Today, I said it. I said something that I daren’t think possible when 52 First Dates began. I told Mr T I loved him.

We’ve been circumnavigating around the issue recently with a lot of ‘I miss you a lot’, ‘I wuv you’ (please don’t judge me – we all know that in the privacy of txts adult language turns to dirt and mush).  The thing is, with a Long distance relationship, the Love word is very easy to throw around. In fact, the word is easily thrown around in whatever relationship you’re in and it can quickly become a term with no real meaning. But, with the distance of 6,000 miles, a face to face ‘I Love You’ isn’t that possible. Plus, I’d been a bitch on the phone last night and spent the twilight hours worrying if he really, actually, knew how much he means to me. So, I said it, I meant it, and life is a whole fracking lot better now it’s been said.

I can’t quite believe that I found love due to 52FirstDates. Nor can I believe that it happened so quickly; Date #10 after all. Nor can I believe that I’ve fallen in love with a man who lives 6,000 miles away. I’ll say that again – 6,000 MILES! Claire is now on Date #31. To be honest, I think you might have found me hanging by a noose if I was on level pegging.

Long distance relationships and love is a complicated affair, but whilst I was adamently against it at first, it’s actually worked in our favour. We are thrilled to talk to each other, excited to plan our next trip, relieved that in our current state there’s no way to take each other for granted. Ok, the physical issue is enough to drive ones horn to a permanent erection, but with the blessed iPhone, Toronto is just a phonecall away. Apple has pretty much solved by dating disaster.

However, the word love is a certain milestone within a relationship, and now it’s been said, what next? Milestone One; You start dating. Milestone Two; You say Love. Milestone Three; You Move in? You Get Married? I do know that for a long distance relationship to progress, something has to change so that its no longer a long distance relationship. But, whatever happens, I set out on 52FirstDates to find a husband.  And, now it seems, I might have only gone and bloody well found one!

After several months of Galactica starvation I decided to try Caprica after all, and I’ll tell you, it doesn’t fail to pull you full throttle back into the Battlestar Galactica world with thrilling excitement. Set before the Cyclon war, Caprica details life on the planet before the uprising and shows the very birth story of robot sentient life itself. And, like Battlestar Galactica, whilst being ‘sci-fi’, the series is so much more. It’s the struggle of parents dealing with the loss of their child. It’s the mafia uprising that’s gripping the streets. It’s the raging war of religious beliefs that shadows only too well the circumstances of our great planet Earth. And, for sci-fi fans,  it’s all set with slightly futuristic science to give it a magnificent edge.

More than science - Religious terrorist Clarice Williams comforts grieving parent Amanda Graystone

I often feel that the great sci-fi series that fail do so simply because they’re marketed wrong. Promoters keen to corner the geek/nerd/fanatic market push series to specific science fiction branded broadcasters without even trying to crack the main stream. The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a great example of this, and after two series of thrilling story was cut completely short, ahead of its time, simply because it truly wasn’t marketed right. Yes, it’s Terminator and obviously sci-fi, but actually, if you watch a few episodes and scratch the service, it was a brilliantly written story about a mother protecting her son which just happened to have a Terminator twist. Caprica probably had even less of the typical science fiction starships, weapons and alien races, and was an elegant mix of parental struggle and political influence set amongst religious wars.

Though unashamedly Terminator filled, The Sarah Connor Chronicles were focused on everyday human struggles

Whilst I can’t do anything to bring these series back, I would encourage promoters to look beyond the sci-fi stereotype and at a wider market of viewers who could discover that sci-fi is not always the spaceships, transporters and lightsabers of Star Wars and Star Trek, but stories of humanity as well. Grey’s Anatomy isn’t just about a hospital, Desperate Housewives is far from what it’s title suggests. And with the future of Blood and Chrome hovering in the balance, I hope that the wider audience have a chance to embrace entertainment which is far more than the genres title makes out.

Aside from that crucial launch date comes the compelling news about companion characters. We’ve experienced them before – they’re the creatures and pets available in WoW and SWG, or the skirmish soldiers that you can call in LOTRO. However, with SWTOR they are to be far more developed,. Emotional people, not the blank canvases that we’ve come to expect. Much of the hype with SWTOR is that all characters are to be voiced, making a dramatic shift away from minimal voice over and plain speech bubble options to engaging gameplay. A previous flaw for many MMO’s was that you had to read the speech bubbles and quest information which, quite frankly, you hardly end up doing. However, with fully audible interaction comes the chance for total immersion, with all your senses being compelled to complete your SWTOR story.

Companion characters will not only speak, and evolve but be completely customisable both physically and skill wise. Like Mass Effect, Bioware has taken the opportunity to offer romantic options with these customisable characters too, adding an entirely new genre for you to dabble in during this incredible MMO. From the sexy Twi’lek to the cute Jawa, you’ll be able to fill your ship with a range of characters to befriend, use on missions, and fall in love with, in addition to the other thousands of real players around you.

With December 20th fast approaching it’ll only be a matter of time before I’m engulfed in this fantastic new world. And with new details appearing all the time I’m already well and truly hooked.

I’ve always believed that long distance relationships don’t work. Not that I’ve had any experience and my views are completely unfounded, but somehow I believed it was a one way street to hurtville. I mean, how can you develop any kind of relationship when you’re not actually living in close enough proximity to see one another face to face, and importantly body to body? It has all the requirements to go straight down the drain once the initial honeymoon months fade, and as your wandering eye starts to flit to other fine specimens of the male form, what’s there to stop you from bed bouncing whilst your lover overseas has no idea? So strong in my belief was I that I actually, and very bluntly, said to Mr Toronto even before we met that I wasn’t willing to commit to a long distance relationship and I didn’t know if we should even entertain the idea of dating because where could it go. Oh, how wrong I was.

Long distance relationships seems like they could be a modern thing. With travel allowing people to journey and explore the world like never before, it’s more than likely that you’re going to fall in love with a suave and mysterious man from overseas. The wonders of Skype, Whatsapp and the Internet allow you to have a pretty fulfilling relationship, and with the ease of travel it’s not hard to fly here, there, and everywhere in seeking your love. And, for Mr Toronto, being an air steward certainly helps in terms of both being able to travel and having an entirely different concept of distance; I mean, a trip across the pond is all in a days work for him and he doesn’t think anything of it.

But the long distance thing isn’t a modern concept, it’s just easier to maintain in the 21st century. Yes, next generation transport has made the world a smaller place, but you can look at it the other way too that, as you got back in time, distance is all relative to the speed and ease of the transport you have. I’m sure Elizabeth Bennet felt that Longbourn was a million miles away. And she couldn’t pop onto Skype either to enjoy a quick interweb chat with Darcy’s gorgeous face. And you can think of wars too, where men were sent away, often for months and years, yet they managed to maintain their love affairs; distance really does make the heart grow fonder.

So, having now entered into a long distance relationship, I can truly say that my mind has been changed. In fact, for a hermit like me, having my space but being able to text, chat and call my beau is a god send. Of course, I miss him and think of a time when we can be together, but having the distance maintains the spark and freshness for the entire thing. And for the hermits, Pan Am’s and Mr Toronto’s of this world, a long distance love affair should not be discounted at first glance as it could be the start of something great.

In the same way that I continue to hope that Tali’s face will not be shown because it is sure to be a devastating let down, I hope that the multiplayer options coming to Mass Effect will also not disappoint. There is already a staggering variety of story options within the title, with replayability an obvious option to discover just how your different interactions and important decisions will affect later gameplay. As seen with some of the DLC’s that have come later, especially for ME2, playability was poor for a couple with Shepherds actions really not having any meaning in the greater aspect of the game.

As long as Bioware and Electronic Arts keep up the full throttle with the main title, and don’t become side tracked with online multiplayer quests so that both pieces come out feeling rather lack lustre, I’ll be happy. And let’s be honest, sod my friends and multiplay options, I just wanna head back to my crew and get onto the battlefield with Liara, Garrus and Tali when the game breaks on March 6th, 2012.

If you’ve been following 52 First Dates you’ll know that the ultimate goal is to find a husband. I don’t mean to date 52 guys and get married at the end of it, I mean to find someone with whom I want a future with. I’m not a naive fantasist who’ll get married within three months, but really, what’s the point of horrific dating rollercoaster ride otherwise?  The first ten really were an exciting journey of highs and lows. Date #1 saw me snogging the face off a very hot but young Cypriot lad, and though we both made plans to see each other again, nothing further came. Date #4 set my world alight but, as with so many dates, the feeling wasn’t returned and I was left with the ‘why didn’t he like me’ angst. #7 and #8, whilst I wasn’t damning in their write-ups were pretty dire in retrospect, and #9 got to three dates before we both realised the simmering spark had died out.

52 First Dates however isn’t just about dating lots of people to find the one, it’s also about changing the mindset in relation to dates. The more people you meet, the more you realise when a spark really is a spark rather than a vague ember. The feelings you had when someone was great on the date and then never text – well that happens the opposite way around too and you suddenly have a little more compassion for the boys that perhaps werent so into you but didn’t know how to tell you.  It’s easy to have a great date before going home and realising that whilst they were great, it wasn’t going to work longterm.

As of now, Date #10 is still the major player and, having met a month ago and talked every day via Whatsapp and Skype, I’m heading to Canada on Friday. I can’t wait to go if I’m honest as this is a man who I can see myself with forever. For the hermit in me the distance isn’t actually an issue, yet, and the future will be what it is. He’s even deleted his Grindr profile and that’s as good as getting down on one knee.

However, this isn’t the end for #52firstdates and Claire is currently full throttle in her attempts to find a husband. Meanwhile, there’s a long way to go until I’m in my wedding best and betrothed…..and I feel like the story is only just beginning.

It’s been pretty compelling from the word go, and though your initial interest in joining MI5 may have been aroused, you were probably having second thoughts when newbie Spook Helen Flynn met a gruesome end with her face being plunged into a steaming deep fat fryer. And the body count didn’t stop there, making this career option increasingly seem a little dangerous. Danny was shot to death, Ros and Adam got blown up, whilst poor journalist turned spook Ben Kaplan had his throat slit by vicious Connie. Diplomatic relations blurred as sexual relations sparked, and you could never be sure who you could trust. The writers didn’t shy away from the thrill factor here, and with their finger on the pulse of global affairs, each season brought with it a slightly uneasy realism to current events.

Despite the regularly changing the cast, the sometimes intensely confusing storylines, and the often bloody violence, the series found itself with an international, and diverse audience judging on the fact that it was the one show of the week that my 86 year old female friend couldn’t bear to miss. Season ten is almost certainly to focus on Spooks stalwarts Harry Pearce and Ruth Evershed, though their conclusion is unlikley to have a happy ending. And with Spooks making its final bows, it’s unlikely that the writers will give us anything but the usual intense and thrilling ride we’ve come to expect.

You know, I know, the whole bloody world knows (especially if you follow me on Twitter) that I’m a Harry Potter addict. The young wizard was first thrust upon me when my Dad (yes, it’s his fault) told me of these strange books he was reading. A decade later I’ve read all the books, several times, watched all the movies, several times, and was left pretty bereft when Harry’s story wrapped up. But, no more, as soon Sony and J.K Rowling announced ‘Pottermore’; an interactive online storybook land where you could learn more about the wizarding world and engage in a fun reading experience.

After spending several early mornings leaping out of bed, getting onto the Pottermore website and trying to catch the question of the day, I had it. I had answered correctly, had levitated the feather, had been enrolled on the Pottermore list and accepted into the Beta testing. With my welcome email arriving today I headed into the world of witches, wands and werewolves and this is what I found.

Story

I think I had expected Pottermore to pretty much be a regurgitation of the books with added imagery offering a helping hand. On deeper thought this is a rahter stupid conclusion as they announced that the portal would allow for Harry Potter to come out as eBooks, and they weren’t suddenly going to start giving away the world’s top bestseller for free!

Currently only The Philosopher’s Stone is available, and you progress through the story more in a chronological order of moments than actual engrossing text. Each chapter has two or three interactive screens where double clicking on the image zooms you into new and focussed aspects. You can collect items to put in your trunk, unlock story extras and find out about potions. It’s pretty tempting to rush through this stage so you can get to Diagon Alley and buy your stuff for Hogwarts (including the iconic wand and your choice of cat, rat or toad).

Official Shot from Pottermore

On the downside, the moments make the story rush by too fast and, if you’ve lived under a stone all your life and haven’t ready Harry Potter, you pretty much won’t be able to follow what’s going on. You do feel a little like you’re on the skin of the story and not able to scratch your way in as you’re giving tempting morsels but nothing hugely gripping from the books themselves. Many of the screens aren’t very interactive and I advise using the ‘add to favourites‘ button for every new piece of info whether character, history or scene because there’s no index of these items later and you’ll have to trawl back through if you want to, say, read up on Professor Quirrel’s past.

Spells

As you progress through the story you’ll pick up new spells, either by actually finding a spell being used in a class, or finding a book lying around which you throw in your trunk and hence gain the knowledge of extra spells. Spells are cast by clicking upon the highlighted letters of the incantation, whereupon an expanding ring will develop. Once it’s at is largest, you click, the cursor whizzes on to the next letter and you have to keep up to cast the spell correctly.

practising can be a lot of fun, and there are some pretty hard spells where, even as a nimble fingered writer, I found it hard to keep up. The whole use of learning these spells is so that you can duel with friends and other houses to gain points, but duelling is currently down on the site so I didn’t get a chance to try this out.

J.K Thoughts and Extras

One of my favourite pieces on Pottermore are the extras to the story. There are three basic components; character biographies, item histories and explanations, and musings from J.K Rowling about how she came up with ideas and drafted concepts and characters. As a writer myself I found this deeply interesting and inspirational, especially the ‘Original Forty’ where J.K Rowling revealed that she’d written a list of 40 initial classmates for Harry, something I’ve done myself for my current WIP. Some of the first 40 appeared in the story, some didn’t. Some such as Neville have grown into immense characters, whilst some well know characters had completely different names to start with.

Potions

Another of my favourite things was playing with potions, and I promised a Twitter friend I’d brew her something to cure her boils. Having bought a cauldron and various ingredients from Diagon Alley (you can head back and buy more at any point, or collect items throughout the story) you head off to the potions lab. It’s more difficult than you might think, and some of the longer instructions had huge lists which I couldn’t complete in the time frame what with crushing herbs, stirring pots and trying to not let my cauldron explode or my brew go bad. After one initial mixture the potions need various times to brew and I left mine bubbling away for 90 minutes or so. I’ve mastered the boils cure, but both the Sleeping Draught and Forgetfulness Potions had me blowing up the lab!

Overall

Pottermore is a thriving mesh of an interactive Harry Potter Wikipedia website and a few online games to keep you going. With duelling currently not working, and only a limited number of potions to make, it could be hard to keep people coming back if they don’t carry on adding incentives. Of course, only The Philosophes Stone is available at the moment so there are another six books to come. And who else knows what’s up their sleeves. I’d like to see more interactivity for friends because you can only comment on features of Pottermore at the moment, rather than talking to each other. And again, with duelling not working, the only interactivity there is at the moment is adding people as friends and sending them gifts such as a chocolate frog card or a magical book. But, with many more features to come, Pottermore has certainly proved more than a little engrossing for me today and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. An incredible cast meant nothing when realising it was ITV and not BBC. But the sometimes second rate broadcaster pulled it out the bag and proved, even when the BBC quickly scrambled to rehash Upstairs, Downstairs in a competitive bid, that it was truly on top.

Downton Abbey was a soaring success, even with the extraordinary story of Mr (dashing, and suave, and gorgeous) Pamuk dying as he took heiress Lady Mary Crawley’s virginity. But, somehow, it added to the entire story in a very gripping way as the fallout and secrets starting appearing on the gossip circuit. With World War I breaking out at the end of Series 1 the scene was set beautifully for Series 2 which appears back on our screens on September 18th at 8pm. Unfortunately ITV have not released the trailer online, so below is a fan’s filming of the advert. But, by all accounts, it looks as if Series 2 will be a gripping and emotional ride for both characters and viewers of this masterpiece.

Mr Toronto and I have been chatting for some time after he initially found me on a lesser used mobile app, Jack’d. We texted daily, he called me a couple of times, we shared more than a few intimate photos, but I never thought it would come to anything, I mean, he lives on the other side of the world. But Mr Toronto is intense, intense enough to fly across the pond to come and see me in London. Intense enough to scare me a little as a certain good friend knows. But though I may have been a little wary at first, his persistence paid off because date #10 started on Monday afternoon and finished only a few short hours ago!

The thing with Mr Toronto is, not only does he work in the aviation industry, but he’s spontaneous too so a quick standby request and he was in London in no time. In a 52 First Date’s first I’d shared the blog with him, wanting to make it clear that I wasn’t doing this just to bed him and improve diplomatic relations. It was good reading fodder for his journey, and a few questions out of the way and all was fine. Our dating ideas were changed rather due to his accommodation plans falling through, and after creating enough fireworks for the entire street to think Eid had come early, I persuaded Mr T not to look for a hotel; as long as he got out of my way in the day so I could work, he could stay the week.

And so, an unexpected holiday romance began. We talked allotments, I made him watch The Great British Bake Off, we were woken by Cecil the cockerel at 8.30am. I made stupid faces like a gurning champion, farted in bed and wore my £4 faded Primark trackies round the house, and amazingly he still found me attractive. He cooks. He’s interested, or at least pretends to be, when I go off on a geek fest regarding gardening, bugs, or my aquarium….though I haven’t unleashed the Harry Potter geek on him yet. He has an incredible body, one which makes me feel out of shape rather. I love that we watched Final Destination 5 together and laughed at the stupid gore whilst filling our gobs with popcorn, ice cream and, for health’s sake, a tuna sandwich. I love that he has the dedication to keep his faith, yet the independence to not be led by it. I love that I was completely myself for the entire week and felt like a best friend, but of course with benefits, was in the house.

So, what next?! Well, there’s the possibility I’ll go to Toronto to see him and, before we even met, Mr T already had plans to become Mr London in 2012 for his career. Would I move for love? of course. Is this love? of course not – yet. As far as 52 First Dates is concerned I’m not at all sure. Mr Toronto makes my heart smile, and the last thing I want to do right now is go on a new first date. As such, there may be a stop gap in proceedings whilst we work out where this might head. But, for now, date #10 has taken a little piece of me with him on his flight back to Canada and I’m hoping that I’ll see him again.