What do Donald Trump, Covid-19, and the Sussexes have in common? I'm tired of hearing about them, writes Nicola Alpe. Photo / CBS
OPINION:
Life can be measured, among other things, by anniversaries, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, reflections at New Year's Eve, dates of losing loved ones, they play a part in how we mark life, consider time and growth.
Given the recent lockdown anniversary, I've concluded there are things that I could quite comfortably never hear about, talk about or have to live through again.
I embraced Meghan and Harry's royal union with gusto, baking scones and sourcing real Devonshire clotted cream for a morning tea situation in LA. Inviting girlfriends over, they watched as I became misty-eyed talking about how fabulous this new marriage was. If they didn't already know me they would have been quite within their rights to consider me completely bonkers.
A few years on and twelve months from their royal departure, readers and now viewers still hang on to every word uttered by or about them, to the point where articles published in this section get hundreds of thousands of views within hours of them being posted. What is it about this train wreck that we can't get enough of? Does it make us feel better about our own family dramas to watch someone else's play out in real time? Are we rooting for Harry, the royal underdog, hoping to see him sticking it to the man (or is that his Gran?).
I simply cannot consume one more piece of press about them. I am going to comply with their wishes and give them a completely private life. I am resigning from my interest in Megxit and detach with love.
Hasn't it been a blissful few months without endless coverage of every utterance of nonsense that came out of his mouth? I couldn't wait for Joe Biden's inauguration. Why? Because surely the late-night hosts, the media and the general populace would then have someone else to complain about, and Trump's metaphorical oxygen supply could finally be cut off.
The ramblings, or musings, of a former president are proven time and again to be irrelevant, and so like many others, I have enjoyed a period where my senses haven't been assaulted on the reg. That said, there are whisperings of his own social media network, so I must make the most of this while I can and develop some coping mechanisms just in case. I wonder if the programmers will just go ahead and make caps lock the default setting site wide?
It goes without saying that we are all thoroughly sick of the damn Covid. We are tired of it taking up our dinner conversations, tired of it taking up the news and tired of living in limbo about how our futures will be, yet for me, something else has come to the fore from the past year of continual Covid coverage.
I have collated a list of words that I have quickly grown to despise as they have come to dominate our vernacular. Unprecedented tops my list, especially when people in the general public and some who should know better, pronounce it "unpresidented". It's not even a word - see notes above on past tense presidents. Pivot is there. As a girl I spent considerable time mastering the pivot and I believe it should stay on the netball court. Sadly, bubble has lost all the childhood whimsy of blowing bubbles and some of the grown-up excitement of opening a bottle of bubbles. Others include conspiracy, social distancing, lockdown and election.
Like many of you, I wait eagerly to see what little joys the next year will bring.
The new doco follows the Sussexes' Harry & Meghan, Live to Lead, and Heart of Invictus.