Warming Up to the World Cup

So Scotland have qualified for the World Cup, and are due to play our first match there for 28 years this Sunday morning. The hype is intense, the excitement is palpable... and I'm not joining in.

Unfortunately, at both the last two Euros we've gone into the competition on the crest of a wave, only to freeze in our first game and get soundly beaten. This was then followed with a plucky draw, a new wave of excitement because "if we can just beat... we could go through", and then another disappointment. There is very little reason to think that things will be any different here, except that Haiti aren't Germany... but that doesn't really matter if our team don't perform.

Of course, one thing that does work tremendously in our favour is that this time three teams will qualify from each of the groups - we're going from 48 teams down to 32 in the next round. So in theory only the truly terrible teams will be eliminated, with one win almost certainly enough to see us through.

And Scotland genuinely, honestly, aren't one of those "truly terrible" teams. On paper, given the group we're in and the form the team has been showing, we should go through and with something to spare. Indeed, with Brazil being a shadow of their former greatness, it's not entirely insane to suggest we could even top the group...

But, no. Because in this context "truly terrible" doesn't refer to the quality of the team on paper, or the form going into the matches, or anything else. All that matters is the next three games, and indeed most importantly the next game (since Haiti are by far the most beatable of the three teams - meaning no offense to them; they'll be saying exactly the same thing about Scotland).

In qualifying, both this time and last time, Scotland proved that they're good enough to be at the tournament. Against Germany they played as though they didn't believe that, and in so doing proved that they weren't.

The big question for Sunday, then: do our players believe that they deserve to be at the party?

Who's Future

I see that the BBC has now announced some big changes for "Doctor Who" - Russell Davies and Bad Wolf are out, they're putting the show out to tender, and they've cancelled the Christmas Special. That last isn't really a surprise. There was just no way to get it all filmed, through post-production, and onto TV for Christmas (at least, not this year...).

But where does that leave "Doctor Who"?

Well, nowhere good. Unfortunately, this means that the return of Russell Davies, the whole of the Disney deal, and indeed the tenures of both the last two (new) Doctors and the last two showrunners have been pretty much disasters. More or less the only good things to come from it is that we've now had our first female Doctor and our first person of colour as a permanent Doctor.

But what next?

If I were the BBC, I think I would immediately be approaching Paul McGann about possibly stepping into the role in the immediate term. If he's willing and available, I would proceed to adapt one or more of the "Big Finish" stories for TV - those are extremely well regarded, they have a script more or less ready to go, so it's something they should be able to get done at some speed. And the 8th Doctor has always been a joy to see and has always been the great "what if...", so let's do it!

If that doesn't work, I'd be inclined to approach Jo Martin about the same, and backfill the Fugitive Doctor story. I'm really not a fan of the Timeless Child stuff, but the fact is that it's canon now, and Jo Martin herself was really good in the role, so they might as well use it.

But if that doesn't work out, I think they have to accept a hiatus, potentially several years in length.

In which case, take your time, cast a whole new Doctor, and start fresh from a "some time later", and completely ignore the Billie Piper appearance - ideally, edit the end of the last episode to have the new Doctor appear in her place and pretend it has always been that way (in the same way that they inserted Ncuti Gatwa in "An Adventure in Time and Space" when they showed that most recently).

Ultimately, though, today's announcement is probably the bleakest news for "Doctor Who" since Colin Baker's firing in 1986.

Annoying Vindication

As I've mentioned a few times, one of my goals for this year has been to fix the garden. This was largely motivated by a desire not to pay to have someone come and do the job - it seemed awfully expensive, and I wasn't entirely convinced they'd quoted for everything we actually wanted.

I've made a start on the task, mostly involving filling in three holes in the garden: one we dug for a sandpit for Lion (which turned out to be a bad idea), and two that Lion dug herself. I also spread grass seed over the affected area.

Alas, this has not had entirely the desired effect, notably because Lion has proceeded to dig great big holes back in the garden. Which is more than a little frustrating.

On the other hand, it does mean that choosing not to spend the money to get it done was absolutely the right decision: as annoying as it is to see her tearing up my work, how much more annoying would it be had we spent a thousand pounds only to see her rip that to pieces?

#16: "The Worst Witch to the Rescue", by Jill Murphy

Mid Calder Gala Day: Gala Day Season Begins... and Ends

The band is struggling.

Last year we had an issue where the key members of our drum corps decided (not unreasonably) that they wanted to try their hand at competition. They let it be known that they would be available to us when they were free, but when there was a clash they would prioritize their competition band. This was unfortunate, but understandable - but it meant that for much of the gala day season we were really struggling for people.

At the end of the competition season our pipe major started looking around for an alternative drum corps, be that recruiting new people, or even hiring a tutor and training a new drum corps. However, nothing came of that - indeed, over the winter it became apparent that 'our' drummers had left their competing band, and so should now be available to us. Unfortunately, a few months ago they joined another competing band, and so we were once again stuck.

In the meantime, however, we've also lost much of our pipe corps - between family commitments and various age-related health issues we've found that our regular attendance at practices is less than half a dozen, some of whom aren't able to march any distance.

And so, when the time came to determine which events we would be doing this year, we found ourselves in real trouble: there was one event at which we had sufficient numbers for a pipe corps and one that was a 'maybe', and only one event at which we had a drum corps. And so we've ended up having to cancel all our other events for the year. (It's also worth noting that those events are themselves ailing - we've lost both our Christmas events, we've lost our local gala day, and we were down to only a handful of potential events anyway.)

Anyway, Mid Calder gala day happened on Saturday. It's one of the more involved events: the third-longest parade, followed by lunch, followed by three or four mini-events as we play around the village.

We met at the school, as always, and as always proceeded to agonize over uniform: jackets or no jackets; capes or no capes? In the end, we went with neither jackets nor capes - a bold decision, but a lucky one as it happened. We had a pipe corps of seven, which is one more than the absolute bare minimum, and a drum corps of three (including a bass drummer). So an okay, but not great, band.

And from there it was all pretty straightforward. Except that I came away absolutely convinced that it was the right decision to cancel the other events, because it was very evident that we were struggling for lack of practice - several people weren't playing drones, there were chanters cutting out, and we'd had to restrict our repertoire to a mere five sets (not what you want when you have a long parade to do).

The highlight of the day was the lunch - my understanding is that the local butchers supply the food, in which case they come highly recommended. And then the three mini-events were fine, but no more than that.

And that's gala day season, at least as far as the band is concerned. And, indeed, that's the year's performances with the band done. (We do have our local gala day this weekend, and it will be good to be able to actually attend - I usually miss it. And I have some other solo piping events.)

As for the band, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take action. I'd really hoped not to have to do so, since I was enjoying not having the stress of having to run things, but we just can't go on as we are. So two things are evident:

1. If the band is to continue we need to be able to take on events, confident that we're actually able to fulfil them. And, as I said, it's entirely reasonable that 'our' existing drum corps want to go and compete (if you want to know how good you can be, that's pretty much a necessity), and if they're competing then they're not able to attend events with us. But that means that we need to recruit (or train) a new drum corps - we have to assume that 'our' drum corps are not available at the key times that we would need them, so need to make other arrangements. But I'm not in a position to do anything about that.
2. What I am in a position to do something about is the situation with pipers. As I mentioned, we've seen a massive drop-off in attendances at practice, and some of the reason for that (and also the consequence of that) is that practices themselves have become largely depressing - we've been drifting, not really doing anything of value, and only actually playing the bagpipes on those rare occasions when we can be bothered. That's something I can change - it's just a matter of imposing a little more structure and committing to actually practicing. So I guess I'll get started on that, and we'll see how it goes.

And maybe next year will be better. Maybe.

Day 150: Update on Goals

It seems no time since the last update, but as we've reached Day 150 of the year, it's time for another update on goals:

• Books: By this point I would hope to be at 14.79 books completed, which I passed quite some time ago. That said, I've just hit a set of "doorstop" fantasy novels that have turned out to have tiny print, so I may have a problem here...
• Weight: This is drifting along. It's okay, but by no means great.
• Church Website: This has made significant progress since the last update - I have populated pages for all the groups, and now just need to get the details in place. Then an update of what's already there, and things will be looking good.
• Garden: I've also made a big step forward here - the various holes were filled in and grass seed sown. I'm not sure that's going to bear fruit, as Lion (not to mention the birds) seem intent on undoing my work. But we'll see. I still need to fix the loose slab (on a wall, not a steps as previously reported) and get rid of an old gas cylinder, but it's looking reasonably hopeful.
• Blog: The target for this point in the year should be a little over 49 posts. I'm around that point, so things are looking good.

The upshot of all of that: things are actually looking good on almost all fronts. Here's hoping that continues!

The Flash

"The Flash" has finally made its way to Netflix and so, being at something of a loose end, I've gradually watched my way through it. It is offensively bad.

Firstly, though, there are some good things:

• Seeing Keaton back as Batman is really good fun. In fact, all three of the Batmans in this film do really good turns, with two of them giving their best-ever performances in the role.
• Similarly, Sasha Calle is really good as Kara. There's not much too the role, and they seem to be doing a weird take on the "Red Son" Superman comic, but that's fine - she does well with the material she is given.

And that's it. There are many, many bad things (spoilers from here):

• Basing a film about a character whose main trait is that he is annoying is an... interesting choice. To base it around two instances of that character, each more annoying than the other is not a good idea.
• The CGI looks terrible. Seriously, it is genuinely woeful at times. I've seen AI-generated videos that are streets ahead. The zombie cameo by Christopher Reeve is the absolute worst of them all, and the one that leads me to call the film offensively bad, but it's far from being the only offense.
• As with all time-travel films, it has a scene detailing the "rules" of time travel for the universe. As with all time-travel films, they're utter nonsense. However, these have absolutely no rhyme or reason... and serve to make the events of the film impossible even in-universe (if changing time affects both the future and the past then you can never again get back to the point that you've changed - the point in time no longer exists).
• There's a comic book trope called "women in refrigerators" where a woman exists in a story solely to die offscreen in a suitably horribly manner and thus motivate the (inevitably male) hero into action. "The Flash" features a particularly egregious version of this: the action is motivated by Barry's desire to prevent the murder of his mother (which happens off-screen). He does so, but Nora Allen is then given all of two scenes in the film, absolutely no character development, and indeed we learn basically nothing about her other than that she's "nice" (and that from the perspective of her son, so hardly an unbiased source). And then, as in so many time travel films, the resolution is to go and put things back the way they were - back into the fridge with her! (And to compound things, having learned his lesson not to meddle with time, Barry decides "what the hell" and does so anyway, this time managing to save his father, who had been falsely accused of the murder all along. I'm not saying there's a double standard or anything, but...)

Anyway, that's that. It's not the absolute worst film I've ever seen, or even the worst I've watched all the way through. But it's right up there. Avoid.

Beavers Sleepover

Funsize has been attending Scouts for a few years: first Squirrels, then Beavers, and she moved on to Cubs at Easter. Surprise! has likewise just started at Scouts, in the Squirrels section. You'll note that neither FS nor KS are currently members of Beavers, and yet this weekend I found myself helping out at a Beavers Sleepover event.

Basically, it's a story of events transpiring seemingly without rhyme or reason, and all just falling out to make for a good outcome: just as Funsize moved up to Cubs we were contacted by Scouts asking if we would be willing to be PVG checked - this being a requirement to be involved as parent helpers even on an occasional basis. (This is one of those good things that causes a problem, as an awful lot of people who otherwise would volunteer time and expertise are put off by the need for the check. And while organisations can promise that it's entirely benign, as indeed it is, it's entirely understandable that people don't want to invite the government's attention. But, yes, I'd much rather be in a world where those checks are in place. As I said, a good thing but not without its problems. Anyway...)

So LC and I completed our PVG checks a little while ago. Meanwhile, the Beavers camp ran into a small problem in that some of the leaders who had meant to attend suddenly found themselves unable. And so they could either cut down the number of places for Beavers to attend camp, or find a replacement. But where to find someone with the required PVG checks at short notice...?

As it happened, this past weekend was that rare thing - a weekend when we otherwise weren't really doing anything and so one of us could indeed arrange to go help out at the camp. And let's be honest - I wasn't going to let the children miss out just because I couldn't be bothered. So that was that.

For obvious reasons, I can't say too much about the camp itself: it ran from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon at one of the Scouts camp site, it was in a fixed building rather than under canvas, and there were 17 Beavers in attendance and 5 adults.

As might be expected, it was good fun but very tiring - lots of activities, lots of keeping people together, safe, and entertained, lots of cooking and then washing up. Conceptually it wasn't much different from the BB camps I did back in the day: yes, a mixed group rather than all boys, a younger group than I've previously been with, and more focus on outdoor and adventure activities, but all all generally quite familiar.

My starring moment, such as it was, came with the discovery that there was no hot chocolate, which put something of a dampener on the "hot chocolate and pancakes" for supper plan. I therefore proceeded to magic up some hot chocolate (a big spoonful of chocolate spread in a pan of milk, heat gently while stirring constantly).

All in all, it was a good time. The children all seemed to really enjoy themselves, they were a good bunch, and it was all just friendly and relaxed. And the weather was glorious, which always helps. A good use for a weekend, really.

(I was asked at one point if someone had had "the conversation" with me about becoming a leader on a permanent basis. And they had indeed - I can't imagine it's lost on them that someone who is willing to come help with a camp might be willing to do more, and they're always in a position where the biggest constraint on what they can offer is based on the availability of leaders. Unfortunately, I did have to note that time is very limited. As I said, this was a rare 'free' weekend for us, and evenings are even more scarce.)