The winter Olympics has just finished in Vancouver and its overall been a great Olympics with several great moments. Unfortunately it started off with tragedy after a Georgian luger crashed on the track in training and died as a result of his injuries. This happens hours before the opening ceremony. Many other lugers are auctioning off their suits etc to raise money for his family – thats a nice touch.
To the actual events and my favourite events were the snowboarding events – halfpipe was great, snowboard cross was brilliant and the parallel giant slalom is excellent. Also the ski cross was awesome – as one commentator said its like demolition derby on skis! I also got involved in the curling. Too many I am sure it seems boring but it was great to watch. The GB team didnt do quite well and didnt make it even to the semi-finals. Disappointing with high hopes – the Mens team were world champions. The GB womans team was lead by 19 year old Eve Muirhead who sometimes was great, sometimes poor. Maybe her lack of experience was telling in the end??
Although out of the 50 odd GB athletes only 1 medal was won but it was a gold and it was a brilliant gold!! Amy Williams won the skeleton even – miles ahead of everyone. In the end she finished more than half a second ahead of everyone – may not seem a lot but in the skeleton thats miles!! I suppose it was right that we won something in the skeleton with about £2m of the £5.8m funding from UK Sport spent on the skeleton. Just a shame the men couldnt get a medal!
Going back to one of my favourite events and the snowboard halfpipe. One of the stars of the games was certainly Shaun White. He is a superstar in the world of snowboarding. Hes mega famous and is like the Tony Hawk of snowboarding. In the final he did trick which he called the Tomahawk (double McTwist 1260) – check it out on BBC Sport web site.
I did manage to catch some of the alpine events – e.g. downhill, slalom. Unfortunately Chemmy Alcott didnt do too well. She had some good runs but overall not that good but I still think shes great 
One other big story from the Winter Olympics was Canadian ice skater Joannie Rochette. Her mother died suddenly and she skated a few days later. When she skated everyone wanted her to do well and she ended up getting a bronze medal. Well done to her!
Well thats more or less all my thoughts on the Winter Olympics but I cant finish without mentioning the ice hockey. Ice hockey in Canada is huge. The Canadian womens team won the gold medal and on the final day (and the final event) it was the turn for the men. To make it even bigger it was against big rivals and neighbours USA – both teams full of players who know each other as many play in the NHL. The match ended up going to overtime as after 3 periods it was 2-2. Canada were leading 2-0 at one point but USA equalised with seconds to go!! Very exciting!! In the overtime, it was all Canada and I think they deserved to win. Its always good when the host city/country wins! I did enjoy the final – I still hate all the breaks in play (there was a break during the 1st period because of a commercial break!!) but its much better than American Football which seems to go on for days!!
Now its Londons (UKs) turn for the Olympics – lets hope we dont mess it up!
Well if you follow me on Twitter you will know I was watching the Brits last night. I thought about watching the football but realised everyone would be talking about the Brits last night and today.
Overall, it wasnt that good. There were some good performances like Jay-Z & Alicia Keys and Robbie Williams was great at the end. Lady Gaga’s performance was good. Showed she can really sing – even if no one knew what the song was. She won 3 awards and was very emotional – when accepting the award she seems completely different to the whole on-stage persona. (It was the first time I heard her speak really anyway).
One thing that really bugged me was the general production of the show. The sound seemed to be out sometimes – which made Cheryl Cole look even worse at miming. Cheryl was certainly miming but it was almost a second delay but I think there was also a delay with the other person she sang with sang. Good performance though with the dancing and that first “jump” onto the stage.
When it came back from a commercial break, there was just silence and sometimes hear Peter Kay say something like “we’re back on soon…”. There was a mess up with Sam Fox when it just showed the Spice Girls clip – not her fault but she did mess up saying “rememberable”. LOL.
Also, what was with the guest award presenters?? First Geri and Mel B accepted an award for best Brit moment or something like that (no other Spice Girls??) and then moments later Mel B was back presenting award and then Geri later on presenting. (Also, why was Geri Halliwell presenting award for Breakthrough artist which is voted by Radio 1 listeners – she has nothing to do with Radio 1!). Another guest presenter that just didnt work was Jonathan Ross who did his best “Richard Madeley at the Brits award being an embarassing Dad”. Alan Carr was the only good award presenter – as usual very funny.
Peter Kay did an overall good job but repeated some jokes – he tends to do that but still very funny. Loved him calling Liam Gallagher a “knobhead” – which he was. Liam Gallagher seems to be stuck in the 1990s.
Just to go back to the production and the sound problems – it should really be on post watershed because the audio muting partly ruined it. Also, when stars were walking onto stage (which was a stupidly long way), they sometimes played the “rude” version of the song and had to mute that!!
It was revealed a few days ago that John Terry had an affair and slept with the girlfriend of his former team-mate Wayne Bridge. It was announced today that he has been “sacked” as England captain. Personally, I never thought he should never have been captain. There is too much evidence that hes not a pleasent guy.
Some people are saying that he is being made a scapegoat and other people are involved – they are right. Other people are involved (and other footballers have been “dodgy” things). Also, you have to say that the woman involved isn’t exactly “whiter than white”. If the papers are right she has slept with 4 other Chelsea players (and who knows who else). You have to feel sorry for Wayne Bridge!
As well as this latest John Terry scandal it was also reveals that he sold his own corporate box at Wembley for £4000. (Which hes not allowed to!). He has to pay £80,000 a year for the box – if he wasnt captain it would be £120,000. A few months ago, it was also reveals that he was taking a share of £10,000 for private tours around the Chelsea training ground. Thats just 3 things recently. I could add to the list!! The main earns £170,000 a week but still wants to earn a few extra ££ on the side “dodgy-ly”.
The new England captain has been announced today as Rio Ferdinand – who isnt exactly “whiter than white”. Personally I would like Rooney to be captain. Hes been captain for England. However, maybe its best to have him concentrate on just playing. It seems the top contenders for England captain are have had “scandal” in their past. Maybe the best one is Lampard??
Anyway, as long as England play well and win I dont care. Some people have been saying about England captain (and other footballers) being role models. I think footballers (the vast vast majority) should not be role models.
Before I start, when I say huge success. What I mean is that it won’t sell an anywhere near the similar numbers of the iPhone and iPod.
It does look really nice as you would expect with an Apple product and the pricing is not too bad (in a way).
However, I don’t really know who the iPad is aimed for. If your into gadgets you were no doubt want one but I personally was expecting something as an in-between ipod touch and a macbook. However, to me its just a big ipod touch with 3G (or a big iPhone with the phone).
The 2 main things I think is missing is multi-tasking and Flash. You could get away without both of these on a iPhone but not on a large screen where potentially large sections of a web site are not visible. I know the future looks like the transition to HTML5 and CSS3 but this could take awhile to happen. Also, without multi-tasking you wont be able to have email client open, the same time as Word processor or IM software. Once again, I think this was OK on a phone but not on a larger device like the iPad. Potentially they can fix this in the next major software update but why not now??
Other less major things I think wont work is the virtual keyboard. I just don’t think it will work and can’t see people typing on it for that long or fast. There is the keyboard dock you can plug in but this is only in portrait orientation.
Its not widescreen so not ideal if watching movies, no HDMI output, no camera and its tied into the App Store so you can only run apps bought from App Store. Also no SD card slot, no USB port and no drag and drop management.
Looking at the memory of the iPad it looks like Apple are not thinking of this as a laptop replacement (which makes sense – they dont want to lose potential sales of their MacBooks) but I don’t see who will be the main users.
I am sure reading this you will think I am just being anti-Apple since I have a PC but was I really was hoping for a great device. (And, I have an iPhone and love it so don’t just hate all Apple things).
PS – It also has a stupid name!
It is the last ever Celeb Big Brother this year (on Channel 4 anyway) and the usual random set of celebs are in the house. This year I have been kind of watching it – properly watching just over half of them.
As usual, the “best housemates” have tended to be evicted first. They may make the best housemates but generally not particularly nice people. People like Sov who was so immature and bratty and Stephen who was a bit creepy and annoying were evicted before HM who generally did less.
Vinnie Jones
At the start of the show Vinnie Jones was the favourite with the bookies. He was arguably the most famous person in the house to the UK viewers. Personally I didnt like him from the start. Hes very arrogant, a control freak and dictating everyone. I really don’t like him. It doesnt seem right in the world when a man famous for being a hardman in football getting tons of red cards, the fastest red card ever and particularly being that good a footballer. He was once banned for 4 matches and told to grow up. He later said “”The FA have given me a pat on the back. I’ve taken violence off the terracing and onto the pitch.” Idiot!
Hes English but never played for England team but somehow managed to play for Wales team (his gran was Welsh or something like that). There is also (if you check wikipedia) and story about one of the players he injured as a result of his challenge, had to retire from football. Also, in the 50 movies hes made only a handful you will have heard of, he just plays himself really. Just a stupid hardman. In Gone in 60 seconds he doesnt even really speak until the end where he says a couple lines!
Idiot
He seems to be getting worse and now other ppl are realising what hes like. The latest episode had him bragging about the houses he has, the money he spends before getting out of bed with his housekeepers and dog groomers and his big gates and drive so big you get into 3rd gear driving up it. At one point in show yesterday he had a go at Alex for looking like in Englishman in Benidorm. Then later he goes on about the massive 6ft Union Jack flag he has on his house.
From what I have seen my favourite is Nicola. Dane generally seems OK and then Jonas is alright too. One person I cant decide 100% is Alex. Sometimes he seems OK, comes across a bit dim but generally seems alright. But then he says stuff which just isnt helping himself. Stuff like hating the press but then says and does things he knows will just be mentioned in press. Maybe its the associate with the horrible Jordan is effecting him?
As I sure you know, there was a huge earthquake in Haiti a few days ago. Haiti is already one of the poorest in the world and this makes it even worst with getting help/aid to them.
I was watching Sky News soon after the earthquake and it said up to 500,000 could have died. Latest reports say it could be up to 50,000-100,000.
Aid is struggling to reach the people but I think its slowly getting there. Unfortunately with Haiti being so poor, there are communication problems. The latest is that the US is sending 10,000 troops.
If you want to help, its best to donate money through someone like the DEC or UNICEF. Unfortunately, it seems some people are setting up fake charities – pretending to get money for Haiti. 
President Obama has said that Wall Street must repay the $117bn to taxpayers and has criticised banks for “massive profits and obscene bonuses”. It is similar to the UK where with some banks were bailed out by the taxpayer e.g. RBS is essentially 84% owned by taxpayers. Chief Executive Stephen Hester was grilled by a cross-party group of MPs. He didnt comment on the total bonus pool the bank will pay but it is thought to be £1.5bn. During the grilling he even said “If you ask my mother and father about my pay they’d say it was too high, so some people close to me have that view of bankers.” Nothing against the bankers themselves, its the bosses and who decides on these bonuses etc.
In the US, the tax is to recoup money US taxpayers are expected to lose from bailing out the banks during the financial crisis. He said “My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed.”
Will Gordon Brown say/do anything similar??
