capital thinking

Under the sign reading 'Duck or Grouse' and into the pub to meet a few friends.

We've all known one another for ages and will talk about most anything. This time, after the first pub, then the curry house and then the next pub, we were briefly talking about finances.

It was mostly about trying to make sense of the various ways we've all been turned over by the financial establishments. Not just on small things like inertia selling of utility services, but on big things like pension planning and investments.

The new Financial Conduct Authority has backed away from any systemic investigation, saying it prefers to precision target individual organisational investigations. Pah. Nothing whatsoever to do with ensuring that the City remains the intact.

Anyway, we'd all got tales of ways we'd been ripped off, from my case of collapsed Equitable Life pension scheme, to 'financial advisor schemes' running for multiple years with apparently 'no tax liability' (not me, I add, but still suspicious). All of us had stories and all of them implied largish losses.

We noticed a few common themes. Badly informed and often polarised financial advisors. Limited access to product sets, poor and mainly reactive regulatory controls throughout the industry, the way that the financial houses and planners win whatever happens (commission, run-rate, bail-out, bonuses) and the way that the average punter always pays (fee percentages, insidious effects from quantitive easing, the hidden effects of undisclosed inflation, and so on).

As a group of individuals we are all fairly switched on, yet each of us is somehow handling systemic challenges from these economic biases. We're all fundamentally survivors, yet each of us observed how it is getting tougher for those who follow us.

Maybe I'll need to add some other types of targets to my list for 2016.

Abominable Bride vs Doctor Who

I struggled with the last series of Doctor Who. I think I started to watch the last proper pre-Xmas special episode of the series three times before I eventually got through it. And that's sitting down comfortably on the sofa, not staring at it from a bike turbo session. It really was an out-of-time number, complete with a Dalek and a defective Cyberman in what appeared to be Doctor Who's mind-palace.

Similarly with the glossy Christmas Special, which I watched a couple of days ago. I'm not quite sure what has gone wrong, but it feels as if their infinite universe is somehow struggling for the right clever ideas. It started well enough and had some proper humour included, but then veered off into decapitations as they all ran around like headless turkeys. I liked the idea to use an old stripped back version of the Tardis and wonder if that's a hint that they'll need to reset their thinking before the next series gets written.

By comparison, the parallel universe and inception-like mind-palace of Sherlock Holmes was altogether more entertaining, to the extent that I might even watch the whole 90 minutes for a second time. When they Cumberbatched Sherlock, it was set in the modern day to provide an instant relevance (probably save some set money too). Now they've zoomed it back to the 1890s and it worked just as well, with the Holmes/Watson duo doing their now familiar double act with aplomb.

Given the Moffatt/Gatiss script-writers also write for Doctor Who, to me the Sherlock show was an altogether more finessed production, with most scenes having rapid-fire get-in and get-out moments to hustle the whole plot line along.

A straightforward main story with the bride Ricoletti's ghost prowling the murky Limehouse streets seeking revenge. Meanwhile Holmes/Watson and their extended company do their thing including some self-referential banter which could well be Sherlock talking to himself.

Then, if the beginning wasn't already snappy enough, it progressively accelerates through the last few scenes, keeping surprises tucked up its sleeve to the very end.

Throw in some multi-level twists and we see that inside the mind of Sherlock would give that DiCaprio movie a run for its money in terms of levels of nesting and recursion.

Final Score:

Doctor Who : 2
Abominable Bride: 5

Happy 2016!

We saw in the New Year, after what was personally a good 2015 considering the backdrop of horrible world events. Central London's fireworks is now a ticketed event and the barriers and cordons had started to go up at least a couple of days ago.

This morning, we had the first frost of the season, although it was only a light dusting only noticeable from certain angles.

Our central heating had packed up too. It turned out to be an unexpected consequence of the outdoor Xmas lights, which had tripped a circuit breaker for the whole of downstairs. I've spent a few minutes resetting various devices after restoring the power and re-booting the house.

We now have heat although I think the outdoor lights have now served their annual purpose and may soon be back in their box in the garage.

of cucumbers, scalpels and cans of ham

I remember starting 2015 above London in the Shard. Seems that we've finished in a similar fashion, with more views across the Thames.

My picture of Tower Bridge is actually from about half way up the Shard, in the cocktail bar. There's a scale to the view below from this level that really works well and gives different scenes from each side of the building.

Its getting that even St Pauls has to compete for a view now, with all the new skyscrapers going up around the City.

Another nine are planned for the next 2-3 years, including One Blackfriars (The Bobbin), Canaletto, The Scalpel, The Cucumber, The Stage, The Can of Ham and others.

It could all get rather more crowded if this artist's impression is to be believed.

London signs get the helpful new year makeover

One of those temporary illuminated signs showing various reminders as the new year approaches.

That one is from close to the well-known London tourist-only sightseeing spot known as M&M World. I must have strayed although I've not been inside since the Swiss Centre days.

I wonder whether this other sign will work?

in between

It feels as if it's time for a London picture, so here's part of the central tourist area, complete with a red bus and a few lights.

The barriers are already going up ready for New Years Eve, and Eros is completely boarded up. This year it is once more a tickets only event to get along the river for the fireworks.

mistletoe in Covent Garden

There's plenty of mistletoe hanging from the roof of Covent Garden. I recollect that Christian churches banned mistletoe because of its pagan connotations, but back in the days when I worked in a greengrocer's we used to freely give it away to customers at Christmas.

The Norse god Baldr is supposedly at the root of the mistletoe story, having been made invincible when his goddess mother made every living thing on earth swear not to harm him.

She somehow overlooked the mistletoe and in an Eastenders plot moment, trickster spirit Loki made a dagger from mistletoe wood, gave it to Baldr's blind brother and tricked him into stabbing Baldr, which killed him.

All the gods mourned Baldr the Beautiful's death and decided to make mistletoe a symbol of peace and friendship.

Festive Music Quiz

There's a chocolate yule log being mixed as I type this.

The festivities have arrived and we're fully moving into Yo-Ho-Ho.

Seasonal Greetings to all, and just for fun I have uploaded one of our Xmas music quizzes for anyone who wants to try to guess the tunes.

By way of a warning, there's probably about 50 tunes in the mix, sometimes as mash-ups. It starts slow and speeds up. The tunes and singers are mainly easy to guess and family audience friendly.

Spin that platter and pass the mince pies.

shopping reality fault

Inevitably this week has featured some grocery shopping.

The television adverts tell me how great it is all going to be, but there seemed to be a some sort of logistical glitch.

There seemed to be a surfeit of green pallets in my particular choice of vast food hall.

In fairness the staff did mainly wait quite courteously when they were pushing them around. Although it did seem surprising to need to completely re-arrange the Bucks Fizz along the underside of the freezer cabinets when the store was really quite busy. As Luther's sidekick might say "You're not just giving me busy work, are you?"

Altogether it wasn't a particularly fun experience having to dodge other shoppers, various sized trolleys and also the huge number of the wheeled green stacks.

I can understand that the brussels sprouts or glazed bombe possets needed to be replenished frequently, but it did seem odd that there were so many pallets in motion in the 'flagship' store that I visited.

We eventually ditched the expedition to this store and found another one with wider aisles and an altogether easier experience. I noticed they also had the green pallets, but theirs were collapsible when empty and seemed to need less staff to manoeuvre, despite a similarly rapid turnover of product.

And free coffee. Ahhh.

the Jessica Jones turbo sessions

My turbo cycling late this year seems to be consuming a vast quantity of TV box-sets. I've gone past my annual cycle miles target and am simply clocking a few low energy miles to keep the legs spinning. The theory goes that one should do interval training with peaks and troughs to get the most from the turbo, but I'm balancing the mince-pie season and have decided that a bit of telly may be a more sensible option. I looked today at my annual mileage which is now around 4,300 miles/6,900 kilometres so I'm not too worried about a few episodes of Jessica Jones whilst pedalling.

Marvel comics seem to be doing rather well since the Walt Disney takeover. They've taken residence in Hell's Kitchen and are pumping out some good television. The Jessica Jones series is a case in point, and one first brought to my attention by a fellow blogger trialling Netflix.

I don't know the Jessica Jones back-story and the series doesn't directly introduce it, to the extent that I watched the first episode wondering if I'd somehow missed a pilot episode. Actually, I sort of prefer that way of working nowadays. We, the viewers, have to piece things together as we go along, instead of having a long 'First Act' to explain everything.

It's a dark series, which embraces the private investigator genre, in this case with a hard-living, hard-drinking tough woman in the leading role. I think I'm supposed to also say hard-boiled when its a noir series, so there, I've done it.

This is a Netflix set, and all the episodes were issued simultaneously. I wasn't sure how many to expect, so when we got to around episode 8 I wondered how it would all end - with fortunately a further four to bring together a conclusion.

We get the dimly lit brown wood end of corridor office for Jessica. The office door is already broken at the start and although it gets fixed for a while, it's broken again by the end. Most other times it is open, in any case.

She befriends a bar owner who notices her penchant for bourbon. His bar is the kind you'd find Tom Waits sitting in with Jim Jarmusch talking about Tesla coils.

The storyline is of one utter force of evil, played by the 'British' David Tennant, who has obsessions, including one about Jessica. He starts as a shadowy form and is frequently offscreen or only partially in frame for the first part of the series, just like some of the best kinds of monsters. They've also let him sneak in a few 'Britlines' which made me chuckle because some might well be lost in translation.

There's a strong cast of characters too, including some that get 'parked' for parts of the story and then reactivated later. That's something of a soap-opera technique (the main series runner has Eastenders form) although it doesn't feel at all soapy the way it's been done, and the individuals all have sufficient characteristics that you regard them as known quantities as they re-appear.

Some could say that parts of the plot are conventional, but it's also good crowd-pleasing stuff as the nasty man does nasty things and the goodies have to figure out how to stop it. I'm tiring from the many UK procedural cop series that kill a woman in scene one so that an emotionally damaged detective and his hot female sidekick can sort it all out usually after a couple more gruesome deaths.

So I've reached the end of the Jessica Jones series. Because it is part of the Marvel galaxy (a.k.a The Marvel Cinematic Universe - really), it may mean that we don't get another one. Marvel's MCU has a road-map of their various characters and how they get together to become various supergroups like The New Avengers. I haven't watched Daredevil yet, but I assume that is also part of the same scheme - this time with a blind attorney ('Justice is blind', anyone?).

Of course, it may not go that way, with Jessica Jones acerbically rejecting a superhero costume during one of the episodes (I since learned it was the one that she was supposed to wear in later Marvel life).

So Marvel's plan is kind of working. I've watched enough to have bought into the current series and I'm going back to watch another one.

not the wrong kind of seed?

The birds around our way will treat any form of hanging feeder with disdain until this time of year.

Then, the memo arrives and they all go into holiday mode, seeking out the seeds and feeds made available in various gardens around the area.

These three goldfinches are clearly confused. They are supposed to go for the niger seeds which are in an adjacent feeder, but they've decided instead to opt for the sunflowers. The starlings, sparrows and dunnets will be most irritated.

Dun-Dun-Dun - I watch Beano Star Wars again

A few of us were chatting about the galactic movie franchise that has returned to the planet over the last few days. I'll have to quietly admit that I've struggled to watch the various Star Wars films.

I always liked the idea of the first one, with space ships a bit more grimy and used than, say, something from Kubrick's or even Star Trek's version of space. I remember Star Wars as largely a comedy and that as they added episodes they had to make up a longer back-story.

We seem to have the first 3 movies in the rashbre central on-line viewing library, although I can only really remember the first one featuring the princess with the Cinnabon hairstyle. I've probably seen the one with those big four-legged robot walking things but I mainly remember seeing them at MGM Studios in Florida.

I decided to take a quick look on-line to see what it said about the second tranche of movies (in case I wanted to complete our set and give it all a proper viewing).

They are confusingly called Episodes I-III and are the so-called Prequels. Weirdly, many of the fan comments seem to be somewhat negative...These were the first few reviews on Amazon.co.uk. I've shortened them but left in the positive bits.

• Great set to own: May the Force Be With You!! Bought the whole set - prequels and all - thought the "prequels" a bit long and sometimes boring, but the original films (i.e. 4,5,6) really great - as they always were.
• The Blu-rays are pretty good if you actually like the films though: I forgot how awful Episodes I-III really were and nostalgia made me want to watch them again. Oh God was that a mistake. The Blu-rays are pretty good if you actually like the films though. *shudder*
• A flawed attempt to rekindle the magic: George Lucas made several mistakes in filming these prequels. Firstly there is an over reliance on computer graphics. Sometimes, such as the battle at the start of Revenge Of The Sith or the factory chase in Attack Of The Clones, it feels like you are watching a computer game. The star destroyer at the star of the original Star Wars still looks like a real object, even now. The CGI is particularly dated in The Phantom Menace.
• Shocking: The few good points Darth Maul while he is in it, nice seeing the Jedi Council and more use of lightsabers but way too many bad points, wooden acting especially from a miscast Hayden Christensen, Jar Jar binks totally annoying every time he is on screen, way too much CGI and a flying R2D2 laugh out loud, roll on JJ Abrams and the force awakens.
• Moderately good action let down by some terrible script directions: i like star wars like most fans do, i have good points and one massively bad gripe which really throws the films out from episode 2 and part of 3. but right now however a small opinion is that its got good action sequences with a good plot but how they went about it is rather disappointing in some sense because i was hoping for a lot more.

Maybe the Dark Side got at the Amazon reviews? The newest movie still has masterful marketing however. I saw the original cinema sting for it back in early 2014, when it already announced December 2015 as the release date. Altogether a great ramp up time for the merchandise. This week the supermarket is loaded with Star Wars products and some of last century's space toys seem to be making a comeback. Here's the Beano Part 2.