Experimental Cookery 2019: Vietnamese Chicken

This one comes from the Hairy Biker's "Great Curries"... sort of. The truth is that the bulk of that one is about creating a marinade, and instead I used some of a paste I was given for Christmas last year. I feel this is important to note because the results were pretty disastrous - despite being quick and easy to make, this one tasted pretty terrible. It was all heat and no taste, which is obviously not what is wanted.

I'll have to try again, actually making the marinade as described. However, yesterday's experiment definitely goes down as a failure, and entirely on my part.

An Anecdote

I've had a productive morning - there was a new issue raised late yesterday that I spent some time digging into, and was able to pinpoint. Such was my success that I went to get a coffee, congratulating myself on my cleverness (since somebody has to do it, obviously).

So I went and made my coffee, in the course of which I finished the carton of milk. I therefore rinsed this out, and went into the main office to put it in the recycling bin. As you do.

I then went back out into the hall area, and patiently waited for the kettle to boil. Patience being a virtue, and all that.

Of course, patience isn't quite such a virtue when you've already made your coffee, and someone else is boiling the kettle for their use!

Gutted

I've just had a look, and the fridge freezer I've had my eye on has recently been reduced by £200 by Currys, and has a further £80 off for Black Friday... and is out of stock!

(There are other suppliers, of course. But they're either also out of stock or they're considerably more expensive. All of which is a bit of a shame, really.)

#53: "Not Wanted on the Voyage", by Timothy Findley (a book from The List)
#54: "The Mystery of the Three Quarters", by Sophie Hannah

What The Hell Were the BBC Thinking?

Here's an unpleasant fact to start: at the time of writing, Harvey Weinstein has not been convicted of any crime. I say this not as any sort of a defence of Weinstein (as I have no interest in doing so - frankly, it's a disgrace that this didn't come to trial long ago). It's merely a statement of fact.

But... can you imagine the BBC giving Harvey Weinstein airtime to put his side of the story, with no right of reply for his accusers, and with the possibility of prejudicing not only a trial, but indeed any potential investigation?

Surely not! Weinstein has basically been persona non grata ever since the allegations came to light, with even people who once named him a friend taking pains to distance themselves from him. The notion of the BBC giving him that opportunity is crazy.

Here's another unpleasant fact: the allegations made against Prince Andrew are every bit as heinous as those made against Harvey Weinstein. I say that not as any comment on his innocence or guilt (I've never even been to the Pizza Express in Woking), but again merely as a statement of fact.

So what the hell were the BBC thinking, setting Prince Andrew up with a PR opportunity to get out there, set out his story, and play for the sympathy of the public? Surely this is a matter for the proper authorities - the police, and possibly the courts?

(And, yes, I know that the effect of this interview has been that the Prince has managed to dig himself even deeper into the mess. He strikes me as a profoundly stupid individual (which I again feel I must highlight is not the same as 'innocent' or 'guilty'). But the BBC couldn't know that at the time they commissioned the interview. They should not have taken that risk.)

Oh, one other thing. My view is two-fold. Firstly, when serious allegations are made, like those against both Weinstein and the Prince, they must be taken seriously, and must be investigated thoroughly. Both those who are victims of crimes and those who are falsely accused need that - justice for the former, but also a confident exoneration for the latter. The current situation, where too many such crimes just aren't properly investigated, fails far too many people.

However, I also believe that the Presumption of Innocence is an absolutely vital part of our legal framework and must be upheld. And that applies even in cases where it seems obvious that the accused is guilty. Because we don't know and don't have all the facts. I have no problem with punishing those found guilty of crimes, and those found guilty of serious crimes should face very serious punishments. But let's actually find them guilty first, please.

My "Rise of Skywalker" Theory

When the title was announced, the internet collectively decided that there clearly must be a successor order to the Jedi and that "Skywalker" must either be the name of the organisation or the title of the Grand Master. Of course, since that was the obvious interpretation, it must surely be wrong.

My working theory is that "Skywalker" refers to something else.

Basically, at the end of the film I expect them to conclude that the war will never end, and that the galaxy will always be in strife. So they load up R2-D2 with the records of their exploits, and then he and C-3P0 are bundled up in a glorified intergalactic escape pod. Thus the series ends where it begins, with those two going on a great walk through the sky.

Of course, after a long time R2 makes it all the way from a galaxy far far away, to end up crash landing on an unremarkable green-blue planet in the outer spiral arm of another galaxy. There, he is found by a young man, the son of a stationary store owner, named "George". The film, and the series, ends with R2 telling him all of the stories from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

(They'll get bonus points if they can somehow work a way to cast James Earl Jones as some family friend. A beloved 'uncle' Ben, perhaps?)

I should note: if it does all end like that, I'll get up and walk out.

Bogged Down

I haven't finished a book in ages. This is largely due to getting bogged down really badly in "Not Wanted on the Voyage" - I had assumed that since it was only 350 pages I could get it read in about a week, but I'm paralysed by really not wanting to read it. Unfortunately, I also have "The Count of Monte Cristo" on hold, so I don't want to pause another book at this time.

The upshot of that is that I'm now doubtful of hitting my target of 60 books for the year - I'm still very slightly ahead of schedule, but slipping day by day...

#52: "Babe, the Sheep-Pig", by Dick King-Smith (a book for Funsize)

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

We skipped this one at the cinema due to pressures of time, and were all set to skip it on blu-ray too - there was nothing about it that particularly attracted our attention. However, a colleague of mine loaned us the DVD, and so we were able to sneak a watch.

It's okay, but the entire film can be summed up in a single line, delivered by Magneto about two-third through: "You're always sorry, Charles, and there's always a speech, but nobody cares anymore."

The film basically goes through all the beats, everything is present and correct... but it's all been done before, better. In fact, it's pretty much a remake of the pretty bad "X-Men 3: The Last Stand", and while it is indeed better on a technical level, the truth is that I enjoy the earlier film more. Frankly, that's all down to the cast.

In terms of my ratings, I'm placing this one third from the bottom - it's better than "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "X-Men 3: The Last Stand", but not as good as "The Wolverine." And I can't see myself ever bothering to watch it again.

All of which is a shame, but not really a surprise. Turns out it's a good time to wrap this one up and reboot into the MCU. (Or, actually, not reboot - maybe give the X-Men a long rest, and have another crack at the Fantastic Four again?)

The Run to Christmas

Normally, I take the view that I'll start Christmas on the first Sunday of Advent or on the first of December, whichever comes first. However, this year I'm going to bring it forward, for two reasons:

• I'm crazy busy, and likely to remain crazy busy right through to the 20th of December. So I really need a bit more time to make sure everything gets done.
  
• I've heard there is a postal strike coming, and with so much of my Christmas shopping being done online, that's a bit of an issue

Fortunately, Christmas doesn't look too tough this year - by my count I have about a dozen presents to buy, I have a tree to put up (that will be in December), and my "one new thing" for this year is some Christmas baking, which should be a matter of a couple of afternoons.

Anyway, six weeks to go...

Breathing Space

Things have been rather quiet on the blog front lately, largely because they've been absolutely mental at work. That's the nature of the job - sometimes it's calm, sometimes it's busy, and sometimes it's just crazy (though hopefully not for too long).

The upshot has been that I haven't really had time to post about anything. Nor have I had much that has inspired me to post. The good news is that I seem to have a little time free, so I can maybe fill in some of the gaps...

How To Vote This Time (in Scotland)

In Scotland, the upcoming election is actually pretty straightforward: most people have three meaningful choices, depending on the answers to two questions. There are just a couple of wrinkles in one scenario. I'll get to that.

If you want Brexit... In this case, it's pretty simple - vote Tory. The Brexit party (and UKIP) don't have any meaningful chance in any seat in Scotland, so that would be a wasted vote, and the SNP, Lib Dems, and Labour are all in favour of a second referendum, and thus stopping it. So if you want Brexit, you have one choice.

If you want Independence... Again, a very simple case - vote SNP. The Greens have no meaningful chance in any seat in Scotland, and everyone else is opposed.

If you want both... This is now actually a pretty small group - about a third of people who voted Yes in 2014 did so because they really wanted to be out of the EU, and now that the UK is heading that way most of them no longer actually want independence. But if you do want both, decide which you want more (or want first), and vote according to the questions above.

If you don't want either... This is the more complex case, and depends on who currently holds your constituency.

• If your seat is currently held by a Labour or Lib Dem MP, it's easy - vote for the party that holds the seat.
  
• If your seat is currently held by an SNP MP, the choice is slightly tricky. Basically, you should vote for whichever of Labour or the Lib Dems did better last time, except for two caveats. If you are absolutely determined to avoid Brexit and willing to sacrifice independence to achieve that, your best bet is to vote SNP. Alternately, if you're absolutely determined to avoid independence and are willing to sacrifice Brexit to achieve that, and the Tories came second last time, then you should vote Tory.
  
• If your seat is currently held by a Tory MP, you unfortunately don't really have any good choices - neither the Lib Dems or Labour party have any real chance of taking any of those seats, so you're stuck. If you're absolutely determined to avoid one of the two, and are willing to sacrifice the other to achieve it, then hold your nose and vote accordingly. If not, I guess you should vote for whoever came third last time, and accept your vote is probably wasted.

And that's it. For me, it's an easy choice - I'm still opposed to Brexit, still in favour of independence, and live in an SNP-held constituency. Furthermore, my current MP is also both pretty formidable in the Commons and also a good representative for the constituency. So that's an easy vote to cast... this time. That said, I'm rapidly losing confidence that the SNP are actually able to achieve independence, and even confidence that they even really want it. And given that their domestic record is mediocre at best, I'm very strongly considering coming to the view that this will be my last vote.

Leaving Narnia

After seven months, Funsize and I have completed our read-through of "The Chronicles of Narnia". I had, of course, read these before, but it was a long time ago - I read all but LWW back in high school, and then read LWW a few years ago. (I skipped LWW in high school because I was extremely familiar with the story thanks to TV and stage adaptations.)

My general feeling with the novels is that they're patchy in quality - some bits are very good indeed (I especially liked the underworld in "The Silver Chair"), but some bits are pretty dull. "The Last Battle", in particular, seems to be about waiting for the Deus Ex Machina to come up and fix everything, and then duly watching as it does exactly that. (Of course, several of the books feature Deus Ex Machina endings, but given the nature of the series that's not a valid complaint, as it would in other cases.) I also can't really see myself revisiting the series again any time soon, and certainly not on my own behalf.

The other thing to say is that the books were perhaps a poor choice for Funsize - after a bit of this she seemed to lose interest, so I found myself mostly reading them aloud while she happened to be there, rather than necessarily reading them to her. But that may well not be a feature of the books, so much of the stage she's at - she doesn't really seem to want any storybooks read to her these days; her attention just about runs to "Pip the Puppy" rather than even "Zog" or his kin. The current book doesn't really seem to have proven any more successful, despite a significant change in topic, and I don't expect much from the next one either.

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

A Missed Opportunity

An opportunity has popped up at work that would have been ideal if:

• It had come up a year from now, and
  
• I hadn't moved project a year ago.

As it is, it's just not a good fit, so I'll need to let it go. Which is a damn shame, because I'd finally hit on an answer to "where do you see yourself in five years?"

#50: "The Last Battle", by C.S. Lewis (a book for Funsize; and this completes "The Chronicles of Narnia", which is a book from The List)
#51: "Nightflyers", by George R.R. Martin

Day 300: Update on Goals

Edit: Somehow, this got posted prematurely. As it happens, everything in the post is up-to-date and accurate, but it's still annoying. I expect this will sort itself out over the next few days...

Day 300, so time for the penultimate update on my goals for the year...

• Books: By day 300 I should have read 49.31 books. Despite a very significant slowdown in the last couple of months, I remain ahead of that target, if just barely. The current estimate remains 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: Nothing to report. I have however had a meeting at the gym to revise my exercise routine, with the hope that this will allow me to make better progress with this in future. We'll see - I'm not hugely hopeful.
  
• Blogging: This remains on target for the Imaginarium, but I have slipped slightly behind over here. I expect to rectify that in the next week or two.
  
• Redecorate the Study: Done.
  
• The To-Do List: Done.

Another short update this time. Two items are now complete, one remains on target, and a fourth is close to the target. The final item remains an embuggerance, but there is at least the hint of some movement.

Boris Is Right

Much as I hate to admit it, Boris Johnson is right about the need for a General Election.

The simple fact is that his government clearly doesn't have a stable majority with which to get their agenda through the House. Were it not for Labour playing silly buggers, they should be laying a Motion of No Confidence, forcing the issue and bringing down the government. And yet it's also true that nobody else has the numbers to form a government - Corbyn won't get the support of the Lib Dems or the former Tories, and so can't do it, while nobody else has the support of Labour and can't do it. And so, since there's no alternative government available, it should be a General Election.

The only reason Labour haven't pulled the trigger is, bluntly, that they're sure they'll lose... but that's not an acceptable reason for them not doing their jobs. The country needs a government, and to get that we need an election.

(Incidentally, it's worth noting that Boris Johnson shouldn't even have been appointed Prime Minister. When she tendered her resignation, the outgoing Prime Minister was required to recommend her successor, but that successor had to be someone who could command the confidence of the House. That was the standard that needed to be applied, not "who has been elected leader of the Tories" or even "who has been elected leader of the biggest party." Given that Boris manifestly does not command a majority, and indeed never did, he should not have been recommended in that manner. And, indeed, since Theresa May could not actually recommend anyone who could command that majority, she should have been required to stay in post. But never mind.)

What's unfortunate is that I'm convinced that the Tories will win a comfortable majority in the election, whenever it happens, which will allow them to push aside any opposition to Boris' deal and bring about their hard Brexit. The SNP will probably make gains, but it will avail them nothing - Boris won't be minded to grant a Section 30 order, there's no way to compel him to do so, and the SNP refuse to contemplate any Plan B. So I'm finding it really hard to see any hope in politics right now.

More IT Musings

I've run out of hard drive space on my PC. That is actually not a surprise nor indeed is it particularly a problem - hard discs are fairly inexpensive these days and installing an additional drive into the PC isn't impossible.

However, I'm back to considering whether it's really worth it. There are a few things going on:

Firstly, there's still a question of how long the PC will realistically last. My latest check on the state of the art suggests that it's still not hugely behind, at least for the tasks that I make use of it for. Of course, if I used it for games or video editing, that would not be true... but I don't. However, there's always the risk of a catastrophic failure hitting the machine, at which point there's a need for a new one. (Then again, that doesn't negate the benefit of adding an additional drive, since it could just be extracted and moved to the replacement PC... probably - see below.)

Secondly, there's a question of whether what the PC really wants is a second, high-capacity drive, or whether I should install a smaller solid state drive, move the contents of the C partition across, and thus free up about a terabyte of space on the existing drive. That would have the advantage of giving a significant performance boost as well as adding more capacity, but is one step less portable when the time comes to completely replace the machine. (And it's worth noting that the existing hard drive is one of the components most likely to fail and thus force that move. And any new PC would have an SSD already installed, so that wouldn't be coming with.)

But, thirdly, I'm also leaning towards the benefits of setting up a NAS device, and thus moving all of our data storage off the PC almost entirely. The effect of this is that the existing hard drive on the machine would suddenly become much more open, and the need for a second hard drive (of any sort) would disappear. The only real problem there is that that is also by far the most expensive approach in the short term.

Finally, I find myself considering what our long-term computing needs really are. At present, we have a desktop PC (nominally my PC) and a laptop PC (nominally LC's). I really quite like this arrangement, in that it covers all of our bases, gives a lot of flexibility and, crucially, gives us access to a big, fixed monitor for long-term work. (I was never particularly happy working with a laptop.) However, at work we have now been issued with very powerful desktop-replacement laptops, complete with docking stations that allow us unfettered access to external monitors, keyboards, and mice. In effect, it's very much the best of both worlds.

Based on that, part of me considers that when the time comes for a replacement, what we'll actually want to do will be to replace both computers at the same time, with two identical, powerful laptops. And then invest in a docking station and all the kit to allow one of these to be plugged into the workstation in the study, giving access to everything else.

Which is an even better approach than what we have now. But with two downsides: firstly, sufficiently powerful laptops are necessarily expensive, where it would be considerably cheaper to instead go with a good, but less powerful, laptop and a fairly powerful desktop. Secondly, switching to the two-laptop approach would mean that any second hard drive I purchased now (whether the high-capacity one in the first approach or the SSD in the second) would immediately cease to be useful.

So, it's a tricky one, with lots of options to consider.

The upshot is that I'm thinking that the way to go is to add the NAS device. That gives us plenty of storage and also has the advantage of giving us the most flexibility when considering future upgrades. Given the expense, though, it will be a while yet before any purchase is made... unless the storage issue becomes urgent in the meantime.

The Purple Room Returns!

Well, the redecoration is done, and we once again have an official Purple Room. The various steps proceeded mostly as I outlined in my previous post on the topic, and were performed mostly over the course of four days (day one to empty the room, day two for the ceiling and starting the walls, day three for finishing the walls and doing the gloss, and then day four to put everything back).

We ordered the new computer desk shortly after starting, and were rather surprised when it arrived on the next day. We've therefore been able to assemble it, though I haven't yet had chance to take the other to the tip. We've also rearranged the room, which gives a bit more space for the various bookshelves, and actually leaves the room feeling a bit more, well, roomy. However, the working area for the computer does seem a little cramped. There may be something we can do about that - certainly, there are a couple of adjustments that need to be made, after which there may be scope for some shuffling of contents.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with that as a good job well done. And I'm especially happy that we've now completed the last of the tasks that we identified as wanting done as soon as we moved in.

#49: "The Amber Enchantress", by Troy Denning

Heating Woes

One thing that has never been quite right in the house is the heating. It seems we can get it "far too hot" easily enough, and we can get it "far too cold" easily enough, but Goldilocks is just not for visiting.

I'm really not sure why that is. I'm not sure if it's that the thermostat is badly placed, or if it's just bad. Or maybe the individual radiator thermostats are badly set up, or just bad. Or maybe the insulation just isn't what it should be. Or maybe the heating program really needs revisited - it comes on too late in the morning and goes off too early at night.

(There's also the issue that the radiator in the spare room is set to a much lower temperature than the rest of the house. Which is fine, since that room is seldom used, and not at night... but it only works if the room to that door is kept closed, which is not reliably the case.)

Part of me would quite like to have someone come and inspect the system and make some recommendations. Unfortunately, the cynical part of me thinks that any such visit would just happen to conclude that what's needed is the special package of upgrades that they happen to have on offer at that particular time.

Anyway, it's a frustration. I think the upshot is that I'm going to have a go at refreshing all the settings in the system again to get that back to where they 'should' be, and at some point, probably next year, we'll have to look into upgrades, probably to one of the "smart home" systems.

How Things Work

I use a lot of software, mostly for work although also for entertainment purposes. But I'm not a particular fan of software. I'm especially not a fan of the tendency towards "the new hotness" - the tendency for some fields to see a constant ongoing churn of new tools doing almost exactly the same as the old, but that people jump onto en masse because it's new.

My preference, frankly, is to use a much smaller set of tools, but to use them well. That in turn requires stability in the toolset - ideally, you should choose one tool for each job, and then stick with it until and unless something comes along that demands that you change.

(That "something" is of course subjective. You might find that a tool that was previously free starts charging and so requires a change. Or maybe the tool simply stops being supported. Or perhaps the new tool has some killer feature that means it's vastly superior to the old, to the extent that the change is warranted. But simply being newer is, for me, not sufficient, and neither is simply being presented with a marketing brief that has a few more check-boxes filled out. New features are only worth anything if you're actually going to use them, and if you're constantly switching from one tool to the next, you're never going to make good use of anything but the basic features.)

Funnily enough, two examples of the benefit of this approach have cropped up quite recently. Yesterday there was some discussion of how to use a particular feature of Excel, which is a tool that I'm definitely not expert in using, but it's also a tool that I've used basically forever and expect to continue using forever. So there was value in digging through various guides and tutorials to find the answer, and thus expanding the set of things I can now do with Excel. If we were in the habit of replacing our spreadsheet program every six months, it would not have made sense to do that. (And, equally, it's likely that the knowledge of how to do it wouldn't have been so easily available.)

The second concerns one of the uses of our build tool. This one is new (to us), but it's also a tool we'll be using very heavily, and it's also a tool we'll continue to use for the lifetime of the product (probably five years or more). So, again, it make sense to keep learning the intricacies of the tool with a view to getting really good with it.

Badminton Again

Many years ago, a number of my colleagues and I played badminton occasionally on a lunchtime. We haven't had occasion to play for several years now, which is a real shame - not least since my gym have various courts available for use, and they're free for members. So there's a golden opportunity there, and we've been missing it.

Until today that is. This lunchtime four of us went over and played badminton. It was a lot of fun, even if I didn't play at all well. Hopefully that will change over the next few months as we play a bit more... assuming we do, indeed, play a bit more, of course.

Microsoft's Worst Decision

I use a lot of Microsoft software. I don't, however, consider myself either a fan or a hater - they're just tools provided by a company, some of which are good, some of which are not so good, and some of which are good but not really worth the money. And, in fairness to them, those tools have generally, very slowly, been getting better.

However, there is one boneheaded decision, made some years ago, that still drives me mental every time I hit it. Specifically, they decided that PCs should be much more like any other appliance, and hide as much of the internals from the user as possible. And, in particular, they should hide all the BIOS feedback during startup.

That's all well and good, until you get to the point where the PC is busy doing something and gives absolutely no feedback as to what that "something" is - I see the HD light blinking on and off, but there's nothing at all on the screen, no response from the input devices... is it busy working on a task that's just taking a long time, or has it crashed and needs me to take action.

For goodness sake, tell us what's going on, and give an indication that progress is actually being made! And I don't mean showing us the spinny dots - all that indicates is that the UI thread is running, but it may well not be connected to anything else. That way, I don't need to either leave a PC that might be stuck sitting indefinitely, nor do I need to take a punt on a power-cycle that might do more harm than good.

Season's End

On Saturday the band played at the Queensferry Folk Festival, bringing to an end my second season with the band. In the event, we only played about half a dozen events, and I missed a couple of those. However, it was enough to keep me practicing, which is the key consideration at this time.

I've been enjoying my time with the band, with the one caveat that I'm not really being stretched at all - I knew almost all the tunes when I started, I learned the remainder very quickly, and we've learned virtually nothing new since then. But that's the nature of the beast. If you want challenge, you probably need to be competing.

I'm now going to take a week off of practice (almost entirely - I'll still go on Thursday, but will probably only take my practice chanter). In the meantime, I've stripped my pipes down to let them dry, and will then rehemp all the joints so that they're ready for the winter ahead. I also need to get my kilt, waistcoat, and jacket dry cleaned, so that they're also ready. Basically, there's some maintenance that has fallen somewhat by the wayside, and it's time to get that sorted.

(Come to think of it, that sentiment applies just as well to a number of other things...)

Slugs. Why did it have to be slugs?

I hate slugs. Not as much as I used to - they used to totally freak me out, but now it is at least a case of extreme dislike rather than abject terror. However, the recent development that we have a slug invasion in the house is most definitely not welcome.

It also started a few nights ago, when we spotted a slug in the kitchen. I therefore gathered it up in a bit of kitchen roll, strode to the back door, and unceremoniously ejected the creature. (This is actually not the very first slug we've seen there, but it was the first for a long time.) Then, a few nights later we had no fewer than three slugs all at once. And then one more.

Ultimately, I think this is caused by two things. The first is the drop in temperature, which makes the indoors that much more appealing. The second is that there must be a tiny little hole that they can squeeze through and thus get in. Alas, my fear is that that hole will be somewhere horribly inaccessible. Sigh.

(It's also possible that they've recently been stirred up by us covering up the BBQ and/or getting rid of a tree root that was sitting in the garden, thus disturbing their hibernation. In which case, maybe we've seen the last of them for a while. That would be nice.)

My other consideration, of course, is how all this affects Funsize. Fears can be contagious, so if a child sees a parent totally incapacitated by the sight of some creepy crawly, they're very likely to pick up on that. And so it is incumbent on my to just get on and deal with these things, despite the obvious and very real threat to life and limb.

Or something. I'm still going to eject them with great relish.

The Final Task

The final item from my old to-do list, and one of my goals for the year, is to repaint the study. Initially we had hoped to do that during the Easter holiday, but it quickly became apparent that that was a non-starter - we also had to repaint the dining room, which was a higher-priority task, and couldn't fit both in the allotted time.

There are actually several steps involved in the repaint, which means that the study is a considerably more involved task than the dining room. Specifically:

1. Empty the study. This involves shifting huge numbers of books and other paraphenalia, then the bookshelves, the PC, and the PC desk. Hopefully, all of this will fit in the spare room for the required few days.
   
2. Rip out a few mounting sockets from one of the walls, and patch the resulting holes.
   
3. Paint the ceiling.
   
4. Paint the walls.
   
5. Paint the walls again (since we're changing the colour, two coats will be required).
   
6. Paint the skirting boards and door frame.
   
7. Leave to dry overnight.
   
8. Hoover.
   
9. Bring back the bookshelves, the books, and assorted paraphenalia. I think these are all basically going back where they came from.
   
10. Assemble a new computer desk (assuming it has been purchased in time).
    
11. Bring back the PC.

Obviously, that's a lot of steps for a small room! However, the individual steps should themselves me small. Indeed, the biggest parts of the task are probably clearing the room and then putting everything back. The actual decoration, given the size of the room and that it will hopefully be empty, should be very quick. We still have two preparatory tasks to do: the first is to finalise our choice of paint and then acquire it; the second is the purchase the new computer desk. Neither is particularly huge... but both are a case of actually getting on and doing it!

#47: "War of the Wolf", by Bernard Cornwell
#48: "The Silver Chair", by C.S. Lewis

Penny Dreadful

After five months, we've now cancelled Now TV - we'd reached a point where we'd watched almost everything we wanted to from the service, and it wasn't worth paying the subscription for the last two episodes of "L.A.'s Finest" (which, frankly, was just about worth investing the time to watch, and no more than that).

We actually got a fair amount of value from those five months - in addition to the final season of "Game of Thrones", I watched the third season of "Supergirl" (not great; it's been getting steadily worse since the start), the "Deadwood" wrap-up movie (which was good), "Chernobyl" (which was excellent, but somewhat flexible with the truth; ironically so, given the show's most-quoted line), the aforementioned "L.A.'s Finest", and "Penny Dreadful".

That last was one of those shows that I'd heard about but never had the opportunity to watch - a sort of alternate take on the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" concept, where the various characters from classic horror stories come together in an interlocking plot. It was good stuff, rather uncomfortable to watch at times, all underpinned by a great performance by Eva Green.

Of the three seasons, I felt that the first was the most solid. After that first season I got the impression that they knew the characters still had a lot of potential, but didn't have a clear idea quite how best to use them. The third season was maybe a step up from the first, but suffered very significantly from splitting up the core cast - at times it felt more like watching three separate shows than a single coherent whole.

I was also a little dismayed by the ending. The main plot all came together really nicely, but the two side plots just seemed to... stop. They didn't really go anywhere, and indeed one of them ended by pretty much just undoing everything that it had been building up to. That's a bit of a shame, especially since it seems the end was planned, rather than being an unexpected cancellation.

Still, it was a good show, and well worth the time we invested in it. I doubt I would watch it again, but then the days of my rewatching TV are largely coming to a close - there's already too much that's new that I want to watch, and way too little time.
#46: "The Crimson Legion", by Troy Denning

Day 250: Update on Goals

Somehow, it feels like ages since I did one of these...

Anyway, we've now reached day 250, so time for another update on goals.

• Books: By day 250 I should have read 41.10 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: Nothing to report.
  
• Blogging: Nothing much to say - this remains right on target in both blogs.
  
• Redecorate the Study: This will probably be the big change between now and the next update. We think we've picked out the rough colour for the walls (but will need to narrow it to a specific shade), and have picked out the replacement computer desk. So it's just a case of actually doing the work, which I hope to do during the October break. Watch this space.
  
• The To-Do List: This was completed some weeks ago. I've decided not to put together a new to-do list, so from the next update I'll remove this from the report entirely,

And that's that. Another short-but-sweet report, with one done and three well in hand. There's only the one permanent fly in the ointment to worry about, which is annoying but just not something I'm getting a handle on.

Hardly Worth The Effort

According to this blog, last year I packed the BBQ up for the winter at the end of September. However, that was delayed from my original plan by not having a suitable cover until the last minute. With the start of September the temperature seems to have dropped significantly, such that even the nice days have a noticable chill to them.

That being the case, I think I'll pack up our BBQ for the winter over this weekend.

The upshot of that, given that my birthday BBQ didn't really happen, is that it was used exactly once in 2019, to cook a couple of burgers as a test to verify that it was in fact still working after the winter. Frankly, it was barely worth the effort of unpacking the thing.

(Meanwhile at work I will continue to look out for a chance to have one more BBQ in the year. But that's less of an issue, both since it can happen at short notice if we do have a good day, but primarily because the work BBQ doesn't really have that same "packing up" ritual - the equivalent is just a matter of not getting it out for use.)

Ah, Very Clever

Scenario One: The Tory rebels chicken out, and don't back the motion for parliament to seize control over the process, or don't back the proposed law to block No Deal. Boris remains in control, and we get his version of Brexit on October 31st.

Scenario Two: The Tory rebels don't chicken out, and a law is put in place to block No Deal. The Tories therefore remove the whip from those rebels, and then call an election - campaigning under the banner that the only way to see Brexit protected is to vote Tory. It's very likely that Boris would win that election. Furthermore, the former-Tory rebels, having lost the whip, cannot stand as Tory candidates, and therefore will almost certainly lose their seats to new, loyal Tories. Boris thus emerges with an actual majority and a much more united Tory party. Then then repeal the law blocking No Deal, and proceed as before.

(That assumes Boris wins the election, of course. But frankly there are only two chances of Corbyn winning: fat chance and nae chance. Theresa May ran the worst campaign I can recall and still beat him.)

Two other thoughts:

If there is an election, expect to see the remnants of Change UK (and their spin-offs) urgently seeking to join the Lib Dems. Or, just possibly, not supporting the rebellion and seeking readmission to the Tories. Any who don't will almost certainly lose their seats, so...

If there is a General Election the SNP will have a difficult choice to make: do their campaign on a "stop Brexit" platform, or do they campaign on an "Indyref 2" platform. If they go for "stop Brexit" they'll probably get more seats, but then can't claim those seats as a mandate for independence. Alternately, if they go for "Indyref 2" they won't win as many seats (though still a majority of the seats in Scotland and probably more than they have currently). Of course, that also weakens their anti-Brexit mandate. I'm not sure that matters.

The upshot: yeah, it's still a No Deal Brexit (regardless of whether a law is passed to block it or not), followed by years of Tory rule. Joy.

The Mug in the Microwave

As of this weekend we now keep a mug of water in our microwave. This is not quite as daft as it seems.

The thing is, Funsize has reached a height where she can just about reach some of the buttons on the microwave, and said microwave has a really convenient feature where, with the press of a single button, you can switch it on for 30 seconds at full power.

But running a microwave with nothing in it is a bad idea - basically, you've got a load of energy being pumped into a reflective chamber with nowhere to go. (Normally, whatever you're cooking absorbs much of that energy, which is why it gets hot. And yes, that's a vast simplification.)

And so, we now have a mug of water in the microwave. That way, if FS pushes the button, we'll end up with slightly warmed water. Which isn't the perfect solution, but is probably something we can live with.

A Broken Habit

After a rather frustrating summer, the gym is now almost back to normal - the boys' club that had block-booked one of the changing rooms has ended, the other changing room has reopened (cue the inevitable joke about waiting for a bus...), and the gym itself has reopened after its own renovation.

Unfortunately, my habit of actually going to the gym seemed to have been fairly comprehensively broken - I've made it along three times in the last couple of weeks (and plan to go again today), but each time I've found the whole process annoying, boring and, frankly, pointless. Basically, the good habit that I had painstakingly established over eighteen months has been comprehensively broken by my enforced absence.

I'm now finding myself unsure of what to do next. What I should do is request an induction on all the new machines, and to have one of the trainers compile a new exercise routine, and effectively begin again. What I'll probably do is soldier on as things are for a while, getting increasingly annoyed, and possibly then drift away from it. And what I'm strongly considering, given that the annual renewal is coming up soon, is just cancelling.

All of which is yet another reminder of just how hard it is to build and maintain good habits, and how easy it is to slip back into bad ones.

#43: "The Verdant Passage", by Troy Denning
#44: "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", by C.S. Lewis (a book for Funsize)

Dad's Army - the Lost Episodes

By virtue of still having Now TV, LC and I were able to watch the first of three "lost episodes" of "Dad's Army". (The story goes that the BBC wiped the tapes containing three of the six episodes of the second series of DA. UK Gold have now remade them with a modern cast.)

My verdict: yeah, it's good. But it falls short of greatness, largely because you're forever comparing the performances of the modern cast with their counterparts from the original, and while none of them are bad, none of them are the same. (It maybe also doesn't help that the first of these was clearly not a vintage episode - had it not been deleted it probably wouldn't make anyone's "best of" lists. That may well change with the other two.)

The upshot is that I'm glad we watched it, and we'll watch the other two episodes when time permits, and we'll probably enjoy them. I'd also recommend them if opportunity allows, but I wouldn't recommend subscribing to Now TV (or buying a DVD, or otherwise spending money) specifically to get them - they're a nice bonus but don't justify a purchase all by themselves.

Also, I do hope that the bright sparks at UK Gold don't decide that what's really needed now is to commission someone to write six new scripts and jump-start a remake/continuation of the series as a whole. Nostalgia always works best in small doses.

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.