Glimpsing possible outcomes

 

Here's an interesting story in the FT today. It's a report that summarizes fiscal performance this quarter compared to Q4 2019 (i.e. pre-pandemic) broken down by region of the UK. It shows that the best performing region is Northern Ireland who are almost back to pre-pandemic levels of performance being less than 1% (-0.3%) off those numbers. This compares with say, the North West who are nearly 4% off (i.e. negative) over the same period and the average for the UK as a whole of (-2.1%). Added to this the report also shows that N. Ireland was the only region of the UK whose imports grew in the first half of the year. Of course there are many variables at play here but importantly this region is essentially still in the EU and has preferred access to both the EU and the UK. I do wonder if this is a glimpse into an alternate reality, i.e. where we'd all be if the UK hadn't left the EU at all.

Tuesday Titter

Scary texts to get (from the wonderful xkcd.com) I did get a text once from my Wife (while I was at the office) that simply said "water flowing through the kitchen ceiling", that one caused a little flutter of panic I must say. This was only topped by the text from her that said "she's on her way", received while giving an important presentation to a client in London. The "she" in the message referred to my as yet unborn daughter, and she was indeed on her way into the world! Just as, just after that moment, I was running to find a taxi that would take me back to the Royal Berkshire Hospital from central London, it felt like a movie, can you drive faster etc., cost me £100 in the end but luckily I managed to arrive before the big reveal :) ..

Molé in a holé

Had this little beauty last weekend, it was part of the Caribbean Chocolate series from Siren. A rich, viscous dark beer made with chocolate (cacao nibs) with a light touch of chili delivering a Mexican molé sauce kind of vibe. The heat wasn't overpowering, more like a gentle background glow, probably not something you'd order pints of but an interesting and unusual drink, a holiday season novelty perhaps.

Party season

 

It's that time of year again, the dreaded "Office Christmas Party"! However, with nothing but bad news wafting around at the moment and uncertainty hanging heavy in the air, the prospect of sitting around in a crowded venue with a bunch of people (you don't really like that much) wearing silly hats, drinking cheap Romanian Malbec and even more dried out reformed turkey doesn't really seem to stack up well against the odds of catching the latest variant and ruining your (real) Christmas. I can't help thinking that the pull of yet another rendition of the YMCA song with backing vocals by Tracy from accounts won't be sufficient to lure most socially awkward middle managers into the chill of a December evening from their safe and familiar WFH lairs. I also worry that this latest uncertain phase of the pandemic might mean that our hospitality industries are in for yet another serious beating over the next few months (usually their busiest!).

From the rush of cancellations I've seen so far from our own Christmas shindig, I fear the zeitgeist has definitely shifted over the last couple of days! It seems to have gone from "completely blasé" to "apprehensive". We shall see if that descends into those other familiar British pandemic mental states of "concern" and finally, "panic buying of bog roll", as the science on Omicron becomes better understood and known.

Fruit

Tried a new beer last night while making dinner for everyone, called "Tumbler" it's made by a tiny brewery based in a garage near Reading called "Dolphin". It's a fruit beer and made in a sour style, containing pears and cherries it tasted like an alcoholic fruit cordial, really delightful flavours with a bit of vanilla in the background. Such a balanced and well thought through beer, everything in it's place and really refreshing. Unfortunately the production volumes are miniscule and the beer can only be found at a couple of bottle shops around the local area, this is a shame as it's a great product and by all accounts their range of beers deserves a bigger audience (hopefully expanding into new premises in 2022!). I bet this would be an absolute belter on a hot Summer day, must remember to buy some next year!

 

Peril at sea

 

So, the inevitable has happened, as it always does. 27 people drowned in the Channel on Wednesday, a truly horrific end to an arduous and desperate journey for them. It's time that our politicians (French and English) stopped bickering and behaving like complete bell-ends and collaborate to come up with a robust and enduring solution to this issue. I honestly don't understand why we can't have processing centres (Ellis Island style) either in Calais or Dover (or both) and properly deal with bona fide asylum seekers. Those people who don't have a case or can't prove one should be (after due process) returned to their country of origin (in a reasonable time-frame!). This would both act as a deterrent to the chancers and economic migrants as well as safe passage for those who are genuine refugees. This won't happen of course because certain elements of our population are paranoid about immigration (unjustly when you look at the actual numbers; see 2015 chart below) and the political capital at stake is perceived to be too high for our spineless overlords to ignore. A low point for those people in our country that value human life above all else; there are sensible solutions to this problem, and we don't have to allow anyone and everyone to come here in order to action them.

Friday Smirk

Another good J&M cartoon this week. I guess when you look at reality and life through a certain filter (and perhaps only a single one) it's difficult to stand back and peer around that filter to assess what's really there?

 

Puns (that only work in the UK)

 

I came across a set of shop name puns the other day, most were seriously groan worthy and therefore excellent examples of their craft! A rather obvious one above, in fact hairdressers seem to be quite popular on the pun front, we used to have one in our town called "Hairy Poppins", bought a smile to my face every time I walked by.

Another UK centric example above and a rather dark restaurant example below, I wonder if their menu is suitably made up of Titanic related puns too, I bet iceberg lettuce features heavily!

Here's another example, nothing quite like putting a d-list celebrity's name together with a bastardized version of a word describing what you do and it kind of making sense, a splendid effort!

The next one is fairly good, a play on Post Office but I can't get over the name of the village/town, clearly Northern Ireland somewhere but does that actually say "Ballybogey"?

We seem to like this kind of thing here in the UK more than anywhere else, certainly that I've visited at least! Quite often the puns are quite naughty too, I remember seeing an antiques shop called "Knobs and Knockers" somewhere once, much ambiguity around what they were selling I'm sure!

Midweek Mirth

This has to be peak Waitrose?

 

Modern Life

This is so true, I hate those online meetings where you have to use some weird conferencing tool just because it's "what the client uses" and you don't have a clue how anything works or what the little behavioural quirks are. This is especially true when you have 20 odd people on the call and the variability in quality of the various connections are problematic and some numpty insists on trying to meaningfully participate whilst on their mobile phones in a tube train!

Woko brewing..

My wife and I had an hour to kill while waiting for my daughter on Saturday evening so we decided to try out a new venue in town. Unsurprisingly (for me) it's a new micro-brewery called "The Outhouse Brewery" and is right in the middle of town. This is quite unusual for craft brewers who usually set up shop in the industrial estates surrounding towns so it was nice to be able to easily access the venue. It was crowded for 6pm on a Saturday evening but we managed to get the last two seats in the joint however the vibe was good (actually more like a wine bar than a pub) and there were a bunch of people in who were clearly tasting their way through the various in-house beers via various paddles of beer.

Unfortunately we only had enough time for a quick half opting for a sessionable hoppy ale called "Woky" (see above) which is short for the name of the town (Wokingham) In actual fact the kids all call it "Woko" which I think is a better and more catchy name, missed a trick there I reckon. Bottom line was that the beer was good, and definitely worth a revisit when we have more time, however it wasn't quite up to the (very high!) standard of more established local breweries like Siren and Elusive just yet, but no doubt that will come with practice. I did have a brief chat with the owner and head brewer who told me that he'd been an avid home brewer for around eight years before setting up shop and his brewing kit is right there in the same space as drinking clients which adds interest for us beer geeks. All in all a great addition to the entertainment scene in the town, we shall return!

 

All for #one..

Visual joke, toilet humour and a pun all rolled into one, what's not to like?

 

Autumn Colours

I do love this time of year, some stunning colours on display. Snapped this while walking into town this morning to pick up some bread, just delightful!

 

CCC night..

Guess what I picked up today, gonna be an interesting evening!

 

I didn't vote for this?

Er.., I think it's exactly the Brexit you voted for mate, oh and thanks from the 48% by the way...

 

Astronomy, in the UK..

Yep, that's my experience of astronomy in the UK too..

 

Friday Smirk

Another great J&M cartoon today pointing out that there are very few "new ideas" in the world, most of what we believe and hold dear is built up from layers and layers of previous ideas, experiences and thoughts that have been slightly morphed and twisted at each tier to conform to the current zeitgeist and parochial needs of those evolved apes that happen to be conscious at the point of consumption. 

 

Policy Railroading...

There's been a lot of posturing and equivocation about HS2 (the rail project to create high speed rail links between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds etc.) over many years. There are (rightly) lots of positions and opinions on this project, there's environmental, economic (local and macro), cultural, political and engineering dimensions to consider. I'm broadly in favour of the work. I look at the ongoing investments made by the French in their railway system and am always envious of the speed and comfort that's possible between major cities in France, for example you can get from Paris to Bordeaux in around two hours (2h 15m), a distance of roughly 600 km, the (roughly) same distance in the UK (say London to Edinburgh) would take you around double that time, not exactly something to shout about. The following chart shows the % of high speed track in the major European countries for comparison.

Time is money as they say, but there's also the question of capacity. Living the the South East of the UK as I do, I can testify to the crowdedness of the trains into London. From my local hub it's not unusual to have to stand (cheek by jowl) for the entire 60 minute journey and yet still pay a premium fare of roughly £55 per return journey, all this for a mere 30 miles as the crow flies! The train service for commuters around here is often bordering on inhumane (as well as being a rip-off!) the problem is that the providers know they have a captive market. 

I feel that if our nation is serious about being a good place to do business then, like the French, we need to have top of the line infrastructure that doesn't add to our carbon emissions, and that takes forward planning, investment, compromise and risk, so honestly, I'm not holding my breath.

 

How it's going...

Brexit 2016: Sunlight uplands

Brexit 2021: Would you mind slitting a few pig's throats on your way home from the school run love?

 

Egomaniacs unite

Certainly funny but I can't make my mind up if this is real or a staged joke? I hope it's the latter but estimating the size of the presenters' ego (for example, appearing to give a Nazi salute at the Republican Convention) I suspect strongly that it's the former..

Greatest letter ever written?

 

Polly riff

I must admit, I'm a little bit obsessed with this at the moment too :)

Wet feet?

Interesting modelling/mapping going on HERE the above example is a projection of costal areas that will be below normal flood levels in 2030, that's not long! Clearly there's a lot of variables to consider in making such a projection but the site takes sensible defaults for most things and allows you to tweak them as you feel fit. For example, this map uses a "medium" level of luck and the current trajectory of pollution (i.e. no massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions etc.) What the red areas show are regions that will fall below the predicted sea level PLUS the added height of a local annual flood (i.e. a once per year event) the places aren't surprising but wow, if this is even 10% true there's going to be a lot of wet feet around..

 

Monday Mirth

Tried these two wines, couldn't tell the difference :) 

 

Death by chocolate

Excitement is mounting in my beer appreciation circle over the imminent release of the four Siren Caribbean Chocolate Cake series of beers. This is an annual event and Siren normally throw in a couple of new variations along with a couple of tried and tested standard bearers. This year (pictured above) we have a nitro CCC, a white chocolate pancake stack, death by CCC and a new chilli inspired "Mole" (as in the Mexican chocolate based sauce) version - they're release next week so next weekend will be death by chocolate time again :) 

 

Office life

Been going into the office regularly over the last few weeks, it's OK! Takes a little getting used to but I have a new approach, which is, to walk to the station and get the train rather than drive. This is obviously much more carbon friendly but also gets my daily exercise target ticked off at the same time. Feels like I could get used to it but the true acid test will be in mid-Winter when the sleet is lashing down and the mornings are as dark as a very dark thing, we'll see.

 

Live gigs

Spent an entertaining evening at the Apollo in Hammersmith last night watching Tim Minchin perform a bunch of old and new songs intermingled with his usual story telling and ranting (mostly about anti-rational BS) It was lush! This was the first big audience event that we've been to since the pandemic started so we were a little apprehensive, however, the system seemed OK. Pretty thorough checks for vaccine passports at the doors, airport security and extensive distancing (queuing) to get in.

I seem to remember that the last time I visited the Hammersmith Odeon (as it was then) was to see Toyah Willcox (Anthem tour) in concert (June 1981), which aged 17 felt wonderful. If I'd had a time machine that allowed me to glimpse forward forty years I think I would have been quite surprised how the processes and hardware involved had changed but also how little difference there was in how a live gig feels or works. The picture above shows the empty stage (not allowed to take pictures of the actual gig) but you can see how busy (packed!) the place was and we were upstairs!

 

Friday Smirk

A classic for a rather murky Friday (here in Berkshire). Gary Larson, one of my all time favourite cartoonists finding humour in what is, in reality, quite a dark situation/idea de rigueur for him though.

 

Speed baby..

Lovin this little educational animation on a murky Thursday afternoon, not as fast as you might think?

A human story..

I love the humanity conveyed in this story, it's what makes us.

 

So "Meta"

The technology industry, particularly the software part of it, is often a victim of it's own over-optimism, or as a cynic would say "marketing". How many times have we been told that a culture shattering, life-altering new paradigm is just around the corner only to be underwhelmed by over-hyped rubbish, delivered late. The latest BS is circling around the recent announcement by Facebook that it's renaming it's holding company "Meta" which is short for the "Metaverse" or (essentially) virtual reality software running at a global scale where everyone can interact (assuming you buy the appropriate equipment and licenses) The appeal of this would seem limited to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm always up for the latest idea or gadget but have developed a rather skeptical eye as I've gotten older, things tend to come in cycles and when you've seen previous iterations pass through and die you tend to be able to compare and contrast a little more readily than other less informed or younger enthusiasts. 

Facebook purchased Oculus Rift (a VR headset manufacturer) a few years ago and I suspect this new vehicle is an attempt to get some kind of return on that investment while at the same time distract everyone from the increasingly toxic brand that Facebook is becoming. In terms of software I see nothing new, same old FPS games with ever crisper graphics but little in the way of compulsion. I always thought there would be much more mileage among geeks to have games that involved specific themes, for example simulating the star ship enterprise on a specific mission (i.e. with a goal) and each player having to play a specific role (i.e. navigator or science officer etc.). This strikes me as far more compelling than simply and randomly wandering through a post-apocalyptic landscape blowing things up? Anyway no doubt we'll see lot's of copy-cat "meta" junk in the industry for a few years now, i.e. before it becomes a busted flush..

 

Midweek Mirth

Saw this little meme on the interwebs, it made me chuckle, a case of Terminator vs. Predator?

 

Melting shoes

Spent a delightful evening at a friend's house on Saturday (with a decent bottle of Bordeaux) and for a change we decided to sit outside to admire a newly installed log burning fire. I must say I was skeptical thinking that the chilly November evening would be difficult to ignore, but I was wrong. The fire threw out so much heat we were more concerned about our shoes melting! (see photo above) amazing what a bit of basic air-circulation technology can tease out of some lumps of wood!

 

Victorian pubs

While in London yesterday I noticed that one of my favourite pubs (The Old Red Cow) in Smithfield had closed. Such a shame, I blogged about it back in 2015 after a quick pint there while up in town on business but I've visited many times since then. Hopefully someone with deeper pockets will pick up the lease and continue it's tradition of independent and quality craft and bottled ales, it would be a shame to lose such a cultural oasis of good beer and genuine Victorian London pub vibes.

 

Late train home

Had a company/team event in London yesterday and went out for a few beers with the troops afterwards which turned into a bit of a session, which made a nice change. Finished up around half past midnight and meandered my way over to Paddington station to get a train home. We're really lucky to be on the main London-Bristol line as it means there are trains running throughout the night which is quite rare, most of the local branch lines shut down around 11pm so if you miss the last train it's an expensive taxi ride or a hotel etc. In the end I got home at around 2pm which is pretty unusual these days, luckily I didn't have much on today so I could lay in bed for an extra couple of hours, ah bliss.

 

Friday Smirk

Another excellent J&M cartoon today pointing out the obvious infinite regress that proposing that a God or Gods exist implies i.e. you can always ask what created that God etc. On the subject of how the Universe that we live in came into existence the correct answer is "we don't know" (but we're working on it!)

 

Midweek Mirth

It never ceases to amaze me how people who don't understand technology (particularly software) are taken in by hucksters who simply label things with names that either sound a) cool or b) complicated. Just be skeptical, assume it's absolute crap and be pleasantly surprised (hopefully!)

 

3 years a slave

 

As I've covered in past posts, I use an Apple Watch to monitor calories, workouts (steps) and stands. I passed a cool milestone today, exactly 3 years worth of hitting all my targets every single day (note previous post about absence of illness recently!). Not a single one missed, meaning that for the last 1,095 days in a row every one of my fitness "rings" has been completed, I'm quite pleased about that! 1500 is the next milestone.

Cold free record

It's been a funny couple of weeks, firstly my daughter caught Covid and tested positive, we're pretty sure that she got it from a weekend job that she has at a local primary school, kids of that age seem to be spreading it like wildfire, walking plague magnets that they are. Anyway, she is fine, some mild sniffles and a cough but no more than you'd get from a normal cold this time of year, luckily she's 17 and has had one jab, which I'm sure, combined with her age, has facilitated her mild symptoms.

She started testing negative on Monday this week so she's back to school tomorrow (yippee!) Neither my wife or I have tested positive throughout, despite living in the same house and unavoidably crossing paths and breathing the same air at various points. I felt sure we were going to get it, but fortunately not so far! Although I did have an upset stomach this last weekend and judging by what some people have said about the variability of symptoms that may have been the virus, albeit the testing would say otherwise. 

This state of permanent awareness of our health and that of those around use would seem to be the "new normal", it's quite tedious I must say, however taking precautions (like wearing masks etc.) does seem to have worked exceptionally well for us. Over the last two years I think this weekend was the first illness of any kind I've had, probably the longest cold/flu free period in my entire life?

 

Conspiracy top-trumps

Interesting report of an interaction between a (smart) medical student and a (dumb) antivaxxer, upon being told the reasons why she shouldn't have the vaccination (micro-chips etc.) he suggested that the real reason for antivaxx propaganda was that the Russians wanted to weaken the American population by convincing them not to take the vaccine. At which point she agreed to have it. I guess with some people conspiracy top trumps is a game that needs to be played?

 

Monday Mirth

I certainly appreciated the extra hour in bed this weekend it made yesterday (Sunday) seem extra relaxed.