Turns out if you want Sky Sports 1 and/or 2 via BT Vision (their TV thing) you have to pay an additional subscription, so there goes that idea :(.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Friday, 5 August 2011
sods and bits
Turns out if you want Sky Sports 1 and/or 2 via BT Vision (their TV thing) you have to pay an additional subscription, so there goes that idea :(.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Anyway, this last few weeks I've really been struggling to cover all the stuff I wanted too in the blog. This is something of a turn-around from the usual situation, where I'm struggling to find enough to talk about for all five days.
I therefore thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of some things that are either too old to really talk about or can be quickly summarised. I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot!
The Weather
One of my pet sayings is that the weather in the UK seems to come with exclamation marks and the early part of this was a classic example.
So we've been bimbling along at a fairly cool range of 15-20 degrees maximum during the day. Not technically shorts weather, but I've been steadfastly wearing them anyway. And then this last weekend there's a sudden change and we bounce up into the high twenties, with the temperature gauge on my car bobbling around the low thirties (all that metal tends to boost the temperature a bit).
Those sorts of temperature are all very nice, but when they happen suddenly, with no chance to acclimatise, I find it a bit unpleasant. Interestingly, though, I think I'm coping with the high temperatures much better now that I've shed some weight. It also gives me more reason to praise my aircon, which has again been giving me a bit of respite in the evenings and helping me get to sleep at night.
Dentists
On Monday I had a long session at the dentists, as I needed two fillings :(.
My teeth seem really susceptible to decay so I've been kinda lucky I've not had need of a filling in a while. Although I have to say I think actually the filling he put in was because one dropped out a while back.
Once I got home I looked in the mirror to see it and to me it seemed to be where I'm sure I'd had a filling a long time ago. And I also specifically remember a time when I was eating and something very hard and crunchy was suddenly in my mouth and the bits I spit out looked like the amalgam they use in fillings. I remember asking him about it at the next check-up I had and he said nothing had changed, but I'm sure it was one that fell out.
Especially given that it was a really big hole and filling he put in - it couldn't have eaten away that much in such a short period of time.
I'm not a huge fan of the dentist. It's not like most people who hate the sound of the drill, but simply the pain. My teeth are really sensitive and even when fully numbed I can often still feel pain. This was the case on Monday, when I really couldn't feel half of my face, yet when he was deep in there, rooting around close to the nerve there was occasional stabbing pain from it. Also, my gums can be really soar when they've been poked and prodded about.
However, the thing I was most pleased about was that once the pain killer had worn off there wasn't any lingering pain and my gums were fine. Normally Id' expect pain from the swollen nerve and my gums for days, but it was all fine.
The bad news was that, because the other filling is also on the lower jaw, but on the other side, he only did the one filling, so I've got to go back again.
Things that go "squeak" in the night
On Tuesday night I had the aircon on, as mentioned above and that sent me off to sleep in a nicely cooled room, but later on it was obviously getting a bit stuffy in there as I woke up and had to open some windows.
I don't really like opening windows while I'm asleep, as it makes me feel a bit paranoid, and the windows don't really have a latch setting where you can open them enough to get a good flow of air in, but they're still locked, if you see what I mean. Anyway, point is that I opened them up a bit, though not fully wide and went back to sleep.
Until about 4AM when there was a sudden rattling noise on the window sill and then this really weird squeaky/growly noise outside. It's really difficult to describe, but it was like the sort of noise a guinea pig makes crossed with the sort of noise a dog makes when it's trying to get its toy out from under a chair.
Clearly some sort of beast (my guess is a squirrel) had jumped onto my window sill (those pesky big trees again) and... well, I'm not sure. Maybe it was trying to get in though the window or maybe it just sounded like that because its claws were scrabbling on the sill.
It gave me a real shock and I yelled out to try to frighten it away. Not sure if I did or it had already gone, but it really woke me up and I spent the rest of the morning watching stuff I'd recorded and listening out for it to happen again.
Actually I went on a bit more than I intended there, so I'll pick these short thoughts up again next week.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
weighty issues
So it's been a while since I did an update about my weight and related issues.
Last I mentioned I'd been on holiday for the Grand Prix and subsequently put on a little bit of weight, although I was pleased it wasn't a huge amount.
Last week there was no change in my weight - it stayed at exactly 19 stone 6 pounds, and I do mean exactly - both weeks the scales said 6.0 pounds exactly.
I kinda understand why it stayed exactly the same, though I won't say I wasn't a little disappointed. Basically, I didn't do very much walking (the weekend in particular I seem to recall being a bust due to the weather and other issues) and I wasn't very sensible on the diet front.
This last week was much better, as I lost 3 pounds, which I'm rather pleased about.
I wouldn't say I was back into the groove properly with the dieting and exercise, but I am getting back there.
I did my short walk I do before work and I went for reasonable walks at the weekend. Ideally I need to walk during lunch as well, but unfortunately since Homebase closed down I feel a bit odd parking in their car park, which is what I used to do when I went for a walk around the industrial estate. To be fair, this was also been hampered by the need to go to the post office for e-bay stuff most lunch times over the last couple of weeks, so it's not entirely down to that.
I also was closer to my diet.
Well, I say that, actually I slipped quite a few times, but still lost weight. They weren't big slips and there weren't as many, so I guess that explains it.
On my side (?) I did have some really bad nights sleep and I do seem to burn calories when that happens. Not that I'd use it as a proper dieting technique, obviously, but it does seem to have an effect whenever t happens.
In terms of targets and stuff, I've set a new one after the middle of this diet phase turned out to have a net no change, which is to get down to around 18 stone. I'm not entirely expecting to make it, as the change-over point to my next diet period is around the August Bank Holiday, so there's not long to go, but hopefully I'll at least be able to get a good way below 19 stone.
Wow - below 19 stone! I'm not that far off being "fat" rather than "obese"!
I've been umming and erring over what to set as my next target for my next weight loss phase. This one runs up to Chrimbo and has a late autumn holiday, which I'm planning to do a similar thing to what I did last year, although I'm going to have to be really careful about the whole splurging on junk food thing.
It would be nice to set a target that's fairly easy to achieve and then break it next time, rather than my usual thing of too ambitious a target that I then don't get anywhere near too.
Last I mentioned I'd been on holiday for the Grand Prix and subsequently put on a little bit of weight, although I was pleased it wasn't a huge amount.
Last week there was no change in my weight - it stayed at exactly 19 stone 6 pounds, and I do mean exactly - both weeks the scales said 6.0 pounds exactly.
I kinda understand why it stayed exactly the same, though I won't say I wasn't a little disappointed. Basically, I didn't do very much walking (the weekend in particular I seem to recall being a bust due to the weather and other issues) and I wasn't very sensible on the diet front.
This last week was much better, as I lost 3 pounds, which I'm rather pleased about.
I wouldn't say I was back into the groove properly with the dieting and exercise, but I am getting back there.
I did my short walk I do before work and I went for reasonable walks at the weekend. Ideally I need to walk during lunch as well, but unfortunately since Homebase closed down I feel a bit odd parking in their car park, which is what I used to do when I went for a walk around the industrial estate. To be fair, this was also been hampered by the need to go to the post office for e-bay stuff most lunch times over the last couple of weeks, so it's not entirely down to that.
I also was closer to my diet.
Well, I say that, actually I slipped quite a few times, but still lost weight. They weren't big slips and there weren't as many, so I guess that explains it.
On my side (?) I did have some really bad nights sleep and I do seem to burn calories when that happens. Not that I'd use it as a proper dieting technique, obviously, but it does seem to have an effect whenever t happens.
In terms of targets and stuff, I've set a new one after the middle of this diet phase turned out to have a net no change, which is to get down to around 18 stone. I'm not entirely expecting to make it, as the change-over point to my next diet period is around the August Bank Holiday, so there's not long to go, but hopefully I'll at least be able to get a good way below 19 stone.
Wow - below 19 stone! I'm not that far off being "fat" rather than "obese"!
I've been umming and erring over what to set as my next target for my next weight loss phase. This one runs up to Chrimbo and has a late autumn holiday, which I'm planning to do a similar thing to what I did last year, although I'm going to have to be really careful about the whole splurging on junk food thing.
It would be nice to set a target that's fairly easy to achieve and then break it next time, rather than my usual thing of too ambitious a target that I then don't get anywhere near too.
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
the thin red line
Well this wasn't quite what I was expecting.
I have to say I wasn't expecting much. I knew it was a war film and I knew it was an old war film (as in a film set in an old war, rather than being black and white or something), but if I'm totally honest I wasn't entirely sure if it was WW2 or the Korean War. Certainly the imagery suggested that sort of time period, rather than, say, Vietnam.
What I really wasn't expecting was something akin to an art house war movie. Indeed, I didn't actually think there was such a genre. And, to be frank, I didn't find it particularly enjoyable, so maybe there isn't.
I've read that the reviews for the film have been generally good. I can kinda understand that - it has the feel of being the sort of film critics would quite enjoy, but I found it a bit pretentious, if I'm honest.
Let me explain it this way - when I'm out walking I tend to listen to audio books. With the amount of walking I do I've actually gotten through quite a few and one of the themes of stuff I've listened to has been "classics". Now by classics I actually mean those well known things that most people are aware of but have never actually read.
In particular this has focused on science fiction, but there have been a few others too. Anyway, the point is that a few of the books actually stretch back to Victorian times and the one of most importance here is Frankenstein.
In particular, when I was listening to Frankenstein I was rather struck by how purple (or flowery) the prose is. In modern writing guides you're encouraged not to fanny about with fancy words, not least of all because, as I did here, purple prose can be kinda boring.
But also, and of most relevance here, I was struck by how eloquent the Monster is. As I'm sure you know, Frankenstein creates a human and while the film version of Igor bringing him a criminal's brain isn't in the novel (it's not actually the case that Frankenstein stitches human body parts together in the book - it's more of a chemistry thing) the idea she presents of a newly created man being able to learn language to quite the level of eloquence that he manages is, frankly, daft. Not to mention that he teaches himself to read.
And that's a big part of the problem I had with this film.
Every so often there'll be a chunk of narration from some of the soldiers. The soldiers aren't presented as being anything other than ordinary soldiers, yet these voice over's are incredibly fanciful and thoughtful and extremely eloquent. They're not the words of soldiers, in other words, and I found that horribly jarring.
I think, if I'm honest, taking out that narration and chopping some of the early stuff out to make it a less bum-numbing sub-2 hours in length, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. Certainly the basic story that's there and the messages it's trying to convey worked, but those bits of narration were like being slapped with a wet fish.
I have to say I wasn't expecting much. I knew it was a war film and I knew it was an old war film (as in a film set in an old war, rather than being black and white or something), but if I'm totally honest I wasn't entirely sure if it was WW2 or the Korean War. Certainly the imagery suggested that sort of time period, rather than, say, Vietnam.
What I really wasn't expecting was something akin to an art house war movie. Indeed, I didn't actually think there was such a genre. And, to be frank, I didn't find it particularly enjoyable, so maybe there isn't.
I've read that the reviews for the film have been generally good. I can kinda understand that - it has the feel of being the sort of film critics would quite enjoy, but I found it a bit pretentious, if I'm honest.
Let me explain it this way - when I'm out walking I tend to listen to audio books. With the amount of walking I do I've actually gotten through quite a few and one of the themes of stuff I've listened to has been "classics". Now by classics I actually mean those well known things that most people are aware of but have never actually read.
In particular this has focused on science fiction, but there have been a few others too. Anyway, the point is that a few of the books actually stretch back to Victorian times and the one of most importance here is Frankenstein.
In particular, when I was listening to Frankenstein I was rather struck by how purple (or flowery) the prose is. In modern writing guides you're encouraged not to fanny about with fancy words, not least of all because, as I did here, purple prose can be kinda boring.
But also, and of most relevance here, I was struck by how eloquent the Monster is. As I'm sure you know, Frankenstein creates a human and while the film version of Igor bringing him a criminal's brain isn't in the novel (it's not actually the case that Frankenstein stitches human body parts together in the book - it's more of a chemistry thing) the idea she presents of a newly created man being able to learn language to quite the level of eloquence that he manages is, frankly, daft. Not to mention that he teaches himself to read.
And that's a big part of the problem I had with this film.
Every so often there'll be a chunk of narration from some of the soldiers. The soldiers aren't presented as being anything other than ordinary soldiers, yet these voice over's are incredibly fanciful and thoughtful and extremely eloquent. They're not the words of soldiers, in other words, and I found that horribly jarring.
I think, if I'm honest, taking out that narration and chopping some of the early stuff out to make it a less bum-numbing sub-2 hours in length, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. Certainly the basic story that's there and the messages it's trying to convey worked, but those bits of narration were like being slapped with a wet fish.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
fuck you, bernie, fuck you very much
So from next year, the BBC will not be showing all of the F1 Grand Prixs live - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9550930.stm
As with all sport, I'm sure there are some who are pleased there's going to be less of it on TV, but obviously this is my sport, so I'm bitterly disappointed. It is not a complete disappointment. As I understand it, the BBC will show half the races live, but for the other half of the races they will only show highlights.
I'm unsure how qualifying and practice will work. The impression I get is that if the BBC are showing the race live they'll also show all the practice and qualifying, but if they're not, then they won't. Also, the BBC 5live radio commentary will still continue, so access won't be completely blocked.
But part of the point of Formula one is watching the race live. Well, I say that as someone who often records the race and watches it on a delay, but we're talking a short delay, not several hours. And we're talking an active decision I make and that allows me to go for a walk.
In particular, I'm puzzled what will happen with the qualifying - when it says extended highlights, does that mean highlights shows for qualy and the race? Or just the race?
I'm also worried about which races the beeb will show. The calendar each year is somewhat fluid, so it's difficult for them to say ahead of time, but the worry is the phrase they use about how which races they show will be "negotiated" with Sky. Firstly that sounds very much like Sky are in the driving seat, but also it means there's a good chance they won't show the good ones live.
Of course, the irony is they're doing this half-deal thing just when F1 is producing a season where almost all the races are interesting. In previous years you could have easily said "don't bother showing x, y and z races, because they'll be boring" but this year even the likes of Monaco and Hungary have been interesting.
There's the possibility the races may be watchable via the BT TV service, as it has Sky 1 & 2 on it. I don't have that, but I could get it. I don't want Sky and I couldn't actually get it, as I understand it. Obviously I live in rented accommodation, but I think my landlord would be okay with it, but the problem is there are some hefty tress in the line of sight (he used to have it) and they block the signal.
Certainly Virgin isn't an option. I explored that before, and they were quite emphatic that they wouldn't put two boxes at the same property, which seemed ridiculous, but there you go. Also there's no guarantee F1 will be shown on Sky1 or 2 - there are 4 sky sports channels. I guess worst case I can listed to it on 5 Live and then watch the highlights show.
But the overall point is I'm seriously unimpressed. It seems ridiculous to me that Bernie charges so much for the telly rights that it's priced the BBC out. Now I do wonder what would have happened if the BBC had said it was too expensive - would he have just gone with Sky? He's always said it would remain on free-to-air TV.
Would ITV have picked it up again? Probably not at such high prices, and C5 and C4 would never have been able to afford it. Except it's now clear that this issue of highlights clearly ticks the FTA box for Bernie, so my guess is, if the beeb had said no, all races would have been shown live on Sky with only a highlights package then shown on one of the terrestrial channels.
To be frank, I've always been a bit dismissive of the ideas of the teams taking over F1 or other moves to get rid of Bernie, as getting the teams to act in unison is surely a bit like herding cats, but now I have to say it's got to be the way forward. I'm sure the teams (with their need to get maximum exposure for their sponsors) would not have approached things in this fashion.
As with all sport, I'm sure there are some who are pleased there's going to be less of it on TV, but obviously this is my sport, so I'm bitterly disappointed. It is not a complete disappointment. As I understand it, the BBC will show half the races live, but for the other half of the races they will only show highlights.
I'm unsure how qualifying and practice will work. The impression I get is that if the BBC are showing the race live they'll also show all the practice and qualifying, but if they're not, then they won't. Also, the BBC 5live radio commentary will still continue, so access won't be completely blocked.
But part of the point of Formula one is watching the race live. Well, I say that as someone who often records the race and watches it on a delay, but we're talking a short delay, not several hours. And we're talking an active decision I make and that allows me to go for a walk.
In particular, I'm puzzled what will happen with the qualifying - when it says extended highlights, does that mean highlights shows for qualy and the race? Or just the race?
I'm also worried about which races the beeb will show. The calendar each year is somewhat fluid, so it's difficult for them to say ahead of time, but the worry is the phrase they use about how which races they show will be "negotiated" with Sky. Firstly that sounds very much like Sky are in the driving seat, but also it means there's a good chance they won't show the good ones live.
Of course, the irony is they're doing this half-deal thing just when F1 is producing a season where almost all the races are interesting. In previous years you could have easily said "don't bother showing x, y and z races, because they'll be boring" but this year even the likes of Monaco and Hungary have been interesting.
There's the possibility the races may be watchable via the BT TV service, as it has Sky 1 & 2 on it. I don't have that, but I could get it. I don't want Sky and I couldn't actually get it, as I understand it. Obviously I live in rented accommodation, but I think my landlord would be okay with it, but the problem is there are some hefty tress in the line of sight (he used to have it) and they block the signal.
Certainly Virgin isn't an option. I explored that before, and they were quite emphatic that they wouldn't put two boxes at the same property, which seemed ridiculous, but there you go. Also there's no guarantee F1 will be shown on Sky1 or 2 - there are 4 sky sports channels. I guess worst case I can listed to it on 5 Live and then watch the highlights show.
But the overall point is I'm seriously unimpressed. It seems ridiculous to me that Bernie charges so much for the telly rights that it's priced the BBC out. Now I do wonder what would have happened if the BBC had said it was too expensive - would he have just gone with Sky? He's always said it would remain on free-to-air TV.
Would ITV have picked it up again? Probably not at such high prices, and C5 and C4 would never have been able to afford it. Except it's now clear that this issue of highlights clearly ticks the FTA box for Bernie, so my guess is, if the beeb had said no, all races would have been shown live on Sky with only a highlights package then shown on one of the terrestrial channels.
To be frank, I've always been a bit dismissive of the ideas of the teams taking over F1 or other moves to get rid of Bernie, as getting the teams to act in unison is surely a bit like herding cats, but now I have to say it's got to be the way forward. I'm sure the teams (with their need to get maximum exposure for their sponsors) would not have approached things in this fashion.
Monday, 1 August 2011
hungarian grand prix
I'm gonna do a proper post tomorrow about the announcement over the coverage; today I thought I'd talk about the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Generally speaking, the Hungarian Grand Prix is boring. The problem is a real lack of any overtaking - generally it's won from the front as overtaking is really difficult.
I'm putting that as a kind of excuse, because I didn't really watch the Grand Prix properly. I mean, I had it on, but I also had a few things to do so a good chunk of it I sort of had on in the background.
Well, more fool me, as it was actually a fairly good race. Now to be totally frank, I don't think that was entirely due to the improvements in the racing brought by Pirelli's excellent tyres and the other rule tweaks. A big chunk of it was because the weather was changeable.
It didn't really ever seem to rain properly, but it started damp and then there was a splash of rain towards the end. As ever, changeable weather makes races more interesting.
But it has to be said that they really seem to have done a good job with these new tyres and regs. There were points when it wasn't clear how long tyres would last and choices that had to be made and that's what you want. A lot of the problems of recent years have been because things had become so predictable - and predictably excellent.
Unfortunately, as I say, I didn't really plan things out properly to watch it fully, but then, as I say, it's always been dull in previous years. Apparently the drivers love it though, and there's a really good view for the spectators, but watching on telly nothing tends to happen.
It didn't go so well for Lewis, which was a shame. To be fair, he did kinda deserve his penalty, as he was trying to spin the car around right in the middle of the track. You could understand why he was keen to get back after his spin so quickly, but it wasn't really safe.
And unfortunately from a championship point of view, Vettel ended up finishing second, which means he's still way out in front. It's clear the others have now pretty much caught up with Red Bull, but Vettel has such a lead I'll be amazed if he doesn't have it sown up in a few races.
The Grand Prix now takes its summer holiday, which is a bit of a weird concept, but then the season is much longer nowadays, with more races, so it's understandable.
It should give me a chance to catch up with scanning, though. I admit my slackness started earlier, but the whole thing with the shower (I now have a shower!) meant it was impossible to do any.
Generally speaking, the Hungarian Grand Prix is boring. The problem is a real lack of any overtaking - generally it's won from the front as overtaking is really difficult.
I'm putting that as a kind of excuse, because I didn't really watch the Grand Prix properly. I mean, I had it on, but I also had a few things to do so a good chunk of it I sort of had on in the background.
Well, more fool me, as it was actually a fairly good race. Now to be totally frank, I don't think that was entirely due to the improvements in the racing brought by Pirelli's excellent tyres and the other rule tweaks. A big chunk of it was because the weather was changeable.
It didn't really ever seem to rain properly, but it started damp and then there was a splash of rain towards the end. As ever, changeable weather makes races more interesting.
But it has to be said that they really seem to have done a good job with these new tyres and regs. There were points when it wasn't clear how long tyres would last and choices that had to be made and that's what you want. A lot of the problems of recent years have been because things had become so predictable - and predictably excellent.
Unfortunately, as I say, I didn't really plan things out properly to watch it fully, but then, as I say, it's always been dull in previous years. Apparently the drivers love it though, and there's a really good view for the spectators, but watching on telly nothing tends to happen.
It didn't go so well for Lewis, which was a shame. To be fair, he did kinda deserve his penalty, as he was trying to spin the car around right in the middle of the track. You could understand why he was keen to get back after his spin so quickly, but it wasn't really safe.
And unfortunately from a championship point of view, Vettel ended up finishing second, which means he's still way out in front. It's clear the others have now pretty much caught up with Red Bull, but Vettel has such a lead I'll be amazed if he doesn't have it sown up in a few races.
The Grand Prix now takes its summer holiday, which is a bit of a weird concept, but then the season is much longer nowadays, with more races, so it's understandable.
It should give me a chance to catch up with scanning, though. I admit my slackness started earlier, but the whole thing with the shower (I now have a shower!) meant it was impossible to do any.
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