In which I manage to write a surprisingly large amount, so bear with me.
Cycling in Belgium
I spent a few days recently in Gent, Belgium, using a bicycle as my primary mode of transportation. Like many European countries Belgium by law requires that motorists give way to cyclists in most situations. Cycling is also incredibly common - most houses seemed to have at least one bike outside, and the cycle paths and general cycling infrastructure is exceptional - for example, one cycle path alongside a river went underneath each road bridge (on a specially built extra bridge) so that cyclists didn't have to cross the junctions.
The result was a feeling of safety I'd hoped for but couldn't have fully imagined without experiencing it firsthand. Cars and buses just stopped whenever I got near them, which was incredible particularly when crossing unfamiliar and complicated junctions unsure from where traffic would approach. Navigating the city was a pleasant and often rapid experience, particularly where cycle routes diverted through parks and along custom built pathways. The only real problem I had was the surprising number of uncomfortably cobbled streets, but I suspected the locals took more sensible routes.
This was all a breath of fresh air compared to nearly a decade of cycling almost daily through central London. Unfortunately it felt like more than just a difference of law, but one of attitude. Cyclists in Belgium obeyed the rules, and in return motorists gave way gracefully - even though traffic would stop for me, it never seemed like drivers minded waiting. In London it felt more like a battle - cyclists would frequently run red lights and motorists seemed angry and frustrated by even their presence.
I don't know what the lesson to learn from all this is, other than change is hard. Hopefully one day the UK will embrace the cycling attitudes of our European neighbours, but I suspect it will take a while.
Couch co-op recommendations
Here are a couple of quick recommendations if you have a group of friends who like to meet up to play videogames together.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is a kind of co-operative/versus multiplayer 2D platformer where you work together to build a level from preset pieces and then play that level to see who reaches the finish. But if you all finish, no one scores any points. The range of random level construction pieces and the creative ways that they can be combined alone is genius - but the real joy comes from the manic gameplay that results from your sadistic decisions. There's also a sequel in the works where you ride bikes.
Make Way is a racing game with a similar co-operative level building concept but one that doesn't feel like it adds much creativity beyond being an interesting replacement for a random level generator. The fun comes instead from the frenetic Micro Machines style gameplay complete with weapons, traps and falling from or barging other players off the track.
Taskmaster
A few weeks ago I went to see Alex Horne's band, The Horne Section. The show was hilarious - dry humour, deliberately bad puns, and all of it just slightly odd without trying too hard.
This reminded me that I saw the recording of an episode of Taskmaster last year (the other thing that Alex Horne does) and hadn't written about it yet.
It was September 2024 and they were recording series 19 at Pinewood studios. I'd previously signed up to a waiting list for free tickets, and a few months later had received an email asking me to choose my preferred date. A friend had told me to arrive early as they over issue tickets to ensure a full audience in case of cancellations, but even arriving an hour ahead of the start time I was surprised by the crowd of people ahead of us.
We were given a numbered ticket and asked to wait in a marquee. Doors opened at 1:30 so we'd taken food to eat in the queue, knowing that bags weren't allowed in the studio. Over the next hour more and more people arrived and eventually they started calling people in - priority guests first, followed by groups of numbers. It was a bit tense - once they knew how many people were there, they started announcing that anyone with a ticket above a certain number wouldn't be getting in. That number kept dropping and came worryingly close to our own, but at last we were told to get up and join the queue into the studio.
I was hoping to see something interesting at Pinewood but beyond a few big posters advertising films made at the site there was little to see beyond some large white buildings. We followed our queue around some of them until at last we found ourselves in the studio itself.
It was packed and we thought we were safely seated until an attendant came and apologetically announced that anyone with a certain ticket number range would have to leave - and it was the group right behind us. They left and were mysteriously replaced with a different group of people, and we never saw them again.
Finally it all began. There was a comedian doing crowd warm up to start, and then Greg Davies and Alex Horne arrived to do a bit of pre-show banter before the rest of the cast arrived. Interestingly although the set of the show has remained the same since the first season where it was recorded in an actual theatre, that look was now reproduced in a studio. That meant that the stalls either side of the stage were actually free standing boxes with decorated wooden panels over scaffolding, and the rest of the 'theatre' was hanging walls - just like the stereotype of a movie set.
The actual recording was just like watching an extended version of a regular episode of Taskmaster. They introduced the task, showed a video of it up on the big screen for all of us to watch, then Greg talked to the contestants and awarded points. It was fascinating to watch him at work - he asked far more questions than we see in the final episodes, carefully drawing out details about the task from each contestant until he was satisfied something funny had been recorded.
It was also very smooth - apart from the occasional break where the comedian would reappear there was no director saying 'cut' or any other interruption - the whole thing felt like it progressed quickly even though it took several hours.
I also enjoyed that Greg Davies sometimes got involved with the warm up comedian during the breaks, and there was even a question and answer session at one point about the show, that revealed some interesting things - definitely a good experience for a hard code fan.
At the end the cast dispersed and Alex and Greg stayed behind to re-record a few lines, and then we were allowed to leave. Overall it was an excellent experience and well worth the effort. I've not yet seen the episode they recorded that day, but at time of writing the series has been shown, I just need to catch up.
Taskmaster aired
I've finally caught up with the current series and it was episode 7 of series 19. Very interesting to watch and see how much had been cut out - although not that surprising, given it's a 45 minute show that took 3 hours to film. Worth the wait though.
Some more bad puns I made up recently
Finally, something to make you groan. Enjoy.
- When I go out at night I always attach a 2, a 4, a 7, and a 14 to my jacket. There's safety in numbers.
- We have two people in our office who are spreadsheet experts, but they have the same name. So we call them Calum A and Calum B.
- Three men were working on a farm when a wolf approached. The shepherd stood his ground. The pigherd went to help. But the third one ran away - he was a cowherd.
- I got a book out of the library because I wanted to understand how the mouthpieces of clarinets worked. It was a short reed.
- I read a book about farming. It was well written but there were a lot of stock photos.
- I read a book about the techniques they used to use to build ships in the North East. It was riveting.
- I read a book about spies. It had a good cover (thanks to Ben for that one).