I’m staying with the same mob, but heading to the greatest city on earth to be senior writer over there.
Senior writer? For my employers? In Melbourne? Equally exciting and terrifying, pretty much.
I’m be there in about 3 weeks, I reckon, and Cha will follow in July. I just need to find somewhere to live…
Much to be done here – getting this place ready to rent out. Good thing I’ve been diligently getting rid of stuff over the last 12 months or so. Makes it a HUGE amount easier.
I’m going to be as minimalist as possible in Melbourne. Not sure how it’ll work, but I’ve been working towards it for a while, and this is a great excuse to dump a heap of stuff. Including books. I’m ditching almost all of my books. Pretty hard for a journo to do that, ya know.
Daniel Kerr, before his hamstring injury, and Matthew Spangher in the Eagles scratch match on Saturday evening. Shot with the Sigma 120-300 with Sigma 2xTC attached. Liked the light and the expression (not the position of the boundary umpire, though).
Instead, I was at Subi Oval, waiting for a presser, then coming back here, transcribing 8 minutes worth of interview, then doing all sorts of associated things around it for the rest of the day.
We rang the ground in the afternoon, to discover that we had a bench
with power. Great! Except that it was on the boundary line, in the
forward pocket/forward flank. Not great.
But it had power! Good.
But we got ourselves moved to the top level of the grandstand. Great!
Except it had no power. Not great. All the radios and TVs, etc had
power, but not us dumb print jockeys. Oh well, I’ve got a good
battery.
Oh, and we could only see 60% of the ground! Also not great. Because of the way the grandstand was designed, we weren’t out the front, we were on a setback wing, which meant the middle/front section did a great job of blocking out our view. (See the red circle? THat’s where we were.) Draw a line from the centre-wing on our side of the ground across to the half-forward-flank on the other, and we couldn’t see forward of that.
Oh, and no phone lines. “No worries, there’s one in the office
downstairs, you can file from it.”
Fortunately there were three of us there from Perth, so we split the
duties up. One wasn’t filing Friday night, so he did the main running
around to see what was happening off to the blindside on our right, I
did the super-detail keeping with my brilliant spreadsheet, and the
other did the matchups, etc.
The ground had a clock - it was a digital one in the corner of the
scoreboard with numbers about 6 inches high. Good thing we had
binoculars…
And then at 7pm, game time, the breeze died, so it was pretty muggy
from then on. Oh well.
We got through the game, and as soon as it finished, I raced
downstairs to file. “Here’s the line,” they said, pointing me at a
network cable. Which wasn’t distributing IP numbers, so no use. And no
phones! Well, I finally got someone to let me use one in the office,
but it wouldn’t give me a line, either with or without a ‘0′ at the
front. No, I’m not overly surprised.
So I rang AAP, (because I was filing for them as well as the AFL
site), to explain that I couldn’t file from the ground, as I raced
back upstairs for the press conferences. Only to find that they had
been moved downstairs, after being arranged for upstairs. No, I wasn’t
overly surprised.
So we raced downstairs, and waited for about 15 minutes. Finally got
to talk to Woosha, then Neil Craig.
But an interesting sidelight while we were waiting for the second
presser - I was complaining to one of the local urns about the
complete lack of organisation, and how I couldn’t file. “Well, at
least AAP has copy,” he says. “No, I couldn’t file,” I say. “No, I
filed to them,” he says. And yes, he’d been doing the
quarter-by-quarter scores, same as I had, etc. Nobody at AAP had told
either of us that it was being doubled up. Unreal!
After the second presser, I raced back to the hotel to file, and rang
AAP and happened to talk to a good mate, who was very unhappy to
discover that I’d been there and was filing, as the other match report
was pretty terrible, apparently
So frustrating
But I did get an SMS from my boss on Saturday AM saying I’d done a
‘fantastic job’, which was nice. I rang him to tell him of the events,
and he was PHSL
And on Saturday arvo I got some really nice photos around Alice.
Well, it’s less than 48 hours since I got a call from the MediaGiants office about a possible trip to Alice Springs, and now I’m here in the plane.
No idea why I’m going (obviously West Coast are playing) but it would have been much easier to send someone from Adelaide, I’d have thought. I guess I’m just a star
My brother-in-law and his wife live in Alice, so after not having seen Tim for a couple of years, I’m about to see him again after seeing him at Christmas. Weird.
Apparently the hotel I’ve picked is a good one, Tim says, and I’m staying with him and Sil on Saturday night,when I’m also eating at his restaurant, which is sports-themed, so fits in nicely with the purpose of the trip.
We’re in a Boeing 717, which is pretty small, I can tell you. Two to the left of the aisle, three to the right. I was wedged in with a couple of old Poms, who seemed quite fascinated by the fact that a fair number of the West Coast boys had a chat as they shuffled past me on their way to their seats, but a kind cabin attendant moved me a couple of rows forward where there was just one bloke in a row of three.
Lunch was quite nice, surprisingly. Cold silverside and roast veges, and a bread roll.
Ah, the Nano. Such a good thing, and if only I’d had it when we went to Taiwan last year. (Ignore that they weren’t out then.) With the Westone IEMs, you can feel the engines more than hear them. SO sweet! (Sitting here listening to my ‘Christian’ smart play list. The new one for Casting Crowns has gone missing, but I’m listening to some old stuff, and the bass in “Send it on Down” (Youth Alive Sydney) is just stellar, and really makes me appreciate these headphones. (And David Holmes has got outstanding guitar all over the album, and it’s always a pleasure to listen to him.)
The boys are heading to the oval after we arrive, so I’d better find out when and get there to get a story, I guess. Adelaide fly in tomorrow morning, so I’ll be back out to the airport to see them and get a quick story for their site.
Because I’ll be carting around, I’m getting a car while I’m there, which will be nice.
Well, it wasn’t much a game from the POV of it being a spectacle.
West Coast got out to an early lead and kept building it, until they took the foot off the pedal in the last (after getting it out to 73) and allowed the margin to comeback into a very flattering 48 points.
Yet another stupid report, this time on Chris Judd. And 17 frees given in the first term. OK, I really did go just to watch umpires.
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Cha and Mic are moving to Melbourne.
I’m staying with the same mob, but heading to the greatest city on earth to be senior writer over there.
Senior writer? For my employers? In Melbourne? Equally exciting and terrifying, pretty much.
I’m be there in about 3 weeks, I reckon, and Cha will follow in July. I just need to find somewhere to live…
Much to be done here – getting this place ready to rent out. Good thing I’ve been diligently getting rid of stuff over the last 12 months or so. Makes it a HUGE amount easier.
I’m going to be as minimalist as possible in Melbourne. Not sure how it’ll work, but I’ve been working towards it for a while, and this is a great excuse to dump a heap of stuff. Including books. I’m ditching almost all of my books. Pretty hard for a journo to do that, ya know.
Create your own Rubik’s Cube
Daniel Kerr, before his hamstring injury, and Matthew Spangher in the Eagles scratch match on Saturday evening. Shot with the Sigma 120-300 with Sigma 2xTC attached. Liked the light and the expression (not the position of the boundary umpire, though).
OH yes, good to be home, even in this weather. Seems more horrible here than it did at Narrogin.
Wrote some good stories, took some good pics. Including the boys in the pool, which is something we never get to shoot, so that was great.
Flickr updated tomorrow, I suspect.
Thanks Ben, today was supposed to be my day off.
Instead, I was at Subi Oval, waiting for a presser, then coming back here, transcribing 8 minutes worth of interview, then doing all sorts of associated things around it for the rest of the day.
We rang the ground in the afternoon, to discover that we had a bench
with power. Great! Except that it was on the boundary line, in the
forward pocket/forward flank. Not great.
But it had power! Good.
But we got ourselves moved to the top level of the grandstand. Great!
Except it had no power. Not great. All the radios and TVs, etc had
power, but not us dumb print jockeys. Oh well, I’ve got a good
battery.
Oh, and we could only see 60% of the ground! Also not great. Because of the way the grandstand was designed, we weren’t out the front, we were on a setback wing, which meant the middle/front section did a great job of blocking out our view. (See the red circle? THat’s where we were.) Draw a line from the centre-wing on our side of the ground across to the half-forward-flank on the other, and we couldn’t see forward of that.
Oh, and no phone lines. “No worries, there’s one in the office
downstairs, you can file from it.”
Fortunately there were three of us there from Perth, so we split the
duties up. One wasn’t filing Friday night, so he did the main running
around to see what was happening off to the blindside on our right, I
did the super-detail keeping with my brilliant spreadsheet, and the
other did the matchups, etc.
The ground had a clock - it was a digital one in the corner of the
scoreboard with numbers about 6 inches high. Good thing we had
binoculars…
And then at 7pm, game time, the breeze died, so it was pretty muggy
from then on. Oh well.
We got through the game, and as soon as it finished, I raced
downstairs to file. “Here’s the line,” they said, pointing me at a
network cable. Which wasn’t distributing IP numbers, so no use. And no
phones! Well, I finally got someone to let me use one in the office,
but it wouldn’t give me a line, either with or without a ‘0′ at the
front. No, I’m not overly surprised.
So I rang AAP, (because I was filing for them as well as the AFL
site), to explain that I couldn’t file from the ground, as I raced
back upstairs for the press conferences. Only to find that they had
been moved downstairs, after being arranged for upstairs. No, I wasn’t
overly surprised.
So we raced downstairs, and waited for about 15 minutes. Finally got
to talk to Woosha, then Neil Craig.
But an interesting sidelight while we were waiting for the second
presser - I was complaining to one of the local urns about the
complete lack of organisation, and how I couldn’t file. “Well, at
least AAP has copy,” he says. “No, I couldn’t file,” I say. “No, I
filed to them,” he says. And yes, he’d been doing the
quarter-by-quarter scores, same as I had, etc. Nobody at AAP had told
either of us that it was being doubled up. Unreal!
After the second presser, I raced back to the hotel to file, and rang
AAP and happened to talk to a good mate, who was very unhappy to
discover that I’d been there and was filing, as the other match report
was pretty terrible, apparently
So frustrating
But I did get an SMS from my boss on Saturday AM saying I’d done a
‘fantastic job’, which was nice. I rang him to tell him of the events,
and he was PHSL
And on Saturday arvo I got some really nice photos around Alice.
Well, it’s less than 48 hours since I got a call from the MediaGiants office about a possible trip to Alice Springs, and now I’m here in the plane.
No idea why I’m going (obviously West Coast are playing) but it would have been much easier to send someone from Adelaide, I’d have thought. I guess I’m just a star
My brother-in-law and his wife live in Alice, so after not having seen Tim for a couple of years, I’m about to see him again after seeing him at Christmas. Weird.
Apparently the hotel I’ve picked is a good one, Tim says, and I’m staying with him and Sil on Saturday night,when I’m also eating at his restaurant, which is sports-themed, so fits in nicely with the purpose of the trip.
We’re in a Boeing 717, which is pretty small, I can tell you. Two to the left of the aisle, three to the right. I was wedged in with a couple of old Poms, who seemed quite fascinated by the fact that a fair number of the West Coast boys had a chat as they shuffled past me on their way to their seats, but a kind cabin attendant moved me a couple of rows forward where there was just one bloke in a row of three.
Lunch was quite nice, surprisingly. Cold silverside and roast veges, and a bread roll.
Ah, the Nano. Such a good thing, and if only I’d had it when we went to Taiwan last year. (Ignore that they weren’t out then.) With the Westone IEMs, you can feel the engines more than hear them. SO sweet! (Sitting here listening to my ‘Christian’ smart play list. The new one for Casting Crowns has gone missing, but I’m listening to some old stuff, and the bass in “Send it on Down” (Youth Alive Sydney) is just stellar, and really makes me appreciate these headphones. (And David Holmes has got outstanding guitar all over the album, and it’s always a pleasure to listen to him.)
The boys are heading to the oval after we arrive, so I’d better find out when and get there to get a story, I guess. Adelaide fly in tomorrow morning, so I’ll be back out to the airport to see them and get a quick story for their site.
Because I’ll be carting around, I’m getting a car while I’m there, which will be nice.
Well, it wasn’t much a game from the POV of it being a spectacle.
West Coast got out to an early lead and kept building it, until they took the foot off the pedal in the last (after getting it out to 73) and allowed the margin to comeback into a very flattering 48 points.
Yet another stupid report, this time on Chris Judd. And 17 frees given in the first term. OK, I really did go just to watch umpires.