Anthony Malloy

Are You Serious?

Yes, yes we are.

Really?

Again, yes. We’ve even told our parents.

Why did you pop the question?

’cause I love her and it was the right time to do it.

It’s the baby, isn’t it?

Nope, Albert or Kennedy had nothing to do with this.

Did she know?

Rae didn’t have a clue.

Did you buy the ring beforehand?

I sure did, and this caused the delay ’cause I couldn’t get up to Shepparton to buy it. Everyone in our family has bought their engagement and wedding rings at the same jeweller, a close family friend, for over 30 years so I couldn’t mess with that tradition.

Is it nice?

I think so. She thinks so. So yes.

When’s the wedding?

We have an idea but need to check some things our first. It will probably be post Albert or Kennedy.

What does Phee think?

She’s over the moon and guessed what was going on with one glance.

Did you get down on one knee?

Sure did. (Thank god for anti inflammatories.)

Why on earth would an intelligent woman like Rae say yes?

I have absolutely no idea, I’m only glad she did.

How shall I put this?

Hmmmmmmmm.

I just asked Rae a question.

She answered yes.

She is now sporting a nice ring on her finger, white gold and a couple of diamonds.

It must have been an engaging question.

Seeing as how Daniel was too busy on the weekend ensuring innocent train travellers catch the correct train line and couldn’t post a picture for his Here Is My photo meme I’m going to fill the void.

It’s the one off ‘A Thing I Have From A Store That No Longer Exists’ meme.

And this is mine.

I would have purchased this coffee grinder from Daimaru in Melbourne Central in the mid 90s. Daimaru had a fantastic coffee bar tucked away in a corner, it was here I really began my love affair with coffee and over a decade later a little piece of Melbourne retail history is grinding Rae’s coffee every morning.

When I was a young lad living in Shepparton one of the school holidays greatest pleasures was being taken by Nana to Coles Cafeteria. You’d walk through the cramped aisles of the department store, past the groceries, then the hardware and through the small door to the cafe.

To a young child it was a wonderful place. It seemed so large, so many tables and so dark and cool. You’d grab your plastic tray and start pushing along the shelf eyeballing the wonders in front of you. There was the bain marie full steaming hot food; but I’d always go for the fish and chips, dolled out by the matronly lady in her white Coles coat. Next would be a drink, lemonade most likely, before pushing the tray to true kiddy nirvana – the dessert section. Now I had jelly a lot as a kid, it wasn’t that special but I couldn’t wait to grab a plastic cup of green jelly smothered in whipped cream and plonk it on to my tray. The tray, and our journey, ended at the register where Nana would always have a chat to the lady sitting on the stool while I played with the pats of silver wrapped butter. Once Nana had finished it was my job to go and get the cutlery from the station and, if we were really lucky, take it back to the booth we had secured. I’d sit there and eat, looking at the American style soda fountain, wondering when I’d be old enough to go to that by myself.

I never got the chance ’cause Coles was torn down when I was about 12. Everything was sold off, the building razed and a soulless mall that no one ever shopped in was put up in its place.

This might explain why I love it when Rae has a cup of tea at Cut Paw Paw. The owners have a little piece of my past. They must have picked it up from a more local store, maybe the old Coles in Footscray that closed down, but just for a moment I can be back with Nana; just me, her and all the time in the world.

Attention Rob, Marita, Daniel, Ren, Knackers and Zita – you are off the hook.

Today we met Victor, our landlord (or landlord by proxy – I’m not sure if he bought this house or his daughter , ‘she accountant’, did). We had a fence blow over in the storms this week so Victor came around to fix it and he must have been impressed by what he saw.

We were having a chat as he left, after I showed him a couple of things inside that had been caused by the house shifting, and he seemed very happy with how we looked after the inside and the garden. He’s good friends with our neighbours (“they good people, Checkoslovakian, have marry children”) who have given us glowing references, which obviously shows how deaf they are if they haven’t heard us yelling at Phee at least once in the one year and five days we’ve been here.

“You good people. You can stay as long as you want, 5, 10 years. No put up rent if you look after house.”

So we won’t have to move come May. We can settle in for a while, have a fixed budget rent-wise for the foreseeable future and can concentrate on making this rented house our home. It’s nice to know where Albert or Kennedy will coming home to.

Daniel was kind enough to show us his backyard so I’m returning the favour.

This is my backyard (click to be taken to flickr.com for notes.

Listening to an interview with Stephen Mayne about his million dollar sale of Crikey. Talking about the strain of running the site himself he mentioned that he’d only seen two Tigers games in the last three years.

Trust me Stephen, I would consider that a blessing.

I got my Christmas present on the weekend. Thanks to the wonders of Ebay and my wonderful gal we went to A Day On The Green at All Saints Winery. If you’re wondering what it is and can’t be bothered clicking on the link think Big Day Out for grown ups with good taste in music.

To get there we drove for three and a bit hours, stopping along the way only to throw Phee from the car in the direction of her uncle Rob and for a Maccas along the way and all the way it rained. From the bottom of Victoria to the top it was raining which was great news for the farmers but not so great news for outdoor concert goers. We booked in to our motel in Corowa and headed back to the winery for the event.

First up was Deb Conway who, along with Willy, suffered through the rain, a PA that didn’t work and an audience who had no idea who she was. Regular readers will remember just how big a Deb Conway fan I am so you can imagine how close I was to leaping over the chair and throttling the ignoramus next to me who commented “oh, they’re good from now on” at the conclusion of her set. One thing, if I may humbly say, Deb did wrong was play too much from Summertown. I love the album, Rae loves the album but it was probably safe to say the the 3998 others there hadn’t heard one song from it. I think that these sort of festivals are more about playing the crowd favourites than plugging the new album. But then again I’ve never had a number one song so what the hell would I know?

Rae took this photo as the rain fell during Deb’s set. I’m doing my best, and rather alarming, Michael Moore impersonation. Hmmm, really mixing up my sports there too.

But I digress.

The rain continued (why didn’t Deb sing ‘Alive and Brilliant’ because way above the clouds were black) and Troy Cassar-Daley came on. He played some songs. They were country and western. I really don’t get country and western but it seemed all around us did. At one stage it seemed everyone but us was up dancing to ‘Thank God I’m A Country Boy’. We were very scared but this soon passed, as did the weather.

By the time Tim Freedman (and half the Whitlams, quickly dubbed ‘The Half Whits’ by the MC) hit the stage the sun was setting, the rain had gone and the night was really pumping. I really only know the older Whitlams stuff but this didn’t matter ’cause that’s what Tim played – Gough, No Aphrodisiac, Hamburger, Charlie, All My Friends. Reminds me I have to make sure I’ve got my one and only Whitlams CD on thePod.

Now if I could have ever named my dream gig it would consist of Deb and Paul Kelly double bill. My honey knew this and that’s why I got the tickets for Christmas – Paul Kelly was top lining this show and he did not disappoint.

The man is a legend, not a star. He played for two hours and no one wanted him to stop. He played some great songs of his latest album, reinvented some of his older classics and provided rocking out versions of his greatest hits. Throw in an Angus Young impersonation and a great ad lib when the audience came to his rescue (it was during ‘To Her Door‘ – he lost the lyrics at ‘he came in on a Sunday’ and the crowd chanted the ‘walking in slow motion, like he’d just been hit’ bit to which he said ‘yeah, just like that’) and I was in heaven.

Then I got the my dream double. The first was a wonderful version of Deeper Water, perhaps my favourite PK song of the moment followed by a stunning rendition of How To Make Gravy, one of my favourite all time songs. He introduced it by saying “This song doesn’t have a chorus, sorry. It does have a recipe for gravy though.” and the crowd went crazy. His band, The Boon Companions, didn’t let him down all night and he’s almost found a way to make Somewhere In The City the classic it should be. After two hours of heaven he closed the night with Dumb Things (featuring a rock god backwards jump off the drum rise) and a tripped out version of We’ve Started A Fire.

I could not have been happier. What a night, what performers, what a gal and what a Christmas present.

Thomas letting us know he wasn’t impressed at being left behind for the weekend.

Driving home by Albert Park Lake today I noticed the first of the migrating plastic barriers had come to roost on the grass along Queens Rd after their long flight from across the Yarra. This can only mean one thing, it’s soon to be Melbourne Grand Prix time. It takes a month or so to set up and I know before long there will be concrete barriers and then the stairs that go to nowhere until an overpass is added in the depths of one February night. For a week or so I’ll be following trucks over the bridge to work as they bring the safety fences from a spot just around the corner.

Then four days of roaring cars and a couple of weeks to pull it all down and take it back to Newport.