It’s been a long time since I made any significant changes to my blog and the system it runs on, and now, seemingly overnight, everything has completely changed. This isn’t the work of a moment though. This is something I’ve been thinking about for at least three years. The problem I’ve used Wordpress for many, many moons now and whilst I’ve always thought it was functional in a way that would work for most people, it never quite fit my purposes.

Recently, I was given a handful of Cornish beers, the spoils of a trip to the South West coast, and one of them was Doom Bar. I know you can buy this in plenty of places around the country, but still, it’s always a little bit more special when something comes to you from where it’s actually made, isn’t it? I’m not a big beer drinker really, but I wanted to try the Doom Bar because… well, because Strike drinks it.

The most recent episode of Robert Llewellyn’s Fully Charged YouTube series focused on the fun and future-proof idea of solar-powered trains. Electricity-powered trains are front and centre at the moment, with the ongoing works to upgrade the length of the Great Western Railway line, but this episode talks of a short track that goes just a little bit further. Based in Australia, where there is a little bit more sunshine than we have in the UK, the Byron Bay Railroad Company refurbished an old train, refitting it with batteries and solar panels and allowing the machine not only to power itself with renewable energy but also to give power back to the grid.

I always start these anniversary posts with the warning that “I don’t usually like to celebrate such things but here I am going to anyway.” I have realised, though, that it’s something to do with the ten year anniversary of things. That’s the one I like because it’s a nice round number and because it seems like a long time. Ten years is the one that Film Watch is celebrating.

The little gem of a show that is Travel Man returned last week, and it debuted a new four-episode run with the wonderful guest star Dawn French. In case the show has passed you by, it features Richard Ayoade taking a celebrity guest on a whirlwind 48 hour trip to various holiday destinations. Previous episodes have featured Aisling Bea in Budapest, Jon Hamm in Hong Kong, and Paul Rudd in Helsinki.

Beats 1, Apple’s live streaming radio service, has a lot of great content. It can be hard to keep on top of it, and I’ll admit it does lean towards the cooler end of the music spectrum than I would place my own listening habits. However, what they do well is getting a variety of guest presenters in to host a show and therefore airing lots of different tastes and views.

Just a celebratory post to have reached 100% completion on the main Spider-Man game. I think this is the only game that isn’t Tomb Raider that I’ve played to completion. And yet somehow there is still more to do with three DLC expansions to get 100% on. It’s not like Marvel to have more content than it’s possible to keep up with!

If you pay any attention to TV and culture on the internet, you’ll likely have heard people raving about Fleabag. I’m sorry to say that I’m just going to add to the adoration here, because it really was that good. I have to admit, though, that I only caught on to the Fleabag bug recently, and revelled in the joy of binge-watching it. I actually have to go one step further and admit that I probably wouldn’t have watched it at all if it wasn’t for Andrew Scott being in the second series.

There’s always a big push these days to get people up and active and try and stem the sedentary lifestyles we have grown so used to. Given the many initiatives that are out there, I was wondering whether it wouldn’t be useful to have a celebrity or two making online videos that help try and show people how a) accessible and b) fun training and working out can be. It doesn’t have to be a chore.

It’s always been a surprise to people that, despite being someone who avidly followed Formula One for a good ten years, I really don’t care much for cars. Recently someone asked me what car I drive, the vehicle I have sat in pretty much every day for two years, and it took me about twenty minutes to remember. I’ve always loved the freedom and independence being a driver gives you, but in terms of the mechanics, I couldn’t be less interested.