Monday 5 August 2013

F1 Handicap Race

A few years ago I was privileged to watch a handicap race at Oulton park featuring a range of single seater cars from different eras. It was only a short race of perhaps 6 laps with the fastest car setting off nearly a lap behind the slowest! It all came together over the last lap and was a great watch.

Wouldn't it be great to have a handicapped F1 race. It would be dangerous to have all the cars handicapped to the point that they all converged on the final lap - but setting the handicap point 5 or 10 laps from the end would provide an intriguing spectacle! Cars could start from the pit lane at intervals - Marussia's off first with the Red Bulls last. Throw pit stops into the mix and it would be quite a spectacle. I'd certainly pay good money to watch such a race.

Thursday 1 August 2013

Starting to like Lewis Hamilton

Something unexpected has happened over the past few Grands Prix, I've actually started to like and support Lewis Hamilton! When he was with McLaren, in a clearly great car, it was possible to respect his talent but still feel that he had been handed it all on a plate. Now that he is having to coax a reluctant Mercedes round the track I am beginning to appreciate his massive talent. This is all very difficult for a Schumacher, Button and Ferrari fan. I'm sure I'll get over the shock in due course. Anyway, let's hope for some more great racing to the end of the season. I don't want Vettel to just waltz away with the title. Can't wait for Spa - the greatest racing circuit of the lot (if we really can't have Brands Hatch back on the calendar).

Wednesday 31 July 2013

The right to die

So, are we ever going to get the right to end our own lives in a dignified and humane manner at a time of our own choosing? No one bats an eyelid when a beloved pet is put down to relieve unbearable pain and suffering, yet the same right is not easily accorded human beings! Bizarrely, a non paralysed person can take their own life in any way they find acceptable - yet someone confined to a wheelchair has little or no options. Wouldn't it be much better if we could all buy a pill to do the job humanely. Plenty of safeguards could be introduced to ensure that the person seeking to take their own life was not wishing to do so because of other pressures. Don't worry, I'm not feeling in the slightest bit suicidal currently - sorry if that disappoints anyone! I do however feel a great deal of sympathy for the guys refused justice today.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Give us a job

Well, it's been a long time since my last blog, it's just amazing how time flies by. I'll get back to blogging about motorsport very soon - but right now I feel a need to rant about being mid 50 and seemingly unemployable.

Okay, there I was, happily plowing away in IT until the need to have a change came along and I left to purse a long held ambition to write. Nine years later and having learnt that I'm not going to be the next JK Rowling I need to find regular employment.

In those nine happy years I have written one novel and four film scripts, created two web businesses and qualified as a: Technical Trainer, Business Analyst, Prince 2 Project Manager and Bookkeeper. Despite all that valid endeavour I am currently not even getting a sniff at interviews for any kind of job - and I've applied for just about anything reasonable.  Can someone please explain to me why someone with 18 years IT experience - plus all of the above is considered unemployable? And to cap it all there are still people appearing on TV complaining that there's an IT skills shortage! (Oh yeah, forgot to add I can also program in C#, MVC, Entity Framework, Jquery, Razor etc etc etc). Rant over.