The first “one from the pot” — watching all six Star Wars movies back to back

The first “one from the pot” was to watch all six Star Wars movies back to back. So on a very rainy day last week I found myself sitting down at 8am, listening to that unforgettable music by John Williams and watching those yellow words float up the screen. I’ve seen the Han Solo/Princess Leia movies countless times but only ever seen the “new” ones once each and got totally confused — I remembered that the bloke who can’t act turns out to be Darth Vader and no matter what they try with Natalie Portman’s hair it never looks as good as Carrie Fisher’s did, but beyond that I didn’t really have much of an idea of what was going on with Episodes 1–3.

So clearly I’m not a Star Wars geek or anything but the idea of watching all of the movies in one day was very appealing. And we watched Episode 1 before breakfast! I don’t think I’ve ever watched a movie before breakfast — how decadent! Speaking of breakfast, and not being one to do things by halves, I had decided that we would eat Star Wars-themed food throughout the day. So breakfast consisted of a Gartro egg omelette, a recipe I found on Wookieepedia — I cannot believe all the recipes on there which are based on creatures or vegetation you can find in the Star Wars movies. Do some people have nothing better to do? Er, hang on, I just dedicated a whole day of my life to watching Star Wars movies ……..

To make sure that my “Gartro eggs” looked out of this world enough I added green food dye, and the eggs ended up looking just like a massive planet that we would later see several times in Episode 3. And a few green swirls in the yoghurt didn’t go amiss either. I love dying food — I had a purple party at uni once where everything was, well, purple, including the spaghetti. Great fun!

I think what I really loved about Episode 1 was all the quotes and advice from Liam Neeson — he has the best lines. My favourite two concerned him telling OB1 not to be mindful of the future at the expense of the present, and “Your focus determines your reality.”

Then it was on to Episode 2, which I found to be very Japan-inspired. The cities, electronic signs, fighting scenes, and costumes all seemed to make me think of Japan. And doesn’t Yoda speak in Japanese word order? Maybe a real Star Wars geek would know all this stuff but it was a lovely surprise for me.

To be honest, so many things make me think of Japan — I really do see Japan everywhere. It doesn’t take much for me to get really tearful — last week a friend of a friend returned from his first trip to Japan, full of stories of how much he loved it and what an amazing place it was. Even hearing all this secondhand got me blubbing within minutes. I love so much about this trip to England — the work I am doing with schools, the time spent with people I love, running through country lanes, and the move from my previous workaholic lifestyle; but I miss Japan so much. I have to regularly tell myself not to spend valuable time missing Japan when I should be in the moment here — I’ll be back there soon enough!

So, back to the Star Wars moments. And along with the special treats and snacks such as Milky Ways and Mars Planets, we had also decided to make Star Wars-inspired pizzas. This was fantastic fun — we made a Yoda pizza and a Princess Leia pizza out of olives, mushrooms, onions, tomato, cheese, and green and red peppers, with a homemade base. If we had any more base we would have had a go at Darth Vader too but I think that might have been a bit difficult because of the lack of colour to play with. These pizzas are really easy to make actually — I think the key is making sure you cut up all the pieces as small as possible. Once they were made it was time for Episode 3 and it was only 3pm! Still four more movies to go!

For Episode 4 I just had to have Princess Leia hair. This is quite easy to create but you do need a bun thing or even a couple of bagels to pad out the hair. I improvised by rolling up a tea towel inside a sock, then turning the sock into a bagel-like circle. I tied my hair into two ponytails, one just above each ear, then pulled the hair through the centre of the bagel-sock-thing, tucking the hair around the sock part. My hair is just a few inches short of reaching my waist so I managed to make huge Princess Leia buns that were even bigger than the real ones! Then I sat on the sofa in a white top without a bra (she has the most magnificently bouncy braless breasts in Episode 4, in the days before the Wonderbra). If I’d had a gold bikini, I’m sure I would have worn it for Episode 6.

We finally finished around half past midnight. 16 and a half hours devoted to Star Wars. We were really struggling for the past hour, drifting off and keeping each other going with Haribo Starmix and shouts of “We can do it!” And I’m so glad we did. While it’s taken me a week to get the music and thoughts of men with their lightsabers out of my head, it was a really fun start to “the pot.” Can’t wait to see what comes out next!