A weekend offline.

Hey there!

Let me tell you a little story. A very, very stupid story. Get ready for a lot of cringing. 

Once upon a time, also known as last Thursday, a girl named Renée was at school. This Thursday wasn't just any day. No, it was a day filled with lectures, a lot of free periods and a boring class which lasted until 5:30 pm. Our story starts in the early afternoon.

The girl named Renée was sat in the library, together with the other kids (read: childish adults) of her class. They had been there for the last two hours watching anime or normal TV-shows, talking and just blatantly not studying. In these two hours Renée got back into one of her anime phases, whilst enjoying the strawberry yoghurt. However one of her satanic classmates decided to film Renée's yoghurt-anime-sessions and sent it to the class's group chat. Let's say Renée ignored this classmate for the rest of the week. 

When the four hours long free period finally came to an end, the class got up from their library position and started the hellish climb to the third floor. Non of them particularly fond of the ridiculous amount of stairs their school holds. Before taking on the stairs Renée and another, less satanic, classmate decided to have a small toilet break. They both went into a stall when it happened. As Renée lowered her jeans she heard a loud "splash". A sudden fear took over as she turned around and without a doubt stuck her hand in the toilet to get her phone out of the toilet. Quick as she was she got the phone out and started drying it with her coat, toilet paper, even her shirt. Whatever it took to get most of the directly visible water off the phone. All whilst standing in her underwear, with a full bladder and a confused classmate in the stall next to her. 

Still panicking she went for a pee and reunited with her classmate to tell her the story. Let's say that, even though the other classmate understood her panic, she still couldn't help but laugh. This wasn't even the first time Renée had dropped her phone in the toilet, no my friends, this was the bloody second time it happened. 

Once Renée returned home later that evening, she rushed to find a bowl and rice to put her phone in. For the weekend Renée had to survive without her phone. A weekend without the endless scrolling through social media and pointless talking to friends. The first day was pretty difficult as she kept reaching for a phone covered in rice, a phone she couldn't use. The other days went by pretty easily. It gave her a weird sense of peace, not having to constantly look at a phone, to have the rectangular screen printed in your mind. It was a good weekend, a peaceful weekend. Renée found that she didn't need to be online 100% of the time, she found out that it's actually really nice to spend some time offline, to not have to check social media or worry about missing some important messages. She found that when people really needed her they would find another way to reach her. 

After the weekend she took her phone out of the rice and started it again. Thankfully the phone did work and Renée came back online. A lot of messages were left on her social media and she didn't even bother to read them all. She announced her return and the important questions or announcements were repeated and the not important things forgotten. Now she's back online which might be her happily ever after, but maybe her happily ever after is realising she isn't so dependent on her social media activity or her phone altogether. Sometimes she just needs to take a break, to clear her mind and to get that stupid rectangular shape out of her mind. 

So yes, you could say Renée lived happily ever after. She even has a little protip for all you people out there. "Whenever you go to the loo, check your back-pockets, get your phone or other technological devices out, believe me it makes having a pee a lot less stressful".

Renée Reviews: Me before You.

Hey there!

Back to books. Not too long ago I realised I had officially finished all the books in my personal book collection. Needless to say this led to a bit of a personal crisis, especially once I checked my bank account. Multiple trips to the charity shop later I still didn't have any new books. This is the part where my bookaddicted friend comes in. We are basically a library for one another and at that point a library was what I needed. So she lend me two books, one of which I'll review today. She lend me 'You're the one that I want' by Giovanna Fletcher and 'Me before you' by Jojo Moyes. 

(source: https://penguinblog.co.uk)

I'll review 'You're the one that I want' another time, for now let's focus on 'Me before you'. The first bit I read was the summary part on the back. This bit already drew me in and I couldn't wait to actually start reading the book. On the first few pages of the book I had were some reviews. I’m still not sure if reading the reviews before the book was a particularly good idea but at least it prepared me for the tears that were to come. On the other hand I already kind of knew what was going to happen, a thing I started denying as I was reading the book.

Because I don't want to spoil to much I'll just show the bit on the back of the book. You know, to give you an idea what the book is about without all the spoilers I might have given in my extreme enthusiasm. 

"Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. 

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time."

If this doesn't get you hooked, maybe what I'm about to tell you will. Whilst reading 'me before you' I realised just how much I needed a book like this at the moment. A book with a great story line, just a tiny bit cliché, written from different points of view, really very interesting characters, and tears, lots and lots of tears. I love a book that can make me cry, not a very hard job, but crucial to a good book in my opinion. 

This is one of those books that you can't seem to put down, you just want to keep reading and find out what will happen next. You feel like you need to know what decisions will be made, what plot twists might be about to happen, etc. However as the end of the book came, I was torn. It was a tough dilemma. On the one hand I really wanted to keep reading even though I was so scared of being right about the ending (which I was), but on the other hand I just didn't want it to end. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to Lou, Will, Nathan, Treena, even the mums and dads, their lives ,their stories, their thoughts, and adventures. I just didn't want to lose them.

This ultimately resulted in me reading a chapter, pausing to do some laundry, reading another chapter, tears rolling down my cheek, pausing to go to the loo and to dry my tears, reading another chapter, and more tears falling on the pages of the book. Eventually I had to put the book down as I had places to go. Once I found the time and courage to actually continue reading and I ultimately finished the book, I was an emotional mess. Tears and snot everywhere, ugly crying involved. My bed had turned into tissue mountain. It really wasn't charming. This sad, crushed mood followed me around for the next few days. After a couple of days I have now decided I'm going to reread the book. I'm three chapters in again. Rereading books isn't really my thing so that says a lot about the book. Let's just forget about me rereading the complete Harry Potter series multiple times.

So yeah, now I'm just waiting for the movie to come out on June 3rd and I cannot wait. The movie trailer looks so promising and the movie has Jenna Coleman in it!!! (Which kind of interferes with my Doctor Who schedule....)

If you have never heard of the book before, I really recommend you check it out! If you're not much of a reader and want to skip to the movie right away, that's fine too! I'll add the movie trailer Here for everyone who's interested.

To cut myself short: 'me before you' is absolutely amazing and I couldn't possibly recommend it enough. The author Jojo Moyes, did an incredible job and she has made a lot of people cry like a baby. Lots of credits and love for her!

Lots of love (and some tears),

ThatDutchGirl96

Renée reviews: the jungle book.

Hey you all!

As it's been quite a while since I've done one, I decided it was about time for another Renée reviews. This time I won't be reviewing a book, no I will be reviewing the Jungle Book, directed by the brilliant Jon Favreau. His name might ring a bell because he's directed a lot of amazing films (in my opinion), for example the Avengers, age of Ultron, the Iron Man movies and about a boy.

Now we all know Jungle Book as the animated Disney classic which came out in 1967. As a child we've all sang along to the Bear necessities, been seduced by Kaa and scared of Shere Khan. When I first heard they were making a new, more life like, version of this childhood classic I was pretty excited yet also kind of sceptic. Normally I'm not one for remakes and how the hell were they going to make it work with all the animals. Let's say I had some mixed feelings at first. 

Then it happened, on a very rainy Wednesday in April, I convinced one of my friends to accompany me to the cinema and relive our childhood, or watch it being crushed. At that point I had already seen the trailer and became rather convinced the movie would be amazing. 

The Jungle Book, 2016. What an amazing movie. They made it work, I was so happy they made it work with the animals due to some crazy magnificent animation and the acting skills of Neil Sethi who plays Mowgli. Let's give that kid a loud round of applause! He absolutely killed it. That one has a big future ahead of him, mark my words. Then keep applauding for the brilliant Jon Favreau and the entire behind the scenes team who animated the movie, were stuck in blue morph suits to represent animals and made the movie the magical experience it has become!

I laughed, I cried and I was utterly blown away. The animation was flawless, I loved every minute of it and they really stuck to the Disney classic. It's so much fun to see your childhood come to life again and in such a more life like way. This version of the Jungle Book is much more mature than the Disney version but not in a bad way. I loved how slightly darker some scenes were compared to the original Disney animation. Watching Disney movies when you're an adult does add this new layer to them and I really appreciated some of the humour that only the adults laughed at and understood. 

Yes, I am very pleased with this new Jungle Book movie. It was absolutely lovely and gave my childhood an extra dimension, literally, this movie was in 3D. The movie is made brilliantly and it will get you, whether you're a child or an adult you get sucked into Mowgli's story and you will love it!
So if you get the chance please go and watch it! You will not regret it for a second! You're only regret will be singing along to the Bear necessities for two weeks. 

When you're still in doubt, here is the link to the movie trialer!

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96

 

My day at Elfia.

GERONIMO!!!

Exactly one week ago I went to Elfia. Elfia is this epic Dutch nerd fest that is held twice a year. During the Elfia weekend people from a lot of different places come either dressed up or in their normal clothes and just enjoy the magical atmosphere that Elfia just has. It is absolutely lovely to see the many different kinds of people walking around, everyone is looking at each other but in the good "I really like your costume" or "OMG I know you I've seen you on TV" way. The Elfia festival takes place on the grounds of a castle which only improves the magical atmosphere. 

Before last week I attended Elfia once more a couple of years ago when it was held in Arcen (a small place not too far away). I went there with my nan and aunt. It was absolutely amazing and I was intrigued by all the different people and their amazing costumes (some just scared me a lot though). During this first Elfia experience I also got to meet Stanislav Lanevski, the actor who plays Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. I was utterly terrified but he was super nice and yeah I still have that picture and I absolutely love it. 

This time I attended Elfia at the Haarzuilen castle. I went there with a friend of mine whom I met on the internet (just a fun fact). She went as a Lord of the rings elf and I went as the 11th Doctor from Doctor Who. A character I've always (well since I've known the 11th Doctor) wanted to cosplay as, and considering the theme was Time and Space it seemed pretty relevant. On the train we noticed a lot of other Elfia attendees, they're pretty easy to spot since most of them were cosplaying as a character of a movie / TV-show / book. The festival itself was absolutely amazing, there were so many amazing shops, post zombie apocalypse grounds, medieval training fields. It was amazing and I really recommend you attend Elfia at least once in your life!

So as we were walking around I suddenly noticed something. The TARDIS was standing a couple of feet in front of me and the phone was ringing. As the Doctor I started to wonder who would be calling me today. Turned out it was my Companion Clara who I ran into a little later that day. Well I was pretty impressed by the TARDIS and when it started raining just then my friend and I decided to seek shelter in her. Thankfully she was bigger on the inside ;). Later that day we ran into her again on the other side of the castle. This time she was surrounded by the Dutch Time Travellers Association. Basically a Dutch group of Doctor who fans. I felt at home. We played the Dutch version of Werewolves of Miller's Hollow which was super awesome and fun. It was during this game that I ran into multiple versions of myself which was quite ood but hey at least the universe didn't implode. I also met Clara here so yeah that was a big plus. The werewolves were replaced by Timelords and the villagers were human Colonists that had stranded on our planet. I was a Timelord and eventually us Timelords won! Don't tell anyone but I was pretty awesome :). 

To cut myself short. Elfia is this amazing nerd festival in the open air that you definitely should attend when you're able to. During that day I met and saw a lot of really amazingly dressed people and amazing cosplayers. I also ran into a lot of Doctors and people kept yelling Doctor Who quotes at me which I found really funny. You don't want to know the amount of times people shouted "fezzes are cool" and "bowties are cool" at me. It was great. The atmosphere at Elfia is amazing as everyone just gets along and acts nice to each other. To quote Matt Smith: "I think that, if the world was a bit more like Comic-Con, we'd all be a little happier." This counts for Elfia too! I absolutely loved that day and I can't wait until my next nerd festival (probably Elfia Arcen in September).

So if I managed to convince you to go to Elfia one day please visit their website for more information, dates and tickets. I would also like to link the Dutch Time Travellers Association and The Dutch TARDIS because they are just really awesome and made my day a lot better! Oh and keep an eye out for a video of my day at Elfia on my youtube channel and a video/blogpost about how put my Doctor who cosplay together.

I will always remember when the Doctor was me.
ThatDutchGirl96