Anthony Malloy Between Coffees

My Dad passed away at 1:30 this morning.

He was good man, he lived a good life.

He was a great dad.

I have no words for how much I will miss him

I’m going to be away for a while, hopefully no more than a week.

I’ll see you then.

Recently the Richmond Football Club, my beloved Tigers, offered 60 lucky people the chance to have their photo taken with the entire team. For a not too tiny donation to tsunami relief you would get to sit with team for an official photo.

Having no money and with a young Tiger on the way I thought what a great thing would be to do. Rae on the other hand didn’t just think. She pointed out it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that we would find a way to get the money and have the picture taken. I tried to talk her out of it but she can be very persuasive when she sets her mind to it and I eventually signed up.

Well, Sunday was the day. We rocked on up, registered (I got number 2 although a very grumpy family from Shepparton were in front of me. They had to wait for all the individual shots to be taken before family shots were done) and waited.

The 60 or so people could be spilt in to two distinct groups. Half were obviously footy players who followed the Tiges and wanted the chance to be in a team photo, the other half were footy chicks who wanted to be snapped with Kane Johnson or Brownie. Then there was me - geek boy in the middle of 20 odd super fit professional footballers. Even though I was wearing my jumper with number 10 on the back I felt a little out of place. As I sat down some wise guy in the team said “Hey Staff, he’s got your jumper.”. He didn’t know how right he was - I bought the jumper from the club off Ebay a year or so ago.

Now it’s a four week wait to get the pic. Rest assured, you’ll all get to see it.

Today Rae left me some play lunch to take to work.

A dark chocolate chili Tim Tam.

Is there any wonder I asked the girl to marry me?

Are You Serious?

Yes, yes we are.

Really?

Again, yes. We’ve even told our parents.

Why did you pop the question?

’cause I love her and it was the right time to do it.

It’s the baby, isn’t it?

Nope, Albert or Kennedy had nothing to do with this.

Did she know?

Rae didn’t have a clue.

Did you buy the ring beforehand?

I sure did, and this caused the delay ’cause I couldn’t get up to Shepparton to buy it. Everyone in our family has bought their engagement and wedding rings at the same jeweller, a close family friend, for over 30 years so I couldn’t mess with that tradition.

Is it nice?

I think so. She thinks so. So yes.

When’s the wedding?

We have an idea but need to check some things our first. It will probably be post Albert or Kennedy.

What does Phee think?

She’s over the moon and guessed what was going on with one glance.

Did you get down on one knee?

Sure did. (Thank god for anti inflammatories.)

Why on earth would an intelligent woman like Rae say yes?

I have absolutely no idea, I’m only glad she did.

How shall I put this?

Hmmmmmmmm.

I just asked Rae a question.

She answered yes.

She is now sporting a nice ring on her finger, white gold and a couple of diamonds.

It must have been an engaging question.

Seeing as how Daniel was too busy on the weekend ensuring innocent train travellers catch the correct train line and couldn’t post a picture for his Here Is My photo meme I’m going to fill the void.

It’s the one off ‘A Thing I Have From A Store That No Longer Exists’ meme.

And this is mine.

I would have purchased this coffee grinder from Daimaru in Melbourne Central in the mid 90s. Daimaru had a fantastic coffee bar tucked away in a corner, it was here I really began my love affair with coffee and over a decade later a little piece of Melbourne retail history is grinding Rae’s coffee every morning.

When I was a young lad living in Shepparton one of the school holidays greatest pleasures was being taken by Nana to Coles Cafeteria. You’d walk through the cramped aisles of the department store, past the groceries, then the hardware and through the small door to the cafe.

To a young child it was a wonderful place. It seemed so large, so many tables and so dark and cool. You’d grab your plastic tray and start pushing along the shelf eyeballing the wonders in front of you. There was the bain marie full steaming hot food; but I’d always go for the fish and chips, dolled out by the matronly lady in her white Coles coat. Next would be a drink, lemonade most likely, before pushing the tray to true kiddy nirvana - the dessert section. Now I had jelly a lot as a kid, it wasn’t that special but I couldn’t wait to grab a plastic cup of green jelly smothered in whipped cream and plonk it on to my tray. The tray, and our journey, ended at the register where Nana would always have a chat to the lady sitting on the stool while I played with the pats of silver wrapped butter. Once Nana had finished it was my job to go and get the cutlery from the station and, if we were really lucky, take it back to the booth we had secured. I’d sit there and eat, looking at the American style soda fountain, wondering when I’d be old enough to go to that by myself.

I never got the chance ’cause Coles was torn down when I was about 12. Everything was sold off, the building razed and a soulless mall that no one ever shopped in was put up in its place.

This might explain why I love it when Rae has a cup of tea at Cut Paw Paw. The owners have a little piece of my past. They must have picked it up from a more local store, maybe the old Coles in Footscray that closed down, but just for a moment I can be back with Nana; just me, her and all the time in the world.

Attention Rob, Marita, Daniel, Ren, Knackers and Zita - you are off the hook.

Today we met Victor, our landlord (or landlord by proxy - I’m not sure if he bought this house or his daughter , ’she accountant’, did). We had a fence blow over in the storms this week so Victor came around to fix it and he must have been impressed by what he saw.

We were having a chat as he left, after I showed him a couple of things inside that had been caused by the house shifting, and he seemed very happy with how we looked after the inside and the garden. He’s good friends with our neighbours (”they good people, Checkoslovakian, have marry children”) who have given us glowing references, which obviously shows how deaf they are if they haven’t heard us yelling at Phee at least once in the one year and five days we’ve been here.

“You good people. You can stay as long as you want, 5, 10 years. No put up rent if you look after house.”

So we won’t have to move come May. We can settle in for a while, have a fixed budget rent-wise for the foreseeable future and can concentrate on making this rented house our home. It’s nice to know where Albert or Kennedy will coming home to.

Daniel was kind enough to show us his backyard so I’m returning the favour.

This is my backyard (click to be taken to flickr.com for notes.