Its that time of year

I am writing this with 90 minutes before I leave for the plane, along with printing itineraries and trying to answer all the emails I haven't answered. I am a bad friend.

First - Happy Christmas to all of you, even randoms happening on this by chance, from Bry and I. Hope 2007 is spectacular for you and we both hope we'll see you somewhere, sometime during it. Also congratulations to my most random internet stalker who is expecting twins next year.

Christmas has snuck up on me this year - two long weekends in row courtesy of Portuguese public holidays have distracted from it as well as having a lot on my plate. I have been flat tack busy as you might have guessed from the last month or so being filled with posts about nothing, or full of photos. But all of a sudden the Christmas lights are up (Montemor this year beat Escoural by two weeks or so to put the lights up) and I'm sitting here with everything ticked off in my diary and a hangover from last night's Christmas dinner.

So I am seriously looking forward to a break, a holiday and relaxing with friends. I don't need to say that "I'm looking forward to seeing Bry" is an understatement! but interestingly as much as I'm looking forward to seeing somewhere new again I'm more looking forward to the break and spending time with those I care about. When I planned Christmas away last year I didn't feel that so much but this year everyone seems to be heading back and there has been a touch of "maybe I should've headed home". By the same token home is always there and as much as I miss everyone in Perth I know I will be back there soon enough.

Introspection has been the order of the day for the last couple of months as well with the onset of winter and days spent inside. Rain and cold brings a certain grey to anyone's mood at this time of year plus I seem to have the happy knack of getting sick. Life wasn't like this when I was working "endless summer" in WA. It's also been frustrating work-wise looking out the window and seeing grey drizzle as even though we have achieved so much in terms of compiling data, modelling resources, reviewing prospects/projects etc. etc. in the last couple of months you never feel like you're working unless you're breaking rocks or drilling holes. My fieldies feel it most, forced to pace outside the shed and left to bicker amongst themselves.

The rain brings on other emotions too - as soon as there is a sunny day, or even just a sunny afternoon, you get possessed with a mania to seize the moment, to take advantage of the sun, even though you have a million things on the computer to finish, or should really stay in bed to kick your flu. Which then leads to self-loathing if you don't do something! The rain does add a certain amount of scenery though - everything being so so green and a times a soft mist over the landscape.


OK enough talking. Beijinhos e abracos a tudos e falamos a Ano Novo. Boas Festas!

Eat like a mountain man, drink like a student

So quick flashback - when I was in the "Central North" of Portugal we headed up into the mountains (the Serra da Lousa) for a typical mountain lunch. There a series of small villages in these ranges which were settled by hermits and hunters so we lunched at one of the newer monastries handbuilt over the last 100 years with the choice of lots of meat stuffed into a loaf of bread, skewers of bull meat or goat stewed in wine.
After lunch we visited Portugal's university town - Coimbra - where half the town are tourists and the other half are in academic dress (as the undergraduate students still wear the traditional dress). Except for these guys- it wasnt until I got back home that I realised that in one photo they had kindly all posed for the camera with one even pulling a peace sign. Students. Don't worry such radical behaviour will not be seen on this blog ;)
The university was founded in 1290 but it was the capital of Portugal before then and half a dozen kings were born here. Most of them have statues littered around the university campus to impress you the visitor (or scare the students/lecturers into loyalty?). Joao the V went one better and built a library - not that impressive at most univesities but they appear to design libraries differently here. To start there's a piano at one end?! Plus I think there is more gold around the walls here than in the chapel, as well as more painted ceilings (3). My neck is still sore from looking up gawping.
This is the chemistry building - very impressive compared to UWA's steel and glass nightmare. For a number of years the university resisted changing the course structures or upgrading facilities, preferring to rely on reputation and quality of teaching. When other universities took the lead in terms of facilities and technology the university found that while these old buildings are pretty they're also pretty costly to keep, let alone upgrade. So a lot of lecturing and teaching is done in newer buildings away from the old campus/town centre.

There is also a town below the university full of the usual narrow streets but also steep roads and vertigo-inducing staircases. Once you catch your breath at the bottom you find most shops sell postcards and CDs of humourous student songs to tourists, but on weekends the "Onion Square" is filled with people trying to sell all sorts of crap to anyone. Notice I say "trying". But if you're in the market for an old axe, a slightly used gas mask, some satirical comics from the 1970's, a goats skull with a horn missing, all sorts of lamps and ceramics not quite in mint condition, coins, and so on and so forth then come here. I looked for Christmas presents for you all here but strangely couldn't find anything suitable.The new Cathedral was orginally a Jesuit church founded in 1541 but became the cathedral in 1759 when the Prime Minister expelled the Jesuits. The old Romanesque cathedral still survives to this day but its facade is less impressive since soft shaley limestones were used in it's constructions and erosion has left much of the detail obliterated (faceless saints aren't very sacred it seems).

On the way back to the car we passed the district containing the "republica" or student houses - a mix of residential college and club house. In front of one of these three students sat on the steps, in their full academic dress, catching the last rays of sun and discussing the new academic year. In front was a three-door hatchback, doors open, radio blaring, the back seat filled with bags of ice and on top enough beers to last until dinner. Students, no matter how they dress.

Something to talk about

Yes dear readers there hasn't been much here recently. I've been in bed recovering from flu, on the couch avoiding getting wet and in the office trying to get something done. So now I'm here and writing I'm not sure what to write. Not for the first this week either. In the absence of spectacular photography, interesting anecdotes or philosopical musings I'll be talking about what else has been filling my life. If other people can blog about kittens, knitting and Robbie then I can blog about sport. Cricket in fact (completely unrelated to the fact that Spurs, Sporting AND the Glory all lost last weekend). So there.

Even though I'm on the other side of the world I'm really really enjoying the fact that Australia are beating England in the cricket. It's a little hard to share that joy here because cricket is not well known in Portugal. My passing on the joyous news of victory is met with polite smiles and "thats nice". The concept of a game lasting 5 days is alien here, on reflection cricket is the one game where at times you dont just win, you can crush the other team as you inflict defeat. Either by just the sheer easiness of your victory, as in Brisbane, or by plucking victory when it seemed to be impossible to achieve, as in Adelaide.

Over here I get the English point of view mostly because the BBC, The Times and The Guardian are more comprehensive online resources than the Australian media. But thank f*k for Cricinfo because otherwise I'd go insane. One article was amazed we Aussies have enjoyed these victories so much. The fact that we've had to listen to "We won the Ashes" from every English person since 05 plus we always enjoy beating England for "historical" reasons appears to have escaped these excellent researchers.

One thing that I've mused about for a while - and since I have no one to share these musings with over a beer then I will write instead - teams may change personnel but the mindset and the preparation continues the same. Premier League teams in England are full of foreign players but still play an English style of football. For those planning to play cricket in Australia here are the common mistakes:

• Prepare well. England warmed up for Australia's bounciest pitch by playing on our only spinning wicket and our best batting wicket. Smart.
• Pick batsmen who can bat. England still pick people on the basis of one good month. Cricket takes years to learn. The English media is amazed that Phil Jaques scored two centuries against England yet wasn't considered for the first test. Why? Because in Australia it takes several seasons to get into the team, and Jaques has only really been around since 2003 (90 matches to average 57 vs Langer 296 matches averaging 51).
• Swing bowling works in Perth, and on the first morning of a Test match. That's all. Yet England continue to pick two swing bowlers tour after tour as if somehow this fact will magically change. Pick tall bowlers who bowl fast. No excuses when you have Mahmood and Plunkett in the squad.
• "Reliable" players, all rounders who "bat a bit and bowl a bit", players who "add balance" are still the mainstay of the English team. If they don't win matches, why play them? You need 6 people to get 600 runs and 4 guys to get 20 wickets, not to replace one of them for a guy that averages 20 and might get 1 for 40. Thats not an all-rounder. All rounders are Botham, Khan, Flintoff, match winners and superstars. Plus if you have one you don't make his life harder by making him captain.

After all that cricket is still funny. Gideon Haigh's writing is more enjoyable and adds way more atmosphere than the BBC's "The Barmy Army was quiet" bloggers. Shane Warne's "You don't like being called the Sherminator do you?" to Ian Bell had me giggling for days. For those who don't like sledging I have a quote for you "We didn't need to sledge because we had the batsmen scared enough" - Jeff Dujon, 1980's West Indian keeper proving that talent rises above all .

And its still human. I felt a pang of empathy at Matthew Hoggards video diary where he seems to be stuck in an endless cycle of changerooms and hotel rooms. After 24 hours travelling from Yorkshire he still hadn't left England. And the ECB wonder why their cricketers are having issues with touring. Another example from Chris Gayle's blog "After the game we came back to the team hotel and did the usual – gathered in the hallway and stayed up until 6am just talking." Or their media manager's photos of India. Sex drugs and rock'n'roll it ain't all the time.

Last week I introduced the Portuguese to AFL using a DVD of last years grand final. The general consensus was "we admire the amount of running they do but we prefer rugby". It makes sense - rugby is a game that is a lot more structured and so easier to understand. Football is easier still. But it also says something about what AFL has become, a sport of athletes. I remember when guys who described themselves as "overweight", "asthmatic", "a thug" and "useless" were champions of our game. "I could mark and I could kick and, in my book, that’s about as far as I went," he said*

*"He" is Tony Lockett - all time AFL leading kicker, winner of the Brownlow medal (for best player) at the age of 21, 6 times All Australian and 4 times leading league goalkicker.

Don't despair people. Theres one more post of photos to share, and some farewells to say next week. Plus a project review, an orebody model and at least one dinner to have. So no more sport rants!