Top 5 Books of 2009
My literary highlight of the year was meeting David Nicholls and Nick Hornby during the Durham Book Festival and telling David that he’d made me cry!
1. One Day by David Nicholls
2. Goodnight Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson
3. Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson
4. The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything by Elizabeth Gilbert

Top 5 Films of 2009
I’m counting this as films I saw for the first time this year even if they were released earlier. I’ve missed out on lots of cinema releases as Gala Durham is so small it has a blink and you’ll miss it approach to showing films!
1. UP
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Avatar
4. Night At The Museum 2: Battle Of The Smithsonian
5. Hellboy/Hellboy 2 – The Golden Army

Top 5 TV Programmes of 2009
Another fantastic year for the Beeb. As the number of channels grow I’m starting to think the BBC are the only place committed to real quality and begrudging my licence fee less and less each year. I could have easily listed ten things on the BBC I’ve enjoyed this year, but I’ll limit it to four…
1. Strictly Come Dancing
2. Torchwood (Children of Earth)
3. Doctor Who
4. Have I Got News For You
5. Scrubs

Top 5 Songs of 2009
It’s at this point I note that Kylie has been so busy touring in the states etc this year she hasn’t actually released a single – though she did release ‘Live in New York‘ earlier this month.
1. I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
2. Number 1 – Tinchy Strider feat. N-Dubz
3. Funhouse – P!nk
4. The Fear – Lily Allen
5. Up All Night – Take That

As I had to come up with a fifth category I decided to finish with Top 5 Celebrities of 2009…

1. David Tennant for being the most entertaining man in 2009 for Doctor Who, Hamlet and everything else
2. Rihanna for getting out of a situation of domestic violence and having the guts to talk about it in the news
3. Eddie Izzard for running 43 marathons in 51 days for Sports Relief (and also for making me laugh lots when I went to see ‘Stripped‘)
4. Chris Hollins for proving in Strictly that if you put your heart & soul into something, and keep at it, you can improve and succeed
5. Gary Barlow for deciding it was a good idea to get a bunch of celebrities to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and as a result raising £3.4million for Comic Relief

I found myself excited yesterday when I discovered I finally had a blog reader in Wales. South East Wales. Talbot Green to be precise. (A big hello if you are said person!!!). I was more excited about my blog reader in Wales than I was about the one I have in Delhi, India (though that is rather exciting too!)

But it’s only one person (who’s visited twice this past month… go you!) and I’m wondering why the Welsh aren’t popping over to helenthornber.com to have a read? It’s almost six months since I launched my blog in this format. Six months and only one person living within Welsh borders has actually visited it.

England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have all had a few people having a read, but Wales there has been none. Every time I cast my eyes over the analytics Wales is just a big yellow bit of emptiness, no little orange blobs anywhere until now.

I even have good Welsh credentials. I have a majority of my Dad’s side of the family in North Wales, my parents lived there for a while back in the 1970s and my sister was born there. She even ended up back in Bangor for university. I might be an eighth Scottish when it comes to blood, but Wales is somewhere I will always associate with and with all the family ties and visits I might as well have Welsh blood in me too.

And how can I not be a huge fan of the country where Doctor Who and Torchwood are filmed? I think we’ve established I’m a big fan, but the fantasy that the cast and crew are lolling about on their breaks catching up on my latest offering isn’t even backed up by having a reader in Cardiff. Not one.

So why do the Welsh not visit me? Answers on the back of the postcard (or in the comments box below)… and if you know any Welsh people get them to visit helenthornber.com and comment on this blog too!

It was followed by heading back to my sisters for a marathon Doctor Who DVD session. Six episodes of series four, a birthday present we all enjoyed!

A day full of Doctor Who and I have concluded that you can never have enough. If it wasn’t for having this blog to write, and getting to the point where I need matchsticks to keep my eyes open, I’d happily continue with my Doctor Who Day!

“Exterminate, Exterminate”

Double Davros

Bannakaffalatta – The second best thing about The Voyage of the Damned. Obviously Astrid (Kylie) was the best!

Brannigan from ‘Gridlock‘ and The Empty Child

The Ood and his translator device with Catherine and I

But nowadays my viewing is much more limited. My guilty pleasures are Neighbours and Home & Away. They were the first soaps I ever watched, when Kylie was a mechanic and Sally was a little girl. In my opinion they are still slightly less scandalous and depressing that our British soaps.

They both get recorded on my PVR (that’s a digital TV tuner with a hard drive to save stuff on) alongside my seasonal favourites of Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, The Apprentice and Have I Got News for You. But these days that’s about it.

I always imagined that being able to watch and record whatever TV I wanted would mean I would end up with hours of television to get through. But it’s quite the opposite. More often than not I reach for a DVD when I fancy some visual stimulation. Though the idea of TV on demand is a nice one in theory, in practice it ends up being another thing that I feel I have to do. If there is hours of TV waiting to be watched then it becomes a chore to watch it. I find Friday Night with Jonathan Ross far more enjoyable if I happen to catch it when it’s being broadcast, than if I have to catch up afterwards. I don’t find this world of on demand entertainment convenient, I find it exhausting.

Growing up in the days of the VCR you were able to record things, but if you went away for two weeks you could only manage a maximum of four hours (oh the joys of getting a few 240 minute videos for Christmas!) though I can’t actually remember leaving anything to record when we went away. I mainly used my videos to record movies, which is something I also tend to use my PVR for these days. Most of the time I just watched what was on TV when it was on, though in my later years I recorded Buffy (which coincided with dinner time) and watched it as soon as the episode had finished recording!

My younger self who was desperate to get Sky would be appalled at what I am about to say.

Maybe I’m getting old, but I find myself agreeing with people that compare a majority of our programming to junk food. It isn’t healthy or nutritional for our brains. For me having more channels and more choice means that I miss out on the really good stuff. Whenever I look through the TV guide I can’t find one thing I want to watch on all the channels that I have. I no longer watch adverts so I don’t see what’s coming up that might actually interest me. I’m sure that I’ve let quite a few fascinating documentaries pass me by because I just can’t be bothered to search for them amongst the repeats and complete rubbish on offer. When there were four channels (it took me a long time to accept Five as a legitimate channel) I’m sure there was much more quality. Maybe it’s just rose tinted glasses?

So if anyone has any ideas how I can avoid the chaff, and locate the wheat, that would be great. I don’t want to hate television. I think it is a fantastic invention to learn from and to unwind to, but I’ve lost the excitement about watching stuff on the box and I’d like to get it back!

My first major collection was badges. My favourite badge I got for my sixth birthday. It was a silver holographic badge that sparkled rainbow colours in the light with a big ‘6’ on it. I loved it. This was just the first of many things I loved that were colourful and sparkly.

Then came the Trolls. I collected them wherever I could. I had small trolls, big trolls and old trolls (one my grandma had owned for a long time). They had every different colour of hair you could imagine. I must have spent a majority of my pocket money on obtaining trolls. I loved them.

Our local library had a display cabinet you could sign up to occupy for a week. One proud week I got to display my badges and my trolls. Happy times.

I collected stickers for sticker albums. I remember Snow White and Gladiators, though I didn’t complete either. The only one I did complete was my Boyzone sticker album. Which brings me onto that collection, or rather my teen obsession.

Between the ages of eleven and fourteen I adored Boyzone. Despite early on working out that Stephen Gately was gay I still hoped he might marry me, or at least be my best friend. My walls were covered in their posters. At one stage you couldn’t see an inch of wallpaper in my room, they were even on my ceiling.  I spent every last penny on magazines they were in, and I recorded every TV appearance on video. Somewhere in my childhood bedroom there are folders of magazine cuttings and videos a friend and I spent one summer cutting together of all the stuff we had on tape. Thankfully I grew out of it an appropriate age, and even more surprisingly couldn’t care less that they are back together now.

Following that I didn’t collect anything for a while. I loved sunflowers and had lots of those, but it was never a ‘collection’ as such. I suppose I did, and still do, collect leaflets and postcards of art and exhibitions I love (I have a box full) and I have always had lots of books. But that’s because I can’t bear parting with anything I have read and enjoyed.  I suppose the books I have read are a collection, and say more about me than anything else.

Six or seven years ago Boots ran a promotion. Collect vouchers and exchange them for a stuffed toy. My housemate and I put together our vouchers and became the proud owner of our Boots Giraffe. I loved the giraffe, but I am never quite sure how it got from being that one, to how ever many I own now (I have never counted them!). I think I can probably tell people where 90% of my giraffes came from, most of them anchored to specific events and places. I find myself on a giraffe hunt wherever I go.

Finally I started to collect shoes. The first pair of shoes I loved were black strappy sandals from Topshop, bought for my May Ball at the end of GCSEs in 1999. They cost £35, which was a fortune when I was 15, but I had to have them. It is an appreciation, which grew into an obsession. These days I’d say it’s more an affection. Sadly now I’m living up north the opportunities to take my beloved heels out on the town are few and far between. I can’t bear the thought of buying any more beautiful pairs for them to sit in my wardrobe and rarely see the light of day.

There is still one man who can revive my shoe obsession. That is Christian Louboutin. I can’t describe the feeling of being in the Louboutin shop in Greenwich Village, NYC. It was amazing. It was that day I bought my Simple Pump 100 in patent black, and they bring me joy every day.

There are other things I could collect, but I try not to get sucked in. Between giraffes and shoes I have more than enough to spend my money on. If I did have a third collection it would be Doctor Who stuff. But I know if I started with that I wouldn’t stop and would bankrupt myself in the process. As a teenager I dreamed of having a room full of Disney figures and toys, mainly Pixar stuff, as well as the Little Mermaid. Maybe if I have children one day I’ll have an excuse to collect those.

I can’t help but wonder what it is in human nature that makes us collect. Having a group of things that gives us pleasure from looking at or using them, or even just thinking about them and knowing they exist.

Everything seemed fairly normal until after lunch when I traipsed around the library with the photographer trying to find students to take photos of in a library setting. The only weirdness in that is that you usually don’t spend a Monday being a prop in photos (to think I may feature in Durham University prospectus – enough to scare any potential student off!)

Settling back down to get work done there was a bright flash and a loud bang. No rain, and bizarrely still blue skies outside. But the computers died. Some restarted. Some had warning messages. One rebooted and returned with the green screen of death. And one lone computer kept showing the library screensavers… rather like the headless chicken that’s body hasn’t realised its head had disappeared.

It was all very eerie and I was sure that we were trapped in an alternate universe. I was expecting (and still am hoping a little) that David Tennant would come striding into the Library as the rain started falling upwards and the Judoon began milling about scanning the staff and students. (For those non-Doctor Who fans this is a reference to Season 3 Episode 1 ‘Smith & Jones’)

Whilst in the middle of my overactive imagination heading off to the Tardis I was sidetracked by Krista who was trying to find a new owner for a gorgeous pair of sparkly silver shoes.

In true Cinderella style others had tried them on and they’d been too big or too small. Krista is a size 6 and they had been too big for her. Despite being a 5.5 I couldn’t resist trying them on (as any true shoe lover will understand) but as I slipped them on, like Cinderella before me, they fit perfectly.

With many hours of Monday left having already had a Doctor Who and a Disney moment who knows what will happen next… is it too much to hope that I will find myself snapped up for my first publishing deal?!

Easter weekend is a good place to start. Today is a fortnight until Good Friday. Easter weekend means many things – Bank Holidays, seeing family and friends, lots of chocolate. Of course there are also many religious services to attend for those who so wish. But on top of all the regular joys of Easter, two things stand out this year.

Firstly there is Red Dwarf. Oh yes. It’s back. On Dave. Thanks Dave! I look forward to being whisked back to my youth and sitting there with my Dad chuckling away. Red Dwarf was a daddy-daughter ‘thing’. Here’s hoping it’s as funny as it ever was.

Secondly, and more tentatively there is a Doctor Who special. Or at least that’s what we have been lead to believe. However despite it being just over two weeks to the expected due date there seems a lull of information. The BBC website is surprisingly absent of anything related to it. Apart from speculation I can find nothing concrete. Absolute nada. What is going on? If it does turn up let’s just hope it’s better than Christmas, which I have to say was possibly the most disappointing episode so far. I kid not when I tell you I nearly nodded off.

In the weeks following Red Dwarf, and hopefully Doctor Who too, I will be headed back down to my old home of London for a couple of things.

Bank holiday weekend is ‘Hen Weekend’! The first one I have ever attended. I’m sure there will be drunkenness but I can say no more than that right now as the Hen is completely in the dark about what will happen once we get to London!

And then a couple of weeks later I will be back in the capital for early birthday celebrations with my southern contingent of friends. Really need to get planning on that one. However the furthest I have got is deciding to make time to pop to the Science Museum and check out Wallace & Gromit’s new exhibition. Exciting stuff!

So see now I have plenty to look forward too in good health. Meanwhile I must try and find a replacement for Cake Friday as I am stuck here at home. Time to get creative!