Month: October 2022

Day to Day Life | Plan With Me | 11 – 17th July 2022 | Planning Time by ScribblePrintsCo

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am trying to make time to film Plan With Me videos, even though it puts me even further behind in my planning lol. That being said I still plan to have this planner completed on time so I guess I’ll just need to go into over drive planning in the next couple months to get caught up. Also R.I.P to my bank account as I try to get all the stickers needed to cover the November/December period because I don’t think I have that sorted yet haha.

Still, I do not regret this hobby this year it’s been super fun and I love how pretty it turned out. Plus this year I have actually had a lot of activities to document and this is a fun way to do it.

Twisted PLL Book #9 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

After two months we are back with some more Pretty Little Liars! And the tea is GOOD so let’s dive in.

The story starts off with our four favourite girls, Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna on spring break vacation in Jamaica they are having the best time until a blonde girl at the resort catches their eye. Each girl has an interaction with this blonde who goes by Tabitha and they can’t help but feel there is something familiar about her…she reminds them of Alison – not their Alison, the one they were friends with and died, but Alison the twin who tried to kill them in a fire months before…yikes.

Fast forward to a year later and the girls have drifted apart after their holiday, it is clear something happened between them and this Tabitha girl but we don’t know what yet. And even if A has disappeared from their lives the girls aren’t exactly having a good time they all are facing their own issues as always because being a teenager is hard.

Though to be honest, the person that was probably having the worst time of it is Emily so we can talk about her first. Naturally, she seems to be the one we feel the most sorry for after the whole Alison thing because Emily was in love with her.

But not only that but the biggest bomb about Emily was dropped so casually in this book like while the girls are in Jamaica, Emily is assumed to have some sort of food poisoning or something as she is always throwing up. And it is also mentioned that she quit swimming again for a while which seems unlike her. I mean she was going to quit for five minutes when she started dating Maya but that didn’t go anywhere. Turns out the reason she was being sick is because she had morning sickness and that she actually ended up getting PREGNANT when she slept with Isaac that one time so she had a baby!! LIKE WHAT?! I was not expecting that, honestly, I was so shocked. Naturally, it’s a big secret – one that Emily wouldn’t want people to find out not even her parents know, she spent the summer with her sister so she is the only one that knew. Well, until Emily told her new best friend Chloe.

Chloe is a new girl in town and she moved into the Cavanaugh house. Spooky. As we know both of the Cavanaugh children died which is wild like first Toby committing suicide and then Alison killing Jenna…no wonder the parents wanted to get out of town. Anyway, Chloe and Emily hit it off really well and become friends. Chloe confides to Emily that she had a bit of a drinking problem before which is her big secret but not exactly on the same scale as Emily’s.

The two don’t really stay friends for long though, because it turns out Chloe’s dad is a proper predator. Like this just seems to be a bit of a theme in Rosewood and should we even be surprised? But basically, Chloe’s dad says he can help Emily get a swimming scholarship and he does, but he also makes a move on Emily and it is so gross. So Chloe sees Emily and her dad in a comprising position and as always blames the victim aka Emily. Which puts the girls on the rocks. Emily begs Chloe to keep her baby secret and she agrees but only if Emily keeps the secret about her dad being a creep…and that’s where we leave them. Not sure what comes of any of this but I imagine it’ll blow up soon enough.

Especially because A comes back to threaten the girls after Jamaica. We all know with A around secrets don’t stay buried for long…

But let’s move on to Spencer. Her mom is dating someone new, Mr Pennythistle. We hate him from the get-go naturally. He has two children, one is Amelia who is the younger sister and a brown-noser and annoying and the other is Zach who is a year or two older than Spencer. Spencer and Zach end up hitting it off right away and we see some weird flirtation happening between the two basically step-siblings…gross.

We find out after Spencer tries to kiss Zach that he is actually gay. Or so he says, I think he’s still trying to figure it out. But the night that Veronica and Mr Pennythistle announce their engagement, Spencer and Zach get drunk and pass out in Zach’s hotel room together. Mr Pennythistle finds them the next morning and freaks out about the situation since now they really are going to be step-siblings. Spencer thinks the best way to solve the solution is to out Zach to his father but instead of Mr Pennythistle being relieved he is actually just angrier and naturally, Zach isn’t too happy either.

Where we leave this mess is that Mr Pennythistle is sending his son to military school because he’s a clear homophobe and Spencer feels terrible. I am not sure if Veronica is still going to go through with the engagement but she probably will. She tells Spencer that it’s not their place but if they’re all about to become a family it kind of is their place…so yeah we see what happens with that.

Next, we have Hanna whose Dad is running for state senate or something? Seems a bit random, not that I really remember what he did before that. Anyway, the family films an advert for the campaign and it turns out audiences really responded to Hanna as they find her more relatable than Kate who seems too perfect. This is great news for Hanna but it’s not all great.

At the taping of the advert, Hanna meets this photographer guy who says she would make a good model, so she decides to meet up with him and get some photos taken. Totally innocent right? Well Mike – her boyfriend, because who can forget she’s dating Mike Montgomery? – thinks it’s a bad idea and they break up. Which is sad, But Hanna thinks she’s justified when the photoshoot with the photographer goes well.

Until she ends up back at the guy’s studio and she’s goofing around and her dress slips down and the guy gets some sleazy shots of her with her bra out. This leads him to blackmail Hanna with the photos because the last thing she needs is this getting out and ruining her dad’s campaign.

Hanna decides to pay the guy off using money from her dad’s campaign and she ends up blaming someone who works on the campaign for the missing money. She thinks she’s gotten away with it and all is well, but no this is A country we live in. And she is more than ready to expose Hanna as the thief and liar she is. Super fun.

And that brings us to Aria. Oh, Aria ended up in one of the worst positions right up there with Emily. At first, it seems petty, Noel’s family is hosting a foreign exchange student for a while and it turns out to be a European Goddess named Klaudia. This doesn’t make Aria feel good about her relationship with Noel, especially when she hasn’t slept with him yet and now he is going to be sharing a house with this blonde Finnish bombshell…not fun.

At first, Aria ends up bonding with Klaudia, she thinks they are friends and Klaudia is just misunderstood. Until she finds out that Klaudia has been texting about her and Noel to her friends back home. Turns out Aria’s suspicions were right and Klaudia thinks Noel is too good for Aria and she’s trying to steal her boyfriend. Poor girl.

This ends up with the girls fighting when the Kahn boys invite Aria and Klaudia to go skiing with them and Klaudia explains to Aria clear as day that she is going to sleep with Noel. The girls end up squabbling while on a ski lift and Aria ends up accidentally shoving Klaudia off of the lift. Yikes.

Klaudia ends up okay, well as okay as someone can be when they fall off a ski lift. Thankfully she was near the top so she only broke her leg but everything else about her is perfectly fine. Including her memory of what happened on the ski lift. So things are not looking good for Aria and Noel at least while Klaudia is around.

It is pretty harsh of Aria to push Klaudia off the ski lift but at the same time she was defending herself because Klaudia had pushed her first…still doesn’t look good to your boyfriend to find out this happened especially when Noel already thought Aria was jealous of Klaudia…so we see what happens with that. Though honestly not that interested in that drama.

Because Aria doesn’t even have time to process what goes on with Klaudia before she’s getting a text from Spencer telling her to come over quickly because the girls are finally going to have to face up to what happened in Jamaica.

Turns out that after the girls encountered Tabitha in Jamaica she had invited them out to a crow’s nest lookout point at the resort. The girls decide to go and see what she wants and it seems to them that Tabitha really is Alison in disguise and she has brought them to the top of this resort to finish what she started when she started that fire and kill them once and for all.

Before this happens, Aria ends up pushing Tabitha over the edge first and the girls scramble to the beach to find the body but there was none…until now. A year later, there is a breaking news story about a body being found in the water in Jamaica. The body belonged to a girl who really was called Tabitha and she was apparently from New Jersey. The police are ruling her death as an accident but it doesn’t make the girls feel any better about the situation.

Now they know they didn’t kill Alison and that it was just some innocent girl…yikes. And naturally, A is there to remind the girls that she’s just getting started.

So yeah, a lot to unpack in this one. Mainly, who was this Tabitha girl? Was it Alison? Or was it someone Alison paid to antagonize the girls for her? It’s clear to me Alison didn’t die in the fire like everyone suggested but where is she now? And is she A? I mean I wouldn’t put it past Alison to hire some girl to pretend to be her in front of her old friends and not even bat an eye that she ended up dead. After all, she killed her own twin, Ian and Jenna so I mean it’s plausible.

Regardless of what the truth is, I’m kind of glad to be back in the PLL world I missed it. I mean thought the series was wrapped up pretty nicely before so I wasn’t sure what was coming next for the girls but I am really enjoying it. I thought it might feel a bit tired or unnecessary but the new mystery has me intrigued. We will see where it ends up this time but it’s safe to say I am fully invested in finding out.

My First Comic Con!

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

So this is a month late because I completely forgot it was something that I wanted to write about lol. But in September I went to my first ever Comic Con!

Comic Con Northern Ireland announced a lot of Vampire Diaries cast members and I knew I couldn’t pass up my opportunity to meet them. I am a firm believer in spending money on doing something one time if you can because when are you ever gonna get the chance to do it again? Which is why I went all the way to New York City with my friend for a KPop concert and why I was going to spend a lot of money to spend ten seconds in the presence of someone who was on a TV show I liked when I was 16.

Sadly for me and probably most of the Vampire Diaries fans in Northern Ireland, the main men Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley cancelled a month or two before the event. But that’s okay because there were still a lot of the cast that were going to be there, along with a lot of other celebrities.

So on Saturday 17th September I made the trek out to the Eikon Centre for Comic Con. And I say trek because I do not live close to there and also if you weren’t driving or having someone give you a ride there it was difficult to get there. Thankfully they announced shuttle buses for next year but I don’t know how I would have travelled if someone hadn’t offered to drive me there and had someone to leave me in Belfast when the event was over.

The first thing I thought when I got there was – “wow this place is huge”. I’d never been to the Eikon Centre before so I had no idea what it looked like or what to expect. It’s basically a massive empty space for events which makes sense haha. But when I went into the building it was filled with people and things to see.

For example, movie and TV show props which you could take your photo at which is fun, as well as lots of retro video game consoles to play old games on. It feels weird to say retro video game consoles though because they did have Wiis and PlayStations there but at the same time Sega Mega Drives so there really was a mix. In the first main hall there was even live wrestling taking place so it really was a sight to behold.

I think I was overwhelmed to be honest, and that was before I went into the secondary hall which held all the vendors and the signing tables for the guests who were going to be there. Plus, all of the people in cosplay and out.

I had originally planned to do Comic Con solo because another thing I have started to do is start doing things on my own. I have been the person who won’t do things because I would rather have someone to do them with, which is fine but at the same time can mean you miss out on some cool stuff you’ve always wanted to do. So I now just buy tickets to things that I want to go to and if other people want to go great but if not then I know I can do it on my own and it’s fine. That being said, that doesn’t apply to travelling outside the country yet but I’m sure I’ll get there in time lol.

Anyway, I was going to do Comic Con alone but I found out that someone from my pole class was also going for the Vampire Diaries cast so I decided to meet up with them and I’m glad I had people to hang out with. One, so I had someone to take my picture at things lol but also to have someone to fangirl with. I mean, I’m sure it would not have been hard to make friends at this event if I wanted, if there was ever a place to make friends with similar interests to you, it has to be at Comic Con. But it was still nice to share the experience with people you know.

I had only one meet and greet scheduled for Comic Con, originally I was going to have a few but with cancellations and everything it boiled down to one with Daniel Gillies. I decided to only go for him because he was one of the only main people who didn’t cancel lol. But also Elijah is my favourite Original vampire from Vampire Diaries so I mean of course I wanted a photo with him.

The least fun part about Comic Con and anything in life I feel is the queuing. No one likes standing around in line all day and that’s another reason why I was okay with doing Comic Con alone – didn’t really wanna ask other people to stand around with me all day haha. But thankfully the photo queues did move quite fast. I guess that’s only good while you’re waiting in line though because the reason the queues go so fast is because they are funneling people in and out so fast.

Literally, the only words that Daniel actually said to me were “do you wanna do a back to back photo” and naturally I felt pressured so I just said yes. I mean I could have said no and we probably would have had a normal photo but my natural instinct was to say yes so that’s what we got. When I was waiting for the photo to be printed, I was concerned it was going to turn out terribly because I feel like back to back poses are just naturally cringey. But when I got the photo I actually really liked how it turned out, so that’s a plus.

Am I said I didn’t get to talk more with Daniel? No. Because I’ve done plenty of meet and greets in my life to know that’s just how it goes. Plus, I never have anything to say to people I meet anyway, like to me I just want the photo and that’s good enough. Maybe it’s superficial but isn’t that what this whole meeting celebrity thing is about at least a little bit?

Besides, if you want to talk more to the celebrities everyone always says go to the signing tables and I believe them. If you wait in line for an autograph you have more time with them, because if they aren’t scheduled to be somewhere or are on break they will probably be at the signing table. So if you want to have your time up close with them spend your money there.

I personally didn’t feel like I needed to get autographs from anyone, as I appreciate a photo more but me and my friend did hang around the tables to get a glimpse of some people up close. Which I feel like is always a fun time at a convention, celeb spotting haha.

And then to end the day my friend and I went to the Vampire Diaries Q&A panel they were hosting, they were doing 3 cast members on the Saturday and 3 on the Sunday but I decided to only go on Saturday because I had done all the things I had wanted to do that day and felt like it would have been a lot of travel the next day for one Q&A panel.

Naturally, the panel was packed out with people, but it was still a nice chance to ask questions and learn more behind the scenes information about your favourite show. If anything though I feel like people always ask the same questions lol. Which is fine, but I would have liked if people had more in depth questions than “should Caroline have ended up with Stefan or Klaus”. I personally couldn’t think of any questions so maybe it’s my fault but yeah maybe next time I will prep some hard hitting questions for them.

Overall though it was a good day. I enjoyed the experience and if you’ve never been to a Comic Con I would recommend it! Obviously it’s better to go when there is something there that will cater towards you specifically but sometimes it’s just nice to go see what all the fuss is about.

And this does not conclude my Comic Con adventures for the year either, I am also planning on attending Liverpool Comic Con in November. It is probably the biggest(?) Comic Con in the UK because they always have a really good lineup. And this year is no exception as they have booked the Salvatore brothers (hopefully they don’t cancel again) and also some of the Twilight cast so I knew I definitely had to be there. Hopefully I can share my experience there a bit sooner than I shared this one haha.

Anyway I look forward to seeing what Northern Ireland Comic Con will bring next year, as they had a lot of success this year, I am wondering who they could bring next year. Hopefully less people I want to meet to give my bank account a bit of a rest but you never know…Guess I should start saving while I can lol.

September 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

After reading so much in August, this month was a flop lol. I would blame Disney Dreamlight Valley for lack of reading but considering I only read when I’m out of the house that’s not really an excuse. I think it’s just my routines with work and such are different now so there’s less reading happening. But it’s fine, we reached our goal anyway and that’s all that matters.

The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After

This took forever to read and I really was trying to get through it as quickly as possible. I definitely feel like not reading this would have been a better choice but since I bought the physical book I had to do it. These epilogues did not add anything for me to be honest, I could have done without most of them. I guess if you were really invested and wanted to know what happened next this would be for you but wasn’t my fave. I am also glad to officially put this book series behind me now, I feel like it had been dragging a bit towards the end.

Currently Reading: The Spanish Love Deception

Would 100% class this as a summer read and I did pick it up way back in July or something but we are reading it now haha. I have been enjoying it so far, though Aaron is just a little too frustrating and he’s getting on my nerves. But still, something fun to read and I have been looking forward to it every time I actually make the time to read.

So that’s where we are at the minute, I am about halfway through the Spanish Love Deception so I should finish it this month and then I don’t know where we will go from here. I have a few other physical books I could read and then there’s the second half of the PLL series…so got some options. I usually don’t have seasonal reads but I think it would be nice to find some books with Gilmore Girl vibes to read this time of year. So if you have suggestions let me know!