Hopes for the Nineteenth

Things are now getting quite tense in the Referendum - first the first time a poll has put the "Yes" camp ahead (but a bit later than expected, and still within the margin for error), the debates are over and seem to have gone in favour of "Yes" on balance, the presence on the street strongly favours "Yes"... but there's also the suspicion that there may be a silent majority out there planning to vote "No" who just don't feel the need to shout about it (and fair enough). All of which means that it looks like it's there for "Yes" to win the vote, but there's still a long way to go.

But that's not really what this post is about. Rather, this post is about the day after, the 19th. The thing is, although I'm intending to vote Yes, the reality is that I won't be too unhappy if the vote comes out "No". Whatever the result, I can get on with my life and things will be, mostly, fine (despite my previous post about the nightmare scenario).

I do, however, have three hopes for the 19th, which apply whatever the result:

1. Whatever the result, I really hope there's no suggestion that the process itself has been anything other than fair and impartial. Unfortunately, I have seen some suggestions that there might be some manipulation (probably of postal votes), although thus far this has been confined to the lunatic fringe. But "Yes" or "No", it's much more important that the mechanisms of democracy run correctly, so that we can get on with things in the days ahead. (It's probably needless to say, but I'm not actually worried on this point. It's vitally important, but I think everyone involved is aware that it's vitally important, so we'll be fine.)
2. Whatever the result, but most especially if it's a "Yes", I really hope the result is clear enough to settle the matter. Although legally 50% of the vote +1 is enough to swing it, that's not really a good basis on which to forge ahead with independence. Ideally, I would much prefer the "Yes" camp to target a majority of the electorate (not just those who actually vote) in order to carry the country with them. If the turnout is indeed the 85% that is projected, that would mean a 59% share of the vote. (Of course, I'm sure the "Yes" campaign would both like as big a share of the vote as possible, but will also accept any win whatsoever. That's just the nature of the thing. But I'd be happier with a clear result.)
3. Whatever the result, let that be the end of it. If the result is a "Yes", then I really hope this leads to Scotland and the UK proceeding to negotiate in good faith for the best for both countries in order to split as amicable, and fairly, as possible. If the result is a "No", conversely, I really hope that this will indeed take the question off the table for a generation (at least 20 years) - I really don't want to have to have referenda every few years until we give the 'right' result. "Yes" or "No", whatever the people have said by the 19th is the right result. (Of course, both sides have said that they would indeed abide by the result. But there's always a gap between saying something and actually doing it.)

Anyway, that's where I am at the moment. We'll just need to see what the next 12 days brings...

Update on Goals

250 days done. Time for another update.

• Weight: Okay, time for the white flag. This one hasn't moved, and doesn't look like it's going to move any time soon. I'll need to rethink my whole approach to this I think.
• Work: Ever since I got back from my holiday to Barcelona, work has just been tough. I'd been back less than a week before I felt like I hadn't been away at all, there have been problems that just refused to get fixed... It's just... difficult. That said, I've just had a fairly stellar week, so maybe, just maybe, that's turned the corner. In any case, there's nothing really needing fixed here, as such, just continued hard work.
• Books: I remain well ahead on this goal. I'm currently at 46 books read, compared to an "on track" number of 41 (-ish). I've actually finished two of the sub-lists, and am caught up or ahead on all of the others. The only thing of note is that the remaining books from The List for this year are quite long, which means I may have to go some to stay up to date there.
• Games: I've fixed the date for the "Ultraviolet: 2XS" game, though it looks like that will fail to attract a quorum. I've also scheduled a bi-weekly D&D 5e game to play through the "Lost Mine of Phandelver" adventure from the Starter Set that promises to be quite good. As an added bonus, that game has added a new player we've not seen before - always nice to see the group attract new people.
• Maintenance: The bathroom ceiling is finished, as is the cleaning of the carpets. Success! Unfortunately, we now have a leak in our bedroom ceiling which will necessitate a repair job. I'm hoping to tackle that when I get some time off in October.
• Computer: This was completed last time.
• Money: This is now done.

And that's how things stand at the moment. I'm reasonably happy that the Books and Work goals should complete successfully; they just need to remain on track from here on out. However, it looks like the Game and Weight goals will fail, which is unfortunate but understandable. The Computer and Money goals are complete, which is good, and the original Maintenance goal is complete too - it's just a shame I've had to re-open that one, though I do hope to get it sorted again fairly soon.

The next update should be on the 27th of October. That will also be the last before the end of year review, as there's little point in updating two weeks before the end. By October I should have the Maintenance task completed (again), will know one way or another about the Game task, and should still be on track with the Book and Work goals. The big issue is the Weight goal, but I'd be surprised to see any movement there.

#46: "Reign of Stars", by Tim Pratt

A Crazy Idea: Free Bus Passes for the Unemployed

One of our less-heralded bits of social policy is free bus travel for the elderly. I'm not sure how this works in England, but in Scotland the way it works is that people aged 60 and over are given a pass for free travel; when they get on board a bus they show the pass to the driver and are issued a ticket, the cost of which is then charged back to the government. It's a nice simple scheme, one that's cheap to provide (because the state only pays for travel that's actually used), and one that makes a significant difference to the lives of those who use it. Suddenly, older folk have the ability to get out and about, which can serve to encourage them to do so, thus in turn improving their health and well-being. Huzzah!

Okay, here's a crazy idea: expand the exact same scheme to the unemployed.

The idea would work like this: when a person goes to the Job Centre to sign on, they are provided with a pass for free travel, valid for a period of six weeks (actually, six weeks and a day). Six weeks later, if they don't yet have a job, the pass is reissued for the same period again (and repeatedly, until they find a job and so no longer need it). The rest of it works as does the current scheme: they get free travel on the buses, with the companies involved recharging the tickets back to the government.

This has several benefits:

- Firstly, and most obviously, it makes it easier to find and get a job - given the ability to travel freely, a person will be able to look in a wider area for a job, and will be able to travel to interviews without cutting into their very-limited JSA. (This last is especially important if you have several interviews and aren't terribly likely of getting any of them. Paid for by the individual that could quickly rack up the costs.)

- Secondly, it helps to mitigate the cycle of helplessness that the unemployed, and especially the long-term unemployed, can fall into. If you go day after day with no reason to leave the house, that quickly becomes no reason to get up, which means no reason... it can become increasingly hard to break that cycle. But given free travel, that opens up a whole range of free activities that could be enjoyed - you might not have a park/museum/art gallery in walking distance, but I bet you have one that can be reached by bus. (That's obviously a fairly trivial example, but the phenomenon is real. And while this won't break it by itself, it should help.)

- Thirdly, it just makes the whole business of life that bit easier. It's just that much easier to go to the doctor/dentist/supermarket/whatever with access to the bus than it is if you have to go on foot.

- Fourthly, it's a practical help for people rather than just a cash payment. That's actually quite important, as much of our assistance for job seekers tends to be of the form "here's a handout; now go and get on with it". (That's an exaggeration, of course, but it's not without truth.) Sometimes, it's better to just give someone a ladder, rather than giving them the money for one and pointing them at B&Q.

There are, of course, significant problems with the scheme: I have no idea what it would cost; I have no idea whether it would be practical to issue large numbers of short-term passes; and it does nothing for the fact that there are too few jobs out there. (Oh, and there's a problem where a person might get a job just before their pass expires and then not have the money to actually get to that job until they've had their first pay. But that problem actually already exists.)

But, hey: I did say up-front it was a crazy idea.

Not Actually About Cakes

I feel sorry for Diana.

There was an issue in the Bake-off tent. One of the bakers found his work had been destroyed through no fault of his own, and with no opportunity to recover from the problem. He reacted badly, and was subsequently eliminated.

The producers of the show proceeded to cut the footage for maximum drama - the teaser for the show had MB noting it was "sort of unacceptable" with an immediate cut to Diana; lots of shots of our arch-villain looking eeevil; the rising tension music immediately before the problem; her comment that "he has his own freezer to use"...

And so there was a reaction. That's hardly surprising - the show was clearly structured to get a reaction, and they got one. Big shock there.

As far as I can see, there was an injustice, and it was at the hands of the judges. There's a precedent for what happens when a contestant is unable to finish a challenge through no fault of his own - two years ago, John cut his finger and was unable to continue; they suspended the elimination and carried on. Well, that's the case here, too - Iain's ice cream was removed from the freezer (probably by mistake), rendering him unable to complete the challenge. He didn't have anything to present to the judges, and it wasn't his fault. (And Paul's assertion that he could have presented his sponge and meringue is wrong - firstly because they were with the melted ice cream, but secondly... does anyone believe he would not have been eliminated had he presented just two of three parts of the challenge?)

(Incidentally, the reason this is not the same as the custard incident from last year is that the problem with the custard didn't prevent those involved from completing the task; the mistake this time did make it impossible to complete - you can't complete a baked alaska without ice cream.)

So, yeah, there's an injustice here. Actually, there are two: Iain's undeserved elimination, but also the villification of Diana for the purposes of good TV. And, frankly, I don't think I care to watch this show any more.

One more thing: Sue Perkins tweeted about the controversy, noting the over-reaction and noting also that it's a show about CAKES. There's just one thing wrong with that, though.

It's not a show about cakes, and it never has been. It's a show about people, specifically the dozen or so contestants in the tent.

How To Prevent Change

A few years ago, we had a referendum on changing the voting system (the so-called Alternate Vote). This returned a "no" vote, putting the idea of changing the voting system to bed for a generation.

A few years before that, the north of England had a referendum on a form of devolution for the region. This returned a "no" vote, putting the idea of devolution for the north of England to bed for a generation.

In both cases the people were asked, they said "no", the end. Any further discussions on the topic inevitably meet with the response that we had a referendum, it wasn't wanted, so why are we still having this discussion?

Here's the thing: the Alternate Vote was a terrible compromise. Indeed, it was sufficiently bad that even people who passionately wanted change to the voting system felt forced to vote against it because, while it was change, it manifestly wasn't change for the better.

Likewise, the form of devolution offered to the north of England wasn't the same as that enjoyed in Scotland, or even in Wales (where the Assembly has far less power and influence than up here). It was an offer, certainly, but it was a bad offer.

So that's how it's done: if you want to be seen to be responsive to people's calls for change, but don't want to actually change, engineer matters so they do get a choice - do they want the status quo, or do they want this horrible compromise alternative that you've fought hard to win for them?

(Incidentally, this post comes about following a guy from the Campaign for an English Parliament appearing on Good Morning Scotland this morning. He was, alas, talking about something else, and was therefore talking mince, but his core point is a good one - there almost certainly should be some measure of devolution for the English regions, especially if Scotland votes No, and double-especially if the UK government then really does grant significant extra powers to the Scottish government. Though it does need to be the English regions - the needs of the north are significantly different from those of the south-east, so simply having a single body for the whole wouldn't really help much.)

Of course, there's also a corollary to this: if you want change, then you should probably vote for the change that is offered, even if it's a bad one. Because once you've achieved some change then it's easier to get good change, while rejecting the change you can get will make it that much harder to get the change that you want.

#44: "Pathfinder: Fires of Creation", by Neil Spicer
#45: "The Ocean at the End of the Lane", by Neil Gaiman

Competition Season 2014 Wash-up

Where to begin?

This season has largely mirrored the last two I was involved in - we started with some significant optimism after a productive winter, suffered some early setbacks, and never really recovered. The results just haven't gone our way, with us only twice getting into the top half of the score-sheet (4th out of 9 in the Grade 4 at Dunbar; 2nd out of 4 in the Grade 4MSR at Bridge of Allan). Once again we achieved nothing whatsoever at the majors, with the likely consequence that we'll be downgraded for next year. That might be the best thing for it - although we'd struggle a great deal to get back up, we just don't seem to be getting any traction in Grade 4A.

I haven't been enjoying competing at all. My pipes seem to be tuned on a knife-edge - a fraction this way and they're flat, a fraction that way and they're overblown, a fraction up here and the chanter sounds early, a fraction down there and the drones don't sound. I just can't seem to resolve that, and am getting increasingly pissed off at being told I can't get anything right. Or maybe it's just me, and I really can't get anything right.

(That said, the last competition was actually quite enjoyable. If we could just get that every week, instead of the other, that would be grand.)

The bureaucratic side of running the band is similarly frustrating - we've lost the use of our practice venue due to council cutbacks, we need to find an additional £4,000 of funding per year from somewhere, and we've just burned too much money this year (on instruments, uniforms, and the like - all good stuff, and abnormal expenses, but still...)

The one shining light of this season is our learners, where we have the makings of an entire new band coming through the ranks. And this is the best group of learners that I have ever seen, both in terms of their ability and of their willingness to learn. So, if we can just keep that group together, we might be able to do something interesting next year.

And that's that - all pretty depressing stuff, I'm afraid. But you'll probably be glad to hear that that's it done. As of Saturday, I get my weekends back. Looking forward to it!

The Edinburgh Pipe Band Championships 2014

The final competition of the season took place in Edinburgh, at the Highland Centre. This is a relatively new competition - this was only the fourth year it has taken place - but it's one that Edinburgh City Council are very keen to build up. And rightly so - it's a venue that is ideal for hosting a large event, but rather poor for a small one.

The pick-up time this week was a fairly civilised 9am, which meant a lie in until 7:30! This made for a relatively pleasant morning, with me getting ready and heading out after the dawn. Then we were off to our second pick-up, and then to the contest, a mere half-hour away.

The day was fairly relaxed, with us now past the point where the contests had any serious meaning (the majors being over and done with), and so we got ready and then performed, and then got ready and performed again. The performances were okay, but not spectacular - earlier in the season this would have been the occasion for a rant, but none was forthcoming.

After the competitions were done, there were a few hours to kill, so I retreated to the bus to read. The site had virtually nothing to do - as I said, it is poorly suited to a small event, as those few local traders were shut up for the weekend, while it wasn't big enough to attract even the usual Highland Games traders.

The final competition finished just before four, and so shortly thereafter we had the march-past and prize-givings. We came fifth out of six in the Grade 4 contest (5th for piping and 4th for drumming), and third out of four in the Grade 4MSR (3rd and 3rd), narrowly missing out on a prize in both cases.

And then there was a fairly quiet, and pleasantly short, bus journey home, and that was the season done.

It was actually a nice day on which to end the competition season, with the lack of pressure, the reasonably okay weather, and a halfways decent performance. Plus, as soon as we had played our last I felt an enormous release of stress, as the burden of the season is now gone.

#43: "The Grapes of Wrath", by John Steinbeck (A book from The List, and also the new candidate for Book of the Year.)

The Nightmare Scenario

As I'm sure I've mentioned once or twice, I'm intending to vote Yes next month. However, it's worth noting that I wouldn't be too horrified if the result came back No - after all, we've kinda muddled along thus far, so I'm sure we'd kinda muddle on going forward. (Plus, it's worth noting that my reasons for voting Yes are largely driven by a rejection of part of the status quo, rather than a philosophical leaning towards change - not the stuff fanatics are made of.)

But, in the event of a No vote, there was one scenario that really worried me - the one where Westminster chooses to 'punish' Scotland for our having the temerity to ask the question. Such punishments might take the form of a stripping of powers from Holyrood, but would more likely take the form of serious cuts to the Scottish budget - primarily cloaked in a "reorganisation" of the Barnett Formula that determines that budget.

However, I wasn't too concerned about that. I did fully expect some sort of revised constitutional settlement to be put in place, granting a few more minor powers to Holyrood (there really isn't much more that it is practical to devolve), but specifically removing the right to conduct further referenda, thus removing any chance of a repeat. But as for the massive cuts suggested... no, I wasn't overly worried on that front. I had heard a couple of voices raise such possibilities, but they were generally out on the lunatic fringe of the debate.

Until today.

(The key bit, especially in the Telegraph piece, is about the desire to see cuts to Scottish public spending. The desire to not share the pound is another matter, and is both understandable and quite reasonable.)

It is unfortunately the case that the status quo isn't on offer in this referendum, and hasn't been for some time. Probably since the SNP won their majority at Holyrood, in fact. Now, though, it's looking much more like our choices are between the risks of independence and the certainty of punishment.

Eep!

I've just noticed that my listing of books of the year is missing two entries. Fortunately, I do know where they should go, so I'll add them here with the correct numbers:

#17: "Scoundrels", by Timothy Zahn
#25: "The Golden Ocean", by Patrick O'Brian

The World Pipe Band Championships 2014

The World Championships is actually one of the competitions I tend to enjoy the most. This is partly because it's so late in the season, and partly because it's in the centre of Glasgow, which affords the opportunity to leave the grounds and go and do something else, rather than just sit around waiting endlessly. In the worst case, it's even possible to just get a train home, although I'd promised myself not to do that again as I didn't want to be absent for the march-past.

My hopes were not high for this year's competition though. In order to qualify for the final, we would need to be in the top six out of sixteen in our qualifying heat - something we had never achieved all season. Still, with a good performance it might be possible...

Unfortunately, the Worlds requires a very early start. Although we weren't playing until 11:20, the bus needed to be in the park by some early hour, and so the pick-up was at 6, in turn necessitating a 4:30 wake-up. Nice.

And so we staggered out, got to the bus, got into town, and then waited. Eventually, we found a Cafe Nero that had opened, got something to eat (though it wasn't all that might have been hoped), and started feeling a little more hopeful.

The final prep for the competition did not go well. The rain wasn't bad, but it was bad enough to play havoc with the pipes, and the pipe major was getting increasingly frustrated - to the point where at one stage he had a go at me for overblowing my pipes and underblowing them at the same time. Thank goodness there's only one more competition this season.

Anyway, we went on, and did out bit. Mostly, the performance was fine, with one exception. Once again, the band had a bad start to our performance, which meant we might as well not have bothered. (On the plus side, it wasn't my fault - in fact, my performance was actually fine throughout. So I'm not taking the blame for this one.)

At this point, LC and I went back to hear some of the rest of the bands, and got thoroughly cold and wet doing so. There were about 10 bands after us; I only think I saw one that was less good than we were.

We didn't qualify.

At this point, LC and I went into town to kill some time, I failed to buy a copy of the new "Player's Handbook", we did get some ideas for nephew #1's birthday present, we got some lunch, and it was generally okay. Then we went back to the bus to read for a bit.

It was only some hours later that we heard that we actually weren't doing the march-past after all. Which was a bit frustrating - had I known, we would have packed up, taken the train home, and saved the rest of the day.

The journey home was not the best, due to a combination of tiredness and alcohol. But we eventually got in, ordered pizza, and gradually unwound.

The last competition of the season is the Edinburgh Highland Games on Saturday. I will be very glad once it's done.

(And, yes, it's fair to say I don't enjoy competing at all. The problem is that I enjoy almost everything else about being in a pipe band, and especially the teaching, but I just don't know how to separate out the two.)

#42: "Pathfinder: Ultimate Campaign", by Paizo Publishing

A Deeply Mixed Weekend

Things have been pretty tough for the past few days. It all began on Friday...

I had an appointment with the hairdresser on Friday, which meant I had to leave work fairly sharp. This was good, although I left the office just as we were being battered by extremely heavy rain - even by the time I reached the car I was soaked. I was also delayed just enough than LC had to run me round to the hairdresser, as there wasn't quite time to walk.

On arriving back home afterwards, I was met with news from LC: she has a job! Huzzah! Rather shockingly, though, she had been called at five to five on the Friday, and asked to start on the Monday (pupils return Tuesday). So no pressure, then.

Things were therefore looking good. And then, sadly, they went downhill.

About eight, another monster shower passed overhead. Now, I've been paranoid about the roof every time it rained for the past eighteen months, and this time my fears were justified - the ceiling in the bedroom sprung a leak. Fortunately, it missed everything but the carpet, so it's perhaps the least-worst leak possible, but still a hassle.

The ordeal with the roof is still ongoing, and is still causing a lot of stress. But for Friday, it meant calling several people, only to be told they couldn't help me (for one reason or another). Not the best.

The other consequence of this was that I had to call off attending the competition at North Berwick. The band did okay but not great in my absence - it certainly wasn't as if my being there would have made any difference.

But that meant that on Saturday, instead of a 4am start time to catch the bus, I instead woke up at 9am to make some calls, and didn't get up 'properly' until nearly 11. So I got an extra 7 hours of much-needed sleep.

The rest of Saturday was therefore very restful. Suddenly, I had some unexpected free time. So I got caught up on some stuff, got ahead on some other stuff, and generally had a good day.

Alas, Sunday wasn't the same success. LC was extremely stressed by this point, on account of needing to prepare something (but not sure exactly what) for the week ahead. And, stupid me, I picked that moment to bring up student loans. This of course added another stress to her load. Not my best moment.

That afternoon we headed over to my parents' in order to celebrate Dad's official birthday. Which was nice but very chaotic and loud. And then home, exhausted, and back to bed.

On balance, I think it was a better weekend than not. I'm even trying to persuade myself that the leak was a good thing, as it enforces that a repair be made now, rather than going horribly wrong in Autumn/Winter. But I'll certainly feel much better once it's done. And although LC was stressed, that stress was a side-effect of some really good news.

But at the moment I'm just worn out, and feel that I'm just barely holding together against all the stress. Things really need to start calming down around here...

Experimental Cookery 2014: Enchiladas

Another one from the "Hairy Dieters: Eat For Life". I should note, however, that I made some substitutions - LC doesn't like kidney beans, so I used a tin of Heinz "Fajita Beans" instead; I used the large flour torillas that they said not to use, and I used the full amount of liquids, beans, etc; but only half the mince, torillas, and cheese (because I was making for two instead of four).

These were highly successful, but... I accidentally put in rather too many chilli flakes, which meant that the heat of the dish was out of proportion. And the sauce could maybe have done with another few minutes to thicken a bit more. Also, I think I prefer the chicken enchiladas I've sometimes made, rather than these beef ones.

That said, these tasted good, and not at all like diet food. Plus, they were very filling - I barely managed to eat two, while LC managed only one. Which is pretty awesome.

I would definitely have these again, though I think they're perhaps better done as a full batch, probably with company.

Experimental Cookery 2014: All-in-One Spicy Pork and Rice

This one comes from the "Hairy Dieters Eat For Life", which is a generally useful book. It's also another really easy, one pot recipe - there's a small amount of preparation and then it just cooks together. And it was really, really nice. Another winner.

Experimental Cookery 2014: Flatbreads

I do like a tasty burger, and for that reason LC and I have had Hugh's spicy lamb burgers on several occasions. However, we've always had them with pitta breads, which were fine but somewhat limited in what they could hold. So this time I decided to follow Hugh's recommendation and cook up some of his flatbreads. These are from Hugh's "River Cottage Every Day" book, which is definitely one of my favourites.

There's not actually much to say here. They were really quick and easy, they tasted really good, and they carried much more of the onion, yoghurt, and salad that went with the burgers. All in all these were a massive hit. So, job done.

The Man Inbetween

And so we come to the third of the three 'lesser' Doctors. And of all the Doctors, it is Paul McGann who most suffered from the quality of the material - although both Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy had some poor material to work from, they also got some really good stories ("Trial of a Time Lord" and "Revelation of the Daleks" for the one; "Remembrance of the Daleks" for the other). McGann, though, got one crack of the whip, and was stuck with a dud. Indeed, I was particularly glad to see his appearance in "Night of the Doctor", if only to help redress that balance.

However, where the Eighth Doctor suffers on the screen, he potentially gains in other media. Whereas the spin-off novels, radio plays, and other materials for other Doctors need to fit in the gaps left by the TV series, the Eighth is a blank slate, and so they can do more or less what they like. And, having heard good things about most of these items, I was rather looking forward to this month.

This month's short story is "Spore", by Alex Scarrow. It has a fairly interesting concept: an intelligent virus comes to Earth to determine if we're 'worthy' of continued existence; the Doctor has to try to oppose it.

There's nothing wrong with the story, but there's not really much to recommend it either, I'm afraid. In particular, there's nothing I could see that makes this an Eighth Doctor story; it would work just as well with any other Doctor, at any time he was travelling alone.

This month's novel was "Earthworld", by Jacqueline Rayner.

Unfortunately, this one runs into trouble for the very thing I praised above - because the Eighth Doctor stories didn't need to "fit into the gaps", the powers-that-be decided to build a single, series-long storyline for this incarnation of the Doctor; essentially, they wrote the novelisations for a TV series that might have been. Which is fine, and probably the best way to present that series.

But it suffers a terrible weakness when you pull just one episode out of that series - taken by itself the novel doesn't really work. It's full of fairly specific references to things that happened before, which is good for those who have read the books. For me, it would have been better titled "Confusing Sequel to a Book You Haven't Read".

And so we had a Doctor suffering amnesia not, as I first guessed, because that had been a character trait in the TV movie, but rather due to things that happened in the series to-date. We had a companion constantly referencing those events, while also dealing with an existential crises brought on by things I knew nothing about. And another companion mourning the death of a character we never met.

In context, I'm sure all this was fine. Without the context, it's a big negative mark. They should have chosen something else.

I also found the writing style very jarring - it seemed... lacking somehow. Actually, it reminded me of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" but, alas, not in a good way. The characters' internal monologues seemed to be a froth of irrelevancies and nonsense, more fitted to someone who would shop without ever counting the cost, only to be bailed out at the last moment by a Knight in Shining Armour. Though the novel had those, and they weren't entirely benevolent...

So, I'm afraid I wasn't a fan. Maybe if I'd read the series from the start, and I'd read the series when it first came out, things would be different. As it was, I have to rate this as the weakest Doctor Who novel so far. (The Sixth Doctor has the best novel, followed by the Third. Two, Four, and Five all have pretty good entires, One and Seven are okay, and then Eight.)

For my next trick, I'm going to tackle the Ninth Doctor, the herald of the regenerated show. I'm looking forward to it.

#41: "Earthworld", by Jacqueline Rayner

Bridge of Allan Highland Games 2014

Sunday was not a good day.

It started brightly enough - I woke up feeling pretty good about things, went to Tesco to get the milk I had forgotten we needed, and then LC and I made ready and headed over to Bridge of Allan.

Shortly after arriving, I had an errand to run - the band were donating a prize at these games in memory of our Honorary President, who had died just before our wedding two years ago (in fact, I received the text informing me of it while at the wedding rehearsal). So, I headed over and delivered that.

Meanwhile, we were being entered into the Grade 4 competition. Due to a mix-up with the entry forms, we had only been entered in the Grade 4MSR, which is a slightly different competition, and would prefer to do both. So, that arranged we had a race to get ready.

And then things went horribly wrong. For some reason, we've been having issues with chanter reeds this year, where they seem to have a really short life in the spot between "too hard" and "too easy". In particular, my reed was causing problems with a flat F. So, the Pipe Major adjusted it, making it a little easier. This shifted the problem, so there was now a flat G. So, another adjustment, and again a little easier.

And then, horribly, it hit that "too easy" point, where whenever I started up the drones, the chanter sounded. And this about a minute before we were to go on.

At this point, I expected simply to drop out of that competition - better for the band to do well without me than for me to play and mess it up for everyone else. I wasn't happy at that outcome, for obvious reasons, it's just one of those things.

What actually happened was that the pipe major switched the reed for another one, adjusted it a bit, and we went on. Which was, I must admit, something of a surprise, but a pleasant one. And the performance was... okay. Not great, but about as good as could be hoped I think.

There was then about an hour for our second performance, during which the pipe major tried to get the new reed properly adjusted. Only it just wouldn't quite some in. So it got switched again, and the new reed again wouldn't quite work. More adjustment, and another reed. And another. (I really don't know what's going on there, because it really shouldn't be this hard.)

Anyway, he finally got it sorted (ish). And then the rain started.

(I should perhaps note at this point that we did have our waterproof capes with us. Alas, they were in the car, and we didn't have time to go get them. Yes, we got wet.)

We played again, and the performance was... okay. Though by this point I just wanted to go back to bed and not come out again for a week or two. (And I'm really not looking forward to the World Championships in two weeks.)

The rest of the day was the now-traditional waiting for the march-past. This was made somewhat easier by LC being there, for the first time this season; shame she couldn't have had a better day, but there it is.

The march-past was likewise okay. They're pretty standard by this point, and at least by then we'd got our capes on. Additionally, we had been joined by four of our five learner pipers (and one of our learner drummers), which was nice - good to see the hard work on the teaching front start to bear fruit.

I don't actually have the full results at the moment - they haven't been posted at the time of writing. I do know we weren't in the top four for the Grade 4 contest. For the Grade 4 MSR, we came second overall, which was a stunning result. So stunning, in fact, that we didn't even muster a cheer, it was so unexpected. (It also, coincidentally, meant we won back the cup that we had ourselves donated that morning. Hugh would have been very proud of that.)

(Update: We came last out of 11 in the Grade 4 competition - 11th for piping and 7th for drumming. We came second out of 4 in the Grade 4MSR - 2nd for piping and 2nd for drumming.)

And that was that. The journey home was blessedly quick - the advantage of taking cars rather than a coach. And then an evening of eating pizza, watching part of "Spider-Man 2" and the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

There are now three competitions to go this season. I think that, next year, I'll forgo these weekly reports - they're getting too depressing. But then, I don't think that's the reports necessarily.

#39: "Pathfinder: The Slave Trenches of Hakotep", by Michael Kortes
#40: "Pathfinder: Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh", by Mike Shel

The Scottish Pipe Band Championship 2014

Saturday was a somewhat mixed day. The morning was gloriously sunny, but in the afternoon it started raining hard; so hard, in fact, that the march-past was cancelled, meaning we all got to leave that bit earlier than expected.

My day started at 6am, with me dragging myself out of bed and off to the shower. The return to work has been pretty brutal, and last week was thus a particularly tough one. I could really have done with a chance to rest. Oh well.

The journey to the competition was reasonably pleasant and was quite quick. Indeed, we had made sure to leave lots of extra time in case of Commonwealth Games traffic, only to find that there wasn't any noticable increase. Thus, we got there with some hours to spare.

The preparation for the competition actually went reasonably well. We took to the field, played out selection, and came off. All seemed good; indeed, it was our best performance of the season, and by a long long way.

There then followed several hours of waiting, which wasn't good but which was improved by having a good book to read. Eventually we got the result.

And we came last. Out of fourteen bands playing, we came fourteenth from both piping judges, fourteenth for ensemble, and eleventh in drumming. Which was a massive kick in the teeth - we'd genuinely thought we were in with a chance of sneaking away with a prize, and certainly didn't think we were that far off the running, so to come last...

The journey home was a rather subdued thing, during which I almost fell asleep a couple of times. I finally got home just before 8pm, which was a good bit earlier than expected. And then I went to bed.

So that's it. There's one final major championship of the season, the World Championships in Glasgow in three weeks time. However, due to the number of bands involved we will need to qualify for the final, and there's little chance of that, never mind of winning a prize. Which means we'll be ending the season without a single championship point to our name. And after several years of that, we're likely to be demoted back down to Grade 4B - which might not be a bad thing from a player satisfaction point of view (better to win in a lower grade than be thrashed in the higher), it took a lot of effort to get moved up, and the thought of facing that again isn't fun.

But I really don't understand what happened. It would be disappointing to have come last due to a bad performance, but at least that would make sense. But I was sure that wasn't the case here. As I said, it was our best of the season by miles, so to still come last... That practically requires everyone else to have been brilliant.

It's just frustrating.

Disaster in the Last Chapter

"The Cuckoo's Calling" in not a book I would normally read. It's not that I have anything against crime fiction; it's just a genre I don't usually bother with. Had it not been for the revelation that Robert Galbraith was actually J. K. Rowling I would probably not have ever been aware of the noval. (And, of course, as soon as it was revealed to be JKR the reviews of the book became worthless - suddenly people were reviewing the author rather than the book.)

Still, I did enjoy the Harry Potter series, so when the novel appeared in Tesco's near-permanent "2 books for £7" offer, I picked up a copy. That was some months ago, and it has been waiting on my shelf since then.

I started "The Cuckoo's Calling" on Saturday while on the bus to Dumbarton; I finished it Sunday evening.

For the most part, it's very, very good - it's a really easy read, the characters are well drawn, and the central mystery is engaging. And it did indeed have me guessing right up to the last chapter. In fact, my big concern was that I had identified three characters I thought might be the killer, and I was worried she might pull a "they all did it!" twist, which wouldn't have been good.

Crime writing must be a tricky thing - you want a mystery complex enough that the reader doesn't quite see the revelation coming, and yet also clear enough that when the killer is revealed then it immediately makes sense - it should of course be clear how they did it, why they did it, and basically tie everything up.

Unfortunately, "The Cuckoo's Calling" fails that latter test. I had previously considered the character in question as the killer, but discarded him for a pretty obvious reason. (Though, admittedly, I was largely considering him because of the Gene Hunt law of crime fighting, rather than any good reason.)

The problem didn't lie with the murder itself. The means, motive, and opportunity all fit together perfectly well, so there was no problem there. Unfortunately, the bigger problem was that if that character was the killer then his other actions in the novel just don't fit.

Now, in fairness, JKR does try to resolve this by explaining what the character wanted to achieve through his actions. But the explanation is simply madness - the character would need to assume that another character, whom he had never met as an adult, was precisely competent enough to find this, this, and this, but just not quite competent enough to find that and that.

But then that means... alas, the more the story tries to fit together, the more it unravels. It's like trying to fix a slightly bendy floorboard by stamping on the raised end - doing so fixes the one problem but it creates others.

Which is a real shame, because for 520ish pages out of 550 it was a really good book. (There's also an issue with the epilogue, which seems determined to ignore some inconvenient facts in order to secure the mega-happy ending - exactly like Dumbledore's blatant cheating of the system in order to secure a Gryffindor win in the first Harry Potter book. But that's a comparitively minor problem.)

Still, it's good enough that I'll probably read the sequel when it comes out in paperback next year. Assuming it's again in the "2 books for £7" offer, of course.

#37: "Solo", by William Boyd
#38: "The Cuckoo's Calling", by Robert Galbraith

Markers

I've been reading "Solo" recently, the new James Bond novel by William Boyd. It's a fairly decent read, although surprisingly lacking in thrills. However, while it's a decent novel, it's just not a very good James Bond novel.

I've been thinking about just why this is, and I have a theory. Unfortunately, if correct that theory means that nobody can ever again write a good new James Bond novel. Indeed, even Ian Fleming couldn't write a good new James Bond novel at this point (if he were alive, of course).

The issue is what I call 'markers'.

In certain series there are distinct markers that are used as a shorthand to the audience to put them at ease and make them comfortable. A Superman film will never deviate very far from the classic suit design, will have Clark Kent as Superman, will have Lois Lane as the love interest, and Lex Luthor will never be too far from the scene (as I understand it, he's in the sequel). Similarly, Batman is Bruce Wayne, the orphan billionaire. Similarly, when casting the new Star Trek movies, there was a need that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto bore a certain physical resemblance to Shatner and Nimoy, respectively. A Star Wars movie pretty much must include lightsabers (and, probably, two particular droids).

And so on.

With the James Bond movies, the set of markers has become quite extensive, indeed to the point where pretty much anyone could write a (really bad) James Bond movie: take two or three exotic locations, three gadgets from Q-branch, a car packed with all sorts of gadgets, three attractive women (he's been upgraded - it used to be two), a bad guy with some sort of obscure physical defect, "vodka martini", "Bond, James Bond", the Walther PPK, some terrible puns... give them a good shake together, and it's done.

(And, yes, "Casino Royale" didn't use all of these, and subverted some others, but actually that was rather the point in that movie. But with "Skyfall" we're back to business as usual.)

The thing is, though, that the James Bond novels also have a set of markers. And these are both subtly different from those in the movies and also, in a few cases, they're incompatible with the ones in the movies - for instance, Bond drives a different car, and drinks a different drink, and is very particular about such things.

The problem is that the majority of readers of a new Bond novel will be people who have only ever seen the films. They will, therefore, expect the novel to contain the various markers that they're used to. And for commercial reasons, therefore, the novel needs to match those expectations.

Conversely, people who have read the novels will expect any new work to serve as a companion piece - they'll be looking for the markers from the novels.

In order to succeed, therefore, a new Bond novel needs to satisfy both. But since the markers are incompatible, this cannot be done.

There have been three recent attempts to write a new Bond novel, and thus three attempts to square that circle. Of these, I've read one, skipped one, and am reading the third. (I skipped Deaver's attempt as I have no real interest in a "literary reboot" of Bond. I find the notion of a continuing adventure, set in the 60's, interesting, but not any update.)

For much of its length, I found "Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks to be an excellent read - for about 200 pages it's almost indistinguishable. Unfortunately, it completely goes to pieces in the last third, turning into a bad Roger Moore Bond film in tone. Such a shame.

William Boyd has taken a very different tack, though. Where Faulks tried to write "as Ian Fleming", Boyd has instead absorbed the existing novels and then written his own novel. Essentially, he's doing a work "inspired by" Fleming's novels. Which is a fine approach, I guess, and it gives me reason enough to consider looking up his other works. But the truth is that I wasn't looking for a William Boyd novel; I was hoping for a James Bond novel, and by that metric it fails. Again, a shame.

I will be interested to see if they do another attempt at a new James Bond novel, and if so in who they choose to write it. Assuming it's again set in the 'classic' time, and assuming it's a continuation rather than another reboot, I'll no doubt pick it up and give it a read... and then complain about it again. Still, I do think it's a worthwhile exercise; if nothing else, it helps me identify authors that might be worth giving a look in their own right.

#36: "Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Rulebook", by Cublicle Seven

Success!

The bathroom ceiling is now dry, and unlike previous attempts this one has actually succeeded - no nasty cracks all across it.

So, that's that job done.

Dear Tabloids...

If it's not too much trouble could you please, please stop trying to talk us into a war with Russia? At present the situation in Ukraine looks really bad, and it's certainly very tense all around, but there's far more that we don't know than that we do. The last thing we need is people pouring large amounts of oil on it.

I should probably make clear at this point that I'm not defending Vladimir Putin. By all accounts, he's not a particularly nice person, in charge of a not-particularly-nice government. But there are three things to be considered:

1. He's not a modern-day Hitler or Stalin. He's just not. Behave.
2. It's fair to say that our own leaders aren't particularly nice either. For instance, I'm not entirely convinced that Russia's anti-gay agenda is really worse than telling terminally ill people that they're fit to work. And, of course, after Iraq we don't really have any moral high ground on the issue of invading other countries.
3. Probably most important, though: nice or not, Vladimir Putin is smart. In fact, he appears to be a good bit more intelligent than our leaders. So if he is indeed the mastermind behind the shooting down of this plane, it's because he's trying to start a war, and that because his forces are ready. That's something rather important to consider before rushing in.

Military action against Russia may now be inevitable. It may even be the right thing to do. But it also goes beyond being something we don't want to do unless we absolutely must - it's something we don't want to do even if we absolutely must. Because even if we 'win', we'd end up vastly the worse off for it having been done.

So, yeah, rather than the daily set of headlines designed to out-outrage your rivals in order to sell copy, with the by-product of talking us into a war we really don't want to fight, could you please STFU and let cooler heads prevail? I'm sure Jordan has some tasty revelations about her private life you could cover instead. (And, incidentally, that goes for the BBC and, especially, Sky News as well.)

Update on Goals

Another 50 days done, reaching day 200 of the year. So, time for another update...

• Weight: This hasn't gone well - as usual, my trip away caused a nasty weight gain which means I'm actually worse than where I started. Hopefully the remaining 165 days of the year will be more effective on this one.
• Work: Work remains good. That said, I've been on holiday for the past week and a half, so I couldn't really complain, could I? I'm hoping the remainder of the year goes the same way, and if so then I'll be happy indeed.
• Books: I'm now, suddenly, ahead on this goal - I've read 35 of the books for the year, taking me to the end of July, and I'm not without hope I'll actually hit 38 by the end of this month. Better yet, I'm up to date on all of my sub-goals, with the sole exception of the Pathfinder which, due to an oddity in the release schedule, doesn't have an entry in July but instead has two in August. So that's good.
• Games: There's not been much movement on this one. I played in another session of Numenera, completing that sub-goal, which means the only thing remaining are my one-shot games. I have two scheduled, "Ultraviolet: 2XS" and "Firefly: Inglorious", which leaves me one short of my target. I'm hoping to schedule something in October, but that remains to firm up - I'll update next time.
• Maintenance: I had a 'final' attempt at fixing the bathroom ceiling, but it didn't work. I'm now in the process of having one more, really final this time, attempt at the same. One way or another, I'll have an answer on that by Monday. Lady Chocolat has also graciously taken the carpet cleaning off my hands, so that's no longer an issue. Those two done, this goal will be belatedly finished.
• Computer: This was completed last time.
• Money: One payment to go, and so by this time next month I'll have completed this goal.

And that's that. The above is almost exactly what I predicted with my last update, and I'm pretty happy with it. The only goal that remains problematic is the first one, and that's not really a surprise when looked at objectively.

The next update should be on the 7th of September. I don't expect to have too much to report at that stage - I expect the Work and Books goals should now remain on target, and that the Maintenance and Money goals will join the Computer goal in being completed. I do hope to have some progress to report on the Weight issue, and I'll have come to a decision regarding games for the remainder of the year, one way or another.

By the next update, the band's competition season will also be complete, so at that point I'll have something to report there, too.

The Order of Willie Scott

So, I went to see "Transformers: Age of Extinction" last night. I'm not going to bother with much of a review: Michael Bay has these down to a fine art now, so if you liked the first three you'll like this; if you didn't like the first three, you won't like this. For what it's worth, I rate them 2 > 4 > 1 > 3, but that's like rating Spice Girls singles - they're just varying levels of awfulness.

(That said, I did like some things: most of the Autobot character designs; Hound; the Dinobots!; Prime's original disuise form; that Prime had the Autobot shield in his new disguise form; Frasier Crane's character; and the Dinobots!)

But I'm getting really sick of a particular depiction of women that seems to crop up in films rather too often, which I have chosen to call the Order of Willie Scott, after the character in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".

This character type is distinguished as follows: the actress is cast because she looks good but usually (but not always) lacks any acting experience and indeed talent. The character is then portrayed as being completely useless. She exists to shriek at opportune moments, to get herself into all sorts of trouble, and to generally motivate the manly men to go off on their adventures. As a side-order of awfulness, the character is usually (but again, not always) depicted as being 'strong' by virtue of constantly defying the paternalistic male figure in her life - be that her father as here, or the hero (who, by virtue of being the hero must of course be the surrogate father-figure /sarcasm) - generally serving to get herself into yet more trouble.

Now, in fairness, there is a certain counter-argument here: faced with a war between giant transforming robots, it's not really a surprise that someone might go to pieces. Indeed, there was one scene in particular that would have had me curling up in a ball and just accepting death. But that's actually part of the point: in film, it's invariably the female character (especially the OWS) who cries, and cowers, and gets rescued, while the manly men bellow, and stand, and do the rescuing. It's not a realistic human response to danger; it's a patronising faux-female response to danger.

(The reality, with something like this, is that some people would be shattered and some would adapt more quickly. But it's likely that that adaptation wouldn't cut across the 'classic' lines: faced with a war between giant transforming robots, there's no telling whether it would be the manly man or his seventeen year old daughter who is better able to cope. Indeed, there's an argument for it being the latter, as she has less life experience to be confounded.)

So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to induct Nicola Peltz's Tessa Yeager into the Order of Willie Scott, alongside Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's Carly, and of course Willie Scott herself (but, incidentally, not Megan Fox's Mikaela Banes - Michael Bay does actually know how to do better, he just chooses not to).

(Of course, I've also previously complained about the 'fake' badass warrior woman - the one who is portrayed as being tough and independent and awesome... right up to the point where the script-writers need to establish how great the 'real' hero is, at which point she'll need rescued. I don't like that either. My preference is for characters like Lady Sif from "Thor", Eowyn from "Lord of the Rings", Delenn or Susan Ivonova from "Babylon 5", Sarah Connor from "Terminator", or Ellen Ripley from "Alien".)

Actually, it occurs to me that "Transformers: Age of Extinction" could have been improved hugely by the simple expedient of changing the sex of Mark Wahlberg's character. Though it should be noted that I didn't see anything wrong with his performance.

-ary

A couple of years ago, I complained that "How I Met Your Mother" had run into problems, largely because it had fallen into a holding pattern. I was actually quite dismayed when the 9th season was announced, because while I wasn't enjoying it, I felt a need to see it through to the end (see also: Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire, Outlander). But I actually enjoyed most of the 9th season - the need to bring things to a close forced the writers to actually get moving and tell their story (see also: the last book of Wheel of Time), and the introduction of The Mother added a whole new dimension to the show. Good stuff.

Then they did the finale, and managed to completely blow it.

Of course, most of the discussions about the show have already been had, probably those months ago when it finished in the US, so I'll be brief. My problems with the finale were threefold:

1. They casually threw away basically all of the character growth and change of the past several years. I actually complained about Barney's "growing up" those two years ago, but it was an undeniable aspect of the character, and his and Robin's relationship was pretty key. And then then threw it away, had him revert back to his former persona... and then do another 180 turn in an instant. Not good. Similarly, one of the key features of the last season was Ted's finally realising that Robin was not the one for him, and that he had to let her go. And then they turned that one around, too. Good work, there. The only characters who weren't betrayed by this were Marshall and Lily... who had basically remained constant throughout so had nothing to revert back to.
2. Likewise, The Mother was very badly treated. That character had been crucial to so much in the show, even before she was seen, and then the cast and writers had done an exceptional job of showing that she and Ted were indeed right for each other (even without showing us the meeting). And there, again, she was written out in about fifteen seconds, because time was short. Again, not good.
3. But the big issue was the epilogue, where it's revealed that the story's not really about how Ted met The Mother at all but, surprise!, it's all about Ted and Robin after all. And so we get a theoretical happy ending: Ted and Robin live happily ever after. But there's a massive problem with that: the show spent years making it abundantly clear that while Ted really wanted Robin to be The One, she just wasn't right for him. It had taken him an awful lot to realise that, and caused a huge amount of heartbreak along the way (messing up all sorts of stuff between them), but it was true: Robin just was not right for Ted - he was in love with an imagined version of her, not the reality. (I think perhaps the issue here was that their hands were tied by virtue of having filmed the scene with the kids a decade ago, and couldn't reshoot due to them aging in the meantime. But while this explains the problems, it doesn't so readily excuse them.)

So, anyway, that's that. And now I have another gap in my TV schedule to fill - counting everything there are maybe only half a dozen shows to watch all year.

Silence Falls

August is the month of the Seventh Doctor, as portrayed by Sylvester McCoy - sadly, also the last Doctor of the classic era. Thanks to the machinations of the BBC, I actually missed a large chunk of McCoy's tenure - I missed his first companion entirely, and saw only parts of the adventures with Ace!.

Unfortunately, having viewed some of the McCoy stories later, I'm inclined to think that cancellation actually was the best thing for the show. The reality was that computer SFX were just hitting big in the US but they were still very expensive. So Doctor Who was never going to match up with "Star Trek: the Next Generation", never mind "Babylon 5" and the shows that followed it. It really needed massive investment or it would look really cheap... and the BBC weren't in a position to give it the investment it needed.

Faced with that, I'm afraid cancellation was necessary. And in some ways it was good - it allowed a new generation of fans to grow up, and led directly to the RTD and Moffat eras.

This month's short story is titled "Ripple Effect", and is by Malorie Blackman. As the name may imply, it deals with the Doctor (aided by Ace!) making an unwise decision and the consequences being far reaching indeed. It features Daleks, but not as we know them...

It was a good read, certainly being a decent diversion for an hour or so. Still, as with so many of these short stories, it barely gets going before it's time to wrap up. In particular, I think I would have preferred a bit more deciding to fix the problem and a bit less being forced to fix the problem - there was an interesting dilemma there, but it was largely sidestepped by the urgency of the situation.

The novel was "Remembrance of the Daleks", by Ben Aaronovitch, the novelisation of his serial of the same name.

I suppose that was an inevitable choice - when picking eleven novels for a "50th anniversary collection" there are a few things you have to include: one featuring each Doctor, one each with Daleks, the Master, Cybermen... one written by Terrance Dicks, and one novelisation. This hits three of those in one fell swoop. And with it also being Ben Aaronovitch's first published novel, and given his later success elsewhere, it must have been a no-brainer to include it.

It's fair to say, though, that it wouldn't have been my choice.

There's nothing particularly wrong with "Remembrance..." Indeed, given that it was the last Dalek story for years, it made for a good ending for their particular story. And yet, it suffers a bit, as do many of the seventh Doctor stories, by the Doctor having a plan that he's following but which looks like a completely random sequence of actions. He goes here and does that, then he goes there and does this, and then... it all comes together. That makes things quite frustrating - it's as if some exposition is just missing.

The novelisation of "Remembrance..." also suffers from much the same flaw as I found with "From Russia With Love" - with that Bond story the film captured the essence of the book so well (and with "Remembrance..." it's the reverse) that it just seems redundant - yes, it's a decent story, well told and well written, but... I've seen it before. I can't read it without Sylvester McCoy's voice in my head, delivering exactly those lines. When Ace! says "but professor..." it's Sophie Aldred I hear. I know the story, I've seen it relatively recently, so why bother reading it?

None of which is Ben Aaronovitch's fault, of course. Indeed, one could argue that that's exactly what you want from a novelisation. But it does hopefully explain why I think I would rather have had something else instead.

Anyway, that's the classic era done. Next up is poor Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, the longest and the shortest. I always felt that while his TV movie was pretty terrible, he himself could have been a great Doctor, and I was really glad to see him get another chance in "Night of the Doctor". So I'm rather looking forward to next month's adventures in time and space...

#30: "Firefly Roleplaying Game: Core Book", by Margaret Weis Productions
#31: "Cross-Stitch" ("Outlander in the US), by Diana Gabaldon (A book from The List)
#32: "Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks", by Ben Aaronovitch
#33: "The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day", by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen
#34: "Ender's Game", by Orson Scott Card (A book from The List)
#35: "The Crusader Road", by Michael A. Stackpole

The Riding of the Marches 2014

Another week, another competition. We at least got to play at this one, and did much better than we'd expected (we had real problems getting set up to play). We came 6th out of 8, which wasn't great but wasn't too bad, all things considered.

I also mostly enjoyed the parade through the streets, as the weather was nice and lots of people had come out in support. Also, some of the groups in the parade were really quite creative - I particularly liked the "Riding of the Minions".

Ultimately, though, it really wasn't the best of days, for all the usual reasons.

Oh well. There are now six competitions to go (two Championships and four minors), and then the season will be done. I'm looking forward to that.

(One thing that wasn't particularly good either is that I'm still wading through the book I was reading last year, which I'm still not enjoying. Still, I only have 155 pages to go...)

The Coffee Penance Ends

A couple of years ago, in a bid to distract me from my Irn Bru problem, I started drinking coffee at work (with the consequence that I now have both an Irn Bru problem and a coffee problem). After a few weeks of trying out various types and brands of coffee, I settled on Kenco's "Columbian" coffee as my drink of choice. Which is mostly fine and uncontroversial.

Unfortunately, Tesco in Falkirk have decided to become rubbish, and seem to be intent on reducing the range of things that they carry or, worse, stocking them only erratically. This has already had the terrible ordeal of forcing me to to buy green! mouthwash on one occasion (and, horribly, they've also sometimes had the green! and red! mouthwash on offer but not the blue stuff, provoking the most terrible of dilemmas). And the same has applied to coffee - naturally, they've retained a fairly extensive range but become erratic in stocking the one I actually want.

So, the last time I found myself running out of coffee, Tesco were of course out of stock. So, rather than go a week without, I was forced to try an alternative. After much careful consideration, I plumped for Nescafe's "Blend 37", that being one I hadn't had before. (Nescafe also have a "Columbian" coffee, but I've learned in the past that this is a cruel trick.)

So, I picked up a jar of "Blend 37", and that should have been the end of it. It was horrible, but it was just one jar and so just three weeks of bad coffee - not a disaster. And, indeed, had it been one jar I might even have been tempted to throw it away as soon as I could get an alternative. A waste, to be sure, but one I could blame on Tesco and so move on.

But I made a terrible, stupid mistake. See, I'd run out of coffee both at home and at work (because I'd run out at work and so taken the jar from home to work, and then run out again). So, having decided to try "Blend 37", just as I was about to move on... I picked up a second jar for the flat!

Naturally, this was a total disaster. I don't even drink coffee at home all that much, and could have easily managed without for a week. But, no, I grabbed the second jar of granulated horribleness, took it home, and then discovered my mistake (whereupon I didn't drink any coffee at home for weeks).

This of course created a bigger problem - it wasn't one jar but two, and it wasn't Tesco's fault but my own stupid mistake that caused the problem. Consequently, just throwing the coffee away wasn't an option. It had to be drunk.

(Plus, in another cruel irony, the coffee went from "dire" to merely "horrible" by switching from a heaped tablespoon per mug to two-thirds of that... meaning it lasted even longer. Gah!)

The upshot of that is that today is a day of celebration - I finally finished the last of "Blend 37"! And since I picked up some more as soon as it came back into stock, I can resume Kenco's "Columbian" on Monday. Huzzah!

Making an Exception

Over the past few weeks, I've been gradually reading through the rulebook for the new Firefly RPG. And, naturally enough, once I've finished it I'll be wanting to add it to my list of books read for the year.

There's just one thing, though. Back when I started recording the list of books read, I set up a number of rules: it's a book if the publishers say it's a book; one set of covers is one book; and when tackling an anthology of which I've already read part, I only need to read the 'new bits' to count the whole. In particular, that "one set of covers" rule has a corollary that eBooks don't count (not having covers). Indeed, I specifically noted this restriction way way back when I first posted on the topic.

The reason that that matters is that the Firefly RPG is a PDF, as the hardcopy hasn't arrived yet - it's on pre-order with Amazon, but has been delayed since March (-ish). Having gotten bored waiting, and since the electronic form of RPGs is frequently useful when preparing anyway, I picked up the PDF at fairly low cost, and have since started reading that.

So, I found myself with something of a dilemma - how to add the Firefly RPG to the list of books while adhering to my self-imposed rules?

So, I considered not including Firefly on the list, on the grounds that the rules exclude it. I also considered deliberately stopping just short of finishing the book until the hard-copy arrived, and then reading the last page or two in the physical version (and thus sneaking it in under the 'new bits' clause). At which point I decided that that was pretty absurd.

At length, I've decided to make an exception to the rules, and just include it once it's finished. If nothing else, when the physical copy arrives I'll take a look through it anyway, at which point I can sneak it in under the 'new bits' rule - per standard logic rules "all the new bits" evaluates to TRUE if there are no new bits. (Besides, I actually do expect there to be a couple of new bits - probably some back-cover blurb and one or more adverts for upcoming products - that have been omitted from the PDF.)

As a general principle, it's probably time to relax the "one set of covers" rule to admit eBooks and PDFs. (Not that I expect to make much use of such a clause, as I have neither a Kindle nor iPad, and don't like reading PDFs or eBooks on a PC screen.) The only problem there is that it's not immediately obvious how such things should be measured - if I were to get a compiled PDF of, say, the "Hunger Games" trilogy, would that count as one book or three? With a physical version, that's obvious, but not so with the electronic form.

(For now, I'll only include electronic versions of things that are also available as physical books, and list them in the same manner as I would the corresponding physical book. So if that electronic version of the "Hunger Games" trilogy matched to a one-book physical version it would count as one, where if it corresponded to a boxed set containing all three then it would count as three. Either way, I'll note when something was in electronic form, and if you really want to take issue with it then you can... though I don't promise not to shake my head sadly in your general direction.)

The European Pipe Band Championships 2014

Brace yourself for a new tale of "The Worst Thing That Has Ever Happened..."

Yesterday was the European Championships, the third of five majors for the year, but the second attended by the pipe band. As with last year, and as will be the case next year, the event took place in Forres, waaay up North.

So, I got up at 4am (!) to get ready for the event. This very early start was necessitated largely by my concern that I'd spend the morning in zombie-state and so need some time to get my brane in gear - as proved to be the case. Still, I made ready and then left the flat, walking through the early-morning sunlight to the bus. Huzzah!

We went to our second pick-up, where there was some concern that out Tenor drummers weren't there. One of these had said she was working and, although she would try, she wasn't sure she could move her shift. The other had been at all previous events, but had missed the practice on Thursday, so there was some concern - did she know the pick-up time? A text was sent; no reply was received, and so we left after a further 15 minutes waiting.

Turned out, she was the lucky one...

The first two hours of the drive up there were uneventful. I read the end of my Pathfinder, having failed to finish it on Friday, I concluded that next year I would definitely go up there on the Friday, event if the band did not (while the Pipe Major was likewise concluding that the band would definitely have to do the same!), and then I started on my next book. (I haven't finished it yet, but will post about it when the time comes. It's not a good one.)

After two hours, we stopped for the driver to get a rest, while the rest of us got some breakfast (second, or third, or something) from a cafe. This was a roal and sausage that was adequate, and some hot brown water that claimed to be coffee (but really wasn't). And then we were on the road again.

About an hour later, some 50 minutes from Forres, suddenly the noise of the engine changed. The bus driver exclaimed, "It's just cut out!" And then there were two miles of gradual slowing down, coupled with some attempts to restart the master engine. But no joy.

We came to a halt in a more-or-less safe bit of road, where there was a third lane in the middle of the road that would allow other traffic to pass. Then, several people disappeared and went crawling under and around the bus (the driver, a guy who drives tankers for a living, and a guy who knows a bit about engines). They fiddled for a bit and thought they'd fixed it (spoiler: they hadn't), and so made their way back on board.

Unfortunately, at this point the driver noticed that the hazard lights weren't working any longer. The battery had gone flat almost immediately. Needless to say, this meant that the bus wouldn't start - a flat battery means no starter motor. So, a call was made to Volvo for someone to come and help.

At this point, it was almost but not quite certain we wouldn't get there in time. So, the pipe major spent some time getting all the chanters ready to play, just in case, and a few people had to get changed on the bus. (Fortunately, I was not among them.) Also, we looked into possibilities of calling ahead to say we'd be late, though it wasn't expected this would help - there have been cases of unscrupulous bands saying they've broken down in order to get to go on last (no, seriously!), so the RSPBA takes a dim view of such things. In any case, it turned out that we couldn't get through, so that was that.

At length, the guy from Volvo came, he fixed the bus at least temporarily, he jump-started the engine, and we were on our way. Apparently the choke switch had triggered by mistake, both cutting off the engine and discharging the battery. Removing the switch removed the problem, though wasn't a 'good' solution as the choke switch is a safety feature. (Though not an absolutely-essential one, more like the airbags in a car - you'd rather have them working than not, but can manage without.)

Unfortunately, by that point it was obvious we couldn't get there in time.

There was then a discussioin about what to do. The truth is that there was no appetite for just turning round and heading straight back (another three hours driving). So we went and saw some of the other bands, left at 4 instead of waiting for the march-past, and got back about 8:45 instead of midnight.

All in all, it was a complete waste of a day, and a fairly uncomfortable one since I was stuck in my uniform all day. Still, it could have been worse, I suppose - it could have been cold and/or raining, or we could have been in real contention for the season and so lost out on our final placing. "Fortunately", we're not, and instead were hoping for a sneaky sixth place just to get something for the year - so not the biggest loss.

But next year, we'll definitely be heading up there the night before!

#28: "Angela's Ashes", by Frank McCourt (A book from The List)
#29: "Pathfinder: Secrets of the Sphinx", by Amber E. Scott

Helensburgh Highland Games 2014

This weekend has been spent almost entirely on band stuff, which isn't ideal - I would really prefer not to have "double headers" of this sort. Still, I believe this is the last one for this year, so that's good.

Saturday was spent at the Grangemouth Gala Day, which was fine - a long parade followed by lunch and then a short massed bands performance. It was hot and sunny, so actually a fairly pleasant day all things considered. (Although I really don't like wearing sunblock, which seems to cause me all sorts of problems. Still, better than the alternative.)

Sunday was then spent at the Helensburgh Highland Games, where we resumed our competition season after a week off (and, since I missed the last competition, I resumed after two weeks off).

The day did not have an auspicious start - the bus took about 90 minutes to get there, but the driver took what seemed an especially winding route there, which meant I spent a lot of that time actually feeling quite sick. Still, we made it through.

The day was, again, hot and sunny. This is always nice, despite the sunblock issue. Additionally, we were fairly relaxed in our preparations, went on, played, and felt pretty good about it - probably our best performance of the year to date.

The rest of the day was okay, albeit boring. I spent most of it reading "Angela's Ashes", which I didn't quite manage to finish. There was an incident, which I'll come back to, but otherwise things were okay.

We came fourth out of five, which was a slightly disappointing result. That said, with so few competitors it's hard to know how we start in relation to other bands - we might have come fourth out of ten, or ninth. So it was at least fairly positive.

And then the journey home was okay. This time, our route took us through Glasgow and on the motorway, which made for a much more pleasant journey. I got home about 8 - a long day, but not the worst.

Alas, it wasn't long after that before my phone started to ring. As I said, there was an incident, part of which I saw but thought nothing of, but the rest of which I'd missed. But there's been a complaint about bullying made, which means of course that we have to take action. Not good.

(Plus, we found out on Friday that our free 'let' of the school we use for practices is going to cease to be free as of August, and since we don't have the money required to pay, we will simply have to find a new practice venue. Also not good. Sometimes it seems that everyone is really keen to have a local pipe band, but very few people actually want to help that band out. Oh well.)

Dear FA...

So, England are effectively out of the World Cup. Granted, it's still mathematically possible for them to go through (if Italy win both their matches, and England beat Costa Rica, and the goal difference goes for them), but take it from a Scotsman - hoping for the "mathematically possible" is folly.

Anyway, in light of last night's defeat, the media have gone into immediate post-mortem mode, trying to find someone to blame and some way forward. And it would appear that the expectation is that Roy Hodgson will be identified as the scapegoat and either resign or be sacked.

This would be a mistake.

There are two things that really should be borne in mind here:

Firstly, the draw for this World Cup has thrown up some groups that are dominated by a single big team (for example, it looks likely that both France and Argentina will easily win their groups, and in fact will just glide into the quarter finals without issue), and some groups that are hugely difficult. England are in one of the latter sort. And if you're in a really tough group, it's not hugely surprising if you don't get through it - someone has to lose.

Secondly, it was always known that Roy Hodgson had a significant rebuilding job to do. With the gradual retirement of the so-called (and over-rated) "Golden Generation" there was always going to be a need to bring through lots of new players, establish a new defence and attack, and generally bring the team forward. That process has begun, but it's not done yet, and not by a long way.

For the two reasons above, most of the informed analysts were suggesting that England would face a difficult time and would likely fail to progress from their group. That being the case, given that England have faced a difficult time and likely failed to progress, why the surprise? Why the outrage? "Meets expectations" isn't good enough, but it's no reason to panic.

And it's not as if England were roundly thrashed or played particularly badly. (Well, at least against Italy - against Uruguay they did get caught out at the back at least once when they really couldn't afford it, and they never really looked like equalising a second time.) There are some good players there, the performances were (mostly) disciplined, and there's reason for hope.

The thing to do at this point is simply: Keep Calm and Carry On. Don't change the manager, don't try to overhaul the playing staff radically... just wait. Two years from now, the 'kids' who are just breaking into the side will be markedly better. The team will be more used to playing together. They'll just naturally do that bit better - not well enough to win, right enough, but then there's probably no manager and no possible England team that could be fielded that would win.

Longer term, achieving that win would require the production of a large number of new, top-quality players. It's not a matter of finding 11 world-beaters, or even 25 to make up a squad; it's a matter of getting together 50 with a mix of youth and experience. You don't get that in 2 years. It's a decade-long project at best. And, for reasons I've posted before, it's probably never going to happen. Sorry.

But for now, it's really just a matter of beating Costa Rica (not to qualify, but to salvage some pride), and then looking forward to the next one. Panicking is the wrong response, and really won't help.

Don't Say It Too Loud...

... but I'm rather hoping for an England win tonight. Despite the defeat, I felt they played very well against Italy, and the truth is that the World Cup will just be much more interesting with England than it will be once they're out. So, provided they play well again, a deserved win would be a nice result.

I can't see them progressing beyond the next round, though.

On a mostly-unrelated note, I'm really enjoying this World Cup. The timings of the matches are pretty much ideal (what with kick off of the first match coming just as I finish work), and the matches themselves have mostly been fun, with some really good ones out there. Thus far, it has of course been Holland and Germany who have most impressed me, though I sense both Brazil and Argentina are still to show us what they can really do.

And the demise of Spain was most interesting. It seems teams now have the beating of them; it felt a bit like the end of an era, like when Federer suddenly ceased to be invincible.

#27: "Raising Steam", by Terry Pratchett (great book, as always, though not quite a contender for Book of the Year.)

How to Fix Westminster

Warning: this is a tedious 'politics' post. Feel free to skip it! (Also, I promise not to do another one until the World Cup is over - I'll talk about football instead.)

I've mentioned before that my reason for voting "Yes" in September is largely due to my belief that politics in the UK is unfixably broken. That raises an obvious question: what would a fix look like?

(After all, "unfixably broken" really isn't a helpful definition. By defining what I would consider a fix, though, that should give some scope of the issue, and explain why I don't think it's realistic to expect change.)

So, what would a fix look like? Well, the first thing is that I believe we need approximately 650 new MPs. Assuming the front benches on the government and opposition sides represent the cream of the crop, I feel confident in declaring that they're just not fit for purpose.

However, my issues are more to do with how MPs are selected and how they operate, rather than the specifics of the people we currently have there. I therefore have a further eight general points, and then one further point specific to the Labour party. So, in time-honoured 'list' format...

1. MPs should be required to maintain their primary residence in their constituency, and to have lived there for 5 years prior to seeking selection. This one is quite straightforward - an MP should be there to represent his/her constituency in Westminster, not to represent Westminster to his/her constituency. Some random bod dropped in from Oxbridge because it's a safe Labour seat really can't do that.
2. MPs should be selected by the local party without interference from central office. Again, that's a simple one - local people should be the ones to choose who they want to represent them. I understand what Harriet Harman is trying to do with all-women short-lists, but she's wrong - it's anti-democratic. (And, yes, that does mean that if the local party is racist, sexist, or homophobic then they might select a horror as candidate. That's where you hope the electorate are smart enough to vote otherwise and/or the other parties are at least remotely competent in highlighting the fact.)
3. Remove party alliegance from the ballot paper. Firstly, because we (at least in theory) elect a person to represent us, not a party. But it's also because this forces the parties to get the name of the candidate out there in order to win votes; they have to campaign in all constituencies, not just the thirty or so 'swing' constituencies in the South East of England. (Despite being reasonably politically-aware, I know next to nothing about Eric Joyce, my MP, and I knew literally nothing about the SNP guy I voted for last time - not even his name. That's really not healthy.)
4. We need a proper right of recall. The current government have introduced something, which is to the good, but it doesn't go far enough. I suggest the following: 10% of the electorate in the event of any conviction, any meaningful breach of their code, if they are stripped or the party whip, or if they choose to leave their party. Or if 40% of the turnout demand a recall, they should be able to do so unconditionally once in the term of the parliament. (For example, Falkirk has approx 82,000 voters, of whom 62% voted at the last election. Under my proposal, Eric Joyce would have faced recall when he was stripped of the Labour whip provided 8,200 voters demanded it (10%), or unconditionally if 20,336 voters demanded it (40% of the 62% turn out). That's still a very high threshold, but it does at least provide the option.) Oh, and we should have an (at least theoretical) ability to demand the dissolution of parliament entirely, and thus force a General Election.
5. We need minimum attendance requirements for MPs, both in the House and in their constituencies.
6. Manifesto commitments need to be made legally binding. Otherwise, how are we supposed to know what we're voting for? (Plus, that eliminates one of my biggest outrages - first Labour campaigned that they wouldn't introduce top-up fees, and then did exactly that; then the Lib Dems made personal pledges to work to eliminate fees, and then voted to increase them to £9k a year. The Tories are the only party I can trust on the topic of tuition fees, which is horrible.)
7. MPs' pattern of work needs radically changed. This involves both dramatically reducing the number of holidays they have per year and dramatically reducing the hours they work when they are there. At the moment, MPs seem to be bone-idle half the time and half-dead with exhaustion the other. Neither is conducive to good governance.
8. Likewise, MP pay should be significantly increased, but their access to expenses vastly curtailed. I don't have a problem with MPs being well paid for what they do. If parliament works, they're actually worth it. But expanses are still a problem. Basically, we've built a system which encourages corruption, and that's really not healthy.

So, those are my 'general' suggestions. As I said, I have one further point which applies specifically to the Labour party:

I don't know what you stand for any more. See, with the Tories it's pretty clear - I don't like what they believe in, but at least I can understand it enough to reject it. But the Labour party talks about being the party of the working class, of being the ones to stand up for the little guy against the bosses, and all that stuff. But, in practice, it's just not so. The current Labour party is further to the right than the Tories were pre-Thatcher. Hell, in some ways the Labour party are further to the right than Thatcher. You're not the party you claim to be; at best, you're marginally better than the Tories. And yes, if my choices are to be punched or to be stabbed, then I'll take the punch. But, frankly, I'd much rather opt-out entirely.

So go back to your founding principles. That way, we at least get a choice. And I don't mind losing an election where I have a real choice but the other guys got more votes.

But if the only real difference between the parties is the one lot wear red rosettes and the other wear blue rosettes, that does me no good whatsoever. Red Dwarf did that joke in 1988 - the hats are supposed to be green.

So there it is.

I'm not actually sure that would be enough - I haven't even touched on things like equal constituency sizes, the House of Lords, or the ability to force referenda on key constitutional issues (the voting system, the monarchy, independence for Scotland/Wales/NI, or EU membership). But it would be a start at least. And I think those are all (except maybe #3) required changes.

So, how many of them do you think are even on the agenda, never mind things that might potentially be addressed before September? Hence "unfixably broken".

Experimental Cookery 2014: Sausages and Rich Onion Gravy

It has been a while since I've done one of these, though they may be a few more coming up fairly soon. LC has finally grown bored with the previous cycle of the various curries, chilli, spaghetti bolognese, and similar that had been the staple for the past couple of years, so now we're searching for another set of favourites. (Ideally, this would include some "freezer foods" that we can cook in batches and freeze and also some "quick cooks" for weeknights.)

This one was taken from the second "Hairy Dieters" book, and was nice and simple to prepare - as they indicated it was about 10 minutes prep followed by 20 minutes of cooking, none of it terribly difficult. So, an ideal "quick cook", at least in theory.

I felt that it was nice, but it hadn't quite worked - the gravy was over-thickened, and the mash had picked up little shavings of non-stickiness from the pan (will need to get some 'stick' saucepans for occasional use, I guess). But I liked the sausages, and felt that the gravy tasted fine.

LC, alas, found she didn't enjoy it. Apparently, she doesn't care for 'posh' sausages. (I was using up the remnants we had in the freezer, so we had 2 Tesco Finest sausages with bramley apple and 3 with herbs.) Which was a shame.

Would I try this again? I'm going to go for a cautious 'yes', I think - one more try with the appropriate lessons applied. In the meantime, I need to come up with some more ideas.

Where It All Went Wrong

Colin Baker is generally regarded as the weakest of the Doctors (Paul McGann usually being exempt from the comparison by virtue of his role as "the longest and the shortest"). Personally, I would place him marginally ahead of Sylvester McCoy, but in both cases I would apply the caveat that I don't think it was the actor's fault in any sense (and that's true of McGann as well) - they did what was asked of them; it's not their fault that the material wasn't all that might be hoped.

With the Colin Baker era, I think there were four problems, none of which were Baker's fault:

1. By that point, the show was just tired. Ironically, for a show that could literally go anywhere and do anything, it had become very formulaic and repetitive. Most stories followed a pattern that varied only slightly, and the show had become very self-referential. Much as I hate to admit it, it really was time for a rest. (It will also be interesting to see what happens to New Who in a few years, as any show that lasts as long as it has runs the same risk.)
2. The costume. Oh dear, the costume. I guess they were going for something truly unique, in a bid to capture the Tom Baker 'scarf'. But they failed rather spectacularly, an in going so they really messed up the tone of this Doctor's adventures. That said, I think they could perhaps have recovered from this, except that...
3. The decision to make this Doctor loud, and arrogant, and overbearing, and, really, not very nice, was an interesting one, and it might just have worked were it not for the other problems. After all, it was something genuinely new. But a big problem with that was that this new, darker, Doctor was quite at odds with the comical costume choice. So, the tone of the whole thing was badly off. Either go for the 'darker' Doctor with a darker outfit (see the Ninth Doctor for a good example), or go for a louder, comic Doctor with the clown-suit. Either could have worked (maybe). But there was one other problem that they just couldn't recover from...
4. In the Sixth Doctor's first episode ("The Twin Dilemma", part one), and in fact in his second or third scene, immediately after picking out the clown-suit, we have an extremely troubling scene where the new Doctor has a "funny turn" during which he is really, genuinely nasty to poor Peri and then tries to kill her. That scene, by itself, consigns the new Doctor to the scrapheap. There's no coming back from that.

It's all such a missed opportunity. Creatively, the notion of having the Doctor's regeneration being unstable and him being a bit 'off' for a while is a very interesting one. And it does indeed fit given the circumstances of that regeneration. But there's a huge gap between "a bit off" and him being nasty, and especially with him attacking his companion. Combine that with him being not-very-friendly, even after that story, and with the clown-suit, and you've got a disaster.

Likewise, having the new Doctor be rather abrasive, arrogant, and generally not-very-nice is also an interesting choice and could have worked well. But not with that costume, and not when you're also dealing with the "unstable regeneration" angle. (And, probably, not immediately after the Davison era, when that Doctor was generally pleasant.)

And none of it is Colin Baker's fault, even though the powers-that-be blamed him for it.

(It should also perhaps be noted that Colin Baker's era does feature some great material. "Revelation of the Daleks" is one of the great stories, close to the level of "Genesis of the Daleks" in quality, while the "Trial of a Time Lord" season is also very very strong. So there's good stuff there, despite the problems.)

Anyway...

June being the month of the Sixth Doctor, I found myself reading the short story "Something Borrowed" by Richelle Mead and the novel "Players" by Terrance Dicks. Both featured the Sixth Doctor and Peri.

Alas, "Something Borrowed" isn't terribly good. Remember how I said that many of the stories by the Sixth Doctor's tenure had become very formulaic? Well, the same is true here, probably as a consequence of the very limited page count. The story features the son of a friend of the Doctor being married to a mysterious woman of a different species. Surprise! It turns out she's up to no good. Surprise! It turns out Peri gets captured. Surprise! There's a rescue. Surprise! The Doctor turns the tables on his foe.

It's something of a shame, because the underlying premise is actually quite good; adapted for the TV show this could actually make for a good episode. And although this is a recurring villain, she's not one who has been as over-used as certain others I could mention.

By contrast, "Players" is fantastic. I suspect this has something to do with the author's huge familiarity with the show - Terrance Dicks was, of course, the guy who wrote a huge number of the novelisations, so he knows his stuff. Plus, he's taken an interesting premise, an interesting segment of history, and some interesting figures from that segment of history and woven together a fun tale. This is, by some ways, the best of the six novels to date.

Next month is, of course, the month of the Seventh Doctor, who seems to have been the Doctor that the BBC deliberately sabotaged - I missed half of one season and all of the other simply because the BBC never bothered to let us know it was on, and then it was dropped due to lack of viewers. (Though, as I said above, the show was getting really tired by that point, so maybe it was for the best, heretical as that sounds.) Unfortunately, next month's novel is merely the adaptation of "Remembrance of the Daleks", which was an okay story, but I would have preferred something else. Still, I suppose we had to have Daleks in there somewhere!

#26: "Players", by Terrance Dicks

The British Pipe Band Championships 2014

Yesterday was the first major of the new season, and also a gloriously sunny day. This combination made for an interesting day...

Starting last year, the RSPBA rearranged the calendar of events. This happens every so often, as the licenses to host the Championships come up for renewal and sometimes go to different venues. So, instead of the Scottish Championships being the first Major, instead the first is now the British Championships, and those are held in Bathgate. This is particularly nice because they're just a short hour in the bus.

As a consequence of this, I got the extreme luxury of a lie in until 8 (8!) on Saturday morning. Then a short walk to the bus, a short ride to the park, a short tune-up, and we played. It was probably our best performance of the year so far, which is nice.

I then spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the bus reading the latest Pathfinder, which is not the best use for a day, but isn't too bad. I found myself growing increasingly tired, and also feeling increasingly unwell due to a really bad headache - this is a consequence of IBS and there was really nothing I could do to shake it.

(At one point, I did make time to see some of the Novice Juvenile bands play - if we set up the Development Band next year then these are going to be our competition. Which is a bit worrying - the standard I saw was very high. Still, since the goal would be just to get our learners some experience, I'm not going to worry about that. Much.)

The march-past was pretty late, but reasonably enjoyable, what with it being a nice day. The chieftain was Susan Boyle, which provided three surprises: firstly, she kept her "response" down to a mere four sentences (which is much appreciated after a long day); secondly, she proved to be a much better chieftain than Sylvester McCoy; and thirdly, she got not one, but two genuine cheers from the assembled bandsmen - normally, it's just some fairly muted polite applause.

We came 10th out of 15 bands - 14th and 10th for piping, 9th for drumming, and 10th for ensemble. Not great, but much better than the previous two outings. We also beat three of the bands who beat us at Dunbar, as that's promising. That said, there's still a long way to go. (It's also worth noting that we're going to miss the UK Championships, so whatever happens there is little chance we'd be up for promotion, so it's largely academic.)

And that was that. I eventually got home at 8:30, which made it a very long day. But probably the best of the three competitions this year.

#23: "The Lovely Bones", by Alice Sebold (A book from The List, and also the new candidate for Book of the Year.)
#24: "Pathfinder: Shifting Sands", by Richard Pett