Down the Hatch @ Phat Phriday

There was no shortage of volunteers wanting to try the Spin a Mystery Meal Wheel Challenge, only the bell stopped us from blending and serving more delightful mixtures. Even the chef's special, with everything in it didn't deter them!
Just a reminder of the various ingredients: eggs, tomato sauce, Coke, chocolate, ravioli, hamburger, fries, creamed corn, milk, water, tuna, coconut milk and a vegemite sandwich! MMMM Yummy!

Into the Blender

The Blender Girls did a great job.

Spin a Mystery Meal Wheel

Some Phat Phriday scenes from last week.

Family Meeting

Winter has well and truly arrived in Busselton, it was so cold today I went home and put another two layers of clothes on! The rain is constant and heavy too.

The gas crisis is not helping. The explosion on Veranus Island a couple of weeks ago has cut WA's gas supply by a third and households and industry are both having to drastically cut gas use in order to stop the economy being crippled: so many WA industries are gas dependent.

There was a Holt Press family meeting tonight to raise some issues and clear the air. It went pretty well, with The Hair being the "default agenda". It was good to talk about a range of things and try and make the Holt Press House a happier and more cooperative place to live.

At the end we prayed for The Hair and his hopes of getting a driver's license. He has an eye condition called Nystagmis which causes his eyes to involuntarily wobble or vibrate and his eyesight is not as good as it could be as a result. We all hope, and tonight prayed, that his vision will improve and that he will be able to get a license.

One more story at The Hair's expense, a conversation from this afternoon related to me by Favourite Daughter.

TH: Hey, do you want this Star Wars picture?

FD: Yeah, but I've got nowhere to put it....unless I take down this Winnie the Pooh picture.

Pause

FD: Do you want the Winnie the Pooh picture?

TH: YEAH!! I love Winnie the Pooh!

When we were kids Mum read us the Adventures of Christopher

Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite jokes.

What do Winnie the Pooh and Jack the Ripper have in common?

The same middle name.

Cats Nap

It was a day of two sleeps either side of a Cats victory.

With church now a regular Saturday night fixture, Sunday mornings are way more laid back, literally in this case. I slept in, only stirring in time to head round to Dave's place to watch Geelong play Port on Foxtel. He wasn't home when I arrived but had considerately left the door open and the TV on. There followed a couple of enjoyable hours watching the Cats thump Port despite Port's attempts to thump Gary Ablett at every opportunity. It didn't stop the little champ from probably notching up another 2 or 3 Brownlow votes as the Cats won by 10 goals.

I headed home and feeling tired headed back to bed for a nap! Ah the joys of the day of rest!

Up for dinner and a little family time and now.... back to bed!

Friday/Saturday Wrap

PHAT PHRIDAY
Phat Phriday went really well, especially with the help of 5 young people to run it-The Heir, Favourite Daughter and three of her friends. We played "Spin a Mystery Meal" and were all amazed at the kid's enthusiasm and dedication to the task!
Three contestants each took turns spinning a wheel to select items to go in their meal, all of which were placed in a blender, mixed and poured for their consumption in a sculling race!
None of the items were a problem on their own, but the combinations they spun for themselves certainly made them less appetising!
From memory there was a Coke/Flake(chocolate)/tomato sauce/Tuna drink; a coconut milk/hamburger/chocolate/egg combo and a french fries/milk/tomato sauce and creamed corn concoction in one round.
Later mixes included some or all of: ravioli/tuna/egg/diet coke/jelly snakes/water/and vegemite sandwich!
No sooner had one group finished than ten more kids were eagerly volunteering to have a go. Most of them finished the whole cup full although one or two gagged at the first mouthful and couldn't go on.
As per the official rules of a sculling race as laid down by the IOC, the winner is the first one to finish the drink and place the upside down cup on their head. This of course reveals which competitors have truly finished. Plenty of kids ended up with goo in their hair at the end!
We were all happy with how it went but I did see a look of consternation on the nurse's face as she watched from the sidelines! There were no reports of Phat Phriday induced illness after lunch thankfully.

NB. The pictures above are from last week's very successful Phat Phriday Launch, Frozen Chicken Bowling which received 100% approval in our blog poll. (Thanks to the other three of you who voted:)
PS. Out of a sense of duty combined with guilt I did actually cook the bowling chook and ate some for lunch one day, with no ill-effects despite the loud protests of the entire Holt Press family!

TAXI TALES
Last night was one of the busiest shifts I've had in months. At one stage there were 22 jobs waiting. I was in a maxi taxi so had plenty of bigger groups to transport around. Apart from a couple of long drives to no-shows or cancellations I had a good night and made about $250. Even though I was rostered off at number two I didn't finish until nearly 4am, a couple of hours later than normal. Most of the customers behaved themselves which was a bonus. One lady I picked up works at The Ship and when I told her that I did the paintings that hang in the room with the pool tables she was embarrassingly effusive in her praise of them, and me! When I further confided that I was Favourite Daughter's Dad she was equally warm and full of compliments, telling me I should be very proud of her as she is wonderful. I am and she is.
Favourite Daughter is working with her in the bar tonight so there'll probably be an interesting conversation between them.

SATURDAY SOCCER
Our game this morning was at Dunsborough but I'm pleased to say it didn't start until 12.00 so I at least got a few hours sleep between taxi-driving and soccer coaching. We had a couple of kids away so I recruited an extra player to make up the starting 11. There was a bit of controversy about this but I can't say anything here in case the wrong people happen to read my blog!
(If you are a wrong person reading my blog please ignore this section and move on, there's nothing to see here.)
The kids played well and won the game 9-1 with Sport Boy scoring a hat trick.

GARAGE SALES
I spent a bit of time cruising a few garage sales this afternoon and did something unusual for me, I bought some plants! Several hanging baskets and a few potted plants from a lady who is about to head off on a trip around Australia with her husband. I hung them in the patio outside the kitchen window and they do look good. There wasn't much else worth buying, just a couple of Christmas ornaments and some art paints.
I finally managed to pick up the book shelves yesterday afternoon and today did some rearranging in the study, taking two smaller shelf units out and putting the new one in. The Heir made a successful bid for one set from the study so had to then do a big re-shuffle in his room as well. He has a talent for fitting ever more pieces of furniture into a confined space, in this case the smallest room in the house.

FOOTBALL
After dropping The Hair and his mates off at an X-Box Sleepover I settled down to watch the footy but was disappointed that the Hawks got up to beat the Crows in the last couple of minutes, a. because I'd tipped the Crows and b. because they are above the Cats on the ladder so a loss would have been to our advantage.
The Heir is home from work and in just under an hour's time we're going to watch the Australia V Ireland Rugby Test, Go the Wallabies.

Somewhere in the Stirling Ranges

Blogger/Picasa are being troublesome, this is to fill a gap where a duplicated post had appeared.

It's taken from a hike through the Stirlings with Laurie on a Wilderness Intervaention Program, many many years ago.

Blogs of Note

Blogs of Note

Rachel and Michael had their first child a few weeks ago, and named him Angus.

As you can see he's very cute. If you'd like to see more of the little tacker there are plenty of pictures over on Barrandgirl .

Meanwhile, Phil has been writing about their reacclimatization to Afghanistan, you can check it out at Itinerant Indigent.

He has a funny story to tell about this airstrip.I mentioned my new blog for the Melbourne Footy Trip last week. I've developed it a little further and have decided to make it my regular footy blog, with news, reviews, tips and competitions plus lots of links to footy sites. If you like footy check it out here.

Not Enough Space!

I need to have a clean-out and a garage sale! There is so much "stuff" spread all over the house, inside and out, it's everywhere! The reason I'm particularly conscious of it at the moment is that I've had fruitless searches for three different items in the last couple of days, and turned up none of them. Instead I found stuff! Endless papers, files, folders, books, magazines, CDs, photos, etc etc. It's time for a BIG clean-up!

I spotted an ad on a noticeboard in town today for a set of shelves, very reasonably priced at $40. I went round to look at them after soccer training and quickly decided to buy them. Then the fun started!
I had The Heir's car, the Blue Beast, but for the life of me could not open the back tail gate!
Was this some sort of revenge Karma for his flat tyre exploits with my car in Perth?

He wasn't far away, at work, so I drove down there to either find out the secret of the tailgate or swap the Blue Beast for my car.

"The key is in the glove box" he explained.

"Why" I wondered!!

Back to the vendor, open the back, lay down the seats and carry out the shelves.

Hmmm!

They wouldn't fit! Just! It was a matter of millimetres, but that was enough, it wouldn't fit.

The spare wheel stand was in the way. It's in the back because the space norammly assigned to the spare wheel has been taken over by the LPG gas tank.

It was bolted in so we broke out a socket set to see if we could remove it!

We couldn't!

We tried for 20 minutes mind you, but to no avail!

It wasn't coming out, and the shelves weren't going in!

"Sorry, I'll have to get a trailer and come back tomorrow!!"

No worries!

Only an hour of my evening wasted!

Sports Update:
I watched the State of Origin tonight and enjoyed seeing Queensland square the series with a 30-0 shellacking of the cockroaches.

As I said at the start, the rest of the night was spent looking for things I couldn't find!!!
A CD Rom to install the scanner on the new computer. No good.
Favourite Daughter's Yr 10 Graduation certificate. No!
My Grand Final ticket. Nowhere to be found.
Of course, I did find a whole lot of "stuff" that I don't need or want to keep in the process.

There's a black hole somewhere near here that is sucking up all the things I'm looking for and in return spewing out "stuff"!

Time to dig out the Garage Sale signs, if I can find them!!

Opening Closets

I enjoyed today's training in Bridgetown. It was entitled "Opening Closets" and was run jointly by Gay & Lesbian Community Services and Uniting Care West. The structure and content of the day was very good and very engaging. I'll be borrowing a few of their ideas next time I'm running a training session.

One chilling statistic they gave us was that 80% of people who identify themselves as transgender end up committing suicide!

While people may have different beliefs and attitudes on sexuality to me, I don't believe anything people do should be made so difficult to deal with that it leads to such a high percentage of people taking their own lives.

I don't feel like I'm expressing it very well, but what I'm trying to say is that regardless of beliefs or behaviours (within the law) people shouldn't pay with their lives for sexual or gender freedom.

Hopefully that makes sense!

If not, I can point you to their website for a clearer explanation of the issues.

The other important factor in a good training day is the quality of the food, and the fish and squid rings at lunchtime certainly added to my enjoyment. I even got to bring a doggie bag home of the leftovers!

I grabbed the opportunity to check out the shops at lunchtime, especially one of my favourites, Puddletown, and was not disappointed, I found a couple of cool new toys for my office.

By the time I got home at 6.00 Mrs Holt Press was already in bed, blaming "over-tiredness". I'm not sure of the cause, surely it couldn't have been my absence for the night!

I spent the evening watching TV- especially a disturbing expose of the Binge Drinking Culture amongst young people in Australia, on 4 Corners- and painting. I'm working on something very different to my normal style, far more ambitious, and I have to say it's not going very well! I know what I'm trying to do but I don't know how to do it, or more accurately I lack the skills knowledge and technique required, three fairly important elements it has to be said!

I will persevere but am not feeling optimistic about the project!

Blogging From Fridgetown

I'm in Bridgetown for the night staying at Mum and Walter's place. I'm attending a training workshop here tomorrow so took the opportunity for an overnight visit. Mrs Holt Press generously offered me the Tuscan Sunset Mobile for the trip as I had given my car to The Heir so he could drive it to Perth yesterday. That leaves her with his blue tank, 500,000km on the clock and no power steering amongst it's attributes so it was a truly generous act!
Half way here I got a call saying he had a flat tyre and the wheel brace didn't fit!
He inherited all of his mechanical ability directly from me,without even a scintilla of his grandfather's (much more useful mechanical genes) making their way down the hereditary line.
He rang back a little later to say that it turned out the wheel brace did fit after all and he was back on the road. It should be noted at this point that Alex was with him but this did nothing to improve his chances of mechanical success, if anything it diminished them!

Fridgetown is customarily cold so I'm grateful for the pot belly stove warming up the house. Hopefully there'll be an extra doona on the bed when I retire shortly.

I was relieved this morning when at the 4th attempt I managed to obtain tickets for the footy, the Geelong v West Coast game on my birthday. For a little while it looked like I'd miss out, as it is they're in the restricted viewing section, low down behind the goals at the Subi end. I'm not complaining though, I'm just glad I got tickets. I got a couple of extras for Favourite Daughter and Sport Boy if they want to come and help me celebrate my birthday. Mrs Holt Press has booked into a training weekend at Northam to mark the occasion!

Saturday Soccer

The Hair, on the ball in Saturday's soccer match. His team won 8-1 and he had quite a good game from what I saw. (I missed the first half because Sport Boy's game was still going). He was unnecessarily self-critical after the game saying he thought they and he hadn't played well! I don't know why, considering how many goals they scored, and based on what I saw. The coach is overly harsh at times, relying more on fervour and strictness than knowledge and encouragement and perhaps this rubs off on The Hair!

Sport Boy's team were losing 2-0 at half time but in a much improved second half came back to win 3-2 and manintain their unbeaten record.

And I can't let the weekend sport report go without mentioning the Cats good win against North Melbourne on Friday night. It was close all night but Geelong held sway to win by a couple of goals in a high scoring game. It was a weekend for big comebacks, with Sydney knocking off West Coast with almost the last kick of the game, and Carlton getting up over Port Adelaide in similar circumstances, when both teams had trailed by over 30 points. Couldn't resist sending Chris a text after the Eagles lost, "Cheer Cheer the Red and the White".
"Get stuffed Marcus" was her prompt reply!!

Sophie Scholl
I've just watched a very moving film I recorded on SBS a week or so ago called Sophie Scholl, the true story of a 21 year old German girl who was involved in a movement called The White Rose, who resisted Hitler and the Nazis in WW2 by distributing anti-war flyers.
They were executed for their "crime", becoming martyrs for their ideals and their faith. I have heard of the famous anti-war protester, Deitrich Boenhoffer, who was also executed for opposing Hitler, but had never heard of Sophie Scholl. Her courage and conviction in the face of danger and ultimately death were impressive and inspirational. Her final words before being beheaded were:
"How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go. But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"
Wikipaedia has a good brief biography of Scholl, who was voted one of the 10 greatest German citizens in history in a nationwide poll.

With apologies to Ringo, "I get by with a little help from my friends"

Good news.

With a little help from my friends, I've resolved the ticket payment fiasco!

For the full story, go to the Footy Trip Blog.

Friday night normally finds me behind the wheel of a taxi, but not tonight.
Because tonight Geelong are playing North Melbourne and I'm staying home to watch it on TV.

I'm driving tomorrow night instead.

Today saw the rebirth of Phat Phriday, the lunchtime program of crazy games and competitions we run at the school. It's been in recess for 12 months so it was good to bring it back, and buoyed by the strong support in my web poll, 100% in favour, (thanks to all 4 of you who voted) we did indeed proceed with that old favourite "Frozen Chicken Bowling". And in a first, Favourite Daughter, Crazy Friend and The Heir all came and helped me run it.

Photos to follow.

Chicken Conundrum

I'm feeling dumb! I made a mistake in one of the bank transfers to pay for the air tickets for the footy trip, then without realising it till it was too late, made the same mistake again!!!!
This not only sets the process back a few days, it also meant we lost the cheaper airfares I had originally booked, the price having gone up $20 in the last few days!!!!
Inattention on my part led to the mistake so I'm not happy with myself!
I'm hoping I may be able to sort it out tomorrow but I suspect it will have to run its course which means no progress till next week! Just when things were starting to come together really well!
I'll be more careful next time!!

Volleyball went well tonight, we won against the team who were on top of the ladder. My new team plays at a much higher and more intense level than anything I've experienced before and I'm still adjusting to it, but doing OK.

I'm starting Phat Phriday again at school tomorrow, the lunchtime program of crazy games and competitions. I advertised that the first week would feature an old favourite, "Frozen Chook 10 Pin Bowling". This afternoon I got a phone call from a teacher voicing her objections to this game on the grounds of wasting food. I talked it over with the deputy and they reassured me that it wasn't a big deal, that there are bigger battles to be fought, and it was OK to proceed as planned!
I don't feel bad about sacrificing one frozen chicken , value about $8, for the cause!
But, seeing as I discovered a gizmo for putting a reader's poll on my blog, I'll open the question up for you to give your opinion!
Vote on the poll today and help shape the future of Phat Phriday!

Meeting

Much of the day was spent preparing for tonight's parent meeting for the footy trip. It went well and everyone seems happy, including me! We had the meeting at our place and managed to fit everyone in although I regretted the fact that I haven't fitted my Geelong theme song door bell yet! I did wear my Geelong jumper for the occasion though.

Soccer training this afternoon was a little frustrating with kids getting injured and not wanting to cooperate. Sport Boy wasn't well today so he didn't train.

Political Update:
Barak Obama has finally "clinched" the Democrat nomination in the presidential primaries, which I'm happy about, I like him and hope he'll be President. The strange part of the story is Hillary Clinton's refusal to concede defeat even though Obama now has the numbers to seal the nomination. She's nothing if not resilient! I guess that's a quality one develops if you're married to the world's best known "adulterer".
I've always had an interest in American politics. One of my claims to fame is having heckled President Ronald Reagan at a rally in San Diego in 1984. I'm also a great fan of The West Wing and all the intrigue and behind the scenes goings on in the White House.
For what it's worth, I don't think Obama will choose Clinton as his Vice Presidential running mate, and I'm not sure it would be the dream team combination people seem to think it would be. I don't think Hillary is willing to play second fiddle.

Melbourne Footy Trip

I've started a new blog! It's a special purpose blog, just a little short term renter, to track the upcoming footy trip to Melbourne in July.
In fact, that's what it's called, "Melbourne Footy Trip", creative huh?
The main action won't start for another month but I had fun setting it up tonight, adding a few new elements to jazz it up a bit. There's lots of footy links too so it may develop a life of it's own during the footy season.

You can find it at www.melbournefootytrip.blogspot.com

The End of the Long Weekend

No Monday blues today, just time to relax and enjoy the extra day off. I pottered around doing a few jobs outside such as finishing cleaning the gutters and installing gutter guard. Then I went scrounging around some building sites looking for some scrap 4x2 to use to attach some roofing on the patio. I had to cut it down a little which meant hauling the Triton power saw out from behind the piles of stuff still cluttering the patio. Once I nailed it in place I fitted three sheets of corrugated iron to the patio roof, thus extending the weather proof area by about 8m2.
Pleased with myself I then cooked dinner on the BBQ before printing and framing several photographs to update the gallery on the study wall.
All very productive and satisfying.

Favourite Daughter and The Hair came home from their 3 days at the State Youth Games full of stories and laughter but both very wiped out from all their exertions and lack of sleep. Both went to bed early. She really likes her new bed and he is rapt with the $2 CD player!

Sport Boy has extended his sleepover at Jacob's for another night so the house is quieter and less energetic without him around running or bouncing or kicking a ball etc.

It's back to the real world tomorrow!

2 Down 1 to Go

Ah the joys of a long weekend! Knowing you don't have to go to work for another two days!
All the more sweet seeing as the Cats returned to the winner's list in style last night by thunping the Blues. I wanted to get Stu over to watch the game but he obviously forsaw they would lose and high-tailed out of town for the weekend!

Mrs HP and I had a look around the markets this morning, finding very little quality amongst the junk, just a couple of books and a couple of toy planes for my office.
A quick stop at Woolies for bagels blew out into fruit and BBQ meat and numerous other things and a bill for $62 at the check-out!
Similarly my excursion to Bunnings for a new, bigger kitchen rubbish bin ended up producing not just the bin but 4 storage crates for under FD's new bed, 3 rolls of gutter guard, 3 different sizes of batteries to re-arm the remotes and clocks and smoke detecters, two kitchen stools and a tape measure!

I knew Fremantle were in trouble when they took a 2 point lead into 3/4 time against Port Adelaide. Sure enough, their customary final quarter fade-out saw them go down by 5 goals, to set a new AFL record, losing 5 games in a row after leading at 3/4 time in each of them. Not the sort of history they were wanting to create I'm fairly sure!

Sport Boy is staying the night at Jacob's so Mrs HP and I took advantage of our "just us" status and went and got noodles for tea and a couple of movies from the video store. "Away From Her" was tedious and ordinary but "The Astronaut Farmer" was quirky and funny and quite entertaining.

Tomorrow I get to sleep in again!

Big Blow In Busselton

The storm I mentioned last night struck Busselton at about 6.30 this morning. Apparently a small "tornado" or "cock-eyed Bob" cut a path through parts of West Busselton, near Dolphin Rd and the highway. Lots of houses were damaged but not extensively, mainly fences trees and a few roofs. It was about 5km from our place so we weren't affected but some friends from church were. Their neighbours rang them to say you'd better come back from Perth to deal with the damage. Their fence was knocked down and their outdoor setting was strewn all over the yard, with the glass table shattering like a windscreen as it smashed into the fence.
While the damage could have been a lot worse, and no-one was hurt, I'm glad we weren't hit by the storm.

Sport Update:
The kids won their soccer game this morning. It was 1-1 at half time and I had to remind them about several aspects of the game that they were neglecting! It's very rare that I go crook at them but they needed some "encouragement" to get back on track. It must have worked because they came out and scored 6 goals in the 2nd half and won 7-1. Sport Boy played goalie in the first half and gave away a penalty for bringing a kid down as he dived on the ball! He redeemed himself in the second half by scoring two goals and very nearly heading a third.

This afternoon was spent garage saling, then installing the purchased goods, a king size single bed in Favourite daughter's room (She's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor) and a CD player in The Hair's room to go with the speakers and amplifier I bought at Nick's auction last week. The bed and mattress cost me $130 and the CD player $2!! I love a bargain!!

We're about to go to church then it will be home to watch the footy, the Cats and the Blues.

We're on our Way

Melbourne Footy Trip

I bought the tickets to Melbourne today!

16 seats on Jetstar, flying from Perth to Melbourne on July 8, returning on July 15.

Like all the other steps in this saga, it wasn't a straight forward process. I had to get a cheque from the school for $4750 cleared immediately as well as gather together all the other payments required to pay the total bill of $6949. The benefits of living in a small town proved useful, the bank manager plays volleyball and I've given his team some coaching and encouragement along the way. For a few brief minutes I had $7000+ sitting in my account before I made the transaction on the net and all returned to normal!

I had to call in a couple of favours to safe-guard the deal, and had a couple of humourous exchanges with Dad on the phone.

Having rung him two days ago to wish him happy birthday I thought I'd put him to the test and wish him happy birthday again and see what happened.
Sounding slightly confused he said, "Has it been a year all ready?"

(On reflection Pop that wasn't a bad response!)

State Youth Games
Favourite Daughter and The Hair have gone to Bunbury for the weekend for the State Youth Games, a huge three day sporting carnival run by the Churches of Christ . The house promises to be quieter and saner in their absence.
It's a long weekend in WA so we've got an extra day to enjoy the serenity.

There may not be too much of that in the morning. There are gale warnings from Mandurah to Albany forecast tonight, basically the whole SW corner of the state is about to be pummelled with wind and rain, right around the time I take Sport Boy to soccer.

The taxi went well tonight, a few less drongos than usual and some good tips.

Soccer coaching duties commence in 6 hours so bed calls.

Sports Update:
Ricky Ponting became the third Australian cricketer in history to score 10,000 test runs tonight, achieving it just after I pulled up in the driveway.

Happy Birthday to The Heir

21 years ago today I became a father.

21 years ago on May 29 1987, The Heir was born, our first child, our eldest son.

I remember it clearly, every detail.

Watching his birth was amazing, my first experience of witnessing the miracle of a life beginning.

(We video-taped the birth but The Heir has never watched it!)

I was over-whelmed with emotion and a sense of responsibility, that I had played a part in creating this new life, this wonderful little boy, and my life would never be the same again as a result.

He has grown up and become a man, surviving our over-enthusiastic and at times heavy-handed parenting. The pitfalls of being the first-born! There are plenty of things I'd do differently if I had a second chance. Not that we were terrible parents, but we were pretty serious and earnest, and The Heir had to blaze a trail through our mistakes and shortcomings.

He'd be the first to agree that Sport Boy has a much easier time of it by comparison as we have become more relaxed and less stressed about raising our children.

It has been a pretty quiet day as far as celebrations go, just the family for dinner tonight and coffee at Eagle Bay with his mum and sister at lunchtime. We'll organise something a little more auspicious soon although it does have echoes of my own 21st birthday which was spent in the Spanish town of San Sebastian, riding around on the back of a motorbike with an English guy I'd become friends with. No big party, no embarrassing stories, no drunken revelry or rites of passage, just me and a mate and a motorbike.

We are very proud of The Heir and are glad to have him living back at home with us at present. He spent the best part of the last 4 years living away, in Perth, Tasmania and England which has helped him to grow up, mature and become quite independant. He is a great son and a terrific young man and we love him very much.

Happy Birthday Son.

The Wait is Over!

I'm a happy blogger.

Finally, after a week of waiting, today I recieved approval for the footy trip to Melbourne!

It's on! We're going! Yeehaa!

Some of the kids were in the office when the phone call came through with the good news so we were all happy together!

Mind you, the challenges are not all over. Because of the change in status the school can't process the funds or pay the air fares which means issuing refunds and starting again. I spent the afternoon getting signed authorisations from all the parents to enable me to receive the money and act as an agent on their behalf to pay for the tickets. The air fares come to $7168 so it's a significant transaction. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to make some real progress.

I woke up with a really sore neck this morning and bizarrely, so did Sport Boy and The Heir. I was uncomfortable all day and concerned about whether I'd be able to play volleyball tonight. A couple of Neurofen helped a little and once I got warmed up it wasn't too bad. We had two games tonight and won them both.

I spent the rest of the evening painting. I'm trying something very different, seeking to emulate a style I really like. So far it doesn't look very good but I'll keep working on it and hope to improve by the time it's finished. Meanwhile, a painting I donated to the Esther Foundation is being auctioned on Saturday along with about 30 other pieces of art, at a fund raising event at the Perth Town Hall. Hopefully it will draw a few bids and help them in their cause.

Waiting...

Ever been put on hold and then abandoned? Left dangling for 20 minutes before you realise they ain't coming back?

That's how I feel at the moment.

I'm awaiting approval to run the footy trip to Melbourne in July from our insurers, and I'm waiting, waiting,waiting!!
Meanwhile the prices are going up, the planes are selling out and the whole trip is delicately balanced between viable and exorbitant!

The kids have paid their fares but I can't commit to buying the tickets until we get approval!

It's a frustrating wait and nothing I do seems to be speeding it up.

The Heir turns 21 tomorrow! My eldest child will reach a significant milestone.
As a pre-birthday celebration we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie tonight. Well, it really had nothing to do with his birthday, especially seeing as I made him pay for his own ticket, but I'm claiming it for the blog!

Talking of birthdays, Pop turned 72 today! He still had enough strength to come to the phone and enough wits to sustain a conversation but he's clearly on the downhill run!!
Happy Birthday Pop! You'll have to pick up your present in person!

Finally, the Full Story

I started driving the cab at 4.00pm on Saturday so by 4.00am I was ready to knock off. My last fare for the night came through, destination Millbrook. Not knowing where Millbrook was I asked the customers, a young couple, who replied a little nervously, out the back of Yallingup. A long ride. We set off, via an ATM to get enough money to pay the fare, and when we reached the area they directed me up a succession of dirt tracks, heading towards a chalet high on the hill. Then came the unexpected news ,"oh, there's a tree across the track here, you've got to go around it". Fair enough I thought! Wrong! The detour was sloped and slippery and sure enough I got the cab bogged! Not deeply but just enough for the wheels to spin on the wet surface and refuse to grip.
Hmmm!
I turned off the meter and we got out and attempted to dig it out and put some tree branches under the wheels to gain some traction. No luck. So one of the customers, the girl, set off up the hill to awaken their friends in the chalet and bring back help in the shape of a car and a rope. We hooked it up and tried pulling the cab out, with limited success. We managed to extricate it from it's most bogged position but could not drag it up the slope and back onto the track. A second, bigger car was sought but it was not successful either, managing to snap the rope instead.

By this time my absence from Busselton was causing concern and one of the other drivers called to see where I was.
When I described my predicament he said "no worries, I'll bring my rope and come and pull you out." The battery is flat too I confessed. "No worries, I've got a battery pack". When I mentioned the tree across the track he became even more enthusiastic, "I'll bring my chainsaw too"!
A man for all seasons!

With help on the way I sent the customers on their way to bed and awaited my rescuer.
He duly arrived, sized up the situation, and set about the task. A small tree was impeding the path so he reached for his chain saw, eyes filled with glee! Sadly for him he couldn't get it started. "Must be out of fuel" He whipped out a fuel can and filled the tank then resumed his efforts to get it started. No good. Meanwhile I managed to break the offending branch off with my hands and cleared the path. He quietly put the chain saw away and set about tying the rope, complete with a "perfect bowline".
Once charged the cab duly started. Next came the pulling phase. It came out pretty easily and we were soon back on the road, heading for home, some two hours after leaving town in the first place.

I got home at 6.30.

My next dilemma was that I'd arranged to meet a bloke at 8.30 to try and get The Heir's car going, it having been stuck at work for a week when he couldn't get it started.
I knew if I went to bed at 6.30 there was Buckley's chance of me waking up and getting to Broadwater by 8.30. So I bravely decided to stay up, and parked in front of the computer and web surfed as my eyes fought a desperate battle to close.

Finally 8.30 loomed but I knew I wasn't safe to drive in such a state of tiredness so I reluctantly awoke Mrs Holt Press and asked her to drive me to Broadwater. She readily agreed and we set off. John met us there and with a vastly superior mechanical knowledge than I, and an impressive array of tools with which to do the job, he set about working out what was wrong with the car. Spark plugs? OK Fuel supply? OK Battery? Not OK. Out came his mega battery pack; a few minutes later the car was sufficiently recharged to burst into life, and we were able to drive it home. Good job.

By then I'd got my second wind so we decided to go to the markets then out for breakfast at Samovar, both of which were very enjoyable.

We got home about 11.00 and I went to bed at last.

The only problem was, I was due on roster at the gallery at 1.00!

The two hours sleep seemed to last about 15 minutes!
I managed to drag myself out of bed and down to the gallery where Mrs Holt Press had preceded me to hold the fort until I was conscious enough to relieve her.
The gallery was mercifully quiet all afternoon and I passed the time working on some small paintings and listening to the footy.

From there it was a relatively short hop to the point where I set the scene on the blog on Sunday night.
There is more to the story but I figure that by Tuesday night, the abridged version will have to suffice.

Sorry Josephine

Nor tonight either!

I've already had a 3 hour pre-bed nap and am going back to bed now.

The story is worth waiting for! Maybe tomorrow night!

I'm getting my monthly testosterone injection tomorrow, perhaps that will help!

Not tonight Josepjhine

What have a 14 hour taxi shift, two stranded cars, breakfast at Samovar, a rostered shift at the gallery and two hours sleep got in common? They are all part of the reason why I'm about to go to bed earlier than I have since I was in grade 1!
For explanations come back tomorrow, by when hopefully I'll have recovered sufficiently to blog more expansively.

Good night.

Oh Dear!!!

It's half time in Friday night football and Geelong are getting "smooshed" as Sport Boy would say! I'm so glad I swapped my cab shift until tomorrow night so I could stay home and watch the footy!! The worst part is that it's Collingwood, the most hated team in football, that is doing the smooshing! The Cats are 51 points down at half time having only kicked three goals so far, by far our worst performance of the season.
I can't see the Cats getting out of this one!

Backtracking to Yesterday.
The day started in unusual fashion, with a student protest at school. They went on strike to voice their unhappiness that the teacher's dispute has not been resolved and as a consequence they are going to miss out on going to Country Week. Country Week is just about the biggest event of their whole school lives and they're starting to realise it's not going to happen. As Country Week manager I encouraged them several weeks ago to get political, yesterday they finally sparked into action. Alas I think it will be too little too late to change things.

After that I went to Bunbury to attend a Childwise workshop on Child Sexual Abuse. Interestingly, one of the biggest news stories of the day is the closure of a photography exhibition in Sydney which contained several nude pictures of a 13 year old girl. The police are laying charges against the photographer who is one of Australia's most highly regarded artists. It's a shame he couldn't work out for himself the difference between art and pornographic exploitation of children.
In this country 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused and 1 in 6 boys. Those are chilling and damning figures.

At 12 o'clock I picked up Mrs Holt Press from the train station after her 10 days in Victoria visiting her parents. We returned home to Busselton after she forced me to stop at Spotlight first!
While I was there I at least availed myself of the opportunity to buy a frypan as a gift for my secret friend at work, this week being secret friend week. My surprises and gifts to an unsuspecting Ian included some lolly snakes, a can of soup, a packet of pink M&Ms for Breast Cancer, the fry pan, and a Leunig cartoon book, all accompanied by art cards I bought in Fremantle a couple of months ago.
My secret friend gave me chocolate, toasted sandwiches and today a footy magazine. It's a good fun activity to build staff morale and camaraderie.

Footy Update:
The Cats have kicked the first goal of the 2nd half!
And the 2nd!
And the third!
A good start but there's along way to go!

Last night I ran a quiz night for the BPW group at the Esplanade Hotel. They had plenty of people and everything went well, people seemed to enjoy themselves and there were no dramas or mistakes. Using the laptop and projector for the questions works really well and as one punter said afterwards, makes the whole thing more professional. The winners were a group of kids and adults from school; two of the boys are coming on the footy trip to Melbourne and two of them went on Rypen with The Hair last weekend so I'm getting to know them a lot more.

Footy Result:
Things did not get any better for Geelong, they ended up losing by 86 points!! A shellacking!!!
Having won 27 of our last 28 games I can't complain, we were "due" for a loss, but I'd have preferred it to be closer and not to Collingwood!!
Not surprisingly I had a message from Warren celebrating the Magpies win, thankfully it went through to voice mail!

Sport Boy's team have a bye tomorrow but The Hair is playing at 9 o'clock, it will be good to be able to watch him play as I don't see their team very often due to coaching duties with the 11's.
I'm driving the taxi from 4 tomorrow arvo.

She's Back

Mrs Holt Press is home!

Much rejoicing at Holt Press.

Faith Hope Love

This is the painting I sold last week. It was hanging at the Tu-Art Gallery in Dunsborough and sold for $350.

Mrs Holt Press will be home tomorrow night, sort of. She arrives around midnight so will spend one more night in Perth before coming home Thursday. We'll all be pleased to see her. the BIG CLEAN UP is on tomorrow!

Growth Spurt?

Sadly despite the early bed time, The Hair was not well this morning and didn't make it to school!
Sport Boy made it but had to war his sports shorts because I managed to not put his school shorts in the dryer with the rest of his uniform. He also put his jumper on backwards. When I pointed this out to him e said, "I thought it felt a bit strange".

I cooked Italian Chicken and rice for dinner. Sport Boy then had dessert. 10 minutes later he asked me to make him some eggs! "I'm still hungry Dad" said he to my qizzical look!
After the eggs he asked for more food! "Do you think my growth spurt as kicked in?" he queried!
He ate an apple. Still hungry!! I tried to send him o bed but his hunger was still not placated apparently so I gave him the last two cream biscuits before finally banishing him to the bedroom.

Mrs Holt Press rang tonight to check on us. Apart from The Hair who sounded like death warmed up I assured her we were all fine. She'll be home in a couple of days and we all know what that means! I've got two days to get the house clean and tidy! I'm sure we've got a vaccum cleaner somewhere.

I spent the evening in front of the tv watching 4 Corners and Enough Rope with the laptop in my lap preparing for a quiz night I'm running for a local Business Women's Group on Thursday night. Having it on the computer as a powerpoint file makes the job way easier, I just copied the quiz from last week and used it as my starting point, kept similar themes and topics, just changed the questions. I got 50 questions done tonight, the fastest prep time ever.

Sunday

I finished cleaning the gutters today. They appeared not to have been cleaned for several years.
The stuff I cleaned out, leaf litter and sludge, looked like it would make good mulch so I threw it on the "garden". Regular readers will know that the word garden does not often appear on this blog! For good reason!
Having cleaned the gutters I then did something I've been putting off for even more years! Some time in the distant past I bought 4 rolls of gutter guard. We brought it down from Perth when we moved 4 years ago. So today, I put it in the gutters! Theoretically this means that the same level of debris will not build up in the gutters again. We'll see!

While I was in "work" mode I decided to move some of the contents of the old shed back into the old shed! I hadn't wanted to but there have been delays on finishing the new shed and the stuff piled up in the patio was getting annoying, not to mention wet when it rained.
I'm hesitating on laying the concrete floor in the new shed, partly because I don't know what I'm doing, and partly due to the cost. I got a quote yesterday on the concrete, for $400. Too many bills at the moment to do it right now.
On the plus side, I've sold my second painting for the week, "Faith Hope Love" through the gallery at Dunsborough.

Then I settled down to watch the footy and see Fremantle snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the third successive game!!!!!

The Hair came home from his weekend at Rypen raving about how good it was and how much fun he had. I've sent him to bed early so that there's at least half a chance he won't be too tired to go to school tomorrow morning!

Mum and Walter called in this morning to pick up thr trailer. They've been helping clean out Walter's daughter's house in Bunbury and stayed at the Geographe Resort where The Heir works last night. I called in for a much needed haircut last night.

Pompey Win the Cup

Portsmouth won 1-0 in a pretty good cup final.

1-0 at Half Time in the Cup Final

Sport Boy is asleep, he only lasted about 10 minutes before the exertions of the day and the comfort of the sofa lulled him into unconsciousness.

Goal in the Cup Final

1-0 to Portsmouth, Kanu scored from what looked like nothing. Shame cause Cardiff have been playing well.

FA Cup Final Report

Cardiff have been playing better and creating more chances in the first 25 minutes but Portsmouth just missed the best chance so far.

0-0 after 25 minutes

Soccer Saturday

After minimal sleep I dragged myself out of bed in time to drive to Capel for the soccer game which kicked off at 9.30. Within 5 minutes of the start we were 4-0 in front and Sport Boy had scored a hat trick!!! It continued to be that sort of game with the final score being 18-0!!! Despite the one-sided nature of the game the other team didn't give up or become despondant.



Later in the afternoon he went down to Margaret River with the other kids for the third week of the Country week team trials. He came home happy and dirty and tired.



I spent the middle of the day watching Geelong beat Richmond in very wet conditions at the MCG. The Cats remain unbeaten so far this season along with Hawthorn, both being 8-0. The football world is eagerly awaiting them playing against each other but in a weird piece of fixturing they are not scheduled to meet until round 17! I can only imagine the hype in the build-up to that game if they both manage to remain unbeaten until then!



Church started early tonight, at 4.00 o'clock and was followed by a going away dinner for a couple who are moving to Molloy Island.

Now we're home watching the Cup Final.

It's FA Cup Final Night

Cardiff City v Portsmouth at Wembley Stadium in the most famous soccer match in the world.

Sport Boy is rugged up on the sofa and the game is about to kick off.

I'm barracking for Cardiff who are in the Championship (old 2nd division) because they're the underdogs, but I really don't mind, it's just nice to see two teams other than Manchester United Chelsea Liverpool or Arsenal in the Cup Final.

Friday Night

Just finished a quiet night in the cab, apart from a couple of drunken slobs.
The "early finish is helpful cause I've got a soccer game to coach at Capel at 9.30!

Sport Boy stayed the night at friends because as well as me, Favourite daughter and The Heir were both working and The Hair has gone on a Rypen camp this weekend.

10 minutes before the footy started tonight I went on a hunch and switched from St Kilda to Collingwood in the footy tipping which proved to be a smart move. Influenced by me The Heir also switched, I hope he's grateful. I'm looking forward to the Cats game tomorrow lunch time, in between soccer duties.

And the Winner is...

Frustration!
Blogger's autosave has failed me big time!
I accidentally wiped out the post I was writing and autosave had not saved it, despite saying it had!
Now comes the difficult task of overcoming the disappointment and recreating the wit and eloquence of the former post!

I talked about volleyball and the moral dilemma facing me; do I cross over to the Dark Side and join the most controversial team in the league, Six Pack. Yes, they have won the last several Grand Finals in a row. But, they are the most full on team in the comp, and they have regularly plundered other lesser teams, such as mine, poaching players. Two of my former teammates have already crossed over to the Dark Side.
I filled in for them tonight, and enjoyed playing at a higher level than I'm accustomed to. One of their players has done his knee so they've got a vacancy.
What should I do?

Talking of decisions, it's time to announce the winner of the "Find a new blog name for Fashion Boy" competition. I had a few suggestions, thanks for those who contributed, but have decided on a new name for my third child.
And the winner is....

The Hair!

It works in nicely with his older brother The Heir, and reflects his dominant feature, his mop of long curly hair which usually hangs down over his face.
Talking of the Hair, he enjoyed his trip to Perth to visit state parliament, particularly his lunch with the leader of the opposition, the notorious Troy Buswell.

Mrs HP rang this evening and spoke to The Hair while I was out. She sends her love, which I'm happy to pass on to you.

The Family Continue to Survive

Day three of the experiment has passed without incident.

Soccer training went "well". I bought a soccer training manual off the internet and tried out a few new drills tonight, with mixed success. No matter how many drills you try, the thing kids really want to do is play a scratch match! So we did, against Stu's team, for the last 10 minutes.

I got the volleyball umpiring course underway at the school, part of my role as umpiring coordinator for the local association. Two reps from VWA have come down from Perth for a couple of days. 7 people are doing the course which will bolster our stock of qualified refs considerably.
There are two sessions with students at two different schools tomorrow, then the ref
course concludes tomorrow night, followed by beginner and advanced coaching clinics.

Then it was home to cook dinner, home made hamburgers, mmmm hamburgers!!!

Fashion Boy went to bed early tonight, he's going to Perth for a politics excursion tomorrow which includes lunch with Troy Buswell. Hopefully he'll behave himself, and FB too.

I spent the rest of the evening painting while Favourite Daughter and I watched an incredible documentary on the life of Douglas Mawson, the Australian explorer to Antarctica. I knew his name but none of the details about his amazing life and incredible survival against the odds on the world's most inhospitable continent. I recommend it if you ever get the chance to see it. I'll have a copy on DVD if you visit!

No news from over east today so I presume all is well, as it is here.

Two Down, Eight to Go

Our second mother-less/wife-less day has passed without mishap. Both boys went to school, and stayed for the duration. Sport Boy had his guitar lesson, and practised for nearly two hours after school while I continued cleaning out the gutters and discussing cameras with The Heir.I cooked dinner and received positive comments from the eaters.

After dinner we played a family game, which involved a lot of throwing of hackey sacks and a lot of laughter.

Once SB was in bed we watched a DVD, a very interesting film called "Into the Wild" based on a true story of a young man who turned away from the American dream in search of truth and a pilgrimage to Alaska.
I enjoyed it and gave it 8/10 on the Holt Press movie rating scale.

I sold another painting last night. It's the one I posted a picture of on April 23, "One Blue Square" that I painted at the retreat at Katanning; price $450. I had offered to auction it at the quiz night (See below) but the crowd were not an auction bidding/art buying audience and after I struggled to get $105 for a $250 voucher from a photography business I decided not to subject myself or my art to possible humiliation, nor did I want to sell it for less than it was worth, which as it turns out, was $450.
There's no way I'd have got close to that at the quiz night.

My picture and my picture on the front page of Friday's Times.

Soccer Round Up

One day down without Mrs Holt Press and the family appear to have survived, after a fashion! Sport Boy had a headache when I woke him up so I let him stay in bed and when I called in later, to drop off Fashion Boy who had been feeling sick at school at 2.00pm, SB was still sound asleep!
They were paying the price for their big weekend!
I cooked steak on the BBQ for dinner and sent them to bed early.
Mrs HP rang to say she'd arrived safely, that it was 9.30 and her folks were in bed, and she was about to retire as well.



Celebrating Mothers Day with lunch at The Goose.

Soccer

I mentioned in passing the soccer on saturday but neglected to say what a close and exciting game it was, or that the final score was 6-6!! We were 4-1 ahead before the opposition scored 5 goals in a row to lead 6-4! To the kids credit they fought back to level the score, and would almost certainly have won but for the heroics of the other goalie who was far and away the best goalie I've seen in junior soccer, he made 4-5 great saves. Sadly we don't have anyone who wants to play goalie so I just rotate the kids through the position. Sadly, for the team and for him, the kid who played goalie this week is not a goalie! Some of the goals he conceded were a little soft but I didn't go crook at him, he was trying his best. It was a great game and the parents on both sides were very excited and appreciative.

Thankfully there was none of the conflict I encountered last week!

Sport Boy went to week two of the Country Week trials down in Marg R. later and from the sound of it really enjoyed the skills and drills they set for them.

One day last week a little bird flew into my office and I managed to get a couple of photos before it found it's way out the door.

Happy Mothers Day

We had the special pleasure of honouring two mothers today, my mum and the kid's mum. Mum came over from Bridgetown yesterday to come to the quiz night and be here for mothers day.
We went out for lunch at The Goose, overlooking Geographe Bay and had a really good time, nice food and lots of fun and laughter. fashion Boy was struggling to recover from the exertions of the school ball and afterball last night. He looked very cool in his suit and black shirt and had a wonderful time; he was high on life when he got home.

The rest of the family were at the quiz night which was a resounding success, just under 200 people came and we raised about $3000. The Heir helped Stu with the scoring, Sport Boy and Stu's daughter Emily were kept busy all night as runners, distributing and collecting puzzles and answers, collecting money etc and having a great time. Mum and Mrs Holt Press were on a table and said they really enjoyed the night.
The only bummer of the night was that some low-life swiped the three portable floodlight stands we had put out to enable people to see as they arrived and departed!!!! Not a quiz night customer I'm sure, just some passer-by siezing a dishonest opportunity!

Mrs Holt Press is about to board an aeroplane bound for Melbourne. She'll be away visiting her family for 10 days, leaving me in charge of domestic policy and famililal responsibilities.
Readers given to prayer may want to offer a few extra up for us, me, and the kids!
The Heir went up to Perth with her to drop her off at the airport and bring the car home. He's not back yet but shouldn't be too long now.

Too Late Too Tired

It's been a very BIG day and a very good night.

But it's very late so I'm not going to tell you about it now.

Happy Mothers Day.

One More Sleep until the Big Busso Quiz Night

Congratulations to Rachel and Michael on the birth of their first child, a boy, named Angus. That's great news.

This morning was spent "rescuing" The Heir, whose car refused to start and retrieving him from work. He's been staying on site for the last week, working on a miner's convention. Even the soon to be renamed Fashion Boy and his mate Zac worked one night.
The Heir's car is an old (ancient) blue Falcon station wagon bought for a peppercorn sum in January. Now, showing it's first sign of vulnerability since he got it, the age old debate has re-commenced. Do you send good money after bad knowing that ultimately the car (read: any car) is a black hole capable of sucking thousands of dollars out of you, never to be seen again, for repairs and mechanical issues! Or do you bite the bullet and put your money/savings toward something a little better but a little dearer? At this point a crystal ball would be very helpful. A quick look that reveals a starter motor, a fuel pump and an oil seal all about to go kaput in the next 6 months would make the decision much easier!

Having gotten The Heir home I returned to work where I spent the rest of the day getting ready for the quiz night. Moving 30 tables from around the school to the gym that is. I gratefully accepted the help of a couple of teachers and their classes with the heavy lifting! A lot of progress was made but I'll still have to spend a couple of hours down there tomorrow afternoon getting all the chairs set up along with all the technology. Then it was back to the paperwork side of the prep, the answer sheets, puzzle pages, cheat sheets etc.
I had to knock off at 5.30 so I could get home in time to go and drive the taxi.

And that's where I've been for the last 10 hours. It was a slow night although I did see one unusual sight. In the middle of a huge downpour, which prompted many of the pub patrons to walk home rather than stand around in the rain at closing time, there was a girl walking east along Marine Terrace who I'm 95% certain had no top on! She was holding what I can only presume was her shirt across her chest but the rest looked like bare skin to me. There was a guy, fully clothed, with her, and she didn't look distressed or in danger, other than from catching a cold, but it certainly had me wondering what was going on!

Tomorrow 's agenda starts with kid's soccer, looking at a painting a local artist did for us by request, setting up the rest of the gym and running the quiz night. Meanwhile Fashion Boy will be getting ready to go the school ball at Abbey Beach Resort.
Once all that excitment dies down, Mrs Holt Press will be heading for Perth on Sunday evening and flying out that night to spend 10 days in Victoria visiting her parents and family.

The kids will be entrusted solely to my care for a week and a half!
Pray for me/them, whoever you think will need it more.

Thursday

I met with the principal today and so long as we get a minimum of 13 kids the footy trip to Melbourne is a goer! I've got 8 definites so far. Hopefully we'll get the rest.

I came away from my psych appointment feeling a little better about things after she helped me put some perspective on how I'm feeling.

I reffed volleyball this evening, I still don't have a team which is a real bummer.

The rest of the night was spent on quiz night preparation. Tomorrow will be a big day of setting up and final tasks. I really hope we get a big crowd to make it worthwhile.

Wednesday

This afternoon I had soccer training with the kids, not always a task I enjoy, but after a bit of a pep talk from the coaches adviser last night I approached it with a more positive attitude, and got more positive results. I need a decent set of drills to work with. I have some idea about tactics and skills and how to improve a team's performance, but practical drills to develop the kids ability is the area I need to work on.

Tonight I met with parents and kids interested in going on the footy trip to Melbourne in the July holidays. Not as many turned up as I'd hoped but those who did were very keen and willing to commit themselves to the trip. We had 6 kids at the meeting, we need a minimum of 13 to make it viable and we've got 18 expressions of interest. Theoretically we should be able to do it but getting people to commit is the hard bit. The school I developed the relationship with in Melbourne when we went to the Commonwealth Games have given the thumbs up for us to stay there again. The trickiest part will be securing flights at reasonable prices for a large group.
We need to make a decision by the end of next week.

The rest of my day was spent on preparation for the quiz night on Saturday night.

I've been feeling tired and flat the last couple of days. After a gradual improvement in my sense of well-being over the last few months it's a bit of a let down to not feel so good.
I'm seeing the psych tomorrow so that's good timing.

Baptism Broadie and Book Club

For some reason the video didn't load from the camera when I moved these pictures. The idiosyncisies of the new computers are still causing us to scratch our heads. The hit and miss approach to whether they'll grant access to the web being the most annoying of them.

Enough whingeing. Here are the before and after shots of Sport Boy's baptism on Sunday.

And here are a couple of rare pictures of Broadie working!

I had him booked up with a pretty full schedule at school today, giving presentations about his work with TEAR Australia. The Tim Tam Model of Resource Distribution was effective and engaging. He also talked about TEAR's best known project, the "Arguably The World's Most Useful Gift Catalogue".

Having made him work so "hard" he'll no doubt take the rest of the week off to recover.

It was great to have him stay for a couple of days. He is one of the funniest people I know so there were lots of laughs, in amidst the tears over the woeful Dockers!

Mrs Holt Press had all the ladies over tonight as it was her turn to host their book club. I decided to spice things up a bit by secretly adding a number of new books to their selection table. The usual selection is dominated by Christian and or women's books so the addition of Real Footballers Don't Cry by Justin Madden, Down Under by Bill Bryson, Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James, a biography of The Beatles, a cheap detective novel, and the literary classic, 99 More Un-Useless Japanese Inventions, certainly got the tongues wagging, especially when the detective novel was found to have, shock, gasp, horror, the F word in it!

Scurrilous goings-on at the book club! Mrs Holt Press' reputation has been blotted by her practical joking spouse!

Baptism and Capitulation

At lunch time Sport Boy was baptised in Geographe Bay, it was a great occasion with quite a big crowd of family and friends from church there. Three other boys were baptised as well.
I videoed it on my digital camera but I haven't got things worked out to upload videos to Blogger on the new computer yet. I'll get it sorted out shortly.




When a team is 51 points in front, they shouldn't lose the game.
When a team are playing the bottom side who haven't won a game all season, they REALLY shouldn't lose.
And when the team surrendered a 39 point lead the week before and thus has some experience in what it takes not to lose in these circumstances, it REALLY REALLY shouldn't lose!
But, if that team is the Fremantle Dockers, you just know they're going to find a way to lose regardless. And that's what they did, giving up an 8 goal lead at half time to allow Melbourne to stage the second biggest comeback in the history of AFL football and win their first game of the season! The whole experience was made all the more painful in that I watched it in company with Broadie who unlike me, who has a mild affection for the Dockers, is a former member and much wounded Freo fan.
I felt for him!

Soccer Starts with a Bang

The soccer season started this morning, with both boys playing at Margaret River. I arrived just in time to see the soon to be re-badged Fashion Boy almost score a great goal. his team lost but he played well.
Sport Boy also had a good game, scoring two goals (and missing a penalty) in a 3-2 win. The only black spot on the game was some conflict between an opposition supporter and I which arose over a wrong call (in my opinion) by the ref. The bloke told me to shut up and let the ref do his job, not altogether unreasonable, but the followed it up by telling me to *%#$ off, in front of some of the kids in his team!! I was dumb-founded and got a little fired up, although I didn't take it any further. Then he launched an attack on me claiming I'd been coming down there for three years throwing my weight around etc! I had no idea what he was talking about and decided to go back to coaching the game. It all erupted suddenly and out of nowhere and left me confused and bemused. Things sttled down after that and a good game ensued, with the kids having their first taste of playing the offside rule. Our kids handled it a lot better than the opposition.

After the game I went to the pub in Margaret River to watch the second half of the football on Foxtel. Geelong won by 27 points but not before Brisbane had given hem a good run for their money and drawn level early in the final quarter.
footy fix satisfied I headed back to the soccer ground where they were holding trials for the Busselton under 12 country week team, something Sport Boy has been looking forward to for weeks. He was one of the smallest kids there but held his own in the games they played.
The trials run for 4 weeks before they choose the squad which means choosing 15 kids from the 30 odd who are trying out. I'm trying not to let SB get his hopes up too high as about half the kids are a year older, and significantly bigger, than he is. He's certainly got a chance but at the same time I'll be surprised if he makes it, pleased, but surprised none-the-less.
There's also the minimum $700 cost involved in being in the team that travels to Perth for Country week in October! It may take until next year before we can afford him to go!!

The new name suggestions for Fashion Boy are continuing to come in, thanks Dad, Keith, Broady and Zaac. A full list of options will be posted in a few days, and maybe an on-line poll, they seem very popular.

Broadie arrived tonight to stay for a couple of days. I've brought him to town to speak at a couple of churches, Down South tonight and Cornerstone tomorrow, and to do some sessions at the high school and Cornerstone college on Monday. He's always good value and the source of many laughs.
If you'd like to sample some of his work go to this link, click on Audio on Demand and type Bert's sport review in the search box. There are a lot worse things you could do with 5 minutes of your life.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day for Sport Boy, he's getting baptised at the beach at 12.30, along with a couple of other people from church. He and Mrs Holt Press have been doing some preparatory studies on baptism for the last few weeks and tomorrow is the big day.

Loyal Customer

I had the same customer in the cab three times tonight and she wasn't happy any of the times.
First she wasn't happy to be going home cause she'd had a fight with her boyfriend.
Then she called again and wasn't happy cause her boyfriend was drunk and asleepso she went back to the pub.
The third time she wasn't happy because the pub had been so disappointing, and she ended up sharing the cab with loud drunken "friends".

I on the other hand was happy to have such a loyal customer.

Two other people recognised me from their time as students at the school, and one of them offered me a spot on their volleyball team!

The rest of the night was quiet and uneventful, punctuated only by the footy on the radio and West Coast losing to the "traitor"-led Blues! Judd jumped ship just in time it seems!

The kid's soccer season starts tomorrow, with both of their teams playing at Margaret River. Sport Boy is jumping out of his skin in excited anticipation of the new season.
Between now and then I need to get as much sleep as I can.

Volleyball

I'm feeling like the kid with no friends.

The new volleyball season started tonight and I didn't play cause I haven't got a team to play in. Miffy the Cow disbanded after last season and I haven't been able to get into a team. Yet! Hopefully I'll find a team in need soon.

In the meantime I refereed three games tonight which is handy as we raised the match payment to $20 this year! I'd rather play but $60 for blowing a whistle and pointing is not bad.

There have been two entries so far in the "Find a New Name For Fashion Boy" competition.

Birchy suggested "Air Jordan" while Sally has offered a more simple and direct moniker: "Jordan". (Not much imagination there Sal!)

Keep the suggestions coming.

Things are starting to crank up in preparation for the Big Busso Quiz Night on May 10. I've put 5 colourful signs up around town and tonight I wrote three rounds of questions. Only 5 to go.

If you're not busy on Sat May 10, get along to the high school, have some fun, win a prize, and help us raise funds for chaplaincy, what could be better than that?

I'll tell you!

I'm auctioning one of my paintings as part of the fund raising, your chance to bid on a Marcus Holt original!

And there's the famous Big Busso Quiz Night Cheat Sheets, containing the answer to every question in the quiz, available for the bargain price of $10!

How can you resist?

Art Day

I spent today driving a group of students to Perth and back for a visit to the WA Art Gallery. Apart from the early start it was a very pleasant day. The Year 12 Perspectives Exhibition was wonderful, and inspirational.

Continuing on the art theme, friends Lyn and Kingsley came round tonight to look at my paintings. They are interested in buying one to go in their bedroom. They particularly liked two, one here and one that is hanging down at The Ship Hotel. Now it's a matter of deciding which one best fits the colour scheme at home.

I did some more work on Favourite Daughter's big green painting tonight. It has been a work in progress for over a year as I've added bits to it. It may never be truly "finished" but she likes it.
It's great to have happy customers!!