If you want a first-hand account that will have you reaching for a handkerchief, have a squiz at this article.
I spent just over a week in Christchurch, a few years back, and I know that Cuprum spent over six months there, so this disaster is a little closer to home than most. I hope your golfing buddy and his family have survived intact, mate.
As you will have probably seen for yourselves on the Poll, Sipu is our clear winner.
Congratulations, Sipu!
On behalf of Janus, thanks are due to everyone who entered and also to all of you who read their beaut submissions and voted. Let’s hope Janus is back soon, even if they are both a year older. 😎
In order to avoid wasting space in posts or the sidebar, and to make them easier to locate, all Polls may now be found on the Menu Bar.
Charioteers do not have to take any action; any Polls that are published will be transferred to the appropriate Menu Page as soon as they are noticed. They will be replaced in the originating post or comment by a link to the Menu Page.
Click on the Polls item on the Menu Bar, or hover your mouse over it and then select the required submenu.
About Slideshows – please do not read more unless you’re genuinely interested. 😎 Continue reading “Boring Technical Note”
ABC – that’s the Australian version of the BBC, and ‘wanker’ translates into Brit English as ‘tosser’.
I was watching Breakfast News this morning, all about Egypt.
The studio presenters were talking directly to “our man in Cairo” – a bloke called Mark Willacy – who was out on the streets describing the scene following Mubarak’s latest speech. He said, “… where I am standing now there is a senior military officer attempting to explain something to a large crowd who are surrounding him, asking questions. Of course, I can’t tell you what he’s saying because as you’d expect, I don’t speak much Arabic …”
The correspondent doesn’t speak the language of the country he’s been sent to at taxpayers’ expense? So what the hell is he doing there? In the old days, the whole point of a “foreign correspondent” was that he spoke the language, wherever he was sent, better than the natives and could ferret out all the interesting bits of news that the local authorities probably wouldn’t tell him. But here we have some guy living the good life on expenses, paid for out of my pocket, and he doesn’t speak the language. Or even think that he ought to be able to.
This wanker (tosser) should be brought home immediately and set to work clearing up the cyclone and flood devastation in Queensland, living in a tent in the bush. The ABC needs a shake-up!
“Another pint, Gilbert?”
Mr Chandrasekhar’s ebullient tones cut through the hubbub of the public bar like the north wind through the stench of a cow barn, drowning the cheers from the 50 inch Sky screen as Wilkinson converted yet another try. I checked my watch; no, seven thirty and no meetings or functions in the Club House this evening, I was in the clear, surely? We don’t often see the Chairman in the public, and more than likely trouble’s the reason when we do. Continue reading “The visitor – CW entry”
In the early days of this site, every new author was formally greeted with a notice in the sidebar, but this pleasantry appears to have lapsed recently.
So, a belated welcome to Bootsy, our true blue correspondent in Perth; a more up-to-date welcome to Peter Barnett, a seasoned campaigner from the Dark Side, and an on time welcome to Cuprum426. It’s great to have the three of you on board.
I must confess that Cuprum is known to Boadicea and to me. I shall not compromise his privacy, for that is down to him to retain or to abandon at his choice, but I felt that the pre-existing relationship should be disclosed to all other passengers on the Chariot for the sake of probity. You may all relax, however, for he is not yet another Australian – he is actually quite normal, for a Pom.
Greetings again to Bootsy, Peter and Cuprum – it’ll be the last you get! 😀
While Yasi was wreaking havoc in Queensland, records were falling at the SCG.
Yes, England set a record total, for them, achieving 6/333, but Australia beat their own record for a run chase, scrabbling to 8/334 with four balls to spare.
There were remarkable happenings, though. Not just the sight of Michael Clarke coming into form and scoring a 6 (Clarke, a six? Yes, really!) in his better than a run-a-ball innings, but for once every member of the team contributed a worthwhile score (except poor old Steve Smith, who had to have Brad Haddin as a runner).
There were some very questionable feats of ‘sportsmanship’ from the Pommie team. Trott was apparently so badly injured that he had to have a runner while he was batting, but that somehow didn’t stop him bowling as effectively as anyone a short while later. Kevin Pietersen did much the same, limping off with an ankle injury, only to return to bowl minutes later.
But the crown for shonky behaviour has to go to wicketkeeper Prior, who gloved a bail from the stumps before appealing to the umpire for a ‘bowled’ decision. As the commentators said, if Sir Ian Botham catches wind of this, he’ll have Prior sacked from the team and banned from first class cricket. Oh, Prior was joking, was he? Tell that to the Pakistanis! Poor show.
One of the hundreds of scenes of devastation emerging from North Queensland, but as of now there have been no indications that lives have been lost. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Boadicea's Chariot 
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