“Date”: 20 weeks
Feeling: Hungry all the time (again!)
Wearing: Whatever the hell fits!
Looking forward to: that first kick
Littlefoot
Why, oh why?
Dear Channel 9,
I am a Queenslander living in Melbourne. I have embraced AFL and watched many games, and have attended several live matches as well. But like I said, I’m a Queenslander, so I’m a Rugby League supporter at heart. I was so excited when Victoria embraced Rugby League and was positively elated when they had one of the State of Origin matches at Etihad last year, which I eagerly attended.
I think you know where this is going.
I watched the first State of Origin match of the 2010 series from the comfort of my home, and I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I was with the result. I unfortunately missed the second match due to a Melbourne University function (only Victoria would book an event on State of Origin night), so for the last 3 weeks, I have been so looking forward to watching game 3. I know it was a “dead rubber” but when you love a sport, these things don’t matter. Plus, both teams still had a lot to play for – Queensland were looking for their first clean sweep since the 1995 and New South Wales were looking to regain some pride.
So, perhaps you can imagine my utter dismay when I turned the TV on at 8pm only to find Daryl Somers staring back at me. “It must be a mistake”, I thought. So I turned over to Foxtel to see if they were showing it live. And then I noticed the delayed telecast to start at 9:30pm.
Are you for real? You want Victoria to embrace Rugby League, so you delay the telecast of one of the biggest matches of the year? This makes no sense to me. Especially considering that there are a few Melbourne Storm players in the competition. I just can not fathom it.
Can you please tell me why you chose to do this? I noticed in today’s paper that you have axed Hey Hey because of poor ratings, which is even more frustrating, since I’m sure you would have had a number of Victorians wanting to watch the State of Origin over Hey Hey. I hope I don’t have to write another letter like this, this time next year.
Regards,
Wifey
NOTE: FYI I stayed up for the delayed coverage and watched Queensland win 23-18 in an absolute CRACKER of a match, and I’ll be posting this letter to Channel 9 today.
Nuts about Peanuts
I’ve mentioned my love of Peanuts before (here and here), and my desire to own the complete Peanuts series of comic books (they are still being released!!) and the fact that I am currently struggling through reading a biography about Charles Schulz (that I think I’m going to give up on to be honest). What was my point again? Oh yeah, I love Peanuts. So when we were in Minotaur the other day, and came across the Peanuts 60th Anniversary Book, I went, well, a little nuts 🙂
But I didn’t actually really consider buying it. It was a bit pricey, and such frivolousness at this point in time wasn’t on my mind. But it was on Hubs’ mind. He said something like “Go onnnnnnnn. Let’s just get it. If you REALLY want it, we can say it was a birthday present since I didn’t get you one.” This isn’t really true – Hubs made me a beautiful photo album that didn’t cost much, but that took him hours to put together. Still, who was I to argue?? And since I got to get a new comic book, so did Hubs! (Perhaps that was his plan all along! 🙂 He wanted Strange Girl and the whole series (5 books) was available at a very good price so it was a done deal.
I haven’t even opened it yet. I’m saving it til we move to Wang. The anticipation is kind of killing me, but in a really awesome way. It’s going to be SO goooooood….
Lunch at college
College is quite a strange beast. You get thrown into a mix of 272 students who are undergrads, post-grads, male, female, Catholic, not Catholic, shy, smart, funny, social, silly, confident etc etc etc. At meal times, there will be certain people who you might sit with regularly, and get to know them quite well. There is generally some segregation between the Junior Common Room (under-grads) and the Senior Common Room (post-grads) but that’s more out of habit than anything sinister.
Towards the end of the semester, and over the mid-year break, the numbers dwindle to about 30 people, and often lunch and dinner will consist of only 2 or 3 full tables. This is one of the best times to be around college. The food is better (last night we had beef osso bucco and mini pavlovas) and you get to sit with people you may never have even said a word to the whole semester. And there are some characters, let me tell you.
The table that Hubs and I sat at today at lunch time was an unlikely mix of people, and I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. We had an American, 2 Germans, a Pole, Hubs and I, a Fijian, and a Daylesfordian. We started with a joke about 3 philosophers, then covered topics ranging from “the best joke ever” (it wasn’t, but the delivery made up for it), to the Smurfs, to the best action movie about to be released (the name of which escaped the person who told us about it, but it could be this one), to peppermint tea (I had my first today and I’m so hooked), and so much in between.
It will go down as one of the best meals I’ve had at college, and seeing as how we’re leaving in 10 days time, it was a fitting way to wind down the clock.
Wifey’s World Cup
I wasn’t going to say anything, but as most of you know, I find it hard to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I’m talking about this. I didn’t actually watch this game, but a friend of ours at college has been watching most matches and was telling us about it the next day. After he gave me a run down of what happened, I had to check it out for myself. Here’s the story:
It was Ghana vs Uruguay in the quarter-finals. The game was being played with the usual amount of theatrics, as well as a lot of skill. At full-time, it was dead-locked at 1-1 (as so many soccer matches are) so they started extra time. Towards the end of extra time, it happened. (if you’re looking at the video link, it’s about 1 min 22sec in) Ghana were attacking and took a shot at goal, which was saved, then they had another shot, which was deflected, and on their third attempt, the ball was in. At least, it would have been in, if a Uruguay defender hadn’t used his hand to save the goal. Note I used the word defender, not goalkeeper. This defender took it upon himself to cheat to save the goal. It was so damn blatant and it has made me so mad. He cheated and that’s that. There’s nothing more to it. It was a certain goal, and he knew it, and he decided in that split-second to “sacrifice” himself (knowing he would miss the next game), use his hand to stop the goal, get red-carded and sent off, and give his team an opportunity to save a goal in a spot kick. (Incidentally, Ghana missed the spot kick – the player hit the crossbar. This is not the point).
I cannot tell you how much this has upset me. How it has taken the fun out of watching the World Cup. If this was a Rugby League game, and a player committed a professional foul to prevent a certain-try, the team would have been awarded a penalty try. This should be a rule in soccer. Now before you get all up in arms about how hard that would be to police, give me an alternative. Do we just let teams win any way they can?? Any way they want?? And you know the worst part about all of this? That cheater has been hailed a hero.
Yeah, well done for being a big fat cheater who cheats his side into the final. Nice work. Bravo. Three cheers for the big cheater. And the comments left on one of the forums really paints a sad, sad picture:
“congrats uruguay. you deserve this. the sacrifice made in this game shows you have true passion for soccer. sorry ghana, not a good day. GOO URUGUAY!”
Passion is no substitute for fair play; for being a good sport; for not being a lousy cheater. (Or for bad spelling).
“Well, Uruguay played well and deserved to win. Suarez (the dirty cheater) made a wise move and paid the price for it.”
A wise move?? Paid the price?? Missing a game?? Aw the poor cheater misses a game. Waaah waaah waaah.
Seriously! What is this teaching young kids who want to play professionally one day? Winning is everything? Win at all costs? “Sacrifice” yourself for your team’s glory??
If Uruguay make it past the next round (I’m not going to watch their game) or if worse comes to worst, they make it through to the final, I’ll never watch another world cup game again.
Note: The Netherlands knocked Uruguay out in the following round. Justice has been done.
All night movie marathon…
…and a triple espresso so you can stay awake.” Okay, so it wasn’t an all night movie marathon, and it was an affogato, not a triple espresso, but we did stay awake! Hubs has been complaining whinging noting that we have been having an earlier bed time than usual – actually, the comments were around the fact that he had a bed time – and wanted to stay up later on the weekends. So I went one better and planned a night of movies on Friday night. We had nothing pressing all weekend, so I figured we could sleep all day Saturday after staying up all night.
I was keen to see Avatar, but we couldn’t get it working on the computer, so we started with Back to the Future III. We had watched I and II in the last couple of months so we completed the trilogy. We then watched Kung Fu Panda which we’ve been meaning to watch for ages and it was SO good! It had laughs all the way through and a lovely message at the end that we can all relate to. The third movie took a bit of deciding on, but we ended up going with The Royal Tenenbaums which I had seen AGES ago and liked it and thought Hubs might too (I was right).
By this stage it was 4:40am and we decided to call it a night. We had consumed choc-dipped strawberries, bullets (my FAVOURITE!!), and I made some choc-dipped snakes as well so we were pretty buzzy but very very sleepy indeed. We crashed into bed and slept soundly… until the phone rang at 10am! Should have thought to put them on silent!! We had another nap that afternoon (from 4-6pm!) and got around to watching Avatar that evening. It was pretty good! As Hubs calls it, Fern Gully with guns, but I really rather enjoyed it. It wasn’t in 3D but I still got the general gist.
So that was our movie marathon weekend! Now it’ll take me a few days to catch up on sleeeeeeeep 🙂
This time last year
We were in America. Clearly that post isn’t about us being in America. This is what we were doing on 1st of July 2009. Aaaaaah. Chilling at the Lake of the Ozarks with Kimberley and BJ. In all honesty, this was one of the best times of my life. It’s my happy place. I can still feel the humidity of the mid-west; taste the pain-in-the-ass that Kimberley made me and the Reuben burger we had for lunch; and smell that sweet sweet waft of being on holiday with not a care in the world.
And what about this time 2 years ago? Well, I was writing this.
As we prepare for the next step of our journey (and as I continue to put off the packing!) it’s fun to reminisce.
Au Naturel
I remember when it all began. I was 15 years old and I wanted to dye my hair. Mum was a bit reluctant at first, but I convinced her that a Napro Live Colour, retailing at $4.00 at the time, was a semi-permanent, and might not even make a difference. I’m sure Mum then asked “well if it’s not going to make a difference, then why do it at all” and I’m sure I would have responded with “just becaaaaaauuuuusssse okaaaaaaaay?????” (my negotiation skills were a little light-on when I was 15.) I’m sure the real reason was that all my friends were doing it and I didn’t want to be left behind.
So permission was granted. I’m pretty sure I started with the chestnut colour which made my hair nice and shiny and glossy. And then I was hooked. The thing about Napro semi-permanent dyes, is that they’re actually quite permanent. (Aren’t they Ah-dele!?) I mean, the shine and gloss fades after a week or 2, but the colour certainly stays around. So I was hooked. I moved on to the reds and burgundy colours after that and ever since then, I’ve always had a colour in my hair. Mum actually let me experiment with foils at age 17 and I had some wicked stripes happening for my formal. I looked like a tiger! But mostly, I just went with the all-over-hair dye.
Once I turned 18, the freedom was so overwhelming that I moved on to permanent dyes! Woah! (I also got the top of my ear pierced, got a tattoo, and considered a belly button ring. Oh yeah. It was a big turning point in my life!!)
At 26, and during what I’m sure was a bit of a crisis point in my life, I decided I wanted to go blonde. I had found a hairdresser who worked from home who was happy to oblige (at a good rate too!) and suggested that since I had so much red dye in my hair, caked on over the years, that she would just put a whole lot of foils in. And I didn’t so much go blonde, but ginger. Well, kind of orange. The roots (that didn’t have any dye in them) were a lovely blonde, but the rest, well, not so much.
So I decided to start fresh. Wipe the slate clean. It’s been almost a year since I last dyed my hair. And since I’m pregnant, I also decided that I would wait til the bub is born before I embark on anymore dye jobs. So here’s what my hair looks like in it’s natural state:
(Thankfully you can’t see all the greys!!) And another one, in my natural colour, but waved for a 1920s-themed lunch we went to a few weeks ago:
I’m not sure what I’m going to do once I dye again! How about I try blonde again?! Ha ha. Maybe not. Maybe some cute red tips or something. Am I getting to old for such things!?? NEVER!!
Loser
I’m a pretty organised person by nature. I love it – it’s my thing. Unfortunately, I can be rather forgetful, which is hilarious when you look at how ordered my life is most of the time. And ever since we moved down to Melbourne, I’ve started losing things! I think I’ve lost 4 scarves to date, and sadly, VERY sadly, I lost my pink hat a couple of weekends ago when I was out shopping. There’s just too much to keep track of down here!! Cardi, jacket, gloves, scarf, hat. No wonder I came home with less than I went out with! I’m sure I left it sitting on a counter top somewhere – I would have put it there while I was putting on my jacket, my crumpler, my scarf, and picking up my bags of shopping. And of COURSE I didn’t realise til I got home, at which time, it was too late to go back and look for it.
And it was one of my favourite hats too. I mean, it only cost $2 (new!) but it was for that very reason (bargain!!) that I loved it so much. That, plus it kept my ears toasty warm. And now that winter has arrived in Melbourne (it’s 2pm and 8 degrees) I’ll be missing it even more!!
Maybe I need to tie a rope around things and tie them to my wrist. I’m so trendy…
Nostalgia
I don’t know if it’s because I’m pregnant, or because life seems to be changing at a rapid rate, or if it’s the rainy afternoon we’re having in Melbourne, but I’ve been feeling very nostalgic lately. Remembering old times, old friends, the way things used to be, and how they’ll never be the same again and what that means.
And I’ve had this song in my head all day, which lead me to look up this. And I gotta say, after reading the following part of the article, I got all choked up… (see if you can guess what it’s from before you look up the links!)
Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers, the next day you’re gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back…with wonder.
Life is just happening and I feel like I’m along for the ride. And what a ride! Looking back over the last 5 years, I can’t believe how much has changed, but everything is just falling in to place. It makes me feel amazingly blessed.