Gala Day Season Ends

On Saturday my band played at the Broxburn gala day, thus bringing to an end our summer. We have a couple of events late next month, and then a couple at Christmas, but the bulk of our year's programme of events is now complete.

Broxburn itself was about as good as a gala day can be: we got really nice weather, the crowds were out in force, and the parade took about an hour and we played for almost all of it - getting through our repertoire of marching tunes roughly twice (we didn't play one set at all, played one set only once, and played a few sets three times). I always prefer events were we play a lot - the time just passes much more quickly, and although it's a lot more effort, just marching along in silence gets really boring. If we're there to play, let's do that!

For the rest of it, there's not much to say: my time in the band continues to do what I wanted it to do, which is to give me motivation to keep practicing and so stay sharp (ish). I'm very glad not to have the pressure or time commitment of competition to deal with. And while I do feel I could be stretched a bit more and we could do a bit more learning of new tunes, and while I do miss teaching students, I'm disinclined to try to change either of these things.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Despair

While all the madness of Brexit is going on, something really important is happening in US politics. I don't mean Trump's ridiculous notion of buying Greenland, or his petulant response when told that it's a ridiculous notion, but rather the ongoing Democrat primaries. That is, the process by which they select their candidate to go up against Trump in the upcoming election.

Or, as it appears, their selection of a candidate to lose to Trump in the upcoming election.

Unfortunately, the Democrats seem to be fighting this primary as if it were for any other election: a whole bunch of candidates have come forward, many of whom are complete unknowns and will rapidly drop out, most of the rest are offering tired variations on the same old policies that lost last time, and then there's one outlier who has a small but vocal online support... but who ultimately has no more chance of winning than Rory Stewart did in the Tory leadership.

Almost certainly, the nomination will go to Joe Biden, as the safe, obvious choice. Unfortunately, he's even less inspiring a choice that John Kerry was, and we all know how well that turned out. (And if you're reaction to the name John Kerry is, "who?" that rather proves my point. He was the guy who lost to George W. Bush when he ran for his second term. I never thought I'd be nostalgic for that presidency.)

The sad truth is that this is not going to be an election like any other, and the Democrats need to acknowledge that and act accordingly. And that being the case, there should be one and only one criterion for getting the nod: who is the person with the best chance of beating Trump?

Forget the search for the 'perfect' candidate in amongst the sea of minor variants. Forget the outlier candidate, who inspires his core but has no hope in the nation. Forget every other consideration except this: who is most likely to win? That's who you need to nominate, it's the person you all need to get behind, and you need to then provide them with the most compelling message you can.

Or just settle in for another four years of Trump.

Ten Weeks (again)

So, we're back to the point where, unless something changes, we'll be leaving the EU. At present, a catastrophic No Deal exit is looking by far the most likely outcome.

Unlike last time I posted "Ten Weeks", this time I am actually confident that there is a government with an actual plan in place for what they want to do. Unfortunately, their plan seems to be to drive off the cliff as fast as possible, in the hope that when we hit the ground we'll have enough momentum to break right on through to the other side.

And, unfortunately, I can't see any prospect of it being stopped. I suspect we're at the point where the avalanche has already begun. It's too late for the pebbles to vote.

Congratulations to Them

On Saturday it was the World Pipe Band Championships. I didn't go.

However, in the evening while looking after Funsize, I did switch on the BBC's handy web-stream long enough to watch a key part of the prize-giving - specifically the Grade 4B results.

Camelon and District Pipe Band, my former band, came 3rd on the day, but also won the Grade 4B Champion of Champion awards, bring to an end their best season in living memory. So a great many congratulations to them.

Of course, it's somewhat galling that the moment I left was also the moment that they got really good. I wish I could say I believed that was entirely coincidental.

#41: "The Secret Life of Bees", by Sue Monk Kidd (a book from The List)
#42: "Pathfinder: The Emerald Spire Superdungeon", from Paizo Publishing

Shouldn't They Be Polling 15 Year Olds Too?

The big (but, of course, unreported) news from yesterday was that in the latest opinion poll support for Scottish independence has increased to 52% (once Don't Knows are removed), marking the first time in a very long time that there has been a poll showing a majority in favour. (There was one rogue poll just after the Brexit referendum, which is best ignored, and apart from that you're more or less back to a week before the 2014 vote.)

So, yeah, big news.

In among all of the (premature) jubilation in the pro-Independence camp, there has been one criticism pointed at the poll: it doesn't seem to include any polling of EU citizens (who were strongly No last time and would be expected to be strongly Yes next time), and it doesn't seem to include any polling of 16-17 year olds (who are expected to break very slightly in favour of Yes). That being the case, the suggestion is that those figures should probably be ever-so-slightly higher for Yes.

Except...

The polling was conducted under the assumption that "if there was a referendum tomorrow..." The problem with that is that there won't be a referendum tomorrow. Indeed, there's unlikely to be a referendum for several years - Westminster are likely to delay indefinitely, and if Holyrood try to take unilateral action there absolutely will be a legal challenge to the legislation. At the very least, it's near-certain that the earliest another referendum may occur will be in a year's time.

In which case today's 15 year olds will then be 16, and therefore be eligible to vote. Should they, as well as EU (and indeed non-EU) citizens, as well as today's 16-17 year olds not be being polled also? That is, shouldn't the polling really be across the whole of the relevant electorate?

Not that it really matters all that much. This is, after all, one poll. It's also one poll just after Boris Johnson became PM, and it's dealing with a very-much-hypothetical situation. Jubilation on the part of the Yes movement is very much premature... there's a long way to go, and things can change very quickly. Plus, of course, as we've seen from the Brexit referendum, wafer-thin majorities either way are a pretty bad thing. Although the stated conditions for the referendum will necessarily be that 50% + 1 vote is enough for the win, the target really should be an outright majority of the electorate - if independence is to happen, it really should carry with it the settled will of the people.

Admitting Defeat

Over the past several weeks, I've spent a reasonable amount of time searching for a kit of parts with which to fix our damaged wardrobe. WIth such a kit, the fix would be near-trivial, but without it it will be excessively difficult.

Although I've found several options that are reasonably close, in every case they've been close but not close enough. The parts that need replaced appear to be of a non-standard size, and therefore the parts that I've been able to find have invariably been just too big either to fit in the available space or to interface with the other components.

The upshot of this is that I've decided to admit defeat on this repair task. When I get a chance I'll reinstall the damaged lower runner, mostly because it's needed to fill some space, remove the other broken part entirely, and call it a day at that. In the unlikely event that we happen upon matching parts (or if it suddenly turns out that our neighbours get rid of their identical wardrobes) I'll take action then, but otherwise I'm calling it a loss.

And with that I'm bringing the To Do List to a conclusion. There is one job remaining (painting the study), but as discussed previously this will be considered a goal in its own right. And there is one other job that needs done again (mounting the pin board), but I'm not going to maintain a list just for that!

Experimental Cookery 2019: Roasted Wild Rabbit and Bacon with Lone, Thyme, and Parsley Stuffing

I'd never had rabbit before. Indeed, when I mentioned that I was giving this a go on Saturday, both my parents independently launched into their tales of trauma and woe where rabbit was concerned. Which, obviously, was the ideal backdrop to this meal!

The recipe for this one comes from Delia. I got it from her website, so have no idea which book, if any, it comes from. The rabbit itself came from Tebay.

The meal was quick and easy to prepare, involving a fairly large number of ingredients but few that we didn't have in stock anyway (and most of those were for the stuffing). Eventually, it would up in the oven for about 40 minutes, giving a total of almost exactly 100 minutes from start to finish. I could probably cut that down if I did it again.

When the time came to eat the meal, though, it proved to be slightly less enjoyable. Our overall impression was that it was quite nice, but rather too much effort to be worthwhile - getting the meat off the bones proved to be a task in itself. (For what it's worth, the accompaniments were very much the highlight of the meal - the stuffing in particular was a winner. The one thing that really didn't work for me was the sauce for the rabbit.)

(I was also struck by the similarity in flavour between rabbit and venison, despite being significantly different animals. I find myself wondering if that is due to a commonality in the diets or if it is to do with the muscles being well worked. Anyway, it was interesting enough to mention, I thought, even if it didn't really fit anywhere in the post.)

My bottom line was that I'd be willing to have rabbit again, but probably in a pie or similar form, and that I probably won't cook it myself - basically, if I can get someone else to deal with the hassle of taking it off the bones, that'll do me.

#40: "Pathfinder: Midwives to Death", by John Compton

Coasting

Getting a good night's sleep has always been a challenge. Even on holiday it was difficult, as the heat made it difficult for Funsize, which in turn made it difficult for LC and I. Our first night back in the UK was good (thanks, Premier Inn!), but after that it was a matter of struggling through to the weekend, and then beyond. It wasn't until Monday night that I finally got what felt like enough sleep.

As a consequence of that, dinner for the past week has basically been a matter of digging something out of the freezer, letting it defrost, and then reheating it. Pretty much the low-effort approach to keeping people fed.

But, of course, that's exactly the purpose of having a freezer stocked up with pre-cooked (or easy-cook) meals ready for this use. We'd carefully built up a bank of foods for later use and then, when there was a need to take things a bit more easily for a while, you just dip into those reserves and call it good.

That, of course, isn't new, and even if it was would barely qualify as a revelation. Still, it's worth noting the benefits when they pay off, as a reminder that good practices are indeed good.

Of course, the upshot of this is that our reserves are rather less extensive than they might normally be. (Although, awkwardly, we're also short on space in the freezer - there is a lot of food left over from the birthday BBQ and quite a lot of dead space due to poor organisation. So there will need to be some correction there.) The upshot is that over the next few weeks I'll have to cook up some new meals: various curries, chilli, bolognese sauce, maybe a lasagne... oh, and I'll want to make up a couple of batches of burgers for later use. But that's okay - I'll do it in all my free time.

#38: "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis
#39: "The Falcon of Sparta", by Conn Iggulden (probably the new candidate for book of the year)

Finally!

We had the broken washing machine collected yesterday, meaning that the task of clearing the garage is now complete. It has only taken two years, but it's done!

In other news, we managed to get LC's car fixed yesterday, which means we don't have quite the same need for having the garage cleared as we did about a week ago. Still, it's good to know we at least have the option of getting a car in there if we need to.

One of my tasks for the weekend, then, is to put the rest of the things that were in the garage back into the garage, and also to rearrange the garage somewhat so that things that can be stored on the shelves are stored on the shelves - that way, if we ever do need to put a car in again it won't be quite such a challenge.

(I'm also now inclined to accept the wisdom of LC's argument that we should probably invest in a small shed, and store things like the lawnmower in that rather than in the garage. But don't tell LC that...)

Good Omens

"Good Omens" by Pratchett and Gaiman is probably my favourite novel of all time. (Which isn't quite the same as being the best novel I've ever read, which is probably Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" - much as "Star Wars" is my favourite film but "Schindler's List" is probably the best I've seen.) It's one of very few novels I've read on more than one occasion, and one of a vanishingly small number, mostly by Pratchett, that I've read thrice. The combination of two great, but very different, authors writing at the height of their powers, combined with the subject matter, is pretty much made for me.

So it was with some concern that I anticipated the TV adaptation because, as it is written, the book is always better. The fact that it was written by Neil Gaiman, who is now an accomplished scriptwriter, and that he was doing it pretty much as a last request by Terry, helped a little. And the casting of David Tennant and Martin Sheen as the odd couple at the heart of the story, helped too. But could it really do the novel justice?

The answer, surprisingly, is "yes". Mostly. The book is still better, but the series is very good.

(LC and I happened to be in a position to watch this due to our recently getting a Prime subscription. That's a whole other topic, as I'm not terribly happy at doing business with Amazon - I'm very much not a fan of the way they treat their staff or their tax arrangements, or the fact that they pretty much killed off my FLGS and are bringing death to book shops across the country; they're basically the least ethical country I'll still to business with. But, as I said, that's another rant.)

Anyway, Good Omens.

As expected, the central pairing of Tennant and Sheen are very good. The surrounding cast are likewise excellent. I also approved a great deal of taking large sections of the prose from the novel and putting it into the 'mouth' of the narrator - this brings one of the great strengths of the book across to the adaptation and gives the whole thing a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" feel (no bad thing).

I was a little dismayed that all three of my top-three moments from the book were missing from the adaptation, but I guess they had to cut something. And there's enough there that those three are probably amongst the least-painful cuts they could have made (from a storytelling, rather than personal, point of view). So there's that.

One of my colleagues has noted that he really didn't like the last episode because the climax all felt a bit low-budget and, well, crap. I tend to disagree with that assessment - yes, it did seem a bit low-budget but I think that's the point: this isn't a glossy American production with an endless CGI budget; this is what happens when the End of the World happens in Nowhere, England and is just a bit, um, quaint.

Oh yes, and I'm very glad that the end of this series appears to be The End. No need to spin this one out to a second and subsequent series, thank you very much!

And that's that. Do I recommend it? Yes, absolutely. Is it as good as the book? Well, no, but it wasn't going to be. But it's as good as it probably can be.

100 Days to Halloween...

... and here comes the scary clown to make sure that this one is a real nightmare.

End of an (Ice) Age

When I first moved into the flat in Yeovil, way back at the start of Part Two, one of the very first things I purchased was, of course, a fridge freezer. That fridge then came with me back up the road to the first flat in Falkirk, where it spent three years tucked away in the kitchen. (That also marked the start of my pioneering two-fridge approach!) It came with me to the second flat in Falkirk, where the two-fridge approach continued, and then came with us to the house in Livingston, where not only do we have two fridges, but we have two freezers also!

However, during the most recent house move it became very apparent that the fridge was coming to the end of its useful life - it has been making odd and disturbing noises for quite some time, and the back of the fridge was absolutely manky. Over the last few months, the secondary fridge (that came with the house) has also started to groan ominously.

And so we find ourselves coming to the end of an age - it is getting towards time to finally retire and replace the fridge that has done me good service lo these thirteen long years. At the same time, we'll likewise retire the secondary fridge, and return to a more primitive one-fridged lifestyle. (That said, I have my eye on a huge fridge freezer to replace all the existing units and increase our storage space. Plus, the new one is considerably more efficient, which is always a good thing. Ironically, keeping all these things cool is probably our #2 contribution to global warming (after driving).)

Anyway, it's not quite certain yet - we'll need to measure the space into which the new fridge is to live, to make sure it will actually fit without being an impossible disruption; there's been a small issue with the financing of the purchase (barely worth mentioning); and there's the general hassle of actually making the purchase, getting it installed, etc.

Of course, the other big advantage of going to a one-fridge solution is that it frees up a spot right next to the sink, which is ideally suited for adding a dishwasher. Huzzah! (And if we also retire the extra freezer, that then creates a spot that could be used for almost anything...) But that's a consideration for another day...

The Journey From Hell

LC, Funsize, and I have just returned from a holiday in France. I may well write more about that in due course, but for now I'll start at the beginning, and a truly horrendous outward journey.

The plan was straightforward - I finished work on Friday afternoon, we would quickly pack the car and get on the road by 3:30, drive down to Manchester, spend the night in a Premier Inn, then drive to the airport and fly from Manchester to La Rochelle. From there, we'd get a hire car and drive to our final destination in La Tranche Sur Mer. A nice easy, relaxed journey all around.

Yeah, right.

My last day at work was terrible. I made the horrible mistake of trying something new for the first time, and made a bit of a mess on the network... and a mess I didn't have the required permissions to clear up and where the colleague who did wouldn't start work until after I'd left. Oops. Also of note, I was having problems with a slow puncture on my car, had decided the tyre needed blown up, and in the process of doing this I had actually broken my foot pump! (We have two of these, one in each car.)

So I was really glad to get home, shortly after the intended 2:30. We then proceeded to load LC's car with our luggage (and Funsize), and we were off!

Now, in the course of the morning, LC had had her car windows open, in an attempt to keep the car cool. This was fine until, about halfway along the M8 we decided to put them up, only to find that mine (the passenger) rose about halfway and then stuck. Gah! Now, we have seen this before, and it has always been the case that you turn the car off and on again, and it's fine - we thought it was a power issue. In hindsight, we should have stopped immediately, verified this, and if not sought help at once, but hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Instead, we drove to Tebay, and only there discovered that we had a problem - the window just wouldn't go up.

So we called the AA. (Actually, used this app they've been advertising with the Red Dwarf crew recently - because of course the crew of Red Dwarf were so noted for their steely competence.) They said they were very busy, but would hope to be with us in about an hour. We also got a call from the garage they'd contracted the recovery out to, who reiterated that they'd be about an hour.

Fifty minutes later, that estimate changed - they'd be another hour. And then an hour after that it changed again, again adding an hour. About 9pm, after we'd been at Tebay for almost three hours, I finally called the garage to ask for an updated estimate.

After some minutes on hold, I hung up and called back, and this time was told that they were very sorry but that we'd been taken off their system - the AA had been unhappy with their ETA so had reassigned the case. We'd need to call the AA directly.

So I did, and after fighting with the automated switchboard finally got to speak to an actual person, who then put me on hold for 10 minutes while she checked things out. Eventually she got back to me to say she didn't know why the garage had told me we'd been reassigned but that this was incorrect, that the original garage would now be coming to us, but that their best estimate was another hour. This was now 9:20, and we'd been at Tebay for just over three hours.

(Incidentally, that "you've been reassigned"/"I don't know why you were told that" is code for "somebody screwed up the IT stuff, but neither of us is going to admit it".)

At this point, I told them to forget it - we'd deal with the issue ourselves. And instead started on plan B (or probably plan F or something, as we'd discussed several options in the meantime).

So we drove home.

(I'll note at this point that, fortunately, Funsize had been holding up spectacularly well. Indeed, she'd been doing rather better than either of her parents, being a happy, smiling, laughing girl throughout. It was only when we started the drive home that she started to complain, due to being extremely tired. Then she fell asleep after a few minutes, and didn't wake again until home.)

The drive home was mostly uneventful, except when we found that a section of the motorway was closed. Naturally, we didn't quite trust the signage for the diversion so decided to use the SatNav for backup, only to find that it was determined to take us back onto the motorway, that being by far the quickest route. Still, we did manage to follow the signs without getting lost, so that only cost us twenty minutes.

At 11:30, after ten hours of hard travelling, we finally got back to where we started. We put Funsize to bed, and then started on the next part of our task...

Fortunately, one of the tasks on my "to-do" list has been to clear all the rubbish from our garage, and this was almost complete. So we spent the next hour or so clearing out the last few things (mostly into our garden and utility room), after which we were able to fit LC's car into our garage (actually, for the first time ever). And then we went to bed.

In the morning we dragged ourselves out of bed around 6am, I finished pumping up the tyre on my car, we loaded it with our luggage (and Funsize), we contacted Manchester Airport and reassigned our car park booking to the different car, and we set off again.

This time we made three stops - one early on for a frankly inadequate breakfast (we of course had nothing in the house), one at Gretna to change drivers, and then again just before leaving the M6 to change back. However, that part of the journey was blessedly uneventful, and we reached Manchester Airport around 12:30 for a 3:30 flight.

The last time we were at Manchester Airport was actually seven years ago, coming back from our honeymoon, where we had to struggle through an eight-hour wait. This one wasn't quite as bad... was was still quite bad. Our flight was delayed, and then was delayed again. Then, somehow, it was delayed slightly less - we finally boarded at around 6:20. (During this time, Funsize was bored and tired - she wanted to run around and see things. Can't fault her for that... but neither LC nor I were in the best coping mode.)

Anyway, the flight out was fine, and we actually made up quite a bit of time. Which was nice. Then we went through passport control in France, got our luggage, and went to collect our hire car. At which point I was stung for a 50 Euro charge for collecting the car late - their office 'closed' at 7pm. Grr.

The rest of the journey, fortunately, was relatively painless - we made a quick stop at McDonalds, then drove for an hour or so, and then we were there! We finally arrived at about 10:15, tired, stressed, and generally pissed off. But we had, at least, made it!

#35: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Jedi the Last", by Ian Doescher
#36: "Clan of the Cave Bear", by Jean M. Auel (a book from The List)
#37: "Colonel Sun", by Kingsley Amis

Day 200: Update on Goals

Day 200, so time for another update on goals. As with the previous update, I'm writing this in advance and scheduling its publication - I may need to revisit this a few days after it goes live.

• Books: By day 100 I should have read 32.87 books. I'm now well ahead of that target, which is good. The current estimate is that I'll end up slightly over the 60 books for the year, but that I'll fail to finish off the British part of The List.
  
• Weight: There has been no further progress since last time.
  
• Blogging: This remains right on target, both here and on the Imaginarium.
  
• Redecorate the Study: No progress, nor am I expecting any between now and the next update.
  
• The To-Do List: I've removed the redecoration of the study from the To-Do List (as discussed previously) and have completed my scanning of old bagpipe music. That leaves two items on the list at the time of writing: clearing the garage and refixing the wardrobe. Both of these are actually in progress, with the garage down to only a busted washing machine to get rid of. I expect to deal with that in the next couple of weeks.

So that's that - things are generally going pretty well. Until next time!

Ella's Kitchen

For the want of a better topic, here's a quick review...

Over the past year or so we've made a lot of use of the baby foods in the "Ella's Kitchen" range - starting with some of their pouch meals, then some of their snacks, a couple of their ready meals, and some of their frozen chicken and fish pieces. Funsize has sampled a lot of things, and the results have been mixed.

The short version is that the pouches come highly recommended - there's a fairly wide range of these, and Funsize basically lapped them up. Sure, she wouldn't eat everything every day, but she did seem more than willing to eat any of them on the right day (if that makes sense). I'm not aware of any she just rejected outright.

By contrast, their meals for older children have proven to be a complete waste - she refused the beef stew, she refused the veg moussaka, she refused the chicken pieces, and she refused the fish. We had a small amount of success with the cheese croquets, but only a little.

The upshot: for the early months, I highly recommend their pouch foods. I would avoid the later offerings. My feeling now is that the more we can arrange for Funsize to share the same meals LC and I eat, the better off we will all be.

#34: "Book of Spells, Part II", edited by Gardner Dozois

Creed II

I'm a big fan of "Creed", which is a film that I thought was an awful lot better than it really should have been (along with the first "Rocky" and also "Rocky Balboa"; the others in the series, not so much). So when I saw that the sequel was due I was pretty happy to see it. And I also found the concept particularly interesting - a match up between the son of Apollo Creed and the son of Ivan Drago could be fascinating.

Unfortunately, the sequel was yet another remider that you should never get your expectations up.

One of the reasons "Creed" works really well is that while it is heavily informed by the "Rocky" series, it is very careful to be its own thing - it's not just another sequel in the series. Adonis Creed is not his father, nor is he Rocky, and his story is his own. It works really well.

Unfortunately, "Creed II" is little more than a sequel to "Rocky IV" - Ivan Drago shows up with his son, that son challenges the son of Apollo Creed, and the stage is set. And from there it's storytelling-by-numbers, and indeed Rocky-by-numbers - there's a little life drama, there's a confrontation, there's the training montage, and then there's the scene where Adonis conquers his demons and moves forward, just as the score swells into the iconic Rocky theme.

It's such a shame. This could have been a really interesting story - Rocky and Drago should have had more time together to spell out their conflicting philosophies. Or, indeed, they could have had the conflict between the sons be the driving force in the film, while the fathers (or father and father-figure) bond over the fact that neither of them has actually been well-treated by the years. Or they could have allowed Victor to observe the Rocky/Adonis relationship and contrast with his own flawed relationship with his father. Basically, there are plenty of angles that come at this to give us something different.

As it is, I'm afraid we're now at a point where the "Creed" series is already little more than a retread. And that's a real shame, because it had such potential.

Rather Annoying

Last last week I received a letter from my gym informing me that the monthly cost of membership will be going up. That's not actually unreasonable - it was a fairly small increase, it's subsidised anyway, and it's been a long time since they put their prices up. So that was fair enough.

Except...

The gym has two sets of changing rooms. That is, there are two ladies' changing rooms and two gents' changing rooms. This is a good thing, because for the past few months, one of the gents' changing rooms has been out of action, partly due to some damage and partly for a long-overdue refurbishment.

Again, that's fine.

But this Monday when I got to the gym I found that not only was that gents' changing room out of action, but the other gents' changing room had been assigned for the exclusive use of a boys' club they're running for the summer. Today when I went, it was still reserved for the same purpose, and indeed the website indicates that it will be block-booked for that purpose for the next six weeks.

Meaning that in the week when they write to me to inform me they're putting up the price I'm paying they've also left me without the ability to use the service for which I'm paying that money.

It's fair to say that I'm slightly peeved at this.

#33: "Pathfinder: Borne by the Sun's Grace", by Luis Loza

Some Thoughts on USA vs England

In the absence of much else to watch last night I caught most of the semi-final between USA and England. Somehow, I actually managed to miss all three goals, but saw almost all of the rest of it. It was actually quite an interesting match-up: those two had been by far the best two teams I'd seen in the tournament to date. (I should note that I'd not seen much of France and hadn't seen anything of Germany's performances.)

I actually found it quite difficult to decide who to root for. On the one hand, the USA are busy running honest-to-goodness concentration camps, so that kind of rules them out. On the other hand, England are busily dragging us out of the EU against our will, so that rules them out. Plus, the winners of yesterday's match were (and are) heavy favourites for the final, and if England were to win the World Cup they'd never let us hear the end of it, so there's that. (Seriously, in the France/Korea match that started the tournament, the commentators managed a whole 17 seconds before bringing up 1966. Do they really not understand how utterly pathetic that is?) On balance, I've decided to support whoever wins the second semi-final tonight.

Anyway...

It was a really good match. When the two best teams in a tournament beat there's always a fear that they'll just cancel each other out, and in a semi-final there's always a fear that both teams will play not to lose the game. Either way, that can lead to a game that just sucks... and that very definitely wasn't the case here.

On balance, the USA were the better team and deserved to win it. That said, they really should have worked harder to get a third (and subsequent) goal, rather than spending so much time just trying to hold on to their lead - a strategy that so very nearly backfired on them twice.

The penalty decision looked rather soft, but was probably just about right. The penalty itself was woeful. That said, looking at the replay I'm pretty sure it should have been retaken - the rule is that when the ball is kicked the keeper must have part of one foot on or above the line, and it looked very much like Naeher had one foot in front and one behind that line (the latter, incidentally, is specifically called out as not being allowed). In other words, England lost out because the refereeing team didn't apply the same rule that was incorrectly used to knock Scotland out.

(Incidentally, I've reconsidered my position on VAR in light of some of the later matches in the tournament. While I still think it's a fine idea, I do think these "VAR Reviews" have to go - the long pauses in the game while a team analyse events over and over again are just lethal to the game. It really needs to be an instant thing - have the VAR team watching the match and only flag things up if they seem them live. That is, get rid of the replays, and get rid of the ref going over the have a look. And, yes, accept that that means that things won't be 100% perfect... if for no other reason that they're not going to be 100% perfect anyway.)

As for where we go from here, to be honest I think things are likely to carry on as they are for the foreseeable future. I suspect Scotland have already given their best ever performance at a World Cup, because as time goes on more and more nations will jump into women's football, will apply greater time and resources than we do, and so we'll stand still while everyone races past us. I suspect England's future is to continue to be one of the best teams there, but probably never the best. So they're probably hoping for a near-repeat of either this year or last, where England get to their semi-final and hope to cause an upset while in the other half of the draw they hope an upset has taken out most of the other good teams. And I suspect the USA will dominate the game for a very long time to come, possibly even on a permanent basis.

Toy Story 4

There are few films I've been more apprehensive to see than this one. The "Toy Story" trilogy is of such a high standard, and the ending is so perfect, that adding a fourth film seemed like a recipe for disaster. Plus, the fourth film in any series is almost bound to suck: see "The Phantom Menace", "Superman IV", "Batman and Robin", "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", "Star Trek V" (an odd one that - after the very first film they effectively rebooted the series with "Wrath of Khan"), "Star Trek: Nemesis", "Lethal Weapon 4"...

However, it's not like I wasn't going to see the film, so we went yesterday.

It's okay. Though the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw pretty much nailed it with the comment that "Having done so many things unimaginably better than so many other movie franchises, it’s fitting that the Toy Story series now gives us a classier, superior kind of anticlimax."

Basically, this film is exactly what you would probably expect: a bunch of our heroes get lost and have to find their way home. Along the way they make some new friends, have a wacky adventure, and dispense some life lessons. It's all good... but very little of it is new. And the one genuinely new and interesting idea in the film comes in the form of a decidely unappealing character - if you've seen the trailer, you'll know the one.

I also felt that the ending somehow managed both to lack the emotional punch of the previous film and didn't really sit right with the dynamic of everything that had gone before.

I probably come across as being more negative about the film than I really am. I enjoyed it for what it was, and it's important to recognise both that it wasn't the awfulness of many of the films I listed above, nor did it in any way diminish the series to date.

It's just that, on balance, maybe it would have been better if they hadn't made it?

Elaboration

It being my birthday on Sunday, this weekend we'll be hosting my third not-quite-annual birthday barbecue. (Not quite annual because the first one was four years ago, the second last year, and this will be the third. Though my expectation is that this pattern will continue, as there are distinct advantages to making use of the great outdoors, rather than cramming everyone in a single house.) It being the third such event, my mind is necessarily turning to thoughts of how to outdo last year's BBQ. (And, indeed, outdoing the two barbecues I've hosted for work thus far this year.)

Obviously the first thing on my list is to make sure I actually get to have one of the venison burgers this time! Beyond that, I have a two-pronged strategy: the barbecue itself and the peripheral offerings. That is, a slight expansion to the range of mostly-meats that will be grilled, and a fairly significant expansion to the range of side offerings. It's shaping up pretty well, I think.

But there's now a seed of worry starting to take root in my thinking. Because this sort of elaboration is exactly the sort of thing that can get out of hand if it's not watched carefully. It's a seasonal variation of the issues surrounding Christmas that I've blogged about in the past.

That's okay, though, because in among my strategising for Christmas I've already solved this problem: the key is to have a stable foundation of solid favourites, and then to add one or two flourishes, that may or may not be seen again. (Of course, if one of the flourishes is sufficiently well received, then it can become one of the foundation items. Though I would strongly advocate that it should be a replacement for an existing foundation item, not simply an addition. Otherwise, all you've really done is slowed down the rate at which things get out of hand.)

I've not quite locked down the two sets of items - I have a fairly good idea, but nothing absolute yet - so I'll post again once the barbecue has passed with my final decisions. But it's looking good... provided the weather plays ball.

#32: "Moon Over Soho", by Ben Aaronovitch

A Test for the System

The news this morning has featured a guest appearance by one Mark Field, a Tory MP who was filmed yesterday ejecting a climate change protestor from a private function he was attending last night. The problem being that the climate change protestor in question was a woman about half his size and was making a peaceful protest. Mark Field's reaction was... less than peaceful.

Mark Field has this morning made an unreserved apology, submitted himself to the Cabinet Office for investigation, and been suspended as a minister. He also claims that his actions were motivated by a genuine fear that she was a threat to those present.

Well... okay.

What we have now is a test of the system. What should happen now is that the police should launch an investigation, arrest Mark Field and interview him under caution, and he should almost certainly be charged. Then the courts can decide whether the actions that he took were proportionate to the level of threat (both perceived and real).

At the end of that process it might be the judgement of the court that he acted appropriately. Or it might not be, and he will find himself imprisoned.

But the system must be seen to work.

If not, then the lesson is quite simple: the system doesn't work. Either we all live under the rule of law, or none of us do. And that's a genie I think we really don't want to be letting out of its bottle.

(I should also note: the protestors should also be arrested and charged accordingly, which probably means some variant of trespass and/or breach of the peace. Because the system has to work for everyone.)

Some Thoughts on Scotland v Argentina

With Scotland out of the World Cup, my flirtation with women's football is at an end. And with it ends also any residual interest I had in the 'beautiful' game.

As is standard for Scotland, we were faced with a must-win game, did extremely well, and then conspired to blow it in the most painful way possible. To lose a three-goal lead is painful, and I would normally agree that that was the mark of a team that, by rights, didn't deserve to progress.

Normally.

The thing is, though, the first two goals that Scotland, while painful, were both good goals. If Argentina had scored a third goal like that, then that would be one thing. Indeed, if Argentina had scored a really scrappy third goal that trickled over the line after a goalmouth scrum... well that would be fine too.

But what actually happened was a trio of the most outrageous refereeing decisions I've ever witnessed.

First, there was a free kick, at which time Scotland took the opportunity to make a double substitution. However, rather than waiting for us to do that and be ready (as they're supposed to), the referee blew to restart the match while the substitution was in progress - indeed, while we still had twelve players on the pitch. The upshot of this bad decision was that our defender was badly out of position, and that led, in part, to her conceding the penalty.

The penalty decision itself was close but was, sadly, correct. That hurts, but it's fair enough. So even at this point, if that was all that was wrong then I wouldn't have an issue.

But the next cruel twist came after Scotland's keeper saved the penalty, whereupon VAR 'reviewed' the decision and, incorrectly, adjudged that she'd left her line before the ball was kicked. And so the penalty was retaken, and the keeper booked for her troubles. Needless to say, the retaken kick was scored.

The third kick in the teeth came thirty seconds later. Having taken eight and a half minutes deliberating over the VAR decision, and with four further minutes to be added on for stoppage time anyway, the referee instead decided to stop the game, thus eliminating both teams.

As a result of this, an awful lot of people have been blaming VAR for this. I don't - VAR is just the use of technology. All it can do is give people the ability to review what happened; it is still up to people to interpret it and apply the rules appropriately. VAR is therefore exactly as good or as bad as those using it.

A lot of people have also blamed bad officiating. It's not as if these have been the only bad decisions made in this World Cup, after all. And, indeed, there was a truly terrible decision early in the Champions' League final that killed that game, too.

But then, if the officiating was just bad, you would see it being consistently bad, with wrong decisions going either way with roughly equal frequency. But, by a stunning coincidence, these refereeing 'mistakes' invariably go against the smaller country, where 'smaller' is defined according to TV viewing figures. Scotland, as part of the UK, effectively brings zero viewers to the World Cup, and while Argentina is a massive force in the men's game, the women's game is barely a niche interest there. So if they just happened to come to a draw, thus eliminating both and giving their place to some other team... well, wouldn't that be convenient?

Ever since the infamous Thierry Henry handball in 2009, I've had grave doubts about football. They're now at a point where I no longer have doubts. And without a level playing field, I no longer have any interest in the game.

Boris Should Back Independence

It emerged yesterday that 63% of Tory members would rather see Scotland leave the UK than for Brexit not to happen. Indeed, fully 26% of Tory members would be actively happy for Scotland to leave the UK in any circumstance.

That being the case if, as expected, Boris Johnson becomes the next Tory leader (and PM), and if, as expected, the combination of Boris as PM and the prospect of a Hard Brexit in October does indeed push opinion polls in Scotland to show a majority in favour of independence, then at that stage Boris really should approach the Scottish parliament with an offer: let's legislate for the end of the Union.

The thing is, at present Scotland sends 59 MPs to Westminster, of whom 13 are Tories (but most or all of whom are likely to lose their seats in any General Election), while 46 are anti-Tory MPs. And the Tories UK-wide are a few seats short of a majority, and are dependent on support from the DUP to remain in power.

But if Scotland leaves, suddenly the arithmetic changes - the Tories would have an outright majority, they would no longer depend on the DUP, and the PM's hands are then untied to do a deal. (And, indeed, he could then go for the Northern Ireland-only backstop arrangement that was originally suggested - an arrangement that the Tories were happy with but the DUP absolutely were not.) Getting rid of Scotland solves a lot of problems for the incoming Tory PM.

Of course, there's a question of whether Scotland actually wants independence - yes, we've elected a majority of pro-independence MPs, a majority of pro-independence MSPs, and 50% of our MEPs are pro-independence, but the reality is that at least some of those votes are probably 'on loan' for various reasons. (That's why I very much hope we don't end up turning an election into a de facto referendum on independence - the system used will inevitably skew the results. We really should find out where people actually stand on this issue. But, of course, that involves the people involved actually playing ball. If they don't, other mechanisms will have to be found.)

But if the polls say there's a majority for it, and if both Westminster and Holyrood stand ready to legislate accordingly, presumably such a referendum could be conducted quickly and smoothly. And, indeed, if both governments are actively campaigning for independence, it's only going to go one way.

...

All that said, file this one under "never going to happen". While it would indeed solve a lot of problems, I don't think any incoming Tory leader could really bear to be the one to bring an end to the 'Union' part of "United Kingdom". Plus there's the small matter of our oil, whisky, tourism, financial services, renewable energy, beef, gin, clean water... I'm not entirely sure that the rest UK could really afford their independence.

#30: "Morgrave Miscellany", by Keith Baker and Ruty Rutenberg
#31: "In the Skin of a Lion", by Michael Ondaatje (a book from The List)

Huh. The Grass Really is Always Greener

I find myself in Copenhagen for work, which is nice. And I spent the morning musing once again that it really does seem to be a good place to live - things like the cycling infrastructure, the generally welcoming nature of the people, and so forth. Additionally, our office here is right next to a school, and I was blown away by the contents of the playground - a climbing frame, an semi-enclosed football pitch, trampolines... (Of course, it's worth noting that I have no way of knowing if that's representative of Denmark, representative of Copenhagen, or indeed is the single best school in the whole country. And it's also worth noting that right now I'm pretty much seeing Copenhagen at its best - the grim reality of October or February might be rather different! Having said that, Denmark does regularly come near the top of the tables for both equality and happiness, so there's that.)

Anyway, while I was musing on all these things, we took a break from our exhausting labours (!) and gathered at the coffee machine. While there, the conversation turned to other places to live, whereupon one of my colleagues from Copenhagen started waxing lyrical about the many attractions of living in Edinburgh - the culture, the mountains, the history...

So, yeah, it turns out that the grass really is always greener on the other side.

#28: "The Horse and His Boy", by C.S. Lewis (a book for Funsize)
#29: "The Crow Road", by Iain Banks

Some Thoughts on England vs Scotland

Due to a combination of factors, I unfortunately only got to see parts of Scotland's first match in the Women's World Cup. Which was a shame - I'd been rather looking forward to it. Anyway, some thoughts based on what I did see:

• Sadly, 2-1 was probably about the right result. Although Scotland played pretty well, and especially had some very good phases, they were overall the weaker team. It's also worth noting that there didn't seem to be a specific area where this was true - it seemed mostly to be a matter of a few degrees across the board.
  
• That said, 2-1 is probably the least painful loss possible - that goal means that we only have a goal difference of -1 (which knowing Scotland may be crucial) while also getting us off the mark scoring-wise. And there were plenty of positives to take from the game.
  
• I haven't been able to track down a video of the penalty decision (just the penalty itself). I've heard it's rather harsh, but that may just be because we lost.
  
• With a lot of luck, Japan and Argentina will draw today, and England will then beat both of these teams. That would then give Scotland the best chance of getting through the group.
  
• Our next match is on Friday at 13:30, which is almost exactly when I finish work for the week. So almost no chance of seeing that one either. (Boo!) Guess I'll need to rely on the Radio Scotland commentary.

On another note, I see that the English commentators, while covering the game between France and South Korea, managed to go a whole 17 seconds! before mentioning that England did once win the (men's) World Cup. Apparently, this little-known event occured in 1966. It was good of the BBC to raise the profile of this obscure bit of sporting history, especially when it was so relevant to the events at hand. Good work, you guys!

Anyway, on to the next match, and to Rennes. Huzzah!

The Key Information

It being Summer, and given the events of last year, I find myself in need of a new Summer jacket. (The "events of last year" being that I decided my old Summer jacket needed replaced, and so I got rid.) And so I find myself visiting various stores' websites trying to find a suitable jacket - ideally, I'd like to assemble a very short shortlist, then go and look at the items in the flesh, and then decide.

Unfortunately, my key question when buying a jacket (after "does it look vaguely okay") concerns internal pockets: does it have some, if so how many, how big, and how do they seal? Those are the key questions I have, and ultimately those will be the things that decide between one jacket and another.

Instead, the websites consist of picture after picture of their models wearing the jackets. And, in basically every case, the jackets look fine. Not surprisingly, given that they're being worn by professional models. (Oh, and because designing a jacket that looks basically okay isn't that hard - there's just not that much variation possible, or indeed wanted.)

For the benefit of the various shops: when selling men's clothing, you might want to try selling them like you would electronic toys. That is, fill up the page with lots of lovely technical specifications: what materials are used, just how waterproof is it? And, yes, what are the actual details of the pockets on the thing - just saying "it has some" really isn't helpful.

So Where are the HABs?

Every time there is a major (male) football tournament, the media subject us to long and lavish coverage of the WAGs - the Wives and Girlfriends of the various players. Which is pretty reductionist and demeaning, particularly as most of the women in question have reasonably high profile careers in their own rights (and the ones that aren't in the public eye presumably choose not to be).

Still, where there is a major football tournament being run and the wives and girlfriends are there specifically in a supporting role to their husbands and boyfriends, I suppose there is at least a little justification. Maybe.

Except that right now we have a major footballing tournament being run, the Women's World Cup, during which many of the players presumably have husbands and boyfriends in attendance, there specifically in a supporting role to their wives and girlfriends.

So... where is the long and lavish coverage of the HABs? Where are the multi-page spreads, the slobbering debates over which country has the hottest HABs?

I should perhaps note that I'm not particularly desperate to see such coverage. But geese and ganders, and all that stuff: we shouldn't be accepting a double standard. So, as a matter of principle, it must be there.

Or perhaps the media could stop drooling over the WAGs in future?

(Oh, one last thing: I'm aware of course that at least some of the players in the Women's World Cup are gay, and as a consequence have wives and girlfriends supporting them, and it wouldn't be fair for me to completely ignore them. I haven't mentioned them thus far mostly because I've been talking about double standards re:WAGs/HABs. But given the events of this week, it's also important to note that I'm very much not calling for such intrusive coverage. As a wise woman said this week: they're not there for our benefit.)

#27: "Gardens of Gallowspire", by Crystal Frasier

Day 150: Update on Goals

Things continue to go reasonably well in 2019, though a lack of sleep is proving rather debilitating. And then there's the one big fly in the ointment... but I can't speak about that.

Anyway, it's time for an update on goals:

• Books: By day 100 I should have read 24.65 books. I'm pretty much right on target - having finished "Anna Karenina" I'm no longer playing catch up on that sublist, so can get back to tracking things normally. My expectation is to end the year on the 60 books I targeted. However, I'm unlikely to get 12 read from The List, and very unlikely to finish off the British part of The List. Still, that's not too bad.
  
• Weight: I've now dropped about half a stone, so this is actually more or less on target. Still, more to do!
  
• Blogging: This is right on target, both here and on the Imaginarium.
  
• Redecorate the Study: This was not done in the Easter holiday, so remains to do. My new expectation is that we'll probably tackle it during the October week, unless it bugs me enough to demand attention between now and then.
  
• The To-Do List: As noted elsewhere, the To-Do List was revisited at the end of the Easter holiday and expanded to eight items. At the time of writing it's back down to four (one of which is the study, as above). My current focus is on the scanning of old pipe band music, which I expect to get done soon. If and when it gets down to just one item (the study) I'm actually going to declare it done, given the separate goal above.

So, that's that - a long-winded way of saying that everything is going pretty well. The next update will be mid-July. My hope by then would be to be able to announce the completion of the To-Do List, but we'll see...

#26: "Marauders of the Dune Sea", by Bruce R. Cordell

That Ludicrous Display Last Night

Last night Funsize and I sat down to watch Scotland's women against Jamaica. (No, obviously not all of Scotland's women. That would be silly. LC doesn't play football.) Funsize made it to half time before being called away on important sleep-related business, at which point I did the washing up before watching most of the second half.

I was both shocked and confused by what I saw.

Not that the women in question were playing football, you understand. That would be silly. But the manner in which they did so...

They won.

I mean, honestly, has nobody explained to them what is expected of a team representing Scotland? We're not supposed to win things! We're meant to go up against teams we're 'supposed' to beat, make painfully heavy weather of it, lose a jammy goal against the run of play, and then console ourselves about yet another glorious failure.

And what's even more shocking is that they're now off to France to go and play in the World Cup!

(After the game the team were given a pep talk by Nicola Sturgeon, Judy Murray, and Steve Clarke, the last being the new manager of the men's team. Given that the men's team haven't been to a major tournament in twenty years, perhaps they should have been giving him the benefit of their experience, rather than the other way around?)

Okay, on a serious note: it was a good game, and our team played very well, especially in attack. One of the goals, in particular, was exceptional. That said, there was some weakness at the back, and it was apparent that we're prone to leaving ourselves vulnerable to being caught on the break. With luck, the match last night has flagged that up and will allow us to clear up the issues prior to meeting England next week.

It's going to be strange following a World Cup with more than an academic interest in how it all pans out...

#25: "Dark Sun Creature Catalogue", by Richard Baker and Bruce R. Cordell

Nothing Has Changed

Ah, the European Elections. Such fun.

As far as I can see, the upshot of those elections is that things are pretty much as they were: England wants Brexit (and a No Deal Brexit if that's what it takes), and are going to take the rest of us along for the ride. Wales also, mostly, wants Brexit, although there's some strong resistance there. Scotland doesn't want Brexit... but also doesn't quite want Independence, which is looking ever more like the only way to escape Brexit. (It will be really interesting to see what happens when people are finally confronted with a need to actually choose: Brexit or Independence.)

And yet, these results are also in some ways absolutely crucial.

Because right now the fate of the country lies first in the hands of Tory MPs and then in the hands of Tory members, and those groups aren't representative of the country as a whole.

And for that group, the election results are absolutely clear: Tory voters want Brexit, and if need be they'll go and vote for another party to get it.

I'm reasonably sure that what that means is that the new leader will be a hard Brexiteer. I'm very sure that the new leader will have to promise that we're going to leave on the 31st of October, come what may, and will have to deliver on that promise. Otherwise, the Tory party will look to take a major kicking at the next General Election.

(The big problem then is that the new Tory leader is likely to take office in mid-September at the earliest, which gives about six weeks to try to negotiate a new deal. So even if they're inclined to try, the chances of getting a deal that is able to get through parliament in time are negligible.)

I think we now have two chances to avoid No Deal, neither of which look promising:

Firstly, it's possible that there are enough Remain-minded Tory MPs to ensure that the final two candidates in their leadership contest are both soft Brexiteers. In which case the membership will choose between two people they don't much like, and we'll get Theresa May mark II - a period of paralysis, more can kicking and extensions, and nothing being done until that person is finally forced out.

But I don't think there are enough Remain-minded Tory MPs to control both final candidates, and I expect the Tory membership to go for the hardest Brexiteer on offer. Who might well try to negotiate a new deal, but who will certainly head for No Deal Brexit if nothing can be done prior to the 31st of October.

This brings us to the second chance: faced with an imminent No Deal, it's possible that enough Tories will defect to win a vote of No Confidence, and bring about a General Election. The problem being that if they do that then they wouldn't be able to stand as Tory candidates, and so they would be throwing away their political careers to bring about an election that might stop a No Deal Brexit. (Oh, and they'd have to act very quickly - it takes a minimum of seven weeks from a successful No Confidence motion to a General Election, and between mid-September and the end of October there are approximately six weeks.)

(There is one other, very slight, chance of a reprieve. Back in April, it seems that Theresa was all set to go for a No Deal exit. What stopped her was being informed that if she did that then Northern Ireland would leave the UK, and Scotland would almost certainly follow. Faced with the same hard truth, I think the hard Brexiteers would still go for it, but it's just possible that they would blink too.)

The upshot of all of this is that I'm reasonably sure we're now heading for a No Deal Brexit at the end of October. I don't really see any way of stopping it.

Which is a cheery thought for a Monday morning. We should have had the count on Thursday.

#24: "Book of Spells, Part I", edited by Gardner Dozois

Good Things About the "Game of Thrones" Finale

Before I rant properly, I should first note that I've actually been a fan of just about everything in the first five episodes of this season of "Game of Thrones". In particular, the events of the previous episode were something I found quite shocking at the time, but which were actually obvious in retrospect. The only real problem, both with that twist and indeed with the last two seasons as a whole, was just that they were far too rushed - everything was happening so fast that nothing really got a proper build-up. But then, given that too much modern fantasy (including some of the earlier seasons) moves far too slowly, I wasn't too unhappy with that.

Unfortunately...

The finale was almost entirely terrible, but there are at least some good things about it:

Firstly, I particularly enjoyed the bold creative decision to rush the whole of the last two seasons so as to make time in the finale for a 6-hour shot of Arya, Jon, and Sansa slowly walking from the left of the screen to the right. That's the sort of inspired creative genius that's been missing from TV for far too long. Marvellous!

Additionally, this has the big advantage that I now know not to bother with the last two novels in the series, if indeed they are ever published. After all, there are two reasons to read them: to see the end, or to enjoy the journey. But we've now seen the end (and it's not worth it), and the previous two novels have been deeply underwhelming (the series dealt with both in season 5, and they were all the better for that compression). So if neither the journey nor the ending promise to reward the investment, why bother?

Oh, and I also know not to bother with the next Star Wars trilogy either - since Benioff and Weiss are responsible for both the debacle that was the end of "Lost" and the disaster that was the end of "Game of Thrones", why would I think they'll do better with Star Wars?

So that was that. The greatest TV spectacle of the modern age is now over. And it should have ended an hour sooner.

Avengers: Endgame

LC and I finally made it out to "Avengers: Endgame" this weekend. I find I have very little to say about it, mostly because we've waited sufficiently long to see it that just about everything that there is to say has already been said. Suffice it to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a really great culmination to everything in the MCU so far, it put a wonderful capstone on many of the individual stories and plotlines that have been cooking for so long, and it really didn't feel like three hours.

I think the thing that impressed me most was actually some of the quieter moments in the film. I can't say more without going into spoilers (which I'm inclined to avoid here, even now), but there were three character interactions (well, two and a non-interaction) that were particularly good.

All that said, I think I'm done with superhero movies for a while. I'm inclined to skip "Dark Phoenix" and even "Spider-man: Far From Home" in the cinema - I'll catch them on blu-ray. For now, I'm wanting to see something new, something different. Hollywood, please make it so!

#22: "Doctor Who: Wit, Wisdom and Timey-Wimey Stuff", by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
#23: "Pathfinder: Last Watch", by Larry Wilhelm

"The Orville" and "Star Trek: Discovery"

I was very glad to see yesterday that "The Orville" has been renewed for a third season. I've very much enjoyed the two seasons thus far - it very much reminds me of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" of old, and indeed deliberately so. Though part of me kinda wishes they formally drop the jokes and just go full-on sci-fi - I've found that a lot of the comedy seems to fall flat and that the show is actually at its best when it tackles the more contemplative aspects.

By contrast, I'm not enjoying "Star Trek: Discovery" so much, though it's entirely possible that it just hasn't had enough time to grow on me (I'm nine episodes into the first season). It just seems excessively grim to me. Though part of my dissatisfaction with the show is perhaps partly because it starts with an image of a show that I suspect I'd rather watch - the one where Michelle Yeoh's Captain Philippa Georgiou leads her crew on a voyage of exploration around the galaxy. (And it seems there's a spin-off in the works, so who knows?)

All that said, I'm a little bemused by the arguments over what is the 'true' successor to "Star Trek". In large part because D&D had an identical argument about a decade ago, when the fans split between the controversial 4th edition and the pseudo-clone Pathfinder. (FWIW, my view is "Discovery" is "Star Trek", though a different Trek to what we've seen before. "The Orville" is not Trek, although it is something very close. But neither distinction is anything to do with quality.)

Ultimately, though, I'm inclined to ask: why choose? If you like "Star Trek: Discovery", watch that. If you like "The Orville", watch that. If you don't like either, don't watch either - there's plenty of other things to do. And if you like both, well...

#20: "Transition", by Iain Banks (sadly, not one I'd recommend)
#21: "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", by C.S. Lewis (a book for Funsize; a book from The List)

Watership Down

In the run-up to Christmas I took a look through the TV listings, identified a number of things I was potentially interested in, and therefore recorded the new "Watership Down". We then didn't watch it, largely because we were never in the right mood. Eventually, LC stated that she really had no interest in it, whereupon I watched it last week across four days.

Sadly, it wasn't great. As is so often the case, the book was better.

The funny thing is, I don't really know why the adaptation just didn't impress me. The story was all present and correct, the cast was pretty stellar (far better than it really had any right to be), the animation was pretty solid.

(They even managed to not screw up in their handling of the female characters. One of the features of the book is that all the key characters are male, in a way that modern TV just doesn't do. So when they announced this adaptation, of course they talked about expanding female roles. The problem there is that the fact that so many of the characters are male is an absolutely key plot point. Change that, and you actually do ruin the story. As it turned out they didn't change that - they just vastly fleshed out the roles of those female characters who did appear when they did appear, and did so in an entirely appropriate way. So that was extremely satisfying - a win on every front.)

And yet... meh.

My big takeaway from this is that I'll just have to read the book again. Which is no bad thing.

Also at the Weekend: To Done

Shortly after I revisited the To Do list last month I decided to add a further three tasks. This took it up to a total of eight tasks, some of them fairly trivial. Given that a couple of weeks have now passed, I thought I'd take another quick look:

1. Painting the study: No movement, though I think we have now chosen the replacement computer desk.
   
2. Fixing the wardrobe: No movement.
   
3. Clearing the garage: No real movement. However this is, perhaps surprisingly, a good thing - we've generated several more boxes that need cleared, but which still fit within the "one carload" part of the task. I also now know what to do with the washing machine.
   
4. Mounting the pinboard: No movement. That's one of the tasks for this coming weekend.
   
5. Building the shelves: I did this at the weekend, so it can now be removed from the list.
   
6. Scanning old photos: One more niggly little bit of decluttering I have to do is to take some old photos I have accumulated over the years, scan them into digital form, and then get rid of almost all of the originals - they're mostly but not entirely just clutter, so I want rid. This is the other task for the coming weekend, though it may be over-ambitious to do it in one.
   
7. Scanning old bagpipe music: This is something I mostly did many years ago. However, I have since accumulated quite a lot of additional music that I'd like to scan and shred (mostly). I'm also quite keen to compile the existing files into more convenient PDFs.
   
8. MP3 cleanup: Before I did either the digital declutter or the scan-and-shred, my first big cleanup task was to take my accumulated music files and better arrange them. However doing so left a few things in a less-than-satisfactory state. Since it was bugging me, I set myself a task to clean these up, which I achieved at the weekend. Which of course means that the first time I'm mentioning this task is when I'm removing it from the list, but there it is!

In theory, it should be possible to tackle all of these except the study over the next three weeks (and if I get to the point where the study is the only remaining task I'm going to drop the list). In practice, I fear it will take considerably longer - there's a reason some of these tasks have been lingering for quite some time now. Still, this weekend represented good progress, so if it can continue that will be promising.

Star Wars Day

In days of yore, when the world was young and I was about seven or so, it was our wont of a Saturday morning to get up early and watch "Star Wars". We had it on an old Betamax tape, and watched it so often, week by week, that the tape eventually wore through. And that was the end of that. (I then wouldn't see "Star Wars" again until I was sixteen. I call those the wasted years.)

Saturday was the fourth of May, and therefore Star Wars Day. This provided a good opportunity to correct a significant oversight - although Funsize has seen two "Star Wars" films, they were "The Last Jedi" and "Solo", neither of which is exactly great.

So on Saturday we resurrected an old tradition, made new by time and technology, and got up early and watched "Star Wars". It was a shiny new (ish) blu-ray. And it's still good.

Oh, one more thing: whether it is at the end of "The Rise of Skywalker" or when the Disney inevitably decide to mess with the original "Star Wars" again, it is long since past time to give Chewie a medal. Especially in light of the passing of Peter Mayhew.

You Can't Look Away in Time!

I try really hard to avoid spoilers, to the extent that I now don't read reviews until after I've actually seen the film/TV show/whatever to which they refer - far too many reviewers believe it is their job to discuss key plot details, often without prior warning. But I'm also well aware that there are reasonable limitations to how long you can expect people to hold the secret (indeed we're nearing, if not past, that point with "Avengers: Endgame", one of the reasons I'm so keen to get out to see it).

I'm reasonably sure, though, that we haven't yet reached that point with the episode of "Game of Thrones" that aired in the small hours this morning. At the very least, that one doesn't run out until some time tonight.

So imagine my frustration when I opened Google on my phone this morning, was idly scrolling through the news items it had selected for me, and found a major spoiler for that episode sitting right there in one of the headlines. Honestly, how am I supposed to avoid that?

Thanks a bunch, you guys.

Anna Karenina

After a mere four months (and a bit), I've finally finished the last novel I started in 2018. I made the mistake of starting "Anna Karenina" on the flight out to France, when I really should have chosen something easier to read. I then made the further mistake of thinking I would read a part at a time, taking a break between for other things. What I should have done, and what I ended up doing for the latter half of the book, was reading a few chapters every day while reading other things in parallel.

Anyway, it's done now.

Sadly, I wasn't overly impressed. Mostly, my issue was that it was an awfully long novel in which not a great deal happened, with slightly more than half of it not even being about Anna at all, but rather about the young nobleman Levin's search for love and fulfilment. And while that was fine, it wasn't all that interesting - I'm afraid I found Pierre Bezukhov's quest in "War and Peace" rather more compelling.

The other big problem is that I really couldn't find much sympathy for Anna herself. While I understand and can accept the unfairness of her situation, and indeed the hypocracy of Society in that their judgement falls on her and not men in a similar position, my big problem is that she spends most of the book making everyone around her miserable. Even her death isn't actually a result of Society's unfairness towards her, but rather a spiteful attempt to make her lover feel bad. (After which there followed another fifty pages of Levin's story as he plods through a spiritual revelation.)

The upshot is that where "War and Peace" could just about be crammed into a 6-hour mini-series quite well (apart from the unfortunate shoehorning in of an incestuous sub-plot, since everyone wants to be "Game of Thrones" these days), "Anna Karenina" can quite comfortably be chopped down to a 2.5 hour film starring Keira Knightly.

Oh well, it's done now.

#19: "Anna Karenina", by Leo Tolstoy (a book from The List)

Desk Woes

In addition to repainting the study, we're quite keen to replace the computer desk. Said desk is still working fine, but it's fourteen years old and rather beaten up (having survived four house moves). The keyboard tray is unfastened on one side, there's a CD holder wasting space, and its position in the room means that the tower nook is on the wrong side. All in all, it's okay but not great.

Unfortunately, it appears that in addition to PC sales dropping like a stone, sales of computer desks are likewise tumbling. Either that, or people just delight in creating many variations of the same really bad desk design. (My particular favourite is that there are loads of desks that would be quite good if the two sides were switched, but no signs that that desk is actually produced anywhere.)

The upshot is that the selection of a new desk is inevitably going to be a compromise, and very likely a downgrade from what we have currently. And we don't even have the option of just getting an exact replacement of the existing desk - which wouldn't be great either, but would at least have the effect of undoing fourteen years of abuse.

I've even started to think the unthinkable, which would be to make my own desk to better match what I really want/need. But then a remembered that I have absolutely no skill with DIY, and so would just end up hurting myself and producing something ugly and useless. But apart from that it would be a great idea.

In the meantime, I have at least found what I think may be the least objectionable compromise...

Email Zero

Due to my sense of neatness, I try to maintain a state of "email zero" - a state where my Inbox has no outstanding emails needing attention. (Due to a quirk in Outlook, I actually find it beneficial to have a single placeholder email in there. But that's a detail that doesn't affect the underlying principle.)

As a result of this, my first task each morning is to deal with any emails that have arrived during the night. Many of these are routine and can just be deleted, some just want read and then filed, some need a reply (in which case I try to reply immediately). And then there are some that require some sort of action that, for whatever reason, can't be performed immediately.

For the most part, I deal with these by translating the email into a Task, then clearing the email from my Inbox - having recorded the Task I'll not forget it, but I'll get to it later.

However, it doesn't do to be too dogmatic about things. Just as any good filing system should have a "Miscellaneous" or "Other" section, for things that just don't go anywhere else but are sufficiently unique not to warrant their own section, any process for dealing with things is stronger, not weaker, if it includes a mechanism for dealing with exceptional cases that just don't fit. Sometimes, very occasionally, there's an email that requires some action, the action can't be dealt with immediately, but where it's better not to translate it into a task. And that means that sometimes, very occasionally, an email will hang around, and Email Zero will remain elusive.

About six months ago, I received one such email - it needed an action, there was a fairly detailed set of instructions for that action (so turning it into a Task was a pain), so I left it. "I'll get a suitable file tonight and do it tomorrow," thought I.

This was not the great plan I had thought. I finally remembered the appropriate file on Monday, dealt with the email yesterday, and thus was able to file it (in my "from 2018" folder, no less!), and reached Email Zero after a mere six months.

Which is perhaps not the most exciting story, but it was my big achievement of yesterday so I figured it was worthy of note...

Experimental Cookery 2019: Freestyle Stir-fry

On Saturday, following a fairly large lunch, we had a pretty late, and pretty light, dinner. This one was a stir fry with noodles, beef, carrots, and yellow pepper. What was noteworthy about this one was that it wasn't a recipe I took from anywhere - I basically put together a bunch of things I fancied having and cooked those.

It was okay, but not great. Too dry and too salty, though the various components were fine, both individually and collectively. Some more work is required to really make this worthwhile.

And that's pretty much all there is to say about that.

Chores

Had a bit of an interesting discussion yesterday about making the bed.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, probably in the context of Christmas, I tend to divide tasks rather messily into three groups:

1. Tasks that you actually enjoy. Obviously, the list of such tasks will differ from person to person, but basically if there's something you enjoy doing then go for it!
   
2. Tasks that you don't enjoy but which are necessary. In which case you should optimise them so as to get them done and move on to something more enjoyable.
   
3. Tasks that you don't enjoy and which don't need done. In which case, why are you bothering? Nobody who has your interests at heart will judge you for not ironing the dog's blanket.

(I should note that the second category includes tasks that aren't necessary but which represent a price worth paying for something else you do want. For instance, when LC and I repainted our main bedroom that was something that didn't need done, represented a task we didn't enjoy, but was the price worth paying to have a bedroom that more suited us.)

I should also note that 'optimise' is not code for "do a half-assed job". In general, it's better to do a good job once than to have to do the job again because it wasn't done right the first time.

One thing I really hate is "make work" tasks - either tasks that 'must' be done, not because they're actually necessary but because someone has decided that this is the thing; or tasks that do need to be done, but where someone has decided they must be done this way and not that way. (Someone in this context is probably a matter of tradition, some habit passed down through the generations, or peer pressure. Very often you actually can't identify the specific person who originated it, but "it is known".)

Which brings me to the question of making the bed.

Making the bed is not a task that I enjoy. Nor indeed is it something that is actually necessary - when the evening comes you're going to get back in the bed, thus immediately un-making it. It's purely an aesthetic matter, and one for a room that most people are never going to see.

That said, making the bed is also a very small task, and one that serves as a payment for having a slightly neater bedroom, and that I do find somewhat satisfying. For that reason, it's a price I consider worth paying, and so it's a task I'll generally do (unless LC beats me to it, of course).

So far, so good.

But here's the question: should I, given what I've said above about necessary and unnecessary tasks, and given my aversion to "make work" tasks, proceed to teach Funsize that she should make her bed? (This is, of course, entirely theoretical at this stage. Funsize isn't yet at an age we'd even consider assigning her chores.)

At this point I'm also going to note that this is not just some silly, obscure philosophical point. Our society goes to significant lengths to load people (and especially women) down with imaginary obligations. I'm not sure of the motivation by all of it, though an awful lot seems to be about parting people from their money.

But the problem is that the time spent ironing your dog's blanket is time that you're not spending doing things of more value - whether that's time spent working on a career, time spent out enjoying yourself, or indeed nothing at all. By loading people up with imaginary obligations, you're either preventing them being more successful elsewhere or you're leading them to becoming increasingly stressed and overwrought by the 'needs' of life.

The upshot of that is that one of my roles, as the father of a daughter, is to teach her the discernment to understand the nature of these imaginary obligations and the pointless "make work" tasks they generate, and thus empower her to choose to opt out of them if she so chooses. That is, if Funsize decides to make the bed, it should be because she wants to, and not out of some imagined social obligation. Conversely, if she wants to use that time for something of more value to her, that's all to the good as well.

And yet...

Obviously, in order to choose to make the bed or not, she needs to know how to make the bed. And another of my roles is to equip my children with the skills that they'll need in order to make their way through life. In other words, I do have an obligation to teach Funsize how to make the bed, and indeed to reinforce that lesson through practice.

(And, actually, there's some value in teaching routines of that sort and teaching the attention to detail needed to do the job well. Diligence in the small things in life inculcates habits that lead to diligence in more serious matters, which is worthwhile learning on its own merits.)

The upshot of that, I think, is that the answer is that, yes, at the appropriate time we should teach Funsize that she needs to make her bed, and to do it to an appropriate standard. However, at some time beyond that there will also be a need to discuss why, and then let her stop... or not.

Yep, That'll Be The Problem...

Due to a combination of going away on holiday for a few days and then falling ill for a few days, there was a week when I didn't get a chance to practice my bagpipes. This is a bad thing at the best of times, but was especially bad given that I was using a hide bag (and, indeed, a hide bag that was nearing the end of its lifespan, and was therefore especially sensitive to drying out).

As a consequence of that, when I finally did get back to playing I found that the bag had more or less completely dried out. And so I thought I'd done myself a mischief in carrying on. Time for a new bag, methinks.

Last night at band I decided to give the pipes one last check before admitting defeat, and indeed the bag was leaking air. So off came the bag cover for a closer look...

At which point the cause of the problem became obvious. One of the cords holding the stocks in place had come loose, leaving a dirty great hole where air was spilling out. Frankly, the pipes should have been completely unplayable, and the fact that I felt terrible after doing so was suddenly explained!

Fortunately, my current band have a policy that they will supply bags for pipers to use, and indeed they had two new bags in stock. So the pipe major and I spent half an hour or so stripping the old bag from the pipes and then fitting the new one.

And then all was well. Hurrah!

(Plus, the new bag is synthetic, which means it will be less sensitive to not being played on a daily basis. Though I'm hoping, and intending, to retain the habit of near-daily practice!)

Not a Game-Changer

Over the past several weeks, I have given some considerable thought to the possibility of replacing one or both of our home PCs. After all those deliberations, approaching the question from multiple angles, and generally agonising over the question, I've come to a decision.

I'm not going to bother.

The thing is, both our home PCs are now at least five years old, and that being the case it feels like they should be due for a replacement. This is especially true of LC's laptop, which intermittently suffers from performance issues. And yet, both PCs quite happily do what we want them to do, so it would mostly be just about getting new PCs that do the same jobs better.

The first machine I decided not to replace was my desktop PC. Here, the thing that I thought was going to be a compelling reason to upgrade was to add USB 3 sockets to the machine. The lack of such sockets would represent a distinct limitation in the machine. (You can add such support later by inserting an expansion card, but my experience of similar upgrades in the past is that they're not very satisfying - they work, but not terribly well. So faced with the choice, I'd be inclined to upgrade.)

However, having dug through the specifications for the machine, I was surprised to find that many of the USB sockets are already USB 3. The upshot of this is that there's no hardware limitation to compel a replacement. And that means that any such replacement would be about performance gains.

But digging through those specificiations highlighted that the PC was actually a fairly high-end machine when I got it. Indeed, it appears that it was actually marketed and sold as a gaming PC (despite my never having had any intention to use it for gaming - and indeed I never have). I'm not entirely sure why I went for what was a vastly over-specced machine at the time, but I'm rather glad I did - this machine should remain perfectly adequate for what I actually need for several years to come.

The decision regarding LC's laptop was somewhat more complex, for a while. Given the known issues with the machine, there would seem to be a good case for an upgrade.

However, it turned out that the issues with the machine were largely due to software configuration. There was a problem with the anti-virus software which I was able to sort out. Additionally, there's a small problem in that the machine is itself only used intermittently, which means that when it does get used, it immediately finds several updates and a virus scan that are urgently required. Keep on top of those, and the performance issues largely go away.

The upshot is that in both cases an upgrade is possible, but in both cases it would represent a significant expenditure for an incremental, rather than revolutionary, improvement - a nice-to-have, but not worth the investment of funds.

The other thing that my investigations turned up is that, for both machines, there are two upgrades that are worth making and that will provide much, if not most, of the benefits of replacing the machines at a fraction of the cost. Specifically, both machines would benefit from more RAM (especially the laptop, which is running with 4GB where Windows 10 really wants at least 8), and both machines would also benefit from switching to a solid-state hard drive.

So it looks like I might be delving back into the world of PC upgrades, something I've not tackled in a decade or so.

To-Do List: The Wash-up

As I said in January it was my intention with the current iteration of the To-Do List to let it run until the end of the Easter holidays. Since we're now at that point, it's time to round up where it got to and determine what's next. So...

Phase One

As noted, the accumulated documents were sorted and dealt with early in January. So that's done.

Likewise, the kitchen was cleared, as indeed was the sideboard. Additionally, I cleared out the last drawer in the utility room, thus bringing an end to the decluttering process from last year.

The accumulated RPG papers were scanned, filed electronically, and then shredded. This took a long time, but did finally conclude Phase One of the list.

Phase Two

The various books, clothes, and other assorted items were gradually disposed of to the charity shop. This took longer than I had hoped, but was eventually done.

However, the process of clearing the garage hasn't been quite so effective. I've managed to get rid of most things, but there is about one carload of general stuff to take, plus an old and broken washing machine to get rid of. Clearing that last carload shouldn't be a big issue - with luck, I'll get that done this weekend, but the washing machine is a slightly more difficult proposition. (One thing that was quite nice, though, is that we managed to donate both the dishwasher and the tumble drier to good homes. Which is nice - they were in good working order, so reuse is always better than recycling.)

Phase Three

Perhaps surprisingly, I was able to get through the digital declutter last week, finally completing that task yesterday. This was a big task, and is one I'm very pleased to be able to tick off the list.

Also during the holidays, LC dug out the concrete plug from the garden, which I then took to the recycling centre for disposal. So that's that task done also.

Finally, we repainted the dining room over the holiday. As we had hoped, we were able to get away with just a single coat of paint on the walls. The paint we used was an almost exact match, which helped with keeping the job manageable.

However, we did not get to redecorating the study, largely because we felt we simply had too much on over the holiday without adding another big task. Given that I had a bout with a virus that stole a few days from me, that turned out to be a good choice.

Likewise, I never got around to taking another look at LC's wardrobe. That's a task that should be fairly minor if I can find the appropriate supplies. On the other hand, if I have to make do with something that's not quite the same thing, it could be much more extensive.

Wash-up

In all there were twelve tasks listed for the January To-Do List (although three started in a 'done' state). By the end of the Easter holidays, we'd completed nine of these between us, leaving three incomplete. Particularly gratifying was getting the digital declutter done.

Next...

The current To Do List has actually worked quite well, so I'm going to leave it in place (rather than rebuilding it from scratch, as I did last time). In addition to the three unfinished tasks, I'm adding two more: I have a pinboard that wants mounted in the kitchen, and a set of IKEA shelves to put together for Funsize. That gives five tasks for the list. Though if I get to a point where everything but the study is done, I'll retire the list at that point, since the study is also one of my annual goals and so retaining it in both places would then be redundant.

#17: "Darien: Empire of Salt", by C.F. Iggulden
#18: "Forever and a Day", by Anthony Horowitz

Day 100: Update on Goals

At the time of the previous update, I'd been having a really bad few weeks - 2019 had been a bit of a disaster. Fortunately, the weeks since then have seen a marked improvement in our fortunes, at least as far as our personal lives have been concerned. (Obviously, the political scene has sucked, and continues to be a complete mess, but that's another rant...)

Anyway, it's time for an update on goals:

• Books: By day 100 I should have read 16 and a half books, and I'm right on target. On the topic of The List, I'm still working through "Anna Karenina". As noted, it's looking very unlikely that I'll achieve 12 books this year, and am extremely unlikely to complete the British part of The List - this is one of the easiest of the remaining titles!
  
• Weight: I've managed a modest drop, which is a decent start, largely as a consequence of giving up Coke almost entirely recently. Those liquid calories are a killer!
  
• Blogging: I'm all caught up here, so that's good.
  
• Redecorate the Study: Our plan is to tackle this next week, while we're both on holiday and while Funsize is at nursery.
  
• The To-Do List: At the time that this post goes live (I have it scheduled to post automatically), we should be just starting the process of repainting our dining room. The plan here is mostly to do a patch job, rather than a full repaint - we're going to redo the walls in as close to the same colour as before as possible, and try to get away with one coat and skipping the edging. We'll see how that goes - it may just not work, in which case we have some time this week to revisit the job. Either way, I expect it done by the end of the week.
  My expectation is that that will take the To Do list down to five items. That's pretty good going - and with the exception of the digital declutter I hope to be done by the next update.

And that's that. The goals are actually, mostly, in a good place. See you in another 50 days!

#14: "The Steep Approach to Garbadale", by Iain Banks
#15: "The Magician's Nephew", by C.S. Lewis (a book for Funsize)
#16: "Pathfinder: Eulogy for Roslar's Coffer", by Jason Keeley

An Issue With Lent

For the past several years, including last year, I've been in the habit of giving up Irn Bru (and other 'sugar waters') for Lent. This had the key advantage of being a nice, obvious thing for me to give up, and also being suitably difficult to represent a real (if symbolic) 'sacrifice'. This year there is an obvious problem with that - I've had to give up Irn Bru anyway (due to the recipe change), and just don't have the same connection to Coke and other substitutes.

This year for Lent I've given up chocolate and chips. At the time, that seemed like a reasonable thing to do, but the effect has been largely trivial - I don't eat much chocolate at the best of times, so giving it up wasn't exactly hard, while dropping chips was likewise not a huge change (for the same reason). The upshot is that Lent has been pretty much a non-event this year, which renders it rather pointless.

The net effect of that is that next year I'll need to do something different to return the season to having some sort of meaning. It needs to be something easily understandable and also hard enough to notice.

There's nothing for it; it will have to be coffee.