Ghost: Just a Blogging Platform It's about time there was a bit of competition in the blog-hosting space. I am quite ingrained in Wordpress these days, but always looking to try something new.

My bread-making skills are still very basic, and although I keep meaning to practice more, it is such a stop-start and lengthy process that I never get round to it. Nevertheless, when I bought a loaf tin for my cherry cake, I decided I should probably try and make a loaf of bread - it would be rude not to do so! I delved into my copy of Paul Hollywood's …

30 abandoned places that look truly beautiful An incredible look at some former buildings that have been left behind by humans and reclaimed by nature. Some are eerie, some are gorgeous, some fascinating - a great collection to look through.

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 …

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 …

Passing by Jodrell Bank, paused for a mega hailstorm to move away. Quite the day for upwards observation.

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 …

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 …

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. There are plenty of critics to this - it's …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …