Nope, it's too weird

The adjustment to having a new king was going well, I thought - all the requisite chess-based jokes had been made, the republican sentiment had been viciously stamped out, and pen-related failures had been had in abundance. Huzzah!

But this morning I heard on the news that they're now ready to put Charles' effigy on new coins, and while that seems entirely sensible they're going to have him facing the wrong way!

Apparently this is old custom - with each change of monarch they change the direction they are facing on the coins. Which makes sense, I suppose. But ERII reigned for so long that there is now a very clear right way to be facing, and ironically, it isn't to the right. But that's how CRIII will be facing.

(Actually, it's something worth considering that decimalisation occurred during ERII's reign, which meant that all the coins had to be replaced, which means that at no time in my life were we using coins with GRIV's face on them. I might have seen a few very old sixpences that had it, but these weren't ever in actual use. So, yeah, it's pretty ingrained.)

The upshot is that we'll just have to call the whole thing off. Either that, or stop using coins as currency.

Malaise

This hasn't been a great week. It should have been - I've been on a training course all week, which has meant working from home, having a very little to do in the mornings, and then a nice, relaxed afternoon.

But due to Hurricane Ian my course has been cancelled for the past two days, leaing me nastily caught between stools - there's too much time to do nothing all day, but there's also not an obvious thing to do.

What should have been a reasonably restful and yet nicely productive week has turned into a bit of an unproductive mess. Which isn't what I want, on any metric.

Oh well. On the other hand, all of this is a consequence of Hurricane Ian, and it's probably not quite right if I'm complaining!

The Wheel of Time

After some months of waiting, LC and I finally started the "Wheel of Time" TV series. She then dropped out after a few episodes; I gutted it out to the bitter end. And it truly was a bitter end - what a pile of rubbish that was!

I've got to be honest, I knew they were in trouble as soon as I heard some of the key changes, and to explain that I'll need to provide some background:

The "Wheel of Time" books wouldn't be written the way they are these days - some of the material is now considered problematic. In particular, one of the central conceits is that the One Power, the source of magic in the setting, has two halves: a male half and a female half, where the male half has been tainted, leading to all men who call on it inevitably going mad and dying. Additionally, the setting posits a prophesied saviour, the Dragon Reborn, a man who will use the One Power to save the world... or break it.

This creates something of a problem, partly because strict sex binaries are now considered unbearably passé, and partly because you just can't have a prophesied male Chosen One these days.

And yet this is entirely foundational to the series, because the central tension is that you now have a saviour who is also inevitably doomed to madness and death; not only is there nobody around to teach him how to use his power, but how could you ever trust him?

The TV series discards that, of course: here, the One Power is not split (though men still go mad), and the saviour could be a man or a woman.

Now, I should note at this point that I have no objection, in general, to changes to stories and settings. And the notion of a female Chosen One is perfectly fine with me (although the Chosen One narrative itself is extremely dated). But there are some changes that just don't work, because making them so fundamentally alters everything else that it breaks the whole story - you can't have a male Jane Eyre, or a female James Bond. And the Dragon Reborn needs to be a man, or the whole premise falls apart.

Anyway...

If that had been the only problem with the series, that wouldn't have been unrecoverable. If nothing else, they haven't actually changed the identity of the Dragon Reborn, so ultimately it doesn't matter all that much.

And they did make some other changes that were all to the good: compressing a load of stuff, bringing some elements forward so that we won't have entire seasons where nothing happens. And they've shifted the focus, making Moiraine the main character - an especially good idea as Rosamund Pike is excellent in this series.

But that very excellence is in contrast to the other massive problem with the series: Rosamund Pike is excellent, and is perhaps the only actually good performance in the series. The rest of the main cast, and especially the five potential Dragons, are more wooden than the sets.

Beyond that, yeah, I guess it's fine - in a kind of extremely-expensive-yet-somehow-low-budget kind of way. It's just so po faced, tedious, and... blah. There is nothing to recommend this over the books (which I can't recommend either), or indeed going and watching something else.

Ultimately, this is one to avoid. And I won't be returning for season two.

Such a shame.

Experimental Cookery 2022: A Consistently Good Gravy

Ages ago, back when I was working through "Jamie's Ministry of Food", one of the things I omitted was the gravy, largely because I'm just not a fan, and partly because if I ever was inclined to make gravy I always found the powder adequate (because I'm just not a fan). However, it did always bug me that there was that incompleteness.

Funsize let it be known recently that the vegetables we have with a roast are one of her very favourite things, and so on Saturday we had a traditional Sunday roast - beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshir puddings, and so on. And so I took the opportunity to make up a 'proper' gravy.

The upshot: it's all fine. It's easy enough to make, it made for a nice, flavoursome gravy, it was distinctly different than the powdered stuff (big shock)... but it really wasn't worth the effort. I might make it again, but not for either beef or chicken - powder is easily available for those, but for pork, lamb, or turkey it might be worthwhile.

Still, it's certainly not something I regret, and another one to tick off the list.

Best Case Scenario

I wish I could say I was surprised that the Truss government has crashed the economy after less than three weeks in post. But the reality is that I did point out that she was the Dougal McGuire of politics and that the prospect of her as PM filled me with terror. There are only two things I'm not sure of: did they crash it accidentally, because they really are that stupid, or did they do it deliberately so their mates could cash in big time; and, which would be worse?

Anyway, what happens next?

Unfortunately, the best case scenario I can realistically see is genuinely horrifying:

1. Tory MPs submit letters of No Confidence, leading to a very prompt vote to oust Truss.
2. There then proceeds to be another round of Loathe Island as the Tory party selects a new leader. Boris wins, as inevitably he will.
3. Boris then immediately reverses all of Truss's madness. And the markets, breathing a huge sigh of relief, stabilise.
4. And then Boris calls a General Election on the back of being our great saviour, and a grateful nation gives him another five years.

And that's the best case scenario I can foresee. The alternative, which is essentially that this cavalcade of horrors limps on for another two years, is almost too horrible to contemplate.

#26: "Stormchild", by Bernard Cornwell
#27: "Mythological Figures, Maleficent Monsters", by Mike Myler and Russ Morrisey

My Turn

Oddly, I felt the exact moment I came down with Covid - last Tuesday I was feeling quite well, good even, until about 7pm. I had been to work, had dinner, given the children their baths (it being my turn), and was taking a short break between that and putting Funsize to bed. During this interlude I did the washing up, and it was while doing that that I suddenly felt awful - aching all over, sore head, and just generally crap. The next morning I took a test, and sure enough that was that.

Which all rather sucks.

Right now, government policy is that we've beaten Covid, which may be utter nonsense, but there it is, which means that there are legally no restrictions at all. However, work take a considerably more sensible position - I was off on Wednesday (and Thursday and Friday) by virtue of not feeling well, but I'm also back to working from home until such time as I test negative for two days. That said, since I'm also working from home in the final week of September (for other reasons), I may not actually be back to the office any time soon.

I'm actually feeling more or less okay now. Indeed, by some cruel twist of events, it seems that for much of the past weekend I've actually been the least ill person in the house much of the time. So much for it being my turn.

But, more than anything, I'm rather annoyed at all of this - it was Robert's funeral on Saturday, which of course I was unable to attend. Gutted.

#24: "Trials & Treasures", by E. N. Publishing
#25: "Memories of Holdenshire", by Andrew Engelbrite, Sen. H.H.S, and Savannah Broadway 

Something Quite Interesting Happened This Weekend

As we know, the Scottish Government have asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether they can have a referendum on independence without authorisation from Westminster. Westminster, for their part, argue that the constitution is a reserved matter.

It had been widely assumed, including by me, that the Supreme Court were going to rule in favour of Westminster. And, indeed, that even if the Supreme Court sided with Holyrood, Westminster would simply respond by amending the law to block a referendum. And that would be that - no referendum, ever, and we proceed to using a General Election as a de facto referendum.

But...

Last week we got a new king, and at the weekend King Charles was obliged to take various oaths. Including, in specific reference to Scotland, an oath to uphold the Claim of Right.

Now, the Claim of Right is one of the foundational documents of Scotland's constitution. It goes back to the time of Robert the Bruce - the Scottish nobles wanted to make him king, but he had been excommunicated by the Pope, and it was simply unthinkable that someone who had been excommunication could be sovereign in a Christian country. So the nobles wrote to the Pope asserting that while Robert would be king, he would not be sovereign - they made the Claim of Right that it was the people who are sovereign in Scotland. It also asserts that the people of Scotland have the right to choose the form of government that best suits them.

Now, the Claim of Right is usually a historical footnote. The only other time I'm aware of it being invoked was during the Glorious Revolution, to replace James VII with Mary II and William of Orange. That is, of course, an event that leads directly to King Charles III taking the throne.

So, anyway, my assumption had been that the Supreme Court would have considered any appeal to the Claim of Right to be largely a matter of dusty constitutional trivia, and should be put aside in favour of Westminster.

But because of the events of the last week, the Supreme Court will now be making its ruling a matter of a few weeks after a new King (from whom they derive their authority) has just sworn an oath to uphold that right. Suddenly it's not the dusty historical document it once was.

In other words, I'm now not quite so sure that the Supreme Court will side with Westminster. And, more than that, if the Supreme Court do decide, based on the Claim of Right, that Holyrood can conduct their referendum, I'm fairly sure that that same Claim will prevent Westminster from blocking it.

It may yet come to nothing. But it's interesting, at least.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Mini Meatloaves with BBQ Beans

We won't be having this one again.

This was quick, easy, and cheap to make, taking about an hour from start to finish, costing about £5 for all of us, and not really requiring any skill at all. Soften some onion, mix with breadcrumbs and mince, split up and bake. Then prepare some mash and the beans.

I really rather enjoyed it. Sadly, nobody else ate much of it. Funsize, having previously said she'd like it, absolutely refused to touch the mash or the beans, and barely touched the meat; Surprise! had a little of each, but not much; and LC abandoned hers about halfway through.

Which is a shame, but there it is. Been a while since we had a failure like this, but never mind.

Day 250: Update on Goals

It's day 250 of the year already, so it's time for another update on goals:

• Books: By this point I should be aiming to have complete 41.1 books. I've actually completed 23, with three in progress. I have absolutely no chance of hitting my target of 60 books, and it now looks like I won't complete The List either - I expect to be three books short there, too. Disappointing.
• Weight: Nothing much to report here. I've lost a little weight since the previous update, but am still pretty much where I started the year.
• Blogging: By day 250 I should have written 82.2 posts here, so I'm pretty much right on target. I'm also spot-on for the Imaginarium, surprisingly. So this one is going well.
• Redecorating the Hallway: We've booked someone to come and do the work here, have picked out a new colour, and are basically good to go here. I expect to be able to report this as done in the next update.
• Super Secret Goal: This one isn't happening. That's not to say that it was a bad idea - it increasingly looks like it's something I should be getting on with. But I just don't have the bandwidth. So this is an abandoned goal.

The upshot of that is that I expect to finish the year with two goals completed, one abandoned, and two abject failures. 2022 has not been a great year on this front, at all.

Bye Boris!

At the time of writing, Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister of the UK. That will, thank goodness, cease to be the case in the very near future.

I would breathe a huge sigh of relief, but the successor is Liz Truss, the Father Dougal McGuire of British politics. It's really hard to tell if that's an improvement or not - at least with Boris I was confident that he wouldn't accidentally trigger a nuclear exchange.

Oh well, baby steps.

Bye Boris. Please don't come back.