Interesting one this. I absolutely adore Miranda, love her sitcom, love her attitude, love her acting. So I was keen to read this and pretty much loved it. It’s really good to know that it isn’t just you with some of these things, although I can’t identify with all of them, I can with more than I’d previously admitted!

I’ve watched the first five series of the TV show and loved it, until it started tailing off. This isn’t a review of the programme though, but the book behind it, the incredible Darkly Dreaming Dexter. It may have helped to have the TV characters already embedded firmly in my brain but the writing is so clear and visual that I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken long to create my own.

I absolutely loved Old Man’s War so was keen to read the sequel, even though it didn’t have the same characters in it. Set in the same universe, one in which the elderly from Earth are repurposed into fighting soldiers, this story goes one step further and delves into the life and times of a Special Forces private.

I have to say that it was a really fun couple of hours watching this but not because it was a particularly good film. The story was okay, although filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. It’s hard to get fully on board with these guys, because ultimately they’re hooligans, breaking the law constantly and putting themselves at risk before being horrified at the consequences.

I wasn’t really looking forward to watching this one, Mr C was quite keen and I thought it would be alright for one of those mindless, no-stress evenings that are sometimes required. It turns out the film was much better than I’d anticipated, very funny and with some interesting twists and turns here and there.

I thought this was a really good Oz story, a little bit darker than previous affairs, but well balanced and well written. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of Dorothy and her friends travelling to different lands alongside the Nome soldier doing the same, except his purpose was to recruit an army to invade Oz.

Nod is a very intelligent book, with a smart premise and plenty of philosophical and thoughtful prose throughout. The concept - what would happen if the majority of the world failed to sleep one night, and then the next, and then the next - is really fascinating. A strong idea that could lead to hundreds of possibilities and conclusions.

I was really quite excited about this one when I first heard about it. Johnny Depp in another interesting role, the concept of human intelligence being transferred to machines, and all that goes with it. The fact that the film made little impact didn’t really put me off and I was keen to see what it was all about.

Much of the UK experienced some very hot weather in July, weeks of sunshine and muggy conditions bringing out the sandals and making it hard to sleep. That being the case, it’s typical that when my parents invited me on an open top bus tour of the New Forest, it absolutely poured down. The New Forest Tours are really quite a good deal. £14 may seem a bit pricey to start with, but you can jump on and off any of the three routes at any time for a limited period. Upgrade your ticket and you can get weekend and week-long extensions, so if you’re holidaying in the area, it can be a good way to get round.

Documenting the story of women searching, campaigning and battling for equal terms, laws and votes as men with suffragettes the key to the story. I’ve heard of people chaining themselves to the railings, of course, but this goes far deeper. I hadn’t realised the fight for equality started so early on, and that it took so long!

Doctor Who finally returns to our screens after a lengthy wait since the Christmas regeneration special. And was it worth it? Erm, no. Sadly, I didn’t like this episode at all, and I will expand on that further below. It’s nice to have the show back though, and even nicer to see the addition of Doctor Who Extra - a bonus ten minutes of content, online, in a replacement for the much-missed DW Confidential.

We needed some light relief after the horrors of Indiana Jones, and thus the Muppets sequel seemed like a good plan. Mr C wasn’t a huge fan of the last one, muppets and singing and that kind of thing, but he was keen on anything other than snakes.

I knew, after the first one and from reputation, that this Indiana Jones film would be full of snakes. That’s kind of what it’s all about. I wasn’t anticipating quite how much the snakes would dominate, particularly after a stint in the jungle with one, leading straight to snakes being served up for dinner.

The trailer for this looked good, and I love Emma Thompson, but I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting it to be a great film. It was so much fun, I was totally wrong! It was silly, four grown ups who should really know better throwing themselves into a French kidnap/jewel thief crime but oh, how entertaining.

There haven’t been many new films out that have whet our appetite so we delved into the archives for this one. A Tony Scott film with Denzel Washington? How have I not seen this already? It was a good film, strong story, reasonably interesting characters and good direction. I did think it lacked something - emotion or real hardcore empathy with either the good guy or the bad guy, and it was predictable in places. Other times it was less so.

While we were watching the Captain America sequel recently, there was one face that I felt like I recognised but couldn’t quite place. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? So distracting. This time, it was one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. henchmen, in it every so often but not exactly a big part. I’m not even sure it was a speaking part. It turns out this is Callan Mulvey, who used to be Drazic in Heartbreak High. Drazic! In Captain America!

I enjoy cooking a lot, but it’s something I’ve never really managed to get fully into. I had that brief interlude with baking and impressed myself with a couple of dishes, but even that ended up petering out before it really got going. The trouble I have is that I don’t really have the fundamental basic knowledge to start experimenting and learning and making great things. Without boring details about the meals I have been making up to now, I will say that the famous rut of cycling through a handful of recipes over and over has definitely been reached.

I wasn’t hugely looking forward to this one, Captain America turns out not to be my favourite of the Marvel characters introduced so far and I couldn’t remember huge amounts of the first film. I think it lived up to my expectations. It was an entertaining enough film with all the good Marvel things you come to love - inside jokes and references, nice witty dialogue and plenty of action along the way.

Another edition in the 87th Precinct series and this time we’ve got a murder taking place with several suspects but no clear evidence to support any of their cases. They all have alibis but one of them must have done it! There’s also the death of one of the squad members to deal with, with surprisingly little of the private lives of the officers in the story this time.

I’m starting to get hooked on Ira Levin’s works, and this one was another great read. From the moment it begins, you know you’re in for a riot of a ride, with the focus dipping from one person to the next, including the killer. The characters are great, the writing stellar, and it’s a page-turner and a half.

There’s nothing better than a good spy thriller and this was a great one. I was vaguely aware it was a film but hadn’t realised the book and the screenplay were written at the same time. You can visualise almost every scene, with great descriptions throughout - particularly of how cold it all is!

I’ve not seen the TV series that this book is extracted from, but I was a fan of Robson Green in the old days and was keen to read what he had to say about the process of making a show about fishing. I can’t say that the sport particularly interests me, hence not watching any episodes, but it’s always worth dipping into a book and seeing what it’s all about.

I marvel at the different scenarios are put in front of the travellers - bubbles for travelling, a land of foxes, those who would want to put them in soup. Even small things like the Love Magnet, and the array of rulers from around Oz - such imagination involved to come up with all this stuff!

I was listening to an episode of Current Geek recently, when a fascinating conversation emerged regarding the structure of television shows and their series’. Current Geek features Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt with guests, discussing pop culture topics. At the end of each episode, they have a feature where they predict what will happen in the future. I’ll be honest, I usually skip past this section because there’s no way it can live up to the fun of the quiz before it, but this time I listened to the scenario and was intrigued. The episode is available to listen here, with the specific section at about 49 minutes in, but I’ve transcribed the bits that interested me below.

Poor Dorothy is so very unlucky when it comes to nature’s big events - a tornado, a storm at sea and now an earthquake, all of which see her ultimately end up back in Oz. This time, she goes via some very odd lands, and meets plenty of new friends along the way.

It was an impromptu trip to the theatre, a last minute decision to snap up tickets to The Phantom of the Opera on a spare Friday night nestled in the midst of a very hectic couple of months. I like musicals, as they have been ingrained in my life since childhood, but I haven’t had as much chance to indulge recently as I’d like. Since watching We Will Rock You five times, I haven’t seen much else.

An unusual memoir that chronicles one man’s attempt to leave a stuffy accountancy job behind for a life in the cheese caves of France. It’s actually less dramatic than that sounds, as our protagonist quite liked his office job but just felt like taking a sabbatical to indulge in his passion for cheese.

This is a pretty tough read - from the start our protagonist is in prison, being tortured and abused. He goes to prison, escapes from prison and starts the titular walk, across deserts and mountains and the most inhospitable land you can imagine.

I think this is my favourite of the Oz series so far, it has so many interesting ideas in there - the moving carpet to cross the desert, the princess with a selection of heads to choose from, the ornament guessing game, and of course the Wheelers. I think I had a picture book that combined the previous adventures with Jack Pumpkinhead with this one, and I remember the Wheelers being absolutely terrifying.

I read this book a while back, deciding that it was a slightly worrying premise but a rewarding read as it managed to avoid a lot of the more ‘smooshy clichés’. It’s safe to say the film is very much of the same ilk, a cast of very different characters meeting in an unusual situation and then trying to find their way to a better place, together.

It’s nice that it’s not a by-the-numbers zombie book but equally, it’s not the most original idea. To the point where there’s a love interest in the games, and there’s lots of talk about making a choice when it comes down to it. To the sibling left at home trying to make sense of the world. To the various Cities or Districts, and the rogue one that is supposedly undetectable.

When I got back from the US, I was very enthusiastic to be a new baseball convert. Watching that game up close and personal was quite the revolutionary experience. Except, I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched more than about an hour or two since I’ve been back. I’m never sure when it’s on TV and I don’t really have the same time to focus on it as you do when you’re sitting in the stands.

I’m really getting into these 87th Precinct books, particularly as the cast of characters keep on returning and start to take on a strong presence in my mind. This time, there’s a con man on the loose as well as a killer, keeping the police department very busy. There’s a good mix of the crime stories and the personal lives of the police in this book, helping to cement the personalities of what have so far just been names.

I found this one hard to get into, that first chapter with the Germans meeting in Japan is in so much fine detail that it felt like a really slow start to the story. However, once the plot started to thicken and the action picked up pace, I was hooked.

I love that game where, you’re listening to a song and it sounds just like another song and you compare and contrast. In this day and age, there aren’t a lot of new things in music left to be discovered - almost everything has been done before and can be picked up as “copying” a previous artist. Whilst driving, I was listening to Return of the 90s, a surprisingly cheap album stacked full of songs that bring back memories. This tune came on by Inner Circle, which I knew of but wasn’t overly familiar with.

I’ve stumbled across an interesting problem that hasn’t bothered me for a while. The past few months have been hectic, with all the travelling and working and stuff, but it has resulted in me actually leaving the house and taking a handful of pictures here and there. When I got back from Houston, I suddenly remembered that I had a Flickr account. I hadn’t checked in for a very long time, since before they updated their accounts to give you oodles of space for free.

The second book in the Oz series focuses on a boy called Tip and his adventures through the magical lands. Along the way, just as Dorothy did before him, he picks up a ragtag group and they find their way to the Emerald City and also to Glinda the Good’s door. I particularly like the Gump, for his simple ways, and Pumpkinhead starts out okay but gets a bit whiny as his hypochondria increases.

The stellar cast in this one makes it a must watch, but the story seemed like an intriguing one, and hey, George Clooney takes a turn behind the camera as well. Plus, Matt Damon! So, with those things going for it, it’s a shame that it didn’t quite deliver. It feels very sterilised, very clean. War is terrible and horrific and dirty, but here everything seemed quite chipper. The quick team-bonding at the beginning took place in top notch barracks, even the blown up buildings looked like they weren’t allowed to have any brick dust out of place. Maybe it was a style choice?

It’s fair to say that if Anna Kendrick hadn’t been in this, we wouldn’t have watched it. She tweeted that the film was available on iTunes, so we clicked a look and got watching. It was good, and I’m glad we did click the link, but I did feel it didn’t quite go anywhere.

I read this as part of my Big Read list, although there shouldn’t really need to be an excuse to read Jacqueline Wilson’s work. Although aimed at young children, they’re still so fun to read. Delving right to the heart of problems and not shying away from difficult subjects, it’s no wonder Wilson has such an enduring popularity.

I’ve read this a couple of times before, it being a kids classic, and picked it up again this time because I bought the complete Oz collection. Naturally, this was the first in the bundle, and it’s a really great way to introduce the land and the characters. Each has such unique personalities and brings something to the group, and I think that’s something kids and adults alike can resonate with.

The third book in the 87th Precinct series and what an intriguing one. The cast of characters expands again, and we focus in on a death that looks like it should be a suicide but probably isn’t. Drugs are behind it, and the detectives are tasked with chasing down whoever is supplying and causing all the problems.

Whilst I was in Houston, I went to the cinema. I haven’t been to a cinema in years, and have pretty good reasons for not doing so, but I thought hey, why not see how the Americans do it? Alright, in all honesty, I just wanted to see how big the popcorn was. It was huge. You can’t really tell because there’s no scale, but the drink is twice the size of normal UK sodas, and thus the popcorn is even more enormous.

This was touted, in some circles, as a version of The Hangover but for older folks. Having seen it, I don’t really get that. Yes, there are four guys going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. There’s an actual story at the heart of this one, with a friendship on the rocks, and some really engaging personalities on display.

When it comes to getting creative, particularly with writing, we all know the key is to just get started. You’re not going to come up with anything by going about your normal day to day routines and hoping it is somehow getting done, you actually have to put the effort in and begin. There’s an old video doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment, a talk by John Cleese on how to get the creative juices flowing, and it’s really well worth a watch. If you want to skip to the abridged version, I have made some notes below the video with what I took away from it.

I’m not sure what prompted me to read this one, considering it wasn’t actually on my Big Read list. However, having worked through that list, I’ve been emboldened to read some of the more intimidating books, and this was one of those. I’m glad I did, too, because it was really good!

Edward Scissorhands has the honour of being one of the films that I know I cried at when I was younger - before I made the tear-related breakthrough this year. I was nervous about watching it again, because just viewing the trailer made me feel a bit weird, but after exams and stress and everything was out the way, it was something of a treat to sit down and revel in the nostalgia.

I was a bit apprehensive about this one, it seemed like a cynical attempt to cash in on the success of Bridesmaids, only with men. Although Bridesmaids was essentially The Hangover but for girls, so we could keep on going round in circles forever.

Ooh, such a lot of fun. It was eerily reminiscent of the Pirates vs Scientists film, in that it was non stop from beginning to end. Totally exhausting but absolutely brilliant. It’s the kind of film that’s going to require multiple viewings to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

Recently, I sat down and wrote a draft in Ghost about Ghost. Meta. It was an update on my experiences so far, which ended up as a bit of a complaint. I’m still in love with the concept of Ghost, but the gist of my dissatisfaction was two-fold. On Film Watch, I miss the comments. Moving to Ghost meant either switching on Disqus or going without comments. I opted for the latter, because I dislike that Disqus has rubbish integration, layout and login options, plus it stores the comments when I’d rather have a feeling of control over them. As it turns out, Film Watch is something that feels like it needs comments. Discussing my reviews and what other people think about the films is something I really miss. The options here then, Disqus as mentioned above, returning to Wordpress or just putting up with it.