Churchill

There have been several recent portrayals of Winston Churchill in TV and movies recently - notably an Oscar-winning Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour and John Lithgow in The Crown.  Today I watched the film Churchill, which starred Brian Cox in the titular role.  I haven't seen the others to compare against, but this seemed like a pretty good performance - focusing on Churchill in the days leading up to the Normandy Landings.  I know certain family members of mine took issue with some of the historical inaccuracies in the film Dunkirk, and I definitely wouldn't recommend them watching this film as I think a lot of liberties were taken in this portrayal of Churchill.  I don't believe he was nearly as antagonistic towards Americans, Operation Overlord, Montgomery, and everything/everyone else as the film would make you believe.  I thought the most interesting part of the film was finding out about Field Marshall Smuts, someone who I knew nothing about and who I had never heard of before.  It's those little things and those little details that have really stirred up my desire to become a self-proclaimed expert in some historical event.  Ideally something in the 20th century that I can read and research about.  That would be kind of cool, and maybe give me back some mental stimulation that I've been lacking for a long time.

And yes, I now own a battery-operated fabric defuzzer.  Good grief.       

Quiz Time

In a classic example of getting old, I bought something recently that previously never even crossed my mind as something I would ever need.  Any ideas what it is?  Answer tomorrow.

Opening Day

It’s opening day of the baseball season today.  Whatever.  Of the big sports in the US, I find baseball the most difficult to watch – slow, boring and unsuited to modern times.  Not unlike cricket, but at least cricket has big Australian cheating scandals to capture the public’s interest.  Mind you, baseball is not short of a scandal or two of its own (ahem, steroids, ahem).  Regardless, I shall not be following baseball much this season – not much is expected of either the Seattle or San Diego teams, yet again, and as always most of the baseball coverage tends to focus on just the few teams with big money.  When you see how lame “baseball highlights” are in YouTube videos compared to similar compilations for other sports, it is no wonder that America’s pastime is past it’s time.

Too Much TV

As my DVR capacity has crept up to over 50%, time to make some tough decisions on my viewing habits.  I tried watching the rebooted Roseanne last evening, but couldn’t get through it – in a very similar vein to Will and Grace, I was only an occasional viewer of the original and so the reboot doesn’t hold the emotional resonance or humor to me that it might do with others.  And with the new Spring TV season having started, my DVR is definitely filling up quickly.  There are some high quality programs that I will not drop under any circumstances – such as the last season of The Americans starting tonight – but others I should definitely lose.  For example, Suits is not really that good a program and only worth watching for the curiosity of seeing Meghan Markle, future princess.  There are a number of series with high quality casts but not overwhelmingly positive reviews which will probably end up unwatched on my DVR – such as Trust and The Terror.  I also have a number of films on my DVR that are not exactly must-see.  Thank god I don’t subscribe to Netflix or Hulu, because there are about a billion more critically acclaimed programs to watch there.  And apart from Catastrophe, I haven’t watched any of the series available to me on Amazon Prime Instant Video.  Unequivocally, the TV market nowadays is over-saturated and it is just impossible to watch everything I want to.  I miss the days of the 2000's when there was only a limited number of must watch TV events.  And when, seemingly, I had better things to do than watch mediocre TV. 

Angst

Still majorly unhappy at work.  I’m not sure what is going on with my situation, and it is really stressing me out.  I’ve got one person telling me that I am going to be moving into a different group with a different manager.  But absolutely no mention or indication whatsoever from my current manager that anything is going to change for me.  It’s frustrating, and it’s making me very angsty.  I was told there would be some sort of announcement within a few weeks – and I was told that last week, but nothing yet.  If I’m going to stay in this job, then something does have to change – as I have reached the absolute limit of tolerance with my current manager, who is an absolute nightmare.  But even if I do get a new manager, things may or may not be much better – I’m not going to speculate too much yet, but I may be dropped straight into a Chinese cultural minefield.  Great.  Which is why I continue to keep an eye out for job postings of interest.  Came across one yesterday that piqued my interest – it was a position in Tampa, Florida.  A long way from being an industry hotspot, but a locale I would consider moving to despite never having been there.  I haven’t decided whether to apply – it would be a massive step into the unknown, so I might need some persuading, but that shouldn’t stop me from at least applying?  I don’t know – I don’t particularly want to continue moving from one job to another, and I don’t particularly want to continue moving from one city to another.  Which is why I would be prepared to put all my eggs into a San Diego basket – it’s the one city that I know, I like, and never wanted to leave before.  I still never heard back from the job there that I applied to a while back – which was and is massively disappointing – so I can only hope that another position there opens up soon.  But, sadly, I have no idea how picky I can afford to be nowadays – the gap between applying and actually getting an interview seems to be increasingly widening for me.  Conversely, perhaps I should just take a sabbatical and enjoy life for a few years living off my savings and doing things that I can do without the stress and limits of work commitments?  After all, it’s not like I need to save money towards a college fund for my non-existent kids.

Seatac Growth

Perhaps the growth in Seattle is best represented by the increase in choices of direct flights from Seattle to Europe.  Previously, my only option for a direct flight to London was with British Airways.  Now, there is also Virgin Atlantic and Norwegian Air to choose from.  There is even going to be a direct flight to Manchester through Thomas Cook starting this year.  And previously, the only options for other direct flights into Europe that I recall were Reykjavik (Iceland Air) and Frankfurt (Lufthansa).  Now, there are alternatives to fly into Germany (Condor, Eurowings) and you can fly to Paris (Air France and Delta) or Amsterdam (Delta), and also starting this year is a direct service to Dublin (Aer Lingus).  You would think the increase in competition would result in a decrease in air fares, but of course no chance of that happening – I’m sure the different airlines have some sort of unofficial agreement to keep flight costs artificially high.  All I know is that for a long transatlantic flight, I cannot book an economy seat – just the small extra space of premium economy makes a huge difference (especially for someone like me who is, medically, obese), plus the historically good chance I’ve had of getting a free upgrade.  I haven’t booked my flight back to the UK this summer yet, but hope to do so soon – but I will have to do some proper research rather than relying on price alone.  For example, Norwegian Air probably has the cheapest prices but the smallest seats and the most additional charges – but then they have a “Premium” cabin in addition to Economy so I need to check that out.  To be honest, I like the idea of flying into or out of another city – it gives me an option of spending a few days somewhere else.  If there was a direct flight from Seattle to Barcelona, I would definitely take that.  But since there isn’t, I’m wondering whether I would like to spend a few days in Iceland or Dublin as part of my trip back this summer.  Or not, and just maximize my time in the UK.  Decisions…. something I’m notoriously bad at.  I’ll probably end up doing what I always do and book a premium economy return flight through BA to Heathrow, but we shall see. 

Cult of Personality

Nope, not another post about Trump.  Just a link to a rock classic.

Also - just added a few photos of some cherry blossoms to Tuesday's post.