Hogwarts In The Snow 2015

Some of you may or may not know that I have been a huge fan/Potterhead for as long as I can remember.

As A child one of the most exciting things was when JK Rowling released the newest Harry Potter book, and then the film followed a few months later. I would force my Mum or sometimes even my Grandparents to take me after school to the cinema to see them, and sit until the very end (yes, even until the credits had finished, just in case there was a little mini-scene at the end that was vital not to miss...). 

Once all the books were out and I had read them all about ten or more times over, it then came the dreaded moment when the last film was out and then I knew it was all over. It was a strange feeling seeing the last roll of credits of the very last film, sat in the cinema, sort of like shock or maybe even a bit of nostalgia, it was upsetting yet such an amazing ending to an amazing journey.

For anybody who doesn't like Harry Potter or has never understood people who get emotionally involved in a film or book series, its incredibly hard to explain how much it takes an effect on your life, it literally becomes a part of your childhood. I have been told/asked many times before, 

'You're so sad because you read Harry Potter'

'Harry Potter is rubbish, why do you like it so much?'

or the classic 

'Get a life!'

But even as a child I never cared what people thought, it kind of made it more exciting to like something none of your friends do, something to go home too after school and get lost in.

So when the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour opened up in 2012, I felt like all my christmasses and birthdays had been bundled up in a bag and poured on top of me all at once. I could potentially go the real places they filmed and walk into the Great Hall, and see all those amazing places that had been cluttered into my imagination for so long.

This is my second visit to the studios, I originally visited when it first opened and I think I was much too over-whelmed to appreciate where I was, (I pretty much spent the entire day with my mouth open not knowing what to look at first!)

So this year my sister and I decided to re-visit but during the Hogwarts In The Snow season and oh my goodness, it was truly magical...

(Prepare yourself for a mammoth amount of photos, I got a bit excited when selecting my favourite ones to put in, hehe!)

- SPOILER ALERT -

The next couple of photos show the big finale of the studio tour so if you are planning on going DON'T LOOK, it will ruin it for you :(

The castle model is absolutely beautiful. The detail in all of its features is incredible and the entire set up is just amazing. It can't really be appreciated properly unless you are there looking at it, but you can still see it pretty well in the photos, (also the lighting in there was amazing ;) )

It was the most amazing day, any hardcore Harry Potter fan needs to go here, especially during the winter to see everything decorated for Christmas, and the snow sprinkled all over Hogwarts.

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Apps & Audiobooks

                                                                             

We all love sleep...right?

I wake up in the morning, wanting to stay in bed and carry on sleeping, spend all day at work thinking about going home to bed (or even falling asleep on my break because I'm so tired) and then get home and get ready for bed, get into bed and BAM I'm wide awake.

Anybody else??

It's the most annoying habit I have got myself into. Especially as my body clock now thinks 1-2am is an appropriate time to be going to sleep every night - even when I have to be up at 6am the next morning.

This excessively over a few months has led to me feeling dizzy, sick and constantly tired all day everyday, so I have been trying out new ways of helping myself sleep and get into a a more regular - and normal - sleeping pattern. 

I downloaded a couple of free apps to start with, 

The 'Sleep Well' app plays a 30 minute clip of a lady talking about insomnia and the different types of sleep, in which she then gives you exercises to do which include breathing patterns tensing your muscles one by one whilst lying in bed which helps your body to relax. I've never actually heard the end of the clip as I'm normally asleep by the time it finishes, so it definitely works for me. I find with this one you don't even need to do the exercises she is telling you, just her voice is very soothing so if that sort of thing sends you to sleep you can always just listen to it (personally I find voices really relaxing so I normally just listen).

The 'Calm' app I discovered through watching one of Zoe Sugg's vlogs where she mentioned it. 

This app has different sound clips on it which just play constantly until you turn it off. My personal favourite sound is 'Rain On Leaves' which just sounds like a rainy day and its so soothing and relaxing. If you're not into that theres also sounds of waves on a beach, birds singing and water running through a lake. 

I used both of these apps for a few weeks and they seemed to help me fall asleep quickly and for a long time so I'd generally be having a full nights sleep, yet I still found myself going to sleep super late so it wasn't really helping me get to bed earlier.

Last night whilst lying and staring at the ceiling wide awake at 1am, I had the idea of downloading an audiobook to listen to in bed. (I downloaded it from the iBooks app that automatically comes on an iPhone).

I knew I needed a book that I was interested in so decided to buy the audio version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban read by Stephen Fry (who actually surprisingly has a lovely reading voice!). The book takes a massive 12 hours and 33 minutes to listen to all the way through and it was still playing when I woke up 10 hours later but it definitely did the trick!

By choosing a book I am interested in I am hoping will encourage me to want to go to bed to carry on listening to the story..this is my theory. So fingers toes, arms and legs crossed this will work as I don't actually think getting 5 hours sleep a night is healthy anymore...whoops!

Does anyone else have problems with sleeping? If so, what are your methods for helping yourself sleep?I'd love to know, and willing to try pretty much anything (within reason) at the moment.

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