If there's anything that's convinced me that I need a VPN, it's iPlayer. The BBC has their own free Netflix of sorts featuring all their shows called iPlayer, but the catch is that it's only available in the UK, and technically only to those with a TV license (though there's no enforcement as far as I know). We spent a lot of time watching iPlayer shows, her family and I, and I've decided I need it in my life. Here's some highlights. (I'm about to talk about some very famous shows like they're obscure things, and that might amuse the Britishers reading this, but lemme tell you, we don't get most of this stuff back in the states, and my mom hadn't even heard of Top Gear when I told her about it. If ya know, ya know.)
Of course we caught a bunch of Top Gear. I don't think I'd seen more than clips prior to the trip, but yeah, loved it. It's a car magazine in an hour long show hosted by three absolute idiots, and between laughing about car news and laughing about the Star in the Reasonably Priced Car (James Blunt was in there once! He took it like a champ), they're probably out doing incredibly dangerous things with cars. I remember her family telling me I had to watch the ambulance episode, where James, Jeremy, and Hammond try to improve the NHS' ambulance service with, uh, mixed results. I'm still giggling about it.
THE SPEED IS A LOT MATE
Switching from BBC to Channel 4 for a moment, Black Books! We actually caught this one on a DVD boxset her parents have. It's about this absolutely dysfunctional drunken bookstore owner named Bernard who constantly spars with his shop assistant Manny and best friend Fran. It's a really odd show. I was only really paying attention to the first episode, which is where Bernard decides to break his own legs to get out of filing his tax returns, Manny swallows a book of self-help sayings and becomes only capable of speaking in said self-help sayings, turns into Jesus, rescues Bernard from a bunch of punks he's provoked into breaking his legs, and then offers to do his taxes. (By some miracle, the entire run appears to be on YouTube, if that interests you. And I think it does me.)
(On the topic of Channel 4, we did not watch any Spaced, sadly. Devon's really into that one, and I've seen the first episode of that too and it definitely caught my eye, how surreal it looked and the way it was shot. Caby and I laugh sometimes about the appallingly bad attempt to bring it the US. I like some of our comedy, but more often than not, I feel it only works accidentally because of, uh, shit like this. Anyway, I'm sure I can find some way to watch it, but I think I'll wait until I'm back in the UK first. More special like that.)
Returning to the BBC, another Caby family favorite is The Goes Wrong Show, which is about a completely incompetent amateur drama society trying to put on various historical plays. This one was specifically requested by Caby's youngest brother (not Cramble, he's the middle one) to go with dinner on his birthday, which also happened over the trip! We watched the prequel of sorts, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which was based on a real comedy play of the same name. I really liked that one; seriously, the last half hour or so of the show is an absolute riot. I won't spoil it, but Teletubbies get involved. And BBC News. I would've watched more of the main series had I not scratched open something on the tip of my nose and ran to the bathroom pouring blood for a half hour straight.
Death in Paradise is another favorite; Caby's mom showed it to us. Detective shows over here tend to be...melodramatic. I like a few of them, but the ones that really try to pass themselves off as gripping entertainment when you know how they'll happen down to the minute are kinda dreadful. It's like the people who made Death in Paradise realized that and made theirs really comfy and lighthearted instead. It's based on this fictitious sorta-British sorta-French tropical island where murder happens constantly, and the hook is that the guy who has to figure it out every week is a completely out of place Londoner.
They end off each episode with a drink, because it's still paradise, after all.
Paradise isn't very deep, and that's the appealing part. They're real easy to watch, the murders are pretty tasteful (again, compared to American detective shows that try to be all gruesome and chilling, not what I want when I'm eating dinner), and I love the bit at the end where the cops gather all the suspects, all of whom have very plausible motives, and have a big ol' monologue about how the murder actually went down. It's all very Agatha Christie. We spent a couple nights cleaning the piggo cage and watching them for sure.
As much as I hate using non-DSi photos and messing with the immersion, one of Caby's shots is all I got here, so it'll have to do. Rosemary bottom center, then Sherlock next to her, then Mooney next to her. Enola is hiding under the space blanket at the top of the picture.
Man, all this time spent in Wales, and no mention of the piggos yet! Caby's got four at current, Mooney and Sherlock and then Rosemary (the big one) and Enola (who's still fairly new after Marple died suddenly last year). Caby and her family refer to Enola as the wildcard; she's a pretty crazy climber, they'll sometimes lose her in the big piggo house because she goes hiding in weird places, and she likes to sniff people's feet. I call her Amogus, because she's a little sussy baka. I apologize immensely for that. (Amusingly, Cramble also occasionally calls her that, even months later.)
Anyway, Mooney got a haircut! She's the fluffiest of the family's four guinea pigs, and with the wet Welsh summer (where the houses don't have AC, Jesus Christ) on its way, Caby gave her a trim. She sat very nice for it.
Here's where we start heading out again! We've got trips to three museums to catch, CDs and bubble tea to buy, castle ruins to visit, and more Takis to eat, when we get back to London. But we're not there yet, so no skipping around!