Tag: entertainment

I win!

Published on by Grace11 Comments

My husband has the capacity to sit and stare at the television for several hours a day. In the evening he prefers if I sit and stare at it as well to ‘keep him company’. Considering that we spend 24/7 with each other I don’t understand this.

Over a period of time I downgraded cable television from “everything on offer’ to basic cable to cable internet only but superfast speed to, just recently when my husband quit working,  basic internet speed. And it still costs me $95 a month.

We’ve had Netflix for close to 20 years, from back when it was mailed DVD’s. Over the years we have added BritBox and Acorn. Then Hulu to substitute for live television that we used to get via cable.

Last year Hulu prices became insane and they stopped carrying our local news channels. I switched to Youtube TV so my husband could watch the local news and World News tonight with David Muir.  Since his illness in January he started watching tv during the day and we needed local channels for that (because, you know, Let’s Make a Deal and The Price is Right is essential television viewing.)

Youtube TV was $15 a month less than Hulu Live plus it had our local channels. Yes we lost Disney and ESPN – boo-hoo, who cares, never watched them. Just this week Youtube TV increased its prices and I’d had enough. Spending $75 a month just to watch the news? I don’t think so.

Now we have Peacock TV and Paramount+ for a monthly total of $16. My husband has live tv but only CBS and NBC. ABC is only available via Hulu Live. Good-bye David Muir. (And I think one of the game shows, I’m not sure, I don’t care!)

All the ways my husband can rot his brain: Hulu-No Ads ($14.99), Netflix ($15.49), Britbox ($6.99), Acorn ($6.99), Peacock TV ($6.00), Paramount+ ($9.99), PBS Passport ($60 a year for a PBS membership), I get Apple TV for free from my mobile phone provider and then there is the Roku Channel that comes free with the device.  Oh, I almost forgot – Prime Video as part of my Amazon membership.

That my friends is a boatload of crap.  How much of any of this do I avail myself of? Pretty much none of it.  If we didn’t have a television I wouldn’t miss it. If, by some chance, I actually wanted to passively sit and stare at a screen I could use my computer.  As a matter of fact when I DO want to watch something I watch on my computer because my husband and I have different notions of what constitutes entertainment.

He always says “I’ll watch whatever you want” My response is “You don’t like what I do and you just fall asleep” He says “A nap is always good” sure a nap just before bed. And why should he not be able to watch what he wants?  He has no interests or hobbies or anything to occupy his time. Let him watch what he wants, I say. Me? I don’t really give a rat’s ass. Plus – I have options.

To make up for him losing David Muir, I discovered I could give him a gift subscription to the New York Times, free, from my digital Times subscription. He is happy with that. He reads it on his iPad.

Hallelujah!

And that’s what happens

Published on by Grace9 Comments

We do not watch any American tv shows . We subscribe to Acorn and BritBox and then there is always PBS…Occasionally you can pick up some on Netflix or Hulu.

As an aside, I discovered that I had Apple+ tv, free for a year, from T-Mobile, my cell phone provider. So far nothing there to watch, glad I’m not paying for it. We tried an episode and a half of “Ted Lasso” because we both had read how it was supposed to be all that and a bag of chips and our reaction? Why, God, Why?

Back to my first thought –

After years (and years) of British, Australian and Canadian tv we’ve naturally acquired a lot of ‘foreign’ language quirks. As in –

I was reading a blog the other day, and I was going to comment with my first reaction – “Now you are just taking the piss…” That’s British slang. My second thought was – “Nope, don’t write that they might not know what it means” I was being funny and the guy might think I was being rude; don’t wanna be rude. I said nothing but the phrase is still rolling around my brain.

Don’t get me wrong about non-American tv – every country has its share of crap but for the last few years the Brits, Aussies and Canadians just have been keeping us entertained and American tv has not.

We’ve even become fans of a French-language tv show.  I didn’t think my husband would like it because – subtitles. But he surprised me and really got into it. Plus my French improved tremendously. Well, understanding it anyway. I wouldn’t dare open my mouth and actually try to speak French. (Can you hear me? French spoken with a New Yawk accent? The mind boggles.)

And now for something completely different…

I didn’t sleep well or much last night. I’m not much of a napper but after lunch I zonked out for about an half hour. I was awakened by this song playing in my head –