Finally the day has come.  I have been searching, and trying to get my hands on footage of the 1988 formula one grand prix season and today I have finally got my hands on a copy of the VHS video season review.

Why is this season so important?  Well to most it probably isn’t however 1988 was the season before I started getting interested in F1 racing.  I started watching for real in 1991 but sort of kept in touch with the 1989 and 1990 seasons.  This meant that I never saw F1 before this.  I have since managed to get my hands on the amazing 1986 season where Nigel Mansell narrowly missed out on the Championship in the last round in Australia, but the 1988 season always alluded me.

I suppose the reason why I wanted to watch this season was for 2 main reasons.  The first being that it was the first championship winning season for the late, great Ayrton Senna and secondly because it was a season dominated by McLaren as they won 15 out of the 16 races in the season.  This is something that has not been achieved since and who knows it may never be achieved again.  I am also looking forward to the dual between Prost and Senna both driving McLarens.

The only problem is, is that I will now have to find our VHS video recorder that is somewhere in the house as I disconnected it a while ago.  I tried to get a copy of this on DVD but it appears that they have not released them on DVD.

Well after four and a half years, the time has come to say goodbye to the MG TF that I purchased when I got my first job. It has been great fun, but as they say all good things must come to an end.

The main reason that I am selling the car is not because I have fallen out with it, not because I have decided that I need to reduce my carbon footprint a little more, but simply because I don’t need a car any more. With Helen and I now working in the same location we take the same vehicle to work (lift sharing) and therefore one of the cars is left sitting on the drive doing nothing.

I originally thought that I could never be without a car of my own, basically because you would loose that freedom that you have knowing that you can go anywhere whenever you want. But I was wrong. How many times do I actually go places that I need my car for? The answer was about twice in the last 3 months, and even these were journeys that I could have postponed until I had a vehicle available for me or just used my bike. Therefore I decided to bite the bullet and get rid of the beloved MG.

Why my MG and not the wife’s MG? It is simply a matter of convenience really. Have you tried going down the DIY shop and buying 3 long mirrors when you are in your MGTF? No, well I have and trust me it was a little dangerous. Basically we couldn’t cope with one car if that car was not very practical and so the decision was made that it would be the TF that we said goodbye to.

But speaking of practicality there has only been the rare occasion when the TF has not provided me with adequate space. I used to go to the golf club with my clubs and trolley as well as boots and all the other stuff golfers use. It easily fits a weeks worth of shopping in the boot at the rear, and as for passenger space they have loads sat next to the driver.

Driving the MGTF has been lots of fun and I am certainly glad that I bought the car back in 2003. I remember being in the show room with my father choosing and negotiating about the car before the purchase. It took me ages and ages to decide which colour to get. It was a toss up between red, silver and grey. My favourite colours were the grey and the silver but dad was saying “you can’t buy and sports car that isn’t red”. My reply was along the lines of “it’s not a Ferrari dad”. The decision was made when a friend commented on the silver colour saying that it was almost white. That had my mind made up, grey was the colour. In fact to be precise it was called X Power grey. Why do companies do that with colours? Nightfire red, sports yellow and all that. Does it really make them sound more appealing? Maybe.

The one sad thing about getting rid of this car is that I know that I will not have another one like it for a while. What with being married and hopefully a family on the way, the days when I can go cruising round on those ‘top down days’ are no doubt well and truly over. That is until I reach my mid life crisis at around 45 - 50 and decide I am buying another, only to look absolutely stupid doing so. If that ever happens, somebody please warn me first!

So today was the day to say goodbye to the MGTF as the second listing on the vehicle on eBay has proved fruitful in a sale.

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MG TF For Sale
Photograph Gallery of my MG TF

The way food and other items that we all purchase everyday are under scrutiny again this week and rightly so.  I have to say that it winds me up no end as to the amount of waste packaging that exists on many of the items that we buy.

Take Morrisons for example.  There is a store just across the way from us and because of the convenience we tend to shop there quite a lot.  Yesterday I went round the store for a weekly shop.  On my list of things to buy were peppers.  I usually buy the three is pack, which are wrapped in plastic, however this time I only wanted to buy one.  To my amazement even these are wrapped in plastic with a bar code on.  Why?  Can’t they just be loose to take and place in your trolley.  Actually why can’t all the peppers be like this?  Actually why can’t all fruit and vegetables be like this?  I am not sure of the answer here.  The other thing is that the bags that they have for you to put loose items of groceries into are also plastic.  What is wrong with the old fashioned brown paper bags.  These would do the job just as well and also they are recyclable which is better for the environment.

Listening to Granada news this evening on ITV they were talking about this same issue.  Many of the phone in callers were telling us how they reuse their carrier bags or have these special ’shopping bags’ which means that you don’t need plastic bags.  My mum used to have one with metal handles and a mesh body.  My problem is that even if I recycle my bags I then run out as I use them for the refuse.  So people have told me about the ‘biodegradable’ plastic bags.  Great I thought, environmentally friendly as they will break down in the waste dump.  But the problem with these is that they never fit the bin.  We use a peddle bin and they are not deep enough.  Therefore as soon as you put something in the bin the bag disappears to the bottom of the bin and causes a right mess.  Also these bags are very expensive.  Again why can’t we have brown paper bags (maybe waxed on the inside to make then cope better with liquids that may go into the bin) for kitchen waste bins?  This would be great, wouldn’t it?

I bought a new digital camera a couple of months ago and the packaging on that was ridiculous. On the outside of the box there was shrink wrap (why?).  They once inside every single item was also shrink wrapped which included; the camera; the USB wire; the charger; two lens accessories; CD drivers etc; manuals, guarantee and the list goes on.  By the time I had the camera constructed and ready to use, I had a small waste dump on the floor.  How on earth have we got to this situation where things are packaged so irresponsibly?

On the brighter side of things my wife had a package delivered from Boots the other day.  There was a box and then inside the box there were all the things that she ordered.  They were in boxes too, however all the space was packaged with folder paper rather than plastic wrap or polystyrene.  This was good to see.

The question is, and this is difficult part is what do we do about it?  We can’t simply stop buying the things that we need which are being over packaged.  But we do need to stop companies from over packaging their goods, so how do we go about it?  Any ideas?

Waking up on Saturday morning there was the prospect that England would have two world champions by the end of the weekend. There was the England Rugby Union team taking part in the world cup final in Paris against South Africa and also Lewis Hamilton, fighting for the F1 title in Brazil. His rivals were Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. The weekend would end however in disappointment in both camps.

Lets start with the Rugby. England had started the tournament in poor form. Indeed they lost to the Springbok 36 - 0 in one of the games in the opening phase where England had looked poor. But they fought back well in the later stages of the competition with great wins over Australia and France. Many thought that they might just have what it takes. They battled hard but in the end they were not to triumph. However it was still a great effort to get that far.

I have followed Formula One for a while now. In fact it was back in 1991 when I first started to watch Nigel Mansell and his challenge to become F1 champion in his Williams. I watched the greats of the 80s and 90s with Senna, Prost, Mansell and Schumacher, including Damon Hill’s championship winning season in 1996. However throughout all of those drivers not one of them was like Lewis Hamilton who was in contention to win the Formula One championship in his rookie season.

Lewis started the year as a rookie who was new to the sport and not expected to win. It was clear that after a few races he was going to be more than just a passenger to Alonso. When he won his first race in Canada earlier this year it become more clear that he was going to be a real contender for the crown of Formula One Champion.

Lewis drove brilliantly all year until the race in China. He had put allsorts of set backs behind him through the season, things that experienced drivers may not have coped with, such as his team being thrown out of the World Championship constructors race due to spying allegations and ill blood between him and his team mate Alonso which came to a head in Hungary. Despite all this he made no mistakes until the Chinese grand prix when he slid into a gravel trap on the entrance to the pit lane which ended his race. Another small error in Brazil at the start cost him places dropping him to eight, which quickly became seventh as he overtook cars. Then a gearbox problem meant he was stuck in neutral for precious seconds until the car came back to life and he recovered in 18th position. By the end of the race he was seventh, two places to low in order to take the title.

However he will learn from this. It was great to see his dad in such a happy mood saying that he still had done a great job and that is true. Hopefully this season will set him up a for a fantastic career in formula one were maybe he will be the most successful English driver yet. I look forward to next season to see how he will come back.

For almost the last two months many of us have been engrossed in the Rugby world cup.  I have to confess that I have only become interested when we were victorious against Australia in the quarter finals.  But after watching only a few games I can clearly see that there are many good points over the beautiful game we all know and love - football.

I don’t really know an awful lot about the game of Rugby Union.  When I was at school the PE teachers used to try and get us to play, but they had an almost impossible job as all we wanted to play was football (and maybe cricket in the summer).  I have never really watched an entire game all the way through to be honest.  But even from watching just the two games that I have in this world cup, it is clear that the whole ethos of the sport is completely different from that of football.  Lets take a look at a few examples:

• Any abuse to the referee or even the merest of back chat in his direction and the opposition team are awarded 10 yards advantage or even a penalty.  Player rarely do it.  Watch a football game and player swear and curse at the referee.
• There is tremendous (controlled) aggression on the field of play.  Lets face it when you have got 16 stone men in the peak of physical fitness playing a contact sport this is going to happen, but this aggression is in the laws of the game and is taken that way by the players, not personal as it sometimes is in football.
• There is a very sporting atmosphere and teams are good losers.  You don’t see coaches remonstrating with officials trying to get decisions changed.
• With the amount of physical contact that happens you would expect there to be a lot of injuries occurring.  However there seems to be less than in football.  Players get stuck in and don’t make something out of nothing.  They don’t fake injuries which is basically cheating like the footballers do.
• Finally the fans.  I have not seen or heard of any trouble from any supporters in the Rugby world cup.  It just seems that people go along to support their nation and have a jolly good time.

Why cannot football be like this.  The thing that stands out to me here is that the footballers of today’s world are role models for he youngsters of this world.  They are always in the media these days and therefore youngsters aspiring to perform at the same level will take on board what they say and do.  I believe that this is in part some of the reason as to why so many youngsters (particularly young boys) are very aggressive, because they feel they have to be like this on the football field.  And when they are like this on the pitch, they are not punished or told it is wrong.  In fact there are not discouraged from this and this is starting to happen in society as well.

That aside I am looking forward to the World Cup Final tomorrow and I just hope that we can make it two world cup titles in row.  Maybe I should watch less football and more Rugby to make my point.

Well the time has finally come to say goodbye to my little MG TF car. I have had this car since 2003 and bar a small spell with a very good little Citeroen Saxo this car was my first real vehicle. Why I am selling? Simple I don’t need a car any more.

Many of you may be reading this post thinking this environmental geek and finally lost it and decided to ditch his four wheels for some electric or solar powered vehicle, or better still and bicycle. Well I am afraid that you would be wrong. My motives for getting rid of this little sports number are nothing to do with the environment (although I am pleased that not having a car with help) but simply down to necessity. Most of us have a car simply because we need one. To get to work, for leisure or whatever. I am no longer in need of this vehicle and therefore it is time that we part company. Why? Well with Helen [wife] working in the same location as me, there is simply no need for us to have two cars. Being the loving couple that we are (lol!) we do everything together and go everywhere together (well most places) and therefore there is not a time when we [really] need two cars.

By selling the car it will be a massive financial strain removed from us. Not only will we save on the tax, servicing and [large] insurance premium that we currently pay, but we will (hopefully) have a nice little lump sum of money when I sell the car to fall back on. Well a small stash in the bank at the very least.

So if you are lucking to buy a little sports car then you could do a lot worse than this little treasure. Contact me if you are interested!

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Car Advert on eBay

The debate about the health of the nations school children has been raised again these last few weeks with news that less and less school meals are being eaten. Even after Jamie Oliver’s campaign it seems the nations children are still not eating healthy meals at school. Or are they?

Speaking from experience at the school were I work, this is not the case. Our head dinner lady, has been in the national newspapers for her hard work in the kitchens of our school making sure that the pupils eat healthy school meals. This has gone down well with the pupils, and many of our children eat a healthy school meal during the day, purchased from the canteen.

Granted the children that we have are at the higher end of the social class. Therefore they are probably more educated about the benefits of eating a healthy diet, and also they have probably come across the vest majority of foods that they find are being served in the canteen. Nothing is new to them and therefore they will try these foods.

I think were the problem lies in the diet of out nations youngsters once again comes down to what they ate as young babies, and what they eat at home. Therefore this is down to the parents. I think that the main reason children won’t try different foods is because they haven’t had them before. The time to children used to flavours is when they are young and they can’t really say no! If they have tried things and heard of them before then they will usually give them a go. Therefore it is down to the parents to introduce these when they are young. Too many parents are giving their kids what they want and not what they need when they are young.

Therefore the government could spend millions improving school meals but children will still be reluctant to eat them because they don’t eat that sort of food at home. Perhaps Jamie Oliver needs to do a campaign about getting parents to feed their children proper food and that way children will try these things at the school canteen.

Yesterday for the second weekend in a row I was up at 0600 in order to watch Lewis Hamilton in his bid to become the first rookie formula one world champion ever. Last weekend is what joy and success with a win however this weekend it was the opposite. Retirement and the fight moves on.

Hamilton had a great weekend up until about lap 28. He qualified the McClaren on pole position with a terrific lap on Saturday, despite all the pressure of a stewards enquiry about his win the week before. The race was wet, however despite this Lewis made a great start and led away, extending his lead to 9 seconds before his first stop. In this stop the decisions was made not to change tyres. A decision that he and the team would regret later in the race. After his stop he came under pressure from Kimi and it was clear that there was something very wrong. Lewis’ tyres were almost bald down to the canvas, as you could see a white mark on the right rear. Coming into the pits Lewis went straight on with tyres that couldn’t keep him on the road and he beached the car in the gravel trap.

He was very positive even though he must have been disappointed. It really is ironic as there are huge run-off areas all round the Shanghai race circuit, however the pit lane has a gravel trap. Drivers were leaving the road all round the circuit in the slippery conditions and recovering but when Lewis went off in the pit lane there was no such luck. Why had the team kept him out so long?

This was Lewis Hamilton’s first mistake all season and how costly could it be? Well, if he looks on the bright side, he went into the Asia double header of races in Japan and China with a 2 point lead over team-mate Fernando Alsono, and he leaves the two races with a 4 point lead. I bet that if you had said to him before the Japanese grand prix that he could not race in both and increase his lead to 4 points he would have took it. All eyes are on Brazil in a fortnight to see who, out of Kimi, Lewis and Fernando will become formula one world champion 2007.

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Formula One
Chinese Grand Prix

My last blog post was over a week ago and the reason is that I have spent a lot of the week mastering a new computing skill. I have learnt the art of making a website without the need for a single table. I have finally started to understand the art of using CSS to drive the pages rather than tables and the results are for all to see at my home page.

You may well ask what is the point and that is a good question. If you look at the original home page and now look at the new CSS driven home page you will see very little difference. The main advantage lies in two main areas:

• Firstly when you read the code it is an awful lot easier to understand. If fact you can read the code and almost see in your mind what the website will look like. Table based websites have a tremendous amount of code for the same effect. With CSS there is less code and it makes more sense.
• Secondly you can change the basic divisions (’div tags’) of your page without having to open up template pages and save changes, applying them to all other pages and then uploading all these pages. All you have change are the appropriate attributes on the CSS file and it will change on any page that is based on that CSS file. Much easier!

When making a website based on tables you use the tables in order to place things on the page in the location that you desire. This is fine, however you need a lot of HTML tags to create tables. For each table there will be a <table> tag, a table data <td> tag and also table row <tr> tag just for one table. You inevitably have to put tables within tables in order to get it looking right which means that tags are endless.

With CSS a division or <div> tag replaces the table. The style of that division (width, height etc.) is styled using CSS. The division is given an ID the same as the CSS style name you have created for that area. Sounds hard but once you get to know it, it is a little easier than it sounds.

The only thing with the CSS driven sites is that instead of your HTML code looking long winded your CSS file can be huge. Therefore the best to way to make viewing the CSS easier is to create sections within the code, that are readable by you but not the browser. With CSS driven sites it is the CSS code file that is complicated to look at rather than the HTML. In my book this is better because 9 times out of 10 a viewer never even sees the CSS code.

I learnt basically on my own with a little help from out eLearning manager at work, only when I got stuck, so it isn’t that hard. However I was semi-familiar with CSS as this blog also uses the same system (thanks to Wordpress and theme authors I didn’t have to delve into all this with the blog). Well worth a go at though and I am sure that there is loads out there on the net to help you.

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Mark Wilkinson Home - New Generated with CSS