Land of the giants

Armadalin' Clementine

After a humungous baked lunch out at step mother-in-law, Bezley's, this afternoon, Hazel and I skipped out to the annual highland gathering at Armadale - which sits at the foothills of the Darling Escarpment.

A bitta useless exposition there, I realise - if you know where the Darling scarp is, you probably know where Armadale is - but, I just wanted you to know I knew where Armadale is.

Because I do.

I was there this afternoon, for Pete's sake.

I snapped this picture of Nessie to prove it.

I saw a pig eating its own poo.

I'm quite the environmental activist.

And sportsfan.

Hence, I'm at somewhat of a crossroads this weekend, what with Perth's very own Red Bull air race set to spiral and swerve over the River Swan.

Yeah, I realise the planes are likely to dump gigalitres of Avgas into the azure shallows that separate our shiny CBD from the swank south bank. And I'm certain dozens of decibel drones will have their eardrums perforated through the awful audibility of it all.

However, the race does promise to be the best thing to hit the Westralian stratosphere since a searing chunk of spacejunk crashed into Norseman in the late nineteenseventies.

Damn those magnificent men in their flying machines!

An end to the war. Grumpy no more.

Behold, the calm before yesterday's Armistice Day march in Northam.

Bank on the Wales

I was rather grumpy after last night's Wallabies V Wales game at Cardiff Arms Park - especially as I'm scheduled to be at the same venue in September '07 to witness a match between the same two sides to see which progresses to the semi finals of the world cup.

On what I saw of the 19-all draw, the Wallabies still have a long way to go if they want to match their world-beating feats of 1991 and 1999. I'm not talking here of the backs - who showed flashes of brilliance, especially when Matt Giteau and Stephen Larkham were on the field together. Chris Latham was brilliant at fullback - and the others will only get better once used to the new combinations.

The forwards, however, are still useless in the scrums and lineouts. That said, we do have some real size in the scrum now, and that's a good start. Also, if anyone knows how to develop a dominant forward pack, it's coach John Connolly.

If he can resist the impulse to reinstate George Gregan - who is cooling his heels back home in Randwick - as captain and halfback, the Wallabies will have half a chance come September.

In the jungle groove

The neighbours are dills.

And bad bongo/conga players.

So bad that I'm gonna learn the bagpipes.

Until I do, I've got some James Brown on the amplifier, throwing off their rhythm.

The nobs could learn a thing or two from Browny's funky drummer.