The wonders of Sky+

We signed up for Sky+ during Claire’s pregnancy. This wasn’t a plan to help her through the long days of being at home whilst pregnant, or for after the birth, but it has certainly turned into the best thing in the world for Claire.

Prior to having Sky or any of its variations, we have had FreeView for years and liked the extra channels that it brought with it. We had been thinking about getting Sky for a long time, but was put off by the price and the associated set-up fees, etc. When we have been away on holiday particularly in the States or in Canada, we had Sky access and was able to watch channels like Discovery Channel, which had shows on like American Chopper, Myth Busters and many more. My sister and her boyfriend have been watching all these for years, but I was a Discovery-newbie, so to speak.

We bit the bullet when our friends Phil and Lucy mentioned that both them and us would get £50’s worth of vouchers if they ‘recommended’ us to get a Sky package. We had a chat about it and decided to get it, thinking that we might be wasting our money if only to watch the occasional Sky-based channel. How wrong we were!

When I signed up, I signed up for Sky+, which means that we got a fancier box, which is able to record TV programmes even easier than an old skool video recorder... and it can record a series of a programme using its Series Link feature. (Instead of getting the £50 vouchers, I opted to swap these for a free box and free fitting, which was great!)

Anyway, why all this is important, is because the Series Link feature has meant that Claire has been able to record her favourite TV programmes and watch them at very random times of the day, fitting in around Jack’s sleeping times. This means that when I look down our 'planner' of programmes we have recorded, I am slightly embarrassed/ashamed to admit that there has been recording after recording of naff programmes like Holyoaks, Eastenders, Doctors... basically, if its rubbish, we have it. These would all build up, especially when Claire was in hospital having Jack, and then Claire would watch them all back-to-back, and have like 4 or 5 hours straight of Eastenders. Me, on the other hand, I’d be in the kitchen sticking sharp implements into my eyes.