So there I was, sitting down with my home-made Chicken Tikka curry (and by home-made I simply mean that the rice came from a reduced-price packet and the sauce came slopping out of a jar), about to switch the telly on to hear the evening's words of wisdom from Ray "I'll outlive the cockroaches" Meer when the the Freeview box wouldn't come on.

Then it dawned on me that I had removed the batteries (AAA) last week to power my crap mp3 player whilst away on a camping holiday and had totally drained them. It also dawned on me that I didn't have anymore AAA batteries and I couldn't find the charger.

"Golly Gosh" I said in a very calm manner.

But what really got me was that there was no way to turn on my Freeview box! There was no power switch, no blinky light, no nothing - just a sealed box awaiting instructions from its god, the remote. Who the hell decided on that??? Are they all like that or is that the price I pay for cheaping out and getting the "superb value" one from Argos?

It was alright in the end though - after spending five minutes trying to make pictures out of the static, I shoved on the X-men cartoon series on DVD.

from someone who also has a freeview set.. i understand this completely. this is too funny.. lol