What I'm loving this month...

THE BODYGUARD

If things get stressful for me while watching TV, I always get up and make tea. And I made a LOT of tea while we watched this excellent six-part British series. Not to give it away, but: David Budd is a soldier back from duty in Afghanistan when he is assigned to protect the Minister of Home Affairs. Psychologically damaged by the war, it’s unclear whether he plans to protect her or kill her (she refuses to apologise for sending troops to Afghanistan). This is sharply written and brilliantly acted, and it manages to keep you guessing all the way through. LOTS of tea.

ELIZABETH ARDEN SUNFLOWERS

Summer, sun, sea, simplicity: something about this lovely light scent just makes me happy.

WHERE D’YOU GO, BERNADETTE? BY MARIA SEMPEL

This was making waves a couple of years ago, but I’ve just read it and I think it’s extraordinarily good: bursting with new ideas and creativity and interest, and extremely well-written. It’s a really original piece of work, and I can’t get the characters or their eccentric brilliance out of my mind.

HQ TRIVIA APP

This is a daily live American-based trivia quiz: at 9pm and 3am our time, a host starts asking the first of 12 multiple choice questions. Some are dead easy, and others are what they call ‘saaaaaaavage’. Up to 1 600 000 people around the world play at the same time, which is quite something (3am our time is the bigger game). A wrong answer eliminates you immediately. At the end, everyone still in the game shares the prize money, and at that point there are usually only about 2000 people left, who typically make around $2-$3 each… although the top two people on the leaderboard have each won more than $100K since HQ started in August last year! Addictive? You bet. But it’s all over in 10 minutes. I haven’t yet got beyond Question 8, since you ask.