Morning TV and on...

I was surprised to see a return of the series 'Love Island' on the early morning TV news today.  I was surprised because I had not known it to have gone away before.  This programme, like so many others that get a great deal of publicity is one I have not actually watched.  I suspect if I did find it on my television I would watch with the sound turned off.  That way it might have more purpose.
Another giant of the screen was 'Game of Thrones' (I think) which has mesmerised many but unfortunately not appeared before my eyes.  Occasionally it is mentioned online, on forums, and by people I meet but too me it appears not worth watching.  I find such programmes a wee bit childish now though I suspect I would watch them in the past.  There again having read so much about the real world I find it hard to escape into such fantasy as this.  Viewing pictures of war, a bible reading and such programmes are seen as well, cobblers!  This means I cannot watch them for more than five minutes before allowing sarcasm to begin.
Between 1978 and 1986 I did without TV altogether and was constantly informed of wonderful programmes which I missed.  When I eventually saw such programmes I was not impressed.  It is possible that reading books instead of watching TV or just living in the real world had influenced me against them I know not, however TV did not hold me as before.  Most TV is puerile to me now, only occasionally, like this morning, do I switch it on and find channel after channel offering me 'tele-shopping' and that for items for which I have no use.  Most of the rest are just junk, I mean who needs to watch 'Coronation Street' early in the morning?
There is a place for TV in this world, there are some decent programmes if you spend time scanning for them, but on the whole most are wasting my time.  At the time of asking there is only one programme worth watching and my TV refuses to pick it up!  The other 50 channels are not being switched on.
And don't get me started on the adverts...

One of the items this morning concerned the Birmingham school where parents, mostly Muslim, object to the teaching of homosexuality to five year-olds.  The two presenters discussed this between themselves both taking the same viewpoint and allowing no disagreement with their opinion.  Further voices were heard all supporting the gay viewpoint and encouraging teaching children about gay sex, including four and five year olds!  Anyone who offered a different point of view was called 'bigot,' as indeed the head teacher behind this teaching was quick to say.  This appears to be acceptable to Sky News early in the morning but does not equate to journalism nor objectivity on any subject.
Now we understand the media is full of people who are gay or loose with their sex lives, few have a grasp of the world beyond their university and childhood and all share the fashionable viewpoint of life, they appear to have heard no other.
Esther McVey, a good looking but not one to trust Conservative possible PM did claim parents should have a 'final say on what they want their children to know.'  This of course has led to the usual gay lobby bots objecting on Twitter. Clear evidence, as if it was required, that disobeying the gay lobby brings condemnation for speaking the truth.  The totalitarian society is just around the corner.

I wasn't Going to, But I Did!

You see I rarely watch television.  I watch the football, 'Eggheads' and the News, plus occasional other programmes.  I watch these through the laptop now as the old TV died when analogue went out.  Actually I had Freeview on another TV for a while but destroyed this by turning it on via the plug, and as it was switched on it blew!  It takes up more space catching dust. Technology does not become me. However as I looked around the neatly laid out living quarters (I have recently rearranged everything) I suddenly felt a TV would be a good idea after all.  Now I am reluctant to spend money, especially as there is so little available, however I have a couple of bob to spend at the moment to replace the worn out and dead items that have accumulated over recent times.  So when I walked in the freezing sun this afternoon I suddenly decided to pop into Tesco and see if one of their suitable TV's were reduced.  Glory be they were!  So I went for it and now have 75 channels of pap on call.  Well actually a few are channels you pay for, so I will not be having them, and one or two are the dubious late night ones which are long past my cocoa.  Strangely enough I am enjoying watching an aged edition of 'Time Team' in somewhat too brilliant colour.  This is typical of my life, what others take for granted I am able to enjoy as a new experience as it is yonks since I actually had a TV on call.  Of coourse there is a problem, there always is I find, I only have an inside aerial.  This means that, being digital, almost every time a car passes the picture shakes.  This will always happen when football is on!  

Now if some one will pay me £50 a month I will add the football!  

Hello?  Hello?  Where is everyone....? 

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The Magic Roundabout

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The First Day of the New Year.

New Year's Day Television is rotten! Just like the offerings over the entire Christmas period! I say this most years but it appears to my mind that this year has reached a new low. Vast quantities of films, and I do not watch films, but they were repeats or just rubbish! There was a glut of programmes that were aimed at the brain dead, or perhaps the middle aged, middle class women who now run TV think we are not watching anyway and can fill the screen with the cheap tosh that lies around their studios? It appears they are spending vast sums of cash developing better systems to show us programmes, and manufacturers respond with brilliant, and overpriced, televisions to watch these high quality offerings, except that the programmes themselves have little quality to offer! Almost all those I did like were repeats of those I had enjoyed before. How disappointing is this?

I must say I have enjoyed the use of the PC to listen to radio programmes however! The BBC enables us to pick up many of their programmes after they have been aired and this has been useful. I particularly enjoy Radio 3 and some of the offerings of Radio 4. Comedy, music and decent documentaries abound, usually! I must say I have really enjoyed these programmes during the last year.  The football is better on the telly mind!

While the TV was rotten the weather was not good either. Today started 'crisp.' By 'crisp' I mean freezing, possibly below freezing round here at that. My mood was not helped by getting to my bed at 1:30 and being woken by someone ringing my bell at 3:30.  By the time I woke out of a beautiful dream they had gone and disappeared. Walking around two or three times to day I was surprised by so many shops being open. I still carry the Scots attitude that on this day nothing moves. Usually in Scotland it cannot move of course!  I suspect that in Dalkeith, one of Scotland's more famous unknown places, there were no shops open, and until midday few to care! My face is hot and bothered, I think the cause is the freezing weather which bites into the face when out and reacts to the temperature, not that high in here I say writing with my woollen gloves with the fingers cut out, and leaves me hot and bothered. Where, I wish to know, is global warming?

In Scotland in days gone by 'Ne'erday' saw the Heart of Midlothian play the Hibernian in a local derby. All over the country derbies were played on this day and thousands who had spent the previous hours welcoming the New Year would attend the games. Kicking off at 2 pm,so as to allow the celebrants to return to the next party, the players would get stuck into each other with a will, a will to avoid frostbite usually! The thuggish behaviour of the old firm in Glasgow saw their game moved to a later date, and these days few derbies take place on the big day. I think this is a shame but I suppose this is progress. The fact that on Jan the second we also would play Dunfermline possibly would be too much for the overpaid darlings these days, but in the past this was the routine, and most enjoyable it was too! The fact that we usually (e.g. always) won did help!

The day is over, England returns to normal, Scotland returns to the bottle, and I return to finish the dream so rudely interrupted at 3:30 a.m! Why I ask, do we enjoy wonderful dreams and on waking instantly forget them? We have the emotion from the dream but absolutely no memory of why! So many dreams have been in colour in recent days, or maybe I have now obtained a colour licence for the dreams. I don't recall any black and white ones so why do I notice when they are in colour? maybe it's just me reading too many woman's sections in the 'Daily Mail?'  The 'Daily Mail,' now there is a post all to itself that paper. But maybe later, when I am in a more cynical mood.

The Days of Not So long Ago!

Watching a poor actor, that's poor in acting ability not cash, I was intrigued by the need to actually dial a number on the round dial of the aged phone he was using. How long ago is it since we used such old fashioned equipment? Well, not very long ago actually! The speed at which life changes appears to get faster with each passing day. If you happen to be a youthful geek then it is possible to understand a small hand held device that not only males phone calls but acts like a computer, makes the tea and Hoovers the house. However if you have known something of life such devices are somewhat irritating, even when useful. I came here thirteen years ago from the centre of London, and London was quite pleased I can tell you! However I had to spend several minutes in a phone box, a big red thing designed in the thirties, call an almost helpful operator and demand a phone was installed in the pig-pen. This duly arrived, late, and as far as I can recall it was a proper white phone with a dial. You never see them now! Today there is a generation to whom the phrase 'Press Button 'B' and get your money back' is meaningless! OK, I realise you will all pretend you belong to this generation. In the days before decimalisation phone boxes collected (usually 4) old pennies for each call. There were two big buttons marked 'A' and 'B.' If the called number answered you pressed button 'A' and the money dropped in and your call went ahead. If there was no answer button 'B' was pressed and your four big coins dropped out into your hand. Today's generation (Including you) has no idea about such things. Nor do they appreciate the need to use the digit finger to choose a number on a dial and slowly, oh so slowly, turn the dial at each number to make a phone call. This lot just press a few buttons, or for the regulars on their phone, just press one from a list of names and the call goes ahead (today's generation always get answers from their fellow brats as they are always on the phone).

I remember the days when we could not afford telephones, they were for the middle classes, not us. However one distant aunt possessed a big black creature not unlike the one pictured. It had a distinct 'bell like' ring which you hear on old black and white British films of the fifties. The wire was always inclined to twist into a mess ensuring that answering the phone led to several minutes of fighting with the cord before conversation could take place. By the seventies almost everyone had one and the phone people began upgrading the service and have never stopped since! However it is only a few years ago I am talking about, not just the black phones of the fifties, but the red fancy ones of the nineties also - they have all disappeared! Life moves too fast for me!



I mean look at this beauty! I used to use one of them when working nights in the hospital. Small and quite easy to use when it was quiet but slightly complicated when flustered if busy. The real busy time was late at night when the nurses would phone home and say 'Good night darling' to their loved one, or early in the morning when the same lass called home and voiced 'WHERE ARE YOU, I WANT TO COME HOME, NOW!' Shortly afterwards he would arrive half dressed. These boxes opened in two parts, the hinge was on the left hand side. This produced the funniest moment as the engineer unfortunately opened the box and dropped the whole thing while attempting to service the beast. His language was somewhat unfortunate, and not helped by our convulsed laughing. The pictures come from this fascinating site, 'Telephones UK' Brilliant stuff!




Also bewildering to this spoilt generation (No I am not jealous) is the television with big round dials. These were useful in combating the 'couch potatoes' of the day as in 1957 the Independent television service was introduced. This gave competition to the BBC, until then the only TV channel in existence, and forced people to get up from their seat, cross the eight feet to the set, and turn the (difficult) dial to the other side. Usually there were cowboy films (always in black and white of course) on both at the same time of course, cowboy films which still appear far too regularly for my liking I can tell you, even today! At least it gave exercise, now all the exercise is for women. They exercise their tongues complaining men hog the 'remote.' This is not true, men just get rightly fed up with the meaningless pap which dominates the coverage and appears to be watched by women determined to obtain Alzheimer's earlier than they should. But again it was a dial, now we press a button, if we can get the remote, and if the battery has not died. Colour TV only arrived here in the seventies, and half the nation, if not more, cannot understand watching black and white telly. Yet I was using one until 1989!

These are small things, but they were items in use just yesterday.
I wonder what we will use tomorrow.....?