The Uni Adventures: Film nights

To reeeeeeally get to know the characters lurking under the fur and feathers of the tenants of house 87, a few bonding trips were called for. Our first get-to-know-each other venture was a lovely meal at Pizza Express, which was a great success! So successful, in fact, that over the next few months we dashed around the restaurants, takeaways, public houses and cafes of Farnham for more meals and cream teas and juices and cakes. We then decided to get a bit more adventurous and hop on the train to a place called Guildford; a little town-come-city that's surrounded by hills. It is remarkably bigger than Farnham and filled with shops, buskers and even a castle (Although, Farnham has one of those too). And one of its particularly grabbing features is its cinema.

One of the main features of this year for us, as a house, has been films. Be it in or out the house, it's been a sure-fire way to assemble the group to see some laughs, entertainment and embarrassment... and to watch some good flicks too.

The first film we went to see in the cinema as a unit was a time-travelling wander starring Bruce Willis. Now, I won't lie to you... It's a little bit nasty in places. So, when it got to a part in the film where a magical little boy is... um... taking a bad man's life away in a not very nice way... The audience were as silent as ever. (I don't know if you know this but, oddly enough, people don't talk in cinemas.) The scene had no words or music to it - it was a silent montage; and as it got nastier and nastier, the room fell quiet enough to hear a teacup clink against it's saucer. But then, all of a sudden, Lui's voice broke the tension with a loud, horrified call of:

"Eeeuurrgh... That's DISGUSTING!"

...Which had us stifling laughter for the rest of the film. Poor Bruce.

Cinema trips became routine, and many good times came with them. For instance, later in the year as Christmastime approached, Andy, Lisa, Bradders and me dashed excitedly to Guildford to buy our very first house-Christmas tree and decorations! N'awww!

In hindsight, I guess we could have thought it through a bit more... But surprisingly no suspicious questions were asked when we rolled up to the steward at the cinema and handed over our tickets with a huge 6 foot long cardboard box under the arm.


And then comes perhaps my favourite memory of a cinema trip...

One evening, we were walking back from the flicks on a high from the adventures and musical stylings of Madagascar 3. We trotted back through Farnham and started to shiver in the nippy, cold October air. So, eager to get back to a nice, warm cup of tea, Russel made a bolt for it and started to run ahead to warm up. At a surprising pace for a hedgehog, he raced past me... Then Lisa... And then Bradders...

Bradders watched him sprinting on by and took his chance. He jumped up and down, pointed at Russel in his sudden hurry, and started to throw his remaining popcorn up into the air, crying out in a voice a few pitches higher: "My purse! My purse! He's got my purse!"

 I think that was one of the first (of many) times I laughed until the tears rolled.

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And lastly, there are the times indoors. For the first few months, we sat huddled up in the kitchen watching films on Ace's laptop and getting distracted every now and then by food or playing with the water in the ceiling leaks. But as time chugged on, we decided to move our film-watching antics onto the landing on the second floor, where there is a lot more room. (I can't tell you how excited we are to be able to have a lounge and a sofa in our new house for next year!) We huddled up in our duvets with tea and snacks, laughing or snuffling or screaming along with the films. And, y'know, these are some of my favourite moments of the year. You can't beat a good night in with a strange group of animal friends.