Alas, Australian success

Now that we have a laptop at home, I can write blogs when I should be doing work on the comfort of our own couch. The theory is to write the blog now when I feel like it and then actually do work at varsity instead during the day...yeah right. It does also mean though I can type as I watch India attempt to go after Australia's impossibly high total of 359/2 in the World Cup final. Faced with this monumentally difficult task (to win, India have to make the 8th highest one-day total ever), Saurav Ganguly came out and played a number of rather bizarre shots, some of which went for 4 and 6, before self destructing 15 or so minutes ago for about 25, but now Sehwag is smashing the spinners all over the park in the faint hope that they can reach some kind of Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target before what seems currently to be the inevitable arrival of rain. Both have batted with the desparation of men who might return to India to find their houses burnt down. (Sachin Tendulkar, despite being out for 4 in the first over, legally qualifies as a deity in India, so his own residence is probably safe.) India's best hope is the game being rained off within the next 10 overs, after which the game starts all over again at zero the next day (live cricket update interruption of this sentence: Rahul Dravid is an extremely classy batsman) for some bizarre reason. This would be excellent because no trace of Australia's innings (their highest total in one dayers ever) would remain as far as the record books are concerned, and Ricky Ponting's 140 from 121 balls, featuring 8 sixes, (he lost the ball at one point) simply wouldn't count. Ha. As I type the rain has started to come down with 9 overs and 4 balls yet to be bowled before an official match has been played, so go the rain. Covers on now in fact.

After the excesses of last weekend this one was a bit less sordid. Friday night featured those domiciled at the Chateau that had not absconded to Wellington and I watching "Charlotte Gray", which was not the best ever movie set in World War 2, nor the best ever movie with Cate Blanchett in it, and probably not even the best movie with the word 'Gray'in the title. (I submit this.) After that I spent far longer than I intended on Nic's computer being persecuted by Nazis and Space Pirates in that order, which made me stupidly tired for cricket the next day. Which I will duly blame my score of zero on.

As it turned out, the score of zero wasn't such a terrible thing, as I got to sit around and enjoy the weather for most of the day and do a couple of hours of enjoyable fielding in the late afternoon when it wasn't so hot. The game saw another repeat of the strange phenomenon that happens to our team every so often, whereby we're spanking the pants off some unfortunate team and they still sledge us. "He's got nothing!" called the opposition fieldsmen as our batsman smashed most deliveries to the boundary. One of our players was sent off with 'See mate, it's the bad balls that get the bad players out' which didn't make a lot of sense, as the score at that time was 260 or so for 5, and the batsman in question had scored 42 - including 14 off that bowler's previous over. It just seems weird, and they looked rather silly when after various comments about our mothers, our sexuality, and our generally unimpressive cricket skills, they came out for their innings (after our declaration) and were bowled out for 56. Too much chatting, not enough batting, as Mr. Burns might put it. They are now 4 for 2 following on, so you can see that they were justified in really rubbing our noses in it.

The players are back on and no overs have been lost. I fear India are doomed, despite the fact that Sehwag is continuing to bat with an admirable regard for his no claims bonus.

On Saturday night there was board games and celery sticks aplenty at Sarah's and Mary's and Charles's place (this is why flats need names). While our team missed out in Pictionary (I failed to draw 'braille' fast enough) we did win Trivial Pursuit. The most entertaining game of the evening however was Balderdash, which is definitely worth a giggle. Their are some extremely silly acronyms in the world.

Sehwag has unfortunately (for the purposes of my entertainment and India's chances) been run out. His 82 off 81 deliveries may be enough to save his garage.

Today I did very little indeed, except watch THX-1138, a film I've wanted to see for ages which conveniently turned up on Sky TV last night for me to record. It was extremely weird while watching it to think that its director went on to make 'Star Wars' - it's a grim, dystopian Brave New World type of deal, where sex is illegal, the taking of seditaves is mandatory for the whole population, the policemen are faceless robots, people are just mindless drones etc. Robert Duvall was in it too, in a surprise before they were famous move, as was Donald Pleasance, who certain poor damned souls may remember from the by now legendary Warrior Queen (and numerous other movies of wildly varying quality). Like Star Wars, Lucas came up with the story as well, which I thought had some good ideas (probably borrowed from somewhere else and played around with a little bit, if SW is anything to go by). I thought it was OK, and I'd suggest people have a look at it if they're vaguely interested (Arc in particular might find it interesting). Whether it proves that George Lucas can in fact direct - well, you'd probably have to make up your own mind on that one, but it does definitely prove he wasn't always a sell-out; despite an appropriately techie, sterile, minimalist sort of atmosphere and look to the film, the whole thing gives the impression it was made for about 59 cents. Apart from Robert Duvall obviously, and the cars, which are cool.

A flick to the BBC reveals plenty of what Gordon Campbell of the listener so accurately described as 'war pornography' still going on. Thank God I haven't yet heard the term 'collateral damage', which has to be one of the worst euphemisms of all time, and makes me immediately want to find the nearest bar full of US marines and pick a fight with them (and get the snot beaten out of me). I'm not going to bestow a lot of credit on British and American policy in this whole mess - but a very small yay for 'smart' weapons and the fact that total air superiority know longer means semi-accurate carpet bombing. Baghdad really has been hit with a ridiculous amount of ordinance, and so far there are only 3 reported civilian deaths, when you know that Iraq would be only too keen to make sure the Western media know the maximum extent of any such casualties.

On the other hand,so what? This just proves that you can't conduct any war without innocent people getting killed. So only 3 people are dead, great, but then 3 people otherwise minding their own business are dead, arrrgghhh. Oh, but innocent people die around the world all the time! Saddam's killed plenty of them himself! Oh, good point, that makes it OK then. Meanwhile, the Iraqis have had the chance to point out the 5 year old girl they have in hospital with a spine severed by shrapnel. Damn, a million dollars a cruise missile and the shrapnel still flies randomly? Never mind, the US has decided it has a moral duty to wage war.

For God's sake America, why not cut all the 'axis of evil' bollocks and just admit that this conflict is for entirely strategic reasons, because it's not like anyone can stop you anyway, and international disapproval is something that you certainly do not seem to treat as any kind of hindrance either. Just know that very large sections of the world have the IQ of 12 needed to realise that A) if you've got a moral duty to wage war for regime change in Iraq you've sure as hell got the same duty to uphold in a lot of other rather less oil-soaked places and B) claims of moral rectitude are hard to defend in the face of 5 year old girls paralysed by your missiles, despite any (admittedly apparently honest) efforts to reduce civilian casualties. And you're not even fighting on the ground in Baghdad yet, and God knows how bad that has the potential to get. 'Moral war' my arse, an oxymoron at just about the best of times.

I guess this makes me a bleeding heart liberal. Well, duh.

While we're on the subject, if you were a British or American soldier or pilot, what would you be more worried about: The under-trained, under-equipped Iraqi army, the bulk of which doesn't want to fight you? Or the odds of being in a helicopter crash? Or being shot down by mistake ny one of your own side's missiles? Or perhaps being grenaded in a tent by one of your own unit? It seems (from the media coverage anyway) that Coalition forces are so far a greater threat to themselves than the enemy has been. I really don't understand especially how the US could accidentally shoot down a British plane - it's not like Iraq actually have any planes, not that they can get off the ground anyway. A tough one to explain to the family of the pilot (who they're still trying to find I think, fingers crossed he or she ejected) - we're sorry ma'am, the plane was acting suspiciously, it looked like a Scud missile, your son / daughter was not very popular on base though anyway. Here's a consolation flag.

Well, India tried hard but lost by a hundred and thirty odd runs. Australia takes another sporting trophy home, yippee. Man, we have to win the Rugby World Cup, before their global sporting dominance goes to their heads...damn, too late.

BBC update - people killed all over the place - civilians, marines, journalists. Super.

Ah, enough of this waffle and depression. Off to bed with the old cat. Make of that what you will.