St George's Day & the Storm

So much for autumn - 29 degrees and sunny today. Whilst I was not thrilled to be running an hour long training session not long after sunrise, it was actually great to be outside on the fields. This evening I went to a party at Jenny's in south Sydney (she is Kit's girlfriend); almost everyone there was English, so it was something of a St George's Day party. Kit's not been at work today and has been hanging his Ottery St May St George's Cross flag from the balcony all day.

It's been something of a big news week - in fact it's been going off in Melbourne. The much anticipated new series of Underbelly started recently - a drama series based on the underworld of crime, prostitution, drugs and corrupt police in Sydney and Melbourne (and, incidentally, written by the father of a boy I teach). It is based on real people and situations and has successfully fought off legal challenges to stop it being broadcast. Bizarrely this week one of the main characters who was one of the crime bosses, died on the show; on the same day as a recently convicted crime boss (who is represented in the show) was murdered in Victoria's highest security prison. To top that, yesterday it was revealed that arguably the most successful NRL side in recent years, the Melbourne Storm, have been in breach of the salary cap - paying players out of a secret pot of money. They've been stripped of their NRL Premierships (2 in the past four years) and all points this season. It's pretty massive news here (you can read more on Nick Bryant's blog, on the left of this page). I'm a bit gutted because I was really looking forward to seeing the Tigers play the Storm at my local oval in a couple of months time, which will now be a rather pointless affair.

Tomorrow is the first fixture for my school team - against one of the schools at which I interviewed two years ago. More on this later in the weekend....