Blog Standard

I was reading The Times on Saturday, as I usually do, and I was reading Giles Coren's food review. No, actually, it wasn't the food review, it was his wry and witty 'Opinion' column in the newspaper proper in which he, to be frank, rips the piss, out of whomever messed up in the public eye, during the previous week.

This week it was the turn of Nick Clegg, who had made a rash promise before the coalition, and has now been forced to backtrack and apologise for not keeping that promise. Click the link above, and you'll see that his apology has been auto-tuned and made into a track (which has been released). Apparently he penned the words to the apology whilst on holiday in Spain. And there's the rub, I too like to make a few jottings whilst on holiday in France, or more often on the 12 hour car journey back along the autoroute to Blighty.

It's become a bit of a standing joke these days, when the jotter comes out, and 'the list' begins. Usually, it's a 'to do' list. Things like: worm the dog, buy school uniform.. Sometimes, it's more aspirational things like, run a(nother) marathon, or actually go to yoga. Most times, the to-do part of the list gets done, and the rest wavers between September and December... For example, this year's list contained 'Go blackberry picking'. And I went. It also said 'Join Gym'. And I didn't.

As for Giles Coren he unfurls his holiday list, laughs, and tosses it aside.. Should Nick Clegg have done this with his penned apology as Giles Coren implies ? I think not. Why not ? OK, I'm no politician. However, if 'Cleggers' can show that he can 'take' being the butt of a joke, and also raise some money for charity at the same time. That is a good thing. Not just for his reputation, but also for the charity benefiting from the funds raised.. but, I guess, more for his reputation. It couldn't really be any worse, let's face it...

The moral here I guess is, if we want to live a 'blog standard' life, then the list wouldn't get written at all would it ? When we're on holiday, we're living in the image of who we would like to continue to be when we get home. Carefree, warm, relaxed, happy, having fun. No better a time to pen an apology if you ask me, or to write a list of your aspirations, whether you will achieve them or not isn't really the point. You are at least writing from a position of comfort, when you are at your most 'real', and it's the action of being bothered to write at all that counts.