I watched this episode not from the comfort of my own armchair, but in a hotel room on a tiny television. I never quite realise how used to HD I am until it is taken away from me! Thankfully, this episode didn’t look like it delivered much on the grand scale of beauty. Rather than gorgeous outer space landscapes, or moody forest settings, we were locked away inside the TARDIS - quite literally going round and round in circles.

Q turned out to be a tricky letter in my Alphabet Adventure. I was expecting it to be hard to find something beginning with the required letter, but I wasn’t necessarily anticipating it taking so long for me to get there too. I gave up waiting for the weather and made my way to Quarry Bank Mill, somewhere near Manchester Airport. Along the way, I passed Jodrell Bank Observatory which would have been a good stop for J! I would have stopped off and had a look around but just as I pulled into the drive, it started hailing good and proper. So, I settled for a photo from a distance.

Looks good. Had forgotten how short Natalie is. And Loki’s hair!

I am quite behind on talking of my recent bakes, but equally, you haven’t missed that much. I have discovered the Basil iPad app for keeping track of the recipes I like, and spent some time importing all the recipes I’ve tried, noticing that a lot of them come from the BBC. I’ve also been looking at the GoodFood (BBC) magazine available on the Newsstand. Perhaps I need to spread my wings a bit!

Just two weeks after the divisive Rings of Akhaten, Neil Cross was back on writer’s duty for Hide - a ghost-hunting romp through an old stately home in the seventies. What begins as a traditional ghost story, moves through some really quite tense and scary scenes, before resolving itself as a love story that spans pocket/balloon universes. This felt more like the Doctor Who people expect, dashing through corridors, unravelling a mystery that appears to be one thing but is actually something quite different. And boy, it was beautiful to look at.

Tweeted by the marvellous Molly Wood earlier today, I watched a new campaign from soapmakers Dove. It’s a fascinating look at the way women see themselves compared to the way other people see them. An actual forensic artist draws a portrait of the ladies based on their own descriptions, and then on a description from someone else. The results are amazing.

I saw a trailer or description for the film Internship a while back, but just recently watched the new trailer for it. The Internship Some of this looks funny, a lot of it appears strained. They don’t seem like the type of people that wouldn’t be using mobile phones and tablets really. And also, how much is Google paying for this??

I keep telling myself I will go back and watch these episodes again before I write about them, so that I have one viewing for the sheer enjoyment of it, and another to take in the finer details. So far, I have not managed to do that. Is it just a lack of time, or is there a lack of motivation here too? The recent episodes do seem to suffer a lack of the magic that makes something instantly rewatchable - episodes such as Van Gogh or Idris the TARDIS spring to mind when I think of those I would watch again in a heartbeat. They can’t all be like that, of course, but I can’t think of any recently that have captured me in the same way.

ITV have brought the exceedingly popular quiz show Catchphrase back to its screen, with updated graphics and a snazzy new host. I haven’t seen the new show, except for a brief stint where they got Ant & Dec to play against each other a week or so ago. I’d imagine that it’s still fun, but nowhere near as good as the original - these remakes never are. And Roy Walker was such an integral part of the whole thing, what could it possibly be like without him?

I have to buy a new coat. A riveting start to any story, I know, but this is a big deal. I haven’t bought a new coat in… well, six years. I have been wearing the precious Honda Dreamfields waterproof that we were given at Silverstone in 2007, and it’s served me very well. I went through one period where I thought I had better get a new outer garment back in 2010.

Doctor Who is one of those television programmes that will never be able to win. It’s demographic is so wide-spread, and people want such different things from their Doctor Who experience, it really is impossible to please everyone. He’s too human, too alien, there’s too much sci-fi, too much humanity, it’s too childish, too adult, boring, complicated, incredible, ridiculous, etc, etc. Obviously opinions matter, and we write blog posts about the programme because we care about it. I’ve been known to air my disappointment about past episodes and I am usually at odds with most of the rest of the internet. That’s why, this time, I quite liked the episode. It had grand ambitions, and a great premise, and I enjoyed it - although I do think it slightly missed the target.

Rush And thus, my Formula One world collides with my Film Watch world again. This looks like a pretty solid effort, I’ve been watching Ron Howard tweet about it for what seems like forever. Thankfully, it’s all about to get going and we’ll be able to watch the results soon.

Two big storylines this month, with the developing situation at Bridge Farm, and the saga between Chris and Alice. Alice heads off to Canada after a frosty goodbye with Chris, and it isn’t long before she’s getting a phone call saying he’s had a bad accident and she needs to return. There’s a long-standing joke saying: “It’s all kicking off in The Archers” because it never is. This time, it literally was, as Chris found himself at the wrong end of an angry horse. He pulled through, although it was touch and go for a while, and thus the agonising over whether to stay or go continues with the added emotional drama of recovering from a near-death experience as well.

Ahh, it made so much sense when finally we realised what the bells related to. It made sense, and also made me feel stupid. There’s so much about Doctor Who that should be obvious but it never is until it is revealed. It’s one of the joys of Steven Moffat’s era of the show, that you can concentrate too hard on unravelling the riddles, or you can just ride the wave and see where you wash up.

This year, Friends finally became available to download, in HD. We had been waiting for a long time to get the digital versions and were over the moon when there was a series 1-10 bundle. The glorious images are now in high definition, and a more sensible shape, rather than the square footage that was originally broadcast. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be a bit more revealing than the programme makers might have otherwise liked.

I finally found a really good course layout that I am happy running along, and it is exactly 5km taking me from almost door to almost door. It’s perfect, and I started to get in a really good routine, into the groove. I crossed the 100 kilometre mark, moving past 20% of the total. I even managed to get ahead of the target even if it was only by 0.02 of a kilometre.

I tried baking a cherry cake before, and it was a more traditional sort - the result was not quite what I was looking for. Instead, I searched for a loaf cake recipe, and uncovered this gem, which is apparently adapted from a Good Housekeeping recipe. It was so delicious, and disappeared very quickly. I couldn’t quite work out whether the cherries had stayed in situ or not - there did seem to be a larger congregation of them at the bottom of the cake, but they were scattered throughout as well. Sort of mixed results, I’d say.

A few week’s ago, I bought the Great British Bake Off booklet, produced for Comic Relief. There weren’t really any new recipes in there that I hadn’t already seen, but it was for charity - plus, I ordered it through a supermarket delivery, so it came right to my door without me having to lift a finger. Inside was a recipe for scones, and whilst I wasn’t keen on that recipe (includes yogurt?) I did get a craving for some scones. So, I dug out a recipe from the master, Paul Hollywood, and was intrigued to see that this one came with a video. After watching a five minute masterclass, I decided to have a go myself.

After catching up with the penultimate episode of The Big Reunion on Saturday, we flicked over to ITV where Ant and Dec were having their evening Takeaway. We left this on as background noise and then were intrigued to see some of the bands from the Big Reunion going to sing at the end of the show. Our first chance to see them doing in public what we’ve watched them rehearse over the past few weeks.

This year, Crashed Ice was at its biggest and best, the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship featuring five different locations and some of the top skaters from across the globe. There were team competitions, and more women participating than ever, and it even pushed the boundaries in terms of indoor tracks and corkscrew delights. We’ve been watching the winter sport since 2010, after discovering that Red Bull TV showed each round live for free. Each year it has been getting better and better, until this point where I am really sad it’s over and already anticipating 2014!

Last week, Google caused a right kerfuffle by announcing the closure of Google Reader - the RSS feed reading service that lets you keep up with news and websites via the magic of syndication. They’ve blamed the closure on a desire to focus on key products, plus the decline of users on the service. They’re not saying they want to promote the use of Google+ instead, but we all know that is the case.

I love it when a plan comes together. This time last year, getting an update through onto the Pocket F1 Handbook owned by loyal and marvellous customers was not an easy feat. Fast forward twelve months, and a significant period of chopping and changing within Formula One, and we now have two sections significantly updated and ready for you to read! No matter which version of the book you bought, iBookstore or Amazon Kindle, you should be able to get your hands on an updated copy - with a little less Razia and a little more Sutil. Just a couple of days after the season got going too!

This first one looks like your traditional action movie fodder, but there are heaps of famous people in there! Olympus has Fallen I hadn’t heard of this spin off from Cars that Disney are making, called Planes (or if I had heard of it, I’d forgotten!). It does what it says on the tin, and even has a bonus appearance from one David Croft! Lofty Crofty, the blimp! Amazing.

Normally, I would call this kind of post my “early thoughts” on something. Kindles, phones, games, they all get the same kind of treatment. The Sims 3, however, was first released in 2009 and I have just managed to get my hands on it now… the year 2013. Part of it was reluctance. I loved The Sims 2 and had no particular desire to replace it. Part of it was time. I barely have time to play games as it is, if I was going to play anything, it would be the aforementioned second edition of the game. And, I suppose, part of it was that thing where, when everyone else loves something, you sort of don’t want to.

My dad sent me a link to this video, showing some bakers having great fun as they make heaps of loaves of all different shapes and sizes. I find it oddly fascinating, the sheer amounts of flour flying around, and the perfection and regulation of the dough!

So far this year, my baking mojo has been worryingly absent. Perhaps it is the lack of any Great British Baking to inspire me (although the Comic Relief specials were bloomin’ marvellous!) but mostly, it’s a lack of time related to spending weekends buried in a keyboard. Thankfully, it’s starting to come back to me now so that I spent a bit of time perusing various recipes and opting for a reasonably simple bake to ease me back in gently.

I’m not a massive reality TV fan. I did the Big Brother thing back when it was good, and I’ve watched a Pop Idol or two, but mostly I find them irritating. The people tend to be either annoying or uninteresting, and this latest explosion of half-reality, half-setup stuff seems very misleading and contrived. However, I’ve finally found a reality TV show that I am totally on board with. The Big Reunion is an ITV show and subsequent tour, in which six (now seven) bands from the 90s who had acrimonious splits get back together and do it all over again. The show has, so far, charted the rise and fall of each band, how their reunions went, and the first few days of rehearsal. It has been a revelation.

I heard about a game you can play within your browser, in which you begin to type in the URL bar, and see what site comes up as the first suggested for each letter of the alphabet. I thought I’d give it a spin and see what mine were. In Chrome, it seems to be a cross between most visited and latest viewed as well. amazon.co.uk bbc.co.uk/iplayer caterhamf1.com dooce.com (bit odd, haven’t looked at this one for a while, not since there was just a blatant ad as a post, but I guess I don’t visit that many d’s) espnf1.com f1minute.com (naturally!) google.com humblebundle.com imdb.com joesaward.wordpress.com kindle.amazon.com lotusf1team.com marussiaf1team.com (over mrschristine.com? For shame!) netflix.com origin.com (The Sims 3 may or may not have just become available. Shhh.) paypal.co.uk (I have nothing for Q, just some admin pages that I won’t link to here!) runkeeper.com sidepodcast.com twitter.com (Nothing for U either, although it brought up Autosport and F1Minute again) vivaf1.com wordpress.com (Nothing specific for X, just a link to Netflix and also Grand Prix Guide) youtube.com/sauberf1team (I guess I’ve been watching that Harlam Shake thing too much!) zombiesrungame.com A bit of F1, a bit of blogging, a bit of running. This all seems very fitting for the online life I lead! Have a go yourself, it is both fun and sometimes intriguing!

Despite being a short month, it’s been a busy few weeks in Ambridge, with lots of storylines thrown into the melting pot. Here are my scatter-brained thoughts on February with The Archers. Pip did overdo a bit going to stay at Rickyard Cottage whens he was mad at her parents. It’s quite fun seeing Josh become the responsible one as Pip gradually loses every ounce of respect she ever earned from her parents.

January ended with a disappointing 14km deficit from the target, thanks to some days inside due to snow and illness. I was determined to catch up a bit in February (there’s nothing like a target on a graph to be motivational!) and started off with an ill-advised 9k. I was aiming for 10 and had to give up before I got there, and then felt like I’d overdone it for a while. However, it definitely helped kickstart the month in an effort to catch up.

Another brilliant advert has caught my attention, I’m not sure how old this is, but I’ve only just seen it and I love it. I would say, with this and the EDF energy thing, that I like adverts in which odd things dance to old music. More of this, please.

Disappointingly, I wrote this post last month and - thanks to having to get the screen captures off the iPad and general forgetfulness - have only just remembered it was tucked away in my drafts. It is still interesting though, so let’s just wind back and pretend it’s the 27th January rather than February. It’s not every day that you see a tweet from your significant other waxing lyrical about Antiques Roadshow, and when that occurred to me last week, I had to investigate further.

This year, the Pocket F1 Handbook is spreading its wings and launching on more than just Amazon reading apps and devices. The Guide to the 2013 F1 Season is now available on the Apple iBookstore, making it available to an iDevice near you. If you prefer your books to have a more standard viewing experience, and the ability to update faster, the iBookstore option may be the one for you.

I’ve been busy compiling my own A-Z of attractions in the UK, something that came to a bit of an abrupt halt last year due to one thing and another, but is high on my priorities to complete. What I hadn’t realised is that the Royal Mail have already done it, releasing a set of stamps to celebrate the UK - 26 different stamps with a highlight of the British Isles for each one. I have only gotten so far as P, and two of my choices match theirs. The rest are intriguing, this would have been very useful when I was making plans, and still could be!

After watching Skyfall, we browsed through some of the upcoming trailers on the Apple TV, and came across Oblivion, the new Tom Cruise movie. Good grief, that man works hard! Oblivion There’s another, earlier, trailer here that tells a bit more of the story. It looks interesting enough, although the amount of CGI it’s going to have worries me a little bit.

I met up with my parents this past weekend, and we went for a walk around the National Trust estate at Kingston Lacy. The place wasn’t fully open yet, still hunkered down and working through the cold weather, but they were celebrating the carpets of snowdrops that were across some of the gardens. We thought we’d brave the freezing conditions (there were literal snow drops falling at times) to have a look at nature in action.

I spotted this crazy but brilliant gadget stand that is way over-funded on Kickstarter, and it is such a great idea. Taking inspiration from the animal kingdom, the Monkey Kit stand is actually billed as a “tablet positioning system” but it can cling on to plenty of different types of gadget, and then can curl around things or prop itself up in the strangest of places. I particularly like the suggestions for use on the sofa or in the kitchen, but they also suggest in the gym or just curled around as a stand on the desk.

This week only one trailer crossed my path and it was for Emperor. Unfortunately, I just can’t get past the fact that this is Jack! Particularly in the opening scene where it is Jack, in a plane, heading towards an island! LOST really has ruined my life. Emperor

Mr C showed me this Tumblr site a good few weeks ago now, and I was instantly in love. In a nutshell, the Movie Barcodes are all the frames of a movie squidged up to make a colourful (or not so colourful) barcode style image. In some cases, they’re offered as prints, and I am sorely tempted to snap some up. Some of them are better than others, naturally, and I find some of those that have been created with fewer images make my brain go a little fuzzy, but the really good ones are so impressive.

As you very well know, we recently got hooked on The Big Bang Theory. One of the very first things that caught our attention, and made us realise this could be a show we can get on board with, was Sheldon’s view on giving gifts. It’s exactly the same as ours, and although I’ve tried to explain it on many an occasion, I’ve never quite had his eloquence. Penny: Uh, Sheldon, I didn’t see your present.

It’s catch up time on the whole trailer front, as I’ve been seeing them pass me by but not quite finding time to post them. First up, The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp. It’s fun to see Depp try new characters, but I’m not at all convinced by this one. I don’t know the original Lone Ranger particularly well, so curious what fans think of this remake. The Lone Ranger

When I last properly baked, I made chocolate butterfly cupcakes, that were very delicious. Pondering what to do with the multitude of cake cases I was left with, I received a suggestion from Lou that I subsequently promised to attempt. The conversation went along these lines, paraphrased, naturally: Lou - Make panda cupcakes! Me - WHA? Lou - They’re easy, chocolate buttons, dash of icing, no probs. Me - Hmm, next time, I promise.

Formula One begins a brand new season, with a lot to live up to. The action in 2012 surprised, delighted and thrilled fans with a host of different winners, a successful return to the United States and a championship fight that went right down to the wire. With Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel securing their third driver and constructor championships in a row, the challenge of trying to beat them is ever-present. Lewis Hamilton’s high-profile move to Mercedes will be a key factor in that team’s fortunes, as they attempt to move forward and join the intense battle at the front. Look out also for Ferrari and McLaren who will both be keen to halt Red Bull’s run of success.

If you pay any sort of attention to the goings on at Netflix, you can’t fail to have missed the introduction of their new original series House of Cards. It stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Mara and follows the inner workings of politics, newspapers, that kind of thing. We’re only three episodes in, so I thought I would just make some notes on the findings so far. Mr C was super keen to watch this. He’s not normally particularly bothered about any kind of TV, particularly after the whole LOST debacle, so this was a turn up for the books. Presumably this is down to the whole TV on demand thing, plus the fact it has a good cast and is, well, very good. But it just goes to show that making your content available and EASY means you get at least one more set of eyeballs.

Somehow, I’m heading into my fourth year of writing these monthly recaps. I still don’t know quite why I do it, but hey, it’s fun for me! It’s also interesting to look back and see where we were this time three years ago, when I began. January 2010: Helen was fussing over pregnant Annette, Brenda couldn’t find a job to save her life, and Ruth was jumping down Pip’s throat. How times… oh.

This year, I set myself a Runkeeper goal of completing 500 kilometres in twelve months. It’s a crazy goal, but in 2012, I managed almost 450km, so it should only take a bit more of a push to be able to achieve this. It’s one of those that is within my sights but is still going to be a bit tricky. Of course, if January is anything to go by, it’s going to be impossible. First, I was recovering from the stupid cold that ruined my festive holiday. Then it snowed. I had grand plans for getting into a regular schedule but I’ll have to wait until winter disappears for that, I think.

My obsession with weekly baking has faded slightly, but I’m still keen on getting things in the oven and seeing what happens. I’m too much of a coward to dive straight into making croissants by hand, but they’re a popular foodstuff in this house, so I was intrigued when I saw an odd little can from Jus-Rol, the incredible ready-made pastry people. Turns out, it was a roll of dough to make croissants, ready cut, ready to roll, ready to bake. I couldn’t resist.

The amazing thing about the internet is that you can research almost anything and get an answer within a few seconds. There is plenty of questionable information out there, but if you use a sensible head and double check your sources and facts, you’re likely to do well. The difficult thing about the internet is that you can do almost anything when you’re trying to research something. News, video, music, games, social, it’s all there at the tips of your fingers and when procrastination comes easily to you, the internet can be a goldmine.

People have told us to watch The Big Bang Theory over and over again. The Sidepodcast comments have been littered with references and quotes for years, and all of them have gone over our heads. iTunes gave away the first episode for free, we downloaded it, and still didn’t manage to watch. It wasn’t a stubborn reluctance, more that we just never got round to it. Now, of course, we are aghast at what we have been missing out on.

It’s a bit on the late side, as the original Killing trilogy came to an end on UK screens before Christmas, but after much thought it feels only fair to review the final series as I have the first (here and here) and second (here and here). I was excited to see how Lund was going to make her probably-not-graceful exit from our lives, and very keen to see what had happened to her in the intervening time between the end of the second series and the beginning of the third. With two dead partners behind her, it’s understandable that she would be starting to unravel, but I wasn’t quite prepared for just how isolated she was.