Seen Been

Day 1 – Saturday 14th February Valentine’s Day! There I was, preparing myself to go on a lovely romantic sunny European break……………………………… with my brother, to Northern Ireland. Trust me, this was not the plan. I will not go into how I tried so very hard to go to Milan to watch the Winter Olympics. I would love to be able to say I’ve been to both the Summer & Winter Olympics. Alas, it just was…

Day 1 – Wednesday 15th October So this was kind of a birthday trip for my 30th (UGH). I was travelling with my brother. Now he’s more of a resort guy whereas I’m very much in my exploring cities era. So we settled on Dubrovnik as a compromise. We flew easyJet this time which is still a budget airline but omg the level up from RyanAir was insane. Even had a tunnel! And the landings were wayyy…

Day 1 – Friday August 15th 2025 Top o’ the morning to ye. Now that I’ve offended all the Irish out there, let’s move swiftly on. So, my first flight in 7 years. Although I had managed to fly to Barcelona without any issues, at that point I think I still had holes in my ears so I wasn’t as scared. But after Barcelona I guess I got scared that the holes had closed up so I put myself off flying…

Day 1 – Tuesday 11th June 2024 Well gang. This was my first international trip in 6 years. I wasn’t yet brave enough to try a plane so train it was. I thought this would be easier for my ears. Boy oh boy how wrong I was. The day started with an almost cancelled train to Leeds. Standard. Then another train to Kings Cross. Then a short walk over to St Pancras station, which is beautiful btw. At…

Honestly, I enjoyed it overall. There's no denying there are plot holes but I think they generally stuck the landing. Here are some thoughts I had:

- the final battle was cool but was done with kinda more easily than I thought. Ditto Vecna's death. Just thought the gang would have a harder battle than it turned out to be

- I loved the final scene in Mike's bedroom. Felt very fitting and poignant and really reminded me of how young these kids were when the show started

- it finally felt like some of the character dynamics were brought back. It felt like a lot of the relationships between characters felt off in the previous 7 episodes but this episode made me feel some feels again. However Mike/Eleven's scene would've hit a lot harder if they'd had some romantic interaction for the preceding episodes. They really just fell off

- El's death: the Duffers just couldn't actually 100% go through with it huh. Personally I think she is dead but they kept the ending ambiguous to console Mike & those fans who need hope

- Byler - look I'm a delulu fangirl at the best of times but even I knew these two would never be endgame. I thought that Mike was gonna confront Will on who his crush was. But actually I'm glad they didn't go that route cos I think it would ruin their friendship if Mike knew the truth. As in, it would just be awkward. I think Mike lowkey has a suspicion and I think that's enough. However they should've had a longer scene

- how the fuck did the gang escape from getting into any kind of trouble with the govt/military?? And what happened to Dr Kay? I guess the Duffers just cba coming up with that shit so just ignored it altogether lmao

- the scene with the older kids pledging to meet up more was so bittersweet cos we've all been there and we know it never really works out like that :(

- Joyce really did nothing all szn except chop Vecna's head off. Fairs

- 'Suck my fat one'. Iconic. BDE

- 'Heroes' by David Bowie being played over the amazing end credits really got me

- Steve Harrington. That's it. That's the tweet.

I will miss these characters and this world. I remember watching season 1 back in 2016. I've watched these babies grow up. Although I think the show lost its way a little and became bigger (plot wise) than it needed to be, credit to the Duffer brothers for keeping it relevant for 10 years.

The angst! The romance!

I had become slowly obsessed with this show but I think the two week mid season break killed some of the momentum. It also took too long for Hyeon Jun and Jeong Sin to actually start dating so the pacing ended up being all over the place plus the rest of the plotines lowkey fell apart a bit.

I loveddd the character development of Hyeon Jun though. Except for one of the final scenes where he asks AI how to propose to Jeong Sin. I thought the whole point was that he'd finally found friends, family, and a partner to talk to but him going back to his AI for advice just seemed a bit backwards. Never mind the fact we didn't even see the proposal!!

But ugh, what a romantic gentleman. In fact I found myself sometimes wondering if Jeong Sin actually even deserved him. He was always so forthcoming and honest with her whereas she constantly kept pushing him away. But she makes him happy I guess.

And yes I am fuming that there was no kiss!! There seemed to be more sexual tension in the first half of the season and then when they actually started being interested in each other it seemed to become a very innocent, pure kind of love. Which is sweet in itself but 16 episodes without a single 'I love you' and a kiss of some kind is a bit of a joke. I get that there was some backlash (from morons) due to the actors' age gaps but if this is something that the writers/actors allowed to influence their decisions then there was no point making the show. Idk but I have a very strong mind to storm tvN's offices and demand a reshoot 😤

Started watching it for Lee Jung-Jae. Never watched a K Drama before but it's so good?? Just a weekly, fluffy, feel-good, funny, old school rom-com. The fangirl shipper heart inside me has been reawakened. At least this time I know the two leads will be endgame! Even if they are taking their sweet time to get there.

It's so well produced as well. Genuinely the highlight of my week atm.

I know some people have had issues with the age gap but honestly I'm in a similar age gap relationship. They are two consenting adults. Get over it.

Anyway omg ep 9 is the funniest thing I have ever watched. Every one of those actors has fine comedic chops. But Lim Hyeon Jun you handsome, silly man. What a tangled web he weaves.

I didn't know anything about the books and started watching Rivals purely for David Tennant. By the end I didn't give a shit about David Tennant 😂 I lived only to find out if Rupert and Taggie were going to get together.

Trust them to make us wait until the second to last scene of the series! But what a beautiful scene it was. I love that it was more romantic than sexual, compared to all of Rupert's encounters with other women. 'I can't breathe without you' - fuck me, I was a puddle. The contrast with how he held her so gently compared to the way he groped her at the beginning of the show. The intensity of the kiss. The lighting. The score. Pure cinema!

As someone in a relationship with a similar age gap, I'm a sucker for this trope plus a bad man trying to be good.

The chemistry between Alex and Bella is unreal.

He's still problematic af but the way he tries to change through the show and everything he does to keep Taggie around and makes sure she's ok amongst all the chaos.. gah!

I haven't had a ship grip me like this for a long while.

I had watched every episode of Waterloo Road since series 3 aired. My crush back then was Eddie and I fully shipped him and Rachel. Kandrew wasn't even on my radar, obvs cos I hadn't watched them in the first two series and so even tho they were in series 4, I doubt they made much of an impact on me.

Cut to January 2024, watching series 13 and I see Andrew kiss Kim in her office in ep 1. Holy shit, I felt the feels. Having no backstory whatsoever, I still instantly felt their chemistry. I then devoured the rest of the series and was chuffed with their happy ending but I now needed to know exactly what had led up to all this. So I decided to watch series 1 and 2.

Boy oh boy. I think we've seen these two go through every trope. I never would've thought Waterloo Road of all shows would've given us such an amazing love story that has spanned 18 years! Like.. who the fuck gets to say their ship is still alive and sailing after 18 years??? I can't believe these two quarrelling idiots got their happy ending!! I mean, assuming Andrew doesn't die of cancer........ I just can't believe I was 18 years too late to this ship lol.

And oh my God, Jamie Glover as Andrew is fit as fuck. I cannot get over how perfect he looks when he returns in series 4. The tan, the slightly shorter but still curly hair, the open neck casual look.. had me gagging!

So yeah ugh. I'm in love with these two.