Anthony Malloy

I can’t believe it. A couple of years ago I got to see Pulp and New Order in the same year and thought things couldn’t get much better than that.

Turns our I was wrong.

Next year I’m seeing four bands, five shows and all within the space of a couple of months.

First up in late February is Peter Hook and The Light performing two of the best New Order albums (mock me all you like but Technique is still my favourite). Having seen the rest of New Order this will nicely complete my set.

On the 10th March it’s Public Service Broadcasting at the Northcote Social Club – never been there before and three days later it’s Jesus Jones performing Doubt at the Corner.

Then the ones I think I’m looking forward to the most – two Frank Turner gigs. One at the Corner with Rae and then a few days laterI get to see him Geelong by myself. Rae and I have been to a Day On The Green and a couple of shows but in 14 years we’ve never been to an old fashioned gig together. Probably says a lot about our different musical tastes but we both like Frank Turner so it should be a great night.

So in the space of a month and a half I should have a few new cool t-shirts to add to the collection. Not sure who else is left that I’d run out see, Pet Shop Boys would be one but for now I think I’ve covered my British band invasion plans pretty well.

I’m ready for the day.

With thanks to Ren.

Dear Miss Peel, Mr Demitiri, Mr Lia and Mr Robinson.

Hi, it’s me, Anthony Malloy, although I was pretty much exclusively called Molly at school. Just wondering if you remember me, but you probably don’t. I was the guy who was, without exception, always picked last in the teams, the one who held back and let others go in front me in the gym and the one who was thrilled to make it to year 10 so physical education was no longer compulsory. I’m sure you were all great people, good teachers too, but my teenage self despised you and what you put me through.

Even if you remember I’m not sure you’d recognise me now. Sure I’m older but if you remember me you’d remember be most likely for all the wrong reasons I mentioned above. You’d probably be amazed that Molly got out of bed this morning in the pouring rain and drove in to the city. He then walked a kilometre (amazing in itself, no?) in the rain to line up to run 5 kilometres. Yes. Run.

And run I did. It was pouring, belting down at times and the wind at the three k mark was like running in to a hurricane but I didn’t stop, I went faster. And I smiled all the way. My legs were killing me but the last k was just as fast as the first and according to the lovely lady who lives in my phone I ran that 5k faster than I ever have, smashed my aim of 26:00 and came in at 25:11 – 11 seconds shy of my ultimate dream. I’m not sure what my official time will be, the clock at the finishing line didn’t agree with Ms Endomondo, but I ran well, and I ran fast.

I don’t know what changed, I don’t know why I didn’t get it back then but if you read this and if you are still teaching (surely not) then just remember – that guy being picked last, that guy who can’t kick a footy to save himself, the guy who shrank every time he walked in the doors of the parish centre for gym; one day he may find he is actually good at something and a little encouragement from you now may help him avoid a 30 year wait to find out what that is.

Yours

Anthony Malloy

When building this house one of the features we had on the essential list was an office for me.

It’s done well for six years but recently the kid’s kinder and prep artwork began to fall so I took them all down and was left with an uninspiring mess of blu-tack on a blank wall.

Enter Rae.

Rae’s aim for 2014 has been to paint the interior of the house, fixing up the rather shoddy job the builders did all those years ago. This long weekend she’s been a painting demon; kids bathroom, loo, kids corridor, the big wall in the kitchen area and last but not least, my office.

And we even got to sort out a bit of the tangle behind the desk.

I  feel like I actually have a proper office now, a grown up’s office. Thanks hon, you’ve done an amazing job.

If you needed any evidence, there’s no doubting they’re my kids.

From this

to this.

Well played Melbourne, well played.

A little while ago Rae won a competition, one she probably wishes had have been for herself. The prize? To get to run through the banner with the Bulldogs on game day. Mr Henry was the lucky boy and after initially being scared he slowly came around and by Sunday, thanks to gentle encouragement, positive talk and spiffy pair of new blue and orange sneakers (just like Bob Murphy’s boots) he was raring to go.

We were given access to the rooms as the boys finished their warm up and Zita, Rae, myself and the kids got to form part of the guard of honour as the players came on to the field. It was amazing being on the ground prior to the game, and I even managed to find a fellow TIger supporter in the line next to me.

We were so proud of our little man, he did just as he was told and did it all by himself. Google have made this great little film of him running along.

Well done little man, and go Dogs.

The last home game for the year.

Scarf rolled up and tossed on top of the shelf in my office.

Big warm Tiger jacked put in the back of the cupboard.

Radio, battery removed and put on the shelf.

Lanyards added to the collection.

Roll on 2015.

I am over the moon. I finally did it – I have just ran my first ever race and I’m on a high.

When I first started jogging via C25K I just wanted to get to 5k, which I did, and then think about running a race. It has taken me a while to summon up the courage but today I took part in Run Melbourne. I ran the 5K race on a perfect winter day. My amazing wife and kids came in to support me on my first attempt which made a world of difference.

The race itself was fantastic and I’ve learned a lot about race day procedure and running in a race itself. I ate correctly beforehand (no stitch!), hydrated well but made the mistake of placing myself down the back of the 25-30 minute wave so I spent the first kilometre trying to get some free space, shuffling along some times as people blocked the road. Next time, front of the wave and take the outside.

I even managed to come home fast, that final run in to the finish line with people cheering and clapping was amazing. I could have gone around again! I even got to give Rae a big sweaty hug when I finished which she pretended not to like.

My results are up. I ran 28.07 (curse those people blocking me at the start!) coming in 544th overall, 344th male across the line. I;m so proud of that result. The back of the medal we were given says ‘Remember this moment. You’ve earned it.’.

I did earn it, and I will remember it. The next race will be just a race but this one, my first, was incredibly special.

Thanks to the vagaries of DNS the changeover took a while longer than I thought. In the end I had to export the database, import the database, copy the theme/uploads over and make some changes directly to the database to get things working.  It seems a site of this size (700MB+) isn’t catered for by most of the cloning or import/export plugins available for WordPress.

Still, I’ve learned some valuable lessons about how my host operates and the importance of encoding in SQL import files so it was a valuable exercise in the end. Now I can start moving my client sites over knowing I’ve encountered most of the issues I’m likely to.