A gentle build today in preparation for a very long trip. I head for the airport this evening and thence via Los Angeles and Hong Kong to Singapore. Given the date line II loose the weekend which somehow adds to the horror of over 30 hours between hotel rooms. I got up early to listen to Wales vArgentina via the BBC internet radio service. I listened to the build up then just as the match was going to start the transmission was cut with a recorded announcement saying that the broadcast was not available outside the UK. Now this is already bad enough with the iPlayer, but when it extends to the radio it becomes a nonsense. I play my license fee, I travel a lot, you would think it was not unreasonable to expect that I could access those services via the internet. No one in the US took radio transmission rights that I could find by the way, and there were no sports bars in San Jose or California (as far as I could see) show it. OK some in San Franciso showed the All Blacks knocking back some second tier nation, but not the important match. My son came up with an innovative solution however, he used his computer and we organised a skype conversation in which the two of us were silent.

You know, aside from the irritation its a lost opportunity for the BBC. I would happily pay an additional fee to access overseas. I might winge a bit, but I would pay it.