Meenzer

Trying to think what's been best out of my lockdown reads. "Another Fine Mess" by Tim Moore, in which he drives a rickety Model T Ford across the Trump-voting states, was enjoyable as usual from him - albeit a bit less laugh-out-loud funny, probably because the subject matter is so profoundly depressing. Chris Brookmyre's latest, "Fallen Angel", was exactly the kind of intelligent but not too challenging thriller I needed over the summer, definitely worth a read (plus it's often 99p on Kindle ). Also been belatedly working my way through Iain M. Banks - I found "Use Of Weapons" surprisingly uplifting for something outright nihilistic in places. Tried to get stuck into some weightier stuff too - "The End of Days" by Jenny Erpenbeck was dark but really good; the joint Booker winner "Girl, Woman, Other" was good too although it didn't blow me away like it seems to have other people. Also read Martin Hardy's "Tunnel Of Love" but that was a disappointment compared with "Touching Distance" - there's a shoddy feel to the writing/proofreading, and I suppose the topic and narrative was always going to be a bit more disjointed than the arc of the Keegan years.

That's Ashleynomics, baby!

A little reading matter to pass the time while we wait for him to miraculously recover. Warning: it's pretty depressing. What a country. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/

That's a pretty major clanger.

By pronouncing 'Schär'

We've even had a shot or two on target.

Shall I merge them or shall I leave it because this is likely to be the only entertainment we get tonight?

Weird how he's in all the risk categories for pretty much every other illness too. It's almost like being a fat sedentary old man with a terrible diet is unwise.

He got a bounce off of the Cheeky Girls instead. Could be worse.

I'd wait at least another month and two days before going anywhere near dollars, to be honest.

There's no one left in I'd fancy us against. Well, except Fulham.

Luckiest manager in the game

Shelvey really is thick as fuck, isn't he?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/30/germans-embrace-fresh-air-to-ward-off-coronavirus Honestly, "open the windows every so often" is clearer than most of the advice we've been given in this country so far. Sounds good to me.

Douglas Adams wasn't so far wrong then.

Finally, a point on which Rayvin and I are in complete agreement.

Aye pal, course they are.

Tweets about as well as he sings.

We really need to stop describing things as lockdowns when they're not.

Joelinton and...?

Seems to be a bit of both around here. We're not looking (we've long missed the boat in terms of buying in London) but I like to keep informed anyway, if only to laugh at how much people are willing to pay for an average two-bed semi on an average street in Lewisham. Anecdotally things have slowed down (amplified by people looking to leave the city?) and buyers are feeling emboldened to undercut asking prices for the first time in a long while - but all that's done is make the estate agents tell sellers to up their asking prices by 10-20%, so everything ends up massively skewed. Terrific. But there's definitely some of those quick sale scenarios emerging too.