A climate of Change

It was almost 6pm and the sun hadn't let up all day.... I was burnt and exhausted, my sandwiches still lay in my backpack, unwrapped. I shuffled over to the curbside, I must have looked like some kind of retarded suburban cowboy the way I was walking, but I had no choice, the chaffing on my inner thighs was now at 'Wasabi' levels and I'd do anything to alleviate the pain. I'd just pulled out our sign from the nature strip when our Booth Captain made the call.

"We start the count in 2 minutes and the doors will lock. So if you want in... get in now!"

It was election day 2007.

It had all begun about 5 weeks earlier, the election campaign was into it's second week and John Howard had just lost the last chance of my vote with his pathetic pledge to finally recognise 'the stolen generation'.... like seriously Johnny, 11 years in power and you wait until the eve of your fourth term to make the announcement... wheres your integrity man! Anyway that sent my vote sailing.... but where would it land, Rudd hadn't offered enough alternative from Howard to win my tick, and I still hadn't got around to obtaining my gun license so the "Australian Shooters Party" didn't seem the logical choice.

I spent the next few days analysing my life on the basis of - politically speaking, what really matters to me? It felt kind of strange as I've never seen myself as political, yeah I've always had views, but I've never tried to box them into which political party those views most agree with. Anyway box them in I had too and after a week of researching the various party's policies 'The Greens' got me with their cool triangle logo.... and got me good too. As after doing all that thinking I felt I owed it to my new party of choice to help them out..... this started innocently enough - handing out "Green Times" newspapers (recycled of course) to strangers in the city, that then became convincing my girlfriend Jess to join me in a 'Refugee rally' down Swanston St... which then became mail dropping the local neighbourhood (recycled again of course), the whole thing culminating into my 14hr 'Greens' dedication (of course not that I realised I would spend 99% of that on my feet) to the booth of 'Camden' in the electorate of 'Melbourne Ports' on the 24th of November 2007 - the day Australia decided.

The whole thing was quite an empowering experience, I even scrutinised the count which was pretty cool.... but in the end it didn't really matter.... cause we lost! Damn those two major parties!

Well until next time..... think Green.

The Night of Nights.....

On an evening in early March, while wearing suits and sitting at a sports bar at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. Pauly and I found ourselves discussing a recent lack of player enthusiasm towards the PCG. Both in full agreement on our problem, we brainstormed some ideas that could rejuvenate it’s spirit. It took no more than a few more drinks and some very ambitious, not to mention successful bets on the roulette table to make our idle bar chat PCG gospel.

Our concept was simple, the PCG needed something to rekindle it’s spirit, so we’d put the PCG’s spirit itself up for grabs, by holding a full-house season long PCG event.

The next night we ran our ideas past the committee, and after some debate a basic structure was nutted out:
Upon conclusion of every 4 way Quadrangular series held whereby the 4 full voting PCG members all participated in. Each member would sit down post series, and by private scripture record their 3, 2 & 1 votes with written justification. Votes are to be awarded on how each member performed in that series based against the ‘unwritten’ PCG code of ethics. All the votes would then be folded and sealed not to be seen again until the night of the vote.

After precise wording this concept was then put to vote, the PCG’s first ever full member vote (Pauly’s ‘Hall of Fame’ induction was never voted upon). The result was 4 to 0 in favour and thus the PCG “Night of Nights” was born!

As the season ending night approached, series were played with increasing intensity, no man wanting to drop a potential vote. Speculation began spreading too, vote tampering, ballot stacking, general integrity…. everything and one was being brought into question.

When the night finally arrived, 8 fully voted series had been held making up a total of 192 votes. Simon Beasly was paying me and Cashman as equal favourites for the title at odds of 2/1, and by the midway mark of the voting we were 2 and 1 respectively. But as the rounds wore on, our form faded and by the last round we were both out of the running. In the end it came down to the last vote of the evening with Pauly getting the 3 and taking it over Coyley 51 to 48.

With no speech prepared Pauly was in shock, compounded further when celebrity guest Russell Gilbert showed up for the presentation. But none the less he was a fitting winner, grasping the PCG Ashes with pride as he posed for post ceremony fan photos.

Upon review all committee members proclaimed the Dalton Bar “Night of Nights” a huge success, with Russ’ entertaining finale the cherry on top. If by chance the PCG lasts another year consideration has already raised to invite him back.


Regards,

Tim B.
PCG Committee Member

Presentation
(It is a bit out of sync, due to Pauly's instantanya running low on juice)

Night of Night's Tally Sheet

Cashman's votes.....

For every vote cast the player had to justify the vote with a comment, and early on one trend became clear, Cashman nearly always managed to squeeze himself into his own votes.

Round 1
P. Cashman - 3 votes
Won the final what more can you say.

Round 2
P. Cashman - 2 votes
Unlucky, bowled the best spell of bowling ever

Round 3
P. Cashman - 1 vote
There abouts but not good enough.

Round 4
P. Cashman - 2 votes
What lost it for me was the 2 chicken pies at 5AM

Round 7
P. Cashman - 2 votes
Unlucky not to score one of the best hundreds ever seen at the PCG

I would have put up some of the comments from Pauly and Coyley, except they didn't vote for themselves as much, plus they can't spell or punctuate. Though things of note were that Pauly loved to sign off everything as "The PCG Hall of famer", an accreditation he just decided to assume one night. And Coyley loved stating bookie Simon Beasly's odds whenever an outsider got up for the win.

It was also great to see Boonie getting some votes, all in attendance toasting with skol whenever he got one.

Offical PCG Statistics (9/05/07)

Batting

Bowling

Performance

Series Winners

World's Greatest Shave

Here is the video of the head shaving event which took place at a friends house on the 17th of March.

Thanks again for all your donations.

Official PCG Statistics (24/3/07)

Batting

Bowling

Performance

New statistic feature:

Ducks now split between normal and Golden

The Great World Shave-off!

There comes a time in a man's life when he decides he has too much hair.

Winston Churchill decided it

Sinead O'Connor decided it

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This Handsome guy decided it

Even Britney has jumped on the bandwagon

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And yes for the purposes of this post Sinead and Britney are considered male, even though by their photos they look more alien than male.

Anyway my point is, yes for a change I actually have a point. On the 17th of March I will be joining the ranks of these questionably handsome men and say......... "No to hair".

I will be doing so in the name of raising money for kids with Luekaemia.

You can sponser me online at this site:

Worlds Greatest Shave

If you help me reach my target of $500 I'll record the shaving on camera and post a video to this site.

So go on............

The PCG Ashes

On the 29th of December 2006, Cashman and Coyley headed over to the PCG to join Pauly for an afternoon triangular; the new year was just around the corner and the mood was upbeat.

Coyley set the early running with a 50 against Cashy in the first game. He then knocked him over for 16 taking the easy win. In the next game Coyley was pitted against Pauly, again he had the measure of his opponent, notching up his first ever PCG ton (103*) and then conceding only a miserly 4 runs before claiming the wicket. With that win he assured his place in the final, it was now just a matter of who would join him.

It turned out to be Pauly, who managed to defend his total of 4 by tempting Cashy into an errant drive with one of his floating offies, Pauly took the catch and set himself to take revenge against Coyley in the final.

In the final after making 18 runs, Pauly got Coyley with one that jagged off the pitch and squeezed through his defences, taking out his middle stump in the process. Well Pauly was pumped and very confident he could turn his batting slump around to nut out a 19 and take the series win. But Coyley was in form with bat and ball and with his second delivery he ricod one in off the off-side wall that went straight through the gate, the death rattle following instantly. Pauly was fuming, not only had Coyley taken him for a 100, but to rub the salt in he’d just bowled him for a 2nd ball duck. With his anger at critical mass he exploded, thrusting the “Killcunda Super Palmer scoop” towards the PCG pitch with all his power. As it connected with the ground an earth shattering “CRAAAAAACK” sounded out that I almost heard over in Guatemala. The aftermath was a 6 inch split down the splice of the bat, and although the Killy lasted another 20days, (Simmo finished it off via a wayward cut shot) Pauly’s act of petulance marked the beginning of the end for our beloved Scoop.

On the 3rd of the February 2007 prior to “The test of new Beginnings”, Pauly cut up the remaining pieces of the Kilcunda Super Palmer scoop and with seven PCG members watching on we burned it in the PCG backyard. Afterwards I carefully collected up the ashes, and placed them into a specially designed container.

There will never be another bat like the original Killy scoop (The Palmer II twin scoop broke after 2 days!), thus all PCG Ashes tournaments will be conducted in a manner that mirrors the esteem in which that bat held with all of us.

Official PCG Statistics (6/2/07)

Batting

Bowling

Performance

To Enlarge Stats:

Click on image. It will load a little blurred, but wait a few seconds then select the 'Expand to regular size' icon box that will pop up ini the bottom right hand corner of the image.

Un dia mas....

Hutchy is snorring, my head is aching..... I stir a little, scratching the bites on my skin. I slowly open my eyes and make out the time on my watch... 7:14AM. Whoa, that's a little early. I close my eyes.

Hutchy is snorring, my head is aching.... I stir a little, scratching the bites on my skin. I slowly open my eyes and make out the date on my watch, 19/1/07 ..... it's over.

Tomorrow Hutch and I will board a plane in Cancun and head back to OZ, marking the end of our Central American adventure. It has been an amazing two months for me, with many new faces, places and incredible experiences. But I'll preach not about the trip, all I will say is this:

If you give in every moment of your life..... your life's moments will only become richer for it.

My last two months have reinforced this personal philosophy for me.

Well hope you've enjoyed following our travels.

Hasta luego amigos!

Tim B.

PS We kept up our "Trotters" for about 2 weeks then they got lost in a blur of Cuba Libre's...

PPS Tikal is worth the hype.

One night in Puerto Barrios....

Don't you just love seedy port towns. You know, the ones that have a hooker on every corner and hotels that rent by the hour. Anyway that's Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) and me and my new Japanese mate Makoto just spent 13 hours to get here.

It was quite an effort too:

1 dawn ferry fride from Utila to La Ceiba (Honduras)
2 taxi rides
1 first class autobus ride
1 Chicken bus ride (Bus de Pollo)
2 Collectivo bus ride's (One included a free prayer session on route, well almost free I bought a specially blessed pen off the dude for 20 Quetzales afterwards.... couldn't help myself, he said it was blessed!)

Anyway so I'm back in Guatemala now. Yeah I know, I never even said I'd left, well I did... about a week ago. Actually it was just a couple of days after me and Hutch had a news years on Lake Atitlan that neither of us can remember, but neither of us will forget. But blah blah blah.... and I'm back now, with an Advanced Open Water PADI Scuba certificate and one rare close encounter with a Whale Shark under my belt. And now it's time to track down Hutchy who is about one country ahead of me at the mo swimming in Stingray infested waters, yeah he went North when I went East.

Anyway Hutch if you read this, watch ya back as I'm on the Belize border right now and I'ma hot on ya heels!

Posada San Andrés (Xela - Guatemala)

Creation

It's beauty lies in the courage behind it.....

So Fear Not...

And let your dreams evolve.......

Mexico/Guatemala photos 2006

Follow this link:

Mexico Photos

Then select:

Mexico 2006 album

Then slideshow

(Be patient, it may take a couple of minutes to load)

Back to Shhhhkoooool....

I just tried to start this with some philsophical spanish phrase, but it's a waste of time.... as my grammar stucks!

On Saturday Hutch and I left the crazy cliff divers of Acapulco and headed East. Our 8 hour bus ride brought us here, to Puerto Escondido. The town is famous for its surfing but we were here in search of knowledge; in the form of the Spanish Language to be more precise.

Armed only with our Trotter diary, on Monday we both took a deep breath then pushed on the wooden gate at institutio de Puerto Escondido. It flung open without resistance and soon after we were both sitting down at a desk like a pair of pre-schoolers waiting for their morning milk. Within minutos we had added "¿De Donde Eres?" (where are you from?) & "Necisito los baños" (I need the toilet) to our repitoir and all was looking up. But as Hutchy put it to me before school:
"Timmy, my brain can only hold so much information. When something new goes in, something old drops out."
And how right he was, for both of us! As after absorbing a day of well taught spanish we down right plain forgot to even take our brains with us on the way out! Getting "muy borrachard" (very drunk) that night as a result. This was followed by a day of truency for Hutch and two very draining solo lessons for me.

But with our plumas in hand, (pen I think?) today we continued the fight, soaking up every little bit of Español that our dried up sponges would allow us. Will we ever gain that cherished pen license? Well based on my poor gramatical skills and Hutchy's ever rumbling stomach (he's had the sh*ts for a week) no es probable, but we're still enjoying the dip regardless!

Viva La Trotter!

On the back of a great day exploring a couple of Mexico city's many tourist sites Hutchy and I settled down (grande "Sol" cereza in hand) into one of the comfortable couches at our hostel. After a few decent mouthfuls (we had earned it after walking a solid 15 clicks today) and chatting with a couple of fellow travellers our minds drifted back, reflecting over the past two days of travelling we have had together. A few more minutes later and we had decided our trip needed more than just simple chit chat accepting the good and bad..... thus with Phillip from Belgium guiding our judgement we devised the "Viva La Trotter" (named after our enjoyable experience visitng the Leon Trotsky museum today) Daily scoring diary.

The way it works is simple, there is a differential of 5 points:

• 2 points for a big win
• 1 point for a win
• 0 points for a draw
• -1 for a loss
• -2 for a bad loss

And we have agreed on 7 catergories (each to be rated as per the above "Trotter" system):

• Ripped Off (Can work in positive if we get a good deal with anything involvling cash)
• Expectation (of an event.... does it fulfill, or do better?)
• Random Luck (good or bad)
• Food (is it tasty or foul)
• Social Interaction
• Local Interaction
• Language (Como mucho Espanol did we prender?)

Each day we are both to "individualy" write up our scores (with a short comment) for the previous day, then we tally it up to get our score for that day....

Every couple of weeks I'll post up the running scoreboard to this blog.

Luego amigos...

PS After day one I'm winning with a -1, Hutchy had a -2 (he didn't learn enough Spanish)

When everything just clicks.....

The other day I got on a train in the town of Los Mochis. It was to take me on a journey through Mexico´s famous Copper Canyon to the small mountain village of Creel. For the journey I hoped nothing more than some good views and to find a nice relaxed hostel..... oh how wrong I was.

For starters the Copper Canyon train ride isn´t just "a" train ride, with no less than 86 tunnels and 36 bridges it is one of the most impressive train rides on the continent. As for the town of Creel where I hopped off, well it´s definately a travellers Mecca. From worldly French vagabonds, to inspirational Japanese cyclists, to brainstorming American inventors, Creel had them all...

I´ll let these photos do the rest of the talking.....

Hot Springs

Some of the Creel gang in one the hot springs pools

Road trip from Creel to Batopilas

Taka taking in the view of the Canyon

The Canyon is 1000 mtrs deep in some parts

Salud to Batopilas

An interesting game of cards

Ryoko tries on the PCG Members Hat

View along the River at Batopilas (base of the Canyon)

The Batopilas team!

Tijuana to Los Moschis with plenty in between....

¿Que Tal?

Hey you know these Mexican guys are a really expressive bunch, really in touch with their infeminin side, as just 20 minutes ago I was sitting in a park here in Los Mochis when two local guys came up to me and started complementing me on my lovely legs. One even carressed my knee? But I figure it´s all normal as last week when I was in Tijuana a pair of cops did pretty much the same thing only they also got me to put my hands on their car bonnett beforehand, but I figure that´s the Baja style.... yes no?

Well it has been an eventful week and just for the record Tijuana isn´t a place I recommend to any solo traveller. It´s a circus act, with Zebra´s and everything... well donkey´s painted as zebras but hey, stupid gringos like me can´t tell the difference right? Actually their main street (Ave Revolución) has still got me puzzled. It lies in that grey area that´s between, "La Rambla" Barcelona (for crowds), the Red light district Amsterdam for sex shows and Kuta beach Bali for street hasslers... truly unique, but also nothing to hang your hat on either.

After Tijuana I took myself to the more "tranquilo locación" of Mulegé. This small quiet town is situated just in from the coast about halfway down the Baja pennisula, thankfully a long way from Tijuana. I spent four days there and loved every one of them, even managed a night scuba dive in the Sea of Cortez; the local plankton living up to their reputation too, lighting up like fire flys when we turned our torches off.... truely incredible.

Amongst all this I´ve also had time to meet the Mexican secretary of Tourism (a very handy business card when dealing with Tijuanian Police), comprender en poco mas español (understand a little more spanish) and lose my camera on the ferry ride from hell.

Hasta pronto amigos....

Who is John Scott?

When I boarded a bus on Hollywood blvd earlier this evening I didn't expect too much from the journey.

But thanks to my larger than life "Franz Ferndinand" T-shirt the bus driver (a now known avid military historian) and I struck up a conversation about the original Archduke himself. A couple of stops later the conversation has transgressed to current world politics soon after moving onto the war in Iraq. At which point an elderly man sitting across from me joins into the conversation and everything progresses along just fine. As we chat I am drawn to a bright Orange Sticker stuck to his breifcase. At the next stop a lady boards the bus, immediately striking up a friendly side conversation with him, it's at that point I know there is something more about him, and there was, he was "John Scott".

Who is that you ask? Well John Scott is no different from you or me, except for one thing perhaps. As John is chasing his dream, and to me that in itself says more about LA than anything. Cause if I've learnt one thing from my short time here its that this truly is...... the city of dreams.

But in saying that... they won't catch me napping as tomorrow I'm off to Tijuana!!!!

Oh I also saw Paris Hilton drive passed in a black Porsche today but I think that John's story was much more "Hollywood".

The PCG Memoirs...

I moved into 168 Page Street about 6 months ago, it’s a pretty run down old place, paint peeling of the walls, palings falling off the fence, vines creeping into the outdoor dunny, to the naked eye not much to look at; except for one feature..... it’s hallway.

To most a hallway is what? A simple indoor stretch of corridor which you use to get from one room to another. But make this stretch a full 25 meters long then ad a 12 foot high ceiling and what do you have? Yes I know, a very long and tall hallway. But to those few dreamers of you out there I know you can see more..... and so did we.

Creating the PCG (Page Cricket Ground) was a team effort, visualised during the consumption of many a twilight beer out in the Page Street backyard. But as Kevin Costner knows they don’t come unless you build it. Thus on the 3rd of October myself and Pauly hand crafted the “Killcunda Super Palmer Scoop” from an off cut of Radiata pine. Aptly named after a Super Chicken Parmigiana that I’d consumed earlier that day down at the Kilcunda Pub, it’s creation marked the dawn of a new era at 168 Page St.

After some basic rules and a quick seam of red electrical tape being laid around 'The PCG pill', the Inaugural Page St Cricket test kicked off between me and Pauly. We both started tentatively not quite at home to the Rico deliveries bouncing in off the walls; but on the back of a nutty 38 in my 2nd dig I clenched the win, my final delivery getting Pauly a beautiful Bowled Rico off the legside wall.

Just like World Series Cricket back in the 70’s, the word spread fast, “What is this new game? What’s this Bowled Rico all about? How does this Caught Boonie work?
Less than 3 weeks after the 'Inaurgural Test' the First Triangular series was held, the results clearly illustrating - the PCG favoured aggressive batting and savy bowling. The next week ‘Triangular’ became Quadrangular, two days after it evolved to Pentagluar there was clearly no stopping this new form of the game.

To date the PCG has hosted no less than 18 series and had a total of 6008 “official” runs scored on it’s hallowed carpet. It’s had no shortage of controversy either with the infamous Lost Series still discussed with much passion.

With myself heading off to Mexico in a couple of days I can only hope that my fellow PCG Players continue diving for catches and striving to win matches on our hallowed PCG hallway.

Tim B.