Watching TV with me

I've been sick with a cold or sinus infection for seven days already. A few days, I was stuck in bed, watching TV. But I wasn't lonely, because Mimi the wonder dog was also there watching TV with me. She's eyeing DiNozzo on NCIS.

Brief updates: weather, friends, TV, movies, transport

WEATHER: June serves up pleasant weather where I live. July and August are unbearably hot and humid, but June's [usually] mild rains, known as the plum rain season, make for bearable temperatures. I'm trying to get out as much as I can before it becomes too hot. Today we had torrential rains instead of mild rains, but that's not common.

FOREIGN FRIENDS: Most of my foreign friends in town are leaving for the summer, but will be back in the fall. Chinese friends will still be around though, most of them anyway.

TV VIEWERSHIP: I get CNN International and Fox News on satellite TV, so for the most part, I hear the same news you do. I usually watch CNN in the morning (Anderson Cooper, et al) and Fox and Friends in the evening. (I'm in a different time zone, remember?) The toxic, argumentative political atmosphere bothers me though, so lately I've had have to turn off the TV often to maintain peace of heart and mind.

MOVIES: I don't watch movies much, but I watched the movie "Lion" on the airplane a few weeks ago, and I loved it. It is about an Indian boy who ends up being adopted by a family in Tasmania, where I once lived. The boy arrived in Tasmania the same year I did, in 1987. The movie is a tearjerker.

TRANSPORTATION: Bamboo Forest is opening more and more subway lines, and it makes life easier. When it rains and I have to get out, I stress out trying to plan the best way to get where I'm going and back. Taxis fill up with passengers during rainstorms and vacant ones can be hard to find; e-bike travel is not a great option; I'll get wet walking to and from the subway station, and sometimes at the other end, my destination is too far from the subway station. Buses seldom go where I want to go, so they are ruled out quickly. If you've always had a car, you've probably never had to think about this kind of thing.

Hope you've enjoyed these random updates!

TV

My TV options are limited. But I know your choices are limited too. You may have hundreds of channels, but sometimes nothing good is on when you sit down to watch.

Currently, it is a tie for my favorite show (all reruns):

• Sell This House - Extreme Edition
• NCIS

I also watch American Idol. I keep thinking I'll stop watching that show, but it hooks me in every time.

CNN International is my main news source, although I get to see NBC news with Brian Williams, and BBC. CNN is on most of the time, even for background noise. I had to turn it off more in recent months because the news was just too depressing (missing airplane, ferry disaster, all affecting East Asians more than any other group).

Sometimes if I am going to be gone all day, I leave the TV on with the sound low so Mimi will have some "company."

But right now, the TV is off. I have no way to know this for sure, but I think I love silence more than most people.