Anthony Malloy

I’ve stopped crying now so I guess I can write about it. A poor performance in the last round means there is no September action. No, I’m not talking about Richmond’s 9th placing, I’m talking about the footy tipping.

With six people in a position to win the final round’s tipping called for cool heads to prevail but it seems all of us but one went for an outside tip, or two. It was Miss Marita who kept her head, tipped the obvious choices and came home with a stunning round of 8 to sit two clear on top. Runners up were Rae and Nigel – the Englishman who doesn’t know what a footy looks like but is constantly hovering around the top of the tipping comp. I’m so glad Nigel didn’t win, posting him the trophy would have bankrupted us.

Congratulations Miss Marita – our first two time winner. The World’s Ugliest Trophy will be presented on Grand Final day. I’m sure you’ve cleared a place on your mantel for it already.

Late last year I lamented the loss of one of our two favourite cafes, The Cut Paw Paw in Yarraville. We tried it again a couple of times after that but as you can see in the comments on that post a few people agreed with me.

Well, I am happy to report that Cut Paw Paw is returning to its former self – Leo and the original staff are back!

It turns out that Leo had only leased the place for a year while he travelled around the world. I had a brief chat with him this morning and he fully realises what has happened to his business and the job he has ahead to resurrect it. While The Coat will always be our number one it’s great to know that we again have somewhere to go when we make our excursions to Yarraville.

Welcome back Leo, it’s good to have you and Paw Paw back.

It’s the closest year we’ve yet to have – and six people are still in the running for The Worlds Ugliest Trophy. Rae and Marita are locked together on 108 with Catboy (sorry Rob, you’ll always be Catboy to me!), Nigel, myself and Tim on 107. And just like the AFL the locals at the top are under threat from foreign invaders – Nigel is in England and, to my knowledge, has never seen a full game of AFL and Tim, a recent convert from Canada, is yet to figure out exactly when you can and can not yell out ‘ball!’ at a game – although he’s learning quick.

So, what to do if there is a tie? I’m open to suggestions and as I have no idea what the hell footytips.com.au is going on about with ‘Adjusted Margin’ and ‘Cumulative Margin’ I’m thinking a golden-goal type playoff during the finals.

UPDATE

I was thinking that any on a tie for the lead after the final home and away match go in to a ‘new’ competition for the finals – tipping each round until a winner emerges. If it’s still a tie at Grand Final stage then it’s winner and margin.

When you are ill and if you have a hacking cough from a tickly throat and a nose running like a waterfall take Chemist’s Own Dry Tickly Cough Syrup and Atrovent Nasal spray.

This will ensure that your nose continues to run and your throat continues to tickle you in to coughing but, on the up side, your wallet will be a lot lighter.

Phee has a new word, ‘sick’. Anything that’s remotely impressive gets a ‘wow, that’s sick’. DVDs, television shows, jelly for dessert – they’re all ‘sick’. About the only thing she wouldn’t be calling sick at the moment is her dad, and that’s because I am.

August has not been a good month for health in the Malloy household. We all had a lovely bug earlier this month, some worse than others, and now I’ve been hit with the flu. It started on Tuesday, I began crashing at work on Wednesday and have spent the past two days in bed. I’m up today but I’ve had to pull out of the Tiger’s second last game for the year, I’m just not well enough yet to go. Hopefully a day of taking it easy today and another restful day tomorrow will have me back on track by Monday. I’m really looking forward to September and a bit of good health.

On the postive side while lying in bed I have managed to catch up on a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica. It’s sick television, in every sense of the world.

A quick update on The Telly.

I should start by saying that as Josh and Pippa suggested I had already tried the turn off at the power point approach, and it had made a marginal improvement but the colour blob was still strong, which is why I had to resort to the degaussing wand.

After two separate sessions with the wand the problem is almost gone. Where as once the colour blob would show up on almost any colour background, most noticeably on blue (as red) and red (as blue) and green (as brighter green) I’ve got it down to where it’s only noticeable as a pale, pale, pale green glow on skin tones and white. It’s 100% better than it was but still not fixed completely.

I’m hoping the turn off at the wall approach will shortly take care of this residual problem, if not I may have to turn to a professional for assistance. Or buy a new LCD screen. I figure both should cost about the same.

Taken from the car on Flinders St on the way home from the footy.

Daniel has tagged me for a literary meme.

1. One Book That Changed Your Life

‘Acorn Electron User Guide’. It came with my first computer, one I saved for for most of 1984 It was a spiral bound book that introduced me to structured programming concepts – at the age of 14. My life has been tied up with computers ever since.

2. One Book You Have Read More Than Once

‘The Crow Road’. Iain Banks’ masterpiece. Everything he had written prior to this book lead to this crowning glory, everything since pales in comparison.

I think it had a lot to do with the central character being the age I was when I first read it but I’ll often pick it up and be hooked once again by the first line : “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”

3. One Book You’d Want On A Desert Island

Can I say ‘The Crow Road’ again? If not, um, ‘The Dummies Guide To Surviving On A Desert Island’ would be handy. Or ‘London Fields’ by Martin Amis.

4. One Book That Made You Giddy

‘Times Arrow’ by Martin Amis. Read this in one sitting, get up and go outside and try and figure out which direction your life is heading. It had me confused for days afterwards. 

5. One Book That You Wish Had Been Written

‘How To Make A Boy Every Time’. We wouldn’t mind knowing, for the next one.

6. One Book That Wracked You With Sobs

I can’t remember the damn book’s name – it was about the IRA and one family’s struggles with a son who wanted to get out. Not quite sobs but very emotional.

7. One Book You Wish Had Never Been Written

‘Maths A’. Lynch, Parr, Pickering and Anderson. Made my year 12 in 1987 hell.  

8. One Book You’re Currently Reading

A birthday gift from Daniel and Miss Marita, Douglas Coupland’s ‘JPod’

9. One Book You’ve Been Meaning To Read

I’ve had Vikram Seth’s ‘A Suitable Boy’ since its release in the early 90’s. One of these days…

10. Now Tag Five Bloggers

If you feel like, go for it.

I’m trying out Microsoft’s new offline blog editor – Window’s Live Writer Beta. It’s great so far, but I want to see if it really can upload images as easily as the reviews say.

We have a nice television. It’s a few years old, it’s CRT but it’s wide-screen and has a presence that makes people say ‘wow, nice telly’. Then we turn it on and they really like it. However for a while now something has been wrong; the magnetic coil has been out of alignment and there’s been a bright green patch in the lower left corner. It’s particularly prominent on red or blue backgrounds and being somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to my television I’ve been unable to take my eyes off it. I couldn’t tell anything that’s happened on any show we’ve had on for a while now, but I can spot that shade of green a mile away.

Thankfully I’ve tracked down a contact through work who has offered to lend us a degaussing wand and I’ve dispatched Rae to the outer fringes of Melbourne to pick it up. The street is so new you need the latest Melway to find it so I hope she’s packed a lunch.

My plan is to get home, get changed, unplug the DVR and place it a long way away, fix the telly and then sit down in front of it and not move for many many hours.