I Voted Saxon!

“No Stig For You!!”

I know it’s not the geekiest show in the world, but I do enjoy Top Gear. (The UK version, mind you. The Australian version was too try hard for my tastes). I suppose in a way it IS geekery, well in a car geek kind of way. Although being raised in a car family, it kind of passed over me. No, the reason I watch this show it is because it is so damned funny. For a long time in Australia, the SBS has been airing the series a little while after the UK shows them, usually a year behind. Late last year, one of our commercial stations Channel 9, bought the rights off of the SBS in what has been said for quite a lot of money. It’s kinda sad for SBS, a part government/part commerical station getting the show taken off of them mainly because it was one of their highest rating shows. That’s the harsh reality of television these days though, and a couple of weeks ago they started showing Season 14 on Prime Time on 9.

Well, kinda.

Being the week before the Winter Olympics, they had a double bumper – Episode 1 and The older Winter Olympics special. Fair enough. Because of advertising and the two episodes, they chopped quite a bit from the first episode. No news, no Power Lap, mainly the Star in the reasonably priced car and the challenge. I grumbled, but shrugged. Thems the breaks. Luckily shortly after the show aired, Itunes had the original episode as broadcast from the UK available. Now the Olympics are over, and I go to check what we have airing tonight? Part of episode 4, and the other half from the American Road trip, back from Series 9 in 2007.

How can commercial stations screw up television so much? We’ve all seen the American Road trip before. Hell, it’s even available on DVD in Australia! I understand that they have the rights to show all the old stuff now that they own everything but series 1, but why don’t they wait a couple of weeks after airing the ORIGINAL NEW episodes they have now? Due to BBC budget cuts, they’re only running 7 episodes a season anyways! They have plenty of time to show best of episodes in the weeks to come. I just hope itunes are sensible enough to release the proper episodes as they’re meant to online. I’ll find out in a few days as the tv shows update..

It’s silly things like this, and other commercial stations dropping cult TV shows half way through original airings (Torchwood, Veronica Mars are two examples that spring to mind) that Australia is the second largest country in the world for downloading/bittorrenting our television.

Life at the moment is having it’s ups and downs. Feeling kinda invisible at the moment, in life and online, but what can you do. People have their things, I get that. I can’t wait to go back for my weekend home. If only to see the family, should be a good time to get away from it all. Thinking holiday planning needs happening soon.

Better news however, got a phone call from the boss today. As well as a pay rise, we’re also getting new phones. We’ve had these LG CU500s for as long as the Telstra fools changed over from CDMA to 3G here in Australia. 1.2 megapixel camera, lousy battery life, a ringtone that starts soft and gets louder (and rings 5 times if your lucky). Terrible phone that I wouldnt wish upon my enemies. Dad calls me and says “I’m sorry, but the best I could do was a N95. It’ll have to do…”

Yes, he was serious. He really had no idea.

We’ll all probably have to get bluetooth earpieces for the time being, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I like the things, just my last one either hated this phone (which wouldn’t surprise me) or just a dodgy cheapo.

I also had a workmate here the other night, a quick stay on his way to Melbourne for training. Great guy, but very quiet. Difficult trying to start a conversation with the guy sometimes, he’s into classical music, chess and linux systems I’ve never even heard of. I mean, I’m geeky but this is beyond my knowledge. Luckily we both agreed on a show to watch that we both liked (and being free to air, not a lot that is good as well) – Top Gear.

I’ve grown up in a family of rev-heads. My father used to be into rally driving. My uncle and cousin have collector cars that are worth a mint. I have another uncle who only just finished working at the local Holden dealership in my home town. I mean, I like a nice car, but I’ve never been into them. And yet, I really really enjoy this show. Mainly because it’s not just about fast and beautiful cars. There’s a lot of humour in the show, whether it’s some bizarre competition across Botswana or the many strange introductions for the Stig, even watching the celebrities destroying their reasonably priced car. It looks like they have a lot of fun and it makes the show even more enjoyable. I’m currently watching the new episodes from the UK and the ones showing in Australia which are a year old. I’m not too sure if the Australian version will work though. Sure, it will be about local cars and they might have a decent budget but if it’s not as fun, it’s just another car show. And the presenters are unknowns to me. I was really hoping they’d get at least one moderately known celeb for the show. Someone with a bit of car knowledge, of course. There’s gotta be a few out of job presenters presently that love their cars, don’t you think?