HM Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022

Her Majesty the Queen has died aged 96. We knew it was going to happen at some point, but it is still a deeply sad moment.

For many, she was the symbol of Britain and the Commonwealth. The most travelled, the most photographed, the most chronicled. Seventy years of devoted service to her people, a reign of record length for this country. A woman of deep faith as well.

She was by many, many millions, even hardened republicans.

She will be deeply missed and we will never see her like again.

Rest in Peace, Your Majesty.

Mikhail Gorbachev 1931-2022

The former Soviet leader, who died earlier this week, has a decidedly mixed legacy. His actions in ending the Cold War and allowing the Soviet bloc to peacefully break away made the world a safer place. A different leader would have fought a lot harder, and things might have been even worse.

However, he wasn't a perfect man and some of his actions are more questionable - the Soviet action in Afghanistan, even if he did eventually withdraw, played a large part in creating the conditions that allow that country to be a hotbed of extremism. He did also use force on a few occasions against independence movement.

Unfortunately for him and the world, much of the positive work he did has been completely undone by Putin and we are dealing with the consequences.

Liz Truss

This woman is likely to be the next PM, something that should be confirmed tomorrow. She's got a very tough inbox to deal with and I'm not exactly sure she's going to be up to the job based on her past record, which hasn't filled me with confidence.

We shall see.

London Loop Sections 6 & 7

After a long break due to a) Covid, b) family events and c) the heatwave, I have resumed this walk. However, I am doing another long walk for charity in September and going on holiday, so no Loop post then.

Both Section 6 & Section 7 are short - under five miles a piece. My guidebook in fact recommends combining the two in one walk, so this is what I did. The route takes you from Coulsdon via Banstead to Ewell, crossing into Surrey on more than one occasion and indeed ending there.

I made my last visit to London Bridge for the Loop walks, getting a Thameslink train to Coulsdon South. They run every half an hour on a Saturday and the journey doesn't take that long either as it's a semi-fast service. These trips can even easier on a weekday due to higher frequencies, but you do have rush hour to contend with.

Two pictures from my walk are here:

I completed both stages in under four hours, including a 40-minute break for lunch. They're pretty unchallenging provided you dress appropriately (I have walking boots) - there's no steep hills, the route is mostly well signposted, and you also have quite a lot of residential street bits that you can complete quickly. The stage also lacks some of the great views of London from previous sections - the best I got was the sight of the TV transmitters at Crystal Palace and Croydon.

The drought also meant that the Mayfield Lavender Farm's fields were looking distinctly wilted and, in any event, they want you to get permission for photography there. You can walk through on the right of way for free, but you have to pay if you go off it.

The lunch bit is difficult if you're doing both stages together. After Oaks Park, there's nothing easily off route until you get to Ewell itself. I had some chicken curry at Oaks Park and left dessert until later as I didn't fancy taking ice-cream around on a fairly warm day.

Once you get to Bourne End Park, there is a free local history museum in the local library. From there, it's a short walk to Ewell West station for the train to Waterloo but bear in mind the older non-air-conditioned Class 455s are still in use until they can get the new 701s into service. Had a 14-minute delay in any event, due to signalling issues.

Curious dog count was four if you're interested. And a half as one was recalled by their owner before reaching me.

England's Lionesses

So, we have an English football team at another major tournament final. They're the underdogs, but still in with a decent chance.

In any event, they must be highly praised for getting this far. Let's hope they can go all the way.

Bernard Cribbins 1928-2022

Brilliant not just in Doctor Who but in everything he was in. He had a hugely extensive career and touched the hearts of millions.

He will be deeply missed.

Rest in Peace.

Alien: Isolation

Just finished this after 23 1/2 hours, albeit on the easiest setting. Truly excellent game and I intend to do some of the DLCs, although I'm not planning to do the main campaign again... because that was hard.

I would highly recommend checking it out. 

Monty Norman 1928-2022

The composer of the James Bond theme has died aged 94. Quite simply put he's responsible for one of the best pieces of music in cinematic history, one that can be hummed by the majority of the people on the planet.

Rest in Peace. 

Exit Boris Johnson

Good riddance. He was at the end of the day a pretty useless politician with a poor relationship with the truth. It was only the excellent vaccination programme that allowed us to deal with Covid at an "average" level in terms of excess deaths and he didn't really have much to do with that.

Let's hope we get a better PM quickly. It's also notable that he is the first Prime Minister since Walpole forced out through personal scandal.

Stranger Things 4 Volume 2 Thoughts

Contains spoilers:

Spoilers begin now.

1. The subtitles in this show are starting to become infamous - lots of "squelches wetly" and "ominous synth music". I'm curious to know what dry squelching sounds like.
2. The final episode was very enjoyable, but about ten minutes too long.
3. Natalia Dyer is an underappreciated talent, capable of a superlative "Oh, s***, I'm going to die" face. She'll have a distinguished career in horror if she wants to go that way. If the Alien franchise ever wants to recast Ripley, she'd be great.
4. Max is a girl brave far beyond her years.
5. Winona Ryder is a message to actors - don't get Botox, because otherwise you can't do the range of facial expressions that she does even in one scene.
6. "A Purple Heart just proves that you were smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive."
7. Brenner's death - which I kind of expected - redeemed him a little for all the nasty he's done over the years.
8. Will and Jonathan had very little to do this season.
9. Eddie ended up another one-shot character, which was also expected by most. He did have an awesome death scene, I'll give you that.
10. Tom Wlaschia was great as Dmitri "Enzo" Antonov and I'd like to see him come back in Season 5.
11. Yuri managed to be an utterly odious character - until he was humanised a bit by Enzo discussing his past.
12. Argyle proved to be surprisingly useful.
13. There wasn't exactly a lot of subtlety with the Russia/USSR depiction. This was filmed before the invasion of Ukraine too, which is going to do nothing good in that department - no-one is going to want to really have Russians depicted as goodies for a while.
14. I figured pretty quickly that Max's death wasn't going to stick based on the remaining runtime, but props to the actors involved for a great job convincing much of the audience. Sadie Sink has probably earned herself a second Emmy nomination for 2023 (which Volume 2 is eligible for) and Max's arc will have to play a massive role in Season 5. El can't lose her BFF!
15. Jason getting split in two seemed a fitting punishment for the fact he's partly responsible for Max's death.
16. So, how do we finish this show off in style?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Watched the first episode of this on Paramount Plus. Has a lot of promise and I intend to get to the others at some point soon. Quite a lot competing for the limited attention of my eyeballs at the moment. 

Roe v. Wade overturning

The US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade is a regressive decision that will harm many thousands of women. It needs to be overturned itself - at the ballot box.

I may find the concept of abortion personally distasteful, but the best way to reduce its occurrence is through better contraception and better education, not this.

Stranger Things 4 Volume 1

So, just a warning, this post contains spoilers. Although I'll give you a paragraph or two before I actually launch into them.

I didn't actually join Netflix for Stranger Things back in 2016; I came in 2017 for Star Trek: Discovery, which is no longer carried by that platform in the UK and also Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was cancelled there, now operating on its own streaming service.

I don't actually remember when I watched the previous seasons and since I generally don't note TV shows I've watched in my diary (although films I do), I can't really check.

But it's simply put a brilliant show and the latest season has knocked it out of the park...

Spoilers start here

With a spiked baseball bat, which isn't a weapon actually used by Steve "The Hair" Harrington in this series.

The show has a superb atmosphere, storylines with some real depth to them, great production design and - most importantly - a host of characters you will grow to love, played brilliantly by a talented cast. My personal favourite is Robin, but Nancy is handy to have in a fight.

The scene that everyone is talking about is the conclusion of episode 4 - "Dear Billy":

"Girl saved from demon by Kate Bush song" is a concept that when you type it on the screen, but it absolutely works here thanks for a masterful combination of all departments. I came into the second half of this episode (having watched the first part bit on my commute) seriously concerned for Max and fully prepared to write a Facebook post bemoaning her death. The tension is kept going right throughout, with the four-second cut to black a genius stroke in the edit suite, as that's usually when the credits start. It's frankly up there with Doctor Who regeneration scenes in being that good.

Looking forward to Volume 2 and hoping none of the main characters die. They're all loveable.

Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

The longest reigning monarch in British history has frankly done an excellent job. There have been hiccups and problems along the way for the Royal Family, but she has managed to keep going and serving through all of them. She keeps going even when many others would have retired.

Thank you very much, Your Majesty. Enjoy the celebrations.

London Loop Sections 4 & 5

I did Section 4 of the London Loop on the May Day Holiday; that resulted in me doing over 30,000 steps for the day and breaking my all-time personal record in that department. It's over nine miles with the walk from Hayes station, although proper stretching resulted in a good deal less pain afterwards than previously.

It's been over a month in any event and so memories are a bit hazy. You're in the foothills of the Downs at this point and can see the towers of Central London or the Docklands from a few vantage points, depending on conditions.

These walks vary between large parks where there are plenty of people (and their dogs) about and more remote wooded areas where you might be the only person for half a mile or so. There are patches of civilisation though, sometimes outright suburbia.

Had a very good lunch at the Surprise Inn, where the waiter/manager noticed and remarked on my book. "I've walked from X" never fails to impress.

The route was a challenge in places, especially once you're into the fifth hour of walking, and I was glad when I reached the road that marks the end.

Section 4 ends at Hamsey Green, a village you haven't heard of and without a railway station, so you need a bus to get to one. That will be East Croydon if you're going a longer distance due to more frequent and faster trains. There is a Wendy's there and yes, I did post something about that on Reddit.

Elizabeth Line Central Core visit

Took a ride on this today, getting off at most of the stations and having a look around. It's a great line and will be an even better one once fully connected up; fast trains, great information displays and huge platforms.

I also had some other good fortune as an enthusiast today:

• witnessing a "scrap move" of two of Southern's withdrawn Class 455s
• seeing a Class 59 and a 2EPB on my journey out to Hayes & Harlington
• Arriving at Romford in time to see two of the older Class 315s arriving. Video to go on YouTube.

Some of my photos are below.

US TV Upfronts 2022

 Some reflections on the recent spate of renewals, cancellations and orders etc.

• The CW, a network that usually gives its shows a final season order to allow them to wrap up their stories, is now up for sale - and decided to go on a show-killing spree, cancelling no less than nine shows, with only Riverdale getting a final season order. Among these was Legends of Tomorrow, the only Arrowverse show I watched regularly and managed to reinvent itself multiple times, which has gone on a cliffhanger ending, which seems very unwise. There is a fan campaign for a renewal, but I don't place too much hope in these things.
• I've yet to see CSI: Vegas, which I expect will get an airing on Paramount Plus when it starts here in June, but that got renewed.
• Blue Bloods is still going, although with a black female NYPD commissioner in real life, is looking rather unrealistic now...
• The Blacklist is still going too; I've yet to see Season 9, so I can't comment.
• Yet to see Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (no UK release until June) but Star Trek: Picard after a very good start, really failed to stick the landing. The third season looks very much a TNG reunion and a send-off for Picard. I will be watching that along with Season 5 of Discovery. The best show in the franchise is frankly Lower Decks.
• The bloom has come very much off the rose with Netflix. They had an expensive flop with Cowboy Bebop (and with that, a lot of pressure will on One Piece to be good), Stranger Things is ending and the tent pole shows are not enough now. With the economic downturn and inflation, many people are cutting back. Netflix will likely have to go for advertising to survive.
• Advertising, though, will be a problem due to the likely global recession we're heading towards.
• Apple TV have become a big name in the streaming world with a lot of highly talked about shows. I intend to watch For All Mankind at some point once I've finished French series Missions on BBC4.
• None of the US network orders have really inspired me; I've not even watched any trailers. They will need to up their game to survive.

Southern Class 455 Farewell

Went to Victoria this evening to see the farewell tour coming in. I wasn't quite expecting that many enthusiasts. I wasn't expecting that many young and loud enthusiasts. I wonder what the security guys were thinking!

I can't begrudge them enjoying it though - it's nice to know that the hobby has motivated newcomers.

So, that's the end of the 455/8s on Southern. We've got the SWR ones still left going for a few months and I may try to do their farewell tour.

Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor

So, we have our 14th Doctor. Wasn't quite expecting it to drop that suddenly around Sunday lunchtime, but it is what is.

Having never seen Sex Education, which I will now have to do, I wasn't familiar with him, but checking out clips in and out of character on YouTube, he seems like he'll be an excellent Doctor.

Welcome to the franchise, Mr Gatwa. Your life will never be the same again.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Season 13

I backed this on Kickstarter and have seen the first three episodes that have been previewed for backers. Got to say that I thoroughly enjoyed them, including the Q&As afterwards. Personal favourite so far is probably Beyond Atlantis, with some great jokes and an original song that deserves to go on a soundtrack alarm.

Check it out - it's worth your money