There has been a lot of media coverage about the impending execution of Nguyen Trong Van, an Australian citizen, is about to be hanged.

When reading the articles and seeing the coverage I experience a number of emotions about this episode:

When I first heard about the case I did not really feel a lot of anything about the case. I thought "well he took the drugs and got caught so he deserves what he got". After all a lot of people here in Oz know what the penalty is for trafficking drugs in south east asia. After all we have had a lot of coverage of Schapell Corby, the Bali 9 and Michele Leslie.

You understand the impct of say 500g of heroin can have on society in terms of how many people it effects. You thinki to yourself, this is a good deterent and why doesn't Australia get tougher laws for drug traffickers.

I am not condoning or in agreement to the death penalty but maybe being bit harsher with more than a few months of jail time is warranted in these cases.

However, after delving into the finer details and being forcefed by the media I feel a sense of sorrow in this instance.

I have a great amount of symphaty for his mum. Imagine the last chance you had of seeing your chile or a loved one was of him/her in a prison. Moreso, you could not touch or console that person as you were separated by a piece of glass. All you could go was put your hand on this cold piece of glass and your loved one do the same, but never touching.

As a human, you can not help to feel this is a form of cruelty, not to the criminal but moreso to people who care for them.

However the crux of the story was he was arrested in the airport while in transit. Plus he was carrying the drugs to pay of the debts that his brother had made. By doing something for his family he will lose his life.

Imagine how his brother feels?

I also have a sense of resentment for the Singaporean government. A date of the execution was set and the Singaporean government did not inform the Australian government to advise of the date. The date was communicated by a letter sent to the mother. Considering that officials here had made a few calls calling for clemency, this should have been handled a lot better.

Knowing a number of Singaporeans and having spent some time in there, this reflects badly and incorrectly on the people and here the usual idiots are calling for Aussies to boycott anything associated with this country.

However, ultimately Singapore is not a state of Australia so they have set the rules. People may not agree with them but thats probably why they are living here in Australia. I am not having a go at Singapore, it can be a bit stale and the beer is watered down but they have the right to set the rules there, not us.

I feel sorry for the family who have had to deal with the ordeal.

We are going to the World Cup

It was a glorious feeling Wednesday night as the Australian Football team made it to the World Cup in 2006. After 31 years of non appearance and so many heartbreaking ties, the feeling that was felt by the whole of Oz land was unbelievable.

Myself, I was estactic and over the moon with joy, glee, happiness etc (all those words that are just good).

Prior to the match I was excited about the kick off but reserved given previous failures (refer to my last blog). I did not want to get too excited as I would be setting myself up for a fall, AGAIN! But I took the 50 minute drive in to the city to meet some mates.

A beer helped settle the nerves as the group attention in the pub focussed ont he telecast. However, the first 30 minutes of the match did not go to the game plan we envisaged.

Too many time the boys from down under looked unsure and U-R-GAY created a few opportunities to grab a goal and crush Australin hearts once more. There were 3 or 4 near times the Urugayans had shots at goal and hearts were set a flutter at these moments.

But after 30 minutes Harry Kewell came on and it changed the match. He added some creativity and flair and his impact was profound after just 4 minutes when he instigagted the play that set up the equalising goal.

The crowd at the statdium and the crew at the pub went balistic. We were scremaing, hugging and high fiving everyone. We got the equaliser and were back in the hunt.

The rest of the match flowed with emotions as both sides came oh so close to scoring a goal that would have changed the course of the game. Needless to say, I was on edge but sickingly, enjoying the sense of adrenalin that was developing in my body.

Australia dominated proceedings but could not score as we did not convert our chances. A lot of people felt that fate would cruelly grasp the chance to qualify into the world cup based on our previous history.

But after 120 minutes of play Oz Land won thematch 1-0 but the seriew was level 1-1. It was on to penalties.

After the emotion of watching Liverpool in Istanbul 5 months ago, I could not believe that the fate of my team was to be resolved like this once more.

One of my friends could not bear to watch and dug his face into my shoulder during the kicks. Myself I was holding on to my friends and looking upwards seeking divine intervention.

The crowd at the stadium, all 83,000 of them were going ballistic at being in this position. You could feel the urge for the Ozzies to get the win.

If a kick was converted by an Australian, it was met with a grear roar, when goal keeper Mark Swachzer made a save (he made 2) the crowd got louder. But the noise when John Aloisi converted his penalty was amazing. To be honest, I can not recall what happened at the stadium, all I remember was grabbing my 3 mates and screaming "WE WON".

We hugged each other, as men do when a great sporting moment occurs and flushed with alcohol but we hugged in a circle and danced screaming that we had finally made it to the world cup.

This moment was special because I was with 3 friends who felt the same desire, need and urge for Australia to win and make it to the world cup. And this is why the moment was special.

To Jes, Simmo and Victor - it was an amazing night!

Well done AUSTRALIA

FootballROOS

Ever since the earlu 90's I developed a string taste for soccer or football, as it is now officially known as, I have go through this ritual every 4 years. Asutralia makes it to the final qualification round and when we look like we are close we get bumped out of being involved inthe World cup of football.

Of course the most painful of the 3 qualifications i recall was the one against Iran. Just mention 'The Iran Game" and people know what you are on about and the pain that was felt. For those that do not recall or knop of it, we drew 1-1 over in Iran and led 2-0 here with 15 miutes to go. We dominated the return leg and should have been 4/5 goals up! Then some opest runs on the pitch and pulls down the net, forcing the game to be delayed for about 10 minutes. Time that allowed Iran to refocus. The end result was they scored 2 goals in 5 minutes. packed the defence for 10 minutes and were through.

I was distraught and upset. So close.

There were dissapointments against Argentina in 1991 where a crappy own goal led to undoing and the last qualification games where we took a 1 goal lead to Uruguay and came back with a 3-0 loss and outta the finals.

Its that time of the 4 year cycle again. Again we play Uruguay and this time we have the final qualification game here in Australia. Is this the chance for redemption?

I pray it happens. This time it is Uruguay who come here with a 1 goal lead. but our chance to score a bag and qualify.

This is probably the best team we have put out on the pitch. We have quality strikers and attaking midfielders, things old aussie teams did not have. Our defenders are old and not a pacy but lets hope they do the job and nullify the Uruguayans.

Also its about time they are remande, no longer is the "Socceroos" a valid name, time for the "FootyRoos".

Wish I was in Sydney but I hope I feel the thrill of us qualifying in about 12 hours time.

GO FOOTYROOS!!!!

In and out of the laws

I know...I know..its been a very long time since I wrote here. Sorry been slack.

Talking about being slack, I believe that my in laws probably have a sense that I can be lazy at times. but really, the difference being slack and evaluating the need to do the work is dependent on the person.

No need to get into examples and relive the experience but I have a bit more of a clear idea of what needs to be done in the future.

About the in laws, when they came we showed them over Melbourne. We visited Mornington, the city, drove down Great Ocean Road to Lorne and of course had some fun in the Dandenong Mountains.

I personally enjoyed the MorningtonPeninsula area as we embarked on a wine tour and it was a gorgeous sunny day. The only drawback was we visited only 2 wineries rather that the 5 or so I envisaged. Still the wine tasting was fun and I got a buzz out of things. The best was I did not have to drive, Metria is not a drinker so she was the DD (designated driver).

The trip to Lorne was another highlight, and I do enjoy the vibe or Torquay. Ity can be a chilly day but the ocean views are worth it. Maybe I transfer to Geelong and commute the 30 minutes to Geelong? hmmmm.....

Now the in laws have departed and we are back to normality. But there are lots to do and no time to be slack.