In 2004, I said: So, I’m watching the crazy people running the London Marathon, I do not understand how anyone can manage to run that far… I have trouble running to my car when it’s raining! I think it’s great though, all those people raising money for charities and coming together to do something worthy like that. I really just want to note this day down in history, because it could be the first day in my entire life that I don’t think the people running the London Marathon are completely mad.

My dearest, darling brother (ha!) emailed me this last week. It’s a poster for Panda liquorice (bleurgh), and the tagline reads: “If you love liquorice, all you see is panda.” I don’t like liquorice at all, so I would change it to: “If you like pandas, all you see is panda.” But I guess that’s not as catchy.

Ohh I loved this so much. What is great about it is that all the action happens, but in the end only one person is killed off, so it’s not massively blood-thirsty. The only two negatives are the fact that there is no way the media could get to the places so quickly and no way they could have so much information - however as noted above, I do like that it is used as a way of telling the story. I can imagine it would be quite dull just to watch people and trains and stuff. It spices things up a bit.

It was okay, I suppose. Not as funny as I was expecting, although there were a couple of bits I did like, such as the japamas bit. I really did find it hard to follow at times, they passed months here and there without the blink of an eye and we were left to catch up via newspaper headlines and speedy dialogue between characters.

All in all, the film was pretty dull. I did quite like the arty side to it, which is unusual, because I normally dismiss that after a few minutes. The story itself was weird, and the premise was supposed to be one of those where you make up your own mind - whether she’s crazy or haunted - but in the end, they spoil it with an unnecessary twist.

At last! The return of my alphabet adventures! I struggled with where to go for J, and then winter appeared, and then I quit my job and things got manic. However, it’s been a beautiful week and I’ve finally found some free time, so I decided to man up and go outside. The Judge’s Lodgings is a museum situated in a tiny village on the England/Wales border, and it would never have crossed my attention except for one tiny thing. The website is so encouraging and open, I thought I had to give it a look.

My old Mac had been on a slow decline for the past few months. It wasn’t exactly a stunner when I got my hands on it, and I used it an awful, awful lot. The poor thing had been overworked and wanting a break for a long time but I wasn’t about to let that happen. So, over the course of the Australian Grand Prix weekend this year, it sort of died. Thus, I have a “new-to-me” Mac on my hands. It’s taken a week or so to get everything up and running, but I’m not pretty much where I was before. One of the main changes, aside from the lack of hideous fan noises every time I opened any kind of video, is that I now have Snow Leopard.

Interestingly, the big “end of the world” reveal didn’t really happen until the start of this episode. In other two-part finales we’ve seen, everything would have been stacked against the main heroes all at once. Here, we had them in personal peril, which was solved by the Doctor just walking straight out to the Daleks and facing them down. Thank goodness for forcefields, that’s what I say.

I have often expressed my frustrations at Twitter, and continue to have a love/hate relationship with the microblogging platform. At the moment, I’m more on the love side, though, and anything that makes it even more amusing can only be a good thing. Yesterday, I was introduced to the concept of That can be my next tweet! It’s a site with one of those annoying URLs that is impossible to remember, even though it looks good in the title bar.

It’s quiet in Franck-land again. I did enjoy looking at Google News for any mentions and finding they’ve done this: I think every webpage should have a Franck quote at the top.

The start of this episode packs a powerful punch, and not in terms of emotion or drama, but simple amazement. How can they put the Doctor in Big Brother? How have they got the rights to get Davina to say “Please do not swear?” Putting Rose in the Weakest Link and Captain Jack in Trinny & Susannah is less amusing as they are both BBC programmes, but Big Brother is something else entirely.

A long while ago, when my best friend and I would get together, we used to dream of going to live in Florida. I’m not sure whether it was the sunshine or the proximity to the Backstreet Boys that was the key influencer, but whatever it was, we wanted some of the Florida life. To get a taste for it, we would listen to radio stations from the FL area. It was different and exotic and quite exciting.

Ahead of this week, I came to the conclusion that it was okay to find the running difficult. If it was easy, that would mean I wasn’t pushing and wasn’t getting on any further. However, as you’ll see, by the end of the week I have come to a completely different conclusion. Week 7, Day 1 Run 15 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 3. Tricky run today. I had an aborted start, after less than half a kilometre. The second attempt was hard because all my legs felt tight and seized up. By the end of the run, I had to give up worrying about how slow I was going and concentrate on just getting the distance.

Another piece for my journalism course, this time a feature article about an outdoor leisure activity. Luckily, I have one of those, which is a step up from this time last year. Now I can pretend to know what I’m talking about! Why the correct running shoes can make or break your hobby It seems like the simplest thing in the world, strap on some shoes and head into the great outdoors for some fresh air and some free exercise. Whilst running is one of those brilliant hobbies that doesn’t have a large barrier to entry, one of the things you do want to take care with is your shoes.

This gets off to a slow start, and gradually builds in both humour and weirdness. I like that there are a couple of laugh out loud moments without it specifically being a comedy. I must say, by the end, I had to sort of give up following the ins and outs of the story and just go with it, but even so, it was still good.

As a bit of a change, I thought I’d split this month up into its separate weeks - Sunday to Friday - to see how the stories developed. Week 1 Emma and Clarrie go shopping together and it’s all very awkward. Considering Emma has Susan at home just desperate to pamper her, it seems odd that she’s chasing more of a relationship with Clarrie as well. Both Pat and Tony go on and on at Helen to move in with them, until she finally gives in - but only at the point where she believes it would be doing both sides a favour.

With a reformatted Mac comes the opportunity to start things over, to organise better. I decided that I would try out iPhoto in all it’s proper glory - as in attempting to use it as a photo library, instead of as just a way to get pictures out of the iPod. I’ve sorted everything out into Events, which was pretty dull, and then I took a look at the face recognition part of it.

It’s always going to be hard to follow the panda success of March, and that being the case, I present you with a header I actually made beforehand. It was based on this tutorial but I went wrong somewhere along the way. I ended up with a dark pink nightmare, that was far too black. I threw the tutorial away, tweaked some bits and pieces, and most importantly, changed the background colour from pink to this glorious green.

I’ve never really been a fan of April Fool’s Day. The concept of fooling people doesn’t really fill me with joy, particularly when at least 70% of the tricks are not that funny. As use of the internet becomes more prevalent, it’s getting even harder to like the idea. A good percentage of my day is spent trying to figure out what is real and what is not on the internet. You can see many news stories, gossip columns, photoshopped pictures and nonsense articles and only some of them will have any merit of truth to them. It takes time and effort to learn how to sift the good from the bad, and it’s something I try and encourage other people to do as well.

This is a piece I submitted for my journalism course. The brief was to write 250 words about a news item, in a general opinion piece style. The girl behind one of the UK’s most iconic images has revealed herself to the world… again. You may not have heard of Fiona Walker but you’ve likely seen the poster of her – walking away on a tennis court, skirt hitched up to reveal a cheeky glimpse of what lies beneath. Ms Walker has remained anonymous for 34 years, but as with most things, secrecy is not important anymore.

It’s not usually my style just to post a trailer and go - woo! but this does look kinda epic. I’m in two minds about River Song. Sometimes when mysteries are resolved they turn out to be rubbish (LOST!), and it’s been built up quite a lot. However, it would be awesome to find out who she is, for goodness sake.

I just wanted to write a quick post to say that the BBC have only gone and created a podcast feed for the Desert Island Discs archive. They said a while back that they’d be releasing a whole host of shows for indefinite download, but it wasn’t clear how they were going to do it. I discovered the podcast feed, which is a great way of looking through the ones you may or may not want.

I definitely still loved this film but as it went on it became clear that I love it because there are so many similarities to Back to the Future. From the more complex ideas of a guy learning to be strong because he thinks something is happening when it isn’t, to the more obvious things like the robot arms making life easier, the noises, and the flashing lights and… well there was a lot.

It occurred to me, when I was doing that 5k interlude, that in actual fact I didn’t run a full 5k because there was the warm-up included. For this week, I decided not to include the five minute walk, and that means I’m looking a bit backwards on distance but a bit further forwards on average pace. This week someone told me about a 10k race they were doing, sort of asking if I wanted to come along. Crazy talk. They can do a 10k in just over an hour. I’m running 45 minutes and still haven’t hit 5k yet.

An episode that requires a “Previously on Doctor Who…” It was a bit weird. I’ve always felt that the new Who references so much stuff that you either know or you don’t, but each episode/double episode is standalone anyway. I love the domesticity of this episode, because although it could be boring to just watch a couple of people go on a couple of dates, there are a lot of darker undertones to the entire thing.

When I was putting my Life List together, I added a vague “photo a day” item. In my head, it was the idea of making one of those videos where you take a picture of yourself every day, and see how you change over the course of a year. Then I thought about it a bit more and realised I’m unlikely to remember to take a picture every day, I don’t really like looking at myself that much, and I can’t imagine anyone else would either, so it was a silly idea.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a new iPod game called Land-a-panda. The premise is simple, but it gets complicated quickly. You have a panda on one side of the course and he is keen to get to his lady friend on the other side of the course (they must be in that magical 12 hours of a 365 period when they’re attracted to each other).

I remember when Goji berries were the brand new health craze and all the serious doctors were coming out and saying there was nothing proven about the health benefits. I’ve never had them before but figured it couldn’t hurt to try, and I found a pack of dried berries. Initially, it was like eating raisins with no flavour, but then the aftertaste kicked in and it was like soap. Gross. I tried two and then threw them away, I don’t care how healthy they are.

Moving on to the sixth week of this 10k programme, I was in two minds whether to do the scheduled 10 minutes run/1 minute walk, or stretch it to 11 minutes jogging. I felt like I could probably manage the extra distance and that would accelerate the process a little. I couldn’t decide right up until I started running, so I figured I would wait and see how I felt when I got to the 10th minute.

It was a long, old race. 12 hours, I suppose. The challenge from Audi fell by the wayside quite early on as a coming together between Marc Gene and Allan McNish, plus some reliability issues, meant they fell far down the order and had to make their way back up. Meanwhile, Montagny, Sarrazin and Lamy spent a good while leading the race, swapping between the other Peugeot and the Highcroft car, but a few mistakes cost them dearly. Lamy (who I am not a fan of anymore) spun after a pit stop left him with cold tyres (mini picture here), and then one of the last pit stops of the race took far too long.

This weekend, Mr C and I ventured into the outside world, and not only did we escape from the office but we also decided to go to shops. Actual brick and mortar retail establishments. This was never a big pastime for us, and particularly not now the internets is so useful. However, a day away from the screens called, and we headed to Currys. (As an aside, did I ever tell you about the time I went to PC World - ugh - looking for a particular piece of Mac equipment. I wouldn’t normally, you understand, but it was a late night, last ditch effort. The man shrugged. I went next door to Currys, owned by the same people, and the man said they had sold out but pointed me to the nearest Mac place (which was shut but he wasn’t to know I was in a rush) and gave me a card for out-of-hours supplier type people. Amazing the difference. PC World. Ugh.)

Stephane Sarrazin did the business in qualifying for the 12 hours of Sebring, putting the Peugeot on pole position ahead of the race today. Talking about his day, Sarrazin said: We arrived here with new car and new rules so it was hard for us this week. We have been improving the balance of the car. Things were much better in qualifying than free practice because of the traffic. I did my lap without a mistake and it was very good.

Despite the fact I accidentally started week five at the end of the last week, I decided to repeat the run for the legitimate week five. Week 5, Day 1 Run 9 min/walk 1 min. Repeat x 4. So, this was the first run after a bit of a break. It was appalling and I was disappointed. I wasn’t bitter about the run, really, I chalked it up to one of those bad days, but I had so been looking forward to it.

Another film that made us laugh a significant amount! We were both in need of something simple and amusing, and this was both of those. I would say it doesn’t have the multi-layer elements that make a kids film really something special, but if you just want to zone out in front of the TV for 90 minutes, it’s perfect.

The BBC have a cute little clip of baby panda Po, introduced at Atlanta Zoo. A while back, I thought the Beeb were doing better at allowing videos for embeds, but it appears not, so I will have to settle for just linking and hoping for the best. I did take a cheeky screenshot though.

Following on from the better-than-expected Empty Child, we have the conclusion of the two-parter. Last we saw, the Doctor was trapped in a corner, surrounded by the worrying gas mask people. “GO TO YOUR ROOM!” And just like that, the tension is over and we can get on with the rest of the story. I love the terrible last words line though.

I find it very tricky to follow the build-up to Sebring, so I will just leave it to Autosport to tell you how it is: Only one of the latest generation Peugeots ran today, but the Franck Montagny/Stephane Sarrazin/Pedro Lamy car set the quickest time of the opening day in the morning session with a 1m47.678s. Having said that, I am attempting to fire up the Factbyte Factbox (our live blog) for Sebring, so if you’re around this weekend - keep your eyes peeled.

Overall things are going well. I had a bit of a setback at the end of this “week” but I’ll tell you more about that at the end of the post. I’m starting to ponder if I really do want to go all the way to 10k, or if I’d rather start looking at improving speed and fitness and all that stuff. I know I’m not ever going to be fast but if I keep on pushing the distance, I’m not going to have a chance to focus on other things. I’m still in two minds on that front.

It’s been quite hard to get the enthusiasm up to finish this series off. I’m desperate to get to David Tennant but finding time and motivation for these is hard. However, this two part is written by Steven Moffat, so already I’m convinced it’s going to be an improvement on what we’ve seen so far. The story begins with The Doctor and Rose being bounced around the TARDIS. Rose is a bit peeved at the lack of sci-fi-ness he is displaying. “Give me some Spock!”

I had some leftover oats from the apple trifles I attempt, and suddenly realised that the ideal way to use them up was to make some flapjack. Mr C is keen on flapjack and making sweet treats always makes me popular in the household. After perusing some recipes, I became aware how amazingly easy flapjack is. Equal quantities of sugar and butter, some golden syrup, throw in the oats and raisins, bake and cool.

I’ve been epically busy this week but Apple don’t seem to care very much about that. First they released the latest version of their mobile software which meant a dozen gadgets needed updating. The very next day, just as I thought I was going to be getting something done, Garageband became available on the iPad. Productivity = out the window. For an entire evening, I was all about the music.

It’s been officially confirmed that Franck will be the driver behind the wheel of the #8 Peugeot when the 12 Hours of Sebring race gets underway. Sharing duties with Stephane Sarrazin (who will be qualifying it) and Pedro Lamy (who will also be there), Frank will kick things off on the 19th March, which is not this Saturday but the one after. Technical director Bruno Famin reiterated what Peugeot have always said, that these races are always just a test for the real deal - Le Mans.

Panda toast! Credit: Equilibriax/Flickr

Remember when I completed the Rubik’s Cube? It’s not my proudest moment, so I don’t really want to bring it up again, but Steven left an interesting comment: I never managed to to get more than three side of the cube completed so well done. Now you need a new challenge you should try to find a Rubik clock. Mr C immediately piped up and said he had a Rubik’s Clock, and he wasn’t lying.

This made me laugh, a lot. At times I wasn’t really sure what I was seeing - can it really be this crazy? But then it would come back to funny and the weirdness wouldn’t really matter. I really did love the tuna vs lion bit.

In the midst of our studio sort-out, we uncovered this little gem. This is the G3 Lombard from 1999. This was the first gadget that I stole from Mr C, in the early days of our relationship. It was also the first Mac I ever used, and it was a good one. Lovely keyboard, beautiful curviness, and little flaps to cover up all the ports and holes. Plus I do love black gadgets.

I’m not quite sure how it happens, but we keep being given big bits of meat. It was a huge piece of gammon over Christmas, and now an actual chicken. A terrifying, giant, whole chicken. Looks pretty sneaky, doesn’t it? I was definitely more concerned about the chicken than I was about the gammon. It just seems a million times more complicated, and there’s always a big stigma attached with cooking chicken properly.

Ambridge is not so much doom and gloom anymore, but there is tension all around and little to be joyous about. Except that Camilla visit, which was so hyped up and generally not very interesting. The Lynda business was a bit silly, and bless Ian for not going on and on about HRH. At Lower Loxley, it’s still tough. David keeps trying to escape but ends up doing more and more, including a trip up to Scotland to deliver a bull personally. It’s no wonder Ruth has finally lost her temper. I can’t believe she didn’t do it before. It took losing two milkings worth of product before she finally exploded at him properly. Even so, it doesn’t seem like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. David was almost convinced but then a quick chat with Jill, saying that poor Elizabeth with her poor heart would just take it all on herself, and he was right back to shouldering the burden himself.

Currently, Mr C and I are working through some redecorating, organising boxes of things that have been stored away, and generally trying to make our lives a bit simpler. Simplicity is always the goal. I stumbled across some old school books of mine. I didn’t keep many of them, but I did keep my English books, presumably because deep down I always knew I wanted to be a writer and that it would be important, even if I kept telling myself that numbers were my thing.

I really loved this book, despite finding it hard to place. The talk of the recession wasn’t that interesting really, except for how very obvious it was to the checkout girls on the front line of the public and their spending. Seeing how people change their habits, how everyone is shocked when the register rings up the final amount, and how flippin’ obnoxious some people can be was fascinating.