Get the picture? I can't...

I’ve always been fascinated by television, which as it happens is quite handy since I spend quite a bit of time in front of it.

Well, okay as it happens I don’t spend as much time as I might like in front of it.

Yep, that’s despite the fact that you’d think I would have more time than ever now to try to sit down and try to catch up with some of those programmes I have recorded or even watch a few of those dvd box-sets I have bought.

But I don’t, and yet I’m still fascinated by the whole television technology stuff.

One of the things that really astonished me and gets me wondering, is that whole beaming in wee dots kinda thing.

Let’s face it folks that is pretty amazing and I’ve often wondered how the dots know what order to come back in to everybody’s screen on.

Indeed I’ve often wondered how they know when they zap through the air, which houses to go to and which to avoid.

But it is the arriving through the satellite and re-arranging themselves perfectly on my screen again that has always filled me with admiration.

Until today that is.

You see for quite a while now, my television dotty things have decided that they will act up any time it gets wet and windy. And now that the snow is gone again, that will probably be more or less every day.

So, when the wind and the rain came back today, the picture I’ve been getting on my satellite stations has been breaking up.

The only things that work well are the programmes I have already recorded on the system. As a result, any time the wind and the rain comes, they are the fall back so that at least there is something to watch.

However I’m not really the best at working that side of the technology and I’ve discovered recently that the programmes I save on the system are ones that I’ve had such an interest in anyway that I’ve watched them when they were being screened.

But, hey, at least there is something to watch when the picture breaks up as it has been doing.

I suppose that is one of the disadvantages of having the satellite dish stuck on the side of the house - every now and then can get in the way of the wind.

Apparently, that is the most likely cause of what happened to my stations this time again according to the guy who fixes my satellite stuff when it goes wonky.

Of course it’s not fixed yet because, while he was able to diagnose on the phone what the problem was likely to be, he hasn’t arrived yet to sort it out.

He’ll be around apparently on Tuesday. I haven’t cleared my schedules to sit in and wait.

You see from experience I know that “I’ll be around on Tuesday,” doesn’t necessarily mean that. He’s more likely to land unexpectedly some day that you’re skint.

You’ll probably have sat down gone through all the bills that had been mounting up and begun to moan about the fact that you haven’t got a penny (obviously not in front of the tv because the flicking picture thing is just annoying at this stage) when he’ll arrive with the tool box, spend 10 minutes attaching some wire or other and then you’ll be landed with another bill.

One of the bills for me right now is the television licence bill, which a few days ago arrived through the letterbox.

I hate paying the tv licence, I think it is terrible that we have to pay such a fee, but I’m wondering now if I could just photocopy last year’s and make that do.

After all, I am right now only able to watch repeats...