Talking Point with Vicky Turrell: ‘Do not adjust your sets’
‘No signal’, it said and a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark came up on the screen. What did it mean ‘No signal’? We were watching live TV and then the picture started to break up and the sound was jagged until the screen went blank.
I went to my mobile internet and looked up the Wrekin Mast but there were no faults detected. I searched BBC, Freeview and anything else I could think of. Nothing. Then I went on social media and there it was, ‘Has anyone else lost their TV signal?’ I was not alone.
Eventually I found out that high pressure caused the problem. It seemed like the old days when in the 1950s our black and white TV frequently deteriorated into dots and dashes because of a technical problem. A notice used to come across the screen saying, ‘Normal service will be resumed as possible’. Then ‘Do not adjust your sets’. It was not as if there was much to adjust except horizontal hold and vertical hold. So, despite the warnings we wiggled the aerial and kicked the set until normal service was resumed.
We are wondering if normal service will be resumed at the recycling centre, or will we get used to booking a slot? I was out driving in the Shropshire Hills yesterday when a man with a full carrier bag stepped out and walked to the opposite verge. Then I saw him bending down and through my mirror noticed some tins. Was he fly tipping in the gateway? A shock went through me. What should I do? I was too nervous to turn round and confront him. And too nervous to go back on my own and stop to take a photo. I drove on feeling like a coward and thinking of the farmer with a blocked gateway.
It is always strange when something out of the ordinary happens. I was parked on the side of the road in town when I saw and accident in the pouring rain. The person two cars in front of me pulled out into a car travelling past. There was a bang and the cars collided and dented. It was not as dramatic as you expect an accident to be. Like the fly tipper – it just happened in broad daylight and without loud clashing background music on TV shows. Both car drivers stopped and swapped details so eventually all would be well here.
All does not seem well in the supermarkets, recently there have been long queues at the checkouts. One way of solving this would be by using the smart checkout devices as we go around the store. Not many of us are brave enough.
