schoolies around the corner

Ok, so I've been a little lazy over the last few days with new posts. I'm sure that you will survive. First things first - Ben Cousins. I don't care about him skipping on rehab in the US and going on a cocaine binge or whatever he did. The media seems to still have an interest in it still, which is a shame. I don't want to hear about him anymore, its time to move on.

Its nearly Schoolies time again, and this year a huge one kilometre long and 1.8 metre high wire fence will be erected at Surfers Paradise beach. The purpose - to keep out the older gatecrashers, also known as "Toolies". They're also hoping that the fence will help in keeping "Foolies" out - kids as young as 13 who are wanting to get a feel of the action long before they themselves graduate. The fence will go up at 4pm each afternoon for the week-long celebration, starting on Friday, and be removed at 5am the next morning. There will be two entries and two exits, and only officials and people identified as schoolies will be permitted to enter and take part in the beach celebrations. I am interested to see exactly how it works, so maybe I should swing by next weekend and find out... Actually, if anything, Surfers Paradise is the last place I want to be during Schoolies. Looks like I may as well head down further south to Burleigh or Kirra if I want to hit the surf next weekend.

To the A-League, and police have had to use capsicum spray to control wild clashes between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC fans following their 0-0 draw last night in front of 32000 fans at Melbourne's Telstra Dome. Eight fans were evicted from the stadium and another was charged with posessing a flare. A number of Sydney supporters were involved in damage to property and disruptive behaviour on the way to the ground, outside there were verbal altercations between supporters from both sides and some plastic containers thrown, and inside the ground venue staff and police kept the two supporter groups separated, with sections of the crowd trying to breach the security line after the match with police resorting to using capsicum spray to keep the groups apart. As a keen sports fan who enjoys having a good time at a sporting event, it is the few people who take it too far and ruin it for the rest of us that piss me off. I understand that some people get very emotional about their sport, but its no reason to start acting like an angry mob and start a riot. I sure hope that Australian football supporters doesn't become like their European counterparts...

In sharemarket news, BHP Billiton have made a $232 million play for arch rival Rio Tinto, which sent the Rio share price surging to a $130.90 high. Now, this is huge stuff - both BHP and Rio account for the stock market's $1.67 trillion value, and the merged company would control more than 30% of the world's iron ore, oilfields in six continents and huge amounts of the world's resources, ranging from copper to diamonds. The two groups generated combined profits of $22 billion last year, which is more than the Government's budget. Unfortunately I am not a Rio shareholder, though I did buy about 120 Rio shares in a sharemarket game not too long ago.