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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The conversation that kicked off after my post earlier today made me even more sure that I've not been trying hard enough with Android. I can't really stress how much I want to stay on the Android platform, but equally I know for a fact I'd get more use out of the iPhone. Either way, I'm not going to be splashing out on either for a month or two yet, …