An Update on Our Telly-Box Watching

Goodness, another month goes by without a post on this blog. Anyway, I just thought I'd quickly bring you up to date with the viewing habits in our house.

Yesterday's Balamory threw up the interesting prospect of the Balamory Morris Dancing Society - about as likely as the Balamory Kurdish Community I mentioned a few posts back. It also featured our old friend Edie being sent to an oil rig to cheer the boys up - well if there's one woman for a job like that ("I can show you it all, come up and see me sometime") - all captured on video as always.

The Night Garden episode we saw this morning featured the Tombliboos riding on the Pinky Ponk desperately trying not to spill their juice. Eventually they did, of course, and needed Macca Pacca to blow them off with his Uff-Puff to get clean. No, it's too easy. I'll let you do your own jokes.

Meanwhile, 3rd and Bird, the poor man's Wonder Pets continues to bore us, and Boo! makes Dad want to launch bricks at the TV, however on the bright side, at least we got to see Smokey dragged up as Suzie from Balamory the other day and Pingu is back.

Daddy's Favourite In The Night Garden Episode

If you too love the innuendo packed In The Night Garden, then you can't have failed to see yesterday's spectacular.

Upsy Daisy wants to show Iggle Piggle her flower, but Iggle Piggle wants to ride in the Ninky Nonk.

Includes the ultimate classic Derek Jacobi line, "Where is Iggle Piggle taking Upsy Daisy?"

Schoolboy sniggering aplenty. Marvelous stuff.

Go Diego Go

Been a while since the last post. Sorry! It's been a hectic time at the shop, with a couple of huge new ranges arriving. We've moved on from In The Night Garden - DTE has decided that it's for "little people". We're now into Go Diego Go. It's not bad, but we're not fans of his big sister Alicia. She had last night's episode to herself, and I confess to secretly wishing that the crocodile she was rescuing would eat her alive. Worryingly DTY also shows a great deal of interest in the show - enough to put her off her nigh time milk!

We've also been having fun with the CBeebies Magazine Reward Chart. The challenges this week are all food related, for example 'eat something green', 'finish your lunch', 'try a new vegetable', etc. We thought it was working well, but after bedtime story last night, DTE wondered aloud if she might be able to get a star for eating a chocolate rice crispie cake. Oh well.

Boo! Hiss! Cynical CBeebies Tactics

The good old Beeb, eh? Wait till they have the nation's 2 year olds hooked on In The Night Garden. Then, just as the DVD comes out, drop it from the schedule. Wow! Who'd have thought that Chris, Sid and Poi (and the new boy whoever he is) would use cynical tactics like this. We thought CBeebies was our friend.

Well tough. Me and DTE have all the episodes on Sky Plus. Ha Ha! And we wont be buying the DVD on principal.

In the place of ITNG, we get Big Cook, Little Cook. I have long standing issues with the show (check the link). First and foremost: You want to make a cookery show for children. Do you a) employ someone who can actually cook to present it or b) employ two out of work Northern Comics who clearly have no interest in children or cooking?

Everyone Gets A Wash

Tonight in In The Night Garden, resident stoner Macca Pacca decided to give everyone a wash. In our humble opinion an acid bath and a papal confession wouldn't get Upsy Daisy clean. The challenge with episodes featuring Macca Pacca in our house is the imaginary Og-Pog DTE possesses. Sky Plus must be frequently paused to allow for the collection of, or repositioning of said imaginary Og-Pog. Whilst we heartily encourage imaginative play, this makes the episode last longer than your average opera. One day, we will get DTE in her bed at her bedtime.

Last Night's Viewing

DTE isn't badly addicted to TV. We never allow her to sit goggle-eyed in front of the box. However, we do watch three shows together each day. They're carefully selected to combine maximum positive experiences for DTE with enough for myself and TBH to snigger about. Namelly: Lazytown, Balamory and In The Night Garden.

DTE is a child of her generation. At two years and five months, she understands all the principles of Sky Plus. She is well aware that live TV can be paused, rewound and watched over again. This does lead to the odd disagreement, but fortunately we're able to solve most of them amicably.

Last night, we watched the episode of ITNG called 'Tombliboo Oo Gets Sloshed' (at least that's what it's known as in our house). Oo steals all the suspiciously cocktail-like Pinky Ponk Juice and spends the rest of the episode stumbling about, before feeling poorly. There's a lesson for Daddy somewhere.