Month: March 2014

Sa v Oz – The T20 series

And for a change it is a series!

Three games, the first here today (12.30 gmt), followed by games in …

Durban on Wednesday (16.00gmt)

… and up in Pretoria on Friday (16.00 gmt)

The T20 world cup starts next week (March 16) in Bangladesh, so the importance of this series is not to be underestimated. Form players have to be found, combinations (bowling & batting) established, team tactics planned and executed but more on that closer to the time.

This week is all about what is described as “The Fierce Rivalry”

For those enthralled by the recent Proteas / Aussie test series the Proteas side will look distinctly familiar. Of the selected 16 man squad 9 players represented South Africa in the recent 3 tests.

However, familiar faces are few and far between in the Aussie camp, of the 16 names I see on the squad published for this week I only recognise 3 from the test squad! Horses for courses I suppose?

I mentioned on the Newlands test post that I wasn’t sure if I would be going to watch this one, guess what? Continue reading “Sa v Oz – The T20 series”

Curious and Curiouser

Isn’t it interesting that the Crimea can organise a referendum in ten days and we can’t get one in decades? Now then, what does that say for the  democratic process?

Even more curious are the howls of condemnation from the so called Western democracies that they shouldn’t be allowed a referendum as it is against International law, (Obama quote), against Ukraine’s constitution , (EUSSR quote) and generally against the interest of the citizenry of the Crimea, (all and sundry!)

Continue reading “Curious and Curiouser”

2nd Photography Competition 2014

The theme for this competition is Transport, which you may interpret as imaginatively as you see fit: trains and boats and planes, etc., and even ponies – see my illustration below!

Please post your entries in this thread by midnight on the 31st March. No limits on the number of entries per person, and I am happy to have a go at sorting out any HTML failures, and there are admins who can help too.

One tip you may find useful: I used to post my photos on one of my own threads to see if it worked. You can always delete them.

Looking forward to your entries. 🙂

Photograph Winner

Good evening, good morning. It is time to announce the winner of the photography contest. Thank you all who submitted pictures.

Janus: the one who started the ball rolling. A lovely picture of a beautiful Danish country house.

Araminta: a rare sunny day in England with an appealing church scene.

Gazoopi: Southern Charm at its finest.

LW: simple, but pleasant.

Soutie: cutting-edge and modern, but not without merit.

The two finalists are: Araminta and Gazoopi. As there can only be one winner, the prize — be it gold or a white elephant — will go to Araminta. There is something about an English church, be it in the English countryside or near Hong Kong Central, that touches me.

For CO.

In the process of writing my thesis I found a commentary on the difference between 19th century life in northern and southern Korea. It struck me as amusing and something that you might get a proper chuckle out of:

“the traveller is impressed in the North by the independent, manly spirit of many of the mountain people. A man seems to be more of a man in the North than in the South. In looking for causes of this I find it in the marked absence of the so-called “gentleman” class. In the South the independent middle class is apt to be crushed out between the upper and the nether mill stones, between the strutting, conceited “yangban” and the obsequious, cringing serf. The North is brighter with hope because of the predominance of an independent middle class, who have to work for their own living, and as a result have more muscle and more brains.” William Baird, 1894.

Newlands – the 3rd test

During my early visits back in the ’80’s that huge stand you see on the right of picture didn’t exist, no, just the boundary rope, grass and another cricket field. The bar consisting of a rather large tent serving cans of beer out of galvanised bath tubs filled with ice took pride of place, other then that we just stood around and watched the cricket! Continue reading “Newlands – the 3rd test”