CHASING MY PAST TV DINNERS

Can you remember the first time you got a VCR? I can just about, in our house it was like all our Christmases had come at once. This thing was going to deliver unilateral peace to the childhood fracas that erupted over the clash of your favourite programmes. Although it wasn't just between the children that disputes arose, mum's soaps clashed with dad's sport or nature programmes and the heartache that washed over you at the thought of missing a couple of weeks episodes due to holidays to two channel land down the country or abroad where where everything was in a foreign language or there was god forbid there was no TV....

But with the arrival of the video recorder we were relieved of one set of problems and handed a completely new set. With the freedom to record all in sundry and watch it later your viewing habits increased and the amount of tape available to record diminished and was replaced b y a fresh one from the toilet roll style packs you purchased them in. People invested in a second a recorder or ones with two tape holders in one machine, which led to the building of  immense libraries that almost made the Smithsonian look small. 

These vast collections sometimes got partially wiped over inadvertently, usually when you blindly shoved the first tape to hand into the machine five minutes before the programme started. We lost two family birthdays and a wedding this way. God the weeping and gnashing of teeth that went on as a result of that made you sometimes wish for the old days without a "video".  

Then came the arrival of  digital recorders, gone was VHS, Beta, all those libraries of unviewed or numerously seen movies broadcast at Christmas. I only discovered the delights of owning a digibox when I moved in with my partner. The first time she paused a live tv programme to answer an inconvienent call of nature or the phone I had a caniption fit... But as with the arrival of the original VCR's I'm now faced with a rather large problem. Where hell do I find the time to catch up on the nearly two weeks worth of tv, from a complete series of Blue Bloods, numerous CSI episodes, Doctor Who, Torchwood, X Faxtor, the list goes on. recently my other half had to put her foot down when we discovered on top of the other unwatched programs there was an additional months worth of Emmerdale!!!!!

I have to admit that it had got to a problem, I was even thinking of going to seek out some sort of addiction group. It all arose as a result of me studying part time and working, where as before I'd religiously watched the Yorkshire dales soap every evening, I was putting it off for a couple days and like most addictions I let it slide slightly. A few times I did get it down to two and a half weeks!!!!... by going on speed watching binges... This was nothing new to me I once watched a series of 24 in one whole weekend, for the following week I kept dreaming I was Jack Bauer.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I skimmed through the saved section on  the digibox and just opened the Emmerdale file to see how much I had to catch up on now.....It was Empty!!!!!... How? Why? Simple my partner said, we'd reached 99% recording capacity, something had to go.

Another disadvantage to not still having a VCR is being unable to a hand a quite legal but pirated copy of a programme to a family member or a friend who'd forgotten to record something.This became a way of life, a safety net or get out of jail card when you, despite being asked by the other half to record something let it slip your mind.

So when we look back and ask ourselves has this technology really changed our lives? The answer's no, we've just replaced old problems with new ones and in some cases just repeated the mistakes of the past. As for trying to catch up with my unwatched programmes. The recession allows me to save money by not going out as often and catch up on the backlog.

MOVING ON

Yes I'm back blogging after a short break, ok just a little over a year. But whats a few months between friends, I've packed a lot into that year.  Including completing a diploma course in UCD for which I gained a Merit, bought my first home and moved in with someone.

As I sit writing this I feel like I've just attended a funeral, the reason for the sense of loss is my taking a break from a club I've been involved in for a quarter of my life. Every Tuesday and Friday for the past ten years  (with a few exceptions, especially on the Fridays) I've played badminton with Nomads in Bray. After some soul searching I decided to walk away from the familiar routine that was my life.

It's only now as I spend my first Tuesday night at home and not down at the club and then in a local pub chatting with friends afterwards, that I start to miss the banter and the club gossip. Not to mention the general raking over the news of the day.

I suppose it's similar to leaving a job you've worked in for all your life, you lose your security, familiar surroundings and faces. You're  now taking bold steps in a bright new world, where the routine you're used to has to change or at least be compromised.

Ok so I'm not moving to another country, I'll still see these friends as we all live in and around Bray, also lets not forget about facebook.  It will feel strange joining them for social occasions, I'll find it hard not to feel like an interloper.When actually, I should feel and they will undoubtedly make me feel like one of the gang, a sort of prodigal son, although I'll leave that moniker until I return to the fold, if ever.

Psychologists and the like probably have another way of saying it but in lay-mans terms a change is as good as a rest, familiarity breeds contempt. Like all relationships if you spend twenty four seven in the company of another person you will start to aggravate each other. That's one of reasons I've moved on, because certain things about my relationship with the club had begun to aggravate me.

I'm not giving up the healthy side of my existence for good, no I've joined another club in the same county. To see if as Petuala Clark once sang "the other mans grass is always greener" and if the sun really does shine brighter on the other side, of Bray Head.

Finally to my friends in Nomads who will be reading this, thanks for the memories and don't be strangers.