Speaking out of turn.

Terry Pratchet's last novel was published today.  He died of Alzheimer's a few months ago, so his Discworld series of books will come to an end.  It appears that he had plenty of avid fans, some queued to get book, such was their enthusiasm but I can't believe it would have sold out.  Its not as if you could read it quickly and go get his next one.
I bought one of the series a few years ago, its full of odd sounding names for people and places, so odd that I really struggled to read it as I grappled with what the pronunciation should be.  Given that I reading it in silence, I find that a bit interesting.  It means that although they were made up words, I needed to understand them.  I suppose that's what learning a language is all about, and I'm not very good at languages.

Labouring On

Labour leadership debate keeps on giving and giving.
It seems that every new poll that predicts a Corbyn win manages to incite even higher levels of anxiety and paranoia in the rest of the candidates.
One bookmaker has started paying out already on a win - he was 100-1 a few weeks ago, and now that 100-1 tag is for Liz Kendall.
Results are out on 12th September.  Watch this space.

Britains Got Seriously Odd Issues (BGSOI)

It seems that Ofcom have decreed that Britain's Got Talent (commonly know as BGT) 'misled' the public when it substituted a dog that was attempting a tightrope walk.  I hope I'm not paying for them to decree that.  Come on!  Who gives a monkeys about that?

There's talk of a Baywatch film.  I'm not sure it was good enough to think about that.  It wasn't particularly well written, well acted or well produced, just hunky men and large breasted women.
Hmm, maybe a film would be OK after all.

Party Political Poppycock.

The labour leadership battle is heating up.  The Blairites are very worried that all their hard work in 'modernising' the party will be undone, and think the party will be consigned to just being a protest party.  It possible, I suppose, but then they are assuming that the majority of the UK population have moved towards the right of politics.  This may well be true at the moment, but we know that these things ebb and flow all the time.
The political situation in Greece is interesting.  They elected a left wing 'anti-austerity' party, and have ended up with an austerity party, and if they stand for re-election which is likely, they will still get in.  My conclusion, is that if the leader is popular, then what the party stands for comes second as was the case in Blair's day.  He turned the party towards the right but stayed popular with the voters (even though he doesn't have any fans nowadays).
Therefore, my conclusion is that if Jeremy Corbyn wins the leadership election all he has to do is be popular with the ordinary man in the street.  I quite like him, but then again I'm easily swayed by a smooth talker.  I also liked TB.

Biked to and from work yesterday taking the long way back home via Brigg to give me 52 miles instead of 40 ish.  I had my quickest ride in ever in the morning, coming in via the bypass for a change and getting some slipstreaming from the lorries.

Keep the red flag flying.

The Labour party are in a bit of a quandary.  They have really tried very hard indeed to increase their membership, which has been going down for years, by introducing low cost options for being an 'associate' member or similar.  However, with the party leadership election coming up, this entry level point has been abused by folk wanting to stir things up a bit and voting for the main left wing chappie Jeremy Corbyn.  From an outsiders point of view, it's all rather amusing.
Its a system that is helping everyone except the Labour party.

Lib Dems are keen on an extremist so as to demonise the party and therefore bring 'normal' left wingers over to their more centralist views.
Torys are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn being in charge - probably as good as when Michael Foot was in that position.
Old fashioned left wingers see JC as the chance to get Labour back to the right side (left) of the political spectrum where it belongs.

All in all, a bit of a shambles really.  For myself, I think Jeremy Corbyn has some good ideas, but unfortunately, they automatically come encumbered with traditional leftish views on things I don't agree with.  Not that I was going to join up, of course.

Keep up.

Update on the updates.  That's what I overheard my colleague telling someone without a trace of irony.
I've noticed that I hear other's odd comments when they don't, so I can assume that the reciprocal must be true.  Must pay more attention to what I say.

We're discussing 'strategy' at work.  Musn't say too much, some might be reading (although I doubt it).  Suffice to say, it never ceases to amaze me how much utter tripe comes out some peoples mouths when 'management' are present.

Anyway, more importantly, I biked into work today with the return trip at 4:30 with daughter #2.  I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment - biked to and from work last week plus a 30 miler in the evening on Thursday, then a whopping 73 miles on Sunday.  Lets hope it sets me up for a good start to the cyclocross season in September.

Stranded at the drive-in..

A French family drove 93 miles before realising they didn't have their 3 your old in the car with them, and then only because they heard it on the radio.  What can we deduce from that?
Do they have such a large family they don't notice one missing?  They only have 3 children in total, so probably not.  I can only assume that because children are such a pain in the backside, strapping one in whilst reprimanding one for getting sticky finger over the car seats whilst at the same time telling another to stop whining is enough to make you feel relieved to get back behind the car steering wheel and carry on with your interminable drive down to the south coast.

Managed a 73 mile bike ride yesterday in the sun.  Got a nice tan despite the wind.

It's Just Not Cricket.

I'm off to watch day 2 of the test match tomorrow at Trent Bridge.  Looks like Australia have thrown the towel in already though - they are 9 wickets down before lunch on the 1st day!
The thing is, a close match is much more interesting.  Who wants to see one side thrash another?  A bit like watching a runner winning by a huge margin compared with a photo finish, I know which one I would rather watch.
Oh well, there will be beer and food all day (it's a corporate day out) so I'll try and enjoy myself.

More rumblings about Edward Heath in the news - being investigated by 5 different police forces.  He did get around didn't he?  I'm still waiting to see what will happen with the Cliff Richard accusations.  Surely squeaky clean Cliff is one of the good guys isn't he?

Organ Grinder

He was always a bit aloof, in my opinion.  Ted Heath was never a 'man's man', or was he?  Occasionally, he would turn up on a chat show and do a bit of organ playing showing his 'normal man in the street' side, but that was probably staged by his PR department at Tory head office.  He probably hated it.
Anyway, we find him now in he middle of yet another underage sex scandal or similar, I haven't bothered to read beyond the headlines.  The thing is, who do you believe?  I can't imagine that there's any hard evidence, or any other evidence.  Still, gives the papers something to write about.

Oxygen Mask

We'll have a lorra, lorra laffs!
That was one of her catchphrase, Cilla Black who died yesterday.  Actually, it might not have been one of her catch phrases, but it's what came to mind when I heard she had passed away.

I glanced at a headline about Katy Hopkins posting derogatory remarks on Twitter about other users making comments on Twitter, then Alan Sugar had posted what he thought about Katy Hopkins posting remarks on Twitter.  Good job we have Twitter, eh?

At least they both get a bit of publicity.

Went out for a 65 mile ride at the weekend, that's the longest for a while and felt reasonably OK.  I remembered to take 2 water bottles with me this time.  The last long one I did I only took 1, with predictable thirst type of anguish as the sun warmed me up.