Now We Know Who Dies On Offspring

Patrick has died on Offspring.

I'm not happy about this.

The thing is, I thought of Offspring as a comedy... or a light drama.  I didn't see it as a tragedy.

When I watch The Walking Dead, I expect people to die.  So, that's fine.

When I watch Offspring, I expect to laugh.  If I have tears, I expect it to be of the sentimental type.

I don't expect to end an episode feeling terrified and depressed.  The show is supposed to put a spring in my step, not make me feel like I have a black cloud over my head.

Shit.   

I shouldn't have been surprised, though.

The past few weeks, I've seen so many blog visitors via my Statcounter looking for Offspring information.  People have been using the keywords, Who dies on Offspring? I didn't know a death was expected.  I kind of just thought people were being morbid.

But it seems, from what I've read in the news, Channel 10 was actually advertising a death. Come and watch a show.  Someone is going to die!!!!

That's a big tacky in my opinion.  

I dread next week—the funeral and all that.  I don't even know if I want to watch it.  Well, of course I don't want to watch it. But I feel obligated to.  I feel if I don't watch it, the universe will punish me.   If you're such a wimp that you can't handle a fictional tragedy, we'll send a real one your way.

Would the universe be more charitable if it realized these past few months I've already been traumatized by cute little Lou dropping dead in a Sydney park and Sammy Lieberman getting hit by a car near the dance studio?   

Speaking of Sammy Lieberman....

I can't get over the new camp TV show.  It's really messing with my head.

Have you guys heard about it?   Is it there in Australia?

It's an American show filmed in Australia.   All the actors are Australian.  Only one has an Australian accent. The others are pretending to be American.

What makes it even more bizarre is the majority of Dance Academy cast members are on the show.

By coincidence I finished season 2 of Dance Academy the same day that Camp premiered. 

I cry for Sammy Lieberman in the afternoon.  Then he's alive again on my TV in the night...just with a different accent.   His ex-girlfriend Abigail Armstrong is there as well.   On Dance Academy, she had a thing going with Ethan Karamakov.   She's also dating him while playing counselor at the American summer camp.   Ethan's Mommy is Billy Proudman from Offspring.   She has a gambling addiction. Her American self is about as troubled as her Australian self.  

On the second episode of Camp, Christian Reed suddenly appeared as well as Grace.

I guess I'll expect to see Tara and Kat soon.

Maybe Ben should visit. He's a leukemia survivor. He can give advice to Sammy.  In America, Sammy is the one with leukemia.  

Anyway, back to Offspring. 

I think I shall be saving my money and not buying next season.

Love my Way was beautiful in it's tragic sadness.   I was traumatized by Lou's death, but did love the two episodes following her death—the last episodes of the first season.     Then I struggled through season 2 and quit mid season 3.  It was just too depressing and not at all entertaining.

What is season 5 of Offspring going to be like?  How is it going to be funny at all?

I think it would have been great to see Nina and Patrick struggling as new parents.

It's not going to be fun seeing Nina struggle as a single parent after losing the love of her life.

I'm okay with seeing Rick Grimes struggle as a single parent. I expect that stuff to happen in a zombie apocalypse.   Of course. I didn't expect to see it on Offspring.

But yeah.  I know. I get it. It's like real life.  One morning your life is a happy comedy. Then by evening it could be a depressing tragedy.

The thing is, sometimes I don't want my TV shows being like real life. Sometimes I need them to help me escape from real life.



Ah....I just thought of something.  Maybe Patrick Reed will soon be a counselor at an American summer camp.  He won't be as adorable without his Aussie accent.  

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 11)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 10)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 9)

Different States and Norman Reedus

I'm done making the videos.

I shall post the rest soon.....

In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who helped make our trip so wonderful.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

And....

I wanted to blab a bit about the music.

I had chosen several of the songs before we even left for Australia.  I even knew what days of the trip would have which songs. I kept the particular songs in the back of my mind; and I think I even listened to some of them on the appropriate days.

There were some days that had no predetermined songs.  I had a long list of possibilities and had to narrow it down.

For the last video, I was torn between two songs. It was still up in the air as we were experiencing our last day in Australia.

Then we were driving to Ballarat and I had a private emotional (maybe sort of spiritual) moment that involved thoughts of Australian Prime Ministers.  Just as that happened, one of the two songs started to play on my Spotify.  I took it as a sign that I should choose that song. Then I started crying.  It was just one of those....things. I'm not sure if anyone in the car noticed. I was sniffling a lot, but they probably thought it was allergies. Then I couldn't find a tissue, and I was wiping my snot on my sleeve.

Anyway.....

The spirits of Spotify helped me make my decision.  I'm not sure I support it fully.

I love the song Spotify chose, but I love the other song as well.

It's called Rivers and Roads...if anyone is interested in hearing it. I learned about it from How I Met Your Mother.  (The other song came from How I Met Your Mother as well  And two other Australia-trip videos have songs that came to my attention via that brilliant TV show. I'm kind of pathetic.   Sorry. But they do have really amazing music on that show)

My favorite line of "Rivers and Roads" is:

And my family lives in a different state
If you don't know what to make of this
Then we will not relate

I think that's such a beautiful understatement of our situation.   

It's wonderful to have friends from a different country.

But it's also kind of sad.    

Yeah.

I wanted to say sorry to the not-so-huge number of people who wanted me to write out another detailed trip diary.  I don't think I'm going to do it. I did the videos instead.

I was watching Norman Reedus on the season finale of The Talking Dead. They asked him how he prepared for a scene, and he said he listened to a Willie Nelson song that reminded of his dad. They asked which song and he answered simply, I don't want to tell you.

I absolutely loved that, because it reminded me of how I feel about the trip.

There are too many things about our trip to Australia that I want to keep private.

There are too many things I can't properly capture with the letters on my keyboard.    

So....

Well, that is that.

Thanks for listening.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for watching.     










P.S-Our friends say they might visit us in America.   I'm planning to make a video of that.  

I've already chosen one of the songs.   

 

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 8)

Wake Up!

There's a Kookaburra in our house!

No.  Wait. It's just my phone alerting me that I have a message. My sister has sent a video of my niece in dance class.

A month or so before we went to Australia, Jack helped me download a ringtone for my phone. I chose a Kookaburra call.

The only problem is, I don't get many phone calls...which is really not a problem since I don't like chatting on the phone.  But I regretted not getting to hear my Kookaburra ringtone.

Then in Australia, I got to know my phone a bit more. We bonded.  I learned to do some stuff without Jack's help.  I learned I could use the Kookaburra ringtone for other things...such as incoming messages and email.  I do get THOSE things sometimes.  

Also, there were a  couple of mornings in which we had to wake up earlier than we might have without artificial assistance. We needed to set the alarm. I used the Kookaburra as my alarm sound.

It's a pretty cool alarm sound, actually.

In Halls Gap.....

Well, in Halls Gap it turns out there are a lot of Kookaburras.

My ringtone and alarm sound comes naturally out of their mouth.

Every morning at six-something, they'd be making lots of noise.

I would wake up.

I was always the first one up and out of bed.

I would go on the porch, watch the sunrise, and I'd wait for kangaroos and birds to visit.

I think maybe part of the reason, I was up first, is I was the most eager to be there. I mean all of us were happy and excited to be there. But I think I was overly extremely happy to be there. I didn't want to waste any daylight minutes in bed.

I also think, though, that it might have been impossible for me to go back to sleep with the Kookaburra's call. I think by using them as my alarm clock, I had conditioned myself to get out of bed when hearing the call.  

OR maybe I'm reaching here. It's not like I used the alarm several times before.  There probably wasn't enough incidents for my brain to form a strong association.

Maybe it was more about the excited-to-be-there thing.

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 7)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 6)

Here's the link in case the embedding thing doesn't work.  

Something though is up with YouTube.   If the video cuts off, try reloading it.   That sometimes works.

Obsession

I'm about 95% over my desire to move to Australia.   I was previously 99.9% over it, but Halls Gap gave me a tiny bit of a set-back.  

I'm fine being American now.  I like living here. To be honest, I was a bit homesick in Australia.  It might have been mainly about the price difference in ice-cream, but I think there are other things I missed as well.  

I thought I had evolved even further.  I thought I was over the need to travel to Australia.  I figured we'd come back in a decade or so. No big deal.  In the meantime, we'd explore other corners of the globe.  There's Canada...Sweden...Costa Rica.  Ireland!  Maybe even Iceland.  The world is full of so many places.  Why keep returning to the same damn country?

But then we got home, and I started to rethink things.  

I thought of going to places that have no kangaroos, cockatoos...no Jaffas or meat pies. How sad to turn on the television and not see ABC or SBS.  Yeah, I was usually bored by what's on SBS. But I like knowing it's there.

I like walking by a restaurant with a TV playing and seeing Bill Shorten on the screen.

I like seeing Julia Gillard on the front page of the newspaper.

Yes, Costa Rica has parrots. But they're not Aussie parrots. Could I still love them?  I want to say yes, but I'm not quite sure.

I thought about recent previous trips that were not Australia. The whole time I was trying to make it as Aussie as possible.

In San Francisco, I was obsessed with walking to this Australian store.

Did I buy any San Francisco souvenirs when in San Francisco?  No, I bought Aussie chocolate bars and some Aussie coffee table books.

At the San Francisco zoo, I rushed off on my own to see their Aussie animal collection. 

In Washington D.C, my main goal was to get to the Australian embassy. Then I also obsessed about getting to the used bookstores, so I could see what Australian books they had.

When we talk about going to a city, one of the first things I do is google to see if they have Aussie restaurants.

I thought about going to Costa Rica.  Can I make it interesting for myself if it's not Australia?   Should I go to the bookstores and try to find Australian travel books in Spanish?  I guess that might be a nice thing to add to my collection.  

It's not completely hopeless. I do have interests outside Australia. For example, I want to go to Georgia and see The Walking dead sets.  That's something.

One day, a few months ago, I was obsessed with Finland.  Key words, though: One day. Or maybe it was two days.

On the bright side, I'm better than I was a few years ago.

There was a time that I was desperate to move to Australia.

There was a time that I read only Australian books.  Now I read other stuff. My horizons are expanded.

It's not ALL Australia for me.  But it's kind of sort of close to that.  

I am so mystified by my Australian obsession. Sometimes I'm annoyed by it...or at least bewildered. But I don't wish for it to go away.   I guess in some ways it makes me feel grounded.  It makes me feel safe.  It's kind of like the walks in Halls Gap. It feels better to stay on the path. At least for me, it does.

I think Australia is my path or at least one of them—a very important one. If I left that path, I'm afraid I'd feel horribly lost.  

Oh well.   No big deal.  I'm sure if I dig deep enough, I can find ways to satisfy my Australia-desires in travel destinations that are not within Australia.  

My Opinion of Melbourne

One of the big questions of our trip:  How would we feel about Melbourne?  Would I like it as much as Sydney?  Would I like it less?  More?

By the time we got to Melbourne, I was tired of big cities. I had minimal interest in going to the CBD.   It's not Sydney's fault.  In the past few years, I've felt my love for big cities decreasing.  I saw it happening in London, in New York City, and in Washington D.C.

Months ago, I had seriously considered decreasing our city time in Australia and increasing our small-town time, but I didn't get around to doing it.  Also, I had brought it up to Tim and Jack one day. Neither of them had seemed eager to subtract Sydney or Melbourne time.  

So...we had seven nights in Sydney and ten nights in Melbourne.

Fortunately we weren't staying in the Melbourne CBD.  We stayed in St. Kilda. St. Kilda is loud and wild with drunk party people at night, but it's peaceful during the day.  Plus there are a ton of Rainbow Lorikeets. I was absolutely delighted with that.  

I liked St. Kilda.

I didn't like leaving it behind to go to the CBD.

The CBD was crowded and overwhelming, though I won't say I disliked it.  On our first day there, we went to Federation Square.  There was a public dance class that we watched for a few minutes.   The whole thing had a really good vibe to it. I felt very happy to be there. I think that was my favorite CBD moment.

On our last Melbourne day, we went to the Victoria Market and I went on a souvenir shopping spree.   I bought an I Love Melbourne t-shirt.  And I felt the love. I truly did.

Now I don't. 

Why?

Halls Gap.

My love for Halls Gap blew it all away.

I thought the Melbourne CBD was fairly great, even though I'm no longer a fan of such things.

I thought St. Kilda was awesome—a place I'd definitely want to return to.

But the love greatly diminished after I met Halls Gap.

St. Kilda might have a few Rainbow Lorikeets. Yeah.

Halls Gap has Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Gang Gang Cockatoos, Crimson Rosellas, Emus, kangaroos....all kinds of things.  

Halls Gap was definitely my favorite leg of the trip.  Melbourne was second best. But when I think about it, my favorite days of the Melbourne section of our trip, was when we went on day trips to Healesville and Daylesford.  

Unless my feelings change, I'm thinking if we're blessed enough to return to Australia someday, I'd like to spend most of our time in small towns.  We'll see if Tim and Jack feel the same way.   If not, I'm sure we can figure out some sort of compromise.  

Gay People Don't Belong in the Closet But Rude People Do

In Halls Gap, I rudely claimed the master bedroom for Tim and myself.

If I was polite, I would have had a prior conversation with my friend.

I would have said,  Which bedroom do you want?

My friend would have probably said, I don't know. Which one do you want?

We would have danced the dance of niceness and decency.

But no.  I didn't even ask.

I don't think I'm usually that rude. It's just I really wanted that room. I wanted the ensuite toilet. I pee a lot at night. I wanted a toilet that belonged to my family only. I'm weird like that.   

I rationalized my behavior with the fact that for two nights my friend was going to be alone—no husband.  Why should a single occupant get the fancy room?

Then I realized that maybe the fancy master bedroom wasn't so great.

It was a loft.

There was no wall separating it from downstairs—the kitchen and the den.

I felt a lack of privacy.

Worse, there was no protection from the noise of the TV and conversation.

I thought of asking my friend to trade.  But Tim had seemed pleased about having the room.  I was too lazy to unpack. AND I'd feel like such a loser. Yeah, Tracey. I know I rudely took the room without even asking you if you want it.  But hey, I changed my mind now. You take it.

So no. We stayed.

But I moved into the closet.

There was a mattress in there against the wall.

Upon my request, Tim took it down for me.

I slept there during our four nights in Halls Gap.

It wasn't fancy, but it was actually quite nice.

It was cozy and I was comfortable.   

I felt like Harry Potter, which is kind of funny because my behavior had been more like Dudley Dursley's.  

Watch Where You're Going!

After we checked into our apartment at 44 Bridge Street, we left to go get our phones Australia-ready.

We stood near the building doorway for a moment. I can't remember why.  I guess we were just trying to pull ourselves together.

A woman rushed past and said in a very bitchy voice, Watch where you're going!

It wasn't a nice way to begin our Australia trip.

I felt pathetic. I felt like a failure.

Was she just an awful person?  Or is it something about me?

Is it my lot in life to make people so annoyed? So angry?

Did the encounter symbolize what was now my relationship to Sydney?

No, it probably did not.

It probably meant nothing.

But in my little brain and heart, it DID mean something. It meant a lot.  

Sydney and I were already on shaky ground (for various reasons), and this encounter didn't help to soften things.  

On the day we were leaving Sydney, we stood with our luggage in the lobby waiting for Tim to hear back about something he had left in the apartment. It was kind of a problem, because we had already returned the keys.

A woman from the Australia Post came in looking stressed and annoyed.

I politely asked if we (meaning our bags) were in her way.

I expected her to say something nice like, No. You're fine.

She didn't. She answered that yes we WERE in her way.

I quickly moved the bags.

She thrust the mails into the slots. I watched and came to the conclusion that we really hadn't been in her way....at least not in a significant way.

She was just a grouch.

I had encountered a grouch on the first day in Sydney.  Now I was encountering another one on the last day.

What was the deal?

What's the message, Universe?

Was Sydney trying to tell me that I was no longer welcome here?  

Then we talked about it in the cab.  Tim said he thought it was the same woman we had encountered on the first day. I hadn't realized it, but Tim had. The first mean woman had worked for the Australian post too.  

For some reason, the information made me feel better.

If I had been a waste of space to two people, it might be something wrong with me. But now it seemed more likely that the problem was with this Australia Post employee.  

It wasn't a Dina-is-a-worthless-piece-of-shit thing.

It wasn't a Sydney-is-mean-thing.

It was just a case of an unhappy and unfriendly employee of the Australia Post.

Missing in Australia

A day or so ago, I thought about Sayid from Lost. Why?  I don't know.  But he got into my brain.

Then I suddenly felt this horrible feeling of dread.

Why?

I don't know.

It happens to me...not too often.  But fairly often.

I'll get these random brief moments of dread and depression sometimes over things that have no rational reason to bring about dread and depression.

A dark cloud passes over me. Fortunately, it passes quite quickly. Usually. Sometimes the bad feelings will slightly linger but not enough to be debilitating.

Okay, but when I had that Sayid bad feeling? I realized something.

I don't remember ever having that weird bad feeling while in Australia.

When I was in Australia I didn't realize it was missing.I didn't feel gratitude for its absence.  

I didn't notice it had been gone until it came back.

It's not that I wasn't ever afraid in Australia. On one of my long solo walks in Halls Gap, I made eye contact with a man and got a bit creeped out. I started thinking of serial killers and missing tourists.   I picked up a handful of pebbles as a weapon. Just in case....

That feeling was different, though.

I was afraid of something that was unlikely to be a threat but possibly could be one.  That's different than feeling an awfulness that makes absolutely no sense.  

Do You Still Love Australia?

When we were in line at the Mexican restaurant at the food court, my friend asked me whether I still loved Australia.

An answer popped out of my mouth without me thinking much about it.  I think I said, Yes, but differently.

She didn't ask me to elaborate...which was fortunate.   I wouldn't have been able to give an answer that made sense. The truth is, I was confused about the whole thing.

But I thought about it throughout the whole trip.  I did still love Australia. I still was obsessed. But something was definitely missing. Something had changed.

Later I finally figured it out.

During the past trips, I was so attracted to Australians—the people.  It's like every Aussie was a celebrity, and each time they gave me attention or talked to me, I felt so fantastic.   Just being in a room with Australians was a thrill. I was like an Australian groupie.  

That's gone.  

On this trip, I'd be among a crowd of Australians and couldn't get myself to care. I'd try. I really would.  

Now I feel about Australians as I do other humans. Sometimes I feel like. Sometimes I feel love.   Sometimes I feel really annoyed.

Then there are moments where I'd like to glue one of their photos to a dart board and totally go at it.   

I'm not sure if this change is good or bad.

Well, it probably is good. I'm more normal now. It's probably best not to have a prejudice like that.

Still. I kind of miss the feeling. I'm a bit sad that it's gone.

Sometimes being irrational and delusional can make us feel more comfortable.   

But well...it's okay.

I have the birds now.

I was really into the birds on this trip.  

I think now I'm more of an Aussie-bird groupie than an Aussie-human groupie.

I also like the Tasmanian Devil a lot.  I don't know why. But I was a bit obsessed with seeing them.  

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 5)

Hopefully this will work.   Something is up with YouTube.   If you can't watch the video on here; maybe try watching it on YouTube?   Here's the link.

If it cuts off in the middle of the video, it sometimes helps to reload it.  

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 4)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 3)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 2)

Our 2013 Australia Trip (Part 1)

Read my novel: The Dead are Online 

The Nip/Tuck Syndrome

We don't like Modern Family anymore. This season, at best, it's mediocre.  Usually, it's just crap. It makes me sad, because we used to think it was super fantastic.

I decided to label my feelings The Nip/Tuck syndrome. Why? It reminds me of when I loved THAT show and then went on to strongly dislike it.

This syndrome doesn't apply to slightly good stuff that dips a tiny bit in quality. It applies to wonderful things that become really awful.

(Of course this is all opinion.  Other people might think the later seasons of Nip/Tuck and Modern Family are perfectly fine)

So what's one of the main things that worries me about Australia.

Trip one and two were incredibly wonderful.

What if our upcoming sequel is a huge let-down?

For a few moments, I became really pessimistic.  I thought, you can't have THREE good things in a row. Life is never that generous.

Nothing gold can stay.  

But then I cheered up a bit.

The first thing I thought of was Toy Story.  I loved that movie, but I love the second and third ones no less. I might even love them more.

In the last few months, we watched seven seasons of How I Met Your Mother. I don't think it has had any reduction in awesomeness.  In fact...although I love all the seasons, I probably love the later seasons a bit more.  

Our third trip to Australia might be even better than the first and second.

Or if being too optimistic scares me, I could say it might be like The Big Bang Theory.  We loved that show.  Now our love has been slightly reduced. But we still enjoy the show.  

Yeah.

Now I'm thinking, what's more alarming—my unrelenting obsession with Australia or my addiction to television?

Let me move onto other analogies.

JK Rowling!

I loved every Harry Potter book. For me, it never got bad.

But then she had to go and write something else.  Of course it would probably be shit and my idol would fall off her pedestal.

Nope. It hasn't happened.

I'm reading The Casual Vacancy now and am totally in love with it.  

As for vacations.....

There's Disney World.

We keep going.

We continue to love it.

SO....

I have some hope that Australia Part Three will be super wonderful...not too much hope, though.   I don't want to jinx myself.

Honestly, I'm at the point of feeling that if we manage to remember our passports, make our flights, avoid a serious debilitating illness (or other disaster), I'll feel we've succeeded in avoiding the Nip/Tuck syndrome.   

Travel Anxiety

We're planning to go to Australia this year.

By planning I mean we bought Qantas tickets and have already put down money for accommodations.

I'm so overly excited...to the point of being obsessive.

I also have a lot of anxiety about the whole thing.

I'm always a bit nervous about traveling, but I think maybe this time the nervousness is more intense.

And I'm feeling horribly superstitious.  That's why I keep saying things like we're planning to go to Australia rather than we're going to Australia.

It's also one of the reasons I cut back from blogging. I fear talking about it too much will jinx me, and it's hard to talk about Australia without talking about the trip.  

I worry that the trip isn't going to happen.  Or it will happen, but it won't be as good as the 2007 and 2009 ones.   

I want it to be fantastic...close to perfect.

But what if my desire for perfection makes me too uptight and I fail to have fun?  Or what if I drive Tim and Jack nuts, so much that they end up hating the holiday and hating Australia?

I'm anxious about posting this.

Will I be jinxing myself?

Or am I close to being mentally deranged and posting this is a step in my recovery?


Anyway.....

Yesterday I was thinking of time.

I thought about how I wished the time leading up to our trip would go by super fast. (I want to be in Australia NOW).

 I want the time on the airplane to go by even faster.

Then I want our time in Australia to go by extremely slow.  I want our few weeks there to feel like a lifetime.

Well...uh...I mean in a good way.  I don't want us stuck out in the bush somewhere—hot and thirsty, feeling like each torturous minute is an hour. That would suck.  

My Australian Television Viewing

I watch a lot of Australian television lately.

Here are the shows in my life.

Warning:  There might be some spoilers here.

1. Offspring.   I've been a fan of this show for awhile now.  It was my introduction to wonderful actors such as Asher Keddie and John Waters (no, not the wacky American filmmaker). 

Offspring is a comedy-drama about a neurotic obstetrician.  It's funny. It's heartwarming. It's sexy.    I've talked about it before and don't have much more to say for now.  

I'll probably have more to say when season four begins.  

2. Q and A.    Q and A is a comedy about politicians in Australia. No, wait.Maybe it's a horror story.

Actually, it's a talk show type thing. A guy named Tony Jones has famous people (mostly Australians, but also folks from other places) sit with him and answer questions from the audience.

It's fascinating to me sometimes. It's boring other times.

It's very educational. I learn about Australia. I also learn about the world in general...and human nature.  

3. All Saints.  I'm actually on hiatus from this show.  I stopped after season eleven, because I found out one of the actors (Mark Priestly) had committed suicide. I watched his last episode and then didn't have the heart to continue.

For some reason, that I can't remember, I started watching the show with season ten. I'm thinking maybe someday I'll go back and watch the show from the beginning.  

I liked All Saints, but I think I was usually more interested in the guest star storylines than the main character ones.

The show often had me googling medical conditions.

There was one episode where a guy severed that very important artery you have in your neck.   One of the doctors or nurses had to hold it together with his hand. I was fascinated and terrified by the whole thing. Would he survive? Would he die?

The show failed to answer that question. Or I missed it. I was kind of left hanging.  

There was an episode about a genetic brain disease called Fatal Familial Insomnia.    The victim can't sleep, goes insane, and then dies within a year or so.  I thought that was interesting...and sad.

The storyline was quite clever in that one.  The wife goes to the hospital with chest pains. Things don't add up for the medical staff.  You think she's having psychosomatic type symptoms or she's a hypochondriac.  OR maybe she's faking the whole thing for attention.

And that's it. She's faking the whole thing for attention. The catch is she doesn't want attention for herself. She wanted attention for her husband. He had refused to believe there was something wrong with him. He refused to get medical help. So she got him into the hospital by faking an illness for herself.

She's better than the woman who swallowed a push pin in order to cough up massive blood and win attention FROM her boyfriend.  

Oh yeah. I wanted to mention.  John Waters is on this show too.  He plays a surgeon.  He's still sexy, but I like his Offspring character better.  

4. Love My Way   I vaguely liked this show. Then they had the big tragedy.   Not only did it make me sad and scared, it also made me a bit obsessed. I fell in love.  

I guess tragedy doesn't bring family and friends closer together. It can also make you feel closer to fictional characters.

I started having a little bit of a crush on Claudia Karvan. It's hard not to.   She's adorable. And after Frankie loses her daughter, you just want to take her into your arms and cuddle her. Well, at least I did.

Before the tragedy, I didn't like Dan Wylie's character.  I thought he was annoying and creepy.   Then all my feelings changed after episode eight.  Now I like him. As a grieving father, he won me over.

There's a heartbreaking scene where he's at a park watching kids play some type of sport. A coach or parent comes over and scolds him, thinking he's some kind of pervert. He starts to sob and then explains that his daughter died recently. Then the coach/parent person is sympathetic and let's him watch.   It's incredibly sad.  

Then there's Tom Jackson.  He's the brother of Dan Wylie's character.   I think he's kind of adorable.   But although he can be really sweet sometimes (like in the last episode of season one), he can be quite awful at other times.  He was supportive of Frankie and her loss in season one. Then in season two he has that attitude, okay, get over it now.  Stop playing the my-daughter-has-died card.  

Asher Keddie from Offspring is on the show too.  She plays the stepmother to Frankie's daughter.   It's all very complex.  She loved this little girl, but in the months leading up to the child's death, they hadn't been very close. Keddie's character had been too stressed with her new baby and struggling marriage.

She's very sad about her stepdaughter dying; yet her loss and grief is not as intense as the biological parents. I think she feels a bit lost and alienated.

I've wondered about the show. Did the creators say something like,  I think we should make a television drama about a family who loses a child.   We'll look at the trauma of the whole thing and the ongoing grief it causes.  But we won't have it happen right away.  Let's have the viewers get to know the family. Let's have the viewers get to know the child, so they feel some of the grief as well.   

OR.....

Did they say Let's make a show about a dysfunctional family.   Then later while brainstorming, they came up with the idea for the death.

Either way. despite it's overwhelming sadness; it was all very well done.   

5. Packed to the Rafters  I already know a major death is going to happen on this show. I think knowing about it ahead of time will make me somewhat less haunted about the whole thing.

I'm at the beginning of season two right now.   I'm not sure when the death is supposed to happen.

Anyway, it's a good show.

Nathan Rafter annoyed me the most out of all the characters; but now he's starting to grow on me.    Well, I think that's actually because he's becoming a better person.

I like the mom, played by Rebecca Gibney.

I love the grandfather. He's the guy from that movie The Castle. I need to watch that one day.

I like the youngest son.  Ben Rafter.  I also like his roommate and the storyline with him falling in love with an older woman.  That's all very sweet.

My only complaint about the show is it's kind of negative about vegans and/or health food people.

Rachel Rafter dates a yoga instructor who's vegan. He turns out to be an ass.

Then Ben and his roommate get a new roommate.—a girl who pretty much force feeds one of them spirulina. She's a bit creepy,  and I think there's a chance she might end up being evil.

What's the deal?

The show seems to be saying that if you want to be a decent person you need to eat pork chops and fish sticks.  

6. Dance Academy.    This program is for teens.  I must be a teen at heart, because I love this show.  

Dance Academy is about a rural girl named Tara who goes off to Sydney to go to dance school.  

I think one of the reasons I love this show is each of the three main girls reminds me of an aspect of myself.

Tara is a bit of a loser sometimes and gets herself in humiliating situations.  That's me. There's an episode where they rank the students and Tara is the lowest in most categories. I can totally imagine that happening to me.  There are also scenes where she deals with rejection from her crush.  I can relate to that a lot too.

Then there's Kat who's very different from me personality wise.  She's outgoing and wild....charming.  But I can relate to her having family members that other people enthusiastically admire.    I can relate to her insecurity.  Is it me you love? Or do you like someone else in my family more?  Please show me that I'm your top priority and not them.

Yeah.....

The third one is Abigail. She's a major bitch.  I think I'm much nicer than her. But I can definitely relate to her body image and control issues.

7. Home and Away  I started watching fairly current episodes of this and Neighbours, but then found it hard to get my eyes on more episodes. So I started watching Home and Away from the beginning.

I didn't like it much at first; and probably just went on with it because I know one day Julian McMahon is going to join in the fun.  

Now I'm starting to like it a bit.

I couldn't really get into Carly.  She's the one who's eventually going to marry McMahon.   In the first several episodes, the show centered around her and I wasn't very interested.  

But then there was the storyline about Lynn and her dog being put to sleep. She runs away and meets a man who is a bit mentally slow. It's all very sweet.   I like Lynn. Now I like the show.

Anyway, I'll probably get more interested in Carly once McMahon shows up.

8. Trapped   It's another teen show. I just started watching this one.  It's like Lost for kids.

I find it to be quite entertaining.  

9. Tangle  I watched one episode of this. I couldn't get season one, so I had to start with season two.  I was kind of lost and a little bored, but I think the show could grow on me.  It's produced by John Edwards, the same guy responsible for Offspring and Love My Way.

The main character looked familiar to me.I jumped on IMDb and found out she's Roo from Home and Away! 

Anyway....I decided my TV plate is a bit full right now.    Love My Way lasts only three seasons.   I think when I'm done with that; I'll try Tangle again.  



I also watch some American television. At this point in our lives, we're HUGE fans of How I Met Your Mother.  We're addicted and in love.

Tim and I are fans of The Walking Dead.   Although as much as I love that show; I think I like the Talking Dead even more.   It's hilarious.  I also love the behind the scene stuff on the AMC website.   

We also still watch The Big Bang Theory, Suburgatory and Modern Family.  Our love for those shows have been majorly overshadowed by Ted, Barney, Robin, Lily, and Marshall.    Plus, I think Modern Family has gone majorly downhill.


So....

What about you?   What shows do you watch?     

A Different Planet

One day I watched episode 8 of Love My Way. 

The episode left me feeling shocked, terrified, and very sad.

I felt a crap load of empathy for the fictional characters, but I also had some self-centered thoughts.   

I kind of worried the experience would have a lasting effect.

Could I have some kind of nervous breakdown?

Can you get post-traumatic stress disorder from a television show?

Could I become severely depressed?

Out of concern and curiosity, I googled to find out if there was any information and/or opinions about fiction causing depression.  

I didn't find much.

But I did find a couple of articles about how the movie Avatar caused depression, and even suicidal thoughts, in some people.   

It's not that the movie was horribly traumatic. People become depressed after seeing the movie because they wish the blue-people planet was real.  After seeing the movie, it's hard for some people to return to reality.

I can relate to that.

I understand.

Anyway...the star of Avatar is Sam Worthington.

I thought that was kind of funny because he was also in Love My Way....including episode 8.  



In other news....

Last week I went to the thrift store.

I found an Australian t-shirt.

I felt I had won the thrift store jackpot.

I'm wearing it now.


More to come later.

Maybe.