Are You Excited?

[Buenchico]

The 'Great! Christmas' TV channel launched for this year yesterday. I'll bet that you're all really excited by that and looking forward to watching several months of non-stop Christmas movies!

Er, you are, aren't you?

:-)

[Barsel]

Er, let me think about it. NO.

[Lie-in King]

Meh.

[Buenchico]

I'm guessing that you didn't have to think about it for very long, Barsel ;-)

I do have to admit to having started my Christmas shopping yesterday though. It was only because I noticed that Morrisons now have Christmas puddings on their shelves and I've got fed up of looking for the little individual 'Best' ones in the weeks before Christmas every year, only to be disappointed nearly every time.

[Buenchico]

Lie-in King also seems to be lacking in enthusiasm.

I wonder why?

:-)

[Iamtheoneandonly]

There is an abundance of streaming platforms and content available, can't see this taking off.
I remember the days when we used to say, "there's nothing to watch"

[Buenchico]

>>> "can't see this taking off"

It's been 'taking off' every year, for many years now, Iamtheoneandonly. Given that the broadcasters need to make money, and that advertisers won't pay to put their commercials on channels with hardly any viewers, there must be some people who actually watch the channel!

[anneasquith]

I wondered how your health is Chris . Any more treatment required?
It’s September .

[Buenchico]

Hi, Anne.

Thanks for your enquiry.

The hormone patches stopped working as well as they had been (with my PSA count going up quite a bit). I got a little worried.

The consultant switched me to hormone injections, with the intention of bringing my PSA down again but it went up even more. I got a bit more worried.

The consultant added hormone tablets in alongside the injections, again trying to bring my PSA down. It went up even further though and I started to get really worried.

Then the consultant changed the hormone tablets to far stronger ones. My latest blood test shows that my PSA has now stabilised and the consultant is confident that, once they've had a little longer to properly take effect, it will go down again. So, 10 days ago (when the consultant phoned me) I breathed a VERY big sigh of relief!

:-)

[Iamtheoneandonly]

TV channels primarily make money through advertising, then you have subscription fees, can't see anyone paying a subscription for Xmas content, they can get all that free on YouTube.

[anneasquith]

I’ll bet you did. Such a stressful time for you, so pleased * things* looking better .

[Hopkirk]

I did buy a tub of Celebrations the other day. Does that count as Christmas shopping?

[Buenchico]

Thanks, Anne :-)
[I hope that you're in fine health too!]

I've been tempted to buy some tubs of chocolates for Christmas too, Hoppy. (I usually give three or four tubs to the staff at the launderette I use). They're always cheaper at this time of year than they are just before Christmas but I don't really want them taking up space in my tiny, cluttered house for several months.

In answer to your question though, your purchase counts as Christmas shopping if, when you bought them, you genuinely intended to save them until Christmas. (It doesn't matter if you've actually scoffed them all by now!)

[Barsel]

Me too Hoppy. Special offer at Tesco.
They only count as Christmas shopping if you plan to give them to someone as a gift.
Are you gonna do that?
No, I didn't think so.

[jno]

it was the same last year; same time too. This year they've ditched the Great Romance channel to accommodate it.

[jno]

They're always cheaper at this time of year

you spoil those launderette staff

[anneasquith]

I’m sure they spoil him jno :+)

[10ClarionSt]

If you look at the movies section on your TV listings, you'll see that there's always at least a couple of films on throughout the year with a Christmas theme. Tis never ending!

[LadyCG]

Thy cup runneth over ;)

[roopower]

My friend watched it last year. She said it was great because you could fall asleep half way through one film, wake up half way through the next and not notice the difference

[rowanwitch]

Boo will be happy, at least we are not getting her weekly countdown, and the race between her, Bobbi, and Minty to get the tree up first