Wonder Man

This was weird. I enjoyed it, but it was certainly weird.

"Wonder Man" is an 8-part Disney+ series about a super-powered actor trying to hide his powers in order to have a career (for insurance reasons, super-powered individuals cannot work in Hollywood), and Trevor Slattery trying to get past his previous role as The Mandarin. And the basis of the show is that unlikely friendship between the two actors.

I didn't care for the first episode. After that, however, it very rapidly found a groove, built largely on the chemistry between the two leads (Ben Kingsley, in particular, is always reliable). Though the single funniest part is an extended cameo by Josh Gadd in a flashback episode.

All in all, I recommend this. Though my usual caveat applies: if you have Disney+ then check it out; if not, don't subscribe just for this.

I'm also not entirely won over by the notion of a second season. The ending of this one suggests to me that any second season would be sufficiently different as to lose something crucial. I might be wrong, but...

#10: "Until August", by Gabriel García Márquez (apparently, the author concluded that this one didn't really work, and should be buried rather than published. While I don't necessarily agree with the second part of that, I'm afraid I do agree with the first)

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

This is a film I'd been wanting to see for some time, and we finally took the opportunity this weekend. It's a bit of a frustrating film - I enjoyed it, but also have to acknowledge that it could clearly have been a lot better.

Apparently, the film spent a lot of time in development hell, suffering multipel rewrites, changes of director and cast, and general messing around. And, sadly, it shows - it feels like it could have done with either one more, or several fewer, rewrites, a bit of tightening up. Oh, and some humour, at least in the first section.

The other thing to note is that we already know going in that this is a doomed voyage - even for the occasional viewer unfamiliar with "Dracula", the title of the film gives that away. So the film might as well lean right into that. It's a feature, not a bug, so perhaps the crew should acknowledge their fate a whole lot earlier and start making plans based on that fatalism. But that doesn't quite happen.

I don't really have much more to say than that. As I said, I enjoyed it, and it could have been better. Given the chance to view it as part of an existing subscription, I would recommend it as a decent use of two hours, but I wouldn't recommend subscribing just to get this film.

#9: "The Two Towers", by J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Create a Shortage

Here we go again: with the US attacks on Iran we now have the Strait of Hormuz closed, and some disruption to the global supply chain for fuel. And so now we have rumours of petrol shortages, which will no doubt be followed up with panic buying, actual shortages, and all the troubles that that entails.

And, as usual, there's no need for it. We actually have plenty of fuel (for now, at least), so if people just keep calm and carry on things will sort themselves out. (Now, if the disruption carries on too long, that would no longer be the case. But that's a longer-term problem.)

But of course, that's not what's happening. Instead the media are playing up that fear (since it's the story), which means everyone needs to act (because you can't afford to be the one person who runs out), which means that there's a run on petrol, which means there's now a shortage.

Which is really frustrating - the issue isn't a lack, but rather that the rate at which people consume is faster than the rate at which the pumps can be restocked, and so we run out. At least for a while. And then there will come a period where the pumps are restocked and everyone has a full tank and egg on their faces.

In the meantime, though, we're still stuck. As I said, you can't afford to be the one person who runs out, so you need to play the game the same as everyone else. And so we create a shortage. Great.

Paging the Tooth Fairy

Rather shockingly, Surprise! announced to us on Monday that he had a wobbly tooth. This morning, he announced that he no longer had a wobbly tooth.

This is even more of a shock than when Funsize announced the same three years ago - it all feels rather too early for us to be at this stage, though he is very close to his fifth birthday. Anyway, the upshot of this is that we'll once again have to call on the services of the tooth fairy.

Thanks Donald

Two years ago, we found ourselves coming to the end of our fixed mortgage deal just as there was a spike in interest rates. So we took our a two-year fix, in the hope that they'd come down again in that time. And that was fine.

And, indeed, the plan looked really good until about two weeks ago - the base rate had dropped to 3.75% with a further reduction expected this week and then, hopefully, at least one more in the months to come. Which would have been good.

Right on cue, therefore, this situation with Iran kicked off. Which has of course disrupted the oil supplies, leading to an immediate spike in prices, and in turn a rise in inflation. So the expected rate reduction didn't come, any prospect of further increases has evaporated, and indeed it's likely that the Bank of England may well start raising the rate again (because of course the thing to do in an impending cost of living crisis is to pile on a load more misery - that'll teach the plebs to want such fripperies as petrol to commute and food to eat).

And, just for fun, we're also coming to the end of our current deal on gas and electricity...

Oh well, I guess things could be a lot worse.

The Drift

It has been a frustrating week. On the face of things, it's all okay - things are just proceeding onwards, there was an issue but there's a workaround, and there are things to do but no immediate crisis. And yet... it all just feels like a big drift. There's a bunch of stuff I'm waiting on, and no signs of anything much happening until then.

Which all feels a bit odd, but it all does definitely feel like it's waiting for something to happen.

Reboot Whack-a-Mole

It has been an odd weekend for news on the reboot front - late on Saturday I saw the news that the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" reboot is now not going ahead, and then yesterday came the news that "Firefly" is restarting, with an animated series set between the show and the film, reuniting all the surviving cast members.

I must admit, I was actually rather glad of the first news, and have deeply mixed feelings about the second. Because while "Buffy" and (in particular) "Firefly" are prime material for a reboot in some form, any such reboot has to grapple with the Joss Whedon problem: he has been cancelled for fairly good reason, but he's also pretty much essential to the success of those properties.

The upshot of that is that I find it extremely hard to muster any enthusiasm for any reboot that doesn't involve Joss Whedon, and have no enthusiasm for one that does. As I said before, I'm afraid it's time for those IP to die.

(And yet, all that said, if the "Firefly" show does actually happen, I inevitably will end up watching it, because I can't claim to be entirely consistent.)

#8: "Tyrant", by Conn Iggulden

Odd One

The petrol station at our local Tesco has been closed for refurbishment for several weeks. This has been a bit of a pain, given my usual practice of filling up while doing the Big Shop, but fair enough. It reopened last week, and so today was the first time I used it.

And I just can't actually see what's different? It's the same arrangement, it's the same pumps, they haven't even really been cleaned up all that much. All in all, it seems like a whole load of effort and nuisance for, essentially, nothing.

Oh well. It doesn't matter... just odd enough to be worth remarking on.

 #7: "The Crimson Campaign", by Brian McClennan

The Ugly Sisters

Just for once, Scotland has a really exciting football season. And so it was probably inevitable that Rangers and Celtic would play a Scottish Cup quarter final and put on one of the worst displays of "football" ever (though not even their worst game this season...). But far worse than that was the pitch invasion and the disgraceful scenes that followed the merciful end of the game.

It is probably the case that there are some lessons to be learned about the crowd allocation and the stewarding of the match. If so, those lessons should be investigated and learned. It's also probably the case that one side started it, and that one side was the worse offender (and not necessarily the same side either way).

But all of that is largely irrelevant. The bottom line is that this is not the first time something like this has happened, and while all the talking heads are lining up to express their disgust, almost nobody is truly surprised by any of this. That it happened is a mark of shame, but perhaps a bigger shame is that it seems to just be a feature of our game.

So.

There needs to be a sanction applied to these two clubs. And that cannot be a fine: if the penalty for breaking a rule is a fine, that rule becomes optional for the very rich. And stamping this out cannot be optional.

So the penalty should take the nature of a footballing sanction.

Two other things:

1. Any sanction applied should be applied equally to both sides. So extreme is the hatred between the extremists of both sides, we cannot rule out the possibility of false flag actions to bring trouble down on the other side.
2. Any sanction of lost points or removal from competitions should also apply to the next season. Again, I wouldn't put it past either side to seek some sort of advantage by deliberately bringing down the sanction when they lose.

At this point, I'm inclined to ban both Rangers and Celtic from the Scottish Cup next season. They caused this blight in a Scottish Cup match, so eject them from that competition next year.

But if that's not enough to stop this happening again, then in future I think we need to stop holding the Old Firm matches - when those fixtures are scheduled, simply rest the teams and assign both a 3-0 defeat.

And there comes a point, very soon indeed, when we should consider declaring both these teams ineligible for European competition, as happened to English teams in the 80s. That's probably the most effective sanction, but should probably be considered a nuclear option - it means both these clubs losing a huge amount of money, it means they become hugely unappealing to any calibre of player... but perhaps that's what we need to do.

But none of that will happen, of course. We'll have a couple of token arrests, some sort of slap on the wrist, and "lessons have been learned".

In the meantime, I'm very much hoping that Hearts win the league and Falkirk, St Mirren, or even Dunfermline win the Scottish Cup.

Shame on them both.

Please Let This Be the End...

Young Surprise! has been ill. Indeed, he has been ill for the past several weeks, starting with overnight vomiting, then all manner of horrible stuff from both ends, endless washing and rewashing of clothes and bedding, and a huge amount of time off nursery (all of which meant working from home, which is fine, but also while trying to keep him looked after).

It's fair to say that it has been a difficult time, to the extent that last night I finally ran out of energy completely and fell asleep while watching TV (which for me basically never happens).

Anyway, it does look like he might finally be over it, and is back at nursery. Or, at least, I desperately hope that he's finally over it!

Fair Play

It's a rare year when you get through Christmas without having to return/replace something. This year, it is a game controller for my nephew, which failed just after the end of the "returns window". Which is far from ideal - consumer law means that defective items should be accepted for return within any reasonable timeframe, but I've found before that consumer law is, sadly, something of an illusion.

Oh well.

So, I got in touch with Amazon, and found myself redirected to their third-party provider. Not good. Then I walked around Amazon's support a second time, and found myself redirected to their third-party provider. Still not good.

But then I went onto their support chat and spoke to an agent (which I strongly suspect to be an AI, but never mind). Anyway, a few minutes there and a return has been arranged.

So, fair play to Amazon - they actually came through, and without too much hassle. Now to actually return the item, collect the refund, and order a replacement...

Experimental Cookery 2026: Waffles Again

The second attempt at waffles saw me switching to a different waffle mix, and increasing the waffle maker setting from '3' to '4'. I also started adding more of the waffle mix to the device, meaning we now got fully-formed waffles.

The upshot was that the outcome was vastly superior, though we're still not quite there yet. A few things still to adjust...

1. The waffle mix was just the right quantity, or perhaps slightly more than was needed - at present, three of us eat waffles, while the mix made enough for four. But perhaps Surprise! will change his mind one day...
2. I'm currently hovering between "not quite enough" and "slightly too much" waffle mix per waffle. I think the correct amount is about one and a third cups, but I haven't hit it yet.
3. It's really quite important that the waffle mix be fairly loose and runny. Otherwise gravity doesn't get a chance to do its job before the heat cooks the waffles.
4. This new recipe doesn't include any vanilla extract. I think I'll add that for my next attempt. Otherwise, I think this will be chosen mix. (Oh, and I'll use self-raising flour instead of plain flour and baking powder. Apparently, self-raising flour isn't really a thing in the US.)

But it's definitely getting there...

Mene, mene, tekel, parsin?

A little over a century ago, the Liberal party ceased to be the party of government for the last time (the Lib Dems have been a part of a coalition since, but never by themselves). The position once held by the Liberals had been usurped by the Labour party - a feature of the first-past-the-post system is that you inevitably have two "big" parties and one "neither of the above" party (plus any number of minor parties that basically just make up the numbers).

After the last General Election, there was a lot of chatter about that transition being a once-in-a-century event, with the Tories about to lose their spot as one of the big two to Reform. And that certainly seems to be the case. (And I should note that I take no joy in this. While I don't share the Tories' politics, and while they had been becoming increasingly insane, at least under Rishi Sunak they were at least somewhat bearable - Reform are just horrible. Of course, I'm far from convinced that today's Tories aren't just as horrible, in an awful bid to stay relevant.)

However what I didn't expect, and what the calamitous polling of Kier Starmer's Labour and the result of the election in Gorton and Denton suggests, is that we might actually be getting to a point where both of the big two are about to lose their spots - that the Tories may be supplanted by Reform and the Labour party supplanted by the Greens.

In reality, it's far too soon to declare that the writing's on the wall. But now that the Greens have shown that they can win, it's suddenly not inconceivable that people might start voting for them. And Labour have pretty thoroughly alienated their own left wing, largely on the logic that they have nowhere else to do... only now they do.

It certainly makes for an interesting thought...

All at Sea

I got new glasses today. I hate getting new glasses.

The reality is that for each individual part of my vision, these are a marked improvement over the old glasses - both my distance and near-field prescriptions had changed slightly, which was causing me some problems with reading in particular. So moving to new glasses was a necessary step, and both areas are improved.

The problem is that my eyes are used to the existing glasses, and in particular the various transition points between the various areas, and in the new glasses they're all slightly different. Which means that any time I look at something other than dead ahead, or any time I change where I'm looking, my vision swims until it gets back to normal.

That's all to be expected, of course - I get this every time I have to change my glasses, which is why I hate getting new glasses. But it's never fun in the interim.

Controversy at the BAFTAs

It has been a long time since I watched any awards show, be that the BAFTAs, the Oscars, the Brit Awards, the MOBOs, or any other. For the most part, I concluded that they were basically just people in the industry patting themselves on their backs while enjoying a lavish party, and that really the only reason anyone cared is because they're connected at least tangentially to things we actually do care about. I also concluded that winning BAFTAs or Oscars was actually no indication of whether I would actually enjoy the film in question.

But I digress.

This weekend at the BAFTAs there was a moment of controversy when one of the attendees, John Davidson, a sufferer from a particularly difficult form of Tourette's Syndrome, shouted the N-word while two people of colour, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, were on stage.

The whole thing was generally horrible.

Now, the very first thing I have to say is that I have nothing but respect for Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo (and indeed for Jamie Foxx, who also seems to have been particularly strongly affected by this incident), as actors and also as individuals. And people of colour get faced with this sort of shit far too often, so I certainly can't blame them for objecting.

But two things can be true at once. And in this case, the other truth is that John Davidson was present at the BAFTA ceremony precisely because of the film that was made depicting his journey with Tourette's, the way it has affected his life, and the negative effects of it. And, crucially, the fact that his tics and outbursts are entirely involuntary and out of his control - to the extent that he has previously shouted "F- the Queen" while receiving his MBE, and declaring that he was carrying significant amounts of illegal drugs while at airport security.

It's a very difficult disability, and is out of his control.

So any suggestion to deal with it, "couldn't he just..." has the answer that, no, he couldn't just. There were basically two possibilities: either accept his presence, and the risk that went with it that something like this could happen; or bar him from the ceremony in some form (which, incidentally, would be illegal under the Equalities Act...)

Ultimately, there's no neat resolution to any of this.

For myself, my sympathies lie with the victims in all of this, all of them: Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindon, of course, and also John Davidson. Because there was offense caused, and we shouldn't minimise that... but this is that odd case where there isn't actually someone to blame.

And engaging in a witch-hunt, or fighting it as yet another front in the Culture War does nobody any good.

(All that said, there is one little bit of blame to go around: apparently, the BBC in their wisdom elected not to edit out the slur from their time-delayed transmission, while editing out both Alan Cummings' later apology for it and some other shouts that occurred in the night. They could easily, and should, have handled that better. But in all of this, that's a fairly minor point.)

And that's that, I think.

The Future of VAR

On Clyde 1 Superscoreboard last night there was an interesting debate concerning the future of VAR - apparently the scope of its use is due to be significantly expanded at this year's World Cup, and the question was whether that would be the end, of if we'd see further expansions in scope.

I'm reasonably convinced that the answer to that is not only that it will be massively expanded in scope, but in the next few years we'll start to see AI-assisted refereeing, where the AI has been trained on the last several years of video footage, will 'watch' the game in real time, and will make all sorts of rulings. Indeed, there may come a point where the AI referee becomes the primary authority in the running of the game, although we're some way away from that just now.

In theory, this actually represents a good thing - at the moment, the biggest problems with VAR are that the checks seem to take ages (certainly, far too long), and they're all-too-often still wrong. Switching to an AI assistant should lead to much quicker turnaround and should, again in theory, see them become much more accurate.

(That said, they'll need to be very careful in how they train the AI, or they'll see them much more likely to award decisions to the 'big' team over the 'smaller' one. Or maybe the opposite...)

But all of that is a few years away... though maybe only a few. I think there's a reasonably good chance that we may see an AI assistant being tried out at the Women's World Cup in 2031, in advance of its being rolled out more generally after that.

Day 50: Update on Goals

It is already day 50 of the year, so time for the first update on my goals (and non-goals) for the year:

As for goals for next year, I only have three:

• Books: By day 50 I should have read 4.9 books. Thanks in large part to some decently-long journeys in the first couple of months, I'm a bit ahead of schedule on this one - book four finished while in Barcelona, and book five shortly thereafter. I'm now closing in on the end of "The Fellowship of the Ring", so I'm in a really good place.
• Weight: After a fairly disastrous Christmas season, things have been going in the right direction. There's a long way to go, and so I don't want to declare any sort of a victory, but so far, so good.
• Church Website: I've made a small update to the website, and managed to clean up something that wasn't working in December, so that's not terrible. My next step is to make sure there is at least some sort of a page for all of the various groups in the church, and then I can see about populating them with actual data.
• Blog: By day 50, I would expect to have posted 16 times. I'm very slightly behind target, with this being post 15, but that's not disastrous.
• Garden: Something that has recently come up is that our back garden needs a bit of attention - last year we dug a hole for a sandpit for Lion which has turned into a disaster. There is also some damage to the lawn, and a few bits and pieces in need of repair. I didn't set a decoration goal for the year as pretty much every room (except the kitchen and adjoining utility room) has been addressed, but it turns out that this should be looked at - getting the garden fixed is a new goal for the year. But in terms of an update: we haven't yet meaningfully done anything towards it.

And that's where we are: small progress on all three goals, a very small slip on the non-goal, and now an additional goal for the list. I'm happy with that, for now.

Experimental Cookery 2026: Rib-eye Steak with Red Wine & Pastrami Sauce

For completeness, I made this for our dinner on Saturday. It was fine - nothing much to it, pretty decent results, but not spectacular. We might have it again, but I'm not in any huge rush.

Experimental Cookery 2026: Waffles

I do like waffles, but we've hardly ever had them - my previous "waffle maker" was a repurposed toasted sandwich maker that, frankly, wasn't particularly good even at its own job, and the pre-cooked waffles we've had from Tesco have never really hit the spot. All in all, it's been a disappointment. Then, before Christmas, LC and Funsize decided to plant a seed: they decided to openly muse about getting me a waffle maker as my present, so that I could make them waffles for breakfast. (When I queried how that made it a present for me, Funsize quipped that I love to cook, so it's all good.)

Anyway, they didn't get me a waffle maker for Christmas, but that did lead me to muse on the topic. So I did some research, and identified a few good ones (apparently, there are a lot of indifferent ones out there). I picked one... and then found it was out of stock everywhere.

Argos then, rather cruelly, decided to reduce the price to their "lowest ever!", while it was still out of stock. Which was nice. But then, at the start of this week, it came back into stock. And I had some money-off vouchers available, so an order was placed, and I ended up getting a shiny new waffle maker at a third of its real price. Huzzah!

This morning, therefore, was the first actual use of the waffle maker. I found a batter recipe online (it's basically a pancake mix, but enriched with butter, and with the eggs separated and the whites whipped up to soft peaks). I made this up last night, rested it overnight, and then cooked the waffles this morning.

And they were lovely - nicely cooked (not quite perfectly formed, but that's about the amount of waffle mix I put into the maker), soft and fluffy. All in all, a win.

They're not perfect, but that's not a surprise for the first time out. But give it a few more tries (and some adjustment of the waffle mix), and all will be well.

So that was nice.

The Starbucks Incident

I'm not a fan of Starbucks on several levels. However, in this case, my issue is not with them...

I was traveling to Barcelona from Edinburgh, and due to a combination of travel times and company policy, I was using BA flights with a stopover at Heathrow. Which was fine - arrive at the first airport at silly o'clock, fly to Heathrow for a tight-but-doable transfer (I had an hour, and they claimed I needed an hour), and then to Barcelona just after lunch. And, it being a BA flight I could reasonably assume I would get something to eat, and maybe a coffee, on the flight...

Silly me.

I got to Edinburgh at silly o'clock and got onto the flight. So far, so good. And then the pilot came on to announce that we were delayed by ten minutes... That was far from ideal, but there should still be time. Then I discovered that BA no longer provide any meaningful food or coffee on their "short" flights - I received a tiny flapjack and a small bottle of water.

Never mind - I didn't actually choose them for the food.

At Heathrow it transpired that we had a little more time than was expected, and so by the time I had found my transfer gate and visited the toilets I had all of a few minutes before having to board. So I visited Starbucks and bought a croissant and a medium coffee. Said coffee was almost thermo-nuclear in temperature, but never mind as it would cool down on the plane.

Oh, and the croissant was very dry, but would also be fine with the coffee to wash it down.

Oh, and it was stupidly expensive, being a Starbucks not only in an airport but in Heathrow Terminal 5.

Anyway, never mind - that was me sorted for something to eat and drink on the second flight, which would tide me over until a late lunch in Barcelona. Huzzah!

Then I went downstairs to board my plane, only to be met by an instruction that we were boarding using a bus and that no hot drinks were allowed on the bus.

And so I now found myself, having very grudgingly spent over-the-odds on a mediocre coffee that was currently burning my fingers through the cup, having to throw almost all of it into the bin because I couldn't take it onto their bus. I then found myself having to eat a fairly dry croissant without the coffee to wash it down that would make it palatable. And then on the second flight I was given two small biscuits and a small bottle of water as the 'food' offering.

All in all, that was just a rubbish experience. And I absolutely blame Heathrow for this one - at no point is there a sign saying "by the way, you can't take your coffee on your plane". I consider the whole thing an horrible, and deliberate, rip-off of customers.

(And yet, somehow, the food offering was still better than the flight back, which was a "BA" flight operated by one of their partners, and where for three hours there was nothing at all. It's fair to say I have very little intention of using them, or Heathrow, any more than I absolutely have to in future.)

#5: "The Specimens", by Mairi Kidd

Basking

I spent the second half of last week in Barcelona, at the ISE trade show. This was a fun trip, albeit made up of three very long days. It featured a new and exciting way for the airports to rip customers off, which I may or may not post about separately.

But one thing that was really nice came on the last day, when Barcelona enjoyed 18 degrees and bright sunshine. Which meant that just as I left ISE for the last time, before getting on the metro to the airport, I spent a minute just standing, basking in the sunshine.

It's funny how you don't notice how much you miss it until the sunshine is back.

#4: "And the Mountains Echoed", by Khaled Hosseini (the current candidate for book of the year, though I'd be surprised if it stays there. It's very good, but not quite as good, though also not as desperately sad, as "A Thousand Splendid Suns")

Experimental Cookery 2026: Malaysian Chicken

Our first Experimental Cookery of the year comes from the Hairy Bikers "Great Curries" - a book I love in theory but have made depressingly little actual use of. This one has a lengthy ingredient list, almost all of which then get chopped up and turned into the curry paste before the others are added.

Some years ago, I took a cookery class (with work!) which led to me purchasing a small food processor that I use only for curry pastes. Or, at least, I do in theory - I've used it on a total of two days for a total of three things (with this representing the second day of use). So it was good to have a pretext for making use of this again.

Anyway, the meal was quick and easy to prepare: gather the ingredients, chop and then blend the ones for the paste, then cook that along with some spices to make the base of the curry. Add the chicken, then the vegetables, and simmer.

The results were very nice, but extremely hot (that will be the 10 chillis in the sauce). But the potatoes were a nice touch, and I'm sure we'll have this again.

One thing I think I would do differently would be to use either chicken thighs or chicken drumsticks, rather that getting chicken legs and breaking them up - I'm far from convinced the mixture added anything to the overall meal and I didn't enjoy that bit of the task.

The other thing that I'm inclined to do, time permitting, is to start making up some of these curry pastes in advance and freezing them - that then should make a lot of future meal prep a lot easier when the time comes. Of course, that "time permitting" is always a big question...

To the Moon!

A couple of days ago I learned that NASA are in the process of putting together a crewed mission back to the Moon - the intent this time is simply to orbit and then come back, rather than landing, but presumably that's a next step towards returning there.

I'm rather surprised by the lack of media attention on this one, and equally glad that America has brought their space programme back online in a big way. And, much as I don't like giving him credit, that it one of the definite good things of Trump's presidency - returning to the Moon, with a view to setting up an actual Moonbase, and longer term looking to Mars is the sort of big, bold strategy that we just haven't had for some decades.

It's also worth noting that all of this, especially Mars, is one of Elon Musk's particular obsessions as well. And it's easy to mock, but he is actually right - on a universal scale human life is incredibly vulnerable. It's only a matter of time before something happens to render the Earth uninhabitable (for us), so for the species to survive long-term we really do have to become first multi-planetary and then multi-stellar.

Of course, that "matter of time" may well be measured in centuries or millennia, so perhaps it's not the most urgent thing. But given the other things they're working on, it may be no bad thing to keep Trump and Musk focused on the skies...

That Rarest of Things

Somehow, the Guardian managed to publish that rarest of things: an actually astute article on Scottish and Welsh independence in a unionist-leaning paper. It takes as its central thesis that it's likely that the upcoming Scottish and Welsh elections are predicted to lead to pro-independence majorities, while the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly is already in favour of leaving the UK. It then argues that this should serve as a major wake-up call to Westminster that things need to be done differently.

It won't, of course, but never mind.

Probably the key statement, though, and one that seems to have sailed blissfully behind the commentators (who are rehearsing the usual pro- and anti-independence talking points), is this: "This doesn’t work for Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, but it also doesn’t work for many parts of England." (emphasis mine)

That is, the UK fundamentally isn't working for any part of the UK.

I've spoken about this before, more than a decade ago, and it's even more true now: for a very long time, voters in the UK have had the choice of a Labour (or Labour-led) government, or a Tory (or Tory-led) government. Worse, the Labour and Tory parties actually agree on the vast majority of their policies, disagreeing in a fairly narrow range of areas and on some implementation details.

This has manifested itself in a massively-unpopular Tory government getting voted out and replaced with a Labour landslide that has collapsed to even worse levels of unpopularity in an unprecedentedly short period of time.

Look to the future and the next election has one of three possible outcomes: either Labour somehow manage to turn this around and get a second term and we get more of the same (as far as I can see this is the least-worst option, but I really can't see it happening), or the Tories somehow manage to recover in the polls and come back into power and we get more of the same, or (horror of horrors) we end up with a Reform government, probably elected on a fairly narrow subset of the electorate.

That's a horrifying prospect, and it's probably just as horrifying for a great many people in England, just as it is in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The only real difference? Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have (at least in theory) the option of leaving the UK. England don't have that option - in theory, they could eject the rest of us, but that still leaves them with the same broken Westminster system of government.

So what is the solution?

The answer to that is actually the same, whether the question is now to stop the rise of Reform or countering the pro-independence parties in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland: make the UK actually work for the people of the UK.

That includes, but is not limited to, a better voting system, a better caliber of MPs (of all parties), an end to the cozy consensus that leads to all our parties agreeing on almost everything. And it mean finding a way to improve the economy... but not just "the economy" (which typically measures things that are only important to the very rich) but the economy as it is felt by regular people - jobs, wages, inflation (especially food inflation)... we need to find a way to end the dependence of so many on food banks (it's good that they're there, but they should also be a mark of shame for a supposedly-rich country).

And all of which needs done before the next election. Which means two things: firstly, the timescale is absurdly unrealistic such that it's almost certainly too late.

Secondly, it means that only Labour can stop Reform. Not as an election slogan (which is almost certainly will be), but because they're currently the only ones with the power to actually do anything.

My Most-read Book

I very rarely read a novel twice, and even less often read one three times: I've read "The Lord of the Rings" on two occasions, the "Red Dwarf" novels at least twice each (and mostly three times), and "Good Omens" three times, but that's about it.

Until yesterday I'd never read a novel four times, but "The Hobbit" has broken new ground in that regard. (Actually, nearly five times - we were studying it in first year at high school, got as far as the death of Smaug, and then the teacher left and the new guy had no interest in concluding it.)

I still don't think this really qualifies it as my favourite book of all time, which remains "Good Omens", though I doubt I'll ever read that again at this point.

Anyway, this is all prelude to another re-read of "The Lord of the Rings" coming later this year - I purchased a good quality hardback set of the books late last year and am keen to revisit them.

#3: "The Hobbit", by J.R.R. Tolkien

Fawlty Towers: The Play

For his birthday, we bought my father tickets to the "Fawlty Towers" play, and yesterday was the day for going to see it. This involved a comedy of errors as I managed to miss my stop (there seems to be one advertised that doesn't actually exist) and get another train back, but then on to the show.

There's actually not all that much to say about it - it's an adaptation of three of the episodes of the TV series, woven together into a combined show, with some new material. The characters are all present and correct, and uncannily like their TV personas.

The performances, and the production as a whole are great, with the caveat that you've probably seen all of it before - indeed, some of the reviews have noted an odd phenomenon whereby the audiences will laugh before the corresponding joke. A comedy of anticipation, if you will.

The one bit that's new is the very end of the show, which fits in with the general chaos that has gone before while not quite matching any of the actual shows. And... it's fine, but it's also the weakest part of the show. Not that they could have done any better, given the number of moving parts.

Basically, it's recommended for fans of the TV show. If you didn't like the show, you almost certainly won't like this any more. And if you haven't seen the show, it's probably not for you - it's a particular type of retro comedy that they just don't make any more... but maybe watch a bit of the show and see what you think? (It's not like it's hard to get ahold of these days.)

Plus, on the way home I was able to finish my second book of the year, so that was nice, too.

#2: "The City of Mist", by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Two Films

I'm not terribly happy with my previous post, so thought I'd add something about two things we watched that I did very much enjoy:

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

This was really an odd one, and again didn't end in the best possible way. But the lead up to that end was really good fun. (And the ending was also unambiguously a good thing, so that's a win!) The highlight, for me, was the bringing together of the old and the new casts for that finale - the use of the original Ghostbusters was very sparing, and wisely so, but it all worked well. I do hope they may another sequel... though I'd be inclined at that point to retire the originals.

The Roses

On a completely different note, "The Roses" on Disney+ was an amusing look at a disintegrating relationship, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman in fine form. I don't have much to say about this film, except to recommend it - it was well worth the couple of hours spent watching it. (Which is also why it doesn't get a whole post to itself!)

The War Between the Land and the Sea

So, RTD's "Doctor Who" spin-off show. UNIT get thrust into the middle of a tense diplomatic situation between humanity and the newly-reemerged Homo Aqua (formerly the Sea Devils).

I mostly enjoyed this, and thought in particular that it had three and a half really good episodes out of five. Sadly, the episode and a half that weren't good were pretty awful, and they were also the last episode and a half of the show. Endings are hard, I guess.

I should note at this point that the material I enjoyed I enjoyed despite some glaring flaws - RTD persists in writing an agenda with a show wrapped around it (rather than a show with an agenda), and frankly it's all very predictable. Plus, he does just love his "every phone in the world does something at the same time" thing, which is frankly just daft.

But the central conceit is good, the characters are well drawn, the effects are surprisingly great, and it is genuinely thought-provoking. Good stuff.

And then it all goes horribly wrong: our hero and his Homo Aqua counterpart suddenly turn into a doomed Romeo & Juliet forbidden love, all the various factions start running around shouting at each other even where that makes no sense... and then we get to a climax that is incredibly troubling. I don't think the show meant to be pro-genocide, but that was the impression I got.

So, do I recommend it? Sadly, not really. Given a better ending, yeah, it would have been good. As it is, it just doesn't work for me.

Celtic's Management Woes 2026 (January)

This season of Scottish football has been utterly mental. A month ago, Wilfried Nancy had just lost his first game in charge, prompting a meltdown amongst some sections of the Celtic fanbase. Yesterday, having lost six out of eight games, he was sacked, bringing to an end a fairly dismal management failure.

(I still maintain, as I said last month, that it was absurd to demand his sacking after only one game. However, it did become clear that he wasn't the man for the job - it seemed that almost every manager in Scotland had the beating of him, by seeing what he did in the first half, tweaking their system to suit, and watching the collapse. That inability to counter changes made by others was a fatal flaw.)

And so we're back to Martin O'Neill, this time to the end of the season. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out - on the face of it, going back to the safe pair of hands should be a good step (and it was certainly a necessary step; with the transfer window rapidly running out, Celtic couldn't dither over getting someone in). However, it's worth noting that the five league matches that O'Neill faced before were actually easier, at least on paper, than those faced by Nancy, and it's also worth noting that this transfer window is enormously important - does O'Neill still have the eye for a good player that will allow Celtic to emerge stronger from this window than they go in, and indeed stronger than Hearts, Rangers, and even Motherwell?

Ultimately, I think this is a positive move by Celtic on all fronts - it clearly wasn't working under Nancy and was highly unlikely to get any better, so taking decisive action was right; and appointing O'Neill was the best available option for the rest of the season. It certainly makes things interesting for the run-in!

Stranger Things

Some years ago we took out a Netflix subscription. At the time, this was largely motivated by "Star Trek: Discovery", which was on its second season at the time. (I'd purchased the first season on blu-ray, making it probably the last TV series I purchased.) However, there were then several other things we took the opportunity to watch: "Lost in Space", "Cobra Kai"...

And "Stranger Things".

"Stranger Things" came to its end at New Years, with LC and I watching the finale in the evening of the first. And it's fine - in my opinion it's not one of the all-time classic finales, but neither is it a total disaster like some others I could mention ("Game of Thrones", "How I Met Your Mother"...).

That said, I'm afraid to say that the final season wasn't really worth the wait - over the years since it started "Stranger Things" went from a must-watch show to being something that was just there. We were always going to watch the final season to see how it ended, and indeed watched it right away... but partly because we were already between shows.

And that's more or less that. Our new show is the "Doctor Who" spin-off "The War Between the Land and the Sea" - more on that once we're done.

Books of the Year 2025

Here's the list of books for this year:

1. "Machines Like Me", by Ian McEwan
2. "The Ultimate Discworld Companion", by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs
3. "So You Want to be a Game Master", by Justin Alexander
4. "The Maps of Middle Earth", by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", by J.K. Rowling *
6. "Nero", by Conn Iggulden
7. "The Labyrinth of the Spirits", by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
8. "A Stroke of the Pen", by Terry Pratchett
9. "Hercule Poirot's Silent Night", by Sophie Hannah
10. "The Phoenix Project", by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
11.  "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", by J.K. Rowling *
12. "Hera", by Jennifer Saint
13. "La Belle Sauvage", by Philip Pullman
14. "Mary: or, the Birth of Frankenstein", by Anne Eekhout
15. "Assassin's Apprentice", by Robin Hobb
16.  "Dragons of Deceit", by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
17.  "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", by J.K. Rowling *
18. “Tower of Fools”, by Andrzej Sapkowski
19. “Dragons of Fate”, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
20.  "Odyssey", by Stephen Fry
21. "1984: Julia", by Sandra Newman
22. "Dragons of Eternity", by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
23. "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince", by J.K. Rowling *
24.  "The Running Grave", by Robert Galbraith
25. "Defiant", by Brandon Sanderson
26. "Aim to Misbehave", by Rosiee Thor
27. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", by J.K. Rowling *
28. "Warriors of God", by Andrzej Sapkowski
29. "Skyward Flight", by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson
30. "Light Perpetual", by Andrzej Sapkowski
31. "Crystal of Storms", by Rhianna Pratchett

My target for the year was 30 books, so that has been exceeded.

The list of books includes five rereads (Harry Potter), and five books for Funsize - the same five Harry Potter novels in each case. There were no RPG-related books this year, although "Crystal of Storms" is a Fighting Fantasy gamebook, which is RPG-adjacent.

This year's best book was "Mary: or, the Birth of Frankenstein" by Anne Eekhout, with "Hera" by Jennifer Saint as a close second. The weakest book(s) of the year is a joint award to the three Dragonlance novels - it hurts me to say this, given how much enjoyment I've had from Dragonlance over the years, but these really didn't work for me at all.

As might be expected, the backlog of unread books has shrunk significantly over this year. My hope would be to clear it entirely by this time next year, but I guess we'll see.