Squares

The Study gets a Makeover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four Thrillers

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

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

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

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

Some incredible sports highlights in this video

Be Alarmed

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

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

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

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

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

Not Much to Say

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

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

Catching up over Coffee and Cake

Coloured pens on card


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

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

Hole In Off One

Unbelievable golf shot, awesome reward!

Pretty Funny

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

Weekend in Busso

"Circles" pen on paper

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus ends another typical weekend in Busselton.

"Red Circles", pen on card

Jimmy!!!

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

Awake, Barely

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

The Stranger

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

ART or VANDALISM?

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

Jetty Jumping

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

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

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

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

Bon Voyage Favourite Daughter

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

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

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

Ahh, the sweet smell of victory!!

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

Back to Work

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

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

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

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

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

Some of the art we saw in Melbourne and Adelaide

Uninvited Visitor

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

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

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

Back to the Real World

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

More tomorrow.

Reconciliation

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



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

Home and Away

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

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

Out of the Office

Away at the footy in Melbourne.

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

Link now fixed.

We've Arrived

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Beautiful Laundrette

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

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

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

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

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

Country Week Update

Day three at Country Week, progress report.
Weather: Bad unless you're a farmer. Cold, wet, windy, stormy, wintery. Not so bad for us hardy souls from down south but spare a thought for the indigenous kids from the Kimberley whose first experience of Perth is Arctic weather.
Some of the mes I watched yesterday were played in appalling conditions. I think there'll be fierce competition for the indoor sports coaching jobs next year!

Buses: !!!!! The two charter drivers, who coincidentally happen to be women, have been inept to the point of jeapodising our program. We were due to leave for 10 pin bowling at 5 yesterday arvo, the buses arrived at 5.30, and then proceeded to go completely the wrong way and end up stranded in peak hour traffic right in the centre of the city! Consequently we had to cancel bowling and go straight to dinner at Joondalup. I sat down with them for 20 minutes to clarify times and directions over dinner. The result? They got lost again on the way home!
NB. Hogs Breath Cafe was good as usual although the kids struggled to get through the monstrous servings of Missisippi Mud Cake for dessert, which we had bought for them as compensation for missing out on the bowling.

Health: One kid has gone home with his foot in a cast, although to be fair, he did the damage playing football in Busso before he came. I took him to the hospital yesterday for x-rays. They put him in plaster and gave him crutches. This morning I dropped him off at the train station. He's happy cause he'll get to which the EJ Whitten game on TV tonight!
One or two other knocks, twists and strains, all of a minor nature.

Accommodation: Good, apart from the cold shower yesterday morning! The manager is not happy cause he spent $500 getting the three hot water systems serviced the week before we came! He's sorting it out today.

Hire Car: I got upgraded to a Commodore Omega. Apparently that's a good thing judging by the look of expectation on the face of the woman at Hertz when she gave me the news. I smiled and said "thanks" as if I knew just what an impressive gesture this was. I didn't.
The car is nice, and powerful, I've spun the wheels twice taking off from the lights but I'm blaming the wet roads.

Catering: Sunday night, arrived at Dominos to pick up our 110 pizzas to be met with confusion and head scratching. "We rang you half an hour ago to confirm pick up at 7.00"
No you didn't! I rang you at 1.30 and confirmed the details, 110 pizzas, 6 o'clock, $795.
More confusion: "We cooked those for you last Sunday night!"
Sorry boys, your mistake, when will my pizzas be ready?
"7.00?"
OK, but this time you deliver!
"OK"

Post sccript, in discussing this situation with a certain other CW manager from an unnamed school called Newton moore, they picked up their/our pizzas from the same Dominos at 6.00! And sure enough the number Dominos rang at 5.30 to confirm the order belonged to him!
It turned out ok, the kids got fed.
I treated the staff to a selection of gourmet pizzas from Chelsea Pizza for which they were grateful and appreciative.

Meanwhile the lunches arrived on time and correct yesterday and thw two late inclusions received the lunches of the two late withdrawals, one of whom even had the good planning to have the same Christian name as his replacement.

Today the weather looks clearer and brighter although as I look out the window I see there's a a bank of nasty black cloud looming on the horizon.
Just got to buy some footy shorts for a kid who needs them, pick up some ice, and head for the sports grounds.

Your Time Starts....Now!

It's Time. Time to go. Spike is at work, Mrs Holt Press has taken Sport Boy to Australind to play tennis for the day, it's just me left, I've finished the home stage of packing and I'm about to depart for school. In an hours time all the kids will be there, 127 of them, and by 12 we'll hopefully be on the road to Perth for the beginning of Country Week. It's been a long time in the planning but I think we're ready. It's the third time I've been the school country week manager and hopefully it will go as well as the first two times. The weather reports for Perth are not great for sport but wonderful for dams and farmers. We're hoping to have pizza at the Kings Park lookout tonight but ultimately the weather will determine our venue. Competition kicks off tomorrow morning after the opening ceremony and runs until Friday lunchtime.

My schedule will be a little different though because on Friday morning I'm meeting the Footy Trippers at the airport and the 9 of us are flying to Melbourne via Adelaide. We need to make a tight connecting flight in order to get into Melbourne by 5pm then off to the MCG for Collingwood v Essendon. There were 83,000 people at the Essendon v Carlton game on Friday night so the crowd is likely to be something similar this week and even though we've already got our tickets, getting to the footy in such a huge crowd will be a challenge.
So, it's two and a half weeks of sport, footy and adventure ahead. It's times like these when I really love my job!

I need to get to work and pack the PA, collect the cheques to pay for everything, tie up any loose ends and get ready for departure.

Bon Voyage.

One Day to Go

I have been working long hours all week because next week is Country Week: we leave at lunch time on Sunday and everything has to be finished and ready before then, not just for Country Week but also for the Melbourne Footy Trip. We fly to Melbourne tomorrow week and will be away for 11 days, we being 7 kids (6 boys, 1 girl), Favourite Daughter and I, 9 in total.
We're going to 6 games, 5 in Melbourne and 1 in Adelaide on the way home.
So, between these two major activities there's been a lot to do. I'm relieved to say that I'm almost there, having knocked over some major chunks of it in the last few days.
Mainly oose ends and small details to deal with tomorrow and then packing on Saturday, fitted around one last shift in the taxi Friday night and coaching the soccer team on Saturday afternoon.
I will be reactivating one of my other blogs for the next few weeks while I'm away, the MelbourneFootyTrip blog. I'll leave a link so you can follow our adventures if you feel inclined or you can find it on the sidebar.

I had the final coaches meeting this morning, making sure the staff are all ready and prepared for our week in Perth. It's always a good event but the weather forecasts are pretty ugly so it may be a cold wet week of sport in the city, which might be good preparation for a week of cold wet footy in Melbourne the week after!
I had the final briefing meeting with the footy trippers at lunch time and they are all excited with only 8 sleeps to go!

Cats v Dockers

Sunday, my birthday, was eventful for a few reasons. Sport Boy and I drove to Mandurah and caught the train from there, something I've been wanting to do for ages and well worth it as it turned out. We had stopped at the Caltex servo before Bunbury to buy a packet of chewie when the lady behind the counter said "Hello Marcus". It was Diane, the lady who gave me the Grand Final ticket in 2007! It was lovely to see her but sad to hear that her Mum had passed away recently after a brief battle with cancer. It was her Mum whose ticket I received because she had woken up sick on the day of the game and couldn't go.





We got off the train at West leederville and had to wait for The Heir to arrive so stepped into the Patisserie on the corner to get some lunch. Sport Boy ordered a pie and sauce. While we were waiting I noticed a group of three sitting at a table and the gentleman had a large number of Docker's badges on his hat so asked him if I could have a look at them. I explained my badge collecting as the reason I was interested and he said, "A friend of ours who died recently had a lot of the same badges, you might be able to have those if you want them". I was a little surprised but never one to be backward in coming forward I said I'd love to have them. By then Sport Boy's pie had arrived and I asked them if we could join them at the table to which they happily agreed.

The waitress forgot to bring the sauce so I went to the counter and got one of the little sauce dispensers that fold in half so you can squeeze the sauce out of the hole in the middle. For some reason it was very hard to open and I had to keep applying more and more pressure in an effort to get the sauce to flow. All of a sudden the immovable object was overcome by the irresistable force and sauce exploded everywhere, all over the pie, and the table, and the drinks and utensils and...... right into both Sport Boy and the lady's face! Right in the eye in fact! I couldn't believe it, there was a mix of pandemonium, panic, pain and pangs of laughter as we all tried to right the situation, grabbing serviettes to clean up the mess and trying to get the sauce out of Sport Boy's eye, and the lady Docker fan. There followed great laughter and much taunting and ribbing as they stirred me about my inability to open a sauce sachet, and rubbing it in as they each in turn easily managed the same feat when their food arrived!

Then the younger of the three said, "That's it, you're not getting the badges now!!" which set us all off laughing again. I was glad they took it in such good spirit considering the disturbance I'd caused to their pre-football lunch.

Finally The Heir arrived to rescue me from my embarrassment and we set off for the game. Birchy was waiting for us at the gate, I'd offered him my spare ticket when the kid from school I'd bought it for decided not to go.

He was pretty happy with the game because Freo took it right up to Geelong, leading at 1/4 time and drawing level at 3/4 time before the Cats class finally sank the gallant Dockers. Shannon Byrnes was the star, kicking 5 goals in a best on ground performance.

My enjoyment of the game was tempered a little by the obnoxious behaviour of three blokes sitting behind us who were LOUD, rude, critical, derisive and unpleasant to listen to. I finally couldn't stand it any more so I turned around and challenged their behaviour. You just know that was gonna be a popular move and they got stuck into me for having the audacity to turn around or criticise them! In fact, the sum total of their defense was "Turn around and shut up!"

I told them I didn't have a problem with them barracking, just the things they were saying and the swearing and obscenities in front of my son, not to mention all the other people sitting near them, including their own children. They were pretty aggro and I have to admit I thought they were going to clock me one but to their credit at least they didn't resort to physical violence, just verbal abuse. The Heir and Sport Boy both said later they thought one of them was going to hit me! I apologised to the bloke sitting next to me (pictured above) for causing a scene and he said "Not at all, you did well", he agreed that their behaviour was not acceptable, and another Freo fan sitting near them also gave me the thumbs up in support. It is not easy to confront people about their behaviour, nobody likes being told, and with alcohol in the mix it has the potential to be volatile. I could have just sat there and put up with it. But in the end I thought "why should I?" Why should someone be able to upset other people or ruin their experience by their obnoxious behaviour? And if no-one stands up to them they'll just keep doing it because people are intimidated or don't want to get involved. I don't like getting into these sort of situations but at times there seems to be a magnetic force drawing me into them! I wasn't rude or aggressive but nor did I back down from my stance against their anti-social behaviour, and in the end, although they continued to mutter and criticise me, they did actually tone it down a bit.

Football stirs up people's emotions, I know that only too well, but that doesn't mean that all decency and logic and reasonable standards of behaviour should be dispensed with just because you're at the footy. That's what I reckon anyway.

I was glad not to get beaten up on my birthday though!

The couple sitting next to me were over from Geelong for a holiday and had decided to go to the footy. When I told them about my upcoming trip to Melbourne with the kids they gave me their son's contact details as he works on the Synchrotron project in Melbourne and they suggested he would be happy to show the kids around while we're over there.

BTW, the most obnoxious of the three blokes I'm talking about is the one with the purple jacket in the very top right hand corner of the picture above. Hopefully he's not a friend, or a relative of yours!

Birchy and I had a laugh and a tussle after the game, reliving Cameron Ling's punch to the stomach of one of the Dockers when the game got a bit heated.

NB. Sport Boy has had the last two days off school with conjunctivitis. It suddenly occurred to me as I was writing this post that the sauce may have been the cause!!

Cats Deliver Birthday Present as Requested

Geelong didn't let me down on my birthday, beating Freo by 19 points.
A good day was had by all, or nearly all. I'll elaborate tomorrow.

Number 48

It's officially my birthday, number 48 in a sequence, although it's till late Saturday night if you know what I mean. Later on today Sport Boy and I will head up to Perth, rendezvouz with The Heir and Birchy, and go to the footy, where 75% of us will be cheering for the Cats to beat the Dockers. As Birchy said to me on the phone, the only danger is that there is absolutely no expectation on Fremantle to win, and that's when they're a little bit dangerous, not much, just a little bit! Mind you, they should have won last year being 6 goals up at one stage but the Cats got up to win by a point when Pavlich hit the post rather than kicking the winning goal in the last 30 seconds.

!!! We just had a 3 second blackout but I'm glad to see that Blogger managed to save the start of this post, at my age it can be hard to recall stuff!!!

After the first "busy" night in the cab for a few weeks I didn't get to bed till just before 6 this morning so having to get up and coach the Cornerstone U12s soccer team at 10.30 was a struggle. I thought I was going to fall over when I first got out of bed. A shower revived me sufficiently to get to the game, with three minutes to go till kick off! A quick pre-game address, "Play like you did last week, same line-up" ..... "Oh! Emily's away....and Daniel's back.... ok.... Daniel, you play where Emily played, out you go" Stirring stuff I know!

Seemed to do the trick though, we were 3-0 up at half time and won 5-0, with Sport Boy scoring a hat trick with three very well taken goals. All this against a backdrop of torrential rain for the first 5 minutes so that everyone was completely saturated for the rest of the game, with intermittent showers just when anyone looked like drying out. To be fair, the sun did come out in the last 10 minutes of the game, prompting me to say, "Gee it's warm!" as I mimiced taking my rain coat off! The soccer team have hit some really good form, the line-up is working well, it's all good.

Sport Boy went to the final try-out session for the country week team this arvo and is celebrating his selection in the final squad.

I looked at a couple of garage sales whose proprietors were braving the stormy weather, bought some socks and jocks at Rivers then came home and slept for a few hours so that I'm not too tired to drive to Perth and back tomorrow.

Mrs Holt Press went to church this evening.

I woke up about 8 and watched the footy with Sport Boy. Spike is out at a friend's birthday party but he and a couple of mates will be home soon as they're staying here for the night.

Did I tell you it's my birthday?

Plugging Away

Work, meetings, country week prep, an interview with Australia's delegate to the United Nations Youth Assembly, more CW prep, a headache, volleyball and VB refereeing: That sums up my day. I'm finally winning the battle with the country week preparation, having completed a few big tasks in the last couple of days. It gets pretty busy as the time draws closer and I become a little nervous about getting everything done in time. Today for the first time it feels like I'm going to make it.

Both kids made it back to school today, and survived!

Mrs HP has worked every day this week, and survived!

That's good for the bank balance.

Big Brother the Accountant is home but recovering slowly from his head injury. I was going to see if he wanted to go the footy on Sunday but I doubt he'll be fit for that.

BTW, did I tell you Sunday is my birthday?

Go Cats.

Sick, Sensible, Straight Forward, Strange

Both of the boys have improved: not enough to go to school today, but I think they'll both make it tomorrow. I took Sport Boy to the Dr this afternoon but he couldn't find anything wrong with him to explain his breathing difficulty, everything was clear and in good shape. He suggested it may be anxiety related and to try and get him back into normal routines and back to school tomorrow. Therefore he came to soccer training with me this afternoon and survived that OK.

We had home group with Stu and Deb tonight where we discussed some of the proverbs, the sensible, the straightforward, and the strange!

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it" (the sensible)

"The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all" (the straight forward)

and
"The slothful man says 'There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!'" (the strange).

All is Not Well

Neither Spike nor Sport Boy have been to school this week, they are both crook. Spike has bad headaches and general "unwellness". Sport Boy has been having a lot of trouble with his breathing, tight chest, dizziness, headache, backache and miserableness! He is not a happy camper when he's sick. The breathing problems are exacerbated when he lies down and that in turn can bring on panic attacks. Neither Mrs HoltPress or I know what to do to ease their suffering, nothing has worked so far. As I've said before, there is nothing worse than seeing your children in pain and not being able to help.

They are both "sleeping" sitting up on sofas in the loungeroom, the only position in which either of them feels comfortable at the moment.

Meanwhile work carries on for the parents in the family; things are starting to get pretty intense in preparation for country week and the trip to Melbourne, I ran an upper school assembly today to announce the country week captains and various other CW related business. One of the staff said I did a good job which was pleasing because it felt a little uncomfortable at times.

I worked right through until nearly 7 o'clock tonight trying to catch up on stuff that needed doing. I was scheduled to have another testosterone implant this afternoon but no chemist in town had stocks on hand to fill the prescription so I've had to postpone it until Friday. I wasn't happy but there was nothing I could do about it.

I found some relief by beating the ladies at Scrabble Club tonight! I had enough testosterone reserves for that thankfully.

BTW for those who haven't remembered, it's my birthday on Sunday, the day Geelong play Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, no prizes for guessing what I want as my present!

I am closing in on the half century, only two years to go.

The People You Meet

Mrs HP is home safely from her weekend in Northam but she has a very early start in the morning, getting up at 4.30! She has to drive VTES up to Bunbury by 6am so she can catch the train to Perth as she flies home to Germany tomorrow. It's been hugs and goodbyes from friends and people all weekend.

I spent the morning in bed after driving the taxi last night, and the afternoon on roster at the gallery. One couple who visited the gallery turned out to be from Ballarat and when I told them I was planning to take the kids on the footy trip up to Ballarat for a a day and night while we're in Victora they gave me a number of names and possible leads on people who might be able to arrange some accommodation for us. It turned out that the bloke is involved with the Vic Country U18 football team who play in the National Championships so we may meet again at Docklands in a few weeks, and perhaps in Ballarat too.

Margaret River 5 Cornerstone 6

I had the privilege of coaching one of the best games of soccer ever this morning between old rivals Cornerstone and Margaret River Tigers. With three minutes to go till kick-off it looked like we'd be playing with 9 players but Georgia and Jack arrived in the nick of time. One of our best players, Daniel, was out, having not fully recovered from last week's mid-game asthma attack so the defence needed reinforcing and there were no subs to call on. Graeme can take credit for the suggestion to move Jacob to midfield, leaving Sport Boy and Jack as the only strikers.
Things didn't start well with MR scoring two quick goals and a little later a third before our kids started to settle and create some chances. Sport Boy was in sparkling form, "the best game I've seen him play" was Paul Brown, his country week coache's feedback. Ben C scored our first goal, nicely taken from a breakaway and Sport Boy added a second before MR scored again to make it 4-2 at half time. A few of the kids weren't happy with the refereeing and were letting that distract them from the game. The ref was my mate Glass Dave so I have to be careful, especially as he reads my blog, but I'd have to say I think he missed a few free kicks! And a reasonable penalty appeal! At half time I emphasised the importance of accepting the ref's decisions and getting on with the game because whether the ref is right or wrong they're not going to change their decision no matter how much you protest. I told them it was a great game, both teams were playing really well and to go out and do their best in the second half.
I was not prepared for what followed. We scored, then we scored again, really well taken goals to draw level on 4-4. Every kid in the team was playing out of their skin, what they lacked in skill they made up in determination and hard work, chasing, tackling, fighting for the ball, putting pressure on the opposition and combining together to set up chance after chance. Their finishing was exceptional and before long we had hit the front, 5-4. I can't remember the order the goals were scored in but Ben C got 2, Jacob got 1 and Sport Boy ended up with a hat-trick as we went 6-4 ahead! I was pretty excited by then, and I wasn't alone, the parents and supporters were clapping and cheering and urging the kids on. MR weren't to be beaten easily though and they scored with three minutes left to make it 6-5 to us. The last couple of minutes were a bit nerve-racking but the kids defended heroically and the final whistle went to signify a famous victory. It was a GREAT game and the parents clapped the kids all the way off the pitch. My after-match speech was over-flowing with praise and superlatives for every member of the team. I was very proud of Sport Boy who had a great game but all the kids did a great job.
It was probably the best game and the best win in the 4-5 years I've been coaching them.

Work Work Work

Spike and VTES are away on a school retreat so the house is quiet and not subject to loud unpleasant music for a couple of days.
Mrs Holt Press is going to Northam in the morning for another one of her training weekends.
That will just leave Sport Boy and I to fend for ourselves. He has a busy weekend planned, tennis Friday night, soccer Sat lunchtime, country week try-outs Sat arvo and tennis in Bunbury Sunday arvo. The life of the modern 11 year-old!

I've been busy at work trying to get things ready for country week which starts on June 28. It has been more difficult than usual this year for a variety of reasons so I'll be glad when it's all done and we're on our way.
The footy trip to Melbourne is immediately following country week so I need to be ready for that as well. I got tickets for the Crows v Dockers game at Footy Park today. There is the minor issue of swine flu to deal with but I'm hoping that the hype will settle and we'll be OK.

Thursday night is volleyball night, I played one game and umpired two tonight. It was my best game of the season so far, I even managed to hit a few decent spikes and make some blocks and my serve was cranking along nicely.
There's a masters footy game in Margaret River tomorrow night which I'm hoping to play in, I'm not driving the cab until Saturday night so I should be available.

Big Brother

Mum rang while we were driving home from the football on Sunday night with some bad news: Alan, aka Big Brother the Accountant, had had a bad fall and fractured his skull! He'd be in hospital for 48 hours observation but it didn't sound too bad, if you know what I mean? (I'm not sure I know what I mean so don't worry if you don't!)

I spoke to Lyn tonight to get an update and realised that the injury was more severe than first thought. It's not life-threatening but the doctors have been concerned enough to keep him in hospital and run a battery of tests on his heart and brain. Along with the fracture he has bruising and some "minor" bleeding on the brain as well as bruising and soreness on the rest of his body.

The good news is that he has improved significantly compared to the first two days and is sitting up, eating and drinking and has now regained his memory of the accident. He had been clearing branches and garden waste in preparation for the verge collection and had climbed on top of the growing pile on the verge in an effort to squash it down and subsequently fallen off, smacking his head on the footpath. Ouch!

Sounds like he'll be out of action for a while yet but at least his condition has improved.

Catching Up

The Big Hairy Cat, Cam Mooney. The footy was good on Sunday, Mrs Holt Press, Sport Boy, The Heir and I all went. I was confident even though West Coast played well and we didn't belt them like we did last year but Mrs HP was a Nervous Nellie and The Heir got a bit agitated a couple of times. There were some great passages of play but none more memorable than when West Coast's McNamara broke clear of the pack and ran towards the 50m arc to kick the ball.....in the wrong direction! Shannon Byrnes gratefully accepted and duly kicked a goal for the Cats! A true LOL moment!

A measure of the high standards we put on Gary Ablett now is that we felt he had a good but not outstanding game, only to learn that by the end he'd had 43 possessions!

VTES at the Yallingup Maze last weekend. She really enjoyed finding her way around the maze, as did Sport Boy. I liked it but felt that the raised walkways between some sections detracted from the challenge as they enabled you to map out your route a lot more easily.

Still well worth the visit though.

Sport Boy enjoying Barcelona's victory over Manchester United in the European Champions League Final a couple of weeks ago. We got up for the 5am replay rather than the 2am live telecast!

I hosted a group from a Uniting Church Leadership course this morning who came to quiz me about my leadership style and role in the school.They asked a few questions. I talked a lot! They seemed satisfied and happy with the outcome. There were a few familiar faces in the group, including one who tried to disguise his identity in his usual Diesel way but Broadie couldn't fool me.

This arvo I coached the junior footy team in a game against Clontarf up in Bunbury. We lost but it was a good game, inaccurate kicking cost us any real chance of victory.

I didn't get to watch it but I was very pleased for Roger Federer when he won the French Open last night to equal Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles and became just the 6th man to win all four Grand Slams in his career.

Australia 0 Qatar 0 and That's Good Enough

Mixed results in the soccer today. Cornerstone U12s lost 4-1 to MR Gladiators this morning but tonight the Socceroos qualified for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. Seems like a reasonable trade off.

I had a dreadfully slow night in the cab tonight, only 4 customers in my first 5 hours!!! It got a little better after that but nothing to blog about.

Only a few hours sleep then we'll be up and heading for Perth for two important occasions:
Lunch with The Heir to celebrate his 22nd birthday,
and going to Subiaco to watch Geelong play West Coast.

Glass Dave was taunting me this morning with the ridiculous suggestion that the Eagles might win!
I told him I would run up and down his street naked if they did!
Mrs Holt Press was aghast, and Glass Dave didn't look too impressed either!
For everyone's sake it's probably best if the Cats win.

Just the Ticket!!

FANTASTIC NEWS!

I got tickets to the StKilda/Geelong game today! After the disappointment of yesterday when it looked pretty hopeless I've been on a high all day!

I logged on this morning chasing a couple more tickets to the Cats v Eagles game on Sunday and buoyed by success there I randomly tried the website for tickets to round 14. Imagine my surprise when my request for 1 ticket went through! Emboldened I tried for two more, and got them as well. For the next 10 minutes I kept buying tickets two at a time until I had all we need for the Footy trip.
By this time I was full of bravado and proceeded to buy 6 more for Patesy who will be over there and is chasing tickets. He was pretty stoked when I told him the good news when I got to work.
I even rang Cam in Melbourne and told him to get on the web if he wanted to get tickets.
All day I've been sharing my good news with people, pretty much everyone I spoke to in fact!!
The boys on the trip were very happy when I informed them we had tickets to the biggest game of the year.
And there was more good news when I heard back from a high school in South Australia to say they would be happy to accommodate us for the couple of nights we'll be in Adelaide on the way home.
It's all good!

BTW, did you hear the good news? I got tickets to the Cats/Saints game at Docklands in round 14!!!!!!! Wooohooo!!!!!

Blogpost # 1000

This is my 1000th post on Holt Press 2. What a shame it's so unexciting!

I've been blogging for a little over 4 years.

I have "countless"readers, by which I mean, each time I count them, there are less.

I originally posted on "Holt Press" but was unable to transfer my original posts when I made the change to the newer version of Blogger a couple of years ago.
You can go back and reminisce about the good old blog days here.

My success at computer repair appears shortlived! I seem to have a virus that wants to install large quantities of mystery stuff and has caused my anti-virus software to run away and hide! The joys....

Sport Boy survived his footy debut, and according to Mrs Holt Press he loved it. Sadly he came down with a bad headache again tonight so we'll have to see what shape he's in in the morning.

I finished booking all the tickets for the Melbourne Footy Trip today. I ended up having to pay a bit more than we wanted which means either raising the price a bit or reducing some of the stuff covered in the trip. Either way it will still work out very cheaply. There was some disappointing and frustrating news today. Despite the AFL and Ticketmaster websites saying tickets to the St Kilda v Geelong game wouldn't be on sale until June 19, it now appears they are sold out!!!!!!
I am not happy!
It makes the AFL's refusal to move the game from Docklands to the MCG all the more annoying. Some 50,000 people will miss out on the chance to see the most anticipated game of the season.
As much as I love AFL football, there are times when I really don't like the way the game is run!
At this stage I can see me and the kids hanging around outside the stadium watching the game on the big screen and hoping to get inside for the last quarter!

At least I'll get to see the Cats this weekend when they come to Perth to play West Coast, although again, sadly, the game is sold out and I could only get two tickets when there were 6 of us wanting to go. Everyone wants to see the Mighty Cats!

Seeing as we're talking football, here's another Dennis Commetti quote:

Matthew Carr and brother Josh played for Fremantle and Port Adelaide respectively and both wear the number 9. Inevitably they were bound to collide one day.

"That's a tough one for the umpires. A two Carr collision and both with the same rego"

Can he Fix it? Yes he Can!

Mrs Holt Press and I went to see the new Russell Crowe movie "State of Play" last night and both really liked it. It's a political thriller with a journalist as the central character and plenty of surprise twists and turns to keep you guessing.
Tonight we went to our new home group with Stu and Deb from church. I haven't been part of a home group for several years, since before we moved to Busselton in fact so it's good to get back into it. We discussed what it means to be a man, and a dad, cause Stu went to a blokes camp on the weekend and had some interesting experiences. Coincidentally my Dad rang while we were there; he was returning my call as I needed to ask him a favour, which he seemed happy to grant me. No doubt I'll hear about it in comments if he wasn't!

The biggest news of late is that I have succeeded in repairing my computer. It crashed a while ago and has been largely dysfunctional since. I took it in for repair but they told me it was a software problem and they couldn't fix it. I rang the NEC helpline but they were pretty limited in their ability to assist. I bought an external hard drive to back up all my files/pictures/music but the computer wouldn't talk to it! However, I persevered, used a second XHD to transfer everything from the PC to the new XD via the old XHD and the laptop!
Several hours of moving many Gigs of data later and plenty of double checks to be sure I had everything, I was finally ready to tap the F8 key and hit "Repair Computer". After that it was pretty straightforward and quick. I had a nice clean new computer again which seems to do everything it's supposed to. Next came the reloading of programs, Office, printers etc.
I haven't uploaded the music and pics and stuff yet, hopefully it too will go smoothly.
This is the biggest job I've ever undertaken on a computer and I'm feeling pretty pleased about it, as are the rest of the family who once again have access to it.

I'm now sitting in front of the TV watching the replay of the State of Origin and enjoying seeing Queensland belt the cockroaches.

Sport Boy spent another day at home today but the good news is he is much better and looking forward to going back to school tomorrow, which just happens to be the day of their winter carnival, and his debut playing footy for the school. He's played soccer all his life so he's pretty excited about the change of code.

Oops, NSW have just scored another try and the maroons are only 6 points in front!

The Cats (and Saints) Go Marching On

History was created again on the weekend, never before have two teams been undefeated after 10 rounds in an AFL season. Geelong put last week's close call behind them to chalk up a 64 point win over Essendon, who were sitting in 4th place and getting some good press. Playing Geelong these days is an extreme reality check and that's how it turned out on Sunday.
StKilda are also 10-0, having beaten 16th placed Melbourne.
All eyes are looking towards round 14 and the Game of the Year when the Cats play the Saints. Sadly the game is not being moved from Etihad Stadium to the MCG so the crowd will be half the size it could have been. The real issue for me is that my football trip to Melbourne with a group of students is definitely going ahead and we are going to be there for round 14! Will we be able to get tickets? I certainly hope so! (Let me know if you have any good leads!! Saints members who aren't going etc as if!!)

Mum and Walter came to stay for the night last night, it was great to see them, especially as Mum has been away in America and France for the last three months. I looked through all her pictures of Paris and the south of France, it is very beautiful and if her stories are any indication, she had a wonderful time. She brought back berets for all the grandkids and for me a NY Mets shirt and some very cool sports badges to add to my collection, including a Tour d'France Yellow Jersey badge.

They headed home this morning because Big Brother the Accountant and the two girls were calling in for pancakes on the way home from their hiking weekend at the Shannon.

We took advantage of the beautiful day and Monday holiday to take Sport Boy and VTES to the newly opened Yallingup Maze which was good fun and very well done.

Favourite Daughter rang this evening after her weekend in Broome, they had a great time, lots of swimming at Cable Beach, markets, meals, movies etc. Things are going very well for her up in the Kimberley and she's earning more money than she ever has before too which I'm sure she's enjoying.

Spike is home from the State Youth Games, very sore and tired after all his physical exertions. His exams start this week so there will be mental exertion aplenty, or there ought to be!

It's back to work for me too tomorrow. With just over a month until Country Week, followed immediately after by the Melbourne Trip, life is going to get busier for a while.