scottsdad

Deep in to my fourth batch of homebrew. I have consumed more units in the last month, at a much cheaper price, than I would have previously. My Summer Berries wine was amazing.

Last night's Storyville on BBC4 - Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds. It was on late last night, and kept me up. Fascinating - a former magician with a hatred of people trying to con the public, like faith healers and so on. So he spent decades exposing them. He thought he had ended Uri Geller's career once, having shown hip up on the Carson show, but he came back. Really, really fascinating watch. The way he took down the faith healer ("Let the power of Jesus melt those cancer tumours away!") was brilliant. EDIT: You can get it on the iPlayer

In to the 5th season with my boy. For some reason I'm finding Betsy Brandt quite nice this time around - never did before. Must be old age creeping up on me.

As the great Wodehouse would say, that was oojah-cum-spiff. What a finale. A plot twist I didn't see coming (then again I never spot plot twists).

A bit like every scene set in Paris has the Eiffel tower in the background, this had the lot. Red phone boxes, double decker buses, picture of the queen on the wall, the lot.

I have a problem with Solo.

I was so, so pleased in the season finale. The shrink revealing himself as a killer, gloating that he had "won". Everyone - me, the wife, all the characters, just wanted Mick to do him in, there and then. Glorious.

On the plus point, if you have the time, I bought this: https://burnleyhomebrew.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=7_30&product_id=632 - will be ready on May 25th for the first tasting. In the long run, I've gained a hobby and started doing something I've been meaning to for ages.

One full weekend in, and I see a few things happening. Firstly, a lot of beers and ciders and the like are at the floor 50p per unit price. There's no difference between buying a high quality beer and gutrot, as they are the same price (for now). I had the rather enjoyable feeling of a Saturday night on the Bishop's Finger (fnarr fnarr) as it cost the same as just about everything else - £1.30 a bottle. The same price as Aldi's own make beer. Hobgoblin was £1.25 a bottle - again, the same as just about everything else. This cannot last. I give it a month and we'll see the margin come back in, separating the quality from the guff.

Moderate drinkers - especially those on tight incomes - will be massively affected. Moderate drinkers, and alcoholics, who have money will not be affected so much.

or 8 for £8.80 - still more than twice what he pays now.

Depends what you mean by the usual stuff. This web page is a good guide: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43891989

Thanks for the tip, Jim.

I agree with this. My neighbour works a night shift job 5 days a week for really crap money. His treat (as he calls it) is on his 2 nights off he drinks 4 cans of cider. He buys the Taurus stuff from Aldi. Yesterday 8 cans of that cost him £4 - today it'll cost £10. He is by no means an alcoholic, or a criminal - just an occasional drinker on a low wage who cannot now really be an occasional drinker.

The policy comes in to effect today. And this is just the beginning - Prohibition for the Poor. Watching BBC Reporting Scotland last night was the most biased reporting I think I have ever seen. They had an A&E doctor, an activist who campaigned for it, a recovering alcoholic all saying that this is needed, and more ominously that this is just the first step. The campaigners want the 50p per unit price upped to 70p per unit. And they want to stop the "over-provision of alcohol in the most badly affected areas" - in other words, in neighbourhoods where folk are poor, they'll try to get rid of off-licenses. I predict a rise in shoplifting this week - Frosty Jack cider has trebled in price overnight. Now, I get all the arguments and the statistics. Scotland has a drinking culture that is bad for health - but where does the Scottish government get off deciding that the great unwashed cannot be trusted with alcohol, and so have decided to do the one thing the poor cannot fight back against - price them out of it? I really dislike the social engineering subtext of wll the talk regarding this policy.

This latest series broke me. The walking football episode - I was on the verge of anger after that. Didn't watch any more in the series. I still have them taped, so - my question is - should I watch the rest, or is this the new level? Methadone fucking Mick.

Please, please make it better. I've been watching old original series and TNG episodes recently and boy, do I miss those days. Exploration, diplomacy, problem solving, humanity - yes, the occasional fight but not too much.

Never seen the movies, but I have to ask - is there a more evil man on TV right now than Mick? I can't think of one.

Actually, he came across as a bit of a bell end - but a semi competent bell end.

I watched a Scotland match on terrestrial TV yesterday. Just like my childhood.

I feel for you. My daughter had a real, real nasty piece of work in her class. This girl would slap, punch and kick the other kids. She had some developmental problems, but most of all she suffered from a condition I call "Scumbag Parent Syndrome". The guy would roar and shout at his kids at 8 am (just the way to start the day), and carry on until about 10 at night. I know, as they lived next door to me for 4 years. They moved away in November and everyone in the school and in our street sighed a big sigh of relief.

My 7 year old comes in from school, and in the hallway takes off everything except her t-shirt and pants, before even coming in to say hello to us. As a toddler she was always trying to go around naked.

My decision was simple. My wife had been on various versions of the pill, each with significant side effects. One she could only take for 5 years because it causes bone weakness. The implant gave her incredible mood swings. Depending on what one she was on her weight would balloon or shrink. She was at a higher risk of stroke and heart attack. We had had our kids, and for me it was a simple decision. I didn't want her to poison herself any more when I could undergo this procedure which would take care of the issue.

I disagree. Jolie always had that quality where, at a moment's notice, she could go mental. Like Suranne Jones in doctor Foster, you wid but with extreme trepidation. I'd put her top. I, Tonya was much better than I expected and Allison Janney was superb. 8/10.

I watched a documentary with my students last week called The Holyrood Files about the building of the Scottish Parliament, and the politics that surrounded it. SLab had Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell. Watching it, I just thought "Jesus, these guys used to be quite good". What the hell happened to them?