In 2021, Disney+ released a television special with Chris Hemsworth, where the Australian actor met and travelled with some experts to understand sharks in more detail - their nature, the threat they actually are compared to the image of them and, more importantly, the growing threat we pose to them. At first I couldn’t quite make sense of this show and the casting decision, but then I remembered that these streaming services are completely obsessed with sharks for reasons I have yet to understand, and then Hemsworth being part of the Marvel universe would have those Disney links in place.

My first day reading the Financial Times and the homepage pointed me towards an interview with author Linwood Barclay, who writes detective books, about his hobby collecting model trains. I love model train layouts so this was a very good first day. In the interview, he talks about how he developed the hobby and what he loves about it, and then points towards a video created by his son Spencer.

Recently I’ve been trying to dive a bit deeper on the Disney+ streaming app, looking beyond the obvious Marvel and Star Wars categories to see what else is out there. Lots of people were talking about Extraordinary, a new comedy that is, admittedly, set in the world of superheroes, but couldn’t be further from the multiverses we are dominated by. I watched this in super quick time - the episodes are short and very entertaining, so never dragged, and I was almost disappointed when it ended.

Last year one of my monthly projects was learning British Sign Language, which was really a lot of fun, very insightful whilst still being challenging, and something I want to dive into more. I stumbled across this article a while back, that discusses the evolution of language generally but more specifically how sign languages change with the times. I found it a really interesting read. Sign language is, obviously, a completely visual medium and that means many of the individual signs reflect the subject in hand.

For a while now, I’ve had access to a digital Financial Times subscription and have I made any effort to make use of it? No, I haven’t. Mostly, I think the politics puts me off, but there’s so much the FT covers that I’ve really been missing out on some good journalism. They cover politics, sure, and particularly the financial impact of such goings on, but there’s also a lot of business talk, marketing, global events, culture and interviews with some of the biggest and most influential names.

When I kicked off my February challenge of knitting, it was my intention to pop back in several times during the month and show off what I had made. I knew I wasn’t going to be producing sweaters and complicated patterns, but I thought there might be something worth shouting about. Turns out, knitting takes quite a bit of practice and time. I spent the first part of the month remembering how to cast on and what the difference between purl and knit stitches are.

Every now and then, a topic on Mastermind catches my attention and I have to know whether I would do very well if I was sitting in the hot seat. This time, the contestant Hannah picked the topic of guest stars on Friends. I assumed this might be questions like ‘who appeared in this episode’ and ‘what guest star did this silly thing on the show’ but it was much harder than that!

P!nk recently appeared on the Graham Norton Show on the BBC to sing her latest release TRUSTFALL and promote her new album of the same name. It was an incredible live performance. You can rely on P!nk to add a bit of gymnastics or circus skills to her sets and this time it was all about the trampoline. P!nk was focused on vocals rather than bouncing off the mat, but it’s all the better for it.

I was in two minds about watching the second series of Clarkson’s Farm. Some of the recent comments by the eponymous presenter are no good at all and he never really seems to show any motivation to think about what he’s said or change his ways. However, this show is one of the only ones out there that’s really managing to highlight how difficult farming is at the moment, in a way that is accessible to people who don’t know the first thing about life in the country.

I recently listened to the audiobook of Phil Wang’s sort-of-memoir Sidesplitter, where the comedian talks about many areas of his life particularly where cultures intersect - food, family, comedy, and more global topics like the British Empire past, present and future, and how race and racism affects people every single day. They’re heavy topics in places but the book is really well done, with wit and humour but also a great deal of insight and thought-provoking ideas.