A short while ago, for a temporary period only, I was in charge of these little fluffies. The responsibility was crippling but the relentless cuteness helped ease the burden.

Tennis tournaments quite often gather their sports stars together to do small promotional stunts to promote the event. You know the kind of thing, holding koala bears in Australia, or visiting the Great Wall in China. The Rogers Cup in Canada has a different take on this - getting a selection of WTA players to try and guess which of four cups is proper maple syrup. This seems like a totally unfair challenge, partly because actual Canadians are taking part who must have an advantage, and also because they’ve got honey as one of the options and honey and maple syrup are pretty similar.

The end of this book is designed solely to get you hooked on reading the next one. There’s a kidnapping/murder mystery at the heart of the novel, and two believable, courageous and mostly likeable protagonists to try and unravel what’s been going on and who’s behind it. I quite liked the twists and turns although it felt a bit weird that we knew all along who it was and that is who it turned out to be. Also, the fact that Timmy was kidnapped was not even slightly a shock, I don’t know if it was meant to be.

So I know the two main songs from this, obviously, and they are both outstanding but that doesn’t always mean the rest of the album is going to follow suit. Thankfully, it does! I loved it. Lauper has that great punky but poppy sound that I like, and it’s a relatively short album that packs a powerful punch. Plus, and it bears repeating, Time After Time is SUCH a good song.

Loved the last album so was looking forward to this one and was not disappointed. Of Monsters and Men deliver a slightly new sound, although it’s still reminiscent of where they were before. I did find myself thinking of The XX quite a lot as I listened, but there’s nothing wrong with that as it was all good and exactly what I was hoping for.

I really loved this. I can totally understand that this is going to be a film that you either love or hate, but I loved it. It’s just Winona and Keanu bickering for 90 minutes, and it was brilliant. Although at times things got a little bit wordy and it started to feel you were watching a high-brow play, but whenever that happened, one of them would just let slip an insult that brought you right back down to earth.

My overwhelming thought after watching this was simply that it was not at all the film I thought it was going to be. Perhaps I should have expected it because whilst John Hughes does good teen comedy, he’s not averse to sneaking in some serious content and thought-provoking issues at the same time. So whilst this was a fun romp about a cheeky teen having a day off school and the unlucky headmaster going overboard trying to catch him out, there was a lot more to it.

This was a bit of a weird one, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but in the end it won me over a little bit. I thought it was going to be more like Space Balls, more of an actual farce, but whilst it did poke fun at the sci-fi world, particularly Star Trek, it still had its own original story - and one that I got quite invested in.

Made an unfortunate typo in the url for this photo, but actually it’s kinda accurate, so I’m leaving it as it is.

How have I not done this film yet? It’s genuinely one of my favourite films of all time, I’ve seen it over and over and could probably watch it every day for the rest of my life. It’s short and sweet, with a banging soundtrack. A glimpse into the lives of two super optimistic friends, who have a great outlook on life, and go to their reunion to learn a few lessons and to teach us viewers a thing or two.

This was not the film I was expecting it to be, although in hindsight, knowing it came from Ron Howard, I probably should have been thinking along these lines. It gets off to a slow start and the brothers are very frustrating to the point you just want to bang their heads together. There’s a lot of testosterone flying around and the women aren’t particularly treated very well. Lots of punching and ego and blah.

A domestic thriller, this book charts a turbulent time in a family’s life, when someone they trusted turned out to be… well, a psychopath. There are a lot of interesting concepts in this book - firstly, whether to trust and how long to trust for when you start to have suspicions, whether the backstory is true or not or whether it is all in our villain’s imagination, that the protagonist is no hero and made plenty of mistakes herself.

This is the autobiography of Martine Wright, one of the survivors of the 7/7 bombings in 2005 - when a terrorist attacked the tube and bus links in London. The book starts on that very day, and has a unique style to begin with - hearing from many of the people who feature in the memoir, Martine’s doctor, a policewoman who found her, her husband and family. It’s a stark and visceral start to the book as it places you right in the scene but also gives you great insight into the panic and distress that everyone else was feeling as well.

I liked the women in the movie, Poison Ivy is an excellent foe, basically channelling Mother Nature who wants her revenge. Her backstory was good. And Alicia Silverstone kicked ass, which is always fun. Unfortunately, these upsides were offset by the endless misogyny and all that pheromone nonsense. Boo. Also, what on earth was Elle’s character about? She was just kinda there and then she just kinda wasn’t.

I liked the slightly more comic book approach, it suited Jim Carrey because he’s basically a comic book character in himself. Val Kilmer was probably the best of the three Batmen. Two-Face was good, and they were great as a duo together.

I’ve sort of lost track of Christina Aguilera these days, but I did like her early stuff and this is a great album that showcases some of her best work. It’s long, which is my only real complaint, but even so it grabs you and takes you on a journey. I like that it’s not an album that tails off, although I have to admit the last track was probably my least favourite.

This is such a weird album. There are real oddities on there, of course, Dark Ballet being a particular example of that. But actually some of the songs are quite good individually, it’s just a wonder how they are all on the same album. It doesn’t flow at all, skips around amongst feelings and sounds, and is generally something of a fever dream.

I said it above in the notes but it bears repeating: What the hell is this film? How is it by the same people as the last one? They took the comic feel and ran with it so badly that none of it makes any sense and it is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous. My biggest complaint with the film is that for a Batman movie, there is very little Batman. He’s barely in it in the first half an hour, and he’s very slow to react to all the emergencies.

It hasn’t aged particularly well, but somehow was still very entertaining. Funnier than I had expected. I loved Keaton’s portrayal of Batman/Wayne, kinda nerdy, and really not a superhero - very much just a guy in a suit with some fancy gadgets. It was relatable. If you had lots of money and an unfeasibly loyal butler.

As I started reading this, I suddenly wondered why it all felt familiar and then I realised, I’d seen the TV show. I genuinely can’t remember if I’ve read this before, but as I started turning the pages, it all started to come back to me. I like the format of the book, bringing the story along through the eyes of a different character for each part, each adding their own viewpoint and problems to things.

I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to this movie, what with it being a sequel (eek) to a very popular action movie. But hey, it was surprisingly good. Not as good as the first, but decent, amusing in places, tense in others. Good characters, an interesting story, and it got to that fabled point - how on earth are they going to get out of this one? Well, the answer is: terribly.

When choosing an album to listen to each week, I often end up pondering what are the rules of the game and does the potential offering fit? As Monica will tell you, rules are good, rules control the fun! Most of the rules of my album adventure have been in play since the beginning – one album choice each per week, old versus new, no greatest hits, etc, etc.

I don’t specifically remember listening to this album before but it all felt very familiar and it was wonderful. Obviously the two main songs stand out, Indestructible is a particular favourite but the rest of them all have that soft floating but fun pop feel that makes a distinctive vibe the stretches through the full album.

I listened to it and I loved it! Fantastic collaborations but before all that they are some great songs. Catchy and funky, it’s Ed at his more hip-hop best, there’s definitely rapping involved (so steer clear if you’re upset by him doing that, I think he’s pretty good).

This is an interesting read because it’s not your standard comedian-writes-memoir book but instead a stream of consciousness from someone who clearly has a lot of thoughts and research to share on a particular topic - that topic being the human body, particularly female. That topic then stretches to include consensual and non-consensual sex, bodies growing and changing, and of course the more general feminism and equality that comes with the territory.

What a weekend of sport that was! I’ll admit my focus was pretty much exclusively on Wimbledon, but it was hard to miss the fact we were doing well in the cricket, and there were a handful of motorsport events to also catch the eye. But the tennis held me in thrall for the full weekend. I’m not a huge fan of the men’s game anymore, it’s too whippy and too long, but I couldn’t help getting invested in the Federer/Djokovic rematch. I’m sort of in the camp that thinks it’s a bit disappointing to end up with the same names in the finals all the time. Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, if it’s not one it’s the other. But you can’t take anything away from the fact that these guys are incredible, and that’s why they’ve managed to sustain such success.

I have a vague memory of Skunk Anansie from the 90s but I don’t suppose it was my kind of music back then. I quite enjoyed this album, it’s a strong, proud and emotive rock from a superbly powerful front-woman. It did cross, occasionally, into the realm of being slightly too angry for my tastes, although by the sounds of it she has every right to get a bit shouty.

I really wanted to like this. I’ve enjoyed a few of Dave’s singles and his performance at Glastonbury was excellent. This album just didn’t work for me. It’s a concept piece, featuring Dave in a therapy session, and so the songs weave in and out of difficult moments from his life.

I’ve talked about Zac Efron’s YouTube channel before because I do applaud people opening up and sharing their workout insights - and it’s fun to see Zac win and lose against his celebrity friends. In his most recent video, he pairs up with Alexandra Daddario and they have a mega workout with medicine balls and generally kill their cores. One bit that stood out to me was Zac admitting the following about his Baywatch body:

If I’m honest, I never had any intention of reading this. It’s not so much that I was judgemental about the whole thing but I vividly remember when this trilogy first came out and people were excited about them but when pressed had to admit that they weren’t written very well and that the story wasn’t the best. So I could never understand what all the fuss is about. I decided to bite the bullet, you know, eight years later, after watching Book Club which revolved quite a lot around this first book. In the end, I’m missing out on some culture so I need to get on board.

Not really a fan of this one, I have to admit. I did think going into it that it was going to be kinda arty and maybe a bit hard-going but it surpassed my expectations. First, the good: I quite liked how quirky the script was. Weird sentences and funny moments. Not sure it came to any kind of satisfying conclusion but then again I don’t actually know what a satisfying conclusion would have been. Just disappointing that no one ended up happy.

So, my goodness. This is a flawed but very, very fun film. I’ll be honest and admit that at about 18 minutes we were very much considering the twenty minute rule. But it gradually got better and better and I got more and more invested. It’s an odd cast, some very talented people but do they all fit together? I don’t know. And my word, the accents. If it wasn’t for people missing their accents all the time, this would for sure be a five star film.

My obsession with time travel leads me to unexpected cultural output sometimes, and this book took me by surprise. It’s a full on action adventure, full of omg they’re changing the time lines drama, and oof this person could blink out of existence at any moment tension. I’ll admit, the finer details did get a bit clunky and confusing for me - a lot of people in the same place at the same time, and the extended family with an extensive history was a lot to take in.

This is one of those deliciously short but beautiful works, translated from French to English and losing nothing in the process. It tells the story of a simple guy who goes to work, looks after his friends, feeds his fish, and dreams of books. He also salvages single pages from the pulping machine he works with, and reads them aloud on the train to work.

Criado Perez does an incredible job of highlighting a wide variety of issues that I would never have thought of, and delves into what research has and hasn’t been done on the impact these problems have. But what I like most is that Perez really takes a good stance on this – obviously the fight for equality does have its enemies, but the issues we’re talking about here very rarely are done maliciously. It’s just that the data isn’t there, and everyone, women included, has been societally trained to consider the male form default.

The best kind of podcasts are those that have a simple premise that can run and run. Encyclopedia Womannica is exactly one of those. Hoping to give some attention to those women from history that have either been overlooked completely or have not had the attention they should have had. Over the course of a year, the hosts aim to feature the profile of a historical icon, as the podcast blurb explains:

So, this was probably my second favourite Marvel movie after Black Panther. It was good and inspirational and nice and the music was incredible. I wish all movies were set in the 90s because omg those songs. On the one hand, Carol Danvers is an incredible hero. Your normal but awesome fighter pilot military woman who then gets next level powers to defend the universe from the big bad.

The Killers rocked their headline set at Glastonbury, so it was an easy pick to listen to one of their albums this week. And boy what an album. This has that amazing thing where there are multiple amazing songs next to each other and I just can’t believe that such greatness exists (tracks 2-5 obviously). But the whole thing works and stands the test of time.

Went into this with a little bit of trepidation but actually really loved it. Naturally, being based around Stranger Things its heavily influenced by the eighties but I dug that. I think apart from the song Christmas Lights, you wouldn’t necessarily know this was based on the TV show, but whether you do or not, it’s a great collection of fun and slightly emotional pop.

Beautiful Lulworth Cove with blue skies and turquoise seas, and a horrid pebble beach. Best to stay on the cliff-tops.

So look, we may not have been exactly in the right frame of mind to start watching another film - it was late, we had been drinking. But this was so not good. I love Baz Luhrmann’s work, so arty, so well-crafted, so fitting with strong music that gives you a sensory overload sort of vibe and really sucks you in.

Weirdly, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I liked the first one, and it’s Paul Rudd for crying out loud, but I just felt a bit meh about it. Thankfully, the movie was really good. Funny, emotional in places, and with a good story that makes sense. There was that usual bit of ‘what the hell is going on I don’t remember any Marvel movies I’m going to have to watch all of them again’ thing which was kinda annoying, but once past that, it was great.

I’ve recently started catching up on podcasts again, and this time I’ve discovered Rene Ritchie’s Vector. It’s officially a YouTube show, covering the latest news and insights into the world of Apple and technology, but there’s also an audio-only podcast which is my preferred method. As I’m a little behind, I was listening to the shows released around WWDC, and this episode about the new tvOS caught my attention. Specifically this bit towards the very beginning:

When I was a kid, I’d go to my grandparent’s house and as a special treat, you could make a drink with their SodaStream. It was kept out in a utility room or conservatory because it was a noisy machine, putting carbonation into the beverage of your choice. The only things I particularly remember about the experience is that it was a) a lot of fun and something to look forward to and b) resulted in some pretty rubbish colas and lemonades that didn’t live up to the hype.

Having seen the girls do the bizzo at Wembley, it was only natural to listen to their second album. I’ve already logged the first, and that one is a classic in my book. This second one I don’t think lives quite up to the standard of the first but somehow it’s also not really trying to.

I really liked the last Bruce album I listened to and although I knew this one was going to be kinda different, I still had hopes it would work out. Ultimately, it wasn’t my favourite. It’s just a bit boring, really, nothing stood out particularly and a couple of the songs were annoying (the miracle one, and the one where he seems to just list many ailments).

Good film, this one. I was expecting good things, what with the Rock teaming up with Stephen Merchant but it delivered. I had heard them discussing it on various promotional opportunities and they often said that you didn’t need to know anything about wrestling to enjoy the film, which I think is true and I was grateful for.

Naturally, I know all the words to all the songs off by heart which makes them super fun to listen and sing along to. It’s a bit of a difficult one to score because I’m so close to this album that it is naturally a five, but really, objectively, there are some less-than-stellar songs on there.

The last album from Bastille was alright, but it annoyed me the volume of talky bits, radio excerpts, that kind of thing. I’m sure it was arty and important but it didn’t make for much fun listening. This one, thankfully is free of those things, and I actually really enjoyed it.