The New President

I’m not normally one for politics or sentiment but today was quite a big day, even for a limey in Chicago.

We gathered in a large meeting room in a corner of the office at about 10.30am to watch the beginnings of the Inauguration Ceremony. Whilst watching it was hard not to get swept up in the occasion of it all and I kept wondering how this sort of ceremonial celebration would go down in the UK. Somehow I can’t imagine Gordon Brown or David Cameron being received as warmly as Barack Obama was today. And how many people have you seen crying when a new Prime Minister is elected?

But there’s a lot to love about the pomp and ceremony. The speech Mr Obama gave was very good — admittedly, it’s the first Presidential Inauguration speech I’ve witnessed — and obviously moved a lot of the crowd to tears. There does seem to be a real sense of change and hope abound.

I wish the new President good luck and know I will look back on today when I’m grey and old!

Shopping on Sap’s Birthday

After weeks of planning, Sap finally turned 30 last Thursday. She was pampered (even if I do say so myself!) and there were lots of surprises throughout the day.

One of which was to go shopping, something she’s not done in ages (perhaps years!). This explains why she struggled to spend any money…even with lots of encouragement from her husband!

Plus it was the coldest day Chicago had experienced in around 12 years. Not a good day to wander around the shops!

Enjoying Chicago With Nick, Paul & Nige

Nick, Paul & Nige arrived on Friday afternoon to a nice icy Chicago. We gave a guided tour of the walk back from the CTA station (trying not to slip on the ice whilst wheeling the suitcases) and then the guided tour of the apartment. We then attempted to have a sneaky beer in Monk’s — but horror of horrors, it was closed! (It would prove to be closed for the next two days too. We’ve not tried it today!)

We’ve been to a few bars, taken them to see the Bean & Millennium Park and we’ve had fun on the CTA (we’ve been to Paddy Long’s more often than any other bar! First name terms with the barman helps…) We’ve also been for a beer in the John Hancock tower — a bargain at $65 for five drinks!

Today we’re heading to the Sears Tower as it’s a lovely clear day. Might attempt to see into our apartment from the top of the Skydeck (although that may freak us out!). We may also visit Wrigleyville or Black Rock (the bar we’re going to drink dry on New Year’s Eve). Other options for today include ice skating at the Park.

Photos are being taken, they’ll be uploaded soon.

Five Weeks in Chicago

Another week has flown by and it’s now five weeks since we landed on these shores. Not much has happened in the week just past — it was my last week at work so now I’m off until the 5th January. It’s nice because not only do we have Christmas and New Year to look forward to, it’s our one year anniversary tomorrow…

We had the traditional company Christmas outing on Thursday. We went to an Italian tapas restaurant which was amazing and then onto a bar (called, if I remember rightly, Mother Hubbards!) That’s where it all got a bit messy really. Shots were ordered, cocktails were downed — photos were taken which I will upload soon (honest Ben!). It was a great night though and we all enjoyed sharing the pain of the HW hangover the following day.

Sap and I went out for pretty much the whole day yesterday — we had a lot of errands to run! Sap finally managed to find some waterproof shoes that she likes (this is good) but we did end up going to pretty much every shoe shop in Chicago!

We also bought our Christmas dinner yesterday — we’re going to attempt a traditional dinner in our oven. We do have a backup though — lots of little snacks which we can graze on if it doesn’t turn out quite right! And our local grocery store sells Bisto gravy — I can’t tell you how excited we were when we found that! No mint sauce though…

So after the excursions of yesterday, today is a ‘doing nothing’ day. Just as well really — we don’t want to go outside!

One Month in Chicago

Well we’ve been here a month already — time is flying here! Not much has happened in the two weeks since we last posted an update. Well, nothing on the scale of our trip to Ikea!

We’ve settled in nicely to downtown Chicago but still can’t get used to the view — seeing the Sears tower each night and morning is somewhat surreal given it’s something of an icon for the city. We’re loving the balcony but can’t wait for summer when we can actually sit out on it! It’s a bit windy (not to mention cold) at the moment. But we still take the time to stand out there and take it all in occasionally.

The ‘chores’ of settling in America are pretty much all sorted. We have Social Security Numbers (without which you can’t really do anything) and bank accounts, and the TV is up and running — much to Sap’s delight! I can honestly say we have over a hundred channels but I couldn’t tell you what was on any of them. Sap’s already found the Friends channel so her days have been full! The electricity (the only utility we have to pay for) is almost setup. I had to traipse down to the local Western Union last week to show them my passport and lease — to prove I was who I was saying I was, if you get my meaning. All for the pleasure of paying a bill each month!

We’re still looking at landlines and cellphones and trying to figure out what we’ll need. Since discovering Skype’s amazingly cheap call rates to the UK (and the US) we may stick with good old modern technology for a while!

I have one more week at work — it’ll be a busy one. We have the company meeting and Christmas dinner on Thursday so I’m looking forward to teaching the US guys how the HW crew celebrate! Then we’ll be winding down on Friday and then we’re off! It’ll be nice to have a break, particularly as it’s our first wedding anniversary soon. Neither of us thought we’d be in Chicago for our first one but here we are!

I’ve been going through our photo library and backing it up to Flickr and there’ll be plenty more photos over the coming weeks — not only do we have parties and Christmas but we also have New Year with Nick, Paul and Nige to look forward to. We actually booked the tickets today so we’re very excited!

The next posting is likely to involve photos of the party on Thursday, for which I apologise in advance…

FIA Announce Radical Cost-Cutting Measures for 2009

The FIA announced today a raft of cost-cutting measures intended to save the teams in excess of 30% of their 2008 budgets for 2009.

Highlights include doubling engine life, a complete ban on in-season testing, compulsory factory closures (six weeks per year) and possible changes to the qualifying format.

For 2010 there are more changes afoot: the much-mooted €5 million engine (on offer to independents), a standard transmission, some homogenization of certain car elements (as yet to be defined), a ban on tyre warmers and refueling and a possible reduction in race distance.

The cost-cutting debate has been raging in F1 for years — remember Stoddy getting all narked at the big teams for not giving him affordable engines when they allegedly said they would back in 2003? — but this is the first positive step that’s been taken.

Did it take a big team pulling out of F1 to make everyone sit up and take notice?

Modern-day F1 is laden with manufacturers. They are in F1 for business and marketing reasons alone — the ‘sport’ has absolutely nothing to do with it. If you think it does, that shows how good their marketing is.

So if/when a major manufacturer decides that the bang for buck ratio isn’t right they’ll be off. Nostalgia and heritage count for nothing in the board room. Think Ford circa 2004, Honda circa 2008.

Things to Do in Chicago

Sapna and I are trying to think of the things we want to do in Chicago when people visit. Here is an initial list — from Ben! Although I did add the Segway part in myself…

• Sears Tower
• Dinner at John Hancock (could be expensive?)
• Boat ride (architectual tour)
• Millennium park
• John’s place (a great breakfast)
• Cubs day game
• Lou Malnatis (fantastic pizza place near Ben & Mandy)
• Magnificent mile (or ‘shopping’)
• Orange (a great diner, apparently)
• Boat on the lake
• Museums — art, science
• Aquarium (Sap would love this)
• Piece Brewery
• Goose Island
• Jazz clubs
• Brew & View (a cinema AND a bar? Could this be the best day in the world?!?)
• Howl At the Moon (a brilliant music bar)
• Select Cut (great steakhouse)
• Second City
• China town
• Hire Segways in Millennium Park

The Ikea Marathon

As promised, here is the long, long story of our trip to Ikea last weekend.

As previously mentioned, Ikea’s delivery rates are outrageous. So we thought we’d be clever and hire a truck to get to Ikea. Mandy kindly offered to drive us around for the day which was an enormous help — we literally could not have got our stuff without her!

So we picked our U-Haul up early on Sunday morning and drove to Ikea. What started as a small rain shower turned into a full blown snowstorm by the time we got parked up — at the time we hoped it wasn’t an omen of things to come!

Sap had prepared our shopping list (having extensively researched all the bits and pieces we needed online first) so we hit the entrance knowing what we needed. Prime amongst those requirements was a bed — a nice, new, comfy bed. From the Malm range. In oak. Queen size.

As we walked through the entrance, I saw a sign — Ikea had just finished their Black Friday sale — and on it, at the top, were three words I really had hoped we wouldn’t see next to our bed.

Out of stock.

Unbelievable! I was livid. All that way and we could even get the first thing we needed. We were incredibly downbeat! But Sap said we should push on, so we did. Next up was some new bed clothes for our non-existant bed. The purple ones Sap had chosen — out of stock. We couldn’t believe it! At this rate we’d end up taking a couple of sets of coathangers back in the truck!

However, I had misread the sign. Ikea had offered a limited quantity of our bed at a discount price, and it was these that were sold out. There were plenty left at the regular price! Added to that, Sap found a pile of the purple bed clothes that we were after. So we went from utter dispair to unlimited joy (really, the emotions were that extreme!) in the space of a minute or so.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We managed to load four trolleys with everything we needed. As expected, I nearly had heart failure when the total came up on the till! But we were starting from scratch and we hadn’t compromised on anything that we wanted, so we were happy.

We got all our lovely new stuff loaded into the truck (the snowstorm was still in full flow!) and headed home. We knew we would need to use the freight elevator at the apartment to get everything up — the bed in particular was quite heavy. We’d arranged beforehand to use it from 6.30 for half an hour and we just managed to make it. It was quite a rush to get back and I must admit to feeling very stressed — I kept picturing our new apartment furniture stranded downstairs!

But we made it. Just. Then we had a beer on the balcony of our new home and Ben & Mandy took the truck back. By now it was gone 9pm but I was determined to build our new bed!

I eventually got done just after midnight and we gratefully slipped into a nice, new, big, comfy bed.

I would, of course, spend the next few evenings assembling various bits of furniture but it’s all worth it. The bedroom looks great and the TV stand (expertly assembled by Sap) is lovely. We can’t wait to continue furnishing the apartment — we’re steering clear of Ikea though! Think I’ve had my fill of flatpack Swedish design for one lifetime…

There are more photos of ‘apartment life’ over at Flickr, so go have some fun looking at the various boxes. See if you can spot our first meal in the apartment — we ate it off a box!

A Bad Taste Sweater Party

Sap, Ben, Mandy and I went to a house party on Saturday. The theme was ‘terrible Christmas sweaters’ — something that sounded a lot of fun! Our first challenge would be to find four sweaters terrible enough…so we hit the shops.
We went to a few outlet-style stores and found some truly horrendous sweaters — including a pink one with kittens on — but nothing that was truly ‘Christmassy’ enough. We then hit a jackpot — an entire store devoted to the art of terrible Christmas-themed sweaters!

Although I wasn’t allowed to spend $60 on one with flashing LEDs (I know, it would have been awesome, right?) we did manage to find some beauties. Bizarrely enough they all had shoulder pads — Ben had the look, that’s for sure!

We met a lot of great people and had a fantastic time. We also had our first experience of a party with a keg — something of a novelty for us Brits who are used to drinking warm cans of Carling at house parties!

The time flew by really quickly and before we knew it we were heading back to Ben and Mandy’s (having missed our last train back downtown).

All the photos are up on Flickr.

Honda Confirm Immediate F1 Pullout

It’s been confirmed then: the Honda F1 team have confirmed their immediate withdrawal from F1.

Honda CEO Takeo Fukui confirmed the news today:

“Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economies around the globe continue to mount…A recovery is expected to take some time.

“Under these circumstances, Honda has taken swift and flexible measures to counter this sudden and expansive weakening of the marketplace in all business areas.

“However, in recognition of the need to optimize the allocation of management resources, including investment regarding the future, we have decided to withdraw from Formula One participation.”

It looks like they had little choice: cuts in road vehicle production, plans to shed 1000 jobs in the UK…

Honda Racing’s CEO Nick Fry is hopeful that the team can be sold so that they can be on the grid in Melbourne next March, with ‘three credible offers’ seemingly already on the table. And Fry and Ross Brawn (team principle) are ‘committed’ to saving the team.

Difficult times indeed.

Honda to Quit F1?

Autosport are running a story on Honda’s purported exit from F1, due to be announced on Friday.

Wow. After just one season Ross Brawn finds himself without a team to be principle of and Jenson Button is actively looking for a drive to remain in F1 (remember, most of the seats are now taken for 2009).

If it’s true, of course.

UPDATE: The BBC have more. I bet Eddie and Stoddy are interested if they can get the team for a quid!

Thanksgiving 2008

Sap and I were very excited about the prospect of celebrating our first Thanksgiving with the McKee family. Being Englishers we had no idea what the holiday was all about — a quick visit to Wikipedia solved that issue! The entire McKee family were incredibly excited about Thanksgiving, citing it as a better holiday than Christmas!

Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November and is a public holiday. Even nicer was the fact that I also had the Friday off which turned out to be just as well seeing as we rose very early to go shopping! More on that in a bit.

Meeting the McKees

The McKees arrived on Wednesday evening and we jumped straight into the celebrations by going out for dinner. We were looking for a BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze, a fantastic concept that isn’t widespread in the UK) restaurant. After some walking (those types of restaurant are very popular!) we found a pizza place and ordered two pizzas between the 7 of us. Well, that was plenty — everything you’ve ever heard about American portion sizes (steady now!) is absolutely correct! We had to take some home in a box! Chicago does this fantastic deep pan pizza which has the cheese on the bottom and the tomato sauce on top — kind of an ‘upside-down’ pizza. Fantastic.

Thursday was the big day: Thanksgiving proper. The day started early with egg strada which is basically an oven baked omelette with bread in the bottom. It sounds strange but was absolutely fantastic, something of a tradition and we can see why! Then it was onto the cooking which took most of the day!

I decided to stay out of the way (apart from nosing around with my camera!) and enjoyed the hustle and bustle coming from the kitchen. All sorts of dishes were being prepared, from the traditional turkey through to Ben’s date and prune delights! When it all arrived at the table it was quite a sight. Needless to say it was demolished within minutes!

All Hail the Cheeselord

Even better to come was the selection of cheeses that Ben had bought. He’s found a great cheese shop near to where we work — he spent 45 minutes choosing his selection in there prior to Thanksgiving! I must say the choices were fab — it was true cheese overload! He bought so much that we were still eating it three days later…

The day ended with card games (we’re really getting into those!) and with Ben and I demolishing some Mount Gay. The measures in the McKee/Allen household certainly are generous! We also met Mandy & Ben’s neighbours Keith and Kim and their two children Audrey & Lucas who were great — Sap has since had a lunch date with Kim and is becoming quite the socialite!

Black Friday

Sap and I woke at stupid o’clock (5am) on Friday to hit the shops. Black Friday is the retail day in the States — you can bag some bargains…if you have sharp elbows, no sense of humanity or courtesy and are prepared to wait in line at 5am.

We hit the local Target (no pun intended!) just as it opened at 6am. We had a few bargains we wanted to get (a vacuum cleaner with 50% off — rock and roll!) We also picked up some really nice cookware from Macy’s (including a cast iron skillet which I’m very excited about!)

Saturday was the day we were moving into our new home — that’s a different (and long!) story. More soon.

All in all we had a fantastic few days — Mandy’s family were lovely and very welcoming. We’re hooking up with Alison at New Year — something else we’re really looking forward to!

A Snowy Morning

We woke up to our first morning in our new apartment to a Chicago cityscape covered in snow! It was raining for most of Sunday (we endured a blizzard at Ikea!) which turned to snow overnight.

We had a very manic Sunday — more later. Plenty of fun in the U-Haul, Ikea (man, that place is a time-sponge!) and building a bed until midnight last night! Feels good to be in our new home though.

It looks like this week is going to be a cold one — we’re still trying to get our heads around the Fahrenheit temperature scale (when American’s say it’s below freezing, they’re generally referring to the ºF scale — which is chuffing cold!).

Black Friday

Well Sap and I experienced a fantastic thanksgiving yesterday — Mandy’s parents (Wayne and Pat) and her sister (Allison) came over for the day and we all had a fabulous time eating, drinking and being very merry. We took a lot of photos which we’ll post soon.

Today is Black Friday — equivalent to the Boxing Day sales in the UK. Shops generally open early at around 6am, including the local Target. Which is where Sap and I stood in line at 5:50am this morning. We got a great deal on a vacuum (was $49, we paid $30) and bought a load of other bits and pieces for our new home.

We’re just off downtown to attempt to browse Bed, Bath and Beyond. Wish me luck!

Beginning Week Two

Well I can’t quite believe we’ve been here a week already — it seems like it’s been much longer yet it also feels like it’s flown by. It’s a strange feeling. Does it feel like home yet? Difficult to say, mainly because we’re not in our own place yet. However…

We’ve got a home!

I got a call at my desk on Thursday (20th) saying our apartment was vacated, cleaned and ready for us to move in. Very exciting! We have a move date of this coming Saturday (29th) so Sap and I are getting things ready for the move. We’ve bought some inflatable mattresses in case our bed doesn’t arrive on time — we’re attempting to hire a van to get to Ikea instead of paying their extortionate delivery charges (over $200 on over $1000 worth of stuff) so we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, we took a peek at our apartment last Saturday and fell in love all over again! It was fantastic and the views across the city are just amazing — check out the view (above)!

Trekking to Ikea

In order to furnish our lovely new place we took a trip to the ‘local’ Ikea to browse for furniture. We kind of knew what we wanted but needed to test out the different mattresses.

It turned out to be a bit of a trek — no simple jaunt down the M4 in the US! Not having a car proved to be a bit of a pain in the arse this time! We basically had to get the Blue CTA line for about an hour then Bill kindly drove us for another 20 minutes or so to the Ikea in Schaumberg. Getting there was OK — getting back was a pain!

We had to take a cab from Ikea to the nearest Blue CTA line — at a cost of $40 — with all our purchases. Admittedly they only amounted to 32 coat hangers and a pillow each but we still had fun on the train lugging it all around! Then we got a bus from Logan’s Square to Ben & Mandy’s. Phew! So we hope to have an easier journey when we hire our U-Haul!

So, we’ve got a home, plans to furnish it and things are looking good!

Tune in next time to see if John can convince Sap to let him buy $300 worth of Global knives…

Leaving Reading Behind

Of course, the first part of our journey to Chicago involved leaving Reading — and friends, family and loved ones — behind.

To celebrate we threw a party at Zero Degrees. This is when the reality of our move dawned on us — we may never see some of these people again for a very long time!

Having said that, everyone was keen to come and visit so I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of friends throughout this year.

Be sure to check out the photos on Flickr!

Our First Few Days in Chicago

Well we finally landed in Chicago on Saturday after an 8 hour transatlantic flight. Once we were through customs & immigration we hauled our five suitcases (!) out into the cold — welcome to Chicago! Ben & Mandy kindly borrowed a friend’s Jeep to come and pick us up and we did a great job of filling it with luggage. A short drive to their apartment just off Diversey and there we were — proper Chicago-ians!

The hunt for an apartment began in earnest on Sunday where we had an appointment at the Left Bank at Kinzie apartment block. Sap had been looking at these apartments for weeks and we were all very excited to see them. We had a look around and fell in love with it — I was all ready to book it there and then but Sap and Mandy tempered my enthusiasm saying we should look at some more.

So Sap booked some appointments for Monday whilst I went to my new workplace and met my new colleagues — more on that later. Sap did find some really nice apartments with fantastic views — the one below was a lovely apartment that offered a view of the Hancock Tower out of one window and Sears out of the other!

We ultimately decided against this apartment as it was around $200 per month more than Left Bank and it had a landlord — as opposed to a leasing agent. That would mean we’d need to deal directly with the landlord if anything happened (leaky taps, broken refrigerator etc.) which we were slightly uncomfortable with. So we decided to go with our first love and arrange to live in an apartment in the Left Bank complex.

We went along yesterday lunchtime and signed all the paperwork — once the apartment’s been vacated, cleaned & painted we’re in! We can’t wait.

This photo shows us in front of our new home. It’s on the 35th floor and promises to offer stunning views across the city & river. Even better is that it’s only a 5 minute walk from my office! Speaking of which….

John Gets A Spanky New Desk

I arrived for my first day in the US office very excited — I knew Bill but hadn’t met any of the other members of Team America. I was made to feel very welcome and we went out for a celebratory burger at lunch — it was awesome.

I have a massive desk and am struggling to fill it! My new Apple keyboard and mouse should be here today and I’ll likely go get a Cinema Display as well. Then I’ll be set! The best thing though? A free Starbucks machine. It’s so good I had to go get a mug capable of holding all that lovely free caffeine!

So our first few days in Chicago have been very exciting — a new home, new desk and a new coat (for me). Although that’s going back to the shop as it creates too much static electricity each time I put it on! But man is it warm!

We’re looking forward to moving into our new home and furnishing it — the post-Thanksgiving sales start next Friday so we’re going to go armed and ready!

A Flurry of F1

Well, we’ve finally landed in Chicago and lots of exciting things are happening.

First off is the crazy new that Bernie wants to award medals rather than points. “The whole point will be, when they get to Melbourne for the first race, the guys will want to leave there with a gold medal” said the wee one. Not sure I agree with that.

On a more fantastic note, Martin Brundle has confirmed that he will be working with the BBC next year. And not a mention of James ‘The Cock’ Allen — fantastic.

The new-for-2009 rules make for some pig ugly cars. Christian Klien agrees. Reminds me of the cars of the early 90s — remember Damon Hill’s Brabham that looked like it was held together with fishing line?

In other news, de la Rosa is testing for Force India (presumably as part of that team’s recent technical deal with McLaren) and Sato just topped the testing times. After months out of the cockpit. In a Toro Rosso.

Right, back to me Starbucks.

VW Polo GTi for Sale

Seeing as we’re relocating to Chicago, we’re reluctantly parting with our pride and joy.

Here are the vitals:

• VW Polo GTi
• 1600 engine
• 125bhp
• Black metallic paint
• 93,000 genuine miles
• Full service history
• Comes with original VW roofrack & all fixings

If you’re interested, please do drop us a line. Alternatively you can make an offer via eBay or view the car on Auto Trader (coming soon).

UPDATE: She’s gone…sniff…be well, car, be well.

Oh My God…Chicago Here We Come!!

[EDITOR'S NOTE] This post was written by Sap shortly after we booked our flights to Chicago…

It’s still sinking in…I can’t believe that we are actually moving to Chicago!! After a year of talking about it…it’s actually happening! I have to say I have mahoosive butterflies…because it’s happening on the 15th Nov, which is about 8 weeks away….aarrggghhh!! It feels so surreal, very exciting but a bit scary at the same time. Nick and Paul are coming out on Boxing Day which is very cool…we’ll get to spend new year with them….Yaaaaadaaaaa!!!

Today my goal is to hunt for an apartment. Have to admit, been doing it all morning, and I’m starting to get bored of it…but must carry on. I don’t think I’m being too picky! A luxury penthouse apartment in downtown Chicago is all I want…I wish! 

Must get on…lots to do, and time is a ticking.

The Adventure Has Begun…

Tuesday was a pretty momentous day for both myself and Sap. The adventure truly has begun and we’re both very excited.

More to follow soon…

Super Aguri Withdraw From Formula One

Super Aguri withdraw from Formula One:

Super Aguri have withdrawn from the Formula One world championship with immediate effect, the team announced on Tuesday.

After weeks of speculation about their future following the collapse of a proposed takeover by the Magma Group, a last-minute rescue package by German automotive company Weigl Group was not good enough to keep them racing.

Team principal Aguri Suzuki is understood to have met with the Honda board in Japan on Tuesday, but the outcome of that meeting was that the team will no longer be racing.

A sad day.

Back at the Beeb

So, following ITV’s ‘commercial decision’ to terminate their F1 coverage contract at the end of 2008, the BBC have acquired the rights for the next five years.

So what are the BBC planning?

Well, apparently the ink is still drying on the contract so we don’t yet know the details, but Dominic Coles, BBC Sport Director of Sports Rights told Autosport:

“Fans will be able to enjoy uninterrupted, state of the art and innovative coverage from BBC Sport, across all of our TV, radio and new media platforms…”

Hopefully some of their plans include the following.

1. Martin Brundle is an exceptional commentator. Do whatever it takes to hire him.
2. James Allen is the single most annoying person on television today. Please do not — under any circumstances — hire him. If you do, people will tune into Radio 5 instead and just watch the pictures.
3. Please show the races and qualifying live. If qualifying for the Canadian GP clashes with “Dancing on Celebrities” on a Saturday night, please show the qualifying live. It’s only one weekend out of 52. And I pay for my TV licence.
4. Hire a decent commentator to work with Mr Brundle. Note that Conor McNamara, Guy Mowbray, Johnathan Pearce (please, God no) or Alan Green do not fall into this category.
5. Suzie Perry doesn’t look that busy nowadays. Do you still have her number from the Moto GP days?
6. Ditto Ben Edwards.

Just my little wishlist, you understand.

Formula One to Return to BBC TV

File under “didn’t see that coming” — Formula 1 is to return to the BBC from 2009 onwards.

With the advent of slick tyres and a ranch of other changes, next year could be very exciting.

Note to BBC: please do hire Martin Brundle from ITV.

Please do not hire James Allen, Louise Goodman, Lenny’s brother Ted or Steve Ryder. You know, that turncoat what did defect. Ta.

Deja Vu

So Paul Ince has come out and said he’s sad that Capello is likely to be the next England manager.

Because he’s not English.

And Steve Coppell and Gareth Southgate (the turncoat!) agree.

Look chaps. Yes, it’s sad that the FA are likely to choose another foreign coach rather than an English one. But surely that points to the fact that nobody from these shores is yet good enough. Actually, it’s not that sad — if England lift the Jules Rimet trophy in South Africa in 2010 who on earth is going to care what country the guy who made it happen comes from?

The FA’s remit is simple: appoint the best manager possible. Nationality does not come into it.

Just ask any fan who’d they’d prefer: the best manager available or the best English manager available.

Until those two criteria point to the same man, you’ll have to learn to live with it.

Mila Kura Si Planina

So, our football team failed to get the result they needed against Croatia and suddenly blokes up and down the country have a lot more free time next summer.

I actually think this is the best thing that could have happened. England were simply not good enough to emerge from their group in anything but third place: the standings accurately reflect the qualifying campaign. The manager simply wasn’t up to the task and the players didn’t seem to want to play.

There. I said it. You can almost hear it in chorus up and down the country. Steve McClaren just wasn’t up to the task.

Let’s face it, when your nickname is ‘Second Choice Steve’ you’re going to have a hard time convincing people that you’re the right man for the job. There can’t have been many surprised that he was sacked 12 hours after failing to qualify for Euro 2008 but I’ll admit I was a little surprised at his lack of integrity straight after the match — when asked if he was going to resign following the failure, he replied that he wouldn’t, despite the whole nation baying for his blood. Well, would you quit and walk away?

Or would you wait to be fired and pocket £2.5m?

The whole appointment of McClaren was flawed from the start, with various top-line candidates falling by the wayside as the weeks rolled on. Guus Hiddink felt insulted when the FA asked him for a coffee and a chat. Sam Allardyce confused poor Brian Barwick by shouting that the next England manager should be English whilst wearing a t-shirt saying “Me sir! Me sir!”. Luiz Felipe Scolari went all shy on us after news of his meetings with the FA became public knowledge.

And that left Steve McClaren. Brian Barwick maintained that Steve was always his first choice, something that didn’t seem to phase Steve himself:

“I don’t see it as a case of first choice or second choice. I am THE choice and I sit here as the next England coach.”

Spoken like man who can’t believe his luck.

So, this is England in late 2007. Steve is sacked and Barwick is on the lookout for a new manager.

How does that saying go, something about a ‘rudderless ship’?

Barwick must make the choice himself this time — no committees, no board meetings — just get the best man available. But who to ask?

Well, Martin O’Neill would be a good choice. But the FA pissed him off last time, so he appears to have ruled himself out. What about Jose Mourinho? He’d be an excellent choice. Can you imagine the press conferences after another lacklustre England display if he was in charge? No FA-sanctioned soundbites, just an honest appraisal of what happened. The perfect man-manager.

Yes, he could be at loggerheads with the FA at times. But if England are doing well, who on earth is going to care?

And I believe England would do very well under Mourinho.

As I said in September — if Brian Barwick has any sense he’ll be on the phone to Mourinho now.

Think it’ll happen? Nah, me neither.

(The title of this post is in honour of Tony Henry)

So Close…

This headline from the BBC, that is.

Not the match last night.

Abysmal coverage by BBC Radio 5 (commentating via their mobile phones!) and a pretty abysmal outcome. Read the interweb today and you’ll see people blaming the manager, the players, the pitch or a combination of the three.

The iPod Touch Is a Dangerous Beast

I managed to use an entire battery cycle yesterday fannying around with every single element of my new iPod touch. I love it. The interface is so intuitive, and the one question mark I had around the device proved to be a non-issue — the keyboard is eminently usable.

The iTunes WiFi Store is a dangerous thing though. One tap to download an entire album? Too easy. Why this is different from one-click purchase methods one encounters on a computer (iTMS, Amazon etc.) I don’t know. It is, ostensibly, the exact same process. Why it feels different on the Touch — who knows.

But it’s dangerous in a good way. I’m not knocking the way Apple have done this. It’s perfect. But I can see myself spending a lot of money via my Touch.

Which, I guess, it what Apple wants.

Incidentally, if you buy an album on your touch with ‘extras’ (i.e. interactive booklets, bonus videos etc.) your Touch tells you that next time you connect to the iTMS, these items will be downloaded.

Well it took me a while to find where to get them from (iTMS home? No. Videos? Music? No. My account? Ah!)

You need to go to your account, where you’re greeted with the following message:

Nice.

More on Alonso & McLaren

A few days ago, I noted that Alonso’s threatening of his team boss was a grave misjudgement on Alonso’s part. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about McLaren (and, in particular, Ron Dennis) would know before they started that it was a futile and ultimately pointless effort by Alonso.

It now seems that Alonso and Dennis are no longer on speaking terms; indeed, they haven’t been since the Hungary debacle (when Alonso was found guilty of impeding team mate Hamilton during final qualifying, thereby ensuring Hamilton couldn’t get another lap in and leaving Alonso free to run to pole position) back in August.

Historically, when a team boss and driver are no longer speaking it doesn’t bode well for the relationship. Think of Prost and Alesi in 2001.

So where does that leave the Alonso/McLaren relationship? Can they continue after this? I think it highly unlikely. The facts, as they have recently emerged, are:

• Alonso did threaten his team boss.
• Alonso felt his status as World Champion should mean McLaren focussed their efforts on him, to the detriment of his team mate. Ron Dennis disagreed.
• Ron Dennis demonstrated his integrity by going straight to the FIA as soon as he had knowledge of the extra evidence Alonso threatened him with (thereby effectively calling Alonso’s bluff).
• When asked by the team to attend the FIA hearing in September, Alonso refused, prompting Ron Dennis to label him “…a remarkable recluse for a driver.”
• Alonso was in possession of crucial evidence in the ‘spygate’ scandal yet didn’t notify Ron Dennis immediately.

The last point is also true of Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren’s test driver. I wouldn’t be surprised if, as a result, de la Rosa was shown the door.

Also questionable is how much effort the team are now prepared to put into engineering Alonso to a championship: he’s already proved he thinks he’s above the team, we’ve had revelations that he’s offered money (out of his own pocket) to his mechanics to ensure he beats Hamilton, so surely he can’t expect any preferential treatment now?

It all smacks somewhat of an insecure driver who has been rattled by a rookie.

So all this leaves the burning question: will Alonso be sitting in a McLaren next year?

My guess is that he won’t. He’ll either go back to Renault (who have failed to maintain their competitiveness since Alonso departed) or he’ll sign for Ferrari.

How better to poke Ron Dennis in the eye one last time?

iPhone Released in UK

So it’s here (well, it will be in November).

And it’s on 02. Exclusively.

Three tariffs are available: £35 gets you 200 minutes and 200 texts; £45 gets you 600 minutes and 500 texts and £55 gets you 1200 minutes and 500 texts. All plans come with ‘unlimited’ data (subject to a ‘fair usage policy’ — find that policy on the 02 site if you can) and free voicemail. The handset will set you back £269.

Also included as part of the iPhone ‘package’ is free access to 7,500 WiFi spots in the UK — no specifics on where these are though.

And no deal with Starbucks — interestingly, when asked why the Apple/Starbucks deal didn’t make it to the UK, Steve Jobs replied “You’ll have to ask Starbucks about that. They love the UK.”