I’ve never really got on that well with Siri. Apple’s voice activated assistant can do some cool things but she never really listens to me and I find it easier just to swipe and tap to get what I want. I’m not alone in getting frustrated with Siri, but I’ve long been complaining to Mr C that she just doesn’t listen to me. He’s not experienced the same level of problems and I was taking it personally.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this one before because I first read it a long, long time ago and have dived back into it a handful of times since. It’s one of those long standing favourites, a bit of comfort reading when you’re not ready for something new. Michael Crichton is a firm favourite of mine, and this being a time travel book, it’s bound to be up there with the best. I love the writing, that it starts out quite sedately albeit with the intriguing mystery, and gradually ramping up as things get hectic and time gets tight.

We spent quite a lot of time going, ooh Matrix and ooh Speed, but actually, this film did seem to avoid most of the normal action cliches. He spent the whole time looking for this guy and then eventually dispatched him with just a couple of gunshots. And it was quite fun how cars seemed to be his nemesis. He could fight a hundred people at once, but got hit by at least three cars.

Well, that escalated quickly. From testing out a random Cornish beer in a bottle, now I’m faced with a 5 litre keg of the stuff. Despite being called a mini keg, this thing is so big we had to dismantle the lower third of our fridge. Which in turn means we now have no food to eat, but five litres of prime Cornish ale will see us through, I’m sure.

Game of Thrones spoilers within! Hey people, we did it! I mean, I can’t pretend that I have joined you all on an epic eight year long journey to find out who would finally be sitting on the Iron Throne, but it has been a pretty intense ride for me too. I think the fact that I binge watched all eight series in about six weeks means that I’ve a slightly different perspective than the ardent fans who have waited and wondered and sat patiently and theorised and loved and let this show take over their lives. However, I do still have thoughts to share and here are some of them.

Backstreet Boys have been celebrating the launch of their new tour, 20 years of their best album Millennium, and a host of other things. Lots of content, tweets, videos, competitions, the works. I really liked the recent videos they released featuring their videos from the Millennium album with added information. It’s like the good old days when MTV was actually comprised of music videos, and you could sit all day and watch pop videos with bonus trivia in the lower thirds. Ahh, there is a gap in the market for that, surely?

The trailer to this didn’t really make any sense to me, and didn’t make me want to see the film with any rapidity - that’s part of the reason it’s taken so long to watch it. Actually, the story does make sense and holds its own quite well. I don’t think I liked it as much as the first one but it had more story and morals and plot points which made it kinda different.

I’ve read the book this film is based upon and really liked it but knew it was going to take a little while to muster the courage to watch the film - it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster, I thought. And yea, it was exactly that.

Late last year, restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s launched an initiative to ban families from using their mobile phones whilst having dinner. As in, handing over your phone to the restaurant while you ate, and then getting it back at the end if you were a good family and ate up all your greens. I, as well as many others, was outraged at the restaurant’s audacity, controlling streak, as well as just the general tone of disapproval of people who use phones at table.

I loved this! I know of Blondie’s famous singles but didn’t know much about the albums of the band. This was such a good one. Punk, a bit poppy, rock and of course, a superbly awesome woman helming it all. It was a bit more punk than I was expecting but not so much that it was alienating to me.

I like Rob Thomas’ music and the sound of his pop and thankfully this album is much more of the same from him. He has admitted that he wrote this album for the fans, rather than pushing the envelope or trying out a new genre. Instead, it’s just that nice strong pop (that sounded amazing whilst out for a walk in the sunshine). It has a bit of a retro feel in places, which also appeals, as it has nods to the 80s without going over the top. It’s not a classic, but it’s certainly another listenable album to add to the collection.

A walk around Glastonbury Abbey is well worth it, they are exceptional ruins. Especially on a nice and peaceful day.

I can see the Pyramid stage. That means I have practically booked my spot, right?

So many thoughts! First opinion is that this was an epic film on such a grand scale and just so moving. It captured me almost instantly, with that crazy stressful start to a movie and then it never let up. The biggest highlight is the insanely good cinematography that grabs you, thrusts you into the heart of the action, makes you look at things differently and from angles that only the real participants could have seen, and then leaves you to deal with the consequences. I genuinely thought I was inside every rocket that Armstrong was in, I felt that claustrophobic and breathy intensity, and I was more than invested in every step he took.

I’ve been up and running with this new website structure for about two weeks now and I’m still loving it. I don’t know if it’s just the novelty of it all or if the effort gone into simplifying everything has paid off, but I want to blog more and when I do, I write more too. The film and album review process is more immediate which means I have more thoughts and more to say. That can only be a good thing.

This is the last of the Backstreet Boys albums that I was properly obsessed with when it came out, and that has me pondering: do I like this album because it’s good or do I like it because I know it so well? If I listened to it for the first time now would I love it as much as I do? I don’t have the answer for that but all I can say is that I do love it.

The album starts well but I really do not like that song (Sunflower) even though it’s only two minutes. The good bits of the album are good, the bad are bad, so overall it is somewhere in the middle. It did mostly just make me want to listen to Haim again though.

Just a bit of inspiration from an old episode of Radio 1’s Screen Time podcast with Ali Plumb. As I’ve said to people on Instagram and Twitter quite a lot lately, don’t be ashamed of your opinions. If you happen to, for example, not like The Favourite, and everyone’s saying how amazing it is, but you’re like, I don’t like it. Don’t feel ashamed, don’t be like, oh I’ve got to watch it again so I can teach myself to like it.

Oh god, it was just so boring! I knew going into it that I had forgotten a good portion of the first film. But I thought I had enough of a hazy memory to get by. The guy who had his memory wiped, Newt and his nifflers, and Grindelwald at the end, with the kid that turned into a black scribble mess in the sky. That should do it right?

The negative reviews that this film has garnered had me a bit nervous about what on earth I was going to watch, and that’s why it’s taken so long to get round to viewing it. But actually, it was an alright film. There wasn’t really anything wrong with it as films go, the problem is just that it didn’t really add anything to the Star Wars story.

Today I managed to earn this award on my Apple Watch - 1,000 move goals. I don’t quite know how that’s possible, especially since a burst of energy a month or two ago sent my move goal sky high. But I’ve got a good relationship with the goals on my watch now - not over-taxing myself to try and reach them and then burning out, but using them as motivation to keep going when you just need that little extra push to get an award.

I really liked this album. I didn’t know I was a Sheryl fan but I knew more of the songs than I thought I did. It’s quite hard to pin down the genre, it’s definitely country but it feels like a cross-over, like Shania but far less poppy. It’s more like country-rock, but even then that doesn’t quite fit. I don’t know but whatever it is, I liked it and it’ll be one I can listen to over and again.

Lovely Pink returns with another album, not all that long after the last one. Her sound is getting more mature each time, and you can tell that Pink is figuring out how to deal with the world as it is - and hoping to help us do the same. There are some great songs and some good ones, but if I’m honest, the album does peter out a little towards the end. The last couple of songs are just a bit too warbly for my tastes. But overall, another great album.

I pretty much knew I was going to love this movie from the outset. Bumblebee is everyone’s favourite Transformer, and I heart Hailee, so it was a good match. And the film was pretty much what I thought it would be - emotional scenes, an epic amount of cuteness, but tinged with those big robot fight sequences.

I’m currently listening to the audiobook Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It’s focus is on the gender data gap - the ways in which the world is often unthinkingly designed for men and how that affects women in real and unexpected ways. I’m finding it hard going, not because of the book itself - it’s well written, researched and read - but because the unintended and far-reaching consequences of a simple lack of thinking weigh heavy on me. I’m having to listen in short bursts and then stop to do something else.

Okay, Game of Thrones fans, look away now because I know you’re just enjoying some of the best episodes ever (apparently), but I am still miles behind you. Yes, that’s me, one of those people that gets caught up on the hype train at the very last minute and then has to watch seven seasons in about six weeks. I’m doing pretty well actually.

It’s been a long time since I made any significant changes to my blog and the system it runs on, and now, seemingly overnight, everything has completely changed. This isn’t the work of a moment though. This is something I’ve been thinking about for at least three years. The problem I’ve used Wordpress for many, many moons now and whilst I’ve always thought it was functional in a way that would work for most people, it never quite fit my purposes. I have a variety of different content that all needs something slightly different - from a grid layout for music and books, to the note-taking style of a Film Watch review, as well as the more standard blogging template.

After watching the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, it was only a matter of time before I delved into the Queen archive again. This was a great album, with a handful of famous songs interspersed with more greatness. I liked it better than Night at the Opera, but only because the songs had a similar feel to them throughout, rather than a mish-mash of genres. Could be a new favourite.

I really liked this album! I picked it on the strength of the one song, Love Has All Been Done Before, because it had a nice unusual feel to it. The rest of the album was more of the same. A sort of old school pop-rock with Jade’s intense and sometimes even rasping voice. It’s just good fun.

Recently, I was given a handful of Cornish beers, the spoils of a trip to the South West coast, and one of them was Doom Bar. I know you can buy this in plenty of places around the country, but still, it’s always a little bit more special when something comes to you from where it’s actually made, isn’t it? I’m not a big beer drinker really, but I wanted to try the Doom Bar because… well, because Strike drinks it. Is that weird? JK Rowling’s (or Robert Galbraith’s) grumpy detective can often be found supping the amber nectar and I wanted to see if it was worth the fuss.

The most recent episode of Robert Llewellyn’s Fully Charged YouTube series focused on the fun and future-proof idea of solar-powered trains. Electricity-powered trains are front and centre at the moment, with the ongoing works to upgrade the length of the Great Western Railway line, but this episode talks of a short track that goes just a little bit further. Based in Australia, where there is a little bit more sunshine than we have in the UK, the Byron Bay Railroad Company refurbished an old train, refitting it with batteries and solar panels and allowing the machine not only to power itself with renewable energy but also to give power back to the grid.

This was a bit of an odd John Grisham read, because although it had the fundamental law and courtdroom drama that you would expect, the main protagonist really didn’t seem to be that engaged. Rudy Baylor, fresh out of law school, waiting to pass the bar, isn’t even sure he wants to be a lawyer.

I always start these anniversary posts with the warning that “I don’t usually like to celebrate such things but here I am going to anyway.” I have realised, though, that it’s something to do with the ten year anniversary of things. That’s the one I like because it’s a nice round number and because it seems like a long time. Ten years is the one that Film Watch is celebrating. Today.

The little gem of a show that is Travel Man returned last week, and it debuted a new four-episode run with the wonderful guest star Dawn French. In case the show has passed you by, it features Richard Ayoade taking a celebrity guest on a whirlwind 48 hour trip to various holiday destinations. Previous episodes have featured Aisling Bea in Budapest, Jon Hamm in Hong Kong, and Paul Rudd in Helsinki.

Beats 1, Apple’s live streaming radio service, has a lot of great content. It can be hard to keep on top of it, and I’ll admit it does lean towards the cooler end of the music spectrum than I would place my own listening habits. However, what they do well is getting a variety of guest presenters in to host a show and therefore airing lots of different tastes and views.

Oh hi there! Welcome to my website, my digital scrapbook, my little slice of the big internet pie. Here I share what is going on in my world, which is mostly keeping track of things I have watched, listened to, read or photographed. From book reviews to gadget wish lists, favourite apps, notable videos and thoughts on life as we know it, I’ll write about whatever has caught my attention at any particular moment.

I was worried about this one, because what I know of Bob Dylan is the gravelly voice and a slight tendency to overuse the harmonica. These are two things that meant I wasn’t sure I’d get to the end of the album but actually, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I don’t think it’s really my kind of music and I wouldn’t seek it out, but it has its own merits and I can understand why people are big fans.

I’ve a fondness for The Maine after using some of their music in our live podcasting days of many years ago. Turns out they also make real albums too, and this was a very good one! A nice body of pop work that makes for some easy listening. I don’t know if it particularly stood out from the crowd but I’d certainly tune in again.

Just a celebratory post to have reached 100% completion on the main Spider-Man game. I think this is the only game that isn’t Tomb Raider that I’ve played to completion. And yet somehow there is still more to do with three DLC expansions to get 100% on. It’s not like Marvel to have more content than it’s possible to keep up with!

Rami Malek is incredible in this, embracing the spirit and the passion and the teeth of Freddie Mercury with style, grace, and a touching humanity. The actor playing Brian May was also really good, I thought. The scenes were well made with incredible attention to detail, particularly in the remakes of Top of the Pops and of course, Live Aid. It told whatever story it was trying to tell well, and swept you along to the end, by which time I was in floods of tears.

Interesting one, this. It’s a good film, interesting plot and all squeezed in to a relatively short running time. I do feel a bit uncomfortable that it has the “white saviour” issue, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, in that respect. For the most part, the kids just needed a bit of a push and they did the rest themselves. That headmaster though, rage!

If you pay any attention to TV and culture on the internet, you’ll likely have heard people raving about Fleabag. I’m sorry to say that I’m just going to add to the adoration here, because it really was that good. I have to admit, though, that I only caught on to the Fleabag bug recently, and revelled in the joy of binge-watching it. I actually have to go one step further and admit that I probably wouldn’t have watched it at all if it wasn’t for Andrew Scott being in the second series. Thank goodness I did.

I was surprised to read that the Foo Fighters fell out of love with this album because this is quintessential Foos to me. All My Life and Times Like These are fab tunes and propel the album on to more of the same. I enjoyed it, even if the band didn’t!

I was kinda disappointed in this album. Seeing Sara on the recent Carpool Karaoke had me keen to check it out, the Armor song sounded amazing in the car. But it sort of didn’t translate for me. The songs were okay, but as a whole there didn’t feel like a lot of oomph to the album. Where’s the inspirational Brave-style anthem?

There’s always a big push these days to get people up and active and try and stem the sedentary lifestyles we have grown so used to. Given the many initiatives that are out there, I was wondering whether it wouldn’t be useful to have a celebrity or two making online videos that help try and show people how a) accessible and b) fun training and working out can be. It doesn’t have to be a chore.

I was really nervous about watching this one, given the hype and how extremely loved it is by most who have watched it. Spider-Man has always been a bit sort of love/hate, really, but the recent game has warmed me to Peter Parker’s universe enormously. I was glad we had played the game before this, to know who Miles and Fisk were, but even with that, I imagine there’s a lot we missed. I suspect this was aimed at the comic book fans more than those who have enjoyed the movies.

Just like the Billie Eilish album I listened to this week, I don’t think this is one that I would reach for on the every day. I was worried, too, because I’m not a huge fan of talky talky bits in albums. But this, this really worked. I guess because it’s designed to be music behind carefully selected snippets, rather than people trying to be funny. It was good – fab music with moving anecdotes, so that the actual singers sounded out of place. Again, not sure when I’d seek this out, but really glad I heard it.

The hype for this album has been unreal but I was very nervous about listening to it. My feelings afterwards are mixed and complicated. I thought it was a really good album, maybe not quite so good as the hype, but up there as a great debut. However, it’s a very specific mood, and one that I can’t really put my finger on. When am I going to be in the mood to select this album for a listen? I’m just not sure.

This is just like what happened with Fast & Furious 7. I didn’t think I was going to like the series, but gradually, as you work through each film, you get more and more invested in all of it and then they kill you off with an emotional sequel that knocks you for six.

The most important thing about this film is that they didn’t ruin the Rocky legacy. It’s insane that there is a such a huge gap between the stories, that we’re introducing a whole new generation of fighters but it still worked perfectly. The nostalgia level was huge but they also managed to keep the story moving forward.