I Am A Swede

^^ That was brilliant! Thank you! Great to hear her talk about her time on the show, her castmates, how it was to step into an already established role, and how she feels about the changes the show has gone through over the years. She voiced so many of my own feelings about that subject especially. And I particularly loved what she said about Matt and Dolly not being boring, but relatable. Such a profound statement, and one that I think the producers and writers of todays shows should take to heart. It really irritates me when people say that the show was boring back then and that nothing happened. That is so not true. A lot of dramatic stuff happened, just not all the time. And that made the impact so much bigger when something did happen.

To be honest, wearing face masks has not really been seriously considered here. There's been some talk about it, but not much more than that. Social distancing has been the main focus here, and it seems to have worked. After a rocky start, all the numbers are going in the right direction here. The infection rate is down and the number of people needing intensive care is down. So at least for now the future is looking brighter. As a consequence the restrictions here are being relaxed a little. From October 1st the ban on visiting elderly relatives and /or friends in retirement homes will be lifted. It's been in effect since the start of the pandemic to protect the elderly who are at greater risk from this disease. Life here has in many ways almost gone back to normal. A few months ago the streets were almost empty. People only went out to do the most necessary things, like going to work or go shopping for food. Many worked from home if possible, but it was all done on a voluntary basis. Theatres and cinemas were closed and while restaurants were allowed to remain open there were limits to how many customers they could serve. Universities and high schools were closed and students had to work from home and have digital lectures. Now all schools have reopened, and the streets are as crowded as always. Theatres have slowly started to reopen as well, with restrictions regarding admissions, and the same goes for sporting events. Right now our infection rate has dropped below our neighbours Norway and Denmark since they started to relax their more severe restrictions. Hopefully this positive trend here will continue, but with this virus so much is unknown. All we can do is hope for the best.

^^ Seriously?! Comparing wearing a mask to being suffocated by the police?!

R.I.P Ms Rigg We've lost both Cathy Gale and Emma Peel this year......

Thank you. Zoe was a wonderful character, and it's so tragic that Leah isn't here anymore.

Things are heating up in Belarus.... Opposition leaders Maxim Znak and Maria Kolesnikova have been detained by security forces, and Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich is being protected by foreign diplomats in her home to prevent the same thing happening to her. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54079337

I guess that's because we care about these characters in a way that TPTB don't. We invite them into our homes on a regular basis and we grow to love them over the years. Longtime characters on long-running shows stay with us through the years while other people come and go in our lives. I was only around 4-5 years old when I watched Emmerdale Farm for the first time in the late 1970s and I grew up with Annie Sugden in my life, so I naturally have a very strong connection with her, which is why her death means so much to me. I seriously doubt that anyone in charge at Emmerdale now has that kind of connection to the character of Annie that I, and other longtime viewers, have. Correct me if I'm wrong, my knowledge of the history of Guiding Light is somewhat limited, but wasn't the character of Bert Bauer killed off much closer in time to the death of her portrayer? That makes it even worse that they could mishandle the tribute to her. In comparison, Annie Sugden has been absent from Emmerdale for more than 25 years, and very few (hardly any really) characters with ties to her remain on the canvas. This makes it a little more understandable that the show failed so miserable to pay tribute to her. It's still inexcusable mind you, considering Annie's importance to the show.

Aren't we lucky. Look at this marvelous tribute they put together for Annie..... They put so much time and effort into this. (This is from the official Emmerdale Youtube channel.)

A military laboratory in Germany has apparently found proof that Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who fell ill during a flight last month, was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. It's the same poison that was used against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury 2018. Germany now demands answers from Russia over this. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54002880

I didn't even think of the Skilbecks! Technically none of them are Sugdens of course, but Annie would think of them as family all the same. I don't recall any mention of any other relatives on the Sugden side of the family before, and for some reason I always pictured Jacob as an only child. The Pearson side of the family tree had a few representatives on the show during the early years though, like Rosemary Kendall and the Crossthwaites.