Swirls

Recent Line Drawings

Three Thrillers

Saturday morning, 9am. LNJSA U12 soccer.
Cornerstone v Busselton Redbacks

We're into the Champions League play-off part of the season (the top 6 teams on the ladder) and the level of competition has increased significantly.
This was a BIG game. The Redbacks have been on top all season having lost only one game.
Last time we met thay beat us 6-3.
But we have improved a LOT since then.
Sport Boy was keyed up but confident.
The weather was cold wet and windy.
After a quick warm up and a few inspirational words from yours truly, "Keep your eyes on the ball", the game began.

We started well and had the better of the first half but took a while to get a goal on the board. When it came there was a touch of the bizarre. Ben C took a long range shot that beat the keeper and was headed for the back of the net when one of the defenders reached up and stopped it with his hands! Deliberate handball in the penalty area should be an instant red card but the ref didn't even blow his whistle! But before I could really amp up the protests the opposition coach said "It's OK Marcus, he's paid a goal". Apparently the kid was over the line by the time he grabbed the ball, but he was not sent off.

1-0 to Cornerstone but it was a portent of the standard of refereeing we would have for the rest of the game.
Jacob scored our second goal on a breakaway after a long clearance from Ben A in goal.
2-0 Cornerstone.

A succession of fouls followed, all committed against Cornerstone, none of them paid. After the 5th bad decision (or lack of decision) frustration got the better of me and I yelled out "What have you gotta do to get a free kick?" Pretty heavy duty ref abuse that!
A few opposition parents had a go at me and I was not as polite as I should have been in response.

Half time.
More inspirational words, "Keep up the good work".
And an apology to the afore-mentioned parents. Gotta do the right thing and set a good example for the kids!!

The second half kicked off.
A goal, this time to the Redbacks although Graeme was certain it was offside. In fact he said the linesman admitted it was offside too but refused to tell the referee! "It's too late now, he's paid the goal"!! Just what we needed, a spineless linesman.

The balance in the universe was restored not long after with another goal to Cornerstone, this time scored by Sport Boy, 3-1.
A goalmouth scramble followed and Daniel was there to poke it in, 4-1 and I was feeling good.

Sport Boy copped a knock on the knee and came off for a rest. Having told Ben A I'd give him a chance to come out of goal if the game allowed it I subbed Sport Boy into goal and Ben A went into midfield.
Whether the goalie switch had anything to do it with I don't know but the defense started to become quite shaky and Redbacks confidence grew accordingly.
Sport Boy made a couple of saves but there was a certain inevitability about Redbacks scoring another goal, 4-2.

There wasn't long to go and I wasn't overly concerned....until Redbacks scored again! The defense was all over the shop and Sport Boy had no chance, 4-3, suddenly Cornerstone was in trouble and Redbacks were full of belief. I was now genuinely worried.
We had been the best team all day but were now in danger of surrendering that supremacy.

The game seemed to go on and on; surely the ref had to blow the whistle to finish the game!

Thankfully he finally obliged a couple of minutes later and we'd won, 4-3.

It was a good win but I felt a little deflated at having conceded the late goals and spent some time in the post-game wrap-up emphasising the importance of concentrating till the end and a few other tactical issues.

It was not the last time I would nervously await the end of a game over the weekend!

The Cats survived a late scare to hold on and beat Sydney by 5 points at the Olympic Stadium and restore a bit of confidence in their form before the finals.

The Abletts, Swan Luke and cousin Cat Gary catching up after the game.

They prompted me to call ABC talkback and chide the commentators for not distinguishing which Ablett they were referrring to during the commentary. They admitted they'd been in the wrong not to do so but added the rider that Gary had had 44 possessions and Luke 6 and thus I could have safely assumed they were referring to Gary most of the time!!

Third play in the three card trick was Essendon's shock win over StKilda to bring their 19 game winning run to an end this afternoon. I was busy at a Beach Mission exec meeting when The Heir rang to ask if I was watching the game? "The Bombers are 17 points up half way through the 3rd quarter" he informed me.

"Keep me posted, text me the scores"

He did and as Essendon's lead got bigger we both celebrated.

Finally the meeting ended and I went out to the car to listen to the last 10 minutes of the game on the radio. (It was on Foxtel not FTA so I couldn't watch it)

But, the Saints were storming home! Essendon had been 43 points up at one stage but St Kilda kicked seven goals to none in the last quarter and had a full head of momentum.

The Bombers clung to a 3 point lead then with 9 seconds left Nick Riewoldt marked inside 50!

Collective groans in Perth and Bunbury (by this time The Heir and I had an open line on the phone and were riding the game all the way home!)

The siren went.

What drama!

Riewoldt to kick for goal and win the game after the siren!

Could StKilda maintain their winning streak and keep "The Perfect Season" going?

Would they go on and beat the all time record of 23 straight wins, set by Geelong in 1952-53?

Obviously I was hoping not!

Riewoldt shoots....and misses!!!!

Great rejoicing in Perth and Bunbury!

Comettiisms

I was not feeling 100% today so came home from work a little early and slept for a couple of hours this evening before getting up to watch the football.
The game, hawthorn v Adelaide, was fairly ordinary, but Dennis Cometti was on fire in the commentary box. Sadly my mildly concussed brain can't remember all his best lines but a couple of examples were:

After Simon Taylor had twice failed to beat a tackler and been caught holding the ball:
"Delusions of adequacy there"

While describing the very young looking first game player Rory Sloane:
"He's come straight from the creche"

When Adelaide player Ben Rutten missed another shot on goal:
"Reminds me of the curious case of Benjamin Rutten"

*********************************************************
Thanks for the calls and texts from readers after last night's mishap.
I'm feeling a little better now and will get some rest over the weekend, although tomorrow morning will be fairly intense as Cornerstone's U12s play top of the ladder Busselton Redbacks.
Sport Boy was busy calculating how many games we need to win to finish in the top two tonight.
He made it through school today and is well enough to play although not too impressed with my suggestion that I might play him in goal for some of the game because he hasn't been well!

Smack! Ouch, That Hurt!!

I was supposed to be at volleyball for 3 hours tonight, playing two games and reffing a third.

I lasted 3 minutes!

In the third point of the opening set, as I was moving backwards to go for a ball I tripped over a teammate's legs and fell backwards onto the court, smashing the back of my head onto the ground in the process!
Rolling around in pain, dazed and confused I was carried off the court and that was me done for the night!

I have a lump but not as much pain as I'd have expected considering how hard I fell.

I don't think I'm concussed but I do have a few pains in my neck shoulder and arm, I don't know if they were caused by the fall or are a sympton of something else. I'd say that in general terms I don't feel that well.

On the plus side it meant I came home early and spent the nevening with Alex and The Heir who have driven down to Busso for the night.

More good news, Sport Boy's condition has improved and there is a small chance he may even go to school tomorrow although I'll believe it when I see it.

Seen in Adelaide

Sport Boy Faces Facts

Pity poor Sport Boy. Not only has he been sick for the past two days and showing little sign of recovering, but tonight he also had to endure the embarrassment of attending a parent night on "Puberty". He was trying to worm his way out of going and then sat squirming in his seat as the lights went down and the DVD came on. Being confronted with pubic hair, penises, vaginas, ovaries, periods and making babies was all a bit overwhelming for a kid who still makes gagging noises at the mere sight of people kissing on TV. Despite his misgivings he came through it relatively unscathed and it has opened up some opportunities for discussion over the next few months/years. The DVD was good but skipped over a fair bit and as the teacher said at the end, the school sees it as the parent's job to teach their kids the facts of life which is fair enough.
I daresay there will be a few giggly playground discussions with the other boys once he gets back to school, whenever that may be.

Is the Pontiff Practising?

Was it a struggle to get up and get to work this morning?
Is the Pope catholic?

At least I made it which is more than can be said for either Spike or Sport Boy. They were both unwell, though hungry, as I learnt when a distress call came through at lunch time that there was nothing to eat in the house.
A quick mercy dash to Priceys for hash browns, four n twenty pies and a loaf of bread staved off death.
It's true there isn't much food in the house, the fridge is playing up, the thermostat seems to be buggered, and apart from emitting an annoying beeping several times a day it is also not keeping things cold, which is after all the primary, indeed only function required of a fridge.
It's not an old fridge either, maybe 6 years old, 7 tops, and a reputable brand, Fisher and Paykel.

I rang a number Mrs Holt Press gave me today for a fridge mechanic to come and look at/fix it, but it was a wrong number and the bloke on the end didn't seem to have too many clues about fixing fridges. Back to square one. Finding a fridge mechanic in Busselton may not be that easy.

I received a surprise gift in the mail today, delivered at work; a book on the history of Australian Rules Football, in the shape of a football! Very cool. Sent as a belated, and unexpected birthday present from Birchy aka The Full Quiver. Thanks mate, much appreciated and of course, eminently suitable.
Nice to know he was thinking of me; I remember a few years ago he rang to ask me if I wanted him to buy a Geelong jumper he'd found on sale at KMart for $15?
Is the Pope catholic?

Heading Home

The siren has sounded on the last footy game of the weekend. My bags are packed. I'm heading for the airport with the unpleasant thought of a 4 hour flight followed by a 3 hour drive ahead of me before I make it home.
I guess that's the price to be paid for being a footy tragic.

I'm leaving two paintings and The Heir behind. He flies home tomorrow night.
The paintings are thank you gifts for Scott and his Mum for their hospitality and generosity in letting us stay.

In their place I'm bringing home numerous badges bought at various antiques & collectables shops, and a trumpet.
It cost me $30 at a "HUGH (sic) GARAGE SALE" on Sydney Rd Brunswick.
The fact I can't play the trumpet is outweighed by that old garage saler's maxim, "It was a bargain".

See you on the other side.

Late Breaking News:

I'm home safe and sound and only have to be up for work in 4 1/2 hours!

The Ballad of Tyler Cassidy

The footy ends in a draw, very exciting. Essendon blow it in the last 10 seconds, Bradshaw kicks his only goal of the game after Fletcher gives him a bath all night.
One team celebrates getting out of jail, the other despairs at leaving the door open.

I'm on the train coming home after the game.
The 11:01 Upfield train.
The Heir has gone off to Yarraville to see his cousin's band play.
I'm reading an article in The Weekend Australian Magazine about Tyler Cassidy, a 15 year old boy shot dead by Victoria Police eight months ago.
It happened in Northcote. My Nan and Pa lived in Northcote. It makes the story more personal.

There are two teenage girls sitting near me, giggling and laughing and making a lot of noise.
They're slightly annoying but happy and not hurting anyone. Their mucking around escalates into slapping and hitting one another with a bag and a strap of some sort. Their hilarity increases. Now they're chasing one another, sitting on top of one another, getting louder and louder. And more annoying. People are starting to look at them with the sort of looks that say "why can't those kids be quiet and behave?"
The girls are oblivious, caught up in their own little world of laughter and silliness.

The train stops at a station and two women get on. One has a bike and is wearing a helmet. The other is holding a stubbie of VB. She starts talking loudly to no-one and everyone.
She's drunk but happy. Loud. A little intimidating. What will she do?
Will she get aggro?
Will she throw up?
Bike woman engages her in some chatter.

Suddenly the teenagers are quiet. They exchange looks, smile, and laugh but not loudly. They too are wary. They're no longer the centre of attention.

VB lady starts up again. Repeating snatches of something that sounds political, anti-establishment, angry, a warning. Then to my surprise, she says "Tyler Cassidy was shot. The police killed him. Shot him four times in the chest"
The words come out in a drunken rambling messy sort of way but it dawns on me she's reciting a poem. It could be called The Ballad of Tyler Cassidy. The words and pictures in the article I'm reading are coming to life in the drunken poetic ramblings of VB lady.
I feel slightly surreal.
A part of me wants to keep my head down and keep reading.
Another part wants to ask her about the poem; who wrote it? where did she hear it? did she write it?

People are getting off the train. Bike woman is gone. Disapproving looks have gone. The teenage girls have moved seats and started playing their own games again.
VB lady sits down but keeps reciting and repeating snatches of the the poem.
I don't talk to her but I secretly wish I had the words to her ballad.

We stop at Fawkner station and VB lady says to no-one in particular "I could get off here and go and visit all my dead friends" and I suspect there are a few of them to be found in Fawkner cemetery.

I suddenly realise I've missed my stop.
I should have gotten off at Merlynston and now we're headed for Gowrie, two stops farther on.

I get off at Gowrie and ask the station attendant when the next train back toward the city is.
They're all finished for the night he tells me.

I walk home, thinking about the teenagers and VB Lady and The Ballad of Tyler Cassidy.

The Blues

Rats! I've got the Blues! Or rather, the Blues got me, and my footy team. Geelong have won so many games over the last three years that I've grown unaccustomed to losing, forgetting that it is the lot in life of the football fan to deal with the disappointment of losing on a regular basis. Usually. Unless you're a StKilda fan this year. And don't be surprised if the Saints taste defeat for the first time this round.
But, I digress. It is no fun seeing your team lose. It is even less fun when you've flown all the way across the country for the privilege! I don't think Jetstar will be giving us our money back just because our team lost!
The Heir and I endured a cold and disappointing night at the MCG as Carlton were far too good and beat the Cats by 35 points. The night started brightly but that was the only time of any real comfort or joy. The heavy injury toll, added to by two tonight, is making the Cats vulnerable and the young replacement players are not up to the task of maintaining the winning form from the first half of the season.
Although Carlton lead at every change, the comeback wins of the last two weeks gave us hope that we could still win. We were wrong. There was no fairytale finish tonight, just the big bad wolf blowing the Cat's house down.
I've never liked Carlton!
In fact, the last time I watched a Carlton v Geelong game was at the MCG about 10 years ago and we lost that day too!
Predictably there was a message on my voice mail from Stu the Gardener singing the Carlton theme song not long after the game. Just what I needed to finish my day.

We caught a very full tram home to Coburg along Sydney Rd and consoled ourselves with the news that Australia had bowled out the poms for 103 in the 4th test.

Access

I met a bloke today who was chaplain at Busselton about 15 years ago, round about the same time I started at Carine. He's now head of Chaplaincy for Access Ministries, the Victorian organisation that runs school chaplaincy, the equivalent of YouthCare in WA. He was interested in hearing the latest news from Busso and whether anything had changed since his time there. From the comparisons we made it seems like some things haven't changed much at all but he thought the way I described how I do my job at the school sounded like what he would have liked to do back then but wasn't able to. It was revealing for me to hear his impressions and feedback about the sort of work I do and its influence in the school, almost like seeing it through a different pair of eyes and appreciating it more as a result. I was left feeling a lot more encouraged than I expected to.

The Heir and I had dinner with Scott Darlow tonight at a pizza and pasta place. It is always cool to see Scott and catch up on his news, and to talk footy, especially Geelong footy. He is friends with Gary Ablett Snr and it was good to hear about how Gary is going and other bits and pieces about the Cats.
The Heir and I are going to the game tonight, Geelong v Carlton at the MCG, courtesy of some unbelievably cheap airfares on Jetstar: Perth-Melbourne, $138 return!!!
We'll go to 3-4 other games over the weekend as well. I'd love to be going to the big 150th Anniversary Dinner for Geelong FC on Saturday night but at $495 ticket .....

The Tooth

I used to share the common fear and dislike of going to the dentist but must admit that with the advances in treatments and anaesthetics it is a largely pain free experience these days.
I had a dental appointment this afternoon.
In Perth.
I normally go to the dentist in Bunbury.
He's the husband of a friend and started treating my badly neglected teeth a few years ago before we moved down south.
As I was coming up to Perth I made the appointment for there.
But when I walked in he had a quizzical look on his face that suggested he wasn't expecting me.
Mr Perceptive was right. He wasn't.
There had been another name in the appointment book and upon ringing one Michael D____ to confirm the appointment he had said he didn't need it so they had reallocated the timeslot to someone else!
Putting two and two together they worked out that the receptionist in Bunbury had written the wrong name in the book and that it should have been mine.
Oops.
Thankfully he had time to see me and proceeded to repair a tooth with a number of stress fractures in it, informing me at the same time that it is rotated 90 degrees to the right of how it should be positioned. I declined his offer for corrective orthodontory and settled for a filling.
I dribbled the rinse water down the front of my shirt at the end thanks to the total numbness on that side of my mouth, always a classy move.
Several hours later it has finally returned to normal but I can't keep my wandering tongue from exploring the crisp concave new filling on the upper left side.

Something unusual happened on the way up to Perth.
I saw a couple of hitch-hikers.
In my youth I did a lot of hitch-hiking, around Australia, in Europe, and around America twice,
Hitching used to be pretty common.
But not now; it is very rare to see anyone hitching.
No doubt the result of fear and mistrust based on the bad stories of violence rape and murder that have happened over recent years.
But, having been the recipient of so much benevolence and having hitched thousands of kilometres, I will always give people a lift.
So I pulled over and the two blokes got in. They were going to Cockburn and as I would be driving right past there they were happy.

One of them, Dave, had been up in the north west recently, from Darwin through to the Kimberleys and it seemed to have made a strong impression on him. He said he had gotten to know a lot of Aboriginal people on his travels and developed a real respect for them and their culture and traditions. He described it as a spiritual experience and I asked him a bit more about that. He said their connection to the earth and the land, their knowledge of the seasons, their dreaming stories and their connection to family had all had a deep impact on him. It was encouraging to hear a young man talk about some of the deeper things in life and appreciating the spiritual dimension of existence. I despair sometimes at the shallow and meaningless lives many young people seem to live and their ignorance of and disinterest in exploring any of the big questions and deeper meanings of life.
I fear that they are so over-stimulated and electronically entangled they have either missed the things that give life meaning and purpose, they can't see them, or they don't want to see them.
Tuned out on their ipods, cut off from the world around them, and ensnared by the multi-faced fast paced networks online via msn/my space/facebook/twitter etc they don't seem to engage in the real world around them. They seem unaware of nature, the environment, poverty, injustice, reconciliation, hunger, global economics, politics or current events. They don't read newspapers, they don't even watch the news. They lack even rudimentary levels of general knowledge.
The more access they have to technology and toys, the less they seem to know about anything beyond their own little world.

I didn't expect to get on such a rant when I started this post but these are my convictions after many years of working with young people and seeing the rapid and radical changes in the world over the last 20 years.

BTW did you know that Aboriginal people recognise 6 different seasons as opposed to the 4 we in the west are familiar with? I don't know their names.

Squares

The Study gets a Makeover

I collect "Avant Card" postcards, free advertsing art cards found in a few trendy cinemas and cafes in places like Leederville and Freo. I've got hundreds of them, many of which decorate my office and the men's dunny at school. Lately I've been playing around with collages on the computer, mostly of my own artwork and that prompted me to create a few out of postcards. I really like collages of pictures, almost regardless of the subject matter, I just love the multi-image effect. This is one of several I did today.

Mrs Holt Press worked again this morning, while Sport Boy and I went to "Church at the Pub". Once a month Down South Gospel meets at The Esplanade Hotel on a Sunday morning, not at 10.00 however, as I thought, but 9.30! I'm not doing too well on punctuality at the moment!

We missed the worship time but were there for Noel's message which I thought was really good.

Sport Boy had a friend, Joel, come over for the afternoon. They spent an hour kicking the footy at the park then another two hours at the rec c entre playing badminton and swimming.

I stopped at a garage sale on the way home and found a couple of bargains, a dvd player for $5, a space rocket toy complete with astronauts to hang in my office, and 3 dvds.

This prompted me to do some remodelling in the study and set up the dvd player with a little tv I had previously bought for $5. I'm watching the cricket on it now, albeit with a very fuzzy picture, but I watched a movie this arvo while I cleaned up, tidied, rearranged and disposed of all sorts of stuff. I repositioned the printer and the scanner and even managed to reconnect the old computer to the internet. I'm pleased to say the study is looking a lot better for my efforts, just as well as I've spent all afternoon and all night in here working on it!

There was a bonus too: I discovered a package that hadn't been opened which contained a NY Giants badge I bought on ebay a couple of months ago. I had even emailed the seller asking why it hadn't arrived! Turns out it had, without my knowledge, and had gotten lost in the pile of stuff beside my desk! I'm happy with that.

I'm also happy because I beat Cam in fantasy footy this weekend despite Lance Franklin kicking 2:7! That cements my place in the final four.

Favourite Daughter rang tonight, she went to a "Bad taste" engagement party and a kid's dinosaur birthday party over the weekend. I had no idea Halls Creek was such a happening party town!

Four Thrillers

The Cornerstone U12 soccer team beat their rivals, the Margaret River Gladiators 1-0 this morning in a thriller. Cornerstone dominated possession and opportunities but MR defended stoutly for the whole game, even threatening to steal a winner on a breakaway but eventually weight of numbers told and Daniel scored the only goal of the game late in the second half.I'd like to claim some of the credit for a coaching move that helped create the goal. MR's defense had been so hard to break down that I called Ben C. over and told him next time he was on the attack to keep running toward goal take them on in the area and perhaps win a penalty. A couple of minutes later he did just that but rather than getting a penalty the ball broke free to Daniel a metre out and he stuck it in the net. The crowd of parents on the sideline "went wild" in celebration and I jumped up and down a number times myself.
It was a great game and we deserved victory although the result was in the balance right till the end. Sport Boy had a great game although Josev was best on ground with a brilliant game in defense.
Next week we play GMAS who today beat the previously unbeaten Redbacks. It should be a great game but unfortunately I won't be there as I'm going to Melbourne with The Heir for the weekend.

Thriller number two was at Kardinia Park where Geelong came from behind again to beat Adelaide, this time by two points! Again it wasn't on free-to-air tv or Foxtel, nor the radio but I was able to listen to 3AW's commentary on the internet. The Cats got out to a 27 point lead before the Crows came storming back and took an 8 point lead with less than 10 minutes to go. Paul Chapman was the hero, kicking the last two goals and six for the game to take back the lead and win the game. Last season we blitzed everybody but lost the Grand Final, hopefully playing and winning close games this season will better prepare us for this year's finals.

The third thriller for the day was StKilda's 1 point win against the Swans in Sydney to maintain their 18 game unbeaten streak.

And the fourth and final thriller was just on TV, a replay of Michael Jackson's famous Thriller video, part of a Jackson tribute on Rage on ABC. You may have heard that Jackson died recently and they've been playing a lot of his music lately!

Some incredible sports highlights in this video

Be Alarmed

Note to self:
When setting the alarm for an early meeting, make sure you check the AM/PM setting!

I didn't and consequently, I didn't make it to this morning's meeting! The one I should have been chairing! Apart from some embarrassment there was no harm done, the troops carried on without me and did a thorough debrief of Country Week as I slept.

A second meeting later this morning was to discuss the shortfall in the CW budget. I won't publish the figure here but suffice to say it was a significant amount. Thankfully, after going through the figures I was able to convince the powers that be that the discrepancy was legitimate and caused solely by the low numbers that attended this year. We came up with some strategies to avoid a recurrence in the future and I was free to go! A relieved man!

I made some significant progress today toward a proper launch of the Behind the White Crosses Project and managed to work out a timetable for the year 11 students to participate over the next 6 weeks. This has been weighing on my mind for several weeks so I'm really glad to have finally settled on some dates and got things moving. I'll need to do some tinkering and revising next week to get it fully up to speed before the first session in week 4 of the term. All of the staff I spoke to today were very supportive and didn't hesitate to make their classes available, not surprising considering the content, but gratifying none-the-less.

I had a Nana nap in my recliner chair before staring in the cab tonight and it took me some time to shake off the cobwebs and get myself moving when Mrs Holt Press woke me up. Between the yawns and stretches and staggers and fuzzy head I was pretty unconvincing as I headed out the door, but I came good and had a reasonable night. Certainly a better night than the Australian cricket team, whose demise I listened to in the cab. If this keeps up I think the Poms will take back the Ashes.

Not Much to Say

Work. Soccer training. Home group. Work. Kicking the footy with Sport Boy. Volleyball.
Two days in a nutshell.

I've got an early meeting tomorrow and have been getting to bed way too late so that's it for tonight.

Catching up over Coffee and Cake

Coloured pens on card


I had a YouthCare meeting tonight where I give a monthly report on my work. Most chaplains have a quiet time during the holiday break, but for me it's been a busy month, with Country Week and then the footy trip to Melbourne. I'm hoping to get a couple of new programs up and running this term and have also got the Big Busso Quiz Night in three weeks. I prefer being busy and having plenty to occupy me. You can see from the pictures of my doodling above what happens when I get bored.

After the meeting four of us went to McCafe for a coffee and catch up. I almost didn't go (Grand Designs was on TV) but I'm glad I did because we talked about some pretty major things going on for people at work and personally and it felt good to have a level of trust and openness amongst colleagues. There is a level of challenge and stress involved in chaplaincy that all of us feel, and deal with in different ways. Blogging, art and football are all stress relievers and creative outlets for me. Tonight I've been playing around with some of my pictures on the computer and printing them on 5x8 photo cards. I'm considering framing some of them and perhaps selling others through the gallery. I haven't done any new paintings since before Country Week and feel the need to get back into it. In the meantime I've been working on some doodle designs which are quite pleasing.

Hole In Off One

Unbelievable golf shot, awesome reward!

Pretty Funny

I'm not sure if this will work, I have trouble embedding YouTube clips for some reason.

Weekend in Busso

"Circles" pen on paper

Favourite Daughter just rang, she has arrived back in Halls Creek and starts work at the school again tomorrow morning. I feel very proud of her; for taking on a potentially challenging job so far from home and all the familiar comforts of family and friends. She is happy to be back there and looking forward to working with Leo, the boy for whom she is a teacher's aide.

After the rigours of the long night on Friday I slept most of Saturday before going to church with Mrs Holt Press. Noel talked about the Lord's Prayer and will be speaking about it for the next few weeks.

After church I went round to Dave's place to watch the replay of the Geelong Hawthorn game on Foxtel. It was comforting knowing the result considering how far behind the Cats got early in the last quarter. Dave arrived home with his date, Yvonne; they had been out for dinner with friends. The Foxtel days may be numbered because sadly Dave has had to close down his business, and consequently is tightening his belt. Another victim of the economic troubles.

He's hoping to pick up some work pretty quickly to keep the cash flow going.

With my body clock out of whack I stayed up very late last night and slept late again today. Mrs HP took Sport Boy to Australind for his tennis academy training then they had lunch with Mrs Robinson who was on her way home to Perth from a church camp in Busso.

I went to see Harry Potter then bought some fish and chips to take home for dinner for the family, a nice treat.

Thus ends another typical weekend in Busselton.

"Red Circles", pen on card

Jimmy!!!

Go Cats!!
28 points down 5 minutes into the last quarter against Hawthorn.
5 goals, bang bang bang bang bang.
Scores level.
Bartel marks in the pocket.
Siren goes.
Jimmy kicks a point and the Cats win!!!
Yeah!

Awake, Barely

You are "lucky" to be reading this because by rights I should be asleep. I finished my cab shift pretty late and having a 9.00am soccer game to coach made the brave but reckless decision to stay up rather than get an hour and a half's sleep then try and wake up sufficiently to coach the team. By about 7.30 as my head was nodding and my eyes rolling in front of the computer I doubted I would make it but I managed to stay awake long enough to get a second wind. We've just returned home from the game, a 6-0 triumph against St Joseph's and I'm again starting to flag. I had hoped to be able to watch the Geelong Hawthorn game at lunchtime but it is not on until 8.00 o'clock tonight. So, I'm off to bed, and will have to be content with watching the game 8 hours after the event.
Go Cats

The Stranger

I came home to a woman that I did not recognise, with apologies to Billy Joel.
Mrs Holt Press told me she was getting her hair done today, but she didn't tell me what she was getting done.
You can see for yourself.
It took me by surprise, but not in a bad way.
I like it.
Sport Boy told her it makes her look younger, you've gotta be happy with that.

ART or VANDALISM?

This unusual sight greeted us as we arrived at school this morning.
The work of vandals with a creative bent.
If it was just the wheelie bin pyramid on the library roof I wouldn't really have a problem with it. A bit of inconvenience to get it down and redistribute the 21 bins back around the school counter-balanced by a bit of creativity and flair.
Unfortunately, to achieve their work of art the culprits emptied the contents of the bins outside the library, and finished off their efforts by breaking some windows!
What a shame that they had to be destructive rather than just mischievous.

Jetty Jumping

While Favourite Daughter was back on holidays she and Toni, Spike and Sport Boy decided to go jetty jumping, even though it's the middle of Winter and the weather has been bitterly cold, wet and windy!

Jetty jumping is a popular pasttime and rite of passage for kids in Busselton. In Summer.
Spike seems to be dreading what's about to happen. With good reason!

You can see how thrilled Sport Boy was about the prospect of plunging into Geographe Bay, and he had a wetsuit on!!

Favourite Daughter goes in.
Not sure how smart their adventure was but you've got to admire their bravery!

Bon Voyage Favourite Daughter

Favourite Daughter has received confirmation that she has got the job at Halls Creek, the same job she was doing last term but had to apply for! So she's leaving for Perth tomorrow and flying back to Kunnunurra on Saturday. It's been great to have her around for the last few weeks and especially to have her company and help on the footy trip, but it's also great that she's going back to a place and a job that she loves.

The students returned to school today at the high school, meanwhile Spike and Sport Boy don't start again until Thursday! What's with that?

Tonight was Scrabble Club and I survived a couple of close games to retain my winning record, 3 from 3. For those (The Heir, Spike) who think I take advantage of my opposition who are all older ladies, including a 75 year old, it is not all plain sailing, I have to work hard for my victories! In the final game I started with C H O N G E R on my rack and made CHORE. After picking my new tiles I had E O U G E N A and made ENOUGH. Then the rot set in, my seven letters were E E E A A R U. I managed to use 4 letters to make ARENA, only to pick up the exact same letters again have E E E A A R U on my rack! I'm not one to complain about my letters but this did prompt me to groan! I fought on though and played my way back into the game, even after my opponent made DANDIES for a 50 point bonus. It was neck and neck until late in the game when I got my own 7 letter word down, BOARDING, and went on to win by 100 points.

Ahh, the sweet smell of victory!!

After work this arvo I watched the replay of the Geelong/St Kilda game for the first time, on the DVD Glass Dave recorded for me. It was still exciting to watch even though I knew the result, it was truly one of the great games of AFL footy. I'm confident the Cats can beat the Saints even though they are undefeated this season. Hopefully that opportunity will come in the finals or the Grand Final.

Back to Work

Back to work, sort of. No kids today, just staff. The real thing starts again tomorrow.

Just as well cause I couldn't drag myself away from the TV last night and the drama of the British Open! Initially I was hoping Aussie Matthew Goggin would win but when that was no longer possible I was barracking for 59 year old Tom Watson's attempt to win his 6th Open and become the oldest winner of a major by some 11 years!
Sadly he crumbled on the last with a bogey when a par would have given him victory.
Instead he went into a 4 hole play-off with Stewart Cink.

At that point I went to bed, and Watson fell apart, losing the play-off by 6 strokes.

The Aussies have also lost the 2nd test of the Ashes, their first defeat at Lords since 1934!!!

NB. I've posted several photos from the footy trip on the footy blog if you're interested.

Some of the art we saw in Melbourne and Adelaide

Uninvited Visitor

Not this one. Favourite Daughter and I had lunch with Vicki and Mum in Adelaide and the car was full of pot plants. This one provided FD with some camoflague.

Nor this one. With Fred Chaney at the chaplain's conference this week.

This one! Somewhere in the car!! As I was driving home from Perth on Friday night a spider came scurrying across the windscreen (on the inside). It hid behind the GPS then roamed back and forth around the sun visor. I'm not overly scared of spiders but the thought of this one, a small huntsman, dropping from the roof into my lap or onto my head didn't thrill me! I kept thinking of that song about the funnel web in the car, "Somewhere in the car...". I kept a wary eye on it whilst trying not to run off the road or into the path of an oncoming truck. Finally I was relieved when it crawled down to the door and I was able to wind the window down and rapidly flick the offending arachnid out of the car, hopefully into the path of an oncoming truck!
BTW, that's it's hairy leg sticking out in the picture above.

Back to the Real World

I drove my first taxi shift in three weeks tonight, and I'm knackered!

More tomorrow.

Reconciliation

I had the privilege today of meeting the Honourable Fred Chaney, one of the keynote speakers at the conference. I also attended a follow-up workshop with him as he further explored the subject of Reconciliation. Fred has worked in this area for some 50 years and it was humbling to hear of his long struggles and small but significant victories on reconciling black and white Australia, a challenge he described as "the most important issue in Australia today."



If I needed any more convincing it came tonight when I went to see a new Australian film, "Samson and Delilah". It was brilliant but gut-wrenching; telling the story of two young Aboriginal people and their struggle against exploitation, substance abuse, prejudice and disadvantage. It's not an easy film to watch but worth the effort.

Home and Away

Normal blogging will resume from here as of now.
I'm away again but only for a couple of days, at a staff conference in Perth. School chaplaincy has grown massively since I started 16 years ago, I hardly know anyone any more! I sat in the back row and cracked jokes with a few mates and familiar faces, many of whom are now sporting greying hair!

Tonight I had the first executive meeting for Augusta 2010, it was good to see everyone again and begin planning for next year's mission.
I'm staying at Bruce and Jacqui's while I'm in Perth.

Out of the Office

Away at the footy in Melbourne.

For updates go to my footy blog: Melbourne Footy Trip.

Link now fixed.

We've Arrived

We're here. Here being Melbourne. Box Forest SC Glenroy to be precise.
The boys are blowing up their air mattresses and hyper-ventilating in the process.
We've been to the first of our 6 games, Collingwood v Essendon at the MCG on Friday night Football. The Magpies were way too good for the Bombers, who I think are over-rated.
There were 77,699 people at the game, with the usual percentage of feral fans, from both sides.
The kids were pretty impressed with their first taste of footy in Melbourne.

The trip from Perth had elements of The Amazing Race. The flight out of Perth was delayed taking off and lost a further 10 minutes due to poor tailwinds, reducing our connection window fom 50 minutes to about 40. The staff did their best to assist us within the bounds of rules and regulations. Then, just to add a touch of drama, upon touch down in Adelaide we were instructed to remain seated while paramedics attended to a passenger with a medical emergency during the flight. Finally we were allowed off and I made a dash for the check-in counter while the kids went to retrieve the bags. The check-in attendant wasn't very impressed with us cutting it fine, admonishing me and saying if we were in a big airport like Sydney we'd have missed the flight for sure. The thing is we weren't in Sydney. And the web page instructions say allow 30 minutes to be at the airport and checked in before your flight, and we should have had 50. She remained unimpressed but I didn't mind, by then the kids were arriving with their bags and we were assured of making our connecting flight to Melbourne! Celebrations all round. We had made it.
One of the kids made the Amazing Race comparison and it seemed appropriate.

Further drama ocurred at Tullamarine, Alex and Haydn's bags had not made it for some reason and would arrive on the next available flight. They'll be dropped off by courier in the morning.
Hopefully! Haydn had already left his pillow behind at the security screening in Perth.

We had kebabs from Glenroy for dinner then missed a train by one minute. The next train was delayed by 8 minutes. Thus, we were a little late for the game, arriving just before quarter time.
The game passed without incident, except for the disappointment of Collingwood winning.

When we got on the train at Southern Cross the boys found a mobile phone someone had lost so we spent the train trip home tracking down the owner, a girl called Mani as it turned out, after talking to her Dad, in Northern NSW, her friend Anthea in Brighton and finally her boyfriend Duane who was most appreciative and is coming round in the morning to pick it up.

Fortuitously Coles at Glenroy was still open when we got back so were able to buy some provisions for breakfast.

Meanwhile the boys have discovered several of the air beds have leaks and are not looking forward to an uncomfortable night's sleep! We'll deal with the problems tomorrow.

My Beautiful Laundrette

I'm blogging from the laundry at Mountway Apartments. We've been out to the Country Week Dinner Dance tonight and got back after 11. A few kids (girls) wanted to do washing/drying so I told them I would do their washing and sent them to bed, they have games to play in the morning, they need their sleep more than me.

The Dinner Dance went pretty well although they took too long serving the food and thus by the time the captains and coaches speeches finished we had run out of time for dancing. Noone seemed to mind too much, certainly not the boys. I did have to chide the group on their inability to be quiet and show respect when someone is talking to them! Seems like speaking in public AND listening in public are unknown concepts to teenagers in 2009!
Thankfully there are some great kids amongst them who shine in many different ways and give me some cause for hope when I'm tempted to lapse into my Grumpy Old Man persona!

Another day at Country Week, another trip to the hospital, this time for a broken collarbone, the result of a collision in the football. Not much you can do for a busted collarbone, just a sling and some painkillers. Another kid went home tonight due to illness, we are shrinking.

Tomorrow night is my night off, and Mrs Holt Press is coming up, and along with Favourite Daughter we are going to the Simon and Garfunkel concert! Next day the kids will be Homeward Bound but I'll be leaving on a jet plane, headed for Melbourne, woohoo!

The washing is still going, I wonder if it will be finished before the tennis, Hewitt V Roddick at Wimbledon?