A Historic Event

It's the small moments that shape your life innit? The stuff that might bore or surprise strangers when you tell them about it. Marriage, kids and all that stuff are obvious highlights but anyone can do that and all going well, everyone who does do it has exactly the same outcome - a healthy kid, a lovely service etc etc
Try telling someone about playing pool on a knackered table in a garage every year since you were a kid and no matter how well you tell it, folk that haven't done it will never be able to fully grasp it. But move 20,000 kms away and miss it one year, along with all the implications and baggage that goes with it, and you start missing home pretty sharply. Sitting on a little coffee table disguised as a mobile on speaker-phone just ain't the same.

Congratulations Aaron! You deserved one for all the entertainment over the years.

Merry Christmas Lads

...have a good one? Outragously, it wasn't sunny here today. It was scorching on Christmas Eve, I went for a swim down Balmoral Beach after work, but today, whilst still being warm, was overcast and rather uninspiring:

That put paid to my dreams of swimming and frying on the beach on Christmas Day, but fortunately I had a back up Aussie cliche to save the day: Shrimps on the barbie! I was humming Mary Mo to myself whilst I cooked an'all. We had oysters to start, then terrine, then chilli shrimp (technically they were prawns, which are bigger than shrimp, and the reason they're called shrimp in that ad is because of the yanks), then lamb chops. It was a nice, different Christmas dinner, though the telly was still shocking and frankly it was cool enough to have had turkey. Everyone's now gearing up for either the Boxing day sales, the boxing day movie releases (Despite the summer weather Boxing Day's a huge day for new film releases, I'm wanting to see No Country For Old Men), or the boxing day cricket. Hope you all had a cracker! Merry Christmas once again.


PS What's American Gangster like? Despite it being a Crowe film it doesn't come out here until the second week of January.

Get in!...

Let's hope this signals the beginning of a long and humiliating fall from grace for Edinburgh's less popular soccer squad, they've been doing far too well lately.

The Power & The Glory

After the 0-0 thrilla of the Queensland game, my mate Luke blagged us corporate box 'Chairman's Lounge' tickets to the Perth Glory game on Saturday night (his brother's mate organises the half-time entertainment for the stadium). I've never had a prawn sandwich at any of the big clubs but these boys are rolling out the client carpet in order to attract the big money to the game. We turned up half an hour before kick off just in time to see the last of the two course meal we could have had disappear (obviously we didn't realise they laid one on or would have been there getting stuck in instead of down the pub). But is was a free bar all game and they wheeled Pim Verbeek into the lounge just before kick off to be interviewed about the great things he's got planned for the Australian team. They had ice boxes filled with bevvie next to your seats and the injured players like Juninho were knocking about with their kids. The free beer took the sting out of the game - Perth have been rooted to the bottom of the table for most of the season yet they gave Sydney a good shoe-ing, having been a bogey team for the blues so far this season (two draws), who had their chances in an end-to-end game and started the second half well (once they were two nil down) but proper schoolboy defensive errors let Perth runaway with it. Apologies for the mistake I made in the post about the Queensland game - Ian Fyfe has been playing right back and it's him that's completely useless, as he was this Saturday an'all. Michael Bridges bagging one in the last minute left the scoreline flattering for the blues but they never looked like winning it.
They have a do in the 36 Degrees bar in Star City after every match that some of the players are made to go to but it's miles away in Darling Harbour so we sacked it and went down the pub instead. The Sydney Morning Herald's report is here Meanwhile big Anthony LaPaglia's been talking about how he's eager to get stuck back into the club once he's finished being a star in Hollywood Madness...

See Jaws crashed out first round again? He'll be spewing and looking to punch someone in the throat no doubt... result for Mardell though.

That's Me A Working Man

After a couple of interviews and a bit of homework I now work for the crim on the left (subject to signing my contract). I start next Tuesday at http://ninemsn.com.au/ in the entertainment, music and teen stuff. It's in the Australia Square building, which was Australia's first tower block, apparently. It's at the Circular Quay end of George Street and until we get our own gaff I'll be getting the ferry to work, which is a touch. It's all highly corporate stuff but as I found out when I became a soldier in the barmy Rupert army last year, that sort of stuff involves private health care, a good pension, decent bonuses blah blah. The one shocker is that 20 days is the standard annual leave here. I'm getting 21, but I was on 30 by the time I left the old gaff. Using fifteen to come home for three weeks at some point obviously whollops 75% of yer holiday in a one-er so I may have to think about getting very rich very quickly so that I can do it at least once a year. Where'd I put that foam antler export form...

Pretty Convincing

Disappointing winnit? Barely a scratch on Pretty Boy at the end, and apart from the first round scare and making him work hard for it, Hatton was never in the driving seat. Saw it live online on that Live Footy Chinese site, brilliant little find that.
I know it's 'cause Ricky's all about all-out attack, but it was interesting to see that every time the ref broke them up, he pushed Ricky back a few steps, who then paced forward a few steps to get stuck back in, meaning that over the course of the fight he must have covered three times the distance that Mayweather did. He took some cracking smacks though and it was exciting to watch, but you knew as it got to the eighth he needed a knockout. De La Hoya wanted him next anyway no?

That’s Me A Surfer

…That’s the surfing conquered. Went down yesterday lunchtime in the blazing heat and tore it up. The instructor boy said I was a natural. It’s just as well I never came snowboarding with you boys, I’d have made you look absolutely terrible. There were three other numpties in my group and it was dirty glances all round as I got the “beginner my arse - you’ve done this before ya fanny” looks. Sometimes my natural dolphin-like ability in the water is a curse.

(I was alright. Stood up a few times and rode a few waves, one all the way into shore. About an hour after I finished a massive storm - a fifty year one? - hit and it was mayhem, lucky timing. Cheers again Harjy-lad!)

Happy Birthday Dave!

Seems quite a while ago now, but I can still clearly remember Danny and me carrying you out the Ave on your 18th, and the lovely shade of reddish-purple those snakebite and blacks left on the porcelain, and your dad taking you for a stroll round the Sava before hitting the hay. Went 'up London' the next day and bought chocolate milkshakes in Oxford Street Burger King then tat at Camden Market, that indie lass with the Sultans Of Ping tshirt on the train home giving Danny's Charlies purchase the thumbs up and my Pearl Jam bootlegs the thumbs down, cheeky mare...

Have a cracker squire

Not Quite Right Christmas

The weirdest thing about Christmas here is that it feels nothing like Christmas. I know that's becuase I'm used to it being dark and freezing, but the date seems like some dislocated thing and I feel in no way festive. Obviously you boys that were here in '98 will know what I mean, but the dark and cold of December is normally pretty bearable because there are parties to go to, decent gigs and celebrations. There's also a million Christmas ads on the box, which they don't have here. They've got a few but they're poor and only related to specific festive products (like 20% off turkeys or 'stock up on Toohey's at Bruce's Bottle Shop this Christmas!'). Seeing deccies and trees up in the heat is weird and sweating round the shops in your shorts whilst 'ding dong merrily on high' blasts over the pa system is pure mental. Plus the odd festive ad that does air normally gets sandwiched between summer ads ('Get down to Brenda's Bikini Hut for the start of the summer season!'), making the thing even weirder. I hate the cold and dark in January and February, but never mind it in December when it feels Christmassy and when there're birthdays, CITs, gigs, parties and days off work to look forward to.