Author: Bearsy

A Queensland Bear with attitude

Sorry, but that ain’t cricket . . .

Don’t get me wrong, Jofra’s a talented young man and I’m sure every ball he bowls is compliant with the current laws of the game.

But I’m not happy with the current rules because so many players – and the odd umpire or two – are getting seriously injured by fast bowling.   Poor old Phil Hughes comes to mind, but his death is not the only one to have happened over the past two or three years.   Jofra has already hurt more batsmen per ball bowled then anyone else – that’s not because he’s bad, but because he’s faster and trickier than anyone else – yet.

Cricket is not supposed to be a game based on maiming your opponents – unlike boxing – but a game firmly based on skill.   Of recent years however, speed of bowling has apparently become the one and only worthwhile goal to be pursued, whilst clever spin – Warnie or Lyon or Swann for example – has been relegated to an also-ran technique, only to be used when the quickies get tired.

I don’t like the outcome and I’d love to see the rules changed, but I can’t think of a sensible and practical way to change them.   Any ideas?

Strewth!

I must be dreaming

Nathan and Pat clean up all 10 before tea after Steve and Matt set an impossible target at a ground where England never loses.

Have I morphed to an alternate reality, or is this for real?

Poor old Moeen goes down to The Goat for the 11th time – oh frabjous joy!

Smoko talk

Charioteers may not yet know . . .

What’s the word down-under?

  • You may possibly have BoJo, but we’ve had ScoMo for several weeks, and what a nice bloke he is.   Better hair control, too.  😎
  • The Maroons lost Origin II yesterday, and a bad loss at that.   Don’t have much hope for our chances in the decider.   Sob.  😭
  • Ash Barty is Number One!!  I’ve always been a Sam Stosur follower, but Ash is awesome.   My money is on her for Wimbledon.   Go Girl!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

 

The New EV Chariot

A side view, so that I don’t have to blank the rego plates. 😎

Here we go! Everything is fine, except for the hundreds of pages of User Manual that I have to plough through every time I want to use or change a function.

It’s eerily quiet – spooky in Strine – but it does everything it’s meant to do with just a hint of a superior smirk if we don’t phrase our request in exactly the correct way. But we’re learning fast!

We’re trying to name her, but we haven’t yet reached agreement on what her name should be. Can any kind Charioteer make a suggestion? 😊

The Chariot is now an EV

Huh?

Well, not the Chariot precisely, but the conveyance used by our Boadicea to travel from place to place. We’ve put our ICE-powered companion out to grass- she was getting a little frail and battered around the edges – and purchased a bright-eyed, lecky-driven, millennium replacement.

Well, not quite, but the warrants have been signed, the executioner booked and the changeover set for the end of the month. Our extended test drive convinced us both that the future is already here, even for a pair of seniors like us.

Once we have our new chariot we’ll bore you with the details of our experiences, no doubt. 😎

EV = Electric Vehicle.
ICE = Internal Combustion Engine (petrol/gas or diesel)

Sorry, what did you say?

From time to time, I use australianisms in my posts – that is, I drop into Strine rather than sticking with the Sarf Lunnon English that I grew up speaking. After nigh on 30 years, it’s hard not to go native. A few of youse respected Charioteers are not bothered by my use of Strine – OZ and Christopher in particular are both reasonably fluent in the dialect – but it’s harder on those of you that haven’t been Down Under.

Today I found an article in the SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) written by a journo who obviously deplores the development and use of our own variety of English, which may amuse you. I hope so, anyway.

He’s wrong, of course; Aussies will speak whatever dialect our teenagers tell us to, and if visitors can’t understand – tough!

The author even gets his standard Italian spelling wrong – it’s Parmigiana with a ‘g’, not a ‘j’, but not to worry! 😎

Nervous Flyers . . .

. . . close your eyes or hide behind the sofa

Amongst our Charioteers there are, as far as I remember, at least two qualified commercial pilots who have flown 737s, another who has worked on building and testing air frames, and a further couple or perhaps more of us who have worked in one or more fields in ATC. If any of you don’t agree with my take on recent events, don’t be shy, tell me why I’m wrong.

Continue reading “Nervous Flyers . . .”

Six years for Paedo-ex-Cardinal Pell

The gag order was cancelled when the second trial was not proceeded with – the prosecution said something silly about leaving the papers on a train, or the dog eating them – whatever. The victim(s) were, unsurprisingly, more than a little miffed, but the official response was “tough”.

So Australians were then allowed to know what the rest of the world already knew, that Pell had been found guilty at the first trial by a unanimous jury. His rich and powerful friends and colleagues immediately screamed that they didn’t believe it, that their mate George wouldn’t do anything like that, that the jury was corrupt and so on, ad bloody nauseam. They were a little stunned when most Aussies and the official Roman Catholic church told them to shut up and respect the court, the jury and the victims. Pell immediately applied for an appeal (three points, one of which was that the jury’s verdict had been unreasonable! The arrogance of the man!).

Today Pell was sentenced to 6 years in prison, with a minimum of 3 years and 8 months to be served before he could apply for parole. The Judge was scathing about Pell’s lack of remorse and his refusal to accept his guilt.

The initial appeal hearing will be in June, but for now it’s back to his cell for George. Once regarded as the third most powerful man in the RC church, earmarked by many as the next pope in waiting, regarding himself as cast iron and far too senior to be troubled by the laws of men, he’s finally got his comeuppance. How are the mighty fallen!

Perhaps this will “encourager les autres”. Je m’en doubte. 😢

Judge conceals Paedophile’s Crime

Suppression Order to protect the Guilty Party

On Tuesday, a jury in the State of Victoria (in Australia) unanimously found the accused guilty of the crimes alleged by the prosecution.   The presiding Judge immediately issued a gag order covering the accused, the crimes, the verdict and probably the great-grandmother’s knitting patterns, applicable to everyone and everything Australian, on pain of indefinite imprisonment for Contempt of Court.

To quote a well-known American tennis player, “You have to be joking”.   Who does the Judge think he is and what century is he living in?   The world knows all the facts (and the Judge’s name, which will rapidly become the butt of all current affair jokes, I predict).  Cnut (Canute) had more chance of succeeding.

In other news, the Pope yesterday removed his only Australian Cardinal from the nine-member Committee of the inner circle of Catholic Enforcers.