pm says sorry?

Seems that everyone is talking about today's rate rise of 25 basis points, the first ever during an election campaign (like everything lately, it all comes back to politics...) to take official rates to 6.75 percent. Mr Howard has come out and said "I would say to the borrowers of Australia that I am sorry about that." But wait, there's more. Some analysts are forecasting that rising inflation and strong economic growth will lead to interest rates peaking at 7.25 percent within six months, pushing the variable home lending rates to 9.07 percent. Despite Johnny's promise to keep interest rates low, we have been slugged with ten interest rate rises in the last five years, including six since the last election (in 2004). I wanted to buy a house in the nearish future...

To sport, and I'm looking forward to the start of the first test against Sri Lanka tomorrow at the Gabba. Might go for a day on the weekend. Though the weather is my main concern - it was raining consistently today and it's not looking too great for the next couple of days according to BOM:

Thursday - Cloudy with a few showers
Friday - A shower or two
Saturday - Mostly fine
Sunday - Mostly fine
Monday - Fine

Hey, at least the weekend should be good when I go. Looking forward to see Mitchell Johnson on his test debut, as well as of course the big hitting of Hayden and Symonds. Will also be interesting to see how Phil Jacques goes as Haydos' opening partner. After the whole controversy behind the racist "monkey chants" directed at Symonds in India recently, I am wondering whether this will have a positive or negative effect (or none at all) on the sledging that Murali will cop from the crowd. I have been to many-a-game at the Gabba featuring Sri Lanka, and the controversial off-spinner with the, er, "questionable action", has always been the centre of attention when it comes to copping it from the Aussie supporters. My favourite has to be the "no-ball" shout everytime he bowls a ball - and the crowd never tires of it.

While on the topic of the cricket, I want to speak my mind about the "fun police", and what they have done to the game. In recent times, we have seen the demise of some of what I would regard as enjoyable features of attending a match at the Gabba, most notably mexican waves and beach balls. Especially with the slower pace of test match cricket, for a lot of people the point of going to a match is to enjoy the atmosphere, and with the restrictions by the fun police, I feel that a lot of this lost without the intermittent distractions of beach balls flying around and trying to get a mexican wave started and keeping it going. Admittedly, something had to be done about crowd rowdiness, with rubbish being thrown in the air, and consequently landing on the field, as people throw anything they have in their posession into the air as they rise for the mexican wave. During these mexican waves, I have had beer spilt all over me, have been hit by a can (which wasn't even supposed to be permitted in the grounds), and have even seen a wallet thrown in the air. As the crowd get drunker and rowdier, it does get infinitely harder to control and manage - you can't simply kick everyone out, and it is painful seeing the game get stopped for 15 minutes because the crowd is going nuts and pelting food etc onto the field. So I suppose I can see both sides of the story when it comes to mexican waves, but beach balls... come on, give us a break. Oh well. This doesn't stop me going, its still a fun day out when you have the right people with you, and go with the right attitude. As long as I'm not one of the cops or security that cops (excuse the pun) the hatred and abuse of the crowd.