Archive for the ‘Distractions’ Category

We did it! Long may my favourite team, the Baltimore Ravens, reign supreme!

Note to self: don’t forget to turn the other one of these off.

We did it! Long may my team, the San Francisco 49ers, reign supreme!

Note to self: don’t forget to turn the other one of these off.

Last week, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the NFL’s number one rated team (statistically), the Atlanta Falcons, at their home stadium, the Georgia Dome, to win the NFC Championship title. There is a full report on A Brit Talks Football.

To be precise, it’s the sixth Championship title the 49ers have won, and the first since 1994 season, when they beat the Dallas Cowboys. But the quest continues – this books them a place in the Super Bowl, against the Baltimore Ravens. The 49ers are five for five on Super Bowl victories so far – will they keep their perfect record?

Last weekend saw the NFL divisional playoff round. It was almost certainly the best weekend of American football that there has been this season. The Baltimore Ravens caused a major upset, when, at the longest odds to win the Super Bowl, eliminated the Denver Broncos, who were the favourites at the time, from the competition.

The San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers to proceed on to the NFC Championship match, while the Atlanta Falcons kicked a winning field goal with only 31 seconds on the clock to beat the Seattle Seahawks in a tail biting finish. Only the New England Patriots’ confident victory over the Houston Texans really failed to provide such excitement.

You can read all about the matches over on A Brit Talks Football. Tonight the championship round takes place to determine who goes to the Super Bowl – you can follow my updates on Twitter.

Due to the increasing number of people that tell me I need to relax more, which while was initially just friends, now includes doctors and therapists, I have decided to start playing Warhammer once again.

Having played a lot of 40K when I was a child, I’ve decided to go with some Fantasy this time and have begun once again building an army to wage war – photos on their way. In the mean time, if your a fellow player, or intrigued to give it a try, now is the time! Norm has already started building a band of Chaos Warriors and by the tim this is published, I’m fairly sure Fonze will be building something too…

Last weekend, myself and George headed up to Weetwood to watch the Leeds Celtics american football team play.

It was dry, but never the less very cold and due to what we suspect was the ambulance getting lost, the game didn’t kick off until an hour after it’s scheduled time – a risky move when you have so little day light these days.

By this point, we were too cold to watch the whole manage, but in the first half Leeds Celtics scored two touchdowns, both with two point conversions, against the Northumbria Mustangs.

When I first started watching Formula One, I was just a child, and the racing it was between Michael Schumacher, at his peak, and everyone else.

Williams were doing great too, Damon Hill had a far better car than Schumacher’s Benetton, but still the master could not be beaten. Then the MacLaren rose back to peak performance, while Schumacher climbed into a slower Ferrari, and still he was incredible.

It was incredible. Your skill as a driver actually makes very little difference – it is mostly how fast the car you are sitting in can go, that determines how well you do. But Schumacher defied rules.

As a seven times world champion, he is easily one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time – but that is possibly meaning miserly – perhaps only Ayrton Senna can contest the title of the greatest of all time.

After retiring in 2006, he came back to the sport in 2010, and drove for a further three seasons. He certainly wasn’t at his peak any more – he didn’t have a great car, but he was often beaten by his team mate (who obviously sits in the same car) and made mistakes that resulted in him not finishing races.

But this only makes him more of an inspiration. Why do I think that, when so many people said he was ruining his legacy? Because who cares about that! I want to do what I love in this life and if nobody ever remembers me again after I’m dead – so what?

Not that there is much doubt of that. As Schumacher leaves Formula One for a second time, he does so as someone that will forever remain in the history books of the sport.

What a grand prix season it has been – almost certainly the best in memory!

We started the year with half a dozen different winners in as many races, tyres went on and off like lightening and if you didn’t manage them probably – you could lose it all at the end. Exciting, wheel to wheel racing continued all year.

After all that, we came down to the final race of the year – and the championship race was still open with Vettel and Alonso only a few points from each other! We couldn’t have asked for a more exciting ending. Well, we could have, but it would have been entirely unreasonable.

It did get better though! The first lap, Vettel finds his car facing backwards, but he is able to keep the engine running and now he is on a mission to get right through the field, and catch Alonso to stop him tacking the title away from him.

In the end, he did, and what an amazing end it was. I hope 2013 is just as exciting, even if we are going to have to mange without Jake Humphrey.

From time to time, I want to quickly find my favourite That Mitchell & Webb Sound sketch, but there doesn’t seem to be an index of them. So, I’ve done one, for series one at least.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Peep Show is a brilliant show. That Mitchell & Webb look is a great sketch show too. But in my opinion, the best work they have ever done, isn’t any of the material they are famous for.

For me, the best work they have ever done is actually their Radio 4 series – That Mitchell & Webb Sound. It must have been popular (for Radio 4 at least) as it ran for four series, and each one of them was brilliant.

Highly recommended.