Posted on June 28, 2009 by jonners99
Am I a muppet… undoubtedly. So I may as well show it by printing analysis of mine and Beth’s go-karting race in March. Interesting? Un-bloody-likely
The track:
Apparently “WildTracks has one of the best tarmac circuits in the UK. Tight turns and fast straights make for great racing.
Fast and furious, and sitting only inches above the track, karting offers exhilarating entertainment and brings out the competitive spirit in everyone. Our 700m tarmac circuit is 10m wide – giving plenty of room for overtaking.”
The track is anticlockwise btw, from first hairpin to the top corner is flatout and then the run back has a bit more braking with some big puddles for good measure.
Race day was very wet making for a slippery track. I qualified in 3rd with the wife right beside me in 4th impressive eh. Beth was lucky enough to crash in qualifying though when someone decided to hit her off at the first corner… how thoughtful, oh well it let me dive through.
In the race I held third until lap three when the guy in 2nd place spun it off promoting me up a place. Meanwhile Beth started badly and never really recovered, an early spin put her down in 7th and last for the first 5 laps before she got herself up into 6th where she stayed for the whole race lapping the last place driver at least once. Meanwhile I inherited the lead on lap 7 as the leader spun off. I think at this stage I was the only person not to have a spin but I was constantly the third fastest on the track. The pole man caught me up again within a lap and pressured me for the next four laps before I touched the paint of the apex of the first corner and spun it, luckily he hit me which meant I kept me lead (well I was blocking the racing line) at this stage the rain was torrential and I had long since abandoned using my visor… something my wife doesn’t approve of. I was just finding the spray from cars in front too bad so I couldn’t see, wiping it didn’t help either. Of course the disadvantage was then I got in the spray I had to close my eyes because it fired straight into my helmet.
On lap 11, I left a small gap on the inside out of the top hairpin and the polesitter nailed me down the backstraight as we headed for the twisty bit before the start finish straight. He then continued to romp off into the distance as the race progressed. I was initially then chased by 3rd place and he passed me at one point but then spun off at the end of the lap meaning I held 2nd. I stayed in that position until the end of the race with only one more spin once again at the first corner as I this time went too wide and hit a big puddle and just aquaplaned off. The track began to dry off slightly at the end and the lap times fell by about two seconds.
My fastest lap: 47.93 (lap 26/30)
Beth’s fastest lap: 50.13 (lap 23/30)
My average lap: 50.71
Beth’s average lap: 55.82
My slowest racing lap: 56.63
Beth’s slowest racing lap: 68.38
These were both on the same lap showing that this was when it was wettest…
My spins: 2
Beth’s spins: 4
My time off the leader: 3.76
Beth’s time off the leader: +3 laps
My finishing position: 2nd
Beth’s finishing position: 6th
And to end a nice lap time graph:
I will just say this… I am pretty darn consistent. And also a nerd, a very big nerd who just wasted 20 minutes doing this. Should my wife really leave me alone for two weeks in future?
Oh well, I will do more joyous karting analysis from Crawley on my birthday. On that note, first person to make this image look like a race track wins a prize of sorts:
Toodles
Pictures lovingly pinched from uk-go-karting.com and team-sport.co.uk
Posted on June 27, 2009 by jonners99
We arrived at the campsite around 3:30 on the Thursday and set up camp. Once this was done we headed off for a walk, we found the perimeter road around the track. We passed the entrance to the track and wandered all the way around the track to Vale which is about 2/3s of the way before finding a gate stopping as getting further… great. We therefore just sauntered back to the campsite for a BBQ
On Friday morning Paddy and I both work early and so headed to the track, they opened the gates late so we didn’t get in until 6:45 (meant to be 6) and went for a walk the whole way around the track perimeter, it was friggin cool to be there. After our walk I spilled lots of tea on myself taking it from the track to the campsite for part of breakfast. Beth came with us to the track again at about 9am and we set ourselves up at Becketts for first practice. The view was good but the cars were quite a long way away, if you got nearer to the track you saw the cars for less time, so we made do.
After first practice we headed off down Hangar Straight to try and find somewhere else to watch from. It was then we came across the raised banking at Stowe corner and so we watched the other open wheel cars from there for the morning to get an idea of it. It turns out that from here you can see most of the track from Becketts, down Hangar Straight, through Stowe, Vale and Abbey and finally into Bridge. Therefore it gave us the best view of the cars over a lap and we decided this would be our base of operations for the rest of the weekend.
On Friday night we went back to the campsite and had Chilli Con Carne which may have melted the camping stove a little bit… We then went to the site bar for some cider to talk over what we had seen that day. The red bulls looked strong, the Brawns less so good. On the way back we came across a crowd at the onsite hotel. It turns out a lot of the drivers stay there and we got to see Fisichella, Kubica, Kovaleinen, Trulli and Martin Whitmarsh getting back that evening. We also managed to get autographs from the last two. WOO!
On Saturday morning we managed to stay in bed a little bit longer and got to the track around 8pm, we headed straight to Stowe and watched the final F1 practice before qualifying. Beth joined us towards the end of this session. My ears thankfully acclimatised to the noise on Friday morning and so it did not really matter that I lost one of my earplugs during Friday night (our neighbours in a caravan had a tent right next to ours from which they were drinking and singing late into the night… bastards). For qualifying I got my netbook out and it was a great help because we could keep track of what was going on in the noise. Everyone seems to be going fast when they come past you and you can’t hear the track commentary so it was essential really. Vettel did a good job to get pole, he made it look easy and I am sure it was in that car but he is a great driver of the future.
After qualifying with the fan favourites well down the grid Beth left to get some peace and quiet leaving Paddy and I to watch two very good races from GP2 and Formula BMW. There was overtaking and action and both races were exciting. When we got back in the evening we headed for the beer tent for some burgers etc and were treated to the Red Bull matadors who wowed the campsite with their close flying manouevers. After food we went for a little wander before heading back to the campsite, setting our alarms and going to bed.
On a race Sunday the track opens at 5am, Paddy and I got up at 4am, got dressed and joined an already forming queue of people. When we got in at about 5:05 we walked quickly to Stowe which is no mean feat and about 25mins away from our entrance. When we got there we found only room for our three chairs at the front of the raised banking as the rest of it was already full. 5:35 and already a good hundred people on our bank crikey I thought we would be the only mad ones.
By 9am when the Formula BMWs came out again the spectator areas were heaving. The hour leading up to the race was also very exciting with lots of helicopters arriving in the centre of the track and Red Arrows and all sorts of other wonderful things like driver parades and a demo lap from Jackie Stewart in the car he won the race with thirty years ago. The race itself was a bit of a Vettel whitewash but behind him there were battles through the field with the best involving three of the best drivers fighting for 14th place with Alonso and Kubica providing the best battle of the weekend. Other good battles developed as Massa and Rosberg caught Barrichello in the middle stint, they couldn’t pass but they sure pushed him hard. The atmosphere was epic and actually watching a race live is something else. Seeing the cars on Friday and Saturday was nice but seeing them do what they were made for and seeing the drivers working hard throughout the field was impressive. I loved it and would go to every race if I could… oh well.
After the race we were able to go into the centre of the track for the annual Grand Prix party where they get guests on the stage to talk about the racing and formula one in general. This time it was all dominated by the talk of Donnington getting the race next year and of the possible FOTA breakaway series which lets be honest would be much better than one which Bernie and Max have control over. We saw a good mix of drivers and team owners and pundits and they kept the crowd entertained for a couple of hours while the less faithful emptied the car parks. There was also some good music played as well from Eddie Jordan and a Rolling Stones tribute band who weren’t bad.
When we got bored of the tribute band we headed for the track and were pleased to find it was open to wander around. After lots of wandering about, some bad overpriced food and lots of photos we headed back to the campsite and collapsed after what had been a busy day.
Things I now know in hindsight….
- Get a seat at Stowe, it is a great place to watch from. Next time I would likely buy a grandstand seat solely because I then have a guarenteed seat and don’t have to wake up stupidly early…
- Cool bags don’t stay cool if left in a hot car
- Caravans are bloody annoying
- Formula One is great fun to watch
- Event food generally (I do not include race track donuts here) is overexpensive and tastes horrible, so always bring your own food most days. We spent about £80 on food in three days…
- Netbooks are invaluable on qualifying and race days for keeping up with whats going on
- Whittlebury is the only campsite you could ever need for race weekend being a ten minute walk from the track and having drivers on site
All photos can be viewed here
If you want high-res copies email me.
Posted on June 5, 2009 by jonners99
The first Boom Blox was a hit taking the simple idea of knocking blocks over with balls and making that concept even more fun. You wonder how much Steven Spielberg contributed to the idea beyond the basic idea but that man is a genius. A year has passed since that game was released and EA have released a sequel again with the great Spielberg stamping his name on it.
The sequel is essentially the same as the original but there are multiple additions and changes to the formula. For example while it might seem like a small change there are now cylindrical blocks. There are also zero gravity and underwater levels that take the already brilliant physics engine to a new level. In terms of the controls, they have been tightened slightly since the first game meaning that they feel slightly more accurate. At the same time though it may have become slightly easier to make a good shot as well. The games style is the same as before with block shaped characters running around making weird noises as you play. They start influencing the levels now though. In some of the underwater levels a giant squid pops up and starts knocking blocks over, in levels where you have to carefully disassemble the tower this adds another level of challenge as you try and catch the blocks before they hit the ground.
There are other changes to the formula as well which include a slingshot mode where you pull back on a block and then fire it at speed at the other blocks and a match three paintball mode where you fire paintballs at a structure to match three blocks of the same colour to make them disappear. Both of these work extremely well. Another addition in the cannon is a little less well thought out, it works, but it could have been better.
The biggest change in the game though is updated ability to create your own levels, in the original this concept worked but was a bit too difficult to use. This time around, every level in the game was created in the level creator so you know exactly what it is possible to create… if you have the time and ability. The upshot of this is that they have properly integrated the internet to transfer levels. You will be shown a button at the bottom of every type of level that will take you to EA’s server and there you can find user and EA generated levels to try and then save to your console. This also means that the game never ends because it is constantly updated and therefore it will last until the next one comes out. The only real problem with the service is that you still cannot play people online. Its no biggy for me though because I prefer having my friends in the same room… being social is kinda underrated these days.
My only other real gripe with the game is the user interface, I understand that they have gone with a kind of theme park, fairground theme to differentiate the levels and it works in single player as you work to progress through each level but I find it downright rubbish in multiplayer as you try desperately to remember where that killer level is hidden. This is where ‘it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ should come in. In the old game you had each game type categorized, for example the shooting gallery games, the pulling down a tower games and the block throwing games were separated from eachother. Now though they are mishmashed together under broader categories of circus, underwater, space and futuristic. I am sorry but this really is not an improvement, I go into the game thinking ‘right we’re playing some slingshot levels’ and then spend 5 minutes trying to find them.
In conclusion, Boom Blox: Bash Party is a brilliant evolution to the series. The controls are tight, the graphics look good for the wii, the physics engine still rocks and it is still the best party game on the wii. From the next version I would hope that we can expect a new online playing mode and 8 player local support (lets be honest there is no reason in Boom Blox why you should be limited to four players). There are some downsides to the new game like the multiplayer user interface but these are forgotten when you consider the vastness of the user generated content available to every player… for free. Whether you own the original Boom Blox or not every wii player should get this game as it is truly brilliant.
9/10
Posted on May 24, 2009 by jonners99
Jenson Button came into Formula One and impressed over his first season in 2000. He didn’t match his teammate but he showed promise and at times like in Spa he shone. For the next season he made the move to a Renault team that was still trying to find its feet in the sport. Over the course of the season he had some good drivers but finished well down on his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. He stayed with Renault for another season and did better beating Jarno Trulli on points before making the move to BAR at the end of the season being replaced by Fernando Alonso who took the Renault to 55 points in 2003. In 2004 Button got 3rd in the championship with some brilliant drives in a BAR which matched his driving style. He then made the decision to move to Williams. A decision he then decided was not a good move and cancelled his contract before it started losing money to pay his way out.
He therefore continued with BAR and then into its transition into Honda while it tried to match its great 2004 season. He picked up his first win at Hungary in 2006 from 14th on the grid but it was a false dawn and in 2007 and 2008 the car was poor. The problem with these two years is that while they were obviously difficult for Button and the team he seemed to lose interest and ran below the pace of the car and was often beaten by his teammate. This is a driver who has experienced a lot of middle running in his career.
Now we come to 2009, he has no ride for the year as Honda have pulled out. A couple of weeks before the first Grand Prix Ross Brawn takes over the team and the team suddenly go testing and find themselves top of the time sheets constantly. The question that need to be asked is what part did Button have to play in the complete reversal of the team from its 2008 position to 2009. As far as I can tell it is down to loyalty. He was disinterested last year and rarely made a substantial effort due to the small rewards it gave that is not overly good for morale within a team.
This year though he has been completely dominant within the car, his driving style has been perfect for it and it has rewarded him. I have trouble giving him the respect he is likely due though because of his poor effort for the last two seasons and the fact he has little to do with the creation of the dominant car of the year. In the Schumacher winning era he played a massive part in ensuring the car was perfect and almost unbeatable. This year Button has been given a car that is lightning fast and responds to his driving style… How am I meant to feel good for him when he is effectively being gifted with performance. If anything the praise belongs solely to Ross Brawn who bought the team and made it what it has become this season.
I am not a glory hunter, I am not going to support Button until he earns my support. If it had been him who had the balls to change tyres at Silverstone last year and not Barrichello to finish 2nd in that race in the second slowest car on the grid then I would likely give him his due but it was not. Button has been a disappointment for the last two seasons so I don’t understand supporting him if he is being gifted with the best car. I am hoping later in the year he will have a real fight on his hands so that I can consider him worthy of his position. But right now all I see is someone who is a couple of tenth quicker than his aging teammate.
That all said, he did gain some respect from me for winning at Monaco today as it is a track he has previously struggled at, then again though surely that just shows how good a job Ross Brawn has done with the car in that it gives Button the confidence he needs to excel at any track.
Fingers are firmly crossed for a Red Bull, Ferrari and Williams fightback so that I can enjoy it whoever wins.
Posted on May 23, 2009 by jonners99
I am not a fan of horror. Usually the plots are too daft to justify the scares from people running past a window or being hacked up in very bloody ways and therefore I stay well clear. This logic applies to both films and games. I also tend to stay away from light gun games because you don’t get very much control and often the controls (especially on wii) don’t tend to feel that good.
Therefore I was surprised by House of the Dead: Overkill (HOTDO). It is extremely violent and bloody but it also doesn’t take itself at all seriously. It is not for the squeamish or faint of heart but it is rarely scary. The film is pitched like a 70’s horror B Movie and bares a passing resemblance to the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature of 2007. The game sees you hunting down a man named Papa Cesar as he unleashes a mutant virus on the world. The game will see you take on a giant preying mantis, a wheelchair bound telekinetic kid and a whole lot of clowns among other more ghoulish things. It also does controversial things which no other game would dare to do and uses extreme amounts of bad language.
That all taken into account though there is not a lot bad about the game, if you can put up with the gore, controversial subject matter and copious bad language you will have a great time with this game and its silly plot. The graphics are pretty good for a wii game and the control are perfect in that they are strong and accurate and you always feel you can pull of a shot. The levels are set in locations such as a hospital, carnival and train and the design is varied (apart from the fact the screen is dark most of the time). The games sound design is good with strong voice acting even if what they say is a bit poor and obscenity filled. The music backs up the games B Movie vide with some very fitting but disturbing music.
The game doesn’t frustrate you with constant death as you are able to restart where you died with some points pull off your total. It is this high score that you are really aiming for throughout the game. Your aim is to try and rack up the points and it helps with the replay value. There is also a two player version available which for anyone who has played House of the Dead in an arcade will be a handy feature. The only real downside with the presentation is the on rails camera, it swings about as if you are the character and it usually works well but often it gets slightly frustrating with its movement.
In conclusion, if you can handle the blood and subject matter then this is the best lightgun onrails shooter game available on the Wii. It is also the most fun horror game I have played and it is the least PC game available in my opinion. The replayability and multiplayer options are appreciated and make for a fun long lasting game. Well done to Sega for putting it out there.
9/10
Posted on May 23, 2009 by jonners99
Just thought I would let you folks know that I intend to upgrade this blog to a flashier looking version and then get on with updating it more often very shortly. It all comes down I guess to when I get some time when the wife lets me do it, I may even have some time to play this weekend.
Posted on May 11, 2009 by jonners99
The FIA last week announced a voluntary budget cap on the F1 teams. In exchange for keeping to a spending limit of £40 million a team gets an engine sans rev limit and some other tweaks that could see them being faster than their non budget capped cousins.
There has since been an outcry from some of the teams saying that they will reevaluate their participation in the series if this rule stays. Today Red Bull, Toyota and Ferrari said that if the rules came in they would leave the series. You also have to feel that Mclaren, BMW and Renault would not be the biggest fans of the new rules if those teams threaten to leave the FIA will take notice.
To me though what this ever worsening saga shows is that the FIA need to relinquish some of its power to the teams. It should not be allowed to set rules that the teams disagree with. It is stupid that they can change rules like this and the points system with no one who participates in the sport approving.
The only teams who have not threatened to leave so far are Brawn, Williams and Force India who are the teams whose livelihoods depend upon Formula One racing.
It is all going to come down to how much control the FIA are willing to give the teams. If they don’t budge then the whole sport could self destruct but you have to question how much they have actually helped the sport in the last three years.
Personally I would love to see a Formula One championship where the teams have full control of their own marketing, which tracks they race on and the rules. Then we would see a Formula One which would be worth watching.
Posted on March 16, 2009 by jonners99
Jay Cutler effectively handed in his resignation from the Denver Broncos last night when he officially asked to be traded away from the organisation. This situation has been building to a head in the last few weeks after McDaniels tried to trade him to Detroit or Tampa for Matt Cassel.
While I am sure that Jay is a better quarterback than Cassel the more I read about it the more I wonder who was at fault. At first it seemed McDaniels was at fault for making a slightly rash decision about who he wanted behind Center but now Jay has made a bit of a fool of himself.
Although the possible trade for Cassel may have sparked this situation properly Cutler has been against the hiring of McDaniels since the beginning, he did not back the firing of Mike Shanahan in December either a move that seems like it was increasingly neccesary as he focussed too heavily on offensive personal leading to one of the weakest defences in the league. Since the trade talk though Cutler has gotten worse and seems to be showing his overblown ego and immaturity something that has been evident in some of his onfield plays the last two seasons. Certainly some distance should be travelled to ensure your pro bowl quaterback is happy which has not happened but at the same time he needs to realise he is working for a company and companies do whatever they feel is necessary to succeed. Is Cutler throwing a hissy fit good for the company? No.
In a comparison to another sport this is now not dissimilar to Alonso’s feud with Mclaren two seasons ago when he felt Mclaren were completely favouring their other driver he decided it would be fun to blackmail the team to get preferential treatment. He was gone at the end of the season. So therefore should the Broncos keep Cutler?
He is if honest a bit hot headed under center, he does not deal overly well in pressure situations, he misses as he did when I saw him in Denver against the Bills miss wide open receivers. He has not yet developed into a dependable commodity for the Broncos but given another couple of years he will. It seems he will not get this chance in Denver anymore and for him that is a good thing. This whole thing will help him mature as a quarterback and we should see a lot more of him in Detroit or wherever he ends up next year. Denver, however, will now need to be on the look out for another quarterback, this late in free agency this means trading for one or trading for a higher position in the draft (probably using Cutler to do so) this will likely mean that the team will not do well next year as they prepare a new QB and a new coach with an new defence but in the long term it should work out. Either that or we will go thirty years without winning a game. That, however, will work out better than having a quarterback who is conflicting with the direction the team wants to go in. Therefore Cutler should go and I just hope that we get a good draft pick or two for him.
Posted on February 17, 2009 by jonners99
Right so the UK news at the moment has the story of a 13 year old boy having a child.
I am sure the Sun are very happy with themselves for finding a story that both sums up their newspaper and the state of Britain:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4679640/13-year-old-father-Alfie-Patten-The-world-reacts.html
Now the big problem with this is why does someone who has no idea about the real world feel that we should immediately blame the 13 year old kid for it because he plays violent video games? Oh look its a scape goat, first off if your child is stupid enough to get someone pregnant at the age of 13 then you are to blame… yes you parents. Second the girl is older and therefore should be more to blame than the kid especially as she likely introduced him to the idea. reading the Suns followup article paints Chantelle in a very nice light:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2244660.ece
[...] Chantelle’s dad Steve begged social workers for help after two boys aged 16 and 14, who also live on the Old Town estate in Eastbourne, claimed they fathered Maisie.
Is she aiming for one of every age or something?
Please can someone inform me of how this kid playing video games has anything at all to do with this? It is the parents fault if he plays violent games the ratings are large enough on the box. It is the parents choice whether he plays saints row 2 or boom blox. Blaming video games is like blaming adidas because of the clothes he wears.
Also can someone find me a country which tends to only deem real news as being newsworthy… for example I don’t really care for Jade Goody’s wedding.
Posted on February 9, 2009 by jonners99
It seems somewhat inevitable to me that the print newspaper will die soon with readerships falling and prices rising with the readership turning to the internet for news. I do not particularly like this forecast as I still enjoy getting my information from paper to getting it from a screen. I am less able to concentrate on websites than with a newspaper the possibilities elsewhere on the web often distract and lead astray. I can guarantee I am not alone in this respect and yet the people who make the papers seem to be doing everything they can to scare off readers. They seem to be in the midst of a vicious pricing war whereby the winner is the one that charges the most, in the current economic climate this does not make sense. Two years ago I used to get the Independent a few times a week, I enjoyed it for the news it printed and the way it was laid out. Then they put their prices up and I lost interest. I then moved onto the Times and stuck with that until recently it moved from 70p to 80p and now to 90p event the traditionally lower price Guardian is now 90p also with the independent now £1. So what am I a valid customer who wants daily news at what I consider a reasonable price meant to do? Hmm I know, I’ll give up and go online for my news… thus dwindling their readership further and speeding their demise.
A couple of the papers have got the right idea and either remained the same price or lowered it. If The Sun actually had any real news in it and it was written in a way that made it readable then at the price of 20p a day I would be there immediately. The Mail is 50p too, I could get the Daily Mail which is apparently the UK’s top newspaper (because of price?) for two days before it costs the same as the independent on one. I cannot do this, however, because I do not care about house prices and I don’t mind immigrants.
If you want therefore to get quality news you have to bare a heavy premium. This trend was all started three years ago by the Financial Times when it raised its price from £1 to £1.50. The other papers followed suit over the next year with smaller rises. The FT is now even more pricey at £1.80 but their target market can afford such blows to the wallet… for as long as their jobs still exist anyway. In this time of crunch the only way to gain readers is not by making yourself look better than the others by being more expensive but by appealing to those who can only afford to buy at a reasonable rate. An article on Press Gazette says “Traditionally “quality newspapers” derive about two thirds of their revenue from advertising and a third from the cover price.” If the market is shrinking and the circulation also getting smaller then that will discourage advertisers who will also turn further to online incentives.
So my appeal is thus:
If a “quality” newspaper wants to maintain itself in this time of recession lower your prices again back down to 70p or lower still and your circulations will be higher. I do not care which it is, Times or Independent if either lowered their prices back to where they were but two years ago I would buy daily. It is not even that I am financially unable to pay for them it is just out of principal that such hefty price rises are not worth my money.
Posted on January 25, 2009 by jonners99
Right so F1 drivers have to renew their racing licence on a yearly basis:
Formula One drivers are refusing to sign their mandatory FIA superlicences amid a fresh dispute with the sport’s governing body about their price, autosport.com can reveal.
Last season drivers were unhappy about a price hike from 1,725 Euros plus 456 Euros per point for the licences, to 10,000 Euros plus 2,000 Euros per point for the 2008 season.
They accepted the payments then, however, despite calling on the FIA and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone to justify the increase in costs.
Former world champion Fernando Alonso said at the time: “It is a very serious matter…we all agree that it is not fair that from one year to the next it (the cost) increases 500-600 percent.”
There was talk mid-season of the matter resulting in a drivers’ strike at the British Grand Prix, but these reports proved unfounded.
However, high level sources have revealed to autosport.com that drivers have now taken the matter into their own hands because of a further minor increase in the licence costs due to be introduced for the 2009 season.
The price of a licence has increased by 400 Euros (to 10,400 Euros), while drivers must pay an extra 100 Euros ( to 2100 Euros) per point scored. There is also a 2,720 Euros compulsory insurance charge.
Although the 2009 increases are purely the result of inflation, it is understood that the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) is deeply unhappy about the price increase. Under the current fees, world champion Lewis Hamilton will have to pay 218,920 Euros for his licence fees this year.
Granted I understand the drivers all earn a lot of money but having to pay 219,000 Euro for a drivers licence ever year? That is absolutely mad. I think Bernie has enough money that can be redistributed so that the drivers do not have to front this kind of money.
For more go to: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72964
Posted on January 17, 2009 by jonners99
Right the talote.co.uk site is down at present because six years ago I didn’t have a debit card to buy a domain name with and now the person who did it for me has cancelled it… all is good though it just means that this list is going to be published in full here as well. 2008 was a very good year for films, there were a number of high points with Mama Mia becoming the highest grossing film in the UK of all time and The Dark Knight becoming the 3rd highest grossing film of all time. We saw and liked many films but in the end we could only pick ten.
Jonathan Little
1. The Dark Knight
2. Changeling
3. Juno
4. In Bruges
5. Iron Man
6. Cloverfield
7. Wall.E
8. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
9. Prince Caspian
10. Get Smart
Catherine Leopold
1. The Dark Knight
2. Cloverfield
3. Changeling
4. Australia
5. In Bruges
6. Waltz with Bashir
7. Iron Man
8. Wall.E
9. Wanted
10.Hancock
Patrick Hill
1. The Dark Knight
2. Wanted
3. In Bruges
4. Iron Man
5. Prince Caspian
6. Mamma Mia
7. Cloverfield
8. Ghost Town
9. Wall.E
10.Eagle Eye
Elizabeth Little
1. Juno
2. Mama Mia
3. The Other Boleyn Girl
4. Wall-E
5. In Bruges
6. Iron Man
7. The Dark Knight
8. The Water Horse
9. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
10. Tropic Thunder
Right thats me all caught up for lists. The Dark Knight pretty well owned our 2008 film of the year lists and therefore wins the coverted prize made out of tin foil. Heres to a successful and virus free 2009 for my websites.
Posted on January 17, 2009 by jonners99
Right number one is a bit of a no brainer so I may as well start there and get slowly worse. Overall 2008 was a very good year for me if you discount the shoddy documentary I did for my 3rd year coursework. I had a good time, met some lovely people and am in a city I love.
1. Getting Married
2. Having Christmas in Denver with my new family, old family and best friend, what more do you need over Christmas.
3. Going on honeymoon
4. Getting a job I really enjoy
5. Seeing New Orleans (2nd favourite team) beat San Diego (least favourite team) at Wembley… if Denver were less rubbish at the end of the season then they would be here instead.
I can’t say 2009 has much chance of beating 2008 what with the credit crunch hitting hard and fewer amazing events. Graduating would be on this list if it wasn’t so frightfully dull… or if I didn’t leave Roehampton ruing most of the time I spent there. Thank you to the Blombergs for putting us up this Christmas and for giving me their daughter.
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