Giving Up Television

Ash Wednesday is upon us again. Coming from a Catholic home I am accustomed to giving things up for Lent. As a child our family used to give up TV. All my mates thought that was hardcore – in fact everyone did – now as an adult I see giving up TV as a joy.

Last year I gave  up chocolate, coffee and telly. Within no time I was in a meeting where there was choccie biscuits and I was tucking into them before I could even say “Oh but I have forgotten that it is Lent.” And within a few days I was getting chronic kidney pains and constipation from caffeine withdrawal so I had to go back on coffee to get back off it. In the end then the only thing I gave up successfully was television.

TV is such a waste of your time and to be honest I find it horribly patronising and vulgar. Livio Hughes from Headshift told me last year that “Television is for the middle classes to make fun of the working classes.” Whilst I could argue about the class issue I could see his point. TV is there to poke fun at the fall guy and that I find vulgar so it is with no problem that I shall be giving up the telly again this year. (How did I get back onto it I wonder.) Think I might take up swimming three times a week also…

Happy Easter!

Lent is over so we can all eat chocolate like a right old bunch of sinners.  Going from 5 cups of coffee down to none my kidneys started to hurt so I went back onto one cup a day. Now I am just on the tea. I went back on the chocolate soon after the beginning of Lent as it`s just too damn nice. TV I managed to stay off for the whole of Lent except for the last week when I went on a family holiday.  It doesn`t help that my cousin is Orla Chennaoui, a reporter for Sky News. Still, today I will return to London and I think I will stay off TV except for the Formula 1 races. Looks like Ferrari will take this tournament away with themselves though with the pace Raikkonen showed in Malaysia this morning.

Lent Update: TV Is A Total Waste Of Your Time

Thought I’d give an update on how my Lent is going.  A while back I gave up caffeine, chocolate and television.  (Read more here).  Well I broke the chocolate thing within three days cos I forgot that there was chocolate in chocolate chip cookies.  D’oh!/Dough! Then I had a bottle of Coca Cola – I had forgotten there was caffeine in that too. Then I went back off the caffeine again.Since then my kidneys have hurt a bit so I had to actually go back on coffee! Now after about fours weeks I have thrown the chocolate thing out the window (though I am not eating anything nearly as much as I used to) and the only caffeine I take is with tea. Not so bad. Funny though that I haven’t actually turned the TV back on. Either accidentally or on purpose. TV is a total waste of your time. Sit in front of a computer instead. At least you have more to show for it at the end of the day. Yes.(By the way I have even had two nightmares where I turned the TV on).

Is Coffee Like Heroin?

Both are brown, both are used by gansters and you can if you stick a needleful of either in your arm you will do yourself considerable harm. I “kicked” coffee on Wednesday for Lent and ever since I have been having these pounding headaches. Yesterday I woke up with what I thought was a bad back. Then after some pain-locating I discovered that it was my kidneys that were causing me the pain. It felt like I’d been beaten up.

Yesterday after a seven hour rehearsal with Kevin Hylands (for our pending Valentine’s Day gig) we hit the pub for some Thai grub. Kev ordered a glass of coke and, me being the creature of habit and never-wanting-to-think-to-much-about-anything, I ordered the same. We sat and ate and discussed the set and ate the food. Towards the end of the meal I mentioned about my sore kidneys. Kev explained, “It’s that caffeine-withdrawal man.” Agghh! And here was me drinking away on a coke! I was near the end of it anyway so I thought what the hell and gulped the last mouthful.

Three days and I’d broke Lent twice: That coke and 3 chocolate chip biscuits. I forgot that there was chocolate in chocolate chip biccies – now I’m just off all biccies. Funny that I haven’t turned the television on by accident. Such a waste of time the TV is.

This morning my kidneys feel fine. I’m now considering taking half a glass of coke every day to help me kick my caffeine habit. In fact I may just do that. No point in going through actual physical pain for this Lent shit.

Happy Lent!

There’s some really cool things about Catholicism: the sense of community; the elation of being forgiven, and; the character building one gets from years of having catholic guilt.  One of the best things though about catholicism however is the season of Lent.  I shit you not.

Lent, meaning ‘slow’, is a celebration of the time when Jesus was in the desert being taunted by Satan.  Of course Jesus survived no bother at all just like Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly film. Lately, with my tolerance of all religions, I have begun to celebrate Lent. (I say ‘begun’ because I certainly never enjoyed it as a kid. It was hell). The trouble is that I am running out of things to give up: I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I don’t do phone-ins. In fact if it wasn’t for my swearing I’d say I was a right fucking Daniel O’Donnell. Anyway, here’s my Ins and Outs.

In

• Water
• Fruit
• Exercise 

Out

• Caffeine
• Chocolate
• Television 

 Lent is great!