2012 — 27 March: Tuesday
Having glanced back1 to my diary entry for this date five years ago, only to find...
But, if I were to attempt a David Lodge style deconstruction of, say, just the Guardian's front page selection (calls for ministers to establish a national inquiry into school bullying, revelations about the contents of secret Royal wills, the Pope bemoaning the fact that nobody talks about eternal damnation these days, the high rewards for failure on the part of the top chap at ITV, the shambles in Iraq) there's certainly no shortage of input.
... I suspect I may have obviated the need for further news. Just as well. I've had an overnight email from Carol in New York that demands my attention. And rather casts a shadow on an otherwise gloriously sunny morning. It's already 09:47 and I'm forced to conclude that one can actually overdose on the music of Schubert.
Digital TV's inglorious history
Now here's a fun story rearing its ugly head yet again. What did we do before the Freedom of Information Act, I (don't) wonder. (Link.)
I briefly owned a second-hand "ONdigital" box, though I used it only for the free access channels. It was pretty crappy.
Stamp duty
60p for a first-class postage stamp? (Twelve shillings in pre-decimal money.) I still remember one of the Chamber of Commerce tours I made with Christa nearly two decades ago. It was around one of our local regional sorting offices, and having duly admired an expensive piece of electromechanical gadgetry that was hurling envelopes around like there was no tomorrow, I commented mildly about the threat the Post Office already faced (but didn't then seem to be facing up to) from email. Madness!
The continuing...
... lovely weather is going to tempt us out tomorrow for one of the walks that just happens to have a nice pub at the halfway point. And why not? Meanwhile, now that the retuning exercise at the Rowridge transmitter seems to have settled down, I've re-instated a Freeview box down here in my living room to use, once again, purely as a digital radio. It's been playing away for the last six hours or so without either dropping out or changing channels on me. Good enough.