grumpyf1

Andy Murray may have ended the year as men’s world number 1, but there’s another Brit still fighting for the World Champion title in 2016. In any other year in Formula 1 history, Germany’s Nico Rosberg would already be a couple of weeks into celebrating his first title at the pinnacle of motorsport. He must be rueing F1’s decision to expand the 2016 championship from the previous season’s 20 races to 21, leaving him with one final battle against his team mate, and rival, Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton is 12 points behind, with 25 available for a win. There are various permutations that could see Lewis take his 4th title (and 3rd in a row) in the heat of Abu Dhabi. The headline-grabbing one is nice and simple though, and shows the level of challenge he faces – even if he wins, Rosberg needs only to come 3rd to take his first title. True, Hamilton has won the last couple of races, is at the top of his game, and may well be the most naturally gifted driver behind the wheel of a multi-...

“Set up a distribution list!” they say. “It’ll make life easier”. Good idea – unfortunately, someone at the NHS managed to send an email to 840,000 colleagues… Ever prepare a carefully worded email, hit ‘send’ and then wondered if you included all the people you intended in the ‘To’ field? Never mind – you can always forward in on to anyone missing with an apologetic “Sorry!” at the top and a smiley face to prove you’re a good sort really and it was a genuine mistake. Better than doing it the other way round, and including someone you didn’t mean to. What if it was irrelevant to the recipient? Embarrassing. What if it was highly relevant? “Peter is the single worst employee we have, and his shirts give me a headache. Surely that’s grounds for dismissal?” and you sent it to me… sorry, him? Devastating. (Especially as they’re nice shirts really.) Most of the time, it’s just great entertainment value. You get to see all sorts of interesting stuff when people unintentionally reply ...

A strange thing happened last week. After posting about BBC3's Doctor Who spin-off, Class, An unprecedented 600+ views occurred in one day, taking me past the 80,000 total views point for this blog. Chuffed, I was. When I got up the next day and looked at the stats, a steady stream of views was still happening... and had been all night. This continued at steady rate, with over 2000 during the course of the day, in fact. Followed by a sudden and almost complete crash in numbers, back to normal. 30-odd hours of massive visitor numbers, then nothing. Statistical error? Shared by Class fans? Who knows. In the end, the post received 2722 views, making it the most viewed post ever (by more than double), trouncing the previous Queen gig remembrance from July. The more normal, modest, visitor rate has now taken the numbers up to 2900 so far this month, making this the most successful month ever. Baffling. The cynic in me suspects a glitch in the matrix, whilst the wannabe write...

The US presidential election and Brexit must have made me more nervous than I’d realised. It seems I’ve created an underground bunker without realising I was doing it. Still – we’ve all done that at some point, right? No? Ah... In that case, the fact that I have inadvertently turned my cellar into a rudimentary survival shelter, just in case it all kicks off, demonstrates a severe case of bunker mentality. Fretting about Donald and his wall, and Hillary and her emails, clearly made me more paranoid that I thought about the possibility of WW3 kicking off. Whilst attempting to find a specific size of imperial washer the other day (turns out I’d mis-filed it in the nut cabinet – Tsk!) I was struck by what a lot of jam and chutney we have in the cellar. And I do mean a LOT. There are boxes of boiled-up sugar and fruit and more boxes of boiled up vinegar and fruit. We’re still only part way through 2015’s output too. Then there’s the plastic containers holding pasta in various for...

BBC3’s latest Sci-Fi creation, Class, popped-up online a couple of weeks ago, with a familiar feel and a very recognisable guest appearance. Christmas is jingling it’s way towards us with alarming speed. This means (apart from eight weeks of festive songs on a loop in the shops) that the great Xmas day TV tradition is just around the corner. It’ll soon be Doctor Who Day, when an implausible plot with a snowy twist, celebrity co-stars, and a liberal dose of feel-good-factor burst forth from out goggle-boxes, temporarily distracting us from overindulgence, present-based disappointment and trying to avoid the washing up. The Doctor has made an early visit this year though, with a brief cameo appearance in BBC3’s new Sci-Fi drama, Class. Whovians will be familiar with Coal Hill Academy, where the main characters go for education, shared teenage angst, aliens and unexpected death. Originally just a good old-fashioned school with a grumpy time-traveller hanging around, it featured...