Budapest at Night

Some pre-COVID years ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Budapest with work. 

It started off well because there was a very pretty train on the other platform at Birmingham International.

   

Sorry, I'm a 3rd gen train weirdo. Like all airports, there's different flight paths into Budapest and we were lucky enough to be on the one that takes you along the Danube. Absolutely amazing. The people I was working with were kind enough to give us a very quick tour of central Budapest. Here are some highlights.

   

This is where I hit a small problem. If I am not thinking straight it's the Kettenbrücke, I am aware in English it's the Chain Bridge and I need to copy and paste from Wikipedia to get the accent right on Lánchíd. The names will be used interchangeably. 

We walked past the Parliament building.

    

 

 

Hopefully the photos get across just how big the parliament is. 

Then we walked through the park to St. Stephen's Basilica.

  When we were there, there was an memorial to the 1956 Uprising - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956 

View of Budapest Castle from the other side of the river.  

We were taken to Pater Marcus - https://www.patermarcus.hu/ - which has delicious food. And drink. But especially the food. 

 

And then, back over the bridge to the hotel.

Formula 1 2025 - Mexico City Grand Prix

Most important thing first - there was actual racing! At the Mexican Grand Prix! For the last couple of years, I've said it was really unfair that the marvellously loud fans in Mexico didn't get a decent race. But this year they did. 

Okay if we ignore that the leader finished almost a pitstop ahead of everyone else. 

But there was racing everywhere else, even if that was partly due to tyre life offsets. 

It was a proper, "I can't tell if God is a Ferrari fan, or if he hates us," race, because on the one hand, a driver getting a 10 second penalty for doing what three other drivers did when none of the others got penalised, on the other, the only thing that stopped Verstappen overtaken Leclerc was a virtual safety car. 

It was most definitely not Carlos Sainz jnr's race. There has to be a way for a team to say "listen, our pit limiter is doing stupid things." Then again, they'd all use it to cheat ... 

Not quite sure why the crowd were booing Norris. It's strikes as pointless. He is too inoffensive to hate properly. He's not Lorenzo. (Sorry, but Jorge Lorenzo enjoyed being booed and that made it fun. [Also, because I enjoy pain, I was a Pedrosa fan.]) 

If they'd chosen to boo Russell after all that radio whinging, I could live with it. Normally I like you, George, but that was unnecessary. But at least he gave the place back to Antonelli without complaint. 

BBC commentary have reverted to Sam Bird from Damon Hill. This is most definitely not a good thing. Bird is so risk averse, it may explain why he hasn't won anything!!! 

The second most important thing was, of course, Ferrari junior driver Oli Bearman getting 4th in a Haas. Or am I fixating on the wrong part of that ;) 

Understandably, everyone is focussing on the OMG! there's only one point in the Driver's championship, but the Constructor's championship is also squeakily close in points.  

Okay, not the top, because McLaren have already won it, but there's 1 point between second and third, 10 points between second and fourth, and further down, there's 9 points separating seventh, eighth and ninth. How many millions per point down there!!!

Formula 1 2025 - United States Grand Prix

The racing at the Grand Prix supports my belief that the US Grand Prix is the best of the US races.

Is it also the only one on a purpose-built track? Yes.

Do I think there's a correlation there? Yes!

The DRS button still kills joy, but hey at least Ferrari came up with a strategy that got one of the cars into the mix to be overtaken by DRS rather than skill.

(Yes, I am bitter)

Leclerc did some excellent defensive driving, and totally deserved driver of the day.

While I understand why the press are focussing on the remarkable gains Verstappen has made in the last couple of races, I'm not sure it's as bad for Piastri as they are painting it. At a circuit that he just did not gel with, he still got 10 points. It's vanishingly unlikely that the rest of the races are going to be that bad for him.

Book Review - The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements by Gail Dixon and Paul Parsons

 The only reason this isn't 5 stars is entirely a me-problem, and I'm trying to be reasonable.

I wanted more science to go along with the pictures.  A couple of elements had two pages of text and I think I would have liked more elements to have got that.

The pictures are amazing and I really like the inclusion of the crystal structure space for each of the solid elements.

LibraryThing Suggestions

1 - Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

2 - Science in Seconds: 200 Key Concepts Explained in an Instant (Knowledge in a Flash) by Hazel Muir

3 - Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

4 - The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore W. Gray

5 - Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

6 - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

7 - The Planets by Brian Cox

8 - Seven Elements that Changed the World: An Adventure of Ingenuity and Discovery by John Browne

9 - Stars and Planets by Jay M. Pasachoff

10 - The Secret Life of the Periodic Table by Ben Still

Not read any of them, but I want to.

Film review - Gemini Man

A mid-level spy film, an interesting sci-fi film and a mediocre action film had a baby.

As did Superman and Lex Luthor.

No, really.

It's a frustrating film because it comes so close to being better but it's also solid for what it is.

You have the conflicted agent working against a conspiracy - and Will Smith can do that easily (and does).

You've got the international espionage angle - it works.

You've got the everyday setting film that turns out to be sci fi and I like that style of sci fi.

I'm going to go through the three films that don't quite mesh together in increasing order of goodness.

Let's begin with the action film part, which is the bit that doesn't really work. I can understand a director choosing this film to try new technology, and unlike say, Cats, where you're there going 'why are you using tech that isn't quite there yet for an adaptation of this beloved piece from another medium?', this at least uses the tech that isn't quite there yet for an original story so the high frame rate not quite working doesn't ruin anything.

Why am I putting the technical detail in the action film section? Because it was in the action scenes where I noticed it. If I notice you are doing something technically different, my escape into the film is damaged.

I understand that, for the film to work (and probably to get the budget to make it), it needed action scenes. But they don't work and there's too much time spent on them, which means that some of the quieter character scenes that the film needs either aren't there, or are too short.

The middling spy film - it does what a lot of Hollywood films do. Get a bunch of British actors to play morally grey. They're cheap and they can do American accents. I'm fine with this, it gives Benedict Wong and Ralph Brown money. All good.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is stuck with the most obvious "oh hell, we haven't got a single woman in this film, stick one in" role I have seen for some time. She does very well in a horribly under-written role. I am not exaggerating about how obviously Zakarewski was added in to give the film a female character. There's one scene where she's being searched for bugs, and the way it is shot is totally just an excuse to get Mary Elizabeth Winstead in her underwear. It would have been filmed completely differently if the character had been male and it's so frustrating. I had hoped we'd moved beyond that.

There's travel and subterfuge in Budapest and you know what, it's middling.

The science fiction bit is the bit that works the best. I think it is, at least in part, because they don't try and explain the how, and just go with the why. Clive Owen is very good in his short screen time, because you can understand a younger Verris meeting Henry Brogan for the first time and seeing his belief that you can bend someone to being a superman by how you bring them up supported by evidence, and how he moved from that to cloning and every idea he's had since. (It's very Lex Luthor and Superman and Superboy/Kon-El)

And of course it ends up in child soldiers, because children are more malleable and aren't as aware of right and wrong, and isn't interesting the Verris starts to turn against Junior when he becomes old enough to develop his own set of ideals.

Junior is why the film has to use the fancy special effects and Will Smith is an excellent choice because the animators have lots of footage of a younger him to help mould how Junior looks. Will Smith is an excellent choice anyway because he sells Junior as well as Henry Brogan - he plays them differently enough that you could probably pick them apart even without the special effects. And the scene where he talks about his father!!! (Plus, as I said, the way it's obviously that story that made Verris choose him as the DNA donor for Junior.)

When the film does slow down for the emotional scenes, it works well. I almost want Ang Lee to have the chance to re-do it and pace it more like the original Day of the Jackal. Or make it a mini-series. There's so much potential in this that they can't get into because of time constraints.

It's not a good film, don't get me wrong, the bits don't fit together and its under-written, but there's potential there.

Formula 1 2025 - Singapore Grand Prix

 I actually managed to watch about half of this live. Right to the point where someone said, "this race is boring, let's go walk the dog." In fairness, the dog walk was more interesting than the race.

I then saw the end on Sky but also listened to the whole thing afterwards on BBC Sounds. It's really interesting that Sky F1 didn't fall for "pit to beat Verstappen" gambit but Sam Bird on BBC did (Harry Benjamin didn't).

Alonso has previous in the "whinging because he can't get past people" stakes - see Petrov. I am so very much team Hadjar anyway, and always team "anything that annoys Alonso" so I am on Hadjar's side in this.

Someone tell Sam Bird that I go off people quickly, particularly when you are mean to Tsunoda.

I do not blame Leclerc going off on one. Please can we get him a car that works. And Hamilton a car that actually, you know, brakes when he presses the brake.

McLaren section:
Crashing into a teammate is never good, nor is losing an end plate, but given the lack of overtaking opportunities at Singapore, it's not a bad place to do it.

Hey! for once McLaren's pit gremlins happened to Piastri

I'm not surprised that it's getting tasty down in McLaren-land because fighting for the title made Rubens Barrichello, the nicest man in motorsport (TM), angry, of course there will be McLaren on McLaren violence.

Saints Ahoy - Game 29 and the 2024 Season to Date

Yes, I am writing this post to try and distract myself from their match against Hull KR in the 2025 play-offs. (No, I have no idea how we got past Leeds.) 

This game, the last of the 2024 regular season, was a narrow loss to Leigh (https://www.saintsrlfc.com/2024/09/20/saints-suffer-narrow-defeat-to-leigh/), 18-12. Now we had a try chalked off, but Leigh were the better team for the whole game and all of Saints actual points were scored in the 10 minutes that Leigh were down to 12 men because of yellow card to Leutele for attempted Welsby murder. 

Because it was all in that 10 minutes, the "who played together when Saints scored" matrix chart is ... uninformative.  

So, instead, let's look at the season up to the end of game 29. 

When do Saints score?  

Who scores for Saints?  

Who is present when Saints score?  

Saints reached the 200 point scoring moments in this game (vs 160 point-conceding moments), so it's a good time to see if there's any players present for more point-scoring moments than point-conceding moments (or vice versa). Percival is one of the players with the greatest differences, he is present for a lot fewer point-conceding moments, but that is because he got substituted at around minute 50. Hurrell and Dodd are also present for relatively fewer point-conceding moments. 

Delaney is the player present for relatively more point-conceding moments, as does Whitley. That I can't explain. There's two clear teams, the most often together (a full match day 17 - Welsby, Blake, Whitley, Bennison, Batchelor, Dodd, Percival, Bell, Hurrell, Mata'utia, Sironen, Lomax, Mbye, Clark, Makinson, Delaney and Lees) and the less often together (12 - Royle, Whitby, Vaughan, Wingfield, Walmsley, Robertson, Burns, Paasi, Knowles, Davies, Stephens and Ritson). 

Oddly, only 10 players are not in the central blob, when you look at the network graph. Looking the point-conceding moments 

This was the third time Saints and Leigh played this season. Leigh 3 are about mid-way up the chart.  

When do the point-conceding moments occur?  

That these aren't in a normal curve makes me happier that the point-scoring moments truly are normally distributed rather than it being some artefact. 

Who is present when Saints concede?  

The who is present together when Saints concede matrix now looks like this:  

The equivalent network graph looks like this Again, the matrix and the network graph don't quite match.

Formula 1 2025 - Azerbaijan Grand Prix

 Sadly I missed the live Baku Chaos Bonanza because I was hitting people with swords.

As the BBC radio commentators said, it's an odd race where there's either chaos in qualifying or the race, never both and this was a year where it was all in the qualifying - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/c5yv3y3q8dvo

The race itself was dull, and the only good news was the Sainz jnr podium. But that was very good news.

It's interesting that there was another poor (re)start from Norris. At some point, they're going to have to do something about that. Matters were not helped by him yet again being the victim of a McLaren pitstop going wrong.

The only comment I have about Ferrari is that someone needs to tell them that 3rd in Constructors is not good enough.

Then, of course, there's that titillating possibility that this is the second race in a Verstappen come back. If Verstappen wins the title this year ...

Film Review - Big Trouble in Little China

 Spoilers below

Another Mockingbird Cinema (https://mockingbirdcinema.com/MockingbirdCinema.dll/Home) special.

I went with D. When we go to the cinema, we aim for silly films. Big Trouble in Little China definitely brings that.

It's dashed hard to write about because it's such a delightful confection. You don't want to press too hard in case it breaks the spell. While I understand people who go "you can't want films to make sense and love Big Trouble in Little China" but within itself, it's consistent and makes sense. That's all I ask for.

'Big Trouble in Little China' also does something clever, with a lead character who is so totally not the hero. It's not that Jack Burton doesn't try, or isn't brave, but that man is not the hero. (By the by, Wang Chi is a most excellent fiancé and were I to be kidnapped by ancient incorporeal wizards, I would like to be rescued by him)

A lot of films would tweak that start to make Jack Burton be the big damn hero at the end, but this doesn't. One knife throw aside, he spends the end fight unable to help.

He's also an excellent character to explain the plot to because he's an outsider so there's very little "as you know, Bob" going on, because Jack knows Jack.

It's a little gem of a film and I recommend seeing it if you get the chance.

Formula 1 2025 - Italian Grand Prix

Power units and other disasters 

We're starting to reach the power unit grid penalty part of the season, with various drivers sent to the back of the grid. I am wondering if whatever happened to Hulkenberg's car was also a part reaching its limit. 

There was actual racing 

But it was noticeable that most of the racing occurred before the DRS buttons were turned on. Maybe they'll get rid of them. (The DRS button continues to kill joy.) 

Red Bull 

Verstappen's performance in front adds evidence to the theory that this car was designed with the assumption it would be at the front, and it can't handle not being there. 

Aston Martin 

That muttering sound really is Alonso saying "next year I will have a Newey car so I will put up with this nonsense". 

Ferrari 

Every single race there's a mid-race disagreement between the drivers and the pit wall. Do they not have pre-race meetings?! Do the drivers not listen?! Do the team lie to them?! 

McLaren 

Loving Jenny Gow's simile - "the McLaren mechanics are walking around like expectant fathers." 

Other than Norris apparently being cursed (seriously, why do the pit stop problems always happen to him), I am not sure what else McLaren could have done. It was a problem the team created. Sure, racing is racing, but an unholy mechanical error isn't racing, and a swap seems only fair. 

Verstappen trolling does not help anything or anyone. Ever!