Monday, June 18th .....

It's a cold morning in Dilston.  Marilyn and Jamie had to leave early so we all got up.  They were busy so it was my job to scrape the ice off the windscreen of the car.  It's certainly one of the down-sides of living in Tasmania.  Still, as the sun comes up it makes a wonderful show, shining through the last of the mist and sparkling on the ice crystals on the bushes.

We arrive back from more than three weeks away and note than not very much has changed in television land.  Channel 7 has no problems expecting that its viewers will devote three hours of their life to watching the Grand Finale of Dancing with the Stars.  Why is ‘finale’ a better word than ‘final’ or does ‘final’ have too much connection with the football?  I can’t get over Mel B suggesting in her awful accent that we have a look at ‘the Bioglan Leader Board’.  Has no one at Channel 7 any sense of the ridiculous?  There’s something faintly rude about the word Bioglan and it shouldn’t be bandied around on prime-time television.

Channel 9 still pushes the delights of The Block and The Voice.  We watched the Grand Finale of The Voice last night and are agog to hear the results tonight.  It’s supposed to be a show about singing but there were just 9 minutes of song in 180 minutes of ‘Grand Finale’. One of the finalists is called Rachael Leahcar.  Has anyone else noted that her surname is just a reversal of her first name?  What’s that all about?  Clearly, it’s a stage name but which highly-paid publicist came up with that gem?

And then there’s Masterchef.  The best we could do with that is to record it and hope that there’s a window in the next week or so to view it back.  I don’t suppose I’ll be too upset if we miss it.

Our big surprise was to find that, in our absence, a new show has come to Channel 9 – Tricky Business.  To be quite honest, it started just before we left but we hadn’t bothered to watch it.  And now we find that it’s set in Wollongong and is about a family called Christie!  Spooky!  I think the last show which attempted to put Wollongong on the map was the Aunty Jack Show (do you remember Wollongong the Brave, and the  “I’ve been everywhere” song?

                I’ve been to Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Wollongong, Dapto, and Wollongong.

Anyway, it’s great to see the familiar views of the city and the references to Austinmer and Fairy Meadow.