I watched the Dr Who episode last night, featuring Maureen Lipman as the 'Wire', an alien who lives inside a television. The episode certainly kept up the high standards of plot, Script, acting and special effects. The Doctor was especially wrathful, he can certainly kick ass when the situation demands it, and Billy Piper was deliciously mischevious. But I think that Maureen Lipman stole the show with her 'motherly evilness'. I liked the bit when she cried out 'I'm huuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnngry!!!'. That sounds just like me when I have missed teatime.

David

I have just got back from Spain, hence the quiet period of no blogs. I have had a good time in the sun, not too happy to be back in the cold weather here. On the flight back I found I could not hear the announcements properly because of the noise of the aircraft. I never had this problem before. Unfortunately i listened to loud music quite alot when I was younger, eg, helping out with the school disco, blasting it out with headphones, and more recently, putting on my hi fi far too loud. One of my teachers at school kept warning me that I would have hearing loss if I continued listening to such loud music. Being a child of course I did not listen. I didn't reckon it was that loud, and it will happen to someone else anyway. My hearing suddenly seemed to deterioate a couple of years ago. But it's not how I would have imagined it to be. I thought that if you had hearing damage things would just sound a bit quieter, but that is not the case. In fact alot of things now sound too loud, and background noise often seems to drown out other sounds that are more important. For example when I am listening to someone speaking it is no problem in a quiet room, but as soon as there is any background noise, I find it harder to hear what they are saying. At only 41 years old, I am not happy that something like this is happening.

So to all you young people who are listening to loud music, if it makes your ears ring afterwards it is too loud and you need to stop. I don't expect you to listen to me though.

David

I'm not really into football but I started watching a program last night about his life story. I nearly switched it off, the words 'has been' flashing into my mind, but i decided to carry on watching, realising that this judgement is a second hand one I read in a newspaper or heard someone say. I decided to make my own judgement. I realised that he was actually a really nice guy who let himself be swept along in the wrong direction by temptations. After all, what does a young lad without wisdom of the world do with a load of money and adulation. Money and adulation can cause even the mightiest to fall. Yes, it is 30 years since he was at the peak of his career but there is a good reason why he has since kept cropping up in the media, and why his funeral got so much attention. he was simply a genius in his own field (pun intended); he left a permanent mark on the landscape of human achievement, and it is natural that such a person will keep cropping up, whatever the reason, the same way that the Beatles (as a group) or Jimi Hendrix enjoy continued discussion in musical circles, even though they are long gone. The fact is people just loved reading or talking about him, if he was being good or bad.

'If only George Best had not wasted himself, he could have been so much better than he actually was' I often hear people saying. It is perhaps erroneous to think like this, because it may have been inevetible that his life went the way it did. The aspects of his personality which made him such a unique footballer, such as carisma, flair, talent and unpredictability, were probably the same aspects that made him likely to go off the rails;
If i see a DVD of the best George Best moments on the pitch, I'm sure one exists, then I would be very tempted to buy it. Concentrate on the good, and don't worry too much about the bad I say.

David