Shining a light on the lockdown blues
for three years. Not that it would have made much difference.
It’s a fact of life that you are offered a good deal to snare your custom and then suffer increased premiums each year thereafter. Which is why I have been through so many companies in recent years. Sometimes I have let a slight increase drift but this was too much.
Go Compare was handily available on the internet, I entered my details and got a long list of quotes that started with the AA offering me the same cover for £304 – £200 cheaper.
I accepted and paid on the spot and phoned my present company to say I was cancelling. A pleasant young lady answered and I explained I wasn’t happy with the renewal quote. “Let’s take a look,” she said. “See if I can make it lower.” I told her the AA quote and she said: “Ah. Well perhaps not.”
One small victory for me. And a hint at what can be achieved by comparing.
THE start of Blackpool Illuminations always brings back memories. Particularly when I covered the switch-on in 1970 and woke up the next morning with a No Parking sign in my bed. I blame Tony Blackburn. But first, the background.
The switch-on has been in the hands of royalty, ambassadors, film stars, rock bands, pop singers and comedians. They include George Formby, Gracie Fields, the cast of Coronation Street, Ken Dodd, Red Rum and Kermit the Frog. In Blackpool, anything is possible.
Eight miles of lights along the coast are a famous attraction that the resort has always claimed to be the Greatest Free Show on Earth, and which extends the normal seaside season longer than anywhere else.
I worked on the town’s evening newspaper for eight years and when Maria and I married we had to pick the first Saturday after they ended in November. My wife-to-be was from a prominent business family, as were a large percentage of the guests. Half of them wouldn’t have turned up if the Lights were still on because they would have been working.
This year they will shine from September 4 until January 3 in a season extension to make up for the lost months of the Covid 19 lockdown. The usual switch-on that attracts
...I covered the switch-on in 1970 and woke up the next morning with a No Parking sign in
my bed
thousands has been cancelled and will be replaced by a free-towatch TV link in conjunction with MTV, that includes an hour long concert with live performances at a closed event filmed inside Blackpool Tower.
The year before Tony Blackburn stepped up to the podium to pull the switch, the ceremony had been performed by a Canberra bomber. The year after by the cast of Dad’s Army. I doubt whether I would have drunk so many gin and tonics on those occasions but Mr Blackburn was good company and the free bar in the Town Hall served such large measures that I lingered longer than I should. Nice chap, Tone, who, ever the professional, stuck to tonic.
When I left I did not go hot foot to the office of the Evening Gazette to write the story but first attended a record company’s private event in the Winter Gardens. Strange that I don’t remember much of the rest of the night and am confused to this day as to how I acquired a No Waiting sign.
Still, Tone was a triumph, the story got written, and memories are made of such antics in one’s youth.