Last weekend, I wrote up my reaction to the second episode of the latest series of Sherlock (got another post coming on the final episode just finding the time/gathering my thoughts), and prompted this reaction. Thank you for the wonderful SPOILER. GOOD JOB. Ever heard of a spoiler warning? Thankfully, I have a pretty prominent spoiler alert at the very top of the post, so I feel like I did …

I used to always tune out when I heard talk of Netflix. They are prominent sponsors of a lot of good podcasts I listen to, but the service was never available in the UK. It sounded like heaven - pay a reasonable monthly subscription and get access to anything you want to watch. Films and TV, you could watch the same thing over and over, or whizz through fifty different …

Mr C was ready to watch Toy Story 3 as soon as it was available but unfortunately, I couldn't remember anything about the first two. Hence we had to wait until we'd watched both the original movie and the first sequel before enjoying this third one. We've had mixed feelings about Pixar and their sequels in the not-too-distant past, but Toy Story seems to have done okay so far. I was a bit reticent as I know a lot of people said it was weepy, and I didn't want to be awkward. But after a hard weekend, we were happy to sit back and enjoy the toys.

Matchett's three books follow distinct paths - the first an entire year with a championship winning team and the third a look at how to put together a fast race car. This second book focuses on life as part of the pit crew. From getting the job, through winning and losing as a team, to desperately trying to get out, the book expands on its predecessor with more experiences from the F1 paddock.

The first series of this adaptation of Sherlock featured something of a sandwich of episodes, where the first and last were epic, and the centre episode was a bit of a letdown. We're talking letdown in ridiculous terms, of course, where the worst Sherlock is still far better than the best of other TV, but when compared to itself, it was a bit of a dip. As it turns out, …

This week has been a complete bust. I came down with a sore throat that developed into a cold and kept me indoors all week. I was starting to feel better on Friday, and thought I might get out today, but I think it might be moving into my chest and I want to be a bit more precautionary than reactionary. I know January hates me, and I don't want …

We've had a look at Mr C's top five films of the 2011 year gone by, and now it's time to put those 12 months firmly to bed with his top five songs released in 2011. It was not such a great year for music in our household, with very little grabbing our attention. In fact, Mr C's shortlist was only seven in the first place. However, we've pulled out …

Mmm, Jacqueline Wilson. I'm secretly very glad that my reading list is giving me an excuse to consume these books. They only take an hour and it's always a glorious experience. I've always loved Ms Wilson's work, since I was a kid, but she's so prolific that I missed out on a lot of the stuff, and then got too old for it.

There's plenty of whimsy to love in the book, but equally, some of the confusion can be quite frustration. There can be page after page of nonsense, confusion, rhyming and contradictory conversation, people always talking in circles. While there is similarities to the whimsical nature of Winnie-the-Pooh, it's all quite less warm and cuddly. Alice gets so frustrated with the characters, the creatures answer back to her, and you feel her stubborn nature stamping her foot all the time. She's more than capable of giving as good as she gets.

Following hot on the heels of the Friends edition, Celebrity Mastermind featured a set of questions on The Archers, courtesy of politician Jacqui Smith. She had chosen to answer questions on the long-running soap from the 1980s to today, and I did not do very well at all. I got 5 questions right, and whilst I knew a few more of the answers but couldn't think, I really wasn't particularly …

After running on New Year's Day, I started my new regime - which essentially was "running more." I wasn't sure exactly what the plan was, but I had found a suitable route for the less than daylight post-work hour. Having said that, it's amazing how quickly the daylight extends once the shortest day of the year is out the way. So, I ran on Bank Holiday Monday to try and …

It must be a reasonably good film for us to have watched it again, and it's a good action-packed romp with some amusing dialogue throughout. The stereotypes bugged me more this time round. His spy bunker is in the shed, and hers is behind the cooker. Equally, they spent a lot of time saying how much better she was than him, when it really should be a partnership. There were some bits of the story that you could pick holes in, but overall it was fun, and that's what we were after.

It was good, I really quite liked it. My big concern is that the character works incredibly well in the 1940s setting, but I'm not so sure I'm going to like the character in the present day. It was all so very Forever Young, albeit much less corny. It was much better than Hulk, and just better than Thor.

I wasn't particularly aware of this book before I started reading it, but I was gratified to see that it was relatively short and delightfully written. In fact, the writing was the best part of it - expert prose, really well crafted and thought out. Not a word appeared to be out of place or without reason. Descriptions were great and it painted a nice picture of the time and place.

The end of the year is always a bit review heavy, but you're bound to have room for just a couple more. It's time for Mr C's annual look at his favourite films and music of the year. You know what I think about all the films we watch because I blog them incessantly, but Mr C lives through most of them as well, so it's only fair that he …

I became aware of the latest series of Celebrity Mastermind because someone tweeted about a contestant this very evening choosing The Archers as their specialist subject. I had a quick peek at what the other celebrities have been choosing as their subjects and was super duper excited to see someone had picked Friends, the first two series. If there is something I know more about, I can't think of it! …

I liked the start of the book - it's always intriguing to have an out of sorts child and take them to a new environment to get fit and well. Similar to the story in Goodnight Mister Tom. It was also interesting to see Mary find out about Colin and help him to change as well, despite them both being the most obstinate creatures that have ever lived!

My Archers posts are always a few days late, which means in Ambridge, Will and Nic are already married. I, however, don't listen to the new month until I've published this (it's kind of an incentive) and thus I am left on the eve of the big day. We've heard far too much drunk rambling from Nic on her hen night, and we've heard Ian and Caroline take custody on …

A week or so ago, I posted a picture of my bulging to-do list with the promise that I would get lots of things done over the Christmas period and shrink it, substantially. That was the plan. Of course, I was unexpectedly working over Christmas, which didn't help matters, so it's no surprise to see that the list still looks rather large. However, I did manage to complete a lot …

When I read The Colour of Magic, I wasn't particularly looking forward to it and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the best thing I'd ever read but was entertaining enough. There are plenty more Pratchett works on the Life List reading list, but I thought if I was going to read book four, I should probably try and read the ones in between. I do love keeping things in order.

I'm not the first to say it, but it bears repeating. It is not fair to every other TV show on earth that Sherlock is on this early in the year. What a standard to be setting. The series returns for a second run, and whilst I am still not 100% comfortable with the 3x90 minute schedule, it certainly allows for some of the best possible storytelling. We're thrown right …

I had intended to write a wrap up of the 2011 Strictly Come Dancing competition, but sort of didn't and then it was too late. However, by popular demand, and given that Strictly is in the news today, it seems worthwhile finishing up the batch of posts with a belated summary. In my half time report, I predicted the finalists as Chelsee, Jason and Alex. Two out of three isn't …

My Life List is now something like two years old, and rather than the whole New Year's Resolution thing, I like to have a quick look back at the things achieved this year, and then a quick look forward at what I hope the year ahead will bring. It's fair to say that this year has not been as full of Life List success as I would have hoped, mostly …

I ran on Christmas Day, and now I have run on New Year's Day as well. I had plans to run in between but as ever, they didn't quite work out. Already, amazingly, the daylight is creeping in of an evening. As soon as we had the shortest day, it felt like the difference could be seen - but perhaps that is a psychological thing. I have found a route …

I really enjoyed this one, although there is so much Spielberg in it, it's almost embarrassing. The train crash is absolutely incredible, we watched it several times over, agog every time. The ending was a bit less inspiring and I really was irritated that they revealed the alien. It wasn't so bad, but I hate that they worked so hard to keep it hidden and then eventually revealed it, with its massive nostrils and everything. Oh well.

One of the intriguing things about the LibriVox project is that all the works are from the public domain and all the recordings are put straight back in there as well. Hundreds of recordings are completed and head straight into the public domain for anyone to do anything with. It's a decision that creates plenty of debate over in the forums, but is ultimately a good one. The works are …

A Christmas Carol is a perennial favourite, the complete and utter definition of a classic and rightly so. Short and to the point, not filled with excess waffle, and with a fantastic journey from start to finish, the book grabs you and won't let you go. Of course, I can't read this without picturing every step as the Muppets version, which is perhaps unfortunate to the original, but a great time for me. Some of the word for word pieces make me smile, and the songs riff through my head as I go along.

I managed to finish watching the last five episodes of The Killing and have spent a little while pondering the entire prospect. Firstly, it wasn't until I had embarked on the second half of the series that I realised it was only ten episodes - half the length of the previous outing. That being the case, the end felt quite abrupt. I had been anticipating something a little more drawn …

I've read the first chapter of The Hobbit many times (see below), but never got to where the adventure really begins. It's a good story, far easier to understand than I expected - I may have been confusing it with the sprawling adventures in Lord of the Rings. My only complaint regarding the story itself is that there are too many dwarves - who can remember all those names, and who can distinguish between them? It's like trying to remember the reindeer.

Again, similar to Thor, it was better than I thought it was going to be but I do think it was the weakest of the ones we have seen so far. I liked that all the back story was gone before the opening credits were over, instead of dragging it all out in the sloooow fashion we have come to expect. There was a lot of chasing and running, which meant we never had time to get to know Bruce Banner.

It wasn't the worst film I've ever seen, but it did seem to strip away the essence of Herbie completely. Yes, it makes sense that he would look after a little old lady as best as possible, and he is certainly the kind of car to encourage a relationship and nudge it along if he can. But he's a racing car and the only bit of actual racing we saw was a weird game of chicken, and then chasing a man onto the ledge of a tall building. Very odd.

This year's Christmas special was in a difficult position - it had to be light enough to be enjoyed at prime time on the main festive day, but equally it had to hold enough gravitas to follow a very heavy series. I think this one managed to do a really good job, and improved on the fairy tale style of last year's Christmas outing. My only real complaint throughout the …

I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to. It was very beautiful and well done - the characters seemed good and interacted well together, although I didn't really find myself connecting with any of them. In fact, I felt most sorry for Loki and he was meant to be the bad guy. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours, and I'm glad that the Avengers business made us watch it, but I wasn't completely sold on Thor in the same vein as other comic book heroes.

Mmm, running on Christmas Day. There were just a few people out and about, mostly those walking their dogs. Gloriously quiet and only a little bit of drizzle. I hadn't actually intended to go out, but then I saw a couple of inspiration tweets from friends, including: If everyone's doing it, then I'm in! I went out very specifically with the desire not to go fast. I haven't run for …

A couple of days ago, I posted this story of a good deed to my Google+ account. You may have already read it, in which case you don't need to do so again - it's here word for word: Today I braved the crazy Christmas shoppers in the supermarket for my own regularly scheduled food purchases. I was not looking forward to it, I've seen a fight break out in …

A great sequel, I reckon. Almost instantly we were reminded of how fabulous the Tony Stark character is and I remembered how much I wanted to just watch a film of him going about his day to day business. Having said that, I did think that there was more time to revel in the character in the first movie, whereas this second one had more of a story - or more characters, at least - to pack in.

I was surprised at how well the film holds up, considering it is over 20 years old. Of course, animation ages differently to live action, and that probably helps. As an adult, I was slightly disappointed with how many similarities I could see between this and Back to the Future, but equally, that probably helps endear it to me more. It's a great film and I love it. Watching it as an adult hasn't ruined it for me, which is not always the case.

Here is my to do list looking quite a state. I have made it mostly hard to read because there are some quite fun and fabulous and secret upcoming things on there. Christmas provides a few days off, and I intend to get this list down to a more manageable size. It used to hover around the three quarters of a page length, and that I could deal with. I'm …

I've had my iPhone for almost two weeks now, and I love it. All those hideous and disgusting phrases like "it just works" and "it makes me want to do more with it" are all true. I've got posts in the pipeline (by that I mean in my mind) regarding the highs and lows of life with Siri and what a revelation the camera is, but a quick summary is... …

When I wrote my Life List, one of the first items on there was to bake the perfect loaf of bread. Then I watched two series' of the Great British Bake Off and realised that I am never going to be a very good baker. So, instead of making the same loaf over and over again in search of perfection, I thought I'd change the task. Instead, I'd like to …

So, first up, the new Batman trailer. The Dark Knight Rises I like the idea that this is a set of Batman stories - a trilogy of Batman, not trying to keep the brand alive forever, not trying to take it over and push it in a new direction forever, but just taking the characters and telling a story and then moving on. Of course, that is until a fourth …

It didn't ruin the first one, which is good. It couldn't ruin it really because it was the exact same film, just with some tweaks. They weren't left with a baby, but they did lose one of the party, he was found in a ridiculously obvious place, there was some kidnapping, some beating up and a lot of shouting and swearing. It was good, but because we'd already seen everything before, it wasn't great.

I'll be honest, my notes for this film are pretty rubbish. I didn't like the start very much - it was all quite obnoxious, loads of swearing and horrible people (bosses!). But, as soon as they started on their mission, it got a million times better. I pretty much started laughing and didn't stop.

A week or two ago, I posted about my favourite Quality Street options when presented with a tin of the delicacies. I had a few messages suggesting that Quality Streets were an unknown, but Roses were more popular. For example, Amy said: I have no idea what Quality Street is but I know what Roses are and I know what Cadbury Favourites are so I’m assuming they’re along the same …

I hadn't realised that the story went on to two generations, and was fascinated by the events that happened after Cathy died. I felt like the ending was quite depressing - the characters may have been content but it didn't feel like that was the best result they could have had. Still, that was in-keeping with the tone of the entire book so it wouldn't have been right to have a smiley happy ending.

Marvellous sequel. Even better than the first one, in fact. I do think there's a sneak preview of the whole 'creating a lot of extra characters for big bucks' here. It certainly is nowhere near as cynical as later sequels, however. One of those new characters is Wheezy, and who can hate Wheezy? I wasn't so keen on the cowgirl, but her horse was cute.

Finally, the second series of The Killing has begun airing on BBC4. I say finally, but as I watched the last series so recently, it doesn't seem all that long ago that I was cheering on Sarah Lund and friends to find the murderer. At the end of the first series, Lund walked out of the police station and into the sunshine - presumably to a happier and better life. …

It was better than I thought it would be, but not exactly the most exciting movie of all time. I had anticipated Hanks' character being a bit of a doofus but he wasn't, he was good, kind and smart. It seemed as though Roberts was going to be a Bad Teacher type but equally she was just going through her own problems. There were some funny moments, some interesting snippets of dialogue, and it was fascinating to watch the younger students reacting to the older man in their midst.

When I visited Edinburgh for my Alphabet Adventure, I very much liked it. Which is lucky, because the zoo have recently taken ownership of two pandas - on loan from China. I remember the Park & Ride bus stopping at the zoo on the way back, and I considered getting off but it didn't look all that impressive from the outside. Now, it is one of my top destinations! I …

This week, I caught sight of a public spat between Paul Irish and Jeffrey Zeldman - two heavyweights in web standards evangelism. I know of them both from a vague distance and I follow some of their work but I can't pretend to know anything about web standards. I'm not even 100% sure what the argument is about and I certainly don't know what a blue beanie is. My opinion …