Part of me was proud at his ability to watch and learn. For weeks he has been trying to turn it on but he has either not had the strength to push against the spring on the button or has possibly not been pressing the button in the optimal spot.

Last night though, he got it just right. Spot on. On came CBeebies.

The other part of me is horrified though. When kids can’t turn the TV on then you have some control. Now if weleave him alone for 5 minutes we run the risk of (with a few random remote control button presses thrown in for good measure) coming in to find him glued to ‘The Exorcist’ on TV on demand. A milestone has been reached. A line in the sand has been crossed.

We’ve always been advocates of a little bit of TV doing no harm. Anyone with kids will know the kind of breather which 20 minutes of ‘In the Night Garden’ can give you. It’s educational to an extent as well I suppose (honest!).

I remember when I was a boy, my parents were friends with a family who didn’t have a television. I remember lots of families when I was growing up who didn’t have a phone (it’s unthinkable now, isn’t it) but not to have a television? Turns out they were completely fucked up religious nuts. ‘Coronation Street? Not for us. We’ll have a reading from the Book of Corinthians thank you very much’. We’re not talking your average church-goer here. These were slightly more into it than that if my memory serves me correctly.

The last few days I’ve been messing about with Spotify. I’ve been a big fan of Last FM for a long time and this seemed like a variation on a theme with the subtle difference that you can pick the actual track you want to listen to. Not bad. I’ll keep you posted. The down side is that every half a dozen tracks or so, you are subjected to an advert (only about 20 seconds long) from the likes of the Energy Saving Trust or Spotify themselves advertising their subscription (ad free) package. I can see this sort of thing being the way the music industry is going though. I personally don’t have the same cash to spend on CD’s these days.

Back to the subject of TV – grown up TV this time – we’ve recently started watching ‘The Wire’. My wife and I have fairly different taste in television so it’s a rare occurrence when we both find a series that we are really into. Previously it was the Sopranos. About 74 hours of our life which we’ll never get back but it was unadulterated class. We are now into season 2 of ‘The Wire’. Slightly different from the first series in terms of character focus but it’s warming up nicely.

Wonder what we’ll be doing this weekend…..

Incidentally, this is the first post in 4 days which isn’t a list. Bet you are glad.

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The saga of the tram works continues. I ventured downstairs last night to find a note saying that the tram workers had flooded our basement. About 3 inches deep by all accounts. The resulting mudfest is still being trailed throughout the building today. I don’t know how much more I can take of those clowns.

Speaking of clowns, I have recently renewed my life long acquaintance with Laurel and Hardy movies. I’ve been a fan for a long time (since I was a kid really) and used to have an extensive collection of old VHS videos. Over the last few years I’ve been steadily building my collection up again on DVD. Pure magic. Even 70 years on, some of the humour stands the test of time very well.

It’s the subtle gags that are the winners in my book. Enjoy the clip from the classic ‘Block Heads’ which I’ve embedded in this post. I particularly like when the Michael Heseltine look-a-like gets it in the face from a flying ball.

That’s for the Thatcher years Tarzan. Get it up ye.

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