Friday, October 07, 2005

My First Cricket Match

My first cricket match is tomorrow, and I'm a little nervous about how the game will go. There are a number of issues, including:


  1. I don't know the rules.

  2. I don't have any equipment (although I have been assured that it will be provided.)

  3. I have to wear all white. The last and only time I have ever worn all white was at my wedding. Me and my somewhat see-through white sweatpants are not friends.

  4. I've never seen an entire cricket match. Granted, 5-day test matches take FIVE DAYS, but I haven't sat through a one-day match either. Tomorrow will be a first.

  5. Did I mention I don't know the rules?


My only hope is that our side gets to bat first so I can check out the fielding positions of the other team, so that I'll be able to glean some information about where I'm supposed to stand before I'm expected to do anything.

The highlights: I get to wear a cool hat. It's just a baseball cap, but it has a cool logo for our club on it. And, I hopefully get to bat.

If you'd like to help, check out the rules posted by some dude at Purdue, and let me know what you think they say.

Please don't let me get out for a duck.

posted by Peggy C. at 6:33 PM

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Finding Mr. Mungo

Yesterday morning, I received an email from my cousin Mungo saying he was a few hours outside of Sydney, in good wind and would be arriving in Darling Harbour that afternoon. We had known he was coming for a few weeks, but the time span of his arrival would shift along with the direction of the winds. If it was blowing at his back, as the passage from Fiji was due West, he was going to be here sooner. If it was still out at sea, he would be here later. The life of a sailor's cousin, I guess.



I hadn't seen Mungo in half a lifetime. Last we met was in the Scottish highlands, in a cow pasture outside his house that's now a golf course. He was 9 and I was 15. Funny thing is, I recognized him amongst a crowd of a half-dozen similarly aged guys immediately.

It was such a thrill to have left campus knowing that I was going down to the harbour to see if a ship has come in. I felt as if I'd stepped back to the 1800's, signing sea shanties and putting lime in my quinine. His ship was hard to miss. The Adix is a three masted sailing ship, over 150ft. tall and parked next to the James Craig, an antique vessel that is owned by and parked outside the Australian Maritime Museum. The amount of attention that this vessel garners from ferry drivers, tourists, security guards, port officials and general passerby is incredible. They're like rock stars when they sail into town, having to fend off questions and requests, all the meanwhile trying to get their work done.



Coming aboard this ship was like stepping into a five-star hotel. Mungo gave us a tour of the place, it was complete with satellite television and internet access, polished tique inside and out. It has to be worth (easily) seven digits. Mungo is town for the month of October before he heads off to New Zealand, then onto who knows where. We'll be sure to make the most of our short time together.

Word is that there are some vacancies on the ship, including a deckhand and a stewardess. Peggy and I are somewhat seriously contemplating putting in a CV and seeing if we can have a go. Ummmm, I'd be the deckhand.

posted by ncawthon at 10:06 PM

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

I Fought the Law

Comparitively, Australia seems old fashioned in the way it does many things. The bus driver still breaks change for you, milk can be delivered to your door, school children with their traditional vestments.

Traffic enforcement, however, is just the opposite. eTolls are state wide and there is a heavy proliferation of intersection cameras recording every car's speed.

So, when a letter arrived yesterday saying that we were speeding (merely 7k or 5mph over) at a certain time at a certain place and they had photographic proof, we were quite taken aback. Where was the loud siren? Where was the surly officer imposingly approaching the car? Didn't they want to know how fast we THOUGHT we were going?

A bit of background about our car is in order as well. This is a 1992 Holden (Aussie brand) station wagon. Not that I don't think the Holden is a great car and will remain reliable just long enough to sell it back to the dealer, but this car couldn't speed if it were rolling downhill and had elephants in the back.

So, we're going to appeal. Not necessarily because we think we can get out of it, but if you do appeal they provide the photographic proof of your infraction. I think it would be a cool souvenir. But I implore you, oz-blog readers, to suggest a worthy excuse that will help us beat the rap.

posted by ncawthon at 8:24 AM

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Who Let the Bogongs Out?

Update: Upon stumbling around the web-o-sphere, I found out a bit more about our winged friends. Seems as if these brown behemoths (get it, behe-moth) or Bogong Moths, an Australian specialty. They reside in the Great Dividing Range that we just drove through, then make their way out of their dwellings in search of cooler weather. Aboroginials consider them a delicacy, clipping off the wings and popping them in a pan. Said they tasted like walnuts, not chicken as commonly thought. Today, there were some on the bus, in the stall of the men's room, in the classroom, you name it.

Story goes, in 2000 during the Olympic closing ceremonies, these Bogongs descended the stadium because of their light towers and damn near wrecked the thing. Politicians and dignitaries fled in horror, television cameras were covered in moth and one landed on a famous Australian's boob during her signing of the national anthem. End of Update.



Back to the day-to-day routine here in The Syd, going to be returning to suckle the corporate nipple once again by starting a contract position a few days a week. As thou shalt not talk about work on publicly-accessible mediums, that's the last you'll hear about that.

The weather feels as if it has jumped ten degrees since we left for our road trip. Last weekend was great beach weather, Bronte was as crowded as we've ever seen it, with kids in costume and seagulls abound.

We noticed in Canberra an unusually high number of moths flying around and sticking themselves to the nearest light source. On one of the nighttime photos of the Parliamentary House you can see just how dense their coverage is. Getting back to Sydney, we've discovered that they are here, too. They only come out at night and perch themselves on the outside of the window panes, but it is still a bit eerie.

I'm guessing it is a seasonal occasion, much like the Harvest Moon celebrations in mid-west America. When the moths come, it signifies the beginning of the warm weather, and all god-fearing citizens must go to their closets and get out their winter sweaters. They cast out said woolen atrocities and sacrifice them to these winged harbingers of temperate times. Happens every year.

We're trying to train the moths to eat the cockroaches.

posted by ncawthon at 9:15 AM

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Tell 'Em It's Can-berra Territory!

We just finished a great day in Canberra, only two and a half hours from Bronte via the Remembrance Expressway. We were never instructed what in fact we were supposed to remember, although we almost forgot our pillows back in the hotel.

As far as capitol territories go, Canberra didn't disappoint. Dubbed the 'world's most symmetrical city' by Urban Planner magazine, everything here is on a concentric circle emanating out from the Parliamentary House. The grounds felt quite spacious, certainly on the scale of Washington D.C., but with the climate of Sacramento. It was massive lawns everywhere with plenty of acreage to put these monolithic government structures on. We would have been better served if we had secured bikes to rent, rather than park and walk around. That being said, there was no traffic anywhere to be found. Peggy remarked that if the world was ever to introduce magnetic, auto-pilot cars, Canberra would be the place they'd introduce them.

The Parliamentary House itself was quite modern, with sloping lawns which you could walk on, leading up to the top of the structure. We went at night, but during the daytime sessions, you can actually peer in from above and see them hem-hawing and hub-bubbing over the latest measure on which non-native species to begin culling. We look forward to having politically-inclined visitors in order to do a good ol' American tailgate in the parking lot, setting up a BBQ and having some bubblies, then parlay into the chambers, where you can attend these sessions. R.O.C.K. in the A.C.T. baby!


















In Canberra this week was 'Floriad'. No, not a prescription allergy medication as one might think, but a flower festival. This, like most attractions here in this geographically balanced city, was fo' free. It was a fantastic slice of Capitol Territory life, with more cameras visible than at the Michael Jackson trial. You could just see the photos from future personal ads playing out in front of you, 'Hi, I'm Ramesh. I like standing in front of tulip fields and long walks on the lawn of the Parliamentary House'.

Lastly, the city is built on a large lake, with a huge jet shooting water continuously hundreds of feet in the air. This was erected as a liquid memorial to Captain Cook by his grandchildren, thanking him for their conception.

posted by ncawthon at 5:55 PM