Quarter finals, musicals week, the famous five, all the ingredients for a fun show. It's amazing how short and sweet the broadcasts are now - just an hour of dancing and we're done. But we're getting close to the end now, who will miss out on the semi-final spot? Here's my thoughts throughout the show. This is an opening. Anton and Kevin singing?? Craig? Bruno being under-utilised for a change? …

This time last year, I had seen zero music concerts. Basically my entire life. Plenty of theatre and musicals and stuff, but no musicians up on stage giving it their all. Fast forward twelve months and I've wrapped up my fifth visit of the year with a similar number already scheduled for next year. Turns out I was missing out on quite a lot and I have a lot of …

When Mischief Theatre announced a year-long residency at the Vaudeville in London, I was intrigued and determined to see as much of the output as possible. I've previously seen their plays and pantos and bank robberies that go wrong, and consider myself officially obsessed with this comedy troupe. The first of three shows wraps up this weekend, and I just managed to catch Groan Ups "before term ended". Unlike The …

Okay, people, things are getting serious. Partly because Saturday night was some of the first wine I'd had after being ill for a bit, and also because we're edging closer to the part of the competition where all the episodes end in -final. Whoever gets through this is into the quarter-finals, Musicals week. Let's go! Actually, before we start, just gotta say... Bruno sings?? AJ and Saffron up first and …

When I told people I was going to see Charles Esten, I was usually met with a confused "who?" which, unless you are a fan of the TV show Nashville, is totally fair enough. Esten featured on that show as Deacon, one of the main guitar-playing country-singing characters through the entire run. And so, even though I didn't really know much of him outside of this show, seeing him pop …

I am intensely aware that my recent posts have been all Apple this and Apple that. With Arcade and Books and Oprah and Swift and more, it's like everything has come out all at the same time. I'm loving the content on Apple TV+ but some of it has been harder work than others. Dickinson was a surefire hit, but For All Mankind took some perseverance. The first episode didn't …

Blackpool! That's all we need to say about that. In other news, at this point, all the dancers left are really good and have earned their spot on the big ballroom floor, so I was looking forward to this show being of really high dance quality... and I wasn't disappointed! Great opening number with all the professionals, celebrities, and the bonus Blackpool dancers. It was quite weird to see our …

I knew I was going to love Dickinson because, from the trailer, it was a modern take on the early life of this infamous poet. I'll be honest and admit to knowing little about Emily other than her name, but as soon as I knew Hailee Steinfeld was in it, I was on board. And it was SO GOOD. Ten half-hour episodes of Hailee and her friends reinventing what a …

Sure, the last thing the world needs is another television streaming service and yes, there is a question mark about where Britbox sits in the current market but you know what? I kinda like it. Britbox is a long-in-coming platform initiated by ITV and the BBC, with Channel 4 and Channel 5 on board, to offer UK-based programming to mostly a UK-based audience. It sounds like a good thing, bringing …

This is the time of year when people start talking about the C word - that festive period where you will either be wondering how much cash you might receive as a gift, or pondering how much it might be wise to spend on eggnog, or maybe even thinking about how you can revamp your finances for the new year. I've thought about money and finances a lot this year …

Is it Blackpool time?? Not quite yet but it is Blackpool drinking time. DRINK. I actually didn't think the number of B word mentions was as high as it has been in the past, but maybe I was just mellow with a glass of wine in hand. It's that point in the competition, unfortunately helped by Will's early exit, that when the dancers gather on the floor at the beginning, …

At the start of this year, I made good progress with learning Swift but of course two things got in the way - real life, and then SwiftUI. When SwiftUI was announced in June, it sounded too good to be true (anything to not have to use interface builder anymore) but I figured I'd be better off waiting to see what it had to offer before continuing my journey. I'm …

Well this was a tough one, wasn't it? The halfway point, hooray, the dancers are really starting to get it all together. But we had to wave goodbye to Will, which was very sad. And poor Neil also had to sit out another week and hand over the dance to a thankfully slightly more prepared Kevin. Here are some thoughts as the whole thing unfolded. Karim and Amy. "Not bad …

Apple TV+ launched on Friday and yes, you can expect plenty of future updates on the content that came with it. Dickinson was mega! But this isn't about that. This is about the first episode of Oprah's Book Club distributed by Apple. I've already discussed how I dived right in and started reading the book as Apple quite cleverly coincided the book club with their new reading goals in the …

This past week, the BBC aired their behind the scenes documentary about how their latest Children In Need initiative came together. A handful of actors got together to record an album of covers, solo songs that are personal to them for a variety of reasons and a group track to finish it all off. The 90 minute programme followed their journey from selecting the songs through perfecting their vocals and …

The US version of The Office has been off air for over six years, but it is barely out of the public consciousness and rarely a day goes by that I don’t see an Office gif fly by on my Twitter stream. The success of the Office didn’t diminish the brilliance of the original UK version but it certainly dwarfed it in popularity – spreading its wings to be much …

Oh, Halloween week. And this time someone is dancing to the Backstreet Boys. Hooray! I'm surprised that we haven't started hearing all about Blackpool yet, but perhaps that is the next milestone? Who will get there? Read on! Hope Will gets better soon, oof! And Neil! Although I have to say, Kevin, of course, fits Ghostbusters very well. Loving that the name patch clearly has space for four letters but …

I recently discovered the podcast Robot or Not which is an audio show where: "Jason Snell asks John Siracusa to rule on the meaning of various words and concepts. It’s not just about robots anymore." I have been listening to the entire back catalogue, partly because the episodes are so short but also because they're so fascinating. As the title suggests, the concept started out solely about robots but has …

This week, guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro sat in for Bruno Tonioli. He did the same thing last year, but I wasn't watching then, so it was the first time I've seen him in action. Such fun! It was actually quite nice to have a bit of a different line up, I wouldn't want there to be guest judges every week, but it's no bad thing to hear from different voices. …

I can’t commit to listening to Beats 1 on a regular basis, as much as I love what they’re doing on the Apple Music platform – but there’s one thing I try very hard not to miss, and that’s Julie Adenuga’s Friday show. It’s Fridaaaaaaaaay. I love Julie, and her weekday show is excellent, crammed with music and interviews that sometimes veer slightly too grime for my tastes but otherwise …

Many moons ago, I wrote about Duolingo, the language learning app that uses short lessons, goals and badges to encourage you to reach your targets. I’ve dipped in and out of that app over the years and for some reason, just recently, the obsession grabbed me once again. I downloaded the app and was impressed with some of the new content since the last time I looked at it. Not …

It only took four weeks to get some Strictly Come controversy but I have to admit I was surprised by the bottom two and the subsequent decision by the judges. However, before we get there, here are some quick notes about the dances as they happened. Chris Ramsay went first, and I quite enjoyed the inside basketball included in the dance. It was good although I'm not totally sure I …

I just wanted to write a couple of thoughts down in praise of the TV series State of the Union. It aired earlier in the year in the US, I believe, and has just been shown on the BBC and via iPlayer and I absolutely drank that show up. Written by novelist Nick Hornby, the show consists of ten episodes of only about ten minutes each dipping into the lives …

I’ve been a podcast listener for a long time and have talked often about them, from my evolving listening habits, to being a bit of a hoarder, and even picking out some of my favourites on occasion. Recently, I’ve been more obsessed with Beats 1 and streaming music and letting my podcast backlog creep up and up, but that has all changed. My podcast app of choice has previously been …

One of the things Apple is renowned for, and also vilified for, is their unified approach to technology. They make the software and they make the devices which helps to have a more seamless experience as a user (although not at the moment!) and now they’ve added content to their list as well. When I wrote the post about enjoying the new reading goals in association with Oprah’s book club …

Hey, remember when I wrote about buying a Soda Stream to replace the endless bottles of sparkling water I was wasting? Well, I just had to change the gas canister and it got even more awesome. Firstly, that’s lasted just over three months, which is longer than I’d expected and has saved a really significant number of plastic bottles. Secondly, the replacement canister I bought was just a bit more …

This week, I was not very well and had to watch Strictly without a glass of wine in hand which was a different experience. Although I was a bit delirious from the cold meds, so it probably added up to the same thing. It was movie week, of course, and full of drama during the week of build up and on the night itself. Craig and the teeth! Katya falling …

In the latest iOS release, Apple have got a lot wrong. Many things that used to function now no longer do so, and everything is just that little bit more flaky. I’ve never restarted my devices quite so much as I have these past few weeks. However, one thing that I have enjoyed is the new reading goals. The Books app, or iBooks as I can't help but keep calling …

Just a quick update on my previous post about the launch of Apple Arcade. I listed five games that I played when they first came out but since then I've tried a couple more that are worth a mention. We also investigated the new ability to pair a Playstation controller to the Apple TV and play games on the big screen - which can make a big difference depending which …

When I go Strictly, I like to go all in and whilst I have drawn the line at listening to the podcast this year, I'm keen to keep up the It Takes Two habit. I only just managed to fit them all in with a couple of hours to spare before we set about watching week 2's show, but it got done. And what did I make of week 2? …

I'm behind the times on this, but I'm glad I waited to watch Aisling Bea's new comedy This Way Up. I bought the entire series to binge on the Apple TV and got through it in super quick time - it was wonderful and heartbreaking and genuine and lovely and inspirational and sobering all in equal measure. The two areas it particularly shines in are the portrayal of struggling with …

You know how people often say that technology can fix problems they didn’t even know they had? Well, Apple have fixed a problem that I definitely didn’t have – not enough access to games. Their recent launch of Apple Arcade is interesting and exciting for many reasons, but more than anything, when am I going to find time to play all of these titles? On the one hand, I never …

So, we've all seen the first episode of this year's Strictly Come Dancing competition and what an extravaganza it was. Immediately, I have to go back on two things I said in my previous post: That I didn't know any of the contestants this year and was more likely to want to get on with my life than get to know them. But no, no, one show in and I …

I'm sure you've seen this by now, but Jennifer Lopez gave a bit of a dancing masterclass on Jimmy Fallon's talk show this week, as the pair of them demonstrated the evolution of dance in music videos. I particularly like the bit for Waterfalls, which I didn't know what an iconic dance but must be, the Wrecking Ball space hoppers, and the Bad Guy hoodies. What I most enjoyed though …

Having gotten through the Avengers Endgame ordeal with only minor spoilers, attention now turns back to Agents of Shield. Previous seasons, we have paused watching this show because there are links to the big bad Marvel world and we didn’t want to go around spoiling ourselves as that would just be silly. Turns out, we needn’t have worried. There aren’t any spoilers in season six of Agents of Shield, due …

Of the wide variety of museums to visit in London, for some reason, I opted to go to the London Transport Museum. I say for some reason, as though I am not actually a total nerd for trains and the underground and the history of both. It’s really a wonder I haven’t been before. The museum is situated near Covent Garden and claims to let you "discover London's history at …

When the sun's been out, we've been sneaking quick trips to the South West Coast Path at various points along its length. None of them have been particularly exciting trips but there are enough now to make a quick scrapbook. This batch includes a walk returning by train, a walk returning by bus, a walk that was stopped by a massive hill that we just couldn't face, and a trip …

Actually, not an elephant, but the unique selling point of Dudley Zoo is that it's also a castle. The animals are milling around the ruin walls and you get the experience of visiting a zoo but also visiting a castle. There's a variety of animals in the castle grounds, and the zoo does a good job of offering up some good views and some things I'd not seen before - …

Some of the recent Marvel news that has been filtering out of Hollywood has made me feel like this is a film series I just don't want to follow anymore. Combine that with how much I didn't enjoy the two-part Infinity War and Endgame story, and I was losing interest by the second. I was confident that every single film that went by was getting lower and lower scores from …

So the new trailer for Apple TV+ series The Morning Show looks gooood. I didn’t want it to be good because I have too much TV to watch as it is, but trust Apple to dive in with some quality TV straight from the off. It’s some of my favourite people and it looks dramatic and interesting and dammit… gonna have to clear some time in my schedule.

I recently decided I wanted slightly more control over my news intake than occasionally looking at a news site, randomly perusing Apple News, or constantly being a day behind on Twitter. I thought, ah remember the good old days when you could subscribe to whatever RSS feeds you liked and follow the news straight to your RSS inbox? Why not try that again? Turns out, it’s really difficult. People don’t …

Add this app to the pile of really useful things that I didn’t know I needed. Hindsight app’s sole goal is to give you a countback timer from the last time you did something. So it might be that you are trying to break a habit – the last time I smoked a cigarette – or that you are trying to keep to a goal – visit my friend every …

If I’m being honest with myself, I’ve already drifted away from Strictly Come Dancing. There was a time where I would blog about my thoughts several times through each series – at one point the BBC included a link to one of my posts on their website. That saw views skyrocketing, let me tell you. But last year, I didn’t watch the show at all. None of the celebrities particularly …

Dark Mode has been available on macOS for a while now but Apple are bringing it to mobile devices when iOS 13 is released in September. In preparation for this, I've added support for Dark Mode on this blog, and it's soooooo pretty! This is a huge step for the site, not just because Dark Mode is a nice feature, easier on the eyes, and a great option to have …

Tennis tournaments quite often gather their sports stars together to do small promotional stunts to promote the event. You know the kind of thing, holding koala bears in Australia, or visiting the Great Wall in China. The Rogers Cup in Canada has a different take on this - getting a selection of WTA players to try and guess which of four cups is proper maple syrup. This seems like a …

When choosing an album to listen to each week, I often end up pondering what are the rules of the game and does the potential offering fit? As Monica will tell you, rules are good, rules control the fun! Most of the rules of my album adventure have been in play since the beginning – one album choice each per week, old versus new, no greatest hits, etc, etc. Back …

What a weekend of sport that was! I’ll admit my focus was pretty much exclusively on Wimbledon, but it was hard to miss the fact we were doing well in the cricket, and there were a handful of motorsport events to also catch the eye. But the tennis held me in thrall for the full weekend. I’m not a huge fan of the men’s game anymore, it’s too whippy and …

I've talked about Zac Efron's YouTube channel before because I do applaud people opening up and sharing their workout insights - and it's fun to see Zac win and lose against his celebrity friends. In his most recent video, he pairs up with Alexandra Daddario and they have a mega workout with medicine balls and generally kill their cores. One bit that stood out to me was Zac admitting the …

The best kind of podcasts are those that have a simple premise that can run and run. Encyclopedia Womannica is exactly one of those. Hoping to give some attention to those women from history that have either been overlooked completely or have not had the attention they should have had. Over the course of a year, the hosts aim to feature the profile of a historical icon, as the podcast …

I've recently started catching up on podcasts again, and this time I've discovered Rene Ritchie's Vector. It's officially a YouTube show, covering the latest news and insights into the world of Apple and technology, but there's also an audio-only podcast which is my preferred method. As I'm a little behind, I was listening to the shows released around WWDC, and this episode about the new tvOS caught my attention. Specifically …