Sanza; our sweet, sometimes shouty, soft, smart, blind cat; looks up wide-eyed and expectant. She distinctly remembers eating her tea not that long ago yet here are the pips, the seven o’clock aka Sanza Teatime pips, coming out of the radio. Does that mean she gets a second tea? Is it her birthday? Christmas? All of the above?
Back in the old days, before we figured out how to rewind time AND make it come out of the radio, Sanza would’ve already finished her tea before the Archers started. She would be having a wash and paying no further attention to the plastic box on the window sill as it continued to burble away to itself. Tum ti tum ti tum, indeed.
That was when seven o’clock was really seven o’clock.
But here we are, the seven o’clock news is being read at – checks lcd screen – 19:46. And the same things are happening again: possible leadership challenge to Starmer, Farage welcomes a Tory defector, refugees deported, Trump’s got a peace prize, massacres in Gaza again, and Sudan again, and Ukraine again, energy prices are rising, last year was the hottest year ever, trailer for a new BBC TV programme.
And for the foreseeable, they’re going to keep on happening again.
Maybe I should give Sanza a second tea. It would make her very happy. Again.