“Television is chewing gum for the eyes.”
—-Frank Lloyd Wright
Here it is 10:35 on New Years Eve, and I am in my bed writing this blog. Arthur and I have been fighting some nasty little virus for the past two weeks, and the darn thing came out victorious tonight. We ended up cancelling our plans...out to dinner with sixteen people and then back to one house for a party. Instead there were grilled cheese sandwiches and a couple of the Australian drama/comedies that we have been binge watching (more about that later).
I started feeling quite sorry for myself, and then I realized that I had very little to whine about tonight. Arthur is right here by my side, and as long as he is with me I am just fine. My two wonderful children took time from their own celebrations to text us a Happy New Year “I love you” which brought smiles to our faces and the realization of just how lucky we have been in our lives. Though the family has been feeling less than stellar over the past month, and we aren’t able to share our traditional New Years Eve with my sister Judy and Allan, we are all well enough to appreciate our lives and each other.
Trying to entertain ourselves over the past few months has been challenging. The holiday traffic in South Florida is abysmal, and we haven’t felt up to being really active, so we decided to watch some television. Unfortunately, this television season has been lackluster at best, and December is notoriously famous for reruns or Christmas specials. Luckily we came upon ACORN T.V. (thank you Amazon Prime) and have been having the best time watching shows filmed in England, Australia and New Zealand.
It all started with "Doc Martin". Arthur was hooked after the first episode, and admittedly it took me a while to get there, but there is something about that little English town that kept drawing me back. Doc Martin is a socially inept surgeon in London who develops a phobia against blood. He moves to a town he spent time in as a child and becomes their one general Practitioner in town. His inability to display much emotion makes his fitting-in difficult, and it took a season or two for me to warm up to him, but the scenery is amazing and the townspeople interesting. The show has been majorly successful around the world, and we are anxiously awaiting season 9.
After blazing through "Doc Martin" we found a series done in New Zealand called "800 Words". I quickly became addicted. George, a newspaper columnist and recent widower in Sidney Australia, moves his two teenage children to the small seaside town of Weld, New Zealand. Watching them adjust to a totally different environment, following the lives of the quirky townspeople and getting lost in the amazing scenery made me go into withdrawal when we finished our marathon of watching.
Now ACORN has taken us to Africa. "Wild at Heart" follows a family from Bristol, England to South Africa, where veterinarian Danny goes into partnership with Anders Du Plessis, an ornery older Afrikaner, and they turn Du Plessis’ land into a thriving game reserve. We are on season two now, and while the characters are not quite as captivating as in the other two shows, the animal scenes are simply amazing.
So while we have been sort of house bound these last few weeks, we have seen the world through the magic of television. I have never loved television as much as books, but this has been a fun way to see how other cultures live. I was one of those very weird people who never got into Downton Abby, but I think I just might give that another try, too.
Well, enough about television, this week I read/reviewed a well written thriller by Paul Batista. The Warriors is the kind of book that takes the reader deep into uncomfortable places that are exciting to watch from afar. I appreciated the strong female characters in this book that is sure to be a winner.
As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
—-Frank Lloyd Wright
Here it is 10:35 on New Years Eve, and I am in my bed writing this blog. Arthur and I have been fighting some nasty little virus for the past two weeks, and the darn thing came out victorious tonight. We ended up cancelling our plans...out to dinner with sixteen people and then back to one house for a party. Instead there were grilled cheese sandwiches and a couple of the Australian drama/comedies that we have been binge watching (more about that later).
I started feeling quite sorry for myself, and then I realized that I had very little to whine about tonight. Arthur is right here by my side, and as long as he is with me I am just fine. My two wonderful children took time from their own celebrations to text us a Happy New Year “I love you” which brought smiles to our faces and the realization of just how lucky we have been in our lives. Though the family has been feeling less than stellar over the past month, and we aren’t able to share our traditional New Years Eve with my sister Judy and Allan, we are all well enough to appreciate our lives and each other.
Trying to entertain ourselves over the past few months has been challenging. The holiday traffic in South Florida is abysmal, and we haven’t felt up to being really active, so we decided to watch some television. Unfortunately, this television season has been lackluster at best, and December is notoriously famous for reruns or Christmas specials. Luckily we came upon ACORN T.V. (thank you Amazon Prime) and have been having the best time watching shows filmed in England, Australia and New Zealand.
It all started with "Doc Martin". Arthur was hooked after the first episode, and admittedly it took me a while to get there, but there is something about that little English town that kept drawing me back. Doc Martin is a socially inept surgeon in London who develops a phobia against blood. He moves to a town he spent time in as a child and becomes their one general Practitioner in town. His inability to display much emotion makes his fitting-in difficult, and it took a season or two for me to warm up to him, but the scenery is amazing and the townspeople interesting. The show has been majorly successful around the world, and we are anxiously awaiting season 9.
After blazing through "Doc Martin" we found a series done in New Zealand called "800 Words". I quickly became addicted. George, a newspaper columnist and recent widower in Sidney Australia, moves his two teenage children to the small seaside town of Weld, New Zealand. Watching them adjust to a totally different environment, following the lives of the quirky townspeople and getting lost in the amazing scenery made me go into withdrawal when we finished our marathon of watching.
Now ACORN has taken us to Africa. "Wild at Heart" follows a family from Bristol, England to South Africa, where veterinarian Danny goes into partnership with Anders Du Plessis, an ornery older Afrikaner, and they turn Du Plessis’ land into a thriving game reserve. We are on season two now, and while the characters are not quite as captivating as in the other two shows, the animal scenes are simply amazing.
So while we have been sort of house bound these last few weeks, we have seen the world through the magic of television. I have never loved television as much as books, but this has been a fun way to see how other cultures live. I was one of those very weird people who never got into Downton Abby, but I think I just might give that another try, too.
Well, enough about television, this week I read/reviewed a well written thriller by Paul Batista. The Warriors is the kind of book that takes the reader deep into uncomfortable places that are exciting to watch from afar. I appreciated the strong female characters in this book that is sure to be a winner.
As always a complete review of this book follows my blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly
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