Life after Tv


I life in an apartment With no television. True fact. I have lived in my smelly damp
Apartment for 10 months now and I haven't had a TV in that time. Sometimes 
When I tell people this they look distinctly uncomfortable as if they no longer know how to make conversation With me because surely what horrible story is in the news and did you see x tv programme last night are the only viable topics of conversation.

The thing is I am not making some sort of statement by not having a tv. The truth is much simpler and far more boring. Here goes, I have never owned my own tv. I have always either lived somewhere that has a tv or lived with someone who had a tv so it's never really been an issue until last November when I moved out of a dodgy house share in a hurry and after looking at many, many different options I found myself moving into a one bed apartment by myself and guess what it had no tv. Not to mention the fact that just before I'd moved I'd taken out a new contract With UPC for tv and broadband which had only been affordable because I 
Was splitting the bill and consequently had been forced to choose which I could afford post move. The Internet won not that it was a fair contest given my lack if television. 

At first it was weird but I've gotten used to it over time. I do still watch tv shows but now I download them on to my
Laptop first and I only watch the ones I'm
Really enjoying. The difference is I watch a lot less tv. I don't have it on in the background while I potter around the apartment and I don't mindlessly channel hop looking for something worth watching. I don't follow what's on the Irish or British channels and find myself almost blissfully oblivious to reality shows like Xfactor when before I would at least watch the auditions stage, soaps are gone too but I can't say any tears were shed because I haven't followed a soap storyline since college. 

This lack of tv has actually bought me a lot more free time. I listen to more  music, I bake more frequently, my apartment gets cleaned more and that stack of books beside my bed is ever dwindling. I could happily say that life without tv is a good thing even if its just that I have been 
Shown I don't need it as much as I thought. And also I'm sorry I didn't see anything on the tv the other night because the only tv in my apartment is this giant analog beast of a machine that I don't think works and it sits in a corner gathering dust and displaying some old record cards that are sellotaped to it featuring workouts from an old challenge. Sure what else would I use it for :) 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes I open my mouth and my mother comes out ..

Image
I have been told on more than one occasion that I'm sarcastic. Often that I'm too sarcastic (as though there could be such a thing) and I have retort up my sleeve for such occasions which is if you think I'm sarcastic you should meet my mother. No, really you should because my sarcasm is but a pale imitation of hers. Every so often though I come out without something that makes my friends or other family members pause because sometimes when I open my mouth, my mother comes out.  It's funny how people always take the words you are turning into your mother as such an insult because the reality of the matter is it's a both a good and bad thing. Obviously there are certain qualities I am perfectly happy to emulate and others not so much and on the whole I am not entirely sure how much control I have over it. It's not quite a pick and mix counter here. I think there are some habits you are not even aware you have picked up until someone else kindly points it out....
Read more

How long does it take to learn to drive?

Image
I remember my nieces a year or so back asking me in an incredulous tone how long it takes to learn to drive because for as long as they could remember I had L plates on my car. The answer in my case is four years. Admittedly I probably could have gotten my full licence sooner if I hadn't been so hesitant to do my test in the three years that have passed since my last attempt. I get very anxious during tests or Interviews and so do not perform particularly well at either. I will put that in my list of things I need to work on in the new year. In time since I have learned to drive I feel I have accomplished a lot and yet I will go out of my way to avoid having to parallel park because I feel like its always going to be my Achilles heel. At least I have come a long way from the days when I used to feel anxious about getting into my car and was likely to bunny hop across roundabouts in third gear. The problem with learning to drive is that the older you do the harder it is and...
Read more

Burnout: the sequel

Image
  I am burnt out. Hardly the most shocking declaration given I have been saying it out loud for a while now but here we are. This isn't my first run in with burn out nor will it likely be my last. Not only am I working in a stressful job, a social care worker in residential care, which is no stranger to burn out but also I am autistic so its like I know a secret short cut to getting there. I think as bragging goes this is up there with declaring how many times I have managed to catch covid. Which is 4 at my current count and they say there are no benefits to working in Health care. If you are lucky enough to not have experienced burnout then I can tell you its not an experience I would recommend to a friend. If you have friends working in social care then you probably wont need to.  Some of the things I have been experiencing are random bouts of crying. Given high sensitivity is part of my autism profile, I am no stranger to crying and the first time I experienced burnout it t...
Read more