The month of September was filled with a nightly music extravaganza courtesy of the iTunes Festival 2012. Each evening, one or more warm-up acts introduced a bigger name, and it was all streamed live on the internet, available as a catchup replay afterwards as well. Mr C watched all of them, I saw some of the main ones, and these are some of my findings. There were a variety of different genres throughout the 30 days, and most musical tastes were covered in some capacity. My personal favourite of the lot was Pink. She hadn’t performed for two or three years, and was rusty - forgetting some words here and there. That made the show a little bit more personal. She was chatty, cared about the fans (particularly one who fainted), and did lots of songs that I had forgotten I like and own. Many plus points for Pink. I was also suitably impressed with Alicia Keys, who I thought was going to be a great performer but a bit aloof with the audience. She warmed to it, I think. Now, I’ve always taken a bit of a shine to Noel Gallagher, particularly when compared to his brother, but I’ve not really had any reason one way or the other. I’ve heard him in a few interviews and he’s funny and articulate. However, in his set, he was just a joy to watch. He must have incredible hearing because he was holding conversations with people in the front row, to the exclusion of everyone else. It was weird to see just one side of a conversation but also completely compelling. There was also the Liam-Liam chanting moment, that I quite enjoyed, wherein he bemoaned his own one-syllable name being hard to chant, and a certain sibling’s name being slightly better. On the flip side, I had expected to like Ed Sheeran’s set a lot more than I did. He expected far too much of the crowd, and told lengthy stories that didn’t seem to have much to do with anything. He also went on far too long with “you need me but I don’t need you” to the point where I thought I was being brainwashed. The duet with Gary Snow Patrol was awesome, though. Jessie J was another one who I thought would be better. I’m not her biggest fan, but I like a couple of the songs and she belts them out. Unfortunately, she changed her shoes to big red clumpy things so that she looked like a clown, talked endlessly about how grateful she was, and broke the momentum of the gig to sit down and read an extract from her book. I don’t go to (m)any gigs but this seemed odd, and I gave up watching halfway through.

To celebrate their 80th anniversary this year, Lego created a 15 minute animation recounting the history of the company. I missed this when it first came out in August, and have just got round to watching it now. You have to keep in mind that it’s one massive sales pitch, and the voiceover can get a bit patronising at times, but even so, there’s a lot in here that I had absolutely no idea about.

Over the weekend, the fabulous Stuart asked if I would be reading the new release from JK Rowling. The answer is quite simply that yes, I do think I’ll read it but no, I haven’t yet. I’m a big Harry Potter fan, but somehow this new book from JK Rowling doesn’t worry me in the way other “next projects” for beloved people do. It feels as though HP is such a phenomenon that she a) doesn’t have to write ever again and b) could write nonsense forever and it wouldn’t take away from that world. As long as it wasn’t in that world, of course.

We’ve seen Moneyball and “if you build it they will come” and when I saw the trailer for 42, I really wanted to see it! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baseball game but I really like movies about it. I should probably see about watching some of the actual action, but in the meantime, this looks good. 42

After watching this, I checked out the reviews and the one that says ‘worth watching once’ is pretty much spot on. It was okay, it was nice to see the characters again, the story wasn’t quite as engaging as the first, but it was mercifully short. There were some good bits in it, but I didn’t really like the two-headed Johnny Knoxville. Thankfully there was a lot less goo in this one, though.

This was a terrible, terrible film, there’s no getting away from that. Predictable, some shocking graphics, key plot points that didn’t make sense and ultimately derivative of a million other (much better) action movies. Having said all that, though, I really did like Guy Pearce’s character, he had some brilliant lines, and he was hot as anything. So a bonus point for Guy making the best of it.

I know I am very far behind to have only just discovered Temple Run. In fact, I saw the Brave tie-in before I saw the actual game, and because I haven’t seen Brave, I instantly dismissed it. I can’t remember why I suddenly decided to download it, but I was reading through some news feeds and they talked of other games of a similar nature to Temple Run. I opted to head back to the original and download it to see what all the fuss was about.

I’d forgotten how short the film is, and also how very gungy it is. There’s goo and all sorts flying in all directions almost all of the times. Nevertheless, the history I have with it, and all the lines I know and love make it a proper favourite of mine - although perhaps a little less than I’d held it in my mind. I do so love Will Smith though, I practically cheered when he arrived on screen.

I was looking forward to this biscuit episode of the Bake Off, but actually when we got to it, it wasn’t all that biscuity after all. The options this week were as follows: Signature dish - Crackers Technical challenge - Chocolate teacakes Showstopper - Gingerbread construction I’m not really a massive fan of gingerbread - I don’t mind the occasional biscuit or nibble but an entire house was a bit too much for me! The crackers were interesting and I’ve stored some ideas for the future, but there’s a sweet tooth in the house that likes things a bit less savoury. So, it was the chocolate teacakes or nothing. Even Paul Hollywood said they were difficult to make, so I lowered my expectations about as far as they could go. I told Mr C I was baking chocolate marshmallow mess, just to make sure we were all on the same page.

A while back, my parents introduced me to the Mimosa pudica, otherwise known as the Sensitive Plant (or my new favourite name Touch-Me-Not). It’s a cute little plant that looks perfectly normal until you touch it, when it all curls up on itself like a hedgehog. I thought it was quite cruel to prod and poke at it, but it recovers in about ten minutes and then it’s hard to resist doing it again.

When I read the first chapter of this classic book, it seemed amazingly familiar to me. As I continued to read on, it dawned on me that I must have attempted Copperfield many times, and never got much past Chapter 2. This time I was determined to read on, and at first, it was quite good. The mistreatment as a child, ending with the acceptance of the feared aunt was all quite fascinating, but once David started to grow up, it became less interesting to me.

After the revelations of last month, Mike and Vicky, well, they’re not talking at all. They start to tell people about the baby, so they get advice from all quarters. Then they do talk - a full on two-hander episode that was really good. Mike is still worried, but he’s on board. For now. Elsewhere, Freddie breaks his collar bone because Elizabeth is ridiculous and can’t say no to her son. She blames Shula, and then when she goes round to apologise, she blames Nigel. It’s called responsibility, woman! What Freddie’s injury has done, though, is break the ice between David and Elizabeth, after brother went round to visit nephew and was busted by sister, who didn’t go mental. They were perfectly civil, if not nice, and then Elizabeth got a moving gift/card for David for his birthday. Is that it, then? Family feud done?

It’s been a while since I tried a new tea, I’ve been content drinking my Clipper Ginger and Twinings Nettle. However, that didn’t stop me buying new and exciting teas, to the point where I had four boxes sitting and waiting to be tasted. I finally got round to trying a new one, another Clipper, this time berry flavoured. Clipper Raspberry Leaf £1.69 for 20 teabags A refreshing, distinctive and delicious blend of raspberry leaf and other natural herbs enhanced with natural raspberry flavour. Free from Caffeine.

BBC Four started airing Lilyhammer a week or so ago, and I tuned in to the first episode to see what it was like. Lilyhammer is exciting because it’s a Netflix original - the DVD and streaming company put their hands in their pockets and paid for this show to be created. It’s a bold new move from them, rather than sitting back and waiting for deals to be done with existing production teams, they got on and did it themselves.

After the high of new running shoes wore off (only took a week this time, boo!) I wanted a bit of a boost, so I tried out another Zombies Run mission - it’s always good to try something different. I noticed that the people behind Zombies Run are creating a spin off version based on the Couch 2 5K thing. I’m jealous! Can I go back to the beginning and start again with the zombies chasing me this time?

“I hate endings,” the Doctor declares, as he sits having a nice picnic with his two companions in New York City. Yet, we all know that this story is going to come to an end, and it’s going to do so in the next 40 minutes. The foreboding increases by the minute, as we head towards what was proclaimed as a heart-breaking farewell. I didn’t feel at all right after watching the episode on Saturday night. I thought I’d missed something, or wasn’t understanding it, so there was a need to watch it a second time. Upon the subsequent viewing (along with 12 hours to ponder what I’d seen in between), things began to make sense. It was definitely a rollercoaster of emotion, but for me, not perhaps the one Moffat wanted.

I’ve tried to stick to recipes from the actual Bake Off for the last couple of weeks, but this time I moved slightly away from it. There were a few variations on the Chelsea bun, and I very quickly realised that I wanted to do the bun, but in it’s rather more normal form. It’s worth noting what the other challenges were for this week: Signature dish - Regional buns Technical challenge - Jam doughnuts Showstopper - Celebration loaf The recipe I went for came from the BBC food site, and seemed reasonably simple - compared to some of the ones I have tried so far!

The task this episode had to fulfil was clearly set out from the start. Rory and Amy have been showing increased dissatisfaction with their roles as companions, and the gap between them and the Doctor has been growing week on week. One or other of them usually makes the point of saying they miss running for their lives, but we don’t quite believe them. So, this week, we had to be convinced that the pair really do care about being with the Doctor again, otherwise next week’s final episode won’t be as emotional as the Moffat has planned and we would just be left saying, quit if you don’t want to do it anymore! To get right to the heart of what is going on with them, the action returns to Earth with mysterious boxes falling from the sky.

This was less jumpy than I had remembered it, but there are a lot of the lines that I recalled fondly and it was a fun ride going through it. There’s plenty of film in film references, which is something Mr C in particular likes, but as we don’t watch many horror films, a lot of the references went over our heads. It’s still a classic in my eyes, but perhaps wasn’t as great as I’d remembered it being.

An admission before we begin - this week I was forced to pick the recipe before I’d actually seen the Bake Off show. My viewing was delayed until Thursday, and I had to order my online shopping before that, so I viewed the episode recipe options on the BBC’s site and decided on the one that looked the best. The options this time: Signature dish - Sponge puddings Technical challenge - Queen of Puddings Showstopper - Strudel I opted for the Queen of Puddings, because it didn’t seem too crazy challenging but still had something new in it (meringue).

A few years ago, I tried out the supermarket online delivery service, because I love the “getting lots of lovely new food” part of grocery shopping but dislike the actual mechanics of it. Back then, I did it a couple of times and revelled in things being delivered straight to my door, but I soon stopped. There were a few reasons, including their odd policy of wrapping single items in bags and wasting them, plus not being organised enough to book ahead.

Ohhh, it was so good! The story was great, but that didn’t even matter. It wasn’t about what was happening really, it was about who it was happening too. The piece is all about these misfits, coming together and having to figure out how to work together to save the world. Loki could have had a much smaller part and it would have worked just as well. There are so many bits to love, so many great lines, so many jokes where they just aren’t taking themselves too seriously. It’s beautifully done.

The fifth installment in this time travelling adventure, and things are starting to become far less fun and much more serious. This outing also breaks the mould again - rather than Liam heading back to fix things whilst the others wait and watch, they all end up jumping about time all over the place.

On Monday night, Mr C and I rocked up to Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena to watch Michael McIntyre do his thing. It’s been on my Life List for a while to watch a comedian live, because it turns out I have never done that before. I don’t remember why it was Mr McIntyre that received the privilege of being my first comedian (there may have been alcohol involved when purchasing the tickets), but he seemed like a pretty safe bet.

This week, we discovered the genius that is Wreck-It Ralph. The blurb says: “A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfil his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.” The trailer says it’s going to be awesome. Wreck-It Ralph

This was a great action/adventure romp through the skies - totally preposterous at every opportunity but fun nevertheless. I was surprised at the level of violence shown, really, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Considering it’s fifteen years old, it hasn’t aged too badly. We were watching in HD which always improves things, but the only thing that looked particularly bad was the phones. There were a few dodgy CGI scenes but I’ve seen worse, and they were made up for by the awesome bit with the refuelling tanker.

With the iTunes Festival ongoing (and irritating in their only putting up some of the replays and not all), Mr C and I have been having more discussions about music than normal. It’s always good fun when we talk music because we have slightly different music eras, very different music tastes, and what turns out to be different requirements when it comes to background noise. As people that do creative things (writing, coding, designing, etc), having something on in the background can make all the difference to getting things done. Complete and utter silence is okay for a few minutes of concentration but then it starts to become a distraction in itself. I know that I can watch TV programme after TV programme when I am doing things that require my attention but not full concentration, whereas Mr C finds the TV to be pretty distracting.

After the last update, I did go out and purchase some new shoes. They’re in a similar fashion to my old ones - white and Nike - but they’re also quite awesome. They have purple insides and purple laces! How can they be anything but great? Instantly, I wore them and was back on form… if you can call what I do any kind of form. I completed another 10k, which is always fun.

I read these books a while back, and I was very curious about what the film versions would be like. There’s a trend for making young adult series’ into movies and they seem to do pretty well, so the pressure on The Hunger Games was going to be huge! Mr C hasn’t read them, and wasn’t aware of any of the plot, so I thought it would be interesting to see what it’s like from the point of view of someone in the know, and someone not.

More than ever, this third episode of the truncated series seven was one of those mini-films that Steven Moffat desired. As he has previously said: When we had the pitch meetings for the various stories, I would say ‘Tell me the movie poster. Tell me the title, what’s on the poster and what’s the log-line… Let’s have a blockbuster every single week, no two-parters, every single week is going to be a blockbuster and let’s not have the cheap episode, let’s just make them all huge.’ It has caused some problems, but I think it has worked really well for us. It’s the year of the blockbuster.

After last week, wherein I wasn’t sure I liked anything I’d seen on screen, I knew this would be a much easier week. Mr C is a fan of pastry, and there was bound to be something we liked. The options this time: Signature dish - Wellington Technical challenge - Hand-raised pie Showstopper - American sweet pie I was convinced it was going to be a Wellington on my to-do list, but I’d forgotten about Mr C’s sweet tooth. The blueberry and raspberry pie made my Brendan was one of the early ones we saw, and he was entranced… until the key lime pie appeared. On the official recipes list, though, they only had the berry pie - or Chiffon Pie as it is so-called. I decided to go for that one, fully aware that it is crazy complicated and I was likely to screw it up. The thing with this is, even if it ended up as a pastry case full of raspberry and cream… no one would mind!

Saw the trailer for this one a long while back and was keen to watch it. I figured it would be sentimental but hey, it’s Matt Damon so it’s always worth giving it a go. However, the wait was so long that by the time it was available to rent via iTunes, I had talked myself out of watching it. We event left it to near the end of the 30 day allotted period. I don’t know why but I had decided it was going to be rubbish. Nevertheless, the prospect of it going unwatched was too much.

I started this crazy Film Watch experiment way back in April 2009 - watching, noting and blogging each film that I watched in an attempt to remember what was good, and not so good. Along the way, it turned into a Life List thing, to watch 500 films. At first the goal seemed a million miles away, but gradually it has seemed more doable, and now I am halfway through! Also along the way, it has become less of a personal thing, and more of a thing that Mr C and I can enjoy together.

[I’m one of the Kindle’s biggest fans, and will buy as much as I can in digital form. But there are a few books I can’t get rid of. This is the first in an infrequent and limited series featuring those physical books that mean enough to earn their place in the box that moves house with us.] I loved The Faraway Tree series as a kid. The idea of climbing a tree and finding a multitude of different lands at the top is so intriguing, and so limitless! I’d be the first to buy these in digital form, except the fact that the new books are all modern-kid friendly. These three editions are quite old…

Really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t aware of the fact they came from a newspaper originally, which is only annoying because I think I’ve been missing out! This is a collection of 94 - not quite a million - exceedingly short plays, some much shorter than the others.

There have been lots of rumours about who would be participating in Strictly Come Dancing this year, and all I’ve heard for ages is people saying other people would like to do it. The best example was everyone’s favourite Master Baker Paul Hollywood pausing at all the “wrong” moments in conversation with Chris Evans. It was a fine example of the art of misdirection, which only became apparent yesterday when the celebrities were revealed.

Lots of great TV has returned to our screens recently: The Great British Bake Off, Doctor Who, Only Connect, etc. There is still more to come, I believe, but actually it is Only Connect that caught my attention, making me ponder why exactly it is that we enjoy quizzes that are too hard for us? With Only Connect, I wondered if it was simply that the format is completely engaging. The answers are not always impossible (granted sometimes they are unfathomable but not always!) but it is the style of question that is unique to the connecting format. That could be true, and I know that personally I’m in love with Ms Coren which also makes it a must-view show.

I absolutely loved this. I’ve seen the film, naturally, and was pondering watching it again but instead I set about reading the book. It’s split into three parts, each with their own journey - the first introducing the terror of the shark, the second navigating the politics of closing the beaches, and the third getting out on that fishing boat to try and dispatch the creature.

It’s not been a good couple of weeks, I’ll be honest. I had hoped to go out for a longer run this weekend but I only had two opportunities - one of them was far too hot to even consider and the other one… well, I went for a nap instead. You know how it is. The last six runs I have done have been thirty minutes each, and have gradually gotten worse. For example, distance covered in kilometres:

This is one of those films where at first you’re not quite sure what to make of it, but as soon as you settle in and just go with it, it’s totally magical. I loved Emma Thompson, as I often do, despite the fact she was quite depressing throughout! I loved the way Harold Crick walked the line between comedy and tragedy, and how they shone a light on that from the point of view of a writer and literary expert. Great fun, nothing to complain about, and a nice story well told.

The iTunes Festival is currently in full swing - 30 days of live music, held at the Camden Roundhouse in London and streamed across the globe via iTunes and its many apps. There’s a variety of acts available, with warm up artists appearing before more established names, and the diversity is amazing. So far we’ve already heard from the pop name that is Olly Murs, through the more acoustic Ed Sheeran to the dub stepping Plan B.

Presumably, this episode’s title comes as an homage or a satire of Snakes on a Plane. I haven’t seen the film but if it is anything like as mad as this weekend’s Who outing, I’m on board. The action got going straight away, with the Doctor picking up his “gang” and heading straight to the spaceship housing the aforementioned prehistoric creatures. He referenced not having a gang before, but I can’t think that is right. There was a very poignant moment in one of the earlier episodes where every section of the TARDIS was manned for a change - instead of the one man doing it all by himself. If that’s not a gang, I don’t know what is.

As I tweeted earlier in the week, something I had not considered when I dreamt up this idea of trying my hand at things that the Bake Off featured, was the concept of not liking anything within a given week. Each episode is on a theme, but there are three options within each and a multitude of recipes in each option. How is it possible not to like any of it?

When I was posting Trailer Tuesday a while back, the Paddington poster made me want to read the books, so I had a peek on the Kindle store and found many of them (perhaps all?) available for the device. That got me thinking, what other fab books of my youth are also available for the Kindle? The Worst Witch was one of my favourites as a kid, probably because I could relate. Not being a witch, of course, but being terribly clumsy and not that popular at school. I also quite like witches and wizards as a subject, what with Harry Potter and Buffy’s friend Willow and more. It doesn’t surprise me that Jacqueline Wilson has embraced the Kindle age, she always seemed a very forward thinking, “make books accessible every which way” kind of person. There’s a staggering number of Wilson books available in the e-format. As a kid, I read Tracy Beaker and the Bed & Breakfast star and that was about it. Many of the newer ones have passed me by, although there are still a couple awaiting me in the Big Read List. There are Enid Blyton books by the bucketload, although there is talk that they are not the books of old. Some of the reviews suggest they have been amended for a modern audience, and I am not down with that at all. I can understand a name change here or there, although it still seems weird to think of Franny in the Enchanted Wood. If more of it has been altered, then that’s a real shame. While I was browsing I saw that someone has written more books in the Malory Towers series, but a quick peek proved disappointing. I don’t know why, but reading the “frightfully delightful” style of writing but knowing it was written by a modern author took some of the shine away. The Adventure stories by Willard Price were some of the books that got me into reading action and adventure novels. From Price, you move up to Cussler and from there, the world is your oyster. In my mind, I have the image of the boys scuba diving down to a lost world under the sea, and coming up in a hut where the air pressure was such that you could breathe happily. I may have made that up, but it’s enough to make me remember the books fondly. Roald Dahl! Of course. The books are surprisingly expensive, but I’m gradually building up my Kindle collection. I would have read these all again anyway, but it’s good to get a nudge from my reading list. I also listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory via audiobook, read by Eric Idle. This stuff just never gets old. Honourable mentions have to go to Paddington, obviously, as he kickstarted the entire thing. Also the Choose Your Own Adventures, which I was staggered to find on the Kindle. However, as my previous review suggests, they just aren’t as good as I remember. The format is workable, although does avoid the flipping back and forth and holding pages and suchlike. It’s just the writing is nowhere near what I remembered it to be.

The next book I had in my list of occupation-related memoirs was this, a look at life in the mortuary of a hospital. At first glance, you’d consider this a morbid book to want to get into, but it’s written so well - heartfelt, honest, and firmly with the view that this is a job that needs to be done and it needs to be done by someone who cares.

I just recently finished playing a new, actually old, game on the iPad called The Island: Castaway. I can’t remember why I bought it, except that I love islands and the concept of being cast away on one. That’ll probably do it. There’s a video ad for the game that explains it better than I could. It’s really very simple, you just run around picking things up, and interacting with other characters. They tend to send you on missions to go and pick other things up or talk to different characters. It’s not hard and you can’t die, and that makes it pretty much perfect for a lazily playing when you don’t have time to fully concentrate.

I’ve been catching up on some RSS feeds recently (where I am getting down to a reasonable number of unlistened podcasts, my unread items has been creeping up), and I spotted this crazy little item earlier in the month. A DeLorean that is also a boat. It’s cool, and fun, but I took umbridge with the concept almost immediately simply because of this, in the Engadget story where I saw it:

I was in need of a bit of frivolity in my reading, and I knew just where to turn to. The third book in the ’trilogy’ and we’re following more adventures with Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent. Firstly, we have to get them off prehistoric Earth, which is where we left them, but that problem is easily handled.

A lot has happened in a month for Vicky and Mike. Vicky couldn’t contain her excitement over the news, announcing it at Phoebe’s coming home party. Everyone seemed to take it very well - I was expecting a lot more shock and gossip, but we didn’t really hear any of that. (In fact, when Lynda learned of the news, she was incredibly supportive, beautifully so!) Instead, the focus of the storyline has been on less flippant things. Vicky was plunged into despair upon hearing that she may have an increased chance of a baby with Down’s Syndrome… which then was confirmed. It’s a topic I have absolutely no right to talk of, except to say the acting was superb throughout. The confusion, the fear, the determination, the yo-yo of emotions, all played out perfectly.

Doctor Who is back on our screens as the seventh series began yesterday. With Daleks, divorce, a delightful Doctor plus a surprise special guest, this first episode had a little bit of everything. Actually, it had quite a lot of Daleks. Before we get onto the episode proper, it’s worth a quick mention for Pond Life - the pre-series build up mini-episodes that featured on the BBC’s Doctor Who webpage every day last week. Each one was only a minute or so long and featured the Doctor trying desperately to get back to Amy and Rory, whilst real life tore them apart and galactic troubles kept him away.