It's Coming Home!

Today is a joyous day. The BBC has regained the television rights for Formula 1.
I have enjoyed watching F1 since I was a little boy getting up early with my father to watch the races all the way across the world. When I moved to the UK, I enjoyed watching F1 on the BBC. A large part of this enjoyment was because I did not miss a second of the action. There are no adverts on the BBC, so every thrill and spill is there for you to watch.

Then ITV got the rights.

Being a fan, I still watched the races, but never felt quite as close to the action as the glory days of BBC coverage. We, the viewers, were often quite frustrated by missing out on an incident (be it overtaking, pit stop, or crash) because ITV were showing their adverts. This reached its height during the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix when ITV went to an advert break with three laps to go.  ITV have not been that idiotic since, but the memory of it is still there.

So, now the BBC have won the television rights back after 12 years of being away. The BBC always have to be at the forefront of any media advance, technique. Therefore, I believe we can look forward to some very interesting additions to the way we view Formula 1.

Bring on the 2009 season I say.

St. Patrick's Day Musings

You would have to be living in a box to not know that today is St. Patrick's Day. Or, you would be forgiven for thinking last weekend was it, since St. Patrick's Day is such a commercial monster nowadays.
And who am I to complain? I love Guinness, and some of my closest friends are Irish. Plus, I will use any excuse for a party. Even though I'm feeling under the weather today, nay because I am feeling under the weather, I fully intend to investigate the medicinal qualities of the world's best loved stout. 
I've certainly a fair amount of Guinness this weekend. Mrs-Mouse-To-Be and I were invited to the Irish Embassy last Friday for his annual St. Patrick's Day party. Actually, I was just a tag-along, it was the future Mrs. Mouse who got the invite. I guess being director of the Liverpool Irish Festival gets one into those kind of gigs. It was an excellent evening with a lot of food, drink, and Guinness.

Incidentally, if you are ever searching for the Irish Embassy of London in google, do not click on the "ireland.embassyhomepage.com" link. This is NOT the Irish Embassy website. I believe it is one of those advertising pages. Instead look for the Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland website or click the link to go directly to the www.embassyofireland.co.uk website.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Stephen Fry Rules!

My life is complete. I have always enjoyed watching Stephen Fry on TV. My earliest memory of him is a little hazy. I cannot remember if I first saw him in Jeeves and Wooster or A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Either way, I enjoyed watching Fry with Hugh Laurie in these shows and continued to watch them in the Blackadder series. Yes, I am aware that the Blackadder series predates Jeeves and A Bit of..., but I only started watching the series much later on. More recently, I have enjoyed watching Stephen Fry on QI (I've even been to watch the show being made).
By the way, if you haven't watched any of the above, you should either get hold of some of the shows, or shoot yourself. You don't know what you have been missing.
Anyway, as I said, my life is complete. My colleagues at work mentioned that they had heard a Stephen Fry podcast. Having piqued my interest I jumped on the internet to see if I could find it. Very quickly I found out that Fry has a website on which he keeps a blog, and more recently has been posting podcasts. Joy!

Being the fan of Fry that I have described above, you would be within your rights to wondering why I haven't found his site before. Well, I never thought to look, but now I have I cannot wait to read his next blessay, blog, or blissquisition, nor can I wait to listen to his next podgram.

If I have done anything to interest you in Stephen Fry, click on the link to his site on the right of this one.

A.R. Tym's Butcher of Liverpool

Last weekend the Soon-to-be-Mrs-Mouse and I had a bit of a dinner party. We invited our good friend Bones over, the deal being he provide the meat, and we cook it.
Bones is the master butcher in A.R. Tym's butcher on Smithdown road in Liverpool. The meat he provided was fantastic. We sampled both fillet and rump steak that evening and the quality of the cuts were hard to beat. I highly recommend that if you are in the Liverpool area and in need of some fine cuts of meat, please go and see Bones for your supplies. You will not be disappointed.

A.R. Tym's Butcher
208 Smithdown Rd.
Liverpool,
L15 3JT
Tel: 0151 733 0114