Film · March 7, 2013
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Blog · March 6, 2013
The alphabet in your browser game
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 …
Blog · March 4, 2013
The Archers - February 2013
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 …
Blog · March 3, 2013
2013 running diary - 73 of 500 kilometres
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 …
Film · March 3, 2013
Die Hard 2
Blog · March 3, 2013
Dance, pony, dance
Book · March 3, 2013
An Officer and a Gentlewoman by Heloise Goodley
Book · March 1, 2013
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Blog · February 28, 2013
The Antiques Roadshow gets even more interactive
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 …
Blog · February 27, 2013
Pocket F1 Handbook: Guide to the 2013 F1 Season now available on the iBookstore
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. …
Blog · February 27, 2013
The A-Z of the UK via Royal Mail stamps
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 …
Blog · February 26, 2013
Trailer Tuesday - A step towards Oblivion
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.
Book · February 26, 2013
Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg
Film · February 25, 2013
Lawless
Blog · February 25, 2013
A cold walk round Kingston Lacy
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 …
Film · February 24, 2013
Skyfall
Book · February 22, 2013
TimeRiders: City of Shadows by Alex Scarrow
Blog · February 20, 2013
Inspiration from the strangest of places - monkey tails for gadget stands
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 …
Book · February 20, 2013
A Chronology of Tech History by Tom Merritt
Blog · February 19, 2013
Trailer Tuesday - Life after LOST
Blog · February 18, 2013
Barcodes + movies = art
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 …
Book · February 18, 2013
Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal
Film · February 17, 2013
Looper
Book · February 16, 2013
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
Book · February 15, 2013
The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford
Book · February 14, 2013
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Blog · February 13, 2013
Sheldon's view on gift-giving
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, …
Blog · February 12, 2013
Trailer Tuesday - Catching up
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 …
Book · February 12, 2013
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Blog · February 10, 2013
A Panda cupcake or two
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, …
Blog · February 10, 2013
Introducing Pocket F1 Handbook: Guide to the 2013 F1 Season
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 …
Blog · February 9, 2013
House of Cards - early thoughts
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 …
Film · February 7, 2013
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Blog · February 3, 2013
The Archers - January 2013
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. …
Blog · January 31, 2013
2013 running diary - 29 of 500 kilometres
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, …
Blog · January 30, 2013
Easy bake croissants-ish
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 …
Film · January 30, 2013
The Watch
Film · January 30, 2013
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Film · January 30, 2013
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Book · January 22, 2013
The Garden Cottage Diaries by Fiona J. Houston
Book · January 21, 2013
Gently Does It by Alan Hunter
Book · January 19, 2013
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Book · January 18, 2013
Rapid Response by Lysa Walder
Blog · January 17, 2013
Research (and distraction) has always been at your finger tips
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, …
Book · January 15, 2013
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Blog · January 14, 2013
It all started with the Big Bang... BANG!
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 …
Blog · January 14, 2013
The Killing III - Waving goodbye to Sarah Lund
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 …
Blog · January 13, 2013
Chocolate butterfly cupcakes
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 …
Book · January 13, 2013
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Blog · January 11, 2013
Friday Five - Mr C's top five films from 2012
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 …