Tuesday, August 02, 2005
A very positive step in the Collingwood Saga
Soundtrack: "Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy" by It's Jo And Danny
And a very good morning this morning.
Yes! It's finally happened! David Graveney and company have seen the light and added Paul Collingwood to the squad for the second Test. The reasoning is here. Basically, I reckon Graveney got shit scared because our batting line-up is paper-thin, and he used the crappy weather as an excuse to do what he should've done in the first place. Now, I've just checked the 5-day forcast for Birmingham, and it says that it'll be sunny but cool on Thursday, overcast on Friday, and there'll be sunny intervals on Saturday. Therefore, I'm not sure whether they'll drop either Ashley Giles or Matthew Hoggard for Colly, if indeed, they decide to play him at all. I don't think that they'll drop the Wrong Ginger One (Ian Bell), but that's okay, because we still took twenty Aussie wickets at Lord's with both Hoggy and Gilo looking pretty innocuous. Plus Colly can bowl a bit - he's ace in the one-dayers.
It seems to be a day of backtracking and going back on previously set-in-stone decisions. After declaring that all their albums would be eponymously titled, Franz Ferdinand have come out saying that actually, they're going to call their second album "You Could Have It So Much Better." I'm quite glad about it, actually, because I really think that titles set the tone for an album. I think that if FF had named the new album "Franz Ferdinand 2" then it would've implied that they hadn't really made much progress since "Franz Ferdinand," which I don't think is really the case, having heard some of the new stuff played live at some of their most recent shows. And I like the idea that you could have it so much better if you just listened to their record.
I've really been letting myself go since I got back to South-East Asia. I've stopped using deodorant, because everybody else smells anyway and I just can't be bothered anymore, plus I've been taking loads and loads of showers in one day. I've stopped using conditoner on my hair as well, because there's so much moisture in the climate that my hair never dries out. For the same reason, I've stopped using face cream because my skin never dries out as well. My goodness.
So yeah, anyway, the rest of yesterday, then. That library was massive, like a cathedral of knowledge. Fourteen gargantuan floors of literature. Pretty impressive stuff. Oh yes, and the crap-looking tan has got crapper. I now have a secondary tan in the shape of my wifebeater, and on my finger where I was wearing my $5 mood ring that I bought at Brisbane Airport to use up my dollars (I gave the dregs to Unicef as well). I haven't had a mood ring since I was around seven, and it is terribly good fun. I've been alternating being in either a "romantic" or "lovable" mood. Reckon that's a good sign?
I had a go on Wen Qi's erhu last night (Wen Qi is Aunty Hui Suan's daughter). It's only got two strings, tuned in fifths like a violin, but you play it upright, like a cello or a bass. So first off, I couldn't do the fingering on the left hand well at all, because I kept on using my very proper double bass technique, which is so so wrong, if you look at the picture of the chick playing the erhu. [My dad laughed at me for calling a womana chick yesterday. I spent far too much time hanging around with Blake in Adelaide.] And then the bow is actually slotted between the two strings, so you put pressure up or down according to which string you want to play, which I just couldn't cope with - I kept on wanting to tilt the thing to play on a different string. It's the type of thing that I'd need to sit down and really concentrate on for a goodly amount of time, just to stop myself from trying to play it like a bass.
Wen Qi is like bloody Cordelia (not Cordelia from Buffy, from WSYO). Wen Qi did her Grade 8 piano the same year as me, except I was 13 and she was 10. Yes, 10. And she only went and got five more marks than me. That's just not natural, doing your Grade 8 aged 10. She sat her diploma a couple of years ago (aged 14), but she said that she failed every single section but one, and was so traumatised that she can't face resitting it. Well there we are.
We're flying to Sibu this afternoon. The Old Man said that his internet connection is slow as-, so I doubt I'll be posting much once I'm over there. I'll probably do some of those big catch-up posts at some point, so you'll have loads to look forward to, I'm sure. In other news, my dad said that he'll subscribe to the second Test for me, so that's good. I'm not sure if I can also persuade him to let me watch the third Test, but I think that knows I'll be insuffereable if I don't know what the score is. He found out last time I came out to visit him, and I missed the third and fourth Tests against South Africa, and that was just Saffers and not even the Ashes. And also, I think secretly, he's starting to quite enjoy cricket now, but he just can't understand why the slips don't do any running until after the ball has passed them by. I feel that it'll be an excellent time to demonstrate why when Glenn McGrath is bowling, but it won't be pleasant viewing for me.
Well then well then well then. Bye for now.
And a very good morning this morning.
Yes! It's finally happened! David Graveney and company have seen the light and added Paul Collingwood to the squad for the second Test. The reasoning is here. Basically, I reckon Graveney got shit scared because our batting line-up is paper-thin, and he used the crappy weather as an excuse to do what he should've done in the first place. Now, I've just checked the 5-day forcast for Birmingham, and it says that it'll be sunny but cool on Thursday, overcast on Friday, and there'll be sunny intervals on Saturday. Therefore, I'm not sure whether they'll drop either Ashley Giles or Matthew Hoggard for Colly, if indeed, they decide to play him at all. I don't think that they'll drop the Wrong Ginger One (Ian Bell), but that's okay, because we still took twenty Aussie wickets at Lord's with both Hoggy and Gilo looking pretty innocuous. Plus Colly can bowl a bit - he's ace in the one-dayers.
It seems to be a day of backtracking and going back on previously set-in-stone decisions. After declaring that all their albums would be eponymously titled, Franz Ferdinand have come out saying that actually, they're going to call their second album "You Could Have It So Much Better." I'm quite glad about it, actually, because I really think that titles set the tone for an album. I think that if FF had named the new album "Franz Ferdinand 2" then it would've implied that they hadn't really made much progress since "Franz Ferdinand," which I don't think is really the case, having heard some of the new stuff played live at some of their most recent shows. And I like the idea that you could have it so much better if you just listened to their record.
I've really been letting myself go since I got back to South-East Asia. I've stopped using deodorant, because everybody else smells anyway and I just can't be bothered anymore, plus I've been taking loads and loads of showers in one day. I've stopped using conditoner on my hair as well, because there's so much moisture in the climate that my hair never dries out. For the same reason, I've stopped using face cream because my skin never dries out as well. My goodness.
So yeah, anyway, the rest of yesterday, then. That library was massive, like a cathedral of knowledge. Fourteen gargantuan floors of literature. Pretty impressive stuff. Oh yes, and the crap-looking tan has got crapper. I now have a secondary tan in the shape of my wifebeater, and on my finger where I was wearing my $5 mood ring that I bought at Brisbane Airport to use up my dollars (I gave the dregs to Unicef as well). I haven't had a mood ring since I was around seven, and it is terribly good fun. I've been alternating being in either a "romantic" or "lovable" mood. Reckon that's a good sign?
I had a go on Wen Qi's erhu last night (Wen Qi is Aunty Hui Suan's daughter). It's only got two strings, tuned in fifths like a violin, but you play it upright, like a cello or a bass. So first off, I couldn't do the fingering on the left hand well at all, because I kept on using my very proper double bass technique, which is so so wrong, if you look at the picture of the chick playing the erhu. [My dad laughed at me for calling a womana chick yesterday. I spent far too much time hanging around with Blake in Adelaide.] And then the bow is actually slotted between the two strings, so you put pressure up or down according to which string you want to play, which I just couldn't cope with - I kept on wanting to tilt the thing to play on a different string. It's the type of thing that I'd need to sit down and really concentrate on for a goodly amount of time, just to stop myself from trying to play it like a bass.
Wen Qi is like bloody Cordelia (not Cordelia from Buffy, from WSYO). Wen Qi did her Grade 8 piano the same year as me, except I was 13 and she was 10. Yes, 10. And she only went and got five more marks than me. That's just not natural, doing your Grade 8 aged 10. She sat her diploma a couple of years ago (aged 14), but she said that she failed every single section but one, and was so traumatised that she can't face resitting it. Well there we are.
We're flying to Sibu this afternoon. The Old Man said that his internet connection is slow as-, so I doubt I'll be posting much once I'm over there. I'll probably do some of those big catch-up posts at some point, so you'll have loads to look forward to, I'm sure. In other news, my dad said that he'll subscribe to the second Test for me, so that's good. I'm not sure if I can also persuade him to let me watch the third Test, but I think that knows I'll be insuffereable if I don't know what the score is. He found out last time I came out to visit him, and I missed the third and fourth Tests against South Africa, and that was just Saffers and not even the Ashes. And also, I think secretly, he's starting to quite enjoy cricket now, but he just can't understand why the slips don't do any running until after the ball has passed them by. I feel that it'll be an excellent time to demonstrate why when Glenn McGrath is bowling, but it won't be pleasant viewing for me.
Well then well then well then. Bye for now.
