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The toothpaste which created TV history
Roger Crutchley, Published on 28/09/2025
» Last week marked the 70th anniversary of television advertisements in Britain. For years the BBC had been the only TV network in Britain and no ads were allowed. But in the mid-1950s along came Independent Television (ITV) which was launched to create competition, the big difference being that it was permitted to finance itself by showing advertisements.
If in doubt, just have a cup of tea
Roger Crutchley, Published on 25/05/2025
» You may recall last week's Battle of Britain item in PostScript featured two English ladies' who came across a German pilot who had crashed in a field. Their first reaction was to offer him a cup of tea, an indication of just how "having a cuppa" is ingrained in British culture. Admittedly that was 85 years ago but even these days most Brits wouldn't turn down a "cuppa".
Lop Buri before the monkeying around
Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/06/2024
» One of the first towns I visited in Thailand in the early 1970s was Lop Buri, about 150 km north of Bangkok. Its main appeal was its convenient three-hour train journey from Hua Lamphong. It offered a chance to escape Bangkok for a couple of days and experience a taste of life in a small town.
Lonely sheep survives real cliffhanger
Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/11/2023
» Some rare good news last week was the rescue of the "world's loneliest sheep" from a rugged beach in northeastern Scotland. The sheep, a ewe named Fiona, had been stuck on the beach at the foot of a steep cliff in an isolated spot of the Moray Firth for the past two years without any woolly friends or non-woolly humans for company.
Well, at least 2023 shouldn't be boring
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 15/01/2023
» We are only halfway through the first month of 2023 and on the local news front we have already been treated to enough controversies, allegations and head-scratching explanations to keep us going for the entire year. For comic relief there is even a hint of a sex scandal.
Bangkok still tangled up in 'sky spaghetti'
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/08/2022
» Earlier this week I was sitting in the customary traffic jam on Sukhumvit near Phra Khanong Bridge and found myself gazing at the tangled mess of overhead cables which have decorated Bangkok's streets for so long. It was not a pretty sight, especially dangling in front of ageing shophouses and filthy iron grilles that are not exactly a vision of splendour themselves.
Where roosters crow before daybreak
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/01/2022
» For the past three weeks I have been waking up to the sound of roosters, many of which sneakily start warming up their vocal chords well before dawn. With this evidence you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that I have been in the Northeast of Thailand, or Isan. It has become a regular destination at the New Year and with the exception of the early morning calls from the chickens, it is always a pleasurable experience.
There have probably been better years
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 26/12/2021
» Well we've just about scraped through the Year of the Ox. It was a strange time, rather like living in a vacuum, not entirely sure what would happen next. Nothing could have been worse than 2020, but 2021 wasn't far off. At the start of the year there was hope that the cloud of Covid could be shaken off and we would all become happy folks in the Land of Smiles again, but it didn't quite work out that way -- it's the hope that kills you.
There's no excuse to be lost for words
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/06/2021
» It is always nice to come across new words and last week I discovered a tiny treasure trove of fancy locution thanks to the Grandiloquent website which specialises in flowery, but genuine language. Grandiloquent means a "pompous or extravagant style of language" and there is plenty of that about.
A chimp that became a space pioneer
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 31/01/2021
» Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first chimpanzee in space. Not a lot of people know that.