Thought I only knew Iris from this one, it’s a stand out track for sure. It turns out I knew one or two others as well. Really engaging but gentle rock sound, and so reminiscent of Nineties TV, I could almost have been watching Dawson’s Creek as I listened.

Nice, relaxed and flowing sound, great layering and some interesting samples. So many guest stars, it’s almost a collaborative album than a Snoop one. Only real complaint is that it’s so long – twenty tracks!

I didn’t realise I was eagerly awaiting the fourth series of Orange is the New Black, not until the Netflix Twitter account started to count down to its release date. Then I remembered how much I enjoy the show, and how long it has been since we were last allowed a glimpse of what was going on at Litchfield Correctional Facility. The release of series four coincided with a period of time where I happened to be in front of a screen for a good portion of the day. Or five days. And that’s what it took me to watch it through - the first time I’ve really, truly, binge-watched something the way all the jokes suggest.

This was a fascinating one. I remembered from the trailer that it was going to be something of an action movie with big waves, but it wasn’t your traditional blockbuster. It was a lot more slow-moving, building tension every step of the way and really engaging with the character so that you care what happens in those horrifying conditions.

I wanted to like this more than I did. There are a couple of classics, obviously. You’ve Got a Friend is a wonderful song. But the rest of it I could take or leave, and it annoyed me that I wasn’t as on board as I hoped.

You almost can’t tell they have changed the lineup, good album, exactly as you would expect – fast paced rock, some of it sounds familiar from days gone by, but there are some interesting ideas too. Mix of track lengths make it quite an unpredictable listen.

Really loved this film, it was laugh out loud funny in a lot of places. Oddly, none of the characters were particularly sympathetic, and a couple of them were seriously annoying, but even with that, the script and the laughs shone through.

Turns out, it was a really good film. The start tells the story of a boy and a girl in love, but their situation so quickly changes and spirals out of control that you’re left wandering what on earth happened. The story moves somehow quite slowly, but keeps the tension ramping up so that there are moments that are properly edge-of-your-seat.

This was an interesting book, written about the author’s explorations of Nuristan in the late 1950s. The writing was sublime, soft and gentle, observant but not overly detailed, and with a dry humour that pokes fun at almost everything without being offensive.

I hadn’t really been paying attention to the BMW Group’s Next 100 celebration with concept cars ahoy - that is until I saw this video with their take on the future of Rolls Royce. “Are you ready?” the breathy voiceover lady oozes. Erm, not sure that I am actually!

I always find the idea of short story collections more exciting in principal than I usually find them in practice, and this one had more anticipation thanks to the names attached. It’s kind of cynical to say ‘we’re giving some authors a bigger stage thanks to Lee Child and Jeffrey Deaver’ but equally, they’re upfront and honest about it and it works! So no complaints here.

Good, foot tapping rock, very listenable but an album stacked full of songs that all sound exactly the same. You’ve got to really like what they’re selling here, but if you do, you’re onto a winner.

Thought it was going to be all ballads but it was more interesting than that. A little warbly in places, but if you’ve got a voice like that, why not use it? Some really good songs, all packed with emotion and written from the heart which makes them special.

This should have been so brilliant. What an amazing cast - give or take Kate Winslet and her dodgy Russian accent. But seriously, that final note about the characters filling the screen with their presence was so true, it’s just a shame they didn’t really have the script to help them along the way.

We were looking for something to take our minds off what had been a long week and an extremely mind-boggling (Brexit-filled) day. Who better to turn to than Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock? I can’t believe I haven’t seen this one already, given my love for Sandy, but it was the perfect film to rectify the situation.

The BBC Good Food Show has been on my to do list for a while, and this year I finally managed to find time to attend the show for a few hours. It’s bad timing really, because I haven’t been cooking or baking as much as I used to, but even so, I’m still keen on seeing what the best of the kitchen world has to offer. In all honesty, I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping the show would have innovation and cool kitchen tools, areas for increasing food knowledge, cooking skills and creating more interesting dishes. Generally, I just wanted a bit of inspiration.

Apple’s WWDC took place last week, and whilst the keynote speech that kicks the event off was interesting for its new developments introduced, it wasn’t my favourite part of the week. Apple have done a great job upping their game in terms of providing coverage of the conference for those who can’t make the trip. They stream all the sessions live, and record them all for later watching on demand.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, tragic as it was in places. Following the early stirrings of a life as a chef in a young boy with a lot to learn, we track him across the continents as his extended family move around a lot, eventually alighting in France. The bitter fight with the neighbour across the road is also fascinating, but then I found it started to lose its way.

I knew nothing about James except for two random songs, so this was a refreshing experience. Great album, the songs are all quite gentle pop and with that iconic voice, there’s a familiarity throughout the album (although it goes a bit wonky in the middle), making it fab for a comfort listen or as background music.

I was quite ambivalent about this album on the first run through, it all sounded much the same. Very Red Hot Chili Peppers, you know what you’re getting and not bad but not special. Second time through I was starting to pick out more interesting melodies and bass lines, so I think this one is definitely a grower.

I feel like I saw this Chinese elevated bus concept previously - perhaps at the drawings stage of design, but now there’s a scale model to show how it really would work. It looks incredible, wonderfully futuristic, and it’s a brilliant idea. BUT, I do get the feeling it wouldn’t work with human beings behind the wheel of the cars. What if someone has to get out for a second - or pull over? What if there’s a crash underneath it. Where do the lorries go?

I wouldn’t cook well with a camera up close like that. The pressure!

I struggled with sympathy for some of the storylines, because you know, I couldn’t care less about carrying on my genetic lines, but considering my cynicism the film actually did a good job. There was an interesting mix of successful and unsuccessful parenting units, and although there was some drama along the way, for the most part, it was all happy endings.

Nope, nope, nope. Thought this would be bad but also quite like Zac Efron so opted to give it a chance. Wish I hadn’t, though. Not funny, constantly offensive, and god there are some images of Robert De Nero in my head now that are never going to leave.

Although I enjoyed the different style of the last book, it was nice in this one to go back to the more normal Jessica Daniel adventures. Investigating crimes in a more than unorthodox fashion, dealing with her own demons at the same time, and trying to keep everyone around her safe and happy, it’s a tough life for Manchester’s favourite detective.

Wonderful album, stacked full of shorter but well-crafted songs. God Only Knows is just under three minutes of perfection. I wasn’t expecting there to be instrumentals, and as a whole Sloop John B stands out as not quite fitting in, but otherwise it all works well.

Really good album. If you like the single Close, then it’s very much more of the same. So many songs packed together, though, made me realise how often Nick uses the falsetto and that grinds my gears when it is overused.

I quite enjoyed some of the stories, learning about the olive making process was interesting, and it was also good to read about nipping across to Morocco for some seed-picking fun, but others weren’t quite up to the normal standard, I thought. The journalist coming to review gardens was interesting but didn’t really seem to have a point, and trying to find a random parrot wasn’t the best way to start a book, I thought.

I didn’t really enjoy it, there were a few funny moments along the way, but really neither Heigl nor Rogan played sympathetic characters and it was hard to care about them when they made bad decisions almost every step of the way. I was also seriously annoyed that he made a huge effort to turn his life around and she barely acknowledged it.

After seeing the brilliant film of this story, I wanted to read the book to see how it compared - both are very similar, the film was a close and accurate representation of the story in the book. It’s a heartbreaking but important read, I think, written mostly from the perspective of the patient so it is so easy and painful to feel the decline in abilities first-hand.

We had to watch this due to my obsession with Sandy, but it looked like a good film from the trailer. Oddly, I hadn’t expected it to be quite so political as it was, which is really down to me being stupid, given the subject matter.

This book was slightly different to the more normal 87th Precinct series, taking the point of view of the criminal and sticking with it throughout the entire story. It was almost disconcerting that the regulars barely make any appearance in the book, with just a brief scene where we follow Carella into a restaurant, and a short interview conducted by Hawes (or Horse as it is misheard).

Whipped through this book in double-quick time, the story of our two favourite detectives (Carella and Hawes) investigating a brutal and gory murder committed by axe. I thought the story was fascinating, because it seemed such a horrendous murder from the outset but was the result of (minor spoiler alert) such a minor quarrel.

I really enjoyed this book, the second in the spin-off novels from the TV show Death in Paradise. It felt more relaxed than the first, more like the characters we’ve grown to know and love, and less repetitive, particularly in terms of the murder investigation. Rather than endlessly going over the clues, we revisit them just a couple of times throughout.

This podcast popped up out of nowhere but instantly became a regular part of my audio entertainment. It’s a simple concept - Anna invites over her Hollywood friends, has a bit of a chat with them, and then takes calls from listeners with relationship and other problems. Anna and the guest attempt to dispense advice, but make sure to point out they’re unqualified to do so.

I was nervous about listening to this but it’s about as accessible as heavy metal can be. I ended up quite enjoying it, although listening to all that angst in one go did make me anxious. The intensity and the harsh vocals can be a bit much but I still loved a few of the tracks along the way.

Good modern country – mentions both the moon and time machines, so I’m confident that he wrote it all with me in mind. Branches out occasionally with some ballads and some brass, but otherwise it’s a nice comfortable country album.

I love this video about some of the work the LEGO Master Builders get up to - how they come up with ideas, design their projects and build the finished articles. The best bit, of course, is the glimpse inside the warehouse of LEGO bricks - row upon row of baskets stacked full of bricks, organised and wonderful. The other thing this video brought to mind is that, whilst we live in a world where getting your dream job is more and more possible, there are still some jobs that still make you think “how on earth do you become one of those?”

I was expecting this to be some kind of disaster movie, given the title and the cover, but it turned out to be the first part in what could potentially be yet another young adult trilogy. I’ve not heard of it, nor read it, but it soon became clear that it was in the young adult genre, and the somewhat cliffhanger at the end was seriously annoying.

Given the promotion for this film, I knew what we were getting into but even so, the amount of self-awareness shown right from the start was incredible - and somewhat exhausting. It’s brilliant on so many levels, what with breaking the fourth wall, talking about the studio and their budgets, and referencing the actors that actually play the characters.

Couldn’t quite remember the first one initially, but it all soon came flooding back when Kevin Hart and Ice Cube started their bickering. I have, since the first film, realised I love Ice Cube so him and his grumpy antics throughout the film were very entertaining.

I’ve been wondering why I’ve felt quite tired recently, and then I realised. It’s because I’ve suddenly started focusing on my health and fitness again, ramping up the amount of exercise I actually do. Three years of concentrating on exams can have a detrimental effect on the time available for little things like: joining a gym, going for a walk, dancing around the kitchen, that kind of thing. That’s all done and dusted (for now at least!) so I’m focusing on fitness which, for me, begins with the Apple Watch and it’s pesky three-ring strategy. Stand goals are relatively easy, but it took a considerable effort to get Stand, Move and Exercise maxed out every day. First I did it for a week, then that turned into two weeks, and then I thought, can I? Could I possibly? Will I be able to keep this up for a whole calendar month?

I enjoyed watching the first week of the French Open at Roland Garros, but the second week has been a bit of a washout. These days it always feels a bit weird for me to watch men’s tennis because we get to view so much of the WTA via BT Sport’s brilliant almost-constant coverage. Having seen a few men’s games this past seven days, I’m convinced that we’ve got the good end of the deal. When I was younger I used to prefer the men’s game because I knew more of the players, plus it was faster and more interesting to me. Now I’ve completely changed my opinion and prefer the women’s tour - and here’s five reasons why.

Beauty and the Beast was never one of my favourite Disney films but with Emma Watson in the live action remake, I’m interested to see how it comes to the big screen. A teaser trailer was released this past week, with just a few glimpses of the lady in question, and no sign of the beast at all. I’m a bit concerned that this teaser doesn’t really do much to make it look live action, up until you see Emma’s lovely face. Until then, it could just as easily be the cartoon in slightly sharper detail. Hopefully future trailers will offer up a little more because even though I said it wasn’t my favourite, I’m still secretly a little excited for it.

Top Gear returned on Sunday, with the first episode presented by the new line-up airing over the bank holiday weekend. I’ve been waiting with anticipation for this moment, along with the debut of the Clarkson/May/Hammond Amazon adventure as well. Top Gear in its previous guise was brilliant but it was never quite clear if it was the format of the show that made it great (gorgeous HD photography, fun stunts alongside interesting but not so useful car reviews) or the personalities and relationship between the three hosts. Jeremy Clarkson’s angry outburst has given us the exact situation where we can find out.

Love the rhythms here. Subject matter can veer too far for me, I couldn’t listen to Kim the second time round. But then again, Stan is an absolute classic so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Very catchy pop, high production values, but not totally special. Influences of Beiber and even occasionally Taylor Swift. Enjoyable enough to listen to, with plenty of good songs, but not all that memorable.

It’s always a lot of fun when artists cover other artists, and that is never more true than when it’s a Backstreet Boys tune on display. The superbly fun Florida Georgia Line took on that challenge with an impromptu cover of ‘Everybody’ and they did it pretty well, I think! If anyone else leaves BSB, there could be a spot open for one of these two. Although, I have to admit, my one takeaway from this video is to ask what device is it being filmed with? It’s a brilliantly clear image! Love it.

The weather is getting more and more unpredictable, so when the sun is shining and the skies are blue, you have to make the most of it.

I love this video promoting the US version of Red Nose Day. So many celebrities, most of whom are favourites, and only a couple of whom I don’t actually recognise. It’s an amusing message, of course, but I have to admit the best bit is the bonus appearance of Ana Lucia - who appears to be on a film set and in a completely different context to everyone else. Weird.