Sickened

The revelations from the Alex Salmond inquiry have become something of a deluge in the last few days, and frankly have left me sickened. It's really starting to look like there really was a conspiracy to stitch him up, and further that people right at the top of the SNP were heavily involved.

Which is horrifying, for a few reasons. The first, and most important, outcome of all of this is that we really need to find out the actual truth of this urgently, and find out exactly where the trails lead. It remains just about possible, though almost incredible now, that there's nothing to see here. But the hope of that is rapidly shrinking - the lack of transparency about it all leaves me extremely concerned.

If the outcome of all of this is indeed damning, then those involved have to go, whoever they may be. If they do not, and especially if this whole thing is dragged out, then the consequences could be disastrous.

But the unltimate reason I find this so sickening is this: if there was indeed a conspiracy led by key SNP people and they don't clear them out urgently, then the net effect of that is that the SNP government will have to be replaced.

But the only alternative to an SNP government is some sort of alliance of the Unionist parties, and those parties frankly don't have two brain cells between them to rub together. Damningly, it is a unique selling point of the SNP that they are the only party that are able to offer remotely capable governance (even if even that is just barely). Putting any one of the Unionist parties in charge, never mind a fractious alliance of more than one of them, would be profoundly irresponsible.

But it's worse even than that. Because I'm now of the opinion that Scotland must become independent as soon as possible, and that it is indeed a matter of life and death. Because the only thing protecting us from the UK government's malicious evil is their lethal incompetence.

But only an SNP majority even has a chance of delivering an independence referendum. Albeit an extremely small chance - frankly, I think Nicola Sturgeon has largely given up on that dream.

As I said, it's sickening. We must have an SNP majority, and may well also be in a position where we have to kick out that same SNP government, to replace it with an alternative that we know will be a disaster.

There is a very real possibility that my vote in May will be my last ever vote.

The Testamants

I meant to blog about this at the time, but completely forgot...

A few weeks ago I read "The Testaments" by Margaret Atwood. I must admint that I approached this one with a significant degree of trepidation - "The Handmaid's Tale" is excellent, but my fear is that it could be another "Go Set a Watchman". That is, a novel that undermines the foundations of the original so thoroughly as to actively lessen it. Further, given that the TV series had become increasingly weaker the further it strayed from the source material, I had become concerned that the more that was revealed about Gilead the more the underlying silliness of the premise would appear.

(It also didn't help that this was a case where the reviews were utterly useless - regardless of what was contained within the covers the reviews were inevitably going to be glowing, and of course it was going to win the Booker Prize. The politics of it all demanded that that be the case, and rendered any judgement rendered useless.)

As it turned out, my fears were almost entirely unfounded. "The Testaments" is a great novel - not a classic of the same calibre of "The Handmaid's Tale", but a worthy companion piece. It's extremely well written, it ties in very well both to the original and the TV series, and although all the big revelations are pretty much immediately obvious, there's still a certain amount of tension to be wrung out of them.

I do have one small issue with the novel, though, and it applies to the TV series also. (And, if I'm honest, to most TV series...) But before I get into that, I should warn you that major spoilers follow. If you don't want to know, best skip the next paragraph...

The issue is this: just because a character is prominent within his or her story, and is the protagonist of the book, TV show, movie, or whatever does not mean that they are particularly significant within the world in which they live. Offred is stronger as some random person who happens to leave behind a journal, the Anne Frank of Gilead, than as some legendary freedom fighter who births the two women who ultimately bring Gilead down. That those two daughters also happen to fall into the orbit of Aunt Lydia, who is here transformed from a largely-unknown villain into the heroic double-agent who provides the explosives is... not the best. By trying to make these characters more, they are ultimately made less.

But I've complained about that before (in the context of Firefly/Serenity) and, ultimately, it's a very minor nit to pick. Other than that, I'm happy to give the novel a glowing recommendation - as I noted, I had had some fears, but they proved entirely unfounded. So that's a win.

#45: "Sharpe's Honour", by Bernard Cornwell

Bookends

It looks like Covid-19 has effectively killed the cinema industry. That's not really surprising - to be honest, it has been a struggling medium for some time, given the rise of streaming, the improvements in home TV equipment recently, and the demands of the studios for ever-increasing cuts of the ticket prices. Factor in much reduced capacities, a big hit on their ability to sell popcorn (which was largely keeping them afloat), and the general paranoia that inevitably accompanies the experience, and the writing was on the wall. Then factor in the fact that no new films were being released, and they're screwed.

The upshot of that is that it's quite likely that "The Rise of Skywalker" is the last film I will see in the cinema, joining "Superman III" as the bookend on that experience.

What's perhaps interesting there is that both films have some good material but both films are a very long way from being the best entries in their respective series. (Indeed, in both cases it is either the first or second film released that is the best.) Also, of course, both films have at least some music composed by John Williams, which is fitting given his importance in film music.

(I should perhaps note that "Superman III" would not have been my choice of film - I wanted to see "Return of the Jedi", but it was 1997 before I saw that one in a cinema.)

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that, I think. Except perhaps to note that Cineworld have acted fairly shamefully in their handling of their staff - layoffs at this time were entirely understandable, but for many of the staff to learn via Twitter is frankly outrageous. Meaning that if they do reopen and things go back to normal, I'm afraid I'll now think twice before heading there for a show anyway.

Treading Water

I mentioned late last month that I had slipped behind on several fronts, and that catching up would probably be the theme of this month. In the event, the theme of this month would probably be more accurately named "treading water" - although I have caught up somewhat on the book front (such that I'm about two-thirds of a book behind), I've managed only ten posts on this blog (leaving me exactly where I was), and two over on the Imaginarium (which is therefore now behind). So after fairly significant efforts, I'm pretty much where I started overall.

My goal for next month will very clearly to get back on target for each of these aspects, but that may be a pipe dream. I guess we'll see...

#44: "Whispers Under Ground", by Ben Aaronovitch

Lockdown 2

Well, here we go again. As of last night we have a significant tightening of Covid restrictions. Thus far, this has stopped short of a proper second lockdown, but I very much suspect it is coming - in fact, I'm pretty certain that we really should have had a full-blown second lockdown, but the political will was just missing. So we'll pay the price for that one in a few more weeks.

Unlike the first lockdown, this one leaves me absolutely furious. Not because it isn't necessary - I absolutely agree that it is, and indeed that it should have gone further. However, it shouldn't have been. A few months ago we had this thing under control, all the metrics were going in the right direction, and we had an opportunity to eradicate it.

Instead our governments unlocked too fast, in too haphazard a manner, and lost control of the situation. And then they dithered and let the virus get back into a position where it could grow exponentially... and here we are.

And I'm afraid I consider the Scottish government pretty much as bad as Westminster in this regard. On the one hand, it is true that they didn't have all the levers available to an independent country, and so probably couldn't have managed outright eradication. On the other, I can't help but note that a few weeks ago there were an estimated 300 contagious people in the whole of Scotland, and now it has exploded out of control. They had a grip, and they lost it. So if they're better placed than Westminster, I'm afraid it's a difference of degree not of type - the report card still says "must do better".

Oh well. The damage is done, so that's my last moan about that.

Where that leaves us is that any notion of returning to the office is well and truly parked now, with almost no prospect of that happening this year. It's also likely that our Christmas lunch will have to be cancelled, or somehow done remotely, which is a shame. Otherwise, work will go on just as it has been.

For the time being, the schools are remaining open, and given the political costs involved, the powers-that-be will be absolutely determined to keep them open until they absolutely have to close them. I have my doubts whether they'll reopen after the October holiday. Likewise, there are no signs of Funsize's nursery closing, and I'd be surprised if that changes without a full-blown lockdown coming into force.

And the final factor that plays into this is the Furlough scheme, which was supposed to come to an end next month. The problem there being that if it ends then people will have to go out to work en masse, meaning that a lockdown won't be possible - it doesn't really matter what the government order on that front, without the necessary support people will just have to go to work. And yet, I'm increasingly fearful that the reason the scheme is coming to its end if less about blind ideology (which, frankly, wouldn't have brought it in in the first place), but rather for a simpler, harsher reason - the country is simply broke.

So...

My expectation is that these new measures will be largely ineffectual. I expect therefore that we'll see a much tighter set of restrictions coming soon, that may or may not be backed with an extension (or replacement) of Furlough... and depending on that may or may not be effective.

And, bluntly, as a consequence of all of that, I fear that Christmas is cancelled.

Ulysses

It's fair to say I wasn't overly impressed with "Ulysses" - if it hadn't been on The List I would have abandoned it fairly quickly. It is, by far, the toughest book I've ever read, and while I have very definitely read it, it's also fair to note that I've read it only in a strict sense of that word.

Boiling it down, my view is this: some novels are written simply to tell a story, some are written to explore a theme or otherwise make a point. "Ulysses" seems to have been written to experiment with the use of words themselves - it's very much in the Modernist tradition. But the net effect of that is that it renders the plot largely incomprehensible and the theme, if indeed there is one, entirely irrelevant. And, as such, while I can see the value of the work as an experimental piece, and indeed as an object to be studied, I'm afraid I find very little merit in it as a novel.

That said, I did have a chuckle at one section where two characters were discussing the merits of Irish independence, which did feel oddly familiar...

Experimental Cookery 2020: Naughty Naughty Nachos

 This one comes from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh, and Easy Food", which is one of my more-used cookbooks. The occasion for this one came as a result of taking LC out for lunch - on Friday we had that rare combination of a day when neither of us were working but Funsize was at nursery, so we took advantage.

Normally when we have nachos, it's haggis, but as we didn't have any haggis I figured I'd try something different, and this was the result. The key difference was that the salsa and guacamole were made from scratch. Nonetheless, this was a quick and easy snack, and rather enjoyable. Would definitely have these again... though we tend not to have nachos too often, so who knows when that might be?

Experimental Cookery 2020: Curried Naan with Sultanas, and Chickpea Curry

 A somewhat belated Experimental Cookery, this one was produced for a lunch a week ago when we had guests. They come from Paul Hollywood's "Bread", which is a book I like but really haven't made much use of - were it not for the pizza base method, I would have gotten rid of this some time ago.

Still, the meal was nice and easy to produce. (I wouldn't say 'quick' because bread seldom is - all that proving takes time.) And the results were very impressive - a feast for four people that everyone enjoyed, with a minimum of fuss and hassle. So I'm calling this one a win.

(It's also worth noting that this is another successful vegetarian dish, which is something that is always good to have in the repertoire.)

#41: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", by Roald Dahl (a book for Funsize)

#42: "The Testaments", by Margaret Atwood

#43: "Ulysses", by James Joyce (a book from The List)

iPlayer Woes

At the weekend we made the unfortunate discovery that iPlayer support for the PS3 is to end early next month. My plan had been to wait another five years or so before investing in a significant upgrade to our entertainment system - probably a new TV, whatever Playstation is then current, a full-blown surround sound system (potentially professionally installed), as well as integrating our media server if we ever get one, and potentially retiring the Freesat box in favour of a better solution.

But that had rather assumed that things would continue to work as they were. Now that that's not the case...

I have researched our options, and they broadly fall into four categories:

• We could just live with it. iPlayer would still be available by PC if there was anything we really felt the need to watch, but would be a hassle.
• We could invest in a Firestick (which would also give us Disney+), and also an HDMI switch so that we can connect it to our soundbar. That's a bad solution, from a technology point of view, but would solve the problem without too much expense.
• We could replace the TV with a smart model. That's a much better solution, albeit a more expensive one than we'd wanted at this time (and also Funsize is a little less tech-proof than perhaps we'd like).
• Or we could bring forward the big expense and just do everything now. I'm not doing that.

(We could also upgrade the PS3 to a PS4, but the timing of that is really poor, given that the PS5 is due to launch very soon. So I don't intent to do that unless we see an absurd deal.)

For the moment, we're going to go for the first option. My suspicion is that that won't stick.

One last thing: I'm starting to think we need to be prepared to abandon Freesat - the range of boxes seems to have dropped significantly, there's no great signs of the range of channels ever increasing, and so my feeling is that it won't be worth investing in a replacement should our existing box stop working. That being the case, I think it's time to look again at why the TV aerial doesn't seem to work... when it really should.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

A few weeks ago I purchased a DVD of the Arrowverse event "Crisis of Infinite Earths". I rather enjoyed it - certainly, I've found what I've seen of the Arrowverse shows (not much) to be rather more enjoyable than the DC films. With the exception of "Wonder Woman" they've really not been particularly good. (That said, we haven't seen "Aquaman" or "Joker".)

One of the things that was particularly interesting about the show was the many, many cameos - we get hints of the 1989 Batman, the 60's Batman and Robin, Smallville, Birds of Prey, and so on. All of which were pretty cool, but they also emphasised something that I had kinda been aware of but perhaps hadn't fully grasped: you can't cheat when it comes to building investment. Tom Welling's appearance as Clark Kent works because he spent years playing that role in Smallville, so having watched that show (until I gave up), I was immediately oriented as to context.

I think that's also why "Avengers" worked but "Justice League" didn't - the former laid out lots of groundwork and then brought the team together; the latter tried to short circuit it. Which is a real shame, as some of the characters DC have are great.

The other thing that really struck me about the show was a reminder of just how great Brandon Routh was as Superman... or, more correctly, as Clark Kent. "Superman Returns" wasn't a great film, and really suffers now for Kevin Spacey and Bryan SInger's respective problems, but Routh was great in the role. And, doing double-duty in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", he is great in this. (There has been some talk of them doing some sort of Superman mini-series starring BR, largely off the back of his appearance here. If so, I'd certainly be interested!)

Anyway, that's more or less all I have to say about that.

Keyboard

Over the past few days I have been pondering the fact that I get more done at work (or 'work') than at home. That has led to me conducting an experiment - today, instead of switching out my home keyboard/mouse combination when setting up my work PC, I instead moved the wireless dongle from the home PC to the work one.

The results have been very instructive - despite coming highly recommended, the home keyboard is nowhere near as comfortable to use as the one for work. The keys are just a little smaller, a little closer together, and the whole thing is just a little bit more tiring. The upshot is that there is a small, but very noticeable, difference between the two. (By contrast, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the mice.)

I suspect that that means I'm now in the market for a new keyboard - the difference is enough to really annoy me, and the productivity differences are surprisingly noticeable. All of which is rather interesting, especially since the home keyboard is considerably more expensive than the work one!

This does also highlight something rather frustrating - now that I know what I'm looking for in more detail, it's proving surprisingly hard to actually find the item. And, oddly, the pictures of keyboards on online shops are really bad. It's almost as if they don't want you to see what it is you're looking to buy.

House of Ill Repute

Last night the House of Commons voted in favour of the Internal Market Bill, the same bill that was explicitly stated in the HoC as breaching international law. That being the case, the fact that that bill was even presented to the House brings shame upon our government. That it didn't meet with mass resignation from ministers brings shame on their offices. And the fact that the House voted for it confirms that the House of Commons is a pointless waste of money. We're no longer electing representatives to hold a government to account; we're electing a dictator for five years.

The UK no longer has a government. We have a regime. (Incidentally, we also have weapons of mass destruction and oil, so that's all three ingredients needed should the US feel like a fun bit of invading.)

And... that's it, really. For a long time I held out the slight hope that at least Scotland might eventually seek independence and at least we'd get away from all this. But all I hear from the SNP these days is empty words - Ian Blackford stands up and makes his speech about how Scotland "cannot and will not" allow the latest outrage to stand. And then Boris, quite rightly, pays not the slightest bit of attention and just does whatever he wants. Because when push comes to shove the SNP do nothing. It turns out that Scotland absolutely will put up with it all.

#39: "Firefly: The Magnificent Nine", by James Lovegrove
#40: "Sharpe's Enemy", by Bernard Cornwell

Day 250: Update on Goals

It's day 250 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 250 I should have read 40.98 books. I'm significantly behind on this goal, but have several books in progress. I hope therefore to be back on track some time in October - certainly by the next update.
• Weight: Nothing to report. This one is going to be failed again.
• Blogging: I'm several posts behind on this blog, but right on target on the Imaginarium. I'm also finding it tough finidng a conjunction between having inspiration and time in which to blog, so I'm growing increasingly concerned about this one.
• Work: I said last time that this one wasn't happening, but might have happened but for the virus. It turns out that it probably wouldn't have happened even then, but looks likely for next year. Which I'll take as a good thing.

The report card right now looks pretty bleak - two near-certain failures, and two behind target. I'll try to pull some of that back for the next update, but I'm not entirely confident.

Slipping

August has proven to be a bad month for goals - despite finding myself a whole book ahead of my reading goal on not one but two occasions, I'm going to end the month two books off target, while this blog has slipped from being one post behind to five.

All in all, that's a poor showing, especially at this stage in the year - my ability to catch up is extremely doubtful. I guess I know what the theme for next month is going to be...

Getting Ready to Fight Yesterday's War

Although the schools have started back in Scotland, and although I have little doubt that they will start back in England soon, I have considerable doubt that they will actually complete the school year. I think there's a good chance that we'll need another significant lockdown as things get worse over the winter. Even if a second lockdown doesn't occur, it's obviously not inconceivable that at some point something may come along and disrupt the academic year again.

The upshot of that is that obviously the education system is at some point going to have to be adjusted for this new reality - both in terms of needing the ability to transfer to mostly-online learning if that proves necessary, and also in terms of needing to deal with a curtailment of the academic year. In particular, this fiasco over exam results must surely indicate that a new approach to assessment is required.

Consequently, I've gone ahead and fixed it. You're welcome.

My proposal, simply put, is to essentially abandon year-long qualifications in favour of a much more modular approach: pupils attend a six-week module of material in a given subject, complete an assessed piece of work immediately after the end of the module, and are awarded credit in that module immediately. End-of-year exams essentially become a thing of the past. (Though exams as a concept may remain - they may be the best form for that "assessed piece of work" in at least some cases.)

The consequence of that is that if there is a sudden curtailment of the academic year, pupils are already credited for the work they have already completed, and so in the worst case only lose five weeks' worth of work-in-progress. Likewise, the academic year can essentially resume at any time, without an arbitrary start date in August (or September). (And so if, for example, we needed a lockdown from Nov - Feb, things could just pick up again in March without too much hassle.)

That solves the "sudden curtailment" part of the problem. The second issue is, of course, the need to switch to largely-online learning in some cases.

In this case, my proposal is that there should be a family of modules put in place pretty much specifically for online delivery. That of course doesn't work for all subjects, or all parts of a subject, but in many cases it is possible. And by making it a different set of modules for online and 'normal' learning there doesn't need to be any attempt to shift gears for the transition from one to the other.

(Another benefit is flexibility in the sequencing of work. When in a school environment, it makes a lot of sense to shift from one subject to another every 40 minutes or so, especially as that means shifting physically from one location to another. When working remotely it may well be preferable to approach modules as "crash courses" in a subject - tackling English one week, Maths another, and so on. Or not - the benefit of flexibility is that it's flexible.)

A final benefit of the use of 6-week modules is that it also allows a modification to a major bugbear of mine - the summer holidays. It is, frankly, madness that schools have three really long terms during the academic year and then a massive long holiday during which the kids proceed to forget everything they learned in June. It would be much better, for all involved, to have more shorter blocks of learning with a decent-sized break between each. Say six weeks on, one week off repeated seven times through the year, with one extra week of holiday at the end of December, and two extra weeks in July. (I haven't counted either the number of days of school or days of holiday here - it's just an illustration.)

Of course, I haven't addressed how modules relate to qualifications. But that's easy enough: six modules of this difficulty gives you that qualification (possibly with a caveat that "you need two from column A, two from column B, and two from column C", or whatever). Or abandon 'named' qualifications entirely, and just award credits in a subject - the universities are already well equipped to handle that, since they do it already, and employers inevitably adapt to whatever system is in place.

There are, however, two major downsides of such an approach.

The first is that it would be another significant shake-up of an education system that has had far too many shake-ups in recent years. Basically, every new education secretary seems to feel the need to leave their mark by changing things, and usually for the worst. So that advocates very strongly for not making any change.

The second is, of course, that putting together these modules, and especially the new assessments, represents a considerable amount of work that would need to be done. Inevitably, I have thoughts on that topic too, but given that I've already wittered on far too long I think I'll stop there...

The Trial of Alex Salmond

It is my belief that two things are absolutely vital for the successful running of our justice system:

1. When a serious allegation is made it must be taken seriously, and investigated properly. That applies regardless of who is accused or who is doing the accusing. Those investigations must be conducted without fear or favour, must be done promptly and thoroughly, and if there is a case to be answered then charges should be brought, and answered in court.
2. A person has the right to be considered innocent until, and unless, found guilty in court.

In the case of Alex Salmond, the first of these points actually did apply. And that's a very welcome thing - far too often, powerful men are able to act with seeming impunity, and it is important that that is challenged. So it is a very good thing that there was indeed an investigation, charges were brought, and the case heard.

But Alex Salmond was found Not Guilty on all but one charge, and Not Proven on the other. He was not found Guilty of any crime. As such, under point #2, he must be considered innocent.

Now, I should note that there is no obligation on private individuals to do anything. After all, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and may choose to accept or reject the verdict of the courts.

What I find completely and utterly unacceptable, however, is the ongoing media witch-hunt against Alex Salmond, most recently by the BBC last night. To me, that smacks of just just an unacceptable attack on a man who has not been convicted of anything, but more importantly it is an attack on the entire system of justice. The investigating authorities and the courts did their jobs; let that be the end of it.

And the reason this is so important is nothing to do with Alex Salmond. The sad truth is that any one of us could, at any time, find ourselves falsely accused of some crime. And, of course, simply being innocent is no guarantee that a false accusation won't come. Of course, a thorough and diligent investigation, or failing that a working court system, will ensure that a false accusation is recognised as such, and exoneration will follow. And that should be the end of the matter.

We insist on a fair hearing for Alex Salmond (and everyone else) because guaranteeing it in the high-profile cases also serves to guarantee it for all of the rest of us.

The BBC should be ashamed.

Revision

This past weekend I found myself revisiting an old theme: I had a test I needed to revise for. This was a follow-up to a training course we had had a few weeks ago, and was required to complete the certification. And, having 'failed' the mock test by one point, I wanted to make sure I was right on top of the material for the actual test.

In the event, the real test went fine. Having put in the time, I was able to get through it pretty quickly, and then double- and triple-check my answers, and thus scored a mere 96%. Which isn't too bad, really.

But my major takeaway from all of this is that I really don't miss exams, or revision, or all of that stuff. It was, I guess, fine back in the day. But these days I just have too many other things that I'd much rather do, not to mention the many other things that I need to do.

#38: "A Suitable Boy", by Vikram Seth (a book from The List)

Not Going Back

One of the surprising findings of the last several months of working from home is that productivity is actually up. One not-at-all-surprising finding is that morale has fallen, and continues to fall (though that may be less to do with working from home, and more to do with everything else also being closed). As a consequence of the latter, the powers-that-be are quite keen to reopen the office, at least to some capacity. To that end, today was supposed to be the day some people started back.

Personally, I was always rather torn about this. I have no concerns at all from a safety point of view - given the prevalence of the bug in Scotland it is highly unlikely that any of my colleagues have it, and the counter-measures put in place were pretty extensive. However, I was never sure what was to be gained - given that the meeting rooms would remain shut and so many people would still be working from home, the benefits of actually being present were already going to be diluted.

Anyway, it all became a moot point on Thursday, when tucked away in Nicola Sturgeon's update to parliament was a sentence stating that non-essential offices should remain closed until mid-September, or perhaps later. So that's that.

Longer-term, I think my intentions are to go back to the office as soon as the company specifically requests that I do so, but not to volunteer to go back any sooner than that. I'm also strongly considering requesting a shift to home-working three days a week on a permanent basis - on the days Funsize isn't at nursery my being here makes things that bit harder for LC, so there's clearly an advantage to being in the office, but on the three days FS is at nursery, it seems I could usefully skip the half-hour drive each way.

But that's still very much in the "thinking about it" stage - it remains to be seen how things will turn out when they do get back to normal... or, rather, move on to a new normal.

People are Just The Worst (again)

A few weeks ago, the internet spontaneously decided to start using the term "Karen" to refer to a particular group of unpleasant, entitled, white women. Which, of course, really sucks for anyone whose name is actually Karen, of course.

Today the show "This Morning" featured three such women, complaining that, through absolutely no fault of their own, they now find that their name has been turned into a term of abuse. Naturally, the internet reacted to this with a storm of abuse and mockery, largely centred around the notion that these women, being called Karen, are of course therefore "Karens". Because of course there could be no other reason they could possibly object to what has been done.

It is, of course, a ridiculous over-reaction to liken this to racism, systematic or otherwise. But something doesn't need to be of the same order of magnitude as racism to be wrong. And, bluntly, this is wrong.

(It's also worth noting that while using Karen as a term of abuse isn't racist, there's a rather stronger argument that it is sexist. Because you'll note that it was specifically women who were being labelled as somehow wrong. Funnily enough, men who display the same traits are, once again, just being assertive.)

#36 : "Throne of the Crescent Moon", by Saladin Ahmed

#37: "Sharpe's Skirmish", by Bernard Cornwell

Cheery Summer Reading

I've just finished "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", which is a light-hearted romp about grinding poverty, alcoholism, and eventual death, all set in the second decade of the 20th century in Brooklyn. Naturally, given the subject matter, it's a barrel of laughs from start to finish.

Though, oddly, and like "Angela's Ashes" (the novel I'd most compare it to), it is a fairly easy-going read, studded with moments of humour, and told in a sufficiently jovial way as to offset the underlying awfulness. In any event, I very much enjoyed it, and am happy to recommend it.

Perhaps also of note, I'm now down to 25 books remaining on The List. One of these, "Ulysses", appears on both the British and American sides. There are two that appear only on the British side, those being the longest two books left: "A Suitable Boy" (which I will be finishing shortly) and the complete works of Shakespeare. The other 22 are all on the American side.

My expectation, therefore, is to complete the British side of The List some time next year (as the remaining books are all either long or difficult), and then hopefully the American side some time in 2022. But we'll need to see how it actually plays out.

#35: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", by Betty Smith (a book from The List, and the new leading contender for Book of the Year)

Hobson's Choice

Here's an odd thought: in the Scottish elections we're not voting for which government we want; we're voting for which type of SNP government we get.

The thing is, there are only three outcomes that are remotely likely. The most likely, per the polls as they stand, is that the SNP will win an outright majority of seats (and, indeed, quite possibly a significant majority). In which case we will, of course, get an SNP government.

The second possibility, and the next most likely, is essentially a rerun of the last election - the SNP fall slightly short of an outright majority, but the Greens gain enough seats as to give a pro-independence majority. In which case we'll get an SNP minority government, backed by the Greens. And things will carry on pretty much as they are.

The third possibility, and the least likely of the three, is that the pro-indepence parties will lose enough seats that the Tories, Labour, and the Lib Dems between them hold a majority of the seats. However, neither the Tories nor Labour will have enough seats to build a government either alone or with the Lib Dems - it would take an alliance of all three to form a government. And there is simply no way that either Boris Johnson or Kier Starmer would countenance such a thing. (Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard might, given the perks of the job, but they'd be over-ruled.)

The upshot of that is that either the SNP will then form a government that is then utterly paralysed by the combined opposition, or we'll end up with another set of elections (in which case, see above). There is basically no prospect of anyone else forming a government.

Which really isn't a healthy place for Scotland's politics to be. It's not even as if you could look at either the Tories or Labour and see any viable government in waiting. Quite aside from them having no chance of winning the seats, there just isn't the talent there for it to be anything other than a disaster. The SNP have to have the job since, for all their faults (which are increasingly obvious), they are able to offer governance that is at least marginally competent.

It's shocking that that has become the bar to be aspired to.

Missing Out on Summer

Needless to say, we're not going away for a holiday this summer. We are potentially going to look at going away for the September weekend and the October week (usually we'd only do the latter), though in both cases it is likely to be only a few days, and somewhere within Scotland. At the start of the year I had looked at going to Vienna, but we shelved those plans some months ago - right now, there's no way I'm going anywhere near an airport.

The upshot of that is that, unfortunately, this summer just feels like a big waste.

The other consequence of this is that, other than a day or two here and there, I haven't had a proper holiday since Christmas. Easter was cancelled due to the start of lockdown, Summer has now been cancelled due to the middle of it... I do hope that October won't be cancelled by the second wave, but you never know. Which is far from ideal - there is a limit to how long you can just keep going.

The upshot is that I think I will be taking that week off in October, basically regardless of what happens, because I do now just need a break.

Bang Up To Date

I've never been hugely into video games. Even back in my first year of university it was more a case of one game in particular ("Civilisation II") causing me problems rather than flitting between many such games. Nonetheless, I gradually accumulated a large number of games, most which did at least get installed (albeit not played) on the PC I had at that time.

Naturally, after I gave up on video games following the aforementioned Civ2 incident, I pretty much stopped buying them. This wasn't a complete stop, as I was occasionally tempted by a game, which I then mostly ended up not playing, but it wasn't a particularly huge issue.

When I finally retired that PC and moved to my laptop I decided not to install anything until I actually came to use it, which meant that only one game was installed. That then held true with the move to my current PC.

A couple of years ago, during one of my decluttering phases, I finally got rid of almost all of those games that hadn't been used for years and were just taking up space. I haven't felt their lack. However, I did keep two games - "Icewind Dale II" (which I'd never played but thought I might), and "Neverwinter Nights 2". That last was the game I'd installed on the laptop, got a fairly long way through, and then abandoned. I thought I might give it a go again.

Anyway, those two have been sitting on my shelf taking up space since then. Until Saturday evening, when I finally got around to installing them onto my PC. I still haven't actually played them, of course, but that is at least now an option.

As you can see, I'm bang up to date on PC gaming!

Back to Nursery

Funsize started back at nursery on Friday. They'd been open since the 15th, but we weren't really in a rush to send her - we just wanted to make sure she was eased back into it before LC went back to school next month. So she went, and it seems she had a good day.

I had two concerns prior to the return to nursery. The first was the obvious one about safety, but the truth is that that was always very minor - even before the lockdown her nursery had some fairly significant protective measures in place, and are obviously taking the matter as seriously as possible. Short of us more or less completely isolating ourselves (with all the problems that would bring), there isn't really much more we could be doing on that front.

My other concern was one of socialisation. Being an only child, Funsize has spent the last several months with no other children to play with. And while she's too young to remember all of this once she's grown up, she's not too young for it to have an effect. So, when she returned to nursery, how would she play with other children.

Well, it sounds like she did just fine, which is obviously all to the good. At least, so far so good - she's only done one day so far, so it's possible a meltdown is coming on Wednesday, or perhaps Thursday. But we'll just need to deal with that if it should occur.

Still, that's one more step back to normal life, so that's good.

Overdrafts

A little while ago, our marvellous government decided that banks would no longer be allowed to charge a higher interest rate (or other fees) for unexpected overdrafts than for arranged ones. Which was always a bit of an odd move - I would have thought that that actually was a reasonable place where the charges could vary. Anyway, as a response to this the banks of course introduced new, and much higher, interest rates for all overdrafts. Which wasn't so much an unforseen consequence as one that was totally obvious.

Anyway, on Saturday I received an annoying letter from my bank, explaining that they had been oh-so-good to us, in that as part of their Covid response they had delayed bringing in the new, higher interest rates. However, the time had now come for them to do this.

Well, fair enough. I have had an overdraft facility with them for decades, and apart from one occaision when there might have been a short term dip (depending on the order in which things happened) I've never actually used it. Nor indeed would I intend to - there have always been cheaper ways to get credit.

But what really annoys me about this is the utter and inexcusable unfairness of the system as a whole. Yes, it's right that banks should charge interest on accounts that are overdrawn, but it's a bloody liberty charging punitive interest rates on such accounts when they have a 0% interest rate on credit balances. Indeed, there isn't a bank account out there that pays anything even close to the ~35% rate charged on negative balances. Frankly, I find it utterly and outrageously one-sided.

So that's my rant of the day. It is, of course, not a reason to switch bank (since they're all much of a muchness on that measure). However, it is worth noting that I am now up to two actual reasons for switching banks. I suspect that may be coming sooner rather than later...

#33: "Carte Blanche", by Jeffery Deaver

#34: "The Fall of Gondolin", by J.R.R. Tolkien (which was much better than "Beren and Luthien", which is nice.)

When Adapting a Novel

Neil Gaiman has indicated an interest in doing a second season of "Good Omens". Because as soon as you have a major hit on your hands, of course you want to do more. Never mind that the adaptation used up all of the existing source material, and the only people qualified to write more are Gaiman and Terry Pratchett working as a team. And while Pratchett has been unusually prolific for an ex-writer, this would be ambitious even for him.

Unfortunately, this is another case of falling into the same trap as "A Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Attwood, or "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. The first season adapts the book, and does so really well, turning into a big hit. Everyone involved therefore wants more, and that desire wins out over good sense. And then the regret sets in.

So, my new rule of thumb: when adapting a much-loved novel for TV, once you reach the end of the novel it is time to stop.

Pipe Down

For obvious reasons, band practice has been cancelled since mid-March, and the entire pipe band competition season has been cancelled for the year. As things started to unlock, I found myself wondering if and when we'd be able to meet again - I had assumed it would be fairly soon.

Alas, the news does not sound good: https://bagpipe.news/2020/07/03/covid-19-the-game-changer/

Basically, the risks associated with instruments like the bagpipe are particularly severe - one infected player could very easily infect the whole band. And the measures that are proposed to mitigate it sound all but unworkable - protective screens, extensive shielding, and the like. For serious competition bands I suspect they might be a sacrifice that is worthwhile, but for everyone else I doubt it.

The upshot is that I suspect there will be pretty much no pipe band events, of any sort, until a vaccine is found. Certainly, indoor practices on the pipes, and anything involving a parade will be out of the question.

Solo piping, and the use of the practice chanter, should remain possible. But that's about it... and that's rather disappointing.

Day 200: Update on Goals

It's day 200 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 200 I should have read 32.78 books, so I'm right on target. I'm also up-to-date on all sub-lists, and am making good progress on "A Suitable Boy", which I should finish next month (it's really long!). So everything looks good here.
• Weight: Blah. Progress gets made, progress gets reversed.
• Blogging: I'm a little behind on this blog, but right on target on the Imaginarium. So that's looking promising.
• Work: Sadly, this goal won't be achieved this year, a casualty of the virus. Which is a shame, as otherwise I suspect it would have been done.

And that's that. We're now looking at two goals that will succeed, one that will fail through circumstances beyond my control, and one that's not looking good (again). That's a middling report card, but with some reason to be cheerful.

Prepping for a New Normal - Webcam

One of the features of lockdown has, of course, been extensive use of Zoom and similar tools for video chat. One of the key things that has enabled this is that I brought the entire contents of my desk from work, including a webcam. Said webcam has been doing double duty as a webcam for our home PC. This has been a major boon, but of course there will come a time when I have to return to the office, and the webcam will go with me.

It is my expectation that even after things return to normal, the use of video chat will remain something of a feature - it's just much easier to get people together online than in person. Consequently, I knew fairly early on in lockdown that I would want to invest in a webcam of my own. (Additionally, if I do end up doing more extensive work from home in the new normal, having a camera here would just mean one less thing to have to cart back and forward.)

So I did what I usually do with this sort of thing and spent some time researching the market, narrowed my choices down to a few solid options from reputable suppliers, and then picked an item. And having made my choice, that was it - I try really hard not to agonise over these choices once they're made - even if they're not the best choice, they're typically good enough... and certainly good enough to render any further stress not worthwhile.

The chosen camera was out of stock everywhere, of course. And then, when it did come in stock, there was a Coronavirus premium applied, such that it was way more than it 'should' have been, and certainly way more than I was set to pay when there was no pressing need for it.

Still, it was a pain constantly looking to see if it had come back into stock at any decent price, or being tempted with alternatives at lower prices - most of which, I'm sure, were perfectly adequate for the job I wanted done... they just weren't the chosen item.

Well, the good news is that the item in question finally came back into stock, from a source I hadn't really considered (but am happy to use). So it should arrive later this week. I'll then look to set it up on both PCs, in preparation for returning the current camera back to the office.

#31: "The Broken Sword", by Poul Anderson

#32: "Sharpe's Sword", by Bernard Cornwell

Things Best Left Behind

This post is prompted about the recent events concerning Black Lives Matter, but it's not about Black Lives Matter. Largely because I have very little to say on that topic - of course black lives matter, and I'm frankly stunned and dismayed that it even needs to be said. But, evidently, it does.

However, one of the consequences of recent events is that WotC have started talking about making some changes to D&D and it's associated lore as a result of this, and the consequence of that is that the message boards are full of long and painful threads about the various changes.

This post isn't really about that, either, except tangentially.

The sad fact is that some of the material created for D&D over the past 45 years is indeed problematic in various areas. That's hardly shocking, given the amount of material involved. More troubling is that some of the more problematic areas include some very long-standing material and even some well-loved material. There is even significant debate over the most popular and most lucrative item in the entire setting.

This realisation, and the debates surrounding it prompted some uncomfortable reflections on how it should be dealt with. Because, bluntly, if WotC are serious about dealing with the issue then where there are genuinely problematic areas they will have to take some sort of action. In some cases, the areas affected can be fixed. In others, they just can't, and the offending material will have to be excised. (I should note that I don't necessarily agree on all the areas that have been flagged as 'problematic', and neither do I necessarily agree with whatever actions are proposed. Ultimately, though, that's a question for WotC, and it's also not really the topic of this post.)

But this isn't really about D&D, but culture more widely, be it in the form of films, books, and TV shows; or in the form of the statues we place in our cities; or indeed in the names of some streets.

Ultimately, what I'd like us to aim for is a society as envisaged by Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous "I have a dream..." speech - a world where race ceases to be a problem because we reach a point where it just doesn't matter. Obviously, I'm not so naive as to believe we're anywhere close to there, nor indeed do I think we'll get there in my lifetime, but that's pretty much the goal as I see it.

And the truth is that if we have elements in our culture that stand as an active insult to big parts of the population, we're just never going to get there. Some of these things need to be marked "handle with care", some of them need to be moved to the proper place and context... and some of them just need to go.

And some of the things that need to go may well include things that are very long-standing and much-loved. If we are to collectively enter a better future, there are some elements of our past that we will need to leave in our past.

Which doesn't make it any easier to take, of course. But there it is.

Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga

This was one of those films that really highlights the benefit of these subscription packages - there's no way that I would have paid to go see this film, but when I saw it included in my Netflix subscription it definitely became something I was interested in. And it was a really good choice - it's been a long time since I've laughed so much at a film.

This is a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, which as the name implies is built around the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm not going to say any more about the plot than that, though it's almost sufficiently redundant to the silliness - you've seen it several times before with some near variations.

The film it actually reminded me of most was "Blades of Glory", which is probably no surprise given the presence of Ferrell in both.

There's actually not much more to say than that, except that it was nice to see so much of Edinburgh featuring in the film. I especially liked the shots of that well-known Edinburgh landmark, the Hydro (which is traditionally in Glasgow).

And yes, Graham Norton is in the film, doing just as he does at Eurovision every year. He's probably the best thing about the modern Eurovision, and he's great here.

(This is also a film with a really good trailer, in that it gives a good flavour of the film without using all the best material. Which means that you can watch the trailer and know easily whether this is a film for you. It certainly won't be for everyone, and won't suit every mood, but it's worth two minutes to check out a trailer, I would have thought.)

In Between

This afternoon I re-watched the "Voyager" episode "Flashback". I'm not a fan of "Voyager" by any means, but this is very definitely one of the best episodes, though it does suffer, once again, from showing hints of the show I would much rather have seen - Captain Sulu commanding the Excelsior. Oh well.

But it did occur to me that, given the state of "Star Trek" at that time, a full seven-season, 154-episode show may well have become very tired, very quickly. And that's assuming they could even afford to recruit the key actors required.

But it does occur to me that not every show needs, or indeed benefits from, that sort of massive multi-season approach. And, indeed, there are some cases where the show would have been improved by committing to a smaller, fixed run - "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Picard" immediately leap to mind as examples.

Of course, that's where a somewhat-underused format comes into play. A seven-season "Sulu" show was probably never going to fly. But what about a four-episode mini-series? (Likewise, I would very much like to see a "Doctor Who" mini-series starring the Eighth Doctor...)

For some reason, the mini-series seems to be deployed for adaptations of novels and not much else. (I entirely understand why it's used for novels, of course, given the limited source material. It's the "not much else" that surprises me.)

Anyway, that's what has been on my mind today. Or at least for the past couple of hours.

#30: The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence (a book from The List)

Malaise

On Saturday I finally got caught up on all my tasks, found myself with a little free time, and thought I'd get on with one of the things I'd said to myself I'd do during lockdown... and promptly decided, "nope". After spending so much time in front of a PC all week, I found I just couldn't be bothered at all to sit and do so at the weekend. (Nor, indeed, could I face sitting watching some TV or a movie. Basically it was screens that I was burnt out on.)

Which was a bit of a bummer, since the chances of me getting some more free time any time soon are extremely small. So I guess that project just isn't going to happen.

I do have one more thing that I (well, actually LC) wants to get through during lockdown, and that doesn't require a lot of time. So maybe I'll make some progress on that this weekend. But I wouldn't count on it!

#29: "50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know", by John Sutherland

A Matter of Style

My latest book is "50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know", which is rather interesting. Yesterday I came to the section on "Style", which suddenly crystallised something I had been aware of but hadn't been able to really grasp.

The relevant sentence reads, "The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the most valuable investment a writer can make with his time." (That is itself a quote from Raymond Chandler.)

As I mentioned once before, some years ago my grandfather wrote his life story. Once he had completed it he sent it out to the various branches of the family, at which point I spent some hours reading through it, and what surprised me about the work was that while the events of the story were of interest for themselves, and while the story was written in good, functional English, it was all surprisingly underwhelming. Given grandad's education, his career, and the fact that he was extremely well read, it was somewhat surprising that the whole thing wasn't, well, better.

Chandler, of course, neatly explains all that in a single sentence. The issue is that style isn't something that you either have or don't have; it's something that a writer develops and builds with practice. As such, it does indeed require an investment in time. (And, since writing the story of a long life is a significant undertaking, it has the same constraint as 'quality' in a software system - it's not something that you can add later. It needs to have become second nature, so that it's built in. Which means it really needs that investment of time.)

Grandad, for all that he was very well read, and for all that he was an educated man, had spent his life as an educator, not as a writer. He simply hadn't made that investment in time required to move beyond "good, functional English" to something more stylish.

And that's why his life story, while interesting to the family for the events that it recounts, felt somewhat underwhelming.

(Lest I be thought uncharitable, I should also note that at the time he wrote his life story, grandad was already into his eighties and in fairly poor health. So, really, the fact that he was able to produce it at all was rather remarkable. I just thought it was worth noting the revelatory moment I enjoyed yesterday evening when so much became clear.)

Back to Normal

For the past week or so there has been a formatting error on the blog, showing the sidebar at the bottom of the page. That was due to an HTML error on my part. Hopefully it's fixed now...

#28: "Sharpe's Company", by Bernard Cornwell

Space Force

When I heard about a new comedy parodying the newest branch of the US military, starring Steve Carrol and created by the guys responsible for the US version of "The Office", I was certainly interested. When I heard it was coming to Netflix I started looking forward to it in earnest. I've since watched all ten episodes... and I'm afraid it's not really worth bothering with.

I should first note that the first two episodes are very much worth a watch - the first to establish the scenario and characters, but then the second is very funny indeed.

Unfortunately, after that one the series seems to run completely out of ideas, and goes into a holding pattern of recycled plots, character moments that seem to come straight out of the nineties, and not much else. (It also doesn't help that Trump really isn't a laughing matter any more.)

Given the reviews, I find it really hard to believe that this will be renewed. Even if so, it would require some major rework before I could recommend giving it a go. The gag ratio is just far too weak, that one episode excluded. Which is a real shame - it had such potential.

#26: "Sword of Kings", by Bernard Cornwell

#27: "Call for the Dead", by John Le Carré

Dear 2020, I was just joking...

A million years ago, back at the end of March, I noted that the current situation had a few parallels with the old show "Crusade". I signed off by noting that the show was cancelled, and so the answer to "what happens next" was "either I don't know... or worse."

Given the direction 2020 has taken in the last few days, I'm suddenly rather concerned that we are in fact heading for cancellation, as the lethal cocktail of incompetence and malevolence that we seem to have collectively voted for starts to take effect in earnest.

Good luck everyone. Here's hoping someone resets the timeline soon.

Experimental Cookery 2020, Addendum: Cottage Pie

A couple of months ago my Experimental Cookery was shepherd's pie, taken from Hugh's "Love Your Leftovers". Since then we have had roast beef a couple of times, and so yesterday with the leftovers I made a cottage pie. This is, of course, almost exactly the same, but made with beef instead of lamb.

And it was fine, but we both definitely preferred the shepherd's pie. There wasn't anything wrong with the cottage pie... it just wasn't as nice.

(The other thing I would note is that while Hugh recommends aiming for 1kg of meat, making up any shortfall with leftover veg, I think I'm inclined instead to recommend about 700g, made up to the kilo with veg. That seemed to me to give a better balance between the flavours. But maybe that's just me.)

And that's all there is to say about that, really. It was blog-worthy... but only just.

Theme of the Month Wash-up: Quiet

This month has indeed matched up with the expectations - it has been a far quieter month than previously.

One thing that has been quite noticeable, though, is that on almost every forum that I've been talking with people we seem to have run out of things to say. Nothing much is happening to generate new conversations, and so the well just runs dry. Which is a shame, but I suppose not really unexpected.

Next month is likely to see things start to get back towards normal as we proceed with the unlock, which in theory at least should see new conversations being generated. I guess we'll see...

Things I Miss, and Things I Don't

During the lockdown there have been various things that I have missed for obvious reasons - seeing friends, family, and even colleagues; going to church, and for other outings. I'm not going to talk about those here, since they are indeed obvious. Instead, there are a few things that I have missed more than I thought, less than I thought, or in a surprising way, and it is those that I thought I'd discuss here...

My Commute: Not surprisingly, I don't miss the drive to the office and back. For the most part, it was just an annoying drain on time, a source of frustration, and something I'm quite glad to be without. But...

The commute did have one thing going for it, and that was that it gave me time. Specifically, time by myself to try to decompress after the day, before getting into the various activities of the evening. In lockdown, my 'commute' consists to leaving one room and going into another, and just doesn't provide that airlock. And what I'm really missing is:

Time to Myself. Prior to lockdown, there was a block of time on Friday afternoons when, almost every week, I had come home from work, LC was still at work, and Funsize was at nursery. And so I got a couple of hours in the house by myself with very little requiring my attention. In lockdown, that's gone.

To a certain extent, I've been able to carve out a little time by continuing to get up early, even on weekends (thanks, insomnia!). Though even that is far from certain, since Funsize is quite likely to wake up at the key time. It's not a particularly good block of time anyway.

Costa: This was an occasional treat that became a weekly treat (on my way back from Tesco), and it is something I miss. But, again, there's a caveat - once lockdown ends and Costa reopens, I think my intention is not to return to my previous pattern. The issue is that the cost really does add up, and it's been something of an eye-opener to see just how much money I've been saving by being forced to buy everything in a one-and-done Tesco shop. All those little "occasional treats" really should go.

Band Practice: I thought I'd miss this, but I find that I haven't really. I mean, band's fine and all, but... I just haven't missed it. I think part of the issue here is that we don't really learn any new tunes, and we don't really practice for anything, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to the point. But maybe that's just general malaise.

Being able to "just pop out". This one perhaps fall into the 'obvious' category, but I do miss being able to think of something I'd quite like to do and being able to just go and do it. Though, again, I'm not sure that's something that will revert to normal even when things do start back up again.

Day 150: Update on Goals

It's day 150 of the year, so here's the update:

• Books: By day 150 I should have read 24.59 books. I'm somewhat ahead of target. I'm also up-to-date on all sub-lists, and have finally finished "The Count of Monte Cristo". So that's all looking really good. In fact, my biggest concern now is that I'm running short of reading material, but I'm working on that.
  
• Weight: No progress since the last update. I'll need to take some action here.
  
• Blogging: I'm pretty much right on target on both blogs.
  
• Work: This continues to go well, mostly. I'm due my annual appraisal soon, so we'll see just how true it really is. But, either way, I won't be talking about it (much) here.

So, everything is actually going pretty well. I'm rather hoping that by the time of the next update the lockdown may be over, or at least much relaxed, but we'll need to see how true that proves to be. That in turn may have an impact on the progression of the goals, so we'll need to see how it goes. The next update is in July, so we'll see then.

#24: "The Count of Monte Cristo", by Alexandre Dumas (a book from The List)

#25: "Blindness", by Jose Saramago (a book from The List, and now the leading contender for book of the year.)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Chilli with Nachos and Cheese

This one comes from the Hairy Bikers "One Pot Wonders", and is pretty much what the name implies: a big bowl of chilli served with a topping of nachos and cheese.

The recipe for the chilli is slightly different from that in their Hairy Dieters book, and it's fine but not game-changing - it was another perfectly-serviceable chilli that we enjoyed but that won't be becoming our default chilli recipe. The topping of nachos and cheese was likewise very nice, but not exactly a revelation.

So file this one under "very nice, would definitely have again, but otherwise unremarkable". Sorry there's not more to say about it!

#23: "Centuries of Stories", edited by Wendy Cooling (a book for Funsize)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Malloreddus (sort of)

This one comes from "The Hairy Biker's Mediterranean Adventure", and is described as a gnocchi-like pasta. However, I found it because I had some gnocchi and was looking for a use for it, and liked the look of the sauce described here. So what I actually cooked wasn't Malloreddus at all, but rather gnocchi with a tomato-y, sausage-y sauce.

And very nice it was, too. I really like gnocchi (having had it all of half a dozen times), and so was always on to a winner, and it's quite hard to go wrong with good sausages and tomatoes. I was rather surprised at the tiny amount of liquid that was added to the sauce, but it turned out okay.

All in all, this was a winner. The only downside was a half-hour simmer step, but that should have been negated by starting cooking earlier than I actually managed. Would definitely have this again - indeed, I may end up having the leftover sauce with some of the leftover gnocchi for a lunch later this week, if LC doesn't beat me to it!

Experimental Cookery 2020: Pepper & Tomato Pasta Traybake

This one comes from this month's Tesco magazine, and was a bit of a winner. It's quick and easy to put together but, perhaps more importantly, it was a nice tasty vegetarian dish that we all enjoyed.

I don't have a great deal more to add at this point, due to the relative simplicity of the meal, except perhaps to note that I'm looking to gradually expand my repertoire of vegetarian meals in general. And this is a definite addition to that set.

#21: "Sharpe's Battle", by Bernard Cornwell
#22: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Gaming the System

One of the ongoing controversies in the Scottish political scene concerns the formation of a new "list party" - a new party that will not stand in constituencies but will instead only stand on the regional list, and hope to do well enough to get a handful of MSP seats as a result.

The stated goal of such parties is to "maximise the pro-independence majority". The logic here is that the results of the regional votes are corrected to give each party the 'right' number of MSPs, so the better a party does in the constituencies, the fewer seats they get in the region. Thus the SNP, who can expect to win most constituency seats, have a very large number of 'wasted' votes in the regional votes.

Up until the weekend, this was a largely theoretical proposition. Over the weekend, though, a number of disaffected ex-SNP members registered a new party, and thigns got real.

I can't say I'm a fan of the notion, at all.

I should note at this time that my opposition is not from the "it almost certainly won't" work line of attack, nor even the more extreme "it's likely to be counter-productive" line of attack. Both of these are probably correct, but frankly that's beside the point.

On the one hand, if all the party exists for is to maximise the pro-independence majority, then frankly that shouldn't be allowed. It's an attempt to game the system - about 50% of people in Scotland are pro-independence, so there shouldn't be a significant pro-independence majority.

On the other hand, if the party has some other agenda that puts them at odds with the SNP (whether it's that they don't feel that the SNP are pushing independence strongly enough, because they simply don't like the current SNP leadership, or the trans-rights issue that I am absolutely not going to comment on at all, or whetever else), then that's fine - people can set up whatever parties they want and campaign on whatever platform they want... but in that case they should be campaigning explicitly against the SNP. They're rivals for the same vote, so they should act like it.

And that, incidentally, is both why this post hasn't made mention of the Greens, either as potentially "taking votes away" from the SNP (since they have that distinct agenda), and also as being the list-only alternative to the SNP (because if the new party is distinct from the Greens also, then that is also their prerogative).

(It's also why I don't have an issue with the three major Unionist parties all standing and vying for votes, even though the regional list system gives the a leg up. The three are all fairly clearly distinct voices - they just happen to agree on one topic. I just wish they were better.)

The Crisis Hits

The one thing that I will confess to panic buying before the lockdown was a stockpile of books. I figured that there was a good chance that deliveries of non-essential items were quite likely to be hit, and also that there was a good chance that the lockdown would last 2-3 months, so I stocked up.

However, I'm now reaching a point where I'm running short on some of my sublists. Worse, I'm now getting to a point where I'm running out of ideas for books to read at all - I have enough earmarked for the rest of this month, but thereafter I'm out of ideas. (Funnily enough, I predicted that that was likely to become a problem, and when, two years ago.)

The sublists for the year are four in number: Books from The List, New Books (which only has 10 entries), the Sharpe novels, and "Other". I have plenty of books lined up from The List and in the Sharpe series; the problems lie with the other two. New Books would have been fine, except that the virus has caused most of the novels on the list to be delayed by some months. But at time of writing, the next one is released on the 28th of the month, with one scheduled for each month thereafter. That means that I have a gap right now, but then should be okay for a while... assuming they don't get delayed again.

The "Other" sub-list is the most problematic. I need approximately fifteen books to see me through the year, and can scare up one or two for right now. Annoyingly, I can find loads of partial trilogies, but in each case either the early books have dropped out of print or the final volume has not yet been released.

The likely upshot of this is two-fold. Firstly, it is likely to mean that I'll read more books from The List than I had perhaps planned for the year. Secondly, it is quite likely that the reading goal will come to an abrupt end - many of the books from The List are hefty tomes, so expecting to read the full 60 books with so many of these to tackle isn't terribly realistic.

Unless, that is, I have some sort of inspiration...

Natural Optimism

During the lockdown, one of the things we have going on at work is a "Picture of the Week" contest. Well, a contest of sorts - it's mostly just a bit of fun. But one of the things that I have noticed is just how many of the pictures that are posted are of landscapes, or sunsets (or sunrises), or animals, or otherwise of the natural world. I suppose that's not surprising - the human world has come crashing down, so it makes sense to take comfort in what remains.

I can't help but thinking, yet again, of how priviliged that makes us. In most places in Scotland it's not that hard to get away to somewhere natural, or at least some facsimile of it. And even the less renowned parts of Scotland can still manage to be rather nice:

Given that we're stuck here for another three weeks, given that that lockdown is becoming increasingly hard to bear, and given also that even when it does end it won't be a reversion to the way things were before, it's very nice to be able to at least step out of doors and get a genuine and refreshing change in the outdoors.

#20: "Eberron: Rising from the Last War", by Wizards of the Coast

Theme of the Month: Quiet

One of the features of April is that it includes both our wedding anniversary and LC's birthday. Many years it also includes Easter, and it includes the schools' Easter holidays. So Easter can be a rather hectic month!

Of course, this year was complicated a little further by the start of lockdown in March, which then continued into April. This took quite a while to settle down, which made for an even busier month than normal.

So the theme I'm hoping to set for May is simply "Quiet". My hope is that it won't be a month of huge transitions (except maybe back towards 'normal'), while it is also unlikely to involve many celebrations or events. Alas, the gala days that should have started thing month have, of course, been cancelled or deferred until later.

That's the plan, at least. Cue the entire situation being turned on its head once again!

A Knigdom of Isolation - wash up

So, the end of the month, and the end of the theme of the month. I think some time next month we'll probably see a loosening of the restrictions (unfortunately, probably for just long enough for us to really regret it). Whether that is the case or not, I'll have a new theme for next month.

Anyway, it has been a largely uneventful month, as was always to be expected. But before it ends, a quick grab-bag of thoughts on some of the topics I mentioned at the outset:

Home working: This has been going fine. I've now settled on using our study for my home office, which means that each day starts and ends with the ritual of building up and tearing down my work system (so that we can use the room normally for the rest of the time). Staying in touch with colleagues has mostly been easy enough, subject only to the whims of the wi-fi and VPN connection. So that's all to the good. Mostly, though, this the time when we really benefit from all the investment that the company made to support people being mobile in their work. They didn't intend it for this purpose, but it has worked out well.

Food supplies: Fortunately, Tesco now seems mostly back to normal, so the big challenge is building a sufficiently-complete list that I only have to go once a week. So far, so good. Our freezers and cupboards remain full, so apart from some key staples such as bread and milk, we'd actually be able to manage a two-week total lockdown if we had to.

Quarantine beard: Nah, I shaved it off. I had a fairly extensive festive beard late last year (due to other stresses), so didn't really fancy growing one this time. So I let it grow out for a couple of weeks, but mostly through pure inertia, before getting rid.

And that's pretty much that for this month.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

One of the great pleasures of the subscription model for TV is that it gives access to a whole slate of shows that you might never actively seek out, and certainly wouldn't pay for, but that you might consider on the basis "why not?" Much of these are dross, of course, but every so often you come across a gem.

"The Dark Crystal" is a film I'd actually never seen until recently. To be honest, I don't really consider that much of a loss - there's a lot of really clever world-building there, but the plot is somewhat lacking.

I therefore approached "Age of Resistance" with a degree of trepidation. After all, not only is it a prequel to a film that didn't wow me, it's a prequel, which is never a good sign. And the very first episode was essentially more of the same: lots of great world-building, but...

Ah, but... After that first episode it gets better. And then it gets better, and better...

We're now five episodes into the first season, and I've just seen that there is indeed going to be a season 2, which is excellent news.

So, count this as a recommendation. And a further recommendation for the DMs out there: take notes!

Living Dangerously

Been a while since I did a post about the weekly shop...

It's a strange thing, that we're now at the point where the most dangerous thing I do is to go for the weekly shop each Friday. Honestly, there was never much risk - just the commute to and from work, but now the trip to Tesco means risking exposure to the virus. It's not likely, but unfortunately it is possible - and it's also the one vector for infection I have left.

As a consequence of the lockdown, we've taken steps to minimise contact, and that has included avoiding takeaway food. Which sucks - the local Dominos are still delivering, and I'd really quite like to order... but really don't think I can justify it. And likewise, we're trying really hard to only go shopping once for the week. The upshot is that we're both having to be quite careful in putting together the list, and also having to order more, both than we usually ordered, and also than we perhaps think we need. That has meant, of course, that the cost is higher than it has generally been. But since it's now our only big expenditure, it works out well.

The other thing that has been noticeable is a big win. It has been my practice when putting the list together to write everything down and then carefully re-order it to match the order of items in the store. (Naturally, I have the store layout memorised. Doesn't everyone?) This has occasioned a certain amount of bemusement on the part of LC, for reasons that I'm sure are obvious.

But in light of the virus, Tesco have now introduced a one-way system. This is intended to minimise contact between customers, of course - if everyone moves through in a fixed order, that will aid with that.

And, of course, that suits me perfectly - I was already following the system anyway, so the upshot is that now pretty much everyone else was already. Basically, I had pre-optimised for these days. Huzzah!

The only remaining downside is that my preference now is to hit Tesco just after opening on Friday (8am), but they can't start selling alcohol until 10am. Under the circumstances, it would be really useful if the government would relax the relevant licensing laws accordingly. In the absence of that, my pattern is to go at 10am once every few weeks, and to buy a fairly considerable amount of wine at that time. We won't be consuming any more than previously - just combining the purchases for several weeks into one bigger shop. But that's all just a minor quibble.

#19: "I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin", by P.N. Elrod (unfortunately, a likely candidate for the weakest book of the year.)

Experimental Cookery 2020: Green Lentil Curry

As a consequence of doing the Ham & Pearl Barley Soup, I found myself in possession of quite a lot of excess green lentils, and so the hunt was on to find a use for them. Fortunately Tesco provided an answer to at least part of that, which led to today's dinner.

The recipe was quick and easy to put together, though it did include a 45-minute simmer stage. So it's one for a weekend rather than an weekday evening. But that's fine.

Interestingly, this was a recipe that really highlighted the value of seasoning - after the simmer stage I tasted the meal and it was foul. But with the addition of salt and pepper, and a bit of a stir, and suddenly it all came together. That was really something.

I also whipped up some flatbread to go with it. They were very nice, but I wouldn't really dignify them with the name 'naan'. (Though, of course, that just means 'bread'. :) )

The meal as a whole was a massive success - tasty and very filling. Not to mention cheap. We'll definitely be having this again, if only because we still have an abundance of lentils to use up!

Experimental Cookery 2020: Ham & Pearl Barley Soup

A few weeks ago, I noted that Tesco had some rather nice-looking gammon joints, and so that became one of our weekly roasts (which are taking a short break just now). Since it was a piece of meat big enough for 6, this left us with quite a large amount of leftover meat. Some of this went into a very nice macaroni cheese, and today I used the second batch in a soup. This one came from the "New Covent Garden Food Co. - A Soup for Every Day".

As with soups generally, this proved to be pretty easy to put together, and although the elapsed time was a bit more than an hour, this was mostly taken up with two 30-minute simmer stages that didn't require much attention.

The result was pretty much exactly as I'd expected - it was a very nice soup that bulked a fairly small amount of meat out with a lot of pulses to create a very filling meal. The only thing to watch is that the gammon was very salty to start with, so go easy on the seasoning!

The best bit: that has left us with two additional servings, that are now sitting in our freezer for another day. A winner all around.

#18: "Skyward: Claim the Stars", by Brandon Sanderson

Day 108: A Belated Update on Goals

Day 100 of the year slipped past without me noticing! So here's a belated update on my goals for the year:

• Books: If I had written this update on time, I would have been reporting that I was somewhat behind on my goal. However, thanks largely to a good long weekend of reading, things have changed. By day 108 I should be on 17.213 books read. I'm actually some 90 pages ahead of that target at the time of writing. Which is nice.
  
• Weight: Lockdown seems to suit me. According to the scales this morning, I am 8 pounds down from where I started the year.
  
• Blogging: I managed to get caught up by the end of March, and am now right on target for this month.
  
• Work: Again, this has been made right since the previous update, and is back to going well. That remains true despite the lockdown.

And that's that. This is a hugely improved status than the previous update, and even better for being delayed (allowing me to catch up on the book front). The other consequence of the delay is that the next update doesn't seem so far away either. We'll see how that goes...

#15: "I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire", by P.N. Elrod
#16: "Sharpe's Gold", by Bernard Cornwell
#17: "Further Tales of Little Grey Rabbit", by Denis Judd after Alison Uttley (a book for Funsize. We've actually read the whole series (well, all the ones we have), but this is the only one that is really long enough to count as one of my books)

A Tribute to My Wife

A week ago on Friday, Emma Brockes in the Guardian wrote, "We are all working on our time management skills, while realising that the only really valuable time management tool is a wife to watch the kids."

I'm not entirely sure whether this was an attempt at humour or something less pleasant, but that comment did strike me at the time, and has stayed in my mind since. Of course, that's because there is a nugget of truth to what she says.

The simple fact is that I couldn't still be working from home full-time were it not for LC being both willing and able to look after Funsize to allow me to do so. Of course, that's not entirely a matter of choice (since my working means I still get paid, which means the bills still get paid, which means a major worry is lifted.) However, I'm also well aware that it's not an easy ride, and would not be her preferred use for her days. As much as LC sometimes complains about her job, I'm convinced that she would prefer to be out doing that.

And, of course, there are also different ways that one can react to the necessities of the days - accepting things and carrying on with grace is not the only way to proceed. Things could be a lot harder than they have been... and that's largely down to LC.

Of course, the upshot of all of this is that I've come to the stunning revelation that a marriage (and indeed raising children) is a partnership. And like all partnerships, it works best of both partners do their bit to complement the other. That doesn't necessarily mean a 50/50 split of everything, since it's likely that aptitudes and interests will differ. But it does (or should) mean both doing thier share, and if need be stepping up to support the other in difficult times.

It is now eight years since LC made the crazy mistake of becoming my wife. Those eight years have been amongst the very best of my life, filled with very many more good times than bad (or even indifferent). She was, is, and remains my best friend, and I count myself very lucky (especially in the current crisis) to have met and married her.

And that is all I have to say about that. At least for now.

Lines of Succession

I'm no fan of Boris Johnson. I don't like his policies, I don't like his approach to politics as a whole, and I consider him yet another really strong argument for Scottish Independence.

I also don't think that the Queen should have asked him to form a government when Theresa May offered her resignation. Constitutionally-speaking, the Queen is supposed to appoint as PM the person who commands the confidence of the House of Commons, which at that time Boris manifestly did not (hence all those defeats he saw in his first few weeks). Instead, the Queen should have required May to remain in post * until either Boris could show he did command the confidence of the house or until an election took place. (The order of events matters because as a new PM Boris probably saw a boost in the polls that Boris-as-Tory-leader almost certainly would not. That may or may not have affected the outcome of the election.)

* As a member of the Privy Council, the PM cannot simply resign at will - he or she serves at the pleasure of the monarch. So while Theresa May could tender her resignation, it was officially for the Queen to decide whether to accept it or not.

But all of that is by the way. The fact of the matter is that Boris did win a landslide majority in the General Election and he therefore did have the right to form his government afterwards. Which includes naming his own deputy in case he was incapacitated... as indeed is the case now.

What that means is that right now, and in the short term, it is right that Dominic Raab stand in as Boris' deputy. And, if need be, it's right that he exercise whatever decision-making powers are needed to take us forward through the crisis. (I'm suspicious of why Raab was chosen for this role, but that doesn't really matter - it was Boris' prerogative to choose. I also don't necessarily agree with the specific choices that are being made... but that falls under my current stance of not commenting.) So, in the short term, Raab is the guy.

What is extremely worrying is what happens if it becomes apparent that Boris simply won't be able to continue - if he's incapacitated long-term (or worse).

In that case, it's no longer appropriate that the country be run by a deputy - there would need to be a new PM appointed. And, normally, that would be a matter of finding the person who commands the confidence of the House of Commons, which in turn normally means the leader of the largest party (in this case, the Tories).

The problems right now are two-fold: the House of Commons isn't sitting (so how can its confidence be judged), and it's not really practical to run any sort of leadership contest right now anyway.

Plus, there's the other issue - an awful lot of the contenders would look at the current mess, dealing with Covid-19, then the mother of all recessions that is almost certain to follow, and dealing with Brexit on top of that, and decline to step up. Nobody in their right mind would want to be in the top job right now. But by the same token, they'll also look at it and calculate that they also don't want whoever does end up doing it doing too good a job, so that there's an opening afterwards. From a purely self-serving point of view, the optimum strategy is to stay out of it... but quietly frustrate things from the sidelines. (Or to get behind a fairly hopeless compromise candidate, who is more or less good enough to get us through it... but only just, and with a lot of pain.)

Which would, of course, be an utter and complete disaster for all of the rest of us.

The upshot of all of this is that I am desperately hoping for a full and speedy recovery on the part of Boris Johnson. Not just because that's the right thing to do (which it is), but also because the alternative is terrible.

Experimental Cookery 2020: Shepherd's Pie

I have, of course, made shepherd's pie before, but this one comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Love Your Leftovers", a book that has been generally useful and that is really showing its value just now. This was also my opportunity to use up the 550g of leftover roas lamb from last week.

As with the Hairy Bikers version (which, oddly, I don't seem to have posted about), this was not terribly difficult but was extremely time consuming - I was basically at work on it for two hours start to finish, with relatively little downtime during the process. But that's fine - there's a reason I set aside a weekend day for this.

The end result was great, being a marked improvement over the Hairy Bikers version (though largely due to the leftover roast lamb rather than the mince). And in addition to large portions for each of us, I was left with four more portions for later use. So that's good, too.

I'm not sure when I'll do this again, as we tend not to have roast lamb all that often, and are left with large amounts afterwards even more seldom, but I'm sure we will at some point rely on this one. Either way, it makes for a really useful option to have available.

Theme of the Month: A Knigdom of Isolation

It should probably go without saying that the major fact of this month is the ongoing lockdown. The government are set to review it in a couple of weeks, but I can't imagine that they won't renew it (and then renew it again - I can't see this ending before mid-May at the earliest). The Knigdom of Steph/vonia remains in sparkling isolation.

I remain determined not to comment on the actions of the government (any of them) at this time, despite sore provocation - there are many things I would normally want to say, but now is not the time. Instead, expect to see some musings on how we're getting on, on the topic of home working (and especially emergency home working), on our food supplies, and indeed the progress of my quarantine beard.

And, as I said before, I wish you the very best of luck as this grinds on. It's going to be a tough time, but unfortunately it looks like the alternatives are considerably worse.

#14: "The Stone Diaries", by Carol Shields (a book from The List)