Here We Go Again ...

Another seven days ... and it feels like all I've done this week is work, work and work. Usually at the turn of year I manage to convince myself that we're just weeks away from lighter evenings and warmer days - then a couple of weeks later the reality hits me that it'll be another three months before the clocks change and we've still got the worst of the winter ahead of us. So my mood has dropped accordingly and the most exciting things to happen this week were being invited to a six-year-old's birthday party (during which we played Zombie Nazi's on the PS3) and dealing with a blocked sewage pipe.




Tour Down Under
There's a light at the end of the tunnel though - the return of the Pro Cycling season starting this week with The Tour Down Under. The season got off to a great start for the new British-based team Sky as Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton finished in first and second place in the Cancer Council Helpline Classic criterium. The Tour Down Under itself starts tomorrow (19 January) with highlights every day and live coverage from the last two stages on Sky Sports.

Daybreakers
We went to the cinema at the weekend and saw Daybreakers - I'm still not sure what I thought of the film but I would say 1) it left me feeling a little disappointed and 2) I would definitely recommend going to see it.

I'll explain more when I can understand what I mean.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
As much as I enjoy watching the Spanish league football - and particularly the FC Barcelona matches - on television I am getting increasingly frustrated by the quality, or lack thereof, of the commentary during the matches.

During Saturday evenings Barca v Sevilla fixture the commentary team spent fully 20 minutes explaining that Zlatan Ibrahimovic 1) was off his game and 2) hadn't scored for a full month.

Well, 1) probably true, by his own high standards he doesn't appear to be operating at 100% but who, particularly in sport, ever performs to their maximum potential all of the time and 2) true but entirely misleading - as a result of the Christmas break in Spanish football and the Club World Cup 'Ibra' had only played twice since his last goal: not exactly a drought.

If you are going to commentate then do it properly. Or don't do it at all. If I want to watch the game while listening to badly-informed comment I'll go to the pub.

Barbeque Summer
Following last years ''we're in for a barbeque summer'' the weather people have once again excelled themselves during the recent wintry weather that we've been experiencing.

'Lots of snow on Sunday' was the prediction, which changed on the Sunday when it was clear that snow wasn't likely to 'It's coming on Wednesday' - needless to say it didn't.

The only thing more surprising than the poor job the weather forecasters (aka scaremongers) do is that we, the people, still listen to them.

I can feel my mood darkening, hopefully, this week should be a bit 'livelier'. Back next week.