England – you were Warne-d!

I love those Aussie signs in the Ashes ! After taking 5 wickets in an innings in the MCG during the 4th test, Shane Warne gave the England cricket ‘s MBE endowed batting order a lesson with 71 runs in the first innings at Sydney in the 5th.

Unfortunately it’s no longer Christmas so I don’t have access to live cricket on me dad’s Sky Sports any more so I’ll have to make do with the next day TV highlights and the live text commentary on the BBC…

Australia win the match by 10 wickets and the series by 5 games to 0. What a hammering! Poor old Tom Fordyce, who’s writing the live text commentary:

I’ve just remembered there’s a one-day series coming up after this, and I’ll be staying up all night again to cover it. Excellent.

Acupuncture first time

Acupuncture photo I’m still struggling somewhat with fitness : my left leg has been seriously cramped and painful for the past few weeks. Thank $(deity of choice) it’s actually not too bad when cycling on and I’ve been able to put a couple of decent rides in over the Christmas.

It’s been so bad that amazingly for me, The Procrastinator Champion of the Universe, I actually rang my doctor yesterday, the first workday since the holidays, and arranged an appointment for today.

I like my doctor, he’s a medical doctor but also a homeopath and alternative therapies kinda guy. Today after a little physiotherapy I was treated to some acupuncture – first time I’ve had it. It wasn’t a full session, only 5-6 minutes, but I can feel some positive change in my leg already – still sore but a lot more movement. Hopefully it continues to improve so quickly 🙂
Photo from mikefats on flickr.

Happy New Year

All the best for 2007, I hope it treats you well. Good luck with all of your resolutions!

Ooops, my apologies – what I mean to say is:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday (or summer if below equator), practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make this country great (not to imply that Ireland is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the following terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.

Alastair.

Legend Warne to retire after Ashes

I dislike Australia ns almost as much as New Zealanders and Cork people… (only in sporting terms, of course – outside of sport, Aussies and Kiwis are really nice people). Shane Warne is different.

Always a “colourful” character, in his sporting career he has been fined for accepting money from bookies, missed a Cricket World Cup due to being banned for drug use, involved in many extra-marital affairs which led to his divorce, caused opponents to need therapy to deal with his psychologic abuse, and yet he remains one of the most popular and iconic faces of Australian sport – a national hero. He’s just that good.

Even if you’re not much of a cricket fan, you’ll appreciate the skill shown here in “The Ball of the Century“, the most famous of his 699 wickets (an all time record) thus far (2s):

Unbelievable spin! Here’s an interview with Warne on some of his greatest wickets:

He’ll be missed.