Category: Diary

Today was a great day. It rained non stop, it was bitterly cold, the wind blew arctic blasts across damp grey Melbourne and it didn’t matter one bit.

Mark was in town.

Mark, my best mate, long time friend and all round good guy is back in Australia for a week. He’s been teaching in the States for a year and is heading back for his second go round in a few days but today we caught up.

We went to Federation Square (in the rain), walked through Birrarung Marr (in the rain), had lunch at Automatic (in the rain), caught the train home (in the rain), had a later lunch at Vinegar Strokes (not in the rain, but it was raining outside), stood in the rain and watched the Doggies train (and got to see someone do his knee at training. Man those guys can swear), we watched the first season of The Office on DVD, all the time talking, catching up, filling each other in on a years worth of happenings.

There’s no mates like old mates, and I’ve no other mate like Mark.

For those of you who have been following the saga of our early mornings, and those who read Rae’s blog too, you’ll be please to know we’ve stopped just whining to you and have done something about it.

Behold, the letter to the landlord (pdf 5k). It’s in pdf format so you’ll need Acrobat Reader to read it. Let me know if you can’t and I’ll email you the contents.

You should know we think very little our neighbours by now.

Here’s another reason why.

Melbourne is in it’s 7th year of drought, about to go on to stage 2 water restrictions and our back neighbour is watering the concrete. Why? Because front neighbour mowed the lawns and couldn’t be bothered sweeping up.

Even under our current stage one restrictions paved areas can’t be washed under any circumstances except for fire and safety. The self-centredness of these people is beyond belief.

I’m home.

The game isn’t even over.

Richmond, you’ve broken my heart.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Tiggy is to become and endangered species!

From The Age this morning :

To launch the new promotional campaign at tomorrow night’s match against Collingwood, the club will roll out a new mascot …

This is an outrage! Tiggy must be saved – the most unique and charismatic mascot in the competition, loved by millions of kids (and me). He’s basically a scrawny guy or gal in an ill fitting cat suit but with so much personality he steals the mascot show. They had better not be replacing our icon with some pumped up stuffed muscle tiger – we Tiger fans will not stand for it.

Stand by Tiger fans (Jen, you still out there?) – the battle to save Tiggy will begin next week. I think I’ll take my cues from the Save Ferris campaign, any one got a spare water tower?

Woo Hoo!

The schedule for the NHL‘s 2003-2004 season was released today.

The Canucks site has a downloadable pdf and the NHL site has a great easy to print listing.

If you want to check when games are in local time this site will help. For Melbourne fans this page gives you Melbourne/Vancouver times. Don’t forget when Daylight Savings kicks in in Melbourne and stops in Vancouver.

Since Rae gave me two Three Investigator hard covers for my birthday (4th June, put it in your diary for next year. Go on now.) the quest is on to collect the set. Rae, though, has suggested a rule. While I can buy them any way I want I have to read them in order.

I’ve been outbid on ‘Terror Castle’ three times now so I’m thinking second hand book stores are the way to go. If you happen to notice a copy lying around anywhere please let me know.

“Dad, you’re not a cool boy. You’re a working man.”

Apparently this means I am no longer allowed to use the word ‘groovy’.

Sigh, my life is over.

Australian Word Map

Melbourne is region 23.

I found this link to an online reproduction of Melway Edition 1 at Grouse. There’s even a link to how they made the first edition of this Melbourne institution.

I love Melway, it’s an amazing example of cartography, and I love old maps, especially of Melbourne, so this is my idea of heaven.

For those of you from beyond our fair city the Melway is the standard reference for Melbourne maps. It’s guaranteed to be stashed under a seat in every car and you’re also guaranteed to receive at least one copy when you turn 18 and are eligible for your drivers license.