A Middle-earthly week

I was looking forward to doing a big project at the end of this week, but sadly enough, the translators were not going to make it before the weekend, which meant that our part of the job needed to happen over the weekend. I am not allowed to work on the weekend (and I’m not volunteering to do so either), so in the end I could not be a part of it. I did however get my training in doing quality checks on dual stream subtitles. Since there is not that big a difference in the checks I need to do, I am now already able to do them by myself without any trouble. Let’s see what new stuff next week is gonna bring!

On Monday, I went to the red carpet premiere of The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies. Since I had to do a bit of overtime, I was terribly late. When I arrived at Leicester Square, I found out that the square had been surrounded by a fence. There was no way to get on without a wristband, which I obviously did not have. So, I walked on a bit and looked where the crowds were outside the fencing, looking in awe at how big this event was. There were major screens everywhere showing clips of all the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films that have come out so far and a few clips of the new one as well. But what really amazed me, was the swing ride (zweefmolen) I noticed in the middle of the square. I have seen a few of these red carpet events so far, but none of them were this big.
I eventually ended up at the perfect spot, right beside the interview stage, which had a big screen at the back, on which you could see the interviews, but most of the time, I was actually able to see the celebs themselves standing on the stage. Of course, I was too far-off to take any pictures of the people themselves, but I did manage to get some of the screen. All in all, I was very pleased when I went back home afterwards (who wouldn’t be when they’d seen Orlando Bloom in the flesh…).

Friday, I was planning on going to the cinema with Zora, but during the day, I found out that I’d left my keys at home (we weren’t supposed to lock the doors to our room that day, because pest control was coming in to check up on our ant problem, and I don’t need my key to lock up the front door, you see where it all went wrong). Naturally, I wanted to go home straight away after work, hoping at least one of my flat mates was home to let me in. Unfortunately, I would not make it back in time to catch the film, so now we are going on Monday. When I got home, I was in luck, because my flat mates were home and one of them let me in, after a lot of knocking and finally calling out to tell everyone I was not a burglar, but just their very stupid flat mate who had locked herself out. Apparently, the knocking had a slightly frightening effect, woops.

Yesterday, I watched some speed skating with mom and afterwards went to Blackfriars Bridge. This might not be a particularly famous sight in London, but for me, it was a must visit. It is a quite important place in one of my favourite book series, The Infernal Devices, after reading a lot about it, I really wanted to see it for myself. It turned out to be exactly as it was described in the books, which made being there even better. It made it so much easier to spot the places the characters had been at. It was a very satisfying experience. The only negative thing was that it was terribly cold yesterday, and I ended up feeling like a popsicle.
Later that night, I went out again, this time I went over to a cinema that was going to show me and Peter the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on the biggest screen in Britain during one long night. I had a blast!
When I got home, it was time for speed skating again, and now the time is there to finally catch up on some missed sleep.

Next week it’s Christmas Party time! My first ever office Christmas Party. From what I hear about the previous years, it should be fun.

And to end this week’s blog with some recipes, this week I made Sjoerd, Debbie, Angie & Ian’s Groene Studentenpasta. Yet again, they manage to provide me with a delicious recipe. Thank you very much!
I also made a mix of Tifanny’s Salade and Sjoerd, Debbie, Angie& Ian’s Zomerse Salade á la Annik. I put in lettuce, chicken, apple, sweetcorn and zucchini. As not much can go wrong with a salad, this one turned out just fine.

Look out for me again next week!