The Grumpy Old Blog

Do you remember when: - Christmas festivities, the switch on of lights, the putting up of Christmas trees and the arrival on Santa was on 6th December, Saint Nicholas Day - the first two weeks of January were completely Valentine Card free - comedians on TV didn't swear - a world without Greta Thunberg - a world without airport security - you didn't need an Equity card to be a professional wrestler - Bohemian Rhapsody set the bar to reach for popular songwriting - people had to speak English correctly to get a job on TV - you had to go out to get a takeaway - there was no ITVbe or Metro 'newspaper' - people used only "he" or "she" to describe other people - Christmas TV was watchable - people didn't use "super" as their sole adjective - there were no soshul influenzers - people didn't say "I follow him/her (him/her being an otherwise useless, self-publicising nonentity) on Instagram - drivers of Mercedes and BMW's used the...

* When there were only three television stations (5 if you lived in Dublin where you nicked HTV and Ulster) * When the the TV remote control consisted of your feet and fingers * When bored children were taken to the park with a football instead of to McDonalds * When girls didn't have tattoos * When young mothers talked to their perambulated children rather than to Facebook and Snapchat * When you didn't need £15,000 of dental work, Ugg boots and a 4x4 you were unable to park in a traditional parking space in order to be a "real" housewife * When your parents wouldn't have let you out of the house with your hat on backwards, the knees of your trousers cut away, your underpants' band showing and your trouser crotch down at your knees * When Manchester United and Manchester City footballers all came from Manchester * You didn't take your phone with you to the toilet, to make a cuppa, to answer the door, to open the window, to go to bed, to...