Basically they did a lot of partying, sometimes with other staff, sometimes with celebrities as a group of Virgin stewardesses was always in demand at parties. Overall, mildly entertaining but doesn't have any really astonishing revelations.

What I'm Reading
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin. Sequel to the fantastic "The Fifth Season", the next volume is out in a few days.

The trilogy has a continuing plot and doesn't make any concessions to not remembering the first volume. Definitely don't start here. It's hard to describe the plot without spoilers, but the tantalizing mysteries of the first book are explained here in a way I thought was satisfying.

As with the first there's some fairly traumatic stuff going on: a big theme of the book is dysfunctional and abusive families with the overall plot mirroring the characters' stories. It's a bit of a tough read for a parent.

I thought it was well up to the standards of the first. Even though the characters are in one place rather than travelling, I thought the politics of the city kept it interesting.

On the basis of the first two books, this is one of the best SF/fantasy series I've read in years.

Author interview.

What I'm Watching
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Science fiction epic by "The Fifth Element" director Luc Besson; light, fast and visually imaginative in the same way. I thought it was a lot of fun. Definitely worth seeing in 3D if you can.

Me
Had a week's holiday in Germany, staying with my wife's mother. Was OK. Did a bit of walking in the countryside, as far as the toddler could go. Had a few day trips, to Heidelberg, a nearby castle, Frankfurt Zoo. Weather was good. Bit stressful trying to stop the toddler destroying or hurting himself in a non-child-safe house. I don't speak German and my mother-in-law doesn't speak english, which probably makes things more harmonious than otherwise.

Weight loss is going OK, kept up the same rate during the holiday. Another couple of weeks and I should be able to go back to maintenance.

Museums
Took a day off and actually went to some exhibitions, just like in the old days.

Giacometti at Tate Modern was fantastic. He's best known for his tall knobbly sculptures of walking people: they look a lot more impressive in real life, some of them taller than life. But there's also a lot of diversity: some semi-realistic portrait heads, experiments in tiny sculptures, a kind of very simple black bas-relief landscape of a woman and a river. Liked this a lot.

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern also had some intriguing stuff, like the brightly coloured landscapes, also a lot of energetic protest art.

Also saw Places of the mind: British watercolour landscapes 1850–1950 at the British Museum. As usual with their selections from their vast watercolour collection there's some good stuff, especially the wartime landscapes. A few big names in there too.

Theatre
There's a puppet theatre barge moored not too far away from us along the river, so took the toddler there to see The Hare and the Tortoise and other stories, some stories from Aesop.

It was an "open" performamance for three years plus, with some house lights up and talking allowed, which was useful since though the toddler loved it he did like to give a running commentary. "The spider's making a web. Well done spider!", "The monkey is standing on his head! Now he's back to normal".

I liked it too, the quality of the puppetry seemed good as far as I can tell, the dialogue wasn't dumbed down with for kids with a large vocabulary, and it's an interesting experience. The seats are about four abreast and slightly raked, they seat kids behind kids and adults behind adults, so even though it's a river barge you get a better view than I've hand in some land theatres.

Definitely worth a trip, the barge is open all year but it's moored in Little Venice outside summer.

Links
Socioeconomics. The First World War was partly paid for with quantitative easing (After a bond issue failed they printed money to buy the bonds and lied about it for years!)

Random. Defending Indiana Jones' archaeology, Raiders of the Lost Arc story conference. Partial geographica tube map showing tunnel paths. 1986: The scariest Test England ever played.

Sci/Tech. The four hour working day Google memo and quality control statistics.

Politics. What are the obstacles to a softer Brexit?