The Telly Broke

[poliphilo]

The telly broke yesterday. Well, not the telly itself, but the set-top box that serves it. The men from Virgin are coming to fix it Sunday morning. In the meantime if I want to watch moving images I'll have to stick a disc in the DVD player.

It was pleasantly quiet last night. I sat in my comfy armchair and read David Copperfield. If the telly had been working I'd have watched the second episode of Michael Wood's Story of India, but I can't say I missed it. 

There have been periods of my life when I haven't owned a telly. The longest was between 1998-91 (approx) when money was tight.  How did I pass the time?  I'm not entirely sure but I've got a mental picture of myself sitting at the kitchen table, messing about with water colours like a Victorian lady.  And if there was something I really wanted to see- like the first run of the Sherlock Holmes stories with Jeremy Brett- I went to my friend's house and we had dinner and made an event of it.

I watch TV most evenings. I flip through the channels or leaf through the Radio Times and usually I'll find something  to hold my attention for an hour or two. But there's very little I feel I have to watch. The last show I got wrapped up in was Rome. I like my ghostie programmes on Living and the Sci-fi channel but I'm not going to feel greatly deprived if I don't get to see them. Not being able to access the dim-witted news bulletins is a relief.

Would I want to live without the telly?  No, not really; I enjoy it too much.  Could I live without the telly? Oh, easily.

Comments

[aellia.livejournal.com]

If our TV wnt I would not miss it a bit. Except for The Night Garden!
However,take away my computer and I'd probably just fade away into oblivion!
x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

TV- as we've known it since you and I were kids- is probably on its way out. In the not so distant future we'll be accessing TV shows as and when we want them through our computers.

Living without a computer would- I agree- be pretty tough.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I really wish we could access TV shows on demand. It always seems to happen that the things I want to watch are on in the week on a class I teach an evening class or are on too late on a night when I have to get up early the next day. Then on the odd evening when I want to relax in front of the telly, there's nothing on of interest.

The longest we ever went without a telly was from 1970 (when I went off to university) to 1985 (when we bought our first TV set). So as you can see, TV is pretty optional as far as I'm concerned, but if you took away my computer, I'd have no social life! :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have the facility with cable of viewing a selection of programmes on demand. We watched the whole of Life on Mars, Series 1 this way.