Hurricane Ridge

With the nice weather we're having - and with no idea how long it is going to last - I decided to take a day off work and took an afternoon trip to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  The views are spectacular, so this place gets busy - so not a bad idea to go on a weekday.  Took a walk up the Hurricane Hill Trail whilst I was there - I can just about cope with the elevation gain when you're soaking in the kind of views you get here.  Highly recommended - I plan to come back here again before the road up here closes for the season.

Note: I couldn't get this video to work when viewing the blog from my iPhone, but it does seem to work from my laptop.

GoT S7E3

I'm writing this in the minutes after having just watched the latest episode - and this was very much an episode of getting characters together.  John and Daenerys, Sansa and Bran, hilariously Euron and Jamie.  The pieces are coming together now - and I enjoyed this episode, though doesn't look as though they had much of a budget to spend on the Battle of Casterly Rock and the Battle of Highgarden!  The dynamic between John and Daenerys was "interesting" to say the least, and RIP to The Queen of Thorns - a characters whose withering put-downs will be missed, but at least in her last few words she managed to let Jamie know that it wasn't Tyrion who killed Joffrey.  These episodes are, to no ones surprise, starting to fly along and it doesn't allow much time for whimsy and meandering - which is sometimes a little bit disappointing, but still the episodes are addictively watchable.  Jeez, we're nearly halfway through these set of episodes - that's tragic.

An Open Letter

Dear Mr Twitter,

Please shut down President Trump's twitter account as it is a disgrace to politics, to America, to facts, and to democracy.

Yours sincerely,

Everyone in the world apart from Vladimir Putin

Summer Picknick

Today was our annual work summer picnic - or, in other words, an easy day of slacking off work.  I don't even know why I bother going - it's more for families, and just awkward and boring if you don't have kids.  It was held at the same place as last year - on the shores of Lake Sammamish - and I did more or less exactly the same as last year: show up, grab some food, wander round and say hello to a few people, go home early.  There are some activities, but again mainly for kids.  What I like least is that it's very cliquey - the Chinese stick together, the cool kids stick together, the people who work together stick together, etc.  Because I don't work directly with anyone in my office I don't really have anyone to hang out with, so I don't stay long - my lack of confidence and inability to make small talk to people who I see at work but don't interact with is frustrating...  

Repeal and Replace, or not

What an absolute disgrace the Republican Party is at the moment - the way they are trying to shove through any healthcare bill they can, regardless of the consequences it will have on millions of Americans (and, ironically, the Americans who will be affected most are those who voted Republican).  For a party that controls Congress, the manner they are going about it is disgusting and desperate - no doubt egged on by a President who is desperate to take attention away from his own troubles.  Even within their own party, they are utterly incapable of satisfying both the moderates and far rights - hence this horrible stripped down bill that satisfies nobody and only creates more uncertainty.  The fact that they've tried to develop the bill behind closed doors just goes to show how shamed and/or embarrassed they are about it.  As someone who gets their health insurance through work, it doesn't really impact me directly - but that's not to say that my situation could easily change down the line.  But for a party that that protested against Obamacare so vehemently, it is sad that they are totally incapable of coming up with a suitable replacement.

East of I-5

I don't normally go the other side of I-5 from work on my lunchtime walks - it's predominantly uphill with a daunting stair climb once you go under I-5, whereas it's much easier to stick to the flat paths around Lake Union.  However, I still do take the occasional wander uphill for some different views.

History

It’s going to be fascinating to see how history will judge Donald Trump’s presidency.  I’ve been watching this documentary called America in Color, looking at American history from the 20's through to the 60's via film that has recently been converted to color.  Early to mid 20th century history is fascinating to me because it is so recent and just about relatable, and unless you were directly affected by any of the key events then you probably didn’t really appreciate the kind of history you were living through.  That’s what makes this current time so interesting – we are clearly living in an era of Trump and Brexit that history scholars will look back on for decades with so much to discuss and analyze.  Is this just a blip, or the start of major changes in world politics and world dynamics?  And in my 40 years, what kind of history have I already lived through?   Clearly the advent of the internet, along with electronic communication and the prevalence of mobile phones, has had an enormous impact on our lives – but is the internet the defining invention of our time?  Certainly we’ve had our fair share of historical events – think Falklands War, 9/11, the first black US president.  But perhaps the internet is the one that has changed our lives the most.  But Trump and Brexit have highlighted massive divisions within our society – economic, generational, regional divides that may never be fully healed -  and in Trump, a new kind of president who is temperamental, petty, elusive and not ashamed to make all kinds of false and misleading statements.  I believe a Game of Thrones quote is “a true history of the world is a history of great conversations in elegant rooms”.  The White House may have elegant rooms, but Donald Trump doesn’t strike me as being able to hold a great conversation, so what will history make of him?    

GoT S7E2

Needless to say, SPOILER ALERT.


I’ve had a night to reflect on this episode, and despite a surprising and intense sea battle, this was definitely underwhelming.  Some of the dialogue was  beyond mediocre – the “foreign invasion” line being a particular low point – but this episode also sadly featured too heavily on characters that were underdeveloped and I couldn’t care too much about.  There was no emotional impact in seeing some of the Sand Snakes getting killed.  And Euron Greyoy is just a pantomime villain – a Jack Sparrow type with too much eyeliner and a lot of bloodlust.  And as for the unnecessarily long and gratuitous sex scene between Grey Worm and Missandei – the less said the better.  Probably the best part of the episode was Theon’s choice to jump into the water at the end – that felt like the right choice that the still-traumatized Reek would make.  I expect some needlessly prolonged torture in upcoming episodes for those who survived the battle – I assume Ellaria will be Euron’s gift to Cersei, but I also assume that Yara was kept alive.  Joy.  It was also somewhat inevitable that Tyrion’s big plans at the start of the episode had already turned to sh*t by the end.  What else: after memorably killing all the Freys, Arya’s screen time has been a total waste of time and just an excuse to include a celebrity cameo and catch up on a couple of minor characters (Hot Pie and her direwolf Nymeria – she’ll probably meet Gendry in next week’s episode).  Cersei is clearly the “Donald Trump” of Westeros – the memes I’ve seen of her wearing a red baseball cap saying “Make Westeros Great Again” are  so right.  And why oh why would Jon Snow lay his hands on Littlefinger and threaten him – this was exactly what Ned Stark did and look what happened to him.  And finally, it is interesting to see what is going on with Sam and Jorah – the screen time dedicated to this had better have a good payoff.  With so few episodes left, the tempo of Game of Thrones has clearly ratcheted up – a big sea battle and it’s only Episode 2! – but still so many loose threads to tie up and nowhere near an end in sight.    

North Cascades National Park

Took an impromptu afternoon road trip to North Cascades National Park.  Or, more accurately, North Cascades Scenic Byway - which goes across the Cascades mountain rage and closes over winter.  It's about a 2/3 hour drive north of Seattle, but the relatively long drive is worth it because it's a very scenic road and some of the views are fantastic.  I could have stopped at tons of pullouts and took a load of photos, but this time I just stuck to 2 of the main viewpoint areas and took a very brief walk to a mosquito-ridden alpine lake (note to self: must remember to pack some bug spray in my car!).  I'm sure I'll pass this way again, as its the only main road crossing the state to the north.

Meadowdale Beach Park

An early morning hike in Meadowdale Beach Park today.  This is a popular trail - it appears in virtually all of my books of hikes in and around Seattle - and is only about a 20 minute drive away from my place.  It's one I've done before a long time ago, and I remembered that you have to time it for the low tide in order to be able to access the beach.  It's not particularly long at only about 3 miles round trip, and it's quite a pleasant walk that goes downhill through some nice forest before you go under a railway track and you reach the beach and the views looking out over Puget Sound.  However, the first 1/2 mile of the trail is very downhill, which makes for quite an intense workout heading back up to the car.  And it's busy.  I got there about 8 am, thinking it wouldn't be too bad at that time, and the parking lot was already full and I was thankful to actually get a spot.  And I didn't care much for the other trail users - I wasn't expecting to see so many Chinese, who exhibited the same annoying habits they do in my workplace (think loud, obnoxious and disrespectful - I even saw a Chinese woman going to toilet in the outdoors, even though there was a restroom just 50 yards away from her at the end of the trail), plus my pet peeve (literally) - dog owners taking their dog off the leash when they shouldn't do.  But even on a cloudy morning, it was a good way to start the day.

Snooker Loopy

I’m now the proud owner of a 6 foot pool table!  Something I’ve been wanting for some time, and now finally I live somewhere with (just) enough space to justify shelling out on it.  It’s not full size (which I think is 7 foot?), but it’s as big a portable table as you can get, and the Amazon reviews are good.  It got delivered early this morning, and I had a friend round this evening to help set it up (he got my mini 4 foot pool table in compensation!).  Things are a little tight in the room so I might need to rethink my furniture arrangement, but so far so good.  I wasn’t aiming to get this until after summer, but I was tracking the price of the table on Amazon (since it seemed to fluctuate wildly) and on Amazon Prime Day it actually came down by $100 so I pulled the trigger and here we are.  It is probably better suited to being in my 3rd bedroom, but I have it set up in my downstairs family room where there is plenty of space.  Since I’m living alone, I have no qualms about turning my entire house into one big man cave!  Next on my wanted list – a pinball machine! (no chance – since they cost the same as a new car….)    

Scorchio!

We have now gone over 30 days without any rain in Seattle.  This is unprecedented, at least in my time here.  And even better, most of those days have actually been sunny rather than overcast.  This is a massive turnaround from the relatively cold winter and very wet spring.  I’ve probably worn shorts more often than any other summer in the NW so far, and it’s not even the end of July yet.  It’s also making me feel very disappointed with myself for not making the most of the nice weather and hitting the big touristy spots this summer yet – think Mount Rainier, Olympic National Park, etc.  Some stuff I want to save until later in the year, but I definitely need to go to those high elevation viewpoints whilst I can.  It’s that time of year when I think about taking a sick day on a nice day in order to take a mid-week trip to one of these places and avoid the terrible weekend crowds.  It could be argued that this is very dishonest and very unprofessional of me, however I don’t think this is cheating the system per say since I think of these as mental health days.  And this job and this workplace is killing my mental health.  I’ve already skipped an afternoon at work this week in order to go watch Baby Driver at the cinema, and I’m sure I’ll do that again soon in order to watch Dunkirk on the big Imax screen.  It’s not my fault that I haven’t been given enough work to do, or enough work that I feel passionate about or engaged with.  So I shouldn’t and don’t feel guilty about pulling a very occasional sickie – and I certainly don’t do to the extent of many other people.

La Lumbar

A current fad at work seems to be getting a “sit/stand desk system” installed in your cube or office.  This is essentially where you make the height of your desk electronically adjustable so that you can switch between working sitting in your chair or standing up.  I’m sure there is some bogus article to imply that there are health benefits to doing this  – but I’m terribly old-fashioned so I won’t get the upgrade.  I don’t doubt that prolonged sitting is not good for you, and I definitely have a habit of slouching in my chair which is probably awful for my posture, but at least I make sure I often escape my desk to walk around and stretch my legs and back, so I think I’m doing OK (I haven’t suffered any back pains for quite some time now).  I’m getting fairly stubborn like that – everyone at work now has a laptop, and I am probably the only person who refuses to take home my laptop every day.  I will not work from home unless I absolutely have to.  I would however get a “treadmill desk” if work offered that – that would seem to be the next logical step up from a sit/stand desk.

Sad Uncle

When you don’t have any children of your own, you appreciate the time – no matter how brief – that you are able to spend with any young nephews or nieces you might have.  This is definitely one of the things I miss most in the US, and one of the things I enjoy the most when I go back to the UK.  I don’t think I’d make a good father so I’m happy to have the lack of responsibilities that a silly uncle has.  I still don’t have any strong desires to have any children of my own – probably for the best, as there is absolutely no possibility of that happening anytime soon – but that isn’t to say that I don't sometimes feel sad that I don’t get to experience the joys of parenthood, particularly in that post-toddler stage.  I definitely do feel sad being so far away that I don’t get to be as close to my nephew and niece as I’d like, and I don’t get to partake in family gatherings, excursions and suchlike.  And when you don’t even have regular contact over Skype, no matter how good a reason that might be, it makes one feel very forgotten and/or ignored and you can’t help but take it personally.  I know I come across as somewhat cold and repressed, but I like to think that inside that hard shell is a warm heart with a lot of love to give and receive, but which can also be hurt.  I haven’t been a particularly good son, grandson or sibling – so it would seem unlikely I’ll make a good uncle either, but I definitely don’t want to be a stranger.  

So true...

WINTER IS HERE!

Finally, after a far too long wait, Game of Thrones is back!  In the age of streaming, it is the last great event TV show of our generation.  Here is what I made a note of from the first episode of the last series (which is probably much better suited to the medium of Twitter - oh well...!):

- The Great Game
- Pre-opening credits slaughter!  Tone setter
- Oldtown in credits - significant?!
- White Walker giants!  Yikes.
- Lyanna Mormont - the best
- Sansa Stark - the worst
- Cersei + Euron = Predictable
- Euron's priceless gift?  Internet speculation alert
- Samwell montage ridiculous.  Comic relief?
- JIM BROADBENT!!!!
- Brienne + Tormund = more comic relief
- Ed Sheeran?!  F*ck off.
- The hound has a lot of remorse
- Jorah apparently hasn't found a cure for grayscale yet
- ... and Daenerys is home

Good episode - nothing totally mind-blowing, but nicely setting the stage for what is to come (which I hope is a lot!)

 

Brier

Went for a walk around my neighborhood - Brier - today, and came to the conclusion that I like it.  It's a quiet, undeveloped, green neighborhood - where properties are on large lots and spread out, and never go higher than 2 stories - no huge apartment communities or soaring apartment buildings here!  It's the kind of place where the roads have no sidewalks and there are no bus routes that come here, so it's very peaceful and very pleasant and you don't encounter homeless or crazies like I do walking around work.  I think the local school has a good reputation, so it seems like a good place to raise a family.  It's unusual to find this kind of place so close to all the rampant growth in and around Seattle - I think there must be restrictions to limit growth and development here.  Brier high street has a small corner shop, a pizzeria, a coffee stand and a nail salon - and I think that's about it.  Very low key!  Dare I say it, I probably also like it here because it's one of the few remaining neighborhoods close to Seattle area that is still predominantly white and not taken over by Indians or particularly Chinese.  Just saying.  And I was looking at some house prices here, and it seemed surprisingly affordable.  I went for a random walk and ended up finding the various parks nearby (incidentally, some of which may warrant further exploration since I think they may contain geocaches!).  And I happened to come across a huge memorial/cemetery/graveyard area nearby which I had no idea was there.  Definitely need to explore more to see what else I stumble upon.

Best Places to Live in America

Jeez, I’m suffering from yesterday’s excursions today.  I’ve got blisters on the back of both my feet, where my walking shoes apparently didn’t fit me very well, and I’m also really sore.  And again, I didn’t get the kind of quality night’s sleep I really need – is that part of getting old, or just me?  But at least it meant that I was up early enough to watch most of another mountain stage in the Tour de France – by far the best stages, especially as it is surprisingly close this year.  Good to see some competition – though that suspicion that they’re all on some kind of cocktail of drugs or blood transfusion regime still hangs like a cloud over the top riders.  The time trial on the penultimate stage of the tour could be very interesting.

I came across a list of 2017 Best Places to Live in America today.  Unsurprisingly, the list was bewildering.  Austin was No. 1.  I hated Austin.  Seattle was No. 5.  Come on now, Seattle should be plummeting down the list with all the development, traffic and increased cost of living.  And, perhaps most shocking of all, San Diego didn’t even make the Top 20, coming in at No. 22.  That is just farcical.  Perhaps they are attaching too much importance to the fact that San Diego have lost their (American) football team (the Chargers start playing in LA this year) and their baseball team just plain sucks.  But Austin doesn’t even have any professional sports teams?!  And it’s too hot for most of the year.  Yes, it might be cheaper to live in Austin but now I think Seattle is more expensive to rent than San Diego and Seattle doesn’t have the beaches or the climate.  What a subjective load of nonsense.  

UW

An interesting day today – it was a team-building event that consisted of kayaking.  I didn’t want to go kayaking, so in silent protest I made alternative arrangements (since I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to skip work!).  Firstly, I thought about taking an impromptu trip to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  I was going to get up early (like really early – 5 am!) in order to get the first ferry to the Olympic peninsula and then head up to Hurricane Ridge sometime not long after sunrise.  However, I declined to do this because I had got up early the day before due to an early teleconference and so didn’t really have the energy, and also the forecast was partly cloudy rather than sunny and I didn’t want to play the odds.  This proved to be the correct decision, as this was the view at Hurricane Ridge when I would have been there:

This is what the view should look like (it is spectacular, the webcam picture here doesn’t do it justice, and there is a chance I might head out there this weekend instead to get some good photos).

So, instead I headed into work then promptly took off to do one of my Seattle walks – this one round the U District and University of Washington campus.  This had the advantage of going past the place where the kayaking event was being held – so I could hopefully time the walk so that I was at the kayaking place to join my colleagues for lunch (which was also the correct decision, because even though not many people went kayaking almost everybody was there for lunch).  And it was a walk I had never done before and have been meaning to do for some time – I've never been to the campus, and only to the U District once (one of the few places where there was a shop I could get a British-sized passport photo!).  It was a 4.5 mile fairly level walk, plus an extra 3 miles it took to walk to and from work, so I ended up getting a fair amount of exercise today (and helping my weekly step count immensely!).  The U District isn’t much to write home about – lots of cheap places to eat but lots of homeless and crazy people in the neighborhood, although it was interesting to go down a road where all the frat houses could be found, the kind of places you see in American films/tv shows of partying student life (I suppose my first year at university in an all-male house was about as close to being in a fraternity as possible in the UK).  The university campus itself was quite nice.  It’s a big, busy, green campus and probably a good place to study (if you don’t mind the seemingly inordinate number of Chinese students walking around and presumably studying there) – perfectly pleasant, but not really photographic or historic like the superior British universities (there might have been good views of Mount Rainier if it wasn’t so cloudy this morning).  I took a few photos, but nothing too special.  And I’m absolutely knackered this evening – so hopefully I’ll finally get a good night’s sleep tonight!

British Understatement

A recent American article I happened to encounter on the web recently: what British people say versus what they really mean.  This is the kind of subtlety that will never be picked up by any manager of mine here (even more so when English is not their first language).

“Another cup of tea?” = “Give me more time”
“That is a very brave proposal” = “You are insane”
“Maybe” = “No”
“He’s very smart” = “He’s very upper class”
“You look amazing” = “Is your outfit a good idea?”
“Could we consider some other options?” = “I don’t like your idea”
“I hear what you say” = “I disagree and do not want to discuss it further”
“With the greatest respect …” = “You are an idiot”
“Let’s keep in touch” = “Most likely we’ll never see each other again”
“Let’s meet for lunch tomorrow at 1pm” = “I really will see you tomorrow for lunch”
“That’s not bad” = “That’s good”
“Quite good” = “A bit disappointing”
“I almost agree” = “I don’t agree at all”

Podcast Update

A quick update on the podcasts I'm currently listening to - since radio is dead, or at least dying: Pod Save America, My Dad Wrote A Porno, 30 For 30 Podcasts, U Talkin' U2 To Me?, Crimetown, Russell Brand on Radio X, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, High and Mighty, My Favorite Murder, Doughboys, No Such Thing As A Fish, Uhh Yeah Dude, The Adam Buxton Podcast, The Bugle, Hollywood Handbook, Harmontown, Comedy Bang Bang, How Did This Get Made?, The Frank Skinner Show, Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, Answer Me This, The Complete Guide to Everything, The Smartest Man in the World.  That's a mixture of comedy (British and American), true crime, and current affairs - definitely left-leaning politically.  Perhaps that has consciously or subconsciously helped influence my political viewpoints (the aural equivalent of The Daily Mail?!).

I'm actually surprised there isn't a decent James Bond podcast - it seems like there are about a billion other different niche, frivolous and unnecessary podcasts.  I've downloaded a few episodes of a podcast called James Bonding, but it doesn't look as though it has been updated much recently.

On The Move

Today was the first day of our annual “On The Move” challenge at work, where we record the number of steps we take each day for 8 weeks.  Having won a prize last year, naturally I am participating this year as well.  What will this mean?  I’m already doing a lot of weekday activities through a combination of lunchtime walks, evening walks and ping pong – so maybe I might make them a bit more intense.  But, in particular, I want to focus on the weekends where I’ve generally been pretty lax recently in getting out and doing/seeing stuff through a combination of feeling lousy and feeling indifferent.  This will change – I need to step up my weekend activities (which will hopefully also mean me being able to post more photos).  Especially if I want to target an average of 15,000 steps a day.  That’s a tough but achievable target, especially if it stays as dry as it has for the last few weeks – though ideally a touch cooler for that perfect walking/hiking weather.  Not a good start because although I've done over 18,000 steps today it feels like I've strained a leg muscle already on my first day...

House Woes

Today was a disturbing day of bad omens and unwelcome occurrences.

1) Firstly, I woke up to find the cute rabbit who had been living under my porch dead on my driveway.  Sad.  I'm not sure of the correct way to dispose of a dead rabbit (I'm not the kind of person who picks up roadkill), so I just chucked it into the undergrowth where I wouldn't have to see or deal with it.  I feared the coyotes might have been in the neighborhood again, but later on I saw a falcon in the vicinity of where the rabbit had been (which was kind of cool) - probably confused as to what had happened to its kill.

2) Secondly, I did some washing and found that one of my loads came out of the dryer stinking of marijuana.  I haven't touched this drug for quite a while (even though it's perfectly legal in Washington state), so I've got absolutely no idea how that smell permeated my washing - and just affected this one load because I didn't smell it again in subsequent loads.  I suspect either one of my neighbors or my landlord's son may have sneaked a quick smoke somewhere in the vicinity of the vent to my dryer - which is a bit disturbing, if implausible, but I don't have any better ideas.

3) Thirdly, and finally, I was watching a film and I could hear what I thought was some weird noise from my right-hand side speaker.  But then when I paused the film I could still hear this slight buzzing noise.  After considerable confusion and investigation to find the location and cause of the noise, I have discovered that I have a bee infestation and that the sound is actually the sound of bees behind the wall corner in my living room.  My, I've never had to deal with that before in rented accommodation - so hopefully my landlord will quickly fix.

The joys of living in a privately-owned house instead of a corporate-owned apartment.

Bites

My body is absolutely ravaged by insect bites.  Every summer it seems.  I've probably got the kind of sugar-heavy cholesterol-heavy blood that insects absolutely love.  And I haven't even been hiking in any particularly insect-prone areas recently, though I've got the bug spray if I need it.  Definitely know its summer - what with insect bites and sunburn (my nose is somewhat red at the best of times, but it has seen too much sun recently and is currently even redder much to my chagrin).  And I will probably get even more insect bites than normal this year simply because I now live somewhere where there are more insects - I've already had to deal with way too big spiders in my house.  I am definitely not a good ole country boy.

Seconds

#2 in my series of American candies:

A classic - Red Vines.  In the absence of Fruit Gums, this is my go-to road trip snack.  Chewy, red licorice sticks that don't taste anything like licorice.  They are superior to their obvious competition - Twizzlers.

Also,

#2 in my Game of Thrones predictions: amongst the bigger battles, I expect some serious intra-family conflict: Sansa vs Jon and Cersei vs Jaime.

Tour de France Thoughts

Surprisingly I haven’t watched ANY Wimbledon games so far, yet I’ve been following the Tour de France quite religiously.  Curious.  Some Tour thoughts:

-          Do I think Sagan deserved to get kicked out of the Tour following that crash with Cavendish?  Probably not – it looked like Cav was going full speed into a gap that wasn’t really there, but Sagan sticking that elbow out made the crash look even worse than it probably was.  And boy, was that a nasty looking crash – seeing Cav topple into the barriers then those 2 other cyclists go head over heels over Cav’s prone body.  Ouch.

-          Get the massive impression that everybody – the fans, the competitors, the organization – hates the Sky team and Chris Froome.  Too dominant, too controlling, too "clean" – could make the mountain stages underwhelming if you just have this train of Sky riders setting a big pace and letting all but the elite cyclists drop off the back of the peloton before Froome attacks.  I hope not, it would be good to have a competitive race for the yellow jersey.

-          I still see some images of those idiot supporters running alongside the leaders on those mountain stages.  I thought they were going to stop that after the debacle last year when they caused Chris Froome to crash and run up the course?  I hope they are able to better control the crowds on the big mountain stages – they are an absolute nightmare.  If someone threw some dirty water at me or started running alongside me in some ridiculous fancy dress, I don’t think I would be able to keep my cool.  More police, more barriers.

-          I like having my breakfast whilst watching the end of each stage, but for the love of god NBCSN (the broadcaster here) PLEASE do an abbreviated highlights show of each stage at the end of each day rather than this bloated 3 hour snoozeathon that I end up recording and fast forwarding through apart from the few moments of action (normally a crash or just the last 10 minutes of the race).

-          The US coverage uses the same commentators as the UK – Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.  I hate to say this, but Phil Liggett is starting to sound old and way past his prime – seems to be easily confused and prone to getting cyclists’ names wrong.  Reminds me of Murray Walker in the latter days of his F1 commentary.  

-          HBO are airing Tour de Pharmacy this weekend, a mockumentary of doping in the Tour de France.  It’s got a good cast (and oddly Lance Armstrong also appears), so although the topic is an easy and obvious one to spoof I will watch.  If you ever saw 7 Days in Hell, a similar mockumentary on Wimbledon from a few years ago, then I expect something similar.  That was incredibly stupid but mildly entertaining, so expect the same again.  

Door Stopper

I wanted to buy a door stopper and I could easily have just bought a cheap plastic wedge (or even maybe nicked one from work!).  But nope.  In keeping with my preference for slightly quirky household items, here is my new door stopper...

Happy Independence Day!

In celebration of American independence, I shall not be setting off any fireworks (especially during daylight hours - which seems obvious, but doesn't seem to hold people back).  Instead, I shall be shedding some light on a little known phenomenon - the nice-tasting American "candy".  First in the series:

The 100 Grand - a thick, chewy, filling feast.  Delicious.  Nearest British comparison - the Lion bar.

 

Pre-4th July

It's kind of weird that 4th July is a holiday, but it happens to lie on a Tuesday this year.  Today, Monday 3rd July, is NOT a holiday.  So, unsurprisingly, hardly anybody was in work today.  I was thinking of also taking a holiday - but I guessed that we would probably get a message from management to say we could leave at midday if we wanted to, and sure enough we got the message and I did leave early without having to use up one of my valuable vacation days.  Normally, the weather here is pretty grotty  for the 4th July fireworks - but it looks like tomorrow might be much nicer.  The Seattle fireworks take place over Lake Union, so I'm tempted to go to the office and watch the fireworks from the office roof - but I'm not sure I fancy the hassle of having to be at the office really early before they close all the roads and then brave all the crowds and traffic after the fireworks finish.

The Final Frontier

President Trump on space - "the next great American frontier"

President Trump - "At some point in the future, we're going to look back and say, 'How did we do it without space?'"

President Trump - "There's a lot of room out there, right?"
Buzz Aldrin - "To infinity and beyond."
President Trump - "This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We don't really don't know. But it could be. It has to be something, but it could be infinity, right?"


Good grief.

Batman vs Superman

This is about a year late, but I happened to watch Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice today, and I didn't think it was nearly as bad as I expected and feared.  It was critically panned at release, but I would say it was no worse than any of the Avenger films.  Yes, it is far too long and has a terrible portrayal of Lux Luthor (the actor who portrays him - Jesse Eisenberg - is one of those stars who you would willingly and gladly punch in the face), but it is perfectly watchable.  Unfortunately, it will always be compared to the far superior Christopher Nolan Batman series.  Incidentally Nolan's next film - Dunkirk - comes out later this month - if the reviews are good, that might warrant a rare foray to watch it on the big screen.