Wednesday17-07-19 Bremain?

So here is an improbable scenario...

David Davis and his Brexit negotiations go nowhere. The EU negotiation team stick to their guns and insist that there are four indivisible pillars founding the EU:- freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labour. And the ECJ has to have a final say on the proposed deal, as well as being the final arbiter over the EU citizens remaining in the UK.

Furthermore, the EU deny any possibility of sector by sector industrial talks, so the car industry or the finance industry won't get special treatment. It seems that all the UK attempts to get any favours out of the EU are destined to fail. It looks like we are going to leave the EU with no deal, on WTO terms.

Keir Starmer and the Labour party get an update in Parliament as to the progress or lack thereof in the talks. Starmer has already advised that the deal needs to be "at least as good as the existing deal" - the update from Davis indicates that there is no hope of that. Corbyn has always been in favour of Brexit, but not dogmatically so; he thinks that if it can be a good thing, it should be pursued. But this looks like a bad deal.

And so, Labour switch their position. The Brexit which the Conservatives are trying to negotiate is going nowhere, time is running out, and tempers are running high. Labour are in front in the polls, so if a general election were called, they would win. All of a sudden, with their clear different position on Brexit, they attract even more support than they currently have.

With the change in position, proceedings in the House of Commons become more fraught, and there is a vote of no confidence. The government is dissolved, and a General Election is called. Labour get in on a mandate to cancel Brexit and so Article 50 is revoked.

Wishful thinking, I suppose.

TTFN.

Sunday 17-07-16 Tablet Addict

I bought a new tablet on Friday night. Well, I say "new", of course I mean "used". But it's new to me. I was looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 10.1, but I noticed that the Tab E with a 9.6" display was cheaper. 

I noticed that one chap had listed a Tab E for £79.99, and he claimed it was only a month old. I was sorely tempted, but he ended the auction early and I thought I'd missed out. In fact, he'd relisted it at £99.99, which was too much for me. If I was going to spend that much, I would have bought the Tab A. But there was a further twist: he ended the auction again, and relisted the tablet with an SD card included. By this time I'd decided that if he relisted it at £79.99, I would buy it. Later on Friday evening it disappeared from the listings again, and I followed him as a seller so that I would get notifications if he listed anything else. 

I was heading to bed when I noticed that the tablet had again been relisted, this time without the SD card, but at the original price of £79.99. Considering that these tablets sell for £150 in Currys, I reckoned that if the tablet was only one month old, this had to be a good deal. So I put a bid in at £75, which he didn't respond to, and then I went up to the Buy It Now price of £79.99. Since I'd decided to buy it, I didn't want to lose it. 

I'm hoping that the internal gyroscopes and key entry are more responsive than on this Lenovo Tab 8 (2). I can expand the memory beyond the provided 8gb, which is a bit paltry if I'm honest, but Samsung do have a good reputation when it comes to usable tablets. And although the PPI (pixels per inch) stat is the same on both tablets, I'm hoping that the display on the Tab E will be better. I guess we'll find out on Wednesday, when I'm hoping it'll get delivered.

There'll be another update shortly after that, I expect...

TTFN.

Saturday 17-07-15 Shopping In Brighton

TW woke up yesterday morning and didn't fancy going to Worthing Sevens, so she suggested a day out in Brighton. I responded that I'd rather stick pins in my eyes, but she checked with the girls and they were all up for it, so I could see my escape tunnel of opportunity slowly being walled up in front of me. Then she offered me a glimmer of hope; she said that of course I could stay at home, but she would expect me to tidy the house (no problems there) and put on a couple of loads of washing (simples) and cook dinner - whut!?! And then she extended the carrot - if I came to Brighton, I could sit in the pub and have a beer while they shopped. 

I was a Sure Thing. 

So, we hit the train station, TW got to flex her Friends And Family rail discount card, and we were on our way to Brighton. First stop: Primark! 

Yeah, well that ruined me basically. I did get a £2 t-shirt, which I have yet to try on, but I'm sure it will be lovely. Then we headed to Churchill Square and I diverted into the Prince of Wales and had my first pint. I only had enough for one pint there, so I migrated over to the Western Front at the other side of Churchill Square, via the ATM, for another. 

From there, it was a gentle walk back through the Laines to the station, via Dave's Comics, and a quick visit to M&S Simply Food yielded a couple of marked down sandwiches and a beer for the train journey home. 

It wasn't as stressful as I was expecting, but that's probably because I spent most of it in the pub. I did get to see the new Oneplus 5 as well, which made me think...

Sunday 17-07-09 Gardening

Yesterday, as a sort of penance for getting so drunk on Friday night, I gardened.

I don't like gardening very much, or at least I say I don't, but I was quietly pleased with my efforts.

Down the "side return" we have a bunch of weeds that I have allowed to flourish through inaction, and the most egregious of these were these reed-type weeds growing next to the house:

[caption id="attachment_699" align="alignnone" width="225"] Before[/caption]

 After mowing the lawn and strimming the edges of the garden I tackled this monstrosity, with the result that it now looks like this:

[caption id="attachment_701" align="alignnone" width="225"] After[/caption]

 I don't know what I'll do with this area but I'll try and keep it relatively clear, I think. It makes it easier to get down the side of the house, which we'll need to do because there are more weeds down there which need pulling...

 TTFN.

Wednesday 17-06-28 Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man

I am not a comic artist. Nor am I a comic illustrator, or a comic writer.  But nonetheless I have to say that this comic was completely pointless.

I didn't like the story, or the continued references to events that had already been described in other comics. As a #1, in my opinion the story should be able to stand alone.

I thought the artwork was too child-like, but that's probably personal preference - one of my favourite titles is Daredevil, which tends to be a bit darker in tone.

And I thought the plot twist at the end - that Peter Parker has a sister (spoiler alert!) - unnecessary. Marvel have been trying to diversify their titles for a number of years now and I think they've got it wrong several times, especially killing off or retiring well-established and well-loved characters. It'll probably turn out that she is Spider-Man sometimes.

In the editorial at the back they more or less admit this is a cash-in - "with a movie coming out next month and a new animated series later this year, we wanted to make sure fans had a super easy landing pad".

Anyway, the title was toot, and I've asked my local comic seller to take this title off my subscription list.

TTFN.