7am: Bom dia!
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Central Western Daily journalist Nicole Kuter here to keep you updated with what happened in Orange and around the world with today's Orange Express..
I have drawn the short draw and have the honour of filling your morning with world cup results and soccer facts and figures.
Remember, if you have a news tip (un-related to soccer) or anything you would like to share with us, email nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
Let's get the ball rolling with today's weather ...
Basically what happened yesterday is supposed to happen again today. As you're reading this it should be around three degrees and the mercury is expected to rise to 13 degrees by three in the afternoon. There is rain predicted but if it occurs, it should ease up by lunchtime tomorrow.
Again, just copy and paste yesterday's weather predictions for around the region.
Bathurst is warming up with a top temperature of 16 degrees with a low of two degrees.
And those in Dubbo will experience slightly warmer conditions of 18 degrees but with "rain developing".
7.10am. For those celebrating the milestone of their birth today, you share the special day with the Double Trouble twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
The twins, who turn 27, began their acting career, when I was still in foetus form, on popular US series Full house. They're one year older than I am and are two of the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry.. I'm not bitter at all.
One a far more important note, June 13 babies also share a birthday with dead, Irish poet William Butler Yeats who was a Nobel Prize recipient and remembered for works such as The Tower and The Green Helmet. Also a playwright, he had several of his dramas, including Purgatory, performed at the famous Abbey Theatre.
He was born in 1865 and lived until 1939.
In the spirit of the sporting event happening in Brazil, I should mention the birthday of a Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda.
He also turns 27 today and is playing for Japan's world cup team against the Ivory Coast national football team on Sunday.
7.15am. Did you know... FIFA says 909.6 million television viewers watched at least one minute of the 2010 World Cup final at home between Spain and the Netherlands... a game where nothing happened for two hours.
Almost as exciting as this game.
7.25am. It's official, soccer fans have no concept of reality.
The Socceroos are ranked 62nd in the world yet somehow Australian soccer fans stubbornly refuse to accept that there is absolutely no way conceivable that the team will win the world cup let alone a single game.
According to a study done by the New York Times one in nine Australians polled believe that their team will win the world cup. We'd have more chance of hosting the 2022 world cup, from Qatar, than we'd have of winning this one.
7.35am. And now for something far more important, the news.
The manager of a major retail outlet in the Orange Grove Homemaker Centre says her staff fear for their own safety, are routinely verbally abused and deemed racist for trying to check the bags of customers they suspect are shoplifting.
The woman spoke to Central Western Daily staff on the condition that her name not be published for fear of retribution.
Conditions at the Bathurst Road centre have become so dangerous she says staff now park at the front of the store and exit the building in pairs after dark.
And now for something completely different...
The Orange men’s shed has become a popular hangout for elderly men seeking practical skills and companionship, with women strictly not allowed - until now.
Orange City Council staff have started investigating the possibility of creating a women’s shed, with a slightly different focus
7.38am I had no idea Game of Thrones Hodor could say anything else.
Apparently a soccer game where each team had scored a goal was an event so rare, a miracle happened and Hodor learned to speak.
7.44am. Brazil has hit the lead 2-1 against Croatia via a dubious penalty.
7.50am. Have a look at this sporting gallery full of manly-looking men playing a game where things happen regularly.
Most years it only occurs twice.
Sometimes, when fans are lucky, it happens three or even four times.
No matter what the setting or timing, all local derbies between the Orange City Lions and Orange Emus have one thing in common.
Passion.
Click here to see the pride and the passion ... ten years of Orange rugby derbies - Part I
8am Another fun soccer fact.
According to a really, really, really credible survey by TattsBet on its Australian Facebook friends, almost 17 per cent of respondents predicted an England player would be found with a fellow teammate’s wife.
8.02am. Ok so I should recant everything I just said about Soccer.
A 3-1 result is a pretty busy match.
8.20am. Now for some National news to give you something to talk about at work.
In the latest blockbuster hit story line to come out of alleged politician corruption embroiled the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The former Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson took to the stand at the royal commission into trade unions and denied a slush fund he established had issued sham invoices or that he gave wads of cash to his former girlfriend, Julia Gillard, for her home renovations.
And keeping with the world cup theme, it seems the government may get back some of the oodles of cash it spent on a failed world cup bid.
The Abbott government will consider legal action to recoup more than $40 million wasted on Australia's futile bid to host the 2022 football World Cup, won by oil-rich Qatar on the back of alleged systematic bribery.
Minister for Sport Peter Dutton said the government would ''consider options'' to claw back the money after reports that Qatari officials showered cash on football officials across the globe to secure the hosting rights in a landslide. Australia pulled just one vote.
8.35am. There's plenty going on this weekend in sport around Orange.... and we've been playing around with some video in these next stories.
Orange City Lions co-coach Mick Gray believes the two cornerstones of his side's back-to-back premierships - defence and discipline - will determine Saturday's local derby.
The lions will venture into enemy territory when they run on to Endeavour Oval to face arch-rivals Orange Emus.
And then click here to find out what the other side think of Mick Gray's sentiments.
ORANGE Emus coach Andrew Logan is quietly confident his troops can triumph in the biggest game of their Blowes Clothing Cup campaign so far on Saturday.
8.45am. Having trouble waking up in the morning?
This is the best alarm clock. I want one.
8.55am. Now it is time to have your say in our daily poll.
The topic concerns the claims by staff at the Orange Homemaker's Centre that they fear for their safety.
9am. That's it from me this morning. Have a great weekend for those who do not have to work.
For everyone else like me, Friday feels a bit like this.