When the Cheshire emerges...

 Doping in Australian sport. Matchfixing too. The blackest day in Australian sport.

Haven't we seen this photo EVERYWHERE today?

Who would've thought it was this widespread? You read about scandals elsewhere... the Lance Armstrong case, the Europol investigation into soccer match fixing. But Essendon players being injected by some suss guy with unknown stuff? Deplorable. And what if Jobe Watson were to get stripped of his Brownlow Medal if the substances test positive? My goodness. What a sad day it would be.

This disappoints me as much as anyone else. I hate to see anyone disgraced by this conduct but if they're guilty they bring it upon themselves. And it's not just the AFL being looked into. Not surprised the NRL's not saying much on matchfixing from what I've previously read... but good on the Australian Crime Commission for doing the report. This needs to be stamped out - how any sport is still credible I'm starting to wonder...


I also wanted to mention the Jeremy Fernandez situation.

Isn't it disgusting? If this is true then our country's in a sorry state. The guy is as professional as any other, and I love watching him on the ABC because he's good at what he does. What a shame this is. Did the world not learn from Rosa Parks as this man did?

***
There is no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the way. It's a principle of living rather than seeking.

Every moment that you spend upset, in despair, in anguish, angry, or hurt because of the behaviour of anybody else is a moment in which you've give up control of your life.

Having some time on my hands on Saturday and not really in the mood to do my handwashing, I decided to go look at some shops in Dubbo's south I hadn't got to before. And because I was near the highway heading out (one of them, there's three plus other roads...), I just thought I'd drive that way.

I did have a destination in mind. Skipping the first village off the highway, I beelined for a small stop named Geurie. I knew they had a good pub and it was lunchtime so thought I'd make the effort for a decent pub meal. The sun was shining after some rainy days, and driving past the (perhaps not) surprisingly green pastures was simply beautiful. With a blue sky and fluffy clouds, singing to songs like Cee Lo Green's 'Fuck You' was always going to be that much more spirited. I heart Triple J (sidenote: how sad is it that Rosie's stepping down from Super Request... haha I'll always remember her as the cool chick who introduced the eps of Degrassi: TNG on ABC).

28 kilometres later I got to Geurie. There was the pub, a petrol station and a general store open on the main street. Pulled over, realised there wasn't even any historical sights here via mobile internet. Hm. Nice building for the post office though, and a cool train station. Halfway between The Outback and Sydney apparently.

Went to the pub as intended, only to be told by the shady guy behind the bar they weren't serving food. Apparently a group of five travelling through didn't know that either.
So having no choice, I decided to make the drive back and stop in Wongarbon, that village in between. I knew they had a pub. At least they have a gallery there (although arriving at the closing time was bad timing). Walked into their pub a bit more confident - but the man said their meals were only for dinnertime (on Saturday anyway). He did offer that I could eat a pie from the general store in their beer garden, but I passed.

Ten minutes later and I was back in Dubbo. I went to the ultimate fail-safe and ended up buying a massive half-wrap from the Short Street Store and ate it in Victoria Park. Learnt an interesting lesson: the enticing roads can lead you anywhere but not anywhere has food.

Have you travelled a while only to find you couldn't get what you wanted? Food or otherwise?

So the past two days have been hectic. Just a bit. No additional tasks were done yesterday because of commitments. However, my first stop of the day provided the perfect photo op: