The law of dimishing returns and other things

It seems that the more television channels to which we have access, the less there is worth watching. Maybe I'm wearing rose-tinted spectacles, but surely there was a time when every week we could watch at least one who-dunnit or police procedural, a sit-com and a variety or comedy show. And what do we have nowadays?

I recorded the second episode of Birdsong and we watched it on Monday. The critics might have thought it speeded up after the first rather slow episode but I can't say I noticed it. It got so slow at one point that the Old Bat nearly fell asleep. My verdict? Just like the curate's egg - good in parts. Overall, though, a bit disappointing.

What we have been enjoying is watching the DVDs I bought a couple of years ago - the complete set of that classic sitcom As Time Goes By starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. We have just the second reunion special to watch and that will be it. I have been promising myself I will buy the 'Allo, 'allo DVDs. Maybe when we get back from France. Why can nobody make sitcoms like that now?


Very cold this morning - seems as though winter has finally arrived. An extra layer under my coat when I walked the dog - and a scarf for the first time this winter. It was so cold in the night that we both woke - despite the tick duvet - and had to huddle together for warmth. I think it will be a case of blow the expense, I'll leave the heating on tonight.


Can you hear the sound of Madame Defarge's knitting needles?

The news this morning is that Sir Fred s stripped of his knighthood and henceforth is back to plain Mr Goodwin.

Fred Goodwin was CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland and built it into one of the biggest banks in the world, for which he was duly honoured with his K. The came the collapse and the taxpayer had to bail out RBS to the tune of £45 billion. Sir Fred, of course, was duly sacked/asked to resign. Now the committee of senior civil servants has heard the baying of the crowd and recommended to Her majesty that the knighthood be rescinded. The last Brit to face this ignominy was Anthony Blunt, who spied for Russia. Others have been Robert Mugabe and Nicolae Ceaușescu. But just what, I wonder, had Sir Fred done to warrant stripping him of his 'Sir'? He hadn't been accused of beating his wife or kicking his dog. He hadn't picked the flowers in the park or even walked on the grass when he shouldn't have done. He certainly had not spied, committed acts of mass brutality or, as far as I am aware, acted in any way dishonourably. His 'crime' was to have made commercial decisions that turned out to have been wrong. Granted, they turned out to have been extremely expensively wrong - but at the time that committee of civil servants, the Honours Committee, was happy with them. Now they have, as I said, given in to the baying of the crowd. Who next, I wonder? And what non-crime will he have committed?


Meanwhile, today is the first of the month and we have a new picture on the kitchen calendar.


Those snowdrops are in Withdean Park. They are not yet in bloom but are well on the way.