I realised I was in trouble when I rang up the repair people and they put me through to a “special department” after I told them my TV didn’t have a plasma or LCD screen.

“You have a cathode ray tube set?” I was asked in the strange tone I hear when I tell people I don’t own a car.

“Yeah, I live in a tower block,” I told them. I’ve found that people accept, “I live in a tower block” as an explanation for just about anything.

the hole in my life where the tv isn't

They wanted the model number. It took me a while to find it under the accumulated dust. Then the number didn’t exist on their system. I worked out the TV was 20 years old. It had never previously needed repairing.

They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

No one locally knew how to service a CRT TV. They had to find a repair man in London. When the guy saw the set he laughed and I knew it was the end of the line for the TV.

The repair man took a look. The circuit board on which the transformer sits had carbonised with heat and age, become brittle and cracked.

No chance of replacement parts. Short of getting hold of the circuit diagrams and building a new board myself, that’s that for a faithful old friend.

Time for an upgrade.

I only replace things when I have no alternative. I’m the kind of guy people at Apple hate. When I do get something new, I get the biggest and best model I can with all the gadgets and gizmos. I then play with all the gadgets and gizmos once and never use them again.

It keeps me happy.

I’ve been drooling over the 42”, all singing, all dancing, high-definition ready, plasma screen TV’s. Then it occurred to me to get a tape and measure the hole the new TV would occupy.

A 42” TV is 1 meter wide. That would stretch from the arm of the sofa to the edge of the wall in the photo. It would over-dominate the room.

I would have to move the furniture and plants. The ivy wouldn’t like that. See it growing up the wall? And let’s be honest, I don’t watch that much TV.

I have settled for a 32” plasma screen, which is not quite state of the art when it comes to clarity etc, but it is “high definition ready” and will be a huge improvement on my old set.

It arrives Friday, which gives me a whole weekend to play with gadgets and gizmos.

burnt out circuit board

It was the circuit board. You do not have to be an electrician to see there is something wrong with it.

It was only five years old.

The price of the new board was £150. That’s the same price as the motherboard in this computer. But the processing power to run a household boiler is minimal.

I suppose the much smaller numbers of boards for a boiler compared to a PC explains part of the price. But I still feel ripped off

More home maintenance this week. I fixed the pull switch in the bathroom. The spring had been going for a while, it finally gave up last week. I couldn’t get an exact replacement and now have a hole in the bath room ceiling to fill.

I have spent about £200 on the flat this week. I’m a bit broke. Rather than go out tonight, I’ll sit and luxuriate in the warmth generated by my now working heating system. And maybe turn the light on and off in the bathroom a few times.

And good TV tonight with a new episodes of House, later Chelsea beating the Arsenal 3-0.

I’d already seen most of the first two series. I’ve been watching one an evening since October, and it’s been great viewing. I’m just getting to the end of series 4.

The Wire is a powerful stuff. It’s overpowering when you watch all 60 episodes end-to-end. And depressing, the US looks completely dysfunctional. Perhaps the fact that TV shows like The Wire are being produced is reason for optimism.

I love the theme tune. I hadn’t realised that there’s a different version for each series until I watched them back-to-back.

Here’s Tom Waits with a live version. I think it was him on series two.

Which reminds me, It’s about time I went down The Blues at the Red.

Question: “If you were to glimpse 137 seconds of your life, six months in the future, what would you see?”

• How would you react?
• What if everyone in the world had had a similar experience?
• What would they do?
• How could it have happened?

Flash Forward starts with such an event. Then follows on a group of characters as they try to answer these questions.

The science is believable enough. There have been hints that an experiment in quantum mechanics caused the blackouts. Episode 7 “The Gift”, shows the future isn’t set in stone. Which is consistent with those interpretations of Quantum Theory which postulate all possible universes co-exist.

Yeah it gives me a headache too.

If the science is believable, I’m not so sure the characters are. Would FBI agents really behave that way?. Everyone seems a bit too relaxed about suddenly seeing the future, an event that caused mega-deaths.

Wouldn’t the whole world be on the brink of war, if not gone to war?

Still I like it. Flash Forward gets better as it goes on. From the simple idea, the plot has grown, becoming more convoluted and interesting. There are sub-plots and plots within plots. You get the idea that it will all pull together in the end.

In the UK it is being screened on Channel 5. Which is great as you can always catch up using their Web TV.

This has become must watch TV for me.

Defying Gravity follows eight astronauts as they start out on a six-year-mission to Venus and other parts of the solar system.

I never saw this advertised. I stumbled across it by chance. I am now up to date, having caught up using the BBC iPlayer.

It’s lucky I never saw any of the trailers. They are completely OTT. If I had of seen one, I probably would have not bothered to watch the show.

As you might expect from a show with the Grey’s Anatomy in Space label, the focus is on interpersonal relationships rather than science.

lost in production?

In the first two episodes there has been an abortion, an attempted suicide, two left to die on Mars, one near death experience, one weightless sex scene and a mysterious alien presence in the hold.

Just an everyday story of space-faring folk in 2052.

The science looks reasonable, nothing to stretch my credulity so far.

One exception is the rational behind the mission. Would anyone really send an eight crew on a six year tour of the solar system? Perhaps the mystery in the hold explains this. I will have to be patient.

I do like it though. It promises much. Unfortunately it was not very successful in the US and so only the first series was made.

Blondes in Space

My favourite character is Zoe Barnes played by Laura Harris, I liked her in Dead Like Me. Zoe Barnes reminds me of Trillion from the BBC TV production of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. In the future all spaceships should have at least one blonde.

Are you listening Star Trek?

There is some great new TV this season. Stargate Universe, Defying Gravity and Flashforward are all looking good. Is this the new “Golden Age” of SciFi?

Today, a review of the new Stargate, I will review the others later.

I liked the Stargate franchise, but thought it had become a little stale. Still, I am thinking of asking for the box series of Stargate SG1 for Christmas.

In the latest outing of the franchise, a group of present day scientists and soldiers are forced through a teleportation device to escape attack. They end up on a huge, ancient starship, on the other side of the Universe with no way back to Earth.

None of the escapees were expecting this. Much of the story so far is how the various factions and characters come to terms with the situation. It has been very dark. Not a happy crew by any stretch of the imagination.

No aliens as yet, just the alien ship which is falling to pieces.

The best part of the show is Euwen McGregger as Dr Nicholas Rush. I can’t think of anything he’s done that I haven’t liked. He certainly adds to the edgy feel. Dr Rush is a complex character.

In fact, all the characters are more interesting than those in the other Stargates. The show has moved away from the Black Hat / White Hat, Good / Evil duality. Stargate Universe is painted in shades of grey, something for the adults among us.

I am looking forward to watching this hotchpotch of characters evolve.

Hopefully, this new series will continue to move away from the original. The writers have a grand canvas to paint on, the whole universe.

That’s what I like most about SciFi, an unlimited canvas to paint characters on.

friend or foe?

It’s time to renew my multi-media package. Presently, I pay £11.50 a month for over 100 hundred channels. Along with the usual free to air channels, I get Sky, Living, Hallmark, SciFi and Bravo. There is usually something to watch.

Before I subscribed to multi-channel TV, I listened to music, read and went down the pub every night. Multi-channel TV was a healthier option. It has been good value for me in many ways.

But now I feel I am watching TV too much.

I catch the news at 8pm, followed by The Daily Show. It then stays on for the rest of the evening. I’m usually doing other things until 11pm. So maybe I have it on for company.

The TV has my undivided attention after 11pm, until I fall asleep in front of it sometime after midnight.

If I scale down my package there are some shows I will miss. New series of Bones, CSI and Medium coming soon.

On the other hand, when Virgin and Sky had their little spat, I soon got used to the loss of the the Sky channels. And I have seen all the old episodes of my favourite shows several times over.

Then, I have a backlog of unwatched DVDs.  Having the TV on in the background whilst doing something else is one thing. But I want to watch the stuff I have specifically paid for without distraction. So they end up sitting on top of the TV unwatched.

And maybe loosing some channels will force me to look for more TV online. Web TV is a growing trend and I want to stay current with its development for work.

So what to do?

How much TV is too much TV?