Well, darlings, here's the good news. My friend Martina, who comments here, sent me a doctor's basic check-list for symptoms of Alzheimer's, and my local chum took it home and went through it with his wife. She then tested him. She got every question right and he just dropped one mark. The doctor has phoned, and said she needs treatment for her low thyroid problem and also offered physiotherapy for her joint problem. There are still some tests to be done, because the path. lab. seems to have cocked them up somewhat, but it's all looking very positive and my friend's anxiety is completely allayed. He's happy to accept that her tiredness and absent-mindedness in the evenings is caused by low thyroid and constant lowish-level pain, and that this can be put right.
So thank you so much for your concern and for pointing me in useful directions.
I've hit on a vein of nostalgia with yesterday's post. Oh good. Can't beat a bit of nostalgia. Although, in truth, I'm not going to claim that everything was better in the good old days. Ups and downs all the time, and would you honestly put the clock back? - bear in mind that you can't cherry-pick, you'd have to accept the entire package. I wouldn't, but then I'm so practical, darlings, I live in the moment and make the best of it. I can't go back anyway, so why hanker?
As Blue Witch says, we have shared memories. My friend Lynn, whom I've mentioned here before, was the only person I knew at school who grew up without a television - her father died when she was seventeen and her mother then bought one and Lynn promptly became addicted - but she would be one of the few who didn't grow up with Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, or Blue Peter if you lived in a more sensible household than mine. But there were many programmes where the memories cross the generations - everyone watched The Good Life, Morecambe and Wise, Dad's Army - millions of people, all at the same time on the same evening of the week. The last series I remember making that sort of impact was some twenty years ago, with The Darling Buds of May. "Perfick" became the stock expression of approval that year.
My point is, not that there haven't been some hugely popular programmes since, but I don't think that they transcend the age and social barriers any more in the way they did in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Strictly, I suppose, but then I don't actually watch that myself, so I can't really say.
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
21 comments:
I keep forgetting words and names. Is that Alzheimers or just stupidity??
I'm glad your friend is getting sorted. Low-level pain, from what I've seen from other peoples' experience, is the most debilitating.
I confess, I don't watch much television anymore. I tend to be on here.
I think the last TV series I was glued to was the X-Files. Mind you, I do have a load of Criminal Minds dvds when I'm in the mood for murder and mayhem.
Neither, Gledwood my love. It's years of illness. You use your brain though, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just concentration and that'll improve as you recover.
What little I watch is often recorded. The unity of time as well as programme has gone. I'm not necessarily saying this is a bad thing, it was just a factor of our fairly recent past.
I've been watching the Frozen Planet series and so has someone who sits near me at work. I've enjoyed going to work on a Thursday morning and discussing the programme. The first time in years I've been able to do that with someone.
Mind you I never watch TV in real time anymore, the programmes aren't on at the time I want to sit down, or maybe I just don't arrange my life around TV now that I don't have to.
I have low thyroid which is controlled by tablets. It certainly can make you very tired. The good thing, though, is that it entitles you to free prescriptions on medical grounds, and that's for ALL your prescriptions. Make sure your friend knows this, as it was the pharmacist who picked up on this for me, not the doctor.
Yes, it is good to be able to do that - and David Attenborough has been a unifying force on our tv watching for decades!
Thanks, AQ - my sister has the same problem too. And thanks for the tip, though my friend is over retirement age so gets free prescriptions anyway. I'm thinking dismally that, since pensionable age seems to get farther away the older I get, it'll be ages before I have free prescriptions. Not that I can remember the last time I needed one, mind you. Ten years, perhaps. Or longer.
Like Roses I think the X files was one of the last I watched regularly, and Twin Peaks. Now I rarely watch anything at all, and what I do watch is recorded.
I do remember that our church had to change the time of the evening service because of the Forsyte Saga - otherwise no one would have turned up!
Mostly American stuff here too, Six Feet Under, Dexter, The Wire and so on. A bit of late-night nastiness, evidently. I do give myself away, don't I?
We stopped going to Evensong (and to church!) because of the Forsyte Saga. And I never got going with Guides because it was the same night as The Man From Uncle!
What programmes of today will be worth repeating in the future?
Could you send me over the Alzheimer's checklist, please. I forget why I need it though... ;)
I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than watch reality t.v.
The comedy in the 70's and 80's is unparalelled, and, due to the PC brigade, will never come back.
Who remembers 'Love thy neighbour', or ''Til death do us part'?
Well, if you look back through very old Radio Timeses, there has always been a good share of dross. It's the best that we remember.
Duly sent. If anyone else wants it, email me (address on profile). I've got it as a scan embedded in an email and I can't copy it onto here without typing it out.
John, darling, you've got enough problems without sticking pins in your eyes. Please don't. I promise not to make you watch anything I don't.
I wonder how they would all hold up now? However good, some of them are bound to have dated horribly, while others don't seem to be affected by the passage of time.
I hated 'Till Death Us Do Part' - it seemed to me, watching as a child, to consist of people shouting at each other. 'Dad's Army' is still repeated on BBC2 and it is still funny but most sitcoms from that era were awful and even the stuff you remember as being good seems horribly dated if you try and watch it now. I do still laugh at 'Blackadder' though, despite the fact that I can recite most of the dialogue without watching it. Actually, perhaps that is the trick - set your TV show, regardless of whether it is comedy or drama, in the past and that way it doesn't date as badly.
I think a lot of programmes had funny episodes but overall were quite lame - 'Only Fools and Horses' is a good example of this. Eveyone remembers the episode with the chandelier or the one with Del Boy falling through the bar, but most episodes of that show weren't up to the standard of those two.
This comment is nearly long enough to be a blog post - I'll shut up now.
Antiques Roadshow (UK and US versions) are my addiction. Years ago girlfriends and I were addicted to Poldark.
Can't stand the reality shows that seem so popular now.
Where the body does not make B12 naturally the symptoms can be tiredness and forgetfulness.
An injection say every two months can make all the difference, in spite of including dark green vegetables, dried apricots and Marmite into the diet.
Is that pernicious anaemia, Madeleine, or isn't it called that now? I took brewer's yeast for a while, years ago, and never felt so well. Just couldn't swallow all those pills in the end, though.
I've given up on sitcoms and I don't watch reality shows. I just listen to music, mostly.
My hisband's father was suffered from Alzheimer long time ago when there was few (almost non) information about that, and he was still quite young. My sons were little kids, so my familly was confused a lot. The big progress of medical science is amazing!
TV programmes that transcend the generations in this house are all on Sky Atlantic,
And only Sky Atlantic. Which means I'm stuck with teh Sky subscription until the Cherub leaves home...
I somehow can`t see the programmes of today being remembered in 40+ years time or so, in the way we remember all these favourites which you mention which we enjoyed. There doesn`t seem any substance or real memorable humour about them - or maybe I`m hard to please?!
It must be dreadful to see it in someone relatively young - and, of course, to suffer from it. Even worse than when an old person is ill.
Seems so, Macy. Only one generation and no Sky in this house though, so fortunately I don't know which programmes you mean!
I don't think there's much that's really funny either, Ivy. Mind you, I am hard to please.
Don't think Ian's B12 is pernicious anaemia, nor dietary. It was picked up by our excellent GP so about every 7 weeks he sees a practice nurse who gives the injection.
We can tell when the jab is due as he seems to need more sleep and runs out of energy quickly.
Am going to send you a private message on FB re Tuesday.
Post a Comment