mike carey

One must endeavour to maintain one's standards!

Lol, I should retire gracefully from the field of play!

Lol, I should retire gracefully from the field of play!

Quite so, the point I was making in my post is that at this remove from the tournament itself it's not possible to know, and that based on experience so far the health hazard although possibly present in Melbourne, by then may not be 'significant'. Novak may have been raising his concerns, as you suggest, in case the hazard to tournament play turns out to be significant. As I mentioned earlier, organisers here have been proactive in reorganising schedules to mitigate hazards. He may also have hoped for an early decision from the AO organisers, such as closing court rooves, that may have been to his advantage.

Quite so, the point I was making in my post is that at this remove from the tournament itself it's not possible to know, and that based on experience so far the health hazard although possibly present in Melbourne, by then may not be 'significant'. Novak may have been raising his concerns, as you suggest, in case the hazard to tournament play turns out to be significant. As I mentioned earlier, organisers here have been proactive in reorganising schedules to mitigate hazards. He may also have hoped for an early decision from the AO organisers, such as closing court rooves, that may have been to his advantage.

Surely it's only about 10 bux?

I think we're more likely to 'get on with things' but not to pretend nothing was happening (stiff upper lip can be more like the latter) . You're right, the ATP Cup is underway and of the three cities Sydney is the only one that is smoke-affected, and worse so than Melbourne. I don't think that the smoke will be a serious health issue in Melbourne, prevailing winds are from the west and the fires are mostly east of Melbourne, so I think Novak is raising the issue or as we would say 'trying it on' to see what the reaction might be. As you mentioned, it's still two weeks off. In contrast, the lead up tournament that was to be played in Canberra was moved to Bendigo, a couple of hours from Melbourne. Canberra has the worst air quality in the world at the moment.

Once upon a time in Iran ... [MEDIA=twitter]1210100234271023105[/MEDIA]

I can understand you would think that way in a state like Texas, assuming that you regularly drive between cities rather than just in the DFW metro complex, and that's how I think here even though my most frequent drive is 200km with a couple of others in the 300-400km range. That said, from what I've been reading battery range is increasing fast but I'm still more inclined towards a plug-in hybrid than a pure EV. The other thing that will likely come up and surprise us more quickly than we expect is for the existing car companies to become the biggest players in the EV market at the expense of specialists like Tesla. Some of the European car makers are talking about phasing out ICV production sooner rather than later, and ticket prices are already approaching parity.

Oh, I don't want to go to sleep, I want to be awake and present!

Something like that!

One hopes not to gain such attention!

Happy anniversary! I guess that will give you something for which to celebrate Boxing Day in the future. (Here, Boxing Day is more noteworthy as the first day of the post-Christmas sales, when almost everyone bar retail employees has the day off and can shop, and it's the first day of two Australian summer sporting rituals: the Boxing Day [cricket] test, this year against New Zealand, and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.)

Getting in early I see, but there's no time like the present to get all those greetings in!

On this warm, if somewhat hazy (story of my life for the last month or so) Christmas Morning in Melbourne, my heartfelt wishes to everyone for a happy, safe and blessed Christmas* and a rewarding and healthy new year that brings you all you wish for yourselves and your loved ones. (* Other seasonal holidays available.)

Would it have been impertinent to observe, 'And no sooner have you landed than you become one of them'? Of course there's more to it than that, as from the way you wrote it he was a local returning home rather than a critical outsider, and it was as much a description of the 'beautiful' people he'd left behind as it was any sort of critique of Detroit.

That's no doubt true, and a sacrifice, whether this or a bigger one may assuage the stock market, but persuading foreign customers and foreign regulators may require something different.

I'm not sure the board gets it if they think that the CEO taking the high jump puts them in the clear, https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/boing’s-ceo-sacked-after-737-max-aircraft-controversy/11824960 This was from Tuesday morning's breakfast show on Radio National.

Oops, maybe I should have put that differently. I was being a smart-arse.

Good choice!

Hmmm, words do that?

Alternatively, the crux could be 'what do you mean by "love"?' If I (from the other side of the equation) say that I love you, what does that mean? Disclosure: I love your persona on here and your blog.

As an outside observer, I somehow hadn't even thought that you would consider it 'work'. You seem to be all in for loving whatever you were doing. Call me naïve!

I had thought of saying just that! Not sure it would have been conducive to the sort of meeting they wanted, though!