https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C-GK2C&v=293729717391057
It's all very dramatic with the flame being ushered in to the strains of Chariots of Fire music which incidentally was written by Vangelis who died recently. His other well known piece thanks to advertising is Four Horsemen which came from his previous group Aphrodities Child which also featured Demis Roussos who went on to find fame as a middle of the road solo singer. Vangelis had a good association with Yes singer Jon Anderson. The song uses images from the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
But enough of music for today.
I wanted to say I am indebted to Paul for the details of the coverage but whenever I use that phrase I think of the consumer programme from many years ago "That's Life" starring Esther Rantzen. You may remember it. It regularly featured a talking dog. The dog didn't actually talk. It made a sound that sounded like the word "sausages" when its mouth was scrunched up by its elderly owner. In those days that was fun. Today she would probably be reported to the RSPCA for animal cruelty. The dog really needed to learn to say "that's enough of that you old bag."
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Politics alert. I feel that I need to put a warning out there before I make any political point.
I have said numerous times in the past that I'm not a political animal in any way. Two of my friends are Conservative local councillors and yesterday I had breakfast with one of them who has been writing a series of very knowledgeable features on the Kennedy assassination for my e-magazine. Obviously the assassination has nothing to do with Hethersett (unless he knows something that I don't) but the criteria for my magazine is quite simple - articles either about Hethersett or that have been written by a local resident (or even a past resident). The Kennedy assassination pieces fall into the second category.
Plenty of people on Social Media have likened the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid as rats leaving a sinking ship. Now I couldn't care less about who resigns and who stays (apart from Johnson staying of course). What worries me is that whilst all this nonsense is going on we are ignoring the problems that really matter. Those of rampant inflation and industrial unrest that could cripple the country. There are many other issues as well.
The problem is Boris has just replaced the two resignations with a papering over policy of bringing in new people to fill the vacancies. We all know that Boris Johnson is a dead man walking (apart from Boris himself of course) and that he will be replaced sooner than later. So the new ministers could find themselves out of a job as quickly as they found themselves in one. So it could be a matter of weeks and how can they concentrate on the job in hand and act in a ministerial manner if deep down they know their tenure on various positions is likely to be very short?
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Enough of politics. Let's move onto something a little more pleasant. Anyone who knows me will know that I love my city of birth Norwich. They will also know that I am aghast at the lack of visitors to one of our city's most iconic and historical streets - Elm Hill. It is a stone's throw from the Cathedral but never seems to attract visitors. I'm hoping that will change now Elm Hill has been voted one of the world's most beautiful streets. Yes that's one of the most beautiful in the entire world and not just in Norwich, not just in Norfolk, not just in England or Europe but in the world.
Even I find that may be stretching the imagination a little, but there it was in the Eastern Daily Press in black and white (although the pictures were in colour). The assessment was slightly downgraded in my mind when I found out the claim has been made by an Estate Agents comparison site but hey ho it's there in black and white as I've already said.
In the UK it is put alongside The Shambles in York, Gold Hill in Shaftesbury and Circus Lane in Edinburgh. I have always likened Elm Hill to York's Shambles apart from one thing. The York street is awash with life and visitors whilst Elm Hill has a slightly sad feel to it. Walk down it any day of the week and you might pass a handful of people. This could and should be a hugely vibrant street. It seems hard to understand that many years ago the city council was considering demolishing Elm Hill and replacing most of it with a public swimming pool. The site also mentions streets in New Orleans, Venice and Cusco Province in Peru.
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Two more features I am currently working on for the local press are a major grant from the Lottery Fund which will see a disused skateboard park turned into a community garden and problems with a new playing field and playground at a new local Primary school that the developers seem loathe to do anything about.
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I mentioned earlier the difference between black and white and colour and I must admit sometimes I shoot photographs in black and white or de-colour (is that a word) shots to turn them into monochrome on the computer. No idea why I do this but sometimes photos just have more character in black and white.
Mind you overall I would plump for colour every time. We live in a colourful world and not a black and white one and even when it comes to politics it's not all black and white, there are 50 shades of grey (see I got a literary reference in there although it's debatable whether 50 Shades of Grey can be looked upon as literature).
I currently put together three publications. My Hethersett Herald village e-magazine is only online and as such is full colour. The Norfolk Ancestor, which is the quarterly magazine of the Norfolk Family History Society, was for most of its history in black and white. A few years ago as editor I asked the trustees to vote for full colour which they did and it immediately made an immense difference.
The other publication I currently edit is the Good News magazine for the parishes of Hethersett, Little Melton and Great Melton. This is more church-based although it does now contain news from the three parishes and a limited number of features. At present this is in black and white apart from the covers which are in colour. Last month we included photographs taken at a church flower festival. They just don't look right in black and white as you can imagine.
I remember when I was growing up having a television in my room. It was a small one and it was black and white. It was many years after television went to colour before I could get rid of it. Same with my old portable typewriter which I used as a journalist for many years. I found ti difficult to throw that away long after computers had made it obsolete. Remember the days when if you made a mistake you had to Tippex it out
For those who haven't an idea what I'm talking about: Tippex was a white liquid that you painted over a piece of typing where you had made a mistake. You applied it with a small brush which came attached to the cap. You would wait until the liquid went hard and then type over it. Actually when I was writing for newspapers on small cuts of paper which we called copy paper and were usually cheap offcuts with adverts on the back we didn't use Tippex. If you mad a mistake you just typed over it with a series of xs. If you had an unusual name you would put <correct> after it to let the sub editor know that you realised it was an unusual name and you had checked the spelling. I will go into all this rubbish in a later blog.
But getting back to black and white, possibly the most famous comment made was during a snooker competition where the commentator announced "for those watching in black and white the pink is next to the green." Now this wasn't as stupid as it sounded because it did describe the fact that one colour was next to another, It was said by Whispering Ted Lowe - the man who got his nickname because (yes you've guessed it) he whispered.
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Finally today a random thought that came to me during the afternoon yesterday.
Put two people in the same room and eventually they will have an argument. Multiply that up to the levels of an organisation, any organisation, and you will have numerous arguments (most of which will be going on at the same time). The idea that we are all rowing in the same direction is a nonsense. Some will want to row forwards, some will want to row backwards, some will want to row for a long time, some will want to row for a short time and some won't want to row at all. And that's an interesting comment because I use the word row in its nautical connection. But it can also be used as row as in to argue.
Since I returned from the working world (apart from a little freelance journalism) I have kept out of petty politics. That's a definite decision as politics and petty squabbling can also be part of voluntary groups. I always feel that if no problems exist people will invent some.
I mentioned earlier that I had breakfast with one of our district councillors
Amongst items we discussed were why lying is so endemic in modern society that it has almost become acceptable. I was brought up not to lie as I'm sure many were and there's a difference between outright and outrageous lies and perceptions. Let me explain if I can find the words to so do.
One person's perception of a situation may seem like a lie to another person when in reality it is just a different view. There's a big difference between that and a big whopper lie which is telling something that you know to be untrue, but of course that can also be a question of perception. Putin may generally believe that his bombing of Ukraine is a special operation whilst we all know it is an illegal act of war against a peaceful country. More about this at a later date.