Why is it that every time and it doesn’t matter whether you attend an amateur or professional production that the percussion always tends to be louder than the people on stage. Having seen my first pantomime this season, although there were fifteen people on stage, struggling with words and hopeful that the audience would be able to hear them, the person playing the drums must have thought he was rehearsing for the Albert Hall and needed to make as much noise as possible. The trouble with musicians these days is that they wear earphones for cueing purposes. Of course they have rehearsals, but the difference is between a venue being empty and a venue being full of people and the balance is a very fine line between the performers and the musicians.
Can you understand the driver of a vehicle playing his music so loud that he has to share the noise of a beating drum with the passing public. The windows are open to the full extent and we hear the BOOM – BOOM –BOOM and nothing else, no melody. These people will be deaf as a door post later on in life and will wonder why. It is almost as bad as using a mobile phone, not wearing a seat belt, tail gating, full head lights blazing, only one headlight working, reading a map while driving – drivers who do this should be fined heavily. It might not be a distraction to the driver doing these things, but it is to other road users – and of course there is always someone who wants to go faster than you, even though the person in front of you is going slow.
I always look in my mirrors and the funny gesticulations that can dance before your eyes are quite laughable especially in a queue of traffic, when it is quite obvious that you can’t go any quicker and the joker behind you starts waving his hand in such a way to make you go faster. I suppose they expect you to fly. My advice to such people is to get up earlier and avoid the disappointment of joining a very long queue of traffic.
I am not sure I quite understand the Government’s ruling about drivers hogging the middle lane of a motorway. I suppose if you have to come up with a new way of penalising the already heavy costs of driving your own car, this one is a dandy. It might be because circumstances have led you to the middle lane and you can’t do anything about doing anything else. It is like having a motorway with three lanes, but you can only use two lanes, the inner one and the outer one. DON’T USE THE MIDDLE ONE – YOU’LL GET FINED. You can imagine Dave Allen, the Irish Comedian saying that.
Isn’t it just a crazy world we live in and before long it will get even crazier as the bright sparks that work for the Government come up with some more quirky and ludicrous ideas for taking your money.
I suppose we can all give the Government what they want – no traffic on the roads. All give up our vehicles for a day, don’t go to work. Wouldn’t that express some solidarity when nothing but a very quiet environment was witnessed. You would be able to hear the birds sing. Won’t do much for the economy – but what if………..?
This is the penultimate GG Column for 2013, the next being the 30th December and after 31st we start a new year of promises that we find very hard to fulfil. May I take this opportunity of wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.