Editorial

For a long time before the 16th of May, I knew that I would have difficulties. However, I never imagined how difficult or nerve wracking than it turned out to be. First of all I had college exams that week, that day even, and there was no advertised showing of AOTC in Letterkenny cinema. So I thought, that's grand I'll just go home and see it then. The last bus from Letterkenny to Monaghan left 15 minutes after i finished my exam, which was pretty tight, but I knew I could make it. However, the only showing of AOTC in Monaghan was scheduled for 7.45 a mere 2 hours after my bus was due to leave. How long does it take to get from Letterkenny to Monaghan you ask? Two hours, on a good day.

Panic!!! I'll never make it back on time and there's no other chance of seeing it on opening night. You might say why not stay in Letterkenny and see it on the 17th? Well I could've done that but the 17th was the day of the General Election and I had to go home to vote. So I couldn't stay up because AOTC started at 4.30 and the last bus home on the 17th was at 5.45. So if I stayed I could only watch the movie or vote in the election. Besides, I really wanted to see it on the opening night.

I made a decision. I would go home on the 16th and just hope that the bus made it home on time.

The journey didn't start well. I don't know if the bus was actually going slow or I was just perceiving it to be slow. It did seem to take us ages to get going though. Two of my house mates who were sitting near me got great amusement at my incessant mumbling and cursing (under my breath of course) at the driver to get a move on. And this was only ten minutes into the journey. After a while I calmed down a bit. I stopped looking at my watch every 30 seconds to check our progress and to try and get some sleep. No such luck, however, as the butterflies in my stomach were giving me no rest.

It was definitely a worrying time. I was excited about seeing the movie but I tried not to get carried away because I still didn't think that I'd get to see it.

At about halfway through the journey I was almost convinced that the bus would be too late. Slight traffic jams and road works seemed to go on for ages. However, all hope was not lost. The bus driver did seem to go a bit faster as we neared our destination. Perhaps he was a Star Wars fan and had the same idea as me.

It wasn't until we finally got into Monaghan town at 7.30 that I realised that I could still make it. 15 minutes until the start and I still wasn't at the cinema though. As soon as we stopped at the bus depot I ran off the bus, barely having time to talk to friends, and ran all the way to the cinema in the centre of town.

I still had a good 10 minutes to go when I arrived, exhausted from the run. But, disaster struck! Sold out! I was gutted. I just couldn't believe it. After all that I still couldn't get to see AOTC. But then the cinema manager came out. A couple who had pre-booked their tickets for the show still hadn't turned up. After waiting for a few minutes for them he decided to let me, and one other guy, into screen 2 of Monaghan cinema to see Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Even though I missed the opening crawl (I entered the screening just as Padmé was holding Cordé) I settled down and thoroughly enjoyed the film. We got the usual reactions, a laugh at Yoda and the younglings, a gasp when Obi-Wan jumped through the window, the slight jump when Jango's seismic charges went off, a murmer of anticipation when Yoda entered the duel and the total amazement when he started fighting with a lightsaber. After it though, everyone was in agreement that it was a great movie and wondering about Episode III.