This week, the final episode of Andor streamed on Disney+ bringing to a close a 12 episode season that is one of the best Star Wars creations since Rogue One (not counting Baby Yoda, obviously). Whilst I have my obsession with the Mandalorian firmly in mind, I have to admit that the quality of this series of Andor really shone through from start to finish. Okay, not quite the start, I did already mention that the first couple of episodes were slow, slow, slow.

The latest Star Wars TV offering, Andor, reached its sixth episode this week on Disney+, and that’s the halfway point of the series. It seems like a good time to take a moment and review what we’ve seen so far because, boy oh boy, it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride. Firstly, I totally understand why three episodes were released at once in the first week… because the first two were dull, dull, dull.

Now that I’ve finished watching the second season of The Mandalorian, I’ve been catching up with some of the news surrounding it. Whilst the show is on, I try and avoid articles because of spoilers, even if we were all watching at the same weekly pace. A story I read recently made me think about how great this second series has been for women - strong characters, great actors, and all those behind the scenes as well.

The good thing about the first series of The Mandalorian taking so long to come to the UK is that we didn’t have that long to wait after watching it for the second series to begin. The bad thing is, now we’re going to have to wait ages for the next installment. However, series two did come to an impressive conclusion this past week, with a guest appearance that seems almost impossible to have kept secret this whole time.

It’s felt like a really long time since there was a new Star Wars thing coming out that people were really excited about and then when it came out, they actually liked it. Usually all you seem to get is moans from the hardcore fanbase about how it doesn’t work or doesn’t fit the canon. I feel like that’s not the case with The Mandolorian, and all I have heard about it is good.

It wasn’t that great, really. It introduces all the characters we need to know for the movie, and of course opens up a lot of questions in terms of timelines, but it’s fine. I thought there was too much fighting and not enough story, but I did like the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka. There were a good couple of twists at the end too, I suppose.

The negative reviews that this film has garnered had me a bit nervous about what on earth I was going to watch, and that’s why it’s taken so long to get round to viewing it. But actually, it was an alright film. There wasn’t really anything wrong with it as films go, the problem is just that it didn’t really add anything to the Star Wars story.

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!

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. I have tried, several times, to engage with this app. It’s totally up my street, after all – learning new things, in a fun and engaging way that is more like a game than an education. Getting ticks after completing each chapter helps too, I do love a good checklist.

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.