Sombreuil

Everyone getting twitchy and distracting themselves and others with whatever pops into their heads. Several new threads too- talk about costumes and cats and remembering favourite programmes - therapy !

That's still a lot of cultural dislocation - Madrid to New Jersey to Moscow. And Moscow is not just another language it's another alphabet- the person I knew who went to Brazil to study Portuguese at least had it easy on that score- the one doing Japanese studies had kanji and hiragana to cope with and it wasn't easy even after three years study at a top uk university. I can't imagine trying to get to grips with Russian if you'd no background in it.

Exactly - and he had to move abroad at what - 17? That's quite a hard thing to do, I know several young language students who have trouble at the age of 20 when their university requires them to spend a year abroad to immerse themselves in the language and they are functioning in the shelter of an academic framework. It's quite intimidating to live in a foreign culture, hard enough to adapt from the UK to Paris or Berlin, even more so to move to Brazil or Tokyo for a year. It must be doubly difficult if you're not a language student and you have to tackle that barrier as well.

There were quite a few horrors in Saltzburg but that was probably the most bizarre!

Lack of money, very few rinks, shortage of high profile competitors to get people interested in being involved. There was a children's programme on BBC about the Nottingham rink where Torville and Dean trained and one girl who was half of a promising novice team ( ice dance I think) was having to live away from home during the week in order to train which isn't easy at 13 or 14. When the point came to move up to Juniors with all the extra training and even less time with parents and friends she chose to stop - it was too much.

I suspect the fan thing is purely personal preference- if you like ice goddesses then you'll be in the Yu Na camp - if you like the friendly pleasant always sociable sort then it will be Mao - I can't talk about he technicalities of the skating but I can see fan patterns, and I'm neutral on this one. Having said that the most neutral observer couldn't help but be moved by what Mao put out in that performance, in the knowledge that it wouldn't put her on the podium- to do the best you can regardless of medals etc has to be in the best sporting tradition, whatever the competition, but to do it at the Olympics- I have no words, to borrow from Mr Orser. She was magnificent.

So would most of this forum, but as you say, glorious.

Black and dark red with Chopin NHK 2015 closing pose face- that's intimidating. One can hope

I hope he manages to keep the momentum going for Spain. In the 70s everyone in the UK thought John Curry and Robin Cousins meant a new renaissance for FS in the UK but it faded away. Social media might help him keep the profile of skating high- back then if the TV wasn't showing it momentum disappeared rapidly - now we get coverage very quickly on the internet (always excepting Fuji TV) and social media spreads the gossip. That isn't always a positive thing but it's less likely to sink without trace- and he has the charm to keep it going which JC and RC didn't.

The swans are a charming idea

I like the CoC costume colour too - especially if we get a black/ red Seimei, a pale and delicate blue will be a nice contrast - both with the FP costume and scary Chopin face which I hope to see in PC

Uchimura has said that he doesn't feel pressure- there's an interview with Daisuke Takahashi from the run up to Rio on YouTube where he talks about it. Y has said that he does feel pressure so I'm not sure how helpful U and his way of going about things can be to Hanyu. Also apart from worlds and Olympics Uchimura doesn't compete much outside Japan, doesn't interact with the press and fans the way that YH does and doesn't have the traumatic teenage experiences and health issues Hanyu has. I think people put them together in their minds because they are both Japanese, both perfectionists who have each said that they value beautiful performances over scores, but in terms of personality and personal experiences they are quite different.

Don't know where to put this but Team Japan seems appropriate- what happened to Iwano Moa's JGP assignments?

Media love it because its knife edge stuff- will he make it or not?

And those same fans would have been wringing their hands if/when LGC was less than perfect, and the commentators started making comments about inconsistency and vulnerability. And it probably would have been at some point- there are a lot of competitions between now and OG and as we've all acknowledged it's an unforgiving programme. He doesn't need the hassle.

Well that was quite a spectacle! Couldn't understand a word but the good v evil was pretty clear. The costumes were amazing and the ...mapping? really made an outstanding show. Arakawa

Thank you for this- I'm at home with a disgusting cold and was going to watch the JGP but got the time wrong - this will tide me over nicely and I missed it at the weekend.

Black to dark red gradient on the sleeve would work - black gloves.

I would rather have a dark red costume with black gloves- saw a dark costume with red gloves in the juniors recently and the red gloves didn't emphasise the hands as much as I thought they would. I think it will be blue for Chopin as well, hopefully without the gold.

I was disappointed that he chose Prince last season- if the idea was to pick rock music to reference one of the group of iconic musicians that died in the preceding year my choice would have been Bowie- but when you think of his costume legacy, perhaps it's just as well they went for Prince!

There you go- silver lining

Interesting reaction from Kurt - didn't he do the 'Hello I love you' ex that might be considered a little too much for a teenager? My DVD came today - cost me half as much again in customs and VAT, not to mention an exorbitant 'handling charge' that was more than the two put together ( thank you HMRC) but now I have something I can watch on the big screen !

There's nothing to suggest that he won't revisit it in the future- I'd be surprised if the perfectionist he's known to be would leave it as it is so I would think you'll get it again at some point!

PW was a much easier layout. The pace of LGC meant that a slightly off element threw the whole programme off and he ended up playing catch up to retime the elements to the musical accents they were supposed to be hitting- and there were a lot of elements and not much down time that he could use to do that catching up. (I'm not putting this terribly well). Im sure that he could do it- but not necessarily all season and that's what he has said he wants- a consistent season. That's what you need in Olympic years- that's a massive competition dumped in the middle of the season, on top of all the normal stuff, right when you would normally have a lesser competition like Euros/4CC.

It's an unnecessary risk in Olympic season- maximise points, minimise risks. He wants something that will work all the way through ACI, GP, Japanese Nats, OG and Worlds without any slightly off performances to give anyone the opportunity to doubt him. Also for the once every 4 years viewer it's totally different to the last SP they saw from him.