Bushfired off - but beer's good!

Well tis 11.45pm here in Oz and we've just got back from the pub (where else would I go on a Friday?) and a "Speckled Hen session." Went down a treat!

Now since my last posting, I've experienced a real "first" in that tomorrow (Saturday's) proposed Ashley Jones Memorial speedway meeting at a place called Broadford, where I was scheduled to be one of the announcers, has been called off because of the bush fires situation here near Melbourne. Whilst there really was no alternative other than to call off the meeting given the current seriousness of the bushfire situation out here, you have to feel for the SSRAV (the organising club) and everyone involved who have put so much effort into organising the event and one can only hope that a suitable re-staging date can eventually be found. I was really looking forward to the meeting as, I'm sure, were a whole lot of folk.For those back in the UK though, trust me when I say having seen the news pictures of the bushfires, the situation is pretty serious indeed with something like 2000 firefighters deployed working around the clock in 12 hour shifts and the army has also been called in. So yes indeed, another first for yours truly - a speedway meeting called off not, as usual by rain as they are back in the UK, but by bushfire!

Anyway a rapid change of plan is thus required, alas, by my current host Howard Williams (no relation - at least we don't think so!) and myself and so we've decided to nip up the mere 400 or so miles to Mildura tomorrow morning for the meeting there as, alas Pioneer Park in Queensland where the Queensland State Championship is taking place, is a tad too far for my mate Howard to drive - 2,000 miles PLUS he tells me from here in Melbourne!

So yes we're off to Mildura with temperatures tomorrow forecast to reach the mid forties - that's Celsius NOT Fahrenheit! The things I do for this sport of speedway eh?

You lot back in the UK have it made with all that wet, windy cool weather you know! God it's hell out here....sunshine, heat with the sun beating down incessantly from morning until night, having to drink cool beer every day to combat the effects of that - albeit 'real' beer thank goodness, followed by a few Bundy & cokes; trying to avoid eye damage as I survey the beaches with all those bikini-clad beauties, let alone those walking down the streets "wearing" - er IF that is the right word - the miniest of micro skirts adorned left right and centre - er JUST (DON'T worry daughter, haven't found a stepmum...er well not yet anyway) ... speedway etc etc etc but I'm being a brave little soul and will do my level best to "suffer" all that, and more no doubt, until I'm scheduled to return to the comfort of the British Isles at the end of January!

Yes, as I said and as I'm sure you can imagine, it's hell-on-earth at times but I'll continue to be brave for the readers of this blog!