Well, That Was An Interesting Year, Now For The Next In Line...

Whenever the Telegraph puts a picture of Boris Johnson on its front page (something it does frequently- perhaps as often as every other day) I think of Aaron pointing to the Golden Calf and going, "These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

Yesterday's i-player treat was The Babadook. The opening scenes- with the unhappy mother struggling to cope with her unhappy child- distressed me so much I nearly switched off. It was really quite a relief when the ugly-wuglies showed up.

Later I watched bits of Dead of Night- a movie that influenced everything from The Twilight Zone to Fred Hoyle's steady state theory of the universe. It's not very good- stiff, stagey, silly- with the exception of the episode with the ventriloquist's dummy- which is (a) well written (b) lifted onto a different plane by Michael Redgrave's performance and (c) queer as fuck.

I Suppose These Count As New Year Resolutions

Ailz says she spent last year reading about veganism and intends to spend this year reading about sustainability.

I intend to spend this year- as I spent last year- reading about ETs and near death experiences.

We're in the habit of exchanging information on our chosen subjects so that what she learns I learn (if in less detail) and visa versa. She's an earth sign, I'm an air sign: we complement one another.

On the subject of ETs I see that President Trump has just signed a bill which- among other things- gives the security services 180 days to disclose all they know about UFOs and alien contact. I doubt they'll fully comply (because who's going to twist their collective arm?) but I expect they'll comply a bit- which will be interesting.