Watching the 'Ultimate Weekend' from Taiwan

Watching the ‘Ultimate Weekend’ from Taiwan

 

So, last weekend was the ‘Ultimate Weekend’ of sport in the UK (and Europe).  This included Champions League Final, Heineken Cup Final, Playoff Finals, Monaco Grand Prix, Wentworth and even cricket; am I forgetting anything?  This seems like an exhausting weekend for any sports fan, but with it being a bank holiday weekend, it might be possible.  Unfortunately I was not in the UK, I was (and still am) in Taiwan.  So, what was the sports fan in Taiwan supposed to do?  This blog is here to try and help those sports fans who want to watch what they love abroad.  This may also help those who want to watch other things and general TV addicts.

 

The FA Cup Final (skipped till the 70th minute)

 

For me the weekend started with work at 9am, one of the joys of being an English teacher in Taiwan, and the Champions League Final didn’t start until 2:45am Taiwan time.  It’s fine, you may think, you’ve got a bank holiday weekend, go crazy recover on Monday. But as I have mentioned not in Taiwan, back to work as usual in Taiwan, no May day bank holiday (and May Day are a really popular band over here).  Ok, well you can take a nap, recharge the batteries then hit the Champions league Final hard!  But, what about the Heineken Cup Final, Johnny Wilkinson’s last ever game on British soil with a British team also involved, and don’t forget the Championship Playoff Final; the most expensive match in the world.  And, let’s not forget these were preceded by the qualifying at Monaco.  I decided you only live once; you may as well waste it doing things that make you happy; let’s watch it all!  This led to a tricky decision: how do I watch the games.  First off, as much as Taipei likes to stay open late, finding a place to watch football at pushing 5am is not an easy task.  Taiwan shows a lot of English sports, I’ve even seen Cricket on in bars, but this is at reasonable hours.  Also with an American friendship base, where am I going to get someone stupid enough to spend that much time watching (European) sport in a pub!  So I decided to stay in (an evening/morning with Hot Tea and Yellow Sugar) and watch all of it in the comfort of my own home/box and have a few beers (not as many as I’m guessing many consumed back in Blighty).  This was a risk though, only the previous weekend I had much trouble getting a good stream for the FA Cup final.

 

I decided early on when I arrived in Taiwan to get a VPN (Virtual Private Network).  I don’t know all the clever details, but essentially it means you can watch British TV, or TV from a nation of your choosing, from anywhere in the world.  All I know is it masks where your internet connection is from.  This allows me to sponge off my parents from across the globe and hijack their Skyplayer and also watch BBC iPlayer (Match of the Day), 4OD and sneak onto any English website I’m not supposed to.  This, not only, comes in handy for sport as I can get a very good stream for all the major sporting events (the FA cup being an exception, but I blame ITV for that!), but is also very good for serials, even if they are on in Taiwan.  For example Game of Thrones runs almost parallel to Britain and America, but they cut out all the best bits, so I watch it using Skyplayer and get all the best bits.  So, if you are abroad and want to watch British TV I would recommend it.  I pay £5 a month and use my expat network (http://www.my-expat-network.co.uk/), it’s easy to use and you can use it on your phone/tablet if they are up-to-date (for an extra £2).  I tried and failed this during the ashes (I think my phone was too old), but with 20/20 hindsight maybe it was for the best.  You also pay using PayPal, so you are unlikely to get scammed.

 

Heineken Cup in association with Heineken

After work and a nice relax to mentally prepare myself, first up at around 7pm was the Monaco qualifying.  I decided to watch this on regular TV; I also read the text updates because it can be hard to keep up with the Taiwanese commentators (one day maybe, but not yet).  The qualifying had interesting conclusion to say the least, a good start to the festivities; I don’t know what your opinion is, but I think Nico was opportunistic more than anything.  So, now time to move onto the Playoff final and the start of an epic streaming session!  Not the most exciting of matches, but they rarely are, but many a talking point to be had; if I was in England and anyone (but me) cared about the Championship.  I’d stayed off the sauce until this point, I wasn’t really socialising and the night was building up, I didn’t want to fall asleep or pass out before the climax.  We then came to the Heineken Cup final and it was starting to get pretty late; time for some liquid refreshment, I mean it is (well, was, it isn’t anymore) the ‘Heineken’ Cup after all.  After cracking open a Heineken we continued the streaming session the rugby.  It started so well for the Brits, but I think experience won out in the end and it’s hard to be sad watching Johnny win.  Then another wait, before finally the Champions League Final; of course sponsored by Heineken, it would have been rude not to!  After the Brits losing in Wales, could a Welshman win something?  After extra time and staying up far too late, it was over, the underdog had failed, but the Welshman had won.  It was most definitely time to rest.  The stream had been excellent throughout and had the positive of commentary I could understand and relate to throughout. So day one finished four matched/events down.

 

 

Champions Lague Final with the Welsh Wizard

 

Sunday.  Feeling dazed and confused (and a little worse for wear) I didn’t watch the League 1 Playoff final, I followed it on my phone (modern technology, hey), as it seemed a lot of effort get my laptop.  So after a relaxing day catching up with things and watching the cricket, it came to 8pm and the Monaco GP.  Watching it on Taiwanese TV I feel no need to watch the build-up (maybe that’s how women feel; listening to a foreign language).  I had the Grand Prix on the TV and the cricket streaming next to me (I am so glad of my decision).  Not the most exciting race, but a good amount of talking points and the less said about the cricket the better! Let’s fast forward to the 3^rd ODI; much better!  After a relaxing Sunday came Monday and a regular (non-bank holiday) day and I thought I’ll have a quick look on the BBC Sport website to see if anything interesting had happened over night (I go to sleep in early the evening GMT) and I’m greeted with ‘McIlroy wins at Wentworth’.  With all the excitement and other events going on I had completely forgotten to follow the golf and thus missed the only real British success of the weekend!  I suppose I should say ‘you’re welcome Rory’.

 

If you want to keep up with TV and other things from your home country I would very much recommend getting a VPN; it’s not overly expensive and it’s very convenient.  For sports, bars are generally very good at showing British sport, so they can be good.  I have even Leeds United (in the Championship) in a bar in Taipei, but the start and finishing times of European sports can cause issues.  So, if you have Skyplayer available, or generally like streaming, I would most definitely recommend getting a VPN.

 

Well, on that note, I’m going to watch the latest episode of 24; it won’t be out over here for months!

 

Watch well,

 

Hot Tea