Anthony Malloy

He first hugged this cat two hours after he was born.

Every year in my childhood, as regular as clockwork, come June 4 a cheque would arrive in the mail. It would always be for $10 and it came from my Uncle Geoff in far away Sydney.  You could set your sundial by that piece of paper. A couple of weeks ago Helen and I were talking about this and she rightly corrected my thinking that it had been for $5.

Today I found what would have been cheque #20. I have no idea why I didn’t cash it, $10 would have been handy in those student days, but I’m glad I didn’t.

I love that there’s still some history left in Yarraville.

I’m feeling very odd. It’s 3.00 and I’m sitting at my desk. For the past five and half years if I’ve been home at this time I’ve been sitting outside the school waiting to pick the kids up.

But not today.

They are walking home together without me for the first time.

And, of course I am not making the most of this by working. I’m sitting here, stressing and counting down the minutes until they stroll up the driveway, most likely arguing.

We had a great weekend, one of those wonderful unplanned ones that just sort of unfolds. While out and about I was taking photos and managed to snap two that I’ll treasure.

 

Today mum would have turned 78. She probably would have celebrated with a round of golf. I would have called her and she would have complained that she didn’t like this getting old idea.

This is the last photo I took of mum, it was just another snap at her kitchen table, surrounded by grand kids and family.

Here we go again.

Moo and I are off to round 1 tonight. It’s Moo’s first night game so she’s a bit excited, although that’s probably just at the thought of having chips at half time. Not that I’m confident though as the Tigers seem to have gone out of their way to make sure our essential players are injured, but, well, what can you do?

Go Tiges!

I reckon that a lot of these leaves will be gone by Easter.

It’s that time if the year. The deck has had it’s couple of coats. The deck around 7 years old now and needs a bit of tlc, one end seems to have come loose from it’s anchors and it’s time to give it its first sand back before the next go round with oil. This being said it would be the best addition we’ve made to the house, one that’s made it feel like a home.

I was standing at the start line for parkrun on Saturday when the bloke standing next to me asked “What time are you running?”. I explained I was coming back slowly from injuries and was going around 26:30. He nodded and said “Thought so, that’s what I’m doing and each week I see you in front of me and think ‘if I catch him I’m getting faster’.” Then the horn sounded and off we went.

It made me laugh that I’m the hunted because this is exactly what I do. Once you run a few parkruns you get to know the people who generally finish in front of you and for me it’s become my challenge to peg them back. I was going pretty well last year slowly reeling some in and eyeing off the 24:30 finishers. I thought I must have been the only one who did this. Good to know I’m not alone.