Author: awmalloyadmin

As a young lad growing up in the country the highlight of each year (after birthday and Christmas) was the two weeks we would spend in Melbourne every January. To this day January is my favourite time of year. These two weeks we’d spend at the beach, and if anyone knows Edithvale beach you’ll know the lifesaving pavilion. We stayed in the top story of the white house next to it.

Anyway, the highlight of these two weeks was the day we would spend in the city and the highlight of this day was going to see a show. Each year, whatever the top show was, we would go and see it. Oklahoma, Cats, Pirates of Penzance, Me and My Girl, Annie, we saw them all. Her Majestys, The State Theatre, The Princess Theatre, The Athenaeum, wonderful places. For a country kid it was all very impressive.

Now I wonder how mum and dad afforded it.

Phee loves her music and stage shows and we’d love to take her but we simply can’t afford it. Mama Mia is back for a repeat season and she would adore this show. Rae and I would like to see it again, it was a lot of fun, but at $300 for the three of us we will have to pass. There was an article on ticket pricing for the Delta Goodrem shows next year that made me shake my head.

“Goodrem’s tour promoter, Paul Dainty, says he tried to keep ticket prices low and instigated the $349 package to keep the shows affordable for families.”

Rae and I have good jobs, we don’t want for much and live comfortably but within our means however (and here we must say Delta ain’t our musical tastes so this would never actually apply to us) $350 for an hour and a bits entertainment? Mr Dainty needs to have a little rethink me thinks.

In the meantime we’ll grab the Singin In The Rain DVD from the shelf and give that spin.

The revolution is here.

Get your pod and get on board, podcasting will change the way you listen to ‘radio’ and two great examples can be found right here in Melbourne, Aus – G’Day World and ShitFM. Check out the first ShitFM podcast, around the 18 minute mark is a wonderful Died Pretty-ish track by a Brisbane band called Charles Foster Kane. You’ll love it. I’ve added this cast to the list I download. Each night I grab the lastest casts, set up a smart playlist in iTunes to select all podcasts from the previous 24 hours and listen to the latest on my way to and from work the next day.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about check Cameron’s links on Everything you need to know about podcasting.

You’ll be glad you did.

A table for six with five adults (all bloggers) busy eating their main course and one kid sitting with nothing in front of her.

Enter one waiter holding a bowl.

He marches up to the table, looks around at us all, stands their for a while, asks “One childs ice-cream?” and waits.

Viva Zapatas indeed.

What’s hit Melbourne town? When I got home tonight I was feeling pretty blah at the thought of sitting behind this PC working so I thought I’d go for a walk. I grabbed a couple of podcasts, plugged in the iPod and set off.

Seems I wasn’t the only one – Daniel and Jean had the same idea. Bet you neither of them saw the production company filming something at the top of my street though.

Does anybody know if cats can see ghosts?

Something odd is happening in the banking world. My bank, Westpac (Nee Bank of Melbourne, nee Westpac) just called me to ask what they could be doing better.

It must be a scam, surely.

One good thing is it looks as though they will be introducing a ‘favourite transaction’ option in their ATMs which will suit me fine as most visits to the ATM for me are for the same amount from the same account.

Now I can see properly again we sat down and watched season 2 of The Office on DVD.

Like most men I’d like to think of myself as Tim but have a dreadful feeling I’m equal parts Gareth and David.

Sigh.

Perfect television, regardless.

In a fantastic nod to tradition and statement for moving forward the Mighty Tigers have reverted to the jumper in which they won all their premierships but abandoned in 1994.

Now it’s back – the slash is on the back once more as the Tigers get ready to roar. Club PR on it here – The Sash Is Back and here – Tigers Revive Sash Of Success

The sash, a new coach, potentialy great recruiting of youth and a new sponsor. Will summer never end?

Time to start saving for a new #10.

That’s right. Shepparton.

I’ve spent the last three days in my home town. There’s nothing like a warm summers day in Shepp to take me back to my childhood. The sounds, the scents, the heat; nothing like it at all. Wide open spaces, bright blue skys and scorching sun. Heaven.

Though it was memories other than these that saw back there. Memories and my Ipod.

My dad is an amazing man, 82 and sharp as a tack. He has a great memory and I’ve listened to his tales for years. I have my favourites and always wanted to get them down on paper, a project dad started a couple of years ago but put aside a few pages in. Enter me and my Ipod. The addition of iTalk to the pod means it can record a lazy 1000 or so hours of speech making it a fantastic tool for recording family histories.

I spent the days in Shepp recording dad talking about his life. I have a great outline, round about 6 hours of him talking about his life. I managed to get my favourite tales and many I had never heard before. I learnt how he met and courted my mother, stories of my older sisters I had never heard, hilarious tales of his times living in Melbourne during World War 2 and at last I have the history of the Malloy family and dad’s early years. We even took a trip and found, still standing, a friends house from 80 years ago. He swears the shack hasn’t changed. His childhood house that once stood in the middle of an orchard is now a warehouse. We drove around the block and from the side you can see a fruit tree out the back. A tree that may have been there since dad was kid.

We also spent a little time walking around Shepparton recording dad’s recollections of how the city has changed. We’ve only just touched on a couple of blocks so there will be more trips with the pod in hand to cover as much of Shepp as we can. Each time I head up home now I’ll be taking the iPod and adding more to the library.

It was the most time I think I’ve spent with dad. All I had to do was listen and prompt him with a word or two here and there.

And now I will have his stories, his memories, in his words, in his voice, forever.

To say that I won’t be here for a few days.

I’m off to the country to attend to some business and I should be back later in the week.

See you all then.