As a kid, The Twits was never one of my favourite Dahl stories. It's all a bit grizzly with disgusting beards, trees with glue on and upside down monkeys. Great, imaginative stuff, but not really what I liked. Well, actually, the upside monkeys were okay. As an adult, this book is brilliant. Mostly because it ticks an item off my Big Read list, and only took half an hour to finish. Actually, it's a fine little story, typical Dahl. Two quite despicable creatures are truly awful to each other and to everyone around them, and eventually get their comeuppance, in a rather fitting fashion. Good-o.

A few days ago, Amazon announced two brand new stores for Kindle, bringing the total up to six individual destinations now. The two new countries added are Italy and Spain, via Amazon.it and Amazon.es. All three of my books are currently available in both, with any searches bringing up the results with Euro currency. Christine Blachford on the Italian store Christine Blachford on the Spanish store The two news stores …

It seems to be a time for history to start catching up with the villagers in Ambridge this month, with all kinds of long-lost relatives being unearthed and rediscovered. First up in the main show, it's all about Pat, Tony, Helen, Tom and what could be their new grandson/nephew. After Kylie appeared at the funeral for Ivy, she started talking about a brother and Pat got very suspicious. I don't …

I was so glad to get my hands on this book. I started reading the Inspector Frost series months ago, and going by Shelfari's series links, was expecting to read five installments. There were five available for the Kindle, all was well. Except, Wikipedia informed me of another - technically the fifth in a series of five - and lo and behold, there it was on Amazon, but not as an ebook.

It's starting to get quite tricky, and motivation to go out is hard. I gave it some thought and decided that the couple of weeks when I first stopped running quite so regularly were good because my body was like: "Oh, cool, I'm nice and rested, I'll go faster." Then, give it a few more weeks, and my body is now: "Oh, wait, you want me to go out? But …

This one lives up to its predecessors in being truly awful and also lots of fun at the same time. Somehow, Michael Bay managed to find someone worse than Megan Fox, which is pretty impressive. We often browse critics reviews after we've seen the film and found one that summed it up, essentially: Great CGI and visuals, but terrible dialogue, acting and storyline. The three things that make a good film all missing, but it was still interesting enough.

I wasn't really sure what to make of it to start with | it seemed to be two distinct parts. The fairy tale aspect, with Alice in Wonderland exploration and creatures, and then the horror of real life, with gruesome torture and many, many deaths. Who is that meant to be aimed at? Despite the bleak story and the ultimately very depressing ending, it was a fascinating watch. I enjoyed the subtitles and the fantasy aspect was fabulous. I did like it, but I don't really know how to put it into words.

After my posts just over a month ago, wherein I decided to give my Android phone one last chance to convince me to replace it with another similar model, I had some fantastic suggestions of apps to use. Dolphin Browser and Fast Reboot were a revelation to me, and made for some more interesting minutes spent browsing. However, the irritations are still there, and after six weeks, I finally made …

It is that time of year again, the one where the seasonal aisle in the supermarket becomes full to bursting with sweet treats - chocolate and Christmas puddings galore. In honour of the occasion, and because wherever I turn there appears to be a new tin of Quality Street, Roses or those Miniature Hero things, here are my favourite five Quality Street sweets. Fudge. Clearly, because it is just like …

After the body-swapping of the first DT episode proper, we know are faced with the Doctor swapping his accent - for Tennant's native Scotland. It filters in and out, is startlingly out of place to begin with but soon feels very natural so that I didn't notice he'd stopped, even though Queen Victoria did. It's always a risk for Doctor Who to take on historical figures, sometimes it works very …

I'm not sure I completely understand why The Shell Seekers is on the BBC's Big Read list - it's good, but it doesn't feel all that special to me. The story centres around one older lady, and her extended family, with each chapter following a different character to build a bigger picture and tell the history of the protagonist.

To celebrate 1000 episodes of F1Minute, I baked a cake and iced it. It was my first attempt at icing, and the whole concept is quite new to me. I was inspired by a colleague at work who makes some pretty outstanding baked goods, and is the go-to person when it comes to celebration cakes. I think at the moment she has orders from at least three people for at …

This film was awful, terrible, sad, depressing and downright difficult. Which, of course, makes it amazing. It's the first movie in a long, long time that genuinely moved me and although a lot of it was difficult to watch, it was never boring. For a 2hr+ film, that's pretty impressive. My only complaint is that there were too many characters who were quite indistinguishable from each other. My nickname trick only worked for about three or four of them.

The BBC have introduced a new trailer for their Christmas output - well, it's more like one of those feel-good ones that has no specific content and just a lot of famous faces beckoning you to stay with the Beeb over the festive season. Works for me! I can only say that seeing The Doctor playing Twister with a Cyberman may be the best three seconds of TV that I've …

As their Book of the Week recently, the iBookstore featured the new Michael Crichton novel called Micro. Except, it's not really a fully baked Crichton book. I'm a massive Michael fan, Timeline is one of my favourite books of all time. Some of his later works turned out to be a bit hard work, but Jurassic Park, Congo and Sphere are all great pieces. I was very sad when he …

Really enjoyed this one. I didn't really know the story at all well, although have vague images in my head of the TV adaptation. I thought the gruff old man was going to be more scary but actually he was an absolute darling. What was scary was the level of child abuse that was detailed in the story. I couldn't quite believe parts of it, but it was such a great journey seeing Willie become Will and be brought out of his shell.

This week, Jeffrey Tschiltsch posted a fabulous update on Google+ that pondered the concept of stories within racing games, particularly the new Formula 1 epic from Codemasters. Here's a sample of Jeffrey's thoughts: So after finishing +Christine Blachford's Between the Lines (Formula Primo Confidential) last night I suddenly realized what Codemasters' F1 2011 is missing in its career mode: a compelling story line. The generic emails, state-the-obvious "headlines" and contract …

Oh dear. It's hard to know where to start really. Firstly, I suppose, it is important to say that I was convinced this film was going to ruin the entire Cars franchise for me. It didn't do that. There was enough of the fabulously simple Mater and the racy arrogance of Lightning to keep that essence. The trouble is, there wasn't the story to do them justice.

There were a lot of characters, I'll grant you that, but there were only a few that really mattered and they were absolutely fascinating. I loved the twists and turns of the story, even though it was blatantly obvious where it was going to end. It sometimes got frustrating that Bathsheba couldn't just swallow her pride and do what everyone could see was the right thing to do, but hey, that's where fiction comes from.

I think the Beeb would say the halfway point was a week or so ago, but I'm working on the fact that 14 dancers started the competition and only seven remain. Several will make it into the final, but here's my thoughts on the dancing so far. Those that have been knocked out Edwina Currie I sort of missed her big outburst during the show itself, but wasn't particularly sad …

In the end, I quite liked it. Ferrell was very good, combining the nice personality that will keep you sympathising with the troubled thoughts of an alcoholic. My main problem with the film just stems from the very premise of being locked out of your house | particularly when she wasn't even in there. I just can't get my head round it. Throwing someone out is one thing. Locking them out of their own life for five days with no word is something completely different. Still, the kid was really cute and I liked the story.

It's been a pretty tiring week and I wasn't really in the mood to go running today, but I pulled on my trainers anyway. Nice and foggy outside to really lift the spirits, but once I started it wasn't too bad. It's also been something of a frustrating week, so getting out there and clearing my head was kinda good. I wasn't particularly fast, but I also wasn't expecting my …

Today I was supposed to go to the next destination for my A-Z Alphabet Adventure. I have reached the letter O, and I had intended to visit Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. My adventures had come to something of a standstill until recently, as it's been a busy and thrifty latter half of the year. However, I was aware that Osborne House closed over winter, and that if …

In Time This concept seems very intriguing - not quite the time travel that I love so much, but using time as a unit of currency instead. I've never quite been convinced of Justin Timberlake in the lead role, but he was good in the Social Network, so I can't hold his Michael Jackson dance moves against him. The three women of different generations all looking the same freaks me …

I don't understand the chemistry or attraction between Hugh and Andie, but I love pretty much all the conversations he has with his friends. It's certainly clear that Richard Curtis improved on this as he wrote more films | because they are all quite a similar story and this is a fantastically rich base to build on.

After last week's experiment/disaster, I was back on my home turf this weekend. I didn't manage to run at all during the week like I had hoped. It was a week full of sleepless nights and so early mornings were something of a no-no. I find myself sitting at work and dreaming of how good it will feel to have done a workout for the day. The reality is something …

The Red Arrows have had a terrible year. I had never heard of a Red Arrows pilot dying before, and now we have seen two fatalities in the space of four months. Although there may be slight consolation in the fact they "died doing what they loved", there's no escaping the fact that it's a tragedy. It's made worse by the fact that the Red Arrows is a display of …

I go through earphones at a rate of knots. Sometimes they lose the sound in one ear, occasionally I leave them places, often one end of the cable breaks and becomes unusable. Considering the amount I use them, I'm okay with that really. They have become more of a consumable than anything else. I've tried expensive ones, I've tried cheap ones, and in the end, I just go with whatever …

365 F1 Stories chronicles a tale from Formula One's vast history for every single day of the year, with a variety of different topics on offer. From driver birthdays, to important races, to those little moments you might have missed, there's plenty on offer in the books. If you're not completely convinced, or have bought the books but haven't read through them all, there's a quick way of getting a …

It's been a while since Baby Panda Thursday ceased to be updated on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean that I've stopped looking at all things cute and panda shaped. Lots of people tweet me panda related items and I love it! I also particularly love apps and games that involve pandas. If your app has a cute panda as the icon, then you're very likely to make a …

Really quite liked it. It being directed by Favreau was a surprise but I think he did a fabulous job. It was a bit long, but thankfully it wasn't too drawn out - as quite a lot of these 'how they became who they are' stories can be (see: Batman, Bond). I loved the character, I know he was meant to be not very likeable to begin with, and his choice of career is questionable, but I wasn't lying when I said I could watch a whole film of the rich guy just doing what he does.

I remember starting this book a couple of times when I was younger, and could never really get past the calories counts and stuff. That kind of thing was never really interesting to me. I also vaguely recall watching the start of the second film and being completely appalled and disgusted at her behaviour about getting married, when she'd only been with the chap for a few weeks.

I can't honestly say that I enjoyed the book, but there were bits of it I liked. Just like the concept of Catch 22 itself, Joseph Heller's writing was repetitive and full of riddles. Sometimes I wasn't sure I knew what was going on, and I'd have to read a conversation several times to make sure I could follow it. Other times it was easy to keep up.

Back in August, I wrote about my new enthusiasm for being a football fan, after my first visit to a match earlier in the year. At the end of summer, I was all excited about following along at home - checking in with the app, catching up with Match of the Day, and trying to keep up with the scores. I figured now was as good a time as any …

After my successes in the last two weeks, I thought I'd treat myself with a visit to the countryside. Rather than pounding the pavements and wondering whether people are looking out their windows and laughing at me, I decided to head towards the trees. This meant getting in my car, and for a while I worried that having to drive to a destination would lessen my enthusiasm - there's something …

Aww, it was good. It amazes me that this film is 16 years old because it still looks amazing. In the trivia, there were some notes about things they couldn't animate | hair and water being two prime ones. We know they sorted hair because they did Monsters Inc, and we know they sorted water because they did Finding Nemo.

Mr C and I differ so much on this film. He loved it and I pretty much hated it. There were some good moments in it. Some. I really quite liked the friend | although was disappointed in how mean Cameron D's character was to her. I also adored the gym teacher, but didn't think he should be attracted to a witch like her.

Over the past few years, I've had my own personal campaigns against some of the major national holiday celebrations. I've vented my distaste over Valentine's Day, birthdays, and of course, Christmas. Ultimately, my aim has always been to get people to accept the fact that I don't like these things even though they do. It's a personal choice, and they're free to get on with their celebrations, leaving me not …

It's funny, I'm sure I've read this before. I've read most of Roald Dahl's output, although not all. For Matilda, I knew the concept - extremely bright child, terrible parents, some kind of magical powers. I also knew that it all ended happily ever after, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what happened in between.

The first chapter was a little worrying, it was quite drawn out and slow going. A terrorist attack on a plane is a hard-hitting way to begin a book, but somehow it was neutered by the time it took to get there - especially as we knew it was going to happen from the blurb. That aside, though, the rest was well-written - the odd proofing error here and there, but nothing that detracted from the story too much. There was good detail, not enough to be too graphic but plenty to immerse yourself in the story. The pacing was good, and that's crucial for a thriller.

The big news this month in Ambridge is that Clive Horrobin is back. He's getting much more attention in Ambridge Extra which returned in October (more on that later), but his appearance is reverberating around the whole village, in the main show as well. I am aware of Clive's work, but haven't actually heard him in the show before, and he seems like a nasty chap even when he's supposedly …

Oh, it was so very, very disappointing! The premise, the underlying concept, all good, and I really quite enjoyed the first hour | up until the point they went into the library. They were building it up as a sort of thriller, scary music, and tension rising for what could only be a jump or two, but then it was all gone in the crashing down of half a ton of water.

A while back, I discussed the new Sims Social game - a Facebook only game that was clearly developed to generate cash whilst fostering relationships at the same time. I wasn't sure about it at all back then, but was willing to give it a few more days. I have played it quite a lot since then, for a week or so I was checking in every day. It is …

I really, really enjoyed it. I said at the top I thought it was going to be silly, and it was, but it wasn't too crazy which can sometimes put me off. I was laughing almost from the very beginning | the opening credits where he gets lost. I liked that a lot of the jokes were unexpected, even if they had some pretty obvious build up. Rowan Atkinson was excellent, and it was fun seeing Natalie Imbruglia. I don't think it's worthy of a 5, but I liked it very much.

Two weeks into my new and sparse running routine, and somehow I am managing to run better than ever. I cannot explain this. Last week, I was desperate to go out, I was feeling all cooped up and ready to run. I wasn't 100% sure how far I was going to go when I first headed out, because it was the first run I'd done for a while, but eventually …

In my school days, one of my very best friends introduced me to two important things. First, Doritos and dip. Mmm. That's a staple of our Film Watch evenings these days, so if it wasn't for that early introduction, I don't know what we'd be munching on. The second thing was Tomb Raider. We used to wrap blankets around us, sit on the living room floor, and pass a laptop …

When Amazon announced their new line of products - ereaders and tablets all - we decided it was about time we became a Kindle-owning household. I've never really been fussed about the Kindle really, settling for the gazillion apps I have spread around the office. There's never a time I'm very far from a book these days. Still, the new range of products made them more enticing, and as a …

It's a great tale, though, following Flora as she heads down to some distant relatives and completely turns their lives around. I'm still not 100% sure how she does it, because the only real influence she has on anyone is buying the dress and making Elfine look glamorous. She has a chat with Aunt Ada but we never get to find out what she said, and we never get to find out what happened in the woodshed.

I've been using the RunKeeper app for a while now, and aside from the odd GPS related issue (mostly to do with my phone), it's been a dream. Not content with providing me with statistics, maps, graphs and plenty of motivation, RunKeeper went one step further and gave me a platform to share my story. The RK blog features the inspirational tales from their so-called Fitness Freaks. There have been …

Somewhere, in the dusty corners of my mind, I recall watching the film of this book and not being particularly bothered about it. The book, I'm glad to say, is much better. Written as a memoir, and told from the perspective of an older woman looking back on how her life unfolded, there's a friendly and casual air to the story - but with a hint of something still being held back.