The Plots Thicken

I have just finished watching today's episode of Neighbours and am shaking my head in laughter.

The soap opera ends next week. The big concluding storyline is focused on Ramsay Street's potential demise at the hands of developers, who are looking to build a freeway on the land.

It's a reasonable story to end the series because it allows all of the residents to work together. I suppose we won't know whether they're successful or not until the last-ever episode (if it were me, I'd leave it open-ended!).

Anyway, the reason why I shook my head after today's instalment is because of a couple of plot twists that occurred.

First, Shane Ramsay returned and - during a meeting with the residents - showed them his plans to move everyone to a new area. Then, right at the end of the episode, Paul Robinson showed some of his family members an idea he had: a high rise development in which everybody could move to. 

I found the plot twists funny, especially the Shane Ramsay one, because - when he returned for the final few episodes in the previous incarnation of Neighbours - I thought he would use the billions he had gained from the crypto markets by buying all the residents' homes because, in that final week, all of the houses on Ramsay Street were put up for sale for a plethora of reasons.

My guess didn't happen. Ramsay ended up purchasing Lassiter's, though. 

The latest story is in a similar ballpark to mine... but it's a bigger field than a usual baseball ground!

If my calculations are correct, there are now only four episodes of Neighbours remaining. Tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday and a double episode on Thursday.

I hope they end on a cliff-hanger to leave it open for the audience to reach their own conclusion as to whether the highway is developed or not. It would be fitting, considering it's a soap opera, but I wouldn't bet on the writers doing that out of respect to the fans.

The Penarth Fire

I was stunned to hear about the fire which swept through the clubhouse of Penarth RFC a couple of nights ago.

It's a story of significance to me because my father played for the club back in the day. We calculated that he must have been with Penarth for twenty-two years as a player. He was also on the committee for a few years after his playing days were over. 

I spent many a Saturday, during my childhood, at that place. To see images from the early hours of Monday morning hit me. 

A lot of mementos from the club's 145-year history were lost in the fire. I suppose the positive is nobody was injured. Or worse. But, to lose all those items from the club's past? Devastating.

The BBC reports that the blaze was caused by an electricity fault. 

Window One

I scratched off the first window on my National Lottery Advent calendar this morning.

As you can see, I didn't find two matching symbols to win today's prize. I uncovered a candle and Christmas cracker.

 

This Christmas Countdown scratch card has been pinned to my door since late-September. At launch, there were five cards out there somewhere with £1 Million jackpots under them. As of the time of writing, two winning cards have been found.

Duck, Duck And The Misfortune Cookie

I did something this week that I had never felt compelled to do before. I ate duck. Twice!

The first experience I had trying the meat was on Monday evening. We bought some of Tesco's Christmas party food range. One of the products are red bao buns with Char Sui Duck.

Initially reluctant to do so,  I ended up adding one to my plate along with a samosa and some Thai vegetable parcels (or something like that!).

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the bao bun. So shocked, in fact, I told a bunch of people about, if you pardon the pun, breaking my duck of not eating duck.

All of my friends were surprised I hadn't done so before. Most  recommended trying duck from a Chinese restaurant.

Well, last night was takeaway night. I suggested we have a Chinese and a cantonese-style Duck was added to my part of the meal.

While looking through the menu, I noticed the restaurant had fortune cookies priced at 80p a piece. It made me think of a few fortune cookie conversations I had with Vicki a long time ago. I thought it would be cool to have a cookie for the weekly Saturday evening tributes I have been doing for Vick since she left.. It allowed me to not do an iced Diet Coke two weeks in a row!

Anyway, back to the meal for now.

My main was 'Cantonese style Duck'. As usual, I opted for chips rather than rice.

I took a few bites...

..but, it wasn't for me.

I think it's more psychological than anything. It seems a bit silly for me to reach that conclusion considering I like chicken, beef, and to quote Vick: ''those little baby lambs'.

Oreo benefited from my decision not to finish the meaty part of my meal. I cut the leftovers up and topped them up into his food. He spent quite a while at his bowl. I consider that a win. 

When my alarm went off for Vick, I took off the fortune cookie's wrapper and pulled it out. I snapped it in half, and went to retrieve the fortune message inside.

Not so fast.

There was a conspicuous absence. No message.

I smiled and shook my head at how typical it was to find myself with a dud fortune cookie. I also chuckled when it dawned on me that Vick would have been the first person I told about the misfortune cookie.

Apparently,  it is a good thing to crack a fortune cookie and not find a message inside.

Overlooking the obvious - that it was simply a production error - there are also suggestions out there pointing to the lack of a message being a sign of good luck and a guidance to 'write your own destiny'.

Okay then.

This Post Is Barely Brought To You By The Letter D

I am in the middle of a situation here.

The fact I was able to type 'middle' made me cheer. 

Here's why.

This morning, as I was writing a post for tonight's WWE Survivor Series, I notice that one of the keys wasn't working.

You might be able to work it out as you're looking at this post. I'm trying to write sentences without using that particular key because it has once again quit on me.

I'll try my best to carry my way through to the conclusion of this post. 

If you haven't worked it out, the letter that is bothering me is the letter at the beginning plus back of my first name.

I have now managed to get it working briefly. 

Okay - I'm out. Back tomorrow!

Photos Tell Today's Story

To best tell today's story, I'm going to use some photographs. 

I made the choice to watch last night's Thanksgiving Day game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys using my NFL GamePass account. This meant watching the fixture on the entire CBS feed from the US.

During each break, I'd either head off downstairs or zone out before coverage returned. On one of those focus shifts, I was at my laptop screen and looked up at the TV.

Here's how it went:

'Ah,' I thought. 'There's the guy who used to be on Yellowstone.' I continued watching to see what new programme 'the guy who used to be on Yellowstone' is starring in.

Next scene:

'Hold up! That's Kayce Dutton from Yellowstone. What is this!?'

I soon found out:

Coming next spring is a Yellowstone spinoff series titled 'Marshals'.

I've now watched the trailer properly and it looks very good. This Yellowstone fan is keen to see it.

Now all I hope for is a spinoff with Rip Wheeler as the main character. That sure would be fun.

Missing A Tradition

I am sitting at my PC after noticing I haven't kept to one of my traditions. 

Even though I'm not American, I often put Planes, Trains and Automobiles on in the hours leading up to kick off of the first NFL game of Thanksgiving Thursday.

It wasn't a decision I made actively. I had planned to catch it, but time has simply moved quite fast for me today and the odds of me watching the film are long now that dinner and the two, possibly three, kick offs are looming.

I plan to eventually watch the documentary about John Candy. It's titled I Like Me. That is a line from Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In fact, it's part  of the most poignant scene in the movie and always gives me goosebumps. 

Even back as a child, when I first watched the film, that scene had me. Now, all the years later, it still does it.

If I'm not going to watch the film this year, the least I can do is fire up Spotify - as soon as I hit 'Publish - and listen to Power to Believe by The Dream Academy.

That's a photograph I took of the video cassette I have of Planes, Trains and Automobiles for one of the Diet of Christmas Films posts even though it is a movie set during Thanksgiving.