October 15, 2010

Bummer, the end has come for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and we’re going to miss it. Steve and I have loved tucking up in bed, enjoying moments of pure sporting magic – it’s been bliss. However, we’re also glad the big games are only every two years, because it’s bloody knackering watching TV late at night with the lads waking up so early. I reckon the Games have been awesome, although I have found the media coverage both quite amusing and yet highly ignorant – there’s been so much negative bullshit: the pool water is making the swimmers sick, they’re all getting Delhi belly, the toilets are dirty, there’s dust on the road for the cyclists, there’s moths in the pool, too many bugs on the track, etc, etc, etc… Its all been very uniform coverage too, demonstrating that very few journos dare to stand up and be different. The majority have probably never left their home country before. At least the athletes ignored the bullshit and got stuck into competing, I mean is there any such thing as an ideal competitive environment anyway? Everywhere has its challenges and I’ve loved the exposure the games have given India. It’s a remarkable country – the most remarkable country on the planet in my experience. Everything assaults you in India – sight, sound, smell, hearing, etc… just the sheer scale of humanity you contend with every day is something special, especially if you come from somewhere as sparse as Australia. You know, two people fucked it up – Suresh Kalmadi and his sidekick Lalit Bhanot – they’re the dudes with ultimate responsibility and they didn’t get it right. So now they’re suffering the embarrassment of failure, their faces are smothered with egg and their corrupt practises have been exposed – that’s great. However, let’s forget about them and focus on the great stuff. As with most countries hosting something on this scale, when the shit hit the fan, everyone in Delhi came together and put on some fantastic games – hiccups included. That is what we should be focusing on – not the idiots who fucked stuff up. To err is human after all and with all the chaos, I reckon it added to the ‘show’ and I absolutely loved it. Perfection is boring after all. I just hope other non western Commonwealth countries are willing to step up and host it in the future. Exposure to cultures different to our own gives us a much deeper understanding of each other, and if we can appreciate each other and the differences between people, then we have a greater chance of real peace in the world. Yours, without the bollocksAndrea PS obviously living with a Pom and the pretty strong anti-Pom sentiment on the TV round these parts – i.e. “we’re Aussies and we just love beating the Poms” to which my husband says “what the fuck?” I thought it might be worth adding a final thought. The rivalry between Australia and the UK definitely goes both ways and after the UK beat Australia at the Olympics in Beijing for the first time in many years, I think a lot of Aussies are pretty pleased with our result at these Games – we came out on top once again. However, “victory” (that is essentially victory over the Poms) is definitely not certain at the London Olympics in 2012 because host nations always do well and the “Poms” officially won more medals than the Aussies at the Commonwealth Games anyway – although Australia still won more Gold. Taking into account that the Olympics will be the combined force of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland + some small places like the Isle of Man, the medal tally actually stands as this. Just for anyone who’s interested…. Australia – Gold: 74 Silver: 55 Bronze 48 = 177United Kingdom – Gold: 51 Silver: 79 Bronze: 69 = 199

When we landed in Australia about 14 months ago, I kept hearing advertising for Pandora. I thought it was the name of a jewellery shop, but over time, came to understand it was a ‘new way to do jewellery.’ The other day I walked past a jewellery shop and had a look in the window at the Pandora selection and I finally got it. You buy the bracelet and then you spend a fortune on lots of little bits and pieces to fill said bracelet, and wallah, you have a new bracelet. But the best bit, of course, is you can spend even more money and have a different bracelet for everyday of the week. You can also use Pandora on necklaces and anything else it can be inserted onto – a nice cock ring perhaps? I know that many people think this is ace and will enjoy putting their Pandora together, but I think it’s a croc of shit. If they got the advertising campaign sorted and focused in a way that talked about the tremendous creativity it offers or the beautiful individuality you can achieve with your jewellery – then I’d probably be a bit more supportive. I’d also appreciate it if it was focused on young girls or teenagers – because that’s very much what young girls like to do – but it seems this trend is taking the world by storm and grown women are the target market. As with any new fad, I see it as a way for us all to be clones, to follow rather than to lead, to waste money on bullshit and to spend time on irrelevance rather than focusing on the important things in life. OK rant over, it’s just something that’s really gotten on my tits, and I know it’s not exclusive to Australia, it’s on its way to becoming a global phenomenon, but that just makes it worse in my eyes. Come on girls, let’s focus on ruling the world, and we’re not going to do that if we allow our headspace to be distracted by bullshit. Yours, without the bollocksAndrea PS: I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m OK with that!