Took a While

I finally finished "The Angel's Game" yesterday, after having started it at the end of June. Indeed, it was the book that caused me to get so badly bogged down and therefore not complete any in July.

I should note that the reason I got bogged down was nothing to do with the quality of the novel - I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially as I got further into it. But the issue is that it's very much not a quick read, and with time being so limited my notion that I could knock it out in a week was clearly laughable.

Still, it's good to be done with it. Hopefully I'll now be able to pick up the pace a little now - I've narrowed my ambitions down to completing a further twelve books this year, and even that looks oddly tight. (Some of the ones I'm hoping to tackle are huge.)

#23: "The Angel's Game", by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (probably the book of the year so far)

Gala Day Season Ends

The band played Broxburn Gala Day on Saturday. With the cancellation of one other event next month, we've now completed our programme of events for the summer - five in all. And with that, we're now done until our two Christmas events.

As mentioned before, this has been a fairly light, but fairly enjoyable, gala day season. Next year I would expect to see a few more events occurring, although it does look like some are now cancelled forever.

One thing that was particularly pleasing to see on Saturday was that the band is clearly better than it was back when we started the season - as I mentioned, Mid Calder wasn't the disaster that I feared it might have been, but even so the improvement was quite significant. And given that I've been essentially running the band for much of the past couple of months (due to a variety of reasons), I'm claiming a lot of credit for that. The band may well hate me for all the hard work we've put in, but we've definitely seen the benefit.

The challenge now, of course, is to build from this foundation so that we start next season at the same place we finished up this year. A task which starts on Thursday at practice...

A Tribute

I had the very great privilege to be Robert's first piping instructor. He will always be the gold standard against whom all others are now measured.

Robert's enthusiasm and aptitude for the subject was obvious. Every practice we'd cover something, and he'd quickly pick it up. Then, at the next practice it was obvious that he had worked on it very hard; we very rarely had to repeat a lesson.

That by itself would have marked Robert out, but there was more. He was dedicated, always being where he said he'd be when he needed to be there. His uniform and instrument were always well maintained, shown the respect they needed. And that same respect characterised his dealings with people too - I don't recall any picked fights, or cross words, or any trouble at all. That just wasn't his way.

I only knew Robert for too few years as a boy. Even so, the calibre of the man was clear. And it was the very best.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Summer Chicken Bake

This one came from the Hairy Bikers' "One Pot Wonders", which pretty much right away marks it as being a very low-prep meal - it consisted of placing some chicken on a bed of vegetables, baking, adding a sauce, baking again, adding some toppings, and one final bake.

The result was very nice, and we'd definitely have it again. Perhaps most amusing was Surprise!'s response to it all - he was supposed to be having risotto for dinner, but it appears he's a massive fan of chickpeas, demanding multiple helpings. That's no bad thing, as we're now gradually moving him away from 'baby' food and towards the same meals as the rest of us, with the dream being to be able to cook one meal for all four of us. Which happens sometimes, but not as often as I'd like to hope. We'll get there.

Anyway, that's that one.

School Dinners

Funsize started school on Tuesday, which was quite a thing - it seems no time since we were bringing her home as a tiny helpless bundle. But she'd reached a point she was clearly ready to go, as she'd gotten everything out of preschool that she was going to get. Plus, all her best friends were going, so it's good that she did too.

Anyway, on Tuesday she came home with a leaflet outlining the school dinners that are being served. In Scotland all children are entitled to a free lunch at school until P5, which is really good (she gets breakfast too, three days a week). I've written before advocating a provision like this, and indeed a universal provision of this sort, so I'm obviously well pleased with this.

But I was even more impressed on looking through the meals on offer for that school dinner - each day a choice of three options (one of them vegetarian), complete with a starter and drink. The range is impressive, as indeed some of the markers of quality (free range eggs, seasonal vegetables, etc).

This is all really very good. More of it please!

#22: "Level Up: Adventurer's Guide", by E.N. Publishing

Experimental Cookery 2022: Smoky Firecracker Chicken

This one comes from Mary Berry's "Simple Comforts". It's really easy (mix up a marinade, leave the chicken overnight, bake in oven), and the results were very pleasing.

And that's all there is to say about that, really. We'll have this again when we're having a barbecue, and indeed it may replace some of our 'bought' chicken at the birthday BBQ, which is nice.

#21: "Sharpe's Assassin", by Bernard Cornwell (finally finished another book!)

Experimental Cookery 2022: Piri Piri Pheasant

As part of that same box of stuff from the Wild Meat Company, we had a pack of four pheasant breasts marinaded in a piri piri sauce. These then formed the basis of a simple meal earlier in the week - we had them with some rice and some salad.

Cooking the pheasant was a bit tricky. Having looked online, I saw some wildly different cooking times and approaches. In the end, I pan fried them in a little butter for a few minutes on each side, and the finished them off in the oven. The upshot was that they were definitely cooked, but they were probably over-cooked - they were really quite dry.

Taste-wise, these were fine. It was a nice marinade, the meal was different but not unpleasant, and the rice and the salad went well. Unfortunately, Surprise! hasn't been at all well all week, and consequently our mealtime was extremely disturbed; I don't think either LC or I really would have enjoyed any meal that night, and I'm afraid the dryness here didn't help.

Ultimately, I think we won't have these again, mostly because I doubt we'll order that same box again, and without doing so it's unlikely we'll have pheasant. A shame, but there it is.

There is now only one item remaining from that box: we have a couple of venison steaks. These should be much more reliable, so I'm looking forward to getting them used up.

Happy Retirement Serena

It was with some sadness that I saw the news that Serena Williams has decided to retire. I wish her well.

In my opinion, Serena is probably the greatest womens tennis player of all time. The trophy tables may not quite bear that out, but she has twice taken some lengthy time out to focus on other things, and then stepped back and been instantly amongst the very best players. Had she not taken those breaks, the tables would likely look different. The only downside being that she, and her sister, were so good and so dominant for so long that they rendered womens tennis extremely dull for a long time. But that's not their issue.

We've actually been extremely lucky  to have been viewing in an era that has seen arguably the greatest mens player and the greatest womens player of all time playing, and indeed an era in which that greatest mens player has been challenged by multiple contenders for that same spot - for my money Federer is still the best ever, but Nadal and Djokovic are both exceptionally good, and Murray would have been up there but for injury concerns.

So tennis is poorer for the retirement of Serena Williams. And what a gap she leaves!

The Reason Boris is Still Prime Minister

One of the ways being Prime Minister is not like most other jobs is that he or she is not allowed simply to resign and walk away. Legally, the Prime Minister is a part of the Privy Council and serves in that role at the pleasure of the monarch, and so while they can offer their resignation, they cannot simply walk away.

The reason for this is that there must always be a government. Which means that while the horror show of the Tory leadership contest is ongoing, Boris remains Prime Minister, and his various ministers and other sycophants retain their roles. (It's also why Gordon Brown remained Prime Minister in 2010 while the Tories and the Lib Dems finalised their coalition agreement, and indeed why our MPs stop being MPs while an election is ongoing but our PM does not stop being the PM.)

And the reason we must always have a government is that at any time a crisis may occur that requires immediate action. The country cannot be paralysed while a pandemic hits, or if we are plunged into war.

Or while there's a cost of living crisis rapidly blowing up in all our faces.

When government ministers claim that they cannot take action until a new PM is elected and in place, they are talking unmitigated rubbish. They is precisely what the government is there for.

What Does It Have To Do With You?

Rishi Sunak won't be our next Prime Minister. Despite his very best efforts, he just isn't awful enough for the Tories. A shame - although he is truly, truly awful, at least I wouldn't be concerned about him accidentally kicking off World War 3.

Rishi's latest pitch is to crack down on 'bad' degrees - the ones that don't raise income potential. It's a classic Tory talking point, sadly just too little too late.

But...

Leaving aside the question of how you define a 'bad' degree, leaving aside the problem that qualifications in nursing and teaching would be included in those that reduce income potential, and indeed leaving behind the massive societal benefits of having an educated populace, there is another issue:

University education in England is not free. The students who are at university studying for these 'bad' degrees are paying tens of thousands of pounds for the privilige. (That's one of the very worst legacies of the Blair government, but that's another rant.)

That being the case, it's not the government's business whether those reduce income potential or not. The market has spoken, and the Tories, of all people, should be respecting that.

So, really, what does it have to do with them?

The Orville: New Horizons

The third season of "The Orville" has been streaming on Disney+, and came to an end last night. For the most part it has been a fantastic third season - it's probably not the best place for new viewers to start, but otherwise it has been exceptional.

I was extremely surprised by the final episode, which was not at all what I was expecting. That said, I very much enjoyed the episode, and felt that it made for an extremely good finale for the series as a whole. At the moment it isn't clear whether there will be a fourth season or not, and I now find myself torn. On the one hand, it has been left with a really strong platform for continuing; on the other hand, that last episode makes for a near-perfect sendoff. So maybe it's better to let it go at this point.

Anyway, this is yet another success for Disney+, which is by far the strongest of our three subscriptions. And it is highly recommended.

Six Weeks

I see "Lightyear" has made the jump from the cinema to Disney+, which is good news for us - we weren't going to make it to the cinema to see it, and now don't have to wait. But that means that the gap is all of six weeks. "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" was seven weeks between the two. "Thor: Love and Thunder" released in cinemas on the 23rd of June, which means that it has been out six weeks as of now - there's no indication of when it will come to Disney+, but given the above it would seem to be fairly soon.

And if that's the case, suddenly there is absolutely no point in going to the cinema to see anything from the Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Lucasfilm/20th Century stable - since we're going to get it for no extra cost just a few weeks later, it's not worth the expense.

Which, of course, bodes really badly for the cinema industry as a whole, because that stable represents a huge chunk of the 'big' films, and the other streaming services will be pushing for similarly quick transitions for other films. (I note that "Jurassic World: Dominion" is already available for home rental, and am presuming it will be on one of the services soon.)

There's no great point or conclusion here; I'm just noting how extreme things have become.

What it does mean, ultimately, is that the cinema is going to be much less about going to see the new big releases, and much more about the experience of going to the cinema - which to a very large extent means either taking the kids out for a treat, or taking ourselves out in the absence of the kids.

Congratulations England

I must confess that I didn't watch any of the recent European Championships, largely due to have no time at all in which to do so (and a to do list that is absurdly long). So I'm not in a position to say much of any value about it at all.

Except one thing: congratulations to the England team on what is a great achievement.

Maximising the Vote

Whoever wins the current season of Loathe Island... sorry, the Tory leadership contest, will no doubt be asked by Nicola Sturgeon if they will authorise a Section 30 order for a second independence referendum. They will, just as inevitably, say "no". Later this year, the Supreme Court are going to rule on whether the Scottish Parliament can hold such a referendum without such an order (and, in effect, whether Scotland is a voluntary member of a union, or an imprisoned colony in the English Empire). The expectation is that they will also say "no".

At which point the next General Election becomes a de facto referendum.

Now, in order to 'win' such a contest, the pro-independence side will require two things:

• A majority of the votes cast.
• The overwhelming majority of Scotland's seats - ideally, all 59, but certainly more than the 48 currently held.

In order to achieve these, the best approach is for the "yes" camp to get behind a single candidate in every seat, to maximise the vote for that candidate. And, since they enjoy by far the strongest name recognition (and since this will, rightly or wrongly, be perceived as their initiative), that candidate should be SNP.

Which is absolutely fine in 56 of the constituencies, where the SNP are either the incumbent or the strongest pro-independence opposition. But there are 2 seats currently held by Alba and one by a (formerly-SNP) independent.

Now, in a normal election, what would happen is that they'd stand for re-election, the SNP would put up candidates, the SNP would win the seats, and the three individuals would be out of politics for a while. No big deal.

But in a de facto referendum, that represents a big risk. Firstly, it's just possible that the split vote will allow a unionist to sneak in, cutting the number of seats down a tad. More importantly, the votes that go to the losing Alba/independent candidate will inevitably not be added to the SNP total, and so will be 'lost' to the pro-independence cause.

Which kind of sucks for the individuals involved, but they're going to have to ask themselves: just how much do they really value independence? Will they stand down for the good of the cause?

Highs and Lows of the Weekend

It has been an eventful weekend...

Low! Surprise! is going through a phase where he has decided that he loves Mummy but hates Daddy. Frustrating for LC; soul-destroying for me.

High! I was at a band event on Saturday. When I got there I discovered that, once again, some fool had left me in charge. It went well.

High! LC went out for the evening on Saturday, and once Surprise! got used to the idea he realised that actually it's not so bad. Things got a bit tense around 10.30 when he woke up again and had to come to terms with the fact that Mummy simply wasn't there, but eventually he was persuaded to have a drink of water and go back to sleep.

Low! No sleep on Saturday night - LC returned home after midnight, Surprise! work us up just after 5.

Low! I had volunteered to do the reading in church this week, which would have been fine except that the Old Testament reading was Hosea 1 - the uplifting tale of how our hero was instructed to name his children Unloved and NotMine. Cheery stuff, that hits rather differently now than it did a few years ago.

High! A nice visit to Almond Valley in the afternoon. Fun in the sun, ice creams, and a little bit of a rest.

High! WIld boar for dinner. See my previous post.

High! Surprise! seems to have realised he doesn't hate Daddy after all.

Low! But he has gunky eyes and a fever.

Low! And now it's Monday.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Sticky BBQ'd Wild Boar Loin Steaks

For my birthday BBQ this year we once again bought a box of stuff from the Wild Meat Company. In the event, a lot of it went unused, and so we're now gradually working through the leftovers. This time out was the wild boar loin steaks.

There isn't really anything to say about the preparation or the meal here - it was a very quick marinade followed by a quick cook on the griddle (would have been the BBQ, but too much hassle just for this). Really, the experimental cookery is about the meat.

And it was fine. Both LC and I kind of liked it, but neither of us was utterly blown away. Given the cost of wild boar relative to other meats, this is therefore not something we'll have again except as an incidental (if we make another combined order and end up with these left). Which is fine.

One thing that I did find interesting was that the boar was left very slightly rare (which is apparently fine with boar, unlike pork). This wasn't something that I would normally have done, and indeed even with duck is something I have studiously avoided. But it was fairly apparent, at least in this case, that it was the way to go - the meat was left softer as a result, which made for better eating. Maybe one day we'll try duck again and apply the same lesson.

Oh, and also a disaster: we should have used our steak knives! They so rarely get called upon, and this would have been a good chance. Oh well.

Gala Day Season

One of the many things that was cancelled during the pandemic, and that has now resumed to a certain extent, is Gala Day season. For the uninitiated these are local celebrations largely intended to drum up some community spirit. Over the years they have waxed and waned in popularity, though they do seem much stronger in the middle of Scotland than further West - there were a good number when we lived in Falkirk, and there seem to be more now we live in Livingston.

Following the pandemic, the Gala Days appear to fall into three camps: about a third seem simply to be 'done' (they haven't happened this year and look unlikely to resume); about a third are still on hiatus but expected to return next year; and about a third have been back.

My band have attended three Gala Days so far this year (Mid Calder, Uphall Station, and Polbeth), and are attending another not-Gala Day on Saturday. We then have one in Broxburn later in the year.

All in all, this has been a fairly successful, if rather light, year - we usually do a few more galas than this, but on the other hand it was no bad thing to ease back in gently. Plus, the Gala Days that we have attended have gone pretty well (at least for our part!), and in particular Mid Calder was not the disaster I feared it might have been, given that we'd been away for nearly three years by that point.

Oh, No...

I don't particularly care for Rishi Sunak, for a variety of reasons, but I wouldn't have a problem with him as PM - if nothing else, he's a fairly serious person with some reasonable sense. Alas, I don't think he's going to get the job.

I likewise don't like Penny Mordant, and in particular I didn't like her penchant for lying (especially over the Turkey veto) - after Boris, the last thing we need is another Prime Liar. But, again, she was a fairly serious person, and I wouldn't have had a problem with her as PM.

But the prospect of Liz Truss as PM terrifies me. Not because I think she's particularly malevolent; indeed, of the three she's probably the least troublesome in that regard. But, alas, I think she's a blithering idiot. She's basically the Dougal McGuire of politics - she's nice and inoffensive enough, but liable to burn the whole place down by accident.

And she's probably our next PM. Looks like Theresa May will soon have serious competition for her title of second-worst PM of all time record.

Day 200: Update on Goals

Shockingly, it's day 200 of the year already. So, time for another update on goals:

• Books: As I noted a few weeks ago, I'm now hopelessly behind on my reading - I've completed only 20 books, and have read essentially nothing in all of July. I won't be hitting the 60 book target, or anything close to it, and the jury is out on whether I'll finish The List this year - there are four books to go, which shouldn't be impossible but is looking increasingly tight.
• Weight: The update here is devastating - shortly after returning to the office I lost a fair bit of weight, only for it all to come piling back on. I don't even know what happened there; I dropped weight because I essentially stopped snacking, but I didn't start again prior to it coming back. Sigh.
• Blogging: By day 200 I should have written 65.75 posts here. That puts me 7 behind target. As with the reading, I've largely skipped all of July so far, but am gradually picking up the slack again. I've posted 30 times on the Imaginarium, and again haven't posted in July.
• Redecorating the Hallway: We've concluded that we're not able to do the decorating ourselves this time - stripping the wallpaper from above the stairs is a tougher job than we can manage. So the intent is to get someone in to do it for us this time, with the expectation that we will be able to repaint it in future.
• Super Secret Goal: I said last time that I'd be in a position to make a definitive decision on this by now... and I still can't. That's frustrating, to say the least. I think the answer to that is that I'm going to have to spend some time exploring my options, and then see where things go. (There's more to say on this one, much more, but it's a topic I don't blog about.)

And that's the update. It's a poor one this time, filled with setbacks and frustrations. Which is about right.

Service Not Included

I don't carry cash these days - with the rise of contactless I have taken to using my card for even very small payments, and with the pandemic the use of cash has fallen massively out of favour in general. This occasionally causes problems with things like paying for parking, though I mostly deal with that through the medium of being prepared (that is, I take coins with me when I know I'm going to need them).

Unfortunately, this left me in a moral bind last week - LC and I went out to dinner, we had a great time, and then the bill came. "Service not included" was printed on the receipt, and there was no option to add a tip at the card machine.

Which sucked. It was a good meal, and those who produced it deserved some recognition of their work. But I can't give a tip in cash if I don't have any cash, obviously.

There are, of course, solutions to this. The best is actually to abolish tipping - it's radical, but restaurants could actually pay their staff appropriately and set their prices to match. Failing that, the ability to add a tip at the paypoint could be made available as standard. And failing even that, add a contactless point somewhere in the restaurant for electronic tipping.

In the meantime, it's tricky. Ultimately, I couldn't give a tip with cash I didn't have, I felt bad about it, but there it is.

Two Quick Notes About a Plebiscitary Election

Just two quick further thoughts about the use of a Westminster election as a de facto referendum:

• It's worth noting that this means that the franchise would be more restricted than in the 2014 referendum, and indeed in the proposed 2023 referendum, Holyrood elections, or similar. In Scotland the right to vote extends to 16 year olds, and is based on residency rather than citizenship... but not for General Elections. That may well be enough to swing the answer from "yes" to "no".
• There is a question of what it means to 'win' such a thing, since first past the post means that the SNP have an overwhelming majority of Scottish MPs on a narrow minority of the vote. Here I need to note that while I am in favour of independence, I am a democrat first - I won't support independence unless a majority of votes cast are in favour.

Indyref 2: What Next?

I was somewhat surprised by Nicola Sturgeon's statement in the Scottish Parliament today - it was considerably more clear cut than I had expected. I also found it reassuringly close to my preferred set of options - try for a Section 30 first, if that fails try for a referendum without, and if that fails use an election as a de facto referendum. I would have preferred that to be a Holyrood election rather than a General Election, but we can't have everything.

My big unknown concerns the question of what happens next? It's now clear that Westminster can't stop Scotland having a vote, of some description, so what is their best play?

My first thought is that they may well try to obstruct as much as they can - deny the Section 30 request, fight through the courts as long as possible, and if necessary repeal the relevant Act and/or specifically legislate to ensure the referendum can't go ahead. That buys time, but it doesn't stop the vote - the General Election remains the fallback, and can't be avoided.

I did wonder whether they might consider some legislation to try to block the SNP turning the General Election into a de facto referendum (perhaps by making it illegal to campaign for the break up of the country), but it's hard to see how they can do that without major problems in Northern Ireland. They might, of course, still do that, but let's hope not.

So that would suggest that the General Election will indeed become the fallback, a de facto referendum. Not my preference, but we really do need to get this done.

But...

I do wonder if Westminster wouldn't be better coming to the table and negotiating. "Yes, you can have a Section 30 order. But..." That probably gives them the most control over the process, and may give the union the best chance of survival. The big problem with it, though, is that there's only a limited scope for negotiation - there have been lots of fixes along the way, and patience with them is exceedingly thin. So trying to limit the franchise, or require a super-majority, or similar is probably a non-starter. Their best bet may be to influence the question - cast it as Remain/Leave rather than Yes/No. But I'm really not sure how effective that truly is.

Of course, there is one other option - block the referendum, let the SNP fight the election on that one-line manifesto, and then simply ignore the result. A few years ago I would have said that they surely wouldn't do that... but things are very different now.

The Melon Incident

We had my birthday BBQ on Sunday (a few days in advance of the actual event). It was, once again, an enjoyable affair. This time we were exceptionally lucky with the weather - it rained before and after the cooking, but was dry for a couple of hours at the key time.

The one small fly in the ointment came in the middle of the afternoon when Funsize sought out some melon to eat, only to discover it was all gone. She was consequently very upset, not least because she hadn't actually had any. Fortunately, some kind soul made a trip to Morrisons yesterday and bought some for her to enjoy.

As always, we over-catered for the BBQ. In truth, I'd rather have too much than too little, but it does seem that we'd be better off without quite so much excess. I'll need to look at that, as my calculations should have been okay, but this proved not to be accurate. Still, I'll be having a BBQ at work before too long, so perhaps there is scope for using up some of the leftovers.

Funny How Things Turn

Last year the Tories won a huge byelection victory in Hartlepool. At that point their command of the political map was absolute, and growing stronger all the time - they were riding high in the polls, they were up against a feeble opposition, they had the media in their pocket, and they were rapidly consolidating their hold by drawing up boundary changes, taking control of elections, and disenfranchising the poor. They basically looked unbeatable.

And then Partygate happened.

It turns out that the British people don't, after all, like being taken for fools. They don't like being lied to, and given the runaround. They don't like being instructed to make sacrifices, some of them truly terrible, only to have those who make the rules break the rules and then crow about it.

And they don't like that Boris absolutely and completely refused to take the fall that was unquestionably coming.

Last night the Tories suffered two utterly crushing byelection defeats. It is likely, if there were to be a General Election in the near future, that they would be utterly devastated, to the extent that even Boris and Jacob Rees-Mogg would lose their seats.

The game is up, and all because Boris and Carrie just couldn't bear not to party in the pandemic.

Obi-Wan

LC and I have been watching through the Obi-Wan series on Disney+. It has been pretty good, though it is very much not an unalloyed joy - each episode seemed to have something that just didn't work all that well. Still, it was decent fun, and good to catch up with both the main characters.

Having said that, I'm very much hoping that this is a one-and-done series. Like "Picard", it was a good story that was worth the telling, but my feeling is that it was good once, but would very definitely be a case of diminishing returns. Plus, I'm increasingly inclined to think that Star Wars needs to move on from the Skywalker Saga and the ancilliary stories, and instead do something genuinely new and unconnected.

Netflix: Coming to the End of the Road?

We've had Netflix now for a few years. Initially, it was good value - pretty much immediately there was "Star Trek: Discovery", which was soon joined by "The Witcher", "The Good Place", and a bunch of others. But it has gradually been winding down in use and thus value. Worse, it has lost Discovery, and will soon be losing the rest of Trek, and it has been getting fewer and fewer interesting new shows.

The truth is, it has just begun to be overshadowed by Disney+ (which is extremely good) and even Prime. And now, with Paramount+ coming on-stream, and with Now TV scooping up most of the best films, the offering is looking increasingly threadbare.

The upshot is that I think we're now closer to the end of our time with Netflix than to the start. It's not time yet, but the time to cancel is coming.

What that means in practice is this:

For the time being, we'll keep it, and continue watching the shows we're currently watching. However we won't start watching anything new on a whim - unless there's something that jumps out at us as "you must watch this!", of course.

Over time, that means that the list of shows we watch will gradually drop - they'll move to other services, come to their end, or drop in quality. If nothing new is being added, and things are ending, it will fall from use.

And every so often we'll need to ask ourselves whether it is still worth the money. As long as that remains a "yes", we'll keep it (and, for the moment, it's a "yes", although not by much), but when the time comes that that changes, it will be time to pull the plug.

Of course, all that said, I'm more or less minded to think that the best approach to all these streaming services is actually to be quite mercenary with them - drop in for a few months, binge a bunch of stuff, and then move on to the next one. Right now, Disney+ seems to be the only one that really justifies a permanent spot.

#20: "Kobold Guide to Monsters", by Kobold Press

Experimental Cookery 2022: Aubergine and Potato Curry

This one came from the Tesco magazine, so I don't expect it is even remotely authentic! However, it tasted okay to me. (LC was less enamored of it. It appears that her appreciation of aubergines is very much conditional on how they are cooked.)

The meal was easy to prepare, if a little time-consuming - about an hour from start to finish. That said, it may have felt worse than it really was, as I spent almost the whole of Saturday afternoon cooking one thing or another. And, as an added bonus, it provided not only a dinner for the two of us, but also a lunch for me on Monday (with one final portion that was discarded).

All in all, I think that's a pretty good showing. I don't think this will be being added to our permanent 'veggie' repertoire, but it might be good to have as an occasional change.

#19: "The Gates of Firestorm Peak", by Bruce Cordell

Playing With Fire

As I've mentioned, I'm deeply skeptical of the SNP's chances of actually holding a second independence referendum next year. However, I've been deeply worried at some of the responses to the announcement.

On the one hand, we have various strands of the unionist camp who have been positively gleeful in announcing that of course it won't happen because of course Westminster have an absolute veto - they'll say "no", and that's the end of the matter.

The major reason that that's problematic is that it cuts right through a crucial point of principle: is Scotland a voluntary member of a union, courtesy of having had a vote in 2014, or is Scotland an imperial possession, that was only permitted that vote by the very great generosity of an indulgent (and arrogant) Prime Minister?

If the answer to that is "we're a voluntary member of a union", then Scotland must have the right to ask itself if we want to remain in that union - unilaterally, whenever we want, and indeed as often as we want. (It would be reasonable to specify in law a "cooling down" period between votes. At present, however, no such period is defined - and if one is to be introduced, it must take effect after the next such referendum. We need to know what we're voting for.)

(The "once in a generation" thing was campaign rhetoric by Alex Salmond who, not surprisingly, isn't the definitive authority on anything. It certainly wasn't a promise, a condition, or in any way binding. But even if it had been, UK law does actually define what a "generation" is in terms of a referendum for leaving the UK, which is specified in the Good Friday Agreement as 7 years. Which, of course, have already passed.)

On the other hand, we have had various people suggesting that if the SNP go ahead with an advisory referendum without Westminster approval, the UK government should follow the example of Spain with Catalonia, and violently repress Scottish democracy. Which is an utterly abhorrent thing to suggest, and which I'll therefore waste no more time on.

Fundamentally, though, many of the unionist commentators are coming to the position that Westminster should have a permanent veto on a referendum and that they should permanently exercise it; and that, therefore, Scotland should never be allowed a democratic route to independence.

I find that really quite scary, because while it may be superficially attractive it betrays a lack of deep thought. If you close off every peaceful, democratic route to independence, that doesn't end the struggle for independence. It will stops it being peaceful and democratic - a prospect that is, of course, terrifying. That should be the last thing that we want.

If Westminster are indeed to veto the referendum in 2023, as I'm pretty sure they will (one way or another), they must detail when and how one may be held in the future. Otherwise, they are playing with fire.

Calling It

We're now at the mid-point of June, and I'm on the verge of finishing my first book of the month. Given that last month started off as a good month for reading before ending with me dropping yet further behind, I'm going to call it early: there's no chance of me catching up on the reading goal. Indeed, my expectation is that I'll drop further behind, and quite possibly yet further behind with each month that passes.

That being the case I'm mostly abandoning that goal for this year, leaving in place a much-restricted goal: I'd like to read though the remaining four books from The List this year. Though even that feels like a challenge.

I'll Believe It When I See It

Today Nicola Sturgeon announced the start of a new independence campaign, with the intent to have a second referendum in 2023. Her stated intent is to request a Section 30 order, but to go ahead without if need be.

I'm afraid I'm deeply skeptical of this. Indeed, I'm doubtful of both her ability to do as she has said but even her intent to do so. I think there's a distinct possibility that this announcement is about placating factions within the SNP-voting base, but may well be intended at the outset to fail.

The biggest block, as far as I can see, is that Westminster retains the right to pass any legislation it wishes over any part of the UK. So if Holyrood does go ahead with a referendum in the absence of agreement, rather than challenging it in course (or perhaps as well as doing so), Westminster can simply pass legislation repealing the relevant Act. And, for good measure, barring Holyrood from trying again. And, unlike in the question of the referendum bill itself, there is absolutely no doubt about Westminster's right to do that - they certainly can.

 

The Actual Return to the Office

Funnily enough, my original post on the topic of returning to the office was oddly prophetic - rather than returning on the 30th of May I ended up coming back on the 7th of June, due precisely to a Covid outbreak. Fortunately LC has made a full recovery and, perhaps oddly, none of the rest of us seem to have been affected.

Thus far it really sucks - there have been IT problems, the commute has not been fun, my car has chosen this week to develop a new and annoying fault, and we're still in the position where every meeting needs to be via Teams anyway.

But it's only four days thus far, so with luck things will improve. They really need to.

Day 150: Update on Goals

Day 150, so time for another update on goals:

• Books: By day 150 I should have read 24.66 books. I'm considerably short of that goal - at the time of writing I've completed 18 books, which means I haven't even finished April's allocation. The one counterpoint to this is that I've now finished "The Stand" and so have four books from The List to go, so I may well finish that this year.
• Weight: Nothing to report here.
• Blogging: By day 150 I should have written 49.32 posts here. This is post 46, so I'm a bit short of that, but it's also the 12th post in May so I am gradually catching up. I've also posted 25 times on The Imaginarium, so that's going well.
• Redecorating the Hallway: There is no progress here, but we didn't expect any. Watch this space for next time.
• Super Secret Goal: This is very much in the balance. I don't know if it's even needed, and so haven't as yet done anything towards it. At the very least, I'll have a definitive decision on the first part of that for next time.

And that's that. Things are okay, but not great - I'm behind on most goals but am reasonably content with the actual progress. Most other things are more or less okay, though the current battles with chicken pox, colds, and Covid aren't really ideal!

Picard Season Two

The first season of Picard was okay, but not great. The main thing it had going for it was that it showed some of the ragged edges of the Star Trek universe, which was something of a boon for gamers. Ultimately, though, it was building to the death of the titular character, and would have made for a good send off for Picard... except that they renewed it and resurrected him.

The second season starts really well, being a massive and immediate step up. And then it proceeds to go badly off the rails, squandering its potential, filling whole episodes with almost nothing, and messing up the lore of the show.

There's more I could add, but I'm disinclined to go into spoilers. Suffice to say, the best scene in the latter section of the show is the stealth cameo on the bus. Which isn't a good look.

Perhaps unfortunately, despite all this I do intend to watch the third and final season. Partly because it is the last, and partly because we're getting a chance to catch up with the whole of the Next Generation crew - with a bit of luck this will be their "Undiscovered Country" in the way that "Nemesis" massively failed to be.

But, unfortunately, I'm now at a point that my recommendation for "Picard" as a whole for people who haven't started is to avoid.

Uncanny Timing

LC returned to school last week after about 13 months of maternity leave and several months prior to that working from home. Naturally, Surprise! therefore took the opportunity to be sent home from nursery on Wednesday with chicken pox - a very mild attack that left him entirely healthy but unable to attend. (And, as with Funsize, it's extremely likely that Surprise! got chicken pox from the nursery he then couldn't attend. But not matter.)

So, this was a rather spectacular example of bad timing, especially as my own long-awaited return to the office was set to happen today.

But...

On Saturday there was a big family gathering for one of my neices' birthdays - a gathering attended by the entire family with the exception of LC and KS. Due to the chicken pox, LC elected to keep KS away, and so didn't attend.

On Sunday I went to church with Funsize. Once again, due to the chicken pox LC elected to keep KS at home, and as LC was struggling with a cold it made sense that I was the one to go.

On Sunday afternoon LC tested positive for Covid. Somehow, I tested negative. (Best guess is that she has received either a fairly weak strain or a very low viral load, and so it wasn't able to jump further. Or I've just been lucky. Or my turn is coming up.)

The upshot of that is that KS's chicken pox, which seemed be timed to be an absolute disaster, has turned out to have protected a whole lot of people from being classes as close contacts.

Well done, the wee guy - you timed that well!

The Death of Decency

So, we've had the police investigation, the biggest outcome of which is that the Met are, at best!, shockingly inept. We've now had the Sue Gray report. We've also had photographs appear in the media.

There cannot be any serious doubt that there were plenty of parties in Downing Street, nor can Boris credibly claim either that all the rules were followed nor that he believed they were followed. His statement to the Commons is, therefore, a clear-cut case of him knowingly misleading parliament.

He must go.

More importantly, if he does not go willingly, and if the Tory MPs behind him close ranks to keep him in office, that is the death of decency in public life in the country. It is the death of any notion that there are checks and balances on the government. It is the death of the UK as a democracy - we become an elected dictatorship.

He absolutely, and without question, has to go.

Regarding the Jubilee

As someone who would prefer to abolish the monarchy, it's fair to say that I have mixed feelings about the jubilee. On the one hand, I'm getting an extra day off, which is always nice. On the other hand, I won't exactly be hanging out the bunting. Nor do I intend to attand a street party or anything of the sort.

There is one thing I will, genuinely, be doing to mark the jubilee - several members of my band wanted us to learn and play a tune to mark the event, and I will be taking part in that. This is, in all honesty, more about solidarity with the rest of the band than it is support for the monarchy, but there it is.

All that said, and despite it being a fairly unpopular opinion in Scotland (as far as I can see), I do tend to the view that it's right that we do acknowledge the jubilee.

My first, and lesser, reason for this is quite simply that I think it's right to acknowledge anyone who holds down a position for 70 years - it may not be a position I think should exist, and I certainly don't consider it the selfless public service that the BBC and others would have us believe, but I do think it's worthy of note.

But the other reason is a little more complex. The queen is now pretty much the last link we have to a UK that was worth living in. The country has fallen so far, and so many of the pillars that held it together, and the institutions that are supposed to ensure it runs have become so degraded and corrupted as to be worthless. She's almost the last remaining bulwark against that - and the future after she's gone really doesn't look like any sort of an improvement.

So I'll acknowledge this landmark, and do so without cynicism or irony. But quite possibly with a greater sense of mourning than celebration.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Pesto Chicken Traybake with Jersey Royals, Cherry Tomatoes, and Rocket

This one comes from this month's Tesco magazine and is by Jamie Oliver.

It was quick and easy to make, took only a handful of fairly cheap ingredients, and provided a filling and tasty meal. That's a winner all round. We'd definitely have this one again, though we did conclude that we preferred the sausage bake from Jamie's "5 Ingredients" book. But there's room for both.

And that's it - short and sweet this time.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Ricotta Fritters, Tomato Sauce & Courgette Salad

This was taken from "Jamie's 15 Minute Meals", and was another attempt at finding a vegetarian meal to add to our repertoire. Unlike many of the 15 Minute Meals, this one seemed to actually be close to the 15 minutes - very often, that book requires a whole load of preparation or ingredient gathering that somehow isn't included in the total; that seemed very much reduced here. The effort was also reasonable, with no need to try to multitask doing six things at the same time, as is sometimes the case with that book.

The upshot is that this was a very good meal on the preparation front. But how was it on eating?

Well, it was fine. We enjoyed it, we'd both have it again, but... It wasn't a world-beater. This is probably an ideal seventh dish for our set of six really good ones - it's good for a change, but I suspect we'd get tired of it before too soon.

And that's about that - this was fine, we would have it again, but it wasn't a revelation.

#16: "Death on the Nile", by Agatha Christie
#17: "Library of the Dead", by T.L. Huchu
#18: "Foxglove Summer", by Ben Aaronovitch

Dear England...

If you wouldn't mind, it would be really nice if you could bring your experiment of electing clowns to government to an end.

Ta muchly.

Return to the Office

After more than two years, our experiment with home working is now coming to an end - I will be returning to the office on the 30th of May, barring some new surge of Covid cases or similar event. As of the 1st of June we will all be expected to return.

I must admit, I'm not regarding this event with any real anticipation. Working from home has not been an unalloyed joy, but it has had some very significant benefits, not least the ability to be present throughout Surprise!'s first year. Returning to the office also means adding five hours to my working week, and with the price of petrol as it now is it will also add something like £150 in fuel bills - time and money that we can ill afford.

On the other hand, it is certainly true that there's a different dynamic when in the office than there is while working remotely. There are also times when we really need everyone to be together, and further times when it would be really useful to be together. (Need is probably a bit too strong a word, but not by as much as might be thought.) That said, those times are relatively few and far between, and so most of the time it does seem rather unnecessary.

Oh well. The mountains have spoken, and it is too late for the pebbles to have their say.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

LC and I went to the cinema last week to watch the third Harry Potter prequel. After the abject failure of the second film we didn't expect much, and as a result we weren't disappointed.

It's not a bad film. It's certainly better than the previous one. But at the same time, it's not a particularly good film, either, and it suffers from most of the same problems as the first - a zoo-keeper as hero in a film that calls for a spy, a core cast who are never on screen together, a complete lack of motive for one of those characters, a long running time filled with not much and then a rushed climax.

The best thing about the film is that it does come to an end. I'm presuming that this is a matter of the studio preparing to cut their losses and turn the 5-film series into a trilogy. And if this is the end, I'll be glad - both that it is the end and that the story came to an end.

Honestly, I can't recommend this, unless like me you're the sort who hates leaving things part-done.

Next up for us is probably the final Jurassic World film - it would be Dr Strange, but we haven't yet seen "No Way Home", and films seem to come to Disney+ pretty quickly, so we'll probably leave it until then. But we'll see.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Chocolate Yoghurt Cake

This one came from Mary Berry's "Simple Comforts". It was the cake that I made for LC's birthday, with Funsize helping with the decorating (such as it is). The cake was very easy to make and very tasty. There's really not much more to say about it than that - it was a winner, we'd have it again, and there's no real downside. 

School Holidays

At time of writing, it is still my intention to skip the Council Elections on Thursday - I've reached a point where voting even for the "least worst" makes me feel bad, so I'm going to skip it.

That said, I have found a policy that probably would win my vote, if someone were to put it forward at the next Holyrood elections...

I was working out my vacation for the upcoming year, with the intent of working it around the school holidays. With Funsize starting school in August, this meant matching up with her school calendar as well as Lady Chocolat's, so I went and took a look.

For the most part, the outcome isn't too bad - by and large the holidays line up apart from a day here and there, and with LC not working on Mondays and Tuesdays that's manageable. But there are three things...:

• The October week is cunningly misaligned by a week, meaning that there is virtually no time when we're all off together and no scope for getting away.
• The Christmas holiday comes to an end much earlier in one council area than the other, leading to a load of dead time when I'd frankly like to get back to work but now can't.
• And there are the "Staff Development Days", which inevitably all fall on Mondays and Tuesdays, while means I need to take time to deal with those.

The upshot of all of that is that about a quarter of my holiday is burned on dealing with the childcare implications of the councils failing to synchronise.

So, if any political party wants my vote, here's a nice, easy policy to put forward: we'll impose a unified school calendar across all councils in Scotland, for the benefit of people who have to deal with multiple such calendars.

#14: "The Darkest Road", by Guy Gavriel Kay
#15: "The Stand", by Stephen King (a book from The List; four to go)

Experimental Cookery 2022: Kitchari

This one came from the Hairy Bikers' "One Pot Wonders". It was quick-ish and easy to put together, resulting in a huge pot of food in short order.

The verdict: yeah, it was a good one. There are a couple of things I would do differently in future - I wouldn't add more liquid partway through the simmer stage, as this led to the meal being more soupy than I would prefer; I would use different, less strong, chillis at the end to reduce the heat; and I'd make less of it in general, as two people don't need four servings!

But this is definitely one we'd have again, taking our menu of good vegetarian options up to five - one short of my threshold for having enough. Given that I have two more candidates waiting in the wings, we look to be in a good place.

Day 100: Update on Goals

 Today is the 100th day of the year, so it's time for the regular update. Note that this was written in advance, so it may be slightly out of date. I do expect it to be fairly accurate, though.

• Books: By day 100 I should have read 16.44 books. I'm quite a long way short of that, but I have made significant progress through "The Stand", the longest book remaining on the List. I'm well pleased with my progress towards finishing The List; less happy about the general progess.
• Weight: I've made a small amount of progress here, but not really enough to say any more about.
• Blogging: By day 100 I should have written 32.88 posts here, so I'm pretty much on target here. I've also actually written 17 posts on The Imaginarium, so I'm very happy here.
• Redecorating the Hallway: I mentioned in the previous update that we might tackle this around Easter. It's not happening at this time, but may happen later in the year. We'll see.
• Super Secret Goal: As before, I've made no progress on this issue. Unfortunately, I tend to think it is still necessary, so I'll need to try to have something more to report for next time.

And that's that. I'm mostly happy with progress to date, but some of the areas will definitely need more progress made for next time.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Stuffed Aubergines

We've recently been trying to go for a vegetarian main meal once a week. My thinking is that in order for that to stick we'll need about six solid options to try. At present we're at four: there's a green lentil curry we enjoyed, a chickpea curry, the sunblush tomato risotto, and many of the pizzas we have are meat-free. I had hoped this would make a fifth solid option.

This meal came from "The Hairy Bikers' Mediterranean Adventure" (bit of a theme there). It was easy to put together, and fairly quick - in future I'll need to start earlier so that I can parallel the children's meals with the second bake in ours, rather than the first. But that's not a huge problem.

Unfortunately, the results were mixed - I quite enjoyed it, but LC was much less impressed. She just felt that it was missing something, a common trait of vegetarian meals.

The upshot of that is that we might have these again, but it may either be as a side dish for something else, or possibly with the addition of bacon. Either way, it won't serve as a fifth veggie option. A shame.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Lentils with Sausage

This one is very similar to a sausage casserole LC sometimes makes, so is included here more or less just for completeness. This one came from "The Hairy Biker's Mediterranean Adventure". It's fine - quick and easy to put together and tasty enough. It wasn't a world-beater, but something we might have again occasionally.

Another Life

One of the mixed blessings that comes with a subscription to any of the streaming services (in this case, Netflix) is that you get access to a whole lot of material that might be good. And so it was that I found myself watching "Another Life" - a sci-fi series about a sudden and world-changing first contact with an alien species.

"Another Life" started really well, with the central mystery of the aliens matched up with a deep-space mission led by Katee Sackhoff, and for much of the first series it remained mostly good and quite interesting.

Alas, the second series just went to pieces - it started by dispatching and replacing about half the remaining cast from the first year, became ever-more proposterous, and then engaged in a massive rush to tidy things up following cancellation. (I'm actually somewhat glad of that rush, since it avoided ending on a cliffhanger. Even if it was rather too "Independence Day" for my tastes.)

And that was that. Honestly, I'm a little glad it's ended, since I would probably have been pulled into a third season had there been one. And, alas, it's a show I really can't recommend.

Halfway

I've slipped yet further back on the reading target, but there is one thing I'm inclined to note in mitigation of that: over the course of March I've read through half of "The Stand", which is by some way the longest book remaining on The List. So although the headline figure looks pretty bad, the underlying trend isn't quite as terrible as it seems.

That said, I did get bogged down in Cornwell's "Crackdown", and am even more bogged down in "The Darkest Road", so it's not all that good, either.

The Saga Continues

After two attempts, I managed to arrange with BT to get our landline service reconnected. During the course of that call, I specifically asked if our number would remain the same - if we have to tell everyone the number has changed, we might as well just tell them it's disconnected and give up. Anyway, it was confirmed that the number would stay the same.

Naturally, it didn't.

So today saw me make another call to BT, to speak to another person, tell the tale yet again... and this time an order was placed to renumber our line back to the value we had. Apparently, it should happen on Monday. I suppose twelve days isn't bad for a 'seamless' transition of an unrelated problem.

On the plus side, the assistant I spoke to today was quite impressive, so I'm at least hopeful...

Ouch!

I've done something to my back. It's mostly fine during the day, but my sleeping position is obviously not what it should be, as each morning I'm waking in considerable pain. Which, it's fair to say, isn't setting me up for the day in the best possible manner.

Oh well. Hopefully it will pass soon enough.

Should Have Seen That Coming

About a week ago we agreed to take a new broadband contract - a very slight increase in speed for a very slight increase in price, but otherwise no changes... and then no need to worry for two years. In the course of the call I asked, and had it confirmed, that our landline would be unaffected.

Naturally, our landline has now stopped working. And, of course, I'm now getting the runaround - their computer says that I don't have landline services on my account (since they've removed them), and so of course they don't work. Presumably the next step is that they'll offer to add them to our package, all for the low low price of...

The thing that infuriates me about this, other than it being yet another cock up by yet another internet company (are any of them any use at all?), and other than it being yet another thing I really didn't need to be dealing with, is that the landline is almost completely useless to us - about 99% of the time the phone rings it's a nuisance call. Unfortunately, there is still that 1% of calls that are actually important.

Gah!

The Four Lists

LC lamented some time ago that she had two to-do lists: the things she wanted to do and the things that she had to do. Sadly, the nature of life is that the "have to do" list keeps getting ever-longer, and so it's almost impossible to get to the "want to do" list.

Unfortunately, while my own situation is similar, it's not the same: I have four lists to deal with:

• The things I have to do for work. This has the advantage that it's neatly confined within work hours, but by the same token those same hours are not available for anything else.
• The other things I have to do.
• The things I want to do.
• The long-term to do list - things like clearing out the contents of the garage, or moving things into the loft area.

And, as with LC, I'm extremely lucky if I ever get to the bottom of the first two lists, never mind moving onto the others. (Plus, given that many of the things on the long-term to do list are themselves pretty lengthy, even if I had some time it's unlikely to be enough to tackle one of these jobs.)

Which means that the long-term to do list is essentially the "do never" list, which is really frustrating.

#13: "Crackdown", by Bernard Cornwell

No Time to Die

There's a big spoiler below. You know what to do.

This is the first Bond film since the start of the Brosnan era that I haven't seen in the cinema. I would really have liked to go, too, but the pandemic just didn't allow for it. Having now seen the film, I was probably lucky.

The truth is, this film was always almost certain to be Daniel Craig's third-best - it was going to have to go some to beat the stellar "Casino Royale" or "Skyfall", while "SPECTRE" was just dire, and "Quantum of Solace" was ruined by a writer's strike. Still, given the gulf between the really good and the really bad, there was a lot of scope for it to go either way.

And, alas, "No Time to Die" is very much at the lower end of the scale - it's way too long, it's really quite dull, and it's entirely devoid of humour. Basically, it's a slow burn all leading up to, well, nothing much really.

I was rather amused by the tagline, "James Bond will Return", right at the end of the credits, though - Bond pretty definitively dies in this one, which raises the question of how. (Though three answers immediately leap to mind: one is the "Man With the Golden Gun" (novel) approach - he's grabbed by Russians, reconstructed and brainwashed, and sent to kill M; one is that they jump back in time and do a 60's spy film; one is that they just reboot. Or, I suppose, they could completely ignore it and just carry on.)

But a big part of me thinks that this should just be the end. We've now had decades of people desperately trying to cast a female James Bond, a notion that makes no more sense than a male Jane Eyre. What they're really asking is that MGM instead stop making Bond films, and make something else instead. And maybe it really is time for exactly that.

Anniversary (not that one)

Today marks the two-year anniversary of my switching to working from home. Which probably deserves at least some recognition.

Funnily enough, this anniversary comes at a time when the country is engaging in a fascinating experiment: is it possible for the people of a country to gaslight themselves? The thing is, the pandemic is very clearly not over. And yet we're engaged in a crazy process of getting rid of all the remaining measures that were put in place to protect us. And so, in order to justify the madness, we're collectively pretending to ourselves that it's all over, even as cases, hospital admissions, and fatalities all rise.

Work have been talking about us returning to the office for some time. I'm not sure when that will eventually happen, though I suspect it will be sooner rather than later. (It would be really convenient if it happened some time after July 1st, but I doubt I'll be that lucky.)

The truth is that I have very mixed feelings about a return to the office. It's adding five hours to my work week, and maybe £150 to my monthly fuel bills, which sucks. On the other hand, there is a community aspect to work that has been missing, to an extent. My answer, I suppose, is the same as it has always been: I'll go back when they ask me to, but not until then.

Presenteeism

LC was unwell on Sunday, and as the day wore on I found myself coming down with whatever it was. On Monday I woke up feeling pretty terrible.

Now, in times gone past I would probably have taken the view that I was, just about, capable of getting through the work day. It would have been horrible, but it could be done. And since I'm still working from home, the decision should have been even easier.

Except that we're not in the same world as in times past. The pandemic has changed a very many things, and one of those key things that we really need to ditch is the culture of presenteeism - the view that one should attend work right up to the point where you literally keel over... and even if your being there represents a danger of infection to your colleagues (and, therefore, to the wellbeing of the company as a whole).

Of course, all of this is made simpler by company policy, which is that people who are ill should stay home and focus on getting well.

The upshot is that I was off sick on Monday, and had a not at all restful day. In all honesty, it would probably have been better had I gone to work after all. I woke up on Tuesday initially feeling better, but the thermoter said otherwise, so again I didn't go in. And by mid-morning was feeling considerably better.

Today I'm back at work. I'm definitely not 100%, but getting there.

#11: "Protector", by Conn Iggulden

Doomscrolling

I don't know much about the situation in Ukraine. The truth is that the whole thing is very distressing, and there's basically nothing I can do about it. Plus, the situation has the potential to become outright apocalyptic, and there's not a single thing I can do about that. So there is absolutely no benefit in wallowing in the wall-to-wall coverage of the whole thing, and sink into a mire of horror.

The upshot of all of that is that I'm not qualified to give an opinion on basically any of it, what anyone should be doing as a response, or what I think is going to happen. I'm hoping that either Putin will see sense, or that wiser heads in Russia will act to remove him, and that the consequence is a very rapid de-escalation... but I don't see any reason to think that that will happen.

And that's all I have to say on that one.

#10: "The Outsiders", by S.E. Hinton (a book from The List - five to go)

Slipping

At the end of January, I had posted here 10 times, and had read four books. I finished the fifth on the 1st of February.

At the end of February, I had posted 19 times here. This represents the 20th post, on the 1st of March. I have finished nine books, but have barely started the tenth.

Unfortunately, this means that I am slowly but surely slipping back from where I had hoped to be.

The good news at this stage is that it's a recoverable slip - the key is to make sure that the required progress is made each day, plus a little bit. The first part is the more crucial of the two, as it means that there won't be any further slippage. (The problem last year was that that was exactly what happened - as I tried to recover in one area, it meant that another slipped, until everything was just irredeemably behind.)

We'll see how it goes. By the end of this month we should have a pretty good idea.

The Return of Lent

Due to Covid, and the various stresses of life, I have skipped Lent for the previous two years. Now that things seem to be settling a bit, I've decided that this year it is time to give it a go again.

Of course, the notion of Lent is that one should give something up, and that that something should necessarily hurt, at least a little - it is, after all, supposed to be a sacrifice. So a few years ago I concluded that the thing to give up was coffee. As of Wednesday, therefore, that will be cut for a few weeks.

Unless it turns out to be impossible to stick to that. But then, I managed to give up on Irn Bru for a good long time, so it should be okay. I think.

#9: "Sea Lord", by Bernard Cornwell

Funding Political Parties

The situation in Ukraine has caused questions to be raised once again about the funding of the Tory party - they have been in receipt of some millions of pounds that ultimately came from Russia. This donations are, of course, entirely legal, but they have caused at least some raised eyebrows. And, at a time when the UK really needs to take strong action against Russia, we really need to be confident that the party of government is empowered to do so.

So yet another aspect of our politics that needs to be cleaned up is the funding of our political parties.

My suggestion is pretty straightforward, and it is that political parties should have exactly two sources of funding, and it should be illegal for them to raise funds by any other means:

• They are permitted to charge a fee for membership of the party. They can set the price of this membership as they wish, but it must be a single, fixed annual fee for all - no concessionary memberships, no gold passes, etc, etc. Anyone on the relevant electoral register can choose to join a party... and only registered voters can join a party. (Oh, and only individuals could take out memberships on their own behalf - no "associate memberships" for being part of a given union, or whatever.)
• Additionally, after each general election parties should receive money from the public purse, with the amount received depending on the number of votes that they receive. (That is, for every vote cast they would be given £1, or whatever a suitable amount is.)

There would be a couple of effects of this. Firstly, it would cut out any suggestion of dodgy money getting into the coffers of political parties. Similarly, it would sharply reduce the influence of unions on parties, most notably the Labour party. It would prevent parties being heavily funded by bequests, which currently mean that dead members are more important to the Tory party than living ones. And it would prevent the raffling off of 'access' - pay some thousands and you too can play tennis with Boris, have lunch with Ruth, or whatever!

But, crucially, the funding by votes clause would have the effect of making every vote in an election matter - even if you live in a rock-solid safe seat, voting for some other party would be worthwhile as it means more funding for your party of choice.

(Additionally, it of course means that parties must then either work to maximise membership or to maximise the number of votes they receive, in order to be funded. Which is really no bad thing.)

Just my suggestion.

#8: "The Power of One", by Bryce Courtenay (a book from The List. Six to go.)

The Rings of Power

I watched the trailer for the new Amazon "Lord of the Rings" series about a week ago, and I'm afraid I was unimpressed. Basically, it looked like Fantasy Lands of Generica yet again... it was okay, but there wasn't really anything in it that grabbed me and said "you must watch this".

I guess that's inevitable - since they're not adapting any of Tolkien's actual stories, what is essentially left is a set of names and locations of varying levels of familiarity. But Middle Earth is so foundational to the whole of fantasy that without the big stories it is, more or less, Fantasy Lands of Generica.

Oh well. I'll inevitably watch it anyway, so I guess we'll see.

There are two things I would like to mention at this point, though.

Firstly, I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with the greater representation seen in the trailer. Bluntly, I don't much care - there are many people of colour who are fantastic actors, and so giving them a chance can only be a good thing. Middle Earth was soft-of kind-of a mythic history of Britain, but it's so far removed from any sort of real history as to make it nonsensical. Plus, elves and dwarves don't actually exist, so who is to say that the theoretical dwarves of ancient Britain weren't people of colour?

Then there is the issue of the dwarven princess who, shock horror!, doesn't have a beard. Much has been made of the 'fact' that this is at odds with Tolkien's writings on the subject. Just one small problem: last year the Tolkien estate published "The Nature of Middle Earth", a collection of writings by the man himself. That work had a chapter on 'Beards' (yes, really), which specified who did and did not have them, and in which Tolkien specifies that all male dwarves have beards. He doesn't say anything about female dwarves here, but if he specifies all male dwarves rather than all dwarves that must imply that at least some female dwarves don't have beards.

So our beardless female dwarf is, actually, not at all inconsistent with what J.R.R. Tolkien states on the subject. Oops.

(And, incidentally, what are inconsistent is Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn and David Wenham's Faramir - in "The Nature of Middle Earth" Tolkien specifies that those characters don't have beards.)

All that said, there's a larger point here: if you are truly opposed to the beardless female dwarf, or the people of colour playing elves and dwarves, based on some sort of purist's appreciation of the written works, then surely you must reject any and all of the adaptations of Middle Earth completely - all the movies, the play, the musical, the video games, the TTRPGs, Leonard Nimoy's musical genius... all of it. The truth is that none of it is entirely consistent with Tolkien's writings or his vision, so how can it be accepted.

Bottom line: it's an adaptation; things are going to be changed. What matters is whether those changes are trivial or fundamental, and whether the result is good or not.

#7: "The Looking Glass War", by John Le Carré

Day 50: Update on Goals

Today is the 50th day of the year, so it's time for the regular update:

• Books: By day 50 I should have read 8.22 books. At time of writing I've finished six, am halfway through another and two-thirds through yet another. So I'm about a book behind target, which isn't ideal but isn't terrible. I've also read one of the remaining books from The List, and most of another, so that's going well.
• Weight: I've made no progress on this goal.
• Blogging: By day 50 I should have written 16.44 posts here, so I'm right on target here. I've also actually written 8 posts on The Imaginarium, so I'm very happy here.
• Redecorating the Hallway: I haven't started on this, but that's not a problem - we're probably aiming to do this around Easter (or perhaps even later in the year), so I didn't expect to have anything to add.
• Super Secret Goal: I've made no progress on this goal. Indeed, I've discovered that it's nature, coupled with the general stresses of life, make it extremely difficult to progress. I'll need to think on that, as it's something I really need to resolve. (There's a little bit of hope that this might become unnecessary, but we'll see - I'll know by the next update.)

And that's that. I'm reasonably happy with progress to date, but will need to have done more by next time.

The Price of "King Charles"

In the least-shocking development in ages, Prince Andrew has settled his case in order to avoid court. Which means, legally, he has no stain on his honour, and can just carry on as before.

Yeah, right.

Here's the thing: the Royal Family have very significant wealth and holdings nominally in their own name, and they're also in receipt of very significant sums of money from the public, and have access to many homes and palaces that are nominally owned by the public. The claim is that the settlement, which is significant, is being paid from the former... though whether that money originally came from us via the Civil List is never going to be clear.

Well, fair enough. He's the queen's son, indeed her favourite son, so if she wants to bail him out with 'her' money, that's her prerogative as a mother.

But it's also not enough.

Nor is it enough that Andrew has been stripped of some of his ranks, titles, and honours.

Very simply, the public can no longer be expected to support Andrew in any way, shape, or form. He must now be stripped of all of his remaining ranks, titles, and honours (with the exception of those few minor awards he legitimately earned for his military service in the Falklands War). Additionally, he must lose access to all those properties that the Royal Family are permitted to use but which remain publicly-owned. Let him live the remainder of his life in obscurity, and as a private citizen.

If not, if the Royal Family cannot bear to excise the poison, then the Royal Family itself must also no longer be in receipt of public money, and they themselves must lose access to those public holdings.

If Charles wants to be King, Andrew must cease to be a Prince.

A Transfer Window for Managers

Aberdeen have been having a shockingly poor season, with the result that they have sacked their manager, Stephen Glass. As a consequence of this, there is the usual round of speculation about who will take over, with most of the names in the frame being managers of smaller teams. So it's likely that Aberdeen's sacking their manager will lead to them taking the manager from some other team, who will then poach a manager from a yet smaller team... and so it goes down the table.

The effect is that because Aberdeen's players can't get their act together, half a dozen teams have their seasons disrupted.

Similarly, a few years ago the then Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, accepted the offer of a job from Leicester City while the season was still in the balance. As it happened, it was Celtic's good fortune that Neil Lennon was currently out of work, or that could potentially have had a title-altering effect on that season.

And, of course, this season Steven Gerrard has moved from Rangers to Aston Villa. And, again, it is Rangers' very good fortune that Giovanni van Bronckhorst was out of work... though it remains to be seen what the effect on the title may be, if any.

What I'm coming to is this: a club's manager is massively important. Indeed, in all but the most extreme cases, the manager is a more important figure at the club than any single player (with perhaps half a dozen exceptions - Ronaldo, Messi, etc). Yet while we have a transfer window for players, limiting the ability of the big boys to disrupt an opponent's season by poaching talent, we have no such equivalent for managers.

I think it's needed - both to prevent the sort of cascading disruption we're about to see, but also to give managers a bit more job security.

The Notion of a Good Funeral

Funerals are unlikely to be happy affairs. (Or, at least, any funerals I'm likely ever to attend.) At best, they are a matter of saying farewell to a loved one at the end of a long life well lived - and if the person involved had been suffering prior to death, even that can be a blessing.

But a good funeral will generally give a sense of catharsis - it puts the seal on that life well lived, lets those present say their last goodbyes, and then you move forward.

My grandmother's funeral was not such an event. Indeed, it stood in massive contrast to my grandfather's funeral - both were fairly simple affairs, both had detailed plans that were followed to the letter... indeed, both had much the same detailed plan. But that served to make the differences so stark.

Unfortunately, it was an event marred by bitterness. The rifts in the extended family have now become irretrievable, and whereas before there was a need not to let grandma or grandad see the issues at work, that is no longer the case.

Such a shame that the very last gathering of the extended family should be of that character.

The GOAT

There are controversies and then there are CONTROVERSIES!, and today I'm going to be addressing one of the biggest. Forget Messi vs Ronaldo (Ronaldo), forget Federer vs Nadal (Fed), forget even Kirk vs Picard (Sisko). Today, we'll be addressing the burning topic of all topics: Hey Duggee or Bluey?

In all seriousness, CBeebies is twenty years old, and the Guardian have commissioned an article looking at some of the best programmes from the history of that channel. For anyone who is familiar with them, the top two are no surprise at all - the only real question was which would come on top of the heap.

For the uninitiated, Bluey is an Australian animation about a family of dogs - Bandit, Chilli, Bingo, and the titular Bluey. On the face of it, it's the usual anarchic "here's a situation, hijinks ensue" show we've seen a million times before... but what sets Bluey apart is the writing, which is just stellar. It's a children's show that I could happily watch myself.

On the other hand, Hey Duggee is an British animation about a dog (Duggee) who runs a day care facility for five children. Each episode the squirrels go on some adventure to collect a badge. And, again, it's set apart by the writing of the piece, and again it's something I could watch by myself. Indeed, until Bluey came along, my go-to opinion for just about any piece of entertainment was, "well, it's no Duggee... but then, what is?"

One thing to note is that part of the greatness of both of these shows is that they don't talk down to kids, as a great deal of children's entertainment does. Children obviously don't have the skills and experience of adults, and they haven't yet been inflicted with the decades of relentless cynicism that we've developed. But there's a big difference between that and being stupid, and a great deal of children's TV forgets this. Bluey and Duggee do not, and that is a real strength.

Honestly, my view with these things is that the need to pick an absolute winner is somewhat silly - in all the cases, there's no reason you can't acknowledge the excellence of both sides, and indeed be grateful that we live in a world with both - indeed, in most of the cases, each side has made the other better. So it doesn't really matter which is better - they're both good.

But... if I simply had to choose, Duggee wins it for me.

Multipacks

A couple of yeas ago, Tesco decided to do away with as much plastic packaging in their stores as they could. Amongst other things, this meant getting rid of packs of four tins of beans and/or soup, and instead running a permanent "four for..." offer. Which was a good step.

I've noticed that they've now brought back the packs of four, but now wrapped in cardboard, and at a cheaper price point than the "four for..." offer.

Which is a shame on two counts.

Firstly, while cardboard wrapping is better than plastic, it's still an extra bit of wrapping that gets used, and then recycled. That's considerably worse than nothing - it would just be better to leave these things unwrapped.

The other problem concerns the nature of the "four for..." deal in the first place, which ties into issues with poverty, and the Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Unfairness - people on the very poorest end of the scale can't afford to pay £2.50 for four tins of soup, and must instead pay 80p for a single tin each week. Over the course of four weeks, then, they pay £3.20 on the same soup - the (slightly) richer person ends up paying less. (And, yes, it's 'only' a matter of 17.5p per week. But multiply that by 52 weeks in the year, and however many different offers the richer person can use but the poorer cannot, not to mention the potential to "stock up" as and when very good deals happen to crop up, and it turns into a not insubstantial chunk of money.)

The upshot: Tesco, could you please get rid of these cardboard packages again? And could you also review whether these "four for..." deals are really appropriate - can you not instead reduce the unit price across the board?

#5: "The Wandering Fire", by Guy Gavriel Kay

#6: "Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master", by Michael E. Shea

Indomitable

My gran died on Saturday. This was a shock, of course, but not really a surprise... except that it was, a bit. The thing is, she'd been in ill health for quite some time, so it was never going to be too surprising. And yet, we'd been told that she wasn't considered end-of-life, and then she was gone.

Emotionally, that makes things a bit of a mix. She had had a pretty miserable last couple of years, and she was clearly suffering, so her passing is something of a relief. At the same time, it would have been nice to have been able to visit some time in the last couple of years, and it most certainly would have been nice had her four children been able to visit in hospital. Alas, Covid made those both impossible.

One additional sadness is that the funeral, which is likely to be in the next few weeks, is also likely to be the final gathering of the extended family. Indeed, the circumstances are such that I may well already have said a final goodbye to several of my cousins without even knowing it. And that's a shame.

But that's for the future. For now, I'm going to remember my gran, who so often seemed to be in the background allowing granddad to do the talking... but she was always there, supporting everything.

Loft Storage

We have recently had our loft hatch replaced and a ladder fitted, giving us access to a considerable amount of storage space. (The loft was mostly boarded in already, so the storage was always there; it just wasn't easily accessible.) This gives rise to the key question of what to put up there. And there are a great many candidates.

But...

Honestly, I don't want to put items up into the loft, because for most things that are going up there, if you're putting them into that long-term storage, why are you keeping them at all? (Of course, a lot of that is a reaction to the state of affairs at my parents' house, where things have just gotten on top of them such that even tackling the clutter becomes a horrible proposition.)

The other issue that I have is that that space will necessarily be quite cold, and may well be subject to damp and perhaps even rain. That limits the choices of what to put up there - either the things being stored must be resilient against such things, or they need to be thoroughly sealed.

The upshot of all of that is that there are some things that want shifted up the stairs - some items that we don't use but can't for various reasons can't get rid of, and some items that are already effectively in long-term storage and just need properly sealed. And, finally, some things that actually do see some use but can usefully be placed close to the opening for access on those occasions they're needed (our luggage, for instance).

And there are some things I still have to resist being moved.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Honey(comb), Chocolate & Raspberry Cranachan

For Burns' Night we had the traditional haggis, neeps, and tatties, and the cranachan for dessert. It was highly successful.

The method for this came from this month's Tesco magazine, although literally every ingredient was a swap from that recommended, some minor (ordinary oats in place of their Finest range), some more major (cookie for tiffin). Though I suspect it was all a difference without much distinction, since it amounts to "a bunch of nice things mixed together".

It was all very nice. We'd probably have it again, though we tend not to do desserts very often so I couldn't really say when.

#3: "Wildtrack", by Bernard Cornwell

#4: "The Thorn Birds", by Colleen McCullough (a book from The List - seven to go)

Baking with Funsize #6: Jammy Cut-out Biscuits

This was an interesting one: the effort of putting the dough together was of little interest to Funsize, but once it had come together she thoroughly enjoyed cutting out the shapes. Unfortunately, I rolled the biscuits out a little thinly, which meant that they came out a little over-baked. But they tasted fine for all that.

(I should take a moment to thank one of Funsize's uncles, who helped complete the biscuits when I was distracted - Funsize had great fun adding the jam and sticking them together.)

Next up will be the long-delayed lace biscuits with lime cream, I think. The next biscuits in the book have some elements that don't inspire me, so I'm inclined to go back and fill in the gaps, but that will likely be not next week but the week after.

Around the World in 80 Days

Over the past few weeks, LC and I worked our way through this series, the BBC's adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel. I'm not going to say much about it, except to note that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fairly light, but that was appropriate to the material, and it was given just enough 'bite' to be interesting.

It may well benefit the series that I haven't read the original story. But that's fine. And I'll certainly be interested to see how they segue into a whole new novel with the same characters. But that's something to look forward to.

Rules, not Guidelines

The longer Boris Johnson remains Prime Minister, the more apparent it is that something fundamental needs to change in Westminster. If the parliament is to continue to function, whoever is Johnson's successor needs to bring in some fundamental changes. (Of course, I don't believe Westminster is capable of making these changes - that is, after all, the precise reason I support Scottish Independence.)

The fundamental problem is that Westminster operates on the assumption that those involved are fundamentally honourable. As a consequence of this the place has very few strict rules, and an awful lot of conventions, guidelines, and other mechanisms.

The problem with that is that when someone comes alone with no respect whatsoever for conventions, the whole thing falls apart.

The notion that the Prime Minister is the final arbiter on whether someone has broken the Ministerial Code is a major problem. This means that when a minister is found to have bullied staff, the PM could (and did) casually ignore the report and leave her in post. Even more absurdly, the PM is now being investigated... and will then be able to rule whether he himself broke the code (spoiler: he absolutely did, and he absolutely will exonerate himself).

But, of course, even the fact that he's having to be investigated is itself shocking. It's practically inconceivable that these parties would have happened under Theresa May or Gordon Brown - for all their faults, both were without question serious figures well aware of the need for leadership, especially now. It's also inconceivable, although for different reasons, that it would happen under either David Cameron or Tony Blair - both are sufficiently media savvy that they likewise would never let it happen. (And Major and Thatcher were creatures of a different age. The scandals were utterly different there.)

The consequence of that is that the system has broken down. It needs to change.

And the change is pretty simple: where there are standards of behaviour that are expected, but that are covered by conventions and guidelines, these need to become rules with proper sanctions. Suspected breaches of those rules need to be conducted by an entirely separate body, with the power to demand answers, access any and all documents, and issue sanctions. And any such investigations have to be triggered automatically - no more of this business of the government choosing when and what to investigate, and assigning their pet civil servants to the job.

I have no confidence that any of this will happen. But it must.

#2: "The Nature of Middle Earth", by J.R.R. Tolkien (one for the fanatics only!)

Baking with Funsize #5: Viennese Biscuits

Returning to the Usborne "Children's Book of Baking", on Saturday Funsize and I tackled Viennese Biscuits, which consist of two biscuity blobs with chocolate sandwiched between. These were our most successful bake so far, especially as Funsize really enjoyed laying out the biscuits and spreading the chocolate. The only downside, such as it is, was that the biscuits don't keep, so had to be eaten quickly. Oh, such a shame!

We actually skipped the Lace Biscuits that were, by rights, the next bake we should have done. That leaves us two potential 'next' bakes. I'm inclined to go for the jammy biscuits next, but we'll see...

Dear Media: Bloody Sort Yourselves Out!

Yesterday we were notified that a friend of ours had an issue with the thermometer in her baby box - it had been giving a false low reading which, had she trusted it, could have caused serious problems. She also noted that there were some press stories about problems with the included thermometer. So I went to check...

What I found were two stories, one of which was locked behind a paywall, and the other of which was a repeat/summary of the first. Both had a lurid headline damning the Scottish Government over a cavalier attitude to the safety and accuracy about the included thermometers.

The reality was rather more prosaic: an update to advice had indicated that in-ear thermometers should not be used with very young children (under four weeks), the Scottish government had switched to an under-arm thermometer, but they had waited to use up existing stocks first. There was no indication that the original thermometers had general problems, needed a recall, or were otherwise problematic - and certainly no justification for the panic-mongering headline.

Of course, the reason for this all comes down to one word: independence.

Scotland's media is almost universally opposed to independence, and therefore loathes the SNP government. As a consequence of this every single action of the SNP government, even if it is completely unrelated to independence, and even if it is a massive social good like the baby boxes, must be torn down, trashed, and denigrated at every possible opportunity. Nothing can be good, or work well; every flaw must be magnified to the ultimate degree.

With the consequence that the media are utterly and completely unreliable. "News" in Scotland is useless.

(That, incidentally, also applies to our one and only pro-independence newspaper, the National. For the opposite reason - they can't criticise the government, but must instead act as cheerleaders.)

The thing is, on most topics that really doesn't matter. We just factor the complete bloody uselessness of the media into our calculations, completely ignore them, and move on. But this was a very serious matter of public health - if those thermometers really were faulty, we needed to know. And, equally, if they're not then it's frankly dangerous for the media to try to promote a panic about them.

There's a line there, and it has been crossed. Hence the title of this post.

Experimental Cookery 2021: Chicken Dim Sum

This one was our main meal on Hogmanay, but I didn't have a chance to update the blog at the time and so it carries over into the new year. It comes from Jamie's "Fifteen Minute Meals" - I certainly make no claim to authenticity! And, the final thing of note, was that this was a chance for me to try out my latest toy, being a set of bamboo steamers.

This was a quick and easy meal to prepare, although it did have the usual chaos of too many things happening at once which is a feature of the 15MM book. A calmer approach is probably more beneficial here (and in general) - better not even to try to hit that benchmark.

I did find that the dough was rather tricky to work with. Having watched some videos online I'm pretty sure I see my problem (much more flour on the rolling surface), but will confirm next time I do this. My other key mistake was that I didn't steam the buns for long enough - they need at least 12 minutes.

The end result, though, was rather nice. We'll certainly have this, and some variants, again - the steamer proved to be extremely easy and convenient, so I'll be looking for options to use it more often in future.

And that's about that, really.

#1: "Sly Flourish's The Lazy Dungeon Master", by Michael E. Shea