Life between coffees.
Oh dear.
It was a footy tipping melt down for me this week. After being hot on the heels of the leaders in my little competition I tipped only 2 – the same as Nigel, who lives in another country and can’t tell a goal umpire from the centre square. What’s more, if I wasn’t a Tiges supporter I would’ve had only 1.
The shame of it all.
Vincent Flanders, guru of bad web page design and known for his famous ‘Web Pages That Suck‘ used a page I found on his main site! Bad form not to acknowledge your source but I was the one who pointed out to him (see April 22) the Brussels Paper Tram page.
Tonight, as the fog descended, the crazy people came out to play.
One particular crazy person decided that she was immune from council by-laws and that her two large dogs should be allowed to roam free in the park out our back gate. (She also had no visible means of cleaning up their litter, but hey – why break just one law when you go for two?).
Rae went outside to call the cats in, as it was after dark and we try to be responsible pet owners (have you figured who the good guy is and who they bad guy is yet?), when she saw these dogs running at Tom who was just heading in. This is where I entered the fray as I suddenly heard her screaming at the dogs, and Crazy Person, to get away from her cats. I am in awe and impressed beyond words with her mothering instincts.
A war of screams erupted between Rae and CP. I eventually talked Rae in to letting me follow CP and her dogs while Rae went hunting for the cats. What followed was a very slow motion chase across the park as CP and I continued to ‘chat’ about the legality of having unregistered dogs off their leash. At one point she (with a mountain load of bluff) threatened to sic the dogs on to me. The same dogs who at that moment were walking around me wagging their tails and saying hello. I gave them a pat, looking for their collars and registration tags but none were to be found. We wandered up and down the park. CP said “I know what you look like!” I said “I don’t care.” She then wandered off threatening the dogs on to me again, but the dogs just wanted to know if I had anything for them to eat.
Rae reappeared, a yelling match under a streetlight ensued until a kind stranger intervened pointing out to CP that, in fact, we were right and it should all be left at that.
Now we’ve both calmed down; I’ve dispatched a note to the council asking that signs explaining the regulations be put up, the cats – who really had no idea what the heck was going on – are asleep, the neighbours are on CP watch and I know that nothing on earth can ever happen to those loved by Rae.
Comeback #1
Canucks, down 3-2 in game one of a best of seven series to advance to the next round of playoffs. Clock ticking down, crowd roaring, time running out then suddenly a shot – the game is tied with 1 second left on the clock! The game goes in to sudden death overtime where we score and win 4-3 to go 1-0 up in the series. Best part – the goal was scored by Trent Klatt – a native of Minessota – against whom we were playing. Check the picture here.
Comeback #2
And I was at this one. The Tigers were pathetic. Down 51 points at the 22 minute mark of the second quarter and we’re all thinking of hitting the train to go home. Then we scored a goal. The another. And another – in the second half we scored 12 unanswered goals, and in total 14 goals to 2 to effect our greatest ever turnaround of 71 points to win the game (Tigers website listing of the goals). We were absolutely delirious as we left the game, singing our magnificent anthem as we marched down the ramps, smiling from ear to ear. Hawthorn players slunk from the ground to boos from the few Hawks supporters left as we Tiger followers bellowed through two rounds of ‘Tigerland’. For one glorious night we are top of the ladder and the world is a wonderful place.
I can’t believe it – I missed the anniversary date! I’ve been bashing away at Between Coffees for over a year now – over 540 entries ranging from non-coffee reviews to diatribes against plagiarists. To celebrate this momentous occasion I’ve added an ‘On This Day’ section to the front page. Only problem is that I didn’t blog on April 25th last year so I have no idea if it works or not. Eleven hours and twenty minutes until I find out.
To those who’ve stuck with me a big thanks, to those recently arrived, hope you stick around.
Highlight blog entry for the year? It’d have to be the House Guests From Hell. As a wash up from this weekend Rae dropped out of the bridal party and we didn’t go to the wedding.
Rae and I were talking about books the other night, old books, books we had read as children when one popped in to my head; The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.
I can’t remember anything about it except for the fact that I loved it and it was very ‘English’. Now I’m going to have to track down a copy to add to the bookshelves for Phee when she is a little older. I also remember one called ‘Green Magic’ that I must’ve had out on permanent loan from the school library. It too was very ‘English’ and was about a young boy who found a Griffin and (I think) decided to keep him. My memory has also dragged up something about it being part of a series, something like ‘Griffin Magic’. That one’s going to be trickier to track down as I don’t even know the author. Looks like I’ll be busy for a while.
For about five years I’ve been missing a hub cap from one of my tyres – I can even remember the morning it disappeared. For another three of these years I’ve been missing a strip off the back panel of my car since some little punk ripped it off. A while ago the missing hub cap was rotated to underneath the missing strip and I began to dislike my car – it looked all messy and uncared for (which, I guess it was). I don’t particularly like cars – and I know next to nothing about them apart from you call the RACV if the damn thing doesn’t start.
Well Rae, the wonder girl, decided to do something about it. Not only did she vacuum and clean both the inside and outside she found a strip at a car wreckers and got to me to buy a new set of hub caps – I had no idea they were so cheap! So for the grand total of $40 my car is complete again and looks fantastic. What a car, what a gal.
The 70’s Film Festival continues at Cinema de Rae & Tony. Last night it was Marathon Man (imdb | buy at amazon). I’ve had a reminder in Blue Moon to make a dental appointment for ages now, but this film has just set my dental hygiene plans back a decade or so as my dentist has an uncanny resemblance to Laurance Olivier. Tonight it will probably be ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ (imdb | buy @ amazon) if we can tear ourselves away from Cheaters.
Continue reading “70 Film Festival – Is It Safe?”
If you want to call yourself a movie buff there are certain films that you must have seen. The French Connection (imdb | buy at amazon) is one of these and, thanks to a spare $24 and an indulgent girlfriend, I picked up a copy on DVD yesterday and we watched it last night.
A stunning piece of film that shows just how overly long most of today’s action pieces are – it’s one hour and forty minutes of near perfect film making. I’ve just discovered that John Frankenheimer directed the sequel so now I have to track that down and Marathon Man (imdb | buy at amazon), another ’70’s classic, has just been released too. Ah, the life of a movie buff with a new widescreen TV – it’s tough and poverty inducing.
When I was a young lad I would mow two sets of lawns, ours and my Nana’s, under great sufferance. I loathed mowing and apparently my dark mutterings could be heard above the roar of dad’s old mower. I wouldn’t mutter at Nana’s ’cause her lawn was more interesting – you could mow much better shapes as you went around.
Now, as every one knows, when you mow a lawn the catcher gets full of clippings and needs to be emptied – all part of ‘mowing the lawn’. Well, not in our household. Somehow or another I wangled it so my little sister had to come out and empty the catcher whenever it was full. How I got away with this little piece of murder I will never know but I’d march up to the door, still muttering darkly, ring the door bell and then rev the guts out of Mr Victa until Helen appeared and took the clippings away.
This morning Rae pointed out that a mowing business was for sale.
I wonder if Helly would be interested in forming a partnership?
