80s TV & Work From Home
80s TV & Work From Home
jeanniejeanniejeannie.co.uk BLOG 4th January 2021
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Welcome to 2021!
The purpose of my Blog is to get some good vibes going and transferred across to you. We hope the result is a positive and light-hearted world is the result.
Sometimes our articles will be original and new straight from our keyboard. Another time they will be as seen on the internet or in publications or in the media.
Today two items from the Daily Mash site have inspired and are reproduced here:
The 40-something’s guide to olden-days television
TOO young to remember when there were three channels and they all shut down twice a day? Geriatric 45-year-old Tom Logan describes this incredible era.
Everyone knew what you were talking about
Televisual chat like ‘Did you see Debbie McGee get sawn in half?’ or ‘Nuuurrrrghh, JOEY!’ were instantly comprehensible to all. Nowadays TV conversations go like this: ‘Did you see The Boys?’ ‘No. Have you seen The Haunting of Bly Manor?’ ‘No. Have you seen The Mandalorian?’ ‘No.’
People weren’t constantly hassling you to watch things
You were able to watch All Creatures Great and Small without loads of people insisting you urgently binge-watch Blake’s 7, The Gentle Touch, and Cat’s Eyes. Now even close friends will be disappointed in you for not finishing Pushing Daisies.
Some of the programmes weren’t about superheroes
It’s hard to believe, but television programmes weren’t always about people who could fly. I once enjoyed a tense, politically-charged and well-written series called Edge of Darkness, even though Bob Peck could not shoot energy bolts from his hands.
The untalented and ugly weren’t excluded
Whether you were unattractive, without charisma or bereft of talent, you could find someone like you on the good old British telly. Newsreaders were drunk and a bloke who blew up chimneys became a household name.
The story all happened in one episode
It’s a weird concept, but there was a clear ending after an hour. With hindsight obviously it would be better if The Sweeney stretched out multiple plotlines over 30 hours and there was no conclusion until you watched five more ‘seasons’.
Most of it was shit
For every Auf Wiedersehen, Pet there was a Bullseye. The second series of Stranger Things was a bit rubbish but at least it wasn’t fat couples playing darts to win a sandwich toaster.
How to bring all your workplace shit into your home
HOME used to be a nice change from the mundane grind of the office, but under lockdown we’ve lost that feeling. Do this from nine to five and bring it back:
- Make your own lanyard
Improvise a little lightweight shackle with a shoelace and a rectangle of paper and say ‘beep!’ to yourself when going through your living room door. Or if you’ve lost yours, wait for a family member to go through and sneak in behind her.
- Be mysteriously out of mugs
One morning, move all the mugs in the kitchen cupboard somewhere random, like the far corner of the cupboard under the stairs. Leave behind one giant, indestructible Sports Direct mug, chipped and irrevocably stained.
- Get an annoying colleague
Ask a housemate or the dog to keep interrupting you until you have to smile vaguely and put on big chunky headphones.
- Give yourself fag breaks
Go outside for a miserable cigarette in the rain, standing under a shelter looking at the bike racks opposite, neither wanting to be out here or go back in there, shivering with cold.
- Make your own prawn mayo sandwich
Recreate a Tesco prawn mayo sandwich by cutting triangles of limp brown bread, salty mayo and tiny prawns, putting it in a sweaty cardboard packet and then chucking £2.30 out of the window. Dial into a miserable conference call and put in on mute. An authentic office lunch.
- Get a security guard
Pretend there’s an overweight man downstairs with an over-inflated sense of importance who treats you like dirt even though you’ve seen them every morning for eight years. Realise with dismay that your partner already is that man, then get back to f**king work.
TOP TEN OF THE DAY
UK DAILY NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION IN 2020
Title Circulation
Metro 1,419,614
The Sun 1,206,595
Daily Mail 1,134,184
Evening Standard 787,447
Daily Mirror 441,934
The Times 359,960
Daily Express 289,679
Daily Star 274,808
i 215,932
Financial Times 155,009
The Guardian 126,879
Daily Record 103,222
City A.M. 85,738
DON’T FORGET TO LAUGH EVERYDAY
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE FOR THE DAY
“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A. A. Milne
HAPPINESS IS…
Happiness is…’80s TV
GRANDAD’S ONE LINER JOKE OF THE DAY
A horse walks into a bar and the bartender asks him, “Why the long face?” The horse says, “Evolution.”
LOVE IS…
Love is…as warm as toast
©2021 Phil M Robinson