Climate Change

So, yesterday my grandfather asked me how I thought the 'pollution' issue would be dealt with (by which he meant the emissions causing climate change). Of course, being my grandfather he proceeded to tell me the answer, but that wasn't expected. Still, it's worth thinking about.

Firstly, I should note that I am almost but not absolutely convinced that man-made climate change is a reality and is a very serious issue. Though I'm not sure that that "man-made" bit is all that important - the climate is definitely changing, and it definitely does seem to be a bad thing. So, whether we're responsible or not, we probably want to think what we're going to do about it.

Where I differ from the consensus is in this, though: if your answer is any variation on "we all need to cut emissions", I think you can forget it - we've lost already.

The reality of the situation is that China and India will not meaningfully cut emissions until they've overtaken the US as the biggest economies. And the US will not do anything that risks them being overtaken. (And, if one or both do overtake the US, you can be sure the US will do whatever it takes to catch back up.)

I'm pretty much certain that that is the reality of it - people can propose whatever measures they want, they can paint as apocalyptic a scenario as they wish (and they may well be right), but there is no prospect of the US, India, or China meaningfully reducing emissions. Sorry.

Of course, if those three, the three biggest players in the field, won't meaningfully take action, then there's little point in the rest of us doing so - we could cut our emissions to zero and it still wouldn't be enough.

The consequence of this is that this topic is one of very few where I think George W. Bush actually got it right: the solution to this problem will lie in new technologies - either we find ways to adapt to the changed environment, or we develop some sort of atmospheric scrubber to eliminate our emissions, or we reseed the oceans with algae to do essentially the same thing, or, well, something.

Update on Goals

Somehow, I managed to badly mis-count the number of days, posting my "50 day" update on the fortieth day of the year. Oops. I therefore decided to compensate by posting my "100 day" update late. Because that's sensible. It's nothing to do with just not having time, oh no...

Anyway, time for an update. So:

• Weight: Oh dear. My trip to Ireland (more on this later) followed by my trip down South has played havoc with this one. So, we're back where we started.
• Work: This one has been very mixed. I don't want to say much more (what with my whole "no work talk" policy), but things went wrong a bit in Feb and March, but went very well in the first half of April. So, that's looking pretty good.
• Books: I'm a bit behind, due to the "Wheel of Time". But it's not too bad - I hope to be at 18ish by the end of the month, and get caught up in May or June.
• Games: This has gone horribly wrong. I'll be wrapping up "Imperial Fist" in the next few sessions, and may well cancel one of the two remaining one-shots. I'm just not enthused by the notion of running games at the moment. On the other hand, the player-side games have gone very well, so I'll easily make that part of the target.
• Maintenance: This proved to be an ordeal, but is now mostly done. I want to have another (third) go at the bathroom ceiling, and the carpets still need done, but otherwise things are okay.
• Computer: This is deferred until my annual bonus comes through, which should hopefully be either this month or next. So, with a bit of luck my next 'update' will be written on a new PC.
• Money: This is basically done - everything that remains is now automated, so will complete by itself. Huzzah!

And that's where we are 100 days into 2014. My hope is that the next update will see the 'weight' and 'books' goals back on track, the 'maintenance' and 'computer' goals done, and everything else well in hand. I'm not sure how realistic that really is.

Scarves, Jelly Babies, and a Robot Dog!

So, April is the month of the Fourth Doctor, the longest-serving incarnation of the Time Lord, and consistently the one voted the best. Tom Baker is also the first Doctor I remember, although I'm a little confused by that - he regenerated out of the post in 1981, which was back when I was all of five. Which means either they are my oldest memories, or I saw some repeats later that has slipped into place into my memory, or perhaps my mind is just inventing things to fill in some gaps? It's a mystery.

This month's short story is "The Roots of Evil", by Philip Reeve, and it's very good - easily the best of the four to date. It features the Doctor arriving in a living space station, part of a terraforming device, where the inhabitants promptly capture him and prepare him for execution for his great misdeeds in the past. The only problem is that he can't remember any such misdeeds, for a reason that becomes obvious when it is mentioned that his face isn't as the ancients depicted...

Anyway, the story is pretty simple from there, with the revelation being largely expected (although there's one question I'm not going to answer... Who?). But it's quite amusing, especially the Doctor's line about gravel pits, and also his reaction to his future self's wardrobe choices. I'm very glad to be able to recommend this one, as the anthology had been a bit weak to date.

The novel is "Festival of Death" by Jonathan Norris. This one features Romana (II, I think), K-9, and the Doctor. And, again, the story nicely captures this Doctor's quirks - he notes that he's usually captured and put in a cell some time in the first 22 minutes after arriving in a new place, he runs out of Jelly Babies (horror!), and on and so forth.

Curiously, this one also has a complex, timey-wimey plot, featuring the Doctor crossing over his own time-stream (although, this time, only this same incarnation). It takes a bit of unpicking, which is no bad thing. There is one thing that I don't think quite works, but that's not bad for such a complex storyline.

And, in both cases, it definitely felt like a Fourth Doctor story - in the same way that the Third Doctor stories captured the distinctive 'voice' of their incarnation, so too did this one capture Baker's unique mannerisms. So, yay!

Next month is the month of 'my' Doctor. I definitely watched "The Five Doctors" live, and remember distinctly the excitement around the regeneration to the Sixth, so this is most definitely where I came in. But the big question is: does my Doctor still hold up?

Give you joy of your flag, Jack

Having finished the "Wheel of Time", my next book was "Blue at the Mizzen", the last complete Aubrey/Maturin novel by Patrick O'Brian. (There is one more, incomplete, book which I shall read next month, but there's very little to that.) And so, twenty months after it began, my adventure on Jack's ocean comes to an end.

The series began at a nice, clean threshold - Lieutenant Jack Aubrey is promoted to "Master and Commander", and thus given his first command. In the first chapter he also makes the acquaintance of a fellow music-lover, an Irish doctor named Maturin. And so it begins.

The series then follows the ups and downs of these two fast friends across the years, as they serve in Britain's wars against Napoleon's France, against the US in the War of 1812, and, in the last volume, in the post-war period after Waterloo.

And they're great. It's hard to encapsulate just how great the series is - the movie is good enough in itself (and was the reason I read the series), but it pales before the novels - with both the extremely-human protagonists, their friendship, their fallings-out, their strengths, and their weaknesses; the depiction of the world that is at once very different from ours, and yet utterly relatable; and, of course, the simple adventure of it all.

And then, the series ends at a nice, clean threshold - Commodore Jack Aubrey is promoted to "Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron", the culmination of his career, and the fulfilment of the ambition he had expressed right in the first book. It's almost perfect in its symmetry.

I can't recommend the series enough.

There's just one problem: I'm done now. So, what now?

Experimental Cookery 2014: Stewed Venison with Juniper and Bay

A colleague of Lady Chocolat was good enough to give us some venison recently. This was much appreciated, but did leave a little quandary as I had no idea how to cook it. Fortunately, Hugh came to the rescue with a recipe from "River Cottage Every Day".

The preparation was all rather easy - brown the meat, chop the veg, bring to a low simmer, and wait. We paired the stew with some mashed potatoes.

The end result was... okay. The venison was nice enough, but the stew itself was very watery. We'd had an issue with the quantities, as there wasn't as much venison as the recipe really demanded, while the cooking time was unchanged and so required plenty of liquid. This was fine, but I suspect affected the flavour quite badly. So the whole thing just didn't quite work. A shame.

Would we have this again? I think the answer is a hesitant "yes" - but only if we could rebalance the quantities of ingredients, meaning more venison for the pot. Without that, I don't think the whole will really work.

#14: "Blue at the Mizzen", by Patrick O'Brian
#15: "Festival of Death", by Jonathan Morris
#16: "Skinwalkers", by Wendy N. Wagner

And so, it ends...

This afternoon I finally finished "A Memory of Light", the final book in "The Wheel of Time". It was a fitting end, I suppose, but I stick with my earlier recommendation: if you haven't yet started the series, don't - it's just not worth wading through volumes 8-11 to get back to the 'good' stuff.

The series is also really not helped by the fact that fantasy works have just moved on since it began. "Game of Thrones" has really mixed things up, and so the tolerance for a mega-happy ending is fairly limited. And yet, that's pretty much what we got.

Still... It's done now. Finally, it is done. Now, if only George R.R. Martin can be convinced to finish up "Game of Thrones" in a timely manner, and if J.V. Jones will ever publish the last volume of "Sword of Shadows", that would be just dandy.

And next time I consider embarking on another long-winded fantasy epic, could someone please remind me to check that the final volume is out before I start?

#13: "A Memory of Light", by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Exactly for This Sort of Thing

So, today I suffered another Great Yoghurt Crisis. It's been a while since I had one, so such a traumatic and significant event demanded a blog post.

As you know, I always have two yoghurts a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So, the time came to have this morning's yoghurt, I opened my lunch-box to rescue the requisite spoon and, to my horror, I found no spoon waiting! Of course, it goes without saying that this is the worst thing that has ever happened.

(And, obviously, this sort of thing would simply never happen in the independent state of Stevonia which, being a land flowing with milk and honey, would necessarily maintain an adequate supply of spoons at all times.)

Fortunately, my horror at this terrible oversight was short-lived, for I quickly realised that my desk drawer actually contains a pack of plastic spoons, a supply laid up for exactly this sort of emergency. So I had yoghurt after all.

Truly, today is a blessed day.

"No" Show

Okay, now I'm getting scared.

Some time during last weekend, I realised that I'd stopped thinking about what would happen if Scotland became independent, and instead was thinking about what would happen when Scotland becomes independent.

This was something of a surprise. Previously, I'd made the calculation that there was no chance of "Yes" winning, because there were some really big uncertainties, some of them that are completely unanswerable, and without these being answered it was impossible for "Yes" to make a winning case. (The big unanswerables being over the currency and also over the EU. The latter being something that nobody is able to definitively answer - there's no precedent and no clear process either way.)

But something happened a couple of months back, and it appears the wheels have just fallen off the "No" bus.

It started when George Osborne popped up to tell us, in no uncertain terms, that there absolutely, positively, would not be a currency union. And, of course, he was backed in this by Ed Balls and Danny Alexander. So, that's pretty definitive then, since all three parties were unanimous.

Then Mr Barroso popped up to tell us, in no uncertain terms, that Scotland would be out of the EU and would find it "very difficult" to get back in. Then David Cameron got involved, Gordon Brown, Ming Campbell...

And with every statement, support for "Yes" grew, and quite sharply. Suddenly, a 70/30 split is looking more like a 55/45 split. If the polls continue to narrow at the same rate, they will, of course, cross over.

In August.

What was really bizarre, though, was watching this unfold. I have never seen professional politicians act so spectacularly against their own stated interests. Someone should have advised George Osborne that anything he said would have the opposite effect to that intended - in his case, it's not the message that's the problem, it's the messenger.

And, actually, that's a big problem for the "No" campaign - there's nobody who can present the message. The Tories have very effectively (albeit very unfairly) pushed all the blame for the economy only to Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, meaning anything else they say is automatically suspect. Meanwhile, the Tories are themselves hated up here (and the Lib Dems worse), so they're out. Which means that the strongest remaining figure on the "No" side is Johann Lamont.

But worse was to come, because on Friday the Guardian (who cannot, by any stretch, be described as pro-independence) published a government minister saying that a currency union was indeed still an option. (That this was the case wasn't a surprise, since a union is "eminently sensible" according to one A. Darling. What was a shock was that someone would be silly enough to say it, at least this side of the referendum.) Apparently, George Osborne had been doing to stick with his, rather more sensible, line that it was very unlikely, but was advised (by one A. Darling) to rule it out in a bid to kill off the independence debate permanently.

Oops.

It is, frankly, hard to see how they could have screwed this up any worse. And now they're left with an utter shambles to try to clear up, a lot of blamestorming to do... and a campaign that suddenly looks like it's going to snatch defeat from, well, not even "the jaws of victory" - they seem intent on losing from an unassailable position.

Which brings us to Saturday.

The band were out fund-raising on Saturday in Falkirk town centre (which went well, but that's not the point right now). Prior to us going out, one of my concerns is that Saturday was intended to be one of the "big push" weekends for both the "Yes" and "No" campaigns - and this was a concern because our band is constitutionally politically neutral. Regardless of any views I, our pipe major, or anyone else might have, we don't get involved.

Of course, a pipe band in a town centre in the midst of a campaign about an independent Scotland (or not) is a mobile photo-op. And I really didn't want to have to measure out an equi-distant location between the two camps.

It turns out that I didn't need to worry, at least not about that - the "No" camp didn't show up.

What really bothers me about all this, though, is that there is no case for the Union being made. "Better Together" is a shambles, Scottish Labour are an embarrassment, and there's no grass-roots campaign in evidence. On one hand we have a bright, optimistic, vibrant "Yes" campaign; on the other, we have... nothing.

I kinda feel I should be happier about this than I am. I decided to vote "Yes" quite some time ago. (And, again, it's nothing to do with England; unfortunately, the government in Westminster is not fit for purpose and I see no way to fix it.) So, shouldn't I be happy that it suddenly looks like we might win?

But the reason I'm not so happy is this: this is the single most important political decision the people in Scotland will ever have to make. Yes or No, it is a question of vital importance that will affect the rest of our lives, the lives of our children, and the lives of generations to come. It will probably never come again.

So the case needs to be made. Actually, both cases need to be made. The "Yes" campaign are doing that. The "No" campaign are utterly failing; they're failing not just to win the argument; they're failing even to make the argument.

The great philosopher of our times, Homer J. Simpson, once said that "de fault" are the two sweetest words in the English language. On this topic, at least, he's wrong. I do genuinely feel Scotland would be better off away from Westminster, but the last thing I want is for Scotland to choose that because nobody spoke for the alternative. That's seeming like a real possibility now, and that's what scares me.

#12: "Pathfinder: the Half-dead City", by Jim Groves

(I'm still about halfway through the last volume of the "Wheel of Time", so it may be a while before I list another book.)

300: Rise of an Empire

File this one under "I watch it so you don't have to." I've seen worse films, but I'm really not sure when; it even gives "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" a run for its money. (Though, actually, now I think about it - "A Good Day to Die Hard" is worse.)

(One thing that does amuse me, though, is the title. It's called "Rise of an Empire", presumably referring to the Persian Empire... but that's an empire that is defeated in the film, and also an empire that has already passed its peak before the start of the film. Definitely a carefully chosen title there!)

(On the arithmetic front, we're now down to one outstanding item - I got LC's car back this morning, so all that remains is to get the carpets cleaned. Which I'll be leaving until my holiday next month, I think.)

A Delicious Crisis

As I said, I made bread again this weekend, which apart from one small problem was absolutely great. In particular, I've had it as the basis for my sandwiches the last two days. This led to the realisation that this bread was so much nicer than the stuff we buy from Tesco that it really doesn't bear comparison. I mean, the stuff we get is okay, but it's a bit insipid. Especially since we're now back on the white bread, which is even less characterful than the brown.

Still, I consoled myself with the notion that store-bought bread is cheaper than homemade. After all, it's £1 (ish) for a loaf of halfway-decent bread, whereas you need to buy flour (£1.50 for 3 loaves), and yeast (£1 for 6 loaves), and salt and oil (negligible), and a bag of mixed seeds (not sure how much, but they're optional anyway)... which all works out at...

Oh dear.

(In fairness, the homemade loaves are a bit smaller than store-bought, and we also don't currently have a good was to slice them thinly, so it would probably work out about the same.)

Problem is that I really don't have time to make bread three times a week, or once a week, or even more than once in a while.

So now I am sad.

Still, on the other hand, it makes for a good reason to bake bread more often, and that in turn justifies experimenting a bit more.

Over-proved

It was a weekend of bread and bread products.

On Friday, I cooked up a rather nice lamp Rogan Josh (which I'm sure wasn't at all authentic, but was good all the same). And, to go with it, I did nann bread for the third time. Which, again, was rather nice. Sadly, I burned my finger, but not too badly. Success!

Then on Sunday morning I made another brown loaf, that having been my most successful bread to-date, and because I now have a brand new loaf tin that I wanted to try out.

The result of this one was also very good, with one caveat. As one of my cunning plans, I did the trick with the baking paper to help lifting the loaf out of the tin. This worked great, right up until I found the paper had stuck to the bottom of the loaf. Oops. Still, it was a really nice loaf, be it dipped in soup, eaten as toast, and indeed as my sandwich for lunch today. And, best of all, I think there's probably enough left for tomorrow's sandwich also. Huzzah!

And then, yesterday afternoon, I made up a batch of calzone. These are a bit of a hassle, taking several hours start-to-finish (but part of that is just the proving steps, when you can do other things, of course). And, given that we were going out to my parents' house for dinner, time did not really permit. So, I took the calzone as far as the second proving step and then left them until we got back.

Sadly, this turned out to be a mistake - the fillling (which is great) soaked through the dough, and the whole mess was over-proved. The net effect is that the calzone are more like a pie with a pizza-base topping. Which I'm sure will be very nice, but wasn't quite what I'd intended. Honestly, I expected Paul Hollywood to pop in at any moment to harrangue me for over-proving the dough.

Still, I can't really complain. The calzone may not be perfect, but they'll still provide LC and I the better part of six meals each, which is a significant win.

And that was basically my weekend. I think I'm happy to call that a success.

(Two. The kitchen light took me about half an hour to replace, and is now considerably better than it ever was before. LC's car is going for its service and MOT tomorrow, and then there will just be the carpets to get done. I don't think I'll bother with any further updates unless and until something significant changes.)

(Also, it may be a while before I add another book to my reading list - the current one is the last volume of the "Wheel of Time", which is taking a while.)

The Musketeers vs Feminism

"The Musketeers" is a pretty terrible show, what with its desecration of classic literature, its attempt to be all 'adult' and 'racy' (and, worse, it's abject failure to do so), and its evident desire to be something else. I sometimes wonder if they knew while filming it that they were producing a terrible show, or if they really thought they were making something good and it has just gone horribly wrong?

This week's episode was a case in point. On the face of it, it may have seemed a good idea - it had all the elements needed: a seeming attack on the King, the Musketeers investigating a politically-dangerous woman, intrigue, and assassination attempt, Athos falling in love... There was even an opportunity to make a social point about the education of women, ticking the BBC's political correctness card. Huzzah!

But it sucked, because the needs of the political correctness card meant that it had to play out a certain way: the "politically-dangerous woman" had to be idealistic but, ultimately, innocent of any wrong-doing. Yet, despite being a "strong, powerful woman", she had to run into trouble and need the noble Hero (Athos) to rescue her.

And that point about "education of women" ultimately had no impact, because all that could be done is for the makers to preach at us: in the UK, it's not a question whether women should be educated or not. Indeed, merely considering it makes me feel dumb: of course women should be educated. I get that that's not a universally-accepted conclusion around the world, and that's really unfortunate (and needs changed), but a light-entertainment programme from the UK (especially a bad one) isn't going to change that.

Now, if they'd really wanted to do something edgy on the topic, how about a single, simple change: instead of our feminist educator being an innocent unjustly accused of witchcraft, how about making her a true radical - her agenda is not merely the education of women (again, a Good Thing), but to go beyond that: the abolition of the monarchy, and the removal of the patriarchal church from power in the land. (And before you say 'anachronism', let me just note that "The Musketeers" doesn't have even the faintest claim to historical accuracy, or indeed accuracy of any sort.)

That way, you have a much more ambiguous story. In "The Musketeers", the King, despite being an ill-tempered teenager, actually isn't a terribly bad sort. The Queen, certainly, doesn't deserve the sort of treatment that a revolution would bring. And even Richelieu is a rather ambiguous figure in many respects - sure, he's the bad guy, but he's also clearly shown to be Good For France. Making that change would also mess with our Heroes' abilities to pick a side, since they are sworn agents of the very power structure she then opposes, and Aramis is (nominally at least) still destined for the church, while Athos and Porthos could go either way. That's actually got some interest built in.

But, alas, no. Instead, we get this oh-so-terrible bogeywoman thrown up (Oh, horrors! Women might become educated!!!), then some running around, and then (surprise!) it turns out that the feminist is right all along. Well, yes, she is. I didn't need you to take an hour to tell me that, though.

Anyway, I believe there are three episodes to go: this week's D'Artagnan-centric episode, then presumably one about Porthos, and then the series finale in which, and I'm just guessing here, D'Artagnan gets to become a Musketeer after all in a surprising but inevitable plot twist. Huzzah!

(Also, on the subject of subtraction, we're now down to 3. The flat electrics are done, and I'm hoping to get the kitchen light done this weekend. Watch this space.)

Kingdom of the Self-Service Checkout

Unlike a lot of people, I'm actually a fan of self-service checkouts. They're faster, more efficient, and they therefore cut down on queues. Provided, that is:

1. You don't have anything that doesn't have a barcode
2. You don't have anything that needs weighed
3. You don't have anything that needs authorisation or other assistance (DVDs, wine, scissors, medicines...)
4. You only have a very few items in total.

If any of those conditions don't apply, they're much harder to use, and the whole process slows right down. So while having self-service checkouts in addition to the regular ones is a good thing, we really can't switch to them as the sole means of checkout.

As we know, Monday is Tesco night, just after band practice. Unfortunately, what wasn't quite so well known is that the shift change in Tesco occurs at 10pm, at which point all regular checkouts close for ten minutes or so until the new shift can take over.

As it happened, items #1 and #'2 from my list were still true. Item #3 should have been true, but unfortunately the system fails when item #4 doesn't hold - the bagging area wasn't big enough for all the bags I needed, which meant things kept needing moved around, that kept triggering the "please seek assistance" prompt.

Now, I do understand that they need that prompt, because the self-service checkouts have to work according to the weight of items. Fair enough. And I also get that supermarkets really don't want to pay for checkout staff to do nothing. That's also fair enough.

But as a practical matter the weekly shop cannot be sensibly put through on a self-service checkout. It just doesn't work - too much hassle, too much need for intervention from the staff, and too much annoyance. It would have been better, for all concerned, for them to open up a checkout, run through that shop, and then close the checkout again.

Gah!

(On another topic, and for those keeping track of my arithmetic woes: 4 - 1 = still 4. My car is now fixed, and LC's car is booked in to be fixed. And, if I'm really lucky, the flat electrics are in the process of being fixed now. However, one of the bulbs in the kitchen light has blown, and it appears that the fitting has been damaged such that the bulb can't be replaced - I'll need to replace the entire light. Sometimes, this all feels like the trials of Sisyphus.)

Ooh, Culture!

When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions. - Hamlet

(Okay, that's the culture bit. The rest is just me moaning.)

It has been a tough weekend. Remember how last weekend I did a post about how 3 - 2 = 5? Well, it turns out that 5 - 2 = 4...

We got our hot water fixed last week. This wasn't too bad - there was a part replaced, there was a note that the boiler is now End of Life (which will limit the availability of parts in future), but it could have been much worse. And on Saturday I spent some more time on the bathroom ceiling, stripping again and repainting, and it's now much better. So, that's good.

But on Saturday morning there was The Smell. A rather disturbing stench coming from somewhere in the appartment, the smell of something unpleasant burning. To be fair, I'd noticed this before, but had convinced myself it was LC's hairdryer or straighteners, or somesuch. But on Saturday that excuse didn't exist - The Smell was there and neither of these things had been used.

Well, after some investigations we identified that it's coming from our main "fuse box" (I'm not sure what the correct term is, since instead of fuses it actually houses several circuit breakers), the smell was definitely of burning plastic, and the box became warm to the touch when certain appliances were on.

Now, for obvious reasons there was very little to be done thereafter. I was able to identify that the problems seem associated with one particular breaker (because it was worst when the shower and/or the tumble drier were on, and they share a breaker), but of course I didn't open the box to see what was wrong. My gut feeling is that that breaker has worn out, a short circuit has probably developed, and that that's the problem, but of course I might be wrong.

So, I contacted the guy who does the regular safety inspections on the box. Or, rather, I tried to - it turns out he doesn't work weekends (and fair enough). The last few days have been a bit stressful. Obviously, that's something I want fixed Right Now, but time doesn't always work like that.

In addition to this, LC hit problems with our computers this weekend... but I won't go into that. Except to note that it's seldom that one thing that causes the problem - it's that one thing on top of all the other things. Oh well.

The upshot of all of this is that this week, which was already going to be awfully busy and horrendously expensive, is now going to be even more busy and expensive. I just hope that, if we can endure, this will be the end of the problems.

Anyway... after finally getting through the weekend, we retired to bed. Only to find that neither of us slept at all well - I think we each managed about four hours in fits and starts through the night. Not good. (A combination of worry, not feeling terribly well, and there being a clear barrier between discrete zones of "too hot" and "too cold".)

I dropped my car off to be looked at this morning. That, at least, went okay. And then, on my way to work, I hit a huge traffic jam and lost another hour or so. Gah!

But then I phoned up and paid for the repair to our boiler and then phoned someone else and arranged to have the "fuse box" looked at. It would be nice to think that the worst is now behind us.

Onward!

#11: "Pathfinder: City of Locusts", by Richard Pett

March of the Third Doctor

The Third Doctor novel was "Last of the Gadarene", which I read last year. It was a fine novel - not the book of the year, but satisfying enough for all that. That meant that this month I had only a very little reading to do, specifically the short story "Spear of Destiny", starring the Third Doctor. It was okay, but remarkable mostly for introducing me to the trivia that the Vikings had a dedicated bath-day. Well, that, and another plot from The Master, who in his original incarnation was always a favourite of mine. (I'm not so keen on his appearances since the TV movie, although Derek Jacobi was good of course.)

With the Third Doctor, though, we're really getting to the point where I'm familiar with the character. Although I never saw any of his episodes live, I was familiar with the Third Doctor from "The Five Doctors", in which he is most definitely one of the star turns. I also once saw him in the Doctor Who stage play, many many years ago (he was later replaced in that by Colin Baker). And, like Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor, the Third Doctor had an incredibly recognisable voice. This makes reading his stories very easy, since you get a clear mental image whenever he speaks.

So... "Spear of Destiny" really wasn't great, much like the other two short stories thus far. "Last of the Gadarene", though, was a very solid read, probably just pipping "Dreams of Empire" as my favourite to date.

Next month we have the Fourth Doctor, at which point I've just about caught up with where I came in. Though it's not until May, and the Fifth, that we really hit 'my' Doctor.

#10: "The Hundred Days", by Patrick O'Brian (book of the year so far)

For Once, Good Timing

About six months ago, in the run up to our Centenary, the band were contacted by the granddaughter of our first pipe major. She and her mum visited the band, and at that time they also presented us with some music written by our first pipe major, two out of three tunes that he had written for his three daughters. However, due to an injury sustained in the Great War, he had never been able to play the tunes. Consequently our guest, the final surviving daughter, had never heard the tunes her father wrote for her and her sisters. They asked if someone from the band could learn the tunes so that they could come back and hear them played - and that task fell to me.

The return visit was planned for last Thursday, but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to ill health. This was unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected given the age of the lady in question.

So far, so ordinary.

But it occurred to me on Friday that perhaps waiting to reschedule the visit wasn't the best possible option. After all, you never know...

Besides, it had always been my intention to record the tunes and present our guests with a CD, memory stick, or similar device with the audio file. Indeed, I had such a recording already, although the quality wasn't great - my pipes had had a new chanter and new drone reeds in the last week, and the recording was with the older, less good, set.

So I rerecorded the tunes last night, put the file somewhere public, and sent a link along. No big deal, or so I thought.

It turns out that the lady in question turns 86 this Friday, and so hearing the tunes for the first time will make for a fine present for her.

It turns out that, just sometimes, my timing isn't entirely awful. Huzzah!

#9: "The Wind in the Willows", by Kenneth Grahame (A book from The List)

3 - 2 = 5??

How is it that you can start the year with three maintenance tasks to do around the place, spend some time working really hard to clear two of them, and end up with five? And how does that five manage to include all three of those original tasks?

Gah!

In case you were wondering, here are the five...

1. Bathroom ceiling. This has been an eyesore for a long time, so last weekend I spent some time stripping down the affected areas, re-plastered them, and painted them. It's now much better than it was. Unfortunately, though, when the paint dried it also contracted, and thus has cracked. Basically, it needs re-done. Which was pretty devastating after all the work I did last weekend.
2. LC's car. This went in to get fixed, a process taking three days. But it was done, and finished. Until, that is, we received a courtesy call from the people who sold us the car trying to offer us an MOT and service, which are now due.
3. The carpets need cleaned properly.
4. My car has now developed a worrying rattle.
5. And the latest annoyance in my life: something has gone wrong with our boiler. We still have heating, thank goodness, but no hot water.

It's all just annoying, and frankly this latest problem was the last thing I needed after a fairly rotten week.

Pet Peeve: Selfies

Okay, leaving aside for the moment that 'seflie' is itself an abomination of a term, and yet another sign of the degeneracy of modern society, the thing that really annoys me even more about it is misuse of the term.

A 'selfie' is a photograph that you take of yourself - either directly, or in a mirror. Other people and other things can appear in a selfie, but those two rules apply - you must appear in the photo, and you must take the photo yourself. (I'm sure there's a clue there in the name, but I'm not entirely sure what it is...)

If someone else takes a photo of you, that is not a selfie - that is a photograph. I know it's a shocking concept, but there it is. Likewise, the only way to get a "food selfie" is if you're a cannibal and your food is really underdone. Otherwise, it's just you taking a photo of your food - which may or may not be an horrible and pretentious habit, but it's not a selfie.

Gah!

#8: "The Dagger of Trust", by Chris Willrich

Dear Insurance Companies...

If you send me a renewal notice saying that you believe the most appropriate provider for me gives a quote of £X a year and I phone to cancel saying I've got a much better quote (as I had), please don't put me on hold while you rustle up a mysterious 'new' quote at £Y per year for the same service. I'm not, despite appearances, a complete idiot - so, by all means, consider that £X-Y an "apathy tax"... just don't be surprised if I elect not to pay it.

(It was especially insulting this time, as I happened to have not one but two much better quotes for the insurance, one of which was actually that same £Y quote from the same provider. It just happened that I'd been quoted as new business rather than as a renewal.)

Actually, this whole episode makes me feel really quite distressed, precisely because it's not, at all, a surprise. It's well known that companies delight in offering "introductory discounts" and other such things in order to get your business, and then ramp up the costs on renewal. In effect, you'll always be better off moving your gas/electricity/internet from your current supplier to someone else.

It's especially bad with insurance, which is supposed to be marketed based on actuarial assessment; that is, based on a calculation of the risk involved. But, as I've said before, if it were really done based on a purely actuarial basis, it should always be cheaper to renew with the same company than it is to move, because the new company has actual rather, than estimated, data which reduces the unknown factors, and hence the risk. And yet it is always cheaper to move elsewhere... or at least to say you're going to move elsewhere.

I do hate it when things just don't work the way they really should.

Update on Goals

We're now 50 days into the new year, and so it is time for an update on my progress at my goals. So:

• Weight: This started pretty brightly, but has now hit a plateau, which is a pain. The big problem is the weekends, where something seems to have gotten in the way every time, be it a birthday, a restaurant visit, or just sheer laziness. Oh well.
• Work: Likewise, this has started well.
• Books: I've read seven books to date, which means I am once again slightly ahead of target for this year. Which is good.
• Games: "Imperial Fist" is ongoing. We've lost one player and gained another, and also switched the dates to better balance my weeks. Unfortunately, it looks like the first of the three proposed one-shots will need to be cancelled, which will mean the goal will fall short. Oh well. By contrast, I have two of the three 'player' games scheduled, so that aspect is going well.
• Maintenance: This is a bit behind schedule. One of the three parts is done, but the other two remain as they were with no great sign of motion. The fundamental problem is that I can't really be bothered.
• Computer: Deferred.
• Money: This is actually well in hand. The payback of the loan is automated, so will sort itself out. The rest of the clean-up is mostly done, with only two calls to make to finish that off. I would like to rebuild some savings, though.

And that's where we are 50 days into 2014. By the time of the next update, I would like to have broken through the weight plateau, read 16 books, and completed the "maintenance" goal. I suspect two out of those three is a more likely outcome.