THE RETURN OF WHAT?

So what do we all think about the return of the Premier League and The Arsenal playing a minimum of 11 matches (this includes the FA Cup quarter final) and most other teams playing 9 games? The time frame that I have seen quoted seems a bit ambitious. 

Is this about commerce, sport, uplifting the nation or something else? Is it about the economy?

I’m assuming that this will coincide with pubs reopening and some people getting carried away, after all football on the telly with this schedule is unprecedented:

Games on a Friday will kick off at 8pm.

Saturday matches will start either at 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.30pm and 8pm.

Sunday matches will kick off at either 12pm, 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm.

Games on a Friday will kick off at 8pm.

Midweek games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will kick off at either 6pm or 8pm.

I haven’t even mentioned the European Tournaments and how it would be possible to fulfil those fixtures. 

I also wonder if it will be a success or a reminder of how far football, Pre-Covid, has eaten itself? Avaricious agents, sky high ticket prices, fixtures moved at the whim of broadcasters, the fan being treated as customer: and not a very valued customer at that. The match day experience costing an arm and a leg and the corporate boxes full of bystanders, will this pandemic with it's inevitable self reflection have an impact on all that?

For whoever goes on to win the League & FA Cup will those victories feel tainted to the fans of those clubs or will it be a moment of joy in what has been a pretty joyless year?

I can’t help but think that this commencement of football is all about money. Money for the clubs, the TV companies, the breweries, the advertisers and all the cogs in the football machine

Maybe I’m over thinking it and it’s simply about getting the football back on the box and the pubs back open. After all this would be a great distraction from this government's chicanery! 

Life During War Time

Let's get something straight; this is war, a war against a virus, which means we have been, and are still living in war time. Its life on the home front where wearing pants is no longer a daily necessity, where alarm clocks are semi-retired, where binge watching TV shows is not frowned upon. We have new days within our seven day weeks; Thurnsday, Fraterday and Wunday. After all when the pattern of daily life is disrupted who can tell what day it is?
Measurements of social distancing seem to vary according to the whims of the person in front, or behind you in the M&S queue and we've learned that masks come in all shapes and sizes (along with people's levels of suspicion). We've got to know the guy that stands at the door of our local supermarket, telling us when we can enter, and the quickest way to reach the alcohol aisle with the least amount of touching foreign objects. We've got bored of the Downing Street daily briefings and got used to pouring scorn on excruciating celebrity sing alongs designed to raise our spirits. We've made the Thursday clapping of the NHS part of our schedules and we've all found at least one thing to agree upon: that Captain Tom is an amazing bloke.
Many of us have discovered that Zoom is not just the name of a Seventies rocket shaped ice lolly and that TikTok isn't just the opening line of  Tick Tock You Don't Stop by J Hanna. We've also learned that memories are short. No really, they are. Here's a list of things that I had forgotten about from before the war:
Extinction Rebellion, VAR, Philip Schofield coming out, Meghan, Pizza Express Woking, Harvey Weinstein being banged up, Veganism, Brexit and The new James Bond theme tune.
Apart from rightfully celebrating victory over the Nazis, VE day was seen as a bit of celebration of Covid being sort of conquered-Victory over Epidemic if you will, and with the muddled messages from Boris about staying alert we have seen more people taking to the street.
I get that impatience and boredom play a big part, not to mention income, but I can't help but feel that many people are suffering from Premature Elation.
The all clear sirens haven't been sounded and the armed forces of Covid-19 have not conditionally surrendered. Its not yet peace in our time.
One day we will be together with the hope that here will be no more war, but like the days following WWII we may very well have to live on metaphorical rations for some time to come. Those that fought on the front line will hopefully be remembered in the years to come and be remunerated accordingly. let's hope that Boris and his cohorts remember the few that did so much for the many.

COVID VISITORS

I don't like people, that is to stay I don't like being in crowds of people. The Tube, buses, the High street where I work, Festivals, Night Clubs; well you get the picture.

Am I missing people? no absolutely not and part of me is anxious about returning to the  world of the masses after this is over. 

But I am going to contradict myself here and say "I like people". That is people that I care about. These people bring joy, good humour and love to the party. Seeing them on computer screens, hearing their voices, reading there communications just isn't the same as the real thing

I have met new people  though, Ive had these visitors; there's Tony from After Life, Joe Exotic, Marianne and Connell from Normal People, Paul and Ally from Breeders, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen, The Gangs of London, Chris Tarrant via Michael Sheen, the people racing from Mexico City to Ushuaia among others. Quite a long list actually.

When we look back at theses times we may not remember what we did with our time, much less what we watched, but the one show that will probably have the most resonance may very well be After Life. At a time when things have slowed down the pace of this extraordinary TV series fits perfectly. Tony has contact through the computer screen with a life he once had and struggles to see a future. The reflective nature of the story can be digested because we have time to do so. We can empathise with the mundanity, recognise the good that squeezes out of the characters and most importantly feel lifted by the thought that one day we will be able to move on from this.

Yes it has flaws but I can think of very few TV programmes that have fitted in perfectly within the times that they have been released in.

Welcoming these fictional characters into our homes helps. No they are not the real thing, but in lieu of that, they feel like, well, people.