Friday Ramblings

I made a bad mistake today - I attended the re-opening of my local pub, (it had been shut for a month for a refurbishment).  That wasn't the mistake.  No, the mistake was to have a drink there. It re-opened late afternoon and, not working Fridays any more, I decided to go along, forgetting how out of practice I am when it comes to day time drinking, (I'm usually a late evening drinker).  Even just a pint and a half (for health reasons I've cut down), left me feeling completely knackered.  Really, I've spent the entire evening in a state of exhaustion.  All of which just reinforces my prediliction for drinking later in the evening - I just come home and go to bed.  Still, at the least the local is open again, albeit with new decor and furniture.  I must admit, though, that while it was closed, I came to enjoy my nights in - I decided not to bother drinking anywhere else during this period.  Not only did I avoid the hassle of going out in the cold and the rain a couple of times a week, but I also avoided having to put up with any pub bores assailing my ears with their tedious shit.  It really did make a refreshing change.  Anyway, to get to the point of this post, well, there isn't any point, really.  I'm just too tired to make one.  So, instead I'm going to subject you to one of my rambling rants on a variety of subjects.

I woke up this morning to find Philip Schofield trending on Twitter.  Now, obviously when one sees a celebrity's name trending your first thought is that they've died, the second, (since Jimmy Savile) is that they have been arrested on suspicion of committing serious sexual offences.  I quickly found that the context of Schofield trending was (thankfully) neither of these things.  Instead I was confronted by the statement 'TV presenter Philip Schofield has come out as gay', to which my initial reaction was that it was some kind of prank.  The cynic in me then thought that perhaps this was all some kind of ploy to deflect the bad press he's been getting lately with regard to his alleged behaviour toward colleagues - what better way to get sympathy than by coming out?  But no, he really has come out as gay.  Which is fine, but I'm left wondering, why are you telling me this?  As I do whenever a celebrity publicly 'outs' themselves.  Why do they think that anyone is interested?  I mean, why should I, or anyone else, care about their personal sexual orientation?  Surely, in this day and age, it shouldn't be an issue and certainly shouldn't shock?  Most of all, though, I'm simply not interested in anyone's sexual orientation - that's entirely their private business.  If they want to tell me, fine, but ultimately, I'm just not interested.

Changing tack completely, I've been thinking about adding some kind of streaming device to my TV, in order to broaden the services available to me.  But before I made a decision, I thought that I'd look again at the apps already available on my smart TV.  I have to say, that they haven't improved since the last time I checked.  It's all pretty basic, with no facility for manual updates.  I did, however, notice that Vewd is now listed amongst the services.  Now, if you go to their website, you'll find all manner of interesting sounding channels listed as being available via their app (subject to regional restrictions, of course).  Yet upon checking the version on my TV, all of the services seemed to be in Russian, Turkish or Spanish.  None of which are any use to me in the UK.  Oh, to be fair, some of 'internet channels' seem to be in English, but if I want to watch two minute videos of dogs skate boarding, I'll go to YouTube.  So, I'm left wondering just what is  the point of having this service installed on my set?  You'd think that they'd try and match the services offered to the region in which the TV operates?  The whole experience, though, has left me questioning the value of streamed TV services.  The more I look into it, the crapper most of the services available look.  There seem to be a lot of people out these peddling low quality public domain material as if it were premium content and unavailable elsewhere.  Trust me, most of it is dire and far better quality prints of the decent stuff are available from other sources.  So, I'm back to pondering the wisdom of adding any kind of streaming device to my not-so-smart TV.