Sombreuil

Managed on about the 4th try - put it where our Christmas skating rink is as the municipal rink where I wrecked my ankles as a student is long gone. A charming idea from @Mastyaeva and an unimaginable amount of work from @Hydroblade- do you ever sleep? Thanks to you both.

Winnie the Pooh has an exhibition opening at the V&A on 9th December.

I just hope everyone gets through the final with no further injuries

Regarding the once every 4 years viewer, I look at how my family react, as this season they've actually watched a bit of it with me (Olympics coming up?). They definitely respond to and appreciate the 'smoothness' of Javiers skating - I'll be interested to see what they make of Patrick as they didn't get up for SC! ( though he's probably got my husband at 'Hallelujah') - whether they will respond to his more laid back but ultra smooth style. The male members of the family like Boyang because he's fun. My daughter is someone who likes certain sorts of music ( @LadyLou point )so Mura is her favourite- (she adores Phantom, she liked Yuzurus and Akikos and Kanakos as well when I found them on YouTube for her!) she's not keen on Shoma because she doesn't like baroque music and she hates Nessun dorma because of the football connection. Shes taken against Nathan because of the sweat stains! All of them react disproportionally to falls. So a collection of non figure skating fans have a lot of random reactions that don't have much to do with skating but have a lot to do with personal preferences and bias over non skating issues when they actually stop to watch it. Interestingly they could all see why Yuzuru is World and Olympic champion even when they preferred other skaters for weird reasons - elegance, looking effortless, seems to be doing more complicated 'things'.

This is going to be such a strange competition - but I'm glad that the athetes are being sensible (for a change!)

Glad that he's listening to his doctors and is improving - get well soon

I think sometimes the music weighs very heavily - one commentator, can't remember who (KB?) said last season that with Nathan's FS Borodin did the heavy lifting for him - people liked the music and saw artistry and interpretation that wasn't really there. Despite the much vaunted ballet background (which to me is totally irrelevant - if I want to watch ballet I go to the ballet-) he looks so much more at home with his modern SP this season. Looking at Zagitovas ex I wonder if she might prefer to break away from the tutus given half a chance. And warhorses are used for good reasons - the Olympic only watcher expects to hear them and connects with them.

@Fay & @Xen I think there are a few prehistoric members. I find Javi, Patrick and to a lesser extent Shoma and Nathan rather heavy on the ice- it's not as obvious with the older ones because their landings when they're on form are very smooth and not awkward or stiff. I agree with Robin Cousins comments that no one has the lightness and delicacy of Hanyus jumping, and when he skates clean it's magical in a way that the others can't compete with.

He needs to do something even if it's to have his dress down Friday shirts made in some fabric that won't show the sweat stains.

Seems to be a trend for awful team gear this time

I was just watching Japanese Nationals 2014 and reading the translation from his book about that

I agree- that olive green does nothing for anyone apart from a redhead- it's like Kaoris Amelie costume- blue, jade green, old rose, but not olive. For Shoma maybe silver grey like his SP costume, or even brown.

Skin allergies - several of my relatives have asthma but the one who suffers in swimming pools and the sea is the one with allergic skin problems- I think we've been over this before in the last dry spell!!

Interesting - I think I saw a documentary about Kenzo Shirai before Rio and he was having trouble with swimming (part of his curriculum at NSSU?) - @KatjaThera could be right that low body fat is a problem.

Looking at it properly I did better in ID than pairs and I didnt watch them much before this season- but I suppose there's less opportunity for the top teams to really bomb in ID compared to singles/pairs so it's not quite such a gamble? All the talk of jinxing did make me think a few times but I'm not really superstitious, just susceptible to atmosphere, so I just started to do my predictions before reading anything! Surprised to be at no.12.

Yes, thank you. It's been an interesting one that's for sure!

Do US olympic team communicate at all with USFA?

I love the 2014 t shirt

Those horrible 80s costumes

Ok, along with everything else that happened during my lost weekend, we now have the amazing shrinking general thread???

After seeing Sergei Voronov with his programmes by Mischa Ge I really want the Chinese fed to get M to work with Boyang. I know that Lori Nichol is their chosen choreographer but one size doesn't fit all and he would benefit from changing to someone new. I think it was a bit ..... ambitious of LN to take on so many different assignments for such a wide variety of skaters. She must have had an idea that she couldn't be a good fit for all of them and it would have been better for her own reputation if she had been pickier and agreed to do some but not others.

I find it less disturbing because Marin has chosen to a certain extent to live a very public life - the whole family is out there as media personalities as far as I can tell. Perhaps Hamada has been trying to get through to her and failed and this is another avenue that she's trying.

It really is going to be the Hunger Games at Russian nats ....

It really is as though someone has cursed the GP this season - I hope she makes a speedy recovery. If she's in a cast it will at least stop her from overdoing it while it's on. One of my children was put in plaster with a sprained ankle because he wouldn't sit still and rest it so immobilising him for a couple of weeks was the only way to stop him aggravating it and give the healing process a chance to begin. Hopefully hers is a similar short term thing

Bottom line is that there isn't much wrong with the original rules the problem lies in their application. You can fiddle with the wording til doomsday - if the judges don't apply the rules equally across the board then it's pointless. And that's from a lawyer and they are accountable to no one for their flawed decision making.