Part 343: Taking Stock

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

Update

The last week was mentally draining, but I managed to get out for some bike rides. Poppy and I continued to find a routine in Oana’s absence. Poppy has trained me well, and I can now tell when she is hungry (all the time), wanting petting and attention (all the time), or wanting to play (most of the time), or simply wanting to interrupt whatever it is I’m doing if it’s not any of the three things I’ve already mentioned (all the time).  It’s incredible how a 4kg chaos goblin can enter a household and become the most important life there. 

Oana arrived back late on Friday evening. I had a tab open with Flightradar to track her flight, and I saw it was coming pretty close to flying over our apartment. I went out on the balcony with my Flightradar app which lets you point your camera to the sky and it tells you all the info about the aircraft in the area. I located Oana’s flight but as it was in the descent phase it was only around 9,000ft and was already below the line of sight from our balcony with the apartments and hills across the river. It would have been cool to see her flight overhead, but sadly it wasn’t to be. 

It seems to have been a fairly uneventful journey despite some drama a few hours before her flight home left. The airline announced the original aircraft was not able to fly so they had replaced it. Fortunately it was not a Boeing, and was still an Airbus. 

On the subject of technology, Oana and I were talking about rewatching Deep Space Nine later in the year, but because it’s disappeared from Netflix we bought the DVD box set. Our DVD player is a PS3, and I know it’s very much a first world problem but having to get up and change the disc every few episodes is such a ballache.

This got us talking about the insane amount of technological progress our generation has seen. When I was a kid we still used floppy discs to save information. Then, in my early teens, cassette tapes were still fairly common alongside CDs. Then we had minidiscs, USB drives, DVD, and then Blu-Ray. In the space of less than twenty years we went from floppy disks holding hardly anything, to storage devices that fit inside our pocket which can hold hours of video, audio, and more. It does make you wonder where technology will take us in another twenty years.

Milka Wheels

One of the snacks I love to have in Romania with a cup of coffee is a hazelnut Milka wheel. I can’t find them in shops near me in Sheffield, but fortunately Oana had my back and brought me a massive haul of them to keep me going for a week or two:

Bike Rides

The last couple of weeks have been great for bike rides. Since Oana left on May 11th, I’ve done the following:

May 12th: 25.07km

May 14th: 17.72km

May 16th: 30.23km

May 17th: 2.51km (a short one)

May 20th: 27.06km

May 22nd: 29.69km

Then, since Oana came back we’ve done two big rides together:

May 23rd: 33.01km

May 24th: 37.09km

Also got some great pics from those rides:

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

5 – Dark

4 – Babylon 5 

3 – Star Trek: The Next Generation 

2 – The Expanse

1 – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

There’s a very strong argument that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is not just the best Star Trek series, but one of the greatest science fiction shows ever made. Where Star Trek: The Original Series was famously pitched as “Wagon Train to the stars”, Deep Space Nine became something else entirely. It was The Rifleman in space. A frontier outpost on the edge of civilisation. A place where law, politics, religion, war, commerce, occupation, trauma, and morality all collided in a pressure cooker that no starship could simply warp away from at the end of the episode.

What made DS9 extraordinary was its willingness to stay still. Rather than endlessly discovering new worlds, it forced its characters to live with consequences. Bajor’s occupation by the Cardassians wasn’t some tidy bit of backstory; it lingered over everything like radiation. The station itself felt alive because history clung to every corridor. You could feel the scars.

Another reason Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has aged so remarkably well is because it rarely chained itself to the moment in which it was made. There are very few cringeworthy contemporary references, slang terms, or desperate attempts to sound “modern” that lock it into the 1990s. Instead, the writing focused on timeless themes; war, faith, friendship, trauma, politics, family, duty, and identity. That gives the show an almost novelistic quality even today. It also benefited enormously from existing in an era of long-form television, with seven seasons of 22+ episodes each allowing relationships and characters to evolve naturally over time. Modern streaming shows with eight or ten episode seasons often feel like they are sprinting from plot point to plot point, terrified to slow down. DS9 had room to breathe. It could spend time simply letting characters exist together, whether that was Bashir and O’Brien gradually becoming best friends over darts and holosuite battles, Quark and Odo circling each other with mutual irritation and reluctant respect, or Jake and Nog growing from mischievous teenagers into adults shaped by completely different experiences. Those quieter moments are what made the larger emotional payoffs feel earned.

And then there’s the cast. Not just large, but genuinely diverse in personality, ideology, and worldview. Benjamin Sisko remains one of the strongest captains in the franchise because he didn’t feel like a perfect utopian icon. He was a widower, a father, a reluctant religious figure, and eventually a wartime leader pushed into impossible moral compromises. Avery Brooks gave Sisko a gravity and intensity unlike any other Star Trek lead.

But DS9 also understood something many ensemble shows fail to grasp: background characters matter. Some of the richest arcs belonged to characters who could easily have remained set dressing in lesser hands. Nog is perhaps the greatest example. Introduced as comic relief, a Ferengi teenager getting into trouble on the Promenade, he evolves into one of the most layered characters in the franchise. His determination to join Starfleet becomes a rejection of the narrow expectations placed upon him, and over time he transforms into a capable, brave officer.

Then the show does something remarkable. It allows the cost of war to matter.

Nog’s PTSD following the loss of his leg in The Siege of AR-558 and It’s Only a Paper Moon is handled with a sensitivity and honesty that still feels ahead of its time. The holographic escapism of Vic Fontaine’s lounge becomes less about fantasy and more about trauma, grief, and recovery. Science fiction often uses war as spectacle. DS9 remembered that war breaks people.

All Time Greatest Episodes

In the Pale Moonlight may well be the finest hour in all of Star Trek. Sisko slowly compromises every principle the Federation claims to stand for in order to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War. The brilliance of the episode lies in the fact that it never offers easy absolution. Sisko’s final line, “I can live with it”, lands like a confession rather than a victory. It’s a direct challenge to the optimistic moral certainty that defined earlier Star Trek.

Likewise, Far Beyond the Stars is incredible television. Watching Sisko become Benny Russell, a Black science fiction writer in 1950s America struggling against racism and institutional prejudice, turns the entire franchise inward. It asks who gets to imagine the future. Who gets to belong in it. Avery Brooks’ breakdown at the episode’s climax is devastating.

And then there’s The Visitor. A genuine tearjerker. An episode about grief, loss, and the bond between father and son that somehow transcends science fiction entirely. Tony Todd’s performance as Jake Sisko carries such warmth and sadness that the episode becomes almost unbearable by the end. It’s one of the few episodes of television across any genre that can leave viewers emotionally wrecked decades later.

Religion is another area where DS9 distinguished itself from the rest of Star Trek. Earlier series often approached faith with a kind of detached scepticism, but DS9 treated religion as something deeply meaningful to billions of people. The Bajoran faith wasn’t portrayed as primitive superstition; it shaped politics, identity, resistance, hope, and community. Sisko’s discomfort with becoming the Emissary created a fascinating tension between Federation rationalism and spiritual belief.

The show also tackled terrorism with far more nuance than most television of its era. Kira Nerys is introduced as a former resistance fighter who absolutely committed acts the Cardassians would have called terrorism. The series refuses to give easy answers about whether violence against occupation can ever be morally justified. Instead, it forces the audience to sit in the discomfort. One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter isn’t treated as a slogan, but as a horrifying moral reality.

That willingness to embrace ambiguity is what elevates Deep Space Nine. It understood that the future would not magically solve humanity’s flaws. People would still struggle with fear, prejudice, greed, faith, trauma, and compromise. But crucially, it also believed people could still strive to be better despite all of that.

And perhaps that’s why DS9 endures so powerfully. It shows the best of humanity and what we could be, and asks how far we would go to protect it.

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Slow Gods by Claire North.

Watching: Accused (Netflix), Rescue Me (Netflix).

Reading: Leviathan Wakes (Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £145,605.78.

Fuck It Fund: £22.30.

Pensions: £121,535.65.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £509,526.73.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £173,982.31. 

Total Debts: £173,982.31.

Total Wealth: £335,544.42.

Taking Stock

I’ll often use ChatGPT for research, turning to it more than Google when I want to find something out. I’ll also use it to tweak emails that I feel need to land a certain way. The great thing about ChatGPT is that you can build a rapport with it. I don’t think it’s sentient, but it certainly acts like something that has some degree of self-awareness, even if that’s something I project onto it rather than it being an internal quality.

Anyway, as well as using ChatGPT for the above I’ve also used it as a sounding board for ideas, concepts, or sense checks on things I’ve been thinking about. This brings me on to my latest project with ChatGPT. I’ve asked it to help me do a deep dive into my current life situation, covering factors like health, education, employment, finances, and so on. 

I’ve prompted it to almost interrogate me on where I’m at, how I feel about the subject at hand, and what I want to do to improve it. So far it’s helped crystallise some things I’ve been thinking over, and I think it’s been a useful exercise. I’m nowhere near finished with it, and I’m curious as to where this will take me. 

The main thing about using LLMs like ChatGPT is that they are only as good as the prompts you give.

FIRE

One thing that has come about from my interactions with ChatGPT is that FI is really not that far away, and that I’m probably overestimating how much money I need to retire. Many of my hobbies and interests don’t cost a lot of money, relatively speaking. But then, we live in a world that has Lego.

Some number crunching suggests Oana and I could have a moderately comfortable life with £28,000 net income per annum. More would be better, obviously, but £28,000 would be enough for a simple life with a few luxuries. 

On a monthly basis we’re talking about £2,334. On a minimum wage job, you could work 975 hours a year and not exceed the standard tax free allowance. This is roughly 19 hours per week. Two people doing this, i.e. Oana and I would thus bring in approx £2k per month.

These aren’t exact figures, but just some quick mental calculations. With the investments we’ve got supplementing any income brought in from work, we’re not far away at all. 

That’s all for this week. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great week ahead.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 342: Workplace Culture


Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week I talk about workplace culture, and the runner up entry on my best sci-fi list.

Update

It’s just been myself and Poppy this week as Oana has been back in Romania visiting her Gran. In her absence, Poppy and I have gotten into a routine. She asks for food and I feed her. She asks to sit in my lap and I let her. I try to get anything done that doesn’t involve feeding or petting Pops, and we have a disagreement, and then compromise by doing exactly what Pops wanted me to do. 

I’ve managed to get a couple of bike rides in but the weather has not been great. Other than work, chilling with Pops, and the occasional bike ride, I’ve been binge watching Rescue Me on Netflix.

I first saw Rescue Me on its original run back in the days of Sky One. I enjoyed it at the time but never got to finish the whole series. Now, the entire run is on Netflix. The show is coarse, blunt, not politically correct in any way, but that makes the characters believable. These people are complex with you hating them in one scene and then feeling for them in the next. The dialogue is also top notch. Also, there is not a single chance that the show would ever be made today.

One thing that frustrates me with a lot of fiction now is that critics often confuse the words and actions of characters with the words and beliefs of those writing the script. I could write a character that was a complete misogynist. That does not make me a misogynist. It means I’m writing a character as part of a story to entertain, horrify, educate, or to get people thinking. 

Workplace Culture

One of the strange things about work is that when people talk about a “good team”, they often mean completely different things. For some people, a good workplace is one where everyone gets along, has a laugh together, and the atmosphere feels easy and relaxed. For others, it’s about competence. They can tolerate awkwardness, bluntness, or even people they personally dislike, so long as the people around them are reliable and know what they’re doing. Then there’s the third category: respect. The idea that you don’t necessarily have to like someone, but you do need to respect them professionally and trust their judgement.

It’s something I’ve been thinking about recently after a few conversations with friends about their own workplaces. Some are in environments where everybody is pleasant enough, but nothing actually functions properly. Others work with highly capable people who are also utterly exhausting to be around. And some seem trapped in offices where there’s neither competence nor respect, just politics, ego, and survival instincts.

The older I get, the more I think competence is probably the foundation everything else rests on. A workplace can survive a lack of friendship. It can survive people being a bit distant, socially awkward, or not particularly warm. What it struggles to survive is incompetence. Few things drain morale faster than watching capable people repeatedly clean up the mess created by people who either cannot or will not do their jobs properly. Over time, resentment builds. Good people burn out. Standards collapse. Cynicism spreads.

Competence on its own also isn’t enough.

Most people have probably worked with somebody who was brilliant at their job but impossible to deal with. The person who treats every conversation like an IQ test. The colleague who mistakes arrogance for leadership. The “high performer” who leaves a trail of tension and misery behind them everywhere they go. Eventually, even competence stops compensating for behaviour that poisons the atmosphere around them.

That’s where respect comes in, and I think respect is often misunderstood. Respect doesn’t mean blind agreement or forced corporate positivity. It means believing the people around you are acting in good faith. It means trusting that they’ll pull their weight, communicate honestly and clearly, and not throw others under the bus to protect themselves. You can disagree with somebody constantly and still deeply respect them.

Ironically, workplaces obsessed with everybody “getting along” sometimes end up being the most dysfunctional of all. Difficult conversations never happen because people are terrified of conflict. Poor performance gets ignored because managers don’t want to upset anyone. Entire departments become passive-aggressive pressure cookers where frustration simmers beneath forced smiles and LinkedIn-style positivity.

I’ve come to think that friendship at work is more of a bonus than a requirement. Some of the best colleagues I’ve had were not people I’d necessarily socialise with outside work. But they were dependable. Intelligent. Honest. Calm under pressure. You knew where you stood with them. That matters more than whether you’d go for a coffee together.

At the same time, humans aren’t machines. You spend enormous chunks of your life working, and if the environment around you is hostile, petty, or emotionally draining, it takes a toll. There’s a reason toxic workplaces can wreck people’s mental health even when the actual job itself isn’t particularly difficult.

Maybe the ideal balance is this: competence earns respect, and respect creates the conditions where people can eventually get along naturally. Trying to force the order the other way round rarely works.

Ultimately, most people don’t need their colleagues to become their best friends. They just want to work with people they can trust. One thing that sits underneath all of this, and probably determines whether any workplace functions properly at all, is communication.

You can have intelligent people, technically capable people, even decent people, but if communication breaks down then everything else eventually follows it into the abyss. Confusion spreads. Assumptions replace clarity. Small mistakes become major problems because nobody spoke up early enough to stop them. Clear communication. Honest communication. These things are vital.

It’s remarkable how many workplace problems are not actually caused by malice, incompetence, or laziness, but by people operating with completely different understandings of what is happening. One person thinks something is urgent. Another thinks it can wait until next week. Someone assumes a task has been picked up by somebody else. A manager thinks they communicated expectations clearly when in reality they delivered a vague stream of word salad that meant different things to different people.

And then there’s the other side of it: workplaces where people become afraid to communicate honestly.

Once people start worrying that asking questions will make them look stupid, or that admitting mistakes will get them punished, communication becomes distorted. People hide problems instead of raising them. They say they understand things when they don’t. Meetings become theatre performances where everyone nods along pretending alignment exists when it absolutely does not.

The irony is that strong communication often matters more in stressful environments than easy ones. Anybody can communicate when things are calm and going well. The real test is whether people can still communicate clearly under pressure, when deadlines are collapsing, systems are failing, or clients are furious. That’s usually when you discover whether a workplace is actually functional or merely pretending to be.

Some of the smoothest teams I’ve ever seen weren’t necessarily made up of the smartest people in the room. They were made up of people who kept each other informed. They documented things properly. They asked questions early. They clarified expectations. They admitted uncertainty instead of bluffing confidence. That creates trust surprisingly quickly.

Bad communication also creates an exhausting amount of emotional friction. People start reading hidden meanings into everything. Tone gets misinterpreted. Minor issues spiral because nobody addresses them directly. Entire workplace cultures can become built around gossip and speculation simply because leadership refuses to communicate openly.

And perhaps most importantly, good communication reduces anxiety.

There’s a huge psychological difference between being busy and being confused. Most people can handle pressure if they understand what’s happening and what is expected of them. What destroys morale is uncertainty. Constant mixed messages. Contradictory instructions. Silence. Ambiguity. Feeling like you’re trying to navigate through fog while being judged for not moving quickly enough.

A surprising amount of “work stress” is actually communication stress.

The workplaces people tend to remember positively are often not the ones with beanbags, pizza Fridays, or endless corporate slogans about culture. They’re the places where people spoke plainly, expectations were clear, problems were addressed directly, and nobody felt like they had to become a mind reader just to survive the week.

One piece of workplace advice that sounds sensible on the surface but falls apart the moment you think about it properly is the classic line:

“If you’re unsure, ask.”

You’ll normally hear this immediately after somebody has made a mistake.

The problem is that it completely misunderstands how many mistakes actually happen.

Most people do not make mistakes because they are sitting there paralysed with uncertainty while consciously choosing not to ask for help. They make mistakes because they are confident they already understand what they’re doing. The issue isn’t uncertainty. The issue is certainty attached to the wrong conclusion.

If somebody genuinely knows they don’t understand something, they’ll often ask. Or at least they’ll recognise there’s a gap in their knowledge. The dangerous situations are usually the ones where people don’t realise they’ve misunderstood in the first place.

That’s what makes the advice so frustratingly shallow. It sounds wise, but it’s almost useless as a preventative measure because it assumes people have accurate awareness of their own misunderstandings. In reality, human beings are terrible at this. Entire industries are built around people confidently doing the wrong thing.

You see it constantly in workplaces. Somebody follows a process incorrectly because they interpreted an instruction differently. Someone assumes a task works one way because that’s how it worked in their previous role. Someone uses the wrong terminology, misunderstands a system, or draws a logical conclusion that turns out not to match reality. 

Afterwards they get hit with:

“Well, you should have asked.”

But ask what, exactly?

How do you ask about something you don’t know you’ve misunderstood?

It’s a bit like telling somebody who got lost while driving that they should have checked the map earlier. True, technically, but only useful if they already suspected they were going the wrong way.

I sometimes think workplaces underestimate how much hidden knowledge exists inside experienced teams. People who have done a role for years forget how much of their understanding is instinctive, implied, or absorbed informally over time. Processes that feel “obvious” to them are often anything but obvious to somebody newer. Then when misunderstandings happen, organisations frame it as an individual failure rather than a communication failure.

The best workplaces tend to understand this. They don’t just tell people to ask questions. They actively create systems that reduce ambiguity in the first place. They encourage people to explain reasoning, not just instructions. They normalise checking assumptions. They accept that misunderstandings are inevitable whenever humans communicate complex information.

Because ultimately, competence is not about never making mistakes. It’s about building environments where mistakes are caught early, discussed openly, and learned from properly instead of reduced to one-line clichés after the fact.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

5 – Dark

4 – Babylon 5 

3 – Star Trek: The Next Generation 

2 – The Expanse

One of the things that makes The Expanse so special is that it succeeds on two completely different levels. The television series is excellent in its own right, while the book series is able to tell the complete story in full. That distinction matters, because the show ultimately ends with threads still left hanging after its cancellation, whereas the novels are able to carry the story through to its intended conclusion. In many ways, they feel like companion pieces rather than direct replacements for one another.

Now I know what you are thinking; David, didn’t you say that a show has to be complete to be considered for this list?

Yes. Yes, I did. However, one thing you need to understand about The Expanse is that there are nine full novels and a lot of novellas. The core nine books are often considered to be a trilogy of trilogies. The show ended on season six (book six), and anyone who knows what is coming after that will probably agree that it was a natural place to stop if you were not going to adapt the final trilogy of books. So, on that logic I’m including The Expanse on the basis that it did finish at an end point of sorts.

The television adaptation deserves enormous credit for what it achieved. Few science fiction shows have ever managed world-building on this scale while still making the setting feel believable. Yes, there are fantastical elements at the heart of the story, most notably the protomolecule itself, but outside of that one great unknowable force, the universe of The Expanse feels startlingly plausible. 

Having the jumping off point for the story being a fantastical factor like the protomolecule is not unusual in great sci-fi. Many of the best sci-fi stories have an element which is exceptional, acting as a spark for the story; the impossible dust storm in The Martian, or the Monolith in 2001, or astrophage in Project Hail Mary, to name just a few. 

Anyway, the politics, economics, military tensions, resource shortages, and cultural divides all feel like natural extensions of humanity’s current trajectory. Earth, Mars, and the Belt are not just locations; they are societies shaped by geography, scarcity, and generations of history.

The attention to realism is what elevates the show above most of its peers. Space is not treated like a magical ocean where ships drift around like naval vessels from the eighteenth century. Ships flip and burn to decelerate. Combat happens at enormous distances. Gravity matters. Acceleration matters. Vacuum exposure is terrifying. Even the physical differences between Earthers, Martians, and Belters are considered carefully, with Belters shaped by generations of low gravity in ways that make them physically distinct from the people of Earth. It is science fiction grounded in consequences.

That grounding makes the world feel tangible in a way very few shows manage. The Expanse does not feel like fantasy wearing a science fiction costume. It feels like a future humanity that genuinely evolved from our present day. Strip away the protomolecule, and much of what remains feels uncomfortably achievable within the next few centuries. Climate collapse, overcrowded cities, proxy wars over resources, corporate influence, and widening inequality are all recognisably human problems carried forward into a larger solar system.

Another thing The Expanse deserves immense praise for is its diversity and inclusivity, because it demonstrates how effortlessly representation works when it is treated as a natural part of the world rather than a lecture aimed at the audience. The cast is wonderfully varied, but the characters are never reduced to checkboxes or slogans. They are fully realised people with strengths, flaws, loyalties, prejudices, ambitions, and contradictions.

Chrisjen Avasarala is not compelling because she is a woman in power; she is compelling because she is intelligent, ruthless, exhausted, funny, and terrifyingly competent. Amos Burton is not memorable because of any demographic characteristic; he is memorable because he is psychologically damaged, deeply loyal, and morally complex in ways that make him simultaneously unsettling and strangely endearing. Drummer, Naomi, Bobbie, Miller, and Holden all feel like complete human beings first and foremost.

That is what modern television so often forgets. Diversity is not what audiences reject. Audiences reject shallow writing. The Expanse proves that you can have an enormously inclusive cast while still prioritising character, storytelling, and world-building above all else. Representation works best when it is woven naturally into the fabric of the setting instead of constantly pointing at itself demanding applause.

Ultimately, The Expanse stands as one of the finest science fiction series ever produced because it understands something fundamental about the genre. Great science fiction is not really about spaceships or future technology. It is about humanity. About politics, fear, tribalism, survival, curiosity, and the uncomfortable possibility that no matter how far we travel into the stars, we may still drag our oldest flaws along with us.

A lot of people have compared The Expanse to Game of Thrones, with the authors of the former having worked for the author of the latter, and all three having been part of the same tabletop gaming group. Many of the elements of political intrigue are present in both stories, with a fair few other similarities which I will not spoil.  

If you like thoughtful sci-fi, and something that demands your attention, please do check out The Expanse.

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Slow Gods by Claire North.

Watching: Accused (Netflix), Rescue Me (Netflix).

Reading: Leviathan Wakes (Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £144,836.74.

Fuck It Fund: £22.30.

Pensions: £121,370.29.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £508,592.33.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £173,982.31. 

Total Debts: £173,982.31.

Total Wealth: £334,610.02.

Although I’ve not been able to invest much of my own money recently, my investments continue to grow. I feel a bit like a broken record now, but I really need to start bringing some serious money home. I still believe I have what it takes to make this money, but doing so in the mortgage sector is time consuming, in that there can be a lengthy lead time between doing the work and getting paid.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Parts 340 & 341: The Great Spring Reset – Long Rides, Canal Walks, Coffee Discoveries, and the Deep Clean From Hell

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

Update

The last couple of weeks have been one of those strange combinations of refreshing outdoorsy living and then absolute domestic warfare. One minute we were cruising through the sunshine on long bike rides feeling like we had our lives together, and the next we were in a lot of pain at midnight trying to vacuum behind furniture that probably hasn’t moved since the Bronze Age.

Anyway, let’s start with the good stuff.

On April 26th, Oana and I completed our longest ride so far, clocking in at over 46km. For seasoned cyclists that probably sounds fairly modest, but for us it felt enormous. The route took us through Rotherham, Boston Park, Waverley, Treeton, and eventually back home, and by the end of it we were absolutely spent in the best possible way. We did some insane hill climbing on our bikes, and just a few months ago we would have found this impossible. There’s a proper sense of achievement when you reach the top of a steep hill, or at least there is once your breathing returns to normal and the black spots in your vision go away.

There’s something addictive about gradually pushing your distance further. Rides that once felt impossible slowly become normal, and then before you know it you’re casually discussing whether another few kilometres can be squeezed into the route. Sheffield and the surrounding areas are great for cycling too. You can go from urban industrial scenery to open green spaces in just a few minutes. There’s all sorts of hidden routes and paths through old industrial areas which then bring you into areas of greenery and wildlife. There’s also the Peak District right on our doorstep. 

A couple of days after the big ride we slowed things down a bit and spent time with my Dad for his birthday. We called at his house first to drop off his present, a canvas print of The Scream, before heading out for a long canal walk in the sunshine.

There wasn’t a detailed plan as such. We had a nice walk out to Meadowhall and stopped for lunch before heading back. Walking along the canal is so peaceful and relaxing, and at this time of the year it’s just green everywhere, and after what felt like an endless grey winter it finally feels like spring has properly arrived.

We’ve also done a few more group bike rides recently and met some genuinely cool people along the way. One of the nicest things about cycling is how quickly it creates conversation. You can start a ride knowing nobody and end it discussing routes, bikes, cafés, injuries, weather forecasts, and whether that hill “was actually that bad” with complete strangers.

One particularly good discovery was Kilnfolk Coffee, which one of the ride leaders took us all to. Oana and I knew right away we would return there. They make their own pottery and actually serve the drinks and food in it, which gives the whole place a really distinctive feel. I don’t care what anyone says but the mug you are drinking from is just as important as the quality of the coffee. There’s something satisfying about drinking coffee from a mug that clearly wasn’t mass-produced in a faceless factory somewhere. Independent coffee shops just have more personality, and places like that make areas feel alive.

Then came the deep clean.

Dear God. Some cleans leave you tired. Some leave you with PTSD.

Over two days, Oana and I embarked on what can only be described as a full-scale archaeological excavation of the apartment. The main issue is that we have an absurd amount of Lego, ornaments, books, models, and assorted decorative chaos. Cleaning normally involves dusting around things. This time, every single item had to come off shelves individually so both the item itself and the surface beneath it could be cleaned properly.

Which sounds manageable in theory.

In practice, it became a 24-hour endurance event spread across two days of more than twelve hours each. Shelves emptied. Units dragged away from walls. Bookcases moved. Dust discovered in places that defy physics. Entire ecosystems probably collapsed behind some furniture.

At one point I genuinely think we entered a state of shared cleaning delirium where time lost all meaning. Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead, and everyday was as long as the life age of the Earth. 

Yes I went full Gandalf there. Yes I might be exaggerating a little. 

Once you get deep enough into a task like that, stopping almost feels worse than continuing. You become committed to the suffering. By the end, the apartment looked fantastic, but psychologically I’m not sure either of us will ever fully recover. Some wounds cut too deep. I believe we were changed by the experience.

Such is life.

Protest Votes, Empty Slogans, and the Myth of “Taking Back Control”

One thing that’s genuinely baffled me following the local elections is how many people seem convinced that electing Reform councillors is somehow going to fundamentally reshape Britain.

I keep asking a very simple question:

What specifically are Reform councillors going to do at local council level that will materially improve people’s lives?

And so far, I’ve never had a proper answer.

Because when you strip away the slogans, most of the talking points aren’t actually about local government at all. “Stop the boats.” “Take back our country.” “Britain is full.” These are national political issues tied to Parliament, border policy, asylum systems, international law, and central government funding.

Your local councillor is mostly dealing with things like bins, planning applications, road maintenance, libraries, social care, local budgets, and whether the pothole outside Greggs finally gets filled in before the DFS sale finally ends.

That disconnect fascinates me.

There’s this growing tendency in politics for people to vote emotionally rather than practically. Local elections become a giant venting mechanism for broader anger about the economy, housing, immigration, or cultural change. But anger alone isn’t a governing strategy.

And if someone is standing for office, I think it’s reasonable to ask:

Are they actually qualified to run a council?

Do they understand local government finance?

Do they know how social care funding works?

Can they navigate planning law?

Do they understand transport policy?

Or are they simply good at repeating slogans people already agree with?

Because shouting “Britain needs saving” is not the same thing as being able to manage a council budget.

What also strikes me is the strange nostalgia underpinning so much of this rhetoric. Many of the same people talking about the “good old days” also celebrate Britain’s role in standing against fascism and authoritarian nationalism during the Second World War. Yet at the same time, there’s increasing hostility towards outsiders, constant suspicion of immigrants, and a narrative that Britain is somehow being “taken away” from “real” British people.

The irony is difficult to ignore.

And before someone inevitably says “you can discuss immigration without being racist”, yes, obviously you can. Immigration policy is a legitimate topic for debate. Housing pressures, infrastructure strain, wage stagnation, and public service demand are all real issues worthy of discussion.

But too often the conversation stops being about policy and starts becoming about identity, resentment, and finding someone else to blame for problems that are actually far more complicated.

That’s the part I find depressing.

Because fixing Britain, or any country for that matter, is hard. Often, the things that need fixing, like the NHS, social housing, care for the elderly, and so on, will take at least a decade of focused effort.

It involves long-term investment, infrastructure, education, housing reform, economic growth, functioning public services, and politicians willing to tell voters uncomfortable truths.

It’s much easier to just shout slogans.

Murder Trial Tonight IV – Death of a Landlord

On Friday evening we went to our second Murder Trial Tonight event. It was busier than the first one we attended, Murder Trial Tonight III – The Doorstep Case.  We were a bit put out when we were told we couldn’t bring our water bottles in, but in fairness it was our mistake. The audience was generally well behaved apart from some idiot behind us who kept talking. At least three times people told him to STFU. I think he was drunk or something and the staff really should have sorted it. 

It’s a difficult one when someone is being disruptive because you don’t want to be even more disruptive trying to resolve the issue. It’s rare in my experience for someone to be disruptive and, when confronted about it, for the situation not to escalate.

Overall it was a good time but unlike our previous attempt we got the wrong verdict. I’m not going to spoil it in case anyone reading here is going to a showing somewhere else in the country. But yeah, Oana and I called it wrong.

Sheffield Wednesday

It’s finally happened. The Chansiri era is over; an era which saw the reputation of the club dragged as low as its ever been. Finally, the club is out of administration and under new ownership with Arise Capital Partners LLC taking control on May 2nd. It was a full party atmosphere at Hillsborough despite the club already being relegated. 33,750 turned out in the largest attendance in the Championship all season. Everything seemed to come together as we got our first win at home all season on the last day.

Next season we will compete in League One. We’ve seen a fair bit of League One since relegation from the Premier League. Hopefully, this will be our last relegation for a long, long time.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

5 – Dark

4 – Babylon 5

3 – Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 – 1994)

It’s difficult to overstate just how important Star Trek: The Next Generation was, not just for science fiction, but for television as a whole. For many people, TNG is Star Trek. It took the optimistic vision of Gene Roddenberry’s original series and expanded it into something richer, more philosophical, and far more emotionally sophisticated.

But looking back now, it’s easy to forget just how rocky the beginning actually was. The early seasons of The Next Generation are, to put it kindly, inconsistent.

The show had the enormous burden of following the original Star Trek, and early on it often felt unsure of what it wanted to be. The writing could be awkward, the tone uneven, and some episodes were genuinely dreadful. Characters were underdeveloped, dialogue could feel stiff, and Roddenberry’s insistence that humanity had largely evolved beyond interpersonal conflict sometimes made interactions feel strangely sterile.

Season One was poor with arguably one of the worst episodes of television ever made; Code of Honor, with Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) referring to it as a “racist piece of shit.”

The phrase “growing the beard” actually comes from The Next Generation. Much like Happy Days had “jumping the shark,” TNG developed its own phrase to describe a show suddenly finding its identity and dramatically improving in quality. The term refers to Commander Riker growing a beard in season two, around the same time the series itself started to mature.

By season three, The Next Generation had transformed into something remarkable.

The characters felt more natural. The writers understood their strengths. The stories became more ambitious, philosophical, and emotionally resonant. What had once felt like a shaky revival suddenly became one of the greatest science-fiction series ever made.

Q Who? and the Arrival of the Borg

One of the defining turning points came with “Q Who?”

Until that point, many of the threats in TNG still felt manageable within the familiar Star Trek framework. Then Q, the omnipotent trickster entity, forcibly hurls the Enterprise across the galaxy and introduces the crew to something entirely different:

The Borg.

The episode completely changes the tone of the series. The Borg are not interested in negotiation, ideology, or conquest in the traditional sense. They simply consume and assimilate. Individuality means nothing to them. Entire civilizations are stripped apart and absorbed into the Collective.

What makes the Borg terrifying is their inevitability. They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be intimidated. And for perhaps the first time in TNG, the Enterprise encounters an enemy it cannot outthink or outfight.

It’s a moment that fundamentally alters the series, introducing vulnerability into a universe that had often felt relatively safe.

The Best of Both Worlds and the Modern Cliffhanger

If “Q Who?” introduced the Borg, then “The Best of Both Worlds” cemented them as one of the greatest villains in television history.

The two-part story sees Captain Picard captured and assimilated by the Borg, transformed into Locutus, the human voice of the Collective. Starfleet faces annihilation as the Borg cube advances towards Earth, effortlessly destroying fleets sent to stop it.

And then came one of the most famous cliffhangers ever broadcast. As the Enterprise races after the cube, it finally catches up and prepares to fire an experimental weapon which is hoped will be enough to destroy the Borg. On the viewscreen, the Enterprise crew are met with the image of Locutus. 

Commander Riker gives the order knowing it could kill their Captain:

“Mr Worf… fire.”

Cut to black.

At the time, audiences had to wait months to discover what happened next. It’s difficult now, in the age of streaming and binge-watching, to fully appreciate the impact that moment had. While cliffhangers obviously existed before TNG, The Best of Both Worlds helped establish the modern prestige-TV style cliffhanger, one designed not simply as a gimmick, but as a genuine emotional and narrative gut punch.

The episode also fundamentally changed Picard. His assimilation leaves lasting psychological scars, proving that events in TNG could have permanent consequences rather than resetting neatly each week.

The Show at Its Best

What ultimately made The Next Generation exceptional was not action or spectacle, but its ability to explore ideas through character-driven storytelling.

The Measure of a Man

“The Measure of a Man” is perhaps the definitive TNG episode. The story centres on whether Data, an android officer, is legally considered property or a sentient being with rights.

At its core, the episode asks one of science fiction’s great questions:

What does it actually mean to be alive?

Rather than relying on technobabble or action, the episode unfolds largely as a courtroom drama, with Picard arguing that denying Data autonomy would reduce him to little more than a slave.

It’s thoughtful, philosophical, and deeply human, despite centring on a machine. The tension is raised further as Commander Riker is forced to argue the case against Data, with the threat that if he doesn’t perform his duties, Starfleet will rule against Data anyway.

Yesterday’s Enterprise

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” explores an alternate timeline where the Federation is locked in a brutal war with the Klingons. The arrival of the Enterprise-C from the past fractures reality itself. In the past, the old Enterrpise had been destroyed protecting a Klingon colony and that heroic sacrifice had convinced the Klingons that the Federation was honourable and that peace would be mutually beneficial. With that sacrifice no longer part of history, war erupted.

The episode stands out because it reveals how fragile the peaceful Federation actually is. Remove one pivotal historical event, and the optimistic future of Star Trek collapses into endless conflict.

It also gives Tasha Yar a much better send off. In season one, Yar was the original security officer on the ship, but the actress was not happy with the role and wanted out. So, Yar was written out of the show in a pointless death. With history having changed, this allowed the writers to bring Yar back and give the character the ending she deserved. Yar transfers to the Enterprise-C as it goes back in time to complete it’s suicidal mission to protect the Klingon colony. 

Tapestry

“Tapestry” is essentially It’s a Wonderful Life filtered through science fiction.

After Picard dies, Q gives him the opportunity to revisit pivotal moments from his past and avoid mistakes that shaped his life, including the reckless bar fight that resulted in his artificial heart.

What Picard discovers, however, is that removing failure and risk from his life also removes the experiences that made him who he is.

It’s a brilliant meditation on regret, identity, and personal growth. In a great bit of writing, it also calls back to a previous episode where Picard mentions laughing when he sees the knife sticking out of his chest. He never knew why he did that. Fast forward to this episode, and Q gives him the chance to go back to that moment and get stabbed. Picard goes through with it, and seeing himself with the knife in his chest, he knows he’s going back to his proper life.

The Inner Light

Widely regarded as one of the greatest television episodes ever made, “The Inner Light” strips away almost everything associated with Star Trek.

Picard is struck by an alien probe and lives an entire lifetime in the span of minutes, experiencing decades as another man on a long-dead world.

He falls in love. Raises children. Grows old.

Then wakes up back on the Enterprise.

The episode is devastating because it’s fundamentally about memory, loss, and the fleeting nature of existence. Picard returns physically unchanged, but emotionally transformed by a life that, from everyone else’s perspective, never happened.

The final moment, where he quietly plays the flute he learned in that other life, is one of the most haunting endings in science fiction.

All Good Things…

The series finale, “All Good Things…”, is a rare achievement: an ending that genuinely lives up to the show it concludes.

Picard becomes unstuck in time, shifting between the past, present, and future while attempting to prevent a temporal catastrophe orchestrated, or perhaps merely observed, by Q.

The episode acts as both a celebration of the series and a reflection on everything it stood for: curiosity, growth, exploration, and humanity’s potential.

And then there’s the ending.

Picard finally joins the senior staff poker game, something he had always kept himself slightly apart from. As the cards are dealt, he remarks:

“I should have done this a long time ago.”

It’s a small moment, but a perfect one. After years of commanding the Enterprise, Picard finally allows himself to simply be part of the family.

At its best, The Next Generation wasn’t really about technology or aliens.

It was about ideas. It treated science fiction not as escapism, but as a way of exploring philosophy, ethics, and the human condition.

And while the first couple of seasons may have stumbled badly at times, the show eventually grew into something extraordinary.

Or, to put it another way: It grew the beard.

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: 

Watching: Accused (Netflix).

Reading: Leviathan Wakes (Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £143,085.99.

Fuck It Fund: £22.30.

Pensions: £120,174.13.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £505,645.42.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £173,982.31. 

Total Debts: £173,982.31.

Total Wealth: £331,663.11.

There’s a strange contradiction in how we treat money in Britain. We’re surrounded by it constantly; adverts for cars, holidays, kitchens, investment apps, luxury watches, property programmes, finance gurus, side hustles and “passive income” everywhere you look. Yet the moment ordinary people start openly discussing their own finances honestly, it suddenly becomes taboo. We’re expected to quietly struggle in private, quietly succeed in private, and never really say what’s going on behind the curtain.

One of the things I’ve tried to do with this blog is normalise those conversations. To talk openly about debt, pensions, savings, mortgages, financial anxiety, financial mistakes, and the slow, often unglamorous process of improving your situation over time. Because the reality is that most people are winging it. Most of us were never taught this stuff properly. And when nobody talks about money honestly, people assume everyone else has magically figured it out while they alone are failing.

But there’s an uncomfortable side to this openness too. The more transparent you are about your financial journey, the more people can track your progress in real time. If you spend years talking publicly about overpayments, investing, budgeting, building an ISA, or becoming financially secure, eventually some people stop seeing the lessons and start seeing the scoreboard. What began as “this is useful and relatable” can quietly become “must be nice.”

And that’s where things can get awkward. Because people are generally supportive of financial openness right up until visible improvement enters the picture. Struggle is relatable. Progress is harder for some people to process. Especially in a culture where money is emotionally loaded with ideas about class, fairness, success, luck, and self-worth. You can almost feel the point where some readers stop seeing you as “one of us” and start mentally placing you into another category entirely.

The irony is that the entire point of talking openly about money is to help demystify it. To show that financial stability usually isn’t one magical event or crypto jackpot or inheritance cheque. More often it’s years of boring consistency, small decisions repeated over and over, mistakes corrected slowly, and learning things the hard way. But once people only see the end result, they can miss the years of anxiety, spreadsheets, sacrifices, second-guessing, and delayed gratification that got you there.

I still think these conversations matter though. Probably more than ever. Because silence around money doesn’t protect people; it isolates them. It keeps people ashamed of debt, ignorant of pensions, scared of investing, and convinced everyone else is doing better than they are. Honest conversations about money can genuinely change lives. Even if, occasionally, they also make people uncomfortable.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Posting Schedule Update

After years of Sunday morning posts, I’m making a small change to the schedule.

Going forward, new posts on Mortgage Advisor on FIRE will now go live at 7pm (GMT) on Sundays instead of 9am.

Part of the reason is practical. Writing and scheduling posts for early Sunday mornings has basically meant sacrificing chunks of my Saturday evenings, and honestly, I’d rather spend that time relaxing with Oana, watching sci-fi, or doing literally anything other than fighting with WordPress formatting at 11pm when my eyes are closing.

Sunday evening just feels like a better fit all round. A quieter time to sit down, unwind, and read something properly before the chaos of Monday begins.

So from now on:
New posts. Sundays. 7pm.

So please check back in approximately ten hours.

Part 339: Are we finally getting some sun?

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

Weekly Update

It’s been a tiring week with early starts each day. On Monday I had an appointment with a consultant about my elbow, which has been painful since the summer of 2022. Since then I’ve seen several consultants and physios privately and on the NHS. No one can identify the cause. I’m not talking about a little ache here and there, but pain that can keep me awake or wake me up. It’s not constant, but it does impact on my quality of life and stops me from training at the gym.

Anyway, pretty much the first thing that the consultant said was that I shouldn’t be in her clinic, which is always a good start. She was friendly enough but is having to refer me to someone else. It’s only been four years at this point so what’s a few more weeks of waiting. 

From Tuesday through Friday Oana completed an online course which required a 7am start. I offered to wake up and make her breakfast whilst she got set up for the meetings each day. After making breakfast, I had a little snooze until it was my time to start working. I think Poppy has gotten used to this new routine as she would come and sleep on me whilst I was snoozing on the sofa. Oana got a few pics of us sleeping and made a collage:

Poppy really is the sweetest cat.

On Friday evening we took part in one of our group bike rides. Roughly 30 of us rode all around the city centre and ventured out towards Heeley. It was good fun, although at one point I felt a little off colour. The group ride started at 19:00 but we went out for a ride before. Remember this is coming off a week of very early starts and not much sleep. At about 18:30 I felt absolutely done in. I did not think I’d manage the ride. We pushed on and stopped at a Japanese take away and had some chicken katsu and gyozas. Washed down with some coke, the drink, not the powder, I felt much better. 

The group ride was longer than normal and by the end of the night we had done over 30km. We got home, showered, ate, slept, and then woke up Saturday morning for another bike ride. This time we completed 37km as we rode through woods, along the river and canal, and by fields of horses, sheep, and cows. We stopped for some chips to refuel, and a bit later for an iced coffee. It was a great day out in the sun.

Our evening meal on Saturday was a complete clusterfuck. I tried to make a roux and it just didn’t work. So, instead of a home made mac’n’cheese we ended up with a pasta salad. It’s our first cooking fail in a while but I hate wasting ingredients.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

5 – Dark

4 – Babylon 5 (1994 – 1998)

Babylon 5 (1994–1998)

Babylon 5 is one of the most important science-fiction series ever made, not because it had the biggest budget, the most polished effects, or even the best acting, but because it fundamentally changed how stories could be told on television.

Created by J. Michael Straczynski, the show was conceived from the outset as a five-year novel for television. That alone sets it apart. At a time when most sci-fi was episodic, Babylon 5 committed to long-form storytelling, where events, decisions, and character arcs would unfold over years rather than being neatly resolved in a single episode. Some scenes in the very first episode were not paid off until almost the very end of the show.

The result is a series that feels less like traditional TV and more like a carefully constructed narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.

The Setting

The setting is deceptively simple: a massive space station located in neutral territory, designed to serve as a diplomatic hub for multiple alien civilizations. The Babylon Project was the result of the Earth-Minbari war; a devastating conflict resulting from a horrific mistake during first contact. An Earth task force opened fire on a Minbari convoy not realising the Minbari custom of approaching with gun ports open was a sign of openness and respect, and not a sign of imminent attack. The Earth commander opened fire and, in a further stroke of bad luck, killed the leader of the Minbari civilisation. 

The Minbari embarked on a war of genocide, and because they were much older and more advanced than humanity, it was a slaughter. As the war drew to a close, the Minbari had pushed humanity all the way back to Earth, and as they had the planet surrounded, the Minbari surrendered. The mystery of this surrender was the focus of much of the first season of Babylon 5. 

The Station – Babylon 5

Babylon 5 is a place where empires negotiate and manipulate, and ancient forces quietly move into position. At the centre of it all are the station’s commanders, first Jeffrey Sinclair, later John Sheridan, and a diverse group of officers, diplomats, and civilians trying to hold together a fragile peace.

However, as the intro to third season states; “The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed.”

“There is a hole in your mind”

The first commander of Babylon 5 was Jeffrey Sinclair, a veteran of the Battle of the Line; the last defence of Earth as they tried to stop the Minbari. Tens of thousands of humans took part in the battle and fewer than 200 survived. Sinclair was one of them. He can’t remember much of the battle, and can only recall being rescued from his fighter once the Minbari had surrendered. The mystery of what happened to Sinclair and the Minbari surrender is explored through the early part of the show.

The Story

What blew my mind the first time I watched the show fully from start to finish was how many different plots were being woven together. There was the rise of a fascist government on Earth, the seeds of the telepath war, the Earth civil war, the conflict between the Narn and the Centauri, the Shadows and the Vorlons, and the mystery of the Minbari surrender at the Battle of the Line. To have so many spinning plates, and yet have such a tightly bound narrative is not just impressive, it’s a work of genius.

Long-Form Storytelling Before It Was Cool

One of Babylon 5’s greatest achievements is its structure. Plot threads introduced in early episodes often pay off seasons later. Characters evolve in meaningful ways, shaped by the events they experience. Political alliances shift. Wars begin and end. Consequences linger.

This was unusual at the time. Many networks were wary of serialised storytelling, fearing audiences wouldn’t keep up. Babylon 5 ignored that concern and committed fully to its narrative. In doing so, it helped pave the way for later shows, both within and outside science fiction, that embraced long-form storytelling as the norm.

It’s difficult to overstate Babylon 5’s influence. Long before prestige television became the norm, it demonstrated that audiences were willing to invest in complex, serialised storytelling. It showed that science fiction could handle politics, philosophy, and character development with depth and nuance. While later shows often get the credit, Babylon 5 was one of the first to prove that television didn’t have to reset every week.

Echoes of Middle-earth in Deep Space

One of the more interesting ways to look at Babylon 5 is not just as science fiction, but as a kind of space-borne epic fantasy. Strip away the jump gates and starfuries, and what you’re left with has far more in common with The Lord of the Rings than you might initially expect.

At a structural level, both stories are about the end of an age.

In The Lord of the Rings, the world is moving beyond the time of elves, ancient powers, and myth. Magic is fading, and the future belongs to humanity. In Babylon 5, a similar transition is taking place. The ancient races, the Vorlons and the Shadows, have shaped the galaxy for millennia, manipulating younger civilizations like pieces on a board. But their time is coming to an end.

The younger races are faced with a choice: continue to be guided (or controlled) by these ancient powers, or step out on their own and define their future. That idea, rejecting the influence of older, more powerful forces and choosing your own path, sits at the heart of both stories.

There are also clear thematic parallels in how power is portrayed. In Tolkien’s world, the One Ring represents the corrupting influence of power and the temptation to use it “for good.” In Babylon 5, the influence of the Shadows and Vorlons operates in a similar way. Both offer a form of power or guidance, but at a cost. Aligning with either side means sacrificing autonomy.

Neither side is truly benevolent. Both believe they are right. And both are ultimately shown to be part of a cycle that needs to be broken. Even the character arcs echo this epic, almost mythological structure. Londo Mollari’s tragic descent feels not unlike a Tolkien figure corrupted by ambition and circumstance, while G’Kar’s journey from anger and vengeance to wisdom and reflection carries the weight of a character who has seen the cost of hatred and chosen a different path.

As well as thematic links to Lord of the Rings there are more obvious references. The Shadow homeworld is Z’Ha’Dum, which is a nod to Khazad-dum. Both works feature a group called The Rangers who work to protect those in need. 

Space Battles That Felt Real

Unlike earlier sci-fi, where space battles often resembled naval engagements or aerial dogfights transplanted into space, Babylon 5 made a conscious effort to think about how combat might actually work in a zero-gravity, three-dimensional environment.

Ships don’t just bank and turn like aircraft. They can rotate on their axes, and take full advantage of things like inertia.

It gives battles a sense of weight and realism that many shows lacked at the time.

Capital ships also behave differently. Engagements feel less like choreographed duels and more like chaotic, overlapping exchanges of fire, with multiple ships manoeuvring in a shared battlespace. There’s a sense that positioning matters, that timing matters, and that once a battle begins, it can quickly spiral beyond anyone’s control.

There is a video on YouTube where someone breaks down the Battle of Proxima III and argues it is the best space battle put to screen because of how much thought went into the planning and writing of it. It’s not just a CGI mess of different ships firing different coloured blasters at each other, there are stakes, objectives, and clear tactics on both sides. 

Babylon 5 vs Deep Space Nine

If you talk about Babylon 5 for long enough, you inevitably end up talking about Deep Space Nine. The two shows aired at almost the same time, shared a broadly similar premise; a space station acting as a political and cultural crossroads, and, for years, were compared in ways that bordered on rivalry.

On the surface, the similarities are obvious. Both are set on stationary outposts rather than roaming starships. Both focus on politics, diplomacy, and long-form conflict. Both introduce a nearby gateway to distant space (a wormhole in DS9, jump points and hyperspace routes in Babylon 5). And both gradually evolve from localised tensions into large-scale interstellar wars. Both introduce a new ship for the station’s crew to use, and, there’s not really any other way of saying it, but the commanders of both stations end up as Space Jesus.

All in all, Babylon 5 was not without its faults. It had a lower budget, and some awful acting. On the other hand, no one (with the exception of the writers of The Expanse) has told a more compelling story with such an airtight internal consistency. 

Babylon 5 is primed for a big budget reboot but it would need more than just a few short seasons of six episodes each to tell the full sweeping story. It ran for 110 episodes and still left a lot unsaid. 

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: 

Watching: Beef Season 2 (Netflix)

Reading: Leviathan Wakes (Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £141,911.62.

Fuck It Fund: £19.15.

Pensions: £118,073.10.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £502,366.87.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,145.84. 

Total Debts: £174,145.84.

Total Wealth: £328,221.03.

The stock market is bouncing back a little, at least until Trump decides to blow up the internet again. He is so stupid. I don’t think a word has been invented that fully describes just how ignorant this guy really is. Anyway, I need to stop here before I go on a full rant about the orange menace.

I’m still in the process of building my pipeline at work, and I’m not going to see any serious money for a while yet. Once that money starts coming in my priority will be to use up the remaining £12k ISA allowance for this year. After that, I’ll look to build up a balance in my Premium Bonds and FIF with a view to maxing out my ISA allowance next year. 

Whilst smashing my ISA is a major priority I should not forget about my pension. It doesn’t need as much money pumping in as my ISA because it has more time to grow, whereas my ISA will be called upon a full decade earlier than my pension. Even so, it would be foolish to ignore it completely. I’ve been drip feeding £50 per month into my SIPP but once I have a more regular income I’ll increase that significantly. 

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 338: Slowing Down

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

So I’ve been struggling a little to find time to write to the quality I would like recently.  Rather than putting out posts I’m not happy with, I’m going to take a step back and slow down a little. I’m thinking that my posts may be every fortnite as opposed to weekly. In fairness, since I started this blog in November 2019 it has, with only a couple of exceptions, seen a minimum of one post per week.

I’ve included my updated weekly finances below and my list of greatest sci-fi shows discussed so far, which I’ll pick back up next week.  

Thanks for reading and supporting Mortgage Advisor on FIRE.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

5 – Dark

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Artifact by Jeremy Robinson

Watching: 

Reading: 

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £140,614.86.

Fuck It Fund: £19.15.

Pensions: £117,756.69.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £500,753.70.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,145.84. 

Total Debts: £174,145.84.

Total Wealth: £326,607.86.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 337: Falling Down

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

Weekly Update

It’s been one of those weeks where work has absolutely dominated everything. The kind of week where your calendar fills itself, you tick all ten things off your to-do list only to find you finish each day with more on it than you started, and before you know it, you’re wondering where the week went. 

That said, I did manage to get out on the bike a few times so I could argue with idiots walking on the cycle lanes again. It really does help clear the mind; the cycling that is, not the arguing with morons.

There’s something about being on the bike that forces you to be present. No emails, no notifications, just me, the road, and whatever questionable life choices led me to cycling uphill for fun.

Unfortunately, one of those rides didn’t quite go to plan.

At some point as we were almost home, my rear wheel clipped the corner of something.

What followed was that bizarre, almost cinematic, effect where time just slowed down. You know exactly what’s happening, you know how it’s going to end, but you’re completely powerless to stop it. It felt like it took about three to five business days to actually hit the ground. Plenty of time to reflect on life, question my coordination, accept my fate, and wonder if I’m going to show up on a reel of people crashing into things.

Inevitably, gravity did its thing. So, a week of hard graft, a few decent rides, and a slightly humbling encounter with the ground. All in all, fairly on brand.

Advertisements

Project Hail Mary

On Monday I went to see Project Hail Mary with Oana and my Dad. We all loved the book but we all agreed the movie was underwhelming. Visually it was fantastic, but I felt the whole thing was very rushed. I don’t want to say too much and spoil it for my readers if they’ve not seen it yet. I would say that if the film’s premise has grabbed you, definitely read the book or listen to the audiobook. It’s brilliant.

We went on a mass cycle ride on Saturday morning with dozens of other people. It was a great crowd and lots of fun. Following that, Oana and I stopped at home for lunch before heading back out again for another ride. We were cycling down the side of the river when we saw a heron on the wall next to us. We see herons all the time in, and around, Kelham Island, but we’ve never gotten so close to one as we did this day. It was happily munching away on some food people had left for it. 

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

6 – Battlestar Galactica (2004)

And so we arrive at number five on the list…

5 – Dark (2017–2020)

Dark is one of the most intricate and intellectually demanding science-fiction series ever made. Created in Germany by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the show takes a familiar concept, time travel, and turns it into something far more complex, unsettling, and philosophical.

Set in the small town of Winden, the story begins with the disappearance of a child. At first, it feels like a mystery grounded in the present. But it quickly becomes clear that this is something much larger. As more children vanish and strange events unfold, connections begin to emerge between different families, different time periods, and different versions of the same people.

What starts as a missing persons case evolves into a sprawling narrative spanning multiple generations and multiple timelines.

At the heart of Dark is an idea: time is not a straight line, and more importantly, it may not be something that can be changed.

Another defining feature of Dark is its focus on family. The show revolves around four interconnected families, and over time it becomes clear that their relationships are far more complicated than they initially appear. Characters are linked across generations in ways that are often shocking, with identities looping back on themselves in ways that challenge any straightforward understanding of lineage.

Advertisements

The famous “family tree” in Dark is less a tree and more a tangled web, or a knot that tightens as the series progresses.

This has profound implications for identity. Characters encounter younger and older versions of themselves, confront the consequences of their own actions across time, and are forced to question whether they are truly individuals or simply parts of a larger pattern.

Free Will vs Determinism

Dark explores whether anything can truly be changed. Characters repeatedly attempt to alter events, driven by love, guilt, or desperation. But again and again, their actions seem to reinforce the very outcomes they are trying to avoid. The past, present, and future are locked together in a cycle that feels impossible to break. This creates a philosophical tension that runs through the entire series. Are the characters making choices, or are they simply following a script that has already been written? The show doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it leans into the discomfort of that uncertainty.

In the genre of science fiction and time travel, many shows focus on accessibility and broad appeal, Dark does the opposite. It demands attention, patience, and a willingness to engage with complex ideas. It doesn’t explain everything. It doesn’t simplify its concepts. And it certainly doesn’t hold the viewer’s hand. But for those willing to invest the time, it offers something rare: a science-fiction story that treats its audience as capable of grappling with genuinely challenging ideas.

One of those ideas takes the form of a type of temporal paradox I love; The Bootstrap Paradox.

There’s something deeply unsettling about the idea that not everything has a beginning. We’re wired to believe in cause and effect, in origins, in neat little chains where one thing leads to another. The Bootstrap Paradox quietly dismantles that comfort. It suggests that sometimes, the chain doesn’t have a first link at all. It just loops back on itself, endlessly.

In simple terms, it’s a paradox where an object, a piece of information, or even an idea exists without ever being created. It is passed back through time and becomes its own origin. No author. No inventor. No moment of creation. Just a closed loop, humming away, self-sustaining and impossible to untangle. Ask where it started, and you’ll find yourself going in circles.

Let’s look at an example involving a watch, and don’t worry this isn’t a Pulp Fiction story. You have a watch that has been around the block a few times. Your father gave you this watch which he received as a gift from a stranger years ago. Sometime later you go back in time and meet your father as a young man. You give him the watch. He lives his life and then gifts the watch to his son; you. 

In this example, the watch has no beginning or end, hence the paradox. You’re possibly wondering why it’s called The Bootstrap Paradox, but the etymology of that could be a whole post on its own. Let’s just say that the phrase “pulling yourself up from your bootstraps” was the origin of the phrase to “boot up” your computer, and all the associated phrases that comes with that, like reboot and so on.

Anyway, this is where Dark stops being a time travel show and starts becoming something far more claustrophobic. Because it doesn’t just flirt with the Bootstrap Paradox, it embraces it fully.

The first two seasons of Dark are some of the best television you will ever see. The third, and final season, was not, and this is the only reason it is not higher on this list. 

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Artifact by Jeremy Robinson

Watching: Project Hail Mary

Reading: nothing

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £250.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £138,151.51.

Fuck It Fund: £19.15.

Pensions: £115,950.68.

Residential Property Value: £242,113.00. 

Total Assets: £496,484.34.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,145.84. 

Total Debts: £174,145.84.

Total Wealth: £322,338.50.

I dropped £8k into my ISA by drawing funds from my FIF and my Premium Bonds. The market has also recovered a little, meaning my ISA is now at the highest it’s ever been. It’s entirely possible that my ISA balance will be higher than my mortgage balance by the end of the year. 

We are locked in to our mortgage deal until January 2031, but when that time comes around we will have an important decision in front of us. Being mortgage free is a huge boost to any FI journey, but my ISA is also my bridge to accessing my pension. 

Another thing to consider is my new self-employed venture. If I can build a steady pipeline of business, I should be in a position to hammer both my ISA and the mortgage. 

Anyway, this is all I’ve got time for this week as it’s currently almost midnight on Saturday as I’m finishing this up. Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 336: David doesn’t share biscuits…

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. 

Weekly Update

The big space news this week is the launch of the Artemis II mission, which was designed to take four astronauts around the moon before returning them safely to Earth. It’s frustrating that it’s taken this long for humanity to return to Luna, but hopefully it’s the start of a new space race that will see us lay the foundations for spreading throughout our system. I’m almost certainly being naively optimistic, but I’d love to see a colony on the moon or Mars in my lifetime.

On Thursday I met with a good friend for some food, and it was great catching up. Although we speak pretty much every day, in person meet ups are not that common with work and other adulting commitments. 

I made a bit of a mistake on Friday by not closing my diary for appointments, which led to me seeing several clients that day. I have now made sure Monday is booked out as we will be heading to the cinema to see Project Hail Mary.

In other news, I saw in The Guardian that people are being advised to stockpile food. In the UK. In 2026. As a species, there are times when we seem to be hopeless.

There’s something faintly unsettling about being told, in calm, measured tones, that you should probably start stockpiling food. Not in a “build a bunker and start bartering in beans” kind of way, but in a softly reassuring, middle-class sort of way. A few tins here, some oats there, maybe a secret stash of crisps to keep morale up while the planet burns.

That’s the tone of the piece in The Guardian, which argues that in an increasingly turbulent world we should all be quietly building up a reserve of long-life food. Not panic buying, you understand, just preparing.

At a basic level, it’s not wrong. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that systems we assume are rock solid can, under pressure, start to creak. Shelves empty. Supply chains wobble. People do strange things with toilet roll and hand soap.

Having a few days’ worth of food and water at home isn’t paranoia, it’s just common sense. The kind of low-effort resilience that costs very little but buys you a bit of breathing room if things go sideways. But the article doesn’t just stop at “be a bit prepared.” It wraps that advice in a broader narrative of looming instability. Experts warn of fragile food systems, geopolitical tensions, and the risk, however loosely defined, of disruption severe enough to leave people without access to basic supplies.

This is where it starts to feel a bit slippery, and it moves from sound practical advice to scare mongering.

While the threats are real in an abstract sense, they’re presented without any meaningful sense of scale or likelihood. It’s all very “this could happen” without ever quite addressing how probable it actually is. The result is a kind of low-grade anxiety. Not enough to make you panic, but just enough to make you think: should I be doing more?

The voices in the article are given plenty of room to make fairly bold claims, about civil unrest, systemic fragility, even the risk of catastrophic failure in the coming years, but those claims largely go unchallenged. There’s no real attempt to balance them with alternative perspectives or to interrogate the assumptions behind them. It’s presented as a quiet consensus, when in reality it’s likely a more contested space. Many disasters that plague humanity, like pandemics, natural disasters, Donald Trump, are things that we know will happen at some point, we just can’t always predict when.

The real facepalm moment comes when we’re told to build up a personal stockpile,but also to be ready to share it. Morally, that’s hard to argue with. If things genuinely got bad, social cohesion would matter. Communities that look after each other tend to fare better than those that don’t, but it does raise an uncomfortable question: if the system is fragile enough that we’re being nudged to prepare for shortages, why is the burden quietly shifting onto individuals, and then further onto communities, to manage the fallout?

Actually, as I ask that question, I think back to our government’s response to Covid and it starts to make more sense that we should take on the burden.

To be fair, when the article sticks to practical advice, it’s on much firmer ground. Buy things you’ll actually eat. Favour long-life items that don’t require cooking. Build your stores gradually as part of your normal shop rather than panic buying. All entirely sensible. This isn’t about going full prepper, it’s about being slightly more prepared than you were yesterday.

However, even here, there are moments where the detail wobbles. One suggestion around water, 7 to 12 litres per person per day, feels wildly out of step with typical emergency guidance, and it’s presented without context or challenge. It’s a small thing, but it matters, because once advice starts to feel unrealistic, people either ignore it entirely or assume the situation must be far more serious than it is. If Oana and I had to have just three days worth of water in keeping with those amounts, we’d need a minimum of 42 litres of water stored for an emergency. If we needed to keep enough water for a week, we’re looking at 98 litres. 

Our apartment is a decent size, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large living room. We could not store 49 2 litre bottles of water indefinitely, just in case. The advice given here seems to be geared around living in some degree of comfort, but if shit got real, I’d be more concerned about survival than comfort, and it’s entirely reasonable for two adults and a cat to get by with much less than 7 litres per person per day. 

The comparisons with countries like Switzerland and Sweden are also doing a bit of heavy lifting. Yes, some nations take civil preparedness more seriously and provide clearer guidance. But they also have different histories, different risks, and different approaches to state responsibility. Dropping them into the conversation without that context subtly nudges the reader towards a conclusion: that the UK is behind the curve and you, personally, might need to compensate.

Having a modest supply of food and water at home is sensible. It’s no different, really, to having an emergency fund. You hope you never need it, but you’ll be glad it’s there if you do. It’s about buying yourself time, not surviving the apocalypse. If there was a worldwide nuclear war, or an asteroid impact, or the return of Cthulhu, I’m not sure I’d want to live through something like the reality depicted in The Road.

It’s also worth being clear-eyed about what this kind of advice is and isn’t.

A cupboard full of oats and tuna isn’t a solution to systemic risk. It’s a sticking plaster. A small, individual buffer against problems that are, at their core, much bigger than any one household can solve. While there’s nothing wrong with being prepared, there’s something slightly uncomfortable about the idea that the answer to large-scale fragility is simply for everyone to quietly fend for themselves, but to also be prepared to share their hobnobs.

Don’t come knocking on my door if things ever did get that bad, because I don’t share hobnobs. Ever.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

7 – Quantum Leap

Now for number six (pun not intended, but I’m going with it… IYKYK)

Battlestar Galactica (2004 – 2009)

Battlestar Galactica is often held up as one of the greatest science-fiction series ever made, and for good reason. It took the relatively simple premise from the original series and transformed it into something far more ambitious: a character-driven exploration of survival, identity, politics, and morality, all wrapped in the framework of a space opera.

Background

Humanity lives in the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Decades before the main story, humanity fought a war against a race of machines they created to serve them; the Cylons. The war raged for years and eventually an armistice was agreed.

The show begins with catastrophe. After decades with no sign of the Cylons, they reappear and launch a devastating attack on the colonies. Somehow they had hacked the Colonial military and disable almost every ship rendering them helpless. The Cylons are able to pick the human military apart with almost no resistance.

The Cylon fleet orbits the Colonies and nuke them from orbit. Within hours, the human race is almost completely wiped out. Only a few civilian ships escape and their only protection is the ageing Battlestar Galactica; a survivor of the first Cylon war. The fleet, led by Galactica, leave known space in an attempt to find the mythical thirteenth colony; Earth. 

From the outset, Battlestar Galactica makes it clear that this is not a story about triumph. It is a story about survival. It’s grim, dark, and gritty. It feels very much like a show made in the shadow of 9/11. 

The fleet is constantly on the run, pursued by an enemy that is relentless, adaptive, and often indistinguishable from the humans they hunt. Although the Cylons were machines, they’ve developed a way to create versions of themselves that look human. 

Resources are scarce. Food, water, and fuel is all finite. Every decision carries consequences, and unlike shows such as Star Trek: Voyager, the reset button isn’t hit each week. 

The comparison between Voyager and Galactica is relevant because without Voyager there may not have been a Galactica. Ronald D. Moore grew frustrated at how Voyager didn’t commit to its premise of being a ship alone in hostile space trying to find safety. He left Voyager and created the reboot of Galactica, where every decision has consequences further down the line.

Cylons and The Plan

At the heart of the series is the relationship between humans and Cylons. Initially presented as the enemy, the Cylons quickly become something more complicated. Many of them look human, think like humans, and feel like humans. Some even believe they are human. It is often stated that they have a plan, but it’s kept a mystery. All we know is that humanity is a source of fascination and disgust to the Cylons. We know there are twelve human designs of Cylon, but we only see seven of these designs for most of the run of the show. The mystery of “The Final Five” is central to the later episodes, because they could be anyone.

While the show is often remembered for its action and drama, one of its defining features is its focus on politics and the interplay between the characters.

The dynamic between Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin forms the backbone of the series. Military necessity and civilian governance frequently clash, particularly as the fleet faces existential threats. Decisions about leadership, justice, and survival are rarely straightforward, and the balance between security and freedom becomes a recurring theme. One of the most powerful, and relevant quotes from the series comes from a conversation between these two characters.  Adama says to Roslin;

“There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people”. 

The show doesn’t shy away from reflecting real-world issues. Storylines involving occupation, insurgency, and terrorism mirror contemporary conflicts, particularly in the post-9/11 world in which the series was produced. It asks difficult questions about how far a society should go to protect itself and what it risks becoming in the process. In one harrowing arc of the show, we see our heroes engage in a campaign of suicide bombing. This is uncomfortable viewing when you place it in the context of the War on Terror.

Running alongside the political and military narrative is a more philosophical thread centred on religion and destiny. Both humans and Cylons grapple with questions of faith, often from opposing perspectives.

The Cylons, despite being machines, are deeply religious, believing in a single God and a greater plan. Many humans, by contrast, follow a polytheistic belief system rooted in ancient mythology.

The recurring phrase “All of this has happened before, and will happen again” captures the show’s fascination with cycles of history. Are the characters shaping their own future, or are they simply repeating patterns that have played out countless times before?

It’s a question the series never fully answers, but the exploration is interesting.

Battlestar Galactica helped redefine what science fiction can be. I mentioned previously, when talking about Space: Above and Beyond, that this show could not have been made without Above and Beyond leading the way. Well, Galactica helped open a path to more gritty, grounded in reality science fiction that has followed. 

“Action Stations”

One of the biggest strengths of Galactica was the care and attention put towards action scenes. When the Galactica goes to “Action Stations” you know that you’re in for a visual treat.

A lot of science fiction thinks you can just throw lots of ships and lasers into a scene and it will be cool. It’s not. It’s often confusing as you have no clear idea of what is going on in the battle.

A well written space battle must have clear stakes. The factions must be identifiable. There has to be a compelling reason for the conflict, and the battlespace must be well defined. Galactica has, in my opinion, two of the best space battles put to screen; the attack on the Resurrection Ship and the escape from New Caprica.

In both of these battles all the above criteria are met. We see awesome effects that bring the battles to life. There are clear stakes, and there are some genius tactics employed. The “Adama Maneuver” is now the stuff of legend within sci-fi. In the show, the method of FTL travel is a form of instantaneous jump-tech, where you blink out of existence in one place and reappear in another; there’s no direct direction of travel unlike in Star Trek. Well, the Galactica is not designed to fly in an atmosphere, but to get by a blockade, Admiral Adama jumps Galactica in the atmosphere of a planet and the ship starts plummeting to the ground surrounded by fire as it’s armour burns in the atmosphere. As the ship falls, it launches its fighter wing before jumping back out seconds before it would hit the surface. 

For all the greatness of Battlestar Galactica, it lost its way after the first couple of seasons. Studio interference led to a few clunker episodes, and although it tried to get back on course, it never quite managed it. The “Plan” never amounted to much, and it seemed as though the writers were making it up as they went along. 

Overall, Galactica deserves its place on this list because of some fantastic ideas, characters, and the gritty, realistic world building. It would rank higher if it maintained its quality from the first two seasons throughout.

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Artifact by Jeremy Robinson

Watching: nothing

Reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £3,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £127,192.48.

Fuck It Fund: £5,233.86.

Pensions: £112,672.76.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00. 

Total Assets: £491,529.10.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,145.84. 

Total Debts: £174,145.84.

Total Wealth: £317,383.26.

The new financial year is upon us but I don’t have £20k to dump into my ISA right away. I’ll probably move £5k from my cash savings into it, and then drip feed into it as and when I get the cash through the year.

My investments have recovered a little from the madness engulfing the world but I think there’s going to be a few more dips before the situation resolves itself. I think the only real stability we will get is when Trump leaves office.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 335: Retirement is Inevitable

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. This week, retirement is inevitable, and you need to prepare for it. Also, some First World Problems, and the next entry on my best sci-fi list.

Weekly Update

Out of all the weeks of my life, this was one of them. Not to say that it’s been a bad week, it’s just there’s not a huge amount of excitement in the Scothern household right now. We’re having to pay closer attention to Poppy though.

A few weeks ago it was determined that she had an overactive thyroid and the vet prescribed some meds to help. These meds may have helped with her thyroid, but Poppy was not the same cat. She lost her personality and started repeatedly scratching her cheeks, which started bleeding. We stopped the treatment and some of her personality is returning, but because her cheeks are scabbed over, she is still scratching. As we need to let the wounds heal, we’ve had to put her a collar of shame on. She’s now a pretty sunflower:

She doesn’t like the collar but it’s better than her constantly reopening the cuts and making them bleed. We give her a few monitored breaks from the collar to let her groom and clean, but she can be a sneaky little goose and we’ve had to rush to stop her scratching when she thinks we’re not looking.

First World Problems – Adverts

I reserve a specific type of rage for mobile/online ads, especially the sort that don’t just appear, but ambush. You’re halfway through a video, or you’re on a roll on a game, and suddenly your screen is hijacked by something loud, garish, and utterly irrelevant. 

Worse still, it’s never just one tap to escape. It’s a ritual. Tap the microscopic “x” in the corner, wait for the fake loading bar, tap another “x”, dodge the inevitable misclick that opens the app store, and only then, finally, you’re allowed back to what you were doing. The most clicks I’ve counted to exit an advert was six. Six screens to click through just to exit an ad for something that I’m never going to buy.

It’s not just intrusive, it’s adversarial. These ads aren’t designed to inform or persuade; they’re designed to trap. And that’s the fundamental issue. Good advertising should create a positive association with a brand. It should be memorable for the right reasons. But these formats do the opposite; they build irritation, resentment, and in many cases, outright hostility.

I’ve drawn a hard line. If I have to close an ad more than once, that brand has immediately disqualified itself from ever getting my money. And anecdotally, that sentiment seems widespread. Most people I speak to about this say the same thing; adverts are fucking annoying.

And this mindset doesn’t just apply to mobile games or websites. It carries straight over into streaming services. If I’m paying for a subscription, that should be the end of the transaction. The idea that I’m then expected to sit through ads, or worse, pay again for an “ad-free” tier, feels like double-dipping at best and outright contempt for the customer at worst. It reframes the entire relationship: I’m no longer the customer, I’m the product being monetised twice.

It’s the same underlying philosophy; extract maximum value with minimal regard for user experience. Whether it’s a mobile game forcing you through a maze of fake “x” buttons or a streaming platform inserting ads into something you’ve already paid for, the message is clear: your time is less important than their revenue model.

So why does it persist?

Because, depressingly, it does work, at least in the narrowest, most cynical sense. Mobile and digital advertising operate on scale and probability. If even a small percentage of users misclick, tolerate the ads, or upgrade to remove them, that’s enough to justify the model. It’s not about goodwill; it’s about conversion rates. It’s also similar to tins of baked beans in Tesco; they might only make 1p profit per tin, but they sell enough tins to make it worthwhile. It’s all about the numbers.

But there’s a long-term cost to this approach. Every forced interaction erodes trust. Every unnecessary ad nudges people closer to ad blockers, piracy, or simply disengaging altogether. And every time a paying customer is told, “pay more if you want a better experience,” it chips away at the perceived value of the service itself.

There’s a better way. Advertising doesn’t have to feel like a siege, and subscriptions shouldn’t feel like a negotiation. But until the incentives change, we’re stuck in this loop, furiously tapping tiny “x” buttons, skipping ads on services we already pay for, and quietly writing off brands that decided annoyance was an acceptable strategy.

It reminds me of a post I saw a while back from YouTube’s official account somewhere. They asked what people were going to watch first when they opened YouTube. Some legend replied, “probably an advert”. 

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows 

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

8 – Space: Above and Beyond

Now for number seven…

Quantum Leap (1989–1993)

Created by Donald P. Bellisario, the series follows Dr Sam Beckett, a physicist who becomes trapped in his own time travel experiment, leaping from life to life within his own lifetime. Although there is a very loose overarching plot, it’s very much an episodic series.

Each episode drops Sam into the body of a different person. He retains his own consciousness, but to everyone else, he is that person. A pilot, a boxer, a doctor, a prisoner. Each leap comes with its own set of challenges, relationships, and consequences. His task is simple in theory but often complex in execution: put right what once went wrong before moving on to the next leap.

Guiding him is Al, a holographic observer from Sam’s own time, visible only to him. Armed with information from the supercomputer Ziggy, Al helps Sam piece together what needs to change. But the information is often incomplete, the stakes unclear, and the moral choices anything but straightforward.

What makes Quantum Leap stand out when compared to many of the shows on this list, is its scale. There are no galactic wars or existential threats to humanity. Instead, the show focuses on smaller, more personal moments.

Because Sam is living these lives rather than observing them, the show carries a level of empathy that feels earned. Each leap forces Sam (and by extension, the audience) to confront the realities faced by people in different circumstances and different eras.

At its core, Quantum Leap is about identity. Sam is constantly looking in mirrors and seeing someone else staring back. He exists in a kind of limbo, never fully himself, never fully the person he’s inhabiting. 

Sam and Al

The emotional anchor of the show is the relationship between Sam and Al, which benefits from the amazing chemistry between Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Sam is driven by compassion and a desire to help, often to the point of self-sacrifice. Al is more pragmatic, occasionally irreverent, but deeply loyal.

Their dynamic gives the show its balance. Without Al, Sam’s journey would feel isolating. Without Sam, Al would have no purpose. Together, they create one of the most memorable partnerships in science-fiction television. On a side note, it was great seeing the actors perform together again in Star Trek: Enterprise.

Over time, their relationship deepens, revealing that while Sam is the one physically leaping through time, Al is also carrying the emotional weight of what that journey costs.

Standout Episodes

Because Quantum Leap is largely episodic, its legacy is built on individual stories that resonate long after they’ve finished.

“The Leap Home (Part 1 & 2)” stands as one of the show’s emotional high points. Sam leaps into his own past and reconnects with his family, including his brother Tom. Knowing what will happen to his brother, Sam is faced with a deeply personal dilemma; should he try to change his own history? It’s a powerful collision of the show’s premise with Sam’s own life.

“M.I.A.” shifts the spotlight to Al, exploring his past during the Vietnam War and his relationship with his first wife, Beth. It’s a reminder that Sam’s mission has consequences not just for those he helps, but for the people waiting for him back home. The episode adds emotional depth to Al and reframes his role in the series.

Then there’s the finale, “Mirror Image.” Rather than offering a neat resolution, the episode leans into ambiguity. Sam encounters a mysterious figure, possibly something more than human, who suggests that Sam may have more control over his leaps than he realises. Faced with the choice to return home, Sam instead chooses to continue helping others.

It’s a quiet, understated ending. Bittersweet, heroic, and tragic. And then comes the coda.

A simple title card explains that Sam never returned home, continuing to leap through time, putting right what once went wrong.

Except his name is spelled incorrectly. “Sam Becket.” One “t” missing. It’s a small detail, but it has become one of the most enduring quirks in television history, with much debate about whether it was always that way, or if the “t” was initially there and then dropped on repeat airing. Whether it was a genuine production error or something more symbolic, it feels oddly appropriate. A man lost in time, drifting between identities, and even history itself can’t quite fix who he is.

What Quantum Leap demonstrates better than most is that science fiction doesn’t need spectacle to be powerful. It needs ideas, characters, and emotional truth. While other shows explore the fate of galaxies or the future of humanity, Quantum Leap focuses on something smaller but no less important: the idea that one person, in one moment, can change a life.

It’s a different kind of sci-fi. It’s quieter, more reflective, and more human.

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: 30Seven by Jeremy Robinson

Watching: I Swear (Netflix)

Reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Earlier in the week I finished the Chess Team series, also known as the Jack Sigler series. I loved it. The series tells the story of a US special forces unit, the Chess Team, who are tasked with dealing with the threats conventional units can’t handle. It’s a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and military thriller. In total there are nine novels, and a number of other novellas and short stories. So, whilst it’s an investment in time to get stuck into it, I’d thoroughly recommend it. 

You may be wondering why they are called Chess Team and the answer is simple; each operator’s callsign is the name of a piece in chess; King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight.

I Swear is a harrowing watch, but it’s also a very well made movie. The undoubted star of the movie is Robert Aramayo who delivers a career defining performance. I don’t want to say too much about the film as I think it’s best to watch it with no prior knowledge. If you have Netflix, check it out. I Swear will punch you in the gut one moment and reaffirm your belief in the goodness of people the next.

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £3,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £124,558.89.

Fuck It Fund: £5,114.83.

Pensions: £110,484.91.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00. 

Total Assets: £486,588.63.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,145.84. 

Total Debts: £174,145.84.

Total Wealth: £312,442.79.

The economy continues to take a hammering because of the Orange Tyrant and his incredibly smooth brain. It’s remarkable that someone can be so stupid and yet hold on to a position of power.

Anyway, his latest round of ideas have wiped tens of thousands of pounds worth of value from my investments over the past few weeks. I’m not losing sleep over it as the value will return. However, there will be people out there that will be losing sleep. There will be people on the brink of retirement who have seen vast sums of money wiped off their retirement accounts. And for what? Just so the rich can get richer, or just so Trump can feel more like a man than a joke?

When looking at a long-term FI plan, you need to remember that there will be bumps in the road, and the market will take the occasional hit. It’s easy to get drawn into the doom and gloom, and when this happens you need to take a step back and really think about your options without giving in to fear or knee-jerk actions. 

Perhaps the most important thing to remember in all this economic insanity is that losses are only realised if you sell. Balances dropping in your investment accounts can be scary to see, but the numbers are only a guide, or a point of reference. It only becomes real when you hit the sell button.  

More Thoughts on Retirement

You don’t need to “picture” retirement in some romantic, sun-drenched fantasy to take it seriously. You don’t need to visualise yourself walking along a beach at 65 with a cocktail in hand and not a care in the world. Retirement isn’t a dream. It’s a financial inevitability. At some point, you will either choose to stop working, or you won’t have the option to continue. Either way, the requirement is the same: you’ll need money to live on. That’s not a vision board exercise. That’s a liability sitting in your future, quietly accruing whether you acknowledge it or not. It’s going to happen, and not thinking about it will not change that fact.

The bigger issue isn’t imagination. It’s friction. We hear a lot about how people “can’t afford” to save, and there’s truth in that. Living costs are high, rent is punishing, and wages haven’t exactly been racing ahead to compensate. But there’s a subtle shift in language that often goes unnoticed. When people say they can’t afford to save, what they often mean is that they can’t afford to save comfortably, or meaningfully, or in a way that feels like it will make a dent. And so the conclusion becomes that it’s not worth starting at all.

That’s where things go wrong, because retirement planning doesn’t reward perfection. It rewards time. Small, consistent contributions made early will outperform large, heroic efforts made later far more often than people expect. The problem is that small amounts feel pointless in the moment. They don’t move the needle today. But retirement isn’t about today. It’s about giving your future self a fighting chance, even if the steps you take now feel insignificant.

Layered on top of that is the idea that pensions are too complex, too opaque, too difficult to understand. And to be fair, they’re not exactly marketed in a way that inspires confidence. They’re wrapped in jargon, buried in statements that most people don’t read, and presented as something you’ll deal with “later”. But the irony is that you don’t actually need to understand every moving part to benefit from them. You don’t need to become an investment expert. You don’t need to optimise every decision. You just need to engage enough to not miss out entirely. Being in the system, contributing, and nudging things in the right direction over time will do more for most people than endlessly researching the “perfect” approach and never acting.

Retirement planning doesn’t require clarity, or certainty, or even confidence. It doesn’t require you to have your life mapped out decades in advance. It just requires you to start, however imperfectly, and to keep going. Because in the end, the biggest risk isn’t getting it wrong. It’s waiting so long that you never really get started at all.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.

Part 334: Above and Beyond

Hello and welcome back to Mortgage Advisor on FIRE. A bumper post this week as I discuss my plans for the new financial year, the chaos in the Middle East, and the next entry on the list of greatest sci-fi shows…

Weekly Update

My legs are like jelly after a week of intense biking. We’ve explored some new areas, like Waverley and Catcliffe, and pushed ourselves to do more climbs. It’s always great to see progress and we’re already seeing the benefit as we can now climb hills on our bikes that we couldn’t just a few weeks ago.

The only downside to biking is having to leave Poppy on her own. We always make sure we’re not gone for too long, but whenever we leave she just looks so sad. It’s heartbreaking. I don’t think Poppy is herself generally due to the medication she started and then stopped. She has an overactive thyroid and we were told to give her meds twice a day. Although some of her symptoms calmed, the biggest adverse effect was lots of scratching around her cheeks and ears. On both sides of her face she now has cuts from scratching, and after talking with the vets again we’ve decided to stop the treatment and see if the scratching stops. It may be that she is sensitive or allergic to something in the meds, and we have to think about the quality of her life as she’s an elderly lady.

It’s no coincidence that with the upturn in weather, I’m feeling better in myself, apart from the usual stresses of work and generally being an adult. I’m going to try and reduce my antidepressant dose but it will have to be done very gradually. I’m taking 100mg of sertraline, whereas I used to take 200mg back in 2023 when I had an awful mental health crisis. This was around the time when I had to take a little break from posting weekly as I just wasn’t well enough mentally. 

In my life I can point to two times when I had a real dark time of it mentally; 2020, and then 2023. I thought 2020 was bad at the time, but 2023 was something I’d never wish on anyone.

If you are struggling with mental health, it’s important to remember that there’s always someone you can talk to, even if it’s just a stranger on a help line. I know some people have gained a lot of comfort from talking to ChatGPT as well. Don’t struggle alone.

Nicholas Brendon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show that sits close to my heart. I was roughly the same age as the characters as they moved through high school, and looking back, I think their struggles helped me navigate that period of my life.

Buffy had a way of taking the vague, ever-present anxieties of being a teenager and turning them into something tangible; literal monsters. It was never just about vampires or demons; it was about growing up, about that messy transition from childhood to adulthood, and all the fear and confusion that comes with it.

Despite everything that has come out over the years about Joss Whedon, the show still stands as one of the greatest of all time, for its storytelling, its character work, and its willingness to confront difficult themes head-on.

One of the core characters was Xander, played by Nicholas Brendon. Within the fandom, he’s never been universally loved. Some of the criticism aimed at him is valid as he could be insecure, entitled, and at times outright misogynistic. But some of it also feels disproportionate, more aggressive than it needs to be.

Because here’s the thing: flawless characters are boring. Xander’s flaws are precisely what made him feel real. He wasn’t the chosen one, he didn’t have supernatural powers; he was just a guy, muddling through, getting things wrong, and occasionally getting them right.

Unfortunately, that messiness wasn’t confined to the character. Brendon himself has struggled publicly with addiction and legal issues over the years. I don’t know the man, and I won’t pretend to, but what is out there doesn’t paint a particularly positive picture.

Which brings us back to that uncomfortable question: can you separate the art from the artist?

Because without Xander, Buffy wouldn’t have been the same. He grounded the show. He was the human perspective in a world full of the extraordinary.

When you look at Brendon’s life, it’s hard not to feel a sense of waste; of potential that never quite found its footing.

Advertisements

Now for someone who is just so incredibly stupid…

I mean, it wasn’t going to be anyone else was it?

Donald Trump has always mistaken volume for strength. He bellows, he pouts, he postures, and somewhere in that cacophony he seems to imagine the world will confuse theatrical aggression for leadership. It is the politics of a man who thinks swagger is a substitute for substance, as though sounding tough is the same thing as being competent. It never is. 

Strip away the noise and what remains is not some grand strategist or iron-willed statesman, but an insecure, petulant blowhard with the emotional steadiness of a pub bore who has mistaken his own reflection for a war cabinet.

It matters, because when a man like that sits in a position of enormous power, his stupidity does not remain a private embarrassment. It becomes a public hazard. And Trump’s recent complaints about NATO allies and Iran are a perfect example. Reuters reported on 17 March that Trump called NATO’s refusal to join the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran a “very foolish mistake”, while pressing allies to help police the Strait of Hormuz. Three days later, Reuters reported that he escalated the rhetoric further, calling NATO allies “cowards” over their refusal to back the war effort. The wider picture, reported by AP and other outlets, is that the conflict has already caused large-scale casualties, regional instability, and major pressure on global energy supplies. (Reuters)

All this comes after he has stated the war is won, and after blasting the UK for wanting to enter a war once it’s already won, conveniently forgetting the US entering the First World War late in the day, and only entering the Second World War after it was attacked by Japan and after Germany declared war on the US. Let’s not also forget that the US made an absolute fortune selling weapons and supplies to the Allies fighting the Nazis before deciding to actually join the fighting. 

And this is where Trump reveals himself again, because the tone is less “commander-in-chief” and more “toxic man-child furious that nobody wants to join his stupid scheme”. He comes across like the angry, rejected wannabe alpha male who cannot believe the room has failed to applaud his performance. He launches or backs a catastrophic escalation, then starts snarling because other countries are not rushing to validate him, subsidise him, or share the consequences of his decisions. It is not serious. It is not disciplined. It is not even especially masculine, if we are being honest. It is just a brittle ego trying to hide behind fake tan and DARVO; Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

What makes it even more grotesque is the contrast between Trump’s chest-thumping rhetoric and his own history when actual personal risk was involved. The Associated Press has reported that Trump received a series of Vietnam-era draft deferments, including one based on bone spurs. National Archives records also confirm the existence of his Selective Service documents. So yes, the line lands because it gets to the heart of the man: the difference between Vietnam and Iran is that Trump had a plan to get out of Vietnam. That is not just a joke at his expense. It is a summary of his entire character. When danger was his problem, he found the exit. When danger is somebody else’s problem, he discovers the language of toughness. (AP News)

Advertisements

That, in miniature, is Trumpism. It is borrowed courage. It is the political philosophy of a man forever demanding that other people do the bleeding while he does the boasting. He has spent years cultivating this cartoon image of himself as some kind of ultimate hard man, but the historical record is far less flattering. The man who dodged Vietnam now wants to wrap himself in the language of martial resolve. The man who avoided service wants to cosplay as a war leader. The man who never stops sneering at weakness seems permanently dependent on others to carry the real burden. He is seemingly so desperate to be respected as a leader of legend. He is so far from that, he’s not even in the same reality.

And that is why his rhetoric about NATO is so revealing. Alliances, in Trump’s mind, are not partnerships. They are stage props. He expects other countries to exist as backup dancers in the permanent musical of his own ego. If they say no, he does not ask whether his strategy is reckless, incoherent, illegal, counterproductive or deranged. He simply lashes out. The tantrum is the point. He cannot bear the thought that others might judge his ideas and conclude, quite reasonably, that they are idiotic. He’s like that guy, and we’ve all seen him, you know, the one who gets rejected by a woman and he then starts screaming “well, you’re ugly anyway!”

There is also a thick layer of hypocrisy smeared over the whole performance. Trump has long liked to market himself as the only adult in the room, the only one with “strength”, the only one who can impose order on chaos. But everywhere he goes, chaos seems to billow out behind him like smoke from an electrical fire. Even in the current Iran crisis, the reporting points to mixed signals, contradictory messaging, and uncertainty about what the actual endgame is supposed to be. Reuters described Trump pressing allies to support the maritime mission while simultaneously saying the U.S. did not need NATO’s help. AP reported that as of 21 March he was considering a possible military “wind down” even as Israeli officials signalled an escalation and Congress demanded a clearer strategy. That is not clarity. That is not resolve. That is a man wandering into a minefield while insisting everybody else is overreacting. (Reuters) 

Which brings me to the tortoise on top of a lamppost. The old line fits Trump almost too perfectly. We do not know how he got up there, he clearly cannot get down on his own, and it is painfully obvious to everyone watching that he does not belong there. That has always been Trump. A grotesque accident of politics somehow elevated into a role for which he is visibly unsuited. The presidency demands patience, discipline, curiosity, judgement, and at least a passing ability to understand consequences. Trump offers the opposite: vanity, grievance, ignorance, spite, and the attention span of a labrador in a butcher’s shop.

His defenders often mistake shamelessness for authenticity, but being shameless does not make a man honest. It just means he is willing to say stupid things with confidence. And confidence, in politics, is one of the most dangerous disguises stupidity can wear. Plenty of fools are certain. Plenty of idiots are loud. Plenty of destructive men are utterly convinced of their own genius. Trump belongs squarely in that tradition: the kind of fool who mistakes impulse for instinct and who thinks gut feeling is superior to expertise because his gut has never once had the decency to tell him to shut up.

That is what makes him so dangerous. A competent authoritarian would be frightening in one way. Trump is frightening in another. He combines malice with incompetence, vanity with ignorance, and power with a level of childish emotional fragility that would be embarrassing in a pub manager, never mind a head of state. He is not some grand master moving pieces around the board with terrifying precision. He is the bloke flipping the board over because he was losing, then screaming that everyone else is unfair.

And that is the thing people still too often miss. Trump is not terrifying because he is brilliant. He is terrifying because he is a moron with reach. He is the sort of man who can drag countries towards disaster not through cunning, but through ignorance, ego, and the endless need to look strong in front of people he despises and fears in equal measure. There is no nobility in that. No strategy. No doctrine worthy of the name. Just a vulgar, combustible little man stamping around on the world stage, demanding applause while setting fire to the scenery.

If history is kind, it will remember him not as a titan, not as a visionary, and certainly not as the alpha male of his own fantasies, but as what he so often appears to be: an angry mediocrity inflated by money, television, and a political culture degraded enough to mistake performative cruelty for strength. A tortoise on a lamppost with the nuclear codes would be funny if it were fiction. In real life, it is merely obscene.

The Greatest Science Fiction Shows

I’ve noticed a few posts recently listing sci-fi shows and movies with titles like “best ever” and “greatest of all time”.  I thought I’d enter the chat and list my top ten sci-fi shows of all time, starting at number ten and working my way to the best one of all over the next ten weeks.

Note: for a show to qualify, it has to have finished.

So far, I’ve covered:

10 – The Outer Limits

9 – The X-Files

On to number eight…

8 – Space: Above and Beyond (1995–1996)

Space: Above and Beyond was ahead of its time but feels a little dated when watched back now. It was also frustratingly cut short. Airing for just a single season in the mid-1990s, it never had the chance to fully realise its long-term vision, but what it did deliver remains one of the most grounded and emotionally resonant depictions of war in science fiction television.

Set in the 2060s, the series imagines humanity’s first interstellar war against a mysterious alien species known as the Chigs. Rather than focusing on admirals, politicians, or grand strategy, the show places its lens firmly on the individuals fighting the war. At the centre of the story is a squadron of Marine Corps space aviators known as the Wildcards, operating from the US space carrier Saratoga. 

From the outset, the tone is clear: this is not a glossy space opera about heroism and adventure. It is a story about survival, sacrifice, and the grinding reality of war.

What sets Space: Above and Beyond apart is how deliberately it avoids romanticising conflict. The Wildcards are not invincible heroes; they are young, flawed, inexperienced pilots thrown into an unforgiving war where losses are frequent and sometimes meaningless.

The show takes clear inspiration from World War II and Vietnam dramas, but transplants those ideas into a science fiction setting. Dogfights in space feel less like spectacle and more like aerial combat, with tension built around fuel, positioning, and the ever-present risk of not making it back.

Identity and the “In Vitros”

One of the most interesting threads running through the series is the presence of “In Vitros”; genetically engineered humans created artificially to serve as soldiers. They are bred to serve humanity, raised in controlled environments, and treated with suspicion or outright prejudice by “natural-born” humans.

This creates a powerful undercurrent throughout the show. Characters like Hawkes and McQueen represent the struggle for identity in a world that views them as tools rather than people. The discrimination faced by In Vitros mirrors real-world themes of racism, class division, and what it means to be considered fully human. This is something that good science fiction has always done, by using fictional examples to highlight the struggles of minority groups facing persecution. 

Advertisements

The Enemy You Don’t Understand

Unlike many science fiction series, the Chigs are not immediately humanised or explained. For much of the show, they remain an unknown and deeply unsettling enemy. You only see them in their full body armour, with their true appearance a secret until the last episode. 

Their motivations are unclear, their culture largely hidden, and their methods often brutal. Their soldiers dig up the graves of fallen human soldiers to mutilate the corpses. The theory is that they misunderstood human religions that talk of an afterlife, with the Chigs afraid that killed humans will reanimate after death.

This ambiguity works in the show’s favour. Rather than presenting a simple good-versus-evil conflict, Space: Above and Beyond leans into the fear of fighting an opponent you do not understand. The war feels chaotic, uncertain, and driven as much by misunderstanding as by intent.

Over time, hints emerge that the conflict may be more complicated than it first appears, suggesting that humanity itself may not be entirely blameless in how events unfolded. There was a remarkable level of restraint shown by the writers to not immediately answer every mystery.

A Show That Ended Too Soon

Perhaps the most enduring aspect of Space: Above and Beyond is the sense of what might have been. The show was clearly building toward a larger narrative about the origins of the war, the nature of the Chigs, and the future of humanity’s expansion into space.

Unfortunately, it was cancelled after just one season, leaving many of those threads unresolved.

And yet, in some ways, that abrupt ending adds to its legacy. Like the soldiers it portrays, the story feels incomplete, cut short before its time. There is no neat resolution, no triumphant conclusion and just the lingering sense of a conflict still unfolding.

Why It Still Matters

Space: Above and Beyond stands out for its restraint. It treats war not as an adventure, but as an experience that shapes and scars the people who endure it. We see PTSD treated seriously as marines are tortured and have to deal with those memories once freed. It also tackles loyalty, and how and why some orders should be disobeyed.

Long before shows like Battlestar Galactica (2004) brought a darker, more grounded tone to science fiction television, Space: Above and Beyond was already exploring similar territory. It asked difficult questions about duty, identity, and the cost of survival.

It may only have lasted a single season, but it left behind something rare: a science fiction series that feels less like escapism and more like a reflection of very real human experiences just set among the stars.

The Show That Quietly Set the Tone

It’s hard to talk about Space: Above and Beyond without acknowledging the shadow it casts over later science fiction, particularly Battlestar Galactica which I mentioned before.

That might sound like a bold claim at first glance. After all, Battlestar Galactica (2004) is often credited as the show that redefined television sci-fi, dragging it away from idealism and into something darker, more grounded, and more reflective of real-world conflict. But if you look closely, many of the elements that made Battlestar Galactica so compelling were already present, at least in embryonic form, in Space: Above and Beyond nearly a decade earlier.

The tone is the most obvious parallel. Both shows treat war not as spectacle, but as something grinding, uncertain, and deeply personal. Victory is never clean. Loss is frequent. Characters carry the psychological weight of what they’ve experienced, and that weight doesn’t conveniently disappear at the end of an episode.

There’s also the focus on the people inside the war machine. Rather than centering the narrative on high-level strategy or political leadership, both shows spend most of their time with those actually doing the fighting. In Space: Above and Beyond, it’s the Wildcards, young pilots trying to survive one mission at a time. In Galactica, it’s the crew of the fleet, soldiers and civilians alike, all struggling to endure under impossible circumstances.

Even the themes of identity and what it means to be human echo across both series. The In Vitros and the Silicates in Space: Above and Beyond, engineered, distrusted, and treated as expendable, feel like a clear thematic precursor to the Cylons. Both raise uncomfortable questions about artificial life, prejudice, and whether humanity’s definition of “human” is more about biology or about something deeper.

That’s not to say Battlestar Galactica directly copied Space: Above and Beyond. Rather, it feels like Space helped lay the groundwork for a different kind of science fiction, one that moved away from clean heroism and towards moral ambiguity, emotional realism, and the idea that the future might not be as tidy as we’d like to imagine.

The key difference is that Battlestar Galactica arrived at a time when television was ready for that shift. It had the budget, the platform, and the cultural moment behind it. Space: Above and Beyond, by contrast, arrived just a little too early.

But without shows willing to push in that direction, without series like Space: Above and Beyond testing the waters, it’s entirely possible that Battlestar Galactica would not have taken the form it did, or perhaps would not have been made at all.

Sometimes the most important shows aren’t the ones that succeed, but the ones that show what’s possible before the world is ready for it.

Advertisements

#AD – Do you want to help me earn a little cash for free? Of course you do!

Now that I’m self-employed I’ve signed up with a few businesses that offer services that assist with getting a mortgage.  One such service comes from Check My File which brings together your credit report from multiple sources into a detailed breakdown of your credit history.

Normally there is a £14.99 monthly charge but with my link you can get a FREE 7-day trial.  My affiliate link allows you to create an account, get your report, and if you want to cancel within the 7 day trial period you will not be charged.  If you want to keep the service beyond the trial period, the £14.99 monthly charge applies.  

By signing up to the trial period, you’ll help me out with a small commission even if you cancel inside that trial period. 

Important points:

1. This code is for a free 7-day trial for those who have not had an account with Check My File before.

2. You can cancel anytime with no penalty.

3. If you do not cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will be charged £14.99 until you cancel.

4. It will ask for payment details, but if you cancel within the 7-day trial period, you will not be charged (assuming you have not had an account with them before).

5. I will earn a small commission from Check My File for each person who signs up for the free trial, whether they continue to a paid membership or not. 

6. I do not get to see your credit report.  It is private to you, unless you choose to share it. 

7. To make sure the code tracks, please complete your sign-up in one sitting i.e. don’t close the tab and start again later.

8. Make sure you download your report before cancelling.

9. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but my last wage was paid in October.

https://www.checkmyfile.partners/GZMJPSJ/2CTPL

What I’m Doing

Listening: Empire: Chess Team Book 8 by Jeremy Robinson and Sean Ellis.

Watching: –

Reading: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Financial Update

Assets

Premium Bonds: £3,000.00.

Stocks and Shares ISA: £126,518.72.

Fuck It Fund: £5,114.83.

Pensions: £111,310.27.

Residential Property Value: £243,430.00. 

Total Assets: £489,373.82.

Debts

Residential Mortgage: £174,369.33. 

Total Debts: £174,369.33.

Total Wealth: £315,004.49.

The market is taking a battering at the moment with, well, *gestures at the Middle East and The White House*

During Trump’s first term, I felt like we just had to survive those four years, and I feel the same about this term. Every so often there will be stupid people doing stupid things, just like the Truss fiasco a few years ago. The important point is to not react out of fear or panic. The seas will calm and the ship will steady itself. 

The new financial year is almost upon us and I need to start thinking about how I’m going to handle my ISA. I suspect my decision will be forced by the funds I have available. I would love to be able to throw £20k in there as soon as possible, but I think it’s going to have to happen in stages.

What are your plans for the new financial year? Let me know in the comments.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions in this blog are my own, and do not represent the views or opinions of my former, current, or future employers, nor should they be considered advice.

If you want personalised financial advice, seek an appropriate professional.  If you are in financial difficulty, seek advice via the resources below:

StepChange

MoneyHelper

Biolink 

You can now find all my social media pages by checking out my Biolink:

bio.link/davidscothern.