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My 2022 awards

It's award seasons again, and here's my contribution.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Best food

A couple of times last year we ordered a "ready meal" from Cook. If Carlsburg did ready meals they would be like these. They are cooked to order and very tasty. The best part of the meals though was this cheesecake. It's light and fruity and the best food I ate all year.

Best music biography

Running up that Hill - 50 visions of Kate Bush isn't a sequential biography, but has 50 chapters on different aspects of her life and music. It's bang up to date, so includes the Stranger Things use of the title song. There are some great stories, like when Lenny Henry came into the studio to record backing vocals for Why Should I Love You?, and remarked, "that sounds like Prince on the guitar". It was, and Kate asked Lenny if he wanted to meet him.

Best TV programme

The Secret Genius of Modern Life from the BBC looks into modern gadgets that we rely on, like contactless credit cards, smart speakers, or electric cars. It's presented by Dr Hannah Fry, who also does the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry podcast/radio programme. It's a bit like the old Tomorrow's World (and I did detect the musical flourish from the end of that theme tune at the end of the Secret Genius's theme tune). The difference is, rather than seeing an invention and wondering if it will ever make to market, these are things that are already part of our lives.

Worst response from the council to fix a road painting problem

I could write a whole blog about potholes and road problems, so just be glad I don't. It took 18 months and 3 reminders to paint a picture of a bike at a junction. Enough said.

Best advert - Cunard 

It's from 2019 but I saw it in 2022, so I'm including it. It features a quote from "philosophical entertainer" Alan Watts in his own voice. He probably wasn't thinking of cruise liners when he wrote the lines "I wonder, I wonder what you would do if you had the power to dream any dream you wanted to dream?" I find the original record very evocative.





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