In the only suitable fashion.

No play before lunch, rain
Marylebone Cricket Club v Nottinghamshire at Lord's, 14-17 Apr 2006

Almost a fortnight of the most unbelievable comedy of errors is over, as I have left my previous hosting service for hopefully greener pastures.

Some catching up on blogging to do. Goodness me, the English domestic season starts in a few minutes!

(Update: I've managed to recover a couple of blog entries posted between the most recent backup and the final crash. Google's cache is good for something after all!)

Links to Good Friday messages from notable church leaders:

It’s official. The Surrey Lions are no more. From this season onwards, the Surrey CCC limited-over team will be known as the Surrey Brown Caps.

Why? Because, funnily enough, they wear brown caps.

Which, of course, explains the colour of the Surrey training shirt that I bought at The Oval in 2000 (picture at right)

Surreycricket.com has the official story.

This website is back in action after approximately 40 hours off the air. Initially described to me by my host’s tech support as a GRUB issue, it finally involved a complete reloading of the operating system followed by a complete reload of the configurations and data on every hosted account on mulroney (yep, my provider has named all their servers after Canadian prime ministers).

You don’t have to swear at the football and eat a pie to be an Australian, but you do have to believe in democracy, the rule of law and the rights and liberties of others…. Where we have reason to believe that people are not truthfully or honestly meeting that test, we have every right to deny them citizenship, or if by subsequent conduct they show that they don’t meet the test, then we could invite them to forfeit their Australian citizenship.

wet·land (wtlnd)
n. A lowland area, such as a marsh or swamp, that is saturated with moisture, especially when regarded as the natural habitat of wildlife
(Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition via Dictionary.com)

Unless, of course, you are in the U S of A where, it seems, the Department of Interior considers any wet lands to be wetlands.

Especially if they are water hazards on golf courses. Or even puddles.

The St Petersburg Times in Florida picks up the story, and check out the Department of Interior's official line.

From today's edition of The Guardian:

"The list of the actors who have auditioned for the role of James Bond is almost as long as the complete credits of a 007 production. Now an extra name can be set alongside the likes of David Niven, James Mason and Cary Grant - that of Carry On star Sid James."

Read on... and then check that calendar again.

"Short of a neon sign flashing 'Saddam bribes hidden here' it is hard to imagine what more Mr Downer and DFAT would have needed to comprehensively investigate AWB, long before the Volcker inquiry belled the cat. The most innocent explanation of Mr Downer's behaviour is that he has been at DFAT too long, and, like his senior public servants, did not want to rock AWB's boat.

"In 1939, when Britain declared war on the Nazi tyranny, that same day your Prime Minister announced you were at war too—no ifs, no buts, just solidly with the world. How magnificent and how typical of Australia."
- Tony Blair getting the facts right but their historical perspective woefully wrong, Canberra, 27.3.06