The State of Television in the UK

Is horrible, at least at the Doubletree Cambridge where I was staying. There were 12 channels, one of which was cartoons, one seemed to be music TV, both of which are good for traveling, but not for me. There was one more channel, SKY, that is a learning channel, but I never saw anything other than advertisements for learning. The others were a UK sports (ugh) and a BBC news, kind of like CNN, but then a bunch of UK channels showing dramas here and there and lots of documentaries and news, none of which is entertaining.

I suppose some of this is cultural and maybe that's why the British (and other non-US people) are more informed. They pay more attention to the world, do more things in the real world, not escaping with entertainment.

The hotel down near Heathrow had more channels, probably 15 or 16 and it seemed every half hour there was another US sitcom of some sort that was available to watch, which was better. Even bad sitcoms, something to escape, is preferable to me.

It's almost like the way I read. I can only read so much business and technical stuff before I need to get back to fiction. It's a struggle and the Kindle has helped me balance things out.

With work I need an escape sometimes at night, actually most nights, so I like to relax with some TV. Something I haven't been able to do here, working late most nights.