Monday, January 20, 2014
The Week That Was: Heatwaves, Golden Globes and why Bill Murray did Garfield
0 comments Posted by Katina at 8:25 PM
Friday, January 17, 2014
Wow. Can I just say: TGIF.
Before I leave work for the night (because it's my new home for blog-writing with my wishy-washy internet), I finally want to address the Australian Open properly.
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1. How good are the Special K duo?
Nick Kyrgios was outstanding last night. It doesn't matter that he lost or that Benoit Paire is really irritating with his hot-headed nature. What matters is that Kyrgios clearly has the talent and skill to get to the cream of the crop. He just needs more miles in his legs. #NKrising indeed.
Thanasi Kokkinakis will develop in time too. He should be happy with his score against Rafael Nadal, and with good mate Kyrgios by his side will have a lot to look forward to in coming years.
Bottom line: Greek and Gold Day (as it was coined on Seven) showed promise. Opa!
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| Photo: SMH |
Seriously. Everyone's getting involved. And I really like it. Sam Stosur looks great in this bright ensemble, while plenty of the guys are opting for pink sneakers. Patterns too for that matter.
3. I'm on a plane for the mens' final.
How does that work? I'm off to Brisbane for a wedding next weekend, which is extremely exciting. The day after is Australia Day, and I thought that if I left pretty late I get to actually do something over there for most of the day. Plus I start at 11 the next day, which works in my favour.
It was only after booking the flight that I realised my mistake. It will be well into the game by the time I board, but that's the best bit. So (for now) I'm a little bit annoyed.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
I'm rather proud I managed to achieve this, but it was a slightly slow news week and I thought I'd write a piece on the Australian Open for publication. It was put in Saturday's paper, take a look if you like: http://bit.ly/114QEkf.
Because I still can't post more pics on here, I'm going to give you a link to my Facebook photos to have a look, so as well as the tennis you can see some of the amazing food I had and all the souvenir stuff I came home with (good thing I had only packed 14 kilos): http://on.fb.me/T37AZx.
I want to add that after I wrote my article, annoyed at the lack of Australian prosperity at the tournament, we had two title wins. I was extremely happy for Jarmila Gajdosova and Matt Ebden in the mixed doubles, while Nick Kyrgios beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in an all-Aussie boys final. Champions! I actually have a distant connection to Adelaide's Kokkinakis (never met him though), so was upset not to see him win - but Kyrgios was apparently unbeatable throughout the week. Greek power!
After I wrote an entry on the tennis prior to going, for a little while I wasn't sure if I had booked too much and would be over it by the time Friday came along.
How wrong I was.
I had the perfect mix of a week, tennis interspersed with more sightseeing (I never seem to be done with that in Melbourne still), friend catch-ups and shopping. The cousin I was staying with was surprised at how I could be out all day (easy, it's Melbourne)... it did catch up with me though. I was sick getting back to Dubbo.
I got one half of the draw right, seeing Andy Murray and Roger Federer in action twice as well as Janko Tipsarevic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Jarkko Nieminen and Tommy Haas, one of the sporting crushes of my youth. Wow.
Of the top females I saw Victoria Azarenka twice (whose noises - can you call it a grunt? - I could deal with), Marion Bartoli, Petra Kvitova, Laura Robson, Serena Williams and a doubles game with her and Venus.
No, I didn't see Novak Djokovic. And I watched Federer play Bernard Tomic in Garden Square on Super Saturday night after paying for an elusive Rod Laver day pass I found while searching on my phone knowing everything was sold out. Oh yeah, did you know the middle Saturday's called that? Just because it's always a sell-out with people buying all the day passes. Even the cheap ones. And true to the tales, there was a four-hour wait to get into the Heineken Bar area. Didn't go near it.
The Australian Open has always been an important part of my summer, looking forward to hard-fought battles, expertise from Bruce McAvaney and Jim Courier (and even Lleyton Hewitt, he knows his shit), and of course, seeing the best of the best. At tennis as well as athleticism and physicality. And after the first few minutes of being there amongst it all, I was already addicted.
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If enough of us shied away from conflict and confrontation, just imagine how much war we could eliminate.
Why?
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