A very interesting premise this. A future, not too far removed from our own, in which the worst of Britain’s prisoners are dumped on an island and essentially left to fend for themselves. With a minimum of input from the outside world, they fend and survive, with rival gangs, a dictatorship and plenty of internal politics.

I’ve been put off reading this one before because of the amount of local dialect - I find a bit of written dialect fun but too much and I start to zone out. Nevertheless, I made a concerted effort to get past that and found there was actually less than I had thought! Typical.

I remember when I first saw podcasting guru Leo Laporte talk about the Withings scale, that tracked your weight and tweeted about it every day. I thought he was completely mental, sharing such personal information, although the effect of peer pressure when it comes to healthy intentions has been proven. What I didn’t think was crazy was the concept of improved smarter gadgets tracking what you do.

During some recent summer community fun over on Sidepodcast, the challenge arose to bake something F1 related. Given the wealth of choice of recipes available to me, and a limited amount of time, I went for something I’ve already made in the hopes I could do it better. A long while back, I baked an F1Minute cake, to celebrate a podcasting anniversary. It went down very well, although it was my first attempt at icing something and I went a little over the top in terms of thickness.

I think I must have picked this up in a Kindle sale because it’s not my normal kind of purchase. I whipped through it quite quickly, it’s an easy read in terms of style and writing, but the content is where it gets tricky. Telling the story from a mother and a daughter’s perspective, we’re granted the inside line to what happens when a terrible car accident changes the family’s life forever.

Loved it. I was so wrong about the trailer, we had more of Tony Stark’s awesome wit, alongside some rather more vulnerable moments as well. Trevor was brilliant, and having a rather more human enemy (if enhanced in a terrifying fashion) was good to bring Tony back down from ‘what happened in New York.’ I would have rolled my eyes at the involvement of a kid, normally, but they handled it well and there was some great dialogue between the two. All in all, a success, and the two hours absolutely flew by which is a sign of a really good film.

It was actually better than I remembered it being, funny in places if naturally a little childish. I thought the effects, animatronic more than anything, held up really well - we just both had issues with the idea of an ant taking on a scorpion. I love the concept of giant stuff, it’s a bit of a contrived premise, but it’s a fun result nevertheless. I hadn’t remembered quite how gross the film is, lots of goo and falling in puddles and stuff. But there’s a happy ending, with all family issues resolved, so that’s good.

The premise of this spoke to me, as I think of myself of something of a reluctant traveller. I like to see new and exciting things, but I very much enjoy my home comforts. Here we have the tale of Bill who, for some reason, is talked into going with his friend to climb a mountain in Ethiopia - a mountain that has a location no one is quite sure of. Some even doubt whether it actually exists.

The trailers I am so not sure where I stand on this trailer for Getaway - it looks good and intriguing but I just don’t understand why someone would want someone to drive quite so much. Also, I’m not sure what kind of goody-two-shoes Disney persona Selena ever had, but she’s shedding it quickly.

This one has been growing on me ever since we watched it. At first, it seemed an overly complicated (to our tired brains, anyway) plot littered with rip-offs. It was visually stunning, and for that I was happy to keep watching and ignore the plot, but gradually it started to win me round. It started to feel less like it was stealing from other films and more like an homage to all the best bits of sci-fi history. Even after watching, I’ve been thinking about it here and there, realising some of the smaller pieces of the plot and reliving the best bits in my head. If I posted this in a few days or weeks, maybe it would be up to a five!

We thought this was going to be like Bridesmaids, and although it seemed like a mashup of that and The Hangover, it wasn’t really the rip-off we anticipated. It was actually quite funny in places, and although the story had a bit of a sickly ending, it was good to journey with these not-all-that-likeable characters as they navigated the tricky waters of friendships and reunions and moving on.

I’ve always been put off from reading this because of the idea of so much political talk in it, but considering some of the other classic works I have succeeded in reading through my Life List challenge, I thought I could give it a go. It’s true that I probably missed a lot of the more political aspect, the comparisons between France and England, and all that.

Did you ever wonder whether using the lines from pop songs would help to find you a date? Well, whether you did or you didn’t, someone has put the theory to the test for you, and the video evidence makes for some amusing viewing. On the Vevo YouTube channel, there is a series of videos called Lyric Lines, in which Tommy Wooldridge takes specific lines from pop songs – one video per artist – and tries them out on the ladies.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. The introduction gives away a lot of what Victor has done during his life, and I was worried it was going to be an improbable mass of incidents, talked up to seem interesting. It was nothing like that. The book focuses on the army years of Victor’s life for the first two thirds, and then the final third is what happened to him afterwards.

Overall, I thought this was a good, strong movie - entertaining in the right places, moving in others, and with plenty of action to move the story along. I did think it got a bit too violent in places, and some of it was a bit grim to watch, but I suppose that’s just trying to be hard-hitting. It also felt like it was missing any serious chemistry, between any of the main players.

I have tried to read this many times but never really got past the first few chapters. This time I made a concerted effort and got to the end, and I found it was really good! It’s so nice to see one of the early vampire works, especially now that they are so prevalent in popular culture at the moment. It’s fascinating to see most of the book taken up with the characters dealing with the situation, without really knowing or believing what it is.

The trailers Seen three good trailers this week, the first of which is for The Monuments Men. This is George Clooney and Matt Damon sharing screen time again, which can only be a good thing. The film itself looks good, one of those that is entertaining if not perhaps completely historically accurate. Next up another trailer for the second Thor film. More of the same, it looks like.

When I saw this book in a Kindle sale, I knew I wanted to read it - detailing the history and transformation of bits and pieces of the English language, but in a fun and not even slightly stuffy fashion. It was exactly why I expected it to be and a really good read.

This past weekend, I headed towards Marwell Zoo for something of a family meetup. It was a nice day, the rain held off with just a few spots threatening but then scampering away. I took a few photos but mostly wandered around chatting and wondering why the animals are always asleep when I go to see them. It was slightly disappointing to be at a zoo quite a few hundred miles away from where there’s a potential baby panda going to make an appearance soon. But it’s not like anyone really knows what’s going on there - the panda may or may not be pregnant, with another panda that may or may not be the father, and no one will known until a baby panda magically pops out.

Considering what a classic and well-loved film this is, I was a bit disappointed. It certainly was good once the job actually started, and the Minis starting careering about all over the place. But it was quite slow to begin, and Charlie didn’t seem all that nice a character really, I wasn’t completely sure I wanted him to succeed.

Ruined! This was such a good film right up until the very last scene, where it crashed and burned. What had been mystery, magic and great twists, turns, flashbacks, flashforwards and everything in between, turned into something completely different with just the one big reveal. There was a review in the critics section on Wikipedia that sums it up: ‘I love a good science fiction story; just tell me in advance.’

Last weekend, the BBC confirmed just who would be playing the brand new Doctor, the twelfth incarnation. You’ve no doubt heard by now that it is Peter Capaldi who is going to be on the other end of Matt Smith’s regeneration, and the reaction I’ve seen so far has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s a stark contrast to when Smith was presented as the Eleventh Doctor. A startlingly young, unknown actor, which immediately created something of a backlash amongst certain Who fans. This time, the casting is older, established and a very interesting choice.

I approached this with some trepidation, knowing it to be another long Russian book. It was surprisingly good. I said of War and Peace that I enjoyed the peace plot far more than the military sections, and Anna Karenina is just like W&P but with all the war taken out. There are still political and philosophical sections, but it’s really about the characters and their trying to make their way in the world.

Another post about how things are made, after the video about Steinway pianos, but this time we’re in the world of automotives. The Tesla Model S is a somewhat revolutionary product, and we know the automotive industry is high-profile in robotics, but this video showed some of the amazing robots at work making the Tesla cars. The machines that move the cars along following magnetic paths are amazing. Plus, the robot that puts the seats in and then changes to put the windows on too actually blew my mind.

As mentioned in my Snowdon post, I had four hours to while away before going up the mountain. Ordinarily, I think I would have gone on to another location, I had plenty of options of places to visit, but I was a bit worried about getting back in time. Somehow, I’d managed to time my mountain trip on the same day as the Snowdon International Race – a crazy event where athletes actually run up a mountain. They were putting up the required barriers and cones as I arrived, and I knew it might be tricky to get back and/or park, and having spent what I did on the train tickets, I didn’t want to miss it.

The trailers There seems to be a trend in Hollywood at the moment to delve behind the scenes and show exactly how other films are made. Along with Hitchcock, we now have a look at the magical world of Walt Disney, and an explanation of how Mary Poppins came to the screen. This trailer pretty much gives away the whole film but it looks really good. Apparently this is the first time Mr Disney himself has been portrayed on screen, and who better than Tom Hanks?

It took a good few chapters for the sprawling, chattering nature of the prose here to really grab me, but once it did I was totally hooked. Xavier Ireland, reeling from a tragedy in his home country of Australia, has made his way to London to hide away from the world. He’s a moderately famous late night radio DJ but otherwise has few relationships and likes it that way.

I saw this video on Kottke recently, the making of a Steinway piano. I am obsessed with pianos, always upset when one gets smashed or beaten in a film. I play a bit, and dream of owning something slightly more impressive than the keyboard that is currently gathering dust. I’d never given much thought to how a piano is actually made, and this video is quite a revelation. I love that it is voiced by John Steinway himself, in an audio recording from a tour in the ’80s. It just shows how the procedure hasn’t changed much, and even with so much progress in technology and factory methods, there’s only so much you can automate when it comes to fine-tuning musical instruments.

After the film, I think I err more on the side that the first IS better than the second. They’re almost the same film, so the original has to have the edge, and the second has some even less savoury stuff in there. Anyway, there’s so much to love about this. Mustafa, ill-tempered seabass, Scott’s evil tendencies, and heaps more. We had quite a good time ripping Liz Hurley’s performance… I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s in a James Bond film, putting in her best performance. Bless her.

I loved it! I wasn’t sure about the opening scene, and then it felt like it took a while to really warm up after that but as it got going, it was really good. The characters were great, if slightly crazy, and their reactions to each stage of the heist felt realistic as well as amusing. It’s one of those films where you are rooting for them to pull off the plan, even though it’s blatant thievery but I liked the tiny little twist at the end. Recommended.

I watched about half of the first episode of the Zen TV series and gave up because it didn’t grab me. I picked up the book in a sale and thought I would try and see if it was any better. Sadly, it didn’t entertain me much more than the programme did. I read all the way to the end because I was curious about the whodunit part, but none of the characters were particularly interesting.

Let’s start with the good news – Kenton and Jolene are getting married! Such a lovely couple, they are, and it was so much fun hearing David worrying that Kenton was getting itchy feet. It was the exact opposite, and over a packet of cheese and onion crisps, he asked that crucial question. Lovely stuff. Fallon was brilliantly supportive, and hopefully Meriel won’t be too bossy, although purple is a good choice of colour.

The people were right! This one had promise - some good concepts, a couple of fun lines of dialogue and some jaw-dropping moments. Unfortunately they were all overdone. It felt as though they really wanted to make a spy film but had to do a Die Hard instead, the father-son moments were okay but there was nowhere near enough John McLane character, and the special effects were awesome for a moment and then drawn out for too long. How much super-slo-mo helicopter exploding does a person need to see? Also, I’m no radiation expert but the idea of going to Chernobyl and splashing around in some water didn’t seem all that good to me.

This was a surprisingly interesting book. I didn’t know what it was going to be about, and when I saw it started with the wanderings of a young child, I thought it was going to be like Dickens. It wasn’t though, instead it followed the intricate twists and turns of a love quadruple - two married couples and how they interact with each other.

Just two simple trailers this week, and both of them with the lovely Sandra Bullock. The first is Gravity, with some clips released recently that have been doing the rounds. When I first saw them, I thought it was for that Defying Gravity film and couldn’t remember Sandra being in that one. She’s not. This looks amazing, terrifying and a bit over-the-top all in one go. The other Sandy movie is completely different. With the ever-present Melissa McCarthy, it’s a good-cop bad-cop comedy called The Heat. I think this may already be out in cinemas but it’s new to me!

There’s a new Lego box about to be released, August 1st I think, and I suspect I might buy it. If I only managed to get my hands on the Flux Capacitor I would be happy, but oh how much fun to build a time machine. I really do think there should be more characters though. Biff, Lorraine, George and perhaps the dog, and we could do an actual re-enactment.

There were a few options for the S of my Alphabet Adventure, but when I thought of Snowdon, there could be no other contender. The point of the adventure is to go to new places, visit different things and get a view of the country I haven’t had before. Going up a mountain fits into all those categories and then some. I opted for the Snowdon Mountain Railway, because I thought climbing a mountain on my first go would be a bit much and… well, it was so hot.

I’d not really heard of this one before I sat down to read it, and once I was about halfway through I could see why. There are some interesting twists and turns to the story, but mostly I found it quite dull. The characters weren’t particularly engaging, all of them a bit irritating in their own way. It’s good to make sure your protagonists aren’t overly perfect, but then again you can make them too human as well.

Another good one, although I thought this had the same sort of pacing as the last - in that it took quite a long time to get going. It wasn’t helped that Pegg plays a slightly less affable character in this one, and the real bromance goodness doesn’t get going until about an hour into it. It did start to feel a bit far-fetched when the big reveals came in, but there were moments of genius. Whoever came up with the final fight being in a model village… gold star!

It’s been a while since I took one full week off work, but that’s what I did this past week, and boy did I pack in the activities! Wednesday and Thursday last week, Mr C and I went to Silverstone to watch some F1 cars while they were testing. We shared photos along the way via Twitter, and then gathered everything up at the end of the day in a dedicated post on Sidepodcast. Here are links to those posts, because I really like how creative we got with the photos and think it’s worth sharing - if you haven’t seen it already.

Just completely understand why this is declared an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Really enjoyed it, as I thought I might. The same quirky Spaced style, and a reunion between Jessica and Simon too! I thought the story took a while to get going, although it was fun seeing them in blissful ignorance whilst the world disintegrated around them. I thought it was going to be more parody, but actually this stood up very well in its own right. Plus, there was bonus Chris Martin as a zombie at the end! Genius.

I think I had higher hopes for this one than it eventually delivered. The two leads are quite good, but their relationship doesn’t really get believable until towards the end. It also didn’t take long until it became a direct rip-off of Planes, Trains and Automobiles - an unwanted passenger, a pair thrust together by circumstance, making their way across America by any means possible. A heartwarming ending, etc, etc. It was good, it just wasn’t as great as it could have been.

I wasn’t sure whether to read the book or see the film for this first, but as the book came afterwards, I wasn’t worried when we watched the film before I got round to reading. It turns out that the author, intelligence officer extraordinaire, didn’t really want to tell the story at all but the CIA declassified the mission as part of some anniversary celebrations. A film was made, and then this book followed, to tell how it really happened.

The Girl in the Fireplace takes us to 1700s France, for an adventure in history written by future showrunner Steven Moffat. It’s one that was incredibly popular when it first aired, and has an enduring quality to it - being about the people rather than the science, as is so often Moffat’s style. This time, we’ve got Mickey along for the ride, as Rose tries to figure out the complicated relationships she has with the two men in her life. Mickey is pretty excited about being on board for this trip, until naturally it all starts to go a bit wrong and gets a bit scary.

Since I’ve been catching up with my news and views on Feedly, I’ve been making good use of the “Save for Later” feature - particularly when I stumble across things I might want to blog about. I managed to scrawl out something on that New York swimming pool, but the rest just isn’t inspiring me for a full post. With that and the fact I’m struggling with the heat, I thought it might be better to round up some of the things I’ve saved recently in brief, rather than leave them languishing forever!

Over the top and ridiculous, this was fun to watch, a good popcorn movie, but not really anything to write home about. I enjoyed seeing Phillipe and Whitherspoon’s scenes together, just wondering what it must be like to have your husband act 100% better than you right at your face. It was laughably poor casting, as these 24 and 25 year olds were meant to be playing 17 year olds. It works for some people, but none of these looked like they were school kids.

I don’t remember much of this one either! Just like with the first, scenes rang a bell, like speed-reading books and leaking blood/oil/fluid everywhere, but I couldn’t have told you the plot or the characters or anything as it went along. It was fun, like the first, although I did think they pulled on the emotional strings a bit too much - if that countdown was such a big deal, and it did reach zero, he really shouldn’t have been able to come back, right?

This is not a good film, but I did enjoy watching it quite a lot. It has potential, the underlying idea is great and the way some of the scenes unfold is unique but perhaps not pushed to their best limit. I thought it was predictable but not in a hideous cliché kind of way. Cusack was very good as the monosyllabic damaged agent who does have a heart really. Not recommended at all, but still not a complete waste of time.

This was a bit of a weird one. It’s clearly got a great underlying story, the Jaws-style drama of man versus beast versus the sea. A Captain with a personal vendetta against a huge and unassailable whale gives our narrator a journey and adventure to go on, and that side of things is good.