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After Emily’s dad accidentally booked too many tickets, and then Emily passed the spare tickets along to me and Sanna, and then Sanna was sadly too ill to attend, it eventually transpired that Robert and I went to see Radio 4’s The News Quiz being recorded. Hosted by Sandi Toksvig (can you not love her?) with Mark Steel (weep with joy, Saoirse, weep with pure unadulated joy) Alan Coren, Phil Jupitus, some-new-and-quite-funny-woman and the sexy Radio 4 newsreader-voice guy.

Anyway, it was great fun, with most of Mark Steel’s contributions being utterly libellous and not able to be transmitted. Got slightly worried when I spotted a bloke reading the Morning Star in the audience though, and thought the Radio 4 listenership was about to get revolutionary. Oh and a mobile went off in the audience – to which the team responded by shining a spotlight on the guilty woman. Haha! Props to Emily for getting the tickets for us.

They also teased vegetarians in a rather amusing fashion sorry, Emily \ Sanna \ Joshua \ everybody else.

In other news: I have now applied for my student loans! Which is exciting, especially if I end up dying very young and therefore not paying any of them back. (Accidents happen…)

And have been since Saturday. It’s just the feeling of waking up on Saturday and knowing that the holiday is finally finally finally here. Not to mention Doctor Who is back and ooh wasn’t it good? Isn’t Martha wonderful? Of course, one of the (many) joys that Who brings is not just the programme itself, but the fannish enthusiasm. The old forum haunt at Outpost Gallifrey brought me much joy today with the following ethical question:

Should the Doctor have done more to defend the Plasmavore? OK – she was a murderer who was prepared to wipe out half the earth. However she was fighting for her life and the Judoon were not a legitimate police force but a hired mercenary gang out to impose a ruthless form of capital punishment. And this Princess may have been part of a ruthless Autocracy denying the people basic rights and freedoms.

(All credit to ‘sparacus’ for the question. The answer, incidentally, is no he shouldn’t have. Obviously. Made me laugh though.)

On Saturday the final stage of the grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary rolled out (yes OK, sometimes I think our family operates as a quasi-commercial entity) with a visit to Starlight Express – or more specifically, The 3rd Dimension or… something, which is some kind of revisionist version. Anyway, it was odd! I think everyone enjoyed it, though mostly through discussion of the bizarre plot and the really strong emotional connection to different ways of powering a train engine.

“What’s next…” we asked, “the heroic battle between different elements in the periodic table?”

(I think you have to have seen this musical to understand it, actually, so I’ll stop trying to explain. I’ve been advised to think of it as an 80s roller-skate disco, so I will.)

I then saw Casino Royale on Sunday. The problem here is that I’ve never actually seen a Bond film in the cinema before – the most I’ve come to it was seeing some of the classics on video years ago. So I wasn’t amazed and astounded this this one was better than the last few because, erm, I haven’t seen them. So I left the cinema agreeing with mum – a fun film for a fiver at Willesden on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but not a woaaah amazingly outstanding experience. It’s James Bond, I guess, what do you expect?

Though I’m glad we’ve sorted out that beautiful women will betray you, even if you wear a dinner jacket. Or if you’re a steam train, as in the case of Starlight Express, except of course ‘beautiful women’ then becomes, ur, ‘coach’ as demands that peculiar metaphor. I think I’ll stop attempting to connect these two bits of entertainment now and go to bed