I'm back, a few updates

Hi everyone, I am back again after taking a break.

What's new? Loads but I cannot do it all in one post LOL. I might backfill a few posts and the rest I'll drop in going forwards.

On the COVID-19 front I have had my first vaccination while both Toni and Sam have been double dosed. I am continuing to work from home and there are no plans to go back into the office as yet.

Sam is ready to fly the nest and move out. He and his friend have now found a place and all the paper work is done. There are some last minute things to be sorted out and with a trailing wind he will be moving in next week.

Zoe has now entered gainful employment, taking a on a sales assistant role in a shop called Tokyo Toys. 

After a lot of time being quite sedentary I've been feeling a tad unfit and not very happy with my body. As the garage gym is inaccessible due to it being full of packed boxes belonging to Sam I have now taken to doing regular exercise every day in a different way. For the last few weeks I have been going out for a walk every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. It's been very enjoyable and kickstarts my day quite nicely. I have also been trying to do a minimum of 100 squats every day

I am still baking rolls every week and this was todays batch.

Toni has just started up a new blog site where she is posting reviews of books that she is reading. She has been doing lot of work with new authors and this is the start of her building on that.

The site is called The Bookdragon's Den and you can find it here:

https://bookdragonsden.blogspot.com

Today we watched Shadow And Bone on Netflix. Ravka, a fantasy kingdom based on the Tsarist Russian Empire, is set in a war-torn world plagued by the Shadow Fold, a swath of permanent darkness separating East from West Ravka which is inhabited by carnivorous winged creatures known as Volcra. Orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov discovers that she is a Grisha (a magic-user) who possesses the power to create light, which could be the key to setting her country free from the Fold. Alina joins an elite army of Grisha serving under General Kirigan, the Shadow Summoner. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive.

This was a very enjoyable show and was much better than the recent Winx Saga.

Baking, WWE, Fate: The Winx Saga, Disenchantment and Bonding

It was backing day today. Not quite sure what happened with this batch but it did appear that the tops of a couple of them went floppy. Most peculiar.......

I did a check in on some WWE stuff before everyone got up taking in the WWE Superstar Spectacle event that they ran in India followed by NXT UK. Both were reasonably enjoyable so I might yet continue my subscription.

Toni and I then started watching Fate: The Winx Saga on Netflix.

A live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's Winx Club (2004). It follows Bloom as she adjusts to life in the Otherworld, where she must learn to control her dangerous magical powers. It's not high brow that's for sure but it is an enjoyable yarn. 

Dinner was a home made curry constructed with the base of a chicken soup and some pots of left over Indian take away from last night plus a load of cooked chicken that we already had. It was absolutely amazing. It was so tasty. 

As Sam hadn't been watched Fate: The Winx Saga we watched the first episode of Disenchantment Part 3 with dinner. Just as funny as the previous parts.

We finished the night off with Season 2 of Bonding. 

Really pleased that this is continuing and has maintained it's quirky sense of humour.

High Score, hockey and Four In A Bed

My body clock seems firmly set on working time despite being off so I go up, has some breakfast, made coffee and did a sneaky 30 minutes of work to make sure things were ticking over OK in my absence, 

After that I started watching a great documentary series on Netflix called High Score. It's a six episode affair that traces the evolution of the video game industry, from the days of Atari and "Donkey Kong" to modern online gaming and esports. Three episodes in and it comes highly recommended if you enjoy video games and are interesting in some history

Back in hockey mode we caught up with the New York Islanders v Tampa Bay Lightning game from last night. Lightning were leadings this series 1 - 0 and we were hoping they would extend their lead. First period ended tied at 1 - 1. Second period ended still tied at 1 - 1. With a goal in the last seven seconds the Lightning won the game 2 - 1 and now have a 2 - 0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. That was an exciting end to the game!

After the hockey it was back to watch the rest of the High Score episodes. As I said earlier, this is well worth watching if you have an interest in video games.

It was back to car crash TV for the rest of the night with Season 2 of Four In A Bed. They've change the format slightly for the payment week in this season and it's way more brutal. They've thrown oil on the road for car crash heaven!

New baking and Chilling Adventure Of Sabrina

So today we decided to do some more baking but with a difference. We took the gluten free keto choc chip cookies recipe and decided to modify it as an experiment. We replaced half of the almond flour with coconut flour, added some psyllium husk and dropped the choc chips (well we dressed them with some but they weren't full of them).

Here's what came out....

They were absolutely delicious! It was a very good experiment! They are actually nicer than the choc chip version. Eaten warm they have an almost scone like quality. Lots of scope for other ways this new recipe could be used.

Then it was time to settled down to some Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina on Netflix now that Season 3 has dropped.


Dinner was an amazing steak and we watched a bit of QI followed but a series called Monty Python's Best Bits (Mostly).

Baking cookies, Penny Dreadful trailer and The Crown

Baking was the order of the day today with Toni and I whizzing up a double batch of gluten free keto chocolate chip cookies!

Oh my goodness, they were delicious!

Any of you a fan of the Penny Dreadful TV series? We thought it was wonderful and now we are getting a spin off in the form of Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels, set in 1938 Los Angeles. Showtime have just released the first trailer:

We caught up with the rest of season one of The Crown which is turning out to be compelling viewing and then moved on to season two.

Shazam, Motherland: Fort Salem, Sex Education and a little hockey

We start our day with breakfast at Miggi's before returning home to chill out. In another better late than never moment we decided to watch Shazam as we missed it when it came out.

The DCEU movies have been a bit hit and miss so I wasn't keeping my hopes up for this one. I knew nothing of the comic book character so went into this one with a completely open mind. Overall it wasn't bad at all. Shazam seems to be set in an alternative universe to the other DCEU offerings which was a surprise.

It's a fun superhero movie and I think I would definitely go and see the sequel which is also tied in with standalone supervillain movie Black Adam.


We caught wind of a new TV series coming out that peeked our interest. Motherland: Fort Salem. Set in an alternate, present-day America where witches ended their persecution 300 years ago by cutting a deal with the burgeoning U.S. government to fight for their country, Motherland: Fort Salem follows three young women from basic training in combat magic into terrifying and thrilling early deployment. In this world, the traditional roles of gender and power are flipped, with women on the front lines fighting looming terrorist threats that are strikingly familiar to our world, but with supernatural tactics and weapons. Let's hope it turns out to be good.


The second season of Sex Education is now out so we watched the first two episodes on Netflix. It is as hilarious and silly as the first season. Avoid this one if you are easily offended or don't like the idea of frank discussion about bumping uglies.

Our evening finished watching Washington Capitals v New York Islanders and were very happy to see the Islanders lose 6 - 4.

The Crown on Netflix

Today we took a slow dive into Netflix series The Crown.

We are late comers to The Crown as it has just finished Season 3 with Season 4 upcoming (out of 6 planned seasons).

The Crown traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to the present. The first season depicts events up to 1955, with Winston Churchill resigning as prime minister and the Queen's sister Princess Margaret deciding not to marry Peter Townsend.

We've watched the first four episodes so far and it is quite a good show. There seems to be a little poetic licence going on with some characters being shown in a slightly better light than they perhaps deserve so it will be interesting to see if this continues or the show tried to take on a more real view.

I am definitely not a Royalist but this one is worth a watch.

Miggi's, Crown Jewel, Sabrina, Titans and Daredevil

As is usual for a Saturday, Toni, Sam and I went to Miggi's for breakfast. Turned out to be be more like lunch as Toni and I both had jacket potatoes with various things and Sam stuck to his big breakfast. We then hit Saisnbury's for some snacks before heading back home where we intend to stay for the rest of the weekend.

Despite the controversy of WWE Crown Jewel being held in Saudi Arabia I decided to check it out to see how good/bad it all turned out to be.

They managed to advertise the show and then run it without once mentioning that it was held in Saudi Arabia, clearly showing the decision to proceed was not necessarily the right one given recent events. Number one farce had to be the show opening with the return of Hulk Hogan who was appearing as the 'host'. This basically meant he had a segment at the start. I've never really been a fan of his and he is pretty much washed up now so I was surprised to see him opening the show especially after him being suspended from the Hall Of Fame for some racist comments. Being lauded for this show was a new trophy called the World Cup with card being made up mainly of matches heading to the final for that.

Rey Mysterio Jr defeated Randy Orton in no time at all. The Miz defeated Jeff Hardy. Seth Rollins defeated Bobby Lashley and Dolph Ziggler defeated Kurt Angle. All four winners headed into the semi-finals of the World Cup. The Bar defeated The New Day to retain their Tag Team titles. In Semi Final actionThe Miz defeated Rey Mysterio to advance to the final. Dolgh Ziggler defeated Seth Rollins to meet The Miz.

In a surprisingly average match AJ Style retained his WWE Championship against Samoa Joe. The vacant Universal Title was then won by Brock Lesnar after he made ridiculously short work of Braun Strowman. This was definitely the worst match of the night by far.

In what can only be described as a screw job Shane McMahon defeated Dolph Ziggler to win the World Cup after The Miz was declared unfit to wrestle. A vacant slot should have been offered to Rey Mysterio Jr who lost to The Miz rather than throw in someone who had not competed in any previous round of the tournament. Only in the WWE!

The final insult was DeGeneration X vs. Brothers of Destruction. Ten years ago this would have been an awesome match but watching four guys way past their prime (one of whom was even retired and vowed never to wrestle again) was just painful. It was a slow plodding match with a couple of cool moves for some old guys but it should not have been the marquee match.

Crown Jewel was an odd event that didn't really do much other than lead the stories on to other future events. My recommendation would be to give this one a miss!

On the MUST SEE front I have to recommend the new Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina on Netflix.

It took a while to grow on me (mainly because of their cheap story writing having all the witches serving Satan) but it improved quickly and became compelling viewing. It's a gritty reboot with a fair few passing nods to original Teenage Witch show but this one has much darker life of its own.


We got up to date with DCs excellent Titans show today. Their movies might suck but they can still turn out a good TV show.

The show builds slowly and each week we get little snippets of formative years of certain characters to provide some context to their current day situations. It's dark and gritty and fun to watch.

It's taken a while to get round to it but I started watching Season 3 of Daredevil today.

This was one of Marvel's better Netflix shows and definitely started strong into Season 3.

GLOW, lawns and Suits

It was another bloody hot day and not doing much was the plan. It could be dangerous out there LOL.

Breakfast was accompanied by the second season of GLOW - Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling. Season one was good but they really upped the ante with this season with a great story and growth for the characters. The 80s retro is still beautifully done. As I've said before if you like wrestling you'll love this show but it still stands up as good watch even if you don't like the old grappling!

I had to bite the bullet and brave the heat in the afternoon as the grass was really in need of a good trim and I didn't want to leave it too much longer before it started to become unmanageable. It didn't take that long to mow the lawn but it was most unpleasant working out in the blazing sun.

Chore complete we then indulged in another binge of Suits

Early start, NXT Takeover: Chicago, Dietland and Pose

In stark contrast to yesterday I woke up early today and couldn't get back to sleep again. As Toni was happily snoozing still I got dressed and headed downstairs. I started catching up with NXT Takeover: Chicago 2018.

Although NXT has seen some its key stars move up to the WWE main rosters it still remains a strong brand and is still better viewing than RAW or Smackdown (I stopped watching RAW and Smackdown over a year ago but I continue to watch NXT every week.

First up we saw Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan take on Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championship. This was a good opener with plenty of near falls before Undisputed Era got the win and retained their belts.

Next up was Velveteen Dream taking on Ricochet. This was a fun match watching Dream do loads of Ricochet's move to try and psych him out. Needless to say this only lasted so long before Ricochet turned the tables. It was hard to call this one as both are good athletes who take risks. In the end Ricochet held out to win a fantastic match.

The Women's Title was on the line next as mad Scot Nikki Cross took on defending champion Shayna Baszler. This was a match I couldn't wait to see with Baszler's MMA style against Cross' off the wall madness. This was never going to be a match of wrestling prowess but it was certainly entertaining. Unsurprisingly Baszler won by being put to sleep but I suspect this feud is far from over!

Aleister Black defended his NXT Title against Lars Sullivan. This match was athleticism (Black) versus brawn (Sullivan). This was another great match. Sullivan is surprisingly versatile given his size and stature. There was some great close calls before Black finally retained after two Black Mass spinning heel kicks.

Last up was Johnny Gargano versus Tommaso Ciampa in a Chicago Street Fight. This feud has been going on for a LOOONG time and so for me it's lost a bit of sparkle and excitement especially as Ciampa has come out the victor in most of their meets. The match was good overall with the Street Fight element being played well with some brutal parts. Gargano flipping out was genius but it was so disappointing to have Ciampa walk away with the win once again. Who knows where the feud goes after this......

Once Toni was up we watched the first three episodes of Dietland which is a new series. The show explores the beauty industry and society's obsession with weight loss. Everybody should watch this show for the learning experience.


We then followed this up with Pose. Pose is set in the world of 1987 and "looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world." I think this one has some potential although Toni was less than impressed. I might watch a couple more episodes and see what happens.

Sam came back from a weekend in Southend to present me with this wonderful Father's Day gift:

Thankfully it doesn't have sound and do the whole, "NOOOOOOOO" thing!

We caught up with RuPaul's Drag Race and Battlebots while we ate dinner and then finished the day off back on the Suits trail.

Late start, Queer Eye and Suits

We didn't get up until after noon today. We haven't done this for a long time and it was so nice to have that extra chilled time in bed.

We got up and made tea and then settled down to watch Season 2 of Queer Eye on Netflix. I adore this show and Season 2 was just as good. Being the big emotional goof that I am there were a few watery leaks each episode.

Dinner came courtesy of Zizzi (via the magic of Deliveroo). This is wonderful but awful at the same time! The food from Zizzi is delicious but it ain't cheap and having it available for home delivery now mean more temptation LOL. It was very nice though :)

The last bit of our evening was spent watching the start of Season 2 of Suits. We've only juts discovered this little gem that has been running for 7 seasons now and stars Megan Markle who is now a member of the British royal family. The show has a fine blend of great storylines, character growth and humour. Who would have thought that a show about lawyers could be interesting LOL.


In other news we rescued a cat that was stuck on the roof of the extension next door!

Slower paced day and Lucifer is saved #SaveLucifer

It was a much slower paced day today which was a welcome change. No emergencies, not a lot of issues and I even got to go home earlier than usual. RESULT!

Just before Season 3 of Lucifer ended it was announced that Fox had decided to cancel the show much to our disgust. The show was doing well and had a massive fanbase but became the victim of corporate decisions. Brooklyn Nine-Nine was another show that received a mysterious cancellation from Fox but after an internet campaign it was picked up by Amazon so the show would continue.

Lucifer leading man Tom Ellis was determined to try and find a new home for Lucifer and there was a #SaveLucifer campaign started by the fanbase and stars of the show. The good news was received today that those good guys at Netflix had picked up the show and so there will now be a Season 4 (and hopefully beyond).  I can't tell you how amazing this news is for everyone here in Glitzville.

Godless, The Punisher and Star Trek Discovery

It was a goggle box day today as we kicked back and chilled.

We watched the first episode of Godless, a new wild west TV show on Netflix. It shows lots of promise so it will be interesting to see how things develop with this one over time.


This morning we finished The Punisher. What a brilliant ending to a fantastic series and a great setup to Season 2 if things go that way. Marvel really did excel when they put this series together and it is the best one so far. Not bad for a spin-off from the Daredevil show. I am glad they did it though as The Punisher has always been a favourite of mine so it was good to see something that actually did the character justice and this was head and shoulders above any of the films.


We then embarked on a journey into space with Star Trek Discovery. My interest in Star Trek TV shows has always been a bit hit and miss. I liked some The Original Series stuff, The Next Generation was good and I quite liked the different angle that Deep Space Nine took. Voyager started well and I loved Janeway's character but it started to fizzle out and Enterprise was awful so I had no real excitement about a new series. Toni had watched some of it and said it was worth a shot.

Colour me impressed, the new take on things is pretty good. I like the new characters and it has a fresh feel to it despite also managing to maintain a very clear Star Trek blueprint behind it. Ended up binge watching the whole season! Check it out:

Cafe Delicio, Specsavers and The Punisher

Today did go quite as planned. We went out for a lovely breakfast at Cafe Delicio and then booked eye tests at Specsavers. We spent far too long messing around and trying on glasses. When we got home we really didn't feel like doing much tidying up and so we watched Hell's Kitchen instead LOL.

This afternoon we started watching Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix. Wow, talk about raising the bar! Daredevil was good and I also liked Jessica Jones and Luke Cage but The Punisher is the new gold standard. For me this representation of Frank Castle matches closely my hero from the comics.

All thirteen episodes were published on Netflix yesterday and today we binge watched eight of them. It really is a great series and if you like Marvel shows or The Punisher then you should really take some time out to watch this.

Extra sleep, Richard's, American Gods and The Defenders

Getting up at 10am seems awfully self indulgent but it was nice to get some extra sleep! We were too lazy to sort breakfast so we went out and made a trip to Richard's. It's been a long time since we have been there and he was delighted to see us. I'm glad it's not just around the corner any more as we went there far too much but it was nice to go there for a treat today.

Although there are things we needed to do we decided to invoke lazy mode and take it easy today. Last night we started watching American Gods (yes I know we are late to that party but we were binging Bones) and we managed to burn through five episodes. As we'd enjoyed it so much we decided to finish the last three episodes.

This was a brilliant series, some great visuals, acting and a pretty off the wall story arc.

We then moved on to The Defenders which has just dropped on Netflix. I loved Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage (Iron First was OK) so I was looking forward to seeing how all four were brought together to form The Defenders.

It started well setting the scene with all four characters in New York doing their stuff. There were lots of interesting crossover interactions as things start to converge which meant that each episode didn't focus too much on one character. I'm still not completely sold on our Iron Fist but he is slightly more tolerable than in the standalone series. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil still remain the stronger more believable characters but they all work well in a team.

The Defenders was a good series and we burned through all eight episodes in one hit. For me it was totally worth doing it just to get to the end for a big reveal....... we all know that Marvel loves to stick things after the credits and The Defenders was no exception......

I was delighted when Frank Castle was introduced as a cameo in the Daredevil TV series and that portrayal was much closer to what I would want to see in The Punisher. It was even better when it was announced that The Punisher would be getting his own series at some point. Due to hit Netflix in November this trailer (shown at the end of The Defenders) sets a gritty dark scene for where things are likely to go. I can't wait!

Trailers for upcoming Netflix shows

Netflix have released some trailers for some of their new and returning shows to whet the appetite.

The latest show in the Marvel universe is Iron First in another Netflix exclusive. This will introduce to the final hero of the upcoming The Defenders series. I wasn't too sure about this one but the trailer has certainly got me interested and if it's up there with Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Luke Cage then we'll have another winner on our hands. Two trailers have now been released:


I am going to cheat on this next one. It has been announced that The OA has been renewed for a second season. The first one was excellent so I can't wait to see where they take things next. There is no teaser for this one so here's the trailer for the first season :)


Netflix have excelled themselves with the Netflix Original shows and they've upped the ante for 2017 with lots more to come. Here's a brief flip through some of those titles.

Star Wars Destiny and Backstrom

Toni was off doing some stuff today so Sam and I extended our playing of Star Wars Destiny and did some deck building prior to having a game. We even dragged out our game mat for this one.

I'm not really a fan of deck building stuff but it is actually fun for Star Wars Destiny so I can see me sticking with this one. The game was really close and came down to the finally turn with Sam just managing to squeeze out the victory. I really enjoyed it though.

We also discovered a new TV series called Backstrom that popped up on the banners on Netflix. We watched episode one and thought that it showed great promise with some good characters and humour.

It's definitely one that we will be watching more of.


Toni made the most amazing veggie dinner and we chilled out and caught up with some TV stuff and then the New York Rangers 5 - 2 over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Star Wars Episode VIII set pics and a Punisher trailer

This week we have had some more shots from Episode VIII 'leaked' online. This time we have some set shots ready for scenes set on Ahch-To. This is the planet where we Rey finds Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Apparently this is all built at Pinewood Studios.

I can feel my excitement building even more now!

In the meantime here is some Star Wars silliness. This is an alternative ending to The Force Awakens done in truly irreverent style :)


In other exciting news it appears that after his cameo appearance on Daredevil, Netflix have now given the green light for a full Punisher series! OMG!


It was a nice chilled bank holiday. Back to work tomorrow! LOL