Grumpy New Year

I didn't watch 'Grumpy Old New Year' on Friday night. I get grumpy about talking-heads programmes. I get grumpy about repeats. I get grumpy when there is nothing decent on TV on New Year's Eve. Presumably the programmers think it doesn't matter because 'everyone' is out partying. But that's just pretend-life; some kind of myth. In real life most people stay in. And find out there's nothing on telly.


I've been housebound since Christmas, partly because I chose to hibernate and partly because I got ill. Which is making me grumpier than usual.

It's opened my eyes to how rubbish TV is. And in particular, how rubbish TV advertising is.

I don't want to see adverts for diets when there is still chocolate in the house.

I don't want to wish my life away by drawing a line under Christmas before it's even New Year (let alone Twelfth Night).

If a Martian arrived and studied the ads to find out what kind of culture we live in, it would discover the following:

Anyone who gets ill has to take a pill and carry on regardless.
Anyone who gets a lot of DVDs for Christmas has to buy a new telly to play them on.
Online gambling is a normal and pleasant way to spend your leisure time.
People who have spent more than they should have done on Christmas presents are desperate to go to the sales and buy more stuff.

Please tell me that those things are also part of the pretend-life. It's not really the society we live in. Is it?