While I’ve been feeling grotty, I’ve watched a lot more TV than normal. Most of it has been complete trash – reruns of ancient detective shows, gardening programmes and cookery shows are my ‘trash of choice’. Today, I’ve watched a Delia from at least fifteen years ago, a Bergerac circa 1978 I’d say and a string of shows called ‘The Weekend Gardener’ – that one is an old Beeb show and it’s a bit naughty really because it purports to show you how you too can completely transform your garden from a wilderness to a gorgeous space in two days. Of course, the demonstrations they show have about half a dozen young, fit, competent gardeners beavering away in the background so it’s effectively the equivalent of six weekends or something by the time you consider the man-hours going into it.

Anyway, the point I was coming to is that I’ve been subjected to lots of advertising during my sojourn and some of it has made my blood boil. These days, I just let the debt rescheduling, ambulance chasing and terrifying of pensioners into buying stairlifts, funeral packages etc wash over me – I realised long ago that they are now a sad fact of our multi-channelled world – as a payment for choice you get subjected to the lowest common denominator in terms of advertising because the ratings on the shows are low so people with real cash to spend don’t bother with such shows I assume. Just don’t get me onto the subject of celebrity endorsements of debt rescheduling companies – now that is low.

Today’s particular gripe – bloody ‘Sheila’s Wheels’ (patronising drivel supposedly aimed at women – I can say without fear of contradiction that I wouldn’t buy my insurance from them if they were the last company on the planet after seeing those ads!)

Another one has got my goat but discretion is the better part of valour I think for me on that one.

It’s basically taking some poor woman to task because her whites just aren’t white enough. Well, I ask you – who cares? Really? Frankly if that’s all you’ve got to worry about then perhaps it is just the product for you but for the rest of us – well, for me a boycott of the product for the rest of my life is where I’m at. Any product that tries to sell itself through humiliation of the consumers who might buy it doesn’t deserve my hard earned.

So, is my little ‘snow in summer’ pure white – no, it’s not! How do I know? Because there is a lovely little thing in Lightroom that shows you white in your pic and there is almost none in this shot. Does that make it any less lovely a flower? No it bloody doesn’t – in fact, most things are better for a few imperfections aren’t they?

Strangely (or maybe not) I was also ranting about advertising and sponsorship last year.