The Grumpy Old Blog

  Doncha just lurve those who only ever appear once a year on Facebook, hashtagging everyone to announce "3 sleeps to go" (what a stupid statement!). This is followed three days later by a "𝐠𝐨𝐬𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐮𝐛𝐚 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐊𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐚𝐛-𝐮𝐮𝐮𝐮𝐮-𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐞 - 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝'𝐬 𝐚𝐮 𝐯𝐢𝐧, 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢-𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐍𝐮𝐧. 𝐎𝐡 𝐰𝐞 𝐃𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬."   This then marks the start of a fortnight's flood of dullard pictures of food, views of 6-star hotels they plain...

This missive is aimed at readers who, like myself, may remember when there were only three television channels, the Nokia 3310 mobile phone was considered a technological marvel, supermarkets were closed on Sunday, and, if you wanted a holiday, you needed to visit your travel agent. Social Influencers These are predominantly young people who have a penchant to become celebrities but lack any perceivable talent to otherwise become one. Instead, they garner an incredible number of millennials, who, for some reason known only to themselves, follow their every word on social media. These social influencers wax lyrically, in very bad English, about products and services they actually know little about and in fact sometimes never actually use themselves. But they do have the last laugh. They receive payment for their cultured pearls of wisdom. Passwords We are told to use complex passwords. While this is sound advice, we of a certain age never input them correctly first ti...