TV and Being Comfortable

One of the comfortable things about New Zealand is the TV adverts (which appear on all channels). Some are very much like they are in the UK and some are definitely not. But what is so comfortable is that many of the adverts which were on when I left here last March are still running.

It's not just the adverts either. TV3 Weather's 6pm principal presenter, Toni, is still there. None of your staid UK presentation. Glamorous (not that UK TV lacks glamour in its presenters) and very competent (ok so no difference there then either) but above all completely part of the nation to which she belongs. For example if you get a really brilliant day coming up in a period of less pleasant weather she may describe it as "just the day for you to throw a sickie". Other descriptions of the weather include 'informalities' which just wouldn't be seen on UK TV. Shame really.

Apart from the adverts TV seems to be 'reality' shows, soaps, lots of US/UK crime programmes but very few films. Although SKY has a UK TV channel with lots of old (and possibly not so old) UK programmes. In other words TV is even less varied and interesting than it is in the UK.

So far apart from Boston Legal (a programme I happen very much to enjoy) I've been reduced to watching old Judge Deed and House episodes on UK TV (most of which I saw last time I was here but on a NZ channel). As you will have guessed, therefore, I watch very little TV. I do watch the News and occasional DVD though. Ah well.

Early one morning (Friday to be more specific)

It's just after 0600 and I'm doing something I have very rarely done in my life: I'm sitting in bed having a cup of green tea with lemon. It is not, you understand, the having of the green tea with lemon which is unusual. That is frequently my beverage upon waking. No. Rather the sitting in bed drinking it. For me bed has only ever been for two things. Sitting up reading and drinking tea was not one of them.

I have just taken this picture of the view. The sun is well up and promises a wonderful, hot day. The last few days have been cold because, although the temperature on the deck window in the shade has clawed its way up to 20deg, the wind has been from the sea and has been very cold indeed. Cold enough for me to wear a sleeved Berghaus fleece on top of my windproof fleece lined body warmer. There have been moments when I wondered whether this was really the weather I'd come for.

I was going to start this posting off by saying that I was sitting here feeling somewhere between death and death warmed up surrounded, as I am, on the floor by at least one box of tissues used and discarded through a night of coughing and spluttering and generally feeling very sorry for myself. But, of course, when it comes down to it I realised that I may have a stinking cold, feel shivery, be coughing fit to bust and just want to curl up and hibernate until it's all over but the reality is that there is nothing wrong with me. If there was I wouldn't be sitting here with the Laptop on my knee writing this.

I am tucked up in a warm bed in a warm cottage in a warm climate in summer with the sun shining and the birds singing. I have food so I am not hungry. I have drink to quench my thirst (and if it's lemonade I have enough to quench the thirst of all my friends too!). I have friends of immeasurable importance to me (even if I have come far away from most of them). I have a body that, once this cold goes, should serve me well for a little while yet. There are many who do not.

I hope one day my Friend and Brother posts one of his typical days on his Blog. Those who read it will stop complaining when they have a cold and not think, as I did when I woke this morning, that they felt like death warmed up.

Well I have indulged myself long enough. At 0900 the Pest Control Company is coming to spray the Cottage and Wendy and Martin's house. This leaves a film on all the surfaces and nooks and crannies which kills all the flies and bugs which attempt to co-habit our dwellings (heaven knows what it does to us). Living in the middle of the countryside in a climate like this certainly means that you have plenty of them. So I have to rid the living spaces of anything that I might come into contact with such as bedding and food which might get sprayed. Then I'm off out for morning coffee. Then I have to be back to let the Sky TV man in to wire up Sky. We thought that a phone line was needed but they are adamant that it is not. We shall see.

No. I can't have felt like death warmed up. There isn't time for that.