Wednesday 07 September 2022

Out in the real world I see that Britain has got a new prime minister, the USA has got an old one, NZ is soon to have an ex one and words fail me to describe what ours is.

What a pity, Nick Kyrgios has just been beaten in his quest to win the US Open tennis tournament.  And not only has been beaten he has been beaten by a girl named Karen, that has to be a blow to his ego.  Apparently he went through is entire repertoire of tennis skills, including throwing his racquet into the ground, taking injury time out and shouting at his box (now isn't that a funny thing to do) to no avail.

Talking about sporting bad boys, one of the AFL bad boys, Wayne Carey (The Duck), has been in a bit of strife this week.  Whilst gambling at the casino in Perth he went to get his hankey out of his pocket and as he did so a bag of white powder fell out of his pocket onto the casino floor.  This was spotted by a keen eyed croupier who reported it to casino security and Carey was escorted from the gaming floor and also evicted from his room at the casino hotel.

Apart from Carey nobody is suggesting what was in the bag although most would be drawing their own conclusions.  Carey himself has stated that the powder was crushed anti-inflammatory tablets.  This statement in itself leaves a lot of questions to be answered.  WA police are currently undertaking an investigation into the event.

Some of you with longer memories will recall that this isn't the first time that the Duck has been in some trouble, including having it off with a team mate's wife in the toilet at a party and allegedly throwing wine over his girlfriend and allegedly various other examples of unsavory behaviour.

In the meantime Carey has lost his various media gigs, at least for the time being.

Talking about the AFL.  In the last 24 hours the AFL has signed a new seven year $4.5billion broadcast rights agreement with Seven and Foxtel.  That is a lot of money to watch some overpaid boys and girls running around kicking a footy.  With this amount of money coming into the AFL coffers the players including the players in the AFLW comp will be putting up their collective hands for money, probably event the AFLW team that scored one point, that is correct one point, in their game last week.

Look at me writing all these sporting stories who would have thought it!

Now, back to more familiar territory.  I have received an invitation to a zoom seminar from the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs to attend a seminar next Monday evening titled "Medical Fears of the Malingering Soldier: 'Phonies, Cronies' & the Repat in 1960's Australia".

Next Monday night I am attending a book launch at the Shrine.  The author, Andrew Quilty (cousin of the well-known painter Ben Quilty) has recently written a book about his exploits in Afghanistan.  The title Monday night's presentation is "August in Kabul: Andrew Quilty in Conversation with Tracey Curro".  

I don't know much about Quilty but I reckon he probably comes from the other side of the political divide than my good self.  I daresay that will affect whether I purchase his book or not.

I have also volunteered to do a presentation to my U3A Maritime and Military History group.  The topic I have chosen is "The AIF on the Western Front in The Great War".  I bet you are all jealous that you can't attend that.

I have had a look at the covid figures for Australia and Victoria for the last week and all the numbers except for the daily death figures are continuing to decline.  It is unusual for the death numbers to remain high cause they usually decline with the decline in the number of new infection albeit one or two weeks behind, but that doesn't appear to be happening at the moment.

    Corona Virus Weekly Stats – From 22 March 2022 – Week 9 Reasonably Covid Normal

D	Aus Infected	Aus Increase Daily	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase Daily	NSW Increase Daily	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
22/03	3,975,559	32,379	96.7%	1,195,239	9,594	9,594	387,622	211,527	52,983	94.9%
30/03	4,436,572	50,082	96.8%	1,271,494	11,749	25,235	479,116	258,112	58,488	95.1%
04/04	4,715,763	35,015	96.8%	1,320,678	10,011	15,572	500,914	266,110	63,545	95.2%
13/04	5,207,650	54,185	96.9%	1,410,828	10,907	18,265	443,901	234,081	60,756	95.3%
20/04	5,494,804	36,856	97.0%	1,471,567	10,628	15,414	311,570	188,676	53,518	95.4%
27/04	5,780,569	24,135	97.0%	1,532,685	10,734	12,188	340,481	157,589	51,835	95.4%
04/05	6,072394	42,725	97.1%	1,597,464	10,779	11,939	317,353	139,572	57,154	95.5%
11/05	6,387,747	53,338	97.2%	1,673533	13,973	12,265	350,262	137,336	67,608	95.5%
17/05	6,683,581	33,281	97.2%	1,747,794	13,694	10,972	382,835	135,280	77,809	95.6%
25/05
15/06					8,687
22/06	7,885,040	30,303	97.5%	2,049,802	7,769	9,472	214,105	88,746	41,690	95.8%
29/06	8,078,931	24,986	97.5%	2,091,140	10,777	11,067	234,276	104,191	43,174	95.9%
06/07	8,324,143	32,886	97.6%	2,156,525	10,056	13,775	280,368	124,706	50,376	95.9%
13/07	8,605813	44,183	97.6%	2,223,522	11,176	10,622	316,773	135,832	58,357	96.0%
20/07
27/07
03/08	9,517,112	41,238	97.8%	2,447,381	9,122	16,648	327,373	171,284	55,195	96.1%
10/08	9,711,780	27,058	98.7%	2,492,023	5,898	11,356	257,259	150,347	37,085	96.2%
17/08	9,843,529	13,283	97.9%	2,523,433	4,732	8,064	195,139	117,163	26,476	96.2%
24/08	9,948,913	15,092	97.9%	2,546,561	3,359	6,690	142,330	86,332	19,325	96.2%
31/08	10,031,149	13,232	98.0%	2,564,340	2,857	5,434	111,070	67,106	15,583	96.3%
07/09	10,091,235	6,207	98.0%	2,579,089	2,237	3,666	87,446	50,994	12,270	96.3%

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – From 22 March 2022 – Week 9 Reasonably Covid Normal
Date	Aus New Infection Daily	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection Daily	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
22/03	32,379	2,090	93	21	9,594	256	24	5	26	7
30/03	50,082	2,446	100	21	11,749	280	18	5	28	7
04/04	35,015	2,645	108	21	10,011	305	17	3	7	1
13/04	54,185	3,147	126	29	10,907	391	19	2	39	14
20/04	36,856	3,325	155	39	10,628	437	34	12	35	14
27/04	24,135	3,385	144	N/A	10,734	456	32	8	33	13
04/05	42,725	3,111	148	N/A	10,779	473	25	6	44	11
11/05	53,338	3,102	114	N/A	13,973	533	33	5	40	17
17/05	35,281	3,154	129	N/A	13,694	516	31	3	49	20
15/06		2,887	104	N/A	8,687	476	35	8	57	18
22/06	30,303	3,029	110	N/A	9,472	402	29	10	59	24
29/06	24,986	3,237	115	N/A	10,777	468	35	9	36	23
06/07	32,886	3,757	137	N/A	10,056	523	29	5	38	23
13/07	44,183	4,477	137	N/A	11,176	739	36	5	57	20
20/07
27/07
03/08	41,238	4,861	162	N/A	9,122	743	40	8	65	6
10/08	27,058	4,416	126	N/A	5,898	610	30	8	132	52
17/08	13,283	3,944	129	N/A	4,732	518	22	7	42	15
24/08	15,092	3,309	96	N/A	3,359	402	24	5	57	10
31/08	13,232	2,933	84	N/A	2,857	333	20	5	69	26
07/09	6,207	2,492	77	N/A	2,237	222	18	3	62	11