Anthony Malloy

Said goodbye to my mate Mark last night.

He’s my closest friend and the lucky guy is off to America for a few years to teach. Went to see a movie and then a quick snack, shook hands and that’s it – gee I’m gonna miss him. I guess the thing that concerns me most though is that he’s considering becoming a vegetarian. Apparently American meet has too high a fat content for his liking so, whoops, there it goes. Maybe we can organise comfort packages of good Aussie steak to see him through.

My farewell gift (apart from a great fridge magnet of his most despised Doggies player that Rae suggested) is his own travel diary web site. I can recommend adding www.markuswalsh.com to your bookmarks/favourites – Mark has a unique world view that will be well worth reading when he starts it up.

Regular readers will no doubt remember the Guests That Ate Our Weekend incidents (see the archives, July 1, 2002). Well, there’s more drama brewing.

Rae decided that she couldn’t be part of the bridal party – it would just to be too stressful and most likely result in the death of several innocent people – so she wrote Sharyn a letter. Nothing too specific, just that she thought she could no longer be part of the bridal party and that she was withdrawing. She posted it last Thursday.

Rae and I arrived home last night from Rob’s birthday dinner to find the light blinking on our answering machine. I pressed ‘play’.

“Hello Raelene. It’s Sharyn. I got your letter. Call me.”

She didn’t sound happy.

So, if you try calling us and no one answers the phone between now and October, don’t be surprised. Leave a message, we’ll get back to you. Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions on how to deal with disgruntled rednecks please leave a comment.

Found this link on this blog. You’ll need the Flash Player to view it, but pretty much everyone should already have that installed.

Amazing stuff.

Take a bow Buford T. Justice, your blog is fantastic.

The tale of a westerner living in China, or maybe attempting to live would be a better description, is wonderful. Especially when he can find web sites as good as the one below. As I can’t put it any better I’ve copied the following from his blog:

“Came across this little nugget of teenage angst and alienation, not too mention some classic amerispeak. Classic, almost stereotypical stuff. I know, I know – she’s all confused and hormonal, etc. To tell the truth she sounds pretty much like I did when I was sixteen [or twenty seven]. However, I’m not a teenager anymore so I feel ‘like, dude, totally’ free to take the piss out of her adolescent self-absorbtion.”

After a minor dummy spit I shut down my Amex card recently. Well, it all was finalised today when I received a cheque from American Express for the outstanding balance.

Yep, I’m now 74 cents better off. Want to know what that’s worth in your currency? Well www.xe.com will tell ya. But for something most everyone will understand – it’s half a packet of small fries at McDonalds.

I’ll try not to spend it all at once.