0 World Cup Tweet of the Day - 19 June 2014

The first major upset of the 2014 World Cup has taken place. 

After only two matches in the Group phase, defending champions Spain have been eliminated after losing two-nil to Chile. That's prompted this tweet:

Australia will also fail to progress after a three-two loss to the Netherlands. But at least our trans-Tasman neighbours were far more competitive than the Spanish who, like Italy in 2010, have surrendered their World Champion status far too meekly.

0 RIP Sir Jack Brabham

Another Australian sporting legend has died; the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Three-time formula one world champion Sir Jack Brabham has died, aged 88.
Brabham, a former Royal Australian Air Force mechanic, began his motorsport career on Australian speedway dirt tracks in the late 1940s.

He headed to Britain and joined the Cooper Racing Team, with which he won the 1959 and 1960 formula one championships.

But it was his own Brabham racing cars - designed and engineered with friend and fellow Australian Ron Tauranac - that led to him winning the 1966 championship.
Brabham is the only person to have won the formula one world championship in his own car.

Sir Jack Brabham was an absolute icon of Australian motorsport, and of the Australian sporting landscape in general. It's been a bad week for Australian sport with AFL legend Tommy Hafey and rugby league legend Reg Gasnier having also passed away. Tommy Hafey's funeral takes place this afternoon at the MCG, the spiritual home of the AFL.

The term "legend" is thrown around loosely, but each of the three named above were legends in their own sports. They will all be sadly missed, and we send our condolences to those who survive them.

UPDATE: We've just seen a link to this piece by Peter FitzSimons on the late Sir Jack Brabham. It's a fabulous read

0 A wonderful morning

We have had a wonderful Anzac morning in Adelaide. 

Fear not; we're not about to join the likes of DPF and try and become New Zealand's leading travel and lifestyle blogger. In fact we hadn't intended to blog at all, apart from this morning's Anzac Day tribute. But what we have experienced this morning has been deeply moving and uplifting, and definitely worthy of sharing.

We left our Adelaide lodgings at 5.45am and made the short work to the War Memorial outside Government House where a very moving dawn service took place. It was our first experience of an Anzac Day commemoration outside New Zealand, and was well worth the indignity of a 5am alarm clock whilst on holiday!

Along with what seemed half the crowd of thousands, we adjourned to a cafe for breakfast after the service, then we went for a walk. As we sat with a coffee just across the River Torrens from the Adelaide Oval we noticed the crowd building up along that Anzac Day parade route. People were out with their deckchairs and picnics well over an hour before the scheduled start of the parade.

Adelaide's Anzac Day parade was an eye-opener. Our hands are still red from all the applause accorded to the veterans who marched in a parade lasting almost two hours. There was a small New Zealand contingent at the head of the parade, followed by a steady stream of Diggers; some walking unassisted, some with walking frames or mobility scooters, some in wheelchairs and others in vehicles. This chap epitomised the parade for us:

He's got his wheelchair folded up, and is using it for support. But he was determined to complete the march under his own steam, and he did. The human spirit is indefatiguable.

The numbers of WWII veterans decline each year. But there was a large complement of Vietnam war veterans marching, who themselves are no longer young men. They were received warmly; a far contrast to the reception accorded them at the end of the Vietnam War:

There was also a large contingent of Vietnamese veterans. They too were accorded a very warm reception by the huge crowd lining the streets of Adelaide:

New Zealand was not forgotten. The crowd sang both God Defend New Zealand and Advance Australia Fair at the dawn service, and the New Zealand contingent leading the parade was greeted with cheers and applause. The Anzac spirit is alive and well.

It has been a privilege to experience Anzac Day as the Australians observe it. With the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign just one year away now it will be a time when New Zealanders and Australians can unite as never before to remember the fallen, and to honour their sacrifice.

0 Anzac Day 2014

We're currently in Australia. And it seems absolutely fitting today to join with our Anzac brothers and sisters to commemorate the 99th anniversary  of the landing by Allied forces at Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. We are attending a dawn service in at the War Memorial in Adelaide, and later this morning we will watch the parade through the city. It will be the first time we have attended Anzac Day commemorations other than in New Zealand.

The story of that fateful day was one of tragic loss of life by New Zealand and Australian troops, and by the Turks as well who lost 80,000 men in the nine-month campaign. Over 8500 young Australians didn't make it back from Gallipoli, and 2721 New Zealand soldiers died; around a quarter of all those who landed.

Our grandfather was one of those who went to Gallipoli and returned. But he came back to New Zealand with a bullet lodged in his hip, and nightmare memories of the squalor, the noise and the death.

World War I ended in 1918, but just 21 years later, England and Germany were at it again, and naturally New Zealand responded to the call. Our late father was a member of the 2NZEF, and saw action in the deserts of North Africa, in Crete and in Greece. One of his proudest moments late in life came when he was awarded a medal by the Greek ambassador for his service.

Dad may have come home from WWII without physical injuries, but the psychological damage was evident, and deep. He was a man about town prior to the war, but we never knew that man. To us he was intensely private, exceedingly loyal, and prone to bursts of anger. As we have aged, we understand why. He never spoke of the war, except on Anzac Day when he would march with his RSA comrades, and then adjourn for liquid refreshments and share memories with the men who held a common bond. But it was a part of him that we never saw.

In later years, a brother saw service in Vietnam and Cambodia. By the grace of God, we have never been required to serve our country in war, and we pray fervently that our children, and their children (when they arrive!) will be likewise spared. 

War is futile, but sometimes, freedoms have to be defended. It's hard to imagine what the world would be like today had Hitler prevailed. But the cost of war is vast on so many levels, as members of our family and thousands of other families have discovered.

We honour the fallen of New Zealand, Australia and all war-torn nations today; we honour those who returned. And we express the fervent hope that the world will never go to war again.

 We close with the immortal words from Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen:

Lest we forget.


Footnote: Barring anything of earth-shattering importance taken place, this is all you will hear from us this morning. We may blog later in the day; then again, we may choose not to.