Christmas Plans (in June)

In a controversial move, I booked my flights back to the UK for Christmas today.  Extremely early, but I wanted to capitalize on potentially cheaper prices with the pound-dollar exchange rate it currently is (currently 1.33 dollars to 1 pound), and also so that I’ve already got the time booked up in my calendar before things inevitably get crazy busy at work and I’m not allowed any time off (I haven’t been busy at all this year so far, but like a massive storm on the horizon you know the work is coming and when it hits it’s going to be absolutely horrible).  I don’t know whether I actually got a good deal (if I get upgraded from premium economy to business – which generally I’ve been pretty lucky with on my past transatlantic flights – then it will definitely be worth it!), but it’s booked now so I’ll be back home for 3 weeks.  Knowing my luck, Britain will somehow contrive to make things even worse than the quagmire they are currently in, and the exchange rate will slip even more and I lose out on an even better deal…  As for what I’ll do when I’m back, I don’t know yet.  I have been toying with the idea of going to Barcelona for a few days but I don’t know whether I’ll follow through with that.  Either way, it will be good to be back and even though it’s a long 6 months away already looking forward to it!   

Last GoT Post Until New Season

Thank you internet meme!

OCD

Got a bit OCD over the weekend concerning my bluray collection and making sure that I had redeemed all my digital copies of films/TV series before they expired.  A completely pointless exercise since I have absolutely no desire to watch any of these digitally with inferior sound and picture quality.  However, got super obsessed with Breaking Bad when I realized a  single episode was, for no apparent reason, not showing up in my digital library.  After being given the run around, eventually ended up in an online chat with someone called “Martin” (not real name, I suspect I was talking to someone in India since I think the chat used a universal translator) at 1 am who eventually added the missing episode to my collection.  A total waste of time, but at least I achieved my goal (even managing to get a digital copy of The Clockwork Orange, even though the redemption code had expired in something like 2012).  Don’t even get me started on the ridiculous nature of digital copies – it seems there is no universal standard, so I can’t have everything nicely saved in one place.  Instead, my digital copies are split between iTunes and something called Flixster Video.  But as I say, I doubt I will ever watch any of these digital copies so really a complete and utter waste of some of my weekend. 

England (population 53 million) 1 - 2 Iceland (population 320k)

Ding ding ding.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.  Ding ding ding.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.  Ding ding ding.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.  Ding ding ding.  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.

It has not been a good week to be English.  This was one of the most disappointing, lethargic, aimless performances I’ve ever seen from England.  It was an embarrassment.  Humiliating.  A disgrace.  I really hate being English right now.

   

Some other miscellaneous observations over the weekend

-          The French national anthem – magnificent.  The Italian national anthem – magnificent.  The English national anthem – absolutely sucks.  We need something so much better.

-          With the exception of the only quality match-up between Italy and Spain, the watchability of the knockout matches so far has been awful.  I think that is generally reflective of the new format of the tournament – with more undeserving teams having qualified and progressed, it has really diluted the quality.  I hope it will get better.

-          The refereeing has generally, and perhaps surprisingly, been quite good so far.  Particularly compared to what I saw in the Copa America final yesterday, which had one of the worst refereeing displays I’ve ever seen. 

-          Everyone talks about the imbalance of the draw – with all the “big” teams in the bottom half.  I don’t have any problems with that whatsoever.  If you can’t win your group (see England and Spain), then that’s the consequence.  Deal with it.  But it does seem unfair that some group winners played a third-placed team, whilst others played a second-placed team – it makes the tournament setup seem flawed.

Game of Thrones S6E10

I'm doing a "live" blog on the season finale!  Not really live because I won't post until after the episode has finished, but I will write down my thoughts as I'm watching.

Some pre-episode predictions: King's Landing is going up in flames, and we will find out who John Snow's parents really are.  Lots of other interesting theories and speculation on the internet as to what might happen - some of them really great and that I do hope will come true.  Hope it won't disappoint!

Interesting, Dorne is back in the opening credits.  I was wondering if they might revisit that thread since the first episode.  Not that anybody misses it, because they weren't exactly the best developed (or best acted) characters.

Very unusual having a score playing during King's Landing scene(s) - I don't remember that before.  It's all going to kick off.  And there we go ka-boom!  Prediction fulfilled.  Jeez, that wiped out all the Tyrells and all the Sparrows.  Wow, didn't expect Tommen to commit suicide...  makes an interesting question of who his successor is.

Ah Bron, one of my favorite characters - you silver-tongued devil!  Jaime and his honor are an interesting combination.  Too much focus on Walder Frey - he is going down.

Hello Sam and Gilly and new location.  Looks like comic relief, not sure you're going to get much action out of a library otherwise.

Glad I turned up the brightness settings on my TV - looks as though its going to be a dark one, especially now we're back to Winterfell.  So the Red Witch has been sent on her way - I wonder whose path she will cross later?

Sansa - "Only a fool would trust Littlefinger".  Amen sister.  I just watched him in another film, and surprise surprise he was a baddie.

Dorne + Queen of Thorns + Varys - nice combo.

"You're in the great game now."  Indeed.  Tyrion - Hand of the Queen.  Nice moment.

Arya!!!!!!!  Another one off the list!  Wow, she is a stone cold killer.  Walder Frey did go down - I thought it might be Jamie, but yes the signs were it would be Arya.

Littlefinger revealed his ambition, and got rejected.  That might be bad for Sansa.

So John Snow is the the daughter of Lyanna not Ned.  As most of the internet predicted.  But conspicuously they didn't reveal the father.  Don't hide it - we all know he has dragon blood.

Little Lady Mormont -  my favorite new character from this series.  You go girl - give it to them.  Though I think Sansa should be Queen of the North rather than John Snow King of the North.

And Cersei sitting on the throne.  And in front of Jamie?  Wow, that's not going to end well.

And token hero shot of Daenerys to end the series.  And there we go.  And another excruciating 10 months to wait until the next series.  Sad face emoji.

Crying

I watched The Good Dinosaur yesterday.  A good, but maybe not great, Pixar film from last year - amazing animation though.  And I'm not ashamed to say, I cried during it.  This is not the first film or TV show that I have got emotional watching recently.  Am I getting soft?  No, just an indication that I am easily prone to emotional manipulation as much as the next person.  And crying is a healthy release.  So, perhaps I am human after all!

Shame

I was prepared to feel shame and embarrassment with my country around this time of the year.  I thought it would be just from our football team.  Instead, it is something entirely different and entirely bigger – a vote to leave the EU.  Am I shocked?  No.  Am I disappointed?  Extremely.  I think this is nothing short of a disaster – we’ve already seen a calamitous drop in the value of the pound (personally, a mixed blessing – very good for when I visit the UK and spend my US dollars, very bad because I still have significant savings in the UK).  When I last exchanged a chunk of my savings from pounds into dollars, the exchange rate was 2 dollars to 1 pound.  Now it is about 1.35 dollars to 1 pound.  That is a shocking decrease.  I think this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the economic impact of this vote - I fear for the future of our country, and I expect to see Britain plunge into a recession now.  I saw a headline saying that the young have been screwed by the older generation – who are the ones who voted in numbers.  I couldn’t agree more.   

I want to share a Financial Times reader comment that I think is doing the rounds on the internet and eloquently sums up the feelings of many:

“A quick note on the first three tragedies. Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded, and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another. Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors. Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said, ‘The British people are sick of experts,’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has led to anything other than bigotry?”