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.