Television-impaired

Lisa: Maggie, come to the one you love best…

Today marks the halfway point in my ‘No TV Challenge‘. Although the challenge, set by my dastardly friend Tracey, offered me the option of splitting it into two single months rather than one long, consecutive stretch, I want to get this baby over and done with!

My old favourite, Neighbours, started back this week and of course I wasn’t there to see it. Thankfully, due to the joys of that other time-sucker (the Internet) I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. Nevertheless, I do feel more than slightly compelled to break my TV ban – just for the day – to catch up on the Ramsay street antics.

But I won’t.

No, I shall remain strong.

Are you surprised that I’ve managed to last this long without TV? I find it completely out of character that I’ve barely even complained! (At least, compared to my usual level of complaining). Perhaps I didn’t love television so much after all…

Or perhaps I’m just relieved Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead and Revenge haven’t started back yet!

My older brother, Ryan, thinks it’s cheating to embark on this challenge during the Summer non-ratings period. I just think it’s good business.

I’ve always watched a lot of TV. As a result, I speak in quotes rather than sentences, and I can relate almost any real-life scenario to an episode of either The Simpsons or Seinfeld (as proven by the quote above!) I don’t think it has harmed me in any other discernible way.

Even before the challenge, my TV consumption was drastically reduced. This year I’ve simply been too busy to watch that much of it and even my beloved Neighbours was often sent to the back burner (which, if you’re familiar with my dodgy electric stove top, you’ll know is a HUGE demotion).

The challenge, therefore, has been pretty easy. One of the few difficulties, as predicted, is avoiding TV when out and about. You try finding a seat at a pub that’s not facing a TV and let me know how you go! More challenging still, is trying to avoid it when others are watching it. Over Christmas, the cricket was on a lot at my parents’ house and even though I’d rather watch the empty pitch growing than the sport itself, it’s still hard to try and coexist with it in the background when it’s plonked right in the centre of household activity.

I have caught snippets of vision and snippets of dialogue, but I haven’t “willingly and knowingly watched TV or a TV show in any format on any device or by any other sneaky means”. At this halfway point, I’m calling that a resounding success!

Apart from a clear intent to torture me, I’m sure Tracey’s more positive intentions involved freeing up spare time to complete my other challenges, and trying to wrest me free of my Neighbours addiction. On point one, she has most certainly succeeded (what more proof do you need than me finally starting my book?) On point two, I’m afraid, it’s a dismal failure (Neighbours and I are Facebook friends – it’s going to take more than a TV ban to stop me!)

At this point I’d like to say a big “Thank you!” to Trace for helping me free up some spare time and a big “Hurry up! to the 9th of February 2013 (which is, unfortunately, a Saturday!)

While I think I have succeeded quite well on this challenge so far, I shudder to think what it might have been like had Tracey challenged me to forgo my real addiction…

The Internet!

More significantly, today also marks the 20th anniversary of the death of my amazing Grandad, Ken Eccleston. It must have been fate because this morning I was awoken by a distressingly loud buzz at the door and the return of a parcel I had sent to my Dad in France during our first Fathers Day apart. For both of these reasons, I’d like to re-share my Fathers Day post.