(Another) New TV channel

After the demise of TV12 , then Solent TV mysteriously going off air, could it be third time lucky? of should we learn from our mistakes? Some bright spark thinks the former as a new "NEW GLOBAL TV CHANNEL TO LAUNCH FROM IW" (Again, front page news, (at the top)) is to launch in December. Well having just read the news White Air could be forced off the island due to backward thinking people wanting to revert Sandown to a nice 1950's seaside resort instead of actually thinking about silly things like economics, tourism, and publicity, I read with some trepidation. “The whole ethos is family viewing. A comparison is the BBC in the 1950s but with a 21st century twist,”

Ok. The joke goes the IOW is stuck in 1953, while the rest of the UK is in 2007. How the hell is this going to help? - 'Ahhh, your forgeting the 21st century twist' I hear you cry. The 21st century twist is this; "UK Entertainment will be an internet broadband channel, viewable on a PC or on a television through a new-style digibox, which will be available in December." you see. they didn't have them in the '50s

Well. Only time will tell...

`WHITE AIR WILL GO TO MAINLAND`

Yep. While this is an actual proper news story (front page, CP 26/10/07) we felt this was worth a note. White Air is probably the largest alternative sports festival in Europe. It holds championship rounds of Windsurfing, attracts people from all over, has thundercat (small fast powerboats) racing, kitesurfing, surfing, mountainbording, mountain biking, skateboarding, bands, music, DJs, parties, and is quite frankly one of the best things going on the island. This year it was brought forward from October to August Bank holiday, had five TV shows covering it and thousands of people attend. Obviously this is a huge boost to the IOW and Sandown/Yaverland as one of the premier places for general spots that 'don't involve a ball', or at lest that what you would think. In actual fact, the people of Sandown (and some councilor's) feel that the IOW as a premier alternative sports venue for 4 days of the year is too much and that we should go back to 1952 where a spot of cricket on the beach was more than enough. I could go on, but there we have it. One of the few decent things on the island that is worth people coming to see, and it looks like it could be gone. Well I could see a large south-coast town/city hosting this and actually enjoying the extra publicity. One of the best quotes from the CP - "IW Council member for Sandown North Heather Humby said the volume of live music was too loud and money was lost in car park charges."

Carpark charges.....I ask you...

Props to Cllr Chris Dupre and Cllr Ian Ward, as they look like they don't want to loose it, but it could be a loosing battle.

This not only made the front page, but also the BBC news...

FOREIGN students visiting the Island are to be educated in bus queuing etiquette after Islanders complained about them pushing and shoving their way on to buses.

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/QUEUE_HERE_FOR_AN_ETIQUETTE_LESSON.aspx

And Quote of the week; "I know it sounds patronising but next year we shall be giving foreign students instructions on how to queue for a bus.” - Southern Vectis operations manager Marc Morgan Huws. I do see their point, queuing is a part of British life but this does feel mildly xenophobic to me, rounding up all the foreign students, making them stand in rows before boarding a bus, not knowing where they are going..... sorry, it just reminded me of my GCSE History there.....

Tree Stump Fire

Oh yes, you read it correctly, plus not one story, but two! Yes, TWO fire stories...

FIRE crews attended a tree stump fire in Playstreet Lane, Ryde, on Saturday.
One appliance from Ryde attended at around 12.40pm.
On Sunday at 1.45pm, fire crews put out burning leaves in Simeon Street, Ryde.
The fire was out by 1.55pm.

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/TREE_STUMP_FIRE.aspx

The Isle of Wight, home to spontaneously combusting treestumps, or as I suspect, some very bored kids who had ran out of the usual things to set fire to.

Ooops....

....Well it seems we were wrong. What started (and kinda stopped) as a "no-one will bother reading this" idea, has turned into a wakeup slap from the guys over at Ventnorblog.Well, sorry, and normal service will be resumed shortly.

To be fair, a few things happened over the summer, A few guys in boats had a sail about in Cowes, and some bands did a gig back in June, But we were in the pub, and missed it.

Sorry, and lets hope nothing starts happening again or we will be out of the job!

EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT! WOMAN DOESN'T GET ROBBED!

IWCP - March 2nd 2007

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/NONE_THE_WORSE_AFTER_PURSE_SCARE.aspx

This made FRONT PAGE news. A lady left her wallet on top of her car and returned 12 hours later to find it was still there. An “incredible testament to Island honesty” perhaps? Ha! Come off it, the scum bags that would have nicked it were just busy robbing other, less fortunate people.

Although having thought about it, perhaps the IWCP was right to put this on front page, afterall she did successfully manage to not get robbed in Ryde...how many of us can make that mighty claim?!

Once upon a time....

"A skip that caught fire on Somerton Industrial Estate was put out by Cowes firefighters on Sunday last week."

The end.

IWCP - Feb 16th 2007

"I gave him a smack on the chin and he went down like a sack of poo,"

IWCP - Nov 10th, 2006

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/MARK_PUTS_SWIFT_END_TO_AIR_RAGE.aspx

This is one of the quotes that help start this blog thing. To cut a short story shorter; some idiot thought it would be a good idea to get violent and rowdy on a flight from Thailand so an IOW bloke steps in to save the day and gave him a good beating…nice one mate, people like that deserve a taste of their own medicine once in a while. Anyway, our resident hero quotes when interviewed by the IWCP: “I gave him a smack on the chin and he went down like a sack of poo”…you couldn’t make it up if you tried, pure gold!

SUNBATHER NEARLY CRUSHED BY COW

IWCP - Aug 18th, 2006

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/SUNBATHER_NEARLY_CRUSHED_BY_COW.aspx

Now, I'm sure this was fairly distressing for the lady involved and we're all glad she didn't wait another 10 seconds before getting up, otherwise she'd be, well flat...but come on SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THE BLOODY COW!! The poor animal was probably wondering around on top of the cliff minding his own business and looking at the view when he slipped on a cow pat or a misplaced banana skin. One minute he was in his own little cow paradise and the next he’s free falling with nothing between him and the beach below because the only thing that could’ve broken his fall had gone for a swim only 10 seconds before. I can just imagine him desperately mooing in cow speak “oh crap, don’t wander off, come back and catch me!”…thump.