So, ages ago, I bought a bundle of comedy films on iTunes and watched a handful of them and forgot about the rest. With the new releases slowing down in the New Year, it was time to delve into the back catalogue and see what the old comedies had to offer.

Dance music has never really been my thing, but I did quite like this album. I don’t think I would particularly seek out an album like this to listen to, but it was good for keeping a steady pace whilst out for a walk and quite handy to tune out to doing some admin work.

Good, pop album, although it’s a bit cheesy in places. Play That Song being a particular example, it’s so saccharine it hurts, and using that riff is almost as bad as Cliff Richard’s Millennium Prayer. Still, the rest of the album is fine, but I’m not sure it’s worth many more listens.

I usually enjoy John Grisham books, and this one had all the hallmarks of a good story but it didn’t quite work for me. I liked the in court dialogue, where things can turn on a knife edge, and it’s all about being smart and playing the long game, but it took an awful long time to get there.

An incredible film, but of course, a terrible story. That the media knew about this horrible crime for decades before they did anything about it, that it is even happening at all, it’s so awful. But, having said that, it’s a great movie to raise awareness and show how difficult it can be to get to the truth when there’s a powerful organisation trying to hide it.

After reading the autobiography of Ranulph Fiennes, I realised I had another book about exploration I could dive into. This one was a bit different as it was exclusively about climbing Mount Everest, and comes at the very start of Bear Grylls’s adventuring career.

Enjoyed this album, and expanding my knowledge about 80s bands. Loving the girls with guitars awesomeness, and it’s a really upbeat kind of album. My only issue is that a lot of the songs sound the same, so it’s hard to distinguish sometimes, but as they’re all good, it’s not really a huge problem.

Interesting album this one, because overall I liked it but it sort of left me feeling a bit uncomfortable. It’s good pop, Bruno has an incredible voice and great rhythm, but if the lyrics are anything to go by, he’s a bit obsessed with how girls look. Chunky was a particularly weird one.

Somehow, I’ve never actually seen this before so I wasn’t really sure what I was in for. It’s quite eighties, but because it’s set in the jungle, it’s not really that dated. I thought it was excellent - incredibly tense and actually really scary! Some of it was a bit gross but overall it was more about what you didn’t see than what you did - particularly with an invisible enemy.

A recent episode of Back to Work featured a brilliant quote from Merlin Mann. The conversation was actually about sending spam-like emails to people hoping they will promote your business in some way. But I actually think it’s an interesting idea to consider in all aspects of your life. I want everybody out there who is a listener to think about this. What if everybody was doing what I was doing? Or, put slightly differently, what if ten times more people did this than currently do this.

This was Garry Marshall’s last film, which gives it a little poignancy, but I do think it was the weakest of the holiday themed outings. It’s always fun to see so many famous faces together, but just as with the previous one, they didn’t seem to have all that much to do with each other, aside from the odd ‘I know her from this mum group’ or whatever.

This book has been highly recommended to me and I was looking forward to reading it. The time travel/Groundhog Day nature of it appealed from the outset and I’m glad to say I wasn’t disappointed. From the very start, you’re on a heck of a journey with Ursula, from her birth to a variety of deaths, each one starting life over and over again.

I thought I had given up this tea tasting lark, but I was walking through the tea aisle of my local shop recently and all the packaging is just so tempting. I figured if I was going to ease myself back into the world of fruit and herbal tea, I should probably do it cost effectively, so I opted for a box of mixed flavours. And given that it is January, there’s only one option on that list that seems appropriate - detox! At first glance, the list of ingredients doesn’t sound all that appetising. Aniseed isn’t my favourite flavour, but mix it with coriander, and fennel, and even celery? What’s that about?

Ranulph Fiennes has written many books across his exploring career, in fact as he details in this one, that’s how he makes a lot of his living - that and public speaking. This one chronicles all of his many adventures in limited detail, so it’s quite a nice overview of what has been an incredible career.

Just like The Boss before it, I really wasn’t anticipating particular greatness from this film, although I love Amy and Tina enormously. I was so wrong. AGAIN. I should not be allowed to judge comedies from their trailers. It was brilliant, so funny and with some fabulous references.

Beautiful album, this one. It’s interesting having listened to it off the back of Emeli Sandé last week, this is just so much better. Sweeping, soaring, an incredible voice and great instrumentation work to make it a wonderful listen from start to finish.

Had no idea what to expect from this album as I didn’t really know the band, but I loved it. It’s not quite chill out music but is relaxed and moody, thoughtful with some great backing beats. It feels quite intimate, and I think there’s a great quality in both their voices that really resonates.

Wasn’t expecting much from this one, but it was far better than I’d anticipated. Many of the reviews I’ve seen trash the film, and I can’t really see why. I was worried it would be a stupid comedy, but aside from the sofa bed flipping people around (always funny) and one fall down the stairs, it really wasn’t that. It actually had heart.

Apple’s limited edition January-only new year’s activity badge worked it’s magic in our household. The first available week, Mr C and I were both working on maxing out our activity rings each and every day, and it got a bit competitive. Turns out when a badge is limited edition, it really does have a motivating effect. We managed this January one in the first week… come on Apple, what’s next? More badges required!

Really enjoyed this one. Great guitars, interesting song titles and concepts, fab lyrics that avoid all the normal clichés. Like the singles, of course, A Thousand Trees is a stand out, but actually it works together as a whole really well.

It’s a good album, she has a great voice and the musicality is amazing. I’m just not totally sure this kind of music is for me – I found an entire album of it to be a bit intense, a bit too dramatic. The individual songs are great, but I found 15 in a row to be a bit much.

This was an interesting Kinsey Millhone book, because it had two investigations in it. The main story focused on Millhone working for someone who was already dead, and that gave it a unique twist that was fascinating to follow. The second part was about a money-grabbing criminal who was affecting someone closer to Kinsey’s life.

I was a bit wary going into this film, keen to watch anything that Daniel Radcliffe is in, but scared of how intense it appeared from the trailer. Thankfully, the film wasn’t as harsh in that way as I’d imagined, totally watchable, engrossing in fact.

It’s turned into a bit of a meme at this point, that no one really has any clue where in the timeline these films are set. And there’s good reason for the jokes surrounding it, because it has been a confusing ride. What I did like about this one, though, is that it seemed to be setting up all the pointers towards getting us back to the start of the entire story - Scott and Jean liking each other, the destruction in Cerebro, and Professor X losing his hair. It had the same feeling as Star Wars III, where everything wound its way to a conclusion that was really the start of all things.

Evolving sports to appeal to new generations of fans usually involves adapting to shorter attention spans, and that is something that can cause plenty of debate amongst the more traditional sport lovers. I’m in favour of making sport approachable wherever possible, but there’s likely room for all formats - long and short alike. Tennis is taking this approach, it seems, and I recently learnt about a new format. I’ve talked before about whether tennis needs to think about making all matches just three sets long but perhaps there’s another way. I’ve heard of Tie Break Tens, which is an end of season celebratory tie break tournament but today I learnt about the Fast4 format for the first time. It’s been the format for the Hopman Cup, where mixed double teams represent their country. In 2017, it was won by Team France but for me, the format was the most interesting thing about the tournament.

I love Demi Lovato, but I realised recently that she is an expert at picking songs to be featured on. Whilst her own work is plenty good enough, when she is featured on a song, it’s always a brilliant one! Don’t believe me? Let’s review. First up, The Vamps. Yeah, you! Then she teamed up with Olly Murs for the catchy Up, and took on the myth created by N Sync in Irresistible. Teaming up with Fall Out Boy, Demi stomps her way around a toy store, looking at the action figures and generally having a good time.

I read this book in quick succession after the first one, so that just as in the story, it feels like only a few days have passed since the events of that first Kinsey Millhone outing. Still raw from how that adventure ended, Millhone ends up in the midst of another mystery to solve. At first it seems like any other missing persons report, but gradually leads to different states, different personalities and a different ending.

The film did let itself down in a number of places. I thought it was good that they didn’t just pretend life had got back to normal after such a high level alien invasion in the first film. Instead, they utilised the technology the aliens brought and continued to study them long after the fight was over. On the flip side, though, that means the air battle between the high-concept planes and the aliens this time was very Star Wars, laser beams flinging about all over the place, shields up, shields down, that kind of thing.

At first, I was having trouble remembering the first film, and although it didn’t quite matter to the story - they did their best to make it accessible - it got a lot better once the predecessor’s story came flooding back to me. I really liked this one, in fact I might have liked it more than the first one. I like that they didn’t shy away from the disappearance of Isla Fisher, and actually Lizzy Caplan was a more than capable replacement.

Ahh, I love Pink so it’s a surprise that I’ve never listened to a full album by the pop superstar. This, her first, is a great mix of songs and tests out various genres. There’s a hint of Alanis Morissette, and an occasional feel of Alicia Keys, but all of it is just great work from Pink. Strong, confident, with a good message to not stand for any nonsense. Love it.

The thing about this album is, it’s good enough, but it starts and ends with two brilliant songs that feature Daft Punk. So should I really be listening to a Daft Punk album instead? Love The Weeknd’s voice, it’s reminiscent of Michael Jackson in places, and carries the album through despite it being quite lengthy!

Anyone who has been following this site for a while will know that at the end of each year, I like to hand over the reigns to Mr C to share his top five songs and films of the previous twelve months. Last year was an absolute disgrace as he was unable to narrow down his shortlist to five and after a full month of arguing about it, we ended up with top tens instead.

Although I’ve stopped making specific New Year’s Resolutions (for the most part), there’s always one thing that I try and reboot each January 1st and that is being organised and staying productive. Whether it is trying out a new task list software, or actually finding a use for the notebooks I buy when I raid stationery shops, it is really difficult to end the year in the cool, calm state I start it.

The incredible thing about this film is that it manages to take two generally unlikeable characters (well, an awful one and a nondescript one), get them to do some pretty unsavoury things, and still make an interesting and entertaining film about it. It’s drama, through and through, but has the edge of comedy that makes the story worth watching.

I suddenly remembered that we hadn’t watched the latest in the Star Trek reboot series, but having attempted to watch thirty minutes of it, I now wish I hadn’t bothered. I can’t really explain why, but it just didn’t do it for me at all. Aside from the short scene between Bones and Kirk in the bar, the characters didn’t seem to be doing anything or connecting at all.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have watched this, I don’t think. It’s one of those films that is just a bit too stupid, a bit too crude, not really that funny. But I love all four of the main cast members, and it’s hard not to watch a Zac Efron movie, it just is.

Good little film this. It’s exactly what you expect it’s going to be - cats and dogs being cute, going on adventures, making a few jokes, and finding a happy ending. I wasn’t sure what the story was, and in the end it was exactly like Toy Story, but the characters were different and entertaining, which made it worth watching.

Great cast in this film, but I wasn’t totally sure it would be our cup of tea, given that it’s all about parenting - one of those things I know absolutely nothing about. Thankfully, it’s about the worst side of parenting, which is something I can understand and celebrate - having kids sucks, hooray!

Over Christmas, the 80s TV show Pop Quiz returned for a two-part special, and it was brilliant! I’ve never heard of this show before, but was keen to give it a watch as it looked just like Question of Sport only about music. It even features genuine music acts, including Toyah Wilcox, some guy from Spandeau Ballet and other people I don’t know but who were a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the intros round, as well as the “guess the song from the lyrics” round. It’s always amazing how hard it is when lyrics are taken out of context and read with the wrong rhythm.

It has been an incredible year for me, listening to 100 albums in total across 50 weeks and learning an enormous amount about albums, artists, and music in general. The biggest lesson, though, is that there is so much more to learn. This album listening thing will continue into next year, but it seems only right to wrap up what has been a brilliant 2016 of albums for me. Firstly, it’s worth saying that whilst I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the subscription music business model, this album adventure couldn’t have happened without it. When I was a listener of “just the songs that I like” then I wanted full control over what I did with them, which playlists I put them in, and wanted to hoard them which meant subscription services weren’t the right thing.

It has become a tradition in our household to watch Love Actually at some point over the festive holidays. It’s a sugary sweet treat, although usually ends up in both happy and sad tears, particularly as each year passes and makes us feel ever more closer to the characters involved. Anyway, we indulged this year and instead of the floods I was expecting, I actually found the whole thing to be uplifting. Maybe it’s because it’s been such a bad year, maybe because there are so many moments in it that you just feel wouldn’t be possible anymore (a politician standing up for what they believe in? Don’t be silly). But mostly, it’s just because the premise of the film, whether you like the saccharine nature of the movie or not, is that it’s about love and it proves that no matter the situation there is good to be found in people.

Apple have presented Watch users with a new challenge for January, hoping to encourage people to stick to their new year’s resolutions and get active. A notification on the watch this week highlighted a new and unique badge that can be earned during January 2017 by completing the activity, stand and exercise rings for a full week Monday to Sunday. It’s harder than it sounds, particularly if you’ve spent Christmas lounging on the sofa, but it’s totally doable and I love, love, love the motivation a standalone badge can give you.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the film really stood up to the challenge of making his comeback worthwhile. There’s a moment where they are talking about Bourne’s purpose now that he has all his memory back, and that kind of stands up about the film too. What was the point of it all? I quite liked Alicia Vikander but she was just a reboot of the Nicky character, and thus also kinda pointless.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the return of Top Gear - the new and not-so-improved version with Chris Evans and Matt Le Blanc. My basic conclusion of that show was that it didn’t have enough new things to make it worthy of the revamp name. I was keen to see what the Clarkson, Hammond and May trio would do in their Amazon Prime odyssey, and six episodes in, I think we have a good idea of how it’s panning out.

Loved The Office, so naturally was keen on watching this to see how the character of David Brent has been getting on. However, I was also dreading watching it because a thirty minute episode with Brent was excruciating enough, I wasn’t sure getting through ninety minutes would be bearable.

A while back, at the height of my new-found Star Wars obsession, I realised I needed to find a way to watch the Star Wars Rebels TV show. I discovered the DisneyLife iOS app, which allowed me to watch the series, and as long as I watched it within 30 days (which I did), then I could cancel the subscription and only have been charged for one month’s use. I did all of the above and then forgot about the app, until it was updated just ahead of this Christmas period. The price was lowered from £9.99 to £4.99, the app migrated to the Apple TV, and more content was added. With the knowledge that the festive period means lots of time spent at home, I signed back up to watch some more stuff.

I’ve managed to read quite a few books this year, dipping in and out whenever I get a spare five minutes. I post my reviews over on Goodreads, but thought I would share those books I’ve enjoyed in 2016 for which I’ve given five out of five stars. Lucky Man by Michael J Fox I was hooked from the beginning, revelling in this calm and rational way of looking at and dealing with the world. It can be a difficult place, but Fox has such a humour and humility about it all, that it was inspiring to read. I liked how it dipped back and forth a bit, but was generally chronological, from his childhood through to his recent advocacy work with his Parkinson’s Disease foundation. Inspiring and insightful, I highly recommend this whether you’re a fan or not.

I’ve been obsessed with novelty mugs for many years, and occasionally have taken time out to blog about some of my favourites. In fact, I’m surprised to find that I’ve written five posts before, and that it seemed to be an annual event up until 2013. Given that it’s been a couple of years since I had a look at what’s available on the hot drink container market, I figured it was time to break out the mug post again, so here goes. It’s too late to buy any of these as gifts for Christmas, but if you’re looking for something to spend your holiday gift vouchers on, then look no further!

I’ve read a couple of the Kinsey Millhone books before, but figured there’s no harm in starting the collection again now that they’ve almost finished the end of the alphabet! I remember enjoying it and my second read through highlighted just why. It’s a straight forward private investigator story, digging into the details of an old case, so it’s a lot of fun to trawl through the evidence with Kinsey and try and make educated guesses as the truth draws ever closer.

Another Ken Follett classic, I really enjoyed this one. Telling the tale of the one final flight of the Boeing Clipper, crossing the Atlantic from Southampton to New York in various stages and getting more and more dramatic as each stint unfolds.