For all the TV Channels I get, there is often surprisingly little to watch, especially if you prefer TV to be Australian. So I was rather pleasantly surprised to see that “Fox College Sports”:http://msn.foxsports.com/tv/schedule?regionCategoryId=2621&date=2006-03-14&submit_button=Submit is broadcasting a bunch of the “Commonwealth Games”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/ from Melbourne. I’ll be out of town for various parts of that, but hopefully the DVR will pick up most of it.

For some unknown reason Fox seems to be opposed to broadcasting the swimming (odd since swimming is so connected to college sports in America) so the televisual highlights will be the “road events”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Road+Events/. Some of the courses they’ve designed, especially for the “marathon”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Road+Events/Marathon/ and “triathalon”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Road+Events/Triathlon/ look great. Sitting in a streetside cafe in St Kilda or Port Melbourne watching world class (well, Commonwealth class) marathoners or triathelets go by on an early autumn afternoon in Melbourne seems like a nice constituent of the Good Life. Since I’m a bit far away for that I’ll have to settle for TV images from afterwards. The “cycling”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Road+Events/Cycling+Road/ “courses”:http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports+and+Venues/Road+Events/Cycling+Time+Trial/ are also nice for spectators, but I would have preferred that one of the races be held up in the Dandenongs both for the beauty of the visual images and for the extra competitive challenges.