I’m determined not to be addicted to daytime TV – except Homes under the Hammer, The Repair Shop, Escape to the Country...
THE privatisation of British Rail in 1995 gave me an opportunity to fulfil a long held ambition to retire early. It was not a keenness to stop work but a chance to do what I had always wanted to do and that was work for myself.
No more having to drive to Birmingham and back every day… but the chance to do other things also came with temptations!
I started my own company pretty early in 1996 and soon I was spending my time seeking out some freelance work that would hopefully use my business qualifications and also put some extra money into the bank! If I am honest I must admit the work that matched the skills I believed I had was slow to materialise. But then a brilliant new opportunity came my way.
Initially it started with developing some training courses that took me back to my past as an engineering trainer.
Eventually, I had reproduced some courses similar to those I was presenting at the BR Civil Engineering Centre way back in the late 1970s. They were still needed and I was privileged to spend some 10 years or so delivering these to the fresh students in the rail industry – privatisation forgot to keep the training centres!
This work had taken me beyond the age of normal retirement and this second chance for a move to a life of leisure I decided to take.
I had always been determined that my eventual life of leisure would need something to properly occupy my time as I was determined that I was not going to become addicted to the daytime television screen.
I did manage a few things before this newspaper gave me a new identity as the “Old Codger”.
I have no wish to give up this fresh challenge, but I must admit that I have also managed to get myself addicted to some daytime television programmes.
My first daily visit to the screen is to watch “Homes under the
Hammer”. Property refurbishment has always appealed to me, and so has one of the presenters, Dion Dublin, who I can remember well as a footballer for Coventry City.
Lunch now interrupts my viewing until 1430 in the afternoon when “The Repair Shop” hits my screen. This is a must-watch programme for me, showing experts working on family heirlooms and replicates the sort of tasks my grandfather did many, many years ago. This programme also has a slot on Wednesday evenings which keeps me away from the soaps that I intensely dislike.
Then I am committed to the “Escape to the Country”. Again a programme with a daily slot where I get to enjoy seeing some counties that I have yet to visit. Couple all these programmes with the regular news items, and I have created a very busy week for myself and hesitate to accept that I am glued to the daytime television screen.
Yet, I have now discovered the added fascination of the programmes on channels 4 and 5, I may yet try and broaden my viewing.
The Motorway Cops showing items from the Derbyshire roads have caught my eye, but I am trying to resist these before I completely let the TV take over my old age. I am sure I will learn to resist any more attractions before I exhaust my available viewing time!
I doubt there is much room left in my daytime television schedule, but this week I have noticed a programme about farmer’s shows, I am not sure if this ran before Christmas, but I must find out by watching it this week.
I doubt I will be able to fit in anything else. But I plan to keep writing my columns so will be able to keep you informed if any more programmes catch my undivided attention.