For the other Astronuts out there

Darwin today...Effing hot. Looks like some good rain on the way...It is the wet season.

 

Its only 87.8F

(Nice use of the word Crikey!) - Its a way of saying Christ without blaspheming...
Note: its 80.6 at 3am!

 

I watched an American explain cricket on Youtube...
He said that if you spoke to someone who didn't know baseball or cricket, that cricket is actually easier to explain than baseball.
Australia is hosting India in this season's cricket schedule. We just won the game in the last session (day 5) - We are 2-1 up in the series.
There is a one day form of the game called ODIs (One day Internationals) - Australia is currently world champions in that form of the game and are set to regain number spot in the Test match form of the game.
TEST MATCH - it goes for five days (Two Innings) - The pitch is not touched up, so the deteriorating pitch becomes part of the game...the ball doesn't get replaced so its deterioration is part of the game also.
So its a TEST of the two teams, no luck or bad luck should determine the game. Every ball will tell you something about the bowler, the batter and the pitch.

On drive from a left hander...


Pull shot...from the back foot


Cut shot...from back foot...


Just three of the many shots available to a batter...dedicated bowlers must bat also...they do their best.

 

Its actually pretty simple...one end the batter bats, the other end the other batter waits for a run...He can see better than the batter and will yell Yes or No! to run...running up one end is 1 run. You can run as many times as you want but risk getting run out. So i suppose two bases instead of (3 plus home).
If the ball runs along the ground and reaches the boundary its equals 4 runs...if the ball goes over the boundary on the full its a 6! Good batters will hit the ball into the ground as soon as possible to negate the chance of being caught - The bowler is trying to get the batter to miss-hit the ball so it goes into the air and its then a chance at a catch.

The fielders dont wear gloves, you have to catch all balls with your bare hands...
Check out these beauties...

 

Talking to two Aussie women up the castle earlier tonight during the alert. They were with a guy who's from the area originally but now lives in Cambridge. As you can imagine, they were bloody frozen.

 

Its called a ball... a Cricket ball.
About the same size as a baseball but where the baseball is soft leather the cricket ball is lacquered and is very hard. Also slightly heavier than a baseball, this ball will break bones, hence the pads all over the body...Its legal to aim for the batters head, called a "bouncer", the bowler bounces the the ball shorter up the pitch so by the time it gets to the batter, its head high. Its up tot the batter to either hit the ball or get the fuck out of the way.
And yes, when you catch the ball it stings your hands...you just get used to it.

Most countries make their own cricket balls, Australia is, and always has been a leading team in the sport so our ball is accepted anywhere...

 

Aussie birds are the best.

 

Rugby round 'ere. Cricket's Pinko territory...

 

Closest I ever got to finding that out was a gal whose family emigrated to Oz when she was wee, then came back in the early '90s and bought a pub in Stirling. Kirsty, her name was.
Grand gel.

 

Ah Kirsty - Kirstin (a follower of Christ) - Great Scottish name.

 

Short for Christine here. There's also the Garlic version Ciorstaidh.

 

Well, allegedly.

 

Anyway, back to the sublime. More auroral activity forecast for tonight, and apparently the Solar wind from two new Coronal holes should hit us on January 5th. Can't post the link though.