July 23rd, Australia Day 152

This week has been filled with some interesting occurrences, not the least of which has been the weather. Approaching the end of July in Australia is supposed to be the equivalent of approaching the end of January in Canada, but it really doesn't feel like it. For example, today the temperature was close to 25C, at least it felt that way, and I don't think this is any kind of winter. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if it's not below 0C, it's not winter. To put it more harshly, I spit on this mockery the Aussies have the nerve to call winter. To be fair though, the weather people have been saying that this is unseasonably warm. It would actually be tolerable if it was warm at night, but the temperature plummets to less than 10C and it begins to feel chilly and I can't say I approve.

Now, as for the events of the last week, on Tuesday I reached a personal milestone by scoring my first century (100 runs) in cricket. As last week, we were playing with indoor cricket rules (refer to my last post if you don't remember the rules), and in the full 5 overs I managed to score 101 runs. There was a slight difference in that we were playing a 3 person game, where 1 person bowls, another person bats and the third doubles as a fielder and an umpire. We ended up playing 2 or 3 games of this type of round-robin and I remember I was off my form for the first one, missing balls, popping them into the air, etc. The second game was where I scored my ton, thus winning that round robin. Actually, our hapless third man (I was playing with my acquaintance as before), ended all of his games in the negative score which is possible in indoor cricket.

On Wednesday, at the Wynyard Hotel Pub Trivia Night, I had a happy coincidence. For the last round, much to my chagrin, the teams were supposed to name the songs and the artists who sang them being played on a CD, and they were "all" boy bands. I say "all", because some of them like The Jackson 5 and The Temptations and even The Monkees were not really boy bands. There were some classical ones though like The New Kids on the Block, The Backstreet Boys, Take That and NSync (no 98 Degrees however). Anyway, a Scottish man sat next to me, out of pity, and helped me out just enough so that I finished 2nd last, thus getting a bottle of wine. Since I don't drink alcohol, I offered it to him and he was quite appreciative. We talked for a bit and it turns out that he lives in a town between Edinburgh and Glasgow and his father is Ukrainian. His father fled from Eastern Ukraine in World War 2 and ended up in this town in Scotland where he worked as a labourer and I think a machinist. Whatever the case may be, the man's father still lives in that town and is a well-respected individual. I thought it was amusing to hear a Ukrainian talking with a thick Scottish accent. Actually, the man who helped me doesn't speak Ukrainian, although he could as a child, because his mother is Scottish and they spoke English at home.

Thursday and Friday turned out to be fairly uneventful days. On Thursday, I continued my training with the AFL Umpires down at Reg Bartley Oval in Rushcutter's Bay. To get there, I take a train to the Kings Cross station and then walk the rest of the way, another 10 minutes. Kings Cross is a famous part of Sydney and is that city's Red Light District. I've passed through as small part of it and it seems quiet enough, although there are many neon signs. There is also a constant police presence in the area and the cops are out there with drug dogs for good measure.

It should be mentioned that the New South Wales Police Force was the first law enforcement agency in the world to accept women as constables, doing so in 1915. At the beginning, women had to be content with essentially traffic duty and they had to leave the force upon marrying up until the 1960s or 1970s. Now, though, they have full equality of opportunity and pay in the Police Department and take on all of the same and often dangerous roles as their male counterparts. As an aside, in Australia, there are no such things as local police forces, with each state supplying the cops. In other words, there is no Sydney city police service, only the New South Wales Police; this would be analogous to Ottawa, Toronto or any other place in Ontario having no police force and the whole province policed by the O.P.P. There is a national police force in Australia, known as the Australian Federal Police, I think, and I believe that they have similar duties as the R.C.M.P. As well, Australia is home to the oldest mounted police unit in the world, known, I believe, as the Royal Australian Mounted Police (R.A.M.P.).

There will be no update next week as I will be traveling through Australia's Red Center and I will be unable to post updates. On Tuesday, I fly out to Alice Springs, a town in the center (almost literally) of Australia, and then on to Darwin. The whole tour will take about 9 days but I will be gone a bit longer as I have to arrive the day before and fly out the day after. I am really looking forward to this as I will see many landmarks, such as Uluru/Ayers Rock and the back country which I consider to be the "real" Australia.