Just not cricket and other tv news

What a weekend for news!

Cricket. Gun laws and of course in other tv news, Bachelor in Paradise. Yes, I hear your collective groan. 

I have been lost for good reality tv viewing since I'm a Celeb finished and lets face it, MAFS did not float my boat at all. If the previews for Bachelor have anything do go by, rivers will be cried and hearts broken. I am wondering if Kleenex have missed a good advertising opportunity here. 

The bar was open and shirts were off, revealing buffed, bare chests in the first ten minutes. There's plenty to see for the male viewers as well with bum cheeks and boobs spilling out everywhere.

Fair to say, and I am not prepared for the backlash, I will be tuning in for the next instalment. Totally sucked in for the drama to follow.

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I am loving what has happened in Washington DC over the weekend.It was amazing to see such a unified push to challenge the American gun control laws.

Barrack Obama took to Twitter to relay the same feelings. I replied immediately, with it being a shame he couldn't change laws when he had the chance and these people wouldn't need to march to demand change.

Brett and I were joking about going into BigW and buying a gun licence, like buying phone credit at the checkout. Gun licence, a bottle of Jack's and a hand gun for a 21st birthday. We can joke about it in Australia, but sadly in America, it's not a joke. It happens.

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When I first heard the news about the admission of ball tampering by the Australian cricket team, I was disgusted. I was disappointed and mortified that they had knowingly cheated, and that the captain had allowed it to happen.

This reminded me of what happened at the Essendon Football Club in the AFL, with Lance Armstrong in cycling. 

For me it is far more serious, because they are reperesenting us as a country. To play fairly. There are so many young players who look up to the test team, and I don't want them thinking this is the way to play the game.

I fell in love with cricket when I was a young teen, maybe it was at an impressionable age, and you know, good looking cricket players. But I have great memories staying up late on summer nights watching day/nighters with my brothers and sisters. The players were heroes, good men, or so I imagined. Not too disimilar to how young cricket fans adored Don Bradman and fell in love with cricket years ago.

This issue has been a hot topic in our household, we both agree that the captain had to be stood down, as he has. It is dispicable that he could have let this happen. It makes me wonder how many other players on the team that day had intended to cheat, and how many of them knew about it. Sad day for Australian cricket. It's a story I'll be keeping an eye on in the coming week. 

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Must watch TV

This topic would be debatable amongst different people. We all have our preferences and faves. 

Must watch shows on the telly at the moment for me, all happen when the kids go to bed, are supposed to be in bed and trying to go to sleep. So of course, my fave shows are rarely watched without interruption.

It is no surprise I get sucked into late night movies, that I can watch in peace, as the kids are well and truly asleep by then.

We don't have pay TV, Netflix or  anything like that, so I am not up to date with all the popular shows that everyone is or should be watching. I don't have a clue usually, what people with these services are talking about!

Here's a list of my favourite shows I am watching and loving, on free to air telly at the moment. 

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1. I'm a celebrity....get me out of here!

I got sucked in, hook line and sinker in the last series of this show. This year is no different.
I love the light hearted banter of the hosts, Chris Brown (hubba bubba) and funny lady Julia Morris.
I enjoy watching the celebrity's stories emerge, and getting to know them better. This season, Steve Price is one of the celebrities braving the jungle. His interviews featuring other celebrities are inspiring and so interesting to listen to. We get to see a different side to them.
The celebrities test themselves in physical and mental challenges, including the tucker trials that have them eating all sorts of disgusting foods to earn food rewards, not to mention getting way too up close and personal with an array of creepy, crawly critters. 
It makes me realise that even as celebrities, they have real lives, fears and phobias. They appear more real, and I love to watch!

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2. GoggleBox

The producers of this show deserve a medal, for total genius. Oh that's right, they won a Silver Logie for Best Factual Program last year. 
Not only it is factual, but absolutely bloody funny. This is my dose of happy pills every week. Like most reality shows, I always wonder, what the hell am I going to watch, when another season finishes.
This current season involves eleven different families or friends, enjoying programs in their own homes, and we see thier reactions to those programs. From current news, to movies and the latest reality tv shows. Highly entertaining.

3. This is Us

I almost didn't start watching this show. When I say that, I didn't even watch the first screening. Lucky for me they encored the first episode, and I was then hooked into the interweaving story of the Pearson family. The way the plot unfolded was amazing.
The story alternates between present day and the past to tell the characters stories. A story which revolves around the present day of siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall.
I am still hooked after four episodes, and I usually don't watch a lot of series drama.


When there is nothing much to watch any other time, I like to watch the Food Network on SBS channel 33. I don't get into the American shows on there much though, the food just doesn't appeal to me as much as other cultures.

I do enjoy watching The Project in the evening, and in the morning I am usually watching Sunrise, although I do get annoyed at the sensationalised news report at times. Any other time the telly is off, or the kids are watching ABC4kids on channel 22.

What are you watching?!

Joining Denyse for Life this Week

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What's on the box? #openslather

I had no intentions of watching it, but there was nothing else on. Who else watched The Bachelor last night?! I got well and truly sucked in from the start, how could I not? Tim is hot! I think it's the smile, I'm not sure.

 

Tim Robards. See the smile. It's a smile worth googling ;)
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I am sure, that I had that dumb subconscious grin while watching the rose ceremony. It that look on your face, that if you catch yourself with, you instantly change it, in case someone is watching. 

Being one of those last five girls without a rose must be very disappointing and a blow to one's confidence. I wonder if they are counselled after the show. I was glad to see Jolene there, she wasn't a very nice person. 

I'm not sure how long I will stay sucked in by the show, it seems to have filled the void left by Masterchef for me, for now. I'm expecting it's shine to wane, it's something I don't usually watch.

I know I have no time for Big Brother.

I know I will be watching AFL football this Friday night; Port Adelaide takes on Geelong to try to make it further into the finals. Port beat Collingwood on Saturday night, it was awesome. I can't believe I'm saying that. As a Collingwood supporter, I never thought I would say that. Shame on me.

Save with Jamie

I loved Save with Jamie, it was on TEN on Thursday night, after The Project. I'm always inspired to cook something fantastic after seeing a Jamie Oliver show, cook anything! I made focaccia and pizza the next day, couldn't help myself.

What have you been loving on the box?

Mrs Brown and her boys

If you watch free to air tv, you may be aware (if you've seen the ads), that the funniest show to hit our shores in a while, is set to grace our screens again tonight on Seven, with their third series.

That show would be Mrs Browns Boys. 

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If you haven't seen it, I can highly recommend it. It is side splitting funny. It's one of those shows that will bring out your cackle laugh, if not, make you snort and spit out your coffee/tea/wine. 

I have a friend who rolls around on the couch laughing with tears in her eyes, and no doubt on the verge of pissing herself.

There are some who don't find it funny at all and can't stand it.

Will be you watching?

The Wizard of Oz

Summer loves watching In the Night Garden, she hardly moves the whole half hour. I have it on hard drive, so that comes in very handy too when she needs some distraction and settling down and it's not that time of night(it's usually on at 6:30). Isabel loved it too, but has lost interest now she is older.

We've been watching the Wizard of Oz today, I downloaded it for Isabel, as Jake used to love watching it when he was her age. She really hasn't gotten into sitting and watching whole movies, until I tried her with this one. I think too being a musical, it keeps her interest.

It really is a good kids movie considering it was made in 1939, and even more unbelievable that we enjoy watching it seventy three years later. It's such a classic.

A fact you may not know, is that it's star, Judy Garland, who was 16 when the movie was made, died at the age of 47 in 1969.

Even back then super stars suffered from pressure to look good. She was plagued by her public image(unbelievable that she was touted as an ugly duckling). Even more sad and shocking she tried to take her own life more that once. Like so many amazing and  talented hollywood stars, too many to mention, drugs played a part in her death. 

She is the mother of Liza Minella, fathered by her second husband. Judy had two more children with her third husband. She had five husbands all together, marrying her last just three months before her death.

You can read more of her short and troubled, but amazing life and achievements here. 

There are soooo many great parts of this movie, but I love it when Lion sings his song about courage, when Dorothy sings 'Over the Rainbow', and the lollipop guild munchkins always make me smile.