Random numbers...

I <3 prank calls. :)
Manga Queen

A trip to Caffe Nero...

You probably guessed it, but I went Easter egg hunting again near Piccadilly and it was great! I went with a friend and we also went to Caffe Nero for food. I wouldn't recommend there as the cups of coffee are very small, even the large cup isn't as big compared to other stores. They also give you only 3/4 of a cup of coffee and a lot of foam. Caffe Nero do serve you whereas in other coffee stores like Pret A Manger or Starbucks you have to go up to the counter. They even asked whether we wanted chocolate on our coffee which other stores never do. 
By the way, we went to the Caffe Nero on Regent Street, and sat on the second floor. It was very nice but the windows were open and it was quite cold. Also, the toilets were gross but most coffee stores are. 
But, if you ever are on Regent Street and see Caffe Nero, there's a Pret on the adjacent street. It looks quite small by actually has two floors... :)
Manga Queen
P.S. Never go to Starbucks its overpriced!!!

Review on Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

As I mentioned before in one of my earlier posts, I have written a review on Rebecca, one of the greatest Gothic novels of all time. Written by Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca is one of the most popular books today and includes elements of horror, romance, mystery, and is one of the first major Gothic books ever written. It starts with its famous opening line ‘I dreamt I was in Manderley again.’

The heroine, who remains nameless throughout the whole book, marries Maxim de Winter and becomes his second wife. But as the story advances she finds out that Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, drowned in an accident near the house, Manderley. The housekeeper, the sinister Mrs Danvers is devoted to Rebecca but shows nothing but repulsion and disgust towards the new wife. The heroine struggles with life in Manderley; she feels as though she will never compare to Rebecca, who was beautiful, generous, talented and feels jealous towards her and believes that Maxim still loves Rebecca. The heroine is later prompted by Mrs Danvers to commit suicide but stops herself at the last minute. A short time later a ship passing by is marooned, and when divers investigate they find something perplexing: Rebecca’s body inside a boat wreckage. This discovery encourages Maxim to tell the heroine the truth: Rebecca was a malicious woman who led many affairs including one with her own cousin, Jack Favell. Maxim determined a divorce, but she refused and told him she was pregnant with another man’s child. Enraged, he shot Rebecca and disposed of her body in a sunken boat. Knowing this, the heroine becomes much more comfortable in Manderley. However, the court holds a trial on Rebecca’s death but the verdict is suicide, so Maxim is deemed innocent. But soon Favell accuses Maxim of murdering Rebecca and it is revealed that Rebecca was dying from cancer, and could not be pregnant. Her illness provides a motive for her ‘suicide’ and Maxim is once again made innocent. On their way back to Manderley Maxim and the heroine can see flames and find out that the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers set fire to it.

As a reader I found Rebecca an extremely emotional but pleasurable book. I felt sympathy towards the heroine throughout the whole book as coming from a poor background the challenge of ordering the servants and giving opinions was extremely difficult for her. The heroine was very young and inexperienced which made her an effortless target of ridicule and shame. ‘Why don't you go? None of us want you. He doesn't want you, he never did. He can't forget her. He wants to be alone in the house again, with her. It's you that ought to be lying there in the church crypt, not her. It's you who ought to be dead, not Mrs De Winter.’ Mrs Danvers pg. 246 The heroine’s challenge of life in Manderley can relate to real life such as fitting in and fulfilling your expectations. I was also very horrified by many of the actions of Mrs Danvers and wanted to find out why she was acting so cruelly towards the heroine, or what the heroine had done to deserve this. I was also very curious Rebecca’s life and her death, as it was very strange and mystifying. I was also extremely eager to find out the ending as the book was so captivating, and it was by all means, superb. 

There are many key themes in this book, ones we deal with in everyday life, and ones that we can relate to. The heroine’s jealousy of Rebecca pervades the majority of the novel. Because she is in her youth and is insecure, the heroine does not understand why Maxim chose to marry her. As she learns more and more about Rebecca, she begins to compare herself to Maxim’s first wife, who seemed to be far more beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated than she could ever hope to be. Jealousy also appears with Maxim and Rebecca along with her many lovers. Maxim confronts Rebecca in the boathouse and ultimately kills her because she manipulates his jealousy into a tool for her own destruction. In both cases, jealousy is a destructive force that has the ability to destroy both Maxim and the narrator if they let it. Another key theme of Rebecca revolves around Maxim and his hard efforts to escape his past. He was distressed by the memory of Rebecca and his murder of her. The heroine is also haunted by her through Mrs Danvers and her thought provoking words. The final key theme I found in Rebecca, was finding who you are, your real identity and where you belong. From the beginning the heroine is unnamed and gives a sense of her being less than Rebecca, as she is not even significant enough to be named. As soon as she marries Maxim, the heroine is given a new identity as Mrs de Winter, but does not feel comfortable with this. Overtime she gets used to her new identity and being at Manderley especially when she finds about the truth of Rebecca.

Through the book Daphne du Maurier plays with the different ideas of good and evil in the way that she develops the character’s personalities. From a general perspective, it is clear that the heroine and Maxim are on the righteous side, while Rebecca and Mrs Danvers are on the evil side. However, Daphne du Maurier adds intricacy and elaboration to each character so that all sense of good and evil becomes purely opinionated. For example, Maxim is the heroine’s love and is shown as a protagonist of the novel, yet Maxim is a murderer who shot Rebecca in a fit of rage, an act that is inappropriate for a protagonist. Similarly, Mrs Danvers is shown as the antagonist of the novel who aims to undermine the heroine, she is also an individual who is overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her friend and mistress. By blending the concepts of righteousness and evil, Daphne du Maurier creates a set of characters that are truly ‘human’ in their complexity and motivations. Some of the predominant motivations for most of the characters are love and hate. In most cases, characters use their love or hate to justify their actions in the novel. For the majority of the book, Maxim is motivated by his love for the heroine and his home, as well as his hatred for Rebecca and her memory.

To conclude, I would recommend it to anyone who loves romance, mystery, horror or gothic fiction. The character personalities, the realistic features and themes, the excellent description and emotion, all the right ingredients for a marvellous book, and that is exactly what Rebecca is. 

Manga Queen

Writers block...

I guess it was all just writer's block...
By the way, if you want me to make a Keep Calm And Carry On poster, just ask. 
Please include:
Words on line 1
Words on line 2
Words on line 3
Words on line 4
Words on line 5
Your email address
Picture (at the top)
Background Colour
Word Colour (I suggest white)
Manga Queen

Fabergé = Yay! x2

Hey! I accidentally missed a couple of pictures of some eggs I found. Posting...
Manga Queen

Fabergé = Yay!

Here are some of the eggs I've found throughout London! :)
Sorry about the bad quality, I used my phone)
Manga Queen

Fabergé Egg Hunt

The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt is now underway in London! It started on 21 February 2012 and will end on 3 April 2012.

During this time, the streets of central London will host the largest and most interactive egg hunt the city has ever seen. There are more than 200 eggs, each around 2½ foot tall and designed and decorated by designers and artists, and are hidden all around central London! Each egg holds a plaque with a unique code word which, when texted to the number provided via SMS, provides one entry to win the prize, the Diamond Jubilee Egg by Fabergé (on display at the Fabergé store at 14A Grafton Street, W1S 4ET). Each additional code word submitted gives another entry, increasing the chances of winning the Diamond Jubilee Egg !!! (Charges apply to each text message, with the net proceeds going to the two charities. The first SMS is £3 plus applicable network rates, and any subsequent texts are 25p plus applicable network rates.)I went Fabergé Egg Hunting and it was great! There are maps to help you:
http://www.thebigegghunt.co.uk/join-the-hunt/zone-maps 
But if you're really rubbish (like me) then go to this awesome cheat sheet...(don't worry, desperate times call for desperate measures):
http://www.thebigegghunt.co.uk/cheatsheet  
By the way, the Where's Wally egg is the most exciting one to find. Unlike all the other eggs, it gets moved around everyday so its increasingly difficult. I found it in Canary Wharf today in front of Waitrose (wahoo!).
Manga Queen 

Awesome pic...

Here is a cool Death Note Wallpaper I found (and I love it sooooooo much!)...
Manga Queen

Death Note: L Wallpaper

Being a L fan I made this wallpaper because he's awesome! :) 
P.S. Might make some more wallpapers  if I feel like it. 
P.P.S. Not very likely then.
Manga Queen

Death Note Review

Hey readers! Today I've decided to recommend something a little different from the usual books. When you've got piles of homework and revision you really do not have time to read 1000 pages of Lord of the Rings especially with its extremely small text (but of course you have time to blog...). I think, after a serious, down to earth classic isn't the best reading choice, but perhaps manga may be your thing. Why? Well, its a good alternative if you want more action, more speech and less reading (which is of course what everybody wants!). I have recently come across Death Note, by Tsugumi Obha, and it is an extremely complex, intriguing, witty plot full of emotion. 


The main character of Death Note is Light Yagami, the most intellectual high school student of his age, but he's bored. Being unchallenged his life is boring to him but one day at school he picks up a small black notebook; the Death Note. It belonged to a god of death, Ryuk. Ryuk writes instructions inside it saying that the owner of the Death Note (now Light) can write any human's name inside it and they will die. Light dreams of creating a better world, and decides to try and rid the world of evil and carries the largest murder of criminals ever seen. As criminals everywhere die, the police are determined to catch the killer, who they call 'Kira'. For Light, the police are easy to fool, but one man stands in his way from becoming God; L. L is the world's best detective and can solve any case, and tries to catch Kira before his word becomes law.
When talking to others about Death Note, they don't like the fact that the two main characters are utterly flawless. Well, it is true, Light and L get 100% score on an high school entry test (something I could never get even for my spelling tests). They are also both extremely good tennis players and Light is even a national champion. But, despite what most people say, I think this adds to the plot and makes it even better. It is quite fun to see how such 'geniuses' react to different situations and it also quicker to read, without the characters in a panic mode for several hundred chapters and nothing happens... Ahhh! I hate it when this happens in a manga/anime, but it can't be helped. By the way, don't get me wrong, Death Note has its fair share of unnecessary moments and long winded explanations that you eventually don't understand (don't worry it only happens once or twice though it does make you seem really stupid, but just blame it on their weird logic or something...). Saying this, Death Note has some epic moments where everything is so fast paced and there's loads of action and you're eventually so hooked on it you don't realise you haven't done any homework, you should have been in bed an hour ago, and you have a crush on L which doesn't really help.Other than that, its perfect! (By the way, there aren't many volume's, only 12, so not many late nights!!!). 
I really enjoyed this manga, and have actually seen some similarities between it and some classics, such as Rebecca. In Rebecca, the protagonist's husband kills a woman but is thought of as innocent (read my book review and you'll probably understand it a bit better...), but Mrs Danvers is looked at as wicked as she bullies and humiliates the protagonist bit has suffered her whole life and looses her closest friend. Now, back to Death Note. In Death Note, Light seems like a good guy; he wants a perfect world, no criminals, no bad guys, peace. Last time I checked that's good. But as the manga develops his true colours show, and wants to become God of his new world and stuff... Yep, I bet he sound like a bad guy now right? This is one of the main things I loved about Death Note (not that he's a bad guy, actually, kind of, ah just go away...), Light seems like such a good person and with such heroic intentions, but the gradual decline in sanity is so small, you just don't know where things went wrong for him (Volume 9, Chp 13, pg 21, jokes, I don't think that chapter even exists...). 
Another thing I love about Death Note, is its dramatic and nail biting irony. Light, works along with the police and even lives in the same house with them, looking for the killer, looking for him. L and his team (a.k.a. the police) suspect Light but without evidence they cannot do anything, and Lights not the kind of person to confess. 
At first, Death Note may seem all about some crazy maniac (a.k.a. Light)who wants to kill people, but as soon as he meets L (his enemy) things really spice up. I think L is one of the key reasons why Death Note is so awesome. Everybody loves weird detectives (Cue Sherlock fans...) and with his messy hair, panda eyes (he doesn't sleep often), bare feet and his habit of eating cake and drinking tea, L is the only person to suspect Light from the beginning of the Death Note chapters, and he is someone just as interesting as Light. 
All in all, I highly recommend this manga to you, as it is something original, brainy and really makes you think (something I have not done for ages).

Wanna read? Don't have the book? Read online! (but try and support the writers by buying the books too!) http://read.mangashare.com/Death-Note                                           Manga Queen :)

Keep Calm And Carry On and On and On...

This is making me dizzy...
Manga Queen

Murder On The Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express, Plot Summary

Poirot, a retired private detective boards the Orient Express with a friend, M. Bouc and 11 other passengers. He is forced to reside in a second-class cabin as the train is unusually full. A man named Ratchett, recognising Poirot as a famous detective, asks for his help. He says that he received threatening letters and fears someone will murder him. Poirot says no as he ‘does not like the look of his face.’

 The next night Mrs Hubbard (a passenger) claims there was a man in her room. The next day, Poirot is informed that Ratchett has been murdered. Poirot decides to investigate and examines the body, but instead of being stabbed once, Ratchett is stabbed twelve times. Baffled, Poirot finds a charred paper with the name Armstrong written on it. The piece of paper with the word Armstrong on it helps Poirot figure out who Ratchett really is. A few years ago a man named Cassetti kidnapped a three-year old girl, Daisy Armstrong. Cassetti collected a ransom from the wealthy Armstrong family, but still murdered the child. Poirot thinks that Ratchett is Cassetti.

Poirot interviews each passenger starting with McQueen and then Mrs Hubbard, who claims that the murderer was in her cabin. All of the passengers give Poirot suitable alibis during their interviews, although there are a few suspicious factors such as many passengers observed a woman in a red kimono walking down the hallway the night of the murder, but no one admits they have a kimono. Mrs Hubbard tells Poirot she asked Greta Ohlsson (another passenger) to lock the communicating door between herself and Ratchett. Hildegarde Schmidt bumped into a stranger wearing a Wagon Lit jacket, but no conductors match her description. Poirot decides to checks each passenger’s luggage, and notices that a Wagon Lit uniform is found in Hildegarde Schmidt's bag and that the red kimono is found in Poirot's own luggage. 

After the luggage check, Poirot, Dr Constantine and M. Bouc review the facts of the case and develop a list of questions. With the evidence and questions in mind, Poirot sits and thinks about the case.  After thinking hard, Poirot finally understands the case and calls for several people and reveals their true identities. Poirot discovers Countess Andrenyi is Helena Goldenberg the aunt of Daisy Armstrong and Mary Debenham was Daisy's governess, Antonio Foscanelli was the Armstrong's chaffer, Masterman the valet, and Greta Ohlsson was Daisy Armstrong's nurse.

Poirot gathers all of the passengers together and reveals the solution to the case. All of the passengers aboard the Orient Express were involved with the murder. He argues that twelve passengers, all close to the Armstrong case, killed Ratchett to avenge the murder of Daisy Armstrong. Mrs Hubbard admits that the Poirot is correct. But, full of sympathy for the Armstrong family, and feeling disgust for the victim, Poirot decides to not turn them into the police. Dr Constantine and M. Bouc agree and will edit the report of the body to fit with the new solution.
Manga Queen

Word of the Month

borborygmus: [bawr-buh-rig-muhs]
a rumbling or gurgling sound caused by the movement of gas in the intestines
A freakishly awesome word! Not the best meaning but you know...
Manga Queen

No, please...

The story of my life. 
Manga Queen

I feel the same way...

I feel the same way, I honestly do. 
Manga Queen

Missing Missy

This is a HILARIOUS chat about a secretary and her missing cat, Missy. If you have any sense of humour you MUST read this! 
http://theneave.com/david-thorne-missing-missy/
Manga Queen

Who wants to be perfect?

MANGA QUEEN

Keep calm!

I love this poster! I wake up at 6:00 am every day as my school is very far away and it is extremely tiring! I wish I could listen to this everyday!
Manga Queen

Things to do when you're bored

1. Make a blog about how bored you are. 
2. Play the game.
METHOD:
To win the game, is to not think about the game. Once you've thought of the game you say 'I lost the game' (just to confuse your friends or make them lose the game) :)
3. Read my blog because your bored or you like my blog, (most likely the latter!). 
Manga Queen