Goodbye to Big Brother

This afternoon has brought the news that Channel Four has decided to stop making Big Brother after the next series. Now let me say that I have never watched this appallingly awful programme, and that I would rather have all my teeth out without gas than to be forced to watch it. The idea that one should deliberately select a load of disfunctional people, presumably with the help of highly paid psychologists to make sure that they would all argue all the time, and to let people watch this as so called entertainment, leaves me totally unmoved. Personally I would rather be forced to watch Eastenders, another series I detest and loath. I wonder what Channel Four will offer as an alternative. Perhaps they could consider sponsoring public executions and broadcasting them. After all the fuss about the Libyan murderer I’m sure there would be a big audience who would be prepared to watch a good public disembowelment, so long as it was shown after the time of everyone’s dinner. I shall be interested to see what nasty, cheap programme they come up with.

The Old Libyan Terrorist Thing

I’m finding all this excitement about the release of the convicted Libyan murderer quite interesting. I suppose that, as a country that prides itself on humanitarian principles, we should think it a reasonable thing for a prisoner and convicted murderer who has less then three months to live to be let out, and to be let out whatever he has done previously. The reaction of various countries around the world has amazed me, and the stories today of a burgeoning USA boycott of Scottish goods and as a holiday destination leaves me almost speechless. Whenever I’ve been to the USA I’ve noticed that all the media there report internal (US) news only, so I’m amazed that people over there even know about this. Having said that, when I searched on Twitter for references to all this, I got so many vituperative remarks that I stopped looking after the first fifty. I do love a good crisis, and I shall watch this one with great interest.

Famous People

Many years ago I spent some years attending a single-sex, boys only, high school. I felt great pressure, particularly from my father, to get into this school, and do well whilst I was there. As I arrived at the school, in September 1964, I was told about a boy who had left the school at the end of the previous school year who had played schoolboy football for England, but, because he hadn’t gone on to university (he had left at the age of sixteen), was considered within the hallowed halls of the place to have been a bit of a failure. You may have heard of this boy, his name is Trevor Brooking.

This afternoon I was listening to BBC Radio 4’s “PM” Programme. It had a really funny interview with a guy called Bramwell Tovey, who had been called into a wedding ceremony in Norwich at five minutes notice as the booked pianist had not arrived. He had played for the bride and groom at no notice. It was then revealed that he was actually Musical Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and since the interview a quick trip on google and wikipedia has revealed an extensive and impressive list of musical achievements.

Bramwell Tovey was in my year at school. He wasn’t a real friend of mine, but I do remember him quite well, and it’s really gratifying to learn that someone from that dreadful place has actually done really well. I shall be attempting to make contact with him through the various social networking sites available. If I get through to him I will post an update.

Life In Compartments

One of the things I’ve become interested in lately is the number of areas of activity I’m involved in. I would calculate that there are at least six different separate interests (or chores in some case) that I am involved with. I’ve realised that I’m operating all these different areas separately from each other. I have established silos for each of these, and don’t permit any of the activities, or people who are involved in them with me, to become involved in any other areas. I’ve also realised that I tend to keep the compartments secret from people I deal with in other silos, which has given me the chance to develop slightly different persona in each area. I don’t know whether this type of behaviour is normal, or whether I’m just a bit peculiar (my vote is definitely on the latter). I may choose to share with you information  relating to my life compartments in the future, but would be interested to know what people think.

A Splendid Evening

What do you get when you cross a Wii machine with two remote controllers, two cups of coffee and the new table tennis game? An amazing amount of coffee all over the carpet, two broken mugs (one caused when I flung all the wreckage in the kitchen sink) and at least twenty minutes elbow grease trying to get the mess out of the carpet. It looks as though we might have got the majority of it out, with the aid of some proprietary cleaner, but we will need to wait till the morning once it has dried and been vacuumed (should I say Dysoned?) to see if we’ve got away with it. Oh, and some of the coffee got in the drawers of the table where we keep the DVDs, and we’ve also had to clean all these up as well. Deep joy.

Connected Again

I’m back at home now, and my permanently connected PC is back on, and I’m re-connected to the rest of the cyber world. While I was away last week I did manage to get on-line with the old laptop (or should I say notebook now) on most days. What was interesting was that in ten minutes I was able to check emails, delete the rubbish ( only 50%) and decide that most of the rest could either wait until I came home before a reply was required, or were of the “information only” category. In the same ten minutes I was able to check my facebook account for anything vital, also my twitter account, my ebay, and have a quick scoot through the BBC website. I have to say that being disconnected for the rest of the day seems not to have harmed me permanently, and am wondering whether I should ration my time spent looking for non-existent communication or writing aimless drivel like this.

Away From Home Locally

I’m away for a few days, doing some volunteering work at a place where I help out occassionally. It’s quite interesting being only few miles from home and visiting places with other people which are actually within easy reach of where we live. Visitors do seem to like the part of the world in which I live, and particularly in the summer we do get lots of people passing through this part of the world. Today, in particular, has been a particularly good one from a weather viewpoint, and it’s great to think that people who are on their main fortnight’s holiday are getting a better experience after the very heavy rain of yesterday. The forecast for the rest of the week is good as well, and I’m pleased that our visitors are having a good time.