Newcastle Cricketers

Here's a list of cricketers born here in Newcastle:

Tim Ambrose (10 Tests for England, 86 first class matches, still playing)
Mark Cameron (7 matches for NSW, still playing, no relation)
Gary Gilmour (15 Tests for Australia)
Grahame Corling (5 Tests for Australia)
Reg Beatty (4 matches for NSW)
John Hill (7 matches for Queensland)
Jim de Courcy (3 Tests for Australia)
Anthony Stuart (3 One Day Internationals for Australia)
Burt Cockley (1 match for NSW, still playing)
Greg Matthews (33 Tests for Australia)
Paul Wilson (1 Test for Australia)
Belinda Clark (15 Women's Tests for Australia)
Sally Griffiths (7 Women's Tests for Australia)

Cold is good

Here in Newcastle we are shivering. It is currently 11.4°C (52.5°F) at 11.30am. This will probably be the coldest day of the year.

If you live in a place where the temperature gets colder, yes I know that I have no idea what cold is like. I have never lived in a place where it snows regularly (except on a three week holiday in Northern Scotland in January 1991).

People often say that we put on weight in winter. That may be true for some, but the reality is that we are more likely to lose weight in winter.

The reason is that our body temperature remains constant throughout the year. Whether it is in the middle of a frozen winter or a burning summer, our body remains at 36.8°C (98.2°F). This temperature can change, but the difference is only slight (±0.7°C / ±1.3°F). If our body temperature rises or drops below this rate for any extended period of time, our body tends to get a bit sick (hypothermia/heat exhaustion).

Therefore, in order for our body to maintain optimum temperature, our metabolic rate adjusts accordingly. The colder it is, the more our body increases our metabolic rate to remain warm. Conversely, the warmer it is, our metabolic rate decreases.

And, of course, any increase in the metabolic rate means that our fat reserves are more likely to be used.

Here in the western world, however, we have so many warm clothes and heaters and so much good food (carbohydrates can increase our metabolic rate) that winter doesn't affect us as much as it used to. Culturally, therefore, it is quite possible that winter does see us put more weight on simply because we like comfort foods when things are colder.

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A blog post with every single category marked (I'm doing this for scribefire)

Warm enough for me

The weather here in Eastern Australia has been quite pleasant.

After a sunless and wet summer we have finally moved into Autumn. March is the wettest month of the year here in Newcastle, but there hasn't been many storms or weather systems doing anything major in the last two weeks.

The days have been getting up into the late 20s - perhaps even 30°C (86° F) out at Metford where I have been working lately. But with the sun setting earlier our nights have been dropping to around 14°C (57° F), which means that our sleep is pleasant and the stored heat in our houses cools faster. In short, while the middle of the day can be quite warm, the rest of the day is very pleasant.

So for my Northern Hemisphere readers, you might be rather jealous at this point, having to endure your horribly cold winters... but remember Spring has sprung and it will get warmer. Winters here in Oz get nowhere near as cold (Newcastle is 6.4 - 17.0°C in July, which is 43.5 - 62.6°F).

New kebab shop in Waratah!

Click here. And it also sells Indian Curries! God is blessing Waratah for its faithfulness and blah blah blah...

Waratah, New South Wales

I live in Waratah, New South Wales.

If you want to see some pictures of my erstwhile post-industrial suburb, click here. I took these pics in March last year, "public domained" them and uploaded them to Wikimedia.

Bad procedures bedevil ICC

Despite my own chaotic system of doing things (you should see the mess in this room as I type), I am a big fan of the entire process of Quality Assurance. QA is essentially a set of guidelines that companies have that outline correct procedure.

Of course every company is different, and each company's procedures differ, but the fact that procedures exist is the point.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) appears to be an organisation in disarray. The recent complaints against Indian player Harbhajan Singh and the way Australian players behaved before and after his allegedly racist comments is bad enough. What is reprehensible is that correct procedures did not exist to ensure a fair hearing, with the result that the entire case was thrown out because of a botch-up in the way it was originally handled.

The sort of thing that has happened would be forgiveable, even understandable, in an amateur cricket system like the one that I have played in, the Newcastle City and Suburban Cricket Association. I remember one game a few years ago when an opposition player came onto the field as umpire (which is quite normal at that level of cricket), and then make a complete hash of a run out appeal because he was blind drunk at the time. Of course the NCSCA has rules governing that sort of thing (player expulsion, team points loss, etc), but our team decided to let the matter go because we won the match easily and we were on reasonably good terms with the other side anyway.

But in the case of professional sport - especially for a sport which tends to encourage nationalism (as cricket does in both Australia and India) - there needs to be clear, precise guidelines whenever something as bad as the Harbhajan incident occurs. Moreover, these procedures must be transparent and above reproach and never be bent or waived because someone in the background is "pulling strings" as it were.

The ICC is often seen by players and fans as being an inefficient, out-of-touch organisation. Member countries like Australia and India should expect more professionalism and tighter procedures from such an important organisation.

Rudd's Newcastle Pork Chop

From the department of Novacastrians-have-simple-tastes:

Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd is expected to make an announcement this week on how much the ALP is prepared to pay for the upgrade of Newcastle's EnergyAustralia stadium in the New South Wales Hunter region.

Earlier this year, Mr Rudd confirmed a Labor government would support the upgrade, but would not say if he would fund the full amount of $30 million.

Labor's MP for Newcastle, Sharon Grierson, says she can assure the electorate that the funding will be announced before Saturday's poll.

"I can't give you a revelation right now, I can say to you in the context that Kevin has given, he will make the commitment, and I can't say the amount at this stage," she said.

$30 Million can do a lot of things. But do we really need taxpayers funds - tax revenue generated outside of Newcastle - in order to upgrade a football stadium of all things?

If the people of Newcastle - and I am one - wish to build a nice big new you-beaut stadium so the Newcastle Knights can lose in front of even bigger crowds, then we should pay for the darn thing ourselves.

There's lots of things that Newcastle needs. We need more doctors. We need more teachers. We need more police. We need to upgrade and improve our public transport. Spending $30 million to widen the roads to incorporate safe bicycle lanes would be a wonderful idea.

But no. Newcastle's tastes are simple. For us it's just a matter of having a bigger stadium. What a load of garbage.

Solar Power Station heading for the Hunter Valley

This is interesting news:

Australian company CBD Energy has announced plans to build a $360 million solar farm and manufacturing plant in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.

CBD Energy says the first stage of the project will cost $60 million. It involves the construction of a five-megawatt solar farm on land near Raymond Terrace, north of Newcastle, which it hopes to complete by June next year.

Output will eventually be expanded to 30 megawatts, providing enough green electricity for more than 30,000 homes.

CBD executive chairman Gerry McGowan says the next stage will be building a factory to make a revolutionary new type of thin-film solar panel.

"We'll manufacture [it] for a tenth of the cost of conventional PV technology," he said.

The federal Coalition has promised to contribute $20 million to the first stage of the project, if it is re-elected.

This seems quite legit, though I think the June 2008 deadline is not going to be met.

It's a good start - but 30MW is not very big. The Coal-fired power stations along Lake Macquarie, Munmorah, Vales Point and Eraring, produce a big slice of NSW's power supply and, combined, produce around 4500MW. CBD will have to build at least 100 of these Solar Farms to make a significant dent in the state's electricity production.

So let's start now.

Good news is bad news

From the department of everything-is-fine-move-on-please:

Economists say a lower than expected unemployment rate in September will add to the case for another interest rate rise.

Australia's unemployment rate fell to 4.2 per cent seasonally adjusted last month, the lowest level in 33 years, after economists had expected it to remain steady at 4.3 per cent.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show 13,000 jobs were added to the labour market in September.

HSBC chief economist John Edwards says the low figure will put upward pressure on interest rates.

"It'll support the central bank's view that the economy is probably accelerating, and almost certainly it means we're going to have an interest rate increase. Perhaps more than one," he said.

The figures also show there was a fall in full-time employment but an increase in part-time work.

This increase in employment must be in regional clusters because I found it so much easier to get work ten years ago in Sydney when the national unemployment rate was around 8 percent. In 2000 I had two independent schools in Sydney offer me temporary or full-time work based on nothing but one or two days casual work with them. Here in Newcastle? Zip, nada, null.

The thing about 33 year lows in unemployment is that they occur so rarely that, really, they must be a peak that we could tumble over.

Good news for Newcastle Coal

From the department of reducing-greenhouse-emissions-by-default:

Rio Tinto Group and other coal producers using Newcastle port, the world's biggest coal-export harbor, will have loading quotas cut by 2.2 million metric tons in the fourth quarter to ease port congestion.

The two coal terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services Ltd., will reduce exporters' loading limits for a second time in six months, General Manager Graham Davidson said in an e-mail. The terminals will manage an estimated 84.5 million tons of coal this year, less than its capacity of 90.5 million tons.

Producers will be asked to make voluntary cuts, failing which the reductions will be imposed based on their current allocations, Davidson said by phone yesterday. In March, coal producers had their export quota cut by 3.3 million tons after the move was approved by coal producers, he said.

But:

To meet demand, Port Waratah is planning to expand coal- export capacity at Newcastle to 113 million tons a year in the fourth quarter of 2009 from 102 million tons and a rival group, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group expects to start up a separate terminal in the second half of 2009.

Newcastle Uni still sucks

From the department of reaping what you sow:

Newcastle University vice-chancellor Nick Saunders says he is not surprised at the institution's disappointing ranking in the latest Good Universities Guide.

Compared to previous years, the university, in the New South Wales Hunter region, had a higher ranking for research performance and for graduates' chances of getting a job.

But the rankings slipped in the categories of educational experience and student outcomes.

Professor Saunders says the survey is based on information from graduating students in 2005 and things have improved a lot since then.

"This was a very difficult year for the university, so I think it's not surprising that the students have rated their experience overall at the university down on previous years," he said.

"On the other hand we've had an increase in our rating with regards to positive outcomes for graduates, like getting a job and starting salaries and the like, so that's a positive finding."

Horse Breeders against Coal Mining

From the ABC:

The New South Wales Hunter region's thoroughbred breeders say their fight against coal mining will not stop, even though the State Government has rejected their calls to reduce mining in the region.

The horse breeders were calling for a moratorium on new mines, a cap on coal exports and a full-scale inquiry into mining.

But Planning Minister Frank Sartor has rejected their request, saying a blanket ban would be unacceptable.

Woodlands Stud manager Peter Flynn says mining is threatening the horse breeders and the campaign against mining will continue.

"We are concerned about it and becoming probably more concerned with the dust issues, the reports indicate to me that it's a fairly serious issue and that is going to affect us all," he said.

"We're definitely going to have to have a look at this and see where we go from here, that sort of news doesn't indicate to us that we need to sit back and wait to see what happens or back off at all."

Tour des drogues

Every year, without fail, the Tour de France is held.

And every year, without fail, it is affected by drug cheats.

A few years ago I was doing some casual teaching in a Catholic School in the Hunter Valley when the school was visited by an Australian female cyclist who was about to go to Athens for the Olympics (she was a former student and was actually a trained teacher). A few of us teachers sat down and talked with her one lunchtime and found out that she spends most of her cycling time in Europe because that's where the money is for professional cycling. She also made it clear that performance enhancing drugs were big, big big in European cycling as well.

Very interesting Pasha Bulker picture

This image is not photoshopped. It's probably the first image that showed how ginormous the thing was:

Lack of Doctors in Hunter Valley

This annoys me. From the ABC:

Hunter New England Health in New South Wales is urging people with non-threatening ailments to see their local GP before presenting to local emergency departments.

While many doctors have closed their books and will not take new patients, the service says people should keep trying to make an appointment because emergency departments are not doctors' surgeries.

Obviously these bean counters have got no idea. I just cannot find any doctors to go to at a moment's notice. If people take a day off work because they're sick they can't book an appointment for a few day's time and expect to get a doctor's certificate (for sick leave reasons).

I know a few doctors in this part of the world - quite a few go to our church. They are well aware of the issues sympathise with patients. Basically our health system is stuffed because of government inaction. Doctors are less likely to work in places like the Hunter Valley and need financial inducements to live and work here.

Pasha Bulker pictures

The kids and I went off this morning to see the Pasha Bulker stranded on Nobby's Beach. Click on "Read more..." to see the pics.







The ship is quite large. All the photos you see do not do it justice. It really dominates the beach area. People were lining up everywhere taking photos - even though it had been there for a few weeks.







As we were watching, a helicopter came along with something attached to it. Aiden joked that the helicopter was probably trying to fly the ship away. I took this picture above the safety railing, hence the bad angle of the shot.







I was really surprised at the low speed of the helicopter rotor blades. Here the "thing" is lowered onto the deck of the Pasha Bulker for the workmen on board to get. Later, the helicopter flew around backwards... for what reason I don't know, but Aiden liked it.







We celebrated our visit to the Pasha with a visit to Hungry Jacks. Here Lillian is waiting for another order.

Hunter School Problems

I've taught at these two schools:

A student from Rutherford High school was killed after colliding with a bus yesterday.

2 classrooms at Hunter Valley Grammar School were destroyed by fire.

Carlingford plants yet another church

My old church in Sydney, St Paul's Carlingford, is planting yet another church. The aim of the church is to plant 20 congregations by 2013. The new church is congregation number 10.

This new one is in Baulkham Hills North, which is within a 5km zone of the "mother" congregation at Carlingford.

One of the people featured in the article linked above is a man by the name of Rob Binskin, who was my small group leader way back in 1989. Planting the church has forced people like Rob to take on a leadership role within the new congregation.

If only there was a decent bible-believing church in Newcastle that had the guts and the entrepreneurial spirit required to plant churches all over the Hunter Valley.

Dirty work in Newcastle

This morning I was asked by my wife to help one of her work colleagues. Her house has been badly damaged by the recent storms and she asked me if I could go to her house and help out. Knowing my aversion to any form of physical activity (even typing wears me out) I nevertheless reluctantly agreed.

When I got there I was greeted by the woman's 22-year old son. As we sat and talked before beginning work he looked at me closely and said "You were my year 10 English teacher!". We compared notes and, yes, he was a student at the Christian school I taught at back in 2001.

The guy is now studying drama at Newcastle Uni and wants to be an English/Drama teacher. Together we mucked out their smelly garage, discussing our favourite films and interests. I vaguely remember him, and am glad that I made some sort of impression (he is studying to be a teacher after all!)