Tuning in

I'M in love with Victor Meldrew. And Frank Spencer. And Rodney Trotter. I've even got all unnecessary over Ken Barlow.

Never before have I gotten excited over tuning into One Foot in the Grave or even other soaps I never gave the time of day including Emmerdale but now we've had Foxtel installed, I'm as happy as a kangaroo in a boxing ring.

Back in Blighty, I hardly ever sat long enough to watch the final chapter of anything that featured on the small screen. Now, and until the novelty wears off, I'm in front of the gogglebox soaking up every last bit of anything dishing out a Pommy accent.

So last night, I enjoyed my first Ozzie Corrie ... only I couldn't work out where I was upto in the storyline. It's more than three months since I've clapped eyes on the credit rolling cobbles and more than familiar theme tune and last night's episode was showing the scenes of Gail suffering from memory loss and trying to piece together how she came to fall down the stairs at her home to end up on crutches.

Now maybe it's me with the memory loss, but I can't for the life of me remember whether it's me falling so far behind or the UKTV channel itself.
But now I know it's the latter as I've just tuned into the subsequent episode to see Paul squirm as his dodgy insurance claim at the restaurant he set fire to falls apart around his Duckworth ears.
The only shows coming in as marginally older than these ageing soap episodes feature On the Buses with Reg Varney and re-runs of 'Allo 'Allo and Are You Being Served...?

So, while some sort of familiarity has been finally restored in the gogglebox department, the only thing I have to get over now is regaining some of the same when I'm out provision shopping for hours on end.

I gaze all blurry-eyed at the shelves trying to match my former shopping lists with the array of products I'm now faced with. I'm looking for beef and I get blade, when I want Cheddar cheese, I'm offered 'Tasty' and when I fancy some Ragu, I get Leggo.

Every mealtime has an element of surprise as the Aussie way of life learning curve continues....