Live Reports on Hurricane Yasi... right after the Cricket!

It's really true, all the live reports on the biggest cyclone ever to hit Australia, were brought to the good people of Queensland after they finished broadcasting the 6th day of the build-up-for-the World-Cup one-day-international matches in cricket between England and Australia.

One thing I've noticed in Australia is that they take their sports much more serious then they take themselves. Australians like to make fun of each other and of themselves. It can sometimes be quite harsh, but it's always with a smile. Australia's humor is dry, full of extremes, self-mocking and ironic. Great examples here

Black Australian Humor at the side of the road.

Also, at times like this, it gets quite black. While in some cultures it may be considered poor taste to find humor in these difficult circumstances, Australians tend to look for a lighter side.
Today on the reports on the Cyclone Yasi reporters asked: "What was it like, last night?" and the response you get from people who had trees flying through their car is "quite windy." People who had half of their house blown away talked about 'natural air-conditioning,' and 'finally having that sun-roof the wife wanted.'

Brisbane Rugby Leage

But then it comes to sports in Australia. Those are taken seriously, they are very well covered, reviewed, debated, watched and bet on. Breaking News on TV is being postponed if games end up in extra time. A newspaper here (like the Courier Mail) has about 75 pages. At the end of December about 25 pages were about the floods, 20 pages were about Australia losing The Ashes to England, 10 more pages about other sports and 20 pages for the rest of the news. Also, it has an insert of about 8 pages filled with all the horse- and dog races held that day which you can bet on.
It's sports-crazy. And they watch everything. Cricket, horse racing, rugby league, motorsport, Australian rules football, rugby union, soccer, tennis and swimming. In 2008, the 10 best watched programs on TV were all sports.
Although I thought sports were already was quite big, people say it's only just starting. That's because the Rugby League is about to start, The most watched sport on Australian television with an aggregate audience of 128.5 million viewers in 2009. The biggest thing happening is supposed to be the State of Origin, which is an Australian best-of-three series of rugby league football matches between the Maroons, representing the state of Queensland and the Blues, representing the state of New South Wales. Described as "sport's greatest rivalry."
Not only Australia has this, New Zealand has the same. Prime minister John Keys of New Zealand just called new elections on November 26, highlighting the importance of the election date to fit around the Rugby World Cup - which will wrap up in October.

Such is the Australian population's devotion towards sport that it is sometimes humorously described as "Australia's national religion"
One good thing about this, is that I can even watch my FC Twente games live on TV, if I can be bothered to get up in the middle of the night :)

Ahead of the Storm

A small update from Burrum Heads.

I've been slacking a little bit over the last two weeks, just enjoying the weather, the walks and friends visiting.
But now there's big news from australia. Like if there weren't enough floods and bushfires the last month, Hurricane Season has started and it's a big one heading this way. To the right you see the actual picture of today and it's about to hit at 11PM tonight.
Luckily for us, it'll hit the North of Queensland and not where we live.
For us it only means some rain and wind.
The next picture shows how big it really is, when you put this cyclone over Europe:

We'll just have to wait and see. Tomorrow I'll blog some more and tell about the last week, about Kat started her new job and doing really well, and about hikes, bikes and the weather. (I'll rename this to Chiels Weather Blog shortly)