Was in Hamleys earlier. Recent Google search "is it legal to sell things over RRP" Insane. RRP £60. Amazon selling for £40. Hamleys price £78. Mad.

Walked into a dry cleaner yesterday. Immediately saw sign up saying £20 minimum card payment. Walked straight out. It's 2026 guys, the corner shop doesn't blink if you pay for a can of pop on your phone, I'm not going to the cash machine to pay for my suit to be dry cleaned.

What on earth is going on with Bond? The last one came out Autumn 21, but was finished pre-Covid. That's 6 years ago. They've not even cast Bond yet, they could have had one out by now, or at least ready to go.

Books read in 2026, let's do a thread, I'm aiming for a good number this year. On the Calculation of Volume. Very interesting, time loop thing, read for a book club thing I went to, not my usual pick, not sure I'll read the other 6 volumes. Dragged a touch by the end.

Your Da is in the 1%.

Wild odds for the next PM. Rupert Lowe the same odds as Nigel Farage? That seems absolutely inexplicable to me.

Hmmm, I thought this most would have caught on more and attracted more comments. Seems pretty bad.

I hate to be that guy, but cancellations aren't the reason for the delays. The thing that caused you to cancel the trains is the reason for the delay.

An opportunity they will happily ignore

I think 13/2 is decent value here. Last of the big spenders etc etc.

Only today was I boring my children about how I wore this album out in 2001. A day 1 purchase I'm sure.

Yeah, you couldn't go wrong with either of these. Past Lives is different gravy though.

Saw The Besnard Lakes at the Moth Club tonight. My first gig there. Not a band I've really listened to for a couple of decades but a great intimate venue and just great to be at a gig. Hook it to my veins. Save the Moth Club etc etc)

Ray Winstone sexting

"What is the charge? Handing out chocolate coins dressed as a pirate? A succulent pirate?"

Wanted to do a presentation on Poker (don't ask) and had the idea of creating the presentation solely in AI, I knew my subject well, knew what I wanted to show people, and thought it would be fun. It created me the worst, wrong, absurd poker hands rankings you could imagine.

"What is the charge? Handing out chocolate coins dressed as a pirate? A succulent pirate?"

Jesus. 48. How awful. RIP. He was great fun in Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23.

I had a member of a team once who just gave constant excuses for why they were late/couldn't come in. They once told me they were locked out and I replied with this and they said "you said that last time". Realised we'd gone back round to the beginning of their book of excuses.

Post a pic of your favourite fictional band (Still think of this play all the time, months later. I eagerly await the inevitable movie, or god forbid, series.)

This starts off as "swing voters think all the things I do" and then just turns into a standard issue Cummings against SW1 diatribe. Yawn.

Watching The Big Short again and getting angry all over again. Dickhead Americans fucked everything up, ruined everything and Obama let them get away with it. Also, "That's a nice shirt, do they make it for men?" is a hilarious line.

What a week huh... Captain, it's early Monday evening.

I had a Ring doorbell at my last property, had to reduce all the settings down to minimum to make the battery last a decent amount of time and never really had a useful interaction with someone while not at home. Felt like something I didn't need, and now I just have a buzzer and it's fine.

4 pints in and this gave me an absolute breakdown.

I moved in July and have had zero food delivery. I don't have a kitchen at the moment and still won't. Either there are multiple places within a few minutes walk or I'll eat while I'm out. Deliveroo and the rest feels like a situation where no-one is happy with the arrangement.

The heart of the matter.

@pimlicat.bsky.social Not Murphy... 😬

Complex isn't it. Mandelson did good stuff as well...

Was planning to go to a singles open mic comedy night but it was cancelled on the day. I'd actually put loads of effort into crafting material. More effort than I put into most things. Thinking about posting the main bit as a 🧵 here or something maybe. This was the opener.

Glad we saw off January.

@wengraf.bsky.social Ivo! Good day Sir. Not sure if you remember me.

24 cans. £12.99. Only... 99p a can? I think about this every time I walk past.

Reminds me of back when she was appointed and people said that she was a foreign intelligence asset.

Fantastic thread.

I've gone back to the @shippersunbound.bsky.social books (3rd) and it's quite frustrating. Things that would devastate the economy are presented as reasonable. May is a defender of the economy for making the least worse choice. The ERG are serious intellectual figures who live in the real world...

Ed Davey checking if it's his birthday.

Weirdly these screenings have now disappeared. I definitely did not hallucinate them!

Striking that the guy killed in America by the state was a nurse, a great person, a hero who spoke at veterans funerals etc, and it was completely normal for him to have a gun. Just inconceivable for the equivalent person in the UK to be a gun owner.

Mildly amusing to see ground rent capped at £250 a year, which happens to be the precise amount I pay.

God speed to my beloved Forest Cinema Walthamstow, which is showing this from Friday.

I think things in America are going to get a lot, lot worse before they get any better. Not the most important thing, but the opportunity cost is huge. Spending billions on state approved abductions rather than on education.

Seems weird to have an adviser working to get you to 0% in the polls, but with a little luck, I'd back McSweeney to be able to do it.

*opens blind* Ah, grey, we meet again... *Seinfeld voice* Anyone remember the Sun, that was good wasn't it.

Funny thing about this is despite it all, latest polling shows US voters favour GOP over Democrats on immigration by *11 points* "We hate this, but to be clear, we do not trust you dweebs at all."

So the upset in the Oscar noms to me is F1 getting in over It Was Just An Accident. Jafar Panahi was pretty widely considered a cert to be nominated for Best Director, so him missing out and the film to not even make the 10 is a surprise.