6595/19515
Had the fun of people defending the government to me on Twitter. I guess any admission that mistakes may have been made might be the crack that causes the whole fantasy of Brexit to shatter (spoiler - that's going to happen soon, but you can be sure no one who voted for it will be taking responsibility). This is a nice preview of the arguments, which range from just being called an idiot with nothing to back that up, to the suggestion that this is actually our fault for either not obeying the advice (and no one can accuse the government of that) or for not ignoring the government directives and still inviting people over. Ah well. 2021 is going to be the worst year of this century so far. And when you think of the competition that is quite an achievement.
But the potential joy of a small scale Christmas was at least previewed today and we had a fun day with the kids, with both Catie and me winding down work for Christmas (though still a RHLSTP, a snooker and possibly a short Christmas Twitch of Fun to come). We got out Marek Larwood's Pooman game and it is just as brilliant as I anticipated. It is, in fact, genius. The kids had played the game yesterday and this morning were keen to draw their own cards. Phoebe had some very imaginative character (Mrs Naked was a highlight) and action cards and adapted some of Ernie's more basic efforts. We sent them to Marek who said they looked great and also revealed that sales of the game since his RHLSTP appearance have been enough to clear the debts and move the enterprise into profit. I am delighted to have helped, but the kudos is all his.I think it has a bright future and it's an absolute perfect gift for any youngsters you may know. My three year old could still play it and was thrilled and excited (and a bit scared) by the prospect of the Pooman appearing. We had some epic chases round the house (I nearly had a heart attack trying to escape Phoebe's very slow counting Pooperman) but there's lots of sitting down and you can just get caught or let the kids run away if you don't want to put in the effort. I hope he will do more with it as there's potential for tie-in books and lots more and I'd love to see Marek become a deserved millionaire off the back of this.
You are probably too late for Christmas, but if you have a nephew or a niece who looks poo, drawing and chasing then they will LOVE you if you get them this game. And if you're a parent you can look cool to your kids for once as you encourage them to indulge their scatological whims. Buy it here
We watched Trading Places tonight. It's a really good idea for a film and progressive in some ways for the 1980s. But in other ways it's really not progressive and it's sort of a shame that they don't really investigate the conceit and let the third act descend into a world of weird, blackface, monkey rape farce. Loads of gratuitous bosoms on display too, which seems a little bizarre. But still some funny stuff and engaging performances. Also boobs. But maybe wait for the remake.
