I don't know much about fashion. I'm the kind of person that has a few staple items, and a few other bits I love and that's about it. I detest clothes shopping, but I don't mind ogling some of the sites where people show off their outfits each day. I found this video, which takes the idea of a staple to extremes. To help raise money for charity, Sheena set …

It took me a while to get back into it, remember the characters and who did what in the previous book, but the story gets off to quite a slow start, allowing you time to get your head back in the Panem world. I wasn't totally sold on the first half, the emphasis on the fake love was too much - I never believed it would solve anything, I'm confused why a smart girl like Katniss would think that.

I'm a bit torn on this one because when it was good, it was very, very good. Unfortunately the film was very up and down and there were some bits where I was wondering what on earth we had started watching. The beginning, in particular, is very drawn out, and quite heavy on the religion | even though faith doesn't really seem to play much of a part in the story itself.

Stumbled across this video from March last year of a proposed underground mansion. Actually there are two videos, the first is a report from Granada which gives a clearer idea of what the mansion is all about. The second video has more images and less chatter from irritating presenters - it's actually got no sound at all which is a little disconcerting. Here's the first though: Video no longer available. …

There's plenty to guffaw at | perhaps a bus really could jump over a gap like that, but it really wouldn't look like that when it landed. How can they scrape past all those cars and still stay above 50? No matter. Keanu is at his grumpy best, and if you discount the irritating mushy stuff, which is thankfully only a couple of scenes, then it's my perfect film.

For those of us that watched the 2007 season, we already know how this story ends, but Hamilton uses his journalistic skills to delve behind the headlines we might have already seen and find out what made those involved make some of the decisions they did. It's a remarkably unbiased piece of writing, considering the high emotions and questionable actions detailed along the way, and there are no significant conclusions drawn at the end. That's by no means a bad thing, the book simply gives the reader the tools to make their own judgement.

The final stop on my Alphabet mini-tour (way back in May, how did that happen?) was the National Space Centre, just outside of Leicester. I'm developing an interest in all things space travel, and I was surprised that we have a space centre, given that we have very little in the way of a space programme. The website makes it clear that this is a destination designed for kids. At …

Last time we saw The Doctor, he was saving the world, keeping Rose from imploding and taking one for the team, by forcing a regeneration. David Tennant had just a moment to say Barcelona before the episode ended. Thus, his first full length episode is this Christmas Special. Although, he isn't really in it for a lot of the action, so perhaps it's harsh to call this his first episode. …

I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and it also came recommended to us from a family member as well, so that's double the pressure for the film to do well. Bradley Cooper seems to be everywhere at the moment, but I was not aware of Abbie Cornish's work.

A great set of baby panda photos by jsteph on Flickr. Credit: jsteph/Flickr

This month has been dominated by two main stories - the scarecrow rivalry, and the E.Coli outbreak at Pat and Tony's. Firstly, the scarecrow battle. It was interesting to see how all the parties reacted to the efforts to make a bigger and better scarecrow. It seems Will has forgiven Emma for everything that has gone before, whilst his hatred for Ed just keeps on getting bigger. Both parties were …

As ever, Jack is partnered with a young, up and coming chap who thinks he is completely useless and is proved wrong on more than one occasion. Whilst there is nothing wrong with this formula, I'm curious if the final two books keep up this same concept, or if there is another kind of relationship that could be attempted.

Mr C has instructed me to make a note of this conversation. Me: "I don't know why it's so hot." Mr C: "It's summer." "I want winter back." "No you don't." "I'll never complain about being cold again. Next time I complain about it being cold, punch me in the face and remind me of this moment." "Blog it, and I can link you back to it later." I guess …

What I love about the repeats of Top of the Pops on BBC Four is seeing the 1970s for all the good and bad of music, fashion, and taste. Rather than the golden era montages, where the best and the iconic are selected for a rose-tinted package, this is full repeats of TOTP programmes that were running in 1976. It's incredible. Noel Edmonds pretends to be a cameraman! There are …

Again, I didn't manage to run over the weekend which has put me rather behind schedule. Also, for this first one, I was slightly hampered by new-shoe-related injuries. Thing about taking some time off work is you forget how to wear posh shoes. Anyway, on with the running. Week 3, Day 15 Tricky run. My feet weren't actually that much of a problem in the end, but I did find …

At first, I liked it. Interesting direction, intriguing story, mostly good acting. Sadly, it all went a bit Bourne. There was a lot that didn't make sense, a lot of plot holes that were hard to suspend my belief on. It was trying to be Bourne but it wasn't good enough to make it. When it wasn't trying to be Bourne, there were a whole heap of cliches involved.

Bower was alongside Ecclestone as he meandered through the Monaco Grand Prix last year, and that is where the biography begins, following Bernie as he hobnobs with the rich and famous. It's a jarring way to begin the story, a first chapter filled with assumed knowledge and irrelevant characters. As a glimpse of Bernie's presumably hectic and celebrity filled life, it does the job, but as a reader, it is about as off putting as a first chapter can be.

I actually had this post in mind yesterday, when I realised I'd spent quite a lot of time watching the action from the Swimming World Championships in China, and was loving it. Today, it seems to have taken on a different significance, given the news that F1 will be moving to Sky next year. However, these aren't F1 replacements, just sports I'm starting to get more fond of, and want …

Really enjoyed this film, although it was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it was going to be all out comedy like we have seen recently, but it was far more serious than that. I also wasn't aware until afterwards that this was a remake. The comedy that was in there was good though, laughed a lot and liked the story.

I just couldn't figure this one out. It wasn't too smooshy, so I figured it must be more of a comedy than a romantic comedy, but even then, it wasn't crazy funny. Paul Rudd was brilliant, and I did like some of the conversations between Witherspoon and Wilson. The peripheral people were nowhere near as good. It almost felt like they were all given a bit of a skit - the dad going on about stuff, the assistant wanting to tell him things - but they just felt long and didn't work for me.

Oh, how I have so loved having Back to the Future back in my life. Not that it ever went anywhere, but fresh material, and most importantly good fresh material has been brilliant. I have already blogged every episode of the TellTale Game revival, and whilst I do not have much more to add now I have completed episode five, it seemed only fair to have a farewell post to …

The new Apple operating system, Lion, was released last week and I volunteered to be the test pilot for our house. At first, I wasn't that fussed about it but gradually, the more I use it, the more I notice, and there are some bits and bobs that have caught my attention. Here are five of them: Natural scrolling. I turned off the natural scrolling straight away. They can call …

I did very much enjoy the concept and the story, and there were only a few bits that grated. Choosing Hitler seems like quite an obvious subject for time travel, which isn't bad, but is perhaps overused. Having said that, if it gets people interested in history, then it's probably a good thing. Some of the next books in the series also feature well known periods, and it's probably a good way to get people involved in the story.

One of Mr C's biggest complaints with the iPod and iPad stems from the idea of touching the screen and your big thumbs getting in the way. Particularly when you are playing games, controlling whatever is on screen with your not-particularly-see-through-hands can be tricky. It's a valid complaint, although I always argue that the ease of the iPad far outweighs a technical little issue like that. We were perusing some …

Whilst watching Wimbledon this year, Mr C questioned what those tennis players were consuming when they squeezed little gel packets into their mouths. I assumed they were some kind of gel thing for top sportspeople, but then I realised they sell them in the supermarket. We decided to try some. Eww. I mean, I wasn't expecting a sweet treat or anything but this was not good. It tasted like medicine, …

I'd spotted this book creeping up the charts but ignored it, because I figured it was a rant about how Twitter is bad for the world. A recommendation changed my mind and so I gave it a go. As it turns out, it is a rant against Twitter, but only from a self-confessed Twitter addict. Grace Dent loves and uses Twitter a lot, and has plenty of experience to guide new and old users through the weird world of the microblogging social network.

I do love a good John Grisham, but I must say this was a middle-of-the-road JG. The story was really well-written, and enticing, with great characters, and a good structure. It's just that overall I was left feeling very, very depressed. Perhaps I shouldn't judge the book on that, perhaps that is just the way it is supposed to be - to make you think. I don't know.

Not as good as the first one. Far, far too long, and really, could have been two films. Why couldn't they stop after that first epic car chase, where they tricked the Joker and got him imprisoned, and leave it hanging for a whole other part two to do with Two-Face?

Had to delay the long run until after the weekend, as I wasn't feeling too good. That might also explain why it was a tricky one! Week 2, Day 8 Felt good to start with, but gradually got more and more tired. It's quite weird having to run to a programme set in miles when I'm so used to working in kilometres, but it doesn't make a difference either way …

A while back I discussed the concept of degrees via the Open University, and whilst I move more and more away from the concept of degrees and suchlike, the very open format and wide variety of courses on the OU still intrigues me. I just discovered the LearningSpace with tons of free modules - usually bits and bobs taken from now defunct courses - and there are some interesting things …

I've just started playing Monopoly on the iPad and I'm enjoying it. Actually that's not true, I'm hating it because I've played twice - both on the easy setting - and I've lost both times. I swear the AI is cheating. However, if you ignore my uselessness at Monopoly, the app is really cool. There are animations that make the dice rolling and piece moving fun, but you can fast …

Yes, it was long, but actually I didn't really find it boring at all. There were a few bits where I was hoping something would happen soon, but as soon as I had the thought, it did. The pacing was great, the story was quite drawn out but not dull. The fact that all the stuff at the beginning was important to the end really made it what it was.

So much better than I was expecting. I thought it would be a dreary romcom, but actually it was intriguing. A great idea, although the interruptions from the child were sometimes a little jarring. Having said that, I do think some films would benefit from a pause in the middle where the plot is explained to a ten year old.

The second book of the 365 F1 Stories series was published over the weekend, and you can find more about it on the books page. It's been quite the process getting these two books into being, and it's not over yet. There are more things to do with those two, and more ideas in my head for further exploration. I hope to blog more about the process when I am …

Another really good film. Actually, just like Grown Ups, it had a pretty slow start - but once the lying began, they really hit their stride. There were plenty of laugh out loud moments, there were some bits where I wasn't quite sure what they were talking about, but the relationship between Adam and Jennifer was so good, it didn't matter.

It was fine, interesting, well-made. I'm impressed with the speech at the end - brave filmmaking if nothing else. The trouble is, it didn't really feel very grand. It felt like a five-part BBC documentary pasted together and put on screen. The characters were all excellent, and acting good, but it was a bit who's who of British drama which broke the tension a bit. Overall, I liked it, but I'm not clear on what makes something Oscar-worthy.

I've been catching up with some episodes of The 404 and they mentioned this relatively new website that lets you create a social environment for listening to music. Outloud.fm allows you to create a chatroom with the added bonus of anyone invited able to upload music to a collaborative playlist. The queue of music then plays out for everyone at the same time. I love this concept. I'm no music …

I do quite love Dawn French, so I really thought this was going to be a great book to read. Perhaps I went into it expecting too much. I know I had waited far too long to read it because I refused to pay the £10 price tag for a Kindle book. It was reduced in price recently, and I snapped it up, and got reading.

It was silly, and it was funny, and it was just what we needed to cheer right back up again. It wasn't as childish as I thought it would be, although clearly aimed at the little ones. There were a couple of moments that were too blatantly designed for 3D audiences, and they stuck out like a sore thumb for us mere 2D mortals.

Not that great, really. It was gory but not bothersome in that sense. Some bits were gross, but it was slightly more understated than Kill Bill. If I hadn't just recently watched those I might have been more affected by it. The story had potential, but it was signposted from far too early on, and left nothing as a surprise when the end came. There was also some rather dodgy CGI along the way.

Here we go then, the first week of a new Runkeeper Class, and all fingers crossed that it's going to be more successful than the last one. Just two runs to break into the first week gently. Week 1, Day 3 First workout was four minutes running, one walk, and repeat x3. You can see the bumps that are the walks, but overall it was a lot faster than any …

I've mentioned before, many times, how I love Maggie's outlook on life. She inspired me to create my own Life List and that has been something magical for me. This time the message is - when life is getting you down, turn it around and do something fun for thirty days. Fabulous. The thirty day idea is such a good one. Who knows where it first came from, but breaking …

I really enjoyed this film. The story is excellent, and any time I had a question it was usually answered in the next few minutes. I loved them together, witty dialogue and great chemistry. It seemed odd that they hit it off so immediately, but again, the film explained that too!

Whilst on my trip around the Merrivale Model Village, I spotted the zoo with added baby pandas! Fantastic! There doesn't seem to be an awful lot of bamboo for so many pandas living in one space, and I'm surprised they are housed between the monkeys and the llamas.

I've wanted to see a model village for a long time, and although I'm not sure there's anything special about this one, it coincided with my trip to Great Yarmouth. When I told people that I was visiting a model village for the letter M, they assumed that was because M stands for Model. I went one step further and found a model village that begins with M as well. …

Here's a revelation. Trying to come up with your own running schedule, and more importantly sticking to it, is pretty darn tough. Today I said to Mr C: "I've been thinking about signing up for another Runkeeper Class, because it's not working so well doing it by myself." He replied: "I don't remember the last time you went out!" Well, it was a few days ago, and the time before …

With ITV finally bringing out their app for iDevices, we know have all channels from 1 through to 4 covered. The BBC iPlayer has been doing it's iPad business for a while now, Channel 4 had their On Demand app out relatively recently, and ITV have now joined the gang. The ITV app is not a bad one but the choice is limited, considering how many channels ITV have. There …

It's about time I posted another update of innovations in the world of the mug. I have posted a couple of mug selections before, but now I am drinking more tea than ever, so finally, I can envisage actually using them rather than just looking at them. In this world of ever-shrinking attention spans, it seems even a tea break needs to have some kind of entertainment involved. The concept …

With thanks to Martí, who pointed me in the right direction.

I thought that now the 30 day music challenge is complete, it would be worth rounding up the highs and lows of what we've seen over the past month with a list of links. It will also be helpful when in future, any videos that I've linked or embedded may disappear (not the most reliable of formats, is it?) so it'll be good to have the definitive list all in …