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I don't know if the Qld cup is stronger than the Super League, but it's a lot closer to SL than people here are making out. Most of the top half of the Qld cup wouldn't look out of place in the SL. The only club that they'd really struggle with is St. Helens, but that's true of rest of the SL clubs as well.

The top Qld cup teams could beat many of the NRL teams on their day, so suggesting that they would be competitive in the SL shouldn't be taken as an insult.

Still a big jump though makes the 100 seem a bit more achievable once you go past 80. I think we are both one or possibly two weeks away from the 100.

I've always enjoyed seeing dragonflies (and damsel flies too), but not really had any idea what I was looking at. My daughter kindly gave me a small pocket guide on the subject for Christmas (Britain's Dragonflies by Smallshire and Swash) and I have made first use of it today while walking the dog on the outskirts of our village. I saw a common darter. As the name implies, it is, well, pretty common! But I take delight in all such sightings - common or rare - and it was satisfying to be able to put a name to a face, or in this case, an abdomen! ps caught a bit of quiz show called Tipping Point this morning when I came down to let the dog out and make mugs of tea for my wife and me. Question - "there are three species of snake found in Britain - the smooth snake, the adder and what?" Contestant - "errr, python?"

Ok havent been to New Caledonia so dont know anything about the health system but I have been to French Polynesia, that was some time ago but prices are also expensive there. Regarding the standard of living from what i understand New Caledonia has the next highest standard of living in the pacific region aside from Australia & NZ. The New Caledonia union comp switched to league around 15 years ago but they switched back to Union a few years later. Former Cronulla, Canberra, Catalan Dragons and French Rugby League representative Dimitri Pelo was born in New Caledonia but his parents were originally from Wallis & Futuna. As for Standard of the Queensland Cup id say its currently probably the best semi pro comp in the world

Since 2017, I had put forward this idea of basing a French team in Nouméa and that the distance with Australia was less than that with Papua or Auckland. I had even sent a letter to this effect to the president of the federation and created topics on the forums to launch the idea. The new Caledonia is economically isolated and this team could be a link with the Australian continent nearby. Everyone could be a winner: rugby league, Australia, Caledonia, France, etc.

Caught on Instagram so don’t have a concrete link but it seems a Pacifique XIII team are looking to join the Queensland Cup to utilise talented in French speaking Pacific island territories. An interview with their media manager Laurent Garnier will be on the next edition of Chasing Kangaroos.

They're usually squabbling with the magpies around here and they've obviously got the better this year for what is probably a prime nesting site given the number of hedges and song birds nearby. Thinking about the local birds I've not seen our sparrowhawk (nor its aftermath) for a while now. It used to like hiding in our eucalyptus but quickly adapted to lurking in the hedge after that was cut down.

Crows are always up for a fight. I regularly see them in aerial combat with the buzzards over a nearby field.

The pair of magpies that have nested in the big tree behind my house for at least the last 5 years have been evicted by a pair of crows, who have completed repairs on the nest. Not sure where the magpies have gone but when I saw the crows building I realised I hadn't seen them for a while. Also the last few days I've spent some time early afternoon watching the local heron get harassed by the more local crows when it's made its daily fishing trip to the nearby pond - must try and get some pictures.

We usually take the boadyboards and kayak onto little fistal . If swell is good spend the day on beach . If conditions aren't great we head over to the bay side . Only the cost of parking . Hopefully heading down August . Great place to watch the sea/weather . Good short video on ytube about a group of Australians /South Africans paddling out to the big wave that can develop off the head when conditions are working . Long before neoprene wetsuits .

It was not a case of not quite squeezing another one through. It was just not happening.

Final test: 84 Not too bad, pretty pleased with that. Feeling good up to 50, doing them in sets of ten with a breath in between, then upto about 65 with a breath in between each five, then pushing them out one by one. Note to add, that means I caught up with @bobbruce, except he did it after eight other sets of press ups.

Yes it is!...if you are in a wilderness areas when vast numbers hatch (weather has got to be just right) then they 'swarm' at the top of a tree but only for a short time...its a miracle in nature to watch...but the window is small...that is what I saw....it was really something. There were millions of them and Thank God I had secured my daily water supply from the lake before it became polluted with the huge numbers of empty casings. It was a beautiful thing to see and I'm glad I had the chance to witness it.

We created a garden pond in the house we lived in before we came to our current one and deliberately put no ornamental fish in it. We let nature take its aquatic course. One of the great, late springtime delights was seeing dragonfly nymphs slowly ease their way out of the water and up the leaves of some of the plants we had put in the edge of the pond. There they would wait while the sun and warm breeze dried them and then slowly but surely break out of their casing. If you went back an hour or two later, you would probably see the empty, ghostlike casing still clinging to the leaf it was on. A great privilege to witness that, as I did a few times!

Once I was on a little island with the Yak camping in the middle of nowhere and it was just the right moment...saw the first massive damsel fly hatch and mating...what a crazy frenzy at the top of a tree by my camp....quite a sight...watched them for hours. Millions of them and I had to take refuge in the tent. You don't get to see such a thing too often (only once for me).

With the sad passing of Florian Schneider, here's Bill Bailey's affectionate tribute to Kraftwerk.

It was outstanding . I’d just finished ranting at the telly about what a traitor Carrie was and I hope she gets killed ... when the final scene unfolded . I hope the producers have a rethink and keep it going

You spelt Swinton wrong ?

Just tongue in cheek mate, just tongue in cheek.

I hope something comes of this but I doubt it. I have visited Noumea/ New Caledonia many times as recently as February and Vanuatu probably even more often. The citizens of Noumea seem like they are comfortable being propped up by France and are on “Island time” I can not imagine a team from there competing in the QLD Cup. Is the QLD Cup a comp that just brings in any overseas team that fancies a stepping stone to develop their players and put them in the shop window?

'' With 300,000 people, New Caledonia has the population and also the economic capability to cater for a team in the Intrust Super Cup, which is widely touted as the second-best rugby league competition in the world.'' An interesting portion of the article, I trust Super Cup better than Super League? Assuming that they're inferring NRL is no. 1

If Australia end up fostering France better than England.....

I am convinced some people here have never seen a Qld Cup match in their lives, or even highlights. I highly recommend it, they have great highlight videos on the QRL website.

Sometimes reality hurts.