It was an impromptu trip to the theatre, a last minute decision to snap up tickets to The Phantom of the Opera on a spare Friday night nestled in the midst of a very hectic couple of months. I like musicals, as they have been ingrained in my life since childhood, but I haven't had as much chance to indulge recently as I'd like. Since watching We Will Rock You …

An unusual memoir that chronicles one man's attempt to leave a stuffy accountancy job behind for a life in the cheese caves of France. It's actually less dramatic than that sounds, as our protagonist quite liked his office job but just felt like taking a sabbatical to indulge in his passion for cheese.

This is a pretty tough read - from the start our protagonist is in prison, being tortured and abused. He goes to prison, escapes from prison and starts the titular walk, across deserts and mountains and the most inhospitable land you can imagine.

I think this is my favourite of the Oz series so far, it has so many interesting ideas in there - the moving carpet to cross the desert, the princess with a selection of heads to choose from, the ornament guessing game, and of course the Wheelers. I think I had a picture book that combined the previous adventures with Jack Pumpkinhead with this one, and I remember the Wheelers being absolutely terrifying.

I read this book a while back, deciding that it was a slightly worrying premise but a rewarding read as it managed to avoid a lot of the more 'smooshy clichés'. It's safe to say the film is very much of the same ilk, a cast of very different characters meeting in an unusual situation and then trying to find their way to a better place, together.

It's nice that it's not a by-the-numbers zombie book but equally, it's not the most original idea. To the point where there's a love interest in the games, and there's lots of talk about making a choice when it comes down to it. To the sibling left at home trying to make sense of the world. To the various Cities or Districts, and the rogue one that is supposedly undetectable.

When I got back from the US, I was very enthusiastic to be a new baseball convert. Watching that game up close and personal was quite the revolutionary experience. Except, I'll be honest, I haven't watched more than about an hour or two since I've been back. I'm never sure when it's on TV and I don't really have the same time to focus on it as you do when …

I'm really getting into these 87th Precinct books, particularly as the cast of characters keep on returning and start to take on a strong presence in my mind. This time, there's a con man on the loose as well as a killer, keeping the police department very busy. There's a good mix of the crime stories and the personal lives of the police in this book, helping to cement the personalities of what have so far just been names.

I found this one hard to get into, that first chapter with the Germans meeting in Japan is in so much fine detail that it felt like a really slow start to the story. However, once the plot started to thicken and the action picked up pace, I was hooked.

I love that game where, you're listening to a song and it sounds just like another song and you compare and contrast. In this day and age, there aren't a lot of new things in music left to be discovered - almost everything has been done before and can be picked up as "copying" a previous artist. Whilst driving, I was listening to Return of the 90s, a surprisingly cheap …

I've stumbled across an interesting problem that hasn't bothered me for a while. The past few months have been hectic, with all the travelling and working and stuff, but it has resulted in me actually leaving the house and taking a handful of pictures here and there. When I got back from Houston, I suddenly remembered that I had a Flickr account. I hadn't checked in for a very long …

The second book in the Oz series focuses on a boy called Tip and his adventures through the magical lands. Along the way, just as Dorothy did before him, he picks up a ragtag group and they find their way to the Emerald City and also to Glinda the Good's door. I particularly like the Gump, for his simple ways, and Pumpkinhead starts out okay but gets a bit whiny as his hypochondria increases.

The stellar cast in this one makes it a must watch, but the story seemed like an intriguing one, and hey, George Clooney takes a turn behind the camera as well. Plus, Matt Damon! So, with those things going for it, it's a shame that it didn't quite deliver. It feels very sterilised, very clean. War is terrible and horrific and dirty, but here everything seemed quite chipper. The quick team-bonding at the beginning took place in top notch barracks, even the blown up buildings looked like they weren't allowed to have any brick dust out of place. Maybe it was a style choice?

It's fair to say that if Anna Kendrick hadn't been in this, we wouldn't have watched it. She tweeted that the film was available on iTunes, so we clicked a look and got watching. It was good, and I'm glad we did click the link, but I did feel it didn't quite go anywhere.

I read this as part of my Big Read list, although there shouldn't really need to be an excuse to read Jacqueline Wilson's work. Although aimed at young children, they're still so fun to read. Delving right to the heart of problems and not shying away from difficult subjects, it's no wonder Wilson has such an enduring popularity.

I've read this a couple of times before, it being a kids classic, and picked it up again this time because I bought the complete Oz collection. Naturally, this was the first in the bundle, and it's a really great way to introduce the land and the characters. Each has such unique personalities and brings something to the group, and I think that's something kids and adults alike can resonate with.

The third book in the 87th Precinct series and what an intriguing one. The cast of characters expands again, and we focus in on a death that looks like it should be a suicide but probably isn't. Drugs are behind it, and the detectives are tasked with chasing down whoever is supplying and causing all the problems.

Whilst I was in Houston, I went to the cinema. I haven’t been to a cinema in years, and have pretty good reasons for not doing so, but I thought hey, why not see how the Americans do it? Alright, in all honesty, I just wanted to see how big the popcorn was. It was huge. You can’t really tell because there’s no scale, but the drink is twice the …

This was touted, in some circles, as a version of The Hangover but for older folks. Having seen it, I don't really get that. Yes, there are four guys going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. There's an actual story at the heart of this one, with a friendship on the rocks, and some really engaging personalities on display.

When it comes to getting creative, particularly with writing, we all know the key is to just get started. You’re not going to come up with anything by going about your normal day to day routines and hoping it is somehow getting done, you actually have to put the effort in and begin. There's an old video doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment, a talk by John Cleese …

I'm not sure what prompted me to read this one, considering it wasn't actually on my Big Read list. However, having worked through that list, I've been emboldened to read some of the more intimidating books, and this was one of those. I'm glad I did, too, because it was really good!

Edward Scissorhands has the honour of being one of the films that I know I cried at when I was younger - before I made the tear-related breakthrough this year. I was nervous about watching it again, because just viewing the trailer made me feel a bit weird, but after exams and stress and everything was out the way, it was something of a treat to sit down and revel in the nostalgia.

I was a bit apprehensive about this one, it seemed like a cynical attempt to cash in on the success of Bridesmaids, only with men. Although Bridesmaids was essentially The Hangover but for girls, so we could keep on going round in circles forever.

Ooh, such a lot of fun. It was eerily reminiscent of the Pirates vs Scientists film, in that it was non stop from beginning to end. Totally exhausting but absolutely brilliant. It's the kind of film that's going to require multiple viewings to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Recently, I sat down and wrote a draft in Ghost about Ghost. Meta. It was an update on my experiences so far, which ended up as a bit of a complaint. I'm still in love with the concept of Ghost, but the gist of my dissatisfaction was two-fold. 1) On Film Watch, I miss the comments. Moving to Ghost meant either switching on Disqus or going without comments. I opted …

This came highly recommended to me by my husband, an unusual occurrence as he's not a huge fan of book reading. However, the inside scoop of a 90s Britpop band is exactly the kind of thing he likes and he reckoned I would enjoy it too. He's not wrong!

I had forgotten what this book was about by the time I got round to reading it, so went in with no expectations. At first, I was totally hooked - what is this woman running away from and why? The concept of leaving one life behind and starting afresh fascinates me, it's something I've tried writing myself although I usually get bored with the process and end up skipping to the reunion scene.

I'm always one for a series, and this seemed like an easy-going adventure to kick things off. I couldn't have been more wrong. It was horrifying! From start to finish, it just got worse and worse (although better and better, if horror is what you like). How anyone could survive those conditions is beyond me, let alone planning an escape.

I'm not a huge fan of fireworks, but even I can appreciate a close up view of some pretty lights in the sky. This video was taken in Florida with a quadrocopter helping the camera get close to the action. The legality of flying drones is in question at the moment, but until that's decided, we can revel in the joy of videos like this.

It was all of that, but actually it wasn't that silly. The storyline was far-fetched but held down really well by the cast of characters - the long-suffering family, the pregnant girlfriend, and the fantastic worn-down lawyer. They held it together and that allowed the laughs to be bigger and the growth of the character even better.

The concept of this one has intrigued me since I first heard about it - not just the odd idea of a man falling in love with his operating system, but what kind of a fulfilling story could come out of that. It turns out, not a very good one! I thought this film had everything it needed to have to be great - excellent cast, great acting, moody shots, brilliant arty feeling to it, and yet it just didn't deliver. There was something missing.

We figured it would just be another version of Neeson and his skills taking down the bad guys. And it was, but it wasn't just another rehashing of Taken. I actually thought it was really good. There was a moment midway through where I realised it wasn't going to be Oscar material, and film snobs would hate it, but then I put that out of my mind and got into it.

I did wonder how a book was going to sustain an entire story over the course of one meal in a restaurant, and of course it didn't. The dinner was just the place setting for the rest of the story to hang on, dipping back and forth in time to complete the narrative.

A quick and easy read in terms of literature, but as a concept, surprisingly tough and moving. If you can get over the ever-so-slightly rushed beginning and the fact that the whole thing is highly unlikely, then the story is pretty captivating and I had to see how it all turned out.

I quite enjoyed this, but I can't exactly put my finger on why. The Good Doctor tells the story of a rundown, almost empty African hospital, staffed by a disparate bunch of doctors and nurses. Our protagonist tells of the arrival of a young, new doctor who wants to improve the situation, and we run through their various adventures and reflect on life up to that point.

We've had a bit of a hiatus when it comes to watching films, and I think this was the perfect title to break us back in gently. A stellar cast and a none-too-challenging concept, with several laughs along the way, and pantomime heroes and villains to cheer and boo respectively. I thought Nick Frost did a really good job with holding the film, when he's more used to being part of a double act. (Give or take the odd cameo!) As mentioned above, I was disappointed that O'Dowd was the bad guy, but he played it very well.

When I stepped off the plane in Houston, I didn’t think Netflix was going to work. I have a UK account, obviously, and I figured that it just wouldn’t function across the pond. That was crazy thinking and when I opened the app I was overjoyed to see not only my current shows but also a selection of new and exciting things that we don’t get in the UK. Now, …

Continuing my space-mad theme at the moment, before I disappeared for two weeks, I was most excited to read this story about wifi on the moon! MIT have been experimenting with beaming things off multiple satellites in an attempt to reach the moon, and they reckon it’s possible, if a little tricky. Communicating at high data rates from Earth to the moon with laser beams is challenging because of the …

Watching a bit of Vevo TV on the Nashville channel (it’s more entertaining than it sounds), I stumbled across this video from Brad Paisley. It’s a terrible song but a great video, have a peek! It’s a water-skiiing squirrel! At first I thought, jeez, some animals must have been harmed in the making of this video, but a little closer investigation revealed it’s an actual squirrel that has been trained …

I hadn't realised this was a children/young adult book until I started reading, which wasn't a problem but it took me a while to adapt to it. I found the story to be overwhelmingly sad, chronicling the difficulties a teen boy has trying to keep a household together after his single parent mother disappears.

My interest in science and space has grown exponentially over the last few years. Science was one of those subjects that was beaten out of me at school and it’s taken a long while for me to really give it the time of day. Since I have, though, I’ve been fascinated, particularly developing a fledgling obsession with the moon. Over on Sidepodcast, we live commented some of the launch and …

I've been wanting to read this for a while, the concept appealed to me greatly and I've enjoyed King's writing in the past. A small American town finds itself trapped under a mysterious dome, keeping them locked up inside. Inevitably chaos unfolds as they try to keep themselves together and also try to get out.

When the chance to watch a baseball game in Houston came up, I jumped at it. Experiencing something so traditionally American, as well as enjoying an afternoon of entertainment made for an enticing invitation. It wasn't until I was sitting in my seat, snapping pictures of the highly manicured green field that I realised it counted towards my Life List goals as well - watching sports live. The thing about …

Although it's a lengthy film, Meet Joe Black didn't really feel all that long. I did start to lose the plot a bit towards the end, though. I found the emotional stuff to be with the family side rather than the potential relationship between Joe and Susan. I did shed a few tears though, so it must have worked its magic.

But the film itself? That was an odd one. It's really not a very good film. Terrible story, the worst special effects, and not a particularly good script either, but somehow it works. You just get to know and love the characters, the three girls and Bosley, and they do interact well with each other. By the end, you are rooting for them to win the day.

When we signed up for BT Sport, I figured it would be one of those things that would be exciting for a week or so, and then eventually become a forgotten about channel – or in this case, set of channels. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We’ve watched endless hours of content from the telecommunications broadcaster, and although not all of it appeals (ultimate fighting is not my cup …

Google have finally taken the plunge and announced they will be building their own self-driving cars, rather than attempting to adapt existing machinery to be self-sufficient. It makes sense, after testing out the viability of the concept, to then start from the ground up and create a new vehicle. The design is a bit bubble car, but if it serves the purpose, there’s always room for improvement on that front. …

Whilst pounding the streets of Dublin, we stumbled across a section of disused quay that was being redeveloped. An impressive theatre sits on the waterfront, whilst out on the waves, a rig has been set up to allow enthusiasts to wakeboard. I love these little spots where there would otherwise be no particular use for the water, and there’s not enough room to get up to speed with a boat. …

Whilst avoiding the internet over the last week or so, I was very heartened to see this pop up in my Twitter mentions. I love Bibendum, with his endless smiling face and happy, happy wave. It really cheered me up, and thus it occurred to me that what the world is missing is an app that sends you a daily Bibendum greeting. Just a different picture delivered direct to your …

Robert Redford single-handedly holds the screen for the full hour and forty, it's like Cast Away but even more extreme. It's so quiet and so intense, even the calm moments have you gripped in case something goes wrong.