March Milestones

March is a big month for milestones in the Holt Press family.
Mrs Holt-Press was born on the 8th, in a year no longer able to be disclosed without threat of violence! Suffice to say it was before I was born.
We got married on the 29th, in 1986. The nimble-minded amongst you will have already worked out that tomorrow is our 22nd wedding anniversary. The Heir, pictured here when he was the sole heir, will be 21 on the 29th of May.
And Favourite Daughter was born on the 24th, having celebrated her 19th birthday on Easter Monday. Check out that gorgeous curly hair!
Scenes from our wedding day, in Geelong, our spiritual home! The black and white photos were my idea and this one won an award and featured in a photographic magazine. My brother Bruce was best man and the wedding was performed by our dear friend Skip who has since moved back home to America, but is an occasional reader of my blog. Hi Skip and Terry! 22 years seems to have flown by! Shame I can't fit into that suit any more!

Cat Haven

Having finished building THE SHED it needed a finishing touch to personalise it; what better than a heritage Cats sign from the local salvage yard. I just have to update it by adding 2007 to the list of Geelong premiership years!

Emboldened by my success in building THE SHED this afternoon I booked a cement mixer from the local hire place and on the weekend plan to pour a concrete floor into the shed. That can't be too difficult?
Then we'll be able to start the biggest job of all, sorting through all the STUFF in the carport and on the patio, working out what to keep, what to store, what to put in a garage sale, and what to take to the tip!


I may have made a critical mistake last week, by allowing Sport Boy to enter our school footy tipping comp and enter his own team in the Dream Team comp on the AFL website. Not only did he tip 6 winners to my 5 in round one, but his dream team out-scored mine by 200 points!
Hopefully just beginner's luck!

It is Finished

With great rejoicing and gratitude to a God of patience and mercy, I proclaim THE SHED to be completed!
Despite his doubts and initial protestations, The Heir and I this afternoon applied the finishing touches to THE SHED!
You can see here in glorious technicolour the last holes being drilled, the last rivets being popped and the final roofing sheets being secured!
This has been a triumph of engineering and problem solving, a victory for the non tool-guys out there who like me are not "technically minded" or "practically adept". I fall more readily into the "power tool challenged" section of society, but not any more, not since the awesome arrival of THE SHED!

I feel good! nananananana

AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Favourite Daughter's Birthday Picnic

My little girl is growing up rapidly, today is her 19th birthday. To celebrate we went on a picnic to a lovely littlepark in west Busselton. It's an undiscovered gem in the town, with well kept gardens, lawns and picnic tables beneath beautiful shady trees. We played bocce after we ate, then Mrs Holt-Press and I went for a walk down a long winding lane with the wetlands nature reserve on one side and houses and backyards on the other. To our surprise the lane kept going and going, with pleasant scenery and birdlife all along the way. We must have been gone a little too long for the kids because the Heir came looking for us and when we got back the picnic gear was all packed away and the kids were sitting in the car waiting to go home!

I am pleased to report that the shed is really taking shape. The walls are all up, the doors are hung,and the beams are in place. All that's left to do is put the roof on! Yeehaa! There is the small matter of the 4 lengths of angle iron that I can't find a home for! They can't be critical surely! This time tomorrow I reckon it'll be finished!!!

The Shed Takes Shape

The shed building has begun!

Yesterday I spread a load of sand and levelled out the pad, sort of! I couldn't find my level, which is tiny anyway, it wasn't billiard table standard but at least it creates the impression of being the sort of thing you could build a shed on.

The walls are all up, a tricky operation in windy conditions, requiring the help of all members of the family at various times.
The centre beam is in place and more solid now that I drilled holes and put bolts right through it and the brackets it sits in. The original small screws for the purpose didn't seem convincing, especially as we had a hard time aligning the holes.

I broke about half a dozen drill bits whilst drilling out all the pop rivets in readiness for the next, and most challenging stage, putting the door frame together and rehanging the doors. It is a complex puzzle and made out of heavy and awkward material. The Heir and I scratched our heads over it for quite a while this afternoon, and it was only after he went to work that I managed to work out which bits go where. I'm not saying his departure had anything to do with the breakthrough...

A blackout stopped me in my tracks with the drilling process so I adjourned to the park with Sport Boy to kick the footy. That ended in a bit of a drama, prompting SB to descibe it as the 3rd worst day of his life! I'm sworn to secrecy re. the details.

Hopefully tomorrow I will manage to reassemble the doors and door frame and get them secured. After that will come the roof, and as soon after that as possible, we'll pour a concrete floor in and make the whole thing permanent!

Meanwhile, Mrs Holt-Press spent the day weilding pruning shears and a tree lopping saw and performed radical surgery on the trees and bushes down the side of the house, marvelling over the size of the branches she cut down and dragged off the roof!

Tomorrow is Favourite Daughter's 19th birthday so the day won't be devoted entirely to shed building. The plan is to go for a picnic somewhere, perhaps Meelup. We need to pick up Fashion Boy from Dunsborough where he's been staying at a friends place for a couple of days anyway so Meelup makes sense.

Resurrection

He is Risen!

Jesus is Alive!!

Happy Easter.

Good Friday

Not many people read the Bible, but if they did and they happened to open up to Isaiah 52-53 in the Old Testament, this is what they'd find:

52:13 Behold, my servant shall prosper,he shall be exalted and lifted up,and shall be very high.
52:14 As many were astonished at him his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men
52:15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
53:1 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
53:2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,and no beauty that we should desire him.
53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
53:8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
53:9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
53:11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
53:12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

There are many remarkable things about this passage but most striking to me is that it was written 700 years before Jesus lived. It is the most famous Messianic propjecy in the Bible and even those not familiar with the Bible can't help but recognise the person of Jesus Christ descibed in its words.

For this, and many other reasons, I am a follower of Jesus and today quietly acknowledge again the irony of this day, Good Friday.

The Cats Start Well

The Footy's back! And the Cats won, beating Port Adelaide in the Grand Final rematch at Football Park. Yeehaa!

And Tottenham came from behind three times to draw 4-4 with Chelsea last night.

It's also the Easter holiday break, 5 days off work, woohoo!

Gotta be happy with all that.

Skipper, Sister

I passed my skipper's ticket practical test this arvo, much to my amazement. I can now legally take the boat out, if I can work out how to get it started that is! And I clear all the junk out of it!

The day's good news was overshadowed by the bad news though. My sister Vicki was recently diagnosed with Cushing's Disease. Blood tests today confirmed that the cause is a tumour on her pituitary gland. Although it's probably not cancerous, it will require a 3 hour operation and on-going treatment.

The pituitary controls hormone production in the body so surgery and/or chemotherapy can have a significant impact on it's functioning. There are more tests to be done before a treatment is prescribed but it's pretty serious and concerning for all the family.

Vicki drew the shortest of short straws when it came to health problems in our original family. Mum and Dad have been healthy all their lives and Alan Bruce and I have had almost no sickness or illness problems at all while Vicki has suffered a long list of problems dating back many years. She is pretty tough and is not about to take this lying down. Hopefully the doctors will be able to treat it effectively. I'll be praying for her, and them.

Strange Economy

I went to Hardly Normals this arvo to get a couple of ink cartridges for the printer. They would have cost me $100!!!!

I then had a look at the range of printers on sale and discovered I could buy several different, newer, better, complete printers for around the same price!!!!!

I'd been thinking about getting a laser printer anyway so I had a look at the range and guess what I found?

A Hewlett-Packard laser colour printer, normal price $499, reduced to to $396 on sale, AND with a $200 cash-back offer from HP!!!!! Making the final price $196!!!!

A new laser printer for the same price as 4 ink cartridges for the old one!!!

I bought it.


I drove some kids to Dunsborough for another excursion today and while I was there called into the Tu Art Gallery to see what Tony thought of the paintings I dropped off there last week. She's decided to put all 4 on sale in the gallery, just in time for Easter. Woohoo!


Tonight was my first Scrabble Club for the year, I struggled in the first game but won the next two. At one stage my rack looked like this: IIIEEOT, I was plagued by an over supply of vowels most of the night, three A's, three I's, two U's etc etc.

I'm taking the practical test for my skippers license tomorrow arvo, that will be a challenge seeing as I've never taken a boat out before!!!

Two days until Easter and a 5 day break, woohoo! Hopefully I will get the shed erected over Easter, it being the season of resurrections!

Sculptures by the Sea 2008

For those of you who weren't able to get to Cottesloe to sea this year's exhibition, here it is.

Party Party

We're home again after a good weekend in Perth.
The CFFL draft went well, I was late so I missed all the votes not to change the rules! but was there in time to pick my team. I paid $20,000 for Johnathon Brown and got to keep Gary Ablett as my franchise player, not a bad result.

With Sally and Warren we went to see the Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe, with a little more time to appreciate them than I had on Thursday. While the rest of the familie(s) had Mad Lilly's Burgers for tea I took Fashion Boy over to Ballajura for Jarred's 21st. I stayed for a couple of hours and saw one of the simplest but most touching speeches ever from Jarred's older brother Ryan as he expressed his love and appreciation for his family, it was very moving and Ryan's weren't the only tears.

This morning we ventured out to the swap meet at Belmont. I didn't buy much, just a couple of toys for my office, and the bargain of the day, a pair of floral Doc Martins for Mrs Holt-Press, the right size and all, for $5!!!!!!

We spent the afternoon at Alex's 40th birthday party which was really good, catching up with some old friends and people we haven't seen in a long time. Al also made a very touching speech.
Unfortunately Fashion Boy pushed me into the pool while I had my mobile phone in my pocket! Bye bye mobile!!!
I had a bad headache so Mrs HP drove as far as Bunbury where we stopped for noodles for dinner then I was well enough to drive the rest of the way.

Friday Night

It was a long slow night in the taxi, my worst night for quite a while dollar wise. The first customer was a mother with three young kids whose first word to them in the cab was the F word and further abuse followed.
The second lot continued the stream of bad language .
The 3rd were some quiet girls who I dropped at a party and picked up again several hours later and were very pleasant.
The fourth customer was a woman with the worst B.O. I've smelt in a long long time who took a return trip to the pub to buy $100 worth of booze for the group of young men back at the house!

Not an auspicious start to the night but thankfully it got better after that.

I got a surprise when I arrived home, Fashion Boy was sitting at the kitchen bench reading a book! He'd woken up hungry, ate some food and couldn't sleep.

I'm hoping to get some reasonable sleep now because we're headed up to Perth tomorrow afternoon. The CFFL draft is on, then we'll be at Sal and Warren's for the night. Sunday is Alex's 40th birthday and Nathan and Clare's wedding.

Chocolate, Drama and Sculptures

I've been the bus driver on 2 excursions this week, on Tuesday to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory (mmmm!) and Dairy Company and today to Perth with a drama class to see a play called "Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Bertold Brecht. It was very good with some excellent young actors. After the play we took a quick trip to Cottesloe Beach to see the "Sculptures by the Sea" exhibition. The weather was a little ordinary but the sculptures were fabulous. I hope we'll get a chance to go back for a better look on the weekend, we're all going up for Alex's 40th birthday and a wedding.

PC Doc

I couldn't blog last night because my computer was at the doctor's.

It has been feeling poorly for some time and needing some attention but things got serious when Fashion Boy tried loading some (legal) software for his digital camera (a cheapie I won at a quiz night) and warning lights and bells started going off all over the monitor.
We aborted the upload but by then the damage was done and the PC had spat the dummy, refusing to recognise the external hard drive (where all the music is stored) or the external DVD drive (which is required for me to play Scrabble). It was at that point I knew I had to act!

An overnight trip to the Doc has fixed those problems, but was not able to deliver the virus demon adware pop-up that has plagued it for a long time. (I've tried online fixes and advice, various cleaning agents, protection and detection programs etc but nothing has moved the little %#*&%@!

I had a look at Hardly Normals this arvo, contemplating whether it's time to put this one out to pasture. Typically, I can buy something 5 times more powerful for half what I paid for this, but should I? That's the question.
I'd like to get a laptop but don't want to let the kids use it so I've at least got half a chance of keeping it safe from all the nasties.

Then I thought about the recent interest rate rises and the fact that our mortgage repayments have gone up by $100 a fortnight in the last 6 months, and decided to persevere with this one for a while longer!

I'm driving a bus load of drama students to Perth tomorrow to go to a play and have an early start, so I'm off to bed.

SMS Mystery

I like texting.

I'm not a text-head with flying thumbs like every teenager I know, but I do send sms's fairly often, almost always to people I know.
Al sends me random wordy messages affirming me and my family for loving him, or offering scriptural admonition or encouragement but
Mrs Holt-Press is my number one recipient (and sender).

Our messages are usually administrative or functional, "What time will you be home?" "Can you pick up the kids?" etc I spell words out fully, I use punctuation, I choose my words carefully, I craft my messages so that they communicate effectively.

Yesterday however I received this message from name unknown and a number I don't recognise.

"If you were a placenta you would be a hot one".

I did not know how to reply!
I didn't know if a reply was expected.

How do you reply to being called a hot placenta?
Do you just accept the compliment graciously?
Is it a compliment?
I don't know.

Smashing Birthday

The kids and I combined to buy Mrs Holt-Press a coffee maker for her birthday. She is quite partial to coffee. I've never had a cup in my life but The Heir and Favourite Daughter seemed to know what to look for and we chose a Sunbeam, in the lower end of the price range! They started at $150 and went up to $3000!!!!!
Come Saturday morning they decided to make her first cup of espresso on the whiz-bang cafe crema.
Sadly, things did not go to plan!
The filter handle would not rotate fully into place no matter how hard they tried. Thinking perhaps that was as far as it was meant to go, The Heir turned it on and next thing there was a loud noise followed by a crashing noise followed by a breaking noise followed by a swearing noise!
The pressure had blown the filter off, breaking the pottery mug underneath, and cutting The Heir's thumb in the process!
Coffee grounds splattered all over the kitchen.
Hardly an impressive or satisfactory beginning to their barista careers!

After cleaning up all the mess, and failing all attempts to get the filter handle into the correct position, we packed it all up and took it back to Hardly Normal's. They exchanged it without fuss but we did get the new one out of the box and check that it worked properly before accepting it.

Further hassles were encountered with the steam attachment for frothing the milk but we managed to solve them without another trip into town and finally, some three hours after receiving her birthday present, Mrs HP got to have a cup of coffee.

She said it was good.

Beach Carnival Sausage Sizzle

Some of the students who volunteered to help run the sausage sizzle at the beach carnival on Friday. Sadly we didn't sell enough to cover costs! Hopefully a second go at school this week will get us into the black.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Mrs Holt Press.

Beach Carnival

Today was the school's beach carnival, usually one of the best days of the school year.

It rained!

Not torrentially but just enough to take the edge off the day. It was grey and overcast throughout, except for one 30 second period when inexplicably the sun broke through, only to be just as quickly swallowed up and not seen again.

I had the job of running the sausage sizzle, theoretically as a fund-raiser for the chaplaincy.
I say theoretically because I didn't even break even, because we didn't sell enough snags or cans of drink. The crowd we gathered were more interested in getting some warmth from the BBQs than buying what was cooking on top.
On the positive side I still have about a dozen packs of sausages and several dozen cans of soft drink, which can be sold at a later date, but for now, we're in the red which is a shame considering the amount of work and effort involved in the exercise.

The day was marred by an ugly fight between a group of girls which attracted a large crowd of students caught up in one of the uglier characteristics of human beings, "the mob mentality".
I spent nearly half an hour on crowd control, turning spectators away and sending them back to the beach while other staff and eventually the police dealt with the antagonists.

For a change, I spent Friday night at home, the taxi company having rostered me on on Saturday night instead. That's not all that convenient seeing as tomorrow is Mrs Holt Presses' birthday but it did mean we could stay home and watch a movie. Despite my best efforts scouring the shelves at the video store I ended up with a dud. If you're ever tempted to watch a film called "Evening" starring Clare Danes, don't do it, it's not worth the effort, or the money.

Skipper

You may remember about 12 months ago we were given a boat.
Some friends thought it would be a good idea.
At the time so did I.
We do live on beautiful, and tranquil, Geographe Bay and a boat didn't sound like a bad idea.

However, I've never been much of a boat person and even owning one hasn't altered that.

The boat is sitting in our carport, exactly where it has been since we got it.
The only time its been wet is when the reticulation is on and there's an easterly blowing (which is a whole other story for a whole other time).

Its only useful purpose to date has been as a storage facility. Things we don't know where to put end up in the boat.
The kids have given up asking me when we're going to take the boat out.

In my defence, quite apart from being a dedicated landlubber, I have also been prevented from taking my maiden voyage by the absence of a Recreational Skipper's Ticket which is now a legal requirement for all boat users in this state.

However, I'm pleased to announce that despite the second-guessing doubts and reverse psychology so much a part of taking a multiple choice exam, tonight I passed the theoretical component of my Skipper's Ticket!!!

All I need now is to pass the practical test!!!

Considering I've never taken a boat out before that may not be so easy....

I'll keep you posted.

On the Road

I've been on the road throughout the SW today, firstly with an appointment in Margaret River this afternoon, and tonight I went to Bunbury for a meeting about a program called "Choose Respect".
It was created by a friend and colleague Gary Butcher as an initiative to build stronger communities, starting in schools. The presentation was excellent and there was a very big turn-out of interested people. The local MLA John Castrilli is keen to see Bunbury embrace the initiative and become the first Choose Respect city in Australia. It was both impressive and inspiring to hear Gary outline the concept and then to hear from two school principals who have introduced it to their schools, from where it has spread to their towns/communities.
I hope I may be able to get him to Busselton and get our schools and community leaders to catch the vision.

After the meeting I had a coffee with Dave and Nicole and Lisa who were all at the meeting, then I went to see "No Country For Old Men". It's a disturbing film, tracing the homicidal spree of a psychopath and a drug deal gone wrong. It's not the sort of film you "enjoy" but I could appreciate the skill with which it was made. Whether I'd agree it deserved the Best Picture Oscar I'm not sure.

Scenes from the Weekend

"Red M" my latest painting. Sorry about the reflection, it's difficult to photograph pictures with glass, indoors the flash interferes and outdoors the reflections do the same. It's in a really nice silver frame I bought at a garage sale; it had a print in it so I cut and prepared a board to fit and painted on that. I'm really happy with it and the art teacher at school also commented very positively, even mistaking it for a Sally Morgan!! Further good news came today when the owner of a gallery in Dunsborough rang to tell me she sold a painting I had down there, for $450, my highest price yet! I've been quite productive lately so I've got a few new ones to choose from to replace it with at the gallery.

Sport Boy in action on the BUZ climbing wall at Nannup on Sunday. He did very well, not giving up when it got difficult and with a bit of coaching managed to make it to the top and ring the siren. Steve from BUZ had been telling me the other day about their new climbing wall and I was very impressed seeing it live. It's got an automated belay system meaning the operator doesn't have to manually belay every climber, and is transported on a single trailer and raised and lowered pneumatically. Very cool, I can see us utilising it at the high school.

I was pretty amused when I spotted all the leaflets littering the area around the "Friends of the Earth" stall at Nannup. To his credit, the bloke from Sea Shepherd left his whale saving duties to go and clean up the mess for them.

While we were away in Victoria last year staying at Auntie Ev's place Sport Boy scored a jar of her quince jelly to bring home. It ran out recently and he was keen for a replacement so while we were at Mum's they went and picked some quinces from Mona's place and set about making a batch for him. I was too late to capture the moment where Mum realised that the bowl full of quince juice she'd collected was too big to remove from it's resting place without tipping it sideways! By the time I got back she'd ladelled the juice out and extricated the bowl. We had a lovely relaxing weekend away. The only disappointment was finding that the local shire have indeed removed the old wooden ship from the boat park which has been the setting for many many enjoyable family games of boat soccer squash! They're both victims of risk management, duty of care and the threat of litigation! Very sad.

Bridgetown Blogger

We're in Bridgetown at Mum and Walter's place for the night. Enroute we stopped at Nannup for a look around. The Nannup Music Festival was on so there was a bit more activity than usual. Sport Boy climbed the BUZ climbing wall and we looked at the range of stalls in the market, mostly run by hippies and counter-culture types. The music playing from the stage area was just a little too "country" for our liking though I did pick up a bit of a bargain for Dad, he's got a birthday soon.



Sport Boy got a jar of quince jelly and Mrs Holt Press got a dress. I got a skull badge from the Sea Shepherd stand, the people trying to disrupt the Japanese whalers recently.



Since we got here we've eaten and talked and watched Australia lose the cricket and then played a very awkward game of Yahtzee with only 4 dice. I don't recommend it, and that's not just because I came last!!!



Sport Boy felt ill quite suddenly after dinner (I'm sure there was no connection cause we all ate the same thing and the rest of us were fine) but he fell asleep quickly once I put him to bed and we haven't heard from since.

What a Difference a Week Makes!

A week is a long time in football!

Last weekend Spurs beat high-flying Chelsea at Wembley to win the Carling Cup.

Today they are losing 4-0 to lowly Birmingham City!!!!

Dave's move went well, he'd done most of it so by the time I got there it was just the big stuff. His new place is great, way better than the old one.

Everyone's been out most of the day and night, I just took it easy and tonight played scrabble against my nemesis, Maven. I won a couple of games, he won a couple, helped on his way by such commonly used words as OLEIN, EMETIN, WANION, FRESHT, UREDIAL, CYSTEIN and AZO!!
Many of them are scientific or medical terms. Beating an opponent with that sort of vocabulary is especially sweet!

Good news: Spurs have got one back, bad news, there's only three minutes left!!!

I cornered the market in blueberry bagels in preparation for our visit to Bridgetown tomorrow, Mum is very partial to them.

It's the Weekend

It's the weekend!

Not only that, it's a long weekend!

Yeehaa.

I'm about to go and drive the taxi so I'll be sleeping in tomorrow morning.
Then the plan is to help Dave move house.

Then, take it easy!

The three oldest Holt Press kids are off to Perth for Soundwave, a big concert with 50 bands, none of whom I've heard of, let alone like!

Mrs HP Sport Boy and I may go over to Bridgetown for a couple of days, if we have the energy.
It's pretty hot at the moment and Bridgetown gets even hotter...

It's the weekend!!

Yeehaa!

Beach Volleyball Finals

Tonight was the last night of Beach Volleyball for the season and Busselton turned on a glorious evening for the occasion. Geographe Bay was a picture of serenity, the sting had gone out of the sun and the volleyball was of a high quality. Our team, HKs, played off in the 5 v 6 game and won a close match by just a couple of points. I reffed the Grand Final and it was a great game which the crowd appreciated; almost as much as they appreciated the pizzas and drinks laid on at the end of the game for the trophy presentation and wrap-up.
Sport Boy did a great job as ball-boy all night and got paid a bit extra accordingly so on the way home, he shouted us to some ice cream from Gelato, very nice.

At bed time he asked if I would put him to bed. I said yes, I'd be there in a couple of minutes.
I went in no more than three minutes later and he was sound asleep! Didn't even stir when I kissed him.

Scenes from the Carling Cup Final

Cech punches the ball into Woodgate's face, what a great picture!
Berbatov's penalty 1-1
Steed Malbranque played well
The ball rebounded off Woodgate's head and into the net, 2-1 to Spurs!!!!!

Spurs Won the Carling Cup

My gracious host Dave who allowed me to come around and watch the game at midnight and even endured the half an hour of extra time required before the result was settled in Spurs favour.

Spurs went behind 1-0 to a Drogbha free kick before half time and it looked like the status quo would remain although Spurs had been by far the better team and created more scoring opportunities, without putting one in the net.

Things turned Tottenham's way in the 69th minute when Chelsea player Bridge handballed and the linesman awarded a penalty.
Didier Berbatov, Spurs' Bulgarian star striker stroked it home as cool as you like, 1-1 and I was getting excited.

Zokora should have won the game when he got the ball with just the keeper to beat but blew it not once but twice! Were we gonna blow our chances only to allow Chelsea to snatch an undeserved winner. No, it finished 1-1, extra time. Then the moment of triumph, in the 3rd minute of extra time, Johnathon Woodgate, in only his 4th game for Spurs since moving for 17m pounds, got on the end of a Jermaine Jenas free kick to head the winning goal. In fact the keeper got first touch on it and punched it into Woodgate's head and it rebounded into the net! Not classical, not pretty, but absolutely beautiful if you're a Spurs fan! I was by this time jumping around the living room and hi-fiving Dave. The last 20 minutes of the game were increasingly tense as Spurs sat back and allowed Chelsea to come at them, confident in their ability to defend their lead. I was up and down like a yoyo every time a blue shirt had a shot but with the help of two great saves from Paul Robinson Spurs did in fact hold on for a famous 2-1 victory and their first trophy since 1999.
I was pretty excited by then!

The Countdown to the Carling Cup Final

Sunday night and just under two hours until Tottenham Hotspur, the team I have followed passionately since I was 11 years old, take on Chelsea in the Carling (League) Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London.

I've been to Wembley (the old stadium, now pulled down and rebuilt) to see Tottenham in the 1982 FA Cup Final so I have some sense of the occasion. The League Cup is definitely the third most prestigious of the three domestic trophies in English soccer, but it's worth winning none-the-less, if not for the trophy itself then at least for the guaranteed passage into the UEFA Cup the following season. The League Cup is in fact the last trophy Spurs won, in 1999, beating Leicester City in the final in the year that Manchester United won the treble.
Since then, Chelsea have been taken over by a Russian Billionaire who has proceeded to spend millions on buying the best team available and it has paid off handsomely with Chelsea having won the Premiership twice, the FA Cup twice and the League Cup in the last 6 years, along with regular appearances in the European Champions League.

Ironically, back in the days I lived in London and followed Tottenham devotedly up and down the country, Chelsea were in the second division so Spurs didn't play them. I did go to their home ground Stamford Bridge a couple of times, to see a pre-season scratch match against Arsenal, and a league game against Fulham that Chelsea won 5-3.
Sadly they've had the wood over Spurs for a long time, having lost to Tottenham only twice in the last 42 games between them!!!!
Not exactly the sort of record you want to take into a final!
But, Spurs did thump our arch rivals Arsenal 5-1 in the semi-final and our record against the Gonners is almost as bad as it is against Chelsea so hopefully the tide might turn in our favour.

One of my old mates from London, Malcolm is a big Chelsea fan although he lives in the USA these days. I won't be surprised to hear from him, especially if Chelsea win!
We worked together in London for a little while and became good mates and in the summer of 1984 both went to America to work at Camp Schodack as camp counsellors. After the summer camp ended we travelled around the US for a few weeks before parting company in Chicago; he returned to New York and then home to London while I continued on to San Diego and then flew home to Australia via Tahiti after two and a half years overseas.

Malcolm is a very funny bloke and has a particular talent in being able to fake almost any foreign language. He can burst into what sounds like very plausible French, Russian, German, Italian etc. Interestingly, one of my good mates in Perth, Alex has the same peculiar ability. I'd love them to meet some day and carry on a conversation in the fake language of their choosing.

I've spent the day lounging around and tidying up the study, trying to bring some sense of order to the clutter. I've just bought a new flat screen monitor for the computer which besides being considerably larger also frees up significant space on my desk.
I'm preparing to buy a laptop and am tossing up the pros and cons of PC (Toshiba) V Apple Macbook. The Heir has a Mac and is very happy with it. I've used PCs my whole computing life so have a certain amount of reticence about making the switch!

We invited Keith and Jeanette and their girls over for a BBQ tea tonight although Keith is away with his brother in Perth for a few days so it was just the women. Jeanette is a regular reader of Holt Press and always has interesting and funny stories about her life.

Only an hour and a quarter to go till the soccer!

The Weekend in Brief, so far

Friday night: drove the taxi.

Saturday morning: Slept

Saturday arvo: watched Geelong lose to St Kilda in the NAB Cup, remembering that the pre-season counts for nothing.

Saturday night: Went to a 50th birthday party dinner at Yunderup with Mrs HP. Realise with certain amount of disquiet that my friends are turning 50, which of course means.....

I need to find some new friends!


Sunday night: hoping to see Tottenham beat Chelsea in the League Cup Final at Wembley.

Substitute

Mrs Holt Press has been in bed all day with a bad headache, something she suffers from, from time to time. It's pretty frustrating for her as nothing seems to help and her only option is to try and sleep it off. At their worst they can last for three days.
Her incapacitation meant I took the parental taxi duties this afternoon, transporting Sport Boy home from school, on to the Nautical Lady for a birthday party on the water slide, and then to the rec centre for his basketball game. Those who know me well know I hold no great affection for basketball, aka "The Nonsense", but I must say that SB is improving, as are his team and he played very well today in a game they won by 2 points.

I had a score today thanks to the junk mail. I'd spotted some large framed prints on sale at that purveyor of fine goods, Red Dot. I bought 4 of them, all large and quite attractive, for $20 each. I don't want them for the prints you understand, just the frames, which I will use for paintings.
I tend to use box frame canvasses mostly as they don't require framing but getting reasonable quality frames at bargain prices means I can present a few of my paintings with a little more style and class! I worked on another picture tonight, experimenting again with some different techniques and styles.

Hopefully by the morning Mrs HP will be feeling a bit better.

The Kids at the Footy

Favourite Daughter and Sport Boy get along very well, despite, or perhaps because of the big age difference between them. It is lovely to see the way they laugh and play together and Sunday night at the footy was no exception. We moved seats each quarter, initially to escape the setting sun and then to sit nearer the action as the Dockers belted the Eagles. I'm glad the footy season is not far away.
SB and I drove home after the game, getting back at about 12.30. FD stayed on in Perth for another couple of days with Toni. She got back this afternoon and told me stories of jumping into hedges and having lots of fun, and having a few scrapes and bruises to show for it.

9 Squares

This is the painting I've been working on for the last couple of days, a variation and combination of some other things I've been doing.
It's quite large, 1 metre square. Mrs Holt Press and Favourite Daughter both like it. Fashion Boy stood looking at it for a long time but made no comment!

Youth Parliament

Fashion Boy letting his hair down for the group photo on the steps of Parliament House.

Sleep

I took a fair while to recover from the weekend and late return last night. Thankfully our brand new mattress is VERY comfortable so I slept well. We upgraded our old one on Friday which had become lumpy and uncomfortable and it was money well spent.
I've got an early meeting tomorrow and a busy day for a change so I'm going to go and enjoy it some more.

Just the Headlines

We're home.

It's late.

The Dockers won.

And I found a great bike for Sport Boy at the Swap Meet this morning and it only cost 50 bucks!

Sal's Painting

When sally and Warren came to stay a few weeks back she liked several of my paintings but one in particular attracted her, the one I gave to Favourite Daughter for her 18th birthday.
As we were coming to Perth for the weekend and staying with S & W I set about trying to re-create a similar painting to bring with me. It went better than I anticipated, I started it last night and finished it this afternoon, either side of my taxi shift. I put it in a frame and revealed it to Sal, who I'm pleased, and relieved* to report, "loves it"and said it is "perfect" for the place she had in mind for it in the family room. It does indeed match the colours and other pictures in the room very well. The photos above are not great, taken as they are with a flash but I photo-shopped them a little bit to try and make them a bit more accurate.

* My relief was not just based on wanting her to like it (Sally is one of my oldest friends, we met 30 years ago) but also because I had told her about a sculpture I'd seen at Art Geo that I thought she'd like and brought some photos up to show her, only for her to say how much she didn't like it and making a very unflattering comparison with what it reminded her of!
Thankfully, as I said, she likes the painting very much.


I came up with Fashion and Sport Boys for the Augusta Team reunion. Favourite Daughter came up with a friend and is joining us tomorrow. Mrs Holt Press is in Northam for the weekend with a friend; they are both doing a course that runs for 10 weekends over the next 18 months.
FD, SB and I are going to the football tomorrow night to see the Dockers play the Eagles in the pre-season comp. While on that subject, Geelong smashed Melbourne in their game today, showing good signs of their form continuing on from last season, although, as I'm the first to assert, the pre-season comp means nothing!
The Heir had to work and is minding the fort at home.

Apology Ceremony

Scenes from yesterday's Apology Ceremony. We served over 200 sausages, raising money for indigenous health care in the process. 4 of our indigenous boys did a short dance while Josh played the didge and even though they'd had minimal preparation and were pretty nervous they got a huge cheer from the crowd.

Mum rang tonight, she and Walter are home from their trip to South Australia where they were helping Vicki and Rex prepare to move to the "new" farmhouse. They're only back briefly before heading east again to visit family and friends in Victoria. Hopefully we'll catch up for a visit before they go.

Proud to be an Australian.

The Apology to the Stolen Generations.

What a great day! I feel proud to be an Australian.

The Prime Minister was superb and the event was deeply moving. He captured the heart and soul of the issue and spoke powerful words of apology and integrity. It was above politics. It was statesmanship.

I was at Stadium Australia the night Cathy Freeman won the Olympic gold medal in the 400m and it was a fantastic experience, the sense of pride and elation was overwhelming. It was a physical and emotional victory that captured the heart of the nation.

Today's ceremony at Parliament House was similar yet different.
It was a moral and spiritual victory that resonated through the heart of Australia.

It was a time when a leader stood up in the face of criticism and cynicism and humbly acknowledged the sins of our past and sincerely apologised for them.
It was meaningful, profound and historically significant, a moment in time in the history of our country the likes of which we have rarely seen and may never see again.
The extended standing ovation from both sides of the House and the invited guests, members of the Stolen Generations, was spine-tingling and tears flooded down my face.

I felt proud of the Prime Minister.
I felt proud of the government.
I felt proud of the parliament.
I felt proud of my country.
There have been many fine and noble achievements in our history, actions and events worthy of pride and remembrance, people who have magnificently served and represented our country in all fields of endeavour.

But in some sense, I believe Australia came of age today.
What a great day.

We held a ceremony at school to mark the occasion, at lunchtime, which also went very well. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

The Apology

I am really looking forward to Wednesday morning when a truly historical event will take place in our nation. I am 100% in support of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations which will be his first act in the first parliamentary sitting of the new government.

One of the reasons I voted for Labor last year was because of their committment to make the apology that John Howard had so resisted. Neither I nor the current govt are directly responsible for the wrongs that were committed but I believe as an Australian, enjoying all the benefits of living in this country I must also share the responsibilities of citizenship and for me that means acknowledging the terrible crimes that were committed in the forcible removal of approximately 100,000 Aboriginal children from their families over nearly 100 years of Australian history, and the dreadful cruelty and inhumane treatment that many of them were subjected to once removed.

I have been a supporter of the need for a national apology for a long time, even if it does mean compensation payments, we are a wealthy nation and can certainly afford to compensate people who have suffered so unjustly.

I have been lobbying and negotiating at work for some sort of acknowledgement of the event to be held at the school and working with a couple of other staff to organise a suitable event.
As part of that preparation I was given a copy of the book, The Stolen Generation: Their Stories, by Carmel Bird and spent a good part of today reading it. I was deeply moved by the personal accounts of both children and parents who suffered the injustice of removal from their homes and separation from their families. Many victims, removed at ages 4 and 5 never saw their parents again! Many were abused, physically, sexually, psychologically and racially. Their suffering at times is almost beyond belief.

The accounts are contained in the "Bring Them Home" Report written by the judicial inquiry into the Stolen Generation from which came the recommendation that all Australian Parliaments, state and federal, offer an apology to the victims.

Millicent's story (in the book) is particularly harrowing, recounting not only her own separation from her mother but the subsequent removal of her own baby immediately after her birth in 1962 (the year after I was born).

I thoroughly recommend the book as a place to start your own exploration of the topic which I know is controversial and sees many Australians divided.

A web search also led me to another account of a victim but with a very different outcome, an Aboriginal elder, Geoff Guest, a truly remarkable story of survival, ingenuity and adventure. You can check it out on Laceweb at this link: Geoff Guest's story

Tonight I talked to our 4 kids about the Apology and read them Millicent's story then we prayed for our country.
I believe Wednesday will be a significant and symbolic step forward for this nation and I hope that Aboriginal people will experience some sense of peace and closure for the harm they've endured and that both black and white Australians can move forward on the next steps toward true reconciliation.

Sport Boy's Ripstik

I took Sport Boy down to the skate park on the weekend so he could try out his new ripstik. He revelled in the smooth surface and the ramps and slopes and although he didn't work up a lot of speed he did get the hang of it fairly quickly and had a lot of fun. The method of riding a RS is quite different to a normal skateboard and by swivelling back and forth you can keep generating forward momentum without having to kick along. SB has sometimes needed to be convinced to wear his helmet but when I pointed out the near miss one of the older guys had when he came off his board and almost cracked his skull on the end of one of the grinding rails he realised how useful it was to protect his head.

Figure This One Out

I had lunch with Laurie on Friday, the first time we've caught up in months. He showed me this puzzle when I first moved to Busso, nearly 4 years ago. Neither of us could work out how it was done. Somehow a nail has been driven into a piece of wood from an impossible angle/position. I've pondered it a few times, and examined it closely looking for some tell-tale sign of how it was done, all to no avail, so I did something for the first time, I rang the number on the bottom of the puzzle to get the solution. Roger answered the phone, in Tasmania and worked out pretty quickly why I was calling. He revealed the secret to me and I must say it is extremely ingenious and quite surprising, certainly not something I would have thought of on my own.
Mystery solved I returned it to Loz over lunch.

Friday Night Cab Capers

I drove the maxi taxi last night and did a few trips to a party about 10km out of town. One group were all girls, all dressed up nicely, all drinking, not all of legal age!
They decided to sing. I use the term loosley! They decided to yell the words to pop songs loudly and out of tune. I didn't recognise many of the songs, not just because of the "quality" of the "singing" although I did know one of them was a Spice Girls song.
What they lacked in tunefulness they over-compensated with enthusiasm.

Half an hour later I picked up a group of boys, similar age, similar condition and what do you know, they decided to sing too!!! Just as loudly as the girls, and just as badly! Their only saving grace was a slightly better choice of music, one of which was a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song.

I secretly hoped that when I dropped them off at the party these two groups would find one another and make beautiful music together, if you know what I mean.

At home time I picked up a different group from the party and did a milk run to Dunsborough, (that's cabbie talk for a group of people being dropped off at a variety of places along the way). The fare came to $79 and I was particulary impressed with one of the young guys who took charge and made sure his groupf of friends all got home, directing me to each of their houses and waking up those who needed to be told they were home. I commended him on his responsible behaviour and care for his mates.

Another group I picked up later did not show the same level of care and responsibilty. They were very drunk and very aggro, having left a party where the police had just been to break up a fight. Someone had been hit with a star picket and someone else had been belted as a result. The level of aggro and swearing was at the high end of the scale. The worst part was they had a little boy with them, maybe 5-6 years old. I despaired to think what sort of environment he's being raised in.

Sport Update
Spurs are leading Derby County 1-0 with 10 minutes to go.

And Todd won Survivor!

BFBS

I've hit a wall again, hopefully temporarily.

I got a haircut this afternoon, perhaps it will help.

I dropped into the campsite where RYLA is happening this evening to say g'day to the Heir but they were in a session, ironically, on the topic of mental health and resilience, so I didn't get to see him. He'll be home Sunday.

The Giants WON!!!!!

Wow! What a great game and a fantastic result! The NY Giants, massive underdogs against the hottest of hot favourites, the undefeated New England Patriots, won the Superbowl 17-14 with a touchdown in the last minute of the game. There was a "miracle" play just before they scored that will go down as one of the greatest plays in history.
Considering how good the Patriots had been all season I was pretty much resigned to the Giants losing but they played superbly and won a classic game.

Fashion Boy asked me tonight why I barrack for the Giants? I worked on a Summer camp in upstate New York in 1983 and 1984 and many of the people I met were Giants fans (and NY Mets fans) at a time when the NY Jets and the NY Yankees were the much more popular teams.
After camp ended the first year I went to stay with a couple of the families of the kids in my bunkhouse, Josh Brinen who sometimes reads this blog, and Andy Levy. While staying at Andy's place his Dad, who owned a sports store, got us tickets to go to an NFL game between the Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Phil Simms was the quarterback and threw for about 200 yards that day as the Giants won and I was hooked. I remember watching their first Superbowl victory on a big screen TV at Chip Inn with my mate Skip and his brother Tim in 1987 against the Denver Broncos, and again in 1991 when they beat the Buffalo Bills by 1 point in the closest ever SuperBowl.

Despite having to wait a few extra hours due to Dave's miscalculation and enforce a news blackout all day to avoid hearing the result, I loved watching the replay last night on SBS, even though I had to celebrate silently as everyone else in the house was asleep.

Go Giants.

Visitors Wreak Destruction

We had the pleasure of Ross and Kirsten's company on the weekend. I met Ross many years ago in his first incarnation as director of Warriuka camps at Scripture Union. The wheel has turned full circle because he is now back there doing the same job. In between time we worked together at Chip Inn, the drop-in centre at Warwick I ran from 1989-1994, and also did a couple of RYLA seminars together. We were at Ross and Kirsten's wedding, my strongest memory of which is that in his speech Ross said he knew he'd found the right partner when he realised that Kirsten could back a trailer. We haven't seen much of them over the last 10 years or so but Ross has become a keen swimmer and entered the Busselton Jetty Swim which was held on Sunday morning. He asked if they could stay the night prior to the swim and we gladly said yes. Unfortunately I had to drive the cab on Saturday night so they weren't here long before I had to leave for work but as luck would have it Sat night was extremely quiet and I was able to park at home and chat with them on the front patio whilst keeping one ear on the cab radio. I went a full 2 hours without getting a job so we ended up having a decent amount of time to catch up. I did the graveyard shift, finishing at 6am so I was sound asleep by the time Ross was plunging into Geographe Bay for the jetty swim. There was a bit of a mishap on Sat. night when the kitchen stool Ross was sitting on disintegrated beneath him! It was loose and in need of re-gluing before that but it had never collapsed so completely. Luckily he wasn't injured and was thus able to do the swim unhindered.

Other headlines in the Holt Press World:

The Heir has gone to RYLA this week, the Rotary Youth Leadership Award seminar, at the Baptist Camp on the Holy Mile. I directed RYLA camps for 6 years in the early 90's so it is pretty cool that one of our kids is now old enough to attend RYLA.

Sport Boy and Fashion Boy went back to school today. To celebrate the end of the holidays we went out for dinner at the Dynasty Chinese restaurant last night. (Colloquially known as the Die Nasty amongst the taxi driving fraternity) we had a great meal and a really good time together as a family, including a brief walk down at the beach before the elements became unpleasant.

Sport Boy was extremely excited this afternoon because after months of saving he was able to buy a "RipStik", a funky type of skateboard that he's had his heart set on for quite a while. He spent the next couple of hours mastering the basics of RipStikking and only sustained one grazed elbow.

Favourite Daughter was commended by her boss the other day and offered a full time job. He gave her a bottle of wine as a sign of his appreciation for how well she's been working. She's not sure if she'll take up the full time job offer, she still struggles with tiredness and lack of energy.

Fashion Boy spent a couple of days in Perth with friends late last week, a final fling before returning to school this week.

Mrs Holt Press has been hard at work domestically and the house is looking and feeling great. We just need to get the new shed erected now so we can really clean up and tidy the carport and patio.

Sport Update:
I've neglected to mention the stupendous 5-1 victory Spurs had over Arsenal in the League Cup semi-final, putting them through to the final against Chelsea on Feb 24. Spurs then lost to Manchester Utd in the 4th round of the FA Cup and followed that up this weekend with a 1-1 draw at home to Man U in the league, having led the entire game until the red devils equalised in the final minute oif injury time!

I'm in a media/news blackout zone at the moment, waiting until 10:50 tonight when I can watch the replay of the SuperBowl. My team the NY Giants were trying to beat the New England Patriots who have won 18 games in a row and are undefeated this season. I don't expect the Giants to have won but I'd still rather not know the result before watching the game. I was supposed to go round and watch it at Dave's at 7.00 but he misread the program and forgot to subtract the 2 hour time difference from the eastern states schedule! By the time he realised it was on it was well into the last quarter so I decided to stay home and watch the late replay.

Back to Blogging

Blogger and/or the computer and/or the world wide web have been playing up a little the last day or so but I gave them a stern talking to and in spite of that they all appear to be functioning "normally" again, which means I can blog again. I sometime wonder what would happen if I stopped blogging. Would the earth keep spinning? Would the sun rise and set as per usual?
Would the stock market crash? Would Wayne Carey mend his ways?
Would anyone notice at all?

Not that I'm intending to stop. Whether anyone reads my blog or not, I still enjoy blogging and will keep going if only for my own amusement, but when I'm not able to blog for a couple of days I start to wonder if I could break the habit.

Rest assured dear reader, I'll still be here next time you come back, whenever that may be.

The staff returned to work on Thursday (the kids start again on Monday) and the whole computer network crashed today, not great timing considering all the admin stuff that has to be done at the start of a school year, not to mention the important emails I need to read.
Deprived of my PC I took up the challenge of cleaning my little fridge. I mean little, it's an ex-shop display fridge with Pepsi logos on it, just big enough to hold half a dozen bottles of water and a dozen cans, and my lunch. I bought it about 5-6 years ago and have never cleaned it in all that time. You'll be surprised to learn that there was quite a significant build up of mould. Hot soapy water and elbow grease saw most of it removed although Mrs Holt Press insists that despite it looking clean, there are still countless microscopic mould spores lurking inside and I should get rid of it and buy another one! Surely she jests! Does she think I'm made of money! Besides, it's a very cool little fridge, practically irreplaceable, and with new, clean polystyrene installed and most of the mould removed, it's gotta be good for at least another five years. I think Mrs HP has been watching too much House and CSI!

After work I put some finishing touches on my latest painting then headed into the night to drive the taxi. It was a fairly average night, the typical mix of party and pub goers and drunks, but three trips to Dunsborough and 1 to Bunbury made it reasonably profitable.
One young bloke who was already very drunk asked me if I thought he'd be able to get into the pub dressed the way he was. Not covered in vomit you won't I replied matter-of-factly!
He saw my point and decided to go home instead.