Winter in Egypt, 2024 - Watching the Superbowl

After getting a decent Internet connection in Cairo a few years ago, we quit using our satellite dish for entertainment.  Most television programs that we had an interest in were available from Amazon Prime or Netflix via our Amazon Firestick.

Of course, we occasionally hit a roadblock in the form of a screen displaying the message "this program is not available in your region," or words to that effect.  So this year, I signed us up for a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which makes it look to the television providers that we are located in Chicago rather than Giza.  With the VPN installed and tested on the laptop I figured that this year the Superbowl might just be in reach if not the playoff games.  I had previously watched part of Superbowl 50 in 2016 via the Internet and five years before that had found a satellite feed for the big game.

Of course, when the Vikings failed to make the playoffs again, my enthusiasm waned. 

Yesterday, Linda found a movie that she wanted to watch that was not available on any of our current subscription services but was available on Peacock.  OK, add one more subscription.   We got the Peacock app installed on the Firestick after two tries and much waiting.  We tried connecting to the movie.  No luck.  An update was available for Peacock and there was no skipping it.  We tried again.  The movie was not authorized in our country.  So, we installed the VPN app on the Firestick.  We could now watch the movie.

By now, Linda was ready for bed; no movie tonight.  

The next morning, Linda tried connecting to Netflix for one of her regular programs; once again, no luck - Netflix now no longer recognized the Egypt Firestick as part of our "family" of authorized devices.  We proceeded to authorize it; this requires that we receive an invitation by email and respond to it within 60 seconds.  A bit of a stretch for our e-mail provider; we made it with ten seconds to spare.  We finally had the Firestick join our device family.

After Linda went to bed, I thought about it a bit and decided that since the Vikings had played both of the Superbowl contenders earlier in the year, maybe I would try to watch some of the game.

I continued my efforts on the Firestick to try and get Paramount Plus working where the Superbowl would be found.  I was unsuccessful - likely because we once had a subscription to P.P. but had cancelled it.  I did get P.P. working on the PC, however.  Well, "working" is a generous description.  I could play the CBS Sunday morning news show but when connecting to the Superbowl broadcast the screen locked up after a couple of seconds with this message:

Maybe the computer was overwhelmed by the task.  I tried switching browsers.  I switched from my personal favorite, Firefox, to the current Microsoft product; or as we say in our household, "try the blue one!"  Voila!  I had a solid connection.   

By this time the game was well into the 4th quarter and San Francisco's early lead had melted down to three points.  (I was monitoring progress via Internet updates on a news site.)  I joined just in time to see Travis Kelce throwing a tantrum with his coach.

Then KC managed a field goal to take the game to a 16-16 tie with less than 6 minutes left.

Then a 19-16 lead for the 49ers - but KC had the ball with 9 seconds left in the game.

They went to overtime.  The 49ers go up by 3 - but could they hold off the Chiefs on one more drive?

Touchdown Kansas City!  Cut to the only fan in the stands that mattered - she's in there somewhere!

Victory, Kansas City.  "Is this the beginning of a dynasty," asks the sideline reporter.  Patrick Mahomes is happy.   

Andy Reid is happy.

It's 6:30 in the morning here.  I'm happy too.  Time for bed.