Cheers, mates! :)

Oi Oi Oi.

I guess this is as good as a place to post the question as any. Why do Aussie sports fans wear green and yellow? The colors aren't on their flag- so I have always wondered.

CB
Those are the Aussie sporting colors.
This link goes into the history without quite explaining why.

http://www.rl1908.com/rugby-league/Colours.htm

here is another little bit

"The National floral emblem is the golden wattle. It is draped all over our coat of arms. The flower is gold, the leaves green. "

here's a mug up for the hoodoo gurus, one of my fave aussie bands. particularly "mars needs guitars".

and another mug up for australia's john howard and his unwavering support for the united states. this is one american who appreciates his friendship.

let's throw another on the barbie and rock on, mates!

Happy Australia Day! :-)

As if I needed a reason to have a few GE's.

Happy Australia Day! I'll get there at some point.

"INXS, Midnight Oil, and Men at Work" Dated!

Jet, The Grates, Delta Goodrem, and the timeless Kylie Minogue.

c'mon aussie c'mon by the mojo singers.... and recently massacred by shannon noll!

Narci

ha ha, Pete dated!

I'm decidedly unhip (now I'm dated too?!) but I've never heard of any of those bands.

Kylie Minogue I know, of course, but she's never been very popular in the States (that has always surprised me). Where are you located?

Though didn't Kylie do that Locomotion song. I'm still not over that transgression.

If we are giving band shoutouts I would like to give some props to the Go-Betweens. They have been around forever and released an album last year that was just as good as stuff from the 1980s. Nice to still hear quality stuff from a band I first heard in the 1980s on MTV's 120 Minutes.

Thanks for the info about the sporting colors.

I heart Kylie. Love that "I should be so lucky" song....

To "decidedly unhip" Sanja:

I'm Narci from the U.S. of A. I remember Johnny Mac's US Open commentary one year when he insisted that tennis tournaments play cool music to make it more fan-friendly...cool...like "Hit me with your best shot" from Pat Benatar. *LOL* That's really gonna put those bums in the seats! *snort*

Jet has been around for a few years and they broke into the mainstream with "Are you Gonna Be My Girl." The Gap retail chain used it for some commercials. The Grates (from Brisbane) are relatively new so don't beat yourself up about not knowing 'em.
:-p Delta Goodrem's got a tennis connection (former gf of Mark "Poo" Philippoussis). She's a pianist/pop singer and won several ARIAs a few years back. And then of course there's my favorite sheila, the only and only Kylie!

Thanks Narci!

Ahhhh Delta must be a brainiac for that connection.

Is it hip to sell out nowadays? Certainly seems like it - Hey Everybody go out and get your signature U2 Ipods!

I like Kylie, too.

Pete, you spotted Evonne Goolagong on site this week? any updates? would love an Evonne story, past or present, as she's such a huge icon there, and yes, a 4 time champ as well ...

Happy Australia Day.

will there be some kind of show before the match?

I think 1 of the best moments of the 2005 aus open and 2006 aus open is:

the fairworks in the safin-fed match
bagdhdis-king david match.

those were great matchs, tense, and the fireworks, with the blak sky, very betubul site.

something very spicle for the aus.

by the way, in this day, the aus sing dancing madilda? if not what do they sing it?

Oh and Narci, Tennis really really needs to drop Pat Benetar. ESPN is the same way with music picks. I don't know who is responsible for making these decisions? Old Boys Network or something. I'd do a better job of it.

Happy Straya Day!

Cracking a beer in your honor, mates.

happy australia day everybody!

don't worry pete, you're not dated! the 80s are back in style, haven't you heard? seriously though, i have definitely heard of men at work and INXS (if, admittedly, only from vh1)

still...*rummages around in collection* i think i'll put on some architecture in helsinki instead...

AHA! YA ARID PLATYPUS

or
AHA! A PLATYPUS DIARY

Also
ARTY SHADY PAPAYA

ptenisnet: either you've got some kangaroos loose in the top paddock or you're having way too much fun with anagrams ;) jk, very nice!

ancicfan
Most of the kangaroos have broken free and hopped away.
I am hopping mad.

A platypus Diary

That'd make a brilliant title for something. Not sure what just yet but..

You know, your average misfit coming of age story.

Yay! Happy Straya Day!

*passes the beers around*

The Grates, the Herd, Hilltop Hoods and Wolfmother. Oh and ACCA DACCA! BACK IN BLACK! Also you must all learn the words to the Hunters and Collectors' "Holy Grail" in case the pub has a cover band.

Lucy
Was yesterday's party on account of Straya Day?

No, it was on account of my friend's homecoming. I'm going to a Straya Day BBQ in a bit, when I recover sufficiently.

No, it was on account of my friend's homecoming. I'm going to a Straya Day BBQ in a bit, when I recover sufficiently.

You may as well suffer all at once and recover all at once. Like having all your wisdom teeth pulled out at once (I realise this analogy falls short in actual enjoyment factor).

Have fun.

Hair of the dingo might do the trick.

In the absence of a pub cover band, I'm sure we could recruit a decent semblance from the heads around here.

To clarify, the "have fun" wasnt a closing statement but an independent thought.

I'm sorry (actually, I'm NOT), but could someone start a petition to get Tracy Austin removed as a "writer" and "analyst" for MSNBC? Good grief. Doesn't anyone even edit her drivel before it's published? Edited drivel would be (marginally) better than her unedited drivel. (Believe me--I will edit my own drivel before posting). Austin's way with grammar is about as impressive as that found in a last-minute high school essay. Plus, her objectivity is suspect. Can they at least send her to a class, or something?

That being said, ESPN's stable of commentators at this year's Oz Open is encouraging. I've been waiting a few years to mention it (because I wanted to be certain), but Mary Joe Fernandez has grown into quite the solid commentator. Poised, incisive, informed, and not a waster-of-words. Could someone give her the MSNBC writing deal that Austin's currently got?

Pete's coverage, as usual, is beyond reproach.

(Whew!--I guess I've had a "Tracy Austin Rant" that I've hitherto been repressing. I feel better already).

ex tennis player appears muddled AT A SCRUTINY

I feel ESPN's commentators are indulged way too much, as though their random asides (P-Mac and Fowler talking about Richard Branson, oblivious to a break point, etc.) add anything to the drama of a match.

Carillo is in love with her flourishes: "He's not just raising his game, he's raising everyone's game!"

Enberg has become inane, and says things like, "[Vaidisova] speaks fluent German, English, and of course her native language, er, uh, Czech Republic."

Why can't anyone respect the match being played, the scene itself instead of behind-the-scenes? Less is more.

enberg was quoting from hamlet yesterday. He said something like "alas poor yorick" of course he might have been trying to say Roddick and got it wrong.

Ray
it illbecomes you to go on a rant.

Sorry, dude, I'm feeling a bit choleric today. I think over the course of a Slam the reliance on fickle ESPN programming decisions wears on me. That and I'm hungry.

How are you doing, maestro?

For the first time in the last 2 weeks I woke up to match a 3:30 am match and glad i did it. The good bit is I was able to go back to sleep after the match and still get up in time to go to work with a good night's sleep.

Life is good. I didnt ask you. How was your pakistan trip?

I liked it when Dick got the names confused calling Roger "Roddick" and Andy "Roger."
Those tricky darn r-words.

And, still, he has to throw other sporting terms in when discussing a match.

The one point, I agreed with Mary on was her siding with Roger on usage of hawk-eye. A lot of chair umps aren't doing their job. Hawk-eye is supposed to be a supplement to the chair umpire and not do the job of the chair umpire. There was a crucial match point that a chair ump didn't correct and the player was out of challenges.

Roger, though, did have better success with hawk-eye than he has in the past, but he still had to use it and on at least once, he and Roddick did not get a ball corrected.

Well, happy Straya Day, Lucy, Viv and Annabelle and lurkers known or unknown.

Ray (and other ESPN Haranguers)
You will enjoy steve's second semifinal preview.

Australia Day Great. Greetings to anyone down under. I've had my daily dose of Neighbours and Home and Away as a celebration.

It's also Burns Night here in Scotland. The annual day to celebrate the national bard Robert Burns. I had my traditional haggis for dinner, addressed the haggis and recited some of his poetry.

Ode to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain of the pudding race,
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm
Weel are ye wordy o'a grace
As lang's my arm.

3 rd verse

His knife see rustic labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like any ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

The language in the rest of the poem would be too incomprehensible.

Other famous examples of his work include:

the poem O My love is like a red, red rose

The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay (often go wrong)
from the poem "To a mouse"

Wee, sleekit, cowering, timerous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken Nature' social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow mortal!
the song Auld Lang Syne (sung at New Year)

I would urge anyone who's interested to read his masterpiece "Tam O'Shanter". A tremendously funny and atmospheric poem for anyone who's been drunk and experienced the heebie-jeebies (hallucinations).

Yikes, excuse my gratuitous gabbling

I decided to skip the live match and then stay incommunicado until it replayed, which after about forty-five minutes felt purdy silly. Your decision was much smarter given the length of the match.

The trip was truly worthwhile, though I came away worried about a few of my relatives who are not in the best of health. Much of it was scintillating though, and the food was pretty grand. Thanks for asking!

You feeling any particular wind blowing for the other semi?

Yeah, I have to agree that the ESPN commentators' egos are sometimes inopportune. Mary Carillo (who will always be a great commentator, no matter what) is nevertheless somehow becoming a parody of herself. Not good. I find it difficult to pick on Dick Enberg too much...I usually just tell myself that he's not as surly and grouchy as Cliff Dreysdale. P-Mac is good, but not as fun as his brother, in the booth. Chris Fowler asks some of the most condescending questions--I can believe he hasn't been chewed-out by an angry Williams sister, or , say, a moody Vaidisova. more than anything, I wish they would stop jabbering during points. Just during points. Again, I'm impressed that Mary Joe Fernandez doesn't do that. When she says something, it's short, sweet, informative, and relevant to the moment.

It would be great to get Andre into the booth one day. I once thought he was as dumb as a box of paper clips, but I was very impressed with his eloquence during the live-feed interview they conducted with him between Vegas and Oz during the first week. Very natural. Very comfortable. The insight he could offer as a commentator would be enormous. Quite the opposite, Pete Sampras (during *his* phone-in piece) sounded, well...like a man utterly bored with "regular" life. Not so eloquent. Sort of lost-sounding.

A word (or more) about Roddick's destruction: I hope this truly terrific loss doesn't ruin his sense of determination. Though not likely, things can turn around for him. Now we will truly see what sort of mettle he possesses as a champion. People forget that the great Chris Evert once lost a horrid 13 consecutive matches to the seemingly indestructible Navratilova, and people were begging her to retire. But she proved herself to be the Ice Queen par excellence, worked on her conditioning, and, eventually, took Navratilova's scalp on the big stage--French Open final 1985.

Evert recovered the No. 1 ranking with that win, as well: a huge moral, professional victory for a player who had (for two years) seemed utterly incapable of beating her biggest rival in *any* match. The win changed her psychology and she went on to beat Navratilova in another French Slam final the following year, along with a handful of other significant wins against her before retirement. Moral of Story: Things CAN turn around.

Even though I'm no big fan of Roddick's game (and don't believe he has the mental powers of an Evert, for example), he can still keep TRYING.

You feeling any particular wind blowing for the other semi?

I dont really have an idea, but I would love for Fena to take out Haas, thus proving that he can sustain his new found discipline. I work with a chilean dude who is always talking him up, plus I was totally impressed with what him and massu did during the 'lympics.
And I am not really big on Haas(sort of like Ros and the Fed).

HEY ALL

Happy OZ day you all ...

Happy Australia Day to all our mates down under!

Happy Australia Day!

Today was particularly special, as it was my leaving-Australia-going-away party. I’m moving to Germany tomorrow, so celebrated Australia Day in style - a BBQ! Got plenty of Aussie going away pressies to see me through - TimTams, great Aussie music -(Cold Chisel, Barnsey, Kasey Chambers, INXS, Powderfinger, AC/DC, Kylie, yes, even John Williamson! & Peter Allen’s “I still call Australia home” - to induce homesickness), Aussie wildlife charm bracelet incl a silver wombat, Aussie DVDs (The Castle, Strictly Ballroom, The Dish, The Chaser, The Glasshouse…) Wallabies jersey, socceroos scarf (I’ll be decked out in Green & Gold at the DC in Belgium in a couple of weeks!) … wish my mates weren’t so generous - must now pack another suitcase….

Sorry I haven’t got the time to respond to your comments right now! (and putting last night’s match right out of my mind).

PS Pete - where did you get Adelaide from? Honestly! I’m from Brisbane (previously Sunny Coast, Queensland!), mate!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

I just loved these lines from Roddick's press conference.
I give him huge props for reacting so positively, and in good spirit after this tough match.
Just because of his great press conferance and because of such attitude that he expressed there I really wish him beat Federer in one of the GS finals.
(I wish him that, althogh he is on the bottom of my most likeable tennis players)

Q. The next time you feel that, will you keep it to yourself?

ANDY RODDICK: No. Have I ever not answered a question honestly? That's honestly the way I felt. I'm not going to keep it to myself. You ask me a question, I'm going to give you an honest answer.

What do you want me to say? Do you want me to come in here and kick my ass on a daily basis? It's not going to happen. I'm going to try to keep fighting. I'm going to try to keep working. That's what I could on a daily basis. I wake up and work my butt off on a daily basis. I'm going to continue to do that.

I'm going to try to take this like a man as much as I can. He outplayed me. He played a lot better than I did tonight. He deserves all the praise that he gets, not only for how he plays, but how he handles himself. Get up tomorrow, look forward.

Happy Australia Day!

Spent the day with a nice sleep in, then up at it, singing our national anthem when the cricket started this afternoon. Go the Aussies! Had an awesome Barbeque, with plenty of tomatoe sauce. Nothing beats that, except maybe being in the city for the fireworks, and having some amber liquid.

I loved the reference to wombats, it reminds we one occasion when I was in a discussion with a colleague of mine bemoaning the lack of efficiency in one of our outsourced IT development agencies (incidentally not from Australia, think big population, cheap IT labour), when she had an outburst and claimed 'they're bunch of wombats!'

Needless to say, the tension was released, and when I had finally picked myself off the floor from laughing so hard, I replied 'I like wombats, we can't call them wombats. Wombats are cute, and furry, and the most annoying thing about them is they dig holes, and break things. These guys are much worse, they're incompetent!'

'Fine, no wombats. They're a bunch of numpties.' (those who are Scottish will know what a numpty is)

The hilarity of how best to describe these wonderfully laid back IT developers, escalated to the point where we almost forgot how annoyed with them we were.

On the tennis front, Australia is on the look out for the next upcoming player, mens and womens, and its been a hard slog the past few years. Lleyton has been holding up the fort for a while now, and with Alicia being injured the last 18 months, and only just coming back, we have not had a lot to cheer for in terms of local heroes. There's a couple of young teenagers, but it'll take a good 5+ years before we can tell if they will make it in the big time, on the world stage. But we're not getting totally down in the dumps about the current state of affairs, tennis is an international sport, and as we see every year at the Aus Open, there's plenty of support for the event and the all players regardless of what nationality they are from.

Oh, thanks for the good wishes, Lisa, but it would be most disingenuous of me to masquerade as an Australian - I'm Irish and have recently returned home from my jaunt in Melbourne.
I'm waiting up for the women's final, only another hour to go...