Given the very impressive amounts of grip added by these I highly recommend them if you are wearing shoes or trainers. If you are wearing boots, however, I suspect even the largest size would struggle to fit properly over the toes.

You can buy the Sticky Feet slip-on grips for ice and snow here.

Overland. From the European Union into Brazil.

No trickery involved.

Well, apart from the legacy of colonialism.

For today a bridge officially opens linking French Guiana (still legally part of France and so of the European Union) to Brazil.

And it’s a pretty impressive bridge even if not the 4,100 mile long span that a bridge from France itself to Brazil would have to be.

PS I do hope it doesn’t end up joining the surprisingly long list of bridges which have been stolen.

You can view the amazing 360 degree panorama of London by Will Pearson here.

… but to me it is a triumph.

For after three years and much chasing, the graffiti has finally been removed.

Hooray.

This calls for chocolate cake.

Hat-tip: Jonathan Akwue

The book shows some early promise, with a nice twist on the usual military induction clichés by having a future where it is pensioners who get enlisted (medical advances can give them back their health and pensioners have years of experience to call on). Moreover, the secrecy, scale and advanced features of the military’s technology evokes a sense of mystery about quite who the Colonial Defence Forces are, what they do and why.

However, these promising starts are not followed up. Most of the mystery quickly falls away and for much of the book it is just an incidental detail that  enlistees are pensioners. They don’t feel and sound any different from the characters in books where the military inductees are teenagers. The plot sees many of the standard clichés of this genre played out, though without the inventiveness of military tactics seen in books such as Ender’s Game or Tactics of Mistake. There are also a couple of very weak spots – the claim that “No army ever goes to war with more the bare minimum it needs to win” is particularly odd from an American author given that country’s military doctrine – and the utterly implausible coincidence on which the later half of the plot hinges takes place not merely once, but twice.

And yet… this is not a review that will conclude you should not read the book. Yes, it isn’t a Starship Troopers or a Forever War and yes it has its weaknesses, but in between the story is lively, has some good jokes, moves along at a fast pace with some moments of real tension and keeps the military detail to the necessary minimum. It is a story set amongst the military, not a eulogy to military detail. And Master Sergeant Ruiz may fulfil every cliché of an officer put in charge of recruit, but he does so knowingly – making the character very funny and great fun. If the book is made into a film, the right actor in that role would completely steal the show.

Moreover, the plot does raise some deeper questions about colonialism and the role of the military. Superficially, the colonising military industrial complex are the good guys and it is right to kill aliens and colonise planets. But there are more than enough hints in the book to doubt their good guys persona (and indeed that is a theme returned to later in the series).

So all in all, if you have already read the classics of this genre, Old Man’s War is a good read to turn to next.

You can buy Old Man’s War by John Scalzi from Amazon here.

Being in the heart of theatreland, the St Martin’s Lane outlet gets very crowded at the peak times shortly before evening plays start – and the staff are so focused on quick service during them that they were even clearing away the starters and starting to serve the main course whilst I was still eating my starter. And that was despite our table’s inaccessibility due to being so wedged in with others that it would have been quite possible to use a neighbour’s elbow as a headrest. (Some of that Euston Road crowd clearing skill worked its magic again however.)

As its capacity is designed for these peaks, the rest of the time it is pleasantly spacious. Which means that if you do visit at another time, try to head to a table downstairs against the far wall, where you get to sit next to a wall of books with some rather fun titles:

It is, of course, therefore advisable to visit with dining companions who do not mind if you find the books more interesting than themselves, especially given the proximity of knives at the point at which they discover this.

A final note – the St Martin’s Lane outlet has not (yet?) had the new style makeover save in the most superficial of respects (the health and safety tabletop nightmare is present), which means there is nothing of note to say about the toilet signage. Everyone is clothed and proportioned normally on them.

So that is 33 down, 105 (or thereabouts) to go.

It’s the Rotunda in Kings Place, near King’s Cross Station.

You can see all my cafés with view in London here and also in my Foursquare list.