The Gorge

A very disappointing film.  I liked the horror themes in it, how The Hollow Men would come and how the land in The Gorge looked, but that was about it.

The film starts well, but rapidly starts to fail.  Normally, I do not include spoilers in my review, but I am going to have them now so I can get my rant over. The character is dropped away from The Gorge, making their way to the place that they are meant to guard.  But, when there, they have food, and have to work to restock ammunition.  Which leads to the question of how the ammunition gets there.  Somewhere that well stocked will need people to stock it up, which means that they fly the supplies in, and if so, why not fly the replacement guards in.

Also at the end, when the characters escape by getting up the cavern wall, why do the defences not kill them the way they kill The Hollow Men?

There are very few reasons to watch this, and considering that there are much better films out there, watch them instead. 

Who needs a striker?

I should have posted yesterday about how Arsenal may not need Saka as much. Nwaneri is amazing. While I do not think that he is as good as Saka, he is almost as good.  But Saka is 23, while Nwaneri is only 17.  Both should improve as they get older, but Saka has been doing this and while Nwaneri should do the same, Arsenal has seen talent not reach its potential before and I hope that Nwaneri learns from the mistakes of those before him without repeating them.

Anyway, what an awesome result.  For those, like me who missed it, the highlights are on the links below.  I would favour playing Real Madrid in the next round as they are more likely to play football against us, which means we have more of a chance to beat them.

And just for the record, I do think that we need to play with a striker.

This weekend

Yesterday we took my son to London for a treat. He had wanted to go to a particular restaurant there and do some other things. As the restaurant was not dog friendly we had to take Leia to the dog sitter before we left. The drive down was interesting due to fog, but that cleared up when we were in London.

We returned to Maltby Street market and had some breakfast before taking him to the shops he wanted to go to.  We made it to the restaurant in good time and had an amazing meal. We all loved the chicken, but our views diverged when it came to other dishes.  We also got to have an interesting cocktail (mocktail for me) before our lunch.  My Mum was not happy that we did not see her, but there was no time as after Lunch, we took my son to Spitalfields market where he loves to shop.

Today, we rested, though my son was working for his A-Levels. Sadly I have come down with a viral infection so I was  not able to do the long walk I usually do on a Sunday. Fingers crossed that I will be better for tomorrow! 

The failure of diplomacy involving Ukraine will benefit Putin

Well that was an interesting meeting.  The video analysis is one I disagree with in that I think that Vance made things worse rather than was trying to make things better.  It is a shame that so much has been thrown away after Macron and Starmer appeared to get Trump onside when it comes to the conflict.  

I suspect that the consequence of this is that aid from the USA to Ukraine will end.  If this includes stopping Ukraine accessing Starlink, Ukraine will not be able to defend its borders properly.  

We have already seen the US side with Russia over this conflict in the United Nations.  

The west is going to have to step up to replace artillery shells being sent to Ukraine.  On the plus side, doing so may create more jobs and stimulate growth.  

Cutting foreign aid

Starmer has announced cuts to foreign aid, this being to allow the UK to increase defence spending.  It is a horrible decision to make, but it is the least worst of the options.

We cannot rely on Trump to defend us, something I have posted about before.  He has shown that he is willing to ignore the Budapest Memorandum, an agreement signed to get Ukraine to disarm its nuclear weapons with a promise to respect and maintain its borders. His willingness to sell out Ukraine and follow, the line of Putin that Russia is not the aggressor shows that he is willing to ignore reality.

This means that in my opinion, the UK should move to a position where it is not dependent on the US. And that means no more US equipment. So instead of relying on F35’s, we need to produce our own fighters, like the Typhoon.  We will need to work with Europe on GPS navigation and an alternative to Starlink. 

Trump is hoping that the USA will benefit from the increase if defence spending. If we are to buy from abroad, it should be from nations like France, Poland and South Korea. We need more independence from the USA. 

Tik Toc and Darwin awards

Today, I learned about a trend called Vabbing.  Thanks that is to the video which I have attached to this post.  I know that people are under pressure to perform, but this surprised me.  It does make me think if the way to eliminate the world of gullible people is to flood Tik Toc with fatal fads...

I should be very, very angry

We are back at home. My son has college tomorrow and we spent some time watching Fresh Off The Boat together. My daughter, in Vietnam is looking after some of her travelling companions who have come down ill with gastroenteritis. Hopefully she will not get it.

Football, Arsenal lost against West Ham, which means I might be seeing a lot of West Ham fans this week.  We do not do well when we play before our rivals, this being no exception. Watching the highlights, I did not see the vigour that Arsenal normally play with. Which meant that while I was disappointed, I was not very very angry.