Strip rather than single composite

Here is another composite image, but this time a strip composite, of Brian Lara playing a freaky hook. This is a short ball, flicked fine for six with a roll of the wrists. Its worth clicking on the strip if you've got reasonable connectivity (whole pic is 2 megs) to see just how agile and compact and head down this guy is - blisteringly talented. Hope you like it.

Cricket in Hong Kong

It's super unusual to be able to watch cricket in Hong Kong - and the only real chance is to go to the cricket sixes. Sixes are played by a team of six people (so the fielders are super spread out) and each innings consists of 30 balls - 5 players each have to bowl one over, the player being the wicket keeper does not bowl. So if you think 20-20 is a short hard hitting format you should try this one as an option. Eight teams played, so you saw each team many times. I went for the afternoons of both days, having done something with the boys in the morning on each - Aiden is a bit too small to enjoy sitting in the stands at the moment, so he didn't get to go. (Perhaps that's not entirely fair - more like I wouldn't enjoy having to watch him rather than the cricket).

And there were some superstars on show, great, because I've only ever seen people like Shane Warne and Brian Lara on TV, and now I got to see them play, even if it was in a trunkated form of the game. I took these for you - quite cool hey - a study of Warne bowling and Brian Lara hitting a cover drive - dispite his head being down as it is, for six out of the ground.

This week's car challenge

This week's car challenge has a bit of everything. To begin with, something special; it's from the cult car manufacturer, it's wicked in every respect, and from the front, looks a lot like its predecessor - so be careful not to get tripped up there. The back however is quite distinctive.


Then there is this, something that looks pretty straight forward - but is actually quite special too; I've "written" on the car so you can't simply read it. In this case it is a 2007 model, has a number of hi-tech upgrades including the engine going from 3.6 to 3.8 litres, ceramic disk brakes and the latest in six speed transmission from Porsche. The big clue I'll leave you with is that it has a special letter at the end.



Then to keep with the historic angle, there is this one, and in a way, it is the one that started it all. It's big claim is that it was the first mass produced car in history, and famously was available in any colour as long as it was black. What is it? The bonnet gives the imporant clue, but you have to find the model detail.

Improved quality layout?

I've been thinking about ways that I can tidy up the layout of your mag pages. The challenge is the post editor isn't 100% predictable. So what I'm going to try is to crop all images to 8x10 or 10x8 depending on their orientation - so if you did ever want to print one that would be the print size to ask for, its a standard size, and I'm going to try and group the photos as portrait or landscape to clean up some of the staggered look that is accidentally emerging in your mag. Hope it works - here are some test shots to give it a try, and rarely, one of me with Aiden.

Automotive milestone

The Frog has just passed one of those automotive milestones, what would that be? And to be sure, work is very hard for a car in Hong Kong - stop, start, traffic, huge up and down-hills, and absolutely no cruising. So I think its worth about double on a South African speedo.

This week's car challenge

OK - this week's car challenge is (rightly) another tough one - answers are going to have to be researched; I have never seen one of these in South Africa - South Africans are poorer for this.

It's a 1995 model, two seater sports car, hard top convertable (not an automatic roof) does 0-100 in 4.5 secs, which is super, super quick. It's top speed, however, is only 140! As the pic shows, it has two very distinct air vents behind the front wheel. Incredibly, as the other pic shows (it will be worth clicking on this one to enlarge it) it red lines at 8500, and revs on to 12000 - very unusual for a car to rev so high.

The white box on the windscreen is an autotoll sensor - so nothing to do with this car per se - but the white guage on the right is a boost guage - and that is a useful clue - the thing that gives rise to the boost guage is standard on the car.

The important clues are: its a Japanese "K-car" (you're going to have to look that up, I think); it's small capacity (660cc), and tastes good to Italians in the morning.

It is by a long long way the best car I have ever driven; it's handling is amazing - the engine sits on and behind the front axle, and the car is very tight and rigid. It's the only car I have ever driven that makes you feel like you feel when you're riding a fast bike. Its not the same car as in the previous picture, I only mention this because the colour is the same.

What could it be?

After-rugby glow

The boys got back from the rugby at about 8.30 in the morning. Evan a bit puzzled, Rich grinning, and Aiden being the ongoing commentator.

So how to deal with post rugby-glow? Hit the beach, in this case Mils beach. There are a couple of stages to this - the first part in a zapcat over the silty sand bottom of the bay into the deeper water - then on a junk, towing the zapcats - and then a zapcat again onto the beach. This is Jen's zapcat - if you click to get a big version you'll see Rob's in the background - with a big South African flag draped over his shoulders, and a mad dog called Woody swimming after it (Wooddy swam all the way to the junk in the middle of the bay).

When you get to the beach, you immediately see that Evan has been watching too much of Johnny Wilkinson. Not good, emulating the English star, I thought.

Then you meet some England supporters who drone on about how the disallowed try, was actually a try, and how the ref was crooked. But no worries on this front, because you've brought this screen shot along - see, toe of boot on line; player and ball still in air. Matter closed.

With these disputes out of the way, you get down to some proper beach action: Aiden goes swimming in the lagoon behind the beach. Evan takes up residence in a beach hole, eats some sand, eats some food mixed with sand. Rob rounds the day off by doing some high-speed manouvres on his boat, and we head home.

YEEEEEEHAAAAA!

Amandla Bokke! Not much to say but cheer; and it's been a terrific tournament and the Bokke have been exemplary. Here is Ev after the game in the first of the morning sun.