gambitch - now available in blue

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Going through the morning news, it kinda scares me to know that one of my recent pieces of work has been translated into Japanese, presumably by an Asian football nut who happens to understand English well enough to translate.

Most people would be thrilled. Me? I find it scary. You mean foreigners read these things?

I do wonder, though, whether this could be a platform for me to become an Asian football correspondent for, say, Soccernet.

gambitch [ 5:49 AM]

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Tough, but it had to happen. The Aiello family has been eliminated from The Amazing Race tonight.

Very tough luck, actually. They had bad luck at the Detour, picking the mud run and almost finishing it on the first attempt. Had they done that, they would have just charged onto the first bus and happily survived. The two-bus forced bunch is always a bit hard to take, and in this case more than usual it had a dramatic impact.

Of course, it didn't help that the Aiellos had a dad-in-law who was fat and unfit, although these things aren't supposed to come into play so early. But in what was essentially a footrace at the space centre, you just didn't have that luck where the Paolos, who had two unfit old folks, would just get lost. Nope, that didn't happen, much as many would have wished it did.

So it's the Aiellos who are out, and there goes one of my three pre-Race favourites to win it. At this point I'm a bit nervous, because the other hot bet, the Gaghans, are lagging at next to last, and will start last after the Aiellos' elimination. Meanwhile, heading the pack is the Bransen family, who are standing out a bit more, partly because it has three decent-looking girls and a dad. Not your usual alpha male combination, but when the likeliest alpha males (the Aiellos) have already been undone, you could expect the Race to get blown wide open.

The Weavers are losing it, and they're going to lose it even more next week when they face their worst fear - an American NASCAR course, presumably in Indiana. In case you don't get it, the Weaver family lost their dad to the Daytona (the real course, not the arcade driving game). So there's a bit of a backstory for them now!

Let's see what next week brings...

In other news, I've crossed the 4,000 visitors mark. Thanks guys!

gambitch [ 10:49 AM]

Monday, October 10, 2005

Yes, I know, I've been a little slow on the turn lately. In any case, the Rogers family has been eliminated from The Amazing Race: Family Edition last week. Can't say I missed them, but Brittney's hardly had a chance to do something proper, and Brock was wrongly reprimanded by his dad, who messed this one up by mixing up his roads, and then had the gall to claim his son passed the exit.

No, Daddy Rogers, your son never passed the exit. You gave him wrong directions that sent you onto the wrong end of the highway.

Can't say anything particularly memorable happened, except the Italians almost got knocked out. Between them and the Rogers family, many might not mind either losing, but I thought the Italians deserved to go. They had a really bad first impression, and they didn't really improve on it.

Oh, the football yesterday? Average.

gambitch [ 3:45 PM]