And a LEFT! And a RIGHT! And a LEFT!...

Hi everyone!
That's right, it's Boxing Day! Allow me to reflect on what happened yesterday...

First, I got up and saw that Santa had been and left me a Jeremy Clarkson book, the Doctor Who 'Time Traveller's Almanack' and various other things (kinetic torch, anyone?), and spent the first hour or so of my day lying in bed and eating chocolate. Great.
Now, time to whizz downstairs. We'll be having brunch later, says Mum, so I munch on a banana, say Merry Christmas to the rest of the family, then dash back upstairs to get dressed - No gym today! Anyway, fast-forward about half an hour, and it's Brunch-time! Mum has made the most awesome fry-up selection ever (no eggs, though. never mind...), which everyone eagerly tucks into. There's plenty of leftovers, which is great. Means we'll be eating awesome food for the rest of the holidays.
So, after helping tidy up, we gather round to open up a few small presents. Among mine is a total of about £60, just enough to get my failing economy back on the go, a Terry's orange and some tree pencils from my brother! How cool is that?
Yawn, more sitting around and chatting whilst Dad cleans up his Mess. After that, my auntie and uncle are given the grand tour of the environs, whilst the rest of us sit at home and twiddle our thumbs.
Finally, we get down to the present opening! Among the many gifts I recieve, a digital camera! Brilliant! Also, some iTunes credit, a Borders gift card (no idea how much is on it), a hoodie and Hancock on DVD (might watch that tonight). Anyway, I have since spent my iTunes voucher.
The new Fall Out Boy album, Folie a Deux, is...well, different. In a good way, or a bad way? Well, hard to say at the moment, but it would appear they've effected a Panic-at-the-Disco-style turn around, dropping the exclamation and becoming a little more tame. Tame and, oddly for FOB, a little nostalgic. The end of one song is comprised of lines from their other songs. At the end of "What A Catch, Donnie", listen out for snippets of "Sugar, We're Going Down", "This Ain't A Scene" and a few others. They seem to have gone down the route explored by "Hum Halleluja", although there are still a couple of notable exceptions, such as the reputable "I Don't Care". Interestingly, you can also bag a remix of this on iTunes, but I've never really been a huge fan of remixes, and this one doesn't change anything.
Another purchase was the soundtrack for Series 4 of Doctor Who. Whilst not as memorable as the Series 3 tunes, this disc does still hold some hidden treasures. For example, "A Noble Girl About Town" is wonderfully jazzy, whilst the "Voyage of the Damned Suite", whilst perhaps being unneccesarily long (it weighs in at about 11 minutes), does hold within it the brilliant tension of the Titanic's re-entry and Max Capricorn's demise, as well as the Doctor's epic-ness. This same epic-ness continues through several other tracks on this disc, but by far the star of the show, a notably understated track, "A Dazzling End" is a simple yet breathtaking piece. There really is no word to describe, listen to it for yourself. It's like... It's like John Williams meets Muse, the best thing composer Murray Gold has dreamt up since the Series 3 theme, in my opinion.
And this brings me smoothly on to my next event. After yet another fantastic Christmas lunch courtesy of Mum, we all sat around the TV to watch The Next Doctor!! If you haven't seen it yet, don't read past this point, but to be honest, I'm so glad David M didn't turn out to be the next Doctor. Harry Lloyd's chances are on the up! I liked the ideas explored in the episode, I must admit, but ultimately I wasn't as impressed as I was last year. I mean, come on. The CyberKing: Just a humungous Cyberman?! It would have been really cool, but unless it becomes a properly-established bit of cyber-tech, it will always be just a bit too ridiculous for me. That said, the idea of the Doctor taking on a massively scary monster in just a hot air balloon does sound quite exciting. I guess it just didn't work out on the paper. So, overall, top marks for keeping secrets, BBC, but otherwise, I've seen you do much, much better.
Same with Wallace and Gromit. It just didn't seem to be in the same league as the others, and the fact that it didn' open with the theme tune knocks it back yet again. Whilst it did have its moments of brilliance (Take the wheel!), I would rather have watched A Close Shave or Wrong Trousers. Besides, I thought it was Wallace AND Gromit; in the past two adventures, it seems to have been Gromit doing all the work, whilst Wallace falls for anything on two legs, rabbits included. Come on, let's see the old duo working together on a project, just like in Grand Day Out.
Phew. That seems to have wrapped everything up again...

Oh yeah. We got a Wii, as well.

See ya 'round!

Jack