Van Halen heralds Australia's birth into the second round

There was a beautiful women to one side, and to the other some git trying to steal my wallet. I was wearing a dress made out of Big Bird (of Sesame Street fame) feathers and standing in the foyer of the Casino. Incensed by the breach of my personal space and more importantly the confines of my wallet I start laying into the aforementioned git in an attempt to knock all his teeth out. All of a sudden though, Van Halen's "Jump" starts to ring out all around me. This is odd I think, I pause momentarily from my amateur dentistry, Van Halen has never been the soundtrack to my dreams. Then I wake up, dream over, it is 3.30am and my phone is ringing- Van Halen is my ringtone.

A definitely more awake and possibly slightly inebriated Emil is on the other end of the line: "are you coming down to the Hood to watch the game?" It is of course the morning of Australia's clash with Croatia, and although I have planned to get up (in another 45 minutes, NOT at 3.30am) I have to answer in the negative. I have trouble enough, dragging myself from my pit on cold mornings before even the crack of dawn, it is a little far fetched to imagine me getting myself to the Hood at that time.

I do get up to watch the game, in front of a roaring fire with Ol' Pa. And those of you who also saw the game will know it was well worth the effort- I won't go into the details. The result of course was to Australia's benefit and they will now face the Azzuri in the second round. Although some of the Football wasn't particularly pretty, there was definitely ample amusement. Firstly the Croatian coach on the touchline looked as though he would have a coronary at any moment, which provided plenty of chuckles. And then, Graham Poll, the referee made a complete tit of himself. He effectively sent off the same Croatian player twice, liberally distributed bookings and the occasional red card, and yet when physically manhandled by Croatian players took no action. To be honest though, Graham Poll has been making a cock up of the job for a long time; it is well known that Premiership games under his direction regularly turn into an exhibition of his ego rather than any sort of Footballing prowess.

One of the more interesting consequences of this morning's result is that Australia will now face Italy. Just as in recent days Croatian-Australians have faced a dilemma over who to support, no doubt the substantial Italian community in Adelaide will experience similar problems. It will be amusing, to say the least, to see all those so-called 'Italians' who have never been to the country, speak very little if any of the language and sound more like Crocodile Dundee than Pavarotti, claiming to be Italian and supporting the likes of Totti and that baffoon Buffon.

Regardless of tensions off the pitch though, it promises to be an exciting clash and I can say this time that I will be down the Hood (given the game will be at a more godly hour) to cheer on the green and gold.

The profits on the bus go round and round...(or is it 'up, up and up'?)

This blog may disappoint many of you given that we are almost mid way through the World Cup, but I am sorry to say it has nothing to do with Football. Rather I turn my attention to generally all-round-good-guy Mike Rann. Mike is a particular favorite of mine but recent decisions, or to be more precise one decision in particular, has rubbed me up the wrong way.

Mike Rann is of good stock (English), and although his eyes are definitely a bit fucked giving him a sort of Car Salesman image, he is the sort of guy that I have always felt some degree of admiration for. In particular his shake up of the legal profession, vis a vis overruling the DPP and the parole board may on first appearances seem to be populist in policy orientation, but a walk down Rundle Mall any day of the week is testament to the fact that there are a lot of weirdos in this town and they ought to be locked up and then left there.

However my rant here shall not concern his many successes, but rather his most recent gaff. You may have heard over the past few days of plans to hike up public transport costs by 10%; the alledged justification is rising petrol costs. Adelaide's public transport system is to be quite honest a shameful shambles, and already the cost is by no means justified by the quality or frequency of service- we are definitely in no need of a price hike.

I am a frequent commuter on the 106 which takes one on a rather mundane run down Magill Road and into town along North Terrace and onto Pulteney Street. It is widely accepted that users of public transport do so in order to be at a certain place at a certain time. This is however a logic that seems to have escaped the brainstrust at TorrensTransit; all too often I am left stranded at stop 14 when the scheduled bus arrives very late (ie. just in front of the next scheduled bus) or fails to materialise at all. Assuming one does actually manage to get on a bus, then one can expect to be greeted by some miserable sod in the guise of a bus driver, with a frown and glare of contempt. I mean if they don't want to be bus drivers then nobody's holding a gun to their head, as my wise old Grandfather says: If your going to do a job (no matter what it is) then do it well. I don't think it is too much to expect a courteous hello occasionally, rather than the sort of death stare that I imagine the Nazis reserved for their most hated Jews.

Coming home is not much better, it is not uncommon to travel home with 2 or even 3 106 buses following each other! Really! The people at TorrensTransit really have their finger on the pulse so far as efficieny is concerned.

My chief point is that until something is done about the shambolic state of the transport system in this city, then no price increase is justified. There is very little coordination of the services, that is to say that very few of the buses connect easily with the trains or the tram or other buses for that matter. Mike's not doing a bad job, but this is definitely a gaff of monumental proportions.