We finally got TV reception!

With the purchase of our new ali baba TV antennae, I am now able to watch regular TV channels! To be specific, “channel” without the “s”.

Erm.. make that “one grainy and fuzzy Channel 5 with occasional audio disruption.”

Still, that is a huge improvement from not being able to watch anything at all. I have been living without a working TV for the past 6 months since I moved to The Shit Hole. Gone are the halcyon days where the first thing I do when I wake up or get home from work is to switch on the TV and become one with the couch.

Instead, these days when I get home from work, I entertain myself by watching laundry dry or reading. I’ve never read so much in any period of my life. I manage to devour a dozen books in the past 4 months without distraction from the idiot box. The downside is, my brain has a tendency to shutdown at night if I have to do a lot of serious reading at work during the day (which is very often these days) so my choice of night time reading is recently reduced to really trite stuffs. (Hint: Go ahead and ask me the full name of every one of Bradgelina’s kids. I can tell you which country they come from too!)

Not being able to watch TV at home also mean that every time I pass by a TV outside, I get wildly excited. At hawker centres, I’ll choose the table closest to the TV so that I can watch Channel 8 dramas during dinner. At the elevators, I watch ads on “TV Mobile” until my eyes are glazed over. In fact, whenever I walk pass Best Denki TV section, I have to hold myself back from joining the little kids on the floor watching re-runs of Disney animated movies.

Luckily, I have a gym membership and in times of desperation, I’ll head there to watch TV. My gym recently (Thank God!) installed mini TVs on their cardio machines so half an hour jog on the treadmill now gets me fully updated on South East Asia News or if I can get there before 6pm, I can pack in an episode of Oprah or The Tyra Banks Show. It makes going to the gym so much more worthwhile. It also feels good telling people “I’m going to the gym” rather than “I’m going home to watch Oprah” when it’s all the same difference!

So if not being able to watch TV at home keeps me well-read and gym fit, why bother getting a TV antennae now?

Well, firstly, there is the Olympic Games. I don’t want to be left out (or as the Malay saying goes, “a toad under the coconut shell”) when the rest of the world is celebrating the “spirit of the sports”. I have been glued to the Channel 5 Olympic Games highlights every night. (Sorry but Jade Seah in her stuffy suit really cannot make it as a sports newscaster. Badly delivered jokes and unconvincing enthusiasm *cringe*) I heart watching the athletes from the PRC do their ‘thang’. (Beijing Boleh!) Take that 58kg weight lifting Chinese girl, Chen Yanqing, for example. She broke the Olympic record by lifting 158kg yet makes it look like an everyday walk in the market for her! And what about those Chinese synchronize divers, Lin Yue and Huo Liang? Are they manufactured from the same factory?? (Speaking of Beijing Boleh, is it just me who finds it somewhat amusing that Singapore is rooting for PRC athletes “from Singapore”?)

Secondly, I need TV for uninterrupted access to Channel News Asia in the morning so that I can catch up on foreign news, especially reports on the Malaysia political crisis - which is getting even more dramatic than Winter Sonata! Also, it is rather nice to hear the chirpy voices of Steven Chia and Suzanne Jong on Prime Time Morning when I wake up and listening to what’s been happening in the world while I get ready for work. It saves me from reading the papers during the day.

Lastly, there are those “kok” Channel 8 dramas that Dailytoe have been raving about and insist that I watch. Something about beach volleyballs girls and Fann Wong going cuckoo in the head. But since I am not able to retrieve any other channels except for Channel 5 with my alibaba TV antennae, I guess I’ll just have to rely on Dailytoe’s updates (she promised to do a re-enactment of Fann Wong for me) or continue to watch these “kok” dramas at the hawker centres.

Nonetheless, the Frou is happy with one working channel!

I must say, however, that I am slightly distressed about the sensitivity of my ali baba TV antennae. Any slight interference (e.g. flying bugs or change in wind direction) will cause an audio disruption so the sound gets cut off at random. By way of trial and error, I learnt that the best way to retrieve the signal back is by lifting one leg up in the air and waving it in a certain motion for a few seconds. It is a picture of ugliness (The Boy: ‘What are you doing??! Put down your leg!”) but hey… anything for Channel 5. Woot!