Day 27 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

I know I’m super late to the party here, but do people know how brilliant GoodNotes is? I’d tried it before, a long time ago, but it didn’t really register. This time, it came back to me as I was looking into bullet journals and other note-taking. There’s a whole eco-system out there of people designing and selling pdfs and downloads of organisational pages - recipe trackers, to do list pages, cleaning lists, habit trackers, pantry inventories, they’re all out there.

Day 26 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Music from the Thompson Twins popped up on an episode of Physical we watched this week, and that immediately led to the discussion that there are more than two people in the band and none of them are related, so the name makes no sense. That led to me listening to the album and I didn’t know what to expect, but I really quite liked it. It put me very much in mind of Duran Duran, that sort of 80s vibe but with just enough experimentation to keep it interesting. A good album!

Ah lovely Carrie doing what she does best. I skipped the last album because it had more of a religious focus but this is back to the traditional country - drinking, bad guys and girls, and of course, lots of falling in love. I felt like there wasn’t quite so much storytelling in this album but I did enjoy the variety of styles. There was a bit of Johnny Cash railway rhythms, excellent Jason Aldean style drinking songs, and Dolly Parton vibes occasionally too. Loved it.

I wasn’t aware of this book before I picked it up and if I’m honest, I don’t remember why I bought it? The only answer is that it was because the audiobook version I opted for was read by Kate Winslet, who is, of course, wonderful. It’s well read and an interesting enough story but it’s one of those that is just ultimately depressing. This is mostly unkind people being mean to each other and living a miserable life… so not really what I’m in the mood for at the moment! But well read by KW!

This just feels like a hot mess of a movie. Doctor Strange has always been about the weird visuals, with his mirror dimension and all, but there’s so much of that in here, you barely know whether you’re coming or going. The horror elements seemed ramped up - some pretty gruesome deaths in quite graphic detail, alongside moments of serial killer, zombies, it felt like there was barely an original idea in the piece.

The third series of Apple TV+’s comedy series Trying starts next month and I am so excited for it. I watched the show as it aired, and loved it, and then recently rewatched it again to prepare for the new arrival. And now, if you want me to be really honest, I’m watching it again to pull out the best quotes from the show because it’s just that good. On paper, it probably shouldn’t appeal to me: a couple desperately want to have a child and are going through the rigorous adoption process to achieve their goal. I’m not really into the whole kids thing. But the relationships on this show are brilliant, perfect, hilarious, warm and wonderful. Nikki and Jason’s relationship and understanding of each other is the closest thing I’ve ever seen on screen to my own partnership.

Day 25 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

The excitement and hype for this six-part Star Wars story featuring everyone’s favourite Jedi (except Yoda, and baby Yoda, and maybe Ahsoka too), was incredible. I was right there. I wanted to know what Obi-Wan had been up to in the time between the prequels and the original movies, and the trailers only served to make it an unmissable event.

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Day 19 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

I always forget how much I enjoy The Script and this album was stacked with songs I’d forgotten about. Initially perusing the tracklist had only For The First Time and If You Ever Come Back jump out at me, and yes, they are probably the standout songs on the album. But the rest of it is brilliant too, fantastic pop to bop along to. I still over-analyse the lyrics to If You Ever Come Back - keeping the kettle constantly on like that just seems impractical but never mind. Love it.

I was really looking forward to this from George Ezra, having put the previous album firmly into my top ten of all time list. This does live up to the hype although I have to admit it won’t be touching the top ten like its predecessor. But it has that joyous, summer, festival vibe that we’ve come to associate with GE, and there’s a lot to enjoy. It does have an occasional melancholic vibe - a sort of lonely longing - but there are also high spots to counteract the low. A great album.

Day 18 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

I’ve been wanting to watch this since Apple TV+ released it on their streaming platform, but was waiting for the right moment - I knew it was going to be a bit of an emotional watch, so the mood had to be right. I’m so annoyed I waited so long, because it’s brilliant!

Day 17 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Day 16 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book - a love story in very simple terms, with friends and foes getting in and out of each other’s way, and plenty of missed opportunities. I enjoyed the close calls and how the pair were obviously meant to be together but it just never quite happened. It was such a relief and high when they did find each other and make it work… but I did think the celebrations were repeated too often. First they told each other about every time they had near misses and then it was all reported in an article as well, so it felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.

Day 15 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

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Day 13 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

When I was reading Olive and Olive, Again, it was clear that although Elizabeth Strout’s books are standalone works, there are also times where older characters or places make appearances in other novels. So, I figured I should probably start at the beginning of the books and work my way through - hence Amy & Isabelle. It’s an interesting story and incredibly well written, supreme and precise observations about life and although a slow pace, you’re never bored.

This is a great little feelgood movie about a theatre kid and his BFF going on an adventure to Broadway - so if you like musicals, there’s going to be something in here for you. It was a good story, with interesting characters (in a weird world where Joshua Bassett plays the jock!) and a good message. I loved Lisa Kudrow, obviously, and the friend that discovers her hidden agent skills is hilarious and brilliant.

Day 12 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Listening to an A1 album has been on the list for a long time, and it came rushing to the fore after the rumours that Ben from the group was part of the quirky Norwegian Eurovision entry that involved wolves and bananas. This is straight up good hearted late 90s pop and I Love It. I actually knew more of the songs than I remembered - if you’d asked me to name A1 songs I could have come up with maybe two, but I knew at least double that and maybe more. I think it’s brave to kick off with an almost a capella number when you’re known for pop beats, but it leads into Be the First to Believe really well. Fun!

I’d not heard of Anitta before but saw her on the latest series of Carpool Karaoke on Apple TV+ and thought it would be worth a listen. This is a really good album, full of sweeping latin beats, some fab featured artists and a generally fun vibe. It’s very similar to Camila Cabello’s album, if a little more hip hop and a little less pop. I liked it!

This movie is a riot. It’s meta in all the right ways, without that too smug feeling. It’s Nicolas Cage sending himself up whilst also retaining some dignity, which is a really difficult thing to do. The relationship, the chemistry, between Cage and Pascal is off the scale, I really could have watched those two running around the beautiful vistas forever.

I’ve been meaning to write about my growing gin obsession for a while now but realising it’s World Gin Day today kicked me into gear. I always liked the odd gin here and there but recently it’s become my tipple of choice. Partly that’s because I wasn’t enjoying the hangovers that wine left me with, whilst gin doesn’t have the same effect, and partly it’s because the word got out that I liked gin so that was often a gift I got, and the more I got, the more I liked it. Hooray!

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Obviously, seeing Mika as a Eurovision host with that excellent medley during the voting period made it inevitable that I’d have to listen to him on this album journey. He’s got more albums than I would have thought but this is the clear early standout - so many singles on this album, so many songs that I had forgotten I even knew! It’s good, fun, pop but you get a sense that there’s more under the surface than the bubble gum cartoon appearance shows.

This is a good album, I do like the mellow vibe that Blossoms aim for and this album hits it 100%. I don’t know that anything on there particularly stands out but it’s one of those albums that I don’t really remember when I’m out of it but when I’m listening to it, I’m loving it. So that’s a success in my eyes. It’s short and sweet, and does the job that’s asked of it.

I so loved Beth’s first book, the Flatshare, it was sweet and completely readable. Thankfully, this second book was exactly the same - I couldn’t stop turning the pages! Not only that, but the premise, which could be really eye-rolling and corny, actually made a lot of sense for the characters and even though they underwent the journeys you were expecting, it didn’t all happen in the way I thought it might, which made it even better. Loved this and can’t wait to read the next one.

I love a good John Grisham adaptation. This was brilliant, apparently Grisham’s favourite adaptation of his works. The story is good, the case(s) at hand fascinating and the cast even better. Danny DeVito provides moments of lightness whilst also being a hardcore hustler, which is fun. Matt Damon does earnest as well as always and Danny Glover really handles the judge side of things perfectly (why is he not credited????) Great story, well adapted, perfect watch.

I just finished watching the second series of The Flight Attendant, HBO’s dark comedy crime mystery show starring and executive produced by Kaley Cuoco. It was brilliant, potentially even better than the first series. 2020’s initial outing followed the adventures of Kaley’s character Cassie as she, a flight attendant on a fictional airline, woke up in a hotel bed in Bangkok next to a dead body. Gradually the mystery unfolded and following the twists and turns was exceptional.

Day 4 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

Day 3 of 30 Day Photo Challenge.

The most important thing to say about this memoir is that it’s so well written, you not only want to hear more about Simu’s early life, you also go with him to dip back into the history of his parents as well. It’s not often that this kind of early autobiography grabs me like this one did, but it’s important and very moving. And then Simu’s story after that is also great - being stuck in a dead-end job, working his way through many, many acting jobs, and then, of course, landing that big gig at Marvel.

This cultural phenomenon had pretty much passed me by until first it appeared on Strictly with JoJo and his boys doing a great job in heels, and then noticing it was a musical on the stage. So I thought this was a musical when I finally got round to watching it. There’s music in it, obviously - it would be nothing without Gloria Gaynor and ABBA - but it wasn’t a musical as you know and love it. All three leads are brilliant, they are fascinating in completely different ways and do an incredible job, but then the wife and son come in at the end and absolutely steal the show: the wife, because she quite awesomely says it like it is, and the boy, because he just accepts without breaking from a smile. Beautiful.

A few years ago, boxed wine was the kind of thing you had when you couldn’t really afford the good stuff. It was looked down upon. Apparently, now, that’s all changing, and boxed wine is actually what we should all be buying. Unless you’re buying super posh wine that needs to sit in a cooled cellar and age for a few decades, there’s no actual advantage to having wine in a glass bottle, but that’s such an ubiquitous method of wine delivery, no one has really questioned it.