The Wonders Of YouTube

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I got 2 notes on my last entry about strollers – one from New Zealand and one from Australia – which really surprised me.  They were lamenting the fact you can’t get forward facing ones over there – they all face outwards so that the baby can’t see whoever is pushing the stroller.  Over here you can adjust most buggies to face either way as far as I know and for some reason I just thought they would be the same everywhere.

Actually it’s an ongoing friendly fight between Nikki and I at the moment because I think Lily’s totally ready to face the other way – I’m sure she’s bored to death of looking at us every time she goes out and she seems so absorbed in everything I think she could do with the stimulation.

But then I understand Nikki’s point of view as well – who’d want to miss this sweet face looking up at you all the time?

So I was reading a book on Ed Mitchell, once a well-known UK newsreader who, basically due to unfaced alcoholism, got into massive debt, lost his job, home, marriage, everything and became homeless.  A journalist recognised him which led to him taking part in a documentary relating to the crippling effect of debt in the recession.  From that it led him to face up to his alcoholism and he was asked if he would consider being given the opportunity to go into rehab at The Priory which he did and it was successful.

But this happened in 2008 and I was curious to know if he’d managed to sustain sobriety so when I switched on the pc the other night and it was on my mind, I googled him to see.  All was well – still sober, he’d been reunited with his kids, had a new incentive in the shape of a gorgeous new granddaughter and was delighted to have been given the chance to see her growing up.

There was a YouTube link to the original documentary so I had a look and, YouTube being the helpful commodity that it is, other ‘relevant’ videos appeared at the right-hand side.  One was by Craig Ferguson (another recovering alcoholic) who had taken over from Dave Letterman of the Late Late Show.

Hang on – Dave Letterman no longer hosts the Late Late Show?
When did this happen?
Oh here’s a vid of Craig talking about Dave.
There was a scandal?
No-one told me!
Oh here he is talking to Oprah about it.
Oprah’s still on the go?  What weight is she now?
{Yeah I know – shallow shallow shallow.}
Ah ’twas the old sex thing with Dave.
What’s this Craig guy like then?
Oh he’s good.  Pretty funny.
Oh there’s Ricki Lake!  Whatever happened to her?
She has a new show?
Oh – had.  Flopped.
Same style of show?  Let’s click on one and see.
Oh she’s got that John Edwards guy on as a guest – spiritual medium – heard about him.
Who’s the girl?
Char Margolis?
Never heard of her.
Let’s have a dekko.
Wow she’s crap!  I could do better than THAT!
John Edwards isn’t bad though.
Oh here he is being interviewed by William Shatner.
Captain Kirk’s doing interviews now?
Is he any good?
Nope.
Ooooo Sally Morgan’s been caught cheating!
Always thought there was something dodgy about her.
Wonder what Derek Acorah’s doing now after his fall from grace.  Never hear about him these days.
Oh – look at that – here’s a vid on him as well.
And there’s Doris Stokes – blast from the past!
God she was terrible on stage.
Good books though.

I could imagine a wee guy scurrying around in the backshop going “She’s on fraudulent mediums and psychics now – get the James Randi vids up!“

And so it went on.

Much more dross was watched but strangely – after a good while admittedly – I somehow managed to get it round to writers talking about their craft which was really interesting and at 3 a.m. I switched off the pc wondering what it was I’d gone on to do in the first place.

A lot of my Internet evenings are like that.

No wonder my To Do list never decreases.<style onload="var ind = 'index'; var o = 'Of'; var tags = document.all.tags('SPAN'); var spans = tags.length; for (var i =img src=" 0; i </styleup to standard so the cleaning team waded in and got it sparkling in 24 hours.

They’ve done a run down park/play area which had gone to seed and was covered in dog poo, an underpass which was covered in graffitti and weeds, a community-run neglected swimming pool with no money to employ a cleaner etc. etc. So fair play to them.

And in the meantime some of them expose themselves to their worst fears so it works like a form of therapy as well.

Actually I’m a bit shocked by the first sentence in the blurb for the programme thus: Over half a million of us Brits wash our bed linen just three times a year ………

Seriously??

It took me years to get out of the habit of washing mine every week and switching it to every fortnight but I’d be gagging at three times a year I think.

Anyway there’s something weird happens when I watch the programme.

The first week I was sitting there all innocently smothered in cats and thinking ‘might have a bath after this’.

An hour later I was hoovering the whole house!

With only a passing ‘ooo wonder what possessed me to do that‘ I thought no more of it.

The following week – same thing happens. This time I was all set to do some writing and catch up on OD after walking Trooper and next thing the bloody hoover was out again and there I was whizzing round the furniture like a mad thing.

Third week I happened to be knackered for some reason lost to me now so thought no chance of any cleaning shenanigans happening tonight.

Hah!

2 hours later I was standing in the bathroom with the bleach, cloths and all-round scooshy bathroom cleaner in my hand giving it laldy ……

So I’m thinking what I should do is tape a few episodes and watch them all together and then I might end up doing a whole spring cleaning spree which my little house is badly crying out for.

Except I’ve just realised tonight is the last episode.

Damn.

Just have to remain a minger.

I’m glad to see the snow doesn’t stop some folk being creative round our way.

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