Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Review

iMDB’s blurb on the film

‘A day-dreamer escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, he takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.’

I heard a lot about this film from various sources but the thing that resonated with me and I’m sure a lot of you out there was that it was the new Forest Gump. That’s a lot to live up to. I had been intrigued and when my flatmate said to me ‘We’re off to see WalterMitty in 15 minutes do you want to come?’ my answer was ‘Sure’. So off we popped to our local Cineworld, thankfully only 10 minutes away, grabbed our popcorn and settled into watch the film.

The moments where Walter slips into his fantasy world are brilliant, wonderfully filmed and heart warmingly farfetched they can’t help but bring a smile to your face. The plot line was obvious and it’s is easy to guess where the twists and turns are. However that somehow didn’t matter. You wanted to follow Walter on his journey despite knowing where it would lead him.

The story fits in with recent time; economic downturns and people losing their jobs, feeling despondent with your life and having other people who have never spent more than 5 minutes looking at what you do deciding your worth. This I’m sure resonates with a lot of people and it’s dealt with in a sensitive but comedic way. Something that Ben Stiller and the cast he had to work with are just made to do.

I give this film 4/5. It’s not the new Forest Gump but quite an enjoyable film nonetheless. One that most people would get something out of but I’m not sure it’s the epic memorable piece of work some were making it out to be.

16 Things I love and hate about winter in equal measure



Wrapping up with lots of layers and being all snuggly and warm

X​Walking onto the tube or into a shop and having to shed and somehow carry all these layers as shops have the heating on full blast and the tube is a sweat box



The dark nights and warm fires with a mug of hot chocolate

X​The fact it gets dark at 4.30pm and you have to light the house up like Blackpool illuminations to see anything.



Snow – what’s not to love! Skiing on fresh powder –mwah bellisima.

X​Ice and rain – meh not so great. Soggy flats, having to de-ice car, floods, delayed trains – you name it’s happened this winter. Although it rains frequently in Britain regardless of the season so it’s a bit disingenuous of me to put it in this list.



All that yummy hearty winter food – roast dinners, cottage pie, sticky toffee pudding.

X​All that winter weight you put on because of said food!

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Christmas – being jolly, seeing friends and celebrating the good in your life with the ones that matter to you.

X​The amount said celebration costs and how consequently hard January is to get through.



January being a time for new beginnings thanks to NewYear’s resolutions

X​Dry January – where your friends are miserable because they won’t have just one glass of wine and won’t meet up with you for fear of being tempted



No mosquitos, wasps or other biting things

X​The house crawls with things like Daddy long legs



Evening in pampering yourself with face masks, doing manicures and soaking in the tub.

X​Chapped lips – see other post

To be honest without a proper winter like the one I have described above I don’t think I would appreciate the summer anywhere near as much. I’m not a big boiling heat person. I have lily white English skin which tends to burn before remotely bronzing and I hate sleeping without a duvet.

Winter for all your faults I love you! However clocks feel free to change soon and sun please stay out a little longer….

 

Making quick and easy homemade pasta

Making pasta is dead easy. My best friend’s boyfriend is Italian and an ex chef. He loves to cook still and I’m an eager student. The other day he casually said ‘Hey George do you want to make tortellini’. I of course jumped at the chance. The first thing he taught me was how to make was 10 egg pasta.

The ingredients are simple: 10 eggs and 1kg of 00 pasta flour

Directions

1.

On a clean work surface place the flour and make a large well.

2.

Break 10 eggs into the centre of the well making sure the sides don’t break as this gets very messy.

3.

With your hands slowly but surely bring the flour into the eggs and combine.

4.

Soon enough this will form a dough which you will need to work for around 5 mins. It should all be combined, smooth with a light yellow colour.

Once made this can be wrapped in cling film to rest in the fridge whilst you make fillings for Ravioli, Tortellini or whatever else you’re making. It can also be frozen but I recommend using it within 2-3 months of making it.

Like I said we made Tortellini (recipe to follow), a huge amount in fact, most of which is in freezer bags and can be boiled up at a moment’s notice for a great quick dinner. We don’t have a fancy pasta maker in my flat we used the old fashioned rolling pin but if you were to make spaghetti or linguini I would really recommend getting one. For my first foray into pasta making I was surprised how quick and easy this was. I really recommend that everyone give it a go and see for themselves.

Post photos of your pasta making and I’d love to hear of any tasty filling combinations you’ve come up with.

Chapped lips - is Vaseline the answer?

So a question that popped into my head the other day was ‘Does Vaseline (or any other petroleum based product) actually help dry lips?’

With January in full swing so is the chilly weather and the propensity for lips to become chapped. I’ve suffered quite a bit in the past few weeks and have been turning to my trusty pot of Vaseline to solve the problem. What I found however was it felt like a temporary solution that needed replacing every 30 mins when it had slid off.

Now with a bit of research (Google mainly if I’m being honest) I found out the following:

1)

Vaseline is petroleum based – it’s in the title this shouldn’t be news. It is a derivative of petrol, again it’s in the name. It is therefore non-renewable and therefore not very environmentally friendly.

2)

It coats your lips and protects them from further air/ wind damage.

3)

It does NOT however hydrate your lips in anyway.

4)

Ingesting it isn’t great and can cause stomach problems so why anyone would knowing this continue to put it on their lips is beyond me.

5)

Beeswax based products however like Burts Bees do the same thing, come from a renewable source (well that’s if we save the declining bee population) and won’t damage your insides.

Really the whole truth is that time is the greatest healer of chapped lips and lip balm prevents further damage.