Anthony Malloy

2007 officially began today. Rob and I went to our first game for the season and it was at The G on a Saturday afternoon. The Tigers went down to the Swans, as expected, but it wasn’t the game most people were expecting. The Tigers came to play and it was only the lack of a ruck and certain mercurial forward that gave the Swans the chances they needed to wrestle the game from us. I’d forgotten just how great it is to go the footy, six months is way too long between drinks and I’m already thinking about heading to the Collingwood game this coming Friday even though we don’t have seats.

Roll on the Woods, roll on the Dogs, car’n the Tige’s!

Ah, what a good day.

We started out this morning on a journey to Ascot Vale to try and hunt down the sign that Jen mentioned ages ago. We pulled in to the street and then I had a flash – we needed to be elsewhere!

I pointed the car east and we headed to Richmond to Tho Tho’s for a great Vietnamese lunch. It’s been years since I was a regular there but the waiter recognised me straight away, I even got a hand shake and a welcome back. Better yet, the food was still great. You really can’t go past Tho Tho’s rice paper rolls.

After a snack lunch (and a beer for me) we went for a walk but rather than wander the back streets of Richmond we popped around to one of Melbourne’s great treasures, the Fitzroy Gardens. We found a great area at the top where we sat and lay on the grass for a while.

Bert couldn’t quite get the hang of rolling down hill so I scooped him up and we went rolling together. Man it was fun, he was screaming and giggling with unrestrained joy. However when we stopped I discovered why grown ups generally don’t roll down hills any more – my head wouldn’t stop spinning. Phee took over instruction and the two of them rolled/spun/ran down the slope for ages.

We wandered down to the far bottom corner and grabbed an ice cream each for the stroll back to the car via the fairy tree and model Tudor village. Phee had had enough by this time and was dragging her heels but not even a surly girl could bring us down after a glorious afternoon in the sun and fresh air and, as a bonus, we’ve still got Ascot Vale to explore on another day.

Idiot Van Driver is first off the ranks. I thought I’d cut through South Melbourne to avoid the gigantic mess that is the Kings Way on ramp to the Westgate Freeway. All was going well until I turned in to Montague St and the traffic stopped dead. I crawled for five minutes until I saw the flashing lights – one set being the flashing red of a ‘you are too tall to get under this bridge’ warning sign and the other being the flashing blue of a divvy van pulled up behind a truck and its driver who decided to ignore the first set of flashing lights. Idiot.

Second is people who use mobile phones while driving. Come on people. Stop it. Just stop it. There is no excuse. If they can make red light cameras, speed cameras and point to point cameras then surely we can make an ‘idiot who thinks talking to their best friend while holding on to the phone and driving is perfectly okay’ camera. If I wasn’t driving myself I would have snapped at least five on the way home today.

Third it’s smokers. And Ebayers. More specifically Ebayers who are smokers. I bought a book off Ebay today (an old web project management book if you’re interested) and as soon as I dropped it on to the passenger seat after retrieving it from the PO Box the stench hit me. When I rule the world (some time soon, but don’t hold your breath as I’m a bit busy at the moment) all Ebayers who smoke, or store their stuff in a smokey place, will have to say so in the product description.

Phew. That feels better. Now roll on the long weekend.

It was 3.00am when I realised what was going and it was a sleepy Rae who pointed it out. I was lying on the couch trying to ignore the pain in my toe wondering how I’d broken it when Rae stumbled out and pointed out the obvious – “It’s not Gout again is it?”

Of course. Sudden on set, located in my big toe, excruciating pain (I couldn’t even tolerate the pressure of a cotton sheet) and swelling/hot toe – every classic symptom of gout. I’ve been to the doctor and have the wonderful yellow pills that are making everything better (such a lovely warm glow after taking them). I’m taking his advice directly which was to sit down with my foot up and watch the footy. He’s a good doctor that one.

I can’t sleep. I want to, I’m completely exhausted, but two things are stopping me.

The first is my beautiful, loving, caring, pregnant wife who is snoring like a road train that’s badly in need of a service going full throttle across the Nullabor. Seriously, I’m at the other end of the house and I can hear her. The snoring will reduce, maybe even stop, when the babies arrive. Phew, at least I’ll be able to get some sleep then…

The second is my toe. My big toe on my right foot (the other foot to my previous toe episode) is throbbing with excruciating pain. It started off as a niggle this morning, got worse during the day and whilst shopping at Highpoint this evening it really began to scream. I’ve taken the strongest pain killers we have in the house but they’ve had no effect at all.

I’m now sitting here, foot up watching the footy on my PC waiting for the truck to stop rumbling in the bedroom. I’ll then go back, run headlong in to the wall, thereby hopefully knocking myself out and falling on to the bed in the process. I have a funny feeling it’s the only way I’ll get my eyes shut tonight.

I dropped the car off for a service today and rather than catch a couple of trains I decided, armed with my camera phone and iPod, to walk the four k’s home along Williamstown Rd. Warm winds and huge low grey clouds rolling in over the bay gave an atmosphere that something exciting was brewing. I love days like that, it’s how I picture the start of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

 

 

Hi hate this time of year and where we are heading. Hate the early sunset and late sunrise. Hate the cold. Hate the grey. I’m already counting down the days to daylight savings starting again but there’s a fair bit to get through until then, the least of which is adding two members to the family in one go.

Apart from this one bright spark scheduled for the dead of winter (guess this year we’ll find out how much it costs to run a heater 24 hours a day) there are two positives and both of them start this week.

First up is the footy. I’m not confident of the Tigers chances this year. A couple of injuries in pre-season has really highlighted the lack of depth in our team. One or two more and that’s it as far as being competitive goes. I’m actually predicting a small fall down the ladder this year – 10th or 11th is where I think we are. Go on Tige’s, prove me wrong.

Of course footy season means footy tipping and this is a late reminder to join my footy tipping competition. Do it for the glory. Do it for The World’s Ugliest Trophy. Do it for the Grand Final BBQ. Just do it. If you know nothing about the game you’re probably in a better position than any of us who claim to.

The second bright spot for the winter season is Doctor Who starts again this weekend. Well, in the UK at least. God only knows when the ABC will get around to showing it. I can’t wait to see Mr Tennant (with new suit) back in action, complete with new companion.

Two years ago, at the end of winter, we had just watched the final episode of the first season of the reborn Who on the ABC. It was a cold night but we went for a walk afterwards regardless. Three hours later Bert was born. Couldn’t tell you if the TIgers won that weekend though.

Yeah! Happy NPD to me. Yesterday was my biannual NPD, and there’s nothing like NPD to make me happy. I’m still happy today, even though I’m already looking forward to my next NPD.

Okay. NPD is New Phone Day and yesterday I gots me a shiny new Nokia 6300. It’s slim, it’s stainless steel and it’s pretty sexy. The camera is only so-so (no flash and just 2 megapixels) and I need a new hands free for the car but this NPD was a overall a good one.

Roll on 2009.

Here’s the QANTAS jet circling our place before its fly over at the start of the Grand Prix. You can clearly hear the cars if you stand outside, on such a perfectly still day the sound must carry clear across inner Melbourne. I wonder if Andrew is walking around his place with ear plugs in?

I’ve had the plane crash dream again. It seems to be getting more frequent. This time it was  a huge jet whose tale snapped off as it flew overhead. Oddly though it then morphed in to a train crash that I had to run four blocks to check on.

I wish I knew what this meant.