Humanity loves a good “what if?” proposition. It is yet another manifestation of the curiosity about the world, and everything which lies beyond it, which has sent us hurtling up the evolutionary ladder, going from spears and arrows, hunting and gathering to cutting-edge medicine and spaceflight. Alien Worlds, a British Continue Reading
Movie review: Soul
Just what exactly makes for a well-lived and satisfying life? It’s sounds like a simply enough question but dig down, as Pixar’s latest animation masterpiece Soul does with poignancy, honesty, good humour and rich imagination, and it becomes quickly apparent that there’s a far bigger answer waiting for someone to Continue Reading
Book review: The Saints of Salvation (Salvation Sequence #3) by Peter F. Hamilton
However long you have been waiting for a thrilling and exciting finish to a series of some kind, no matter the medium, there is something inordinately exciting about coming to the end of a story upon which rides the fate of a particular group of people. Above all else, you Continue Reading
I need more popcorn and candy stat! My 25 favourite films of 2020
What a strange and abnormal year 2020 has been when it comes to almost everything, including going to the movies. Or rather, NOT going to the movies; at least, not in a cinema, anyway. With COVID necessitating lockdowns in countries all over the world, some still in place as I Continue Reading
Small screen, big stories, much bingeing: My 20 favourite TV shows of 2020
When COVID-19 first hit, there were tweets and posts aplenty about how people were so bored in lockdown that they had watched literally everything on all the streaming platforms known to man. While I wonder how true that, since I suspect there is enough content on those platforms to keep Continue Reading
Download. Play. Dance. Sing. My 20 favourite songs of 2020
Songs are the soundtrack to my life. Quite literally, in fact. Whether I am out exercising of a morning – this year saw me back at my 8km exercise routes which I couldn’t do without music – or commuting (a far rarer thing this year thanks to COVID-19) or simply Continue Reading
Lost in a sea of beautiful words: My 20 favourite books of 2020
Books have always my go-to place to get away from the horrors and sadness of reality. Whether it was way back when I was a kid and bullying defined my (almost) every waking hour, or more recently when a pandemic has redefined life to pronouncedly for the worst that the Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good night!
2020 – what a year! And not in the “Woohoo! What a great year!” sense either. I mean, it wasn’t entirely awful, but every time it seemed like things were on the improve, everything went south again in spectacular fashion; case in point, Sydney is once again in the grip Continue Reading
Book review: The Nine Lives of #Christmas by Florence McNicoll
All of us long for some kind of profound connection. More than that, we need it, in ways too complex and unknowing to articulate at times, and we often need more of it that we realise, especially at Christmas which, possibly more than most other festivals, near-demands an intense and Continue Reading
#Christmas TV review: Home For Christmas (season 2)
Christmas and romance … Christmas and romance … go together like, well, nothing rhymes satisfactorily with “romance” so let’s just say that falling in love during the festive season is seen as pretty much the most perfect time of the year to give your heart away to someone special. (Unless, Continue Reading