Couch Potato Days. Veggie Straws.


If I were to be very honest with myself, pay television is one of those things that I could do without most of the time.  I usually have so many other things I want or have to do that at best, the television only gets turned on for some background chatter when I’m on my own in the house.

However, winter well and truly caught up with me over the weekend.  The flu from last week migrated to my stomach and left me the worse for wear.  For the entire weekend.  Through all that glorious sun.  

I didn’t think it was humanly possible for me to spend an entire weekend on the sofa, but I did.  Propped up by pillows and swaddled in a collection of throws and blankets.  It’s now Monday and I’ve progressed enough to sit at my laptop for a few hours but I think that’s going to be my limit today.  Besides an appointment with my GP after lunch.

The thing is, Foxtel came to be my dearest friend over the weekend.  I just didn’t have the energy to concentrate on reading anything for too long and even surfing the internet required too many brain cells.  All I needed was some mindless entertainment that I could passively absorb whilst I was horizontal on the sofa.

I started off well.  I got through all my back episodes of the current season of The Good Wife.  Then I had a few soothing hours of cookery on the Lifestyle Channel – food safaris through exotic cuisines, three course dinners whipped up in half an hour and mind boggling creations made entirely of chocolate.

Then morning tea time rolled around and with it, a craving for junk food and junk television.

Who am I trying to kid with these Garden Veggie Straws from Costco?

The fine print – there’s potato, tomato AND spinach in each addictive straw!

I know I should have been eating fresh tomatoes, spinach and potatoes but somehow, in my moment of need, the appeal of their sea salt dusted straw incarnations proved too much to resist.

So I sat down with a bowl of straws and changed the channel on Foxtel to E!, the channel you need when you’re stuffing your mouth with chips.  About the Veggie Straws, if you’re in the market for an ‘airy textured’ potato/tomato/spinach kind of chip, these would be your go too snack.  They are insanely addictive (especially when trying to keep your brain cells alive whilst watching Kim in New York City from a few months’ back when she was married to Kris) and aren’t too salty or oily.  For best results, I recommend having a bottle of vitamin water on hand.  Coke or Pepsi would just be undoing all the good work with the vegetables you’re eating by the handful.

Five minutes later, my bowl was empty and the sisters K had moved on to nude yoga and organic colonics.  It was time for me to move on channel wise as well.

Luckily, Giuliana and Bill were on!  The Rancics would have to be my favourite reality television couple.  They’re good fun, down to earth at times, over the top at others but always genuine. I also have a soft spot for G’s collection of Missoni.  The new season of Giuliana and Bill starts this week in Australia and it will be bittersweet television because the season will begin in the aftermath of Giuliana’s breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.  Knowing that she’s come through it in real life as well as now awaiting the birth of their son through a gestational surrogate will make those first few episodes less painful to watch.

Buoyed by watching more positive reality television, I gave the Veggie Straws a break and snacked on these delicious strawberries.

Before settling back on the sofa for a bit of ‘You’re Cut Off‘.

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Which is basically ‘Big Brother’ involving a cast of 9 self confessed ‘Princesses’ who find themselves cut off from their parents (or ATM machines as one father observed) and forced to live with each other in ‘lower middle class’, shared housing.  The ladies and their antics are made for reality television and it will be interesting to see if their attitudes change over the 8 weeks of the intervention.

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Much happier viewing is ‘Brides of Beverley Hills‘.  It’s camp, it’s got fairytale moments, it’s got tears and perhaps most surpassingly, the ‘princesses’ who are the brides come across as real women who are all terribly excited and happy to be getting married.  The bridal gown fitting room becomes a glamorous back drop to some touching stories – a bride who has her late sister in her heart as she chooses a gown, the bride whose widowed dad came along to her fittings.  Somehow, the over the top material displays of love in this series don’t feel as offensive as they did in ‘You’re Cut Off’ because of the genuine emotions of everyone in this show.

And there you have it, my weekend in reality television.  I think it’s time to wean myself off the Foxtel remote and ease myself back into the real world.  I’m hoping this day off will help me get back on my feet for work tomorrow.

Take care and catch up with you soon!


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