Washing Machine Down

Our washing machine died yesterday. It looks pretty serious - my guess is that it's the main board that has given up the ghost, which is theoretically fixable but probably not worth it. However, this isn't a disaster, as we already have a new washing machine, which we bought for the flat a couple of years ago. So, really, all that's needed is to take out the old washing machine, put the new one in its place, plug it in...

Unfortunately, that's where the next problem comes in, because the washing machine and tumble drier in our utility room aren't plugged in to the wall at all - some bright spark decided the thing to do was to wire them in directly. (I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I can't find the offending post...) So what is needed is a multi-step process - first, pull the appliances away from the wall; switch off the power in the house; unwire the existing appliances; wire in a new socket; switch the power back on; lift the old washing machine into the garage and bring the new one into the house; plug the new one in. (And much the same for the tumble drier.)

And, alas, the washing machine, at least, is too heavy for one person to lift by themselves.

So it's all a bit of a nuisance, especially since we're in a position where we can't easily make plans, and where I don't get home until after it gets dark. And, of course, it's now a job that can't really wait - we can just about make do without a washing machine for a short period, but it's really not for the best.

A Tiny Victory

On Sundays at the moment, Channel 4 have a show "The Biggest Little Railway in the World" which, really is one of those shows that exists because they have holes in the schedule so they find some colourful characters, set them an absurd challenge, package it all up with some historical context, and call it good. Anyway, it's a relaxing way to waste some much-needed time, so that's fine.

Anyway... (Oh, and spoilers, I guess...)

LC and I have been watching the show since about mid-way through the first episode, and it's been interesting. I'm particularly enjoying the engineering challenges. It's all a bit odd, but it's good fun.

However, last night's episode was filled with the tragic moment when the team lead decided that the Age of Steam would have to come to an end - they were taking too long servicing the steam locomotive, so that they weren't going to meet their target. So he replaced the steam locomotive with a battery-powered one that, while obviously more efficient, just wasn't as good. New is not always better.

Anyway, that was the way of things for about a quarter of the show - they'd shifted from steam to electric, it had all gone modern, and that was that.

But then, triumphantly, they brought back the steam engine! This seemed mostly to be due to stubbornness - the team lead had to go check in on another team, so the lead engineer (who was then in charge) brought back the steam locomotive because, let's face it, it's just better. (Seriously, that seemed to be the argument - we like steam, so let's have it. Huzzah!)

But what's most interesting, and the reason that I'm bothering with this post, is that Tadpole seems to particularly enjoy this show (it's probably the music). And at the exact moment when the steam locomotive was restored, Tadpole chose to dance the Dance of Celebration!

Thus proving two things: Tadpole is a person of taste and discretion, because steam is indeed better, and Tadpole is clearly going to be an engineer when she grows up. Huzzah again!

Unless she decides to do something else instead, of course.

(Also, the pronouns aren't a clue, because I don't know. I may need to edit this post in a couple of weeks to change them.)

The Day of Sorrows is Upon Me

For the past several weeks, the Tesco list has had "Irn Bru?" on it, as a consequence of the impending change to the ingredients. Until this week, a check of the bottles has revealed that we were still on old stock, and so I've gradually built up a supply (as each week I have bought enough for two weeks).

Yesterday, reading the bottle revealed the horrible truth that we were now on the new stuff. So that had to go back on the shelf while I completed my shop in dismay. (In the end, the story had a happy ending - it turned out that while the bottles were new, they still had cans that were in the old recipe. Score one more for the good guys!)

Which means that we've come to the crunch time. Things can go one of three ways: either the sales figures will hold up (or even improve), and the new recipe will be here to stay; or they'll drop by a reasonable amount, but not enough to force a rethink, and the new recipe will be here to stay; or sales will plummet and they'll fairly quickly have to reverse the decision (as happened with New Coke). I hate hoping for something to fail, but...

On the larger topic, I do understand why this measure has come about. The impending Sugar Tax left Barrs in a tricky spot. They had three choices: they could swallow the tax themselves, and devastate their profits; or they could pass on the tax to customers, and see a large hit in sales; or they could do what they have done.

What they couldn't do, unfortunately, is just reduce the sugar content without adding other sweeteners. The Sugar Tax is a binary thing - you pay nothing up to a threshold, and then you pay the full amount no matter how far above it you are. Irn Bru was at about double the threshold. So a reasonably reduction in sugar wouldn't be enough to avoid the tax, while cutting it by half would drastically alter the flavour (probably making it undrinkable). So, to avoid the tax, it had to be artificial sweeteners.

(They could, of course, have launched either "Irn Bru 50/50" as a new option, or introduced "Irn Bru Premium" that maintained the sugar but at a higher price. But there are problems with both options - basically, you're competing against yourself, which never ends well.)

So, that's where we are. I believe I have enough in stock to take me through to my birthday (especially since I'm still giving it up for Lent, starting on the 13th of February). By which time we'll know the outcome one way or another - either the new stuff will be here to stay, or the old recipe will be back. Or, just possibly, that "Irn Bru Premium" I mentioned may have arrived... though I'd be surprised.

#4: "The Darkling Child", by Terry Brooks

Gym and Bear It

Ever since work moved to our current office about 5 years ago, I have been a member of the university gym. It's actually a very well-stocked gym (except for the lack of a swimming pool), and at a very reasonable price - and, indeed, it's even more reasonable since I'm technically classed as university staff (for book-keeping reasons) and so get a lower rate, and work subsidise the membership.

That said, any price is still too much if you don't actually use it, and despite the occasional visit over the years, and despite a brief flurry a few years ago, I haven't really had my money's worth. Indeed, about two years ago they built a whole new facility, and in all that time I'd only actually been back once - and that was for lunch!

Late last year, a couple of months after moving house, I received some spam-mail from the gym. This was sent to my home address, was duly redirected in the post, and so reminded me that I needed to update the gym with my new home address. Then, on the morning when I was about to head over there to do that, I received an email from them, noting that I hadn't been in a while and inviting me to come along for an induction session.

That conveniently all tied up as a big reminded that maybe I should think about going.

And so, the big development of 2018 so far (albeit one that is soon to be eclipsed) is that I've actually been going to the gym regularly.

It's worth noting that this isn't a New Year's Resolution, largely because I don't do those, but also because this all started up in the last working week of December. Indeed, I even went over to the gym on Tuesday the 27th, though that proved to be a mistake (since it was crazy busy).

I'm still not convinced that it's doing me more good than it's causing me pain, but never mind. The big challenge, though, will be to resume going after the arrival of Tadpole - that last flurry of visits I mentioned stopped as soon as I had my first holiday of that year, so taking a break is known to be dangerous...

#3: "On the Road", by Jack Kerouac (a book from The List)

Experimental Cookery 2018: Lemony Courgette Linguine

For Christmas I received two cookbooks, and the first Experimental Cookery of the year came from one of these, Jamie's "5 Ingredients" book. This was one I'd seen on his programme and wanted to try, so...

Well, as expected the meal was quick and easy to put together, with the most involved step being to slice up the courgettes. Not exactly tough. So, it was all done and on the plate inside 25 minutes - I could have done it faster if I'd chopped those at the same time I cooked the pasta.

Taste wise... it was okay, but I'm afraid no more than that. Certainly, I'm not inspired to do this one again. A shame, but not a disaster.

And that's that. I don't have a next Experimental Cookery planned, but one will no doubt come up...

#2: "Pathfinder: City in the Deep", by Amber E. Scott

Theresa's Reshuffle

One for the media: if you don't mind, I'd rather you didn't endlessly harp on about the Tories being inept on social media, and instead bring us the news of what's actually happening. Indeed, a nice table showing all the jobs as they get filled in would be just right.

The thing is, while it's amusing that the Tories are having a bad time of it on Twitter, that's really not important in the grand scheme. It is, after all, really easy to hit "Send" before you realise you've got the wrong name in place, or to drop in a spelling mistake. Yes, it's funny. But it's no more than that.

More important, though, and what I'd like to know, is who is going to be ruining the country for the next year or so.

And that's not a typo.

#1: "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún", by J.R.R. Tolkien

Books of the Year 2017

As part of the end-of-year round-up, here's the list of the books of 2017:

1. "Pathfinder: The Whisper Out of Time", by Richard Pett
2. "Reaper's Eye", by Richard A. Knaak
3. "Far From the Madding Crowd", by Thomas Hardy *
4. "Jarka Ruus", by Terry Brooks
5. "The Player of Games", by Iain M. Banks
6. "Ravenspur", by Conn Iggulden
7. "Pathfinder: What Grows Within", by John Compton
8. "Jude the Obscure", by Thomas Hardy *
9. "Tanequil", by Terry Brooks
10. "Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks
11. "Pathfinder: Black Stars Beckon", by Jim Groves
12. "Through the Gate in the Sea", by Howard Andrew Jones
13. "The Remains of the Day", by Kazuo Ishiguro *
14. "State of the Art", by Iain M. Banks
15. "Straken", by Terry Brooks
16. "The Immortal Throne", by Stella Gemmell
17. "The Color Purple", by Alice Walker *
18. "Armageddon's Children", by Terry Brooks
19. "Pathfinder: Trail of the Hunted", by Amber E. Scott
20. "Excession", by Iain M. Banks
21. "Pathfinder: Fangs of War", by Rob Lundeen
22. "The Woman in White", by Wilkie Collins *
23. "Gears of Faith", by Gabrielle Harbowy
24. "The Elves of Cintra", by Terry Brooks
25. "Inversions", by Iain M. Banks
26. "Pathfinder: Assault on Longshadow", by Benjamin Bruck and Thurston Hillman
27. "The Flame Bearer", by Bernard Cornwell
28. "The Gypsy Morph", by Terry Brooks
29. "Look to Windward", by Iain M. Banks
30. "She's Come Undone", by Wally Lamb *
31. "Pathfinder: Siege of Stone", by Thurston Hillman
32. "The Long Cosmos", by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
33. "Madame Bovary", by Gustave Flaubert *
34. "Bearers of the Black Staff", by Terry Brooks
35. "Pathfinder: Prisoners of the Blight", by Amanda Hamon Kunz
36. "The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner", by Terry Pratchett
37. "Matter", by Iain M. Banks
38. "The Power", by Naomi Alderman
39. "The Secret Garden", by Frances Hodgson Burnett *
40. "Measure of the Magic", by Terry Brooks
41. "Pathfinder: Vault of the Onyx Citadel", by Larry Wilhelm
42. "Go Set a Watchman", by Harper Lee
43. "Surface Detail", by Iain M. Banks
44. "Anne of Green Gables", by L. M. Montgomery *
45. "Pathfinder: The Lost Outpost", by Jim Groves
46. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", by George R.R. Martin
47. "The View From the Cheap Seats", by Neil Gaiman
48. "Wards of Faerie", by Terry Brooks
49. "Germinal", by Émile Zola *
50. "Pathfinder: Into the Shattered Continent", by Robert Brookes
51. "Bloodfire Quest", by Terry Brooks
52. "Beren and Luthien", by J.R.R. Tolkien
53. "Witch Wraith", by Terry Brooks
54. "Pathfinder: The Flooded Cathedral", by Mikko Kallio
55. "SS-GB", by Len Deighton
56. "Xanathar's Guide to Everything", by Wizards of the Coast
57. "The High Druid's Blade", by Terry Brooks
58. "Swallows and Amazons", by Arthur Ransome *
59. "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville *
60. "The Hydrogen Sonata", by Iain M. Banks

So, that's 60 books exactly, including twelve from The List. Of these, there are thirteen RPG books, and only one re-read ("Use of Weapons"). The Pathfinder Tales sublist had to be curtailed, as these suddenly stopped being published (with still no news of them restarting), but the other sublists were completed, and sufficient additional new books were added to make up the total. So I'm happy with that.

The book of the year was, surprisingly, the very last one I read: "The Hydrogen Sonata" by Iain M. Banks, which was the best of a strong series, and a very fine way to send off that series. I should note that, until book 60, the previous best had been "Inversions" by the same author. Also of note is "Germinal" by Zola, which was strong stuff but very depressing.

The most disappointing book of the year was itself a disappointing category, as three books were in very strong contention for the position, meaning that the quality of the year as a whole took a hit. "The Power" was abject nonsense, but it was at least well-written and mostly entertaining nonsense, so it's spared the title. "Go Set a Watchman" was likewise a huge disappointment, and indeed a book I wish I had never been published as it achieves the almost impossible and makes "To Kill a Mockingbird" retroactively less good. But I was aware of the risk going in, so I have to blame myself, at least in part, for that one.

The book that gets the title, sadly, is "Beren and Luthien", which I didn't enjoy and which also disappointed my high hopes for it. I'd expected, and hoped for, something on the lines of the excellent "Children of Hurin", and although I was uncertain how this could be done (since as far as I was aware, Tolkien never finished a long-form version of this story), I'd hoped that something had come to light to allow it. Alas, this was not the case - "Beren and Luthien" reads much more like an academic tract, bringing together and discussion lots of different versions of the story, without actually presenting the whole thing as a cohesive narrative. It's a book about a story, not really the story itself. (Which is a shame, since that and the story of the Fall of Gondolin, would be extremely interesting additions to the canon of Middle Earth, if it were possible for them to be brought together.)

2018 is another year of transition, and like 2012 I'm therefore not setting goals of the same sort. In fact, the one goal that I am setting is a reading goal, but it's not a total number of books but rather more specific: I intend to read ten specific titles over the course of the year. I've discussed the specifics of this on my post about goals, so won't reiterate them here.