More Niggles-Television- Part 3

Why do television schedulers think that, by putting the word 'celebrity' in the title of something, that viewers will flock to watch it? And anyway, what does the word 'celebrity' mean? What does it conjure up in someone's mind to make them think something is worth their time and effort to watch?

Today, the word has been spoilt because people become a so-called 'celebrity' by merely being on a particular show, for not actually doing a great deal, such as being a contestant on a something such as 'Big Brother.' Merely being ON TELEVISION seems to mean you've become a star! No real skill is necessary, you're not even an actor, presenter or anything particular. Look at someone like Jade Goody. She was a contestant on Big Brother (hardly a 'contestant' being in that show. Not even a 'show' either, in my opinion.) She didn't do anything in particular. Annoys me that that sort of programme makes people think they've got a right to become some sort of performer or 'celebrity.' Andy Warhol said that 'in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.' My quote may or may not be his exact words, but he was right, nevertheless. Now it's possible to be 'famous' for merely being on television as a contestant in a 'reality' show such as 'Big Brother.' No skill or training required. Just be on television. In that respect this 'celebrity' thing is watering-down any skill that you might require to be entitled to be called a 'celebrity.' So we get shows which suddenly get the appellation 'celebrity' included in their titles, such as 'Celebrity Big Brother','Celebrity Masterchef','Celebrity Great British Bake Off.' And the list goes on and on. I know that a lot of these shows have an element of raising cash for charity, such as Children In Need and Comic Relief, but it does get really boring.

My next niggle: Saturday evening television. Why do schedulers think that, just because it's a Saturday evening, we have to endure dumbed-down rubbish? A new show has arrived on BBC1, hosted by the former lead judge from 'Strictly Come Dancing,' Len Goodman, being the host of something called 'Partners in Rhyme.' Having only seen a trailer for this, I have to say, from what I've seen, it looks just plain appalling and down-market.  Who on earth thought this was a good show to commission? As Goodman has left 'Strictly,' it seems the good old BBC thought they ought to use him in some way, so offered him the job of compere of their heap of old tat. Then there's that show where the contestants have to fling themselves onto huge rubber balls and obstacles with water pouring onto them. I forget the name of the show, but it's not exactly demanding viewing, although it must be very demanding for the contestants. The show as called 'Total Wipe-Out.' Having just done a Google search. Then there's the National Lottery gameshows which have such easy questions that they're just an insult. I know what you're going to say, with so many television channels, you don't have to watch any of this sort of television, to which I agree, but as a television license payer I get annoyed that they have to waste the money on such rubbish. As the Beeb is lumbered with providing a show which presents the Lottery (now re-branded at Lotto for some reason best known to the company who runs the National Lottery.)  numbers on a Saturday they have to dress it up someway by showing a rather lame gameshow. 

Car Clutch Temporary Fix

One of Carol's students at the Academy has a father who is a car mechanic. She mentioned to the child that our car needs the clutch repairing, so she obtained his mobile telephone number and she rang him when she got home from work yesterday evening. Around half an hour later he turned up on the doorstep, just as we were making our evening meal. He looked at the car and has done a temporary repair to the clutch cable. He has given us a far cheaper quotation for the work and tells us that it just needs a new cable which shouldn't cost anywhere near as much as the first mechanic who came out the other evening. He told us we could drive the car but advised us not to go too far. He should ring me today to give me more details of prices for parts and labour to do the job, which can't be done until next week when we are paid. I did think there might be a problem with this before it eventually went a few weeks ago when we went to shop at Morrison's at Westcroft. I did think that the clutch was likely to go as there seemed to be far too much 'play' when you put your foot on the clutch pedal.

It has been raining hard over-night. I could hear it distinctly when I had to get up in the night. Alfie insisted on going outside and came back soaked to the skin. When he gets wet his coat goes very curly and crinkly, almost as if he has been permed or had hair rollers put in. He is still obsessed by the cats who come in from next door and sit on either the fence on the shed roof. It seems that Yorkshire Terrier behaviour is to sit and stare for a long time at something or other, which is what he did when we lived at the other house in Crownhill and we had an invasion of rats. He managed to kill one early one morning, managing to corner it in the kitchen and eventually catching it and shaking it until it died. The noise was horrible but it was amazing that such a small dog could manage to kill something which was considerably bigger than himself. Just goes to show what a strong-willed little dog he is. Small in stature but bold and brave by nature. I can see now how they came to be used in Yorkshire cotton mills to keep the rats and mice down. Their persistence and perseverance is one of their very strong characteristics. He plays with his toys a lot and has this habit of shaking them, very much how he shook that rat until it died. He loves the Comic Relief ball, which is a red, soft ball made of red material with a face on it, which, when you hit it or drop it hard makes a laughing sound which has the effect of making Alfie howl along with it. He throws his head back and makes the most amazing howling sound. I have never had a dog which does this. He seems to know how to set it off and can 'throw' this ball which starts the laughing sound. If he wants this ball, and he knows very well where it lives on the bookshelf, he will stare at it and then at me and this is to tell me he wants to play with it.

If you scroll down you will see a YouTube video of Alfie playing with the Comic Relief ball and somewhere on that he is playing with the 'dinosaur' ball which makes growling sounds. He gets carried away with that and throws it about on the sofa!

Weather Changes and Nearly an Accident

After a few days of bright and sunny weather, today is overcast and windy. Never mind. We are still in March. As I write this it is actually bright and sunny and the wind seems to have dropped. Can it never make it's mind up?

Carol had a doctor's appointment at 8 this morning. It was fortunately pre-booked, so we decided to go to Asda as she wanted to buy a special top as Friday (tomorrow) is Sports Relief Day.   At the Academy they are supposed to wear something sporty with red in it, (presumably as red is the signature colour of this charity.) For those who don't know what this is, it's a charity event to raise money for various UK and overseas charities and is part of Comic Relief, and these events are held alternate years. I presume they are raising money at the Academy for this event and staff have to dress up in sports-related clothing. I know no more than that. We had a good look through the clothing racks in the George clothing department (George being the clothing brand of Asda, if you don't already know.) as I would like a similar top as we'd looked at the Asda website earlier but couldn't then see the one I liked in the store. Perhaps it will be in next week as we'll go back and have a look then. Carol selected the top she wanted and then we picked up some other items we needed including milk and then went to pay.

We had parked the car in the football stadium carpark, which is immediately next to Asda. (The gym,  of which we are members, D.W., is further round within the stadium precincts.) It's actually easier to park in there and walk through rather than going into Asda's carpark. When we had finished our bit of shopping we walked back to the car. We drove out of the carpark round the stadium and out into the grid road and turned towards the Academy along Saxon Street. As we did so we suddenly had a B.M.W. coming towards us on the wrong side of the road, which was over-taking around half-a-dozen cars. If we had been driving any faster we would have hit this car face on and we might not now be here to tell the tale. It was somewhat scary, to say the least. I don't know what the actual speed of that car was, but it must have been 5-60 m.p.h. There would have been a very large pile-up and a lot of injuries if there had been an impact. It doesn't bear thinking about, but it shook us up quite considerably.

Having got to the doctor's surgery in Beanhill we had to queue up outside as it was around 7.50, but as Carol's appointment was pre-booked we could go straight in and sign in using the computerised system. This hasn't always been working but, fortunately, it was now operating perfectly. After her appointment we drove home towards the Academy.