'm not one to wear shiny pieces of any item of clothing or accessories, but the sales assistant did her job unsurprisingly well and before we knew it, we were purchasing a matching clutch.

http://www.dunelondon.com/bex-lurex-hard-case-clutch-bag-0007500670008642/

It was sorted. We bought all of my prom equipment complete with accessories in one day. I'd say that was pretty impressive.

Now that my dress had been sorted out, it was time to sort out one of my closest friends Maya. She usually doesn't wear dresses nor does she go shopping that often. This meant that it was up to me and a select few others (including Mayas Grandpa) to find her something to wear on prom night.

Considering the fact that I had recently found my dress at Debenhams, it was a no-brainer to demand that we visit there first.

Entering the department, I knew roughly what I was looking for (although it is harder to locate items that you found online in store). The night before we went shopping, I  spent roughly half an hour figuring out what style of dress would suit Maya the most.

Judging by my own feelings backed up by the help of my "unofficial fashion consultant" Kayleigh, we decided that Maya should stay away from any lightly/brightly coloured dresses as she is quite pale and therefore her skin would pop with a dress of a darker tone.

We, the select few who accompanied her dress shopping, decided that we would each individually select one dress for Maya to try on, then go from there. In the end, we decided on a dress.

http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10701_10001_61252+267788_-1

With Lilly :)

My sisters played a huge part in getting me presentable for Prom. If it wasn't for them I can't even begin to imagine how un-presentable and outrageous  I would have looked had I arrived without their help.

A few strangers who photo-bombed us then took a photo with us

Prom was programmed to last from 5.30pm to 8.30pm. This meant that we would only have three hours to party and socialise -outrageous! I know! Most people were upset with this so they planned an after-party which probably went on to midnight.
Not my kind of party.
 I didn't want my Prom dress getting messed up or destroyed amongst wild groups of party-goers.

Selfie at the London eye

Moving on, being the fun-addicts that we are, my friends and I had booked a Limo to pick us up from  the school entrance at approximately 8.45pm to ensure that we had enough time to say what could be our last goodbyes to some people as we are all going to separate sixth forms and take last minute photos with teaches and our favourite members of staff (but secretly we also wanted everyone to see our grand exit into the limo... but that's just our little secret).

With fellow Teen blogger and close friend +Neri SeesRed at prom.

The limo driver dropped us off at the back corner of the London eye to allow us to take some photos with the scenery, which was a nice surprise considering that when we were attempting to book the Limo, the woman on the phone told us that we could either go for a Limo cruise or have the Limo drop us off at a particular location. We were told that we could not have both, which was quite disappointing, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when the driver informed us that we were taking a pit stop to take photos.

With my close friend Hannah

Knowing my luck, it wouldn't have been a night out with my mates if something didn't go wrong.

Unfortunately, I was the lucky one who was forced by nature to take one for the team. At the end of the night, when the hour was up and the Limo driver had returned us back to school -It happened.

After being escorted -rather elegantly if I do say so myself- out of the Limo, my friends and I were walking away when I every-so-smartly decided to look back and wave goodbye to the driver.

In the millisecond I took to turn around to wave farewell (as I was wearing a rather tall pair of heals) I lost my balance and plummeted to the ground faster than you could say "ouch".

With my close friends Maya and Kayleigh

When I had gotten back up I discovered that I had snagged the front of my dress, along with a heel-sized hole in the bottom back of the dress and to top it all off, there was a small cut on my knee which I hadn't discovered until I saw the blood seeping through the chiffon of my dress. Yaay. The dress is now completely ruined and remains untouched in my closet. It  a rather unfortunate ending to such a great night.

With my friend Janice

To conclude, Prom wasn't exactly the typical "Best night of my life" but I honestly think that it was one of the best days of June 2015 and if I had to redo the whole night again, the one thing I would change in falling over and ruining my dress.

Have you had a Prom? If so did you enjoy it and or injure yourself?
P.s. For anyone who is yet to have a prom or find a dress, I would strongly suggest they check out Debenhams. The dresses there are decently priced and stunning.

Anyway, I've got another quote and picture for you all,

Hmm...HMM..

I think prom is just about enjoying yourself.

-Victoria Justice