There are times when television is of such a high quality, the rest of one's life becomes little more than an annoying distraction.
It is at such times that responsibilities like looking after the very young, or the aged, just get in the way.
I think few people would resent a fellow who fails to provide the necessities of life, for instance, to an unpleasant nephew, or to an elderly aunt at the moment.
If, perhaps, one threw their household rubbish into the Town Belt, as there was no time to put it out in a bag, who could blame a chap?
Because not only are the Olympic Games on at the moment, Coronation Street has been really interesting.
Really.
That is not to mention the netball.
It was a fine moment watching the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic beat the Vixens, a team from Adelaide or somewhere, last week.
Each vixen in the team went well, and seven vixens together are hard to stop, God knows.
But the world stopped for me on Saturday morning, when the Olympics opening ceremony was on the tele.
I have not been back to work since.
I shouldn't pretend - I haven't had a job since the late 1950s.
But the opening ceremony was just terrific, with the Queen an absolute little pearler in her role as official opener.
"I declare open the Games of London, celebrating the 30th Olympiad of the modern era," the 86-year-old monarch said.
Then she sat down - just like that.
Stunning.
On Coronation Street, Kevin Webster has been getting a heck of a hard time.
Yes, he did have an affair with his work-mate and best chum Tyrone's wife Molly.
Yes, he did sneak away from his wife's birthday party to do it with her on a couch.
Yes, Molly did get pregnant, and yes, Kevin did try to convince her to abort the baby.
But who could look me straight in the eye and say they have not done all or any of those things at one time in their lives?
Next Monday, the woooooorld of the fuuuuuture comes to a nice family from the United Kingdom, which is somewhere near England.
In Home of the Future, the Perera family from Sheffield has their home ripped apart, and filled with futuristic technology.
On the Living Channel at 10pm, the series shows the family getting electric cars, a robot motor mower and a robot vacuum cleaner.
Best of all, they are provided with a toilet that gives your bottom a good wash - and a blow dry.
"Will the future be a gadget-based blessing, or an electronic nightmare?" future "expert" Chris Sanderson asks.
Probably the former.
Eh?
- Charles Loughrey.
