Someone asked if I grew up with 3 TV channels and no smartphone? My answer:
We watched 1 channel, on black and white TV. God save the queen played when the station closed and then a high tone would play to get you to switch off your TV.
We listened to Radio 1 and the light programme, with Jimmy Clitheroe on at the weekends. My mom got the thunderbird theme tune played on the radio for our birthday.
We had rotary phone (eventually) after we moved house. Then we had spin dryer, boiler/top loading washer with a ringer.
In the old house we had a toilet at the end of the yard but we had one downstairs in the new house. In the old house we had a tin bath. In the new house we had a brand new bathroom. And my parents bought an electric shower. Shall I go on… Memories.
When I was a student we didn’t have much money. The heating was a coal fire in the living room, no central heating and an old hot water boiler in the kitchen that dribbled a bit of warm water out of the spout occasionally.
Once we had a letter from TV licencing asking if we had a TV. We were students and didn’t. My boyfriend sent the letter back and wrote ‘you can come and park your van outside our house for as long as you want, we don’t have a TV’ signed transistor sisters in anarchy! Later we got a black and white TV. They came and checked, black and white licence, black and white TV. No problem!
It’s strange how these memories come back in the middle of the night. My mind has turned to the distant past and I’m remembering a lot of things that are probably not important but that mean a lot to me.
A pet peeve. I watch quite a few programmes where people have to have xrays. I think the worst thing is when the xray is presented the wrong way up or back to front, or worse still when the image is of a different part of the body!
Sometimes I just laugh, but when it’s a life or death situation I wish the film makers would make a bit more of an effort!
Why do I know this? I did a course years ago. Being an artist helped me identify things that no one else noticed. I could see things like buttons in a stomach or a comb in a pocket…. And other more “unusual” images, ahem…
I’m trying to eat healthily, but I had my tea before I saw this prompt, so this is a free photo.
The antibiotics are for an infection in my leg. I didn’t expect to feel rough on them. But now I think I’ve been coming down with a cold (a viral infection) and the antibiotics won’t help with it.
So feeling tired and achy so I have been watching TV this evening instead of going to a meeting I was due at. I didn’t sleep well last night so I’ve been napping a few times over the day. The only trouble is that the sneezing woke me up twice! Atishoo! We all fall down!
When I was little I used to get very bored on a Sunday. We would go to Sunday school in the morning but afternoons were interminable, nothing much on the TV, with only one channel to start off with, or the old radio on in the background. My parents didn’t like pop music so it was either religious programming or comedy or documentaries.
The boredom pushed me to do art, I was experimenting with oil paint on cardboard when I was about 12. Or playing in the garden, climbing up to the top bar of the swings and hanging upside down… My parents had finally been able to afford a bike so I would cycle up and down the street and practice tricks on it. Getting as close to trees as possible without hitting them. We had water fights with other kids in the street. Throwing plastic bags full of water at each other and getting soaked. I also made hurdles using my dad’s saw benches and running as fast as I could over them. I remember climbing an old gnarled Laburnum tree as high as I could get, and climb up the outside of the big slide using it’s steel frame to get up and over the top instead of the steps..
Those games and playing made me adventurous. I wanted to learn everything. It motivated me in other ways too. Because I got bored easily I would get lots of books out of the library. Not just adventure stories, but ones about atoms, and galaxies, and art, and volcanoes. I loved finding out about things. So I stopped being bored because I was motivated to keep myself occupied. And I’ve stayed motivated to do things all my life. I try not to get bored anymore.
Imagine a woman. Dressed as a page boy ready to perform in a play, it could be in the past when women and girls were not allowed to act. Or it could be a recreation of a look design for a more modern TV programme. It could also be a science fiction design. The lines are my attempt to create a feeling of a stained glass window.
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
Now that a woman has played Dr Who on TV I would love to play the character. I’ve watched the television series over decades, from the 1960’s. The doctor was always my hero and was one of the things that got me into science fiction.
Suddenly when the doctor regenerated as a female I think it gave young girls the opportunity to imagine themselves fighting daleks and cyber men, having to tackle technical problems and fix mechanical issues. It made her a choice of hero to play as they are growing up. And that makes the show greater than it was although there was a lot of antagonism from some fans. Life changes and why should characters stay the same?
There was a science fictio TV series in the 1970s called the Six Million Dollar Man. I used to watch it and it’s follow up series the Bionic Woman. I’d rush home if I was out to see it on a Saturday afternoon.
It’s recently been showing on a TV channel that specialises in older series. But it’s no where near as exciting as I remember it. It’s very macho and the stories tend to be long winded. A lot of scenes just show the hero running or jumping in slow motion. They take up the majority of the screen time. Then there are semi scientific scenes that are not very accurate. It has an iconic theme tune that runs through the show. I’d rate it as 5/10. Because? It’s a bit boring! I can’t tell you how dissappointed I am.
Being ill and not seeing many people has made me fed up. I’ve taken solace in some books, like the Martian by Andy Weir and We solve Murders, the new mystery by Richard Osman. But I’ve become attached to my phone. I feel lost if I’m not checking out posts on Instaounce and Facepost! And in close second is TV and YouCone. I’ve become engrossed by old sci-fi programmes.
I want to break this habit, I need exercise, but it’s not happening at the moment! Too many dopamine hits? Boo x
Mallaband-Brown 