Raven

Independence Day It's been a number of years since I last saw this, and I had forgotten how bad the dialogue and direction is. Aliens blowing up America is still pretty cool though!

My Phone. 14½ years it lasted, still with it's original battery. In the end it was not the battery that did it, twas the contacts inside that was its undoing . . . No flowers.

Could have been worse.

I think the thing is that with a few notable exceptions they didn't play that well in Cardiff; they were almost 40-4 and if it weren't for Root and Balance we would have been in the mire there as well. I think the situation would have been different if we had won the toss at Lords and had we still lost, I don't think it would have been the pummelling we ended up getting.

I was listening on TMS, it was pretty torrid (long periods of boredom when the Aussies were scoring and the bowlers weren't making much headway followed by English wickets dropping like nine-pins). It was frustrating because England are a lot better than they played, they just didn't seem to have any confidence.

Wow, you really shouldn't forget your make up, that has to be the least flattering portrait ever! *gets coat and runs*

Yeah, 'cause that was in the books . . .

Though I didn't expect it to happen twice in the same game . . . Dreadful stuff, I'm not sure I can see them recovering from this.

Interesting comment by Will Gompertz.

F1 driver Jules Bianchi. Bianchi was a talented driver at the start of what should have been a very promising career. To have gone before he had a chance to show the world what he could really do is a real shame. Whilst it's good that this is the first fatality in Formula One since Ayrton Senna in 1994, I wish the record could have gone on a lot longer.

Oh dear, she's in the denial phase . . .

To be fair to them, they appear to have given England exactly what they asked for. It's just a pity we lost the toss . . .

Well, I guess the phase "England Collapse" was inevitably going to feature at some point this summer . . .

I'd recommend Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons, seems to tick most of the boxes on your list.

Picked up Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami and Funny Girl by Nick Hornby for £7 in Tesco last night. Part of me feels dirty for buying books in Tesco, and not supporting Waterstone's or another dedicated book shop, but another part of me is going "Yay! Cheap books!!"

I'm quite fond of most of Matt Smith's stuff, but I must admit I'm still not sold on Capaldi's Doctor (I need to watch the last series through again, though; I've been waiting for it to come down in price on Blu-ray!). I think Moffat is one of the most inventive writers Who has ever had, but I'll concede that he doesn't always get it right. I also think that Moffat should probably be moving on before too long, because I don't believe it is healthy for any long running series to stick with the same person for too long (fresh ideas, and all that, although I wouldn't have said Moffat has run out of them just yet).

It's supposed to be an unusual situation, Athena!

Doctor Who isn't holding up new Sherlock, I believe that is down to the availability of Cumberbatch and Freemen. Also, production and writing duties on Sherlock are split between Moffat and Mark Gatiss so his input is far less demanding than it is on Who. And for the record, Doctor Who has seen a large increase in viewers worldwide since Moffat took up the reins. From a commercial point of view the show is more successful now than it has ever been (personal taste over episode content is another issue!).

Series 10 has been commissioned.

How many entries have you had?

I've bought Star Ship Troopers and Childhood's End. Also picked up Anno Dracula and The Wolves of London from the July sale.

I'm looking forward to this special, because of the period setting, but I'm not that interested in a new series as I didn't think the last one was that great.

This is very reminiscent of the hype/disappointment around the Matrix films . . .

Quite a few sci-fi novels in today's Daily Deals.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!! What a day!