How to cope with Olympics withdrawal
by Charlie Peverett in At home on 27.08.08
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling like the holiday is over. The Olympics are a two-week window during which it seems everyone bar the nayiest of naysayers gets together and shares a genuinely thrilling, global experience.
Thanks to the ubiquity of the BBC’s olympic coverage, it was possible to live the Olympics as never before. In our house, the live coverage went on as soon as we got up. At work, the interweb kept me discreetly abreast of results, and then back home in the evening we could catch up with the highlights. If they weren’t enough, we’d press the red button for more.
Such was the experience (as immersive as any of Tom Daley’s dives) that coming to the end of the games felt like a cold shower. Even though it was a Bank Holiday, the first non-Olympic day was undeniably a Monday.
Chasing the games
So, at the end of last week, I started piecing together an itinerary whereby I could keep the sporting ubiquity alive. It begins with a no-brainer - the US Open tennis championship (sadly, not available to watch as a freebie, but on satellite and via radio online). Andy Murray is in fantastic form and should make it deep into the championship. Two weeks of top evening/night-time action in the UK.
The tennis is complemented by the NatWest one-day international cricket series between England and South Africa, (with England, remarkably, looking very much like the better team). And on Sunday 31 August there’s - hurrah! - more athletics at the Aviva British Grand Prix in Gateshead.
The week after the end of the US Open looks a bit thin (maybe time to check out some of the, er, minority channels buried in the bottom of the Freeview listings?), but then it picks up again, with the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart (13 - 14 September) and the Ryder Cup (16 - 21 September).
Add a smattering of F1 Grand Prix a little Moto GP, and - if you really must - the odd international football fixture, and you’re pretty much sorted through to the end of September.
But why don’t you….
But as I compiled my attempt to smother myself in the comfort blanket of televisual sporting endeavour I had a small but significant realisation: this is the saddest thing ever.
Holidays are only good because they’re occasional. I don’t need a poor substitute for Beijing - I need to get a life.
So: there will be no pressing the red button in the hope of some obscure live athletics coverage. In my house there will, in fact, be no TV-watching at all. We’ve decided to give up the TV for a while, and do something less boring instead.
To be clear, we’re not giving up the occasional film or episode of the Mighty Boosh on DVD. Stuff with proscribed beginnings and end-points is fine.
It just means zero-tolerance on endlessly churning audio-visual wallpaper. We’re going to do Other Stuff. Like reading, writing and walking. And talking about whether London 2012 will be any good.
Anyone fancy joining us?
IMAGE by Flickr users recurringdreams and striatic.
That’s a brave move - no telly over autumn / winter? I give up telly in the spring. I do OTHER THINGS when there’s more chance of it being light enough to see what I’m doing, and if I’m doing them outside, it might even not be raining. But autumn and winter I find telly is my saviour,
28.08.2008 at 5:54 pmWell. we’ll see how long we last - I think January and February could be tough. There’s only so much sustenance to be had from fine wines, cribbage and Radio 4. Although that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
29.08.2008 at 9:36 am