I mean, sure, it’s cold and drizzly and dark, but the colours.

From our viewing perspective, this film was hurt by the fact that we watched it immediately after Tag. Completely different genres, and with such a slow start it felt like the story took ages to get going. Rob Brydon is great at what he does, but watching him get frustrated with life for half an hour wasn’t the best start.

Very interesting film, this one. It’s a dark comedy, along the lines of Game Night - a bit of a twist on the normal comedy format with some moments where you’re genuinely shocked. It’s a fascinating idea, this true story, games lingering on into adulthood when they really should have stopped, and how they affect the lives.

Pretty good, really. It’s an ambitious feat, to reimagine the world of Ocean’s after such a good initial trilogy (well at least some of the trilogy, anyway). But here, there’s another fab group of people ably helmed by Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett - I really liked them as a duo.

Loved this! I know Joan Jett from Bad Education, but that album wasn’t available on Apple Music so this was a close second. It was great, just some pure pop rock from a kick-ass lady who can pull off a tune, whether original or a cover. I Love Rock ‘N Roll is a great title track too.

I liked this, I mean, it was very Muse-y, so you know what you’re getting. I know that Muse can write about deep and meaningful topics but I don’t know if I got in that zone in just two listens. But what I did find is that I really enjoyed the music, and found it great to listen to, regardless of subject matter.

When we watched the new Tomb Raider film back in July, I was quite inspired by some of the behind the scenes footage that showed Alicia Vikander getting super fit to play the role. I wanted to be super fit like that too! Get to the gym, lady, and sort it out! It worked, for a bit. But how funny, then, that it’s also the fault of Lara Croft that my workout schedule has been interrupted in recent weeks.

I mentioned before how the household is looking to make healthier choices, and that involves me spending a bit more time in the kitchen than I have been doing over the last few years. I’m not the best cook, but I do quite enjoy the process and whilst my presentation skills are essentially non-existent, I can occasionally whip something together that tastes nice. At the moment, my mealtime focus has turned to using fresh ingredients wherever possible, and avoiding ready meals. It takes a bit more effort, but is worth it. Meanwhile, my baking focus has turned towards sugar-free. I was a bit sceptical of the sugar-free movement when it first arrived (and by that I mean when Davina first started banging on about it), but now I’m intrigued.

Occasionally, I want something quick and easy to devour, and at the same time revisit my childhood. I always remember having Enid Blyton books to hand, but I don’t think The Secret Seven were one of my favourites. For a start, it’s quite hard to remember seven distinct people, particularly when they are all quite similar plucky young kids. I did like, however, when compared to the Famous Five, that the count in the title didn’t include a dog!

Whenever I listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I tend to just think ’this is good, sounds like Red Hot Chili Peppers, just as you would expect’. And this album was exactly the same as all that. It’s a long one, well over an hour, but never boring. Just lots of good rock tunes from a band who are very good at what they do.

I was quite excited about this album because I love the single Malamente, and Julie Adenuga has been bigging up Rosalía for a while now. I didn’t really get on with the album as a whole, unfortunately. There are some good tracks on there, but then there are also some songs which are quite warbly, screechy even, and I just wasn’t down with it.

This film is really good at what it does but let’s not pretend it’s deep and meaningful. It’s your standard Disney kid’s film about a girl who wants to become an ice skater, and she has to overcome the competition and deal with her mother’s disappointment as well.

I realised, when I started reading this, that I actually don’t know much about Patrick Swayze. Other than the fact that I fell to pieces the last time I watched Dirty Dancing, I couldn’t really tell you anything about him. This was, then, an interesting autobiography, detailing his early life obsessed with dancing, through the difficult years of trying to grow a career, through to finally making it and dealing with fame.

So I managed to get Mr C to watch The Lion King, and after viewing that one, I realised he probably needed to watch Aladdin as well, because I was going to want to see the live action remake next year. We finally got round to it, and yay!

After something a bit relaxing and keen on seeing Hayden Panettiere on screen again, we tried this teen rom com thing. It was fine, funny in places and also quite moving in others, but ultimately… no different to any other prom night hijinks film you can name.

This was an interesting one. I always feel a bit weird about films where it’s not totally clear who you should be rooting for - or in this instance whether the bad guy is really all that bad or not. It’s good to have a bit of nuance, but it always leaves me wondering how I feel about what I’ve seen.

We’ve seen four episodes of the new series of Doctor Who and that’s long enough for me to cast my opinion on the whole thing. Heck, it only took a couple of episodes to know I wasn’t keen on Capaldi, but where do I stand on the Whittaker era? Good news: I love it! It’s fresh, fast, funny, approachable, likeable, different and new. Here are five slightly more specific thoughts:

Interesting one this. I’m always curious to read the first book in a new series to see if it captures my attention - but I can’t decide if this one did or not. It was a cop thriller style story, following a slightly unorthodox detective as he went about solving whatever crime was put before him. It had some of the cliches that you know - being taken off the case but still investigating, the twist at the end where it turns out someone you least expected was involved, the connection with the hunted that only our protagonist has.

I was kinda hoping this would be better than it was. The album is billed as one of the greatest ever, and I do like some of Radiohead’s work. This album was perfectly good, with some real highlights, but I don’t know that I cared for the whole thing, particularly, and I certainly wouldn’t put it up there as one of the best ever.

Love this album. Run Run is a great song to kick off with, and we travel through some great highs and lows to end with the inspirational Just a Kid. It’s a short album, just eight songs lasting thirty minutes, but it still had a pretty big impact on me.

My Life List needs a bit of tender loving care, having been neglected recently, but before I do that I wanted to write a quick post about starting your own list. I think Life Lists are not as in vogue as they were a year or two ago (let’s be honest, the world falling apart is probably a bit distracting), but I still think they can be useful and inspiring. I’ve talked to a few people recently who expressed a desire to start their own lists but fall back on ‘I wouldn’t really know where to start’. So, here are my five tips to getting started:

By the time we watched this film, we’d had a couple of drinks, and I think that’s the only reason we enjoyed it as much as we did. It’s not a very good movie, but what it has is that constant ‘Oh my god he’s in it’ and ‘wait a minute, that’s her!’ There were some funny moments, and some gross moments, and that moment when we suddenly realised it was a spin off from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Yay! It was good! This was a film Mr C and I have both kinda been dreading. There’s always pressure on me to watch classic films that everyone loves in case I end up not liking them. And he was really worried that I wasn’t going to. Eventually, we just dived in and thankfully, I liked it! Not just that, actually, I loved it.

You’ll have seen, no doubt, the recent news that a fresh batch of Top Gear hosts have been announced. If I’m honest, I had forgotten that Matt Le Blanc was leaving and when I saw the new names, that wave of disappointment hit me all over again. The last series of Top Gear wasn’t perfect but it was good and entertaining and had a spark of what made Top Gear great in the first place. It also had a sense of inclusion, what with the variety of people featured and the lack of divisive commentary.

After failing to finish my last book, I wanted to read something quick, easy and familiar. This children’s book is one of my very favourites. A precursor to the world of Harry Potter, The Worst Witch looks at a castle of young witches being educated in the ways of the magical world. There’s no major danger like there is in HP, so it’s just a nice way to revel in the idea of being taught how to be a witch.

I’ll be honest and admit, I didn’t get to the end of this. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t grab my attention the way I hope a book does. I wouldn’t usually review a book I don’t finish but this one was part of my Big Read to do list so I tried to keep pushing on as long as possible. I’ve been picking this up and putting it down for months, which is never a good sign.

I went into this album anticipating that the first song, the single, She Drives Me Crazy, would stand head and shoulders above the rest of the tracks. And it did. The rest was okay, but when you start out with a great tune like that, it’s hard to make it all stand out. I wasn’t totally convinced, either, by the cover of Ever Fallen in Love at the end.

This was one of the chillest albums I’ve heard in a long time. I was quite keen to listen to it despite the fact I realised I don’t know any of Neneh’s previous work - I’m just aware of the family and like their output. There was nothing wrong with this album but it didn’t stand out particularly to me. It was perfect for background, chill music.

There’s quite a few neat things that have been introduced in Apple’s latest software update for iPhones and iPads, but today I’ve been thinking about the new Screen Time feature. It’s on my mind today because Sunday morning is when the report pops up and tells you just how well you’ve managed to waste your week. As a concept, Screen Time is a really good addition. More information is always better, and when I got the very first Screen Time report, I immediately deleted an app that was clearly taking up far too much of my daily life. Since then, my reports have been pretty consistent, but I haven’t yet dug into the vast amount of detail that is available within the Screen Time pages.

Ahh, I love this film. It’s one of the few examples where the sequel is better than the original, and I particularly love it because of all the camp stuff. I think I could watch an entire movie of just the kids at camp. Being the outsider amongst a sea of preppy kids is relatable, even if the specifics of the Addams children are not quite so normal.

I have seen bits and pieces of this movie before but never the full thing, and I was kinda convinced that it was a really rubbish film. However, Mr C said I was basing that opinion on the reaction to all the many, many sequels and that the first one was actually very good.

So, we were watching High Fidelity and yes, maybe had had a drink or two along the way. This bit happened: Which I naturally forgot about. So this came as a surprise: And now I have this: It’s a real, physical book because it wasn’t available in Kindle format. And I still went and bought it, which is unusual for me and can mean only one of three things:

Tom Jones in his early career reminds me very much of Johnny Cash. It’s got that old school soul feeling about it, with stacks of shorter songs whipping you through a journey. Tom’s voice is unquestionably brilliant, and recognisable instantly, and they’re all solid songs. But of course, It’s Not Unusual stands out as a proper choon.

As expected, this was a good album that just went a bit wonky in places. I said that about the last James album I listened to and this was more of the same. However, I also didn’t feel like I really enjoyed it first run through, but gradually it really did grow on me. Second time through I was on board, and Mr C suggests a sixth listen will sell it to me completely.

Our third and final South West Coast Path adventure of the summer was all about cliffs. The theme of our adventures so far has been spontaneity and this was another one that we hadn’t really planned out. It was the kind of trip that saw us driving along a coast road and eventually just deciding to take the next left turn to end up at a beach. Unfortunately, the beach we ended up at wasn’t that inspiring, so instead, we decided to follow the acorn which took us climbing up some pretty steep cliffs. It was hard work, but it was so, ridiculously, worth it. These are the kind of views that you see on TV… and views you just can’t look away from.

This is one of the better Disney animations, it’s basically a perfect movie. Incredible cast, moving and brilliant story, lots of laughs but some dark moments too, and a great message to take home. And that’s all before we even talk about the music, wherein every single song is brilliant.

I loved this! Within about five minutes, I loved it. Laugh out loud funny, with great dialogue, a brilliant soundtrack and an interesting story. Of course, written by Nick Hornby, the book gives a great source material to work from but the cast are brilliant and I was super impressed with John Cusack - narrating directly to camera is an unusual way to get through a movie.

It feels a bit incongruous to write about the beautiful sunny days of summer when autumn has more than arrived, but I want to catch up the final two stretches of South West Coast Path we walked this year, before settling down to make plans for the next batch. So, after finding the start of the path, our next adventure was another that came about by accident – we hadn’t particularly been planning on finding the other end of the national trail, but I sort of had an inkling in my head as we drew nearer and nearer that we could make it happen. A glorious blue sky was overhead when we rocked up to the beautiful Studland.

Apple’s recent update to iOS12 has brought with it plenty of changes, some are good, some are bad, some are genius, and some make your life better without you actually realising it needed it. I have thoughts on a few of the interesting new features but I’m kicking off with something that is a subtle change but I’m really loving it. I’ve talked before about how much I like the Activity feature on the Apple Watch, in particular the badges that you can earn, and I’ve also talked about how frustrating it is when they don’t work. They seem to be functioning correctly for me at the moment, which is a good start, and it’s always fun to view which awards you have achieved and which you are working towards via the Activity app on the phone.

I have mixed feelings about Clean Bandit, because their songs can be so different that you never really know what you’re going to get (except a bit of bonus cello!) I really liked the album, actually, it’s stacked with tunes, but there’s one song that is hugely not for me. Come Over gets inside my head in the worst ways, so I dreaded the very middle of the album, but the rest was great.

This is a band that I’ve heard of in passing but really couldn’t have told you anything about. On the first listen, I thought this was a pretty good album and then second time round I enjoyed it even more so that’s a good sign. It’s the first time in a while, too, that I’ve thought an album was just a bit short and I’d have liked some more.

Oof, wanted to like this because, you know, Big Bang Theory fans, but this did not go down well. There were a few fun moments and I loved Alfred Molina, but for the most part, this was a painful watch. Quinn is just not a very nice or interesting character, which doesn’t help when the entire movie is based around his bad decisions and then his attempts to rectify them.

Second film in a row with Sandra Bullock in, what do you mean I have an obsession? This film has an incredible cast - Bullock, Jackson and McConaughey make a formidable team. There’s some Kevin Spacey in there too, of course. Awkward but you can’t rewrite history. Thankfully, his is a pretty inconsequential piece of the puzzle.

The third release in Tomb Raider’s recent reboot emerged into the wild last month, and I can honestly admit to being completely obsessed with it. I’ve enjoyed the previous two games, but it’s taken me a while to get fully to grips with this new Lara and her rather more complex adventures. Everything is rather more realistic, far more brutal, significantly more graphic and eventually, a lot more fun, than the Tomb Raiders that have gone before.

The entire country went crazy for the recent BBC drama The Bodyguard, featuring Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes as a bodyguard and cabinet minister respectively. I came to this show late, as always, so was almost completely spoiled in terms of who did what, who died when, and what the outcome of it all was. That being the case, it wasn’t quite as intriguing for me as I imagine it was for other people, but it was still good.

I’m surprised that I haven’t written about the Cormoran Strike novels before, but as I’ve just wrapped up reading the fourth installment in the series, I figured now was as good a time as any. As I’m sure everyone is aware by now, Cormoran Strike is the central figure in the series of novels by Robert Galbraith, which is a pseudonym of JK Rowling. The first book picked up decent plaudits before the real author was uncovered, but naturally ever since that info was leaked, the series has garnered a lot more attention than it otherwise might have. Four books in, and a TV adaptation to boot, Strike and his temp/assistant/partner Robin are picking up a lot of fans.

Up until this point, Flock of Seagulls was just the punchline of a joke about Chandler’s hair, but this week I discovered I really enjoyed their debut album! The stand out tune is I Ran (So Far Away) obviously, but actually they all stood up to the test of time, and I really liked the pop from the first moments of listening.

I was a bit intimidated by this album, if I’m honest, but I really quite liked it. There’s the odd moment where Nicki goes into her weird voices mode which I’m not so keen on, but overall it’s a lot of fun. I don’t know if it feels like a body of work as opposed to a collection of songs, but they’re good so I don’t think it matters.

The second series of Hidden Britain by Drone aired on Channel 4 recently, and I just wanted to take a moment to say how brilliant this programme is. I watched the first series and loved the concept - Tony Robinson introduces film footage taken by drones that fly over areas that are inaccessible or, at the very least, not open to the public. Now, let’s be clear from the start, that description does get a little bit stretched on occasion, particularly in the second series. Some of the locations you could get to on foot, and there often are people milling about, but still, it’s good to get a new view and look at things from a different angle.

Whenever we watch a film that doesn’t go so well, the immediate reaction is to turn to a known gem, and Practical Magic is one of those. I remember it from when I was younger, who doesn’t love a version of Dawson’s Creek only with magic? It has small-town drama, romantic tensions, a great nineties soundtrack, and all with bonus magic on top.