thefluteboy

Football (or soccer, if you are American) fans are at the moment delighting in the delayed Euro 2020 games currently taking place. As per usual, the TV schedules have been altered to make way for the obligatory blanket coverage, with the two main channels BBC1 and ITV1 choosing to broadcast endless footie - whether we actually want it or not. I always thought the advent of satellite and cable, with their numerous sports channels, would bring an end to this hijacking of our mainstream channels. Not the case sadly. We still have to put up with golf coverage, which is essentially just televised sky.

It is actually a good job she and I are not footie fans. Our two TV aerials will not receive a Freeview signal, or indeed have they ever in the three years we have lived here. Our Sky dish reception is currently being blocked by a communal tree that hangs into our back garden, and no cutting or lopping shall be done unless it is diseased or unsafe. Then there is the Amazon Fire stick that relies on a WiFi signal. The TV channel apps are slow and clunky, and last night would not get a reliable WiFi signal. All she wanted was to watch the (somewhat) important England v Scotland match, and all she could get was glitches and pixels. The TV was stuttering more than I do! My weekly installment of Gogglebox was also rendered unwatchable.

Now I can understand the frustration of this Turkish fellow, who was being pranked by his partner while trying to watch Turkey v Croatia in the Euro 2016 games:


Poor fellow is like: "HADI! HADI! HADI! HADI!" - whilst launching popcorn skywards!


This afternoon the gardener turned up with his tree-cutting tool, which apparently only costs £15 at Wilko, so I can buy one with confidence now. Intending to cut some branches from the aforementined communal tree, we started on one of ours which had grown a lttle too tall for comfort. Two huge branches were cut, and to my delight, our satellite signal was restored. The joy at being able to view the BBC channels without the annoying digital artifacts is immeasurable. It was also a reminder to keep our own trees in order. Little clue - they grow!