Raven

Roast chicken, broccoli and baby sweet corn. Feels a bit odd having a roast on a Friday . . .

Just over two weeks to go to series five and the Who publicity machine is moving into high gear. The press launch for the new series took place in Wales last night, and amongst the fall out is a new trailer hitting the net. Don't click here if you want to stay spoiler free! Boy, does that look good!

I've just had a blinding though, prompted by Chrissy's recent thread. Rowling should have

The Seagull and the Duck. Pretty.

Raven's Studio Ghibli season continued this evening with Kiki's Delivery Service, yet another charming film. These guys really know their onions!

As others have pointed out, Snape was still a threat for Neville though, even after the boggart had been "Grannified" - the point is to defeat the Boggart, not conquer the underlying fear. With Harry he fears what the Dementors bring, but he finds a way to tackle them, so if a boggart becomes what you fear the most, it makes sense that Harry's boggart experience would be different after he had defeated real Dementors (and also once Voldmort got a new body, and he witnessed Diggory's death). Chrissy, re my post DH remark, that is by far the funniest death in the Potter books, it's so off-hand and in passing it's like

Between POA and The Deathly Hallows, I'd go with Voldy - remember, Voldmort didn't return proper until the Goblet of Fire, Harry probably didn't have as much reason to fear him before then. After that, I reckon it would be

My Neighbour Totoro Lovely, what a charming little film.

Black Books.

Jedwho?

I've always felt Patricia Cornwell's books went that way once she started sniffing the film rights. ETA: in Point of Origin, for example.

Sahara, 9pm, Film 4. A "So bad it's good film!" if ever there was one!

I

Not hard to impress, demanding is probably more apt. I'm not the fastest reader in the world, so I don't like wasting my time on books that are poorly written or badly plotted. Having decided to give the fantasy genre a try last year I "gone picked a bad un" with regard to The Magicians' Guild, and I'm not keen on a repeat. So far, that doesn't look to be the case, but there are some minor things that are niggling me, and I'm beginning to wonder whether fantasy is a genre worth spending a lot of time on. Either way, I'm not giving up just yet, Black Sun Rising has piqued my interest and I shall read further (I also have a couple of other fantasy novels lined up to try after it as well).

Wonders of the Solar System, which is turning into an interesting little series.

Tut! Parents always blame the teachers . . .

Actually, depending on your ISP they can be. They will only be cleared if you tell Outlook etc to clear them, and even then some ISPs don't delete them straight away (they just won't download them to you again when you next click send and receive). And whilst it is true that web mail is more immediately accessible, POP3 e-mail is just as hackable, all you need (as with web mail) is a user name and password (SMTP and POP3 settings for most ISPs are easily accessible, once you then know a target e-mail address, all you need is a password).

I started Black Sun Rising this evening, but am not looking too closely at the above due to the spartan use of spoiler tags! First impressions: Certainly better than The Magician's Guild; more background and what looks to be a better premise, but it still appears to have some of the same flaws (I'll go into that later if they are actually borne out).

It took me a while to get to grips with the US political system the first time I watched The West Wing through, but having watched it a couple of times now I have a fairly good working knowledge of how things hang together. The West Wing, for me, has one of the best casts of any series ever. John Spencer and Allison Janney are particularly good, but I also like the way Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford play off each other. Oh, and one of my favourite lines ever: "I had woot canal!"

Starter for 10. Excellent film, much better than the book!

^ That was the Malaysian Grand Prix last year, or possibly China, both had very heavy rain. Bahrain Grand Prix in 90 seconds - best way to watch it! Give the new F1 a chance - says an apologetic Martin Brundle.

You can find more information here.

Yes, she's certainly become one of my favourite literary characters. Nicholls has written a screenplay for a film of the book, which will be directed by Lone Scherfig, who previously directed An Education. Casting is taking place now, and filming is scheduled to start in the summer. If they don't get the casting right, I'm not sure this is something I will want to see.

I was also surprised at the lack of science-fiction titles and the lack of Clarke, Dick, Banks, Vonnegut or Asimov etc.

I've been watching F1 since the early nineties and today