My Year in 2022

We've had a bad run - 2020 was a bad year and ended badly, 2021 was worse but with one massive bright side, but then 2022 was worse again. Thank goodness it's over!

My Year in... Blogging 

I've managed both 120 posts here and 60 on the Imaginarium, so that's good. I'm not convinced of the quality of the output, but that's another question!

My Year in... Work

This one has been a very mixed bag. I'm really not sure what to make of it overall - it feels like there could be a big step forward in the offing, but then I thought that before and it all turned to ash. So for the moment I'll just try to remain optimistic.

The other thing of note is that we have now returned to the office. This has been massively negative for me, as it essentially takes 5 hours out of my week in order to travel to an office where I do all the same things I could at home. This has also had the effect of vastly reducing my contact time with Funsize and Surprise!, which sucks, and has effectly eliminated all of my free time, which sucks more. Unfortunately, it is also the best thing for the team, and so I have to live with it.

My Year in... Health

I was ill twice in 2022, once with Covid and once with some sort of vomiting bug. LC has also had a brush with Covid, while Surprise! in particular has been forced to battle repeatedly with vomiting bugs in the last two months. But we're all still here and all still in mostly good health, so that's all good.

My Year in... Gaming

I wrapped up my two ongoing campaigns in the middle of the year, and then started a new campaign, "Isles of Dread". That's going well, but it is very definitely the final campaign with the current group. It also looks increasingly like it will be my final campaign ever; I'm less than thrilled by what I've seen of the 2024 D&D revision, so am thinking this is a good time to step off.

My Year in... Band

Band resumed again early in the year and has been fairly consistent since then. The band also had a fairly full Gala Day Season, and managed to improve significantly over the course of said season - I put that down to some fool leaving me in charge for a while. We ended the year with one Christmas lights switch-on, which was much more pleasant than the same event last year.

So that's all pretty good, really.

My Year in... Resolutions

As always, the wrap-up of annual goals, and setting of goals for next year, are handled in another post. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for particularly pleasant reading.

My Year in... Travel

This was another year spent entirely in the UK. We had three trips: to Legoland in Easter to celebrate our 10th anniversary, to Fort William in the summer, and then to Alnwick. These were all fine, but I do find I miss the Sun.

Hopefully next year will see us being able to venture abroad again; it has been too long.

My Year in... Faith

Well, we're still there, still going along, and it's all more or less okay.

My main takeaway from this year is a feeling of low-level guilt, if I'm honest - I'm supposed to be responsible for the church website, and the truth is that I've really dropped the ball on that for most of the year. I just haven't had the bandwidth to deal with these things as I would hope.

My Year in... Sadness

This was a big one. In January of this year my gran died, representing the fourth and final passing of one of my grandparents. That generation is therefore now ended. That in itself wasn't too terrible, as it wasn't hugely unexpected and because she had had a fairly horrible last few years.

What was horrible, though, is the effect that this had on the extended family. Those ties were already fraying, and there is now essentially no prospect of there ever being a reconciliation - there's just no real motivation for it. Additionally, there has been another falling out (for reasons that are not at all clear to me) between one sibling and a cousin, which represents another wedge.

It's a shame... but it is what it is.

Also of note was the unexpected and tragic death of one of my former students. That one was devastating, largely because it was so unexpected and so unfair.

My Year in... Love

LC and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in April of this year! It's bizarre - it really doesn't feel like it was that long ago, and yet in that time we've moved house (after a massive ordeal), LC has established herself in her career, and we now have two children. Which all seems fairly crazy.

Parenthood remains a fairly tough challenge, and is at least three times as difficult with two than it was with one - it seems that as soon as Surprise! has recovered from whatever illness he has, he has passed it on to Funsize. She then plays with it for a while before handing it back. And the task of getting them out of the door and delivered to nursery and school before I head to work is the hardest thing in the whole entire world!

Speaking of which, Funsize has now started school, and continues to thrive. That's lovely to see.

So, yeah, that's all good.

My Year... Overall

This has been an incredibly tough year. Reading back, this post really doesn't capture the source of my malaise, nor the grinding slog that I've felt much of it to be. But perhaps that's no bad thing - perhaps it is better to focus on the highlights and try to leave the bad stuff behind. But 2023 really needs to be better, and I just don't see how that is likely to be.

I'm going to sign off for the year now. So, as usual, I shall wish you a Happy New Year!

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: There will be a separate post about the books of the year, but the headline figure is that I fell well short of my goal of 60 books - in the end I completed little more than half that number. I had also hoped to complete The List this year, but that didn't happen either. That's not too bad, though, as I fully expect to finish next year.
• Weight: There has been no movement on this one. I won't be carrying this goal through to next year.
• Blogging: The traditional "My Year In..." post will complete the goal for this year. Additionally, I have posted a full 60 times on the Imaginarium, so this goal has been the shining light of the year.
• Redecorating the Hallway: This one is done, sort of. We got the hallway redecorated, but never got around to replacing the carpet or hanging suitable new pictures. I'm reasonably happy with the outcome, but I do expect that we'll spend some time next year finishing it up.
• Super Secret Goal: I abandoned this goal midway through the year. I'm still not sure whether this was the right thing to do.

So that's that: one resounding success, one middling success, one abandoned, and two abject failures. That's not a great result for the year - it suggests either something went wrong or I simply had the wrong goals set.

My goals for 2023 are somewhat similar:

• Books: My goal for the year is both fairly simple and fairly trivial: I want to finish up The List. Any books read beyond that will be a bonus.
• Blogging: Once again, I'd like to post 120 times in the year. I'm still not setting a goal for The Imaginarium.
• Redecoration: Our refresh of the house remains a long-term goal. In the next year we hope to tackle the painted sections of the bathrooms/toilets in the house. That's not a big job, but it will be good to have it done. We'll also aim to finish up the left over bits of the hallway - the new carpet, and getting some pictures up.

And that's that.

An Alien Mindset

I have, slowly but inescapably, been coming to the conclusion that I am rather weird. The latest evidence for this came while reading the introduction to one of my new cookbooks, in which Tom Kerridge made a comment about most people "going to the supermarket once a week to pick up some essentials" - the upshot being that each day they then look in their fridge/pantry and try to decide what they can make, and what they would like to make, with what they have in stock.

Conversely, my shopping list starts by making a list of the main meals we're going to have, looking up the required ingredients, and then getting those. There aren't very many days when we don't know exactly what we're having for dinner. (Although on some occasions the board says "takeaway" - but that doesn't really count.)

I must admit that I find the other approach really quite strange. Firstly because it must surely lead to times where there really isn't much, if anything, that the person is both able to make and would like to eat. Secondly, because it must surely lead to greater food waste - once bought, a lot of these 'essentials' start to go off, which means either a race to get them used up, or a failure to do so. (Then again, we have our own battles with food waste, largely because dairy, in particular, comes in certain sizes and our recipes call for certain other sizes.)

But I guess that's the point: people think in different ways. And, crucially, it's not that people have different opinions, where they analyse the facts and come to a different conclusion. Rather, people think in completely different patterns, meaning that even if they come to the same conclusion there is no guarantee that they could explain their thinking to one another.

Of course, that's not a new conclusion - diversity has been a big thing, especially in tech, for at least a decade now, largely because of exactly that same reasoning.

"Legend Tells Us..."

Funsize and I were playing a variant of Hide and Seek, where one of us hides a doll and then the other seeks. It's not really blog-worthy, which is why I haven't mentioned it until now.

Except that this time Funsize had a new wrinkle for the game - she had found a wicker mat that LC uses for crafts, and was using it as a map, to provide useful clues. But it was the nature of the clues that amused me, and which provided the title of this blog.

For Funsize unrolled the map, adopted her best Dungeon Master voice, and intoned... "Legend tells us..."

There then followed an entire story with multiple clues and steps, all leading to a villainous mermaid who had stolen the doll and hidden it in her tail.

I have never been more proud.

A Good Christmas

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or as good as circumstances allow.

For us, it turned out to be our best Christmas for some years. Surprise! was a little overwhelmed by it all, and heartily sick of the whole thing by the time we'd unwrapped even only the presents Santa had brought (never mind the deluge at the two sets of grandparents'), but otherwise it was a nice restful time.

One of the key things that made for a better experience was that we elected not to head to my parents too early - instead we spent the morning at home, then went there after lunch (arriving just as they were finishing up). Then we headed to LC's parents in time for the big Christmas dinner.

(One thing is that that's still too late for the kids, but that should ease in future years, as Surprise! becomes less dependent on routine.)

Then we watched the "Ghosts" Christmas special, and that was basically that. A good day.

Boxing Day was also pretty good, doing most of the same things in reverse. But Boxing Day is always a day of chaos, and we've come to accept that.

The Curse of Soft Play

I do not have a happy relationship with soft play.

At the tail-end of the pandemic I attempted to take Funsize to soft play, only to be ripped off - they refused Funsize entry despite her having a valid ticket and then absolutely refused to refund that ticket. Needless to say, I won't be going back there again.

Then, in August, while Lady Chocolat was on an inservice day I attempted to take Funsize and Surprise! to soft play (a different one), only to find that they were absolutely full. There was another session, but that was too late. And so there were tears and recriminations.

Today we took Funsize and Surprise! to the same soft play. This time we had pre-booked tickets and timed our arrival to coincide with the session starting. Huzzah! Except that I've managed to get my car badly scraped all along one side.

That said, it may be that it's that car that's cursed - since I got it, indeed since before I actually got it, it has had one problem after another.

And that said, today has just been a rank rotten day from start to finish. So maybe it's that.

Funny Thing...

Over the few days I have received a couple of emails titled "Royal Mail has your parcel from YOUR ONLINE RETAILER", complete with the mail's trade dress and a bunch of dodgy-looking links for tracking purposes.

So, naturally, I thought to myself, "obvious scam is obvious", not least because I couldn't think of any parcel I was expecting. So I deleted them without going near the links.

Today the postman rang the bell and gave me my parcel. It turned out to be some coffee that I was getting as a freebie after ordering something else entirely.

Useless Days

I find myself in an odd position at work: I finished a big piece of work late last week, I then spent a couple of days on book-keeping of various sorts, and now I have about two days to go... with no clear idea of what to do. It's not that there isn't plenty needing my attention, but it falls into three categories: things that are very much not a priority, big pieces of work (that I don't want to start just before taking two weeks off), and things I can't work on effectively for one reason or another.

Which is a fairly rotten place to end up. But there it is - I guess I'll aim to find something to do, and just hope for the best.

Endlessly Rowing the Boat

It is now taking an increasingly long time to put Funsize to bed. The issue is that, when it comes to the singing of the songs, I have been collecting/devising new verses for "Row Row Row Your Boat", and I'm now up to eleven. As you can imagine, that's a lot of rowing!

(That obviously doesn't include the version from "Blackadder Goes Forth". And it turns out that Wikipedia also has a few variants I haven't considered.)

My favourite so far is:

Row row row your boat, while the weather's fine,
If you see a dinosaur, you've gone back in time.

Though I do confess it's a bit silly. But I like it!

Terminator: Dark Fate

There now follows a review of a not-very-good film from a few years ago. Feel free to skip this one!

Over the past few years, Hollywood has hit on the marvellous wheeze whereby they can make hundreds of millions by retelling exactly the same stories as in the 70's, 80's, and 90's but with a female protagonist. Which is a bit tedious, but is absolutely fair enough - boys had it all their own way for decades, and turnaround is fair play.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to have mentioned to the team behind this film that the scheme doesn't actually work if you already had a female protagonist - in this case, Sarah Connor.

The upshot here is that we have a film that is essentially a retread of "Terminator 2", sometimes looking like a shot-by-shot remake. Pretty much all it has going for it are updated special effects... that somehow are both technically superior but look much more dated.

The film also commits the cardinal sin of the remake (in a manner I haven't seen since "Alien 3") - in an instant, right at the start of the film, it completely negates and trivialises everything that has gone before. Everything that our heroes fought and suffered for is rendered meaningless. Good job.

Beyond that, there's not much to say. It's probably the third-best Terminator film, but pretty much by default. The protrayal of Sarah Conner is genuinely great. But the film is really not worth watching for that - it's two hours I'd rather have back.

Avoid.

Life in the Plague House

It has been a frustrating time. Surprise! has been ill, on and off, for the better part of two months now. Funsize, not to be outdone, has had three short bouts of illness in that time. And now LC, having finished school for the year, has decided to join in. Thus far, I am unaffected... but don't count on that continuing!

Needless to say, this hasn't made for the best experience. November was essentially a write off, and although December has been better, it still hasn't ben much fun. I'm now nearing the end of my year at work, which is a good thing, but my fear is that that will quickly be followed by my own battle with... whatever this is. Plus, I'm just completely worn down, so even if I don't go down with it I'll still be struggling.

Oh well, it can't be helped.

Anticipation Builds

Unless I've forgotten someone, I've now completed my Christmas shopping. Not only that, but I have all the presents in hand, wrapped, and under the tree. I'm only sending two Christmas cards this year (for environmental reasons), and one of these two has been dealt with. All of which means that I have more or less completed all of the things I 'have' to do for Christmas.

I'm now into the phase of Christmas that I really enjoy - the stresses are dealt with, which means I'm now able to just sit back and relax. Maybe with a mince pie.

Huzzah!

(None of that is really to brag about this. The end of November and the first days of December were pretty fraught as I tried to get all this in hand. I'm just noting my preference to get these things done with in a flurry of activity, instead of spreading them out into a longer, but perhaps less intense, period.)

#32: "Scoundrel", by Bernard Cornwell
#33: "Adventures in Zeitgeist", by Ryan Nock

Baking with Funsize #7: Jam Layer Flapjacks

This one came from Nadiya Hussain's latest TV series, by way of the BBC website. (I believe the recipe also appears in her latest book, "Nadiya Bakes Everyday".)

The flapjacks were nice and easy to make, and ideally suited for baking with Funsize. Indeed, unlike a lot of the previous efforts, this one held her attention throughout, which is good.

The flapjacks came out very well. I did make one big mistake, in that I cut the flapjacks too early. In highsight, after they had cooled "completely" I should have moved them into the fridge for a couple of hours before cutting. (I also made up a batch of brownies yesterday, and exactly the same was true there - chill and then cut.)

As anticipated, the end result is very nice - soft and squidgy with just the right sharpness from the jam, and a nice layering of chocolate. Huzzah!

#31: "Shogun", by James Clavell (a book from The List - three to go)

Flush!

When we first moved into the house we had more toilets than people. That has, of course, gradually reversed. However, one of the toilets, the one in the main bathroom, never worked terribly well - the flush was unreliable, and when it did work it was a feeble thing.

I've had various goes at fixing it, with no real success. A couple of months ago I thought I had cracked it - it stopped working entirely, I made an adjustment, and then it worked. Huzzah!

But on Monday it gae up again, this time completely, and this time beyond my ability to do anything about it.

Anyway, long story short, we've had the flushing mechanism replaced, and now it works properly, for the first time since we moved in. Additionally, the new mechanism is a much better design, so the hope is that this one will now keep working rather more reliably than the last.

Huzzah! - for real this time.

Rings of Power review

I really hate it when media that has been pilloried for "woke casting" turns out to be rubbish. Whether it was the female-led "Ghostbusters", the Star Wars sequels, or now "Rings of Power", there was a noisy segment of the internet (and supposed fandom) that reacted to the casting by condemning the whole thing. And since the internet doesn't allow for any sort of nuance, thereafter any and all criticism of the thing gets lumped in with the same racism and sexism that motivates that.

All of which is rather annoying.

Anyway, I finished "The Rings of Power" this week, and I'm afraid it sucks.

In fairness, there is an awful lot to like about the show: the look and feel of it is great, the casting is universally great, and they do a really good job with the material that they are given. Basically, if it wasn't that that material was just rubbish, the show would be great!

The most fundamental issue with the show is quite simply that they're trying to build an adaptation spanning multiple years of TV, but they're basing it on virtually no source material. Not only did Tolkien not actually write all that much on the Second Age, but Amazon only actually hold the rights to the even more miniscule amount in the appendices of "The Lord of the Rings" (plus one or two other specific things). I forget exactly who it was, but some wise person said something about "butter spread over too much bread"... somehow, that all comes to mind here. There's just not enough that happens to justify nine hours of TV, and the notion of many other seasons of this doesn't bode well.

The other fundamental problem concerns Galadriel. I should note that, as with everyone else, the casting here is perfect, and she does a good job with the portrayal she is asked to give. And that portrayal would also be absolutely spot-on... if this was the Dragonlance show and she was Laurana, the Golden General. But this isn't Galadriel, the noted and powerful sorceress. In short, they've turned her into the bog standard badass action woman. Good job, you guys!

The only other thing that really warrants discussion occurs in episode 6, which is the great big set-piece battle of the season. This was clearly their version of Helms Deep, where a small force faces off against much stronger forces, all while others race to their aid. Except that, unlike in Helms Deep, the defenders don't have extensive and impregnable walls around them. By rights, they should be slaughtered. And, unlike in Helms Deep, the reinforcements don't actually know that the battle is actually happening, nor where it is happening, or the need for urgency.

But the biggest issue with the battle is this: at various points the show cuts away from the battle (at night) to the Numenoreans racing to their aid (daytime), and then back to the battle (at night). Just one problem: the Numenoreans are coming from the West, which means that dawn should come to them later than at the battle. Unless, I suppose, they're riding so fast that they literally travel backwards in time.

I'm afraid the whole thing is just so spectacularly stupid as to undercut everything that's good about the episode. And since this was their big set piece... yeah, not good.

And despite that, I fully intend to watch the next season. Unlike "Wheel of Time", I'm sufficiently invested in the setting that I really want to give it a chance to improve. But it's the same as with the later Star Wars films - I'm now going in with increasingly desperate hope rather than expectation. Still, hope is never mere, even if it is meagre.

No IndyRef, ever

The Supreme Court have, as widely expected, ruled that Holyrood does not have the right to conduct an independence referendum without Westminster approval. Most importantly, this does not apply to holding a referendum in 2023; it applies to holding one ever.

The major consequence of this is that the SNP, and other pro-independence campaigners, need to drop any discussion of another independence referendum. That route is dead. Find some other route, and persuade people of it, or give up the fight.

Because Westminster will never authorise another referendum, as they know fine well there's a very good chance that they'll lose it, so that route is done. Whether it is a Tory government or a Labour one, it's done.

Alister Jack: A Quick Thought

I see that Boris Johnson has decided to elevate Alister Jack to the House of Lords in his resignation honours. This has prompted calls for him to be sacked as Secretary of State for Scotland and a bi-election called.

Well...

Firstly, it's a disgrace that we still have a House of Lords. Secondly, it's a disgrace that Boris Johnson (and, I presume, Liz Truss) get to give out resignation honours, given the nature of his departure. Thirdly, it's a disgrace that the majority of these honours are nakedly party political, designed to give the Tories an imbalance in representation in that place.

That said, that's all part of the system, so so be it.

I don't agree with the SNP calls for Jack to be sacked as Secretary of State for Scotland - while he's hopeless in that role, so would be any of his successors. More importantly, there's no constitutional impediment in him filling that role while in the Lords.

However, there absolutely should be a bi-election. The rules are very clear here: you can't be an MP if you're in the Lords. And this notion that he could delay his elevation until the General Election to avoid a defeat for the Tories is a disgrace. If he's going to accept the elevation at all, it really needs to be now, not later, and a bi-election held.

#29: "Firefly: Life Signs", by James Lovegrove 

Return of the Poo

One of the things that I don't recall anyone ever actually telling me about parenthood is that you find yourself spending an inordinate amount of effort considering poo. Is there enough, too much, what about the colour, consistency? Where does it stand on the universal food stuff comparison chart?

Fun times.

Surprise! has been unwell for the past week, suffering from a bout of the same sickness bug that laid low the rest of us the week before. This was an unwelcome surprise, as we'd assumed we got it from him, and so we'd come to the end, only to be rudely disabused of that notion.

The symptoms were fun: first he was productive at one end, then the other. And gradually it all tailed off as he was emptied out. And I think I'll avoid going into any more detail than that.

All of which is a tragic build up to the absolute highlight of my weekend: the return of the poo in yesterday's nappy.

It's fair to say it was not the greatest weekend ever.

Rangers Management Woes 2022

Dear oh dear!

When Steven Gerrard resigned from Rangers last season, it seemed to be immense good fortune that Giovanni Van Bronckhorst was a free agent and willing to come. And the initial results were good. Alas, once we got past the winter break the wheels started to come off - for the fourth year in a row, the league was decided by one team having a meltdown in form while the other went fron strength to strength.

But last season there were a couple of mitigating factors: the signings made in January, that on paper were excellent, proved to be disastrously poor; and the run in the Europa League covered a lot of troubles.

Then there was the summer, a chance to rebuild, and a chance for GvB to really put his mark on the team. Early signs were promising, with the team managing to qualify for the Champions League with some impressive performances.

And then the wheels well and truly came off: a flood of bad performances, a shockingly poor Champions League campaign, poor performances in the league, and now a defeat that may put the league beyond them.

At the time of writing, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst is still Rangers manager. If I waited to post this until tomorrow, there's a decent chance that that would not be the case. Though perhaps that's precipitous - the board might yet give him until the break for the World Cup and then decide.

But I really can't see any way back for GvB or any way to turn this around - he's basically reliant on a collapse from Celtic, which isn't impossible but really doesn't look likely.

I've no idea who they'd replace him with, though.

Experimental Cookery 2022: Cajun Chicken Traybake

This one came from "Jamie's £1 Wonders" show, and was as quick, easy, and cheap as promised - a handful of inexpensive ingredients mixed together in a tray, then stuck in the oven. Also of note was that the rice was cooked along with the rest of the meal, reducing the washing up and also making the whole thing even easier.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, we didn't get the full benefit of the meal - I had to rush mine, while LC was left waiting until it had cooled beyond its best. Still, from what we saw it was nice enough. And, since neither Funsize nor Surprise! had any, we've been left with lunch for today.

This feels like one we'll have again - being quick and easy is a major boon. With a bit of luck at least one of the children, or ideally both, will start eating this. But we'll see.