A Very Potter Day- December 2017| CarenzaOnBooks

This is a post I've wanted to write for a while but never got around to until now. Back in December of last year, my mother and I went to London for the day to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (part one only) and subsequently, made a day trip out of it. We did so many amazing things and I really wanted a way of remembering this day, besides the photos I took and the merch I obviously bought.

We started the day with two exhibitions; one at the Courtauld Gallery and one at the National Gallery. Although I can't remember the specifics of the exhibitions, I knew I really enjoyed them. We had to go them fairly quickly as we wanted to get to the Palace theatre for about 1 pm (an hour before the show started).

We ended up at the theatre an hour and a half early, thankfully ending up under the sheltered part as it was raining on and off. At the time, I didn't know that the House of MinaLima was around the corner and as a part of a promotion, they were handing out leaflets for it. Mum and I decided that we would head there after the show.

Once we had been let inside, my first point of call was the shop. I had been saving this money since my birthday in August and I planned to spend it. I have a whole video about it on my YouTube channel, which documents what I got. But to put it simply, I bought almost everything I had had my eye on.

The interior of the theatre was beautiful. We were sat at the very top of the theatre and my fear of heights definitely kicked in as the seats were very sloped. The performance was incredible and I can't wait to go again in August. I've been going to the theatre since I was six years old, but some of the tricks they used to make it look like magic left me with my mouth wide open.

Once the show had finished, we did a final bit of shopping in the theatre and then we went to the House of MinaLima. I'd never been before as I thought it had closed down for some reason. If you are a Harry Potter fan, then I highly recommend going. It's free to go in and has an amazing gift shop. It's so interesting learning about how they designed all the props for the Harry Potter movies. I bought three postcard packs and a badge. I plan on going back in August as it was wonderful.

Our final shopping destination was Tottenham Court Road Primark. I'd walked past it on several occasions, but had never been in. I managed to get some of the items, such as the Potion Bottle fairy lights and the house bunting, that I had been wanting for ages. Primark is a great place for getting cheap merch and their homeware section (my fave) is amazing.

We had tea at GBK and then headed to the train station via Waterstones as we're both huge bookworms and had time to kill. I think we ended up buying six books between us. We didn't get home till quite late, but it was such a magical day.
Carenza x

A Love Letter to Harry Potter| CarenzaOnBooks

At 11 O'clock today, the epilogue for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows becomes reality. Today is 19 years later. Today is a special day for Potterheads around the world. I've already made posts about how much Harry Potter means to me and while this post is in the same vein, my love for Harry Potter has increased since my last post.

The Boy Who Lived and the Wizarding World came into my life over 10 years ago. I can't deny that it hasn't played a huge part in my life. They were the books that got into reading and the books I aspire to write. These books took the world by storm and I was caught up in it. Reading them made me want to read more. They told me of a magical world I could escape to when the real world became scary. They're still the books I read when I need to escape from our crazy world.

In these books, I found people I wanted to be and people I wanted to know. I've spent half my life being told I sound and act like Hermione Granger, though I'm not sure how true that is, I'm nowhere near as academic as she is. I found characters I longed to know more about and characters I could spend hours talking about.

Most people I know have moved on from their Harry Potter phase, but I'm still very much there. I recently went to the Studios again for my birthday and have already been once this year. I'm about to finish my reread of the books and will probably watch the movies soon. Harry Potter introduced me to the world of fandoms and fandom communities. Because of Harry Potter, I have an excessive amount of Pop Funkos (and I plan to continue collecting). Plainly, Harry Potter continues to be there for me when I feel as though there is nothing else.

Harry Potter has had a huge impact on my life and will continue to. It's made me the person I am today. I may have spent more money than I should have on this fandom, but every piece of merch or memory never fails to make me happy. And as Dumbledore says "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home"