Thursday 1 February - Salem, NH & Boston

Kobe Bryant put up 43 points to single handedly beat the Celtics by 11 last night. This bloke is a gun. Celtics have lost 13 in a row but doubt that's a true reflection of how their going. Again, deep into the fourth quarter they were even with their opposition, but the game just keeps getting away from them. It's like when a dog tries to chase its own tail but just keeps going round and round in circles without actually getting what they want. And like the dog, everyone who watches the Celtics team is making fun of it.

While on the subject of NBA Basketball - and other US sports in general - it's time to get one thing straight. The premiership or championship team does not become the "World Champion". Apparently the Boston Celtics have won 16 "World Championships", and the Major League Baseball's grand final series is the "World Series". You have to play in an international competition to be a "World Champion", clearly. The US Dreamteam is a world champion, yes, having won Olympic Games gold. The Celtics... no. Residents of the US... pull your heads in.

The National Anthem - and I'm not knocking it as a song - is flogged to death a bit over here too. It's played at every game in the NBA, and I'm pretty sure the NHL too. That means a player could hear it for 82 regular season games, plus 28 playoffs and finals games (there's 4 finals rounds of 7 games each). I probably prefer our way where it's only played at big games or special events e.g. finals, Anzac Day round, Test matches - that way it carries a real emphasis to it. But it probably suits how patriotic everyone here is... I doubt there's a US citizen who doesn't think that their country is the greatest in the world.

Libe's finally recovering after being crook with the flu all week. I think I might have had a case of it last week but decided to drink my way through and out of it on the weekend, which appears to have been quite successful.

Been quite an amusing little bomb scare over here yesterday: refer to the following links:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21152633-663,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/boston.bombscare/index.html