I had my car MOTed a couple of weeks ago. It passed without any remedial work although there was an advisory about a “light misting of oil on the front shock absorber”. I did ask what that meant and was told it was nothing to worry about. However, if that is the case, why did they bother to stick it on?
It’s worth pointing out that the car wouldn’t have passed if I hadn’t replaced the front windscreen wipers. The rubber on one of them had started to come apart and the other was slightly streaky. Given that these were the original factory fit items that had been through five Winters I can have few complaints about their service and given that the replacement Bosch Wipers were £16 for the pair and easy to fit it seems like a reasonable cost.
The only other thing to come up recently was a warning light for a faulty bulb which turned out to be the reversing light. I’d asked the garage to replace this before doing the MOT but, as it turned out, the bulb hadn’t blown but had simply worked loose. They fixed it by simply taking it out and shoving it back in again; it sounds like one of my standard fixes for errant computers. So overall I looked set for another year of motoring. That is until last weekend when I felt the rear end of the car do something a bit odd at a roundabout. When I stopped at the supermarket carpark I discovered the cause: a huge screw which had become lodged in the sidewall of the tyre. It was also raining by this time so I had to resort to my Incredible Hulk impression to put the spare on.
The car now has just under 57,000 miles on it and the tyres were the original factory fit ones. I’ve been using Winter tyres for a few months each year so I’d estimate that they had covered around 40 – 45 ,000 miles on their own and they were all between 2-3mm of tread so I had been considering changing them at some point anyway. As it is, I went for the Michelin CrossClimate+ tyres which are marketed as a Summer tyre with Winter capability, which is advertising-speak for all-weather tyres although they are approved for German Winter use. So far they seem fine and a definite improvement in the wet (which may just be the extra tread). I’ll have to see whether they are any good in the Winter but I do still have a set of Winter wheels if needed – and if I don’t need them I’ll probably have to find a new home for them.
Monday, 31 July 2017
Friday, 21 July 2017
Change, my dear...
Change, my dear, and not a moment too soon? (As Colin Baker’s newly regenerated Doctor once said). I have to say I was somewhat shocked at the announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the next Doctor. In fact, I was mildly irritated as I was needing to drive from Liverpool back up to Scotland and delayed my journey when it became apparent that Roger Federer would win Wimbledon in double quick time only to have to endure the long-winded trophy ceremony, some extended clips from BBC Sport and Boris Becker prattling on in the studio before we got a minute long clip to introduce the new Doctor that appeared to resemble a Scottish Widows commercial. Well, to paraphrase Charlton Heston in The Planet of the Apes: “Oh my God! They finally really did it!”
I did ponder about the possibility of a female Doctor back in February when Peter Capaldi announced he was leaving. I did get a couple of things right with that (such as the new Doctor would be someone from Broadchurch.) I think my concern back then was that they would plump for a stunt-casting exercise to try and boost the viewing figures. They have done this before, notably when they invited Kylie Minogue to appear in a Christmas episode. That had record viewing figures but most of those extra festive viewers soon disappeared and I could hardly blame them for what was a rather poor episode (aside from the excellent Bernard Cribbins – a somewhat more inspired casting decision). Had they chosen someone like Miranda Hart or Sue Perkins as the new Doctor I think it would have been a shameless stunt but this is not the case with Jodie Whittaker. She is a serious actor and the couple of things I’ve seen her in were pretty good (Black Mirror and Attack the Block). I’m also prepared to forget her appearance in St Trinian’s as I have chosen to wipe that travesty remake of a beloved 1950’s British comedy completely from my mind.
After the initial shock of the announcement of the New Who I’ve rather come to like the idea. My children are somewhat mixed on it: Raymond is fine with the casting but would have preferred to find out on Christmas Day, Sophia seems fairly nonplussed about it and Jake’s main concern was that they would paint the TARDIS pink. The odd thing is that this isn’t actually the biggest change they have ever had in the show. It is arguable that changing the lead actor for the first time was the biggest change as that had never been the original intention but the biggest change actually came in the early 1970s when it changed from being the adventures of a mysterious alien roaming time and space to a somewhat less mysterious alien acting as a scientific advisor to a military unit investigating paranormal and extra-terrestrial threats around England’s home counties. It has changes several times since but casting a female Doctor should shake up the dynamics of the show and keep it fresh.
I think what finally sold me on the idea were comments that Chris Chibnall made that he had wanted a female Doctor for a while – which means that he has a proper dramatic concept for the programme rather than being under pressure from the BBC or pandering to whims from commentators without regard to any dramatic concept. What will be telling is who the new companions are. I rather like the Doctor to have a boy/girl pairing (Steven/Vicki, Ben/Polly, Jamie/Victoria or even Amy/Rory) and I could see it working very well with a female Doctor. Remember that the stories are usually told from the companions perspective so regardless of the choice of lead actor they will influence what we see on screen. Of course, we will have to wait and see Jodie and the new team in action but I, for one, am looking forward to it.
I did ponder about the possibility of a female Doctor back in February when Peter Capaldi announced he was leaving. I did get a couple of things right with that (such as the new Doctor would be someone from Broadchurch.) I think my concern back then was that they would plump for a stunt-casting exercise to try and boost the viewing figures. They have done this before, notably when they invited Kylie Minogue to appear in a Christmas episode. That had record viewing figures but most of those extra festive viewers soon disappeared and I could hardly blame them for what was a rather poor episode (aside from the excellent Bernard Cribbins – a somewhat more inspired casting decision). Had they chosen someone like Miranda Hart or Sue Perkins as the new Doctor I think it would have been a shameless stunt but this is not the case with Jodie Whittaker. She is a serious actor and the couple of things I’ve seen her in were pretty good (Black Mirror and Attack the Block). I’m also prepared to forget her appearance in St Trinian’s as I have chosen to wipe that travesty remake of a beloved 1950’s British comedy completely from my mind.
After the initial shock of the announcement of the New Who I’ve rather come to like the idea. My children are somewhat mixed on it: Raymond is fine with the casting but would have preferred to find out on Christmas Day, Sophia seems fairly nonplussed about it and Jake’s main concern was that they would paint the TARDIS pink. The odd thing is that this isn’t actually the biggest change they have ever had in the show. It is arguable that changing the lead actor for the first time was the biggest change as that had never been the original intention but the biggest change actually came in the early 1970s when it changed from being the adventures of a mysterious alien roaming time and space to a somewhat less mysterious alien acting as a scientific advisor to a military unit investigating paranormal and extra-terrestrial threats around England’s home counties. It has changes several times since but casting a female Doctor should shake up the dynamics of the show and keep it fresh.
I think what finally sold me on the idea were comments that Chris Chibnall made that he had wanted a female Doctor for a while – which means that he has a proper dramatic concept for the programme rather than being under pressure from the BBC or pandering to whims from commentators without regard to any dramatic concept. What will be telling is who the new companions are. I rather like the Doctor to have a boy/girl pairing (Steven/Vicki, Ben/Polly, Jamie/Victoria or even Amy/Rory) and I could see it working very well with a female Doctor. Remember that the stories are usually told from the companions perspective so regardless of the choice of lead actor they will influence what we see on screen. Of course, we will have to wait and see Jodie and the new team in action but I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Thursday, 13 July 2017
Bremerhaven Maritime Museum
It’s been a few years since we managed a holiday overseas (if you discount Orkney). We ended up organising a more traditional family seaside holiday on the Butjadingen peninsula next to the North Sea. It’s actually quite a relaxing way to spend a week but aside from swimming in the water amongst the beasties and trying to fathom weird Friesian accents (a seemingly bizarre cross between German and Geordie) I did take a chance to see the famed Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum – the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven.
The museum itself is fascinating with various exibits including the remains of the Bremen Cog, a trading vessel dating back to 1380 which was discovred in the Weser in the 1960s. However the museum covers all ages of shipping from the ancient to the modern with both commercial and military vessels included. Some of the exibits are fully restored vessels which are located in the docks outside and are mostly accessible without a care for health and safety (as I discovered when frequently bashing my head on things).
Additionally, there is a fully restored World War II U-boat, the Wilhelm Bauer (or U-2540 as it was originally designated). It has a rather colourful history as it was barely used during the war and was scuttled in May 1945. It was eventually raised and refitted for use by the German Federal Navy in the 1960s before being turned into a museum ship in the 1980s. The design of ship was influential as they were the first submarines designed to operate primarily underwater rather than for brief periods to escape detection. The design was used by the Royal Navy for all their post-war diesel-electric subs up until the Falklands conflict (although it was the nuclear powered ones that were the mainstay by then.) Having had a good crawl around inside I can only say that life beneath the ocean waves must have been hellish.
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| The German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven - The Rau IX is one of the ships that can be visited. |
The museum itself is fascinating with various exibits including the remains of the Bremen Cog, a trading vessel dating back to 1380 which was discovred in the Weser in the 1960s. However the museum covers all ages of shipping from the ancient to the modern with both commercial and military vessels included. Some of the exibits are fully restored vessels which are located in the docks outside and are mostly accessible without a care for health and safety (as I discovered when frequently bashing my head on things).
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| The Bremen Cog from 1380 - discovered in 1962. |
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| A one-man mini-submarine. Having had a look inside, this is not one for the claustrophobic. |
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| This replica of a paddle steamer is inside the main museum building. |
Additionally, there is a fully restored World War II U-boat, the Wilhelm Bauer (or U-2540 as it was originally designated). It has a rather colourful history as it was barely used during the war and was scuttled in May 1945. It was eventually raised and refitted for use by the German Federal Navy in the 1960s before being turned into a museum ship in the 1980s. The design of ship was influential as they were the first submarines designed to operate primarily underwater rather than for brief periods to escape detection. The design was used by the Royal Navy for all their post-war diesel-electric subs up until the Falklands conflict (although it was the nuclear powered ones that were the mainstay by then.) Having had a good crawl around inside I can only say that life beneath the ocean waves must have been hellish.
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| This exhibit is actually a restaurant. It's also much more spacious than the U-Boot. |
Sunday, 2 July 2017
The Doctor Falls
The Doctor Falls – at least we know he will be gone on Christmas Day and I’m rather missing him already. This last series of Doctor Who has, to my mind, been the best since the series returned. A seeming match of great writing, smart direction and perfect performances from the cast without a single duff episode has made this a memorable swansong for Steven Moffat , Peter Capaldi and (presumably) Pearl Mackie and Matt Lucas in their respective roles.
The finales of Doctor who are, more often than not, something of a let-down – a great leading episode with an unsatisfactory resolution or a simple anti-climax. Not this year: The World Enough and Time was a superb origin story for the Cybermen (there have been more than one both on screen and elsewhere) which really captured the body horror of the whole concept. Aside from the original Cyberman story, The Tenth Planet which aired way back in 1966, the Cybermen have appeared to be more armoured robots than living entities. This year we started to see the full process starting with simple life support devices, through the sight of the human features disappearing under fabric until the recognisable Cybermen appeared. Tellingly, this was not on a random side character but on the Doctor’s beloved companion – someone who we felt empathy and affection for.
I do try my best to avoid spoilers but I knew from the BBC’s own previews that John Simm’s master was returning. Even knowing that, I genuinely didn’t spot his disguise until the reveal. Having started out with Roger Delgado’s original Master I should have seen that coming but the reveal was a genuine delight. However, the confrontation between the Master and Missy was more intriguing. Was Missy genuinely trying to be good like the Doctor and would the Master really prefer to be dead than good? There were hints as to the origin of the Doctor-Master rivalry but still not a satisfactory explanation of why they were to turn Good/Bad other than to preserve some sort of balance to the universe. That’s one for another day or, like the Doctor’s real name, a question that should probably never be answered.
The Doctor Falls felt epic in the sort of way that Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns do. In fact there was an element of Murray Gold’s score that aped The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. In a way the episode had a similar theme to many of the classic Westerns with our heroes sacrificing everything to protect a small rural community from a relentless onslaught of marauding bandits. What really grabbed my attention with this was the section with the Cyber-converted Bill slowly discovering the reality of what had happened to her. For a packed episode this was a wonderfully slow paced sequence and again captured the true essence of the horror of the Cybermen. Maybe the eventual “blow ‘em all up” solution was a bit too obvious but ultimately the defeat of the enemy was not what this episode was all about. Was the eventual conclusion for Bill a little bit of a sentimental cop-out? Possibly, but at the same time it felt like a fitting resolution to Bill’s story – it’s just a pity that we have only had her for the one series.
I ended up having to re-watch the last 5 minutes on the iPlayer as BBC Scotland messed up the sound but this was where our Doctor finally fell: fighting off regeneration until the second (thankfully spoiler-avoided) surprise reveal which places our Doctor back in 1966 - possibly in Antarctica? William Hartnell was ill during the production of Tenth Planet and missed the filming for the third episode. As a nice piece of retrofit could the First Doctor have been away meeting the Twelfth? David Bradley played William Hartnell in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. It was a wonderful production and Bradley was astonishingly accurate as Hartnell – he is probably better known for Game of Thrones or Harry Potter but he is one of our great character actors and it should make for a Christmas episode to remember. It will be Capaldi and Moffat’s last outing and should be a fitting conclusion to one of Doctor Who’s greatest eras.
The finales of Doctor who are, more often than not, something of a let-down – a great leading episode with an unsatisfactory resolution or a simple anti-climax. Not this year: The World Enough and Time was a superb origin story for the Cybermen (there have been more than one both on screen and elsewhere) which really captured the body horror of the whole concept. Aside from the original Cyberman story, The Tenth Planet which aired way back in 1966, the Cybermen have appeared to be more armoured robots than living entities. This year we started to see the full process starting with simple life support devices, through the sight of the human features disappearing under fabric until the recognisable Cybermen appeared. Tellingly, this was not on a random side character but on the Doctor’s beloved companion – someone who we felt empathy and affection for.
I do try my best to avoid spoilers but I knew from the BBC’s own previews that John Simm’s master was returning. Even knowing that, I genuinely didn’t spot his disguise until the reveal. Having started out with Roger Delgado’s original Master I should have seen that coming but the reveal was a genuine delight. However, the confrontation between the Master and Missy was more intriguing. Was Missy genuinely trying to be good like the Doctor and would the Master really prefer to be dead than good? There were hints as to the origin of the Doctor-Master rivalry but still not a satisfactory explanation of why they were to turn Good/Bad other than to preserve some sort of balance to the universe. That’s one for another day or, like the Doctor’s real name, a question that should probably never be answered.
The Doctor Falls felt epic in the sort of way that Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns do. In fact there was an element of Murray Gold’s score that aped The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. In a way the episode had a similar theme to many of the classic Westerns with our heroes sacrificing everything to protect a small rural community from a relentless onslaught of marauding bandits. What really grabbed my attention with this was the section with the Cyber-converted Bill slowly discovering the reality of what had happened to her. For a packed episode this was a wonderfully slow paced sequence and again captured the true essence of the horror of the Cybermen. Maybe the eventual “blow ‘em all up” solution was a bit too obvious but ultimately the defeat of the enemy was not what this episode was all about. Was the eventual conclusion for Bill a little bit of a sentimental cop-out? Possibly, but at the same time it felt like a fitting resolution to Bill’s story – it’s just a pity that we have only had her for the one series.
I ended up having to re-watch the last 5 minutes on the iPlayer as BBC Scotland messed up the sound but this was where our Doctor finally fell: fighting off regeneration until the second (thankfully spoiler-avoided) surprise reveal which places our Doctor back in 1966 - possibly in Antarctica? William Hartnell was ill during the production of Tenth Planet and missed the filming for the third episode. As a nice piece of retrofit could the First Doctor have been away meeting the Twelfth? David Bradley played William Hartnell in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. It was a wonderful production and Bradley was astonishingly accurate as Hartnell – he is probably better known for Game of Thrones or Harry Potter but he is one of our great character actors and it should make for a Christmas episode to remember. It will be Capaldi and Moffat’s last outing and should be a fitting conclusion to one of Doctor Who’s greatest eras.
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