1. Quote of the week

While the average middle-class family in 2020 may have more in the way of consumer opportunities, the cost goes well beyond the sticker price on any given item. To afford it, people have to work longer and harder than they did before. -- Max Fawcett

In this interesting article How to Save the Middle Class, Max describes how the modern family have more opportunities but are working longer hours and harder to actually achieve it. 

2. What I'm reading

I'm still reading Rod Liddle's Selfish Whining Monkeys - I'm enjoying it but I'll hold off commenting until I've got further through it.

3.What I'm watching

Last Saturday, I ended up indoors on my own. I made homemade fish and chips and stuck the television on. The first movie I watched was Under Siege, a rather preposterous film where a naval vessel is hijacked and where the "chef", who happens to be an ex-SEAL, generally sorts it all out. I was laughing throughout and I don't think I was supposed to. 

After that, I watched The Spy That Came in From the Cold. It's in black and white, and stars Richard Burton. I've read the novel and I think they got it spot on. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do. I won't spoil the story for you.

4. What I'm doing in my free time

In the last week, what little time I've had I've used for cooking. I've made mushroom pâté, svíčková (a Czech dish based on beef and vegetables) and fish & chips. More about these another time.

5. What I'm learning more about

It's been a week of automating things into Amazon S3 buckets. I'm manipulating a large data set, but essentially using skills I learnt 20 years ago - shell scripting & Perl.

Kindly proofread by Matt at Isthmus Consulting.