cricket 80s stylez (with name drop alert too)

the recent fund raising match for christchurch at the basin has stirred some memories.

once upon a time we could actually play cricket. chats was there…still trim and taught at 60 and with that unmistakable action.

edgar opened. what a pretty cricketer to watch. very much underrated. he was at the other end for THAT delivery (and as a side note, i never noticed he had such hairy forearms) and he looks like a librarian (no offense to librarians).

andrew jones did well too. he was also underrated. he was martin crowe’s foil. he was at the other end for the record partnership. he scored 186, i think, when crowe scored his 299. upon crowe’s dismissal he (hogan that is, not jonesy - not the most interesting of nicknames i must say) took to a coke machine (which probably deserved it). i was there. he also took out the knob end of the picket fence.

roger twose has beefed up a little, but not to stockley’s florid proportions. or even geoff allot who looks like he has spent his entire retirement eating pies. macca (the cricket one) also needs to watch out. he’s beefing up too. but back to roger. what a beautiful player to watch. what grace and poise.

i enjoyed seeing paddles bowl again. i was surprised he did. i’d heard he was only there to rattle a bucket. he held the world record for the number of wickets once. he took 9 wickets in a match and caught the tenth. he still has it. (i’ve met him too).

loved listening to adam parore this morning saying that he accidentally stumped andrew jones and that jonesy was pissed off. i was left wondering why the ‘real’ game is so uptight. imagine if we had a she’ll be right attitude. it would be so much more fun.

that game was a testament to fun-ness. it was a great game. how amazing a sporting talent is tana? in trying to avoid a ball he takes a ripper of a catch. he’s never bowled before but takes a wicket. is there anything sports-wise that man cannot do? i’ve met him. i’ve played golf against him (yes i have played 3 rounds of golf, very badly). two impressions prevail. he’s shorter than I expected and there is not one ounce of fat on him.

i enjoyed that game. i’m also pleased that my cricket mad nephew can catch a glimpse of what we used to be. today i heard the black caps (stupid name that!) described as almost minnows. i have to agree.

once we were awesome.

so much ado about nothing

sorry about misquoting wills (shakespeare, not windsor) but the recent tsunami alert amounted to nothing. i unpacked my bag.

i think i'm into the boring and meh and overwhelming (all at once) stage of term. plus the dreaded ERO (dun dun dun). we've been hearing for a wee while now (ie at least 18 months) that if we get a bad review it's our fault (not the boss's). ok. whatever. and before you all ask, there are no jobs.

plus i'm not sure how to fully use all the expensive (as we're constantly reminded) new equipment we've had installed. so that's a good enough reason to stay. and i'm pleading the 5th and deleting this if it gets out (but i'm sure there's a geek out there who will resurrect it...once it's been published it's there forever...)

i'm pushing publish...repercussions be damned!

p.s. this post is dedicated to the bracket.

so who pissed off the quake gods?

now japan has an 8.9...that is a seriously HUGE quake. and the tsunami that followed, while tragic and devastating, was just spellbinding to watch. do we applaud or curse instant pictures? the scientist in me (and in geologists judging by what they were saying) is greatful that we can study this stuff and understand it more. but you still have to think that you are watching people being swept to their death. and their houses being swept away.

something just fleetingly crossed through my mind...and i've forgotten it. if it was important i'll remember it and add it in. and the remembering will possibly happen just as i post this. or it won't.

i may have cleared my inbox

my schoolbag is no longer filled with papers i need to mark. that is a HUGE breakthrough. it means i have ascended the mountain of paper that we are required to traverse.

we now have the six week check to make sure that all the boxes are ticked. a bit like anne tolley, the current minister for education, and her 'national standards'. we all have to comply with the dreaded 'six week check'. this is where we prove our paperwork is all up to date. a bit more pressure seeing as this year we have ERO (very scary apparently...meh...i know i'm a good teacher so i'm not scared. i can teach dyslexics to read...i'm THAT good).

so...the link with anne tolley...and there is one though i am drawing the long bow a bit...she has said all schools need to do national standards, even though she said 50% of schools are failing and that's why we all need to do them. ERO has a five year cycle for schools who are performing well. the boss wants us to get on that. i suggested to her that the teachers she knows are 'doing their job' should go on to a similar thing. where we (and yes i mean me) go on to a two or three year cycle where we don't get the six week check...cos we can be trusted. it didn't fly.

and on another note. anne tolley has been very quiet about national standards recently...i'm hoping she's ignoring them so they'll all go away.

and on other non school related news. there was no one in christchurch cathedral when the quake hit. which is great. that means the 22 dead didn't eventuate. i want to know where they got that number from. the moon guy, who i think is called ring, is making a lot of people scared. no one can predict earthquakes and if you're so worried about the 20th of march then go hunker down somewhere. this has not been helped by the two recent quakes in wellington (a 4.5 and a 4.7). we get 3 or 4 of them a year according to the scientists. and as a scientist i side with them. the recent christchurch quakes were a 1 in 15,000 year occurrence (the 7.1). wellington's 'big one' is a 1 in 700 year occurrence and we are halfway through that cycle...i'm not running for the hills. i have water and food so i'll be ok. but odds are i'll be at school when the biggie happens. if that's the case then i'm in some serious shit...it's a big hill i have to walk over to get home, that's if it survives the tsunami (my home, not the hill, i'm in the 'red zone').

one week later

155 confirmed dead and 240 predicted...not as many as napier 1931. i had an inservice course today and i was a bit annoyed i couldn't be with my class for the two minutes silence. i was in a cafe at 12.51 pm today and the people next to me just kept on talking...i wanted to jump up and talk to them about being respectful...but i didn't cos that would have been undignified and disrespectful...besides, i don't think ignorant people deserve my time...