Guilty Pleasures

Come on – we all have them. Eating Nutella straight out of the jar whilst snuggled under a blanket and watching Bridget Jones for the 100^th time? Your vinyl collection of Bros? Your hidden CD collection of Kylie Minogues hits – all of them. Watching that foreign crime show on SBS, with the sound on mute and no intention of reading the prompts – checking out the eye candy?

My guilty pleasures surround the telly… evil contraption. Singularly responsible for melting the intelligences of all who watch it, the degradation of our society, melding the will and opinions of the weak minded populous… did I mention I hate the media, the manipulation of facts, opinions and images to suit power mongers… hang on I think I need a little air here….breathe in and out….

For many years, Adrian and I didn’t have a telly. I was very mistrustful of them and the mass media anyway – having gone through several Gary McLeallan courses at Uni in multi media ( anyone who knows who Gary is.. will understand) When we lived in the tin shed ( rejecting all forms of capitalism) the telly we did have blew up and we were too poor to buy another. Plus it was too cold to sit and watch it – the wind whistling up your legs just loses it charm when it hits 0 degrees. We moved to the UK and amongst the mad things they do over there – you must pay for a license to have a telly. That just got up our noses – I don’t even know how much it was – but I am sure even if it were 50 p we would not have paid it. SO we went through five years there with no telly. It was such an incredible treat if we ever went to a B & B or a hostel and go and watch the telly.

When we got back we didn’t bother buying a telly – we had gotten used to not having one and really – found other things to be doing. I remember I won a DVD player at work. It was a very big deal and it was a very expensive one. It sat in its box for over 3 years before I opened it. When we finally did get a telly – we banished it downstairs – so it was a big deal to have to go outside and down into the garage and into the flat to watch TV. So we still didn’t watch a great deal – DVDs mainly.

Kids came – and for peace sake, so did the wiggles and playschool. Still a lot of DVDs and not much regular telly – though I have to admit one guilty pleasure – 24… Jack Bower – hummm Keiffer Sutherland has always had a very special place in my heart…it was on at 11 pm – how ridiculous! But by then – Morgan never slept – so I was up 24 hours a day – so it was fine… There was a show on just before it – a doctor thing – I never got much into serials and especially the whole emotional strain of doctors and nurses… however – Grays Anatomy really struck home with me and I used to ensure I would be watching it first – before 24 came on…

So my guilty pleasures – currently surround a Wed and a Sunday night – the only two nights the telly goes on for any extended period. Spicks and Specs, The IT crowd ( or whatever comedy show is on at that time and there have been some crackers – bring back the Chaser!!!! ) and the Movie Show. On Sunday – Gladiator ( I know – shame…..) and then Grays Anatomy. I am particularly embarrassed about Gladiator and how much our whole family gets into it – yelling and shouting at the competitors and for our favourite gladiator. The embarrassment is sort of like your new boyfriend finding a pair of your dirty undies stashed in the kitchen when he went to make a cup of tea…what?

Another Guilty Pleasure I am sharing with a friend – and they are the BEST – is searching You tube for Adam Hills videos and watching them. Over and over.. even the ones you have seen every time we do it – we watch it again… especially the Rocky Horror one.. replaying him ripping his shirt off. Oh dear.. I think I need a little lie down and some air….