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It's 3:30am Sunday morning and I'm drinking coffee and eating peanuts . . . Watching "LIVE" Australian Grand Slam tennis

What Time Is It In Australia?
I Don't Even Know What Day It Is.

February 1, 2015       Leave a Comment
By: O. J. Cunningham

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You've heard of jet lag.

I've got tennis lag.

For the past two weeks,I've been glued to my TV, watching the Australian Open Tennis Tournament held in Melbourne each January. It's the first "Grand Slam" tournament of the year.

I love watching Grand Slam tennis.

No . . . I'm hooked.

I need to watch Grand Slam tennis.

If you know me at all, you know why.

If you don't know me, then you don't know that I have been addicted to "Class C," tournament level, paddleball (it's a racquet game) for most of my adult life. ("Class C" -- That means I was never very good . . . But I really like to play.)

I've always watched tennis.

Names like Chris Evert, Navratilova, Serena, Venus, Steffi Graff, Connors, McEnroe, Sampras, Becker, Lendle, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Djokavic . . . and even way back to Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson . . . . These names all have reserved a little speck of cranial memory space -- specific memories of tennis' greatest moments.

Background: To me, a heavyweight boxing match is right up there with a game of tournament level, competitive paddleball. Grand Slam tennis is as close as it gets to a heavyweight boxing title match.

I played paddleball. I identify with Grand Slam tennis. Like, when you play golf and identify the same way with the Master's at Augusta.

So, here's the deal. Actually, it's a problem.

Melbourne, Australia is sixteen (16) time zones East of Michigan.

Did I mention . . . that I refuse to watch tape delay or sporting events on a DVR? It's a personal problem.

"O. J. just doesn't roll that way."

Sixteen (16) time zones.

You don't have a clue what I'm talking about right now, do you?

You don't need me to explain it. You just need to know that whenever you're reading this, (both of you) that it's 16 hours earlier . . . errrrr . . . later . . . errrr . . . yesterday in Melbourne has already happened . . . errrrr . . .

Got it?

Crap. Of course, you don't.

So . . . OK . . . Don't panic. Maybe you're a bit confused by how time zones work.

I expected that.

So, I did a little research for you.

How Time Zones Work - Each time zone is theoretically 15 degrees wide, corresponding to a one-hour difference in mean solar time. The shape of time zones is changed, in practice, to match internal and international borders. Civil time changes by one hour forward and backward respectively for every 15 degrees east or west of the Greenwich Meridian. One would need to divide the longitude, in degrees, by 15 to find the appropriate time zone, in hours. For example: At 150 degrees west (or 150° W) longitude, the time should be 150 degrees divided by 15 degrees = 10 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC/GMT) (or UTC-10). At 75 degrees east (or 75° E) longitude, the time would be 75 degrees divided by 15 degrees = 5 hours ahead of UTC/GMT (or UTC+5).

I'm glad that's cleared up. YOU'RE WELCOME!


© MyBayCity.com

In a nutshell . . . When the Australian Open Tennis finals were played at 7:00pm on Sunday night in Melbourne, Australia . . . Here in Michigan, it was only 3:00am on Sunday morning. (And I was in front of the TV with coffee and peanuts . . . watching "live" because it was Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Day before . . . Friday morning at 3:30am . . . Same thing . . . I watched Serena and Maria slug it out in the Women's Championship. (Eating chips and dip)

Being a sports fan has never been easy for me . . .

And I know for sure . . . If you watched at all . . . I bet you didn't watch it live.

So . . . It doesn't count.

Now, a quick nap . . . In 12 hours, It's Super Bowl kick-off time . . . And I'm not taping it to DVR for later.



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O. J. Cunningham

O. J. Cunningham is the Publisher of MyBayCity.com. Cunningham previously published Sports Page & Bay City Enterprise. He is the President/CEO of OJ Advertising, Inc.

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