Chemical: My 16th blog of the year 2024

Well, here is another one of those lines that I've still been reminiscing in part 2 of the emotes list on the 2017 version of Star Wars Battlefront 2 video game, this time with the non-Jedi & non-Sith characters:

The Emperor (VA: Sam Witwer)

"Do what must be done, do not hesitate show no mercy"

"Now you will experience the full power of the Dark Side"

"Good. Let the hate flow through you"

"Now at the end do you understand"

Han Solo (VA: John Armstrong)

"Hokey religions & ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster"

"Great kid, don't get cocky!"

"That's two you owe me junior"

"I'm out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of grandeur"

Iden Versio (VA: Janina Gavankar)

"They weren't expecting special forces"

"Avenge our Emperor"

"Hope cannot save them"

"The Empire's time has come"

Lando Calrissian (VA: Billy Dee Williams)

"You gotta lot of guts coming here after what you pulled"

"How ya doing you old pirate? So good to see you!"

"Yeah I'm responsible these days. It's the price you pay for being successful"

"Sorry am I interrupting anything?"

Princess Leia (VA: Misty Lee)

"I don't know where you get your delusions laser brain"

"You have your moments, not many of then but you do have them"

"From now on you do as I tell you, OK?"

"You're a jittery little thing aren't you?"

Finn (VA: John Boyega)

"I can do this. I can do this"

"You should know. I'm a big deal in the Resistance"

"Can someone please use the Force?"

"Ahh we better run!"

& Captain Phasma (VA: Gwendoline Christie)

"Submit your weapon for inspection"

"You can't be so stupid as to think this will be easy"

"My troops will storm in & kill you all"

So that is my 540th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 16th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

P.S. And happy ANZAC Day to you all 3 days ago by honoring the service men from both Australia & New Zealand that served in the war in Gallipoli over in Turkey during the First World War (Which lasted from 1914 until 1918) that took place, resulting in lives being lost on that fateful day on the 25th of April in 1915 (And we have maintained the sporting rivalry between the 2 countries, but it has all been the Aussies who dominate in every sport except rugby).

When You Were Young/Bones/Read My Mind/Sam's Town: My 15th blog of the year 2024

Well, the AB's test schedule has been revealed with our first test of the year begins against England at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin which kicks off the Razor era for our chance to redeem ourselves for our first win against the English in international rugby since 2018 in Twickenham before we lost to them in the semi at the Rugby World Cup in Yokohama in 2019 (Including Samoan born Englishman Manu Tuilagi's try that put them through in the final to set up a showdown with South Africa according to the previous blogs that I did, but following our defeat against the English in the semi during the tournament that I was reminiscing about Aaron 'Nuggy' Smith's comment that New Zealand's changing room had turned into a funeral) & a draw in 2022 at Twickers in which we had blown our opportunity to win the test match after Beauden Barrett had easily been sent to the bin (And both New Zealand & England were expected to meet in the final at last years Rugby World Cup, but the Springboks took England's place as the All Blacks's main opponent in the final) which sparked but roared England back to life as they were on the comeback trail, then we face the same opposition at Eden Park in Auckland in the 2nd test before heading on the plane to San Diego, California in the United States to play Fiji (In which we haven't played since 2021), & after that we play host to Argentina (Who haven't beaten us since 2022 in that fateful test in Christchurch) twice in the 1st 2 rounds of this years Rugby Championship (One in Wellington at Sky Stadium which is a rematch of the Rugby World Cup semifinal in which we blazed past them to go through to the final & the other in Auckland at Eden Park) before we hop on the plane to South Africa to square off against the world champion Springboks side (The most successful rugby playing nation in the world with 4 Rugby World Cups to their name while the All Blacks have never beaten the Boks since last year at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland in July) twice, one including a rematch of our ill-fated Rugby World Cup final from last year at Ellis Park in Johannesburg for a chance to end our wretched 2 game skid against the South Africans including both defeats in a pre-Rugby World Cup test at Twickenham Stadium in London, then the final at the Stade de France in which South Africa was still, the best rugby playing nation on the planet in which they were rugby's mentality monsters (Compared to the South Africa cricket team in which they always labelled as chokers when they fell short of reaching the final by losing them in the semi 5 times at a men's Cricket World Cup) led by that iconic sporting figure of Siya Kolisi as well as erasing the scars of '23 that we experienced in which we had painful memories of that fateful day that occurred in Paris (And 6 months have passed since that controversial final that had been fuelled by cards, calamity & devastation in which our New Zealand side cost them dearly a shot of World Cup glory as well as returning the Wiremu back home to Aotearoa that turned into a fighting chance) which was a repeat of the 1995 final, then we play them again at Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town followed by the Joe Schmidt coached Wallabies (Who are in a rebuilding phase after failing to qualify for the knockouts in last years RWC for the first time, but the Aussies have never beaten us since 2020 in Brisbane, but the Wallabies have hired a scrum coach in the form of ex-All Black scrum coach Mike 'Crono' Cron, in a bid to change the fortunes around, restore the side's faith & to save the team's blushes) twice in the last 2 rounds of TRC as well as both Bledisloe Cup tests in which Australia are gunning to wrestle the trophy away from New Zealand after 21 years, one in Sydney at Accor Stadium & the other at Sky Stadium in Wellington then its Japan at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama followed by England at Twickenham in which we haven't won at that ground since 2018, Ireland (Including a replay of the quarterfinal where we upstaged them in one of the standout Rugby World Cup matches from last year in Paris), France (Also including the rematch of the opening pool game where we have the chance to end a 2 match losing run against the French, one in our last test of 2021 & the other last year in September during the Rugby World Cup opener, both at the Stade de France) & Italy (And also including the replay of the pool game where the AB's had a comprehensive win over the Italians during the tournament) to wrap up the 2024 test season (And that's 5 home tests to be dealt with, compared to the 9 away games that we're having).

And I heard that rumors are about to spread with 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist & most recent Football World Cup winning captain for Argentina at Qatar in 2022 of Lionel Messi (The Inter Miami player who is in his quest of winning his 2nd Olympic gold medal unlike Neymar who successfully did it for Brazil at Rio in 2016 where the Brazilians struck gold in the men's under-23 football section for the first time, but they failed to qualify compared to the Canada women's soccer team (The most recent Olympic champions in Tokyo) who made it alongside the Spain women's football team (World champions last year when they triumphed when the tournament was held in Australia & New Zealand, but got fined for an illegal kiss involving Luis Rubiales on Jenny Hermoso in the aftermath of Spain becoming champions of the world in women's football for the first time) confirms he'll play for the Argentina under-23's again, this time as an overaged player (One of 3 allowed in the men's under-23 side squad compared to the women who have no restrictions regarding to their age grade) at the Paris Olympics this year along with Frenchman Kylian Mbappe (Who could be ruled out of playing this year's Euro 2024 in Germany if he chooses to go to Paris to represent his country's under-23 side as one of 3 over aged players in the team) for a possible rematch between the 2 players when Argentina & France (Who are favourites of winning Euro 2024 (With Georgia (Who upstaged the Euro 2004 champions Greece on penalties in which they made history to make the Euros for the 1st time since their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but I thought that Georgia (Which boasts Greco-Roman wrestling as their main sport) is usually a rugby playing nation, & I didn't know that they have a football/soccer team), Poland (Who managed to pull off a win against Wales therefore denying the Welsh of qualifying their 3rd straight European Football Championship following their previous major football tournament appearance was at the Football World Cup in Qatar in 2022) & still the emotional Ukraine (Who had beaten Iceland at a neutral venue in Poland thanks to a winning goal to one of the Ukrainian players who plays for English club Chelsea of Mykhailo Mudryk (And Pops once told me back in 2022 when Ukraine suffered a heartbreak of not making the most recent Football World Cup held in Qatar in 2022 in the aftermath of a defeat against the Welsh (Who failed to qualify for another European Football Championship appearance after being outplayed against the Polish) that Mudryk is a bit of a Aidan Morgan lookalike (Or Mudryk is a bit of a doppelgaenger of Hurricanes & Wellington rugby player Aidan Morgan) since their country is too dangerous to host their home game due to that terrible event had been unfolded which is still going (And it is very similar to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith where the Emperor initiated Darth Vader & the clone troopers to eliminate the majority of the Jedi Order & its members at all costs according to Darth Sidious's new physical indentity as Vader (Formerly Anakin Skywalker) was given a new task: to hunt down and assassinate the remaining Jedi scattered throughout the galaxy by carrying the execution of Order 66 in which was known as the Great Jedi Purge (And both Obi-Wan Kenobi & Yoda managed to survive from it) along with Israel's invasion against Hamas (It began on the 7th of October last year, & it just keeps going) taking the final spots at the Euros in Germany) mainly due to them being the top ranked European football playing nation, but they suffered a defeat against hosts of the upcoming Euros of Germany most recently in a friendly) squared off in the final of the 2022 Football World Cup at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar where the Argentinians broke a 36 year drought of winning Football World Cups, inspired by their successful Copa America glory in Brazil in 2021 which was during the global pandemic which struck across the rest of the world when it was on pause.

And the New Zealand news service provider of Newshub is shutting its doors of being culled at the end of June with job cuts being expected up to 300, but it could be heartbreaking under a proposal by owner Warner Bros Discovery which upheld their legacy when it kicked off 35 years ago way back in 1989 although with the demise of Newshub would even leave the entirety of our country with only a solitary TV news service (Although Stuff News just announced recently that they'll take over from Newshub as Three's main news programme starting from July this year), but there has been an update as work reductions had been announced by TVNZ making 68 of their staff being redundant mainly bacause of inflation as well as the cost of living crisis that we're currently having.

And finally that I remember a rallying related story about Toyota getting disqualified in 1995 during the World Rally Championship for its Toyota Celica ST205 cars fitted with banned turbo restrictors in a scandal dubbed as turbogate, & as a result they were handed a 1 year suspension by the FIA in which the late president of the sports governing body of Max Mosley labels the banned turbo restrictor as the most ingenious device that he has ever seen in 30 years of motorsports, while Toyota & their drivers of Finland's Juha Kankkunen (Who had been in contention for the WRC crown which gone in the way of the late great British rally driver of Colin McRae who was behind the wheel in a Subaru where he beat his teammate at the time of Spaniard Carlos Sainz Sr (Who was due to move to Toyota for the 1996 season before Toyota's exclusion from the championship) to win at his home event in Britain which hosted the last round of the 1995 championship & the title), Frenchman Didier Auriol (Who was France's first ever world rally champion before both Sebastien's of Loeb (Who is a 9 time champion from 2004 to 2012 (The most successful driver in the history of WRC) & one of my favourite rally idols along with McRae, the late Richard Burns, Petter Solberg, Sebastien Ogier & Kalle Rovanpera) & Ogier (Who is an 8 time champion from 2013 until 2018 & 2020-21 & is one behind fellow countryman Loeb) who was the defending champion at the time & German Armin Schwarz were also had their points that they earned taken away due to their exclusion from the championship, then Mosley said in a statement that "There is no suggestion the drivers aware of what is going on" about the Toyota Celica ST205 rally car that was deemed to be too fast when they were above the 300 bhp limit when the car produced to have an extra 50 bhp which is deemed to be prohibited under the rules at the time so they cheated when Toyota Team Europe were thrown out of the championship for 12 months due to disqualification from the 1995 season (In which Kankkunen was the points leader going into Catalunya in Spain) after they were being caught fitting those banned turbo restrictors.

So that is my 539th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 15th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

My Immortal/Call Me When You're Sober/What You Want: My 14th blog of the year 2024

Well, I have been reminiscing those lines from the famous Jedi & Sith characters of Star Wars (Which is currently owned by Disney who have the rights to it since 2012), especially the 2017 version of Star Wars Battlefront II (The game that I play a lot now on the PS4 via the PS5 console) that they have it as emotes & voice lines with origins tracing back to Star Wars media, so here is the list of quotes that I can remember them a lot:

Darth Vader (Voiced by Matt Sloan (Former Chad Vader voice actor & voice double for James Earl Jones because it used to be Scott Lawrence from JAG who voiced Vader in Star Wars: Dark Forces as well as the 1st 2 Star Wars Battlefront games & other Star Wars games)

"I find your lack of faith disturbing"

"You are as clumsy as you are stupid" (Actually Vader says "He is clumsy as he is stupid" instead during the Empire Strikes Back movie)

"Apology accepted" (In ESB, Vader says that line to Captain Needa who was dead "Apology accepted, Captain Needa")

"You cannot hide forever" (In Return of the Jedi, Vader says to Luke Skywalker "You cannot hide forever Luke")

His lines come from 50% from the Empire Strikes Back & 25% come from both A New Hope & Return of the Jedi

Kylo Ren (VA: Matthew Wood (Masked) & Roger Craig Smith (Unmasked)

"I'll show you the dark side"

His only line comes from the Force Awakens

Luke Skywalker (VA: Matthew Mercer (It used to be Bob Bergen who used to be the voice double of Mark Hamill when he was provided the voice of Luke in Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast as well as Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy then the 2005 version of Star Wars Battlefront II & other Star Wars video games like Shadows of the Empire)

"Greetings, exalted ones" (He says "Greetings exalted one" instead in ROTJ)

"Your overconfidence is your weakness"

"I feel the good in you" (Luke says that line to Darth Vader also during ROTJ "I feel the good in you, the conflict")

"I'll never join the dark side, I am a Jedi" (Luke addresses that to the Emperor after defeating Vader during the ROTJ movie instead "I'll never turn to the dark side" then "I'm a Jedi, like my father before me")

All of his lines come from Return of the Jedi

Darth Maul (VA: Sam Witwer (AKA Ex-Galen Marek voice actor)

"At last I shall have my revenge" (In the actual the Phantom Menace movie, he says this to Darth Sidious "At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi, at last we will have revenge")

Also his only line comes from the Phantom Menace

Rey (Voiceover actress: Daisy Ridley (The girl who played Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy movies)

"That was lucky"

"I think I can handle myself"

"You, you're afraid"

"You're a monster!"

Her lines are all from the Force Awakens but the 'You're a monster" line that she also said was from the Last Jedi when she is captured by Kylo Ren

Yoda (VA: Tom Kane (Retired voice actor as of today due to health issues that he has dealt with in 2020, including a stroke)

"Do, or do not, there is no try"

"Judge me by my size do you? Hmm" (He actually says that in ESB: "Look at me, judge me by my size do you? Hmm)

"My ally, is the force, & a powerful ally it is" (He also actually says during ESB "For my ally, is the force, & a powerful ally that is")

"That is why you fail"

Also all of his lines come from the Empire Strikes Back

General Grevious (VA: Matthew Wood (Same voice over actor as Kylo Ren (Masked) + the dude who voiced Grevious on the Revenge of the Sith movie as well as Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie & Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV series)

"You are a bold one"

"Crush them. Make them suffer"

"Surrender! <coughs> And I promise you will die quickly!" (Grevious instead says "Surrender & I promise you will die quickly")

His lines are 75% come from Revenge of the Sith & 25% come from season 2, episode 10: Lair of Grevious which is exactly taken from Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV series

Obi-Wan Kenobi (VA: James Arnold-Taylor (AKA that Ewan McGregor voice double who provided the voice of Tidus in Final Fantasy X)

"Hello there"

"Your move"

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes"

"The strongest defense is a swift & decisive offense" (Obi-Wan says that line "And yet some might argue that the strongest defense is a swift & decisive offense" instead)

The majority of Obi-Wan's lines come from Revenge of the Sith which is 75%, compared to 25% which is taken from Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 2 episode 13: Voyage of Temptation

Count Dooku (VA: Corey Burton (Used to provide the voice double for the late Christopher Lee who passed away in 2015)

"Brave but foolish" (He says "Brave but uh, foolish my old Jedi friend" instead during the Attack of the Clones movie)

"I've become more powerful than any Jedi"

"I've been looking forward to this"

"The Sith control everything" (Count Dooku says that line instead "The Sith control everything, you just don't know it")

His lines are 50% that come from Attack of the Clones & 25% are both taken from Revenge of the Sith & Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 4 episode 4: Shadow Warrior

& Anakin Skywalker (VA: Matt Lanter (Who took over from the original Anakin voice actor Mat Lucas)

"This is where the fun begins"

"Obi-Wan's gonna kill me" (He instead says upon being captured by Jango Fett & the Separatist droids during AOTC "Not again, Obi-Wan's gonna kill me")

"You call this a diplomatic solution?"

"A very wise Jedi once said, nothing happens by accident" (He actually addresses/motivates his Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano during Star Wars: the Clone Wars "Ahsoka, a very wise Jedi once said, nothing happens by accident")

Also the majority of his lines are 50% from Attack of the Clones & 25% are both taken from Revenge of the Sith & Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie which was released in 2008

So that is my 538th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 14th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.

Beds Are Burning/Let Forever Be/Undisclosed Desires: My 13th blog of the year 2024

Well, it has been 20 years since the flooding had been impacted in the lower North Island of New Zealand way back in 2004 when weather systems sweep over the country, mainly from the west as the strongest February westerlies in over 60 years blew across the lower North Island between the events of the 14th to the 17th of February. Roads were blocked by slips and fallen trees, hundreds of people were left homeless, farmland was covered by silt and water, rivers breached their banks, stock drowned & bridges were damaged meanwhile the cost of the devastation exceeded NZ$100 million as a storm brought high winds, heavy rain, flooding and slips to much for the North Island as well as the upper South Island. The lower North Island was severely affected, with 100-year floods in Manawatu-Wanganui and 50-year floods in Wellington causing millions of dollars of damage. Thousands of people were evacuated. Two people drowned in the sea at Wellington and one person was presumed drowned in the Marlborough Sounds. Trees felled on houses caused injuries to a girl in Wellington and a woman in Auckland. A person was also injured therefore causing felled power lines started a house fire, but the lower North Island floods from 2004 is relatively compared to the earthquake in the Bay of Plenty region in 1987, the Wahine maritime disaster in 1968, Cyclone Bola in 1988 (Which took place a year after the BOP earthquakes in '87 & both the Auckland anniversary floods & the most devastating of them all which impacted the entire Hawke's Bay region, Cyclone Gabrielle from last year).

And onto the royal related news such as His Majesty the King of King Charles III (Who took over from the late Her Majesty the Queen of Queen Elizabeth II since 2022 (The year that she passed away where they had a state funeral there in London) has announced that he has been diagonsed with skin cancer (Which is melanoma just like the late John Britten (The famous New Zealand motorcycle engineer) who passed away in 1995) which an aggressive form of the disease which shocked the entire royal family (Just like Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine had health issues recently in which she suffered an mystery illness which kept her out from the public eye) with him now having to undergo treatment, but I'm really not sure whether he'll abidicate the throne & hand it to His Royal Highness Prince William (Who is second in line if King Charles III passes away as Pops told me on the 11th of February this year), we'll see.

And in the motor racing related stuff such as the 7 time world champion of Sir Lewis Hamilton (The guy who raced with & against both Fernando Alonso & Jenson Button & raced against the likes of Schumacher & current 3 time world champion Max Verstappen) making a shock move to Ferrari next year, therefore he announced 2024 will be his last season with the Silver Arrows of Mercedes-AMG, the team that he raced since 2013 in which he replaced Michael Schumacher (The year that he had his skiing crash later in the year who raced against the likes of the late great Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Hakkinen, Alonso, Hamilton & Button), & has won 6 world driver's titles between him as he becomes the first British driver to race for Ferrari since Northern Irishman Eddie Irvine in 1999 where Irvine almost became the world champion which had gone in the way of Mika Hakkinen (Who raced with & against the late Senna & Mansell & raced against Schumacher, Villeneuve, Alonso & Button) in the McLaren in the aftermath of Schumacher who hurt his leg during the British Grand Prix after an accident at Stowe corner as a result of brake failure which ruled him out until the Malaysian Grand Prix, ending his championship bid, but Hamilton's decision to switch to Ferrari is very similar to David Beckham moving to Real Madrid in 2003 from Manchester United as well as Australian NRL league stars Latrell Mitchell who converted from being a Rooster into a Rabbitoh & Cooper Cronk who left the Melbourne Storm to join the Sydney Roosters to accomodate his marriage with Australian TV presenter Tara Rushton (Although Cameron Smith didn't attend Cronk & Rushton's wedding because he wasn't on the guest list), then there is some more perfect prime examples including Brad Thorn who headed to union with the Crusaders from league in which he played for the Brisbane Broncos, then Sonny Bill Williams who had to depart rugby league with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs to head into union with RC Toulonnais, while female tennis sensation Jelena Dokic had to change her allegiance from Australia to Yugoslavia (Then it was Serbia & Montenegro before becoming Serbia as of today) before switching back to Australia when she made a comeback in 2008, then Ellyse Perry who made an announcement that she was going to become a cricketer after originally becoming a footballer/soccer player while Luis Figo was heading to 'El Clasico' club rivals Real Madrid from FC Barcelona, then the late great Ayrton Senna who publicly announced that he was going to Williams from McLaren in 1994 in which the Williams FW16 became uncompetitive due to a crack down on driver aids such as active suspension, traction control, launch control & fully automatic gearboxes in which the rival Benetton team took advantage of it (For which I thought it was an illegal car, but according to the comment from Max's dad Jos Verstappen who thought that the 1994 Benetton was so much difficult to drive as a result of the driving aids ban being enforced by the FIA, in which Benetton had their most valuable championship points being taken away for cheating which resulted in Williams claiming the constructors championship while Damon Hill was the victim of dangerous driving caused by foul play during the title decider in Australia when Michael Schumacher deliberately ran into Hill by damaging his car's suspension, ending the Brits quest of World Championship glory by handing Schumacher his first World Championship in a very controversial way in which was the year marred by tragedy at Imola in 1994 with Senna getting killed during the race 2 days after the Austrian competitor of Roland Ratzenberger who lost his life in a serious wreck during Friday qualifying) before something tragic happened that it revealed that there was a mechanical failure to Senna's Williams car that caused the fatal crash in one of F1's tragic weekends in Imola, Italy (And it has been 30 years since the tragic events unfolded at the Emilia Romagna region over there where arguably one of by far, Formula One's greatest ever drivers who unfortunately lost his life in a serious accident with the Brazilian was then since gone, but not forgotten, with chicanes being introduced at the Imola circuit in order for speeds to cut down the following year) at the San Marino Grand Prix which still haunts them was to blame while both Ian Chappell & Tony Greig were making their way to World Series Cricket founded by the late Kerry Packer from test cricket during the 70's period, then Tom Brady who moved from the New England Patriots to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which he won one Vince Lombardi Trophy with them in 2021 to go with the 6 that he had with New England while LeBron James who made a surprise announcement billed as 'The Decision' that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers (Who he had one championship with in 2016 along with the Los Angeles Lakers in a COVID-19 impacted 2020) to go to Miami, Florida to join with the Miami Heat in which he won both NBA titles with in 2011-12 & 2012-13, then Jarryd Hayne who was leaving rugby league with the Parramatta Eels NRL side to play in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers for 8 games before he returned to the NRL in which he had a brief stint playing rugby sevens for Fiji while the late great Brazilian football icon of Pele who left his homeland with his club Santos to join the New York Cosmos which was a bombshell move that put US soccer on the map, then the late great Australian touring car legend of the late great Peter Brock (Who was the poster boy for Holden who won a record 9 times at the great race with the brand & is a 3 time champion of the Australian Touring Car Championship (Just like Craig Lowndes, Scott McLaughlin & Shane van Gisbergen) announced that he left Holden in 1987 to join BMW in 1988 then Ford in 1989, 2 years before he returned to Holden but after the initial split he never won the Bathurst 1000 again, while Mat Rogers, Wendell 'The Big Dell' Sailor & Lote Tuqiri were stars of the NRL until the trio all jumped ship to rugby in which they were crucial cogs in Australia's run to the famous 2003 Rugby World Cup final, then the man known as 'Lowndesy' was Holden's favourite son in the 90's in the aftermath of the late Brock's success throughout the 70's & 80's as the apparent heir to the throne gave up his Formula 1 dream and turned his attention to touring cars where he won three straight titles with Holden, then, after four years with the Red Lion, he made the shock move to join Gibson Motorsport and Ford, but it proved to be a massive failure and Lowndes never won the championship again as well as Scott McLaughlin's high profile move from Supercars to IndyCar shook world motorsport. Never had a V8 tin top racer made the move to open-wheelers with zero wings and slicks single-seater experience. It came off the back of a tumultuous few years for the three-time Supercars champion, who was part of the parity scandal that rocked the sport (With massive record fines & point deductions towards the championship being handed out (But they kept their win with ex-A1GP & DTM ace Alexandre 'Alex' Premat at the great race in 2019 but the record pole winning time didn't count) following their triumph in which McLaughlin clinched the championship at Sandown prior to the season finale in Newcastle, but chose not to celebrate in wake of Paritygate). McLaughlin has since enjoyed success in his career change, scoring a podium in just his fourth race and winning in the second season & Marc Marquez making the shock switch from Honda to Ducati. In terms of motorcycle racing dynasties, the bond between Honda and Marc Marquez was one that would seemingly never end. Over seven years, the Spaniard won six titles with the Japanese manufacturer. However, an accident in the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix marked the beginning of the end. Injuries kept him sidelined that season and continued to plague him in the years after. Although he would win more races with Honda, by last year he felt the bike was uncompetitive and had to move on. Following back-to-back winless seasons, Marquez ended his 11-year relationship with Honda and joined Ducati.

And finally in rugby related news that this years Super Rugby Pacific ad is their best work where players like Crusaders player Will Jordan (Who is ruled out of the entire tournament through a shoulder injury), one of the Brumbies players of Allan 'Big Al' Ala'alatoa (Who is currently injured at the moment), Force player Issak Fines-Leleiwasa alongside a pair of Blues players like Mark Telea & Caleb Clarke for example had to play rugby thinking it was either underwater rugby or water polo, but I thought that the 2006 Super 14 ad was by far the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all-time) of Super Rugby adverts compared to this years one because not only it was filmed in Ukraine but one of the Waratahs players at the time of Mat 'The Rat' Rogers didn't appear in the ad (In which Ma'a 'Skux' Nonu (Hurricanes), Joe 'The Rocket Man' Rokocoko (Blues), Rico Gear (Crusaders), Nick 'Snapper' Evans (Highlanders) & Nathan 'Sharpey' Sharpe (Western Force) would gone on to appear in that advert) was in fact that he got injured during a Wallabies test against Wales in Cardiff so a Ukrainian extra had to fill in for him by wearing a Waratahs jersey while there was a Rugby World Cup related story about before last year's tournament started that the regining champions South Africa revealed that they brought on 21 survivors (+ both Handre Pollard & Lukhanyo Am joined midway through the tournament after Malcolm Marx & Makazole Mapimpi succumbed to injuries during the RWC) from the winning campaign in 2019 according to the previous blogs that I did last year such as captain Siya Kolisi, Faf de Klerk, Pieter-Steph du Toit (Standout player of the game against New Zealand in the final), Duane Vermeulen (Who retired after the tournament at the tender age of 37 but Schalk Brits still holds the record as the oldest Rugby World Cup winning player at 38 when he broke the all-time record in 2019 set by Mosgiel native of All Black Brad Thorn in 2011), Eben Etzebeth (Who sported a hairdo inspired by one of his Springbok teammates of RG Snyman following another success for the Springboks at the World Cup when they arrived home once again with the famous William Webb Ellis Cup) & others, compared to 2015 where the defending champions at the time of the All Blacks had sent in 14 survivors from the success that we had in 2011 such as captain Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Kieran Read, Nonu, Conrad Smith & others, but there is the New Zealand women's rugby team who was once known as the Gal Blacks before we settled by adapting our current name to the Black Ferns way back in 1998 in which the original team name thought that it was involuntary due to its links with sexism according to either Carole or Pops telling me during our dinner that we had at Rutland on the 10th of March, unlike the Australian women's football/soccer team who originally going to be the female Socceroos before subsquently changed it to the Matildas after Waltzing Matilda also way back in 1995.

So that is my 537th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 13th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.