The mystery of the disappearing sports channels

Twice in recent months I’ve come across one of my favourite sports on TV only to have the channel disappear soon after. 

A few months ago the ‘special event’ TV channel (which is normally locked down and only screens pay per view UFC) started showing Winter Olympic highlights. They were rather crappy highlights with more time being dedicated to single shots of the Olympic flame than actual sport highlights.

Anyway… the weekend the Olympics finished the Super Rugby competition started. I just happened to flick to said channel around mid afte

rnoon to find a one shot of a rugby field. I quickly realised I was about to get the first game of the season out of New Zealand. Later that evening I got to watch my ‘hometown’ team the Queensland Reds play. I was pretty excited at actually getting to watch some Rugby and especially that it was a Reds game.

The weird thing about coverage is that we appeared to be getting the raw non-edited feed. Prior to the game we would see 30 minutes of the TV coverage team testing their cameras and microphones, there was no advertising and I often busted the commentators saying funny things while they thought they were ‘off-air’. 

Sadly after the Olympics finished the next day the Rugby disappeared as well. What I suspect is that the local TV company was pinching the Winter Olympic highlight feed off a random satellite which just happened to be showing raw Super Rugby footage. Once the Olympics finished they shut down the connection so no more Rugby for Nathan :(

While I love watching Rugby I can deal with missing out on this while living in Palau. What I’m struggling with missing is watching (Ice) Hockey. When we first arrived here in June last year the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals were about to start. Much to my dismay the only sports channel (ESPN) decided to play early season baseball and not the hockey finals. And just in case you haven’t been following this blog, the internet here is so bad (and expensive) that you can hardly bring up static webpages let alone internet radio or streamed video. So it’s been much like 1996 all over again, having to catch up with the results and news from static webpages every evening or so. 

Proof there was once a hockey game on TV in Palau

Cut to a few weeks ago. I was out diving and happened to start talking hockey with one of my customers, he mentioned he’d watched a little of the Montreal v Tampa Bay game in his hotel the previous evening. Over the next couple of days with the help of our favourite bartender we quickly worked out that his hotel (Palasia) had a different satellite feed (out of Taiwan) and the old CRT TV behind the bar was connected to this. 

The next night a few of us had a bunch of drinks and pizza and got to watch Montreal dispatch Tampa from the playoffs. It was a great night and it was incredible to watch some hockey again. Palau suddenly became a whole lot more liveable for me. 

But sadly last week while a mate of mine was watching another game the channel suddenly went off air. Not the whole satellite, just that channel. Guess what... yep the channel is completely gone and apparently there is nothing they can do about it. So back to the dark ages again…

Marriage, Montreal, Manflu and Memes

Yet another hectic period of organisation and social events is over. This time it was for our wedding. (Wait! What!?) Yep that is right I am now a married man, something that a lot of people probably thought would never happen :o

We had an amazing day, getting married in the rotunda at New Farm Park in front of close friends and family, followed by an outdoor reception overlooking the river. It's funny how much effort you can put into organising an event like this for it to be over in a flash. All that remains now are the memories, photos and some cake (but not much as I've been getting stuck into the leftovers! NOM NOM NOM).

And just to show my dedication to hockey and the Montreal Canadiens, not only did I spend my wedding morning watching what would be the Habs only 2013 playoff win. But both Amanda and myself happened to mention them in our vows. Pity they couldn't repay my dedication with a better playoff performance but it was a remarkably better season than last year.

Unfortunately the morning after the wedding I woke feeling sick with a nasty head cold/manflu. Eight days later and i'm still not 100%. I think all the stress and lack of sleep has finally run me down. No rest for the wicked however as we are now just under 4 weeks until we depart for Palau. We've got a fair bit to do with the selling of cars, renting the unit, sorting of bills, etc etc etc

So what is this in the blog title about memes you might ask?.... Well for our wedding I wanted to surprise Amanda with something. I thought about something nice to buy her but it was just another thing we'd have to pack away or transport to Palau. Then I thought about doing a flashmob (maybe the 'Shake a Tailfeather' dance from The Blues Brothers) but that seemed like it would required too much effort and co-ordination from my mates. I ended up settling on a Harlem Shake which the fellas and I filmed on my boys weekend a few weeks out from the wedding. The video quality and my editing leaves a bit to be desired but it gets to the point and when i debuted the video at the reception it definitely got the laugh i was after. People are still talking about it. So here it is for your viewing pleasure: