Post 302. WHY CHANGE ANYWAY?

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

I can't be bothered.
So if you regularly look in on these scribblings, dear reader, be prepared for more in the same vein.
I think the implication was clear in my last post but it does no harm to confirm there will be no outstanding change to this blog format now, nor will there be any gesture towards gender or race equality. I don't give a toss what sex, race or religion anybody is, they are either someone I would care to know or someone I wouldn't. I tend to avoid the latter, even on the television screen.
That's what the remote is for.
TELEVISION.
I am using the remote more often.
Perhaps it is age (last week my Leader gently reminded me I am only three years short of ninety) but I have a deal less patience with television now.
Programmers, under whatever title they currently pose, have dumbed down standards to the lowest possible level of viewer intelligence and presenters - with a few marked exceptions - are cheerfully complicit in this: well, the pay's good and you can go a long way if you are a television face. Look at Donald Trump (who I specifically mention only to honour a promise made in my last post). 
I don't watch even the British version of The Apprentice. If you do, I'm sorry.
HOME.

 The kids are back at school and we are subject to a daily visit from Roz's dog, Buddy, who is lovely and jampacked with energy and unpredictable and everything an eleven month old puppy will invariably be, plus a bit more.
I think we are beginning to get used to each other.
I never did get the computer lifeboat captain's advice on blog change after his confinement with the heavy cold.
Things just got in the way.
He has now sailed off with Pauline for a week's holiday in the Cotswolds.

 Drive carefully. Don't trust other people's indicators!

 

Post 301. STILL VERY WARY.

IT AIN'T THAT BROKE.
So why change it? This, of course, refers to my blog format which is so old I now have no idea what it is called but do remember that it was free with Google and, gawdblessem, has remained so to this day. Right now I am trying my printing hand with Calibri 22. It's a self-help notion. We'll see.
Haven't rung to find out how the computer lifeboat captain is faring. I really must do so. I'd write a reminder on my cuff if I didn't wear short sleeved shirts. Meanwhile...
TELEVISION.

The Wright Stuff. (Channel 5)
Ol' Wright moved studio location a while ago and some bright spark decided that the change of venue was an opportune time to change the format.
Trouble is, it wasn't that broke.
Now, instead of two permanent panellists per week and one guest visitor each day, they have opted to change all the guest panellists randomly, like a weekly end of series edition of Would I Lie To You, or Mock The Week, or Room 101. I find myself thinking it has to be repeats from over the last few weeks.
Then there's the papers: the tried and tested routine of each panellist reading out three or four items of news of the day before passing the baton for the next person to perform, has been superseded by a willy-nilly bobbing up and down the panel of the camera as each protagonist presents a snippet in turn.
It should be preceded by a warning to anyone suffering from epilepsy.
To add to the confusion, whenever Matthew took one of his (fairly frequent) breaks from the screen, his replacement as host was invariably Anne Diamond or Richard Madely.
He was away for a week recently and a fresh female face filled the screen every day. Did no harm, but I do rather like Anne and Richard and have no time for token gestures.
Somebody at Channel 5 needs to get a grip and I do wonder if the bright spark who proposed these changes ever considered the likely viewing public of a morning programme. Aside from the housebound and the unemployed, the vast number will, surely, be retired people.
Oldies.
And oldies, like children, are at best small c conservatives who do not like change or, at worst, capital C Conservatives who only watch BBC news.
All for now.
If you are American and have no idea what this has been all about, I'll try to mention President Trump next time out.

Post 300. Index 6. Posts 251 - 299

Adni, Daniel: 263 Alibhai Brown, Yasmin: 262 Allam, Roger: 286 Allingham, Margery: 253 Angel: 273 Anne, friend (see Wilkening) Anonymous John (Appleton) 274 Ashman, Kevin: 278 Ayres, Pam: 292 Bacon, Jonathan: 259, 269 Bailey, Nick: 287 Barbirolli, John: 269 Barenboim, Daniel: 271(b) Barnden, Maureen: (My Leader) Barnden, Neil: 251, 298, 299 Barnden, Pauline: 251, 273, 299 Barnden, Roz: 262, 270, 273, 276, 285,293, 296 Barnden, William "Bill" 258 Beaton, M.C. 253 Beckham, David: 282 Berry, Mary: 275 Berthoud, Mollie Freedman: 279 Bjorling, Jussi: 289 Blaehr, Tommy: 261 Blethyn, Brenda: 260 Booth, Webster: 289 Bradbury, Ray: 255 Brandon, John G. 253 Brear, Hannah: 270 Brenda from Bristol: 264 Brocklehurst, Danny: 256 Buddy: 273,293 Burke, Tom: 275 Burke, Alexandra: 281 Burnett, Robin: 273 Butler, Jean: 286 Butler, Phil: 286 Butler, Steve: 286 Calman, Susan: 264 Campbell, Alistair: 262 Caron, Leslie: 290 Cassandra: 256, 279 Castle, Roy: 265 Chandler, Raymond: 253, 274 Charteris, Leslie: 253 Cheyney, Peter: 274 Christie, Agatha: 253 Christine (neighbour): 274 Clarke, Allan: 271(b) Clarke, George: 252 Connor, William (see Cassandra) Cook, Jason: 279 Cooper. Charlie: 296 Cooper, Daisy: 296 Coren Mitchell, Victoria: 274 Costello, Elvis: 252 Creasey, John: 253 Cumberbatch, Benedict: 276 Daly, Tess: 274 Davies, Alan: 274 Davis, Andrew: 271(b) Dawson, Peter: 265 Day, Doris: 284 Dayer, Ellis: 270, 273, 285 Derek next door: 293 Derham, Katie: 271(b) Dexter, Colin: 262 Diamond, Anne: 251 Dillow, Ian: 258, 266, 290 Dodd, Ken: 287 duBeke, Anton: 274 Duff, Oliver: 256 DVLA: 259 Ellis, Vivian: 290 Ellman, Daphne: 273 Eliot, T.S. 292 Fairbrass, Richard: 262 Farage, Nigel: 260 Faust, Isabelle: 271(b) Fielding, Noel: 275 Forsyth, Bruce: 274 Fowler, Daphne: 278 Galbraith, Robert: 271(a) 275 Gibson, Sian: 279 Gigli, Beniamino: 289 Gillen, Aidan: 274 Google: 294 Goose, Claire: 260 Grande, Ariana: 266, 267 Granddaughter Jessica (see White) Grandson Ellis (see Dayer) Gray, Berkely: 253 Gray, Dolores: 265 Grayson, Larry: 281 Guetary, Georges: 290 Gunn, Victor: 253 Haitink, Bernard: 271(b) Hammett, Dashiell 274 Harrison, Bill: 280 Harrison, Kath: 280 Hatfield, Stefano: 256 Hawking, Stephen: 287 Heath, Eira: 265 Hollies, The: 284 Horowitz, Anthony: 277, 279 Hughes, Chris: 278 Hume, David: 253 Hurley, Graham: 258, 268 Hussain, Nadiya: 274 Ingleby, Lee: 276 Johnson, Boris: 276 Keep, Joan: 285, 286 Kelly, Gene: 290 Kelner, Simon: 256, 264 Kuusisto, Pekka: 293 Kyle, Jeremy: 274 Lancashire, Sarah: 284 Lanza, Mario: 290 Leith, Pru: 275 Len (neighbour): 274 Lincoln, Andrew: 278 Macdonald, Kelly: 276 Mackintosh, Cameron: 270 Madely, Richard: 251 Mahmoud, Mohammed: 269 Malone, Gareth: 273 Margolyes, Miriam: 283 Marr, Andrew: 253 Marsh, Ngaio: 253 Maxwell, Robert: 256 May, Teresa: 267 McCormack, John: 283 McEwan. Ian: 276 McFadden, Joe: 281 McGee, Debbie: 281 Morgan, Jeffrey Dean: 255, 278 Morgan, Piers: 260 Munch, Edvard: 294 Murdoch, Rupert: 256 Murnaghan, Dermot: 278 Murray, Douglas: 271(b) My Leader: (almost everywhere) Nilsson, Harry: 284 Ogden, John: 263, 269 O'Sullivan, Kevin: 264 Parfitt, Judy: 262, 287 Parker, Robert B: 274 Parry, David: 283 Pay, Colin: 276 Pay, Linda: 276 Peckham, Beth: 270 Perkins, Sue: 271(b) Plant, Margaret: 273 Pratchett, Terry: 252, 268, 271(a) Pullman, Philip: 279 Rana, Beatrice: 271(b) Riggs, Chandler: 286 Robeson, Paul: 284 Robins, John: 266 Roth, Tim: 276 Rowling, J.K. 271(a), 274 Sargeant, John: 275 Sargent, Malcolm: 271(b) Sayers, Dorothy L: 253 Shadow, the cat: 292 + almost everywhere Shaw, Percy: 254 Shorrock, Steph: 270 Skellern, Peter: 260 Skripal, Sergei: 295 Skripal, Yulia: 295 Spike: 273 Street Porter, Janet: 256 Tauber, Richard: 284, 289 Thomas, Dylan: 257 Tizz, Ina: 296 Toase, Anne: 273 Toksvig, Sandi: 275 Tree, Bubbles: 286 Tree, John: 285, 286 Trump, Donald: 255, 260 Turnbull, Giles: 288 Vegas, Johnny: 279 Viney, Carolyne: 273 Virgo, John: 264 Vogt, Lars: 293 Watts, Susana: 273 Webb, Lizbeth: 290 West, Tim and Pru: 275 White, Jessica: 258, 273, 285, 296 White, Peter: 265, 266 White, Robert: 265, 283 Whittam Smith, Andreas: 256 Wilkening, Anne: 276, 277, 278 Williams, John: 271(b)Williams, Mark: 260 Winkleman, Claudia: 274 Wiseman, Rich: 270 Wonnacott, Tim: 260 Wood, Henry: 271(b) Wright, Matthew: 251, 264

Post 299. BLOG INDEX TIME AGAIN.

AND THEN WHO KNOWS?
I've lost track of the times we've tackled this enigma. I promise myself there will be a change in blog format after I've published the next index: I must have made that promise four or five times now. Then I bumble around reading blurb on the web and listening in as pretty young women with American accents (is there an 'expert' left in the world who doesn't have an American accent?) assure me, in terms my semi-educated English skull is quite incapable of absorbing, why their blog format is far and away the best thing since sliced bread (an always over-hyped product in my opinion).
I then seek local advice: this time I sought it from the computer lifeboat captain who said (Post 298) that he would think about it. That was last Friday.
On Sunday I phoned his home number and had a chat with our daughter-in-law, Pauline, who is currently recovering from a nasty bout of pneumonia that she simply refused to give in to: she's an Island girl. He was confined to bed with a heavy cold and sore throat. That's nasty, too.
It has been doing the rounds over here. My Mo is just getting over it. She insisted on getting up every day: she's a Pompey girl.
Anyway, I declined Paul's offer of a chat with Neil. There's a time for everything and I felt that wasn't the time. We'll get to talking again after blog index 6 has been published. Who knows? Before that, perhaps the faceless Silent Bobs at Google will break all their rules and offer me a solution - other than "fuck off" - in language I can understand.
Pigs might fly.
Oh, badgers do in The Badgers Of Deep Wood (my book for children aged nine to ninety nine) now almost completely revised and set to go.
Wish me the luck of finding favour with a pretty young publishing expert who has an American accent.
 
 
 

Post 298. ADVICE SOUGHT AGAIN.

FROM A RELIABLE LOCAL SOURCE.
The Computer Lifeboat Captain.

Made sense to phone him. He's our son Neil (pictured) and, somewhat to his father's perplexity, he's been making his living on computers for years.
I told him of the problem I have experienced in transferring (copy and paste) my carefully crafted WordPad (duplicated on OpenOfficeWriter) blog posts from their source to the 'edit' page.
My first question to him was: "Should I buy a domain?"
He didn't actually say "Christ, no!" but his reply did leave me in no doubt that somebody else always owns your domain, paid for or not and, in my case, any alteration to the status quo would be a big mistake. So how to rectify the difficulty of my dancing print size?
He didn't actually say "Christ knows!" but he did say he'll think about it.

Post 297. BUREAUCRACY GONE MAD.

MAD! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.
And I am a diabetic.
Yes, I am a Type 2 (or, as I prefer to describe it, Grade 2 listed) diabetic and have been taking daily tablets for more years than I care to remember. Since I am increasingly too old, weak-willed and lazy to lose a couple of stone (28 pounds) in weight (look it up), for the rest of my life I shall probably be a who-knows-how-many-times-a-year regular at whatever local NHS establishment has the time and staff to deal with me.
They become harder and harder to find.
We still have a surgery in this village, but it is the branch surgery of a Newport practice currently beset by staffing problems.
For my next pre checkup blood test I have to go to the main surgery in Newport (a parking nightmare) or to St. Mary's Hospital on the other side of Newport (a bastion of self-importance over competence). That's the choice.
There is also a walk-in clinic in Ryde where you can chance your arm.
I opted for the main surgery and the earliest appointment I could get there - which is at the end of this month. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect Shangri-la and I do appreciate that others are faced with far greater problems, but for years I just walked down the road to obtain the scant services I required.
Not now. Too many patients: too few staff. 
Now it is bureaucracy gone mad.
No doubt about it, politicos are slowly killing off the NHS. If, diabetes notwithstanding, I survive another ten years, I doubt there will be a free service left. Who trusts an NHS Trust?
I was employed in family practitioner administration for thirty two years and believed in what it stood for. It's gone now. Successive governments have buggered everything up.
Not completely yet.
But watch 'em!

Post 296. WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE.

FOR THIS BLOG FORMAT?

Perhaps the final week.
I am examining the alternatives. And there are many of them. It seems the blogging world is alive with proficient people presenting fine new formats to tease the blogging beginner. I need advice less on beginning a blog (this one will be twelve years old come the 26th July) than on simply transferring to a modern, more easily prepared, publishing format.
If and when I find one, my entire output since 2006 may well become water under the bridge.
Probably already is.
There are far too many words floating about out there anyway. Half of Fleet Street adds to them every day and most of it is political twaddle.
We're better than that.
THIS COUNTRY.
Daughter Roz and granddaughter Jess came to see us yesterday. Usual family stuff until they got to talking about ThisCountry, a BBC iPlayer mockumentary starring brother and sister Daisy and Charlie Cooper and just about everyone else in their family (one of the joys of being the pair who created and wrote it). Roz and Jess were convulsed with laughter as they talked. We had to see it.
We have now.
My parents were too old for The Goon Show, let alone Monty Python. We were too old for The Young Ones.
Need I say more?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR.
Sir -
It has not escaped my organisation's notice that Watching is composed and edited by a male person. This is clearly an affront to gender equality about which immediate action should be taken.
Yours,
Ina Tizz,
for Women in Everything
Dear Ina - Have you ever met my Leader? Ed.