3rd September 2020. 173rd day of lockdown/isolation.

The day got off to a great start in the early hours. ERNIE had delivered 4x £25 wins for this month. It will go straight into the holiday spending fund. Goodness knows when I shall be able to spend it.

Like everyone else in the UK , I have a lot of admiration for Sir Colonel Tom who managed to raise (with a huge push from the BBC) over £33 million. One heck of an achievement, it has to be said. The government, and particularly Boris, jumped onto the “praise bandwagon”. An interesting statistic about the total raised tough, is that the government could have more than matched that figure by putting 0.005 pence onto the basic rate. That’s five thousandths of a penny. In other words, by putting 1p onto the basic rate of Income Tax, they could raise an extra £6.5 billion. That would sort the NHS out. And leave a bit for education, the homeless and other things. No further comment necessary except I expect they will increase the basic rate to cover the cost of the pandemic and the “help schemes” like Eat Out to Help Out and Furlough.

I saw the consultant about my knee today. He had a good look and in the end said that I should live with it and go back to the GP for a referral if the pain increases and/or it “gives way” more often. Thanks very much!! I think on reflection that the appointment was to get me off the list and NOT to offer a solution. He admitted there as a problem and the only solution to identifying it was a bone scan yet he gave me a form to hand in at reception. He had ticked the box marked “Discharged”. S when I see the GP again it will be a NEW case.

The BBC have made a U turn. Not, sadly, over the license fee but over the singing of the lyrics to Rule Britannia. The lyrics, and more specifically, the line “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”, were deemed to be racist by the mention of “slaves” Absolute poppycock and at least the new Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, has reversed the ruling. Thank goodness At last some common sense about the poem written and put to music in 1740. Ironically, one of the co writers of the original poem was James Thomson, a Scotsman, who spent a large part part of his life in the pursuit of fostering a British identity, transcending the older English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish identities. Good for him.

I watched the last of 154 episodes of Hill Street Blues today. A highly satisfying time watching them all. However, the final episode had so many loose ends, they could have made more episodes. There were so many characters I had come to love, I suppose it was an impossible job. There was not even a book to go and buy to find out what happened to Mick Belker, J D La Rue, Captain Frank Furillo and dozens more. As the series ran from 1981 to 1987, It will never come back. It was so interesting though, watching police work without computors or mobile phones. I shall miss it.