Wargames rule OK?

Media & BBC luvvie, David Aaronovitch extols the virtues of wargames in The Times. He claims they are good for giving a very broad view of medieval geography and for keeping partners safely at home in the evenings.

Doctor Who made me cry

Paul Cornell's short story, "Deep and Dreamless Sleep", in The Sunday Times caused my eyes to well up with tears, which hasn't happened since I saw Cry Freedom in the cinema, in 1988.

I also appreciated the satire on 21st century life and critique of the state of the NHS.

He wrote the "Father's Day" episode in the 1st series of the New Doctor Who. I propose we call Russell T Davies's recreation , NDW (post 2005) to distinguish it from the pre-revival series (1963-1989).

He has also written a 2-part episode for the 3rd series of NDW.

Serving time at the Tower

I've started working at the Tower of London's main gift shop. We sell many different gifts.

Stein's Sashmi

I've just watched Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador on BBC2 to see the pescatorian publicist eulogise about Japanese cuisine on a fishing trip to Japan. He was trying to learn how to prepare sushi properly after being reprimanded by his efforts by the ambassador.

Apparently, the Japanese seek to create dishes in 5 colours - blue, green, yellow as well as red and white (the colours in their national flag).

He then supervised 2 Japanese embassy chefs who produced an 8-course banquet for the Japanese ambassador to the Court of St. James's, including the traditional 2nd course soup and a radish sliced and diced into the shape of a butterfly.

Financial Advice Exam 1

I sat the IFS CeFA / CeMAP Module 1 paper today, passing units on UK Financial Services (90%) and Regulation (80%).

As a result I have now met the exam requirements for giving financial advice on:

• General Insurance including Motor, Building, Contents & Travel
• Life Assurance
• Critical Illness Cover (CIC)
• Permanent Health Insurance (PHI)
  

I now need 2 more CeMAP modules to be able to advise on mortgages and 3 more CeFA modules to advise on pensions & investments and to be able to call myself an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA)

Discovered Diving

I went snorkelling for the first time in Borneo and that wetted my tastebuds to go deeper and longer (underwater).

Having heard about L's bi-yearly diving exploits in the Red Sea and inspired by A taking the plunge and getting his PADI diving qualification in the same area this Summer, I thought I would "try dive".

So, at the unearthly time of 7am, I woke up and set off on a 1.5hr drive through the murky darkness, anti-clockwise round the M25 motorway to J6 to the London Scuba Club at Lingfield. I booked on their free 2hr Discover Scuba course 2 days ago when there was only 1 space left.

The club's website said it was opposite the "Blacksmiths Head Pub". I was distracted by a sign advertising "Authentic Andulusian Tapas" and shot into Lingfield Village. After getting directions from the Total Petrol Station, I turned round and went back to the tapas. Incredibly, these were being served at the pub - not what one expects for a country pub. There was no sign for the Scuba Club, only a small label next to the intercom button. After stabbing at it uselessly for several seconds, a crackly voice sounded and the gate was opened for me.

I drove in and found the pool built under a conservatory. There were 3 other people there and 1 guy arrived after me, with adoring family spectating. For the first 20 min, C, our guide, talked us through hand signals and picked out gear for us.

Then, we got changed and got into our gear. We descended into the balmy 3m pool and C told us how to breathe through the air tank valve, clear the valve and find the valve as well as letting air in and out of our Buoyancy Control Device (BCD) Then we each had to have a go to show that we could do the basics.

I had a problem staying on the bottom of the pool so got extra weights.

After going through the basics, we swam down to 3m depth. I remembered to breathe out through my nose to stop my ears popping and added air to my BCD to stop myself sinking like a stone. Having sorted myself out, I played frisbee and threw around plastic fish with the rest of the group.

It was great fun and I look plan to go on a PADI course near the Great Barrier Reef in future.

Torchwood keeps burning

The BBC has announced that Torchwood will be commissioned for a second series. In a concession to analogue viewers, series 2 will debut on BBC 2 rather than BBC 3, currently.

Despite my criticism of the series - it ain't no Doctor Who, I will keep watching it as it's the only new SF on free TV. Rather worringly, BBC 2 controller, Roly Keating doesn't seem to agree:

"Torchwood is a brilliant piece of 21st Century fantasy drama." (my emphasis)

Torchwood torched

[Spoilers]

I have been watching the BBC's Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood since it started in October 2006 but have been disappointed by the lack of originality of its plots and themes as well as the unsympathetic and downright incompetent characters. It is suffering from "First Season-itis" and has to introduce the main characters and the series milieu but we have gone from Character of the Week (Cyberwoman, Small Worlds, Greeks Bearing Gifts), to Device of the Week (Ghost Machine, Greeks Bearing Gifts) via rip-offs of The X-Files (Day One, Small Worlds) culminating in the downright dreadful (Countrycide, Random Shoes).

The only episode I really liked, against my will, is They Keep Killing Suzie which was strong on acting & relationships between the characters, although perhaps Suzie was too clever for Torchwood's good.

For a more articulate and academic dissection of the series, the Feeling Listless blog is the one to beat. Whatever would we do without Screen Studies graduates?

Does anyone else think there is a continuity error for Naoko Mori's character, Toshiko Sato? In the 9th Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston) episode, "Aliens of London", she appears to be a medical doctor examining the crashed UFO's pig pilot, whereas in Torchwood, she is a computer / communications / hardware expert.

If anyone from Torchwood should have been examining the pig, it should really have been the job of Burn Gorman's character, Owen Harper.

However, the last three episodes of the first series (spoilers) could end it on a high.

Wine Weduction

The BBC reports that a voucher for a 40% reduction on Threshers' wines has been downloaded over 800,000 times. Despite the big discount, Thresher's are still going to make money.

Somewhat annoyingly, the voucher refers to wine AND Champagne, which as everyone is sparkling wine from the French Champagne region.

My definition of Champagne is:

"Take a still wine, add bubbles to it and triple the price."

I don't drink it, along with Amercian Budweiser (as opposed to the Czech beer). I don't find the taste particularly enjoyable and would rather have a good still wine for 1/3 of the price.

Get your voucher now and use it before 10 December.