At 7 pm on BBC there was a look back on the year - as if it's something we want to revisit. This was an attempt at making COVID an entertainment for a prime time audience. In other words it had to be sexy in the artistic sense of that word.
So they wheeled out Naga Munchetty and Nick Robinson (remember him?). They treated it like a cosy chat style programme - all matey, matey but cringeable.
Let us remember those who died, let us celebrate the present and look forward to the future but please let's not turn a major disaster into a source of entertainment.
I did look up my diary entry for the first day of lockdown and wrote the following:
"It's all moving very fast now and becoming slightly scary. At mid evening tonight everyone was told to stay at home for at least three weeks. No connection with friends or family or anyone other than the people you live with. No shops open other than food shops. Only one piece of exercise per day - either a walk or a run. Public transport stopped, virtual lockdown. And it could go on for months! Three weeks of this is going to be hard."
Of course it became much longer than three weeks, although we did seem to veer from total lockdown to comfy lockdown and back again.
I still remember going to eat at a hotel in Overstrand in North Norfolk when lockdown was relaxed and we were allowed in. We were treated like royalty as we were the first people they had welcomed in for months. I guess the same thing is likely to happen in the country in May (or is it June?)
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Yesterday went for a lengthy wander around the Roman settlement at Caistor St Edmund (Venta Icinorum). There isn't a lot to see there but it's a pleasant spot with open fields and winding streams. I was surprised at how muddy and wet the fields still are. There were lots of new born lambs - all happy to pose for the camera and all of whom added an aaaahhhh factor to the walk.
Whenever I pass a public seat I have a look at any plaque. They are usually in memory of someone. You know the kind. This seat is in memory of Fred who loved this spot. I always try to picture Fred or whoever still being alive and able to continue "loving the spot".
I remember a few years ago a lady made the national news as she bought a public seat and set it up in her own memory whilst she was still alive. When asked why, she replied "I wanted to be remembered whilst I'm still alive and not when I'm dead."
I hope you enjoy some of my photographs of the Steward Stroll. I have also added these as part of my playlist on my You Tube channel which you can find by going to You Tube and searching for Norfolk and Suffolk Photographs.
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Back to television. Do you notice how certain actors/actresses seem to appear in virtually every drama possible and then suddenly disappear? I was only saying to a friend the other day "do you remember when Reece Dinsdale appeared in everything?" I believe his answer was the obvious one "who?"
I happened to turn on the television last night and caught the end of Emmerdale and there he was - looking a lot older than I remember. Last time I saw him he drowned in Coronation Street.
I have given up on soaps apart from Coronation Street. All the rest have lost their appeal. I used to watch Emmerdale, Home and Away, Neighbours, Hollyoaks, Brookside, Crossroads and others but no longer and I absolutely abhor Eastenders and turn it off every time it comes on. I think I would rather bang my head against the nearest wall than watching all the shouting and arguing in Albert Square.