Why? Why? Why?

Why does South African cricket always seem to go down to a nailbiter? I'm just not equipped to deal with this kind of tension.

I'm Official!

At last! I've had word that all my paperwork is in order - I'm officially a British Citizen!

WOOHOO!!!

Snarky Cricket Moment #3

How much do I love Mark Nicholas? Let me count the ways. His comment during the Aus/SA game on Saturday was a real gem. He was mentioning that the 438 game had changed the face of cricket - "like Roger Bannister's 4-minute mile and Jimi Hendrix playing guitar with his teeth".

Disappointed but hopeful

It wasn't a very nice feeling to lose to the Aussies yesterday. It revealed some cracks in our bowling and they'll need to do some careful thinking about their approach, but the World Cup only really begins now. And we're definitely still in it. I agree with this assessment

A more fitting tribute

Apparently retired Proteas fast bowler Allan Donald is calling for the World Cup to be called off in the wake of Bob Woolmer's apparent murder. I think that a more fitting tribute to Bob would be to play cricket, and play it brilliantly.

For The Best Friend, to drive her nuts.

The rules of cricket:

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When they are all out, the side that's been out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out, he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who are out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

PATTOTE: Catch up or be caught out.

Snarky cricket moment #2

During the SA/Scotland game, Mark Nicholas putting paid to Darryll Cullinan's weather forecasting abilities: "We're back and it's sunny skies [after 10 minutes of rain]. No sign at all of the fierce tropical storm predicted by Darryll." Then he rolled his eyes.

Well, I found it funny anyway.

Return to perfection

When I was about five we lived in a tiny little town on the Orange River. We spent our weekends on the river: fishing, camping, swimming. The river moved slowly and quietly. The only sounds came from the piet-my-vrous, doves, cicadas. They combined to make the hot, high-pitched buzzing of summer. I remember peacefully floating on inner tubes, the big black ones. You smelt the river, the trees, warmed rubber and it was perfection.

Yesterday I experienced it again.

Cricket Highs and Lows

Weekend High:
Herschelle Gibbs hitting SIX sixes in one over. Until now, it was a hypothetical situation. Now it's legend.

Weekend Low:
Bob Woolmer's sudden death after Pakistan crashed out of the world cup. Woolmer was a great man and this is a terrible loss. I feel so sad for his family, and for the cricketers in the tournament who knew him so well.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Boom!

And the countdown to our first World Cup game begins. We play the Netherlands tomorrow. By all accounts the Proteas are confident and upbeat. The Lucky Helmet and I are feeling quite confident and upbeat as well.

Graeme Smith has been making lots of statements about how we have left the "chokers" tag behind. All I can hope is that our previous psychological weakness has been left behind, that we have the mental werewithal against teams like the Aussies, and that we can remember that we are the best team in the world.

It's incredibly important that we beat Aus in the Group A clashes. We need to finish in the top slot going into the Super 8s so we can take the points in with us. Should rain come and wreck the parade, we want no surprises. You hear that, rain god? NO SURPRISES! The Lucky Helmet and I are watching you carefully.

FAVOURITE SNARKY CRICKET MOMENT: Daryll Cullinan commentating on the Australia/Scotland match. "Well, at least Australia has broken their losing streak."

PATTOTE: Better living through not being chokers.

Happy First Birthday Me

A year ago this month I started up this blog. I'm not sure what the original intent was, other than to publish my myriad opinions on everything. I'm not sure that this blog has been a success, entirely. I know I have my readers (hi mum!), but from a writing perspective, is it being all it can be?

Shouldn't I be using it to write deep introspective pieces on what's happening in the news, in addition to the fluffy fluff pieces? If I have opinions, I should be able to formulate an entire 400/500 word post about it, shouldn't I?

This point is pretty moot anyway, considering my severe lack of any kind of posting of late. I guess I'm saying, I'm working on it. Stay tuned.

Whistle while you work

The painter hanging outside my office window was whistling Beethoven's Für Elise.