I wasn’t really a fan of the story. I was mostly quite confused throughout, and as mentioned above, I mixed up two of the characters which didn’t help. I did like some of the characters though and the format of the film appealed.

Ah, I know plenty of people have said it before, but it is so good to have regular episodes again. All that waiting to find out what the Doctor was going to do in his next special was not fun. I really didn’t think much of this week’s story. It had tons of potential, Winston Churchill, a war room, Daleks on our side for once. It all got a bit crazy though, and as soon as they started changing colour, I kind of lost interest. As Mr C said:

With a little bit more time on my hands, I’ve had the chance to think about some of my other blogs - and I quite quickly came to the conclusion that I had too many. Who really needs seven blogs? Really? A couple of them were on hiatus, never to be added to again. Some of them have an unknown future, but whatever future they do have, it will take place here.

Here is what I don’t understand. They say that exercise is good for you. “Get moving,” they say. So I did. I got and I moved. And now, two days later, I can’t move. My legs hurt. I don’t think that’s quite what they had in mind. (Who’s they, anyway?) On the subject of diet and exercise, a new way of using the internet is to humiliate yourself thin. The humiliation diet is not a new concept - most of the groups out there, Weightwatchers and the like, run on the fact you have to go somewhere and weigh in, facing up to what you’ve done during the week.

In the midst of deciding the future of Sidepodcast, we needed to get out of the house. We drove round and round and round and ended up in the country - green fields, yellow daffodils, sun shining. I feel like perhaps we have skipped a season here in the UK and summer has come early. Either that or this is all the summer we are going to get! However, it was good to dust off the camera and take some photos of things other than cars.

I found Journler a while ago, downloaded it and then never really used it. When I started tinkering around with writing again, I sort of opened it up, but when I went to the site I discovered that development on it has stopped. Support is still there, and it’s still available to download, but there is nothing in the pipeline. It’s a shame, because whilst I haven’t used it extensively, it’s pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I’ve taken out the journal aspect of it, and use it to write things down. Anything. Whatever is in my head. There can be any number of new entries at the top, and down the side they can be grouped together and easily accessed, via folder or smart folder.

I didn’t manage to catch this live, which means I’ve already let myself down a little bit, however, it was worth waiting for. A few thoughts on the latest episode of Doctor Who. It very much reminded me of Gridlock - the episode where there were all those car type things stuck on a motorway type thing. The idea of the human race stuck inside, trying to find a way of living without upsetting the beast below. There were thoughts on the last episode that this series of Doctor Who would be influenced by Douglas Adams. I’m not sure about that as I haven’t read or seen anything Hitchhiker related.

With the invention of the iPad pretty much scrapping any chance of me getting a Kindle any time soon, I’ve been starting to look at the concept of reading books on the iPod Touch. My first experience came only from seeing the words Doctor Who on an app in a top ten list somewhere. The Enhanced Editions, er, edition of Code of the Krillitanes by Justin Richards. It’s one of those Quick Read books, designed to encourage new or less confident readers to pick up books and get started.

After watching the latest episode of LOST (don’t worry, no spoilers here), Mr C and I got into one of those conversations that goes something like - “Was Mr Widmore with Dharma? No, he wasn’t there then. Yes he was, he just was with the others instead. But I thought he was in the army. He had an army uniform. But it wasn’t his. When was that? Would he recognise Locke? Why doesn’t he know who Sawyer is?” I’m sure if you’re a LOST fan, you’ve experienced this kind of thing.

It was good! I can’t quite describe the relief. I think, really, I knew it would be. How could it be anything less than brilliant with Steven Moffat at the helm? So a few thoughts: The Doctor. He did everything right. From his very first words about apples, to his confident showdown with the alien eye thing at the end. I’m still not impressed with the clothes, but they do suit the character, and seeing that he grabbed them from a hospital at least explains the mismatch.

This month seems to have been about introducing new names, or at least bringing back returning faces. We’ve seen Lillian develop her relationship with Paul and we’ve seen Kate return… more on that later. I think I’ll start where I left off, with Alan sleeping in a tent. The man got a wicked cough - I have no idea how you can act out something like that! I don’t know about anyone else but I was highly disturbed when Usha was chasing him down because she was “lonely” and I was quite relieved when the cough clearly made Alan less attractive. It’s nice that Jill got involved on the periphery, helping to save the vicar and make him see sense.

The first race of the new season took place at Silverstone this past weekend, and it wasn’t really a success for our Franck, although it could have been a lot worse. Things got started pretty well, with GD Bordeaux third in free practice - although the fastest car was up about two seconds on FKM. Qualifying was hit by some wet weather, but I don’t know if that directly affected Franck. Firstly, I didn’t watch it, and secondly, I still don’t really understand how it works. Nevertheless, Montagny qualified 14th out of 17 cars.

Thus, the first Card Week series draws to a close, and it’s going back to animals, I’m afraid. These rather cute caterpillar thank you cards appealed to me and were actually the first one I found when searching for a week’s worth of cards. Caterpillar Thank You Notes I hope this week of cards hasn’t been too self-indulgent, although if I’m honest with myself, the entire premise of Stationery Corner is just that! We’ll be back to pens and paper tomorrow.

The fourth entry for card week takes a completely different turn. It doesn’t feature animals - I don’t suppose the Pacman family are animals, are they? I love this card for when your geek friends get married. Mr and Mrs Pacman Wedding Card It’s quirky, and only a certain type of couple would appreciate it but I know Mr C and I would have if we’d accepted cards for our wedding.

Card Week number three, and we’re continuing our animal theme but rather than pigs and cows, we’re taking off into the skies. These flying geese look good, I love the colours, and the empty bench. Plus, the simplicity of writing hello in the bottom corner. A great way for a card to break the ice or just to simply say ‘hello’. Flying Geese Hello Folded Note Cards

Doctor Who is crazy popular, and has managed to create an entire universe of TV shows, books, comics, games, and much more. It even has a couple of spin-offs with Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. Thing is, both of those spin offs are all very well and good, but I can think of a couple of other characters who would be much more interesting. Here’s the game. If you could select five Doctor Who characters to get their own TV show, who would you pick and why? You can’t choose the Doctor, obviously, and the companions are out of bounds too. That means no Rose or Donna, and I suppose it means no Wilf. That’s crazy talk because we all know Wilf needs his own show but alas, for this, he is not eligible.

Words from the man himself about how he came to be racing in the Superleague Formula this year. The story begins thus: OK, I don’t know neither the car or the drivers who will be playing in the field with me… so let’s talk about what I actually know, it will be faster and probably much more interesting for you, guys! So once upon a time… Hehehe, bless. Girondins de Bordeaux have a blue and white team badge and thus the car should look something like this:

Part of the BBC’s review of what they’re doing now and how they want to keep doing it in the future involves looking at their presence on the web. I found an interesting post on the Internet Blog regarding the use of direct URLs on the BBC, and how freaking many of them there are! The plan is to reduce the list and in doing so, it will help them to reimagine the way the site works. I think.

The second entrant on our Card Week special is a postcard rather than a greetings card. I have never really been a big fan of sending postcards because I don’t like the idea of anyone reading what is written there, and of course, if you send it from a holiday destination, you are likely to return before it does. However, I do like these vintage cards. Vintage Pig/Cow Carte Postale

A few weeks ago I discovered I had the world’s smallest problem. A tiny patch of skin between the knuckles of my little finger and the next one up on my left hand had got a bit dry. Panic! Now, you may remember, if you ever watched the video from my attempt at making mince pies, that I’m not really a fan of putting things on my hands. When it was suggested that all I needed was a bit of hand cream, I was filled with dread and had no idea where to start.

Greetings cards and note cards are very personal things. What works for one person may be considered hideous by someone else, and it’s all a matter of taste. This week, for five days, I’ll post a different card each day, making this the first ever Card Week. They’re all from Etsy, and I love them all for very different reasons. Today - Penguins in Love. The first of many cards that involve plenty of white space and simple, cute designs. I like penguins and thus, I like this.

If you are involved in a business, or just have a lot of visitors, then you might require a book to keep track of who has been to see you and when. If I was in charge of choosing such a book, I might be keen on this one from Noble Macmillan. Now, granted, I’m happy that it’s purple, but other colours are available. I like how simple it is both on the outside and the inside.

I’ve never been a huge fan of letter openers, as I am more than likely to injure myself with them. However, I have used them before and they do make life a little bit easier. This one has dual purpose! You open the letter, someone has scrawled some tiny fine print at the bottom of your letter, and thus you flip the opener round and lo and behold - a magnifying glass. It’s of Italian style and looks beautiful but is relatively inexpensive at £22.

How cute are these? 6cm x 7cm. Nkuku Tiny Journals They’ve got about 50 pages inside and are so tiny you could carry them anywhere. Equally, they are so tiny, that you could lose them anywhere.

I was talking to my mother today about the fact that both Rob and Felipe both now know about the Felipe Baby song and how I really am quite embarrassed about the whole thing. (If you don’t know about the Felipe Baby song, it’s not really important to the story.) This conversation followed: Me: I’m flattered, obviously, but it’s really embarrassing. Mum: Yea, but imagine if there were people doing that all the time. If you were famous, and there were photographers camped outside…

I think it’s time we had another Etsy edition of Baby Panda Thursday, starting with this rather cute note card: 5x5 baby panda note card I never really have any need for note cards but there are some really nice ones available. Lupe This is similar to the Mr Panda that I bought a while ago, but there’s something about the lack of detail on this one that I like.

There’s more news about Franck today, although not directly relating to him, and it has me even more confused about this Superleague thing. The story suggests that FKM is getting a French teammate, but actually, he’s not in the same “football team” as he is, but they are the same race team. My investigations reveal that the race team is Barazi-Epsilon, and they provide the means for two football clubs to race - Galatasaray S.K. and our favourites GD Bordeaux. Tristan Gommendy has transferred from another team to the Galatasaray one, whilst FKM is happy at Bordeaux.

I think Online is an unfortunate name for a pen, which is anything but digital, but this one is nice enough to make up for it. I like the three coloured sections, and it’s also available in various other shades, so if blue is not your thing, there’s plenty of choice. It’s also a lot cheaper than the last pen I featured, a bargain at about £20.

I wasn’t really expecting to like the film at all, but it was pretty interesting throughout. I did struggle to tell the characters apart, but when it got to being just about the two, particularly once they got to that room, it was good. Interested to see the remake now, too.

Mm, look how delicious this handmade paper is! And from the description: This paper is made from 100% cardboard, paperboard, and scraps of magazine pages that I have collected and recycled myself. I was SO excited when I discovered how to recycle cereal boxes, the clippings from making my paper beads, and the cardboard snippets left over from making journal covers. I’m thrilled to be able to make them into this wonderful brown paper!

I apologise for the multitude of Film Watch posts recently. I’ve been trying to catch up and sometimes it’s just easier to sit down and schedule a load of posts for the following few days. One of my New Year Resolutions was to reach Film Watch 50, and I think that is going to be achieved fairly soon. Perhaps after that I can work on the going outside thing. I also wanted to point film fans towards Lukeh’s review posts. He’s done two so far with three films apiece, the first features District 9, the second features Lost in Translation. I have seen one of the films he’s reviewed so far! Go me!

I do like the French accent, but the rest of the story leaves me a bit cold. It’s slightly too complicated, but I do approve of them bringing forward the bad guys from the first one. They’re only in it briefly, of course. Ultimately, I find this to be a pointless film, but it’s great to have the cast back together.

I don’t know if you would technically count this as stationery, but it does fall under the organisation category, so we’ll go with it for now. The Empty Your Pockets organiser is one of those things that you don’t really need - any box would do - but the efficiency of it appeals to me. Most of my stuff stays in my bag, as you can imagine, but sometimes I come home and throw my keys around, and I know a certain other person in the household is always searching for his. I like the covered pocket, as well, for things that you don’t necessarily need to have in easy view.

So, yes, I have to admit it, the film is actually quite good. I’m still not 100% convinced on the whole Monty Python thing, but a couple of times I laughed out loud during this, and I can’t deny it. At least now I get some of the jokes that everyone talks about.

Dorling Kindersley have released one of their internal videos that was created for a sales conference within the group. Apparently it was such a hit that they wanted to release it externally and give it a wider audience. It’s good, although you have to have some patience to make it worthwhile. We found this via the OUseful.Info blog and there are some interesting thoughts over there on how it is not an original idea but a fascinating storytelling device.

Ahh, remember the good old days when you had to trudge to school with your calculator and your compass? I was looking at the Helix site and couldn’t decide between two maths sets. The Black Case set comes with a highlighter mouse and a calculator which is pretty groovy: But the Oracle Maths set has the full circle angle measure with the really cool windy thing on it:

I really quite enjoyed the film, even though it’s not normally a style I would like. Jessica Biel lived up to expectations, whilst Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas were on top form. I wasn’t all that impressed with the dog stuff, it was a bit lame comedy for my liking, but thankfully it was only a small part of the bigger picture.

Mary Poppins is a staple of the Christmas holiday. I always look for it as soon as the TV schedules are released because the festive season isn’t right without it. I hadn’t realised quite how long the film is, considering it’s a kid’s one, but you can’t help but love it.

Things I have learnt about Filofax today: It’s a brand name, not a thing! Like Hoover. They are actually not as dorky looking as I thought. That they come with accessories! Things that come with your Filofax: Week on two pages diary, five language Ruler-page marker, frosted Coloured 1-6 numbered index World map To do, five language Various colours of ruled paper Name, address and numbers, five language Coloured A–Z index, two letters per tab Transparent envelope, top opening There are also extras you can buy, but I’ll save them for another post. The Filofax is so much cooler than I remember!

I’ve never really understood calligraphy, it seems like a whole lot of effort. The results can be beautiful, of course, but I’m not an expert by any means. I like the look of this Coles Calligraphy Set though. That’s an actual feather! I’m pretty sure I would break it within a week of having it, but it’s so pretty. It would make a fab gift. As an aside, the website is called Pen Heaven, which is right up my street.

The background Viacom is suing YouTube for the copyrighted material that keeps appearing on the video sharing site. Viacom thinks YouTube should do more to stop it happening, whilst YouTube are hoping for safe harbour from the DMCA - meaning they do their best but ultimately can’t be held responsible for what users upload. The blog post On the official YouTube blog, a post appeared yesterday with some rather revealing information. The entire thing is worth a read but here are some snippets:

So, here are my findings on this bizarre formula. A race weekend consists of the following: Saturday - two 45 minute practice sessions, one hour rookie session, qualifying Sunday - two 44 minute races, the second one with a reverse grid Some kind of Super Final race at the end of the season I’m already confused. Don’t let’s even talk about qualifying. The benefits of racing in this sport include very high prize money, and a test for the champion in an as-yet undecided F1 team.

Doctor Who is returning to our screens on the 3rd April, and there is so much stuff floating about that I need a post to make sense of it all. Firstly, the Beeb have released their press pack for the new series. Yay! I can’t believe it tells us anything we don’t already know, as people have been discussing the debut of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan since, well, forever. The statistics page is quite good, although it’s headed “10 things you didn’t know about Doctor Who” and has a fact for each incarnation of the Doctor. Someone is not good at maths.

Now, it’s not unusual for a misspelling of Franck’s name to occur. Quite often the unusual ‘c’ is missed out, and whilst grating, it is understandable. Most of the time, when I try and write it spelt the other way, as in Frank Williams, I add in the extra ‘c’. This is a much more acceptable spelling mistake, I find. With FKM’s new gig in the Superleague Formula, I pointed out the nice photo that came with it. I was too distracted by a certain smiley Frenchman to actually notice the glaring errors.

Thanks to F1 Wolf who pointed out this tweet from Adam Cooper (how friend of a friend is this?): Franck Montagny is the latest ex-F1 guy to sign up with the Superleague Formula series. The official Superleague site has the news, and here’s the basics. The Superleague Formula was introduced in 2008, as a way to cross over the divide between football and motorsport fans. The teams are all football clubs, the drivers are all motorsport guys, and supposedly we are all supposed to enjoy the mix.

When browsing for pens, a word you don’t really expect to hear is “revolutionary.” However, that is what Websters Pen Shop have on offer with the Dialog 3. The revolutionary part comes from the fact that this fountain pen has no cap. It twists, in the same way some ball point pens twist, and the nib disappears inside. Some fancy stuff then protects the nib from getting damaged or dirty, and when you want to use it again, you just twist away.

Let us begin with some awesomely cute pandas. I really love the running panda at about a minute in. Now, this may go against the grain a little but I was recently introduced to the YouTube account Cute Things Exploding. There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason for the desire to make cute things disappear in a puff of smoke, but naturally, a baby panda wasn’t far behind.

I have mentioned the good stuff from Kikki.K before, but I just wanted to focus in on this book - 365 Days. It’s a journal, but it doesn’t start at the beginning of the year, you can pick it up and start whenever. I think there are good and bad points about this. Firstly, it’s nice not to be tied in to a Jan 1st start. It’s good that it’s not just blank, the numbers will help keep a bit of order to things, but it does mean you are committed to writing every day. That’s a positive thing but it might not be up everyone’s street. I like the idea of taking it on for a project, whatever that might be.