The Harry Potter quiz

Tonight is the last night before the university term officially begins. As such, some of my fellow students in my accommodation village and I will be going to a Harry Potter quiz night here on campus. I'm not sure how it will turn out but it should be interesting, to say the least.

My first lecture tomorrow is at 11:00am.

More to learn about Harry Potter

I saw this article from the Heart radio network appear on my Facebook feed this evening:

http://www.heart.co.uk/showbiz/amazing-facts-about-harry-potter-2015-2016/#EoWYgXqPrLCtTCdO.97

We're still learning about Harry Potter, even after nine years since the final book was released. New books are on the way, of course, so we'll continue to learn more about the Potter universe for the foreseeable future.

The Sorting Cone

As it was a bright and sunny Saturday today, I went out for a walk. During my walk, I photographed this dented traffic cone:

While it's only a rough similarity, this particular cone made me think of the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, as its dent is in the place where the Hat's mouth would be. Of course, it might just end up being only me who thinks this!

Another one of my jokes (9)

A joke I wrote for Christmas 2005:

"Who makes copies of Harry Potter’s work? The Half-Blood Prints."

The origins of this joke reside in the fact that the sixth Harry Potter book is called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I was fond of the pun in the joke.

Another one of my jokes (4)

Only have time for a joke for today's post; this one was written for Christmas 2009:

"In the final Harry Potter book, why was Potter looking for Avon? He was searching for the Deathly Darrows."

This is one of my more obscure-humoured jokes: to understand it, you not only have to have read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but you also have to have watched a 1970s television show entitled Blake's 7. In that show, there was a character called "Avon", and he was played by the actor Paul Darrow. I have rarely used this joke outside Christmas 2009 because of its obscurity, but I think it is a good one nonetheless...it just needs to be told in the right circumstances.

Another one of my jokes (3)

Only have enough time for a joke for today's post. This one was written for Christmas 2007:

"How does Harry Potter get out of paying bills? By going to the Order of the Fee-nix."

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

While the day before was quiet, today was an even more laid-back day: I spent the morning renaming the majority of the 400+ pictures that I have taken over the last few days. In doing this, I set aside a few that I will be uploading to my blog at the conclusion of my trip to Nottingham to visit family. In the meantime, there will still be more pictures to take!

As for the afternoon, my grandfather took my brother, one of my cousins, and myself to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (except for my brother, none of the family members I was out with yesterday came along today, as they were busy with a few things for this day, making it an ideal day to see Harry Potter). I am completely satisfied with the final film, as I have been with all the movies that came previously. I have been a fan of the Harry Potter series for as long as it has been out, and I am glad that they were portrayed so well on-screen. I have been able to see all eight films at the cinema, despite being close to not seeing a film or two from the series a couple of times.

In the evening, my grandfather forgot to take my cousin back home as we went back to his house, but after we had a laugh over it, she got to have dinner at my grandparents' house before she was taken back. Again, it was a quieter day, but still a lot of fun.

Harry Potter books

We sorted out several boxes containing books this afternoon, and in one of them was our Harry Potter collection! Like most of our belongings, it has been a very long time since we have seen our Harry Potter books, and I did take a moment to read the first and last pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the best book, in my opinion) before we put the books away.

Did you know that several countries have a unique cover for each of the Harry Potter books? We first found this out when my grandparents visited us in California in 2000, and my grandmother said she was look for some American copies to take back home. See the differences between the British covers:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU3xD2YMTJnU4wgpGge-J6N6UV5B8-4SNQU6xpZXiVEh6Y6IoF5rcMeZnOtnS9FJrZCFMfqy9OGdsfCBhaUVaU3stnXxt2udS-yw1xz1cr6C56rahPTuGLNn4cGlpUWg7oVub_msgGPG46/s1600/harry-potter-books.jpg

Compared to the American covers:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxuYYWsG51fLxS0RKO0DfZpAYU3oqCSlKtl0BiaEvtpJ7PwZzeXm8bzXMIA3fiPE6fXQQGiqVkfhOc4_gvIYc9RShKQ-i4f6u7XuW8IsQ9QHvCsUVvZGFH29A2t3orxwoFsX37YuvsVD8t/s1600/harry-potter-collection-21.jpg

Quite a big difference there! Typing "harry potter covers around the world" into Google Images will show a multitude of the varied Harry Potter covers from the world over. I find it fascinating to look at them all and compare them.

Note: neither of the images in the links above are mine; they are merely two images that I linked to from here.