As a resident of the Marrickville Local Government Area for just over a decade, I am proud of my council's track record, under both the Labor Party and the Greens, of its committment to social justice and its displays of solidarity on human rights issues - examples, Burma, West Papua, and the handling of refugees seeking asylum in Australia. I am especially pleased with the attitude they have displayed on human rights in Palestine, particularly in the context of their sister city relationship with Bethlehem.

On 4 April 2011 the ICC Executive Board talked glowingly about the World Cup that had concluded in Mumbai two days earlier. Among their remarks:

"This ICC Cricket World Cup has been very successful and memorable....

"...the event was the most successful in history.

"The tournament reinforced the attraction of 50 over cricket and showed the enthusiasm and excitement generated by nation v nation cricket.

It didn't take long for this moment, late in the evening of the ABC's NSW election telecast last night, to become a Twitter meme. Premier-elect Barry O'Farrell hauled before the cameras at the Liberal Party victory party for a quick interview, only to tell anchorman Kerry O'Brien that he only wanted to talk to telecast panellist, and his future transport minister, Gladys Berejiklian.

As was confirmed later, no snub of Red Kerry was intended in the frenetic atmosphere of the Parramatta Leagues Club.

"The truth is, the people of New South Wales who entrusted us with government for 16 years did not leave us, we left them."

- Kristina Keneally, from her election night concession speech, 26.3.11 (video)

It was inevitable that the Labor Party would be hammered in yesterday New South Wales election, and as it turned out the polls were fairly accurate in predicting the magnitude of the annihilation.

My storified tweetage of 26 March 2011, a day when the Labor Party was decisively hurled out government in New South Wales and replaced by a Liberal-National Party coalition with a sweeping majority.

Click on Read More to, er, read more.

Almost by definition, election campaigns have their bizarre moments - although Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell seem to have re-written the manual over the past couple of years.

But I doubt that I'll see anything more bizarre from the current NSW state election than the jam session on Kristina Keneally's campaign bus last Friday.

One of the most common jokes circulating during the slow-motion train wreck known as the 2011 NSW election concerns the size of the Labor Party team that will occupy the opposition benches in the Legislative Assembly after March 26.

Or, rather, the nature of the team.

Will they be an AFL team of 18 members? Or will there be barely enough to make up a cricket XI? (And remember, there's 50 of them currently in government.)

It feels like it has been such a long time coming, but we're now one week away from the end of a four-year fixed term marking the general election for the New South Wales parliament. The obvious, the necessary, will happen - the Australian Labor Party will be hurled out of office, and for the most part obliterated. This is good. By virtue of this, the Liberal and National Parties will be elevated to government with many fresh faces and a whacking big majority. This is not necessarily so good.

It's always a mug's game trying to predict winners in an event such as the ICC Cricket World Cup. One prediction I feel reasonably confident about is that Australia will not win its fourth consecutive title.

I'm neither Robinson Crusoe nor Robertson-Glasgow when I rate India as the favourites, with most of their matches played on home soil. Their opponents in the final will be South Africa - that's if, of course, the Proteas can make it that far for the first time.