Post 475. SAD TIMES HERE

 AS I GRADUALLY DELETE NAMES

FROM MY EMAIL FORWARDING LIST.
This month we received news that Dave West had died. Dave suffered a deal of ill health over several years and bravely kept going. Back in the days of email exchanges he much enjoyed the sending and receiving of comedic messages: he had an insatiable sense of fun, and will be greatly missed, RIP old pal.
Our commiserations to equally good friend, Dave's wife Jean.
WE ALSO received live link details for Ian Dillow's funeral from his daughter, Kerry, but were sadly unable (either through technical or doddery old people failure) to connect to them.
I just know Ian would have seen the funny side of it.
He, too, will be greatly missed by many people.
Our thanks to Jean Dillow and Kerry Nicholas. Take it easy for a while, you two.
AND THAT'S ME FOR THIS MONTH.
No gay television presenter with a career death wish, or government minister of dubious principles, is worth naming on the same page as any of the above, so I will not name them.
And with any luck this will be published before Russia and/or China openly starts WW3.
What a daft world it is.

I'm just going to relax.

Post 474. REALITY TELEVISION

 A 21st CENTURY CANKER

ON A PAR WITH THE STATE OF OUR RIVERS.
What brought this on? Well, we have just received a missive from Southern Water telling us that our payment to them is going up yet again and will be close on £700 p.a. from 1 June 2023. This for a commodity that abundantly falls from the sky (ask anybody in Fort William) at no base cost whatsoever. In 1989 the water companies in England and Wales were privatised.
In 2020/21 the CEO of Southern Water was paid more than £1 million despite the fact that the company had been fined £126 million in 2019 for over 50 breaches of environmental law.
The above picture shows shit being shot into a British river. There is now barely an unpolluted spot left. Rivers, the sea, and many beaches are equally contaminated. Private enterprise? Huh!
REALITY TELEVISION.
No need to name names. You only have to watch the majority of the programmes that Gogglebox (Channel 4) regulars are required to watch. They're paid to watch it. I'm not. Just as well. I like most of the Goggleboxers, they're a good laugh, but I dislike just about every aspect of reality TV including most of its presenters  I give it a wide berth. None of my business that some unfamiliar celebrity wants to do silly things in a jungle, that a randy publicity hungry teenager is prepared to bed another randy publicity hungry teenager on television, or that somebody I do not know can cook, sew, dance, or be a good loser. And why do gay (black, white, or sandy-grey-russet) couples feel such a desperate need to be married in front of television cameras? Ah well.
It will soon be time for The Proms again.

Even with modern music that's real television. 

    
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Post 473. ONE OF THE ONLY THINGS

WE STILL DO WELL

WAS WELL DONE.
It was all there for the coronation of King Charles III. All the dressed up top toffs in horse-drawn coaches, followed by their posh kith and kin in large, expensive, cars of colour (you don't call anything black now, do you?), surrounded by marching, or impressively mounted, members of the various services, watched by a suitably distanced and mostly friendly public  It was one of the handful of things we have left in this country that we still do well. It was well done. Now it's over. Red Arrows flown. Horses stabled. Limousines garaged. Harry off home. Stand easy!
I really didn't know whether I could be bothered but did, of course, finish up watching it with Mo. Despite constant reminders that it was a much shortened version of the late Queen's coronation in 1953, I thought it went on a bit, and reading everything off cards made it look as though we're managed by robots: but witness PMs Question Time and you realise we undoubtedly are.. 

Not much more to say right now. Have heard today that a certain pain-in-the-arse acolyte of a former pain-in-the-arse US President is thinking of bullshitting his way back into politics here: and there are  many twisted minds who would support him. I can only think of two words to say to the lot of them and the second one is 'off.' Oh, I think his name rhymes with garage.
Have my painting gear set up ready to go but have not so much as picked up a brush. 

Perhaps it is time I seriously put my mind to it.
Nothing ventured...as the would-be-returned politician might say..
Away with pomp

Until next time 

 

Post 472. ALL'S QUIET

 ON THE WORLD SNOOKER FRONT

A BELGIAN WON.
In what turned out to be the most fascinating World Snooker final I have ever seen, young Belgian Luca Brecel beat Mark Selby 18 - 15 to win half a million quid and the trophy.
Mark, though tactically as brilliant as ever, had to settle for two hundred thousand, a medal, and the admiration we reserve for heroic, sporting, runners-up in this country. Both men were a credit to the game. It was a good competition throughout. The two tables set-up at the Crucible seems to be a bit of a bundle, but it all works out well in the end, and Sheffield is a warm-hearted city deserving of the favourable publicity it gets. We almost became snooker fans.
ALSO ON TELEVISION.

We watched Great Expectations (BBC1) with somewhat less than great expectations, so were not entirely surprised that Steven Knight's mini series took us far from the Charles Dickens original.

It did not help that we still remember the David Lean film, made in 1946 starring John Mills and Finlay Currie: the entire cast, including little boy Pip, played by Anthony Wager, and Miss Havisham, played by Martita Hunt, was a casting director's dream. Sadly, even Olivia Colman couldn't better such a line-up on her own. So the 2023 version got a thumbs down from us. 

Fortunately, the BBC simultaneously repeated a 1999/2000 series of David Copperfield, directed by Simon Curtis.  What a contrast!

Young (pre Harry Potter) Daniel Radcliffe was the boy Pip, Maggie Smith was Aunt Betsey, Bob Hoskins was Wilkins Micawber, and Nicholas Lyndhurst was a hypnotically unctuous Uriah Heep. Oh, there was also Alun Armstrong, Trevor Eve, and Michael Elphick. It was Dickens as written by Dickens, with sound direction and a stellar cast. Thumbs up! Thumbs up!

LOCAL ELECTIONS AND THE CORONATION.
We didn't have a local election that I know of. If you did I hope you were happy with the result.
And that's it for now.
Mo will watch all the excitement tomorrow. 

If I'm not feeling too bolshie I probably will too.
Luck and good cheer to you and yours.