No Telly Again

Mouse tally 85.

I’m in a bad mood!

But Paul, you’re living in Shangri-la, how could anything every upset you?

Well, nothing major has happened, we’re all well, apart from Justine’s infected flea bites. No, it’s simply an accumulation of small things that are getting on my wick.

Firstly, when the Divers first arrived in Thimphu, we bought 6 footballs and 6 basketballs for the school as we were told that the schools are poorly equipped. I decided that the kids could win a basketball in an easy competition – all they have to do is read the school newspaper (that my UNESCO Club writes) and then answer a few simple questions. I expected to be inundated with entries but thus far I have received five. I honestly felt like taking the basketball out in front of the whole school at assembly and sticking a nail in it to show my frustration. Thankfully, I decided that would be highly inappropriate and people might regard me as a bit mad if I did that – so I’ll issue the prize to one of the lucky five and that will be the end of it.

The other thing that’s annoying me is my lack of T.V. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a T.V. addict. I hardly miss telly at all. I’d just like to be able to watch the news now and again as I haven’t a clue what is going on in the world. We’d always had a rather fuzzy picture on the T.V and I just thought that was how it was for everyone. Thus I dutifully paid my monthly cable subscription even though the only channel I ever watched was CNN and that was often so bad that I could only listen to it.

Anyway, as regular readers will recall. Our T.V. got fried in a lightning storm and it cost me 2 weeks wages to get it fixed down in the capital Thimphu. When I got the T.V. back to Bumthang, CNN had disappeared and I only had about 9 channels – most of which are in Hindi. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed. Interestingly a new channel had appeared, it was the Chinese, English language news channel. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to visit China one day but I’m not sure I’m getting the most impartial news from a one-party-state. I assumed that this Chinese channel had replaced CNN; that was until I visited a friend down the road and saw her crystal clear telly picture. Then, when her husband flicked channels to CNN I got really curious. I asked her if she had satellite T.V and she said, ‘no’; she has the same basic cable package that I have. She offered to ring the ‘cable guy’ and ask him to look at my T.V. He said he would come the next day – but he never came. She rang again and got the same broken promise. I tried ringing him but he doesn’t speak English. Nonetheless, I tried ringing again but he kept rejecting my calls.

Then, last Sunday. I was at the same friend’s house and the cable guy came to collect his monthly fee. I of course asked my friend to ask him to come and fix my T.V. He said he had a few more calls to make and that he would be at my house within the hour. I of course raced home expectantly....... but he didn’t come. I tried ringing..... but he rejected my calls.

When I tell my colleagues about this – they tell me that I mustn’t pay my monthly fee until it’s fixed. I point out that I’m not worried about the monthly fee – I just want to be able to watch the news now and again. I mean, it’s embarrassing. One colleague engaged me in conversation about the Malaysian Airlines plane that was shot down.... and I hadn’t a clue what he was on about.

Anyway, there’s nothing like a good vent...... I feel better already.

Totally random photo, had to be taken. It was on a toilet door in a restaurant in Thimphu!