Who Remembers Watching TV Without A Remote Control?

Oh, the good old times....

As you might have gathered, our remote control has given up the ghost and new batteries will only be purchased today. Which effectively means that the last few days, either Bob or I had to get up off the comfy couch and do the deed of adjusting the volume.

Admittedly, when I first had a look at our TV close up ( and it is to my mind a fancy new one with only 4 years on its back ), I got a fright as there were no buttons to be seen. How on earth would we change the channels? Shew, luckily Bob knew that they are hidden on the side of it. Yes, go and have look at yours? Flat screen mounted on your wall...good luck!

As per usual, we do things the proper way and of course our receiver has also given up the ghost. Or at least partially. The overseas English language news channels kept on screening but anything else get cuts to shreds as normally only done by a vicious storm somewhere. No Signal. Yikes, so annoying.

We ranted and raved at the world for a day or two and I blame this on our addiction to watching television. My SOKO and Das Perfekte Dinner went out the window. We had small mercies though and with the proverbial luck of the Irish, we were able to watch the whole of the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. Thankfully, because it was the best of the season...

After a few days of no remote, we have adjusted. Wow, amazingly we now have more time to read, which we do. If for some reason a program gets through the receiver, we actually watch it in its entirety. No flitting between the various programs.

Cunningly I have now and again waited until Bob was on his way to the kitchen etc, to plead with him to adjust the volume. In the good old days of the 1980's most of us didn't have a remote control. In fact, most of us were the remote control!

" Quickly go and switch to TV1, but don't stand in front of the screen! "

That reminds me of an even more annoying time in TV history: The bunny ears. Who didn't have to jump up repeatedly during a progamme and stand fiddling with those iconic bunny ears?

As I am writing this, I have had an insight that is extremely sobering:

• Those who are still under the age of 30, might not know that bunny ears equate to a movable aerial on top of the box...
• and even worse, most of those under 25, don't watch television on a TV anymore as they are enslaved by their tablet or Smartphone.

Biggi