I loved Harry Potter as a teen, so when I saw this tag over at the Pretty Purple Polka Dots blog I had to give it a go!


#1. Favourite Harry Potter Book? 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This was the first one I read, after seeing Chamber of Secrets at the cinema. My brother had the book out at the time from his school library, so I figured I'd give it a try. I loved it so much I went straight out that weekend and got the first two books.


#2. Least Favourite Harry Potter Book? 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I still enjoyed it, but it was too long. It felt a bit like reading LotR and Tom Bombadil's random interlude all over again.


#3. Favourite Harry Potter Movie?

The Prisoner of Azkaban. The CGI werewolf sucked, but apart from that it lived up to my expectations.


#4. Least Favourite Harry Potter Movie?

The Chamber of Secrets. Again, I still liked it, but it's the weakest of the series in my opinion.


#5. Favourite Quote? 

Image found via Google Images.

#6. Favourite Weasley?

Percy. He's terribly pompous, but I felt he was a more interesting character than most of them.


#7. Favourite Female Character? 

Hermione. She can be insufferable, but can't we all? :)


#8. Favourite Villain? 

Bellatrix Lestrange.


#9. Favourite Male Character? 

Hagrid is great.


#10. Favourite Professor?

Snape! I wouldn't want to actually be taught by him, but the teacher who hates their job is always something I like in fiction.



#11. Least Favourite Character? 

This will be controversial but, Sirius Black. If I'd read the books as an adult I'd probably be more sympathetic to his character, but at 14 I just couldn't stand him.


#12. Is there a character you felt differently about in the movies?

James Potter. He came across a lot better in the movies.


#13. Is there a movie you preferred to the book?

No, it's always hard to prefer a movie if you have read the book first, I think.


#14. Richard Harris or Michael Gambon as Dumbledore?

Richard Harris, but they're both good.


#15.  Your top thing (person or event) that wasn’t in the movie that you wanted there the most? 

It's not like we even see it in the book, but I'd have loved to see more of Hermione's life outside of school / the Weasleys.


#16.  If you could remake any of the Harry Potter movies which would it be? 

Prisoner of Azkaban. Just because it's my favourite so I'd love to get my hands on it! :)


#17. Which house was your first gut feeling you’d be a part of?

Ravenclaw. Eccentrics with a love of learning - where do I sign up?


#18. Which house were you actually sorted into on Pottermore?



#19. Which class would be your favourite? 

Probably History of Magic, even with the interminable Binns at the helm.


#20. Which spell do you think would be most useful to learn? 

Reparo. I'd save a fortune if my (and Anthony's) clumsiness could be undone!


#21. Is there any aspect of the books you’d want to change?

That epilogue. :/


#22. Favourite Marauder?

Lupin, for sure. Not least because I probably spent a good few cumulative weeks of my teenage life reading Snupin fanfiction.


#23. If you could bring one character back to life, which would it be? 

Fred Weasley. :(


24. If you were on the Quidditch team, which position would you play?

Let's face it, I would never have been on the team - and would probably have done all I could to skive out of lessons too. At house matches my crowd would have been the ones sat at the back paying no attention and chattering about the latest gossip in 'Teen Witch' or something.


#25. Were you happy with the ending?

I liked the ending - but I actually tore the epilogue out of my copy of the book. It was understandable to have the close marauders era ties after school, they were mostly dead or in prison before they could drift apart, but the 'everyone stayed with their high school sweetheart and friendship group' trope always annoys me.

---

#01. Favourite Harry Potter Book?
#02. Least Favourite Harry Potter Book?
#03. Favourite Harry Potter Movie?
#04. Least Favourite Harry Potter Movie?
#05. Favourite Quote?
#06. Favourite Weasley?
#07. Favourite Female Character?
#08. Favourite Villain?
#09. Favourite Male Character?
#10. Favourite Professor?
#11. Least Favourite Character?
#12. Is there a character you felt differently about in the movies?
#13. Is there a movie you preferred to the book?
#14. Richard Harris or Michael Gambon as Dumbledore?
#15. Your top thing (person or event) that wasn’t in the movie that you wanted there the most?
#16. If you could remake any of the Harry Potter movies which would it be?
#17. Which house was your first gut feeling you’d be a part of?
#18. Which house were you actually sorted into on Pottermore?
#19. Which class would be your favourite?
#20. Which spell do you think would be most useful to learn?
#21. Is there any aspect of the books you’d want to change?
#22. Favourite Marauder?
#23. If you could bring one character back to life, which would it be?
24. If you were on the Quidditch team, which position would you play?
#25. Were you happy with the ending?

---

I try to keep these weekly round-ups mostly positive, and there were some high points this week. After posting last week's retrospective, Wingz got in touch to thank me for the mention and ask if I'd like to review a pair. (Did I?? I posted the review on Thursday.) I had my first regular council meeting as deputy mayor, and welcomed figures showing that our webcasts are the most watched in Wales.

On Tuesday evening I attended a youth EU debate organised by Bron Afon, and only got to answer half a question myself because Marianna decided to scream incessantly through the entire 'councillors' answers' section. Thursday evening itself was lovely; we went to the first prize evening of Cwmbran High, which merged Fairwater High and Llantarnam School last year. It was fab to see so much talent, and the musical interlude with the cast of the school's production of 'We Will Rock You' and Cwmbran High Deaf Choir was awesome.

And then #Brexit happened and wiped more than $2trillion off the world markets. I wrote about what it will likely mean for Torfaen, and as a family we're going to have to seriously think about our future. In my day job I'm an elected county councillor for the Welsh Labour Party, so the overwhelming local support for a populist, right-wing world view is an ominous sign for next May's council elections.

I really hope I am re-elected and can play my role in damage limitation for the area, but it is a very real possibility I'll be unemployed this time next year, and relying on Michael 'this country has had enough of experts' Gove and Boris 'If you can't turn the clock back to 1904, what's the point of being a Conservative?' Johnson to safeguard the positives of EU legislation and negotiate favourable trade deals. On top of that there are reports coming in from all over of disgusting racism, newly legitimised by the vote - from chants of 'go home' to British muslims, to the English Defence League and National Front protesters out on the streets of Newcastle.

Moving to the unknown is scary, but the idea of Marianna being exposed to such behaviour is much, much scarier.




☆ READING: The lovely folks behind WILF Books wrote a guest post for me about the importance of sharing, and what they're all about.

☆ WRITING: I couldn't help weighing in on some of the #Regrexit twitter debate, namely the argument that the young shouldn't blame the old for voting out - because they fought world wars for them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's fair to blame an entire generation, it just pains me that people's grasp of their own history is so awful. Where do they think the term 'baby boomers' comes from?

I hate to break it to those countering #Brexit anger at the older generation w/ the world war veteran argument, but: pic.twitter.com/tIKvuJG8nX

— Jessica Powell (@jess__powell) 24 June 2016

☆ WATCHING: Steptoe and Son. Anthony bought the boxset in the week and, as the Sopranos rewatch has finally (finally!) come to an end, we've made a start. Expect a post full of Steptoe quotes and trivia in the near future.

☆ LISTENING: We watched a 'classic' countdown on Kerrang! on Saturday, full of stuff we loved as teens because we're so old now! Typical of the playlist was Duality by Slipknot.

☆ WEARING: Wingz!

☆ EATING: We had an amazing cupcake at Cwmbran High's prize evening with the school's logo - it was so tasty!

☆ REVIEWING: I'm going to be reviewing Random Acts of Unkindness by Jacqueline Ward. I took part in the release day blitz already.


I dropped 3 points in the recent domain authority update which sucked, but on the other hand it has been a very good week for my Klout score. I'm at 68 for the first time. :) It's probably because I've got a few competitions running - £30 to spend at Party Bags and Supplies (UK), a copy of Saucy British Seaside Postcards: The Bamforth Collection (worldwide), and a copy of The Killing Kind by Chris Holm (UK) on Twitter.

Another long week - or at least, that's the way it's felt! There was no seminar on Monday so I got to go food shopping a day early (yay...), but we also went to B&M Bargains and picked up some cool bits and pieces. Monday also saw my nemesis - the hedge in the front garden - cut back as much as possible. (There's a wire fence interwoven with it, so it can't go any lower until we get the fence out.) The only problem is that we really need to sort out the front garden, because all the passersby can now see what a mess it is.

I had planning committee on Tuesday (webcast), and resources overview and scrutiny (webcast) took up most of Wednesday. Anthony's mum and dad came around in the evening to drop off some toys they picked up at the local auction for Marianna - plus a dollhouse for me to do up. :D

Last Saturday was Torfaen Labour Women's AGM and I was given the task of writing a blog post for Monday on why we should remain in the EU, in readiness for leafleting and campaigning this week. Then, on Thursday afternoon, we were all home so ended up watching BBCNews 24 coverage of the shooting of Jo Cox, MP for Batley & Spen. The media was really reticent about motive, etc, all day, but the shooter gave his name as 'Death to traitors, put Britain first' at magistrates' court on Saturday - right at the time we were originally planning to leaflet Pontnewydd - dispelling any remaining doubts. It's so sickening and incomprehensible, even with all we know about the ease with which the isolated and the vulnerable are susceptible to radicalisation.

We had a minute's silence on Friday, at the Gwent Police and Crime Panel meeting, with a bit of reassurance that the force will offer support to MPs and AMs for surgeries, etc, if they want it until a proper review is done. Most of the four hour long agenda was looking at cost saving measures, and three different MTFPs (mid-term financial plans) based on different funding possibilities, with a worst case scenario being the continued fall of the pound following a Brexit win. If it happens, expect bigger council tax (which part funds the police and fire service via their precepts) bills.

Yesterday I just didn't want to do anything. We spent most of the day watching American Pickers and reading.

Marianna upon her noble steed...

A photo posted by Jessica Powell (@plastigffantastig) on Jun 13, 2016 at 2:49am PDT

☆ READING: This week and last week's #FridayFrivolity posts - I was so behind! Still, I'm all caught up now and the linky is open until Sunday afternoon.

☆ WRITING: Some cool facts you might not know about A Nice Cup of Tea.

☆ WATCHING: American Pickers. Apparently the show is from 2010, but I've only seen it on Dave in the last few weeks. It's about two American guys who buy and sell retro Americana and other antiques, and travel across the States finding stuff for their shops. I love all the trivia they share; I've learned so much random factoids about US history from it!

☆ LISTENING: Nobody's Hero - Rush.
☆ WEARING: I've been wanting to wear Wingz, they're like tiny crop tops with sleeves attached to wear under your normal tops and dresses. Perfect for people who don't want to show their arms - like me! I love that it would make the same few outfits way more versatile too.

☆ EATING: We went to Wetherspoons for lunch on Friday; I had a tuna baguette with chips. :)

☆ REVIEWING: Scooby Apocalypse.


I wrote a guide on how to get the most out of Bloglovin', and finally hit the 3,000 follower mark on Instagram. 3,500 here I come!

It's been a long week, especially with it being so horribly hot and humid. I was at the Civic Centre most of Monday for one meeting or another, and then Tuesday was shopping, chores, and taking Marianna to get her first pair of shoes. The day before I had come home from work to find Anthony had tried cutting Marianna's fringe. That evening he had another go when she was in the bath. The results, well... Check out the photo of the week.

On Wednesday Marianna and I went to an open air meeting about a green space in Lowlands. Halfway there my summery 'Primarni' shoes fell apart, while Marianna insisted on rubbing dirt in her face - we looked a right pair! Undaunted, we all decided to walk to a deputy mayoral engagement for Age Connects Torfaen at Widdershins in Pontypool the following day.

This wasn't my best idea.

Google directions estimated it at a 40 minute walk. Google directions didn't take the awful heat, the pram, or the uphill nature of the trek into consideration. I felt like the wicked witch of the west: melting, melting! Marianna whinged, and cried, and screamed as the day wore on and the temperature refused to drop. It was a lovely event, and I really enjoyed chatting to everyone, but stress wise it was a very hard day.

Friday was home office stuff, then Saturday I had Torfaen Women's Forum AGM in the morning (Marianna decided to have another tantrum, sigh), then Cwmbran Big Event in the afternoon. This is the biggest community event of the year for Cwmbran, and it was really well attended. We visited all the stalls, picked up some free pens (I never say no to a free pen!), and listened to Marianna shriek 'wow wow' in excitement every time we passed a dog. As the event was hosting a dog show, this was every other minute or so.

After that we walked home, had something to eat, and I went to bed about 9pm.


Marianna cooling off in her paddling pool on Wednesday.

☆ READING: The Feelings Basket books by Debbie K.

☆ WRITING: My Father's Day 2016 gift guide.

☆ WATCHING: 22 Jump Street. As easily digestible comedy films go, it was great fun - I especially liked the imagined franchise continuations during the end credits.

☆ LISTENING: Busy Bees by Arthur Askey.

☆ WEARING: 'Labour In' stickers.

☆ EATING: I had a whippy ice cream at the Big Event yesterday. Yum!

☆ REVIEWING: Blaenavon Community and Alexander Cordell Museum.


I did the Behind the Scenes Blogging Tag, and for this week's Friday Frivolity talked about travel. I also had a guest post go live over at Double the Monkey Business. :)

This week we're talking about travel! Here are five of my holiday snaps -

In Porthcawl aged about three - that's my mum, granddad and nan, and I'm in the background with the ice cream. :)
In Cornwall with my nan, great nan, and cousin in about 1998.
Feeling the power of the stones at Avebury stone circle - we didn't experience any time slips a la Children of the Stones though!
On holiday in Turkey about five years ago - as you can see, I was determined I would not tan at all. The bar staff nicknamed me 'milk bottle' because I stayed so pale!
You're probably wondering what the heck that last one is - it's from a few years ago, when my brother and I went camping at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival. My dad was worried about us being drunk and unable to see in the dark, so gave us a torch to take.

I say torch... This photo was taken with my phone as I lay in the tent. A tiny little two man tent, with barely enough room to sit up in. The torch was hanging off the loop at the top of the tent roof - just a couple of feet from my face.

Thanks dad. ;)

It was half term this week so most of it was blissfully unbusy. I fully caught up on all my comping and I've already began to reap the awards - I won a £100 hamper of jelly beans on Tuesday, and then on Thursday I had an email to say I've won a 32" TV and a LG G5 handset! I'm planning to sell them and get on top of the bills for a change.

On Friday I had my first engagement as deputy mayor - I've got a full post on that scheduled for Monday - and then on Saturday morning it was our monthly advice surgery for Pontnewydd. After that my mum, Marianna, and I went to town to look for a baby paddling pool as the one we have takes ages to fill. We didn't get one, but did buy a bunch of stuff. I needed to get shampoo and conditioner, then saw some nice tumblers (£1.99 for four!), and a fruit bowl, and then I splurged in Poundland on five big containers of paint for craft time with Marianna. I also managed to get 5 nice kids books (all pre-1990) for £1 in the charity shop. :D

Talking about micro @playmobil today at www.babiafi.co.uk

A photo posted by Jessica Powell (@plastigffantastig) on May 29, 2016 at 6:07pm PDT

☆ READING: Check out my book reviews from May, and enter my giveaway for Tattoo by Landan England.

☆ WRITING: 30 before 30 - a bucket list of 30 things I want to do before I turn 30 in 2018.

☆ WATCHING: I saw Kingsman for the first time - there were some really funny moments.

☆ LISTENING: Freunde Bleiben by Revolverheld.

☆ WEARING: 'Literally' lip gloss from the Kylie Jenner range. Normally if I win anything worth more than a tenner it goes on ebay to help pay the bills, but I decided to keep this for myself. I really like the colour but I haven't worn gloss in so long I'd forgotten how sticky it is.

☆ EATING: I had an Attack a Snak the other day, because the shop had no Dairylea Lunchables. (Yeah, I know, they aren't meant for adults...) It's a little wrap kit, with chicken, ketchup and cheesestring.

☆ REVIEWING: Micro Playmobil. It's so cute!


I've been focused more on comping this week, to be honest. I posted a round up of my competition wins in May, and an introduction to digital inclusion for bloggers. The host theme for Friday Frivolity this week was kids' TV shows, so I wrote about Rainbow. There is still time to link up your own positive posts.

What is Digital Inclusion?

Digital Inclusion is an umbrella term for the ability to access and use information and communication technologies. This can be something as fundamental as ensuring people have the basic literacy skills to read a web page, or something as specific as using alt tags on your images so people using screen readers know what is in the picture.

What Does Digital Inclusion Mean for Bloggers?

When you consider that a third of small to medium businesses in the UK don't even have a website, and some 9% of the UK adult population (c. 5.9 million people) has never used the internet, bloggers are already doing their bit for inclusion. We're online, we're web literate, and, between us, we're churning out oceans of useful and / or entertaining content for people to access.

But, in truth, many of us could be doing more to make that content accessible - even after all the promo work that accompanies your average blog post!

Blogging for Web Accessibility

Web Accessibility, as Wikipedia helpfully tells us, "refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users have equal access to information and functionality."

Under UK law (Equality Act 2010) websites must be accessible to disabled users, and the general consensus is that this means hitting at least Level A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Don't worry - so long as your HTML is correct, and you're not stuck in the '90s with autoplay music you can't switch off, or manically flashing images, you're at Level A.

Going further is well worth considering though. Because making your blog more accessible isn't just a nice thing to do, it will help you attract - and keep! - readers.

How Can I Make My Blog Accessible?

One of the easiest things you can do is check out how accessible your blog already is. WAVE, the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, will give you a run down of the problems. The likelihood is that you will not be able to fix every single one, but just making a few small changes could make a big difference to people visiting your blog.


Here are 10 tips to get you started:

#10. You want good contrast between your text and its background; in other words, darker text on a light background, or lighter on a dark background. Whichever one you go for, some people will prefer the other way. If you're on Wordpress, you can get the accessibility plugin which will provide a toolbar to toggle between contrast and adjust font size. If you're not, don't worry too much as this can be done via the browser.

#9. Don't put text over a busy background, it will be difficult for everyone to read.

#8. Try to avoid underlining, italics ,and ALL CAPS where possible, and use bold instead. Highlighting keywords in bold has also been proven to increase reading comprehension, so it's a win-win.

#7. Research suggests that the actual font style isn't all that important, though sans serif fonts (e.g. calibi, arial, tahoma) generally come out slightly ahead on the readability scale. Just don't make your main body font too fancy - if you want to use something a bit different, save it for titles and headings. The recommended minimum font size is 12pts.

#6. Text is easiest to read when it is left aligned; centered text makes paragraph beginnings irregular, while justified text creates variable character spacing. Both can make your post more difficult to read.

#5. Major factors which impact on the readability of text are the character and line spacing. It's the same as handwriting - cramped, tightly packed writing is more difficult to read. The optimal range for line spacing, otherwise known as line height, is 1.3 to 1.7. (I'm using 1.4) Another thing you might consider is slightly increasing your character spacing, i.e. the distance between each of your letters.


#4. Images are wonderful, but not everyone will be able to see them. Alt tags are not just another place to put SEO keywords, they should explain what the image is. Sometimes you are going to want to present text in image format - infographics, for example - so use your alt tags to tell people what you're doing. If possible, have a text version. Similarly, try and include a transcript or summary of audio and video content. The latter can also benefit from closed captions.

#3. Links are an important part of any blog, but think about your anchor text. I'm so guilty of using 'click here' and the like, but really I should be using text which gives people some idea of where the link is about to take them.

#2. Another thing to consider is your 'target' attribute. If your page automatically opens in a new tab it can be disorientating. One solution might be to include 'opens in a new tab' in your anchor text or link title. If the link is internal, you could consider adding a 'skip link' to the top of the page, allowing people using screen readers or keyboard navigation to avoid your navigation bar and get straight to the main content. WebAIM has a guide to this, though it's something I still need to do! CSS positioning elements are slowly eliminating the need for skip links, but it depends on how your page is structured.

#1. If at all possible, avoid CAPTCHA in your comment section. If you do need it, check out some of these sweet alternatives.