Yesterday (Monday), I had my interview for a PGCE in Primary Education at the Univ. of Leeds.

And I think it went at least ok! So yay!

It was very nerve-wracking the night before and the morning of! I had so much nervous energy, I could hardly sit still for breakfast. I wanted to get going and make sure I was there with plenty of time to spare.

Thankfully, my stress was lessened a little because I went down on the Sunday night to my friend, Andy's flat, and he was a student at Leeds for a little while so knows the campus. So at least I didn't have to know where I was going.

I got into the waiting room and it was full... with, like, actual adults.

Ok, that sounds stupid because yeah, we were all there to get onto a postgraduate course but for some reason I had imagined the other interviewees to look, well, younger. This might be partly to do with the fact I don't feel or look 23, so I think other 23 year olds also look only about 20... Either way, it was slightly intimidating.

But I got talking to some of the other interviewees and, of course, they were all lovely and northern. After the obligatory introductions, including where we were from and what degree we had done, and where we did it, we went and did the maths and English tests.

Well. Thank god I had relearnt how to work fractions! I reckon at least half the questions were fraction based... Things like:

Express 17/25 as a percentage.

Or

What is 3/4 + 2/3 + 4/6? Express it in it's simplest form. 

If you'd have asked me how to do that like two weeks ago,  I would have been very stuck.

I thought it went well, anyway. The English test was a test of our spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as whether we had legible handwriting and could write at a masters level. It was very short so hopefully that was ok too.

The second part of the interview day was something we could prepare for. We were to give a little lesson to the other interviewees in our group. It could be on anything at all. I chose the BSL manual alphabet. So, there was me thinking that surely the chance of someone else choosing that is low, but lo and behold, one of the four others in my group had also chosen the BSL alphabet. I was before her so it didn't affect my lesson, but it definitely stole her thunder a bit and she was struggling to fill the allotted time. I felt a bit bad. She must have felt horrible once she knew what I was planning to do! Thankfully the interviewers understood so, even though I am technically fighting her for a place, it shouldn't affect her overall performance. Anyway, I think my lesson went ok, though probably nerves showed through a bit. But what can you do...

Finally, it was the individual interview. Being interviewed is not my strong suit. I mostly come across as both too honest, and too blasé about whatever I'm being interviewed for. But I think I managed to avoid too many interview pitfalls, and didn't have any horrible moments where I couldn't think of an answer. And the interviewers were very friendly and made me feel pretty relaxed considering.

After that was finished, and some admin was completed, that was my interview day over! It could have gone a whole hell of a lot worse so I'm cautiously hopeful. If I don't get in... well, it'll be back to square one probably. But let's not think about that!

Plus, I would really like to go to Leeds. It's a really nice city (though the driving is confusing!) and the uni has a Harry Potter society!!! Done and done!

Good morning! It's been 2 days since the SAG Awards and now I can compare my predictions to the actual results!

Synopsis: Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm or preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Number of pages: 635 (Author's preferred text)

Rating: 7/10

Overall Impression: I did like it even if I didn't get it fully. Bemusing but exciting and interesting in a slow-burn kind of way. American Gods is all at once, a whistle-stop tour of America, a delve into what it means to believe, and a murder mystery that I completely missed until the end.

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Bit of a life update for you today.

Bit of a dodgy photo, but this is Megan and I all dressed up! (Watch this space for a better photo)

So it's the morning day after the night before, and now I'm going to compare my predictions to the actual results!



I make that to be 8/14. Not too bad for the first big award show of the season... And a few I'd hmm'd and haw'd over, before picking the wrong one.

Better look up when the next one is...

As it is Award Season, and I am a little bit of a film buff, I am going to give you my predictions for the upcoming big award shows. And tonight is one of the big ones: the Golden Globes!


Now, to be fair, I haven't seen all the films up for awards, but I've seen the trailers and heard the buzz so I'm going for an educated guess.

Key:
Film I think will win
Film(s) I want to win
Both


There are many reasons why I chose what I did. Some of them were just stabs in the dark, particularly in categories where I haven't seen any of the nominated films but with Hollywood, you can make good guesses which film is going to win *coughLincolncoughLesMiscough*. And in the cases where I've highlighted more than one film which I want to win, that means I liked those films enough to want them to win.

Anyway, those are my predictions. We'll find out tonight how well I did... (Results are now in and compared over here!)

What are your predictions for this year's Golden Globes? Let me know!

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Samantha Barks, Eddie Redmayne, (dir.) Tom Hooper

Certificate: 12A (PG-13)

Rating: 9/10

Overall: Really, really good. An epic story loved by many, that will now find a new audience. The whole cast were superb, with Anne Hathaway being the standout.
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Yesterday (Tuesday), I went to see Les Mis with my family. If you're from the US reading this, you might think "Hannah waited a long time to see that." But if you're from my neck of the woods (aka the UK), you may be thinking, "How, Hannah, have you seen Les Mis?? It's not even out yet here!"

Well, you'd be right, it's not out over here until Friday, but through a fortunate turn of events, we got to see it early!

I was looking up cinema times for Les Mis for the weekend, when I saw that there was a showing at 7pm on Tuesday. Brilliant. I figured it must be some sort of preview screening... After a bit of faffing, sorting out if my dad would be able to meet us in Leicester after work and stuff, I went on and booked four seats. Done.

We arrive at the cinema with a few minutes to spare, and a guy at the bottom of the escalator ushers up, telling us it's in Screen 4. Thanks very much. Up we go.

We walk over to, what we think must be the queue into the screen, when a lady asks us what film we are there to see. Les Mis, four of us, please.

Ah.

"There has been a mistake."

"What??"

"Not to worry! You'll still see your film. It's just that it wasn't supposed to be available to book on the website. Entirely our fault. In fact, we're going to give you your money back, and you have reserved seats in the theatre."

"Ooookay." There must be a catch.

But there was no catch! The cinema had made a mistake of putting a Daily Mail screening of Les Mis up on their website, available to book, which a few people had managed to catch like us, but they felt it was unfair to let us pay for our tickets when others were seeing it for free. AND we got, like, perfect seats!

Win-win all around if you ask me.

As for the film itself, it was great. My review is here.

Synopsis: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Number of pages: 512

Rating: 7/10

Overall Impression: This definitely ain't no kid's book. JK Rowling's recognisable style soothes against a book that holds no punches, when one is used to Harry Potter...

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