The cricket....it ain't over yet.

So what do you think….will we win the cricket ?


I think it could still go either way.

It’s just going to depend on how this pitch has fared under the covers and what sort of weather greets them in Hobart today.

It’s been an enthralling test match. And you know, I don’t mind these bowlers test matches. A green top in Hobart which has provided so much assistance to the seamers.

I love these test matches. I love it when every single ball could claim a wicket.

Australia has it’s shortest opening batting pair ever in Phil Hughes and Dave Warner.

I was such a wrap for little Hughesy when he first rose to prominence, but I don’t know that’s he’s up to it. Nevertheless, I was so pleased to see him fight through to stumps last night.

He should have been out.

If the kiwis had referred they would have had him. The technology showed a little nick on the glove and he should be gone.

It ain’t over yet cricket fans.

I’m looking forward to the finals day play

BYO grog....take it or leave it ?

So tell me, when you go to a Xmas party or a backyard barbecue anytime. When it’s a BYO grog thing and you take a six pack of Crownies…..so you lob and put your stubbies on ice and rip the top off the first one……


I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big drinker anymore…..truth is, I never really was. So if I take a 6 pack to a party….well, I can tell you on the weekend, I took a 6 pack of Coronas and a four pack of Beam and coke. I think I had 3 stubbies of Corona and a couple of Beams and coke.

Here’s my question.

Who among us, on the way out of a party like that would grab the 3 Coronas and two beams to take them back home. Who just leaves it there ?

I always leave it.

I think it looks a bit scabby to be ferreting through the ice to grab a couple of stubbies.

And ….whenever I’ve hosted a party, I’ve always thought that one of the great bonuses was that you got to keep all of the odd bottles that were left. I think that’s a reward for cleaning up the mess.

Where do you sit on this one.

Costco

I went to a Xmas party on the weekend around at Meredith and Michaels in Flynn. It was a really good night. We worried about the weather, but it all went by without a drop of rain.


This was one of those well co-ordinated functions where everyone bought a specific food. I was instructed to bring one of those big apple pies from Costco.

I’d never been to Costco.

I went out with my friend Tanya and checked it all out.

It’s a weird place isn’t it ?

Who’s a Costco member ? Are you going to renew after a year, or have you had enough ?

There was some good stuff out there. Dunno if I could be bothered paying the 60 bucks…..I dunno.

I mean, look, there was some good prices on things out there, but the way retail is at the moment there’s a sale on everywhere. There’s some really good prices out there everywhere.

Who’s been to Harris Scarfe…..wow ! It’s crazy in there…and you don’t have to pay $60 to join.

Who’s a Costco convert ?

Green blend coffee ?

Hey we were talking about coffee earlier in the week and what a coffee town this is.


Figures out this month show that here in Canberra we do more serious coffee than anywhere else in the country. That makes me smile.

I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I do grind my own beans in here at work.

I’m in the kitchen here in the radio station earlier on in the morning and I stumbled across this little jar coffee.

Get a load of this.

This is a jar of Nescafe Green Blend coffee

What the hell is Green Blend Coffee ?

For starters anyone who’s regularly drinking instant coffee, I don’t understand…the stuff tastes like cardboard.

This is a 50 gram jar of coffee. 50 grams ? That’s like 3 cups of coffee in the jar.

But what about the way they promote it the coffee on the jar ? This is what it says to convince you to consumer the Nescafe Green Blend coffee. For starters they call it Green Blend to convince you that somehow this drink is saving the planet....but then this.

It says ‘Delivers 70% more antioxidants than green tea’ And that’s supposed to inspire us to purchase the coffee.

I’m sorry, but if you have to compare the coffee to green tea and make a purchase on the amount of antioxidants then we don’t really want you among the ranks of coffee drinkers.

Just stick with your green tea.

Anti oxidants ? Honestly.

Dead fish in Lake Burley Griffin

Here are those pics I was talking about....the pics of the dead fish in Lake Burley Griffin. Thanks to Bill.

What do you make of them ?

Canberra Storm

How’d you go with the storm last night ?


Didn’t that light up the night ? How crazy was that ? It sent social media into meltdown. Lightning and storm was trending in Canberra last night as the rain came bucketing down. Tuggeranong had 3 storms roll through….on the north side we had two. What a sound and light show ? How did you go at your place ? It woke up most of the town….it certainly woke me up. I don’t know if it was more about the thunder and lightning or the wind….or the hail coming in at right angles and hitting the bedroom window. It was crazy.

Here is one of the great pics up on the Riot Act website http://the-riotact.com/november-hail/60515

Did it wake you up ? Have you got damage at your place ? I’ve driven a bit this morning. Kaleen/Belconnnen/Dickson/Ainslie and Mitchell and I didn’t see any serious damage. Saw a bit of water over Northbourne Avenue and also on Cowper Street….a lot of sticks and leaves blown around but not too much else. If you’ve got something to report then do just that….get on the phone and report it this morning.

Up until midnight last night the ACT State Emergency Service (ACTSES) had received a total of 37 calls for help from the public as a result of the storm activity last night.

Four ACTSES units continue to respond with 13 jobs outstanding.

Call outs have been for minor flooding. Still no significant damage reported.

Anyone who needs emergency storm assistance should call the ACTSES on 132 500.

Now as far as rainfall figures, the Bureau of meterology official rain guage at the airport is cactus….I have no figure from there, so you may need to help me out with a figure from your place.

The Tuggeranong figure is 44 mm….and it looks as though you guys on the southside got a third storm cell in the early hours of this morning. 33mm in Belconnen thanks to Belconnen Weather .net. Darren Giles Gungahlin Weather station tells me that they scored 27mm. 54mm at Braidwood. 55 at Mt Ginini. Only 10 at Thredbo and just 2mm at Goulburn.

Let me know how you fared with the storms last night. They were described by some long time Canberra residents as the most severe thunderstorms in decades.

If you have any storm photos to share with us....do it.  You can email them to me through the 2CC website 2cc.net.au

We found these pics on twitter overnight.

Thanks to BJ Rugby and Gregarious21
And this was from Peter taken from Mt Ainslie

2nd Test

Cricket…the second and final test match on in South African starting tonight at 7.30.


It’s one of the few occasions where I wish I had foxtel cos I’d love to watch, particularly the first session.

The Australians self destructed in Capetown. All we had to do was bat sensibly for a couple of hours and we would have had the South Africans on toast. In the end the instinct created by the 20/20 game came to the fore and we were bundled out for an embarrassingly low score.

I’m pleased to see Usman Khawaja getting a go. And I hope the young tearaway Patrick Cummins gets a cap as well. He looks a bit special Cummins. He’s 12 years old, but once he starts shaving I think he may be the real deal.

I think Mitchell Johnson might be gone here.

We’ll find out tonight.

If you were a selector, what would you be doing ?

Would you give Davie Warner a go ?

Give me your cricket thoughts if you’ve got any.

Overnight incidents

We had a gas drama at Symonston overnight.

Not sure what went down here.

This is at the Telstra building in Symonston.

ACT Fire & Rescue were there at around 8.15 last night investigating a smell of gas at the Telstra Building, so that’s on Faulding Street, Symonston.

Now it is my understanding that Gas was released from a fire suppression system. There was no sign of fire at any stage, but they did rush the breathing apparatus unit and hazardous materials van was onsite as well as a couple of fire pumpers.

The ambos were there too…and they did treat a woman aged in her 40's for minor eye irritation.

We had traffic drama on Long Gully Road last night….out by the tip. A two vehicle accident that could well have ended in tragedy.

They used the hydraulic gear to release one of the drivers who was trapped in her vehicle.

ACT Ambulance Service intensive care paramedics treated and transported four patients to The Canberra Hospital, all in a stable condition.

A 36-year-old female was treated for multiple fractures to her leg, a seven-month-old baby taken to hospital for observation, a 20-year-old male treated for minor injuries and neck pain and a 58-year-old male treated for fractures to both arms.

By the sounds it could have been disastrous….luckily it wasn’t.

Plastic bag ban

Plastic bags.

How are you going with plastic bags ?

The girls and I strolled down to Supabarn at Kaleen after school yesterday afternoon to grab a few things. I nearly forgot, but my Delaney girl reminded me as I was walking out the door….she said Dad, what about bags ?

I grabbed a canvas bag. I always feel like a Greens voter walking to the supermarket with a canvas bag.


How have you gone with it all ?

I’ll tell you what I discovered yesterday. At Supabarn at Kaleen you buy plastic bags at the checkout for just 5 cents a throw. 5 cents ! That’s not a bad deal is it ?

I know if you were doing it every day it’d mount up in price, but if you do happen to lob at the supermarket without your bags, I guess it’s not a huge impost…..particulary when we’re one of the households who use supermarket bags in the bin.

Tell me about your bag experience in the last couple of days. How are you finding the bag ban ?

Canberra's Royal Touch

They got stuck into me at lunch yesterday because I didn’t support the Royal visit……well it’s not that I didn’t support the Royal visit, it’s just that I don’t fully understand that fuss. I don’t get it, OK. That’s all. I’m happy for the Queen and Prince Philip to come here and go to parades and wave and accept flowers….I just don’t get it.

I think you do have to appreciate the amazing marketing aspect of the visit for us here in Canberra.

You cannot underplay the value of the world wide promotion from the Queens visit.

You probably can overplay it though and that’s what the ACT Government has done.

Dead set the local town council have come up with a dollar figure of what the Canberra promotion was worth……what the media coverage would have cost us.

They’ve put the figure at $35 million.

$35 million.

Guys it’s the Queen….it wasn’t Oprah Winfrey

And yet one of the people backing this figure is our very own Warren Apps from Grey World Wide media.

We got articles specifically about the Canberra leg of the visit on the BBC and CNN….in the Guardian, The New York Times, the Washington Post…the Himalayan Times…the Brunei Times, the Kenya Star and the Denver Times……and that’s all good….but it is really worth $35 million.

Will someone reading about the Australian War Memorial in the Kenya Star in Nairobi, will they be inspired to book a holiday to Canberra. I think not.

On the other side of the coin, how much do think the royal visit actually cost us ?

Not as much as you may have thought. The figure being bandied around this morning is around $100,000