Avaragado's blog

Last season of The West Wing to be shown on Channel 4: season 4.

Last season of The West Wing to be shown on C4 spin-off channel, E4: season 5. That was before E4 became available to everyone for free on Freeview.

The West Wing is now moving to More4, another C4 spin-off, which starts on Monday, and is also available on Freeview. First season they will show: season 6.

So unless you had E4 before it went free, The West Wing skips from season 4 to season 6. To compensate, there is apparently a 30-minute “catch-up” before the first season 6 episode is shown next Friday. Half an hour to cover an entire season.

Idiots.

Yeah, I know Sorkin left at the end of season 4 and it’s supposedly rubbish now, but that’s not the point!

Memo to self: BitTorrent.

…lighting fork handles in his memory.

Turns out I’m not going to Paris this week, or to Hong Kong next week. At least, that’s today’s thinking. It might all change again by the time I get into work tomorrow.

Next week: Rome. Holiday with the usual suspects.

The week after: Paris. Well, one day in Paris for work.

The week after that (probably): Hong Kong. Delivering a training course.

I bought another memory card for my camera today.

I bought a new camera yesterday: Canon Eos 350D. Yes, it’s a digital SLR. I’ve been threatening to get one for ages. Someone brought his to work on Friday; I borrowed it to take photos of staff for our intranet, and liked it. I woke up on Saturday morning, and decided to get one. No idea how that happened: that’s dangerously close to impulse buying!

I shunned the chain stores, naturally, and bought from Campkins. Pretty good deal, with a bundled case and 512 MB CF card (though that holds only 149 photos; I’ve still got my 1 GB Microdrive so I don’t think I’ll suffer greatly).

Of course, as Bov said, I should now get myself a tiny camera like a Digital Ixus to slip into my pocket when I don’t want to take the bigger one. One for casual, one for best. We’ll see.

The camera made its debut last night at Chris and Lynda’s birthday meal. Its second appearance was this morning, when Chris took part in the annual Chariots of Fire relay race with some others from Convergys. Chris and Melanie took some photos at both events too.

…clearly putting David Beckham on to open the batting was a masterstroke. His captain’s innings of 6-4 6-2 set the scene for an outstanding morning’s play, with perfect tens from plucky not-Englishman Andrew Murray and old not-Englishman Greg Rusedski in the high dive helping to tip the balance, leading to a score of 5 under par at lunch. Potato-human hybrid Wayne Rooney knocked out Ian Thorpe early in the second trimester, and by tea only the sultana of spin Mark Webber stood between England and a podium finish. Victory was secured as Ben Ainslie, riding Mr Frisk, triple-salchowed through the winning black into the top pocket.

On other pages:

• p94, Why cricket should be a listed sporting event so that everyone can watch it for free, by John Major.
• p95, Why I downgraded test cricket to a group B event in 1996 so that Sky could buy it, by John Major.

Seriously, the Ashes series has been outstanding, and hugely nerve-wracking. By lunchtime today – Flintoff out for 8 – I thought England had blown it. I’m amazed I got anything done today at work. I bunked off early to watch the finish, which was pretty farcical and very English: a couple of bouncers at the start of the Australian innings led the umpires scurrying to the crease to check the light. Off they went, 4-0, bad light stopped play. Then fifteen minutes of hanging around until the rules allowed them to call it off.

Any coverage of this in the US? Just the usual look-at-the-funny-English-and-their-five-day-long-draw?