I did not have to hide today

Yesterday was the Arsenal game. I was concerned before it, Spurs have won lots of games and even if they had not, it is the North London Derby. It looked close at first, though I would say we had the upper hand until the second equaliser, which I know sounds strange, but we were the better team, but only just. Once Spurs got their second goal, we did not play as well. Passes were overhit and we did not take advantage of the number of Spurs players who were on yellow cards. Ultimately, I would say that overall, Spurs were the better team after our drop in performance.

They played with discipline and I have to be honest, I do not think that we will be celebrating St Totteringhams day this year. At least with a draw, I do not have to hide from the Spurs fans at work! 

Ruins

This film bombed at the box office. I liked it. I think that I would not have minded paying to watch it at the cinema as well. I have not watched much horror, but I need inspiration for my role playing adventures and this is a plot that I might use.

I watched it when my wife and daughter were out for a meal. My son has gone to a sleepover, his second in both a month and since he has been at his secondary school. My wife had not been feeling that well in the day and had rested in bed. While I had a big lunch, my daughter and her were understandably hungry so went out for a meal together, which is when I watched it (my wife is not a fan of horror).

I thought that the film was put together well, that the plot was sound and it had decent acting, direction and characters. I would recommend it to others, and I might even watch it again in the future. I am surprised that it did not do better when it was released, but if you have Netflix in the UK, it is worth watching. Just not before you eat dinner. 

If you have watched it, these deleted scenes will make sense. Do not watch them. That is assuming that this video is still available when you read this post. 

Colchester comedy

My wife and I went out to watch live comedy in Colchester. It has been a while since we have done so, the Mercury Theatre hosting it in their Studio. Last time, we sat right at the front. The same happened again as my wife, when asked what seats she wanted, picked them. Being at the front was not too bad, we were only asked a few questions. What freaked me out was saying my age when asked (though I later changed it to 35 as another man my age said that when asked) but also that the couple behind us were both aged 25, this also being the number of years my wife and I have been married! The picture is from the comedian who hosted it, though if you click on the links, you will see that he took two photos that night.

We both enjoyed it, though we disagreed about which act we preferred, and if this was a better night or not than the previous night we had been out. But it was good to do something different and I need to make more of an effort to ensure that our life has a bit more variety in it. I do hope that the last lady enjoys her caravan stay in Clacton. She will find out why we laughed when she said she was off there after the show! 

The greenest government never

Yesterday the government decided to lengthen the time that our nation is dependent on fossil fuels. 

It has seen how the inability of Starmer to tackle issues such as ULEZ will win votes, and it has decided to put the long term health of our nation at risk for short-term political gain.

Part of the reason that so many people experienced hardship trying to heat homes was the cost of gas, which is partly due to the sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The longer we are dependent on fossil fuels, the more power dictators like Putin and the rulers of the Gulf States have over us.

Action to insulate homes where possible is needed. We need new houses to have solar panels and heat pumps installed instead of boilers. While many say that heat pumps do not work, Scandinavian countries are using them more and more.

British Volt, a company making electric batteries collapsed earlier this year. The government got TATA to invest to build electric batteries. And now, they have decided that we should delay the move away from petrol cars. 

The government have sold this move by making up things that we were never to do. Even if they were to happen, they have been in power since 2010 so only one party would be responsible for this. When it comes to taxes on meat, we have seen how food prices shot up in the last year. I can understand why the government do not want more taxes on flying considering how they fly short distances or use what are in essence private jets for other journeys. It would open them up to charges of hypocrisy. We recycle in our house, we do not have seven different bins to do so. Car sharing should be encouraged, not made compulsory (and I see people do this at my work to pay less on fuel), and the expensive insulation upgrades should be subsidised to help reduce fuel costs.

The government have made immigration an issue by not acting to process asylum applications quickly. They have made issues like gender identity a greater issue than it need be. And now climate is to be the next battle. They have placed a lot of clear green water between them and Labour, and this is a battle they will lose so long as Labour does not fight them on their terms. 

Goats

Making a film out of a book is a challenge.  There ar enuances that you can put in a book, that is hard to put up on screen.  An example of films which were not as good as the books are, surpisingly to many, the Harry Potter books.  Do not get me wrong, the films were amazing, but the books just had so much in them which the films had to leave out.

Goats appears to have been such a film.  Apparently, the book was quite good.  The film, I would say, is average.  It is intersting, but overall, thi sis a film I was glad to watch at home.  There is no real hook into it, and despite some good actors in it, the film is quite bland.  I enjoyed parts, I would not recommend this to others to watch.  Not unless there was nothing else to watch instead.  

The return of Liz Truss

It was amusing to watch a Liz Truss parody video yesterday where the message being spoken was hard to split from the message that Liz Truss has actually said. 

As noted yesterday, I did have issues with the podcast of Rory Steward saying sneakers instead of trainers and elevator instead of lift. But it did provide a reminder of what Liz Truss was like.  I had forgotten the Prime Minister who will be famous in pub quizzes for some time to come.  It was a reminder of how she had been working towards being leader with the photo's that she had taken of her on many occasions. 

I guess it is a compliment to Rishi Sunak that politics has become normal and that parody and reality are now distinguishable. At least until the issue of her resignation honours comes up again.

Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart is an interesting chap.  One of my friends told me ages ago to listen to the podcast The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell.  Now I am walking the dog, I have started to do so (though I also listen to The Newsagents).  Recently, he has been more active, probably because of his book.  But I do like listening to his perspective on things.  I disagree with him, as does Alastair Campbell, on so many issues, but it is great to hear a right wing view on matters which is not distorted by political spin and lies.   

I was shocked when listening to an episode of The Rest is Politics to hear that he used the words sneaker and elevator rather than trainers and lift.  

Today, I have listened to him being interviewed by Ash Sarkar on Novara Media.  I think that both were great on the interview.  I especially like they disagreed agreeably.  If you have time, it is worth listening to.  I am not too sure about how Novara Media have commented on the feedback about the interview, but their interpretation of this is also worth listening to, though obviously, very biased.

For the record, even though Jeremy Corbyn is not anti-Semitic, he was expelled for his comments from Labour for his comments on the EHRC report on this.  And while many say #ItWasAScam, it was not. Corbyn could have avoided all this by instituting the findings of the Chakrabarti Inquiry.