i did just that, i came to the conclusion the setter for brain isnt working properly
i put the alloc init line of code before i needed to alloc init the brain, and it works fine, i stubbed out the setter,
i will go back and see why it wasnt overriding the setter made by properties, but interesting stuff none the less. it means i can change my actual larger app to have a cleaner more organised architecture.
thanks for your time.