My obsession with the South West Coast Path has only been steadily growing since we found the beginning and the end of the long distance trail. I bought a guide book and I’ve been plotting and planning how, when and where we can walk the different sections. Because although, just recently, I managed to get Mr C to finally admit he might have an inkling (albeit with great reluctance) to join me on this adventure, it’s not going to be eight week odyssey for us. This is more of a ’let’s go and see which bit of path we can add to the map today’ type thing.

I’ve wanted to watch this for a while now, knowing just how well it did with audiences and how popular the soundtrack was, but the timing has never quite been right. Thankfully, the despondency that followed watching the Avengers: Infinity War debacle put us in exactly the right mood for something a little more lighthearted and a lot more musical.

Oof. You know, I’ve really been struggling with these Avengers films over the last few years. I quite enjoy the individual standalone episodes but when they all come together and you have to start remembering and knowing and doing your homework and keeping track of so many characters in the same place, it starts to become less like fun and more like a chore.

I was expecting this to be your regularly scheduled light and fluffy older rom-com, but it was far more than that. Firstly, the entire cast were brilliant but I was particularly moved by the under-stated performance by Timothy Spall. The story was mesmerising, how all the pieces fit together and then came apart.

A great album, this one. I only knew the song Enola Gay and I really wasn’t sure I knew what OMD were, but the rest of the album was a triumph. It didn’t stand out as much as the lead single but even so, I liked the moody synth overtones and the general feeling that it left me with after a full listen.

At first I really wasn’t sure about this one, it’s quite warbly in places, but parts of it started to grow on me. No Tears Left to Cry grew on me enormously after a couple of listens, and I cannot get the ‘mix it, and mix it, and mix it and mix it’ thing out of my head. It’s clearly a departure from Ariana’s previous efforts, more adult, more soulful, and I quite liked it despite its oddities.

Just like The Cutting Edge a couple of films ago, this movie is one that I remember absolutely adoring when I saw it. Unlike The Cutting Edge, I only saw it once, maybe twice, before never being able to find it again and then mostly forgetting about it. Seeing it available on Amazon Prime gave me that jolt that you only get when you find something long lost.

It occurred to me that big a fan as I am of Michael J Fox, I actually hadn’t seen a lot of his early stuff other than Back to the Future. I’ve seen him in more recent things but old school movies, I’ve got some work to do. So, Teen Wolf was first up and I read that Michael J wasn’t so fussed about the whole thing and wanted to move on to bigger and better things than a ‘werewolf’ movie.

Interesting one, this. We were on board to watch another Netflix film on the day it was released, as that is quite a lot of fun, even though this one really wasn’t aimed at us. It’s a YA book turned into a film, and that shines through. The story is predictable, and the elements along the way are signposted so early on that it was actually quite laughable by the end.

I don’t think there was too much memorable about this album but there doesn’t really need to be. It is exactly what you want it to be – Green Day through and through. Strong guitars, solid beats, that recognisable lead vocal… enjoyable album but perhaps not my favourite of their work.

I love Jason, his witty lyrics and fast-paced patter and this album is another one to add to the collection. There were a few good tunes on there but actually, as an overall effect, I found the album to be oppressively saccharine. The guy is clearly in love, which is great, but every song was about how he likes to watch her sleep and doesn’t want to do anything but be in love with his partner. At which point I start wondering if he needs a hobby. Nice songs but perhaps needs more variety.

I was vaguely aware of this film, perhaps from people previously in my life saying it was good, but I’d never seen it and had no idea what it was about. I’m not sure I even knew that Cher was in it, and it was certainly a surprise to see such a gorgeous baby Ricci turn up and do an incredible job.

I LOVE this film. It’s not a particularly groundbreaking rom-com but it’s one that I watched over and over when I was younger. I haven’t seen it for ages though, being unable to find it digitally available. Suddenly, we stumbled across the MGM channel add-on for Prime Video and lo and behold, there it was.

Such a weird one, this. I have seen this before, quite a few times, but I watched it before I’d ever seen Star Wars, so how did it ever make sense? Why did I like it when I hadn’t seen the source material it was spoofing?

I know a few Mumford & Sons songs, and they’re the kind of band where you actually know more than you think you do. The trouble is, as this album demonstrates very well, is that whilst they are good tunes, they sound quite similar. Listening to 12 in a row was a nice experience, it’s good music, but I can’t lie and say I could distinguish one song from another.

Good album this one. Only discovered Panic at the Disco relatively recently so it’s nice to have a new album almost straight away. I liked all the songs on here but have to admit it felt quite a short album, almost over before it’s begun. Few of the songs are longer than three minutes, but they’re all good so I just wanted more.

Ah well. I can’t say I was particularly looking forward to this one, but I said the same about the last Pacific Rim and it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. This one, unfortunately, was as bad as I expected, and perhaps worse.

So, so good. I hadn’t even heard of this film but Mr C was like ‘someone tweeted about this Netflix film being really good’ so we watched it. Amazingly, we then saw some of the promotional things going on around the movie and it was a lot of fun to actually be ahead of the curve rather than six months behind.

I had never heard of Talking Heads and when I started listening, I did wonder what I’d let myself in for. Most of the tracks didn’t really work for me, but of course, Once In a Lifetime is a proper tune which almost makes up for the rest of it.

Enjoyed this album. I wasn’t really aware of St Vincent before seeing her perform Los Ageless on a couple of TV shows, but I was keen to hear the full album. I don’t think it was as outstanding as I thought it would be, but certainly enjoyable from start to finish. The two singles stand out, and I really like Slow Disco although think it’s been slightly ruined by the Fast Slow Disco version.

So there are two things I should admit before continuing. Firstly, I was keen to watch this mostly because I have a soft spot for the Zefron. Secondly, I’ve always been a bit sceptical of what DJs do. Put together a track, sure, but that whole reading the room thing… hmm.

We sort of stumbled across this as a bonus - it’s not available on iTunes but Mr C was very excited to see it pop up on Netflix because it was a bit of a trailblazer in terms of CGI. So we embarked on a viewing, and oof, it was good.

I’ll admit, my podcast listening habits these days are like a rollercoaster. Some weeks I listen to barely anything, other weeks I am re-subscribing to shows and listening non-stop. It’s an adventure. One show that has been with me for a while, though, is NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. I’m a little way behind on it, but actually that works in my favour, because I’m also quite far behind on the culture they are covering.

I really loved this. It’s a superbly strong but simple, gentle but deep coming-of-age story that has so many layers you could probably tell a hundred different stories from it. The story it does tell though is lovely, and told in a fabulously fast-paced manner. You skip from scene to scene and there’s barely a moment to take stock.

Mulder and Scully popped up on a radio stream I was listening to and I thought it would be fun to listen to a full album, but actually it turns out I was only really bothered by the two main singles. I had that weird feeling, too, when you know someone’s super distinctive voice for just one or two songs, then you hear them singing other stuff, it sounds really odd!

This is a really good, strong pop album, some nice songs from Bebe, but I have to be honest, it wasn’t all that memorable. I’ve forgotten pretty much all of it only a day or two after the last time I listened to it. Also, it feels like she popped Meant to Be on the end begrudgingly, whereas it actually would have fit earlier in the track listing quite nicely.

I remembered seeing this before and enjoying it quite a lot but when we came to watch it, I couldn’t really remember the intricacies of what it was all about. I was glad for that, as the joy of everything unfolding is part of the fun - how the people all intertwine with each other and the mess-ups, mix-ups and machinations of mobs continue to add layers of complexity to a good story.

This was exactly what I thought it would be, and perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon when you want something simple to enjoy. It’s not as good as the highs of Chicken Run or the wonder of Wallace and Gromit, but it’s a nice story with some fun dialogue and occasional moments of comedy bronze!

I really enjoyed this collection of writings from the wonderful Nora Ephron, as they cover a variety of topics from aging and death, to the wonders of living in New York City. The pieces vary in length and subject matter but all have that warm, open and frank feeling that you are being told home truths in a very direct but also somehow comforting fashion.

I’ve read this book at least a couple of times before, and although I remembered it quite fondly, I couldn’t totally remember how the events unfolded. This readthrough was a little different to those that have gone before - I found the set-up a little convenient and some of the dialogue a little clunky, particularly anything involving Steve’s parents.

I vaguely remember being disappointed by the last R.E.M. album I listened to - good songs, obviously, but not a cohesive work that I liked. This time, I really dug it. The singles stand out, as always happens with such classic songs, but the rest of the tracks fill in really well to make it a good listen from start to finish.

I quite liked the last album I listened to by deadmau5, it wasn’t my usual kind of thing but I really got on with the dance beats. This one was a bit of a departure from that and it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. Good songs, but they’re all the same thing and with the guest vocalists it wasn’t so much dance music as just one actual song done six different ways. Good, but not great.

I loved this! Oddly, I wasn’t really hugely looking forward to it one way or the other, but I was invested almost instantly and loved every second of it. I think it probably works a lot better if you have played at least one but preferably both of the rebooted games, because there was so much in there that comes from the games, it was a joy to be reminded every step of the way.

I’ll own up and admit I only watched the OJ trial mini-series because it had David Schwimmer in it, but by the end of the series I was totally gripped and astounded at how events played out. I’ve previously read OJ’s slightly bizarre quasi-confessional book, and thought reading the other side of the story would be interesting too.

I’ve long been intrigued by the UK’s National Trails. They are long distance footpaths scattered around the UK that follow historical or geographical patterns, like Hadrian’s Wall, the Thames, or the best of the lot, the South West Coast. The South West Coast Path is the best of the lot because, as it says in the title, it follows the coast – and the sea is the best geographical feature there is. It also tracks through some of the most beautiful areas, with the gorgeous Cornish beaches, Devon cliffs, and the lovely Jurassic coast.

Yay for the third album along my journey through the history of Johnny Cash. Whilst this is very similar to the previous two albums, I felt like I preferred it to the second record but not quite as much as the first. Good songs, great guitar work, and nice rhythms that keep you entertained. What’s not to like?

Really loved Sanctify when it was released, so was keen on hearing the rest of the album, and it lived up to my expectations. A really solid pop work, with many of the feelings from Sanctify spread across the rest of the songs. I think it didn’t quite get into my soul as much as it should have on only two listens, so I may have to listen a few more times, but otherwise a winner.

Really interesting film, this one, and yet another movie that gives me plenty of lessons in history to shore up my woeful store of knowledge. You can’t go wrong with Hanks and Streep, they were both excellent in their roles that showed very different sides to the newspaper industry and how they converged to fight the good fight for the free press.

Ah, what a lovely little film. It took a little while to settle into the back and forth nature of the storytelling, from the happy days plunging into the dark moments as quick as snapping your fingers. But once you’re in the story, you need to know what happens next so it doesn’t matter which bit of the narrative comes next.

I’ve long been of the mind that AR is a far greater useful tool to humanity than VR will ever be - particularly since I had a go on the PlayStation VR equipment for just a couple of minutes and subsequently had to lie down for half an hour. That being the case, I’m trying to keep an eye out for awesome developments in AR apps, and PeakFinder is one of those.

In my adventures with Swift programming, I mentioned the R2-D2 toy/gadget that you can bring home and programme yourself. When I wrote about it, it was a delicious want rather than a need, but somehow over the course of a sunny few days off, I ended up with the very same Artoo bluetoothing himself to my iPad. I’ve only been playing for a little while but first impressions are: This is the cutest thing ever! It bleeps and bloops, the tripod wheel comes in and out and it whizzes around making that scream noise that R2-D2 is so famous for. You can control it via a Sphero app, which makes it more of a remote control style toy, or you can actually sit down and programme it.

I have, during the course of writing on this blog, mentioned many times the ways and means I am enjoying Wimbledon - whether that is indulging in endless TV and radio streams, analysing what options are available on various app stores, or even being lucky enough to attend the tournament itself. This year, I am firmly back in my armchair, and have even indulged in a couple of days off work to ensure I capture as much of the opening matches as I possibly can.

I really enjoyed this film, laughed almost constantly from start to finish. It’s kind of your standard comedy, but what I liked about it was that it was a unique idea, it felt fresh and original rather than the derivative comedies we have come to know more recently. I also liked that, whilst not all the jokes were high quality, they didn’t have to sink to the level of constant (and boring) d**k jokes.

George’s second album very quickly became one of my all-time favourites, so I wanted to see what the debut effort was like. I really enjoyed this too, although I think I prefer the second one as a complete piece of work. Loving Ezra’s relaxed summer-time feel though, it just fits the mood at the moment perfectly.

I’ve not always been a Florence fan, but the latest single Hunger had really turned me around so I wanted to check out the rest of the album. I’m not sure it lived up to the lead single, really, it was a mellow listen but didn’t really capture my attention as I’d hoped it might. Also, a couple of the tunes were so reminiscent of the music on Westworld that it was quite distracting. Hunger is still a winner though.

So, I mentioned Swift Playgrounds recently and thought I would share more of my experience with the app. I tweeted a summary that basically covered my history with trying to learn Swift.

Very intriguing film, this one. I had seen an early trailer which suggested both Matt and Kristen take the path to the small life, so the fact that she bailed early came as quite a surprise. It also meant the film took a completely different path to the one I was expecting - and the claims in the intro that it is a big comedy don’t sit well with me. It was fun, but I don’t know that it was particularly funny.

I’m writing this post in the Ulysses writing app which, I just learned, can connect to Wordpress and publish posts directly without having to interface with the awful Wordpress app. This is potentially the final stage in the “using the iPad for pretty much everything you need to do”, for which I have written a post previously and intend to write an update on very soon. And just to fully test, here’s a recent picture from the beach.

I was expecting this to be quite like the Molly Bloom film, based as it is on a real life Winter Olympics athlete going slightly rogue. But actually, it wasn’t like that at all - it was packed full of dark humour, characters speaking to camera, disagreements about whether things actually happened or not, and a generally slightly lighter tone.