Flu Jab for BBC ALBA

 

Early this morning I took myself round the corner for the Flu Jab.  Last year they gave this jab alongside the pneumonia one, a fortnight later I had a cold that lasted until May!  I await this year with trepidation. Today this was a case of joining the chilled people outisde the surgery, called in one door, ticked off a list, told to stand on the yellow mark, then ordered in, identified, jacket off, needle in, jacket on, out the other door and off to Sainsburys.

It all took around two minutes and the line was moving along happily.  I did suggest she spoke quietly when saying "You are over 65..."  but she refused to believe I was 32!  The girls in Sainsburys took a  smilar attitude in spite of my youthful looks. They did not believe I was blonde either, claiming my hair was gray.

I did not try this in the Butchers, not with those knives around. As I filled my freezer I noticed one butcher was butchering an entire sheep, I commented that it is many years since I have seen an actual animal in the flesh, or what flesh was left of it in any shop.  All comes in plastic packets today.  I clearly remember the butcher in Granton Road, sawdust on the floor for the blood, a long line of cows and sheep hanging from hooks on the wall beside us, and the man scribbling a note which mum passed to the lass behind a glass frame who took her money.  Cash being considered unhygenic!  This local butcher is very hygenic, and indeed well worth going to.  The shop is part of a chain in this area and moved in a couple of years ago when the previous man closed down, they have several shops in other towns, and his meat is worth having.  I did not ask for pies.

Now my freezer is full, meat lies awaiting in the fridge, so what could I have for tea?  Chips and tinned salmon!  Too tired to cook!

 

This afternoon I had a happy time watching the Heart of Midlothian dispose of a worthy Greenock Morton side at Cappilow.  Now it was claimed the last time we were there was 33 years ago!  I was last there a good few years before that, and there was no grass to speak off on the pitch in those days.  

Today however I ventured there by PPV TV.  A great idea that allows us to pay a small amount (£14 I paid this week, to see the game.  The fact that the thing switched itself off FOUR times before kick off did not endear me to the situation, others also suffering stalled pictures and blank screen.  No replay came to our cries.  However when the game began the picture remained constant and all was good, or as good as PPV TV can make it.

One thing stood out for me was that the camera used covered the football match!  By that I mean it watched the game, it did not desperately seek out the back of the managers head, needless replays, close up's of the back of players heads, more replays and following a player when the ball is in action rather than watch the game!    

This indeed was exactly what occurred when later I watched Motherwell disintigrate while playing Hibs.  I say watched, but I mean watched a collection of video Pannini stickers as BBC ALBA insisted on ignoring the game, as they usually do, instead searching out individual players for meaningless baloney from the Gaelic speaking commentators who ignore the actual game in front of them!

I sometimes feel this is done to force people to attend games in person, even now.

The PPV is a great idea, which I hope can be extended, some problems remain however.  The camera is I believe one of those 'A1' things, set to follow the ball.  This caused problems at one game when the camera insisted in following the bald head of the referee!  Maybe he ought to wear a cap?

Sky and Premier, it must be said, are just as bad.  Following the game is less important than the tabloid Hack seeking a story when none exist.

Bah!

 

 

So Quiet

So quiet just now.  The TV is off, the radio is off, and I sit in silence awaiting six O'clock.  This is important as at six BBC ALBA will offer the full game between St Johnstone and Hamilton Accies hence the silence.  Anything I listen to is likely to offer the score inadvertently so I sit with no noise, scared even to play You Tube in case it appears there.  Ah Radio 3 Jazz!  That fills a gap.
Had the weather been better had my health been better then I would be outside avoiding radios and observing the world, instead I linger here reading books and burning chicken for tea.

I took some objects to the museum early on for the next exhibition, something about the 60's, 70's and 80's which appear like yesterday to me but ancient history to some.
I remembered today the men I worked with when I left Edinburgh in 1975, several were in their late 50's and early 60's and it was interesting to consider that if they still lived they would be around a hundred years old.  In my mind of course they remain as I remember them, fit, healthy and bossing me around.  The women who threw themselves at me, or at least threw some things at me, will no longer be lithe young slips of girls, grandmothers all and yet here I am just as I was then, youthful, handsome and ........  *fill in as appropriate. 
Nostalgia is not what is was and that is why we are having an exhibition covering the Christmas period (note Christmas is less than 100 days away) and offering something many in the town will wish to remember.  They will also wish to visit the photos I am about to steal from them to offer for the exhibition!  Photos of people, places that no longer exist and then they can mutter and groan how "It was better back then" even if then they spent the time grumbling as to how it could be improved!  This they deny!  
Now, where are my Hippy beads...?

  

Now I'm Not One to Complain...BBC Alba!

Now I'm not one to complain but there are many reasons why this is possible.  Kids going back to school has indeed cleared the shops of the dear little brats but however the mums with pushchairs and no consideration remain.  The rain continues to fall when I put my head out the door and the wind continues to blow in the window and unsettle the dust in the room.  The telly continues to rouse an attitude of miffed and on Saturday it once again offered one of my favourite grouses, football coverage!
Now to use TV to cover a football match ought to be simple.  A large area of grass surrounded by lots of people, simple enough.  The players kick the ball and one another back and forth and the camera swings back and forth following the action while the needless commentator, and friend, prattle rubbish alongside.  Simple enough so why is it on Saturday while watching BBC Alba's excellent idea of showing us football some of us cannot reach at 6pm why must it be spoiled by employing what I take to be a woman with no knowledge or interest in football to direct the action?
If I wish to see four or five lingering needless close ups of the Heart of Midlothian's manager I will buy a photograph of him, I don't wish to see either him or several close ups of the Aberdeen manager, a shock indeed is that.  I want to see what is happening on the large green area not what is not happening on the sidelines.  
The fascination with nothing continued with a view of two men wearing what looked like kids sunglasses, funny perhaps but not while the game is in motion, they are not on the field and that is where we ought to be looking.  I consider directors with an understanding of the game and the way it is run also important but I do not wish to see the camera lingering for an age on the Aberdeen chairman and acolytes I wish to see the game.  Our own dear chairwoman is better looking but why we look at her while the game is in play is beyond comprehension, she can see the game why not us?  
Of course TV folks always find spurious excuses for their incompetence and I would like to hear those from the final fifteen minutes of the game.  The Heart of Midlothian were piling on the pressure and a ball was abut to be crossed into the goalmouth and suddenly we found ourselves staring at a ball boy sitting on his stool immersed in the game we could not see!  Why?  A mistake, fair enough, but with five minutes to go and pressure and excitement building as the Hears attack we suddenly are offered a sweeping slow sight of the entire ground for no good reason and are unable to follow what is happening.  
Top this with constant close ups of the back of players heads long after the ball has left them and while the crowd are reacting to things we cannot see and I begin to wonder whether the woman has a fancy for the players or is just incompetent?  This happens in all games these days and in spite of their experience built up over the past few years BBC Alba continue to be the worst at ignoring the game and watching nothing at all during it.
It's time for change!