Covonia nights, Austrian fans, Nena and the impending discovery of the grand tour hoax

I decided to watch an episode of that Grand Tour. Truth is, I've been under the weather for a few days and wanted something mindless. The episode I picked was set in Stuttgart, which is somewhere I use to live.

Actually, although superficially similar to the main square in Stuttgart, the actual setting they used was a castle at Ludwigsburg, which is way to the north of central Stuttgart.

Now Stuttgart is also the home of Daimler-Benz, Porsche and even Smart, so I thought they'd have something to say about the great car companies on their theoretical doorstep. Admittedly Mercedes and Porsche did get a superficial mention, but nothing about the Mercedes factory test track, the Porsche museum, the refined customer collection experience where new vehicles can be handed over personally or even a couple of the futuristic cars sketched onto the walls of one of the restaurants. Instead they cut to film to look at a Honda and a botched up Clarkson ego vehicle which fell to pieces and was worth far less than he paid for it. At least they got that last part right.

For my Lemsip fuelled viewing the show was barely tolerable, being like a bad episode of the old programme with half of the features missing. A somewhat predictable red balloon failure prevented 1980s pop star Nena from appearing in the studio.

To my viewing the programme is now just about as contemptuous of its viewers as it can be whilst still churning out episodes. I shudder to think where all the money is being spent and wonder when someone will point out to the American paymasters that this series is really a gigantic hoax.

As a comparison, I found a newly aired 30 minute BBC4 programme by James May about re-assembling a 1960s Kenwood Food mixer comparatively entertaining.

This had been shot in a fake Barry Bucknell style shed with about £10,000 of artistically arranged tools and showed all the main stages of putting the pristine vintage mixer back into working order to then mix a cake. A curious form of television, I'm sure, but highly suitable when under the influence of Covonia cough syrup.

To the extent that I ordered the parts to replace the fans in my own Drobo disk drives.

The original fans have progressively become noisy, so I decided to swap them out for some high tech industrial ones from Austria. Inexpensive non PWM fans that can operate from 5.5v to 12 volts such that my Drobo devices are once again almost silent. 30 minutes per unit, and in my case with real soldering of the needed cable joints.

But, like replacing The Grand Tour with a food mixer re-assembly, I suspect this recent Nena live performance of 99 Luftballons is far more interesting than a picture of me soldering.

nothing to do with russia?

There's a kind of irony to the current situation where black-PR kompromat has appeared linked with the Trumper.

Considering how many truth-free stories he launched in the campaigning stages before the US election, it doesn't seem too strange that a smattering of dodgy fake-news are now flowing in the other direction.

I guess it's another nail in the coffin for journalism. It's already often just warmed over newswire and PR stories in any case. Now we seem to be getting mainline channels running unverified codswallop.

Some of these stories aren't even new. It was always going to be a matter of timing about when they would get released, stacked up ahead of the swearing in of the new Presidente.

But the sloppiness of the coverage in the 'leaked' Company Intelligence Report takes things to a new level. Take Alfa Bank which is spelled as Alpha in the report. Yes, there is an Alphagroup too, the Spetsgruppa "A", but that is something else entirely, admittedly linked to the FSB's Spetznaz Special Forces.

That someone potentially multi-passported denies a clandestine visit to Prague? The Trumper distances himself from friendliness with Mr Putin and company? That from the podium Trump denies Russian dealings? Well, here's a picture of him in Moscow with Miss Universe.

Or maybe with Aras Agalarov, the Moscow tycoon? And the Russian pop singer Erin also in the picture?

Who knows?

Perhaps ex-campaign manager and self-professed 'King of K Street' Paul Manafort with his Russian and Ukrainian little black book ;-) has some insight, although since sacking by Trumpers a few months ago maybe replacement Steve Bannon with his Alt-Right agenda would shed a light?

I'd say the situation is unbelievable, but somehow that doesn't cover it. сокращение до абсурда / Sokrashcheniye do absurda, as they might observe in Moscow.

flunkey failure and the single binary large object (it's big business, baby)

Maybe it's just me, but I seem to have noticed a change of wording emerging from UK government over the last few days? I suppose it is the 2017 reboot in action. Some of it is a kind of mis-speak, where a one-time bad idea is getting bundled up as if it is a good thing now.

It reminds me of an amplifier that has been turned right up but that there's not much real signal coming through. I'm wondering if it is deliberate attenuation as part of a negotiating tactic?

But then I'm surprised that the press doesn't pick up on, say, Mrs May talking about the need to remove UK from the single market unless UK gets its way on border controls. To me it comes across as reverse thinking; trying to make undesirable free-fall sound good.

I think I get the real situation:

1. Equivalence: Either single market or an equivalent mechanism (like the WTO - except then it'd be Geneva instead of Brussels)?
2. Customs Union: Inside a common one (less likely?) or outside and independent (years of hard work)?
3. Transitioning: How fast the cutover? One year (free-fall) or ten (probably needed)?

The interesting thing about any of these moves (similar to what Treasury Select Committee Chairman Andrew Tyrie is saying), is that they can be used to put some metrics on the upcoming exit. Without some kind of numbers, the whole thing remains a single binary object, although that's what Mrs May appears to have been breaking down for the last 6 months.

It's disappointing that there still doesn't seem to be a proper plan or even a three bullet point list. That smacks of a fundamental lack of flair, ingenuity and imagination - which could make a sizeable difference in the current situation. I hope Mrs May is still reading this and will get the requisite talent on board instead of corridors filled with unimaginative flunkeys.

Another example. This weekend there were various commentaries, like Mrs May's own one about building a shared society.

Ironically, she put it on the inside of a subscription paywall in the Daily Telegraph, so probably a lot of the people it was talking about wouldn't be able to read it anyway. Haves and have nots. Flunkey failure.

We've also seen scrappy rebuttals of situations referring back to the last Labour government, which concluded some eight years ago. Notably that Jeremy who referenced the 'weaponising' of NHS. I know he may not have said it first, but he's still reinforcing a disdain for this society that he is supposed to be supporting. Calculated words to deflect arguments from core topics.

Of course, at the moment, the pound sinks and UK equities rise, more or less at the same rate with -7% GBP playing +7% FTSE. The FTSE100 is at 7270 right now. First half of last January it was around 5600-5700. An example of doing nothing whilst those with decent share portfolios are able to turn a few bob.

Over the last year, typical savings left in a 'premier' bank savings account would have attracted 0.10% AER, although I see that is due to fall to 0.05% AER on 25 January. Those with UK share bundles could have achieved (ignoring the crazy high yield ones) around 8%-12%. That's about 100 times as much as the deposit account saver.

That's where it also gets very tricky to work out the moves of those running things. It looks as if they don't know what they are doing, but maybe the subtelty is that they have many friends making quite a lot of money.

I decided to get past that Telegraph paywall and have a look at some potentially usable quotes, which I can store up for later. Here's the link to the-best-british-political-insults-rows-and-putdowns. Move fast though, or some other Jeremy will steal the quote.

And here's Kate Tempest, from Kex Hostel - Europe is Lost.

The Red Shoes

Part of a New Year tradition is to get along to Sadlers Wells to see the latest Matthew Bourne. This year it's the Red Shoes, based upon the Hans Christian Anderson story and the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger movie.

With other Bourne pieces, he may add in a further twist, like the overt 100 year time shift in Sleeping Beauty or, come to think of it, the vampire element. But for Red Shoes, there was already enough, with its multiple country touring ballet setting and a the twists between front and backstage.

The staging of 'stage within a stage' is used very flexibly with Lez Brotherston's ingenuity. The story is told entirely with dance and weaves the story of the ballerina consumed by her art, blending overt references to the film and then to Diaghilev and Najinsky. The score uses Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann’s vintage music which seemed, to my ear, to have been given plenty of unexpected twists.

Then there's the main story. I'll admit that I had to retune myself for ballet when viewing this one. There is the 'ballerina falls under spell of impresario' narrative that drives through the piece, although I had a slight suspicion that if I didn't know the original story then this one might have been slightly harder to follow than the average Matthew Bourne.

And there's some sharp stylistic changes, it may begin with a more conventional setting, but other dramatic framing blasts in at various points along the story. And suffice to say it's packed out until the end of the London run.

mind the gap

A slight gap whilst I take some Lemsip. This was not the original plan.

starting my new year revolutions

I've just loaded a few targets into Garmin for 2017. I used to load monthly targets, but last year I worked from annual ones, along with some of the cycling training plans in TrainerRoad.

At this point the main thing is to get started, so I've clocked up a few creaky miles today as a way to signal that Ive restarted. Actually, Garmin wouldn't even let me log on, with some kind of password problem, so I can tell it's been too long since I was last on a bicycle.

reset complete - now for the mirror

I see London has pretty much gone through the reset for 2017.

There's always barriers, road and pedestrian diversions linked to the fireworks on New Years Eve. It has become more complicated as more security and pay-to-view has crept into what used to be a largely ad-hoc occasion.

Nonetheless, the stage is now set for the new year and we can start to wonder.

My tip for the year. Write a favourite aspirational word on the back* of a mirror that you look at each day. Look at the mirror and think of the word.

* some may wish to write it on the front but, in general, this should be a private moment in the midst of social everything.

drinking the stars

It's the one time of year when a sabre comes in handy. For the champagne, obviously. In a good year the champagne is to celebrate and in a bad year, as Napoleon might have said, it's to console.

Either way, ever since the widow Clicquot started handing bottles of bubbly to the French cavalry, sabre's been the tradition. The cavalry used to show off by opening it with their sabres. What with Verve Clicquot's publicity and Charles-Henri Heidsieck riding a white horse ahead of Napoleon's army advance towards Moscow.

No wonder there's such marketing for the fizz.

Happy New Year

foggy motorway shuttle

Home today after yesterday's foggy encounter with the M25. I only had to go around about 30% of it, but there were plenty of obstacles created from the fog and other motorway blockages.

It paid off in the end because I was able to meet up with some friends for our annual 'far flung' session, which saw me drinking copious amounts of diet Coke. There is a limit though.

Then back indoors by around 2 a.m. Not too bad really and practice for the upcoming new year.

traveller's tyre travails

My summer tyres are rated Y and the winter ones are H. All manufacturer fitted. That means that the lower set is rated to 130 mph and the higher set to 186 mph. Both well in excess of the UK speed limits. Both sets are also rated for high loads, so I'd think that after one recent 60mph tyre blowout on the M25, I'd be okay for a while.

Wrong.

Another 55 mph blowout. Same side. Different wheel.

This was after they'd been checked in the workshop a week ago when I had the front one replaced. This time I was on the A69 approaching Carlisle. I could even notice that the pop was quieter than the front tyre, and I was able to pull off of the single carriageway 60 mph road into a turning.

Time for the space saver again and then back to a nearby tyre place.

These tyres all had plenty of tread, but I decided that it was time for a rashbre recall and so, probably to the delight of the service centre, I had the destroyed tyre and the other two offside tyres replaced. They showed me that the other two still looked good. Even raised the car so that I could walk underneath to look for myself.

But it's one of those piece of mind things. Instead of two more potential explosive devices along the driver side, I now have four brand new tyres, and an unplanned trip to my dealership to discuss the use of their premium MO homologised manufacturer specific tyres.

A suggestion for that missing MacBook Pro hub...

I've been travelling, and the blog has been somewhat spluttery. One of the little tasks to perform when back at base was the reboot of the MacBook Air into its new form MacBook Pro.

There's a useful bit missing from the MacBook Pro, which I will call the QacQoc. It's a sort of dongle that does everything like a Swiss Army Knife.

Three USB 3 outputs, a USB C charging input, HDMI and 1000/100/10 Ethernet, plus SDHC and SIM readers. It even includes a little storage pouch.

I deliberately got one with a 'fly lead' rather than something that plugs flush into the MBP, on the basis that I'd rather not put the equivalent of a large lever/screwdriver directly into one of the MBP ports.

So no drama as I migrate about 500 Gb from the Air to the MBP, with hardly a temperature rise on the gadget.

Although, at this rate, I may need to revisit the way I use the Cloud.

adding an extra MacBook Pro charger

There's the usual need to buy more chargers and adapters with every new computer purchase. I decided to try one of the smaller multi use devices for both laptop and gadget charging. Rated at 60w, it is one watt less than the official rating of my MacBook, although when I boot the MacBook Pro the rated wattage seems to be 45w.

Suffice to say it works fine. The little charger is quite a lot less expensive than the Apple one, especially when considering it can be used for multiple purposes. A well-known brand in America, it has all the requisite short circuit, surge, over current and temperature protection too.

This way I can flexibly have my usual three chargers. One under the sofa. One in the home office and one for on the road. Although, the sneaky thing is that the cables for USBC also need to be PD rated for power distribution or they won't work. Clever, eh? New smart cables as well as new adapters.