My proper religion…Cricket
I’ve just watched an Australian movie called Howzat about the origins of one day cricket beginnings in the late 70s organised by Kerry Packer. Football ( soccer to others ) to me was a great sport when I was a mere spectator in those far of days in the 60,s when the game was more passionate and played with pride.Todays footballers are such Prima Dona,s who writhe in false agony when touched by an opposition player. The movie displayed how much I love Cricket,when my kids were young uns we would watch international games at out local riverside Park that always had a Village atmosphere and players were always available to sign autographs.Crowd involvement is always good humoured and most of all FUN ! One day games especially the 20/20 are exciting and swashbuckling displays of bat versus ball are aplenty.Huge games especially the England v Australia matches ( known as the Ashes) are hugely popular and play could last over a period of 5 days.Families attend these matches and are deemed very safe and crowd friendly.When I attained Australian Citizen and at the inauguration I was asked to support the Australian Cricket teams and of course I did but with my fingers firmly crossed behind my back ! Cricket Season is but a few weeks away and to drive past playing fields abound with young players from the age of 5 to Senior levels is a joy to behold.Ladies have their own professional and amateur teams and are very watchable.I miss the days when my young fella grew up playing at different levels and having fun,maybe today’s footballers should be encouraged to go and watch a game of Cricket and they may just learn a thing or 2 .Roll on those lazy hazy days of Summer and lots of glorious Cricket
Life now and Then
I have just watched a lovely film as seen through the eyes of a young lad at the beginning of world war 2 . He was originally bound for Australia but his mother withdrew the move in a lovely showing of love and not wanting her family to be disbanded. Children saw houses being bombed and yet used the destroyed buildings as their playground of course the consequence of death never entered their minds ( I too thought we were indestructible at their age !) Young girls aged 15 were leaving school ( as did I at just 15 yrs and 2 weeks old) and had boyfriends.The young girls of the day were inventive with their dress styles and wouild even draw lines down the back of their legs to look “cool” ( a word not used in the looking good sense of today) Camaraderie amongst neighbours was great and all people affected by the bombings supported each other in a very caring fashion and all and I mean everyone was patriotic to the core (Something that seems lacking these Pandemic days) I was born in 1945 and the war was almost over,but those early days were among the best of my life,no TV,phones and street games were common due to hardly any cars parked on the roads! I am so glad I lived through those early years when young life was just plain and simply for fun.A good fun part in the movie was all the school kids thanking Adolf as they turned up for school only to find it had been burnt to the ground by the German bombers ! .Depicted in the film was families having Sunday dinner together and sat around the radio listening to entertaining programmes.I could go on for ages BUT I am happy with the memories of my fantastic youth,Peace to you all
Community Radio in Oz
I was listening to the radio station I trained at earlier today in Queensland (FraserCoast fm 107.5) and my mind went back to those early days of the Millenium. Training was funny and my co learner Paul is now Manager of the Station. Our educator Pat was inspirational and occasionally prodded me with an imaginary sharp stick to keep me on track.I had shows over numerous time slots and occasionally did a FOREIGN music show that my German friend Jutta let me do ! Gawd knows why because I can hardly speak English myself!! This show is still going and very popular around the world,it also gave me a chance to research music from around the globe and consequently fell in love with some of the music .My pronunciation of certain songs wasn,t the best,however Jutta asked me several times to cover her show (Such Fun) The Station had plenty of friendly announcers ( sadly NOT all were friendly or helpful,but never a bother to me ) and most volunteered to attend fun raising events,with Bunnings Sausage Sizzle being one of the main stay fund raisers,I also had laughs with members of the public. My own shows consisted of music mainly from the 60/70/80s with the occasional up to date song. Community events are regularly read out and people ringing in for requests was going well.I,m a believer that Community radio is very popular with the senior population. All genres are covered by this station with music played from the early 20s to present date.Country is very popular,requests shows are very popular.Having traveled extensively around Australia I have visited a few radio stations that invariably use the same format with success (so I was informed) Sadly FraserCoast Radio is in Queensland and I absolutely loved that Station but can easily be reached via the Internet. I have worked in W.A at a station and after a while it did ok in the charts having reached number one on the radio charts a couple of times.After a couple of years the style of broadcasting has changed and my style was no longer used during weekdays leaving me no choice but to resign.I am a great believer in that Community Radio goes out to Seniors more than the younger generation although Weekend programmes are really good with some excellent presenters. My time is now taken up with being the Vice President of the Joondalup Probus Club and becoming quite adept at organizing Pub Style quizzes and also currently organizing a BINGO session (that I am really looking forward to doing) SO good people there really is life after retirement
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 