London Loop Sections 10 and 11

I got a new warmer walking coat lately, that makes walking practical in somewhat colder conditions than previously. After a five-miler around Becontree and Chadwell Heath to make sure I could do it, I engaged on Friday in the longest batch of walking in my life - 11 miles on this stretch, with a total of nearly 16 for the entire day.

That included the long Elizabeth Line-Tube interchange at Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3. Well, really 2 & 3 as Terminal 1 has closed. 

These two sections go from Hatton Cross via Hayes to Uxbridge, mostly along the River Colne and the Grand Union Canal. It doesn't start very nicely:

There wasn't that much actual activity along the canal - it was after all a fairly cold Friday in February.

There was a persistent drizzle until around 2pm and much of the route was slightly muddy, although I have seen a lot worse. It's also pretty flat for most of the two sections, which makes things easier. There's a bit where the canal goes over a river:

The final bit was rather nice, including a boat called Almost There, which seemed rather appropriate as I was getting a bit worn out!

It took me around six hours overall, including the lunch break.

I plan to do Sections 12 and 13 in the next couple of weeks before RL stops me for a while.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Saw this on Thursday evening after work - I like to go at times without noisy kids - and found it to be OK. It works best as a set-up for Phase 5 and not as a stand-alone story. There's certainly some entertaining moments, but it doesn't have enough to really fill the whole two hours and none of the guest characters are memorable.

The main thing is the huge number of effects, some of them a bit ropey, most notably MODOK, which looks like something from a 1990s comedy show. There have been reports of "crunch" caused by late reshoots and artists being pulled off to work on Black Panther - I wonder how bad it was before any "crunch".

In any case, while the MCU is still good, four films and four TV series a year is too much. Robert Iger's return as Disney CEO will hopefully lead to a focus on quality over quantity; The Marvels has been put back to November. Three and three is a decent amount - two and two might be even better.

6/10

Ukraine #4: One year on

It has been one year since Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine began, forcing millions to flee for their lives and causing devastation for much of the east of the country. The damage will run into the hundreds of billions for Ukraine, a country that has fought far better than anyone thought in February last year.

This war could end tomorrow if Russia agreed to withdraw, but it sadly seems Putin is unwilling to back down despite his massive losses. The fighting - and the suffering - will continue for months yet.

Letters from Watson

Thought I'd plug the rather excellent Letters from Watson blog:

Letters from Watson link

With the 'canon' now completely public domain in the States, a British woman is doing a serialisation of the short stories in broadly chronological order, allowing for a bite-sized experience of arguably the greatest of fictional detectives. There's also a very friendly Discord that allows for critical analysis of the characters and the world they operated in.

I strongly recommend you check it out.

Racist, pure and simple (Review: Star Trek 3.3, "The Paradise Syndrome")

It's been nearly a year since the last post in this series. I've had more modern Trek to watch - and with Picard about to start, it might be a while before you get some more posts here. But I will try to get one more in at least.

I'm not going to outline the plot etc. like my previous posts, but will instead list some of my thoughts in no particular order:

• There is some very nice scenery in this episode, but I believe it's pretty much the only location shooting done for the third season, with its vastly reduced budget.
• How on Earth can Spock identify the different tribes from that distance?
• Uhura is entirely absent from this episode.
• The depiction of the Native American characters is bad - simple minded "noble savages" with limited language skills who must be saved by a white guy. Once people realised that this episode lost nearly all of its popularity - and it was considered one of the best of Season 3 to that point.
• Scotty, Spock and McCoy all have some good stuff while in the ship... but it stretches credulity somewhat.
• Also, they're all played by white actors in brownface. Sigh...
• If this is one of the better ones, how bad are the others?
• There's a very weird CPR scene involving moving a kid's legs back and forth. Apparently, this is something called the Silvester Method, which is no longer taught.
• There's a mind meld that allows Shatner to thoroughly chew the scenery.
• Kirk gets a woman pregnant. She and the baby die at the end of the episode in what is actually one of the sadder moments - or would be if I wasn't distracted by Sabina Scharf's chest. What kind of bras did these people have?

Conclusion

The on-ship stuff does not make up for the surface plot, which as dull as it is racist.

2/10

The F-22 gets its Morrisette Moment

The F-22 Raptor originated in the Advanced Tactical Fighter programme in the 1980s, intended to counter Soviet fighter jets like the MiG-29 and Su-27, along with posited future development. The Soviet Union collapsed before it entered service and Russia was not exactly a threat to the US after that in anything bar the nuclear department; still arguably isn't considering their problems in Ukraine.

I don't think the developers on that programme for one second imagined that the first time the F-22 would engage in air-to-air combat would be against... a balloon. However, it is likely the highest altitude air-to-air kill of all time, which is something.

The pilot of that F-22 is going to have an interesting remainder of his or her life, that's for sure.