It’s so sad that Matthew Perry has died. Friends is such an integral part of my life, and of course it’s not going anywhere, but now it just has that extra layer of sadness and nostalgia that I wasn’t quite ready for. I recently read his autobiography which shared difficult but important stories about addiction, alongside lots of stories from his career. Perry did far more than Friends, obviously, but that’s the one that means the most to me. With that in mind, here are my five favourite moments from ten seasons of Chandler.

I love this post from The Guardian last week that looks at a handful of artists behind the biggest theme tunes of the last couple of decades - how their songs were chosen, the impact it had on their careers and the legacy they have been left with.

Every now and then, a topic on Mastermind catches my attention and I have to know whether I would do very well if I was sitting in the hot seat. This time, the contestant Hannah picked the topic of guest stars on Friends. I assumed this might be questions like ‘who appeared in this episode’ and ‘what guest star did this silly thing on the show’ but it was much harder than that!

Sometimes I write about festive episodes of series that I like but this time I thought it’d be fun to focus on every Christmas episode from ten years’ of Friends. They spend more time on Thanksgiving, obviously, with some really classic episodes in November: the football game, Brad Pitt, Joey with a turkey stuck on his head, etc. But Christmas does crop up every now and again, quite inconsistently, through the decade.

Obviously I was going to read this as a massive Friends fan, and it was a very interesting memoir. I listened to the audiobook so Matthew Perry was telling his own story and what a difficult time he’s had. It’s unflinchingly honest, this book, so that Perry doesn’t always come across as the hero, sometimes not even a particularly nice person (what is his beef with Keanu, please?) but it’s an important story to share. Addiction is horrible and hard and can affect anyone, no matter how much money or privilege you have. He talks about his early upbringing, with understanding of the events that shaped some of his later problems, but without making excuses. His time on Friends is discussed, particularly the process of getting the role in the first place, how close the group became, and how they supported him through some of the tougher times. And, as the book title suggests, there’s a lot of women coming and going in Perry’s life… including Julia Roberts! Ultimately it’s a difficult read and I maybe wished for more tales from the set, but well-written, well-read and a fresh take on the struggles of addiction.

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn’t take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future but for now, I had to settle for just browsing the online store.

If you’ve been following my adventures online for any sort of time, you might already know that I haven’t been big on the emotions. My Film Watch reviews, in particular, have shown that I’ve avoided getting swept up in romantic comedies, and those that are considered tearjerkers left me cold. Because everything is a Friends reference, I was kinda like Chandler. You may also have noted the past tense in that first paragraph.

I was recently watching one of those episodes of Friends that are always on a TV channel somewhere, and realised that there’s a lot of landline usage in the show. Because Friends ended in 2004, they’re missing a whole ten years of technology, which includes the revolution of smartphones that came after the iPhone in 2007. I dread to think of the jokes Chandler could make about Flappy Bird. Anyway, Friends isn’t a particularly technology heavy show, so although it is frozen in time a decade ago, it doesn’t take away from the sitcom that much.

I joined Pinterest recently. I know this isn’t groundbreaking news, finally signing up to a social network that’s been around since 2010. I tried signing up once before but they didn’t have my preferred username so I had to go away and sulk about that for a bit. Pinterest, in my limited experience, appears to be one of those social networks that is different things to different people. I can’t see myself getting a huge amount of use out of it, as fun as it is to browse screenshots from film and TV, and ogle cute pandas. I can see how it would be very handy for creative types, and businesses.

This year, Friends finally became available to download, in HD. We had been waiting for a long time to get the digital versions and were over the moon when there was a series 1-10 bundle. The glorious images are now in high definition, and a more sensible shape, rather than the square footage that was originally broadcast. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be a bit more revealing than the programme makers might have otherwise liked.

I became aware of the latest series of Celebrity Mastermind because someone tweeted about a contestant this very evening choosing The Archers as their specialist subject. I had a quick peek at what the other celebrities have been choosing as their subjects and was super duper excited to see someone had picked Friends, the first two series. If there is something I know more about, I can’t think of it!

Alex has written an interesting post about the types of things people pick up on when they see you using an iPhone. Once, when I was watching Friends, I heard two people talking next to me about how, having seen that, they were going to get iPhones. And on two separate occasions, people have asked me how difficult it is to get shows on there. And the answer is - it’s simple.

Of course, I’m not talking about real life friends (what are they?), I’m talking about the sitcom. This is my favourite TV show ever on earth, and my real life friend (oh!) and I used to spend hours watching and memorising the episodes. I was going to make this a top five list, but then realised firstly that I couldn’t narrow it down or decide which was my overall favourite. Secondly, I was worried that I would have missed an epic moment from somewhere in the ten years, and be annoyed about it later.

The end of Friends - I’m stocked up with Doritos and tissues, just in case. I was driving home and it’s been a mega stressful day, there was nothing on the radio so I was flicking through all the stations. I have pre-programmed all of the available slots in my car, despite the fact that I never listen to them. So, I picked a completely random station and lo and behold, they began playing Backstreet Boys. I know I’ve grown out of them, but it was still kind of comforting to hear.

Friends was on yesterday - a double bill and all! It was completely chuckle-full and brilliant as usual. I have a whole day ahead of me today and have no idea what to do with it.

Because my brother is away at the moment and has limited space available, I get to look after all his videos for him. I have collected from him all the series’ of Friends that are out, and today he brought me six seasons of Buffy. Now this is a real treat, because I only manage to catch the occasional Buffy episode and although I love it, I never seem to know what’s going on.

Well, here I am once again, munching on Christmas cheesie biscuit things. I’ve changed my mind about the moans of the Yuletide season though, for tomorrow I am heading out to do my Christmas Shopping. I love to buy gifts for others, imagining what they will say once it’s opened, and how they will run off to show people. When I’m out shopping for others, I rarely imagine what they’ll have got me, in fact, I sometimes tend to forget that they’ll get me something as well. Which makes it a nice surprise on Christmas Day.