Today's a big day for Australia

Australia. My second home. Well, that's an exaggeration but my Son #1 lives there. In Newcastle. Not the cold, windy one up north in the UK but the other in sunny New South Wales. My daughter in law is an Aussie and they moved there, I dunno, about 15 years ago. It's a great country and I have enjoyed many a trip there over the years, particularly at Christmas times.

Australia has had one of the strictest border policies in the world to attempt to keep Covid out - ask Novak Djokovic - but today is Freedom Day. The day when they open their borders to fully vaccinated visitors (again, ask Novak for details). I haven't seen my Aussie grandsons for over three years so am actively thinking about a trip. The temptation is to go sooner rather than later but definitely Christmas is on the cards. We'll see.

Box of Brilliant Beers

I was given a box of zero alcohol beers as a birthday gift. Styled as Another Box of Brilliant Beers. Presented by Beer Hawk.  Just started sampling; over the next couple of weeks I thought you'd be interested in my tasting comments (it'll be the last couple,of weeks by the time you read them).

It's worth noting that up to 0.5% alcohol is defined as 'alcohol free', although supermarket self service checkouts don't seem capable of recognising that and require the same authorisation as full alcohol beers do.

Jupiter 0.0%: A lightish but fairly hoppy Belgian beer. I like it.

Jever Fun 0.3%: This Pilsener is dry and unexciting with not much taste.

Maisel's Weisse 0.5%: A wheat beer that has a very fruity taste - Ocado calls it a banana flavour and I can definitely taste that. I really like it for its flavour but for me it's let down by being excessively fizzy. But another plus in this case is it's a 500ml bottle!

Bitburger Pils 0.05%: A slight pleasant sourness on this Bavarian beer. Perfectly drinkable.

Franziskaner Weissbier 0.5%: A flavourful, slightly fruity beer which is one of the best so far. 500ml!

Wheesht 0.0%: This is the real deal! By which I mean it's very much to my taste. A dark ale brewed at Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland. A great taste with a hint of chocolate. 'Wheesht' is apparently old Scottish slang for 'shh'! I don't imagine they mean to keep quiet about this product! I discovered you can buy a 12 bottle case of this for £12.60, although (a) there's a flat rate £5.95 for shipping orders of less than £50 and (b) the bottles are only 330ml. Needs a bit of thinking about.

Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropica 0.5%: Very fruity and fizzy pale ale brewed in Newport, Wales. A nice light drink for those who like a lager top. Although bubbly out of the can, it quietens down quite quickly.

Ghost Ship 0.5%: A well-known pale ale brewed in Suffolk by Adnams. Pour this into a wide-bottomed glass and you will see the gorgeous amber colour. Matched by the strong, earthy taste.

Lucky Saint 0.5%: I've come across this before. Brewed in Bavaria for Not Another Beer company, it's a light lager very similar to Heineken Zero. Not my favourite.

Leffe 0.0%: A Belgian brew which has quite a nice sweet taste and very little fizz. I think there is added sugar, as the calorie content is 40 per 100ml, compared with say my favourite St Peters Without at 29. Despite this, I could drink more of it, although it's not as hoppy as I prefer; just different for an occasional early evening drink.

Zero Five 0.5%: Brewed at Thornbridge Brewery in Derbyshire, this is fruity - apple? mango? - and very fizzy. Pleasant enough but not in the Top Five for me.

Hoegaarden 0.05%: A wheat beer brewed "with coriander orange peel" in Belgium. I really like the wheat beer taste and this one is not excessively bubbly.

My top five from these? Not in order, I could happily drink the two wheat beers - Hoegaarden and Maisel's - as well as Franziskaner, Wheesht and Ghost Ship.

I've recently bought a mixed case of my favourite St Peter's Without but I'll be looking out for these five.

Thanks for the birthday present Dan!

Reader suggestions sought

Consider this.

Boris Johnson, an innately radical politician, leads an innately conservative party.

Keir Starmer, an innately conservative politician, leads an innately radical party.

It makes no sense. They should swap. Then what ...?

It's Eunice for us, Dudley for you

Storm Eunice hits the UK's South West. Meanwhile Storm Dudley rampages through the Midlands. What if they meet? Storm Dudnice? Presumably Dudley has alphabetical priority so move over, Eun; your time will come.

I may be the only human on the planet (as opposed to those on the Moon or Mars) who thinks the whole storm naming thing is ridiculous and patronising. Are we so stupid we need everything dumbed down? If the storms keep coming two at a time we may reach Zak by Christmas. Actually that can't happen as there are no Zs in the storm alphabet. Or Ys, so it'll be Willemien - remember the Dutch participate in our naming system. Anyone know why the French don't?

Yep, I do. European nations are grouped for storm naming purposes:

Western Group (United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands)

South-western Group (France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg)

Eastern Mediterranean Group (Greece, Israel and Cyprus)

Central Mediterranean Group (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta)

So far we are winning; we're up to Eunice, the Spanish only Blas, the Greeks Elpis (so level with us - come on us Brits!), the others only Apollo (which I thought was Greek so seems like an interloper). If you don't live in Europe, look up your own; I don't care.

I feel I've gone on for too long about this nonsense. Indeed, you may not have got this far; don't blame you. 

Don't Lose Damian

It's a well-known fact (to me anyway) that Homeland lost the plot after Damian Lewis left the cast. I'll long remember that iconic image of Brody hanging from a noose in Iran at the end of season 3; what came after for Homeland is instantly forgettable. Homeland's point was always the question of Brody's loyalty and Carrie's relationships - professional and personal - with him.

Lewis leaves the cast, Homeland dies.

Now there is a repetition of this point with Billions. This excellent TV series hinged around the tense relationship between two protagonists - Paul Giamatti's District Attorney Chuck Rhoades and Lewis's hedge fund billionaire Bobby Axelrod. It was one of those shows where your empathy with the characters constantly shifted. Brilliantly written and acted, it was an outstanding watch. At the end of season 5 Rhoades wins, Axelrod has to sell his company and go into exile in Switzerland; Lewis leaves the cast. In the last few weeks we have seen season 6. What a let down. The new owner of Axe Capital is Mike Prince, who turns out to be ... nice. He is going to clean up the hedge fund, only accept squeaky clean investors (good luck with that) and bid for the Olympics. What? Rhoades is baffled - he hates billionaires and here's an acceptable one!

In the latest episode we, the viewers, are confronted with the strange device of graphic images overlaying the appearance of each character, the graphics showing their clothing and accessories and their valuations. It's like one of those movies where you see things through the lens of a robot or android - I think it may have been Blade Runner but I'm not sure; maybe Terminator or Ex Machina? Anyway, it's a very irritating device for two reasons: 1. There is so much text that you can't read it before it's gone (Louis Vitto Manhattan $10,000, Gucci Jeans $3,100, Gucci Stuart Hughes Bel ... wait, it's gone! I haven't got to the shirt yet!) 2. It's pointless flammery, as if the producers need to remind us of the show's title. Not for me.

Lewis leaves the cast, Billions dies.

If you're thinking of casting Damian Lewis in a TV show, people - make sure he's contracted through to the final episode ever.

How well do I know my sons?

I recommended Money Heist to Dan, my younger son. The recommendation was a success as he rated it "probably in my top 10 [TV series] ever". Which led me to think what the other 9 would be. So I'm going to give it a go and he can tell me my score in the Comments. Maybe he could even take up my offer of a guest blogger spot!

Bear in mind he's 35 years younger than me so I have to avoid some of my own preferences - e.g. Only Fools And Horses - he was 2 at the time. Here goes. No particular order.

The Sopranos

Game Of Thrones

Stranger Things

The Wire

Breaking Bad

Dexter

Friends

The West Wing

For the final guess it's a toss up between Succession, Billions, The Thick of It and Homeland. I'll go for...

Homeland

I eagerly await my score..... 

Other readers can post their top 10s!