A Terrible Discovery

It's kind of fun to live in the dark. This darkness I speak of, is being without television. Over the past few months we've been reading lots of books, getting our news from the internet, watching movies on our computers. Sure, we do have a TV set in the living room — it's huge and old and is hooked up to a DVD player: it's good for watching our small collection of movies, borrowed TV seasons, and DVDs borrowed from the library (Toronto Public Library has all kinds of films, from Hollywood bloodbaths like the new Rambo movie to seasons of Flight of the Conchords.... we love our library!). When the World Series was on in October, we flipped around our few fuzzy channels and found we couldn't get anything more than a very staticky Omni 1 and CBC, and some French channel with crystal clear reception. We didn't waste any more time on it — truthfully, we were sick of TV wasting all of our time over the years.

We always get this look of shock when the fact that we don't have cable television comes up in conversation. There's usually a look of pity, a pause, and a comment like "Well, that's probably a good thing..." or even better, "So what do you do with your time then?" Well, we spent 6 months in Southeast Asia without televisions (OK, occasionally we'd score a room with a TV showing Korean soaps, or surprisingly in Burma, we once had a room with a satellite news station from Australia), and managed to entertain ourselves just fine. Is there really nothing interesting enough happening in Canada worth turning off the telly for?

Or maybe it's just that sedate lifestyle of living in one place, working the same job for a long time, and hanging out with the same people that does it to us. We admit, even in Melbourne, when we got settled with an apartment, steady-ish jobs, and a city we knew well, we turned on the tube and zoned out in front of anything that was on. At that time in Australia, there was no such thing as cable TV, only satellite (expensive FoxTel) or antenna reception — even in the city you'd only pick up about five or six channels on air. We got hooked on some pretty crappy cop dramas, a Australian newscaster we liked to call "Space Granny" (see photo, left), and even watched some Aussie Rules Football. And we realized how in Toronto, we take for granted the many channels available, thanks to having that American entertainment juggernaut not far across the lake and well within reach of an antenna if your apartment's on a high enough floor. But television didn't seem to dominate Australian workplace conversations, either, which was kind of refreshing. Here we've been feeling left out.

Anyway, so on Monday night we realized that even after months of living without TV, we weren't ready to miss another season of 24 (we'd forgotten about the first episode on Sunday). Just for the hell of it, we thought we'd try to plug in a cable splitter and cord into the wall, and see if perhaps Rogers screwed up and had given us cable with our internet connection. Well, we didn't even get that far. Adrian attached a cable to the back of the TV set, a splitter onto that, and suddenly we had our channels clear as anything. We flipped around and found out we somehow get all the major networks, without even plugging into the wall. And happily watched Jack Bauer kick down some doors and yell at bad guys.

And there went our evenings. Suddenly, we know when the Law & Order reruns are on, we can rhyme off the weather forecasts, and we've learned Survivor's coming back soon with the villains and good guys. We even watched the Canadian Dragon's Den, which by the way, has anyone noticed the noise that animated dragon (that shows up before and after commercials) makes sounds less like a dragon and more like a strangled puppy? Last night I even watched Survivorman, a show I despise. Anyway, this whole TV thing is a bittersweet, possibly terrible discovery for us — yup, we're back in the loop, but has it really improved our (or anyone's) quality of life? I guess now we've truly settled back in.

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** Well, you learn something new every day! Apparently our beloved "Space Granny", Lee Lin Chin, has more than a few fans online. Here's A BLOG devoted to her oddball fashion sense; a few of her newscasting get-ups on Flickr (HERE and HERE), and according to Wikipedia, she once starred in an Aussie miniseries with Nicole Kidman. We miss you, Space Granny! Is there a Canadian equivalent??

Does a possum see its shadow Down Under?

Happy Groundhog Day! We're missing old Wiarton Willie right now. But with Melbourne's "4 Seasons in a Day" infamy, could a rodent really be trusted with such a task as predicting the weather? Maybe we'll go ask a possum, just for fun.

There's not a ton of exciting news to relay, more the ins and outs of everyday life. But here's our week in review anyway:
--> Australia Day: We didn't spot as much in the way of supremely bad Aussie fashion as we had thought we would. We also arrived to the festivities late, having to watch the fireworks from two suburbs away as we walked down to Federation Square. We did notice a definite increase in drunk people hooting and hollering from cab windows, and the odd patriot wearing a flag as a cape. We spent it with a couple of Frenchies and an Iranian, celebrating our collective "Australian-ness" by having a few Tasmanian (James Boags, nice beer!) beers in the park by the Yarra River. Not too bad at all.
--> On the Job Front: Adrian's still working on it, though our landlord is keeping him plenty busy with paid handyman chores around the apartment (he's practically a professional painter now!). Dayle is getting used to her fairly mundane office job, and had her first encounter with negotiating a contract. She was served a very one-sided deal to sign, with terms like, while the company could terminate her on a moment's notice, she had to give a month's notice to them to quit. There were also some sketchy pay terms-- in Oz, if you make over $450/month the employer must pay 9% superannuation (basically retirement money) to you on top of the wage. Dayle's company was trying to include superannuation into the agreed wage instead of paying it over and above. That's a problem because as travellers, we can only access our "super" money when we leave the country for good. It's a nice little savings plan, but not something we want taken OUT of our wages. The meeting with the boss went surprisingly well and he reworded the contract to meet Dayle's demands... so she didn't get to walk out in a huff like she planned. So maybe these guys aren't so bad after all.
--> TV: We are very jealous that you people back in Canada have already seen the first episode of Lost. We won't get to see it 'til this week, making us officially a week behind the rest of the world in everything except Britney Spears gossip. We drowned our sorrows in a massive 24:Season 6 marathon last weekend instead.
--> Scenic Musings: We're really digging the grand old buildings, the huge green parks filled with giant trees, and the little nooks-and-crannies bars/cafes Melbourne seems to have hidden everywhere. Today we went to this cafe with a cozy little patio perched almost 3 stories above the street, off of an artsy, warehousey kind of building. There's no storefront sign, and the entrance door is all graffitied; I doubt we would have had any idea that it was there if it weren't for friends taking Adrian there a week ago. And they made the best (and prettiest) mochas we've ever seen. It's such a cool city!
--> Drama on Powell Lane: We're now up to 12 official + 1 unofficial people living in our little converted-warehouse apartment. And lately, someone's been peeing all over the toilet seats! Everyone's been getting increasingly tense about it-- finally Adrian made it his mission to confront each and every person with "Look, I'm not blaming you, or ANYONE in particular. But this has got to stop! Especially as we're the ones who have to clean the bathrooms every week!" It's since stopped (though it's only been 2 days), possibly due to Adrian's efforts, possibly due to one key suspect coincidentally moving out later that day. Definitely the GROSSEST roommate situation we've had yet. And this is coming from people who lived in a van, and then lived in a cottage with a dunny!
And that's about all. We've added some new pics to Flickr, so go check them out. Bye for now!