War Horse

War Horse

On my 'Hiddles 39th Birthday' post I already mentioned that every year on his birthday, I do try to watch a movie/series in which Tom Hiddleston has a role in. Last year I had watched a part of The Hollow Crown and the year before that I had watched Midnight In Paris. This year I watched War Horse and thereby I've broke the chain of watching something of him that I hadn't seen yet, because I have seen War Horse once. Although, that was long before I've discovered the Thor/Avengers movies, so I couldn't remember much about Tom's role. So perhaps you can say I've now watched War Horse from a total different view! I really do like to write reviews/blogs about films, so I thought let's do a blog about a Tom Hiddleston movie!

Even though I'm talking about a film from 2011, in case someone who hasn't seen this film yet and is planning to, I'll warn: There are spoilers below. 

Years ago I had already experienced War Horse as a breathtaking film and seen from the fact that war related films are not so easily forgotten and because I have a weakness for animal films, parts of War Horse were still very present inside my memory. War Horse is the story of Joey, the horse seen as a Wonder Horse and the relationship that has developed between him and a young man named Albert. After several threats of taking the horse done by a horrible man named Lyon when the father faces trouble in paying their monthly payment for the farm they are living in, the father decides to sell Joey to the army who are seeking horses for World War I. Albert arrives too late, Joey is already sold to Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), who admits he totally underpaid for a well trained horse as Joey is, but he just hadn't had more to offer. During the whole film Joey manages to touch the hearts of many human he crossed paths with, Tom Hiddleston's character is the first one who separated the Wonder Horse from one of the concerning humans. 

Now I make it sound like Nicholls is just as horrible as Lyon, who I mentioned earlier. He definitely is not! (See the GIF on the side, I see the opposite of a horrible man. 😇)

The GIF where Tom Hiddleston takes off the hat and makes the average woman faint, is where he promises Albert to take very well care of Joey and if he can, he would even bring back to horse after the war is over. Scenes between Joey & Albert I found very touching, the same is to be said about Joey's following 'owners', starting with Captain Nicholls who plainly has sympathy for Albert. We get to see him making a drawing of Joey, meant for Albert. Just like Tom (I adore the pictures with him and the horse, and see the bonus picture at the end of this blog!), Nicholls has heart for animals, so despite of the circumstances, Joey still is in good hands.

Tom & Benedict

I knew that War Horse had been the first film Tom Hiddleston & Benedict Cumberbatch both portrayed in. War Horse, a film set in times of war, was the beginning of a still standing as strong as a rock beautiful friendship between Tom & Benedict. Also I very much enjoyed the first scene that Loki and Dr. Strange..- uhh.. Captain Nichols and Major Jamie Stewart shared. Two great actors who put their heart and soul into the character they are portraying.

After seeing Infinity War I've came across of a meme once that showed Loki arriving in heaven, meeting up with other decreased Hiddleston characters. One of them was Captain Nicholls, so besides that I already had guessed it, I knew his faith. I just totally didn't expected to see it happen so soon in the movie! I really thought Tom had some more screen time. This once again proofs that he doesn't need much screen time to stand out! 

Both Topthorn (Steward's black horse) and Joey were fallen into the hands of the German. This ends with a beautiful evening 'shot' as we see the wicks of the mill distracting the view of another cruel war act, created with other kinds of 'shots' that I wouldn't refer as beautiful.. But luckily, in the next scene the horses are looking in the beautiful innocent eyes of Emilie, their new next young owner. Seeing her hiding the horses into her bedroom, training Joey in the hope of learning him some tricks, is one brighter part of the movie. Although her story too has a sad history. Emilie lives on her grandfather's farm and her parents are (recently) decreased. She also suffers from a illness but as stubborn and brave as she is, she's determined to ride Joey! And she does so but you do see it coming, all good things do come to an end. Here another innocent, pure heart breaks into a million pieces when both the horses are brutally taken away from her.

Another thing I definitely like about animal related films is the developing relationship among animals. Mostly it starts with some hostility during the meet but in the end that has made a huge turn. (Well okay, this movie didn't had a lot of hostility among the two horses, perhaps for them there was enough war around them already..) War Horse really has some stunning shots in where the friendship of Joey and the black Topthorn (Hey, there's Thor in the name) was to be seen. True friendship is wanting to sacrifice yourself for the other and Joey definitely had no doubt in doing so. 💔🐎

Here's a list of animal-related movies that have touched me to:

• Two Brothers
• White Fang
• Call of the Wild
• Homeward Bound
• Life of Pi
• Lion King/Jungle Book
• Bambi
• Dolphin Tale
• Hachi
• 101 Dalmatians, Lady & The Tramp, Frank & Frey
• Black Beauty
• A Dog's Purpose
• We Bought a Zoo
• Dolittle Movie
• A Dog's Way Home

And many many more.

Just like about Loki, I can go on and on about this film. I mean, the no man's land scene and the truce Joey had created. Wow!

It's really in the details and films who are able to have beginning-details return later/in the end, mostly do something to me. They really get me. One strong detail is the regimental pennant Albert attached to Joey during saying goodbye. It later touched Tom Hiddleston's hands (😊), was used in the training done by the young girl Emilie and finally made it's way..- (Just look the film again because it's worth the watch until the very end!) In the beginning of the film Albert had learnt Joey to come to him when he made an owl sounded-like whistle. Not to mention I had experienced those scenes as highly funny when seeing Joey run over everything like a dog would do to get to his owner. When Albert did this again during the end of the movie when he heard about a Wonder Horse while he was being treated for his eyes, try to keep your eyes dry.. Really hard right?

And here's the bonus Tom Hiddleston I mentioned as a closure of this blog post!

Dolittle Movie

The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (Universal Pictures)

Set Robert Downey Jr. in the middle of a bunch of animals, add a dose of humor and a golden combination has been created! I suppose that might have been a thought from the makers of The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle. Smart move because Downey Jr. has a huge fan base and a real fan (like me) shall not skip one of his movies! Do you say Dr. Dolittle, then images of the humorous Eddy Murphy, who has played the role in quite some films, are coming in right away. Now it's up to Robert Downey Jr. to portray the role of Dolittle, the doctor who’s able to communicate with animals. Of course Robert is best known as Tony Stark / Iron Man, a role that in my opinion truly was made for him! But also as detective Sherlock Holmes, he proved that he can be called an actor with the capital letter A. 

In Dolittle, the Avengers actor brings along one of his Marvel colleagues: Tom Holland, the current Spiderman from the MCU. As Jip the dog, he dropped four legs. (Because spiders have 8 legs, I know bad joke..) Bohemian Rhapsody actor Rami Malek also has a role in this film, namely Gorilla Chee-Chee. The female roles in this film are portrayed by (among others) Emma Thompson and Selena Gomez.

If you are following Robert Downey Jr. on social media, you probably have seen some of the promotion that he did for Dolittle. Around the 10th of December, he shared a humorous video in which the animals supposedly did an audition. (Several existing films included, shall add the video below). One thing was Barry the tiger (Ralph Fiennes) roaring like a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. A little later he says: "Put me in the movie or it's Downey for dessert .." I saw that in the morning, so I didn’t wanted a dessert, but it did made me look forward in seeing the film even more!

Also, from the first second, the trailer took me to the adventurous and somewhat fairy-tale world of Dolittle. The film was produced by the makers of Disney's Alice in Wonderland & Maleficent and you can certainly see that in it. Dolittle is set in the Victorian era and based on the equally named children's book series (the first one now is a 100 years old). Eddy Murphy’s version was compared to the books and earlier films quite different in details such as time, story and characters. Dr. John Dolittle, portrayed by Downey Jr. with some traits of characters that can be found on the IMDb list from Johnny Depp, prefers only animals around him. Due a serious illness of the young Queen Victoria, the eccentric doctor is needed, urgent. Together with his faithful parrot Poly and a student (Harry Collett), he’s going on quite the adventurous quest to find an extremely rare medicine for the queen. The rest of the crew includes a polar bear and an ostrich who are constantly arguing, a squirrel with sinister plans and a silly duck. Compared to Dolittle’s animal chaos, Tony Stark was lucky with just one talking raccoon!

Dolittle is a film for the whole family. (Although Dolittle takes his pet gang everywhere, I don’t think the employees at the cinema will appreciate it if you bring your own pets to the film..) Not just among children, but also among grown-ups, animal films are still hugely popular. And obviously the dose of animals and humor are all well present in Dolittle! 

 And no, I’m not Robert Downey Jr. tired yet. Hell no! I’m happy that we will at least see him one more time as Tony Stark in the Black Widow movie & that there’s a Sherlock Holmes film scheduled for 2021!

Have you seen Dolittle? What did you think of it? Feel free to share it in the comments!

Zen Blog: Inspiring Quotes and Nature 4

Zen Blog: Inspiring Quotes and Nature 4

I‘m so sorry that it took me three months to do a blog like this one again. I‘m not doing the time-talk again, we know it‘s flying by faster than Thor would⚡ (even before he got fat..). However had added some nature pictures and quotes in some of the blogs I published in August and September.

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Aren‘t we all bouncing in a circle up and down? The one moment we feel great, the next moment we‘re caught in a miserable mood. Perhaps that‘s what they mean with 'Circle of Life' in the Lion King. (Kidding..) Speaking of the Lion King, remember Hakuna Matata (it means no worries for the rest of..🎵)?  Recently I got a tip from someone. He said something among the lines of: "If you‘re burdened with stress or you are worrying about something, throw some rocks in the water and watch the circles. Pretend that the disappearing circles mean your stress/worries and let it carry it away!" That‘s truly a wonderful advice. I knew that there‘s a large pond around my hometown somewhere I had never been before. I tried to find this a few months ago, but I don‘t know where Maps was sending me too. Not there, definitely. It was a great walk though, crossed a dog 🐶that lives close in the era (I was worried about him walking around there on his own, but people told me it‘s the dog‘s nature for as long as they remember) who joined me the whole time and actually helped me find my way back from the nowhere to the living! However, the other day I decided to give it another try and took my bicycle with me because it was actually quite the walk.. This time finding it took me no effort, so I decided to follow the guy‘s advise. And for me this really worked. I had two things on my mind that I wished the universe solved for me. Small things, but enough to spoil my mood for a few days.. Anyhow, the next day both of those 'problems' were solved.

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Somehow I‘m always drawn to take a picture of the sky. It‘s always the question how a picture like that turns out because I can‘t see the view when looking right into the sun..

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The above is a zoom-in of the previous picture. I did captured a light blue energy in that particular picture I took. You can tell me it‘s an effect of the sun, but I‘m too spiritual to believe that! 💙

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Hey, what‘s that in the water?

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Quotes/Inspiration: 

 

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These days here it‘s raining a lot. One of the themes of this blog post perhaps is water.

You can‘t live without water, nature can‘t live without water. Every time when the rain spoils your mood, think that nature which is still recovering from two dry summers (here that is..), needs it a lot!

I do, I do!

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A sign of Infinity

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You are stronger than you think..

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End the blog with some Hiddles vibes!

I know I have used this Tom Hiddleston quote earlier, but you can‘t share a lovely quote like this enough!

I like to write down small quotes or save images in small note books. Every time I open this small blue notebook Tom Hiddleston‘s quote magically creates a smile on my face. 💙😇

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I hope you enjoyed this blog,

Love,

xx

Nicole

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Sources: Rituals, Flair Magazine, Flow Magazine, Tom Hiddleston

World Animal Day

World Animal Day

Isn't it animal day all day?

It's World Animal Day. A day that still is a very popular thing among the media, which isn't bad because who doesn't want to see all those cute animal pictures on the internet? I bet for most animal keepers it's animal's day for their pets everyday!

So it is for our dogs as well. I don't think our Labrador nor our old Poodle/Maltese (during times he's awake) will notice any difference today. They are being spoiled with love everyday.

I had already dropped two puppy faces in the picture above, let‘s show a little more of our dogs! The happy faces* we see when coming home now + the faces (in grey) we still see in our memories everyday! 

The picture above is the cover of a photo-book I made a while ago. In the book I had collected almost all photo's I've had of our dogs + I scanned in the photo's of the two dogs I grew up with, who aren't with us anymore. 

I think sometimes we can learn from our pets. It‘s amazing how they are appreciating the small things. A balloon, a ball or even a cloth.. I‘m not saying we should walk around with a cloth all day, but sometimes we should just enjoy the little things in life a bit more.

A thing about animals, they do not ever show us someone they are not. They don‘t pretend to be different so that they can fit it. They are always themselves, no matter how crazy that is. We have a labrador who‘s the sweetest thing but also a big coward haha. He won‘t do what the dog below does, almost touching a cow! 

A few days ago I dreamt that Bonnie was still alive. She would have been 30 by now. There are miracles but not like that haha. In a way the dream is true because in our hearts they remain to stay forever, in there they are still alive. And I also do believe that they will never leave us anyway. In my Loki story I named my lead female character after this sweet guardian Angel of mine. I‘m publishing this story on Wattpad and today I've added a new chapter called: 'The Healing Pool'.

Here‘s a small part of the chapter:

Whole chapter here: Wattpad: A Loki Novel Chapter 3

Avengers + Animals

The person I got this blog dedicated to (You know that‘s Tom Hiddleston) also has a huge heart for animals which he often shows us. I think for Bobby, it‘s Animal Day all year long too! Here are some photo's (no pap pics) of Tom (+ three other Avengers!) with animals:

Let‘s not forget about out favorite animal Avenger! Rocket the Raccoon! (No Thor, it‘s not a rabbit. No Loki, it‘s not a skunk. No Tony, it‘s not a squirrel (refs to a story I‘m writing..) )

& Goose!

‘We should let Rocket run pass him over and over, so Loki starts to feel dizzy and starts counting. Isn‘t that how they get little kids to sleep? By counting rabbits?’ Thor was thinking out loud. 

‘A: Where are you seeing a little kid in Loki?, and B: It‘s counting sheep, not rabbits!’ Tony answered. 

‘Rabbits, sheep.. All the same to me,’ Thor shrug.

Stephen shook his head. ‘I‘m glad the raccoon hasn‘t heard any of this.’

Loki: ‘That alien cat just ate my Tesseract! Why weren‘t you guys paying attention?’ he shouted.

Now all eyes were pointed at the cat. ‘He‘s bluffing to distract us. Probably just an illusion,’ Thor responded but Stephen already had walked towards the cat. Then he picket the meowing cat off the ground, which proved Thor‘s theory wrong. 

‘Its belly is indeed glowing,’ he stated. 

Now Thor saw it too and checked the cat‘s nameplate. ‘Goose. You sweet kitty kitty cat!’ When Thor petted him, the cat started to purr. ‘Tony, did you ever own a cat?’, he asked.

‘No, not that I know of. He could just have brought it here?’ he said while hinting towards Loki.

‘Look at him. He has never seen it before. His face clearly gives that away!’ Thor mentioned. 

Tony dropped a sarcastic little laugh. ‘The guy who, just an hour ago, released an army of unearthly terrifying monsters, now is afraid of a cat? Now, that blows me off my chair!’

‘Now what, wait until he poops it out?’ Thor wondered, frowning. ‘The stone than I mean, the Tesseract- well perhaps is a bit-‘ Thor faced trouble in finishing the sentence, as his mind made the mistake of picturing the event already.

‘Hairball,’ Stephen quickly said. 

* Due privacy reasons I have not added all of my dogs names.

Zen Blog: Inspiring Quotes and Nature 3

Zen Blog: Inspiring Quotes and Nature 3

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In my second Zen Blog Inspiring Quotes and Nature 2 I already had mentioned that perhaps I would do a blog like this monthly. And apparently the universe wants me to do that because I keep find all these lovely things on my path. Things that make my inner self jumping up side down because she can‘t wait to share it! This jumping inner self isn't new, because nowadays the feeling of sharing my vision, my thoughts to the world has grown bigger and bigger. I always was this quiet girl who never said much, (in person I‘m still not a giant talker..) or liked to stand in the spotlights. 10 years ago I always wore black clothing, even though some black clothes now and then are okay, fortunate my closet has gotten much more colorful. Someway you can say I've turned myself around with wanting to be heard. If you look on top on the page, you can‘t miss the fact that Tom Hiddleston inspired me a lot! But also his fan base brought me a lot. I've started fan accounts on Tumblr, Instagram and among others Facebook, calling myself 'Goddess of Loki' and to be honest I never imagined that so many people would want to follow something that I made! So yes, that gave me a self confidence boost!

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Once again I will also share some lovely quotes that I have found online and in magazines. And if I have given you inspiration, light and perhaps love by the time you reached the end of this post, then my task is accomplished! At the end of the blogpost you‘ll find a source list for the websites and the magazines!

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I've found the perfect bag to take with me while walking. You know a bum bag is easy, but I can‘t get a bottle of water or a small camera in it. This one does. It goes on my back without bothering me. And: The Lion King! 😁 (I‘m so excited for the film!) The Lion King‘s quote 'Remember who you are' suits walking for me, at least when I‘m going for a walk alone. This might sound a little floaty (also that‘s me), but I think there‘s always something about yourself to find out. And what‘s a better way to do that than in silence and in nature? Next part I‘m deepening this subject a little more.

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These photo‘s (and the one on top) I took last Tuesday when it was like 34 degrees on the hottest part of the day. Now perhaps you think: what fool goes for a walk with temperatures like that? But it was in the morning and it‘s cooler in the forest. Actually this was an activity that was planned months ago. It was all about finding inspiration in the forest. In stead of some heavy walking the leader gave us some things to do starting with walking a path together without talking, (for some that truly was a challenge!) but also to feel what the nature does to you and to let go! Another thing was to take a step forward and to name three qualities you possess. Light point: the clapping that follows gave a good feeling (2 people even clapped for themselves). As this was an activity for a group of people who are all searching for a new job or challenge, the last thing to do was to walk a path and to speak your goal/wish out loud! Before the path there was a obstacle to pass on which the leader had placed some plush bears. Those bears represented problems that you bump into along the way. (Beren op de weg/Bears on the road: A Dutch proverbial.) What are you doing with them? Do you prefer to walk over it with a bow? Do you accept them? Do you touch them? (I touched the panda, to express my love for animals actually) Or do you take them with you to walk the path together until they finally disappear? (When you decided to let go of) The choice is yours! 

I always like to draw cards so when I got my eyes on the cards she brought with as a bonus, my inner self started to jump again! The cards had Dutch quotes. My first one was "Today I will finish what I‘ve started" but it was the second that truly as a deeper meaning to me. It‘s the one on the image above: "Now I see my vulnerability as my strength. After searching I found the fresh breeze in life." That‘s actually something that I have experienced and still am experiencing. I've always had a small deviation in my legs/feet, restricted (<-- like this, I hate this word) me in my doings. Therefore I have told myself the following a lot: 'You cannot do that, you cannot do this..' Which was wrong! Also I never took much walks either, until like a year ago. I found out that I am very well capable of taking a walk for give or take 1,5 hour. You know, finding out you can actually do something feels really good! It even gave me strength! So yes, turning my vulnerability in my strength is a good way to put it in words. Lately I even took it a step further by standing in front at a Slash ft. Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators performance, (which I also mentioned in my Pinkpop/Music blogpost) while standing in a crowd like that, let along at front always had been something I feared.

Nature gives us a lot, more than most of us realize actually. And I think Mother Nature appreciates it if now and then, we do something back. Or spoken of last Tuesday: Take something out that doesn't belong there. I don‘t understand why people feel the need to dump their cigarettes and plastic there. I feel lots of respect for all the people who are volunteering in cleaning up this mess, but unfortunately that‘s it‘s needed in the first place. But enough about that!

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What have we got to inspire you with today?  

You know that reminds me of:

When Thor finally is reunited with Loki again, he‘s a tiger that can‘t be tamed as well! (This picture I found at the 2018 WNF Calendar for the month of May)

Sometimes life will knock you down. Perhaps it‘s to test your inner strength, but it‘s necessary to let you discover that you‘re stronger than you think you were!

Next time someone tells me they think I‘m weird, I tell them I‘m limited edition!

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Each day I still draw a card from a random online deck. The following three come from a deck called Life Goals. Sometimes I‘m still amazed how the right card (almost) always comes out!

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Is there room for one more tiger in this post?

I‘m in love with this breakfast plate. Perhaps I will buy it (and mostly use it for lunch!)

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My tea labels! ☕💚 In the mean time I got a few pages full of them. Here are three. Beautiful right?

Marbles! 💝

In case if you‘re interested: This is the tea I‘m taking them from.

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Speaking of healthy or organic food:

I love to support the local markets. The products are so lovely. I think here it still needs to grow. Some people even ask me why I‘m eating 'weird food'. For who can‘t read Dutch, these are: Raspberry jam, muesli, appel juice, dessert sauce and honey from a local beekeeper. What‘s weird about that? I understand why it‘s much more tempting to buy a much cheaper version in the normal supermarket but I love these foods, and I especially love raspberries! I haven't switched fully either, but would like to in the future. The picture is a month old, halve is gone by now..

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Don‘t look hard for miracles, but do look high in the sky..⛅

Clouds truly are beautiful. This made me stand still for a moment. I think we should look at the clouds more often. Here a darker cloud covers the sun, but she still manages to shine through. It looked much more beautiful in real.

A few moments later the sun came through.

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All right, one more tiger. I love them!

For those who are still here at the end of this blogpost, I got a little bonus. I would like to share today‘s (the date I published this post: 27th of June) message made by Doreen Virtue:

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Bless you, enjoy life & stay healthy!,

Love,

Nicole

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Source inspiring quotes: WENDY magazine, Flair magazine, Happinez magazine & orakels.net.