Mon, 29 Sep 2008
What a game! What a win!
We watched the game at Steph and Eva's, and while Steph and I were the only ones really watching the game, most of the other people there had never seen me so animated, yelling at the TV, swearing at the umpires, cheering on the goals.
It was one of the best grand finals I've seen.
A titanic, see-sawing first half, complete with ten goals in the first quarter - for the first time since the '89 GF, also between Hawthorn and Geelong.
Withstanding the Geelong pressure, being two men down on a 28C day, as well as a multitude of blatantly incorrect free kicks awarded against us to be a few points up at half time. Geelong had probably four of their first six goals virtually kicked for them by the umpires.
Shane Crawford finally winning a premiership, after so many years at the other end of the ladder, and in a season he almost didn't finish due to injury.
Cyril Rioli taking on three Geelong players on the wing, and getting the free kick for holding the ball, which led to a significant goal.
Stuey Dew, brought across out of retirement from Port by Alastair Clarkson weighing at almost 120kg, kicking two goals in the third quarter - including one from the boundary - to virtually seal the game.
Even without Buddy and Roughy, and with Sam Mitchell relatively quiet, Hawthorn still had champions. When your top players aren't firing, either everybody else goes home (like St Kilda in the preliminary final) or the younger, inexperienced players stand up and play the game of their lives - like Xavier Ellis.
Just brilliant. After 17 years without a grand final, it's been a long time.
Sun, 14 Sep 2008
We were in Coles at Chatswood earlier today. I'm standing in the aisle, next to the trolley, waiting while Kathleen peruses the cans on the shelf.
Just then, one of the other customers, a guy in his mid-30s pushes his trolley past. "Ooooh yeeaaahh," he says quietly as he passes.
I thought he was just talking to his young son, sitting in the shopping trolley, but realised my mistake a few seconds later, when I heard him follow up with:
"Wo... woh woh."
He was singing "Oh Yeah" by Yello to his son. What a cool dad!
Thu, 11 Sep 2008
The Wedding
Last week, we were down in Hobart for my sister Nicole's wedding. She and John were married at Mawson's Pavilion at Constitution Dock. Kathleen and I are now a step-auntie and step-uncle to little Katie, which is a bit strange considering none of us siblings have had kids!
Nicole was fighting back tears throughout the ceremony. Not sure why, since John's a good guy, really easygoing and friendly. He stirs her up something shocking though, but whereas I would've got a hit if I'd said the same thing, he just gets a 'glare'.
She must've been caught up in the moment, though, because as the celebrant prompted her to say the marriage vows, Nicole got flustered.
"I promise to... what?!" as though she couldn't believe the outlandish vows she was promising to keep!
The reception was at Cascade Visitor Centre, which we'd definitely recommend as a top function centre - not sure why we didn't look here when we were having our wedding. The centre came complete with a cat that slept in its basket just outside the doors, ignoring the loud music.
I was MC, and got to embarrass Nicole in front of all her friends and family with a story that doesn't bear repeating here! That's what big brothers are for.
I uploaded the photos to Flickr.
Hobart
- I was almost killed from Salmonelle poisoning due to a semi-cooked chicken parmagiana at the Beltana in Lindisfarne on John's bucks night (but the rest of the bucks night was good fun
- Kathleen went crazy at Chickenfeed. She was excitedly trying to attract my attention, having found a stack of Wonka Nerds, as a kid stood next to her, staring at her strangely as if to say, "What is WRONG with you?!" We also found a Young Talent Time DVD (which made Kathleen even more excited), reduced to $5, from $7 and from $10. Evidently, this was still too much of a budget-buster for one shopper, who'd taken the DVD from inside the case.
- I had two days of work for a client on the Monday and Tuesday. The offices were two floors up from the company my dad works for, which no doubt will intensely amuse my Sydney coworkers, who like to point out the endless coincidences in Hobart. Also bumped into Dad, my sister Nicole, and brother-in-law John at separate times at separate parts of the city. Yes, Hobart really sometimes is that small.
- The client was in the process of replacing their customer billing system, which I'd worked on almost 10 years ago as my first job out of uni. Interesting to note how many of the names from that time were still there, working on the replacement system.
- I was disappointed by the usual 'nostalgia foods' I go for when I go back - La Bella pizza in town, Muirs' fish basket which tasted this time too much like average fish and chips, and Banjo's. Banjo's in particular was awful - the cheap, ineffective plastic cutlery and garish red plastic baskets. Bring back normal plates and knives and forks! Looks like they're trying to be a downmarket version of every other chain-store bakery.
- Luckily, Hartz mineral water was just as good, and Retro cafe was so good, I went four times in 2 days for a caffeine fix.
- Caught up with an old friend, Joe, from school days, who I hadn't seen in almost 10 years. He hasn't changed a bit.
- Kathleen and I caught up with Tamika, who we'd both gone to school with.
- Amazing to see how many tourist-centric restaurants and wine bars have opened up down in Salamanca.
- I took my life in my hands (only joking) by catching the bus home to mum's place via Rokeby and Clarendon Vale. The girl behind me was telling her sob story to her male friend. She'd apparently left her baby up in Launceston, there was something about child support, she really wanted to get stoned, something else about the bank dissing her... she really reinforced the bogan stereotypes down here...
- We went up the mountain with Eva and Steph, and threw snowballs at each other.
- ... and then there was the wedding, and finally, time to come home again.
