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Macklemore gaining 2 mil insta followers and Ed Sheeran losing a shit ton in a couple of days is a very real reflection of the real world.

As Whelk says, a week is long. Acropolis, Parthenon, lunch and stroll in the Plaka, monastariki, changing of the guard is a funny sight, original olympic stadium, and I forget what it's called, but there's view point way above the city which is stunning. We had a day on a med cruise and found an old boy cabbie and paid him for the day to take us everywhere. Sorted out entry everywhere beating all queues, and even got us into the stadium when it was closed which was pretty cool.

Indeed. The backlash against him, and the support for Macklemore and the others, tells you all you need to know about how normal thinking people feel about this issue and the behaviour of Israel.

Indeed. If one mentions the concept of Israeli expansion (greater Israel as some say), it gets shouted down with jibes of anti Semitism. It's nice to see the likes of Macklemore speaking up against Israeli behaviour, and the support he's getting in comparison to the condemnation of Ed Sheeran tells a story about how people are seeing things.

The answer will be nothing, they're more of a US proxy than any of the Iran affiliated mobs. I think Turkey is all but inevitable. Israel want to expand, and want no opposition. Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon are now dead ducks, the others are US allies, and Iran weakened. The "proxies", in reality, were the last layer of opposition in their individual countries, ahead of Iran proper, then Turkey.

Thanks. I think it's no more complicated than Iran and Turkey are the only ones who could stop them expanding and generally doing what they want.

It could suggest a prolonged Iranian attack, or the mooted crack at Turkey.

The US is to "sell" (give) 60,000 huge (2,000) bombs to Israel. Given that Gaza is destroyed, much of southern Lebanon too, and huge chunks of Iran, you've got to wonder which country or countries have their name on them. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/9/16/us-set-to-approve-60000-heavy-bombs-for-israel-what-that-means

Sausages I haven't risked, but the fish cakes are homemade so no ultra processed rubbish, and contain a decent amount of actual fish. That there's a profit at those prices is remarkable, but volume pays I guess.

Agreed with all of that, save that I would open up the north sea more liberally, but we must move forwards with nuclear energy at speed. We cannot be beholden to global markets and/or geopolitics for our energy.

Yep, bond markets are shitting their pants. As I said the other day, they're the fortune tellers, and they don't like our tea leaves. Unsurprising. Yields above the 2008 and Truss levels are a huge concern. We're on a very sticky wicket. More tax and growth slows. Ditto cuts and the impact of austerity. More borrowing and even twitchier markets. It's a perfect storm of issues.

Yep. Grilled or shallow fried, sometimes with just a squeeze if lemon, and the jobs a fish as they say.

Pollock is very similar. I reckon she'd be hard pushed to notice the difference.

Yep. We rarely buy it now. Fish and chips for 2, with peas and a curry sauce, costs us north of £30. Difficult to justify when we can get a feast from an Indian takeaway for that sort of money. The owners will talk of the overheads which have gone through the roof, but they're pricing themselves to closure. There's a chippy in Shirley which does alunchtime/afternoon menu. Chips, sausage, fish cake (home made, delicious), peas, curry sauce, and a few other things, all at 99p an item. It's crazily busy, and the owner says he makes money at those prices.

Basa is great. Very good as a smoked fish too. There's loads of alternatives. I remember years ago regularly eating hoki. That was when we were trading more with new zealand, and it seems to have disappeared.