Cricket At The Olympic Stadium

It was reported on the BBC London News last night, that Essex County Cricket Club are negotiating to play their Twenty20 games at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford in East London.

This is a brilliant idea, as if they get the marketing and ticketing right, I’m sure that they’ll get a whole load of new people to go to the cricket.

Remember, as we saw in New Zealand recently, you can play the Twenty20 version of the game in a rugby or football stadium with a drop-in wicket.

Imagine too, England against Australia at Twenty20 with 70,000 supporters looking on. Now that will be some game!

It will happen, if for no other reason, there is no other way in the UK, to get that number of people to one of the greatest and longest rivalries in world sport.

Pyongyang Without The Dystopia

This quote comes from this article on the BBC web site about Canberra.

When C and I flew round Australia some years ago, we didn’t go to the city.  I seem to remember some Aussie wag saying there’s nothing to see that would interest a tourist.

Who’d Have Thought It?

This article, entitled “Australia’s new non-drinking puritans” caught my eye on the BBC web site!

Who’d have thought it?

Fox Attacks Nanny’s Ugg Boots

This story from the Standard shows how confused the urban fox is these days.

Remember that foxes are not native to Australia, although they have been introduced, and I actually saw one in the middle of nowhere at Goondiwindi.

So the boots being Australian didn’t know how to protect themselves and give the poor animal a good kicking.

It’s about time we got real about foxes and realised that they are dangerous vermin.

Basil Brush has a lot to answer for!

 

Tasmania

We all seem to forget about Tasmania.

I always remember my mother telling a tale about how at Dame Alice Owen’s School, a teacher came into the lesson, one morning and said she wanted a map of the world in five minutes.  When they’d all finished, the teacher, then asked who had put in Tasmania. I’m not sure whether my mother ever said, if she had.

I never really thought much about the State and in fact, it was the place least on the list of places I was likely to visit. After all it was so far away.

But one of my regrets in life, is when I flew round Australia with C, in a Piper Arrow, was that we didn’t do it properly and visit everywhere we could.  But C was worried, that a long holiday might result in other members of her chambers, stealing all her work.  If there is another profession, more paranoid than barristers, I haven’t found it.

But now Tasmania is going farther than anywhere else with a smoking ban for anybody born after 2000. It’s here in the Telegraph.

One of these days, I might get to Tasmania, but it would be a great surprise if I did, as there are so many places to explore without a long boring flight. Unless of course, I go by boat.  Whoever heard of ship lag anyway!

Manly Library Classifies Armstrong’s Books As Fiction

This story is a classic Australian put-down for sports worst cheat.

So it’s only a hoax, but everybody got the joke.

Two Gold Post Boxes In Leeds

I took this picture in Leeds on Saturday.

Two Gold Post Boxes In Leeds

Someone must have won a gold medal at the Olympics. But then Yorkshire did better than Australia!

Apple Maps Get It Dangerously Wrong

This story about Apple Maps being wrong in Australia, shows how relying on some forms of technology can be very wrong.

The story talks about Mildura in Victoria, which is one of the hottest places I’ve ever been.

C and I were flying around Australia in a light aircraft and on the leg from Sydney to Adelaide, we stopped at Mildura for fuel and a snack.

I can remember C holding the door wide open as we taxied in to the terminal. The temperature was at least in the high thirties, if I remember right. Wikipedia says this about the temperature in the city.

Mildura experiences some very hot days in summer with temperatures exceeding 40 °C on a number of days per year.

It may have been over forty that day, but I know that I’d never been so keen to get airborne and into the colder air at altitude.

On our trip, it was the only time we set foot in Victoria.

David Campese Acts Like The Aussie Male Stereotype

This story in the Telegraph, this morning is a gift to all good sports reporters, who like to make papers entertaining. The second line sums up the report.

When he can drag himself away from his shaving mirror David Campese has long been known as the journalist’s best friend.

Where would newspapers be without characters like David Campese?

An Island Gets Lost

The Australians have also proven that an island has got lost.  The story is here on the BBC. Wikipedia has an explanation, in that it thinks Sandy Island might be a copyright trap.