Adverts on TV

I wonder if anyone had ever begun a campaign for better quality ads on TV.  I am constantly amazed that some of the ads actually get shown. Some like the Cilit Bang ad in the UK I find so irritating that I go out of my way to find an alternative product.  I hope this ad hasn't been allowed to escape the UK to pollute another country.  If it has please accept my apologies as a resident of the UK, we really tried but it escaped.
Seriously though why shouldn't TV ads be interesting, amusing and or enjoyable.  I know different things irritate different people but there's no to make such poor quality ads as the Cilit Bang ad.  Its not the only ad that has turned me away from a product.  Do other people have the same response and avoid a product if the ad is irritating?  I would really like to know what ads others find irritating.  Advertisers spend a lot of money on producing their ad and I would have thought that it would be a better idea if people enjoyed the ad.  If they could get people talking about it, even better laughing about it it would be remembered.  Surely an ad remembered with fondness would sell more product than one that leaves a feeling of complete irritation. If there are any employees of advertising companies reading this please make a little more effort.

UK supermarkets.

I don't know what supermarkets are like in other countries but the main stream supermarkets in the UK, whilst good at most things, are universally bad at anything that requires a modicum of patience.  In the meat line they are good with pork and chicken but when it comes to beef they are very poor.  The beef on display usually looks bright red which suggests that it hasn't been hung for long enough or possibly not at all.  Strangely enough at least of half of the beef products on display in Liddle does show working of patience, especially some of the stake which is a deep red plum colour showing it has been correctly aged and the quality shines through in the cooking and eating.  What has really started me off on this rant is cheese, in particular blue Stilton.  In my view good correctly ripened Stilton is certainly one of the worlds great cheeses and possibly the best in the world.  The sample I bought from my local Morrison's was enough to put anyone trying it for the first time off the cheese for good.  The sample was lacking any of the full flavoured tang that I expect and all I got was a bland chalk taste.  This was especially disappointing as I had purchased what purported to be "Mature Stilton."   The only way I have found to eat blue Stilton or Shropshire blue from a supermarket is to place it in the fridge and leave it for at least a month past its sell by date.  I find it offensive that when I purchase what is supposed to be mature cheese it is anything but.  I haven't found a good cheese shop in the area yet, and the delicatessen in the local town shows supermarket impatience as well.  Please, if anyone from a UK supermarket reads this learn a little patience and sell properly mature cheese, stop selling soggy chalk and calling it mature cheese.

Politicians

Just made the mistake of watching the news and had the misfortune to see some of the day in parliament televised.  It just went to further my view that if all politicians are similar to UK politicians they must be universally disgusting.  If politicians would just get with trying to run the country and stop their pathetic point scoring and squabbling we might get somewhere.  When will they understand that we have chosen to elect them and we expect them to get on with doing their job.  The job they were elected for was to run the country together and bring to the table the best of every view.  What they seem to think we employ them for is to partake in scoring points off each other by criticising everything any other party suggests then reinventing the idea in their own colours a week later.  Its not surprising that most young people seem to think that its not worth their effort voting, in truth it probably isn't.

The Longest Day

Here in the UK we are now past the longest day, it's all down hill from here.  Until recently I didn't understand why the longest day didn't correspond with the hottest part of the year.  I listen to BBC radio 4 as I drive and I glean some interesting facts as I listen.  Apparently the heat continues to build after the passing of the longest day because the atmosphere is gaining temperature faster than it cools for about eight weeks so it doesn't start to cool until the length of sunlight is short enough to allow more cooling than the heat received.  I probably haven't explained that very well but that's the gist of the reason.  I found that fascinating, perhaps I'm just sad.

Promise of Summer

The first swallows were back with us last Monday and are gradually building up in numbers as they return from their wintering grounds.  As always I heard the chatter before seeing the birds themselves.  What amazing little birds they are, to navigate all the way from Africa coming back to their summer homes each year.  Sadly there seem to be less of them than I remember as a child and I'm sure it isn't my memory playing tricks.  I suppose there are less suitable nest sites as old buildings have been repaired, demolished or reused and the access blocked.  I find it very sad that such an emblem of our summer is slowly dwindling away.  I don't think I would want to live in a world that doesn't include the chatter of swallows as they hawk for insects through the summer months and line up chattering on the wires before departing for the winter.  What a sad world it would be.

Some Things I Don't Do

My father used to smoke, read a newspaper and drink tea.  All three seemed to make him miserable or perhaps he was just normally miserable and these habits didn't help.  I suspect that I associate all three activities with being miserable and grumpy so I avoid the first two and only drink tea occasionally.  I have never even tried smoking, not even as a teenager and I have no intention of trying now.  Spending good money to buy a dried plant leaf then burn it rolled in paper and inhale the smoke seems a rather strange and pointless habit, especially as it can enhance the chances of lung cancer.  Yes its a great idea isn't it?  As for newspapers, the only use I have ever had for a newspaper is to light the fire and I have found fire lighters work better.  Reading a newspaper as a way of keeping up to date with current affairs is a very poor choice, all you get is one persons view of the event and this is always biased to what he or his editor wishes to portray. I get my information on current affairs by not listening or half listening to the radio while I am driving, by not really listening to several different stations throughout the day I get an overall picture from the little that passes into my conscious brain of what is happening.  It works for me!  As for drinking tea, I do this occasionally, less than once a week.  I don't really have anything against tea though I am not sure if I like it best black or white, with or without sugar. But to put it simply I prefer coffee.   I don't know that the above behaviour makes me any less miserable than my father but I do hope it does.

A Swift, Where?

At this time of year I am looking to see the first swallow returning from the wintering grounds in Africa.  I find these brave little birds amazing and always look forward to their return.  The funny thing is I almost always hear the first swallow before I see it, they seem to delight in sitting on a roof top or electricity line and chattering their joy at coming home.  Though I don't consciously try I find my ears are tuned to any sound that approximates the chatter of a swallow, twice in the last few days I have started searching as a sound similar that of a swallow has caught my attention.  But that isn't what I want to tell of, I was in Carlton store unloading my truck when a bird sound caught my attention and it wasn't a swallow, it was the scream of a swift.  I couldn't believe my ears and started searching the sky for the author of the scream fully expecting to see the earliest arriving swift I have ever seen.  The scream was repeated, then repeated again, I finally located the source of the sound.  Just across the road sitting on a wire was a starling and as well as its usual song it was occasionally throwing in the scream of a swift  as a variation.  This isn't the first time I've been fooled by a starling but I've never heard one mimic a swift before, a duck and a magpie but never a swift.  I suspect that the bird was raised in a nest in close proximity to nesting swifts and had copied the sound as only a starling can.