My Hero, Your Hero.

I don't have a lot of respect for sportsmen. I mean, I think Harry Kewell is hot, but...that's about it, really.

But I try not to blow them off too much though. I know it tends to upset some people. People who actually like sport, which happens to be most of the freaking population here in Australia. So I try not to let on too much that I don't really count tossing a ball a huge achievement, at least not an achievement worth squillions of dollars that could be put to better use, given to worthier people of a worthier cause.

One thing I do love is history. I first caught the history bug when I was eight, bored to death of our rather uninteresting and uninspiring history that spans less than two centuries and my mother borrowed a documentary of Elizabeth I to keep me occupied. That documentary happened to be narrated by David Starkey.

I love David Starkey. (if you don't know David Starkey, by the way, he's a historian who studied at Cambridge University and taught at the London School of Economics who rose to fame making documentaries of British history, his speciality being my personal favourite era, the Tudor Dynasty). I don't agree with his political views or views on women, but there's no denying he's a wonderfully gifted and enthusiastic historian, crazy knowledgable and his documentaries suck you in and won't spit you out until you can reel off all the names of Henry's six wives. He inspired me to enter the wonderful world of history, let me escape to a place where things had meaning when people had passion and defiance and bravery instead of the lumpen sacks of useless flesh that make up most of the modern day global population, a time of chivalry and knights in shining armour.

So yeah, it does piss me off when people laugh at his dramatic and flamboyant narration style, how his eyebrows move, his English accent, so different to our Aussie pronunciation (or mispronunciation) of things. You know what I think is stupid? How soccer players carefully cup their balls when a ball's coming towards them. I think the cricket teams wear the most retarded clothing. I think that AFL is basically scheduled, expensive chaos and I think that the only good thing about rugby is the All Black's haka. But I don't say shit like that to people, because they get a bit annoyed, shocked, even, that I think that their hero is a jerk or looks funny.

Trampling over other people is never a good thing - we all know it, but we all do it any way, even if we pretend we don't. But trampling on our heroes is like trampling on our souls.