I have been pondering, do we really need to know about all the doom and gloom going on in the world? All the conflicts, who is falling out with who, in far off places that most of us will never get to visit. The dictators with unpronouncable names, the dots on a map of places I have never even heard of, maybe I should have taken more notice of Geography lessons at school. How many have been killed in this village and that village, oh my God, it goes on and on.
I don't remember any of this foreign news reaching my ears when I was a child, we were happy, we played in the street, we dressed up, we went to the park, and we watched happy, fun programmes on the tele. I vaguely remember my father sitting down with his dinner on his lap at 7pm each evening to watch the Tonight programme on BBC1, with Cliff Michelmore presenting. That was a signal for us to leave the room, thank goodness, we didn't want to watch that stuff anyway.
There seems to be more and more terrible things happening, or maybe there always was a lot of murders and pillaging, it's just that we didn't hear much about it when we just had BBC and ITV, or took a peek at Dad's Daily Sketch. Nowadays it's in your face all the time, and it's getting a bit depressing.
I am watching a programme called an Island Parish on the iplayer. They did a series about the Isles of Scilly a couple of years ago which prompted me to go and visit there. The latest series is about an island in Scotland called Barra, and it's a lovely programme about a lovely place, with lovely people. Everyone is nice to each other, helpfull and friendly, about as far removed from the evils on the other side of the world as you can get. I think we should all go and live there.
I'm going to have to stop listening to the news on the radio and bury my head in the sand, but it's going to be a bit of a bind to keep switching it off and on, on the hour, and when they keep sneeking bits in, in the middle of the programme. I shall have to stop listening to the Today programme in the mornings. I'm going to stop reading the papers online for a week and see if I feel any happier. I want a button on my computer to filter out any bad news, and only give me nice news.
Got to stop the rot. I've found a couple of 'good news' web sites that I might try.
www.happynews.com
www.newsnow.co.uk
That's it, no more bad news, I'll let you know how I get on.
Sleeping sickness
3 hours ago
I agree entirely. It's the wonder of technology, we all know exactly what's happening all over the world within minutes of it happening.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need for most of it, the big stuff yes, we need to have the information, but the smaller things perhaps not.
I didn't even realise there were channels that just had 'happy news' I should imagine within days of hearing just happy news we would all feel much safer and securer in our lives.
Loving your Blog by the way, I'm trawling through some older posts for tips at the moment, good stuff.
Sue xx
You might be on to something.
ReplyDeleteWe have friends who think we're VERY odd, we do not listen to or watch the news, the only newspapers we get are the two free ones that plop through the letterbox each week and are then placed straight into the recycling box. I think life has enough problems without listening to even more which would throughly depress me. Do I miss the news? NO. I just get strange looks when someone mentions some disaster or other and I know nothing about it! I quite like burying my head in the sand :o)
ReplyDeleteHi Ilona, ytes the eye problem is a worry because the infection is in my GOOD eye. It is alot better today though and I have been doing a bit of sewing.
ReplyDeleteHey, remember my holiday to the Isle of Barra in August. It is beautiful and the people are lovely, very remote though. I want to go back for another holiday there. I'm watching an Island Parish too. Those Catholic priests are great characters aren't they, especially the one with the Poland Pekin hens, you gotta love him. Oyr little house we stayed in was behind that church up the hill a bit. You would love it there.
I gave up watching tv news, reading newspapers or listening on the radio a long time ago. If news comes on the radio I just tune it out. Nothing I can do about it and I would rather be in the dark on some things.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally I go on a news fast but I do like to know what is going on the world so I do catch the headlines. What I NEVER listen to or watch is the local news. Its always the same.............drug busts or someone killing their baby or letting their pets starve to death. Very depressing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young I thought there was a lot of news - Suez crisis, Moors murders, trouble in South Africa and eastern Europe. My parents always listened to the Beeb. Home Service.
I only listen to the BBC - if you think thats bad cop alot our dreadful cable network news over here in the U.S.
I go through periods when I refuse to watch the news, this is one of them and I haven't watched the news for several weeks now. We flick the switch over at 6.00 pm to Bargain Hunt:)
ReplyDeleteI've gone through periods where I don't follow the news for a few weeks at a time. It does make a difference. But I do like to keep in touch with what is happening for some reason. Maybe it is because of my interest in other places and my travel interests though I do wish there wasn't so much doom and gloom.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this Ilona. My husband insists on watching the news several times a day, especially first thing in the morning, and it can really start the day off making me depressed. I have to leave the room sometimes and do stuff in the kitchen or I stick my earphones in and listen to my MP3 player just to get away from it. He even switches over when we're watching a programme if I nip out of the room for a moment and he goes into Smith's to read the papers when we're out as we don't have a paper at home. I can't undestand the obsession some men in particular seem to have with knwoing everything that's going on in the world in farflung places where there's nothing we can do to help. Also, I get so fed up with all the stuff about celebrities who earn amazing amounts of money and then act like complete plonkers...I would happily never hear Jordan or Chryl Cole's names ever again.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it is with men and news, they have to pick a paper up at the shop on their way to work. Are they so worried that they might miss something.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the clelebs, those people who spend all their time promoting themselves and haven't done a days real work in their lives. I couldn't care less who's relationship has broken up, and how many times they have had their chest pumped up.
I don't watch the news either. I usually only listen to the radio when I'm in the car, and I continually channel hop until I find some music I like (the radio controls are on the steering wheel so I don't have to move!) when the news is on every station on the hour, I go to Radio 1 to continue with the music. My husband on the other hand watches all the news but I'm usually in another room so it doesn't affect me. He also watches the one where it's written on the screen, and has the sound off so I don't hear it. That's I don't hear it because he has the sound off not he has the sound off so I don't hear it iyswIm.
ReplyDeleteHi Ilona,
ReplyDeleteI agree about the news and about how good that programme an Island Parish is - before they did the Isles of Sciliy, they did a couple of series from Boscastle in Cornwall and they were there filming the second series when Boscastle suffered their devasting floods. If you ever get chance to watch those 2 series I think that you'd enjoy those too. But one of the best escapes from bad news for me is to read a Rosamund Pilcher book as she always writes about nice people living in nice villages either in Cornwall or Scotland - well worth a read.
Best Wishes - Sandra
Ilona,
ReplyDeleteHi, good blog, the kind of stuff I like reading. Thanks for your kind remarks (now published). As for everyone going to live on Barra, not a bad idea. If it got too crowded you could always come and join me on Lewis; at least there's a Tesco there, albeit a small one. BTW, the Lakeland cheese on BOGOF was still 400g in our Tesco this week, so maybe they know we watch out for tricks like that!
Hi Illona again
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you watched "An Island Parish" Fr. Roddy is my cousin and we have just returned to Australia after spending time on Barra the island of my grandfather's birth. We caught up with Fr. Roddy for lunch in his new parish just outside Fort William. Unfortunately we didn't get that series in Australia, and it is even harder to obtain a copy of a DVD in UK as well.
I'm only this far into your blog - its such a hoot to read and I feel as though I know you and can almost predict the unpredictable from you.
PS - I wrote to you via email recently re. Google - thanks for your reply.xx All the best, Trish