And so pre-season testing is drawing to a close.

Well it must be close to the 2011 Formula One Season as Hispania have come out with very possibly the most attractive car on the grid (and more attractive than last year's Virgin racing car).

And so with one day of testing to go and the Australian Grand Prix I am going to have a look at the car and driver line-ups as they stand at this point and make as informed and potentially accurate prediction as I can make on how I think the season might go.

As it is only correct I will start with Webber and Vettel in the Red Bull RB7 Infiniti:

The car is an Adrian Neway design. So we know for sure it's fast in almost every setting, apart from perhaps the rebadged Renault engine so it is fairly obvious to me that they will be going for the championship. It looks like a similar working car to the RB6 and if that is the case, in terms of all around ability it will be very difficult, almost impossible to stop on certain tracks. And even worse news for people who dislike Red Bull, it seems to have got the whole reliability problem sorted out. Expect them to be right at the front for most of the season.

Sebastian Vettel is the reigning world champion as you all well know. And as a pattern that I have noticed on the whole in Grand Prix racing, after drivers win their first championships there is a new flair and entertainment to the champions driving style. Many people exhibited this, Alain Prost in 1986, Nelson Piquet in 1982, Alan Jones in 1981, Keke Rosberg in 1983 and even Michael Schumacher in 1995. He will hopefully become a more exciting driver to watch and prove that he is worthy of the world champion tag. If this is true it could lead to a potential problem retaining his crown. Last year he had a few messy moments of contact in the season that made winning the championship more of a struggle than it needed to be: Turkey, Spa and Silverstone to be more specific, all races he could have obtained at least podium places or potentially race victories. If he can add the flamboyancy in his driving and remove that element of petulance then I genuinely think we could be looking at a total package as a driver not seen since Schumacher in his glory days in the early 2000's.

On the other hand, I think Mark Webber will have something to prove after being tipped heavily to take the championship since he won in Spain and Monaco in consecutive races. On the whole last year he drove better than he ever has, including some great drives at Monaco, Silverstone and Turkey (until Vettel stuck his nose in). However the end to his season he spent being outclassed by Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel. This season I believe is his last chance, but it's not a realistic chance like it was in 2010 he needs to drive with all the verve and quality of former Aussie Champions Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones but eliminate the mistakes we saw in Australia, Korea and Abu Dhabi last year.

Now onto the car that has garnered the most interest into the paddock: The Mclaren Mp4/26 Mercedes.

I have only just spotted that Mclaren seem to have a policy of using a different designer ever year since Adrian Neway left in the mid 2000's. However the designer they have used to make this car appears to have got it wrong. It is loaded with reliability problems for a kick off which is something Mclaren have not had a problem with since the awfully fragile 2005 car. Then there is the car itself. Yes it will be fast on straights even without KERS of the adjustable rear wings thanks to the colossal grunt in the Mercedes engine but it seems to be a pig of a driver. I will not go as far as Martin Brundle did and call it a mess but it does not seem ready to win races or compete where driver's the caliber they have working for them deserve to be.

Lewis Hamilton is the top driver on the grid this year and I make no bones about saying that. He may be and arrogant whining ten year old boy and as such unpopular and sometimes making daft decisions but from watching every race he has ever competed in I can say no other driver has more consistently kept me on the edge of my seat bar Schumacher when I first started watching. He is, good or bad, exciting, daring and completely different to almost everyone else on the grid. He had some of his worst drives (Monza) and in my opinion his 2 best (Melbourne and Spa) last season but still kept a car that was not worthy of being in the championship race in it right until the flag in the last race. Give him a working car and he is always challenging there or there abouts.

Jenson Button is like Prost to Hamilton's Senna. He is the more mature, elder statesmen showing everyone that they do not always need to drive everywhere like a deranged lunatic to be fast. However it doesn't mean he can not do that. As I'm sure some of you know Jenson is not actually my favorite driver. While he is smooth, fast, and at points incredibly insightful, more so than Hamilton and is definitely a deserving World Champion, I have never been especially interested in watching him drive as I find his style not especially interesting. I think to become more complete is to perhaps show some of the out and out balls showed by Hamilton and begin to throw the car around a bit more, risk a bit more.

Now onto the latest Ferrari: The F150 Italia.

I could not tell you anything exciting about the car as like the Red Bull it is like an evolution of supremely balanced 2010 car and looks set to be title contender. So I won't waste your time coming up with interesting facts.

Fernando Alonso... I can't say enough bad things about my personal opinion of the man. He is arrogant, uncaring, rude and any other name I can come up with but there is no escaping the fact he was awesome at points last year and will probably go down in F1 history as one of the greats due to his pace, his bravery and his raw brain power behind the wheel. He needs to calm down his temper sometimes and really just keep quiet about things that may not go on his way and go on being one of the best drivers in the world. I see him potentially as the pre-season tip for the drivers championship.

Fillipe Massa needs to up his game or he could find himself out of the car next year. He is by no means a slow driver but he is not very consistent, slightly accident prone and often not able to keep the pace that Alonso and was the only reason that Ferrari did not come second, or even win the constructors championship. As a driver I do like him but I really do think it is time to get to the way he was driving in 08, where he was a lot better than Raikonnen then Massa can give Alonso a run for him money like he did in Bahrain, Australia and most especially Germany.

Now onto Mercedes MGP W02, and today I do believe they changed the game.

Last year's car was inconsistent. It would be the second/third fastest car at some tracks but at some it would also be no faster than Williams, Force India and Petrov's Renault and be stuck in the midfield. However this year's car has just received a massive boost. The updates the team brought today to the last Barcelona test have increased the car's pace ridiculously. Michael Schumacher topped the time sheets with a qualifying simulation. Glory Run I hear you say? Fernando Alonso did a glory run and he was 3 and half tenths of a second slower. That car has amazing one lap pace and while it's not as fast as the Ferrari or the RBR on long runs it's not too far away and at the start of the season at least, they will be taking the fight to those two and I can see it challenging throughout the season for the constructors championship.

Nico Rosberg is a talented driver. He is very fast over the single lap and has the potential to be aggressive and with the team seemingly giving him all the weird and unconventional stratergies it is very clear to me that he will spend at least the early part of the season getting high points finishes and being there or there abouts in terms of consistent points and podium places. He just needs to stop being so easy to overtake. The moves that were put on him at some points last year made him look a bit amateur and he needs to improve his defensive driving in order to truly become a contender for wins and championships.

I need not say anything about Michael Schumacher as you all know my opinion on him. He may not be as great as he was just yet but I can see him winning a race or two. And that would do just fine for his reputation in my view.

Following on from them we have Renault's (who think they are Lotus but lets ignore that) R31:

Robert Kubica is the best driver in F1 (and again, I make no bones about saying that) and looked set to bring out some real pace in that Renault. It's quite a radical design and after the first test looked one of the most sorted chassis's on the grid. However with his horrible accident I think it has dented a potential championship challenge from the lead driver. However I can see the car being good on many tracks and scoring fairly consistent points finishes with or without retirements from front runners as it also seems to be very reliable.

Nick Heidfeld is the perfect man to step in. One of the best test drivers in the business and actually a very good overtaking driver when he wants to be. He is one of most recognizable faces in the F1 paddock and is no slouch in anyway. The only problem is that he is more known for being consistent and not blistering, which I think cost him a place on the grid full time in 2010. He will get the car to be good enough piece of kit but I am not entirely sure of his ability to completely upset the form book like Kubica did last year.

Vitaly Petrov simply needs to calm down, stop crashing and drive more races like Hungary, Abu Dhabi and (most of) Turkey to show that he has the talent to not be labelled as one of F1's many failing pay-drivers.

Next would be the Williams Fw33 Cosworth:

It's looked fast in Barrichello's hands. It's quite a conservative design but then again sometimes the simplistic nature of the car might well serve it quite well. Less to go wrong. However the decision on their use of KERS could be a real game changer. Not using KERS would reduce the weight, making it potentially handle even better and be easier on it's tires and fuel consumption than practically every car on the grid and that would suit most of the track. However the problem is the Cosworth engine. It's the least powerful on the grid and with not using KERS it could potentially make the cars easy meat in an overtaking situation with a KERS using Force India or Sauber.

Rubens Barrichello is more motivated to do well than he ever has been and on top of that, has been driving largely his best since 2009 with Brawn. He is a perfect guiding light for the team needing experience in developing the car. He should have a season with points finishes, possibly even more if that Williams is somehow up to scratch.

Debutant No.1: Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado. Yes he is the GP2 champion and from what I saw of GP2 that year he is an excellent hand to hand racer. Does he deserve to be in F1? We will see over the course of the season. Did he deserve his chance at the expense of Nico Hulkenberg? In my opinion no. But then again money talks and he bring sponsorship to Williams which is vital funds to pay for wages and car development.

Next we have one of the most like-able teams on the grid. Force India with the VJM04 Mercedes.

Again, nothing much to say about the, look forward to more points finishes and some crashes, all I can say really about it. It's a progression on last years car that was like Force India's have always been: Fast in a straight line, decent in the wet in Sutil's hands and capable of handling well if they get the setup right.

Adrian Sutil has been loyal to this team since it was Spyker in 2007. He is their creation and at this current point in time, the best chance they have of getting beyond the point they are currently at. Is a really good fighting driver, who will put his all in at every opportunity. A bit like Sebastian Vettel he needs to perhaps curb a tendency to hit things as that is not only lost money from repair bills but is also, more often than not, lost chances for points and improved championship standings. That said I do genuinely think if anyone can get the Force India to a result anything like Fischella's drive at Spa 09 then it is going to be him.

Debutant No.2: Scotsman Paul Di Resta. He has quite the resume coming into this championship. He is the reigning champion of what many consider to be the world's premier touring car championship in the DTM and can lay claim to being the only driver to have World Champion Vettel as a teammate and to have beaten him (European F3 if you were wondering). He is a mighty fine racing driver and is capable of a variety of circuit types. In testing he has been almost on a par with Sutil and could well be the find of the season. However we can only know this for certain when we see him at Albert Park in the fire of the 24 car grid.

Hmmm, next we have the Sauber C30 Ferrari:

It's a pretty car, although it find itself in the same position as it did last year fighting anywhere in the midfield on any given day. Like a lot of cars it is simply an evolution of last years car. However there does appear to be an improvement in one major area: It appears to be somewhat more reliable than last years car as long as this won't follow the exact pattern followed last year where it looked good in testing but it was unreliable and slow for the entire first half of the year.

Kamui Kobayashi can sometimes be as scary and as unpredictable as having a valentines day dinner with a Lion. He can be wayward, expensive and cause a lot of accidents. But while he will need to curb that part of his game out if he wants to progress anywhere it is actually why people like and hate him in equal measure. He is aggressive, always willing to try and overtake and put on a show and he is one of the reasons I managed to convert a friend of mine who dislikes Motorsport immensely to watch F1 because I showed them Kubica's drive at the end o Signapore and Kobayashi's at the end of the European Grand Prix.

Debutant No.3: Mexico's Sergio Perez. The GP2 runner-up is a feisty racer. However he has been in the wall in testing more than anyone else. I do not know much about him in all fairness but he deserves the chance to prove that his fastest lap in practice on Thursday was no fluke and he has the talent to back up the no inconsiderable wallet.

Coming up next we have the Toro Rosso STR6 Ferrari:

The car appears to have extremely good pace on long runs. In part thanks to the relatively solid Ferrari engine and in part to what appears to be a car that is not too difficult to drive and relatively good to the Pirelli tires. It will be a midfield contender and capable of points just like all the other midfield runners.

Sebastian Buemi is not a driver I rate very highly. He does not seem to seem to have one stand out feature. He is boring to watch, doesn't look like he is pushing the car and caused a lot of crashes in lots of races. He needs to prove his talent otherwise the immensely talented reserve driver Daniel Riccardo could be in the car quicker than you can say 'Buemi has been overtaken by Petrov'.

Jaime Algersuari is one of the biggest personalities in the paddock. It's not hard to see why. He is a nice guy, a better musician than Lewis Hamilton and when he gets down to it. A mighty fine racing driver with a lot of potential to be a race winner. Yes he has not ironed out all of the kinks in his race-craft and sometimes that can make him a bit unpredictable but he has raw speed in his driving and he is learning, quite a lot thanks to his battles with Schumacher in various races but most notably Australia. Give him a car further up the grid and he will prove himself properly.

Next we have the Green Lotus T128 Renault (I know, makes it more totally stupid):

The most important development of the car is the Red Bull gear box and Renault engine. Yes it's not as powerful as the Mercedes or the Ferrari but it is quite a lot more powerful than the engine it replaces, the Cosworth and we know that the Red Bull gearbox was one of the few things that permanently worked in last years Red Bull so I have no doubt this car will be a lot faster when it comes to a race situation and I also do not doubt the team's first points will come at some point this year.

Hekki Kovalinen was one of the stars of last year for me. He was consistently the best of the new team's drivers and is quite frankly driving better than he was at Renault or Mclaren in the earlier stages of his career. I do believe in my opinion he has earned the right to be in a quicker than this as he has put in the work with the team to move forward. I look forward to see him mixing it with the rest of the midfield and at points upsetting the big boys. He might be able to do it since he is one of the best at managing tires in the grid so if he could make 1, possibly two less tire stops than some of those in front of him, look out for him the top 10.

Jarno Trulli I think should retire at the end of this year. He is a good driver and really good on the car development side and no-one can doubt he is one of the best one lap specialists since the death of Senna so I expect him to out qualifying Kovalinen more often than not. However his race craft has not been good since he nearly took Toyota to their first win in 2005. And apart from flashes of how good he can be (Japan and Brazil 09) he has lost the talent he had which made him one of the great prospects for what the world thought would be the post Schumcher era in the late 2000's.

Next we have Hispania's F111 Cosworth:

As I said the car is one of the most attractive in recent memory but it is only going to have two days of running before it takes to qualifying in Albert Park. I can't quite help but feeling it's going to be slower on some of the earlier tracks than a GP2 and no matter how good potentially the driving could be (i'll get onto that in a moment) I fully expect the car to be proping up the rear of the grid.

Narain Karthikeyan a driver I liked in 2005. He attacked everything like his life depending on it and drove some good races in that pig they call the last Jordan. He was entertaining and for that, I enjoyed him. However he was, like Kobayashi and Petrov, a bit wayward and did not do enough to earn a drive for 2006 and the start of the V8 era. After not being that successful when he drove and waiting 6 years for his second chance part of me thinks he just for sponsorship for the up and coming Indian Grand Prix, a man for the nation to get behind and create a great windfall come that weekend.

Vitantonio Liuzzi in my opinion did not do enough throughout 2010 to earn keeping a drive for this year. He was slow more often than not, crashed more than he should have done and simply could not extract enough out of the car to get Force India above Williams in the Constructors championship despite having a car I am convinced was faster. He has gone right to the back of grid and thanks to HRT's tendency to change drivers on a whim I do not see him lasting the season, be it because of talent of money.

Last and certainly not least we have the slightly renamed Marussia Virgin MVR-02 Cosworth.

The car is still famous for being designed entirely without wind tunnel in it's initial stages. It's still not as fast as the Lotus but this year they have the reliability issues which ruined their 2010 campaign under control as it can do race distances in testing. On top of that it is a team that operates very well with the budget they have unlike HRT. They are team that are a good template for all Motorsport in the future and if they keep making slow and steady steps could one day become a contender.

Timo Glock is a talent that deserves to be in a faster car than this. But to his credit he wants to be with the team building experience, speed and consistency from the ground up: A task which many drivers would not want to do because it might affect their chances of potentially joining another, potentially faster team. But Timo Glock is a very, very good driver (better than Nico Rosberg in my view) and if anyone can drag that thing kicking and screaming into a fight with the more established teams it will be him.

And last but not least Debutant No.4: Belgian Jeremone d'Ambrosio. Last year he took part in test sessions with team and was either on a par with, or faster than the outgoing Lucas Di Grassi. He is also rich, bringing the new sponsorship with the team. However I can not recall having ever seen him before so I'd need to watch the entire Australian weekend to assess what kind of a driver he could turn out to be... (after a brief look through wikipedia he was average in GP2, finishing 12 in the championship with only one podium and 1 pole position to his name (although that pole was at Spa, so not looking fantastic.)

So after that long and probably boring entry I shall leave you to your own conclusions. I know who I want to win but I also know I think will win.

See you during Melbourne.

Nick

Please can everyone who reads this from Colchester pass this on?

This blog is possibly the most important I have posted on this silly website with regards to me, my life as it is at this point in my future. Of course everyone is welcome to read it but this entry (as you could possibly tell from the title of this) is specifically aimed at people who I know, are friends with and study with in Colchester. Now what I'm about to say your either going to absolutely love or absolutely hate. But I have to put it out this way otherwise it would take me millions of years to message you all individually and that way it would probably spread like gossip which I don't want to do.

This (for anyone who has read it) was the topic of conversation that I refered to in my previous blog yesterday and it has been a really hard one so I'm just going to come out with it:

I'm leaving Colchester and not going back.

Anyone who actually cares is going to be asking why I have made the decision. Those who don't care may not even notice i'm gone and others will no doubt be wondering if I am still alive. There are many reasons for that and I am going to explain them all to you here and now. If any of you want to ask me in more detail then feel free via Facebook, MSN or whatever other medium you choose.

Well the basic thing is that I am not happy in the town and have not been since I started back there in September. Something had changed for me, in terms of living there, and I wasn't enjoying being there. I would find myself wanting to be somewhere else, be it home, be it visiting friends in other uni's, be it anywhere, as long as it wasn't there. And this was affecting my mood in terms of how I was with other people, with lecturers and classes and basically everything. I made sure I did my best to hide how I was feeling to other people, simply because I did not want to drag other people's mood down with me.

To be honest it also had something to do with certain people, who I will not name as that is bitchy and rude to do so, whose attitude with me changed. I know sometimes I can come across as a bit too weird, very over the top and possibly a bit dickhead-ish but I always try to be friendly, caring and be able to listen to everyone in return for them listening to me. I just feel that sometimes I was often left on the side lines a lot with people in many situations and that was absolutely gut wrenching as I believed that, while I wasn't necessarily the most popular person in the place, that people would be able to have time to speak to me.

Also to be honest in my decision is what has been happening to me in the town in terms of my own safety. After the shooting near Tesco I never truly felt safe at any of time of the day or night and it is obviously very important that, if you are living away from home that you feel safe to travel wherever you are living and I just did not feel that I was safe. And that, on-top of everything else I have explained has built up and over the past few weeks I have been in London I have been thinking about making the decision.

Now if you are reading this the likely hood of this is that it is not you who I am talking about. And I have to say that despite me making my time in Essex sound horrible and not enjoyable in the slightest there have been many good moments. I won't mention them all as I will remember some of them as will you people who I have shared those good moments with. Be it nights at the club, little in jokes, fabulous nights or simply being there for a good chat over a few slow pints. And for those moments and to all the people that helped make them as good as they were I have to say thank you and I will never forget them or you.

As is the case with being in a new place and meeting new people there are certain people who I know, are closer to and share more with than others. It does not mean that everybody else means less to me in any stretch of the imagination. Don't be silly, without a lot of you people I would have had some of the utterly un-forgettable times with but to those who I do share a little bit more with I am going to be talking to them personally.

So what does the future hold for me after this. Where do I go from here?

Well to be honest I have a list of things I need to accomplish to get my life as I know it back on track:

• Look at another university where I can begin my journey into the world as a University Student again.
• Step up my search for work whilst I am in London so I can realise what it is like to properly earn myself some money.
• Continue on with my Shenfield based band with my brother, Scott and Will as it seems like we are going places and are all very dedicated to the cause.
• Be a helpful extra pair of hands whenever my family needs someone to help with whatever they would need to help with.

Now I am really not sure how this is all going to work out but at the end of the day people will be asking me the question: Have I made the right decision? Well to be honest I have been thinking about this for so long and so deeply that I believe I have because while being in Colchester I have learned, experienced and felt a lot of things which I have never felt before but in the end, regrettably, I have realized that it was not the right choice for me to be there in the first place.

This does not mean I will never go back but it will be for 'One Night Stands' as it were. Not the sex meaning obviously but for the special nights out, for the parties if people want me there, for seeing friends and former colleges, just so you all know that I am thinking of you and have not completely forgotten about you all.

I apologize to you all and wish you the best of luck in whatever it is you are all doing.

Signing off from home

Nick.

A Day in My Life at Guys Hospital

What is coming up is an explanation of what has been going on in my life. As a few of you might know my mother has been in hospital with spinal problems for the better part of 4 weeks. Whilst there have been days where her pain, certain people and other circumstances have made things extremely difficult for everyone at home but I am happy to report that treatment is progressing really well and should that continue she will be out of hospital any day soon.

Formalities dealt with the true purpose of this entry is really a diary of what I would describe as a normal day when I go to Guy's Hospital to visit my mum. As a template I shall use yesterday, February 28th, a Monday for those who sometimes, like me, lose track of what day of the week it is. It is going to include events, thoughts about music that I have been listening to on journey's to and from the Hospital, thoughts that have been going through me head plus a mixture of interesting things I see.

9:00:

F**K my life.

This has been the 5th or 6th day in a row that i've been awake until silly o'clock in the morning and woken up at what ordinary people call late for work/lectures. I stayed awake but wrapped up in bed.

First thing to mind, apart from my complaints about waking up, is my mum of course but also on a secondary level my choice of music for the journey to the hospital. I think the choice of music for any journey is very important for many reasons, improving a mood all the way to actually timing how long the journey lasts. For this journey I chose the album I reviewed in my second ever blog: 'Immersion' by Pendulum: One of my favourite albums of all time.

11:50

Out of the door with the opening song 'Genesis' playing and timing to perfection making it to the train station by the time 'Watercolour' had started playing. After a short wait I got onto the train and ended up at London Bridge Station during 'The Island pt 1'.

The music was a most cathartic experience. It relaxed me amidst the worry of coming to the hospital and not know what to expect when I get there.

I got to my mum at approximately 12:40, just as 'The Island pt 2' was getting towards it's final drop to say hello. Timed almost to perfection (because I am nerdy and like that kind of thing) the first thing I should hear are the words 'I'll take you in'.

1:40

While heading back up to my mum's ward after we went outside for a cigarette break I noticed someone walking by us with a flat bandage where their nose should normally be. Now I tend not to the kind of person who stares at things and makes comments in an obvious manner but I could not help myself this time. My thought process was , and I quote, 'S**t! What the hell could have happened that made losing their nose possible?' I managed to catch myself before it was made obvious but it made me think to myself that while things can get bad for anyone, things could always be worse for you.

3:15

It was nice to see Sherie, a neighbour and family friend, come and visit the hospital. While she can be loud on occasion she has always been nothing but a very good friend to us all and if nothing else it was a very good laugh having her around for the time she was there.

3:30

After Sherie left and a trip to the hospital shop via another smoke, my grandmother came to visit. She is the only person who, for various reasons, has been at her daughters bedside as much as I have but it is written all over her face that she is tired and needs a rest.

4:15

A visit from a Greenwich based social worker temporarily see's me sitting outside the ward on my own. With my Ipod charging and with no company with which to have conversation with I occupied my time by actually starting to write some of this down by hand in my pretty new journal and wondering how long that conversation would take.

I had to use my time to watch the staff of this part of the hospital with utter admiration. Whereas the staff at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital looked stressed and run down and were really quite horrible and bitchy, the staff at Guy's on the whole have been nothing but friendly, courteous and have give my mum nothing but the best medical care we could have ever hoped for. I would recommend Samaritan ward to anyone in need of the care that it provides.

4:35

Alone again after Mum and Nan made a visit to the ground floor prayer room. A Metro newspaper to my right and my charging ipod on the other side of the bed on my left and all I can think about is the noise. A hospital ward can be an incredibly noisy place. It's not an obtrusive noise like listening to a bad dubstep song or a loud and boring person talking in your ears but a noise that is a cumulation of a lot of quieter noises including things like, other visitors and patients talking, the faint applause of Deal or no Deal from the bedside television or Nurses discussing...whatever it was they were discussing. A hospital ward almost sounds like a living thing which I suppose is a good thing because if it were to be deafly quiet it would feel weird to be there.

Like it was dead.

5:20

Nurses came to do Mum's blood pressure. She is a new nurse and from what I have heard it is her first day and she will have been working from 8 in the morning (putting my complaints into perspective) until 8 at night which is a massive shift. Obviously there seemed to be some nerves about getting everything right but she did everything correctly which makes me think she will be just fine.

On a side note I saw what some people would refer to as a 'rude boi' on the latest episode of Come Dine with Me. I look forward to seeing what he cooks and how he approaches the whole week. I want to make it clear that I do not like the hat he was wearing.

On another televison related note I have watched a lot of Jeremy Kyle and it has made me realize something about the show that I had never really noticed or even considered:

The people who are on the show (the guests I mean and not the audience) more often than not don't have anything else in their life apart from living in and as such talking/arguing about the increasingly bizarre and ridiculous situations which can very easily and logically be solved and as such make me lost faith in the human race. When there are real problems in the world and all those people care about are the stupid and petty situations there find themselves in where generally in someway they are bound to be in the wrong about is quite frankly pathetic.

6:05:

Failed at a Sodoku in the Metro...FFFFFFUUUUUUU

6:20:

Hospital food = epic fail.

They always say that if you want to know what a pub or a hotel is like you should try the food as that would probably tell you what it is like better than any review of the place. If that were also true of hospitals I'd shut the vast majority of them down. The food on the ward is the one weak spot. It is absolutely dire to be brutally honest.

One thing I have realized in my time here is that it is more interesting to be slightly nosy/rude and listen to what the various are saying to each other and the other general noises around the ward than actually watching the 6 o'clock news. It's so boring and, at times, really f**king depressing.

7:15

Just had a massive conversation with my Mum concerning probably the biggest decision of my life. I'll explain more about what this decision is in my next entry at some point more than 12 hours from this point.

7:30

After catching the second half of Emmerdale back at the ward me and my nan decide it is time to head back. Waiting 16 or so minutes for the train at London Bridge cost me 4 songs on Immersion and the album finished one station before we got off the train which was annoying. No matter, the journey was completed with a little help from As I Lay Dying and Iron Maiden.

8:20

Back home and onto the laptop. Not going to reveal all this until I have checked for grammatical errors and made sure that I finish this at a suitable time.

In all seriousness today has been a bit of an eye-opener. Not because of things to do with My Mum's recovery or the conversations that we had at the time but actually what it is like to be at the hospital day in, day out with very little, if any chance of leaving your own bedside.

So I hope you all enjoyed a look into how I spent Monday 28th February.

My next entry would be described in the world of entertainment as potentially a bit of blockbuster but anyone who is either living, or attending university in Colchester that I know really ought to read this.

Signing off till 6PM tomorrow.

Something weird...

A Man With Three Heads...



Not really that but this, while going on a subject which I do talk a lot about (that being music) but it is something that people whom know me well will be extremely confused about. What I am going to do is step out of my traditional music tastes (usually Rock/Metal) and have a look at a few songs from the grimey, disgusting and all around appaling world of general pop music. The sort of thing you are likely to find in a lot of the typical club nights you are likely to go to in the next few weeks.

Now you may all think that I am going totally mad (that said I am a bit jacked up on caffine today but that is not really the point...) but there have been some genuinely interesting new songs from what I like to call the side of the fence everyone else seems to be on. I'm gonna take this span as far back as about 6 months from me first hearing the songs and the fact that they are still being smashed around the radio like confetti at a wedding or alcohol in a student accomidation pre-drinking bender.

Firstly is one that I actually only listened to because of something I saw written about it in a Newspaper:



Yes your eyes and ears are not decieving you. It's the latest single by Britney Spears by the name of 'Hold It Against Me' and while it may not be as cringe-worthingly obvious as her last single '3' or the dancefloor classic 'Slave 4 U' but (seemingly like 95% of her songs) they are about finding a guy in a club and wanting to get some of his (here comes a Lady Gaga reference...sorry) 'Disco-Stick' away from the rest of the sweaty club attendee's.

At first you might think it's just typical garbage with a Nazi style marching beat for the vast majority of the song and Britney sounding as Monotonal and auto-tuned as ever and I agree. But I have selected this for this most odd of blogs for one main simple reason. Aside from the fact that it mostly uses the same dynamic reversal as Metallica's famous single 'Unforgiven' generally with the verse being louder than the chorus until the end one but also for the section I suggest skipping through to which appears at about 2:17.

...

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Hopefully some of you have listened to it but that is (from what I know of Dubstep) a really well excuted and quite intense dubstep drop. I find it as (quite frankly) the most interesting piece of music to be found in a song concering Ms Spears. It's quite a big drop and from what I would imagine it would produce one of the most bizarre moments in any clubber's psyche (if they are still sober enough to think that clearly):

'Ok this is a beat I imagine being made from a proper Dubstep person not Britney Spears' record label... WTF!!'


This next song may have been around for a bit longer than I might think but I don't know. It's from a little British artist who does not have the loudest voice and could be seen as annoying and has released one or two of the worst songs ever in 'Stary Eyed' and 'Guns & Horses'.



Yes it's Ellie Goulding with 'The Writer'. First thing to say is that as a song it was my favourite pop song of 2010 along with her not quite so well known track 'Under The Sheets' ,which with a few minor tweeks (I know cause i've tried) makes a cracking Hard Rock love song, but does not qualify for this list as I heard it back in last May.

So why do I add 'The Writer' to this rag tag list of slightly more interesting chart hits? Well firstly the verse and middle section has a rather interesting time signature which (while trying to learn the song) has caught me out in several times to the tune of exclimations of profanities like 'F***' 'S***' and my new rather outrageous favourite 'F**knuckle'. It's a rather beautiful song really as it features a really great melody throughout vocally, a really effective piano part and a chorus which manages to be on the one hand to be calm and emotional but on the other hand (with the right setting and the volume turned up all the way) absolutely bloody enormous. Put that chorus in a big stadium and I have no doubt it would produce a huge moment the first time it comes around.

The next song comes from another realitively new song with not much in terms of a massive voice but has a habbit of some interesting little numbers like this following dubstep inspired ditty:



Yes it's the true club anthem which you are basically garunteed to hear almost every club night you go into. It's Katy B with her signature song 'Katy On A Mission'. Well first off it's different because it uses a style that was (at the time) still relatively underground and therefore was like a breakthrough. It is a song structured much like any other so I can not offer you any difference on that front but the lyrics are in fact the most interesting element to this song. Because it's not about what a lot (96.7%-ish) of pop songs are about, sex, love and variants thereof, but about something which connects to the same amount of, if not more people who are going to listen to the song. Going on a dancefloor and when the right song comes on going absolutely ballistic not caring how you look and just having a damn-good time whether you end up lip locked with a fellow dancer or just sweaty but with a feeling of utter euphoria. The lyric has become a mantra of mine when I go clubbing with the right combination of people 'Keep up with me as we lose control'.

Following on from these I'd like to be able to put a pop song by a male artist to rebalence the list back bring back some semblence of gender equality... but Male pop singers have slowly become the most samey-samey sounding bulls*** these days but now with my most interesting choices taken up I've litterally had to go on a bit of a research through the recent chart hits. To be as frank as I can about all this it has made want boil my own head as quite a large amount modern pop is truly, saddeningly, almost hopelessly appaling. With Simon Cowell's X-Factor machine and the increase of auto-tuning into alot of music and just the stereotypical lyrical content often makes me despair at how some people can be so blind and listen to these songs and take them as the best the world of music has to offer.

But before you think I am going to say that modern music is not as good as it was in previous decades I have one unfortunate thing to say to you:

The Previous 4 decades were no better




I say this because yes there are classic tracks from those decades which everyone will remember: Beatles, Stones, Led Zepplin, Thin Lizzy, Guns 'N' Roses, early Madonna, Abba, 2-Pac, Pre-drug abuse Eminem and many, many more that I can mention. These are the artists that will be looked back on as the memorable artists of those respective creative periods with hits that will live in memory until the end of time.

But a lot of these songs were beaten to the top spot by some utterly appaling pieces of s*** which people will choose to forget was the week long fads people liked at the time. Take this list of songs for example and my point will be proved:

Gnarls Barckley - Crazy
Crazy Town - Butterfly
Journey - Don't Stop Belevin'
(Who the F*** cares) - Agado ¬_¬
Cliff Richard - Misiltoe and Wine
The stupid fast food song
All of the UK's Eurovision entries for as long as I can remember
Lulu - Shout
Mungo Jerry - Baby Jump
And everything wirtten by Donny Osmand.

My point is proved and this would be an excellent way to end this entry.

However, my research did pay off and what I have coming up is as interesting as the songs I have already mentioned and actually, in my view, somewhat of a special song to me:



I will conceed that this song does not apply to either of the rules set I set to put songs in the blog and yes it is not even a very recent song. But Viva Forever by one of the most legendary Girl Groups that there has ever been in The Spice Girls is a song which a chilled out number with 2 or 3 absolutely sensational acoustic guitar solos. It was one of the last songs the band recorded with Geri Haliwell and was in fact released after she left the band so there is in fact a hidden story behind the song and even though I do not know the story knowing this song had a difficult inception makes it very special to me. It may be utterly ridiculous but this is one of my favourite of all time. It might be embrassing given my normal taste in music but it is.

Now we can end.

Next up after the pre-season testing ends I make my thoughts and predictions for the 2011 F1 world championship.

Wow an album review - Sum 41's Chuck

Before I get into this I must say sorry for not having any reviews on my blog recently. For this one I am not going for a new release but with an album that holds a special place in my heart, not because it's the best album I've ever heard but oddly it is what inspired me to write some of the music I have written over my time as a musician. The album is Sum 41's 2004 album 'Chuck'.

When a friend of mine lent me Chuck I was very skeptical of the album after he'd said that give a few of the songs some tweaks it would make a basic (in terms of technical skill) but good Metal album.

When I actually took the time to listen to it I understood as while (apart from some of the drumming and the lead guitar work) there is not much in terms of blistering technical skill he was absolutely right. Yes there are more 'traditional' pop punk songs but this, as a work on the whole, is actually fairly unique to the genre to this day. The closest any artist has come to making a pop punk/metal record is Madina Lake with 'The Dresden Codex EP' with crucial difference being this (in my view) is better in almost every department.

Lyrically a lot of it is typically 'pop punk' so really quite dull in some aspects. But some of the songs. Looking particularly at two of the singles here 'We're All To Blame' and 'Pieces' there is actually some deeper, more meaningful lyrical skill on display. I'm not saying it's the most genius lyrical work ever but it definitely shows some long term thought has gone into it.

Generally the lyrical themes displayed in the songs fits in with the music quite well. For example 'The Bitter End' and '88' fit perfectly and it makes the songs, in my opinion at least, flow exactly the way I think the band intended it to.

The singer is neither amazing nor terrible. But this album proved he could be versatile. In various songs he could turn his hand to delicate singing, shouting, screaming and even euphoric spoken word whenever the need takes him. It's a well crafted, mature and diverse record vocally.

Quick note: Now unfortunately I will go on to do what I always do, and meticulously (perhaps dully for some of you) go through each track and attempt to relate it to what I have said earlier

1) Intro - Does what it says on the tin but has the strange ability to fit in perfectly with more than one song on the album. 7.5/10

2) No Reason - Euphoric, partially apocalyptic and with some really good simple riffs. A very appropriate opening song to the album. Shows a maturity that runs through the record and is missing on the whole from everything else the band has written before or since. 8/10

3) We're All To Blame - Reversed stereotypical dynamics much like Metallica's 'Unforgiven' with the very heavy (almost Metal-like) verses and quieter choruses (until the third one) and very good lyrics. Almost like a follow on from 'No Reason' lyrically. 8/10

4) Angels With Dirty Faces - The first genuine surprise of the album. The Drop tuned guitars could have been an indication this song was going to be slightly different but the heaviness after the soft vocal intro and the proper thrash metal drumming in the chorus make this one of the albums stand out tracks. 9.5/10

5) Some Say - The best thing about the are the vocals. It's not my kind of song generally and seems a bit to much like generic 'pop punk' ballad in my view. 5/10

6) The Bitter End - I've heard many things said about this song: It's a rip-off of Metallica's 'Battery', it's a fake Metal song and it's just plain wrong. I'll admit it is structured basically identically and includes some similar phrasing but it stands out as it's own song. First of all it is a very convincing Thrash song as all the elements are there and it's put together in a very convincing and logical manner. Oh and the main guitar solo is absolutely incredible in my opinion. Yes it's not the fastest or the most melodic but it strikes a very fine balance which is important in my opinion. This is best song on the album in my view. 10/10 (yes i know it's frowned upon to give anything 10 but I've done it now)

7) Open Your Eyes - I must admit I haven't listened to this song as much as the others but it is a good song musically. Works really well with seeming maturity that has been hinted at with the music. Just a shame it's the worst track lyrically and it comes quite close to ruining the song as a whole. That said the Middle 8 is actually quite fantastic. 7/10

8) Slipping Away - The True Acoustic number of the album. This song takes pride of place on my chillout playlist on my computer. It's quite a beautiful song which is also structured not like a traditional song in the sense that it only has the one verse. Vocals shine out really well on this one. 8/10

9) I'm Not The One - Another very heavy song. When I first heard this song the intro reminded me very heavily of Linkin Park tracks like 'One Step Closer' or 'Crawling'. The actual proper screaming vocals in the middle section of the song are pretty remarkable and show a complete diversity from most of the rest of the album in terms of vibe and texture. 9/10

10) Welcome To Hell - Very much more like a traditional punk song from decades previous. It's a very short, shouty, fun song basically telling us to jump around like morons and it would be a very good song in the mosh pit. The Bass stands out on this track as being fast, spikey and, much like the rest of the track on the whole, just damned good fun. 8.5/10

11) Pieces - The rating for this song would be so much lower if it did not have really good lyrical content. I find the song incredibly dull if i'm not paying particular attention to the words as there is really not very much to the music that I haven't heard from 'Some Say' or 'Slipping Away' earlier in the record. 6/10

12) There's No Solution - Another song which I have not spent a lot of time listening to. There can be no doubt that this song actually has one of the best choruses on the album. It's almost like a big stadium rock track scaled down a bit. Just missed a bit of lead guitar would be my one problem with it. 7.5/10

13) 88 - The Schizophrenic song as I like to call it now. It contains all the styles present in the album. From a very punk rock-ish intro. To an acoustic verse, a massive chorus and the massive Metal breakdown towards the end. Had it ended on that big Eb chord at the end of the breakdown it would have been another 10/10 song in my view but there is simply the fact that the ending sounds strained and rather bizzare. Did not seem neccesary. 9.5/10

From the US the album ends here but the version I have houses 3 other songs, which I shall also take a look at.

14) Noots - Incorporation of keyboards is very interesting. It in keeps with the theme of the album musically and has a humongous chorus to go with it. Lyrically however it is a bit of a disappointment but not terrible. 7.5/10

15) Moron - What else could be said about this song other than it is, much like 'Welcome To Hell' is a very good laugh. It is almost as simple as music gets and it shows. What else draws me is actually a very good vocal performance which suits the song perfectly.

16) Subject To Change - This song has foundations in both the title track from the next album (the chorus) and in 'No Reason' (the middle 8). It manages to be the angriest song on the disc but while it is a very good song it doesn't quite flow as a lyrical concept and it is quite easy to understand why it was not included on either this album or the next. Pity really. 8/10

Overall rating for the album I would say has to be 8/10. I love the majority of it as it is a massive departure from the general direction of Pop Punk around the time and to this day. The Stand-Out songs are the heavier ones, not just as a fan of Metal but as a musician they are better musically in my view and it shows that this band. Even in it's new guise can pull off a largely convincing live cover of the classic Metallica song 'Master Of Puppets'.

And here comes another year.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Drinking partners one and all I would like to wish you all a happy 2011.



Yes indeed and in case anyone has been asleep since Saturday a new year is indeed upon us. One filled with many things that I am going to go on to speak about:

• The 2011 F1 world championship


• The England Cricket team bringing home the famous urn after their retention of the Ashes.


• The endless road of the pro-wrestling business


• A continuation of my studies at University in Colchester.


• And many more things...

Now all this and more will be discussed in the up and coming 12 months but I would like to take some time out of your very important Internet time to post something that is more than likely going to turn into among one of the most personal things I have ever written. For those who do not know me all that well this might get a bit heavy and even though I will never know I do not blame you if you stop reading at any point in this post. If you do know me then perhaps this will be a little bit of an eye opener if you think I have been a bit weirder than usual in recent times.

First I have to start with a brief summary of what has made 2010 in many ways good for me:

• My first 2 festivals as an attendee in the form of 2000 trees and Sonisphere were experiences which I shall not forget anytime soon.


• Finally getting a band together in the land of Essex to stop me going completely mad.


• My 20th Birthday drinks may not have been the highlight of every body's social calender but from my perspective it was the drunken yet perfectly civilised way I wanted to celebrate it and catch up with many of the friends I have made at University.


• Finally getting a small glimpse into the whole clubbing thing and understanding that it has to be the right night for me to have a good time.

All of those things were great and I would like to thank everyone who was a part of these experiences and I honestly hope to have more with all of you in the future.

However I am going to be completely honest and say that, for me, 2010 was one of the most difficult and most painful years that I can remember. There are many reasons for this, some of which I can not even share here as it is so painful but others I will share with you as frankly as possible:

This year I am ashamed to say I have definitely fallen for someone who I assume does not feel the same way about me and even if she did she is many years out of my league and is with someone who is making them happier than I feel I could.

I met her at the back end of last year when visiting friends and she understood my flaws and my fears within 15 minutes of meeting me and we became extremely close whenever we got the chance to talk. She has been there for me through some really difficult shit and has become a rock so solid it would take millions of years to wear that away.

We spent a weekend together in the summer, just hanging out, drinking and talking about everything and nothing at the same time. We bonded strongly and for my sins my heart became hers. She probably won't know it's her and if she does I've put my foot in it but she is beautiful, kind, funny and one of the people I trust with my life. I can deal with the fact we'll never be together as long as we remain closer than Amy Winehouse to a drug overdose.

To move on from that to something that a few of you may know happened. I was almost shot from a moving car in Colchester in the Autumn, after a man shot at my direction from a moving car with a hand gun narrowly missing the outline of my hair.

I was ok but I was so scared I considered not coming back to Colchester after a week a home. My life flashed before my eyes as I looked for someone to help me get home and while this is not the most afraid I have ever been my hands were shaking for three days afterwards. To this day every so often I cry when thinking about it but one day I will be able to fully get over it and fully move on.

This is the hardest thing I have ever had to admit but here it goes: Not too long ago I went through a period of feeling helpless and afraid for the future. I was scared I was going to fall into a possible state of depression and at points even thought I had.

I was staring at a small kitchen knife I had in my right hand wondering if I was about to do the unthinkable, the one thing that I swore I'd make sure no-one I knew would do if I could help it. Luckily for me I was not brave enough to do it and the thought has not occurred to me since.

I did it because of many reasons:

• I was worried that a lot of the people that cared about me didn't care and I was almost entirely alone at a point in my life where I need them.
• After the incident with the shooting I was scared about what else could happen to me and was basically scared in my own skin.
• Things were going on behind closed doors which were leaving my family in an unbelievably strained position and there was nothing I could do to help or stop it.
• I simply believed I was not good enough.

If I have still got anyone reading this...yeah...

But then a funny thing happened. Something that has never happened to me before and took me completely unawares. The strangest thing about it was that it occurred to me around the strike of midnight while drunk and sipping on a pint of 'expensive' cider:

I can erase the bad points of 2010 by making 2011 the most amazing year of my life.

• I can make sure I push on with my musical exploits in a way I never have before.
• I can make even more truly brilliant friends as well maintain the ones I deserve to have.
• I have a chance of finding someone or something that can make me as happy as I have ever been.
• But last and for sure most important of all I can stop giving a damn about what people actually think of me because if they don't like me and bitch about me behind my back or just plain ignore me I can simply think to myself 'Forget you, I am who I am and I'm not gonna change for you.'

So to my friends, my family, the friends i've yet to meet and perhaps especially to the people and events that tried to stop me in 2010 I have one last thing to say:

My New Years Resolution is to never be brought down again.

Have a good'un all of you

Why Michael Schumacher has done a good thing for F1 by coming back.

As people who read my blog will know, Michael Schumacher has had in terms of results and competitiveness since the disastrous 2005 season and his first podium-less season since he joined the sport in 1991.

He came back after the potential of turning up in 2009 replacing the injured Massa with a fully healed up neck, the World Constructors Champions and the Number 3 on his car. Hopes were high that he could take it to this newer generation and show them how to be a champion. On the whole, due to a car that wasn't fast enough often enough and (at least at the start of the year) rusty hand to hand combat skills which would limit his progress.

It wasn't the best of seasons for the 91 Grand Prix winning 7 times World Champion by any stretch of the imagination and there were some moments when I feared his comeback might be placed under threat:

• He was not strong in the very early part of the season, China being the primary option when his car was being treated (Brundle's words, not mine) like the back end of a donkey.

• Signapore was simply a messy weekend. A track which team-mate Nico Rosberg excels at in a car which was not as fast as the Renault or the Williams nevermind the Bulls, Mclaren's or Ferrari's. He then waited too long to stop and dropped (with Kobayashi) further down the field and then did what German drivers have done a lot this year, and went to war with the Sauber's and come off best as he has accidents with both of them over the course of the race and overall finished poorly.

• The Canadian Grand Prix where he basically hit anything that moved within 10 meters of him (Massa, both Force India's and Kubica) added to a bad qualifying performance created one of the worst race weekends I have seen the man drive (topped only by China '05...which was actually difficult to watch) and for the first and only i thought Schumacher would either leave or be dropped for Nick Heidfeld (before he left for Sauber).

• And the less said about the Hungarian Grand Prix the better. I can not defend what he did then.

It was correct that the BBC talk about those moments but the attacks on Schumacher, particularly Eddie Jordan after Singapore were harsh and (in my view) not entirely justified. Yes he had a few stinkers this year: Who doesn't have the occasional bad moment? Didn't Vettel hit his team-mate in Turkey? Wasn't Hamilton an idiot in Italy? Didn't Alonso need to cut a corner to overtake Kubica in Silverstone? People have bad days at the office, it is inevitable so why they were more scathing of Schumacher than anyone else (apart from Liuzzi, Buemi and Yamamoto, who are complete F***ing morons, all 3 of them) is beyond and seems a tad unfair.

But then again they needed a story to talk about in the press because the epic 5 driver war for the title clearly wasn't interesting enough for them...

It also didn't help that over the course of the season, looking set for strong results he became unlucky:

• In Monaco he had a good race to seventh, jumping Rosberg in the pit stops and then after the safety car came in on the last lap there was no indication that there was a rule against overtaking after the safety car line on the final lap which meant he pulled off a genius move on Alonso in Anthony Nouges (now how many of you have ever seen someone do that before outside of video games?) only to be penalised by a rule which was not clear and also contradicted by the messages from race control.

• In Valencia, he was on course for what could have been a stunning podium but had he got caught out by the pit lane rule and proceeded to fall to the back of the field where he basically took part in a glorified test session driving rather quickly up to the back of the back markers and then change tires and see what his car was actually made of.

• In Abu Dhabi he was lucky to remain with his face on his head and in one piece after that horrible accident with Liuzzi but after a strong performance all weekend he looked set for some good points if it were not for that crash.

Then again there were also some moments of pure class which showed that the man still has most of the strong stuff that made him one of the most successful, famous and spectacular sportsmen the world has ever seen:

• I once again point you to his pass on Fernando Alonso at the last corner at Monaco, how he found the space for 2 cars side by side with the rest of the field bunched around him I can never fathom. It was a genius piece of driving (even if it was technically illegal).

• His drives to 5th in Spain and 4th in Turkey were a good sign also, while the Mercedes was a minute down the road at the end of the race it did show a sign that he could get the most out of the car on certain tracks. And his drive defending against Jenson Button was a joy to watch as whatever the Defending Champion did the Silver Baron had it covered.

• His race at Spa was excellent considering the risk factor of the stratergy and his grid position. Both he and Rosberg drove great races and aside from the head-ache they gave Ross Brawn and Nick Fry it was great to see the pair of them take each other one. Yes Rosberg got ahead of him in the end but Schumacher drove a better overall race on the circuit he first came to the world as a Clutch destroying young'un who put the Jordan 7th on the grid in his first laps in the car.

• In Japan he took Barrichello around the outside of the chicane after 130R, if I remember correctly the last person he tried to do that to was Takuma Sato in 2003 and that took his front wing off. That was a stunning overtake but Nico Rosberg stole the limelight while trying to be outrageous and overtake Buemi around the outside of 130R. Rosberg may well have gotten ahead of him with a better strategy but Schumacher was easily quicker than him at almost ever point, was glued to his gearbox and must have been clenching his butt-cheeks quite a lot when Rosberg went off in the opening part of the lap but went on to another good result.

• He was awesome for the entire of Korea, his insight by going deliberately off the road during the safety car periods to test what he could do and the simplicity and effectiveness while passing 2 of the best drivers in the grid in the form of Button and Kubica on the way to a very impressive 4th place showed that the man does still have what it takes in the mental department (more on this later). This was his best race of the year by some margin and a sign that if Mercedes get their second car right, the championship could be contested by as many as 8 or 9 drivers for large parts of it.

And it is these things which show that there is quite a lot of the Schumacher that people knew, loved, hated and were in awe of in equal measure. Yes his driving may not have been what we saw in the F2004 or B195 (his 2004 and 1995 championship wining cars for those who don't know what I'm on about) but it was driving his best with the machinery he had, which as is clear and has been for many years, is all you can do in a sport like this one.

Right now I'm about to sound biased for a while so for all of you people who are not specially big fans of Schumacher you may as well either have not read at all and should stop reading now, or complain to me later on facebook or something:

To be honest this year, in my view, I was not particularly bothered about his results or how good he was or how good his car was. Yes obviously I want the Baron to be up there winning races, challenging for wins, pulling of great passes and being a part of the championship picture but this year was the year I most enjoyed F1 since before Kimi Raikonnen started winning (I dislike him so very much). It was just seeing Schumacher coming back, the money he would generate for the sport just by being there, watching his interviews, watching the infamous red helmet be taken around in a fancy new silver container (weird way to put it but you get what I mean) and hearing Martin Brundle call him 'The Silver Baron' made me feel like I was watching F1 back when I was a little boy. Schumacher, for all his faults and stupid moments like he had in Hungary this year, is still to be the best sportsman I have had the pleasure of watching in my lifetime.

I started watching F1 in 1996 and do you know, amongst the Dominance of Hill and Villeneuve and the wacky Jean Alesi who caught my eye? A short, slightly cold looking German man driving a Ferrari which was rubbish. I had no idea who he was truly until I saw him win in Spain. It was at that moment when I realised that this guy was something particularly special.

It was then when I became a worshipper at the altar of Schumacher. I was never patriotic, I wanted him to win ahead of Hill in 1996. I wanted him to destroy Williams in 1997 and I just thought that from 1998-2006, despite the stupid driving moments and the pig of a car he had in 2005, and how sometimes Ferrari favoured him way too much, that he was simply the man to beat at all times.

So to those of you who will undoubtedly say I am a testicle-lacking fan boy I am not. He is not the be all and end all of my time with the sport. There are certain things he has done, (Adelaide 1994, Jerez 1997, Hungary 2010, Monaco 2006 etc...) that I can not and will not even try and defend. He was, and still might be, an arrogant, aggressive, cold heartless Bastard of a man who was easier to dislike than any man since Senna and anyone before Lewis Hamilton arrived and drove Fernando Alonso to complete insanity.

On top of that people will automatically say 'oooh Schumacher had it easy, he didn't have to race against Senna, Mansell, Prost, blah blah blah...' and while they are 3 greats of F1 history I watch drives like Spain '96, Hungary '98, USA '03 and France '04 and I just sit there and think to myself that Michael Schumacher is the greatest driver to exist.

And that right there is why he should stick through all 3 years of his contract in my view...

Because I think he can be that man again.