I watched the first episode of American Gods yesterday.
I don’t think I’ve ever been more ambivalent about anything.
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Exactly. I watched two and gave up.
That is as far as I got
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I’ve tried to stick with it, but season 2 finished the other week and I didn’t even realise it as the last episode was so dull. A massive waste of what could have been a great show.
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Even Scully couldn’t save it.
Have you read the book?
Another episode of panorama on long term care , of note is the fact that the council pays well less than cost of care and they rely on self funders to prop up the feesv
This was certainly the case when my M-i-L went into care about 15 years ago now. She was self-funded and the care home owner basically admitted that people like her were subsidising the folks who were on council support. In a sense it was human beings bypassing the inhuman attitude of the authorities, by raising the money to care for the needy from those who could afford it.
VB
Thats one way of looking at it i guess , but many folks have to sell everything they have to afford to self fund . The effects of austerity are nowhere more visible in the homes closing down due to sufficient care costs not being met
I think you get to keep a few tens of thousands of savings don’t you ? And if there is a surviving partner then they get to keep the house ?
There’s a lot of heat generated over whether the state (all of us) should pay to look after better off people in their old age so that they can leave their wealth to their children (grown ups, usually, but you know what I mean) who haven’t earned it. There’s a fairness question there, I think. There isn’t an easy answer to it, but to assert that children should be the lucky recipients of a large chunk of wealth at taxpayers’ expense deserves closer scrutiny perhaps.
VB
you have to pay for care if you have over 23k , trouble is a lot of care homes are not very nice so if you want a decent one you will end up selling the family home to top up care
as can be seen on the panorama programme last night
Standards could be raised with tighter regulation. If that drove costs up then theere would be a debate to be had over who should pay them. But the two issues are not inseparable.
VB
Maybe , i read the cqc reports . You get statements like " we arrived at 0700 am unanounced and did the inspection… they seem pretty hot on inspection . One very big home i know of was shut down by a friend who worked for cqc .
costs are already very high with equipment , staff pay and maintenance costs and so many are closing
The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei 
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Rewatched the 2011 version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. So, so good; everyone is perfectly cast (Gary Oldman is George Smiley), the 70’s look is perfect, the mood is perfect, the closing sequence with all the story lines being resolved to the tune of Julio Iglesias’ version of La Mer is perfect. Just a wonderful film.
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Totally agree. I’ve watched it a couple of times, and will do again. Superb.
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Agreed. Utterly splendid.
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Who’s watched Chernobyl yet? Buzzing for that but Ali wants to watch it too so I have to wait.
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Absolutely brilliant.
Well worth it. Harrowing, informative, eye opening you name it.
I have the 4 episodes ready to watch. Looking forward to it.
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