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. Drama, slow-motion, terrifying crash scenes. It's all in there. Let's just hope it's good!

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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. Is …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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, …

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 …

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. 1) Mr C …

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. …

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, …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

This week, I passed the Baking recipe app to Mr C and asked him to pick something he might like. The app is full of photographs, so it makes choosing what you want both a) easier because they are some fantastic photos and b) harder because you want to try a little bit of everything. He opted for the Chocolate Butterfly Cupcakes, which I thought looked complicated but weren't once …

Mr C's back for his second roundup of the 2012 year. Last week it was all about music, this week it's all about the visual arts. To recap the rules, initially we wanted this to be a "top five 2012 films seen in 2012" but the problem is we run about six months behind thanks to windowing and all that nonsense. Instead, the rules are relaxed a little to include …

Last year, I added something new to my Life List - completing a puzzle book. It came about after I worked through a crossword with my mum and dad, and realised just how pathetic my general knowledge skills are. I thought a few puzzles couldn't hurt, and seeing a Puzzler or two lying around reminds me very much of living at home. I picked up one of the monthly editions …

Off-the-beaten-track at CES 2013 Don't let's tell Mr C about the sports cameras!

When I finally started a bit more human after a festive holiday full of cold, I decided to bake something nice and comforting. What better than apple pie? I used a recipe from the Photo Cookbook - Baking edition, and had great fun chopping up all the apples and mixing in sugar and cinnamon. I didn't have a round dish, so I improvised. They are meant to be leaves on …

We were doing some testing of our internets, browsing random things on YouTube, when Mr C asked if I had seen this version of I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift. As much as he has convinced me of some of her music, I'm not a fan of this song at all. However, when it's done like this, by Walk Off the Earth, then I'm on board! These people …

The past month in Archers-land passed terribly quickly, I can't quite believe it is 2013 already. To recap on the festive antics of our Ambridge-based friends, we must begin with Lilian and Matt. What is going on in that woman's head? I don't understand why she doesn't just leave Matt if she is so unhappy with him? Why sneak off into the kitchen to take clandestine phone calls? They aren't …

New Year usually means quite a lot of reviews of the previous twelve months, and things are no different round these parts. At the end of each year, Mr C gets a chance to have his say on both music and films, and today it's time to recap his top five songs from 2012. We've previously listed his songs from 2010 and from 2011, but this time it's all about …

Turbo This is one of the latest efforts from DreamWorks Animation, and features a snail who feels the need for speed. The blurb is bizarre (but then I suppose these things always are): A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500. Interesting idea, can't really tell too much from the trailer, except, you know, Ryan Reynolds.

Instead of making New Year's Resolutions each January, I have a long-running Life List that does the same job, only is a constant reminder of the things I want to, and am trying to, achieve. It's time to have a quick recap of what has been happening on my Life List over the last twelve months. The Amazing A-Z Adventure I've only managed two more visits this year, and now …

The final few weeks of the year haven't really gone as I had planned. I didn't manage to complete a 10k in December, which is disappointing but not surprising. The weather has been terrible, either freezing cold or torrential rain. I'm not a completely fair-weather runner, but it's hard to get the motivation when it is both dark AND raining. I had planned to make the most of my holiday …