Archive for the 'On the box' Category

You couldn’t make it up

Posted by on July 4th 2016 in Campaigns and Petitions, On the box

We just saw the T.V. ad for the Alzheimer's Society Memory Walk.

My mother-in-law is a vascular dementia sufferer, I need to get back in shape and we could all do with some exercise, so I proclaimed it to be a good idea for us to have a go.

All present were in agreement, so I went to the website and did a search for a walk near to us.

Well, their search function seems to be afflicted no matter what details are input, I've tried places, postcodes, planets...

It beggars belief that someone forgot to test the software:

A jewel to play with your mind

Posted by on March 9th 2016 in On the box

 

Just finished watching Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle - Season 1". It was excellent, a real brain-twister for the first nine episodes and then an unexpected ending to the tenth. Not quite the style of ending that bemused folk who watched the Coen Brothers' masterpiece "No Country for Old Men", but unexpected nevertheless. There's a second season due sometime in 2016, so it will be interesting to see where the plot takes us next.

That said, Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle" is only very loosely based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, and the storyline takes many major departures from his work. If you've only had the pleasure of one, I recommend both.

Only read the stuff where the links take you to if you're OK with spoilers.

 

Incessant bollocks from the Beeb’s Sochi crew

Posted by on February 16th 2014 in A bit of a rant, On the box

Is anybody else fed up with the interminable spouting of "really really" and "very very" by the Beeb's presenters, commentators and pundits?

Many instances of "very unique" haven't gone unnoticed either.

The worst one so far, IMHO, is "really really very very good indeed".

It's all too much for anyone who cares about the English language. I fear I'll be watching the rest of the spectacle with the sound muted.

Their maths leaves a lot to be desired, too. Online, we're told that the GB Men's Curling Team needs to beat China in order to advance into the semis...

yet the results and fixtures table paints a very different picture:

Sorry, Beeb, you get zero marks for technical merit.

Helping Auntie

Posted by on March 10th 2013 in On the box
Tags:

Here you go - a basic visual aid for the Beeb's Six Nations commentary and pundit team, specifically for Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio:

 "If you're having trouble, here's a little trick to help you remember... they're different words.
You see - they contain different letters which are pronounced differently!
Different words!"

Simples!

Especially for someone that's half-Italian.

Beeb boob

Posted by on October 3rd 2012 in On the box

She's worked for the Beeb for over a decade and they still can't get her name right:

 

Does anybody there ever check these things?

My legs are grey, my ears are gnarled, my eyes are old and bent.

Apologies for the lack of regular posts. I fear that I'm becoming a virtual hiker...

 

Outdoorsy stuff

For me it's all on hold after the latest consultation. The expert reckons that I might have to wait another six months for my insides to heal fully, only then will they consider a further procedure to remove the tags and piles that were caused by the original op. Any exertion aggravates said tags, leading to inflammation, infection and blockage, this means that I only get limited exercise which in turn has led to significant muscle-loss and a reduction of core body strength. I'm now so unfit that wielding the vacuum-cleaner for only 10 minutes on Wednesday resulted in me straining my back and now I'm confined to quarters and popping the Ibuprofens. Looks like our week in Skye later this month will be a sightseeing tour rather than an opportunity to assault some classic ridges and peaks.

 

Olympics

Well, I have plenty of time to watch the events on the box as I'm pretty much a captive audience. Anna's down The Smoke right now on a school-trip, she was in the basketball arena this evening watching Team GB v France and Team USA v The Czech Republic, where the Beeb's camera caught her and her friends doing their bit of a magnificent Mexican Wave. After overnighting at Eton College she'll be spending the morning in Greenwich Park watching the equestrian events.

 

Astronomy

I have plenty of time for this too, but the weather's been naff at night. On the odd occasions when it's been cloudless the jetstream has been playing havoc with the seeing - the last time I imaged the Moon it looked like someone was pouring water over it:

 

 

 

Hailstorm damage

The Loss Adjuster's been around and we have agreed terms. We've already been paid out for damage to the outbuildings, primarily because I'd done the pricing-up myself, but we're still waiting for builders to provide quotes for the repairs to the house roof and the windows. There's so much property damage around here that we're on a long waiting-list for repair-work, we're looking at mid- to late-September at the earliest.

 

Ah well, never mind, things could be worse.