I'll watch just about anything, flicking from channel to channel to in no attempt whatsoever to "improve" myself, simply wallowing in the junk that's offered up.
Don't get me wrong though. I'm far from being an addict.
Instead I'll happily have the TV on while also listening to the radio, reading and holding a conversation.
Maybe this short video is proof that I can do more than one thing at a time.
Try it out.
Anyway, back to my BIG fat screen TV.
Because I only have Canal Sat, most of what I gawp at in the evening is French.
Yes there's the occasional saunter to the worst imaginable German and Italian channels with the odd glance at BBC World or (he says shamefacedly) CNN. But on the whole it's French tosh I tune in to.
And, as would seem befitting, my television viewing is aided (and perhaps abetted) by the most enormous brute of an appliance.
It sits perched uneasily on an equally "antique" (circa 1980) plastic yellow (the man has taste) IKEA triangular table (a relic from my student days) which has followed me around from pillar to post.
It wasn't meant to be that way.
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| My fat screen Akai TV |
I "inherited" the television several years ago (more than 15 I think, but I've lost count) and it had already provided its previous owner with several years of loyal service.
So that would make it more than likely pushing 20.
And there's no mistaking that it's from a bygone era.
It's not one of those flashy reputable brands but an Akai. No, I had never heard of them before (or since for that matter) - a Japanese electronics company which apparently reached its peak in the 1990s (sounds about right) and then went bust in 2000.
Almost as deep as it is wide, it bears no resemblance to all those swanky models which adorn the shelves of electrical stores and after which I longingly and lovingly lust.
In fact over the years, I've dropped more than the occasional hint in the weeks (and months) leading up to my birthday and Christmas that what I would really like is one of those slimline jobs - a flat (with the "l") screen TV.
I've admired them at friends' homes as they proudly flick a switch (or push a button) and the tastefully elegant screen lights up.
They don't have a bulk overcrowding one corner of the sitting room. Instead, their equally stylishly-decorated rooms are complemented by the very latest state-of-the-art thinness.
"Soon, soon, soon," I catch myself chanting in my head.
But then the more frugal side to my character kicks in
While it continues to bring me all my most-liked and disliked programmes (in equal measure) I simply don't have the heart to switch off my Akai permanently.
And I guess some day, when it gives up the ghost once and for all to make its way to whatever place is reserved for clapped-out TVs, I'll dig deep into my pockets for a replacement.
But for the moment it's service as usual - dang it!
(I wouldn't mind a flat screen TV though).
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