deutsch uber ales

So, the German Grand Prix this last weekend and it was another cracker.

It saw Red Bull clearly not as dominant as they have been previously, with both the Ferraris and McLaren's really taking the race to them. Of course it's going to be a real struggle for anyone to catch and overtake Sebastian Vettel in the standings. And somewhat ironically the fact both McLaren and Ferrari seem resurgent could actually make it more difficult for them to catch Vettel, as they may effectively end up taking points off each other

Vettel's so far in front that it would probably need Vettel's car to expire for several races in a row and that's a pretty slim chance as the cars are way too reliable for that nowadays. I have to say he did seem a bit down throughout the weekend.

I'm not sure if it was the added pressure of it being his home race or the general increase in competition from the other guys, but I half expected him to admit to having a stomach bug or something. He really did seem out of sorts and his performance wasn't that great.

If the comments that he's just not that good a 'racer' as the like of Lewis and Alonso (meaning he's not that good at overtaking) have been getting to him then he did nothing to dispel these, as he seemed to get stuck behind several people - Massa in particular - and was unable to overtake having sailed up to the back of them, when you get the feeling the like of Lewis would have gotten past.

It was a good race, though, and that without the forecasts for rain not coming to anything. And it's a quick turnaround for the next race in Hungary this coming weekend, then we get the summer break before the race at Spa in Belgium, which is always a highlight.

In other weekend news my e-bay auctions I had on went well, with nearly everything going. A few things didn't sell and I relisted them at cheaper start prices. That happens occasionally and I always puzzle over quite why some things sell and others don't.

Actually, sometimes I find it really rather dispiriting, as some of the stuff I'm selling I've held on to because they represent the core of my nerdom. They're kinda the defining elements that define me as a fan of certain things and when I can only sell them at what it would cost to post them (or even at a loss or not at all), it almost feels like a slight against me.

Obviously I know it isn't, but it can be depressing. Heck, it's depressing full stop - I'm not a hoarding pack-rat because I like getting rid of stuff!

The thing that does annoy me, though is when I reduce something (say it started out at £20, it doesn't sell, and then I reduce it to £15 and it does) and it ends up going for what I originally had or more (so people bid it up to £20+). I especially don't get that when there's lots of watchers - if no-one was interested at all, you'd expect it to get no watchers, but if 10 people are watching it and that happens I find it a bit mystifying.

And I still don't have a shower.

There were some bullshit excuses about pipes and stuff, that were basically "we're too cheap to get the plumber in like we promised".

To be frank I'm now resigned to having to use my landlord's shower for the foreseeable future. And I've decided to turn the negatives - can't do scanning, can't dl fansubs - into positives and use that time to watch stuff on DVD so I can start to clear backlog and have more stuff to get on e-bay.