Well, of course, I have kind of missed the boat on this one. Or more correctly, I got on the boat and got married already, with just some silly music to walk in the room to. Songs were not important, it was about being married and getting our hands on the champagne. However, let's say that I was going to do the wedding again (shuddering at the thought), and do …

I'm not so good at formal events like this, and I don't particularly want a fuss at my funeral. Although, of course, I'm hoping not to be conscious of what's going on when it does happen, so the organisers could make as much fuss as they want. Music isn't something I'd particularly given thought to at a funeral, but eventually, I found something I'd like. Imagine the scene, the coffin …

On his Facebook page, Franck takes questions from his fans and answers them. I'm not sure how long it's been going on, because I don't like Facebook very much and I'm annoyed that it's the only place FKM seems to exist anymore. However, in this month's Q&A, there are some startling (to me) revelations! Give or take dodgy translations: How are your baby already? It's not too hard to get …

Ahh, Tim Minchin. There aren't many of his songs that are lacking in swear words, although it's worth a warning that there's a bit of a swear before this one gets going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBUc_kATGgg Take my wife. Plink!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcawnRIyeok Well, sort of. When Garageband became available on the iPad, I made a good effort at the best bit.

I've been to Oxford a couple of times, and it seems only fair that, as a Boat Race fan, I visit the other half of the rivalry as well. Cambridge was the first stop on my Alphabet Minibreak, in which I visited three other letters as well. King's College was first, and to avoid having to drive into the centre, I took the Park & Ride. Now, me and Park …

I'm not 100% sure what I was expecting from this episode, but I was mildly surprised by what I found. It was pretty good. The writer, Matthew Graham, had already expressed that he wanted this two-parter to be a lot darker and have more of an impact than his previous outing - the 2012 Olympics based Fear Her. So, what do we find? A very beautiful former-monastery on an island, …

I can play the piano a little, and the guitar even less. I've always wished I was better at the piano, but I don't really have the patience to put the effort in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwkej79U3ek I had this track in one of my many music books, and I tried to play it many times before eventually I gave up, and mostly stopped playing altogether. Not because of this song, I might …

With my Runkeeper Fitness Class all signed up and paid for (about £6 for 16 weeks training), I had to wait to get started. I tried out the first run a little early to get used to how it all worked, and although just a simple run, it was fun. (Also, it was hard, but that comes from only running once in a week.) Week 1. Day 3. I find …

I'm not sure there is any song that makes me feel guilty. Isn't that a weird emotion to be related to a song? Happy, absolutely. Sad, yup. Even angry occasionally. But guilty? I thought about it for a long while, but this is an odd concept. Nevertheless, I have come up with something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4nKOzk8qbw You know, as an F1 fan, it's difficult to like Ms Scherzinger, but I do very …

When the Spice Girls first came out, when there were five of them and before they started dating footballers and having babies, I was a big fan. I like a good bit of pop music, and with all that Girl Power stuff, these ladies spoke to me. So much so that I remember having a special compilation video, taping all appearances by the Spice Girls on Top of the Pops …

Credit: suemoff/Flickr Sad news this week, when the world's oldest panda died aged 34. Ming-Ming lived in Guangdong Province, and passed away from kidney failure. But, she had lived a long life - the average for a panda in captivity is just 22 years!

I blogged about the 30 Day Song Challenge, pondering whether I would be able to do it or not, and after giving it far too much thought, I'm going for it. One thing to note. I'm doing it backwards. I don't like that it starts out with your favourite song. That should be the culmination of 30 days hard work. Thus, today, I begin with my favourite song from this …

Last night, on something of a whim, I downloaded the Glee app for the iPad. Don't stop reading yet! Regardless of what you think of Glee, it's making some incredible changes in engaging people with music. The app itself is pretty clever, and a genius money-spinner at the same time. You pick a song (a couple are free but most cost about £1), it comes up with karaoke style lyrics, …

Whilst on my recent alphabet travels, which I will begin blogging about soon, I found myself in the vicinity of Melton Mowbray. You may or may not have heard of the place, famous for it's most excellent pork pie recipe. The Melton Mowbray pie actually has protected origin of status designation, essentially meaning that if a pie says Melton Mowbray on it, you know it's the real deal. So, being …

I don't know enough about space, and wish I knew a lot more. What I do know is that when the shuttles are retired, we're going to miss out on some fantastic sights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X47raRdRSBA

A conversation on Sidepodcast briefly touched upon the subject of the best-selling business book Who Moved My Cheese? I remember reading it a while ago and being fascinated by the subject matter but having it suddenly brought to my attention, I thought reading it again would be a good idea. Luckily, Mr C owns a physical copy of this book, and you know why I say luckily? Because the thing …

I'm sure you've seen it by now, but the best way to avoid a zombie attack has been doing the rounds on the internet for a while now. A concept house designed to withstand any form of attack but specifically the undead kind, this fortress looks incredible. I call it the Zombie House, but officially, the title is The Safe House, and you can see why. When opened up, it …

For me, it's been a rocky start to the series so far. Nothing so bad I'd stop watching, but that unsettling feeling that this series is not quite what I signed up for. Thankfully, this episode puts us right back on track. I'm impressed, really, because the sneak peek at the end of the last one wasn't that inspiring to me. I can only begin by saying how much I …

This episode was more like the Doctor Who that we know and love. Less of the endless questions, and more of a self-contained story. It wasn't quite back on top form, but there was plenty to like about this pirate-themed episode. Lily Cole played a non-speaking ethereal type creature, who would capture anyone with a slight injury. Cue smart little anecdotes about her sending notes before she arrived, the human …

A great video of highlights from the race this weekend. Plenty of dramatic music, some Eau Rouge action, and even a Michelin Man or two. Fun Franck-spotting as well. I particularly like the helmet shot at the beginning of the race, and the champagne afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTmoIYy7fw I may have misjudged him, as it seems FKM was happier than I first thought. Yay!

After all that worry, Franck came second: | Pos | Class | Drivers | Team/Car | Time | |---------|---------|---------|---------|---------| | 1 | LMP1 | Gene / Wurz / Davidson | Peugeot 908 | 6:02:03.799 | | 2 | LMP1 | Montagny / Sarrazin / Minassian | Peugeot 908 | + 42.965s | | 3 | LMP1 | Capello / Kristensen / McNish | Audi R18 TDI | + 1 lap …

Here it is, the final week! Drum roll please. Week 10, Day 1 Run 22 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x2. Two runs ago I would have given anything to get under 9:25, and today I was disappointed when I got to 9:04. How things change, and how quickly! Still, I had enough in the tank to speed up again towards the end. The distance isn't so good, because the total …

So, this happened: Ortelli/Makowiecki Krohn/Jonsson Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian Belicchi/Boullion Peugeot were trying to be tactical, leaving it late before attempting a flying lap. And then there was an accident and red flags and Sarrazin didn't set a time. Boo. Just boo. People say it's a long race and Franck is starting and he'll overtake half the field on the first lap anyway, but still, it's not as good as starting in the …

Two practice sessions complete, with the results looking a bit like this. Practice 1 | Pos | Class | Drivers | Team/Car | Time | |---------|---------|---------|---------|---------| | 1 | LMP1 | Capello / Kristensen / McNish | Audi R18 TDI | 2:03.844 | | 2 | LMP1 | Bernhard / Dumas / Rockenfeller | Audi R18 TDI | 2:04.054 | | 3 | LMP1 | Lamy / Bourdais / Pagenaud …

Well, my goodness, it's time for more racing, is it? The 1,000km of Spa takes place this weekend, with two practice sessions today. There's another practice on Friday, plus qualifying, and then the race itself gets underway on Saturday. Franck is in the number 8 once again, and teamed up with Stéphane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian (phew, Lamy is in the other car!). Good luck Mr Montagny.

A couple of weeks ago, Google featured pandas in their doodle for Earth Day. They were interactive and moved about a little when you hovered over them, but even stationery, they were still little cutsies. I do approve of the penguins, too, but this is not Baby Penguin Thursday.

This month saw the debut of The Archers spin-off show Ambridge Extra, focusing on the lives of some of the younger and further afield inhabitants. I was excited about the show, then I was a bit put off when I saw some of the reviews who said it was like the Ambridge take on Skins. However, when I listened, of course, it's The Archers, so it's really not at all …

A lot of the blog memes and challenges pass me by, but occasionally there is one that catches my eye and the 30 Day Song Challenge is one of those. I'm not sure where it's origins lie, but I have seen it posted by a few friends, on Facebook, on blogs. Most recently, Lukeh took up the challenge with the genius idea of using Posterous so as not to spam …

Over the last few weeks, I've realised that running for a longer distance means starting to look after yourself as you go. I've found myself super thirsty towards the end of a run, and suffered a headache a couple of times. The obvious answer is to take on more fluids as I go, but that's not something I find particularly easy. Keeping upright as I'm jogging along is hard enough, …

A week that seemed it would never end. Full of ups and downs but ending on a high note. Just one week left after this, and clearly, the fact that I am nowhere near 10k shows just how slow I am. Will have to ponder what is next for me. Week 9, Day 1 Run 18 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 3. I was really fighting the odds with this …

This header came about suddenly at the last minute, but was a culmination of a lot of experimentation during the month. Firstly, the typeface is the one I use for headers on the blog - Anivers. When I made the changes with Typekit, it suddenly made the existing header look a bit strange. I've already mentioned that I need to find a way to make text look more integrated with …

Last week I had to watch the episode twice to figure out what was going on. I probably should do the same this week, but... I just don't want to. From the start, it made no real sense. We were three months later, the officials were after them, the Doctor was all locked up as insane. Do we know why? Am I just being stupid? Just when I thought I …

This time last year, Google added new functionality to Maps on Android phones - Google Navigation. The new feature allowed you to search for directions as per usual, but then take it a step further and switch the results into turn by turn navigation. I've long resisted the SatNav world, although I have no real reason why. Perhaps I couldn't justify the cost in my head, and didn't particularly want …

Last weekend, Mr C and I took a bit of a break and used the long weekend to visit the coast. It was beautifully sunny, hot and busy, but it was great fun. We used the time to work on a process for taking, editing and sharing photos on the move, which I've written more about over on Sidepodcast. Along with photos, I took some video which I've compiled together …

If you've popped by this blog at any point over the past 24 hours or so, you may have noticed some wonky typeface situations. If you've been following the blog since the Squarespace incident, you'll know that my only real gripe with Wordpress is that I couldn't change the typeface from Georgia. I tried any number of solutions, including Typekit, the Wordpress CSS edit addon, and, of course, Squarespace. The …

Adobe are soon to be offering pay as you go models to rent their creative suite of software. Things like Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign and Illustrator are all costly pieces of kit but the new payment method could bring the point of entry down to new users. I decided to take ten minutes to chat to Mr C about how this might change some of the things we do on …

Last time I discussed the Back to the Future game, I was only mildly impressed and mostly happy that they hadn't ruined everything. I wrote that first post after playing the game for about twenty minutes, and I may have judged it a bit harshly. After the post went up, I picked up the game again and played it right through to the end. I loved it! I couldn't wait …

When the letter from the DVLA arrived, suggesting I needed to replace the photo on my driving licence, I instantly thought what a hassle that was going to be. They have those photo booths in a couple of shops locally, the supermarket and some in town, but I hate going in them. The voice booms out so that everyone around knows exactly what you're doing - adjusting the seat, trying …

It's back! It's back, it's back, it's back. And boy is it confusing. The first time I watched this, I missed at least 15 minutes off the start which didn't exactly help matters. A second viewing was essential, even if I had already planned to do so to lend a hand with this blog. As with most science fiction series, those involved have spent the off-season suggesting that the new …

Getting back from a mini-break away, I was a bit antsy to go out, but not really motivated to do a proper run, considering I had to get some food and sort out all manner of post-holiday chores. Mr C suddenly suggested that I should just run to the shop, get food for today and run back again, with a big shop planned for later. I instantly discounted it. That's …

In my running update this week, I referenced the column of advice that was remixed into the most excellent Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrman. Once it was in my head, I remembered what fabulous advice the song has, and I re-listened a couple of times. Here are the bits that I have taken to heart and try to live by: Don’t worry about the future; or worry, …

I felt like doing a bit of baking and found this recipe for a classic Victoria Sponge. I know I said I had sworn off the BBC's GoodFood site, but there are such good finds on there, I can't help myself. Anyway, the thing I particularly love about making a sponge is that you just throw all the ingredients in together and mix it up. Mix, mix, mix. I even …

I've just finished watching a programme about the Summerhill School in Suffolk. I don't make a habit of watching kid's TV... oh, who am I kidding... but either way, the subject matter fascinated me. Summerhill is a school that revolves around the concept of the school fitting the child, rather than forcing all children to comply to the same hideous timetable. Kids that go there don't have to attend lessons, …

I ended the last week a little dispirited, although not put off altogether - it'd take quite a lot more to do that, I think. I took a couple of days to think about it (thanks for the nice comments, all) and geared up to start again. Rather than dive into the 17 minutes at a time, I figured I'd start with a shorter run to get back into it. …

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the great bargains to be found on Zinio, if you took some time to browse. I also mentioned that it might not be a foolproof process to buy, as Mr C had been having troubles. He even commented on the post, suggesting that it was a pretty rubbish service but there is no real alternative so it has to be done. Or …

Just recently, F1 Racing magazine finally made the switch to offer up digital publication alongside the traditional paper editions. To investigate, it meant revisiting the Zinio store, something I hadn't done for a long time. When I perused the Zinio magazine store for the first time, there was a specific UK section but very little in the way of digital content to offer up. This time, I was amazed at …

In 2004, I said: So, I’m watching the crazy people running the London Marathon, I do not understand how anyone can manage to run that far… I have trouble running to my car when it’s raining! I think it’s great though, all those people raising money for charities and coming together to do something worthy like that. I really just want to note this day down in history, because it …

My dearest, darling brother (ha!) emailed me this last week. It's a poster for Panda liquorice (bleurgh), and the tagline reads: "If you love liquorice, all you see is panda." I don't like liquorice at all, so I would change it to: "If you like pandas, all you see is panda." But I guess that's not as catchy.

At last! The return of my alphabet adventures! I struggled with where to go for J, and then winter appeared, and then I quit my job and things got manic. However, it's been a beautiful week and I've finally found some free time, so I decided to man up and go outside. The Judge's Lodgings is a museum situated in a tiny village on the England/Wales border, and it would …