Meeting Maggie

Dear Reader,

I just realised that I haven't once blogged in the month of October, despite the fact that so many important things have happened. Okay, okay, not that many "important" things have happened, since I've spent the past two-and-a-half weeks burrito-wrapped in a blanket, with a fire inside my skull and my sinuses filled with a sticky liquid. Not the most creativity-encouraging state to be in. But other than all of that, there is one thing I would like to mention.

On the 2nd of October, despite feeling slightly under the weather (the beginnings of what would turn out to be a week-long episode of fevers and empty-tissue-boxes) I trudged out to  Kensington High Street, London (only a 1/2hour away from my house) with my childhood friend, Codename: Princess - she really is my "child"-hood friend, having known her since she was a baby and by being five years my junior. So, as it was a Saturday, we were immensely lazy and got there around 11:30am. We shopped around for my Aunt's birthday present and then around 1:00pm entered Pizza Hut for lunch. We had this incredibly tasty "Hot Cookie Dough" and Vanilla icecream:

After that we headed over to Waterstones where Maggie Stiefvater would be signing books. The queue wasn't that terribly long when we got there (it still spilled over on to the street though) but lucky for us it wasn't raining that badly either. There was this really nice lady in front of us, who was wearing a red hijab. She gave Maggie some gifts which included a book and a very pretty packet of dates (the fruit) from Saudi Arabia. At the time I really wished I had brought a copy of Love in a Headscarf for Maggie Stiefvater. I think she would have really enjoyed it. But I'll definately remember it next time.

That's me on the left and Maggie Steifvater on the right (for those of my reader who don't know who's whom). 

The addition in this photo is Princess - also an avid Maggie Stiefvater fan 

I took all of my Maggie Steifvater books with me (Lament, Ballad, Shiver and Linger) to be signed but I bought a another signed copy of Linger for my best friend Codename: Pixie, because unfortunately she wasn't able to come with us, even though she wanted to. We chatted for a little while and I told Maggie that Ballad was my favourite - partly because I love the main character, James and mostly because there was a lot of wonderfully twisted Fearie action (including someone being burnt alive, Muh hu ha ha haaaa) - and Maggie was nice enough to doodle the Thornking (the main "bad guy") onto the book, as seen below:

I don't know about you, my dear reader, but I think that's pretty cool.

Anyway, since I've been spending a lot of time in bed, not only have a got quite a bit of Uni-work done but I've also done quite a lot of reading (check out my now updated 'Reading upDates' in the side bar --->) and watched quite a few new and old movies (I've added my opinion of the movies in brackets):

• Sherlock Holmes (10/10)
• Hitch (6/10)
• Iron Man 2 (5/10 - a bit of a disappointment since the first Iron Man was 9/10) 
• The Prestige (8/10)
• The Princess and the Frog (9/10)
• How to Train Your Dragon (7/10 - the main dragon, Toothless, is incredibly cute)
• The Lion King (10/10 - I love Disney!!!) 
• Creation (8/10 - It was better than I thought it would be. Paul Bettany's performance was amazing though.) 

On a side note, I want to thank Kristen Cashore for posting this link on her blog. It had me laughing (and coughing) when I was feeling utterly miserable due to this heinous cold, not to mention the swollen glands. All Harry Potter fans MUST check this out. 

And I shall have to leave you with that for now, since I intend to go into university tomorrow and I have to get a lot of doctor-prescribed-bed-rest. So it's off-to-bed-early for me. Good night and sweet dreams.

Nida