It was my birthday yesterday! I went with my parents to the London Wetland Centre, a little nature reserve where you can see a thrilling variety of waterfowl ( Read more... )

Like many households, we opted not to watch the Eurovision Song Contest this year. On the day of the final, we had an 'alternative' Eurovision evening instead: we fired up the speaker and had a home karaoke session. The theme was 'past Eurovision songs and songs that feel fitting for Eurovision'. It was a lot more fun than actual Eurovision, I ( Read more... )

My mum made this malevolent little elf for Christmas about twenty years ago, and every year he shows up again, looking more and more dilapidated and horrifying.


( Read more... )

Nobody ever told me Die Hard was so relevant to my interests! How have I been allowed to go this long without seeing this film?

We watched Die Hard on Christmas Day. I sat down expecting a badass, confident action hero, and instead I got a guy who's cornered and terrified and falling apart, increasingly bloodied and in pain. It was... well, like ( Read more... )

THE BOOKENING TITLE #20: The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith.

'Do you think Richard might have killed him?' McCarron asked quietly.
'No, I don't.'
'Why?'
'Because there was no reason for him to kill him - at least, no reason that I happen to know of.'
'People usually say, because so-and-so wasn't the type to kill anybody,' McCarron said.My ( Read more... )

There are a handful of Elton John songs I've always really liked - 'Your Song', 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', 'I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues' - but I didn't know much about the man himself and I didn't have any particular plans to see Rocketman. The sum total of my previous knowledge about Elton John ( Read more... )

Christmas dinner with my family:

Eleanor's mother: Do you need stuffing, Riona?
Riona: That would be lovely, thank you.
Riona's parents: (both start sniggering)

Thanks, guys.

We had a cake after the meal, and the box had the most incredible instructions:

SERVING: Place cake on a flat surface. Heat a long-bladed knife under warm water. Slice in ( Read more... )

It turns out that people really don't know how to react when they're offering their cat a treat, and you take the cat treat out of their hand and pop it into your mouth.

(She yelped and reflexively hit me, then said, 'Oh, I'm sorry I hit you! I didn't know what else to do!')

Talking about this with my housemates later:

Ginger: I want to know ( Read more... )

Yesterday I saw Catching Fire, the second film in the Hunger Games series! I enjoyed it a great deal. It's not a short film, but it never felt padded.

It's odd; in the Hunger Games books I 'ship Katniss with nobody, but in the films I 'ship her with everyone. Peeta, Gale, Johanna, Cinna: bring it all on ( Read more... )

I could marry the fifth series of The Mentalist. Only five episodes in and it's already everything I ever wanted. I think I squeaked with excitement when I realised what 'Red Dawn' was dealing with. (AND WE GOT THE COUCH'S ORIGIN STORY, AMAZING ( Read more... )