Quote of the day - 'You won't find a solution by saying there is no problem', William Rotsler (whoever he is)? Quite right I think.
We woke listening to Chris Evans on Radio 2 as normal. I generally like him but I sometimes get a bit tired of his constant brightness and him plugging certain singers or events. I also like to have a rant about news items. Within 10 minutes I managed three rants in quick succession, I thought I would share them with you whether you want to hear them or not!
First - Children's TV programmes. Why is Peppa Pig so popular and what happened to the Teletubbies? These programmes become popular and then disappear but why. Children of 2 or 3 surely aren't so discerning in their viewing tastes and what appeals to children of 10 or 20 years ago should still appeal to children of today. I think it is more about the parents choices and the marketing products that are sold in the shops. In short we are allowing our children at a very young age to be subjected to direct manipulation by advertisers!! If you disagree with anything in this rant you can satisfy yourself that I know nothing about Peppa Pig (which is actually very true, coz I don't think I have ever watched a whole episode but I do know how to spell Pepper properly which most young kids probably don't now)!
Second - BBC plugging singers, events and television programmes. Chris Evans is constantly plugging certain artists and songs. Currently it seems all about Sam Smith and the new Bond Theme. First, he exclusively announces that Sam Smith is writing and singing it, then a week later has an exclusive interview with Sam Smith, next week we get an exclusive orchestral clip of the start of the song. The following week we get the whole song exclusively and this week we have Chris Evans talking us through the video of the song before it gets released. This example isn't the only one. Surprise, surprise, Sam Smith's song becomes the first Bond theme to go straight to number one in the charts! My point is that the song and the Bond 'brand' is a commercial business. I wonder what has been paid to the BBC to get such coverage of the Bond song and are 'we' the public happy with being unwittingly manipulated in this way. It is blatant advertising by an organisation that we don't think has adverts...how wrong can we be!
Lastly - football managers. The radio broadcast two interviews morning. The new Liverpool manager whose name is something like Kloomp? spoke at length. He used lots of words but the content of his speech was that he liked entertaining football.....wow, what a great new idea, no wonder he will get paid millions for ground breaking ideas!! However, Mourinho, the Chelsea manager also was talking to the press and managed another piece of eloquent nonsense, "I'm not the best manager, but no-one is better!" What shocks me is that people seem to listen to this claptrap and think that these people are clever. It's a complete case of 'Emperors New Clothes', no-one seems to be willing to expose them for what they are.....over paid toss pots!!
My next rant will probably be about David Beckham!!
Sorry for all that but a travel blog shouldn't ignore the society we live in, after all it is part of learning 'what's what' and I will return to the happy travels of Janice and Richard.
We have had a lazy day, hanging around the van this morning and then to Laura's flat in St Albans to make a teatime meal, tuna pasta bake. We managed a little food shopping in the afternoon. We didn't take any photos....sorry.
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