The Modified House Move Strategy

I have previously outlined my strategy for unpacking after a house move:

1. Try to ensure the heavy furniture ends up in the right rooms. This makes the rest much easier.
   
2. Pick a room, and start going through things. If you find something for this room, put it away immediately. If you find something for a room that hasn't yet been unpacked, take it and put it anywhere in that room.
   
3. Once the previous room is done (and only once that room is done), move to the next room. This time, if you find something for the new room, put it away at once; if you find something for a room that hasn't been done yet, take it and put it anywhere in the room; if you find something for a room that has already been done, take it and put it away in that room.
   
4. Repeat until all the rooms are done.

That's a nice, systematic process that gets all the rooms done efficiently, without leaving you overwhelmed trying to do everything all at once - you're only ever working with one room at a time. (It can be difficult if you're trying to move furniture around in a room that's still full of boxes. For that reason, I would recommend - if possible - that you nominate one room as a dumping ground for lots of boxes, even if they don't go in that room. That then allows the other rooms to remain manageable, and allows you to move your furniture round. Unpack the "dumping ground" room last.)

Anyway, the reason I mention this is because my new strategy for dealing with the to-do list follows a modified house move strategy:

1. The list of tasks is organised by room.
   
2. Each week, I plan to identify the single highest-priority task and do that, whatever it is and wherever it is in the house or garden.
   
3. Each week, I also plan to identify a single room, and attempt to tackle all the tasks associated with that room.
   
4. In addition, if a new task crops up in a room that has already been dealt with, that new task will jump to the top of the queue - it's more important that rooms stay 'done' than that new rooms get 'done'. (There's an obvious danger there, so the intent is also to strongly resist adding new tasks to the to-do list until the existing ones are dealt with.

Last weekend turned out to be a highly productive weekend, taking the list of 'done' rooms to four. This week, the single highest-priority task is to pack up the BBQ for the weekend. The room that is nominated for being cleared is the nursery, which has three associated tasks (none of them huge).

The Banana Wrapping Rant

The problems with excess use of plastic have been well documented recently. Further, it has recently been highlighted that even plastics that can be recycled, and indeed in some cases even plastics that do get sent for recycling, still end up causing big problems.

That being the case, surely it makes sense for us to see if there are sensible steps we can take to stop using plastics where it is sensible and reasonable to do so? I mean, I'm not asking for us to go to crazy lengths here - but where there's something that doesn't need an additional layer, we could maybe not go to the time, effort, and cost of adding that layer and then adding the time and effort of me (or in this case LC) removing that same layer before sending it for recycling.

In short: bananas already come with a perfectly good skin to protect them against the elements. Maybe they don't need to come wrapped in a plastic bag?

When to Stop Giving Presents

I'm in another of my decluttering phases, and so I'm once again pondering the question of gifts (birthday and Christmas).

You might wonder how these two are associated. It's fairly simple: for each Christmas and birthday there tends to be a number of presents received. In most cases, these are things I've specifically asked for, or in some cases things I haven't asked for but that I will use. But the truth is that there are usually a few gifts that won't ever really be used, and which therefore just take up space. (I'm sorry if that seems ungrateful. It's certainly not intended to be! But it is the truth.)

In an attempt to combat, or at least reduce this, one of the tricks that we tend to use is to ask the person what they would like as a gift, and then get that. Or we just cut out the middle-man, and go directly to giving the money. Which has a certain efficiency to it, but which also lacks most of the warmth of gift-giving. Besides, if I receive £20 from each of my siblings in June, but then give £20 to each of them at their birthdays, is there really any point?

Basically, what I'm saying is that my siblings and I should stop giving each other gifts, with the probable exception of birthdays for ages ending in '0'.

But there's a second, perhaps trickier thing to consider: with one exception we now each have children, ranging in ages from 12 to less than one. And this also leads to a lot of present-buying.

So the next questions are these:

• At what age should we switch from giving a nephew/niece a present to instead giving them money to spend themselves? (Which may seem to lack warmth, but there comes a point where that's probably preferable to the recipient.)
  
• At what age does that gift-giving just stop entirely?
  
• Is Christmas different from birthdays for any of the above?

(Incidentally, I think the answers I'm inclined to advocate are: "thirteen", "eighteen", and "yes - between thirteen and eighteen you still get an actual present for Christmas".) Also, looking back, I think the convention I wish we had adopted had been that you keep receiving gifts until you start your first 'real' job. Which, conveniently, would have been at about the same age for pretty much all of us.

Their Own People

Back at the last Scottish Elections, some bright spark in the independence movement came up with a wizard wheeze: if everyone voted SNP in the constituency and then voted Green in the list, that would give the SNP a majority on the constituencies alone but also give the Greens a vast number of seats. In effect, this would allow independence supporters to choose both the government and their own opposition.

It was a fine idea, with only three small flaws:

Firstly, it was bollocks. Since neither the SNP nor the Greens could officially campaign along those lines (since the Electoral Commission would have some strong words - see point two), it just wasn't possible to get people to vote in the desired manner in anything like the required numbers. The outcome of this wizard wheeze was probably that the SNP dropped from a majority to a minority government, while the Greens advanced by two or three seats - certainly nothing like the outome that was envisaged.

Secondly, it was profoundly undemocratic. The wheeze was designed to take advantage of one of the weaknesses of the electoral system used for Scottish elections, and while a certain amount of gaming the system is unavoidable, antics of this sort really should be avoided. (As I said, the Electoral Commission would have had strong words had the Greens, or especially the SNP, given official support to this in their campaigns, for exactly this reason. And rightly so.)

Thirdly, though, what this wizard wheeze failed to consider is that the Green Party are not simply an adjunct of the SNP - they're their own party with their own manifesto, policies, and priorities. They happen to agree with the SNP on the topic of independence, for now, but that's all.

That third point is one that has been causing quite some grief ever since the vote - basically, every time the Greens fail to vote in lock-step with the SNP, they come under fire from SNP voters who gave their vote to the Green party. And so, when the Greens hold out for changes to the tax regime before agreeing the budget, when they vote to repeal the OBFA, and yesterday when they vote against testing for P1 children, they're seen as 'betraying' the SNP.

But, again, these are peripheral interests to the independence cause, and they're all matters where the Green party are simply following their openly-stated principles and manifesto policies. In short, they're actually doing exactly what I want to see from a political party.

(And, incidentally, I don't agree with the Green party on either repealing the OFBA (which was deeply flawed, yes, but desperately needed reformed and/or replaced; simply repealing it was a disastrous idea), or on the tests for P1 pupils. But that's my view; they're entitled to disagree, of course.)

Where I do take issue in recent events is with the antics of the Tories, Labour, and Lib Dems.

My view is that political parties should act pretty much as the Greens have done: determine your principles, work out your policies from those, and then vote accordingly. And do so regardless of who that means you end up voting alongside - taking the view that different people vote for things for different reasons, but that everyone is there for the good of the country.

However, that's frankly not how I see Labour, the Lib Dems, and especially the Tories acting. For them, just about everything seems to be seen purely through the lens of how to give the SNP a bloody nose. And so, the Tories call for nationalised testing of P1 pupils... and then once they are introduced they perform an immediate about face and call for them to be scrapped. Labour, meanwhile, have their crazy "Bain Principle", whereby they don't support anything the SNP propose.

But that's disastrous for our politics. Firstly, it's disastrous because most things in Scottish politics are in fact not about independence, or the prevention thereof. But if the unionist parties line up in a row to attack whatever the SNP do, that has the effect of turning our politics into exactly that - supporting independence becomes a matter of supporting everything the SNP do (even where they're wrong), while opposing independence means the opposite.

Secondly, it has particular problems in a minority government, where the governing party must cut deals in order to get things done. This worked really well in 2008 precisely because Annabel Goldie's Tories was reasonably pragmatic about making those deals, as were the Lib Dems. Thus, the SNP could cut this deal here, and that deal there, and it worked pretty well and led to pretty balanced governance.

But in 2018, things don't work like that. The Tories, Labour, and the Lib Dems are all manifestly not interested in making deals, while leaves the SNP with exactly one choice: the Greens. And that gives the Greens disproportionate influence, allowing them to pull the SNP government signficantly leftward. But... if people had wanted the Greens to have that level of influence, they would have voted Green in greater numbers. The effect of this is that the whole party is being skewed in a manner that the electorate do not want. And that's not a good thing.

Unfortunately, I don't see any of this changing any time soon. The reality is that the nationaist vote is fairly well united behind the SNP, but getting a majority in Holyrood without an actual majority in the country is extremely (and intentionally) difficult. But the unionist vote is significantly divided, such that neither Labour nor the Tories will be able to form a government without the other... and it's almost unthinkable that they would go into coalition together. Meanwhile, the independence issue is simply not going to go away (unless and until Scotland actually becomes independent, of course, but I'm not holding my breath). So the whole thing is going to remain a mess for a long time to come.

Baby Changing Facilities

One of the benefits of having travelled fairly extensively this year with Funsize in tow is that we've had several encounters with baby changing facilities. It's fair to say that some of these are better than others! However, I've generally been reasonably impressed with the provision of facilities - for the most part they've been there when we've needed them, and they've tended to be reasonably good.

That said, there is one thing that really annoys me when I encounter it...

In terms of provision of baby changing facilities, I take the view that there are three options, any of which are at least acceptable:

1. Have a dedicated baby change facility. This is probably the best - have a single room set aside for the changing of babies.
   
2. Place the baby change facility in the disabled toilet. This is probably the next best, in that it provides a single facility for everyone to use. However, it does have the downside that sometimes disabled people need to use the facilities, and sometimes when you've got to go...
   
3. Duplicate the baby change facilities in both sets of toilets. Sometimes, this is the only available option. And it's fine, since it does provide facilities for everyone to use. However, it suffers from being inefficient, since you have a relatively little used facility in two places, and it also runs the risk that the real baby change facility is the one in the ladies' while the one in the men's is allowed to degrade...

And that brings me to the thing that really annoys me, and the option that I don't think is acceptable:

4. Place the baby change facility in the ladies' toilets only.

Fortunately, we've encountered this only rarely, and only ever when we've been together, so we've never actually been caught out by it. And if it ever did happen, I'm confident (arrogant?) enough that I'd make no bones about going in and using said facility. But it's still something that continues to annoy me when I do see it. Partly because of the potential issues that might arise and/or the issue of children not being changed when they actually need it. But also because of what it says, and continues to say about gender roles - both that it is expected that mothers will be around to look after children and also that it is expected that fathers will not be looking after children, certainly on their own. But if we're serious about equality, both those assumptions must be challenged.

(That said, I'm not convinced we actually are all that serious about equality... but that's another rant.)

Winning Ways

The football season this year is shaping up to be rather more interesting than I had expected. I had expected it to basically be another procession - with Celtic having the best squad by far, the best manager by some distance, and the most money by miles, I'd expected them to more or less sweep everyone before them. And if there were signs of a meaningful challenge, I'd expected them to invest heavily to ensure it didn't happen.

But it hasn't been the case. Firstly, Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions' League group stages (which I'd expected - with the recent rules changes I don't expect a Scottish club to get there for a very long time). Then they lost their best player right at the end of the transfer window, with no real opportunity to get a replacement. (And, yes, they got a huge amount of money for that player, and yes, they had already brought in someone in the same position. So, business-wise it was rather spectacular; but in terms of the play on the field, it doesn't seem to be going so well.)
The upshot of that is that Celtic have had a poor start to the season. As, indeed, have Aberdeen and Rangers. This leaves Hearts as league leaders with some cushion, and indeed sees Livingston flying high despite having just been promoted.

Now, it's worth noting that we are only five games in, and I fully expect things to shake out quite quickly - I'm still expecting Celtic to get their collective act together, go on a long run, and win the league; and I'm still expecting the top six to be made up of some combination of Celtic, Hearts, Rangers, Hibs, Aberdeen, and one other (probably Kilmarnock). That order, incidentally, isn't entirely coincidental, but is also not quite a prediction!

But I can see three key points of interest in the next 33 games...

• Will Rangers and Celtic both end the season with the same managers as they began them? And, if so, will they start next season the same way? (Previously, I would have thought the only real prospect of Celtic making a change was if BR got an offer he couldn't refuse. I'm increasingly thinking that threshold might be dropping.)
  
• What will the gap between first and second be?
  
• Will Rangers manage a win over Celtic this season? (Or, in the case of a cup match, will they manage a win in the regulation 90 minutes?)

I still think we'll end the season with painfully little change - I think the pundits were basically unanimous in predicting Celtic for the title at the start of the year, and I think they were right to do so. But I do think that a change in manager for Celtic, or a final winning margin in the single figures, will make next season one to watch. And if Rangers do manage their first win in years, then that will be doubly the case.

Tasks For The Weekend

Over the weekend I finished off the decoration of the main bedroom, which involved drilling four holes and fastening the hooks for tidying the curtains. That was a good job well done. I also fixed the same issue in the nursery, and took the opportunity to patch a number of small holes in various walls - mostly places where things had been screwed into the wall but where the screws had been removed. (Those will need sanded and some paint applied...) I also started the task of scanning-and-shredding my old RPG papers.

The tasks for this weekend are intended to cross three of our rooms from my revised to-do list, all from the upstairs of the house. There is one big task, and then three minor tasks, one nice-to-do, and one continuation task. Specifically:

1. Fix the shower seals. This is now the highest-priority task remaining.
   
2. Have a clear-out in my wardrobe. This will involve a cull of clothing generally, but will also include going through the three boxes stored there (again) and discarding some stuff. In particular, those BB training materials I mentioned before will be for the chop.
   
3. Have a clear-out of the medicine cabinet in the en suite.
   
4. Have a clear-out of the medicine cabinet in the main bathroom. (You could argue that these are the same task. However, as the to-do list is now sorted by room, they're listed separately. It's also worth noting that there's not a lot needing done here, it's mostly just a matter of tidying up and taking stock.)
   
5. Continue scanning and shredding the old RPG papers. I made a good start at the weekend, but it's important to keep the momentum up.
   
6. If possible (which it probably won't be), get a cover for the barbecue and get that packed up for the winter. If this doesn't happen this weekend, it probably needs to next week.

Obviously, six tasks is a pretty heavy load, especially for a weekend where I'm determined to take things relatively easy (after several hectic weeks). However, the first of these is really quite important, while the next four are all pretty small in scope. Indeed, it's not impossible that I'll get some done before the weekend.

Cool, but disturbing

A few days before our trip, my phone popped up with a notification: had I considered downloading a map of Antwerp? Well, as it happened, I had already done so (and indeed language packs for French, German, and Dutch, and an Antwerp App), but it was quite cool to see that it was pro-actively suggesting ways to make life easier - indeed, the biggest pain of our trip to the US would have been averted by exactly such a mechanism.

On the other hand, it's rather disturbing that my phone popped up with a notification concerning a trip that I had booked entirely on my PC (and, indeed, using Firefox - I actually prefer Chrome, but it doesn't seem to work right on that PC). That means that my phone is reading and, perhaps more worrying, understanding my emails as they come in.

I'm not sure whether to be really impressed or horribly concerned by that development. Probably both - it's like having a super-fan who just wants to cater to your every whim... and who is quite willing to tie you to a bed and break your ankles to achieve it...

The Recent Tasks

At the time of writing, I have made progress on five of the six tasks I identified for my holiday. Three are done: the trip to Antwerp, the haircut, and the seasoning of the bagpipes. Another of these, the decoration of the main bedroom, is all but done - there is still one small job to be done, which I will complete this weekend (tomorrow?).

Of the remaining two tasks, one has proven to be more difficult than expected - the repair to the wardrobe door. Here, I had identified a possible fix that should work, and after considerable annoyance and effort I did indeed complete that fix. Unfortunately, I quickly found that that fix really didn't work right, which puts me more or less back where I started - it's okay for a temporary solution but would be a bad permanent one... and I don't see a good way to properly fix it.

(Annoyingly, the 'real' fix is both simple in concept and annoyingly hard in practice. Ideally, what I'd like to do is remove the damaged part (now parts) and instead fit an identical replacement part. Simple... if you can get your hands on an identical replacement part (or parts). The annoyance comes in trying to find those replacements - there's no sign of what the part numbers are or where they were bought from. Worse, I suspect they were originally bought as part of a kit, potentially from a company that has since gone out of business. So those "identical replacements" might not even exist, and certainly might not be for sale on their own, massively complicating a simple task.)

The last task is probably the most important, and is also on the schedule for this weekend (but may well slip to next weekend), which is to fix the seal on the shower in the en suite. Over the past year this has started to leak. Only very slightly and only on rare occasions, but enough to demand action. I have therefore got the required materials to effect a fix... I just need to find the time.

So, that's three done, one on the verge of completion, one that may be abandoned in an unsatisfactory manner, and one to do. Which is a... poor result.

Past Lives

I joined the Boys' Brigade in 1982 at the age of six. I then spent several years with the company, first as an Anchor Boy, then the Junior Section, the Company Section, and as a Senior. Finally, I took the KGVI training course and became an officer in the company. I served for a total of 23 years, leaving in 2005 due to my move to Yeovil.

(I briefly made contact with a company down in Yeovil, but in the end decided not to get involved - they were looking for Junior Section officers while I preferred working with the Company Section or Seniors. I also briefly considered resuming my service after my return from Yeovil, but again decided against due to the travel that would have been involved.)

I enjoyed my time in the BB, but the fact is that I haven't been back in thirteen years now, and indeed I won't ever be going back - that chapter is done.

However, over the course of five house moves between 2005 and 2017, I carted a box of BB training materials with me, ignored and indeed unknown. It was only fairly recently that I even discovered I had these books, while clearing out some other boxes. And these are materials that were old even when I got them; they must surely be completely obsolete by now (though, knowing the BB, maybe not...).

The upshot of that is fairly simple: it's time to let go of that past life. The materials that I have are of no value, to me or to anyone else; I can't claim to have any sentimental attachment to them, as I didn't even know I had them; and they will never see use again. Getting rid is really a no-brainer. (The only thing stopping me is time - it's one thing to identify these for disposal; it's another to actually clear them out...)

But that's an easy "past life" to get rid of. Doing the same for pipe band materials dating back a similarly long time (and with a similar usefulness or value) will be rather more harrowing. And clearing out RPG ephemera from my school and university days will be a whole new level of difficulty. But we're getting to the point where it needs to be done - all this clutter from past lives is starting to impact on the quality of the life we're living now.

Retiring the Tablet

A few years ago, I invested in a Hudl 2 tablet from Tesco, largely because it was quite cheap and relatively powerful for the price. And it was quite useful... for a while.

The truth is, though, it really didn't last long before outliving its usefulness. And as soon as I invested in a smartphone it immediately became obsolete - there's nothing I would use the tablet for that I wouldn't use the phone for instead. (And equally, while there are some things I wouldn't use the phone for, for those things a PC is still the tool of choice.)

The upshot is that the tablet has now been retired from use. It's not that we're getting rid of it (yet), and it's certainly not that we're going to upgrade to the latest model. It's just that that form factor turns out to be a solution that doesn't really have an associated problem. Which feels wrong, somehow, and yet... not.

#44: "Pathfinder: the Six-Legend Soul", by Amber E. Scott

Antwerp (or: What I Did on My Holidays)

One of the downsides of LC being a teacher is that our ability to take holidays is constrained by term-times. Most years, this therefore means taking our summer holidays at the same times as everyone else, and paying a premium for flights as a result. With LC being on leave this year, we took advantage of the freedom that that gave us to delay our holiday until September, and thus avoid the crowds.

Strange as it may seem, Belgium has been on my list of places to visit for some time - until last week it was the closest country I was yet to visit. And so the time had come to pack a bag and go!

We travelled out on the Monday and came back on the Thursday. However, due to the nature of the flights, this actually meant we only had two days in Antwerp itself - Ryanair fly to Charleroi airport, this is twenty minutes outside of Brussels, or ninety minutes from Antwerp. This meant taking a taxi and then a train to Antwerp, and taking a train and then a shuttle bus back on Thursday, and that meant that four days became two - that was probably a weakness in the planning. (I'll also note that I really don't recommend Ryanair. Yes, the headline figure for tickets is very low, but that comes at a significant cost - you have to work very hard to avoid additional charges, and where you can't avoid them they are very high (we needed a checked bag, which was extortionate), they've crammed extra seats into the planes so you barely have room to breathe, and when you do arrive it's generally to an inaccessible out-of-town location. All in all, that was not a cheap or pleasant experience. But it was the option for getting to our destination, so not exactly a choice.)

In sharp contrast to the flights, our hotel was excellent - the best we've ever used. It was very small, in that it had only four apartments, but each of these was fully-featured - there was a large living area, toilet, shower-room, and a large bedroom, plus a full kitchen if we had been inclined to cook. So, yeah, I was well pleased with that!

Antwerp itself was great - a very friendly city with a nicely relaxed atmosphere. Everyone we met was friendly and welcoming, and thoroughly charmed by Funsize. It also, conveniently, seems to be split quite neatly into sections, with most of the shopping gathered in one area, a historical town centre in another, and then the rest of the city. And although there were buses and trams, everything was within walking easy distance, even with a stroller and luggage.

Our first visit, on the Tuesday, was to the MAS. We spent the better part of the morning going through this floor by floor, each with a different theme. Personally, I found the "Celebration!" exhibit the most interesting, although the floors dealing with trade and also the feeding of the city (past, present, and future) were both interesting. And then we went to the roof, and the panoramic view. This was what we'd really come for, and was worth the climb.

After the MAS, we decided against the Ruien - a tour of the sewers under the city. I think that if FS had not been with us, we might well have gone ahead with this visit, which did look quite interesting, but it seemed not to be the sort of thing to expose a tiny child to. Instead, we went for lunch at Friteur No 1. Blegian fries are regarded as the best in the world, and Antwerp claims the best fries in Belgium. As the name implies, Friteur No 1 then claims the best fries in Antwerp, which (if true) would put them at the very pinnacle of all fries. They were certainly very good.

That afternoon we went to the Rubenshaus. As the name implies, this is a reconstruction of the house where Rubens did a lot of his work (and, in particular, taught a lot of his students). Again, this was very interesting. Between this and the MAS, that was the history/culture component of our trip fulfilled. Or so we thought...

While purchasing an item in the shop at the end of our visit, we were given the recommendation that we really should visit St Paul's church, which was the site of the founding of the Dominican order. So we duly retraced our steps back towards the MAS, to see this church. And it was certainly worth it, with a garden of statues in a courtyard and then a sequence of paintings by great masters inside. This is highly recommended.

Wednesday saw both the highlight and low point of the trip. In the morning we went to the zoo, where FS enjoyed seeing the animals. She particularly liked the sealions, but her absolute favourite were the seals (which were more playful). Plus, it was amusing seeing her reaction when she realised what LC and I were pointing at and saw the elephants.

The low point came when we went to "Comics Station", which we had mistakenly thought was a comics museum. But no, it was a comics-themed amusement park for 3 to 12 year olds, where every single thing was too old for FS and far too young for LC and I. There were some few games we could have played, but the instructions were all in Dutch and the controls opaque. So that was a very expensive waste of time (fortunately, not too much time - we quickly cut our losses and left).

And then we went for waffles. Yum!

By the end of the second full day, I did feel that we'd actually done enough. There was more to see, but I didn't feel that we were missing out for not doing so. It was just the right length of time to be there. (Also of note: most things seemed to close at 5:30 in the evening, which limited what you could do in a day. Antwerp is a place to get up early and get on with things, in order to get the full experience.)

And that's that.

It's been quite a year for travelling, what with the trips to London, America, and now Belgium. That being the case, I'm not planning to add any more trips away for a good long time. Perhaps towards the end of next year we'll consider something... but perhaps not. Maybe 2019 is a year to stick to countries we've already seen. We'll see...

#43: "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", by John le Carré

Day 250: Update on... Stuff

With Day 250, we reach the antepenultimate update for the year...

Books: By day 250, I 'should' be at 41.09 books read. As you can see below, I'm now actually ahead of schedule, despite my slow start to the year. But there are some mighty tomes coming up...

However, as noted previously I'm not going to complete my stated goal for the year - there are just too many books, and the individual books are just too long, to allow for completion. A shame, but not a disaster.

Band: As noted previously, the 'summer' season for the band is done. We have one more event in September, and then there's a quiet time leading up to the lighting of Christmas lights in December. (Sadly, this band doesn't do an Armistice parade. It was a little strange last year, attending as 'just' a bystander for the first time in I don't know how long.)

Blogging: At the time of writing, I'm still a little behind here and well behind at the Imaginarium. There's still no prospect of the Imaginarium catching up, despite a somewhat prolific August, but this blog should be back on track soon.

And that's everything. You'll note that I've dropped a couple of topics from the update this time, as there was nothing to report. Next time I expect to drop the update on Band for the same reason, but may or may not bring back other topics.

Oh, one last thing: with regard to the six things I listed in my previous post: I have now completed two (fixing the wardrobe, sort of, and the trip to Antwerp). Today we'll be starting on the master bedroom, and tomorrow is the haircut. So there's a good chance we'll get four done, and five is not entirely beyond the realms of possibility.

#41: "Stonemouth", by Iain Banks
#42: "Fools and Mortals", by Bernard Cornwell (two very good novels, though neither is a candidate for book of the year)

Speaking of the To-Do List

Tasks for the holiday:

• Fix the seal on the shower.
  
• Fix LC's wardrobe - one of the runners has been damaged.
  
• Re-paint the master bedroom (including stripping wallpaper from one wall).
  
• Trip to Antwerp.
  
• Season bagpipes.
  
• Haircut.

I think that's more than enough for one week. Realistically, I may get three of them done.

When Temporary Solutions Become Permanent

Our kitchen is increasingly a source of vexation to me. The issue fundamentally comes down to something I talked about before in "The Lasagne Principle" - we've filled every available space with stuff, much of which never gets used and therefore just takes up space; space that is much needed for other things.

The main reason we've gotten into this position is that when we moved in we needed to get the house into a livable state as soon as was possible. And so the kitchen layout is very much a temporary solution. Unfortunately, the reality of the last year has now largely set in - that temporary solution (like most of the rest) has become permanent.

(The sad reality is that in the past year I've barely touched the "to do" list I worked out after we moved in - once the low hanging fruit were picked it just came to a halt. My inclination in the near future is to simply delete that list entirely, leave it for a while, and then construct a new to do list on a per-room rather than per-task basis. That probably won't actually help, but may make me feel better!)

On the other hand, I do have a little free time tomorrow morning. That might be a good time to fix some of this... or it might not - the risk with something like this is that half the job gets done, creating a mess, and then it has to be abandoned due to pressure of time. And it's not really a job that lends itself to a piecemeal solution. Plus, there are other things that I'd much rather do, including "nothing at all".

Ant Man and the Wasp

LC and I never made it out to the cinema for the first "Ant Man" film - it was one of the MCU films that didn't quite grab us and so we let it go past (this was also true of "Captain America: the First Avenger", "Thor", and "Doctor Strange"). However, we did pick up the blu-ray and did enjoy the film a great deal, and also Ant Man's presence in "Civil War". So we were looking forward to this film quite a bit. Though not enough to insist on going to see it right away - indeed, Sunday was pretty much our last opportunity as it's now only on daytime showings at our local cinema.

So, we saw the film on Sunday, and... meh. I'm afraid I just wasn't overly impressed. Basically, it all felt like more of the same - we saw various ant-related tricks, we saw Giant Man, there were the same jokes, and the cutaway exposition section, and the cameo, and Paul Rudd rushing around making sure he's not caught where he shouldn't be...

All in all, I came away rather disappointed - I had expected more. Which was a shame. On the plus side, they did explain why Ant Man wasn't in "Infinity War"... but then, I didn't really need to know that. Presumably, though, it will be a plot point in "Avengers 4".

Anyway, I'm afraid this is one to skip.

Pipe Band Season 2018 Wash-up

Despite not competing this year, I did have a bit of a pipe band season, with gala days running from early June until late August. (We also have one event in September, but I'm considering that to be part of our Autumn/Winter, rather than of the season proper.) I think I probably attended a bit more than half of the events - several were cancelled for one reason or another and there were some I just couldn't make it to (and one I just opted out of).

All in all, it's been a good summer. There has been a lot less stress than in previous years, and obviously a much smaller set of events. And absolutely no weekends with two events, which is nice. On the other hand, the standard just hasn't been as good - that's an obvious and unavoidable consequence of not competing. And there's no prospect of that changing, as attendance at practices is just too erratic to allow for significant improvement.

The one thing that I do miss is that there's no opportunity for teaching at the new band, which is a shame. Again, there's no sign of that changing. (And, if I'm being honest, I'm not minded to fight very hard to change that.)

Otherwise, things have been pretty positive for my first year with the new band.

(Incidentally, my previous band have had a banner year, being placed in the prize list at four of the five majors. They also came higher in the Worlds than I ever saw in my tenure, and came second in one major, where the best I ever saw was third. So well done to them - surely now that means they'll be promoted back to Grade 4A?)

The Wrong Jam

This morning for breakfast there were pancakes! Not made pancakes, I should note - LC had purchased a packet, which is fine. Since I don't have butter, when I was ready to apply spread to my pancakes I naturally reached for the jam... only to discover that the only jam we had was chilli-themed! Oh, the horrors!

Personally, I blame the shopping committee. Or I did, until LC pointed out that I am the shopping committee. I'm now looking for a new official Scapegoat.

Anyway, the upshot was that I had my pancakes plain, much to LC's dismay and disgust. (No, I didn't consider having chilli jam on my pancakes. It's still too early in the morning for such wild culinary escapades.)

And that's the end of that story. I feel it doesn't quite have the excitement of some of my other adventures, but given that it's been a quiet week, I have to work with the material I'm given. Sorry!

#40: "Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game", by West End Games

The Curtis Completion

This weekend saw LC and I (and Funsize) attending our fourth and final (probably) wedding of the year. This time, it was the wedding of two good friends of ours, and took place in the church where LC and I were married lo those many years ago (well, six and a bit). The reception was at Ross Priory, at the side of Loch Lomond.

It was a lovely day. We arrived bright and early, in order that I had time to tune my pipes and otherwise get ready. Then there were a few minutes of waiting, and then the time came to play. That went well, and then the bride arrived.

It now transpires that LC is going to mock and deride my description of the dress regardless of what I put here, so I'm going to content myself with: it was a white dress. So there!

Anyway, the wedding ceremony was lovely, and was fairly traditional in character. I thought it was quite short, although LC disagreed. There were two hymns, the exchange of vows and rings, the signing of the register, and a short message. Then outside for some photos, and then off to the reception.

The reception in Ross Priory was likewise lovely - the building had a lot of (fairly small) rooms, which meant that people could mingle in various groups. Before the meal, and while the official photos were being taken, there were drinks and nibbles laid on, including haggis bonbons (which means that this wedding wins - sorry to the others!). Then there was the cutting of the cake.

The meal took place in a very crowded dining room - much like the first wedding of the year, there was a top table with four rows leading down from it. This meant that the staff had a somewhat difficult time moving between the rows to serve the food.

But before the meal, came the speeches. As standard, there were three - ish. The father of the bride spoke first, then the groom, and then two the best men each gave a short speech. There were the usual happy words, the usual jokes, and the usual rounds of thanks. (As thanks for my part in the day, I was presented with an 8-pack of cans of Irn Bru "from before it became illegal". They know me so very well...)

The meal was excellent - a tomato and red pepper soup to start, followed by chicken and many vegetables, and then a sticky toffee pudding. Naturally, Funsize made her presence felt - LC had to take her out to feed at the start of the meal, and I had to eat my soup very quickly. Then I took FS for a walk in the grounds and persuaded her to sleep, before returning. I returned in time for the chicken, which LC cut up for me and I ate one-handed.

And then there was the dancing - a ceilidh in a fairly tight space, but with plenty of other areas for people to go and chat and generally catch up. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening and day. It was just a shame that we had to leave around 10, when the buffet was served, as Funsize was by this time worn out.

Which brings us to the end of wedding season for this year. Actually, 2018 has been very unusual - weddings have become somewhat few and far between, so to have more than one in a year is remarkable, and to have four...

It has been quite interesting to see how the four weddings have each been unique in their own ways, and each quite lovely. The first, in London, was probably most notable for being FS's first big trip. With the long train journey each way, with the heat, and with having so much to carry, that weekend was perhaps overly dominated by travel. But the wedding itself was a great centre-piece to that. (I feel almost compelled to highlight the champagne at that one, especially as that was brought to our attention several times. In fairness, it was particularly nice - if you're interested, or happen to be looking for a recommendation, it's the Veuve Clicquot which is apparently especially good this year.)

The second was of course the big trip to the US, and so notable for the huge distance travelled, the holiday that surrounded it, and indeed for piping in another continent (though I have played in the US before, but not at a wedding). More than that, though, it was notable for being a family wedding, which of course puts it in a different category for the others. This was probably the biggest of the four weddings, in terms both of number and of 'spectacle' (not sure that's the right word, really). It was also interesting seeing how things in the US were almost, but not quite, the same...

Then there was my colleague's wedding, which was right at the other end of the scale in terms of size - about twenty people, no speeches, no dancing, but a lovely time. And finally this wedding, which felt like the most traditional of the four. Or perhaps was just the one closest to what I was used to.

Labour-saving Devices

Why is it that getting a new PC inevitably entails days of annoyance and frustration porting across data and settings, installing software, and generally getting it all back to the way the old PC operated?

And why is it that no matter how good the built-in mechanisms for migrating all that stuff get, when it actually comes to it there is always some reason why you can't use them, or they don't quite work right, or they strategically omit the one thing that you absolutely have to have?

And why is it that having just gone through all of this with one PC, be it at work or at home, you then immediately start looking at all the other PCs you work with and start thinking, "Hmm, I quite fancy an upgrade..."

?

#37: "White Knight, Black Swan", by David Gemmell (the new candidate for book of the year)
#38: "Up the Faraway Tree", by Enid Blyton (a book from The List)
#39: "Winnie the Pooh", by A.A. Milne (a book for Funsize; a book from The List)