Enjoyably Stupid

A few weeks ago Netflix got “Fast X”, the tenth film in the increasingly daft “Fast & Furious” series. Then, last week, Netflix also got “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning”, the seventh film in the increasingly daft “Mission: Impossible” series. In both cases, these were billed as the first part of the final part of the series. (As I said, increasingly daft.)

Being a sucker for a suitably daft action film, as well as having seen all the previous films in both their series, I proceeded to watch them. And they are, as might be expected, both enjoyably stupid.

In fairness, I must note that “Fast X” is not the stupidest film in the series. The previous film, “F9” featured a scene where our heroes decided to take a car into space (no, really), and that just can’t be topped for stupidity. Not that they didn’t try – between having an omniscient villain, another nuclear submarine (because one can never be enough), and the return of a character who very definitively died earlier in the series, there’s a lot here to mock.

But I was particularly amused by the scenes in Rome. It’s always more fun watching a place get blown to hell when it’s somewhere you’ve actually been, and so that was great fun. And with the characters playing automotive football with a giant bomb on the streets of Rome (no, really), what could be better?

Seriously, if you like these films, you’ll probably find this one a worthy entry. And if you don’t, the tenth instalment in the series is probably not the place to start.

Meanwhile, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” is likewise enjoyably daft. By this point there’s a very clear formula to the films, and this one follows it to the letter, with perhaps the fun wrinkle that Ethan goes rogue before he even properly starts his impossible mission. But there’s the usual fakeouts, hijinks, action scenes, and loads of intense looks at the camera. Oh, and of course lots of running. Good stuff.

I had two favourite scenes in this one. Top of the list, in terms of daftness, was when they found themselves once again on a runaway train – our villain set things up by killing the crew, opening the throttle fully, and then destroying the brakes.

On a steam train.

Now, I’m no expert on this, but I’m reasonably sure that the reason steam locomotives have a huge tender of coal, and someone whose job is to shovel that coal into the engine isn’t entirely decorative. That is, if you stop feeding the engine with the fuel that it needs to keep going it is quite likely to, well, stop going. So in short order that runaway train would… not be running away.

But I was particularly amused by the scenes in Rome. It’s always more fun watching a place get blown to hell when it’s somewhere you’ve actually been, and so that was great fun. And with Ethan finding himself handcuffed to another character, and forced to keep moving to ever-smaller cars, what’s not to like.

Seriously, it was highly amusing watching these two films in close proximity, partly because they mostly chased down exactly the same streets and destroyed all the same landmarks in most of the same ways, but also because the films were made at more or less the same time – the people of Rome must have really loved having their city shut down for weeks for one and then the other.

As with “Fast X”, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” is a case where if you enjoyed the previous films you’ll probably like this one. If not, the seventh film in the series is not the place to start. But I enjoyed it, and I look forward to the “final” part of the series.

Experimental Cookery 2025: Peanut Butter Burger with Bacon & Tomato Chilli Jam

I have officially upped my burger game.

When cooking burgers, the target is pretty clear: you want them cooked through, but not overdone - they want to remain suitably juicy for a good mouthfeel. But once you've cracked that, there's not all that much to be done with the burger itself - fundamentally, it's a bit of meat in a roll, and there's only so much to be done there.

This post's recipe comes from "The Handcrafted Burger", a book I've had for a couple of years and have wanted to use for a couple of years... but I've just never quite found the time to do anything with for a couple of years. This is, as it happens, both the first recipe I've taken from the book, and also the first recipe in the book.

Anyway, this one called for the preparation of two components: a peanut butter sauce (dead easy) and a tomato chilli jam (slightly more involved, but also easy). Then it was a case of cooking the appropriate meats on the BBQ, toasting the buns, and assembling: spread the peanut butter sauce on the buns, then layer the bun with the burger, the bacon, gherkins, the jam, and the top.

And the result was a great burger. Surprisingly, the peanut butter sauce didn't make any great difference - it was there, but it was a fairly minor component of the whole. The chilli jam was much more noticeable, and was very nice.

But, oddly, it was the brioche-style bun that made the most difference - suddenly this was something that I could almost see them serving up in a restaurant (except that restaurants tend to avoid nuts except where there's a specific need for them), and indeed could almost see paying £18 for such a burger.

So, yeah, all in all this was a crazy-good burger. A triumph, and we'll definitely be revisiting that book again in the near future.

As for having this burger again... we'll certainly be making use of the chilli jam again, both to use up the leftovers from yesterday, but also simply to use it again. And the other components will appear at various times and places. But the key component, the peanut butter sauce, may be something we use again only rarely, if at all - it's probably not going to become one of our go-to items, and while it's something interesting to lay out for others to try, the presence of nuts means that it's something we'll want to avoid in almost all cases where we might do that. Which is a shame.

#12: "Hera", by Jennifer Saint (probably the current "book of the year")

Experimental Cookery 2025: Prawn and Lemon Risotto

File this one under "it's fine, but..."

This is another risotto recipe from the Hairy Bikers, another one from their "One Pot Wonders" book. And it's perfectly fine - an easy cook that gives good, consistent results. And the meal was very nice. All in all, a winner.

But...

With the previous two risottos, we've ended up with significant leftovers which have been ideal for reheating for lunch the next day. With this one, we ended up with significant leftovers that weren't suitable for reheating, which was something of a waste.

So, we'd have this one again, but probably not for just the two of us - this is a meal where you need to cook the right amount for the number of people you have. Otherwise, though, it's good.

#10: "The Phoenix Project", by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford
#11: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", by J.K. Rowling (a book for Funsize)

Prime Suspect

When we watched "Snowpiercer", I noticed that ITV X now has a load of shows that had previously been reserved for Britbox (a service we had never subscribed to, nor intended to ever try). This was a fairly limited boon, as there's not really a great deal of "classic" TV that I'd really like to revisit, but the one thing I was keen to see was "Prime Suspect".

I missed out on most of "Prime Suspect" first time out as I just wasn't particularly interested. I remembered the end scene, but nothing much leading up to that, and I had no recollection of ever watching any of the sequels (although...). And having missed out, I decided to embark of a watch.

It turns out that ITV X just isn't a good way of watching these things - unless you're willing to pay for the ad-free "premium" service (which isn't worth it), the shows are ruined by multitudes of badly-placed adverts. Still, I persevered.

The original "Prime Suspect" is rightly considered a classic, centred around a towering performance by Helen Mirren. That's probably not news - it's like saying "the Sun's quite big". And it remains as grim and hard-hitting as it ever did. It's basically not something they'd make these days, which in some ways is a shame - in the years since the production values of TV have advanced beyond recognition, but the storytelling has lost something, especially in recent years.

Once past the original, though, there's a marked drop-off. Although the central performance remains strong, it's hampered by the issue that Tennison's colleagues have largely accepted their mistake in the first series - a logical response to being proven wrong, but also a loss of much of the dramatic tension. Plus, it then seemed that they were cycling through the various -isms for their topic: sexism, followed by racism, followed by homophobia (and transphobia).

Oddly, "Prime Suspect 5" is currently missing from the service. Which is a shame, as I think it serves as a conclusion for the 'original' series, with the final two seasons being set much later. Oh well - at this point I'm done with my watch-through, so I don't think I'll seek it out later.

"Prime Suspect 6", then, is interesting in presenting a new side of things, with Tennison coming towards the end of her career and feeling rather overlooked. It's also something of a reset, and regains a lot of the freshness of the early series. It's pretty good; certainly better than two of the standalone episodes in PS4.

But then "Prime Suspect 7" is an odd thing. Here, I found myself remembering various bits of what happened, which is odd - I didn't think I'd seen this previously, but I guess I must have done. But "Prime Suspect 7" suffers a great deal from the issue that Tennison is now no longer presented as a superb detective who has been unjustly held back; by this point she's actually a distinct liability and actually dangerous. Indeed, far from tolerating her various foibles, her colleagues should by rights by arresting and charging her. Which makes for a great performance by Helen Mirren, but a rather sad ending to the series as a whole.

Anyway, that's that. I'm inclined to recommend watching the original, if you missed it at the time (and can bear the adverts), but probably skipping the rest.

Challenge Completed

Some years ago I posted that I'd been having some difficulties teaching Funsize to ride her bike. Well, it hasn't been easy - a few months after that post we'd cracked it, but unfortunately she'd grown out of that bike. The new one, purchased for Christmas, was a little too big for her, which led to a long spell where she absolutely refused to try riding it, after which we were back to square one.

Anyway, over the course of this break from work we've been working hard at it, and the good news is that we had a breakthrough on Saturday which was then consolidated yesterday. So that's that job done - Funsize can now officially ride a bike. Just as long as she doesn't forget again...

Getting Caught Up

I've been off work for the past two weeks, and as a consequence of that I've been able to get caught up on my reading. The most recent novels:

The Labyrinth of the Spirits

The final novel in the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books" cycle is a fairly hefty read, and was the volume that led to me being behind in the first place. It's a twisting novel, part detective story, part thriller, part horror, and part something else. It's hard going, but also very rewarding.

Although completely different in style, tone, and content, the series that this one most puts me in mind is the Musketeer novels by Dumas - in both cases the first novel ("The Three Musketeers" and "Shadow of the Wind") stands as one of the very best novels I have ever read. In both cases, I recommend them wholeheartedly.

After that, though, the stories get somewhat harder to get through - "Twenty Years After" is a bit of a slog, to put it mildly, while I found "The Angel's Game" tough to digest. Then there's something of a respite, in the form of the start of "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", or "The Prisoner of Heaven", and then it's the march to the end.

But when that end is finally reached, after thousands of pages of reading, it is triumphant. Indeed, as I came to the end of "The Labyrinth of the Spirits", I found that I genuinely didn't know what one character was going to do... and indeed I genuinely didn't know what I wanted them to do.

All in all, a great read.

A Stroke of the Pen

The lost stories by Terry Pratchett, and the third or fourth "last book" by my late favourite author. This was another collection of twenty short stories culled from his early days writing for newspapers, and it's packed with the usual collection of wit and craziness that is familiar from the other collections. But, alas, it means that I must mourn again that there is nothing more to read.

Hercule Poirot's Silent Night

Speaking of an unexpected read, I had assumed that Sophie Hannah was done with her neo-Christie stories, so it was with some pleasure that I discovered this fifth volume (and, indeed, that there's a sixth coming).

This is the standard Poirot murder-mystery, full of a cast of fairly ghastly characters, a set of clues that eventually come to an unexpected conclusion, with many twists and turns along the way. Good stuff.

#7: "The Labyrinth of the Spirits", by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
#8: "A Stroke of the Pen", by Terry Pratchett
#9: "Hercule Poirot's Silent Night", by Sophie Hannah

Day 100: Update on Goals

Time for the second update on goals for the year:

• Books: This is slightly behind - by day 100 I should have completed 8.2 books, so on paper I'm a little behind. However, I have two books well in progress, which combine to cover the shortfall - just. The issue is exactly as I identified last time - I have a good number of very long books to read, which means it's easy to get bogged down.
• Weight: This is progressing, largely due to the effect of Lent. It is now back on track for the year, while at the same time not as advanced as I'd hoped to be in time for the wedding. Which isn't ideal, given the need to be fit for dancing, but there it is.
• Career: No further progress.
• Church Website: No further progress.
• Redecoration: No further progress. LC did approach our preferred glazier about getting a quote for the windows, but they didn't have capacity to provide one at this time. We're now musing on whether to wait for them (likely) or seek another option.
• Blogging: This was not set as a goal, but if I had targeted the normal 120 posts for the year, the expectation would have been to hit 33 by now. I'm somewhat behind that, though not disastrously so. Still, I'd like to be back on track for the next update.
• Home Automation: No further progress. I have identified the final "control" device for the system, but as it is fairly regularly reduced by varying amounts, I'm currently waiting for it to hit the price point I'm happy with before buying. That may mean delaying for Prime Day later in the year.

And that's that. As anticipated last time, most of the goals haven't progressed in the last seven weeks, but that's not a problem. I have slipped a bit behind in some of them, but not too badly - there's nothing that's fallen to unrecoverable levels.

Eureka!

I didn't get much sleep last night. About 3am I suddenly realised the key to a problem I'd been grappling with for a couple of weeks, which in hindsight is now obvious. Now I just need to find a way to explain that to the relevant people, in the hope that they might actually do something about it.

Which on the one hand is really good, since it means I've actually got a solution to something that had been eluding me; on the other hand, it meant I didn't get enough sleep. And it's going to be a long day.

Oh Dear

Much to my disgust, I find myself concluding that I preferred Rishi Sunak's disastrous government to the current lot. Yes, they were absolutely awful, but at least they offered the possibility of hope - that the government would one day change and could potentially be better.

Unfortunately, the current government is pretty much the best that could be put together by the shambles that is our current political class. They're to the right of Thatcher, hampered only by there not being any mines to close down (though Grangemouth might compensate somewhat for that), and seem intent on moving further in that direction.

And there's no hope of improvement - the Tories are as bad as ever and are in utter disarray, and they're looking increasingly likely to be overtaken and replaced by Reform who are (or should be) a joke of a party.

Basically, this is the worst government of my lifetime. And I suspect it may be the best government of the rest of my life.

Wilted

After a hard-fought win against Greece on Thursday, Scotland had left themselves in a really strong position to stay in group A of the Nations League - just avoid a defeat in the return leg and they'd do it.

Naturally, I therefore expected them to collapse in a heap, and naturally, they did.

And so, once again, we have the aftermath of another failure by Scotland, another manager having to reflect on what went wrong, and another batch of players failing to live up to their potential.

And none of it is a surprise. Oh well, on to the next false dawn!

Star Wars Day Party!

Due to a confluence of events I now find myself hosting a gathering on the 4th of May, better known as Star Wars Day. I have, of course, been waiting for this all my life!

Needless to say, I can't let this opportunity go without taking full advantage, and so there is now a need to make suitable arrangements. But what form will these arrangements take? And will the Jedi or the Sith come into the ascendance?

Time will tell, as it always does.

Snowpiercer

Another show we've been watching for a while, and that we've just reached the end of, is "Snowpiercer" - a post-apocalyptic show about a massive train that contains the last remnants of humanity in a frozen world. There are four seasons, the first three of which are on Netflix, and the last is on ITV-X (actually, they're all there now).

Truth is, I almost gave up on "Snowpiercer" in the second episode, when there was almost a scene so horrible I just couldn't continue. Fortunately, they backed off from that one.

But "Snowpiercer" ends up having three great seasons, and then one more season. Season 4 is, unfortunately, rather disjointed and not close to the same standard as the others. But it is an ending, and sometimes that's what matters.

(Incidentally, there's also a movie called "Snowpiercer", which has the same premise but is otherwise significantly different. Both are okay, but I prefer the series.)

Ultimately, I think I recommend watching the first three seasons of this, and then recommend calling it a day - the fourth season just wasn't worth the wait. But then, even knowing what I know now I would have watched that final season, so make of that what you will.

#6: "Nero", by Conn Iggulden

Cobra Kai

When we got Netflix, I was pleasantly surprised to find "Cobra Kai" available on the service. This was a show I'd seen some trailers for and being intrigued by, but never expected to get to watch. I therefore raced through the first two seasons, and was not disappointed.

Unfortunately, as time went on the show became more and more convoluted, always trying to top the last twist, and if I'm honest it was all the weaker for that. By the end of the fifth season, my distinct feeling was that it had gone on too long. (That said, the structure they had meant that it couldn't have stopped - every season except the first and maybe the fifth ended in such a manner that you had to know what happened next.)

I've recently finished the sixth and final season. And I'm afraid in many ways it's like the lackluster final season of "Babylon 5" - they've ended up with not quite enough story stretched across too many episodes.

And yet, and yet...

The final season of "Bablyon 5" has five final episodes that are nothing short of outstanding, providing a great and massively cathartic ending for the season - they wrapped everything up in the neatest of possible bows. It is truly one of the great endings in TV history.

And "Cobra Kai" is another, because it also has a final five episodes that twist and turn, and yet somehow manage to bring everything together into an ending that on one hand seems to come out of nowhere... and on the other is obviously how it had to end. The finale, in particular, manages to sum up everything that the show was about.

So... "Cobra Kai": starts great, loses steam a bit, but the ending is great.

One Week Only

Since the start of the year, my commute to and from work has just been awful - it has seemed that every single road has had roadworks on it, with the inevitably lengthy delays. Though I did find one that didn't just after Storm Eowyn - largely by virtue of the roadwork-infested route I would have usually taken being completely closed.

Anyway, last Friday was a banner day, because finally, finally all the key roads on my main route to work were blessedly free of roadworks. Oh the joy of being able to travel to and from work in a less than hellish manner!

Spin forward to today, a scant four commutes later, and the roadworks are back. Because of course they are.

Free Time

I've recently been finding that free time has been at a serious shortage, and free time with access to a computer even more so. I'm hoping to get caught back up on the blog in the next couple of days, but I guess we'll see - this was probably about the point I started to lose track last year, so it's not impossible that the same is about to happen again.

Cassandra

My latest TV show has been "Cassandra", a six-part German miniseries on Netflix about a murderous AI/smart home.

Unfortunately, it's not great. The title is very clever, but other than that I'm afraid it's basically a standard "AI gone wrong" sequence of cliches one after another. The final episode in particular, and all the twists therein, were things that I'd seen many times before.

Which is a shame. The trailers looked really good, and some aspects of it were genuinely well-made and sometimes quite disturbing. But, alas, the rest of it didn't live up to the promise.

Day 50: Update on Goals

2025 is now well underway, so time for the first update on the goals for the year:

• Books: This is on target - by day 50 I should have completed 4.1 books, and I'm somewhat ahead of that. My only slight concern is that my "to read" list contains a number of doorstop volumes, which may slow me down.
• Weight: There has been some limited progress in this area, but I'm not on target for the year. There's still plenty of time, but this does need to become a focus.
• Career: As I said, this can play out in one of two ways, and for the first half of the year I'm focused on the first of these. There were two windows of opportunity here, but the first of those has recently closed, leaving one other. I can't say any more than that.
• Church Website: I've made a very minor update to the website, clearing out a handful of unused pages. But I need to get some work done on this.
• Redecoration: No progress as yet. By the next update I intend to at least have a quote for getting the windows done.
• Blogging: This was not set as a goal, but if I had targeted the normal 120 posts for the year, the expectation would have been to hit 17 by now. As this is indeed the 17th post of the year, that is therefore on target.
• Home Automation: The other "not a goal" has seen no movement thus far. However, there is now a clear target in place, so I may be able to advance some of it in the next few months.

And that's that. In terms of goals, things are looking okay, but everything is in the early days at this stage. To be honest, I'm not expecting a massive change to anything for the next update, but as long as nothing falls to the "yeah, I can't do this" bucket that's not too bad.

The Next Bond: A Proposal

Every so often the news about casting the next James Bond flares up for a while, and then seems to go cold again. A bunch of names are in the frame, and then gradually they all fall out and it starts again. The latest news is that they're apparently looking for someone to fill the role for the next 5ish movies across 15ish years, so they're looking for a male in his early to mid thirties.

I must admit, though, that I think they're making a mistake.

The thing is, "No Time to Die" represented a fairly definitive end to the adventures of James Bond as-was. Whether you consider the Daniel Craig films to be a continuation of the previous continuity or being their own thing, he pretty clearly died. This gives the producers an opportunity to wipe the board clear, and start over.

What I'd be inclined to do, therefore, is to produce a number of standalone, and more experimental, Bond films. Do something unexpected with the character, and see how the audience takes it.

So, for instance, they could cast Idris Elba as an older Bond - if he's only signed for one film, why would his age be a barrier? Or they could see if Dalton would be willing to come back and do a much older Bond, forced back into action by circumstance but forced to contend with the fact that now there are people who can do it better.

Or maybe they could revert back to the 60's and show Bond in his pomp, or even the 1860s and explore how the situation changes if, instead of being an agent of a fading world power, he's an agent of the dominant world power. Or maybe they do a film about Commander Bond of the Royal Navy in WWII - something to do with the Nazis having stolen nuclear secrets, perhaps?

They could even use this as an opportunity to do the "female James Bond" they've been talking about for 20 years. I think it's a terrible idea (on a par with a "male Jane Eyre"), but maybe they just need to get it out of their system?

Anyway, that's how I think I would approach it at this time. And maybe they find something that has real legs, and can turn it into a whole series. Or maybe they do a few, let a decade pass, and then cast someone we haven't heard of yet and start over.

#4: "The Maps of Middle Earth", by J.R.R. Tolkien (sort of)
#5: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", by J.K. Rowling (a book for Funsize)

Rebooting Buffy

Every few years there is talk of a reboot, reimagination, or continuation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and every time until now it comes to nothing. This time, it does look like the project has legs, helped by the fact that Sarah Michelle Gellar is on board to reprise her role.

Unfortunately, my position on any "Buffy" reboot is the same as my position on any "Firefly" reboot (or "Angel", "Dollhouse", or any of the rest): I'm not interested in any such project that doesn't involve Joss Whedon... and I'm not interested in any project that does.

#3: "So You Want to be a Game Master", by Justin Alexander

And Another Thing...

While I'm on the topic of streamers...

Netflix have recently informed me that they're increasing their subscription cost again. But at the same time Netflix are in the unfortunate position that they've already lost many of the shows that I've been watching, cancelled almost all the others that I thought I might want to watch, and now have one of the very few I am waiting for about to drop their final ever episodes.

In other words, I think Netflix may be joining NOW and Paramout+ on the "occasional" subscription list, leaving only Disney+ on the "permanent" list.

Boiling a Frog

I don't generally watch a lot of shows on Amazon Prime - we're mostly subscribed for other things, and most of what I do watch is elsewhere. But as it happens I have recently found myself watching two shows in sequence ("Rings of Power" and then "The Rig" - the latter I recommend, by the way), and the adverts have been bothering me.

For a long time, Amazon Prime didn't have any adverts, and that was good. Then they introduced the adverts, along with a surcharge to get rid of those adverts. But at that time the adverts were few and far between, and often they put the adverts at the start of the show and so once you actually got to watching you could watch without interruption.

And that was fine.

But what has been very obvious while watching these two shows is that things have been getting worse all the time - there are now more adverts, more interruptions, and those interruptions seem to be worse integrated into the show, sometimes even seeming to cut in the middle of a sentence.

I would assume that this is mostly about Amazon really wanting us to pay the surcharge to get rid of the adverts. And I'm quite sure that they do indeed want that money.

Except that I'm reasonably sure that it won't stop there - I fully expect them to start having people sponsor their various shows, meaning they get a dedicated advert before the show starts (or, perhaps, even during the show). And one of the conditions for that sponsorship, and one of the things done with other streamers where you pay to "skip the adverts" is that the sponsorship is not considered an advert, and so can't be skipped.

Basically, they're looking to boil the frog, to gradually turn up the heat to extract the absolute maximum amount of money they can from all sources.

But there comes a point where instead the frog jumps out of the pot. Amazon Prime is one of the weakest of the streamers (as I said, we're subscribed for other reasons), so maybe it's time to let it go.

Experimental Cookery 2025: Sweet and Sour Prawn Stir-fry

This one comes from Tom Kerridge's "Real Life Recipes", which is one of the recipe books I keep thinking I should make more use of and yet never seem to get around to.

Anyway, this one was quick and easy to put together, although I was rather nervous of the shallow fry stage for the prawns (large amounts of hot oil always make me nervous, and having small children in the house exacerbates the situation). In future, therefore, I think we'll probably skip the batter and the shallow fry.

In any case, the result was very nice, providing exactly the sort of sweet and sour combination we were expecting and hoping for. Like the sweet and sour dish (from the first "Hairy Dieters" book), the sauce is the key to the dish, and is really easy to make. And it was a winner - to the extent that I'm sorely tempted to drop sweet and sour chicken from my takeaway rotation.

All in all, this one was a winner. We'll surely have it again.

Something to Thank Trump For

The return of the Trump was always going to be horrible, and in the event it has been even more horrible than was expected. Although in hindsight it's an obvious strategy - change so many things so quickly and create so many outrages that the other side just can't keep up on what their supposed to be responding to now.

But there is one good thing that comes of this.

Trump has launched a number of trade wars, and threatened a number more. He's attacked Canada, the EU, made noises about annexing Greenland, and there's no sign that he's anything other than serious. That is, he's attacking his allies and trade partners.

And what that means is that those allies and trade partners should now be in absolutely no doubt: the US cannot be relied on to act in anything other than its perceived self-interest. That has always been true, but until now we've kidded ourselves on, pretended there's a "special relationship".

And that "special relationship", and the equivalants elsewhere, have been extremely dangerous. The EU is far, far too dependent on the US for its defence against Russia. Greenland hosts US military bases rather than looking to its own defence, Canada's economy and fuel security are intricately tied to the US. And, of course, our Trident system is tied in with US technology and systems.

That really needs to stop. If we cannot rely on the US, we need to look to our own interests and our own defence.

And that's a good thing, because the assumption that the big guy with the stick will only ever use it as we direct is always a faulty one.

Entropy

Our kettle died on us on Sunday. On the one hand, this was a mild inconvenience - kettles aren't exactly either very hard to get or very expensive. On the other hand, it's just annoying adding one more job to the list.

And, of course, it's unfortunate having to run out to get a kettle and spend the money just to end up back where we started. Multiply that by, well, everything and it's a constant annoyance of having to maintain everything, all of which gets in the way of making anything better.

Oh well.

In other news, and especially annoying, my car has developed yet another fault - after the type pressure sensors now finally seem to be fixed, it is time for the parking assist mechanism to fail. Another function that I don't make much actual use of, but which is installed and therefore needs to be working.

Sigh.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth

This was released just before our NOW subscription expired, allowing us to quickly binge-watch it. Which was nice.

"Lockerbie: A Search for Truth" is a 5-part mini-series around the Lockerbie bombing and the aftermath therefore, based primarily on a book written by Jim Swire. Colin Firth plays Swire.

So... where to start.

(Oh, yes, there are spoilers, I guess. But since it's a historical drama, I'm not sure they count.)

Firstly, it's extremely well made, especially the scenes of the disaster itself in the first episode. The cast are very strong, with Firth giving a standout performance. And, more than anything else, it probably bears the closest comparison with "Chernobyl", which I also watched on NOW a few years ago. So that's all to the good.

But...

Somewhere around the middle of the third episode, Swire becomes absolutely convinced that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi is not guilty of the crime for which he is later convicted, and the second half of the mini-series follows on from there. All of which is his prerogative, of course.

Unfortunately, the sequence of events as depicted in the show just doesn't work - as presented, the prosecution case utterly falls apart, with just about every witness shown being extremely unreliable, key details coming to light to show that the conviction cannot be safe, and eventually a climactic moment as Swire attempts to bring the whole thing down.

My key problem being with that being that if things did indeed go down that way, there is absolutely no way the judges who were serving as the jury in the trial could have failed to see the problems. Meaning that the only real explanation is an almighty miscarriage of justice - either rank incompetence by five of our most learned judges or outright corruption. I'm afraid that neither of those sits right with me.

(The other thing is that much is made of the logical contradiction of only Abdelbaset al-Megrahi being convicted for the crime - Swire's argument being that the crime was only possible if both the accused were guilty. There's a key problem there: it just isn't so. Consider this: yes, as described, the Lockerbie bombing could not be the work of Megrahi alone, as he didn't have the required airport access. However, that doesn't mean that it required Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, his co-accused, to provide that access - there were others who could have done so. So the "logical contradiction" is not necessarily anything of the kind - the "jury" could feel that the case against Megrahi was sufficient to convict him while also feeling that Fhimah hadn't been sufficiently identified as the co-conspirator.)

I should make note at this point that I make no criticism of Jim Swire in all this - my strong suspicion is that the relevant scenes were heavily edited for dramatic effect, which worked, but at the cost of losing some of the critical nuance.

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that the second half of the drama doesn't work anywhere near as well as the first. Which is a shame. Also, barring an intervention by President Trump, I think it's unlikely that we'll ever know the full and unvarnished truth, which is an even bigger shame.

So, do I recommend the show? Hesitantly, I say yes.

#2: "The Ultimate Discworld Companion", by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs

Rings of Power, Season Two

If I had written this post a week ago, I would have said that RoP was a vast improvement over the first season, provided you accept that it's very much not Tolkien - it's what you might come up with if the only exposure you'd had to "The Lord of the Rings" was from watching the Peter Jackson movies.

Unfortunately, the final three episodes represent a spectacular collapse in quality the like of which I don't think I've ever seen. Fundamentally, I think it's trying really hard to be good, but just doesn't know how.

There are two fundamental problems I can see.

The first is that there are too many characters and too much space, and too little time. This means that some key character disappear for several episodes at a time, and many others get only a handful of minutes of screentime. There's an awful lot of "who's that guy again?"... followed by an awful lot of "you know what, I don't care."

The other is specific to the final episode, which is basically made up of recycled material from older, better sources. We have Aragorn being given Anduril, being re-enacted shot by shot and pose by pose. We have Luke Skywalker giving a little smile before jumping to near-certain doom. Not to mention the Rebel Alliance rallying at the end to look forward to a better future. And there's a lot of sound and fury, and a lot of peril... being endured by characters who we know can't die, or even be seriously injured. (Though, actually, we know that elves sometimes return from the Undying Lands, so maybe they actually should have pulled the trigger. Then again, then we'd just get Galadriel the White.)

Long story short, it's just a mess. And, I'm afraid, it's a mess I'm going to watch no longer. If you haven't started, I'd recommend avoiding.

Elon's Salute

I can't believe I'm going to have to defend Elon bloody Musk...

At Trump's inauguration there were, of course, all manner of speeches of various tenors, including one by Elon Musk. Following this, he has been accused of giving a "Nazi salute".

He of course did no such thing.

The thing is, the gesture he made is one that has been duplicated by many, many people over centuries, including the last eighty years. Indeed, ever since this madness blew up social media has been awash with images of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and various other left-leaning politicians (or what passes for the left, anyway) making identical gestures. Which is really not a surprise - there's a reason the Nazis co-opted it. Context really, really matters.

The thing is, there really are genuine, honest horrors coming. Indeed, we saw some hints of them yesterday. Closer to home, there is suddenly a genuine risk that we could be seeing Prime Minister Farage, with all that that entails. (And, for the avoidance of doubt, no, I'm not joking about that.)

The fight back against those horrors is really not going to be helped by the left-leaning voices in the media torching their credibility by pushing this sort of nonsense - clear hyperbole of this sort (assuming it is hyperbole, and not simply outright lies) really doesn't cut through in the way that they seem to do it.

Please, stop.

Experimental Cookery 2025: Sausage and Red Wine Risotto

A second meal from the final Hairy Bikers book, "Our Family Favourites", like the previous risotto I've made was very simple to put together, but also rather time consuming.

The end result was very tasty, and is something we'll no doubt have again. It feels quite seasonal, though - the sunblush tomato risotto feels quite appropriate for Spring and Summer, while this one is much more suited to Autumn and Winter. Which is no bad thing, of course.

All of which makes for a fairly short entry. But it's good that the second foray into that book made for a rather better experience than the first.

Secret Level

Over the Christmas break I managed to get caught up on some of the shows I'd been watching, one of which was "Secret Level". This is an anthology show with each episode based on a video game (or, occasionally, some other game). The show started with ten episodes, but quickly released a further five.

The show is extremely well made, with a variety of animation and storytelling styles. But, like all anthology shows, it's very much a mixed bag - some of the episodes were really enjoyable, some just fell flat. Though none were really bad, as such. (The kicker, of course, is that the ones that I think fell flat may well be the ones that you enjoy, and vice versa.)

For me, the most interesting episodes were of course the ones for "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Warhammer 40,000". The other one that I found really intriguing was "Pac Man" which was... odd.

Anyway, it's on Amazon Prime, and if you have Prime I'd say it's worth a watch. As with just about everything on Prime, though, it's probably not worth the subscription fee all by itself.

Experimental Cookery 2025: Chicken Enchiladas

This one comes from the latest (and last!) Hairy Bikers book, "Our Family Favourites", and was the one that most jumped out at us as something to try.

The meal here was easy enough to make. It wasn't exactly quick - all in, it takes maybe an hour to prepare. But that's fine, as it just means it's a meal for a weekend rather than a weeknight. There are no particularly complex steps nor any outlandish ingredients.

I made two crucial mistakes when preparing this one:

• Although I halved the quantities of most of the ingredients, I did not half the onions or peppers. In theory this wasn't too bad, as extra vegetables is fine, but in practice it meant that the ratios were just wrong.
• There was a gap in the cooking, and I made the mistake of assembling the dish and putting it in the oven on a timer. I should really have stopped with the sauce and chicken prepared, and only assembled immediately before the final cooking step.

Because of those two mistakes, the end result was not terribly inspiring. It was fine but... it was fine.

I do intend to have this again, as I think it's worth another shot, but for now at least this is not our go-to enchiladas recipe.

Gladiators Celebrity Special

Of all the festive entertainments we watched over the break, this was, sadly, the weakest. And, unfortunately, the issue was conceptual: in the normal game the competitors are chosen amongst the best amateur athletes available - they're obviously not at the sometimes-Olympic level of the Gladiators, but at least there's something approaching a contest to be had. In the celebrity version, the competitors are chosen from that subset of famous people willing to take part.

The consequence of all of this was that the Gladiators were very obviously not trying very hard. On the one hand, no surprise there - had they played at full force someone would have been humiliated or hurt. But on the other, it meant that the show really had nothing in it.

Assuming that they do want to have another celebrity special (which I'd tend to advise against), they really need to think about who to invite: perhaps recently-retired athletes, or something like that? Of course, the short-lived Sky reboot had a couple of specials where "the legends return", which were actually quite good. Sadly, I think the time for those has now passed - it's one thing for people to come back after a couple of decades; quite another a couple more decades on.

But all of that's a small niggle - I felt that the festive offerings overall weren't too terrible this year, and the BBC in particular did well. So I'm happy with that.

Rangers Woes 2024/25

I'm starting to wonder what the point is of having a football season where everything is essentially decided by Christmas. Though it should be noted that that's not Celtic's problem - they're doing to job in front of them as well as they can, and it's really not their problem that that means they easily outclass everyone else.

But it remains the case that the league is deadly dull, and largely pointless. And that's just not going to change until Rangers get their act together.

Right now, it would be easy to blame the management for the problems, and indeed it is likely that the current manager is not the right man for the job, at least in the longer term. But it's also the case that Rangers' players have underperformed under several successive managers; they're not up to the job either. And it's further the case that Rangers don't have the requisite money to fix these problems.

So...

My inclination is now that Rangers need to take a long view of this, and build from the foundations out. That means accepting a hard truth: they are very much the second team in Scotland, and will remain so for a very long time. Indeed, they're pretty much a mid-table team.

The strategy, therefore, should probably be to do enough to retain their second-place standing and do as well as possible in Europe, but not to spend money trying to catch or overhaul Celtic. Instead, let the manager and the more expensive players run out their contracts, and gradually replace them with better players - crucially, don't spend loads of money on compensation for getting rid of them for a quick fix - short of investing tens of millions of pounds that they don't have, no quick fix is available.

Fundamentally, I think we may be back to where we were a few years ago: the ultimate goal is to stop ten-in-a-row.

Which is horrible, but I think it may be that stark.

#1: "Machines Like Me", by Ian McEwan

Books of the Year 2024

My target for the year was to read 30 books, but alas that has not happened. Here's the list of books for this year:

1. "Ariadne", by Jennifer Saint
2. "Promise of Blood", by Brian McClellan
3. "Smart Leadership", by Jo Owen
4. "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?", by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
5. "Atalanta", by Jennifer Saint
6. "Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life", by Arnold Schwarzenegger
7. "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes", by Rob Wilkins
8. "Sharpe's Command", by Bernard Cornwell
9. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", by Ian Fleming *
10. "Making It So", by Sir Patrick Stewart
11. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce *
12. "Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk", by Wizards of the Coast
13. "Empire", by Conn Iggulden
14. "A Thousand Splendid Suns", by Khaled Hosseini
15. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce *
16. "Surrounded by Idiots", by Thomas Erikson
17. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over the Moon", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce *
18. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", by John Le Carré
19. "Firefly: Coup de Grace", by Una McCormack
20. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", by J.K. Rowling *
21. "The Prisoner of Heaven", by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
22. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", by J.K. Rowling *

Annoyingly there is, once again, my records got messed up during the year - I recorded "Promise of Blood" twice, and failed to record "Sharpe's Command" and "Phandelver and Below". Those problems have, at least, been corrected.

That gives a total of 22 books. This includes two rereads (Harry Potter), and six books for Funsize/Surprise! The only RPG book this year was "Phandelver and Below", which is a disappointing one to end on.

This year's best book was "A Thousand Splendid Suns", but I'm really not sure I recommend it - I found it almost unreadable at times. I'm not going to list a worst book, as none of them seemed particularly bad.

Unfortunately, despite my best intentions I have ended the year with shelves every bit as full of unread books as I began, with some coming to their third year unread. It is very much my intention to start clearing that backlog in the near future.

My Year in 2024

2024 has actually been a really good year. Here's why...

My Year in... Blogging 

Okay, firstly a negative - this has been my least bloggy year since records began. Both here and on the Imaginarium there has been a dearth of posts. I've often found myself lacking anything to write about, and lacking both time and inclination to do so anyway.

The Imaginarium is now about to enter an indefinite hiatus, while this blog will continue for the foreseeable future. However, I'm not sure what 2025 holds, and I've elected not to set a goal while I see if my passion for it remains.

My Year in... Work

The update for this year can be identical to last: Work has been mostly good this year, but not without its frustrations. There's not much more I can say here, so I'll leave it at that.

My Year in... Health

This years has been fine for health - no particular illnesses to speak of. I have had some odd battles with anxiety that seem to be related to tiredness and stress, but those hopefully seem to be abating.

My Year in... Gaming

The "Isles of Dread" campaign came to a successful end, and with that my gaming career came to an end, at least for now. This is rather unfortunate, but the group I was with had really run its course, and I don't currently have time or inclination to find a new group.

My Year in... Band

Band has been somewhat disappointing this year, as we had only a few events and ended up cancelling several of those. The band continues to plod on, and does its job in that it does keep me practicing, but it's a shame.

My Year in... Resolutions

As always, the wrap-up of annual goals, and setting of goals for next year, are handled in another post. The headline is that this year did not see any great level of success in my stated goals.

My Year in... Travel

This year we had three trips away. We saw in the year in France, at Disneyland Paris. Indeed, one of the highlights of the year actually came on the morning of the 1st of January, where we arrived at the park early and found it really quiet.

We also enjoyed a week or so in Banff in summer and a week or so in Alnwick in October. In both cases we were extremely lucky with the weather and had a really good time.

That said, one of the things I want to do next year is to get away somewhere abroad - the weather over the summer was generally disappointing, so I'm keen to see the Sun again!

My Year in... Faith

This has been another solid year. I've gradually settled into my new role as an Elder of the church, which mostly seems to involve attending a number of meetings. There's a lot more I could say about that, but it's a topic for another day. All in all though, it's been good.

My Year in... Money

There was an odd confluence of events between August and October of this year where we had to arrange a new mortgage deal and I was then forced to take stock of my pension situation. The upshot of that is that I've spent some times digging through my finances and bringing all the information together into a single spreadsheet. This has all proven extremely reassuring, but has left me a little annoyed that I didn't do all of this years ago.

My Year in... Love

This has actually been a really good year. Probably the key thing that has made a difference is that Funsize and Surprise! seem to have mostly settled into something of a routine, which means we have a bit more by way of free time and a bit more chance to get some decent sleep.

My Year... Overall

Once again, it doesn't really feel like the summary captures the feel of the year as a whole - most of the entries seem to be quite negative, while the year has actually been really good (and, indeed, considerably better than previous years). That's rather odd, but never mind.

And with that, I'll sign off for the year. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year. See you in 2025!

End of Year Update on Goals

As part of the end-of-year wrap-up, here is the closing update on my goals for the year:

• Books: The goal for this year was to read 30 books, which I have not done. I did read slightly more books than last year, and have a decent mix of books in there, but this goal was not achieved.
• Blogging: I've come nowhere close to reaching my target of 120 posts for this year. Indeed, it was almost immediately obvious that this wasn't going to happen. One thing that did happen was that I have brought the Imaginarium to a close - there are a handful of posts scheduled to take it to 1,000 posts, but then it will be on hiatus indefinitely. It is also perhaps worth noting that I've managed to end the year hitting the nominal 10 posts for December, which is nice - it would be good if that represented a return to normal service.
• Redecoration: This was all done except for looking into the heating and insulation for Funsize's room. Even there, our expectation is that a big part of the issue is actually that the windows need replaced. I feel that's enough to consider this one done. In addition, we replaced the carpet in the study (although Lion has managed to rip a chunk out of it), and have re-repainted the walls and replaced the curtain. So that's all good.
• Complete my Campaign: This was all done very successfully.
• Update the Church Website: Some of this has been done. There remains a fairly big renovation needing completion.

So that's two goals completed, and three failed. That's not a good showing, but also not a huge surprise. But, also, given how much else was in this year, I'm not terribly disappointed.

In terms of goals for next year, a big theme is "enough is enough". There are things that I've been dissatisfied with for quite some time, and some tasks I've been putting off, and it's time to actually address them. So...

• Books: The target is the same as this year: 30 books.
• Weight: After having dropped this for several years, this one is very much back on the agenda. The target is to drop at least 20 pounds by the end of 2025. Which will still leave me too heavy, but at least it will be progress towards the ultimate goal.
• Career: I'm now very much into the second half of my career, and am starting to see something of a vision for how I want it to be. Since work is one of the things I don't talk about here, I'm not going to say any more than that, but there's a goal I have in mind here, that can play out one of two ways.
• Church Website: I want to get the renovation done.
• Redecoration: We've actually pretty much finished the redecoration of the house - only the en suite and bathroom upstairs, and the kitchen and utility room downstairs, haven't been repainted. But none of these is the goal for next year - I want to get our windows replaced.

And that's it - five stated goals, all of which represent things that I've felt have needed done for quite some time, and all of which I mean to see actioned in 2025. We'll see.

Notably, you'll see that I haven't set a Blogging goal for next year. Similarly, while I have an ongoing project to enhance our home automation, that isn't a goal for next year. In both cases, anything that gets done will be considered a bonus, with a view to maybe promoting them to proper goals in 2026, especially if completing the others has cleared the decks somewhat.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Christmas

After I finished work on the 20th, I proceeded to spend five days in the kitchen. It has been an extremely busy time, between hosting Christmas dinner for the first time and also helping my parents with their own hosting duties (due to an injury taking one of them out of action rather more than he would care to admit). Ultimately, it was a success.

Firstly, the Christmas baking. This year Funsize, Surprise!, and I baked several things, only one of which was actually new:

• Ginger biscuits
• Shortbread biscuits
• Chocolate chip cookies (new)
• Mince pies

I had hoped to do some snowmen cupcakes, but time did not permit. In any case, given that we now have far too much food in the house, that's probably for the best.

Then there was Christmas dinner, cooked for seven. The menu for that was also extensive.

We actually started with baked camembert. This was intended to be an appetiser as guests arrived, but unfortunately this was the one bit of my timing that didn't work out quite right - I had less time in the morning than I thought, and it took longer than expected. Which meant that we were straight from that to our planned starters, which left everyone stuffed. But never mind - that's my main lesson learned for next time.

For the main Christmas dinner, therefore, we had:

• A choice of soups to start: roasted red pepper and tomato, or parsnip and apple. (These were supplied by one of our guests - I did a lot, but not everything!)
• Turkey
• Roast potatoes, carrots, and parsnips
• Hasselback potatoes
• Brussels sprouts
• Peas
• Pigs in blankets (supplied by a guest)
• Stuffing (supplied by a guest)
• Gravy (from the butchers)
• Chocolate orange tart for dessert, though we didn't actually get that far (made by LC)

So, quite a lot. We ended up with huge amounts left over, much of which I have since turned into a turkey curry.

The Outcome

Everyone ate far too much, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The turkey came out extremely well, which was the most important thing, and then the sides accompanied it brilliantly. All in all, I'm calling that one a success.

Lessons Learned

After an epic like that there are always some lessons to be learned. Some things that went well, and some that were not so good. So:

1. There was way too much food. And drink for that matter. I'll need to give some thought to either cutting down in future, or having more robust plans in place for dealing with the leftovers.
2. The camembert needed to be starter earlier, or perhaps even prepared on Christmas Eve - the second proving step could have been done overnight.
3. Surprise! really wanted sweetcorn in addition to the peas. Given how small an addition that is, I'll bear that in mind.
4. But the big one is this: A few weeks before Christmas I made up a meal plan showing the courses, breaking down the ingredients, and indicating what was coming from where. Then, two days before the meal itself I wrote out a "Plan of Attack" detailing what I was preparing on Christmas Eve, what on Christmas morning, with a space for the calculated cook time for the turkey (after it was weighed after being prepped to go into the oven). These two lists were hugely helpful, as they ensured that nothing was missed and that everything was being done in the right order. After which, it was just work, not stress.

So that's my main takeaway for the "No-stress Christmas": those two lists are utterly invaluable.

The one thing I would introduce as an enhancement is that, in addition to calculating the cook time for the turkey, it then becomes possible to work back from the preferred time for dinner to determine when you need to start put the turkey in the oven, when the various bits of preparation need to be done, and so on.

But... it's important, if you do work backwards like that, that you allow time for things taking longer than expected (because they will). And it's also important that you don't try to schedule everything down to the last second - if your list of steps goes over half a dozen, you're probably setting yourself up for disaster. The key thing is that those plans are there to help you, they mustn't be allowed to become another source of stress.

Anyway, that's Christmas for this year. It was a good one, fairly quiet despite everything, and I have no complaints.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Beautiful Brussels

From that same book "Together" as the Hasselback potatoes come these Brussels sprouts.

The choice to have Brussels was a controversial one - I knew going in that there was considerable resistance from several of the people around the table, and it doesn't help that Tesco seem to only sell them in huge bags. But it was Christmas, so I persevered.

These were quick and easy to make. True, there was a step where each sprout needed to be individually trimmed, peeled, and then the base cut, but that was the only tedious bit. The rest was just a matter of putting things in a bowl and then two small cook steps (a quick boil of the sprouts, then roasting the whole for 10 mins).

One thing that does amuse me is that so many of our TV chefs have done so many different ways of showcasing sprouts and they all, including this one, seem to involve adding one or more strong flavours to them, as though to disguise the underlying taste. Which rather seems to defeat the purpose.

The end result of this one was that the sprouts were fine, but the dish did nothing to disguise the essential sproutiness of the vegetable. So anyone who doesn't like sprouts is unlikely to be moved by this, while those who do like sprouts will like this fine.

For me, it was just important to honour the sprout, and this achieved that. I don't regret cooking this, but I think I'm unlikely to do so again, even if we do have sprouts with Christmas dinner another year.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Amazing Hasselback Potatoes

I got Jamie's book "Together" three years ago and somehow haven't managed to make any real use of it. It's a lovely book, well put together and filled with things I think I might like to try... and yet somehow it's just never seen the light of day. Until now.

For Christmas this year I cooked two types of potatoes, just because. The other were regular roast potatoes (with the only oddity being that I don't bother peeling potatoes any more). Just to be sure, I actually did a dry run of the Hasselbacks a few weeks ago, meaning that this was their second outing.

Well, first or second, they're really good. The only downside was that quite a lot ended up in the bin, by virtue of there just being way too much food.

In terms of effort to prepare, these are rather more work than regular roast potatoes, as there's a load of work cutting slices through them. But that's not too bad - amongst other things, when I got them into the oven for the first roast it gave me ideal time to prepare a load of other things.

All in all, these were a winner, and we'll definitely have them again. They will not, however, be supplanting the regular roast potato - I like them both.

Handbrake Turn

I always find it bizarre the speed at which the shops change: we've been having a build up to Christmas for five months (I first saw "Christmas stuff" in Tesco in August), with ever-increasing urgency, all declaring CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!!! and then, by the time the stores open on the very next day it's all disappeared and we're on to the next thing (HOGMANAY IS COMING!!!!!).

Which is neither new nor particularly profound, but is still bizarre.

Do-over

Many years ago, back in first year of high school, I gave my first ever presentation. My topic was "Dungeons & Dragons", and it's fair to say that it did not go well. It was too long, unfocused, and frankly boring. None of which was exactly great, but it was what it was - you can't change the past.

Except, just occasionally, you get a do-over. And yesterday I found myself once again with a presentation to give on basically any topic of my choice. It being the last week of the year, I therefore decided to take some games in, and my topic was once again "Dungeons & Dragons".

This time the presentation was far better, with all of the issues of the first time through dealt with. Hardly surprising - one would hope that in thirty six years I might have learnt a thing or two!

Still, it was nice to have another crack at it, and to redeem a mis-step of the past.

Cancelled TV Shows

A quick catch-up on some TV I've watched recently...

• Star Wars: The Acolyte: There are few TV shows I've looked forward to as much as this one. "Secret Invasion" probably comes closest. Unfortunately, like "Secret Invasion", it was a bitter, bitter disappointment. That said, "The Acolyte" wasn't the horror show that certain elements of the internet made it out to be, it just wasn't much of anything really. Other than two really good lightsaber duels, I find it hard to think of anything much in the show that is at all worth recommending. Which is a real shame.
• My Lady Jane: From Amazon Prime, this is a fake-historical show about Lady Jane Grey, the short-lived sucessor to King Edward VI. This is another one that the trailers made look really quite interesting, and it was diverting enough... but I was neither surprised nor particularly disappointed to hear of the cancellation. Basically, after a pretty good first, each subsequent episode was weaker than the one before it, until it was mostly just a case of getting to the end. A shame.
• Renegade Nell: Again in the fake-historical genre, this one came from Disney+ and followed the exploits of a superpowered highwaywoman. This one was better than "My Lady Jane"... but not enough to save it from the axe. Of the three, this is the show I would most liked to have seen more of, but I was still not surprised that it wasn't renewed.
• The Penguin: This one hasn't been cancelled, and that's a good thing. Large parts of "The Penguin" were extremely uncomfortable to watch, so much so that I rationed myself to no more than one episode a day, but it was extremely well made, with a commanding central performance by an unrecognisable Colin Farrell.

My upcoming watch list is fairly extensive - I took a long time getting through "Succession", so several things have backed up:

1. I'm currently nearing the end of the third season of "Vox Machina", which remains excellent.
2. The second part of the final season of "Cobra Kai" is next.
3. The second season of "Rings of Power".
4. "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew"

and then I'm not sure.

Still To Do

Christmas is getting closer, and the "low stress" nature of the event is still more or less on track. An awful lot has been done, with just a few things to go...

- All but two of the presents have been bought, including both Secret Santa gifts. Of the presents that have been purchased, one needs collected and then wrapped. That last isn't ideal, as the best time to get it is Christmas Eve, and I'd rather not have to deal with it then.

- The Christmas cards still need written and sent, with one exception (the most difficult). Some of that may be on my list for this evening.

- The Big Shop before Christmas obviously still needs to be done. My hope is to do almost all of this next Friday as part of our regular shop, with just the remnants to pick up the following Monday.

- Speaking of the final Monday, the turkey and other components of the meal need to be picked up from the butchers. Which may cue a whole lot of worry about other things that have been overlooked or that turn out harder than expected.

- And then, of course, there is the Cooking of the Food, an event so monumental that it must be capitalised.

The last thing, which isn't on the strict To Do list (because it's optional) is my Christmas Baking. This is the first year in quite some time that I've had a window of quiet time between ending work and Christmas Day itself (usually I either finish on Christmas Eve or there's only a weekend, or part of a weekend, before). So I have a list of baking that I'd like to do, and there's actually scope to do some or all of it.

But, alas, it doesn't seem that I'm likely to get to the true "and... relax" moment until the very end of the season this year.

A Secret Reputation to Uphold

Last year I purchased someone an especially good present. Indeed, it was widely recognised as being a superlative present. Huzzah! Of course, that means that this year there's a need to maintain, or even raise the standard. After all, there's a reputation to uphold now.

Except...

The present in question was for a Secret Santa, and as a consequence nobody knows that I was the person responsible. Consequently, while there is obviously a reputation to uphold, it is in fact a secret reputation. Which isn't quite the same.

This year I'm involved in two Secret Santas. I'm very happy with the gift purchased in one, while the other is a solid, workmanlike gift that is perhaps not quite so inspired. Anyway, I've decided I'm happy with that.

#19 "Firefly: Coup de Grace", by Una McCormack
#20 "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", by J.K. Rowling (a book for Funsize)

Dear Labour... An idea for you.

The Labour government, in their most recent budget, have increased National Insurance on employers. That is, in effect, a tax on companies for each person they employ, which amongst other things will encourage them to avoid hiring, and to reduce their workforces.

One of the ways companies are already cutting workforces is via automation - checkout assistants are replaced by self checkout, fuel is provided via "pay at the pump", switchboard operators are replaced by chatbots and now AI, and so on. Automation represents a huge and upcoming shock to the labour market; it's going to hurt us all, really badly.

So, here's a suggestion:

Why not tax companies for each time a UK-based customer has to interact with a machine instead of a person? If I go to self-checkout, the supermarket gets taxed. If I phone my insurer and have to battle with an automated switchboard, they get taxed. And so on, and so forth. I'm not talking a huge tax, but a small charge multiplied by millions of interactions each day will quickly add up.

I would also note that the tax needs to be based on the location of the customer, not the chatbot/AI/whatever - if not, companies will respond by putting in thin UIs to all their terminals and put the intelligence offshore, and hosting their AIs out of the country. But tie it to the customer, and they can't so easily dodge it.

Anyway, there it is.

Day 300: Update on Goals

I've been giving a lot of thought to the topic of goals recently, in particular focused on the larger question of "what do I want?" This has led to some interesting conclusions... but that's a topic for another day.

For today, it's time for the penultimate update on goals for the year...

• Books: By this point I should have read 24.6 books, and have actually read 18 and parts of two others. I'm therefore well behind target - so far behind in fact that I've actually deleted the part of my spreadsheet that tracks the target for me. (Yes, I have a spreadsheet for these things.) I'm now hoping to complete another five books or so by the end of the year, which would leave me well away from the target, but does at least represent something approaching a decent last two months for the year.
• Blogging: I've gradually restarted blogging here after many slow months. Hopefully that will stick. I'm also in the process of bringing the Imaginarium to the 1,000 posts milestone - I hope to reach that by the end of the year; whether I achieve that or not, I intend to place that blog on indefinite hiatus at the end of the year.
• Redecoration: This was considered complete in the previous update.
• Complete my Campaign: This was considered complete in the previous update.
• Update the Church Website: There has been only a tiny update since last time. There will be a couple of further small updates before the end of the year (one for the Armistice and one for Christmas), but that's probably all. I really need to start the ball rolling on a fuller update - that will be a key task for next year, I think.

The consequence of all of that is that I have completed two goals but have accepted that the other three are now failed. However, I am now making renewed progress on two of those three goals, which is something - in terms of the year it will of course count as a failure, but since the formal goals are a means to an end, making some progress is better than just shrugging and giving up.

The US Election: What are Labour Playing At?

Eight years ago, Kezia Dugdale famously traveled to the US to campaign for Hillary Clinton in the US election, and so profound was her impact that she ended up taking a selfie with a cardboard cutout of her chosen candidate. Americans just don't care about UK politicians one way or another, and frankly that is the way it should be.

Apparently, this year there are some hundred or so Labour members who have travelled over to the US to campaign for Kamala Harris. No doubt, their impact will be every bit as potent as Dugdale's was.

However, there is a very important difference between the two scenarios: back in 2016 Labour were in oppositio in the UK, and indeed were essentially an irrelevance in domestic politics, never mind the US. In 2024, however, Labour are now the party of government in the UK, meaning that the actions of representatives of that party are, at least in some ways, reflective of the attitudes of their party, and by extension our government as a whole. Kier Starmer is going to have to work with (well, play lapdog to) whoever wins the US election, and if that is Trump he's going to be starting from a position of having provided at least tacit support to the other side.

Bottom line: I don't particularly think members of UK political parties should be getting involved in the US election at all, on any side, but I certainly think our party of government must stay out of it.

But maybe that's just me.

(I have no particular dog in this fight, mostly because it's for the US to pick their own leaders, and partly because they seem to have found the two absolute worst possible candidates. I have a very marginal preference for Harris, but as with Biden before her, her only selling point is that she's not Donald Trump. Whoever wins, I think the next four years are going to be pretty horrible.)

Only Seventeen Months...

Back in July of 2023 I posted that it was time for Phone #6 - at that time I'd concluded that my existing phone had become slow, wasn't holding a charge, and the storage had become way too full. I then proceeded to do nothing about it.

The week before last, something happened to that phone that has damaged the charge circuit - it still works, but it will no longer "fast charge". That's probably a failure of the USB-C port such that it can no longer negotiate power needs. Regardless, it meant that that was no longer any ducking the issue, and it was time for a new phone.

So I've now purchased said new phone. The good news is that I now have a clear view of my needs (or lack thereof), and they're such that any smartphone on the market would meet them. And since the old device is seven years old, literally any phone on the market will be superior in every way.

The consequence of that is that I have bought the second-cheapest smartphone offered by the same vendor as the old one. Now I just need to set it up.

Enough is Enough

After several years of drought, we've now been invited to a wedding in the summer of next year. And, unlike the most recent weddings we've attended, it is likely that we'll be called upon to dance at this one.

In a convergence of events, we've also recently returned home from our most recent trip away, and getting back onto the scales made for a fairly horrific experience. The one slight mitigation there is that any trip away always leads to a spike, and it always drops back to normal. But, inn all honesty, things have been in a fairly bad way there for a long time, rising gradually since the halcyon days of 2009. Repeated goals to reduce this have gone completely neglected, and so we arrive at today.

The upshot of all of this is that enough is enough. Time to take this one seriously, and sort it out.

Et Tu, Coco Monkey?

While we were away recently we decided to pick up a box of cereal to share between us. In the event, I think I was the only one who had any, but never mind... We decided to allow Funsize and Surprise! to choose the cereal between them, and they opted for Coco Pops, and we even treated ourselves to the name-brand box rather than the store's own-brand.

Big mistake.

Opening the box, it turned out that most of the Coco Pops were, in fact, not. Instead, it was a box almost entirely of Rice Crispies, with just enough Coco Pops to turn the milk hint-of-chocolatey.

Needless to say, this is the most horrific of betrayals, and not one that Coco Monkey will be forgiven for a long time.

(I'm reliably informed, on the internet so it must be true, that this was actually a case of production failure. That is, the box of Coco Pops should indeed have been Coco Pops. But I'm also reliably informed, by those same wise heads, that name-brand Coco Pops are now the worst of all Coco Pops.)

#18: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", by John Le Carré

Clearing the Decks

I'm currently in a process of tidying things up, decluttering my life (physically, but mostly temporally), and generally clearing the decks. Hopefully once that's done normal blogging may resume - it's been unsatisfactory for rather too long.

In the meantime, continue talking amongst yourselves...

#17: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang over the Moon", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a book for Funsize)

Day 250: Update on Goals

Another update on goals, again with almost nothing on the blog since the last one...

• Books: By this point I should have read 20.5 books. I'm now well behind that target - having got back on track, I promptly got bogged down in a fantasy doorstop novel that I just couldn't face and so lost several weeks.
• Blogging: By this point I should have posted about 82 times here. I've long since admitted defeat on this one.
• Redecoration: Since the last update we have re-repainted the study and replaced the carpet in that room. That wasn't part of the stated goal here, but it was definitely a good job to have done. I'm now happy to declare this goal complete.
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign has come to a successful conclusion. This goal is therefore complete.
• Update the Church Website: No update since last time.

That's now two goals having reached completion, one that is well behind target (and unlikely to be completed successfully), and one that has long-since been accepted as failed. The fifth and final goal needs some attention - it will probably be the difference between a 60% passing marking and 40% abject failure for the year.

I'm going to need to think carefully about goals for next year - whether to set any at all, but also what they should be. The redecoration of the house has now reached a stage that it is essentially complete (ideally, the remaining rooms could do with more than just a lick of paint), while both the Book and Blogging goals seem to be lost causes. We'll see.

Experimental Coolery 2024: Fruit Tacos

As the father of two young children, it is of course my duty to wind them up with all sorts of nonsense and japes. So it was with huge amusement that I was able to launch a successful double bluff: I spent the day telling them we were having tacos for dessert, secure in the knowledge that they'd think I was joking, only to roll these out at the key time. Huzzah!

The basic idea for these came from the Tesco magazine, but they're really simple enough that they barely warrant a recipe - take some warmed taco shells, add some chocolate spread, ice cream, fruit, and various toppings. Then eat them.

These were a triumph. Not only will we definitely have them again, Funsize has already insisted on having them again. So that's a win.

#15: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a book for Funsize)

#16: "Surrounded by Idiots", by Thomas Erikson

Experimental Cookery 2024: Smoky Sausage Skewers with Tomato Rice

Another belated experimental cookery, this one was actually cooked in the over but would have been ideal for the BQ. This one came from the Tesco magazine, but is almost certainly available in the online archive.

This one was a much more successful effort than the previous - it involved in cutting things into big chunks, placing in a bowl with a spice mix, threading on skewers (which Funsize and Surprise! enjoyed helping with), and then baking. Messy, but all rather easy.

And the results were very nice. There's no surprises here - if you like the things that go on the skewers, you'll probably like the result; if not, you won't.

We'll no doubt have these again, though possibly without the rice and probably cooked by BBQ.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Courgette and Halloumi Skewers

This is a much-belated "experimental cookery" - we had these some months ago. The method comes from Tom Kerridge's "Outdoor Cooking".

I'm always on the lookout for good things with which to expand my BBQ repertoire, and also for good vegetarian options. So the possibility of a vegetarian BBQ option was rather enticing.

Unfortunately, this one just didn't work for us at all. I think I probably did something wrong, but the bottom line is that after a big fight trying to get chunks of vegetable and cheese onto parallel skewers (which wasn't fun), and after what seemed an age on the grill, they came off and just weren't nice at all. The tastes were basically okay, but the texture was just... no.

I really can't imagine having these again, and I'm not at all inclined to try inflicting them on any guests. Very disappointing.

Day 200: Update on Goals

Oh dear. I haven't managed to update the blog since the last of these. Well, here goes...

• Books: By this point I should have read 16.4 books. I've read 14 and a bit, so I'm about two books behind target again.
• Blogging: By this point I should have posted 66 times here. I've long since admitted defeat on this one.
• Redecoration: There has been no real movement on this one, but since it was in a good place I'm not too unhappy about that.
• Complete my Campaign: The writing for the campaign is now done. Additionally, the group have defeated the pirate queen and are therefore one session away from the end. This should be done by the time of the next update.
• Update the Church Website: No update since last time.

One goal has slipped back from last time, and one has taken a big step forward. That's not terrible, though the blog in particular is disappointing.

#13: "Empire", by Conn Iggulden
#14: "A Thousand Splendid Suns", by Khaled Hosseini

Day 150: Update on Goals

It seems like no time since the last update, but here we are:

• Books: By this point I should have read 12.3 books. I'm right on target, which is nice.
• Blogging: By this point I should have posted 49 times here. It's fair to say that that hasn't happened. There is now essentially no chance of this goal being achieved this year. The other thing of note, however, is that I've taken the decision to put The Imaginarium on hiatus in the near future. My current intention is to take it to 1,000 posts, which should take it to the end of my current campaign, then add one last "placeholder" post (since Blogger seems to eat the newest post on discontinued blogs), and stop indefinitely.
• Redecoration: Shortly after the last update we completed the outstanding work on Surprise!'s bedroom. The only thing remaining for the stated goal is to look at the insulation in Funsize's room. There has been no movement on that, nor any on reredecorating the study, but maybe for next time...
• Complete my Campaign: The characters are now right at the edge of the unwritten segment of the campaign. Meanwhile the writing has advanced, leaving around 4,500 words and 15 areas left to be written. I hope to have completed both for the next update.
• Update the Church Website: No update since last time.

Other than the blogging goal, things are looking pretty positive for the year as a whole, so I'm pretty happy with things. It's a shame about the blogging, but I just don't see that recovering for the rest of this year.

#9: "Promise of Blood", by Brian McClennan

#10: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", by Ian Fleming (a book for Funsize)

#11: "Making It So", by Sir Patrick Stewart

#12: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a book for Funsize)

Here We Go Again

A year ago I posted about the treatment being meted out to Kate Forbes in the SNP leadership contest because she is a Christian who actually dares to believe things. A year on and Humza Yousaf has proven to be a disaster and has lost his job as a consequence. The SNP need to find another new leader.

At time of writing, there are no declared candidates. There has been a lot of noise, but for the moment nobody has actually put their name forward.

And already the monstering of Kate Forbes has begun.

As with last time, the tone of that monstering is extremely important, and of extreme concern - because Kate Forbes is being decried as some horrific far-right bigot based on her having expressed what are, ultimately, some fairly mainstream Christian views.

I said before that if Kate Forbes was somehow barred from standing, or was ultimately pressurized into dropping out of the race, then I was done with both the SNP and indeed with independence - I have no interest in voting for a country where every minority is welcomed and respected except for mine.

Unfortunately, things have rather moved on since then; unless and until Yousaf's horrific Hate Crimes legislation is repealed I'm done with Scottish politics as a whole. (That's yet another example of well-meaning but atrociously-drafted legislation from Holyrood. It needs scrapped.)

But, again, if the monstering of Kate Forbes is such that she is somehow barred from standing, or she throws her hat into the ring and is then 'persuaded' to drop out, then there's no way back for the SNP. If she chooses not to run, fine; if she runs and is defeated, fine. But I'm watching them closely, and they are on their absolute last chance - get this wrong, and there's no way back for them.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Digger Cake

And so we come to the showpiece of the weekend...

Young Surprise! turned three last week, and we had his birthday party on Saturday. Being a typical boy, he is obsessed with dinosaurs, trains, and tractors. But his particular favourite is Diggers! And so the challenge for our hero was to craft a nice Digger Cake for this birthday...

I'm rather pleased with this one:

The cake itself was baked on Friday night, after I'd finally battled Funsize and Surprise! off to sleep (LC was out). Saturday morning then saw me mixing up a huge bowl of buttercream icing which was liberally applied to the sponges. Then the cake was ringed with Kitkat fingers, and decorated as can be seen.

The cake itself disappeared very quickly, which I'm taking as a good sign. Certainly, I enjoyed eating it!

Of course, I've now raised the bar as to what is possible, which may be something I come to regret...

Experimental Cookery 2024: Peach Melba Pavlova

I'm gradually catching up on a backlog of Experimental Cookeries...

A few weeks ago LC made an attempt at pavlova, which sadly did not go so well - not her fault; the instructions were missing a really key step. As a consequence of this, I found myself inspired, and as things would have it the Tesco magazine this month had a rather appealing recipe for this. So it became a centerpiece for LC's birthday celebrations.

The pavlova itself was easy enough to make - once you've made meringues a few times they become quite easy, and from there it's just a case of baking for a couple of hours and then leaving it in the oven while the whole thing cools down. Then whip some cream, add fruit, and the job is done.

The only slight oddity was the need for a raspberry sauce to go with the pavlova, but even that was more or less trivial and so was done quickly.

And it was pretty awesome:

Experimental Cookery 2024: Garlic Dough Balls and Baked Camembert

This one came from Tom Kerridge's "Real Life Recipes". It was one that I had wanted to try for some time, and so when lacking for inspiration for a meal, this one came to mind. We had it with Spaghetti Bolognese - it was only ever going to be a side dish.

The meal was quick and easy to put together, although like most breads there was a lengthy proving stage. But that was fine. The bake was then simple.

We'd certainly have this again, though I'm more inclined to do the dough balls than the camembert. Additionally, we had rather more dough balls than we could reasonably use, so I think we may make use of this if and when we have guests (as does happen occasionally!).

Anyway, a success. And here they are:

The Choice

The resignation of Humza Yousaf leaves the SNP with a choice to make. The problem is that for any new leader to become First Minister they will need to survive a vote of no confidence from the other parties, and the arithmetic in parliament means that that requires with support from the Greens or support from Alba and there being no SNP rebels. Given that support from Alba almost certainly means there will be at least some SNP rebels, this is a problem.

The SNP therefore faces a choice, and that choice is of profound importance:

On the one hand, they can "elect" a new leader who is palatable to the Greens, and spend the next two years beholden to those Greens in absolutely every way. In which case they continue with the madness of the last couple of years, and receive a massive kicking at the 2016 Scottish Elections.

Or they can elect someone who is not palatable to the Greens, and take their chances with an election - an election which may or may not rearrange parliament into a more workable arrangement (and is reasonably likely to result in a Labour-led government). In any event, it is only for two years, as the election in 2016 would take place anyway.

My suggestion to the SNP is to think about this one very carefully. Because I don't think the people of Scotland are in the mood for any more of the nonsense we've seen recently.

Day 100: Update on Goals

The second update on goals for the year:

• Books: By this point I should have read 8.2 books. I've completed 7 books, with three in (slow) progress, so I'm behind but not terribly so. I'll try to rectify that for next time.
• Blogging: Oh dear. This goal is going horribly wrong, and already looks to be impossible. We'll see - maybe there will be a flurry of posts for next time... but I'm not hopeful.
• Redecoration: As I anticipated in my previous update, we have now done the bulk of the redecoration of Surprise!'s bedroom - the walls have been repainted, the pictures changed over, the one key picture moved to Funsize's room, and new lightshades installed in both bedrooms. The new carpet is on order and due to arrive tomorrow, after which we will hang one final decoration and call it done. I would still like to look into improved insulation for Funsize's bedroom, and LC has expressed a desire to re-repaint the study and replace the carpet in that room, but those are tasks for later in the year (and the study isn't part of the stated goal anyway).
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign is still on the verge of completing Part Three and moving to Part Four. I have managed to get some writing done, such that I'm down to just over 5,000 words to go (from 6,000). It's now a race to try to write it up before the characters get to that point.
• Update the Church Website: The stability issues on the church website were tracked to one bad plugin, which has now been removed. This allowed me to restore the site security, which is a big relief. The only remaining part of this task is to refresh some of the content, but that's not entirely in my gift.

The conclusion is a lot more positive than it was last time - I'm a little behind on the reading and horribly behind on the blogging, but have made very significant progress on all three of the other goals. My challenge for next time is therefore to try to be rather less behind!

Close It Down

What a time to be alive.

Back in 2008, the Labour/Lib Dem coalition in Holyrood had clearly run out of steam and was in desperate need of being replaced. And so the people of Scotland voted them out and installed an SNP government.

In 2024 the SNP government have now reached the same point - they desperately need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, in the interim the Labour party in Scotland have learned precisely nothing. They are every bit as arrogant, stupid, and dogmatic as they were in 2008 - their grand strategy for renewal has consisted of waiting for their rivals to become equally rancid.

Meanwhile the Lib Dems have become an irrelevance, and the Greens have revealed themselves as a horror show.

And, needless to say, the Tories aren't even worth considering.

The bottom line is that we desperately need a new government and there is not a single party in Holyrood that are even worth considering for a vote. The whole thing has failed.

At this point, I would therefore suggest that Holyrood has failed and should be shut down, except that it wasn't so long ago when I said the same about Westminster - and that hasn't changed. Down there, the Tories have become the Monster Raving Loony Party, Labour have become Thatcherites, and the Lib Dems an irrelevance.

So, basically, we're at a point where I think we should simply shut it all down, and just try not having a government for five years, and see how that goes. It's hard to see how that can be any worse.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Sticky Hoisin Wings with Cucumber Salad

This one came from the most recent Tesco magazine. It was really quick and easy (as wings tend to be) - put the ingredients into a bowl and massage to coat, then move to a tray and bake until done. The result was also really enjoyable. Actually, if anything, the cucumber salad was the real surprise on that front.

All in all, a winner. Which is nice. We'll definitely have these again.

#4: "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?", by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
#5: "Atalanta", by Jennifer Saint
#6: "Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life", by Arnold Schwarzenegger
#7: "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes", by Rob Wilkins

Relieved

I am by no means a fan of Donald Trump - despite my deep misgivings about Biden's mental health I would still vote for him over the other candidate. However, I must admit I am extremely relieved at the Supreme Court overruling those states that had decided to exclude him from the ballot paper.

There are fundamentally two reasons for this:

1. In a two-party system, you really can't have a situation where one party is not allowed to stand their preferred candidate. That becomes a one-party system, and that's very much not democracy.
2. But more importantly, there was a distinct possibility that in a tight race Biden might 'win' solely on the basis of Electoral College votes garnered from those states where Trump was excluded. Which would have been an absolute disaster - the scenes from 6th Jan 2021 would have had nothing on what followed.

So I'm hugely relieved that Trump is allowed to stand. Now I only hope Americans collectively have the sense to reject him.