Happy Sunday, folks! The sun is shining, I can hear birds singing (a rarity in central Manchester) and in the UK it is Mother’s Day. Not bad, not bad at all.
Shall we work our way through ‘Something to read when you’re bored’? I think we should – it is a bumper edition!
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News
Great news – Netflix has added The Wizard of Oz to its streaming service! The 1939 classic, which stars Judy Garland as Dorothy, is now available for subscribers to view through their tele-boxes and other such wonderous devices. Grab the kids, pull up a pew, and get lost in Oz.
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A Mario Kart update
I know you are all keen to discover how well my game of Mario Kart is progressing, so I thought a little update is in order – and it is a good update, so brace yourselves.
Yesterday, I managed to get two gold cups on the 200cc races!
No, no, you don’t need to praise me. I already know what an achievement this is. It isn’t the winning, it’s the knowledge that I beat everyone else in the race.
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Roll over Beethoven
Thinking about watching a family film today, other than The Wizard of Oz? Leaning towards Beethoven? OK – but which Beethoven movie? The first? The second? The fifth? Do you know how many Beethoven movies there are in total? Why am I throwing all of these questions at you?! I don’t know!
Maybe you should just read: How many Beethoven films are there? Read this post and the questions stop.
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Birds of Prey
A couple of movie reviews for you now, both from February. The first of these reviews is for the comic book movie, Birds of Prey. Any good? You will have to read the review to find out.
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Parasite
The second movie review is for Parasite. This film won the Best Picture award at the Academy Awards 2020, but is it really as great as people say? It’s time to read my review and see my thoughts.
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What I am listening to
Today’s song of choice is ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ by The Police.
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X-Men: The Animated Series Revisited
In February 2019, I embarked on a complete re-watch of every episode of X-Men: The Animated Series; working my way through the series one episode at a time, and publishing my thoughts along the way.
It took me 12 posts to discuss all 76 episodes. If you want to read the first of these posts, or you want to work your way through all 12, then start with: X-Men: The Animated Series Revisited – Part 1.
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What’s on my plate?
You have written to me in your hundreds and thousands, and I thank you for that. Yes, I am getting some fresh air. I have the window open.
But it isn’t my window opening habits you are interested in – almost all of you have one question on your mind: What is on your bloomin’ plate?!
I know this is a topic of much discussion.
Well, I can’t tell you what is on my plate today, but I can tell you what was on my plate last night – it was home-made veggie curry, with home-made egg fried rice and a cheeky bit of naan bread. I didn’t make the naan – I picked up a cheap one from the ‘Whoops’ counter at Tesco for 50p – but I made the rest.
There isn’t much curry on my plate (I know), but that is because I wasn’t all that hungry last night. But I made plenty for two of us.
If you want to make something like this, here’s what I did…
Ingredients:
Curry
- 1 x tin of tomatoes
- 1 x dessert spoon of mild curry powder
- ½ a vegetable stock cube
- 1 x red pepper
- ½ a sweet potato
- 1 x carrot
- 1 x small potato
- ½ a tin of chickpeas
- 100ml water
- A pinch of salt
How to make the curry:
Cut up the carrot, potato, pepper, and sweet potato into chunks and place into a slow cooker. Add a pinch of salt, a tin of tomatoes, half a tin of chickpeas, one dessert spoon of curry powder, 100ml of water and half a vegetable stock cube.
Mix all of the contents together and put your slow cooker on to high for 3.5 – 4 hours. It’s really that simple.
Egg fried rice
- 200g rice + a pinch of salt
- 3 x eggs
- A dash of oil
- A dash of soy sauce
How to make the egg fried rice:
Around 30 minutes before you switch off your slow cooker, put the rice and a pinch of salt into a pan of water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and leave for 15-18 minutes until cooked.
Heat up a good dash of oil in a wok. Drain the rice, and add to the oil. Stir through, add a dash of soy sauce and leave for 1-2 minutes on a low heat.
Move the rice to one side of the wok. Beat three eggs, then pour them into the wok.
Let the eggs begin to cook through for a minute, mix together with the rice and cook through for another minute. Then serve!
Inexpensive, simple to do and best of all, for the curry you can pretty much use whatever veggies you have in the house.
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Yo, Joe!
OK, enough with the food – let’s get back to movies. A post you may have missed, but could be important to you is one that I posted back in January: What is the best order to watch the G.I. Joe movies?
A new G.I. Joe movie is heading our way in the not-too distant future. But what of the films of the past? Click on the link to find out about the movie series so far.
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Bad to the brick
There are 55 villains in The Lego Batman Movie – but who are they? I answer this very question over on my Batman blog, I’ll Get Drive-Thru.
To find out who the villains are, then check out: All 55 villains in The Lego Batman Movie. Did you spot them all?
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The Candyman can
A couple of weeks ago, Universal Pictures released a trailer for forthcoming horror movie, Candyman. If you missed it, here it is…
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Sweet as Candy
And if your Candyman knowledge is a little sparse, then take a look at my post: How many Candyman films are there? This post will tell you about what you may have missed, in preparation for the new movie.
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What you could be watching today
Looking to start a new TV show today? How about revisiting a classic from the past?
If you are an Amazon Prime Video subscriber, there is a wealth of great shows to watch, including all five seasons of Ally McBeal, all ten seasons of Smallville, and 11 seasons of The X-Files. Indulge!
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Simply the best
If you don’t fancy watching all 11 seasons of The X-Files, how about just jumping straight to the best episodes? My post: What are the best episodes of The X-Files? can help.
Back in February 2018, I published a post about the seven best episodes of the show. Check out the post to see what I said.
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D&D beyond
And finally, a little bit of nostalgia for you courtesy of the 1980s! Check out my post 20 facts about the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon to find out some stuff about the show… that you might not know.
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And that is Sunday! Keep safe, keep on truckin’ and keep on keeping on!
Alex
It's A Stampede! 
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