redfiona99

F1:

I still don't like him, but Alonso can drive. Even given the conditions, there's no way that Ferrari should be winning races. Thank you Fernando, I owe you one.

It says something about my apathy re: Alonso, and also my deep belief that it was the driver that won the race, not the car, but Sergio Perez getting second place made me happier than the Ferrari race win. But, oh how happy did Peter Sauber look. And I'm sorry but I am intrinsically pro privateer teams. And given that they have the same engine, and given their respective budgets, I think Sauber are getting more bang for their buck from their chassis.

Some notes for various driver:

Dear Roman Grosjean, if all you're going to do is crash out, can you not totally ruin Schumacher's race first!

Dear Button and Vettel, I know they're mobile chicanes, but don't hit the HRTs. It doesn't end well.

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Football: How did I not know that Shay Given was really a Shamus, given that I knew his middle name was Joseph. And he continues to be adorable, and I may never forgive Lady Luck for putting Ireland and Italy in the same group.

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Links:

Undertaker to the Afghan Taliban in Kandahar - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17258687 I think the BBC are doing one of their 'untold stories' things, especially given the last lines of the article "The country has many similar untold stories, stories that no one has written, no one has told, no one has heard."

The Pink Certificate - Proving you're gay to the Turkish army - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17474967 There's a reason everyone wants to save the BBC World Service, it's so that we hear about news like this.

On a slightly more upbeat note, Marcus Collins has released his version of 'Seven Nation Army' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxevD8-bG9k Skipping over the usual complaints, argh, cover, argh, but the thing I don't get is why they've totally hidden that bassline, the thing that everyone remembers about the track. It's been mulched into blandness, which I didn't think you could do to White Stripes tracks.

So I'm not exactly happy with who won the downhill. I don't mind Didier Defargo per se, my dislike is nothing personal. It just means that an Austrian didn't win it and a Swiss skier did. Which is of the not good. I can only hope that either the women do better than expected or the Austrians get something in the Super-G.

Of course, having watched that in the lab (partly personal choice due to obnoxiousness of housemates), I get home in time to see the Swiss win another gold medal in the 15 k cross-country.

It's not good ;)

Anyway, the moment that was over, I was unceremoniously removed from the TV so my housemate, and his girlfriend, can watch their DVDs of Damage. I go and cook, and then eat my dinner upstairs while watching the snowboard cross which is by far my favourite of the new events (she says new, knowing that it's been there for 15 years). It was probably just as well I was watching it alone, given that I'd have to explain why I was killing myself laughing every time the BBC commentator was trying to pronounce Mario Fuchs's surname. They pronounced it to rhyme with Cuche, I think to avoid an unfortunate homophone that doesn't actually occur if you pronounce it properly.

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The man writing for the Times on the Winter Olympics is a fool who knows nothing. Apparently Didier Defargo was a skier of no note before this. The man has won at Wengen and Kitzbuehel, back to back. He is a known quantity and if I know that, why doesn't the man who is writing about him.

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However, the Times is temporarily forgiven, because they published this - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7028242.ece

John Amechi writing much sense.