albriggs.com » amusing http://albriggs.com thoughts from al..... Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:31:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Olympics on Spanish TV http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/olympics-on-spanish-tv http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/olympics-on-spanish-tv#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:24:55 +0000 Al Briggs http://albriggs.com/?p=217 Sport is an obsession for Nicole (watching it at least) and she really enjoys both the winter and summer Olympics every two years.

Part of it is to support the German team, but mostly it is about the stories behind the people and understanding what this all means to them.

For the last winter Olympics that we were in the UK for – Nicole watched the German coverage on our TV but also had a laptop showing her the BBC interactive coverage so that she could see every event going on – and follow any news and updates in English and German from various websites.

This year is not so good though – although the first two channels in Spain have coverage all day of the Olympics – they are very focused on Spain – and keep reshowing their great moments – forgoing live action for endless repeats of cycling and other things they are good at. The have a web streaming service but mostly this just rebroadcasts what is on the TV – which is not really the point.

As we are in Spain the BBC and German internet streams are not available to us – so Nicole is coping with text based updates and the odd illegal feed over the internet.

However Gary has just said that he can do some technical jiggery-pokery and help Nicole watch the BBC coverage from here across the internet. Hooray for Gary – what a great and fine (if a little short) man he is.

It is Nicole’s birthday in a couple of days and this is the best present she could get at the moment!

Thanks to Gary!

]]> http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/olympics-on-spanish-tv/feed 1 A Miracle with my iPod Shuffle! http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/a-miracle-with-my-ipod-shuffle http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/a-miracle-with-my-ipod-shuffle#comments Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:24:43 +0000 Al Briggs http://albriggs.com/?p=215 My iPod shuffle got accidently washed a couple of days ago – and was dead upon being found in the pocket of my shorts.

I left it out in the sun yesterday to dry out and feel better – and whilst I was listening to some Queen this morning (The Miracle was the track) I plugged the iPod in again – and it works - hooray!

]]> http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/a-miracle-with-my-ipod-shuffle/feed 0 Merry Christmas from Valencia http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/merry-christmas-from-valencia http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/merry-christmas-from-valencia#comments Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:55:10 +0000 Al Briggs http://albriggs.com/blog/valencia/merry-christmas-from-valencia Here is a little video we shot on the beach when the weather was not so good on Sunday:

]]> http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/merry-christmas-from-valencia/feed 0 The Giant duck is coming http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/the-giant-duck-is-coming http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/the-giant-duck-is-coming#comments Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:17:58 +0000 Al Briggs http://albriggs.com/blog/trivia/the-giant-duck-is-coming If you are on the French coast that is!

After bring you news of the little white duckies that have taken 8 years to travel through ice to land on British shores, I thought I must point out the 105 foot rubber duck that has be set adrift from the French coast:

SFGate: World Views : Why a giant duck? This summer, why not?

]]> http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/the-giant-duck-is-coming/feed 0 The Plastic White Ducks are coming!! http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/the-plastic-white-ducks-are-coming http://albriggs.com/blog/amusing/the-plastic-white-ducks-are-coming#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:00:57 +0000 Al Briggs http://albriggs.com/blog/trivia/the-plastic-white-ducks-are-coming I’d not heard of this story before but apparently 40,000 small rubber ducks were accidentally dropped into the Pacific Ocean 15 years ago, during a storm. The ducks have taken an epic voyage both north and south from the original location and some ended up invading Australia and the South Pacific.

The set that went north got stuck in ice packs and have been slowly moving north of Russia at the rate of a mile a day in the ice and after 8 years are now coming out of the ice and into the north sea.

They have been bleached by the sea and ice and are now white duckies not yellow ones – but after all of that they are on their way to the UK and Ireland – even better if you find one there is a £50 reward from the manufacturer or even better a £250 auction price on eBay.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Times Article | Wikipedia – Friendly Floatees

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