Thursday 18 December 2014

Not getting hooked on tv

Hiya. Let's talk TV. Simplesista asked what I watched. During the day I had it on in the background while I was sewing. Escape to the Country, looking at loadsa money houses that people were considering buying, like going house hunting but without the effort of making the journey to have a look. I've had the TV on today as well, but switched off, once you've seen one posh house you've seen them all, gets a bit boring. A Place in the Sun is another one, couples look at houses nearer home and abroad, usually France. They've done very well for themselves in a fast pace work life, now want to get out of the rat race and grow veg and keep chickens. Nothing wrong with that but I think people have a romantic idea about it. The Good Life, an old sitcom on has a lot to answer for.

Last night I was channel hopping, my attention span is low, ten minutes of one programme and I want to move on. Saw a bit of The One Show, a magazine type programme, Got bored with people promoting their books, and new films they have just finished.

Tried a programme called Living on the Edge, but knew I wouldn't last long with that. It was about reindeer making a long journey across remote Norway. A heartbreaking scene of a young reindeer who wasn't going to make it, then as soon as the Sami people talked about using every bit of the animals they killed, that did it for me. Can't watch that.

I saw a bit of Coronation Street, that is getting dafter by the episode. Someone from Emmerdale is in it now, she takes the part of a cougar, a middle aged woman who goes after a younger bloke. Nick fell under her spell and had to snog her. My goodness, she was plastered with makeup. That's one drawback with a big hd screen, everyone has tons of slap on. Looks like they have piled it on with a trowel.

At 8pm I watched All Aboard : East Coast Trains. That was quite interesting, a documentary about life on the railways. Saw most of that. Then it was over to BBC 1 for The Apprentice. I haven't been watching the whole series so I had no idea who the finalists were. This week the five of them were grilled by Alan Sugar's entourage. They all presented their business plan in the hope that they would secure a £250,000 investment if they won. To be honest, even though most of the contestants are pretty hopeless at business, you've got to admire them for their balls to put themselves through the millstone over the ten weeks it has been running. The interviews were pretty grueling. Someone was found out for lying on their CV, someone else made claims about their sales which were a bit suspect, and their business plans were pulled to shreds. I felt the interviewers were unfairly cruel. If someone spoke to me like that I would tell them to stick it.

Following that I put on Crazy Christmas Compulsives, a programme about people who take the festive revelry to extremes. Someone was snowman crazy and had hundreds of them all over the house, every surface was covered. It was at this point I dozed off and missed the rest of the programme.

I am struggling to find anything to excite me. Maybe tonight will be better.

Thank you all for your comments on the 'Brilliant', post. Most of you do understand the reasons why I live a frugal and simple life. To say I put myself on a pedestal is totally untrue. I tell my story as it is. My plan when I left school was to work and provide for myself. Not to take money from the state, not to get married and have to ask my husband for money but to earn my own. That's exactly what I have done. I've been lucky with my health, possibly a good gene, but I think some of my wellness may be down to diet and exercise. I can't be held responsible for those who have not been so lucky, or those who have lost jobs, or those struggling on a low wage. Of course I feel sympathy for people who find themselves in those positions, but it is not my fault. I can only write about my experiences in the hope that there might be something there that will be helpful. Thank you for reading.
Toodle pip

16 comments:

  1. Ha ha, I used to enjoy the TV show ' The Good Life' and have long fantasised about running a small farm. However as you say the reality is quote different and since I have had mixed success with my small veggie patch I have taken to enjoying running a small holding vicariously by reading the delightful blog mentioned in your side bar ' NEW START, NEW LIFE IN BULGARIA'. I also thoroughly enjoy your blog.

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  2. Well said Ilona, most of TV is mind bogglingly boring, I tend to hop around for a bit then turn it off. There are some programs that I do like but can not build my life around them. I too march to the beat of my own drum, I buy what I will afford and hardly ever at full price. I worked hard all of my working life and now can take it easy and do just what I want to.

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  3. Just catching up on a bit of blog reading and you really get people discussing things. Surely the sign of a good writer. I often think about your lifestyle and use some of it for inspiration. It sounds like you have a wonderful level of freedom. I love to read about it

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  4. Love the tv reviews, I do agree that the hd screens are not very flattering for the majority of people on tv! Tv does get boring and I can't sit and watch it for long, if at all. I didn't think you would be converted to being a telly addict! People have different opinions and you can't please all of the people all of the time, but I think your blog is self explanatory and your lifestyle choices don't need justifying. For those who seem to feel resentful of you,for whatever reasons, there are always people better and worse than we might be ourselves. However the ones we see as better off, can't live our lives for us or make their life the same as ours. And why should they have to? So,many cheers for your health and happiness Ilona and let us all find a path in life that suits us. And, er, leave Ilona alone-to put it bluntly!

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  5. My hubby just announced that there is a 2 hour special of the tv series "Bones", which is one of our favorites. Last night I watched an A Capella competition (Pentatonix won last year), and Michael Buble (not sure how you spell it.) You are the awesome queen of frugal living and I'm quite sure your eating and exercise are contributing to your good health. Toodle pip to you as well, and Merry Christmas

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  6. Wonderful post as always. You have a lot to share and many learn from you.

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  7. Isn't it amazing at how many channels and programs there are and there still is not much you'd want to see.It seems to get back to having way too much choice in everything these days, as you have written on.And...what's this pedestal schmedestal business? Isn't it interesting that when a confident,sensible,honest,industrious woman,such as yourself,expresses herself on her own blog it ruffles feathers?I'd say that means your doing something right-yes?(smile)Water off a duck's back, as they say.Be well,regards,Destemona

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  8. Haven't watched TV for ages. Can't get the aerial working but I'm going to try again this weekend. Seems that I'm not missing much! x

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    1. Don't bother, you're not missing anything. Watch on the catch up.

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  9. You could have turned off and had a Take That concert on Radio 2 !! No one is too old for Take That. :-)

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  10. I feel ur good 'karma' contributes to ur awesome inspirational lifestyle(we all have choices & it's our individual responsibility to be content & happy:). I'm with you with , mind-numbing TV trash. Quite partial to David Attenborough & Dr. Micheal Moseley documentaries thought!

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  11. Sounds like you had a good trawl round television world. I tend to record everything that we want to watch and that way we can whizz forward through the adverts (there far too many of them now), and if we get fed up of something we can just press the fast forward button or stop watching when we want.

    Too many programmes these day pad themselves out with repeated updates. How short do they think our memories are that we need reminding of the first half of the programme after a three minute commercial break!! Even the BBC have started with 'coming up later in the show' bits .... interrupting what we are already watching to tell us what we will be watching in ten minutes....... very frustrating.

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    1. I agree Sue. The back tracking gets very annoying, I've seen that bit thank you, now carry on with the rest of it. And that, 'coming up later in the programme' thing, enough to make you swear.

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  12. The tv signal fell out a month ago and noone has missed it enough to bother to fix it. Hate all the blasted commercials ranting on several times an hour. Most of what is on is junk anyway. We almost only watch nature and historical programs. The one about the Sami l would probably watch. Bruce Parry and historical farming. Pam

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  13. Just a quick note re telly. Panorama did a brilliant expose on Apple and the appalling conditions their iPhone employees were working under in Asia. Also they filmed dying coral reefs caused by their mining ships. I am sure Apple is not the only electronics company guilty of this, but it was truly a very well researched and documented programme. Good old Beeb!

    Linda xx

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  14. Ilona, I struggle to focus my attention on TV too, I only watch it because DH and DS want it on. However I was interested about your comments about not being able to watch the reindeer bring killed and then the Alan Sugar stuff. As a vegetarian I also find it impossible to look at animals bring killed (I deliberately did not watch that programme). But I had the misfortune of watching the apprentice interviews (DS is a fan, go figure! And asked me to keep him company), but between a tribe killing a weak animal and eat it for their survival and that bunch of pretentious wannabes and their puppet-masters in the apprentice, I would find the killing scenes less distasteful by far, at least there is a reason, unlike the apprentice muppets!

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