Telly and Travels Review of the Year

I've been following the Guardian's list of top 30 television programmes for 2014. It's probably a dismal omen for my television writing career to realise that I only watched one programme out of the top 10, which was The Trip To Italy. Which I personally wouldn't have put in the top 10, for reasons already stated. I missed two (Game Of Thrones, True Detective) because we only have access to Freeview channels. Some of the programmes I deliberately avoided - like Fargo, simply because I am such a huge fan of the original Coen brothers film that I didn't want to see it messed with. (I couldn't have written about it anyway, since I haven't been any nearer to Minnesota than a Garrison Keillor book on my shelf.) And others I only found out about too late into the series to be able to catch up. Peaky Blinders is one - and I have been to Birmingham, so it would have made a nice little blog entry. The number one choice, Happy Valley, is another. And that was even set in Yorkshire, where I am nearly every single day.

Because I haven't scored too highly on the Travels front either - one week in a caravan near Leiden in Holland, travelling over on the ferry from Hull, and one week at my dad's house in Grasmere. Plus a long weekend in a cabin in the woods near Hutton-le-Hole, which didn't even involve leaving Yorkshire. If that isn't a motivation to go out and try and earn some money when my daughter starts school in September 2015, then, well, the fact that all my clothes are falling apart would be a close second. Except that even if I manage to gain some sort of salary, once we are tied to travelling in school holidays we probably won't be able to afford to go anywhere ever again.

Leiden

Delft

Keukenhof

Langdale Pikes

Woods at Keldy

A cabin in the woods

I score marginally (but only marginally) better in television programmes number 11-30. Rev. Gogglebox. Grantchester (SERIOUSLY?!). Sherlock. Doctor Who (just a couple of episodes, mind, to check out Peter Capaldi. who I used to share gym space with). And finally, I was there for Bingate in The Great British Bake-Off.

I suppose on the plus side this means that I don't actually spend my whole life watching television.

Or it means that nothing on CBeebies was shortlisted.

I have too bad a memory to be able to put together my own television top 10. Did I even watch ten different programmes during 2014? Over 50 blog posts suggests that I did, but the year seems to have been one long series of Masterchef. Anyway, such things seem trivial when you look back at what was happening in the rest of the world during 2014. Gaza. Syria. Pakistan. Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia. The Somerset Levels. Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Flight MH370. Flight MH17. Flight QZ8501. This happened just the other day up the road from here. Storms, bombs, unspeakable crimes, haemorrhagic fever: there is much for us to work on in 2015. (So no excuse for channel surfing on the sofa.) But please don't be fools and see Nigel Farage as the answer. Nigel Farage isn't the answer to anything other than the question "Who is the biggest tosser of 2014?" I am frightened by the possible result of the General Election in May 2015 (= Conservative/UKIP right-wing racist coalition?!) more than anything else as we enter the New Year. That and the fact that in April it will be ten years since my mother died, which I find impossible to believe.

But at least we can still celebrate Hogmanay in the United Kingdom tonight. We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet. Happy New Year!