We had a lovely day with the grandkiddles in North Norfolk and settled down to watch some television whilst playing some card games etc.
I forgot how bad Saturday night TV was and that's without being subjected to Strictly Come Dancing and Casualty.
But first a slight digression. I remember when Come Dancing was all flowing chiffon and dinner suits and slightly pointless competitions between the Midlands and the Southwest. Commentators had those posh clipped vowels and the whole thing was rather ra ra. I believe it was a knockout contest with a trophy at the end of it and the phrase sequence dancing seems to return to my mind.
Then it morphed into this sparkly horrible menage entitled Strictly Come Dancing with all the glitz, glamour and falseness that seems to abound on Saturday evening. This became so well known that it's now just known as Strictly. I loathe the programme but that's just me.
But yesterday we didn't watch either this or that nauseating soap Casualty but tried the Masked Dancer and The Voice instead (that's two different programmes of course and not some kind of horrible one with somebody wearing a mask dances and sings). Dear oh dear. They were worse. The essence of the masked dancer and the masked singer (which is a separate programme) is trying to identify the person behind the mask and the garish get up. The problem comes when you play the game. Is it David Tennant or maybe Angela Rippon? Then you find out that the so-called celebrity is a Z lister whom you have never heard of which rather destroys the whole point. Mind you it might be me not aware of today's celebrities.
But last night the unmasked dancer turned out to be Liam Charles and I needed to be told that he was a former contestant on the Great British Bake Off. Hardly a household name and not somebody a good proportion of those watching would have heard of. Craig Charles yes but Liam Charles no. The phrase scraping the barrel comes to mind. The panel mention some very famous names that they think it might be only to find that it is actually an unknown.
Then we had the voice where at least two of the judges don't have much of a voice themselves. Take Olly Murs for example. Not one of the great voices of our time. As for the contestants - well they will have their two minutes of fame and then sink into obscurity. I don't even want to think much more about this programme apart from making a mental note not to watch it again.
* * *
It was quite a bright day in Sheringham and not too cold. Took a few photos, some of which I will share tomorrow. A few didn't come out.
* * *
Today is a significant birthday for me and I will be spending it with the family in North Norfolk. I see that Putin hit the same age two days ago. I won't make any comment about him as it would probably get me banned by Facebook, but I'm sure you can imagine what I would have said.
Today would have been John Lennon's 82nd birthday - it scarcely seems possible. Probably fitting therefore that Liverpool has been chosen to host next year's Eurovision Song Contest. It seemed to be the logical decision, although I thought the man with the dangly necklace on who I thought was the Mayor but wasn't as the Mayor is female was less than modest when he said: "We wanted the contest and we expected to get it." One of those things you might think but shouldn't say without being labelled "cocky."