Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Right let's get back to a proper moan.
Flipping TV licensing people two weeks ago I got an email telling my viewing habits had changed and I must buy a licence and click here to purchase one. Nothings changed I have never had a TV licence, because I've never needed one. Every 12 to 18 months I have told them I don't need one and why I don't need one. In the past decade their reminders have become more and more aggressive. They now assume that you are breaking the law and tell you that unless you purchase a licence you will be prosecuted.
Today I received a letter stating the same as the email, not inviting me to confirm that I don't need a licence rather that I'm a law breaker and must buy one today. On the back page of this letter at the bottom of a paragraph about when you need a licence is a web address tvl.co.uk/noTV this takes you through a somewhat lengthy process to confirm you don't need one.

 

Listen to TMS on the radio (no licence required) then you can watch paint drying to your hearts content without the distraction of a TV.

 

have you never heard of Billie Jean King and the Battle of the Sexes @Thevictorian? 1973 she took on and beat a former no 1 male who said a woman couldn't beat him because they are the weaker sex? Battle of the Sexes Tennis Match | Billie Jean King

I used to find the women's game more entertaining than the men's because the rallies were better. Far too many slam bang aces now and far too much grunting. The former is boring and the latter should be banned as, apart form being very unpleasant to the ears, it can be an unfair intimidation.

Both women tennis and women footballers play on the same pitch as the men and their game is generally more fluid and less physical. I gave up on men's football in the 70s - too many fouls and cheats winning out over flair and ridiculous amounts of money thrown about. Not about to get into the women's game as it becomes more commercial and thus corrupted.

I note that women golfers still play a shorter game than the men. Don't see why and OH, an amateur golfer who watches any sport he can, can't explain it. I used to know a woman married to a chap who went to every single golf Open he could and paid for her to have a ticket in the stands. She'd sit and do intricate Hardanger embroidery which just shows how rivetting golf is.

 

They was some headlines the other day about 300,000 people last year caneled their Tv licence

 

How very frustrating. Have you tried telling them you'll report them to the police and your local MP for harrassment @NigelJ ?

 

Unfortunately they are almost impossible to contact. All the details phone number, websites, QR code take you to a money extraction site and surprisingly they don't ask for a review of their service.

 

Women's football gets compared to the men's game because certain female former players keep claiming that women should be paid the same as the men. The reality is that although there is growing support for the women's game it doesn't draw in anything like the men's game in terms of finance.

 

When we sold my late mother's house, two very nice people purchased it, in their late 80s and 90s. They didn't need a TV licence because of their ages, and had not had one in their previous property, about 3 miles away. The TV licensing people started to harass them. They replied to every letter, explaining why they didn't need one. They were taken to court and the licensing people only backed down on the morning of the hearing. Such a lot of stress for them to go through, completely unnecessarily.

 

@Obelix-Vendée Riggs had been a top player in the 1930s and 1940s, years prior to the match against BJ King.

 

I know, but he was a stupid chauvinist who thought women wouldn't play serious tennis. I rather think the power and strength of many of today's top women players far exceed anything he had in his hey day.

 

@Obelix-Vendée I have heard of the battle of the sexes match but the one I mentioned was using data to analyse where SW might have been seeded in her prime, not against someone nearly twice her age. I dare say that if a similar match was fought today that the outcome would probably be similar. In the case of that match I'm very glad BJK won but I'd like to think modern attitudes would mean such matches aren't needed.

I believe the reason for shorter tees in women's golf is so that they can make the same par as the men's. I just had a quick look and it seems for professional golfers 270-300 yards for men and about 250 yards for women is the average biggest drive. It probably become more even when other shots come into play but you have that slight disparity to begin with. I doubt it makes any difference on a pitch and putt course which is as far as I've ever been.

I watch women's cycling quite a lot and there is a marked difference in tactics compared to the men's which makes it entertaining and exciting in a different way. The comparison between mens and women's doesn't seem to get mentioned at all and I think it's all the better for it, letting each stand on their own. Women's cycling is in a similar place to women's football at the moment, becoming more popular and commercial but the media seem to handle it in a far gentler way and it doesn't attract any vitriol from what I have seen.

 

Just had a wander down the allotment site out the back after clearing the last of the debris that had dropped on their "compost area", looks like they haven't composted anything there for about 10yrs, but apparently it was blocking them.

Anyway they have about 8 chickens and what looks like 2 black cockerels, most don't have all their feathers, not sure what is going on, but the chickens have no feathers in their fronts and the cockerels are just skin on their backs.
Surely that isn't normal, is it?

 

@pete It is if the birds have recently come from a poultry farm where high densities lead to high stress and feather pecking. Given a decent diet and space to de-stress they should feather up in a few weeks. Our rescue hens have been the same.

 

Thanks, but just wondering a chicken farm wouldn't have cockerels, would it, but there are two and they are in a similar state.
I tried to take some pictures but the auto focus kept focusing on the wire netting rather than the chickens, so they all came out blurred.

 

Mine have all come from layers so no fellas needed. Maybe these come from birds used to create more layers or eaters or have just been rescued from a bad situation.