So I’ve just binge watched all six Rocky films in a row, not all in one day, I’m not a maniac, but without watching other films in between. Somehow despite having the least interest in, and probably actively disliking boxing, these films grabbed my attention and became something of an obsession.
The drama is brilliant. The dialogue nutty. The training montages legendary. What I loved most of all, though, was how inspirational Rocky is as a character. A simple guy who just wants to do right and do what he loves. He likes people, he respects people, he sticks up for people and he thinks the best of everyone.
I can’t remember how I stumbled upon the podcast Everything is Alive but I know I listened to the first episode about a can of cola and found myself oddly moved and disturbed at the same time. It’s not often something has that effect on you. The premise of the show is simple but weird. Our host interviews inanimate objects, except they are not as inanimate as you might think. They have voices, thoughts, past histories and philosophies, insights into the human condition as seen from a point of view I can guarantee you won’t have thought of.
Mr C and I don’t go much in for the Valentine’s Day thing but something happened this week that it’s important to document. After years of searching (more than a decade), I have finally found OUR SONG.
It turns out, this On the Record thing that I’ve been studiously documenting for the last 3+ years has finally been worth it. This week, Mr C selected Huey Lewis & the News (he doesn’t always get his picks from Carpool Karaoke, honest), who of course I only know from Back to the Future.
It took just over a month, but we finished Spider-Man on the PS4 and what an adventure it was. Those early days were brilliant, working our way through the main mission, the side challenges and generally just swinging through the city. The game got gradually harder, as you might expect, but it was also more rewarding.
There were three things, however, that really dipped our love of the game and now I can’t decide whether I overall really liked it or not. (Spoilers from here on in.) Firstly, we took a two week break from playing which was partly to do with being ill but also quite a lot to do with knowing that the next bit we had to do was play as MJ. Those scenes playing as Miles or MJ were so frustrating. Slow and sneaky was the aim and constantly being spotted and captured and starting over again, it wasn’t fun.
Weezer surprised everyone last week by releasing a covers album stacked full of proper tunes. I had a listen through and it’s good, although I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of covers for the sake of it. Many of their versions sound just like the originals, so then you’re left wondering exactly what the point of it is. Having said that, their version of No Scrubs is fabulous, a stand out song.
Catching up with a recent Graham Norton Show episode, The 1975 were on to promote their latest album and tour and whatnot, and I believe they might have told the greatest story that’s been on that show. Matty Healy, talking on behalf of his bandmate, described to Saoirse Ronan and assembled guests a situation regarding one of her movies.
Adam came into rehearsal ages ago, once, and he said to me, he was like: “Have you seen that Lovely Bones film?” And I was like “Yeah.” And he was like, “It’s mad, isn’t it?” I was like: “It’s great, it’s good.”
An interesting piece about film credits aired on Marketplace last week, discussing why the in- and out- credits on films have gotten so much longer than previously. It explained why this has occurred and started with a look at the closing scroll on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
“The credits last a whopping nine minutes and thirty seconds, that’s an addition of more than three minutes over the original 1993 Jurassic Park…
One of the things that brightens an otherwise dull January is the return of tennis. Things in tennis-land go quiet in December, once the finals are all complete and players are taking a well-deserved rest. But the WTA swings back into action in January, and we are already saturated with coverage. Brisbane, Auckland, Shenzhen and some bonus Hopman Cup were all available on our screens this past week.
With a year of the ups and downs of the tennis rollercoaster ahead, here are five things I’m looking forward to:
There are lots of articles written at this time of year looking back on the months gone and looking forward to the next twelve, and I’ve been intrigued by the variety of “best upcoming films” that have been touted. How many of them am I looking forward to? I had a browse through a few articles (Wired and The Guardian, in particular) and picked out the films that stood out to me.
Before we get into the album adventure for 2019, it’s worth a quick reminder of why this project even started and if we have made any progress on the original premise. Three years ago, it all kicked off when a conversation on Peter Kay’s Car Share caused a real life debate in our household.
I was on Kayleigh’s side, that you could have whatever album you wanted as your favourite, whether it is a compilation or not. Mr C was firmly on the side of Peter Kay/John, who rejected the idea of a compilation album being eligible for selection as your favourite.
I’ve seen a lot of debate recently about the usefulness of new year’s resolutions - are we putting too much pressure on ourselves? Are we pushing for hard to achieve activities when we should be revelling more in what we have and who we are? I think there can be an element of this and I can respect those who don’t care for a resolution one way or the other. I personally think, however, that it’s a great time of year to consider what you’ve done and what you might like to do in the coming months. Self-reflection can be useful.
When we purchased Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we opted for the season pass to include a handful of future downloadable content releases. Two additional tombs were available by the time we settled down for our Christmas break, and it was 100% our plan to raid them over the festive period.
Except, then, Sony had a sale and we bought Spiderman and now it’s like Lara who?
I had heard people raving about this game and was interested to see what it was like, but I am really so very fussy when it comes to Playstation Games, there’s not a lot that holds my interest.
For the second year in a row, Mr C’s top five lists have been limited to songs rather than both music and films - and that’s partly because we spent a lot of the year watching 80s movies, and partly because he could only think of Black Panther as a stand out watch.
I don’t think film-land is so bad but hey, this is his space to get listing so please find below, Mr C’s thoughts on the year in music, followed by the top five songs from the past twelve months, and finally the shortlist from which he was choosing.
The BBC aired a one-off hour-long comedy this Christmas, starring Stephen Merchant and Asim Choudry as an unlikely duo travelling hundreds of miles to find a sought-after toy for the former’s kid, and featuring plenty of humour and emotional moments along the way. I loved it so much, I wished I was Film Watching it as I went along - then I realised, I can sort of do that anyway! Ah, having a blog is excellent.
Hooray and eek in equal measure, it’s time for a round up of my year in albums! Another 100 albums listened to and enjoyed (for the most part), hours of songs consumed and pretty much the same amount of time deciding which belong in my top five of the year - and which, if any, can break through into my top ten.
I feel like it’s been a good year for music, perhaps not as strong as last year, but solid. Lots of good albums were released but I found there were many that I enjoyed but had just one or two things that sort of put me off: too short, too long, one dodgy song, a change in tone that didn’t fit, that kind of thing. It’s interesting for me to feel this way because the whole point of this adventure was to teach me about the concept of an album, and to be picking up reasons why it’s not quite working for me means I’m obviously starting to understand what an album is.
I had to put my ’learn Swift’ project on the backburner for the last few weeks but I’m catching up again now we have a few festive days of freedom. That’s what most people do, right? Spend Christmas afternoon digesting mince pies and learning how to code?
Last time I wrote about finishing up the first course on Ray Wenderlich’s iOS path and moving on to the second which was more about Swift. I’ll admit, I found that one a touch harder than I was expecting - some of the concepts seemed a bit unnecessary for this stage in the course (still being a total beginner), and they also used not-so-simple maths concepts as a way to demonstrate some of the coding tricks. It was hard to relate, so I had to keep stopping and pausing and thinking about what it would mean if I was making my own app.
So, I’ve never cooked Christmas dinner before. To be honest, my experience of cooking roast meat of any kind is limited. A chicken or two, maybe a ham at some point, and that’s the limit. I’ve really tried to up my cooking game this year, though, as we start to focus on our health a bit more than we have previously.
With that in mind, when HelloFresh started advertising their Christmas box, I was keen to get involved. Family logistics meant it would have to be devoured before Christmas Day rather than on the big day itself, but I was still up for the challenge. The benefits of getting the box are everything you normally get with HelloFresh but amped up for Christmas:
Somehow, I managed to miss the fact that Amazon launched their new Wardrobe service for Prime members a few weeks ago. Instead, it only popped up when shopping for something else, but it was very quickly apparent this was something I wanted to try. Shopping is not one of the most fun experiences for me, particularly for clothes or shoes or anything like that, so whatever can make that easier, quicker, just less hassle, then I’m on board.
When I read Not Going Out were doing a Christmas Special episode, I was very happy. Love this show, and any excuse for some more of Lee Mack’s fun wordplay is good enough for me. When I read on to see it would be a live show, then I was in two minds. Live shows are good, the additional adrenaline of ‘will they, won’t they mess up’ is an intriguing extra element, and it’s something to talk about whether it goes well or not.
I’d never even heard of Taskmaster until this latest series, and it only crossed my path because I follow James Acaster on Twitter, and he was a participant in the latest series. I like Acaster’s work, and some of the clips and gifs I’ve seen have made me wonder what all the fuss is about.
I had to do a bit of digging to find where I could watch this show – it’s broadcast on Dave, which means it’s part of the UK TV family. There’s an on demand app called UK TV Play (I do not recommend this app, it’s very poor compared to other video streaming efforts). So, I downloaded and started watching.
I was aware of the hype surrounding Netflix’s recent horror offering, The Haunting of Hill House, but I wasn’t sure I was prepared for it. I quite like a good horror but haven’t watched anything in that genre for such a long time, I’ll be honest, I was a bit nervous about my nerves.
However, a friend recommended it and thus I was convinced to at least give it a go.
Earlier this year, I worked my way through Swift Playgrounds – Apple’s easy-to-use educational tool to teach you the basics of the Swift language – and to celebrate, purchased a quite adorable R2D2 that you can program with that self-same language. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite make the leap in my head from the playgrounds I had been messing about with to the more tangible efforts with a toy, and the instructions that came with that little droid were a bit more advanced than I was.
When we watched the new Tomb Raider film back in July, I was quite inspired by some of the behind the scenes footage that showed Alicia Vikander getting super fit to play the role. I wanted to be super fit like that too! Get to the gym, lady, and sort it out!
It worked, for a bit. But how funny, then, that it’s also the fault of Lara Croft that my workout schedule has been interrupted in recent weeks.
I mentioned before how the household is looking to make healthier choices, and that involves me spending a bit more time in the kitchen than I have been doing over the last few years. I’m not the best cook, but I do quite enjoy the process and whilst my presentation skills are essentially non-existent, I can occasionally whip something together that tastes nice.
At the moment, my mealtime focus has turned to using fresh ingredients wherever possible, and avoiding ready meals. It takes a bit more effort, but is worth it. Meanwhile, my baking focus has turned towards sugar-free. I was a bit sceptical of the sugar-free movement when it first arrived (and by that I mean when Davina first started banging on about it), but now I’m intrigued.
We’ve seen four episodes of the new series of Doctor Who and that’s long enough for me to cast my opinion on the whole thing. Heck, it only took a couple of episodes to know I wasn’t keen on Capaldi, but where do I stand on the Whittaker era?
Good news: I love it! It’s fresh, fast, funny, approachable, likeable, different and new. Here are five slightly more specific thoughts:
My Life List needs a bit of tender loving care, having been neglected recently, but before I do that I wanted to write a quick post about starting your own list. I think Life Lists are not as in vogue as they were a year or two ago (let’s be honest, the world falling apart is probably a bit distracting), but I still think they can be useful and inspiring. I’ve talked to a few people recently who expressed a desire to start their own lists but fall back on ‘I wouldn’t really know where to start’. So, here are my five tips to getting started:
You’ll have seen, no doubt, the recent news that a fresh batch of Top Gear hosts have been announced. If I’m honest, I had forgotten that Matt Le Blanc was leaving and when I saw the new names, that wave of disappointment hit me all over again. The last series of Top Gear wasn’t perfect but it was good and entertaining and had a spark of what made Top Gear great in the first place. It also had a sense of inclusion, what with the variety of people featured and the lack of divisive commentary.
There’s quite a few neat things that have been introduced in Apple’s latest software update for iPhones and iPads, but today I’ve been thinking about the new Screen Time feature. It’s on my mind today because Sunday morning is when the report pops up and tells you just how well you’ve managed to waste your week.
As a concept, Screen Time is a really good addition. More information is always better, and when I got the very first Screen Time report, I immediately deleted an app that was clearly taking up far too much of my daily life. Since then, my reports have been pretty consistent, but I haven’t yet dug into the vast amount of detail that is available within the Screen Time pages.
So, we were watching High Fidelity and yes, maybe had had a drink or two along the way.
This bit happened:
Which I naturally forgot about.
So this came as a surprise:
And now I have this:
It’s a real, physical book because it wasn’t available in Kindle format. And I still went and bought it, which is unusual for me and can mean only one of three things:
Our third and final South West Coast Path adventure of the summer was all about cliffs. The theme of our adventures so far has been spontaneity and this was another one that we hadn’t really planned out. It was the kind of trip that saw us driving along a coast road and eventually just deciding to take the next left turn to end up at a beach.
Unfortunately, the beach we ended up at wasn’t that inspiring, so instead, we decided to follow the acorn which took us climbing up some pretty steep cliffs. It was hard work, but it was so, ridiculously, worth it. These are the kind of views that you see on TV… and views you just can’t look away from.
It feels a bit incongruous to write about the beautiful sunny days of summer when autumn has more than arrived, but I want to catch up the final two stretches of South West Coast Path we walked this year, before settling down to make plans for the next batch.
So, after finding the start of the path, our next adventure was another that came about by accident – we hadn’t particularly been planning on finding the other end of the national trail, but I sort of had an inkling in my head as we drew nearer and nearer that we could make it happen. A glorious blue sky was overhead when we rocked up to the beautiful Studland.
Apple’s recent update to iOS12 has brought with it plenty of changes, some are good, some are bad, some are genius, and some make your life better without you actually realising it needed it. I have thoughts on a few of the interesting new features but I’m kicking off with something that is a subtle change but I’m really loving it.
I’ve talked before about how much I like the Activity feature on the Apple Watch, in particular the badges that you can earn, and I’ve also talked about how frustrating it is when they don’t work. They seem to be functioning correctly for me at the moment, which is a good start, and it’s always fun to view which awards you have achieved and which you are working towards via the Activity app on the phone.
The third release in Tomb Raider’s recent reboot emerged into the wild last month, and I can honestly admit to being completely obsessed with it. I’ve enjoyed the previous two games, but it’s taken me a while to get fully to grips with this new Lara and her rather more complex adventures. Everything is rather more realistic, far more brutal, significantly more graphic and eventually, a lot more fun, than the Tomb Raiders that have gone before.
The entire country went crazy for the recent BBC drama The Bodyguard, featuring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes as a bodyguard and cabinet minister respectively. I came to this show late, as always, so was almost completely spoiled in terms of who did what, who died when, and what the outcome of it all was. That being the case, it wasn’t quite as intriguing for me as I imagine it was for other people, but it was still good.
I’m surprised that I haven’t written about the Cormoran Strike novels before, but as I’ve just wrapped up reading the fourth installment in the series, I figured now was as good a time as any.
As I’m sure everyone is aware by now, Cormoran Strike is the central figure in the series of novels by Robert Galbraith, which is a pseudonym of JK Rowling. The first book picked up decent plaudits before the real author was uncovered, but naturally ever since that info was leaked, the series has garnered a lot more attention than it otherwise might have. Four books in, and a TV adaptation to boot, Strike and his temp/assistant/partner Robin are picking up a lot of fans.
The second series of Hidden Britain by Drone aired on Channel 4 recently, and I just wanted to take a moment to say how brilliant this programme is. I watched the first series and loved the concept - Tony Robinson introduces film footage taken by drones that fly over areas that are inaccessible or, at the very least, not open to the public.
Now, let’s be clear from the start, that description does get a little bit stretched on occasion, particularly in the second series. Some of the locations you could get to on foot, and there often are people milling about, but still, it’s good to get a new view and look at things from a different angle.
The last time I talked about Doctor Who, I was pondering the news that Peter Capaldi would be stepping down from the show. I talked about the rumours that there might be a female Doctor and how I wasn’t sure that’s where I wanted the show to go. Well, that’s where the show is going and I have completely changed my mind. I’m on board. I can’t wait to see what Jodie Whittaker does with the role and I think it’s a fab breath of fresh air into the show.
Like many others, I recently finished watching Sharp Objects, the HBO mini series starring Amy Adams and based on the book by Gillian Flynn. I’ll be honest and admit I only watched this because it has the lovely Amy Adams in it, I didn’t particularly enjoy Gone Girl the book or the film, and whilst I did like Sharp Objects as a novel, I was worried how it would unfold on screen.
Mr C and I are on a bit of a health kick at the minute - nothing crazy, just trying to make better choices - and that means ditching the share bags of Cadburys for something a bit more refined and, dare I say it, grown up.
I’ve been perusing the dark chocolate aisles in awe and wonder, there’s such a wide selection, flavours, percentages and choices, it can be quite overwhelming!
A while back, I talked about how I was just starting to figure out how awesome Manic Street Preachers were, and that I felt I’d missed out on a significant chunk of their career. On the flip side, good friend Lukeh is an absolute expert on the subject and should be considered a super-fan.
So, Mr C plied the man with mango-flavoured beer and demanded that he concoct an incredibly specific playlist of ten songs that would introduce a new fan (me) to the band, digging a little deeper than the obvious but not being too obscure as to be off-putting. All this after a drink or two and completely on the spot with no research.
There are all sorts of weather apps available out there, from the quirky Carrot forecasts to the more staid Met Office offerings. Their use very much depends on how you like your weather forecasting – long range and high level, a broad overview of the country at large, or as I prefer, very localised to-the-minute weather predictions.
That’s where Rain Today comes in. It’s a great app for one purpose – telling you whether it is raining, or whether it’s going to in the very near future. Obviously you can look out the window for the present weather conditions, but knowing whether you need to take a brolly on that short errand you’re going to run can be very useful.
I love Julie Adenuga’s Beats1 show, airing in the UK between 2 and 4pm every weekday. I try and listen to as many as I can, usually on demand, and there’s often little snippets of conversation that make you laugh or make you sit up and take notice.
On Friday’s show, where Example and Rebecca Judd joined Julie in the studio to take a look at the new releases that day, there was an example of the latter. Example was discussing the time he bought a car for a fan – as you do – and his co-hosts were sharing their shock and awe at such a kind gesture. Example was having none of it though:
I was lucky enough to get a chance to see Pressure, a play by David Haig that is currently in the West End. The play tells the incredible true story of James Stagg, a meteorologist who was tasked with predicting the weather conditions for the D-Day landings.
With Stagg predicting severe storms and Irving P. Krick - Hollywood’s meteorological movie consultant - predicting beautiful weather, the future of Britain, Europe and the United States rests on one single forecast.
My obsession with the South West Coast Path has only been steadily growing since we found the beginning and the end of the long distance trail.
I bought a guide book and I’ve been plotting and planning how, when and where we can walk the different sections. Because although, just recently, I managed to get Mr C to finally admit he might have an inkling (albeit with great reluctance) to join me on this adventure, it’s not going to be eight week odyssey for us. This is more of a ’let’s go and see which bit of path we can add to the map today’ type thing.
I’ll admit, my podcast listening habits these days are like a rollercoaster. Some weeks I listen to barely anything, other weeks I am re-subscribing to shows and listening non-stop. It’s an adventure. One show that has been with me for a while, though, is NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. I’m a little way behind on it, but actually that works in my favour, because I’m also quite far behind on the culture they are covering.
I’ve long been intrigued by the UK’s National Trails. They are long distance footpaths scattered around the UK that follow historical or geographical patterns, like Hadrian’s Wall, the Thames, or the best of the lot, the South West Coast. The South West Coast Path is the best of the lot because, as it says in the title, it follows the coast – and the sea is the best geographical feature there is. It also tracks through some of the most beautiful areas, with the gorgeous Cornish beaches, Devon cliffs, and the lovely Jurassic coast.
I’ve long been of the mind that AR is a far greater useful tool to humanity than VR will ever be - particularly since I had a go on the PlayStation VR equipment for just a couple of minutes and subsequently had to lie down for half an hour. That being the case, I’m trying to keep an eye out for awesome developments in AR apps, and PeakFinder is one of those.
In my adventures with Swift programming, I mentioned the R2-D2 toy/gadget that you can bring home and programme yourself. When I wrote about it, it was a delicious want rather than a need, but somehow over the course of a sunny few days off, I ended up with the very same Artoo bluetoothing himself to my iPad.
I’ve only been playing for a little while but first impressions are: This is the cutest thing ever! It bleeps and bloops, the tripod wheel comes in and out and it whizzes around making that scream noise that R2-D2 is so famous for. You can control it via a Sphero app, which makes it more of a remote control style toy, or you can actually sit down and programme it.
I have, during the course of writing on this blog, mentioned many times the ways and means I am enjoying Wimbledon - whether that is indulging in endless TV and radio streams, analysing what options are available on various app stores, or even being lucky enough to attend the tournament itself.
This year, I am firmly back in my armchair, and have even indulged in a couple of days off work to ensure I capture as much of the opening matches as I possibly can.
