Damo Blog

stolen treasure returns home

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 20:11:59 +1100

Many, many years ago, a group of friendly competitive friends decided the only way to confirm who had the best session each time we went surfing was to award a trophy. Whomever did the best job of the surf that day would be awarded the trophy until the next time we went surfing.

We simply decided together once we were on the beach or on the way home. The final decision only came to blows twenty three times....

Some years ago, the trophy went missing. There have been many accusations over the years, recriminations and veiled threats regarding its whereabouts, but never an answer.

It was getting to the point where only Indiana Jones would have been capable of finding this long lost treasure.

Until Tim’s storage container (the stuff he put into storage PRIOR to going to Hong Kong) turned up the other day... Sure enough, next to the Chesterfield lounge suite, carefully wrapped in a box was the trophy.

The quest to find the trophy has now been fulfilled. After Tim had a few beers last night, I made sure Sonia snuck it out to our car, which we picked up this afternoon.

Sonia jumped in the car as I gunned the engine. She had wound down the window to say goodbye to the Taylor family a meter or so away on the footpath. I overrode the window and wound it up... getting funny looks from both Tim and Sonia. They just thought I was being rude. Once I had clicked the central lock button, I pulled out the trophy and waved it at Tim, through the tinted glass.

It took him a few seconds to realise what it was I was doing, but then he jumped up like a frustrated monkey. He knew the trophy was now in my hands and there was nothing he could do about it.

It looks great in our lounge room. And I like to think that I deserve the recognition after our last couple of surfing trips....

nye 2009

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:53:39 +1100

Had a fun NYE at the Taylor residence in Surrey Hills this year. Tim’s hard work putting in that deck in the back yard has certainly paid off! I love sitting out there, sharing a beer, admiring his hard work.

Click here to see all the pics from the night.

Tim did a great spit roast (helped out by the meat on a spit expert Scott!).

Highlight of the night was hearing the neighbours start ringing Sharon at two in the morning to politely ask how long we were going to party for! Seems like us older duffers can still keep it going for a fair bit...

what else have i been doing?

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:08:02 +1100

I always gradually devolve back to my favoured sleeping patterns when on holidays unless I am doing something active each day, like surfing. Just like at Uni, I seem to drift to bed later and later, waking up late morning. Not sure why, but my body clock seems to have a will of it’s own when I am unbounded by work.

The late nights don’t mean I haven’t been up to mischief though. I have been out taking a few photos here and there. Some have turned out ok.

Click here to see the pics.

Even made the trip out to moorabbin, the home of the mighty saints. I tried out my extra film cassette for the blad but it would appear it has some kind of leak - or the lens was flaring way too much in the hot afternoon sun... only a couple have turned out so far - and I am concerned for the umpteen rolls of BW I took which have not arrived back yet.

The break before new year and going back to work is a time for reflection. I have been reviewing where I am at and what I need to do to get to the next stage of whatever it is I want to achieve. It would fair to say, there is always room for improvement - not just for me, but for everyone.

I am looking forward to another year at ACS - and the opportunity to try and make the business as successful as I know it could be. There is a lot of work to do, but our consumers love the product so much, it is hard not to want to do everything for them.

Christmas 2008

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:22:34 +1100

Christmas has been a little more challenging than usual. Sonia’s dad bumped his head pretty badly (think Giansiracusa’s hit on Kosi) and ended up fracturing his skull. Ouchie! He is rapidly coming good after a few days off in la la land.

So after visiting Joe in hospital, we headed off to Carol and Leon’s new place in Brunswick. Leon was very proud of all the climate control stuff he had installed in time for Christmas lunch. I can vouch for how well it all worked, as I was freezing my ass off for the better part of the day!

As per usual, there were disappointments... There was a loose wire on Vincent’s monster truck which left only the headlights working! The highlight was, as it is every year, the plum pudding. Carol doused it in brandy saying “we’ll light it up!” and then proceeded to make herself very, very scarce. By the time she returned, Sonia asked “Are we going to light it now?” Carol proceeded to claim it had probably soaked in too far now to light... probably her evil plan all along?

Click here to see the pics from xmas day.

A guest

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:39:55 +1100

Just happened to have my macro lens ready when Sonia spotted this little guy on our window sill.

For being such good subject, I collected him up after the shoot and popped him back in the garden!

checking out tim’s work

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:47:50 +1100

Spent an afternoon walking around near Tim’s work. Finally found Bond Colour...

Click here to see all the pics.

yummy

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:51:19 +1100

Like chocolate? Click here to see the pics of Sonia’s masterpiece Plum Pudding Chocolates...

Christmas with Sienna and lily

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:38:29 +1100

Modern family situations need modern solutions at Christmas time.

This year, we dropped in our presents to Lily and Sienna a couple of days early. Sonia and I got to spend a couple of hours with the girls, enjoying their playtime.

Click here to see the pics.

Mary turns two

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:35:13 +1100

Mary Young turned two this month. It must suck as a kid to have your birthday so close to Christmas. I always thought I had it set up perfectly as a kid. Christmas was were I got my summer stuff - things for the beach, cricket bats, and tether tennis.

My birthday is in July, so I would ask for things like footy jumpers etc in winter.

Poor Mary has her birthday in December, which doesn’t really spread out the gift scam very much!

I think as she gets older, Sonia and I will have a “Birthday in July” so that she can get her winter loot at the right time of year.

Here she is enjoying her birthday.

Everytime we visit, I always have to check Sonia’s bags and the car to make sure she hasn’t snuck Mary away. She would love to have Mary come live with us. I must admit, she is pretty cute.

Flickrmas

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:25:30 +1100

Got along to the Flickr Christmas meet, but wasn’t able to get to the Melbourne Silver Mine Xmas Bowls night. Seems I got home too late the night before and needed to take Sonia out for dinner Sunday night to get back into the good books.

Thanks to Tim and Brent for leading me astray...

Here are the pics I took at the Flickr do.

reminder - another self coaching moment

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:12:04 +1100

I was reminded today again of some of my own best advice...

When in conflict with another person, consider a couple of things, just to make sure you keep perspective.

If it is about an idea - ie. someone is proposing an idea that you feel an instant resistance to. I often find if I take a deep breath and say to myself “What if this is a great idea? Listen first. Try and imagine why the person is proposing it” or sometimes I simply say to myself “Imagine for second that this person is much smarter than you and listen with that perspective”. Now I know no-one is smarter than me... ha ha... but sometimes I think we all resist ideas that are not ours for reasons we never really understand consciously. By breaking the cycle, you can come up with some great results building on the enthusiasm and great ideas of others.

Drumstick Rocky Road never would have seen the light of day if I had not managed my own resistance of having an idea literally shoved down my throat. For a second, I thought “Hey Eric (QLD state manager for Nestle Peters) has been around long enough to really know what has worked in the past. Take it up and see where it goes.”

In the whole time I worked at Nestle, Drumstick Rocky Road was the only product to ever make the Top Twenty New Products for the year in sales in the annual Nielsen P&C review. I was very quick to share the credit with my old nemesis, Eric the sales manager.

Sometimes it is about communication, a bit of “I said this, he said that, he annoys me, she doesn’t listen, he is a prick, why is she sandbagging” etc etc. The natural inclination is to blame the other person. To spin the situation so that you were doing all the right things and they were just being an ass, or not listening, or being difficult. It is very rare for it to be all one way. To assume so sets you up for a communication failure.

Like all people, I mostly assume the problem is with the other person. So sometimes (when channelling kind spirits), I purposely assume the problem was with me and I search for what I did to promote the problem. You need to really put yourself in the other person’s shoes and understand what they need. Not being a details kind of guy, I would often be frustrated at first with people like Graham the Planner. He was famous for haranguing brand mangers for details on when things would be ready for production. At first he used to get me going.

One day I sat down and really looked at all the lines we had at Peters, how many shifts each line had per week, and how many different products were made each week on each line.

My head nearly exploded with the mind boggling complexity of it. Imagining I was Graham for a second helped me understand why he was such a stickler for detail. If he missed a thing, even a minor thing, we ran out of stock, or the machines didn’t run on a particular day.

My job was to get people to buy ice cream, his job was to schedule the machines to make the stuff. He didn’t need my big blue sky presentations - although I like to think that he liked them, he just needed to know when the prototype was going to approved and the packaging would arrive. I tried to give him that detail from that time on and never diss him for demanding the detail he needed.

When I saw it from his perspective, I realised I could communicate much more effectively with him.

And then there are situations where you think the other person is an ass. They don’t listen, they didn’t do what you asked etc. The automatic assumption is normally to assign the blame to them for the miscommunication. Again, (and I don’t always manage to follow my own advice!) I find it useful to review my side of the situation and try to pick holes in what I said / communicated.

Was there anything I did that “got them going?”. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It is amazing how often a day or so later, you think about how you could have handled something better.

3. And sometimes there is just a mismatch of expectations. A classic case is creative briefs for agencies. Some people just give a verbal brief, or pay lip service to a written brief, figuring the agency will “get it”. They are usually the same people who complain about the concepts they are presented. Usually over two or three rounds....

Often, you think you are saying one thing, and a person is genuinely hearing another thing. We all filter verbal (and written, to an extent) communication with our own layers of meaning and definition. Sometimes, people can quite reasonably look at the same brief, yet execute it in completely different ways.

I always like to ask someone what an outcome looks like to them at an executional level to make sure I have understood not only what their objective is, but to define how they it would look like - ie. a vision of the end outcome.

Hah, a management book beckons for sure. I would LOVE to be on that US speaking circuit, ‘cause after all, I love presenting (read : showing off).

carol and leon and the kids in the kitchen

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:47:20 +1100

Who would have thought the house my parents purchased is a historical landmark from the ‘80s along with Skateranch?

Leon was out chatting with the neighbours (as crazy old people like to do) and one of them told them the story of the house. Apparently the iconic 80’s band Kids in the Kitchen formed in the kitchen of their new house in Brunswick. The drummer lived there with his mum (like all musicians except for that wanker that played at Telstradome on the weekend, he could not afford to move out) and they jammed in the kitchen of the house. Hence the name. Der.

Kids in the Kitchen were one of my fave bands as a teen. Change in mood was actually a pretty cool song.

Here is the video - and the mpg is up on the right above if you prefer. If you like it, buy it. Don’t steal music!

victoria street richmond

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:17:28 +1100

Was getting a bit bored on my side of Richmond, so I went out to Victoria Street for some new locations. It was great looking at new things. I tend to walk around a lot with a camera on this side of the suburb, and maybe I am getting a bit jaded.

Click here to see all the pics.

Mum and dad’s new house

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:44:28 +1100

After many years of living between Healesville and Venus Bay, Carol and Leon have cashed out and moved to Brunswick.

They moved in on the monday before cup day. I made sure that my brother, Adam, was there to help them move in.... Once the coast was clear (ie. movers come and gone and boxes in the right spots) we dropped over to have a look. Nice old place, that has been renovated recently.

Caza and Leon will like it there I think.
 Click here to see the new place.

A big day out of our own

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 14:14:01 +1100

Ever had one of those nights where there was a point at which you should have gone home? I think we were ready for hometime when we left the Corner... and everyone would have had a great day out and happier WAGs.

Click here to see the hunks and spunks.

Weddings - Stacey and Matt

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 13:26:53 +1100

One of my few regrets this year was not being able to get over for Stacey and Matt’s wedding. Stacey and I got to know each other on College Avenue in Oakland. She was great fun to work with and helped me find interest in a job that wasn’t much fun, to tell the truth.

The rest of the first pics from the wedding are here.

Sonia and I were hoping that Matt would eventually suck up the courage to offer her a big rock. It was one of the great moments when he told us he had it planned out. We were at our last lunch together, and, unfortunately it was the first and only time we met Matt. He was a great bloke. It just goes to show that you never really know how much time you have anywhere. We didn’t go to New York either!

Anyway, we were having an afternoon on the bay. Remember the mushroom tops they puchased? Geez they looked funny. So, when Stacey popped out for restroom break Matt spilt his guts. Sonia and I were very excited. I could barely contain the news - and people know I leak secrets like a sieve... But this was one I was able to keep.

Unfortunately, when you are working in a business that needs a bit of a shot in the arm, it is hard to get away during key customer presentation periods. I suppose jobs have their ups and downs.

Graham did say “I own you now Damo!” and whilst he didn’t quite sound like the devil, I do want to give the business my full attention and priority wherever possible. I love my job and the joy we give to people across the world.

But it is no fun when these things clash. I am very sorry Stacey and Matt. It looks like you had a great day though, and I look forward to catching up next time I am in the USA.

Babies - Sienna Rose Juraja

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 13:19:30 +1100

Joe and Melissa have provided a lovely little sister for Lily.

Sonia had already gone to see her, but I could only make it on saturday. The only time I think anyone likes going to a hospital is for the birth of a baby. Melissa and Joe are very lucky to have such a beautiful family.

Babies are small things.

Click here to see pics of Sienna and Lily.

more plastic fantastic

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:29:06 +1100

Sonia had been looking forward to her Tupperware party for weeks. So, at 2.30pm today, everyone turned up and enjoyed the colourful plastic world on show.

One of the tricks is to get a champers or two into the attendees to loosen up their wallets. Sonia, playing “perfect hostess” offered to top up Lynne’s glass. Not being an expert drinker, she poured a bit quickly and it frothed over.

Now, at most houses, it is “save the carpet, save the carpet”. Things are a little different at our house. The carpet is pretty old and crap, whilst our couches are OK. As it overflowed, and the panic began, I called out “let it go over the carpet!”. Disaster averted.

world wide toy camera day

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:44:52 +1100

World Wide Toy Camera Day came and went on October 18th. Got together with a couple of flickrpals and went nuts with a Diana and 3 Holgas... Why did I need 3 Holgas? One for black and white film, one for colour, and one for infrared. Der.

The best part of the day was sitting out in the sun at the Corner Hotel sharing a few jugs and swapping camera stories. Still couldn’t quite get the infrared film cranking. I will have to do some net research to try and figure out what I am doing wrong.

Click here to see the pics from the day.

These are toy cameras.

Have another crack?

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:22:07 +1100

Last year (in October actually, instead of the “proper” month of November) I did the whole “write a short novel in a month” thing. It is part of an international program called “Nanowrimo”. Search for it on the internet, if you are interested.

This is what came out the other end.... I am wondering about the sanity of giving it another go. Every day you have knock out about 1700 words to keep up to speed. It is pretty cool to get going and see real progress every night, but I do have a lot of other commitments. Beer. TV. etc are all demanding mistresses...

Also, I don’t completely buy into their whole “just do it on the fly” thing. I spent a good part of a weekend structuring out the story (without getting stuck too badly). Every day, I had something to write after spending that initial time planning. It just meant I could spend my time writing each day, instead of working out what was going to happen.

I do enjoy tapping away on my laptop though. Maybe I should sit down and have a think about it again.... If I can come up with a theme and basic story outline, it would be good to have something to do every night for a month.

I have been meaning to go back an self-edit the original book from last year. I was ok with the story, but there are loads of writing style errors in it, which were dutifully pointed out by my sister-in-law some time ago.

I will get around to re-writing the first book over Christmas, maybe, but am gradually being seduced by the thought of doing a new book. Work would be the only serious hurdle, I think. And ain’t that a busy activity at the moment!

Some more scans - my favourite apartments in richmond

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:24:59 +1100

Popped along to the Camberwell Photographic Market today. Cashflow is a bit tighter than usual (saving up for a new D700) so, I developed a clever, devious plan. The market happens twice a year and starts at 8.00am. I slept in, on purpose. By the time I jumped in the shower and motored off in the car, it was 11.15am before I got to the market. All the “unmissable” possible impulse buy items, I hoped, were already gone.

And they were. In fact, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of medium format gear there. Funny though, I skimmed over the thread on Silver Mine of people discussing their triumphant purchases. Most of them had dug around in the various dump bins different stall holders had. I just couldn’t be shagged...

After spending the requisite time fondling the gear on display, I met up with the Silver Mine members at the Palace Hotel. It has been some time since I had been there. I was not aware that one of the doors was a portal to either Croydon or Frankston. I can only surmise there was one, by the number of teeth-challenged bogans at the pub. In particular, there was one fellow there with some kind of kiwi version of the do-rag and a blue wifebeater singlet who was quite out of place in Camberwell!!!!

I asked this gentleman why there were so many bogans at the pub - the answer was simple. If you build pokies, they will come.

The photo above is probably my favourite aparment block in Richmond. One was for sale recently, around the $1mio mark. Probably should have popped up for a look, but like test driving a car - it can be a fatal mistake to take a car you cannot afford out for a test drive. I also took some Hasselblad shots too, but the bloody film somehow wound around the wrong way. Almost as embarrassing as the time I couldn’t load film at the Retreat Hotel in front of my flickr pals.

Click here to see some pics from around Richmond.

Next weekend is Toy Camera World something or other day. Should be a bit of fun sitting in a beer garden with lots of light to shoot off a few rolls.

Monkeys are always cool

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:32:24 +1100

Would you believe I have started to purchase craft items on the internet? Edit : Sonia suggests I change the description to “knitted art items...

I purchased Jellibat’s “Ham the Space Monkey” from her Etsy shop. You can check out all her stuff by clicking here.

I was actually wandering through Ravelry (i think) when I came across this fellow. Since I love monkeys, I couldn’t resist his little monkey face. So, I got out the Visa and 3 days later he arrived in the mail.

Jellibat has based him on Ham the Monkey who was the first monkey to be launched into outer space. Hey kids, why not do a school project on him? - all the info on his life is here.

Ham lived on to the ripe old monkey age of 26 before being buried at the Space Hall of Fame.

Ham the plush toy now lounges around our house now, eating bananas and doing other monkey like things. Click here to see Ham hamming it up!

emo or goth?

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 20:38:16 +1100

This is pic of my friend Jen. At our relative age, is her look goth or emo? We spent many hours debating this point on her recent expedition to melbourne.

I think the only way to really ascertain it one way or another would be to go to Hungry Jacks on Swanston St. If all the emo kids start following her around, I think the question would be settled...

We spent 6 “wonderful” hours together on a road trip last week along with a flickr pal of mine, Jodes. Of course, we couldn’t talk ALL the time, so I cranked up the 6 stack MP3 player in the Mazda. I thought there should be more than enough Cure, REM, New Order, Joy Division etc to establish my now rather elderly, but still existing streed cred. There is a little sprinkling of more recent cool bands like Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy to really nail the issue.

So what does my random play spit out?
Backstreet Boys
Avril Lavigne
Jonas Brothers
Etc

When the two of them actually started hanging it on me, I feverishly clicked the skip button, only to have my traitorous car then select Westlife, Spice Girls, and Boyzone.

Luckily, I shut it off again, and relied on my native wit and charm to win the guys over. I didn’t leave anything to chance when taking Jen back to the airport though. I cued up my best New Order compilation and cranked it all the way to Tullamarine in a vain attempt to recapture my cred...

Stupid MP3 player. I am thinking about sending it back to Mazda under warranty.

Geny meet their vietnam

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 20:18:05 +1100

Please imagine this in Granpa Simpson’s voice.

Back when I graduated in 1991, Australia was in the middle of recession. As I spent too much time at the Oxford Scholar instead of classes, there was not many marketing jobs on offer when I walked out the gates of RMIT, Marketing Degree in hand.

Unless you did pretty well at Uni, you pretty much took any job you could and tried to work it as best you could. Several of my friends at the time held out for “proper” marketing job and were still looking 18 months + later...

We might or might not be heading for a similar set of economic circumstances. If we are, Gen Y are going to learn the hard way that prosperity is not always the natural state of affairs. Most Gen Xers I know are quite paranoid about their employment and making sure the “next thing” is always around the corner. I think we tend to “protect” our incomes and jobs a lot more than Gen Y.

GenYers have been able to take time off work and gallavant around in general, either applying for Australian Idol or saving the world from something. Well, those resumes are going to looked at a little bit differently if the job market dries up...

Click here for tips on Hobo Living for Gen Y

Grand Final Day 2008 - father of the year

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:14:19 +1000

Had a few mates over for the grand final this year. With Sonia away, it was a bit of a panic on Saturday morning, trying to work out what to buy for the BBQ catering... It has been a while since I actually organised the BBQ, instead of just cooking it.

I suppose I kinda expected some long lost or repressed male gene to kick in and I would buy the right stuff based on an evolutionary skill.

Well, I did ok - probably could have gotten some more chips, but I guessed the meat and salad ration about right. A lot of meat and a little salad (just so it looked good). It is much easier shopping for salad now that it comes in packs! All I had to do for the greek and asian salad was open up the pack, rip open some sachets of olives, crispy noodles, dressings etc and mush them up together! I truly looked as though I had Gordon Ramsay catering (it certainly sounded like it with all the foul mouthed boy talk going on).

Everyone enjoyed the day and the game. Poor old Peter had been working every day for three weeks - it was his first real day off since starting his new job. We got him a pillow and tucked him in after two beers so he could have a nana nap on the couch.

I now officially would like to have kids. I have witnessed first hand the joy they can bring into a father’s life, especially if they can be “encouraged” to help out at a BBQ. After taking some pointers from this ad on TV how kids can share in all the fun of a BBQ, we put it to the test during the GF. Jack and Vincent came through with flying colours.

Click here to see all the pics from the GF.

Fringe Festival Result

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:49:51 +1000

Finally, I have been officially recognised as an artist. I recently participated in the Melbourne Fringe Festival K2TOG project. Click here to see what we made!

Everyone turned up to a drafty old scout hall that houses one of the melbourne textile art groups about a month ago. It was a top secret project, and after swearing an oath of omerta, our projects were handed out. Click here to see us making all the goodies!

The project was targeted at surprising the Melbourne CBD with knitted graffiti for a day in Grand Final Week. Yesterday was the day it was all installed - just for the day!

Look below to see a high res slide show of the event - if you get bored (ie. you are not in the video!) you can fast forward to the end ot see what all the fuss was about.

If you have a crappy internet connection - here is the youtube lower res version. Not so nice, but watchable.

Faith part 3

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:15:40 +1000

September. A month of hope and shattering disappointment.

The Saints are a good team, but they simply do not have the list to win a flag. If only Aaron and Fraser were playing at their peak still. A hard nut like Hamill might have made a big difference...

As per usual, our good players are OK, but our bottom 5 or so are so bloody weak.

I went to the Hawks prelim final with some hope, and walked away forlorn and tired of the yearly grind. There is something to be said for Neill Craig’s theory on destination fatigue (was that the phrase?) It is so exhausting just getting to the finals that you are just glad to get there - I feel the same way as a supporter.

The Hawks and the Cats totally outplayed us in every way. Time to rebuild. Cut the fringe players and try something new.

My 3 ideas to improve next year....

trade Kosi or Dal Santo and our first round pick for Kerr. Daniel Kerr is a proven match winner
get Ben Cousins
play Ben McEvoy EVERY WEEK next year

At least I have six months off now....

Theatre buff

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:04:50 +1000

Took Sonia to the Rocky Horror Show for a bit of a treat. It was pretty cool fun. The highlight of the night was easily the massive strawberry dacquiris they were serving in glasses with rather “fruity” flashing lights.

Sonia was rather enthralled with all the ambiguous sexuality and rather glamorous costumes!

It was the third time I have seen it over the years. It was a little “single paced” - not sure if that is the best description.

heaps o news

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:01:38 +1000

Got lots of news, including my views on St Kilda’s miserable performance in the Prelim. Alas, I am sans wife and very busy keeping my head above the laundry piles and dirty dishes...

Tomorrow night is the monthly 14 Things meetup. Click here if you would like to see my pics for the month.

faith part two

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:16:57 +1000

Went along to the saints v magpies game with a pretty low key kinda ‘tude. The boys did it again though, and came out with a great victory. Is there a better time to live in Melbourne than September each year?

It is hard to commit emotionally at finals time. The Saints have not won a flag for 42 years. I am 39, and feel as though I might never actually see a flag come home to Moorabbin. It was fine for me until 1997, when we made a GF, only to be smashed by a fantastic Adelaide team. Up until that point, I never dared dream for a premiership, and I was just happy to win more than 7 or so games a year.

That year changed my expectations forever. The wait for a flag is bittersweet. We are in a prelim this week, and not expected to win for the third week in a row. I am not sure how much to hope and dream.... Luckily, a couple of beers at the footy mostly makes it OK, win - lose - or draw.

Oh, and I must add some more people to my “jerks at the footy file”. There was a couple of grumpy old bastards in front of us last week. Seriously, they had little concept of the modern game. Every - single - time the saints did anything but kick it long, one of them, in particular, nearly lost his mind and started yelling at them. I swear this senile old fool would be happier if they stopped and used place kicks for everything. He was very aggressive and quite simply just a jerk.

He was so grumpy, he was actually making it quite unpleasant for everyone around him. Even when the Saints were clearly going to win, he wasn’t happy... Continuing to whinge about how they were playing, and talking about how we were going to get beaten like dogs next week anyway. Why even bother mate? No-one liked having you there, so why not sit at home next year in front of the TV and just make yourself miserable, instead of scaring all the kids around you. Psycho....

I couldn’t resist tapping him on the shoulder 5 minutes into the last quarter after another one of his tirades and said “don’t worry matey, I think we have this one in the bag” - listening to him, you would have thought we were 20 goals down. As usual, like most jerks, he just spluttered something unintelligible and continued on in his own little world of loserdom.

I don’t like “supporters” that just complain for the whole game about everything we do.

walking around

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:07:34 +1000

Haven’t been blogging much as work is pretty draining at the moment. There always seems to be something else to do without much of an end point in sight. Like the endless turkish delight in that kids’ book. For every bite I take, another two pieces seem to appear for me. Or maybe I am thinking of that hydra headed thing from Greek mythology?

Anyway, I have been out and about, taking photos of what I see. Click here to see all the pics from a walk through the city last weekend before the big Saints vs Collingwood game.

faith

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 15:23:44 +1000

For one of the first times I can put my hand up and admit to being a pessimistic supporter. The kind that I generally don’t really like. Even when the saints only won 11 games from a possible 66 in 2000 - 2003, I held firm. I always said to the naysayers “hey, the guys aren’t losing on purpose!”.

But over the last couple of weeks of the season I lost faith. The loss to Collingwood really knifed me. I rather sheepishly checked our record in the second half of the season when I got home from the final game vs Essendon (where we stormed into fourth spot!) only to find the only team that has performed better is Geelong...

I will try not to make the same mistake moving forward.

By the way, sitting near the Essendon Cheer Squad was a real eye-opener. Maybe I am just getting old but they pretty much checked the boxes for appalling behaviour
Racial Vilification
Religious Vilification
Sexual preference Vilification
Constant use of really really bad language - read c bomb onwards
Aggressive baiting of opposition fans - ie. looking for someone to punch
General drunken and disorderly behaviour

Using very explicit Sexual vilification against Nick Riewoldt I found both offensive to him and simply not funny. Due to their lack of wit, all they could do was shout obscenities. Nick is one of the fairest and best players going around. What a bunch of jerks.

In particular, the guy behind me kept calling everyone a “f***n retard”. I would have gently suggested to him, if I were Danny Green, that the only mentally impaired person within earshot was him... I did, however, ask him to “keep his bloody beer in his mouth” after he gave a verbal spray to the players laced with a delightful tinge of beer. Perhaps this gentleman’s lack of teeth makes it difficult to yell, drink, and keep the beer in his mouth instead of spraying it over the two rows in front of him.

Oh, and I don’t mind the occasional ruckus about a free kick, but to complain about every single free kick that doesn’t go your way is just plain idiotic.

Not sure if the saints cheersquad is the same, but I am very glad I don’t sit near these losers every week... I was just embarrassed for them.

babyrama

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:04:42 +1000

Josy invited the (mostly) ex-Nestle crew over to meet Chloe, the newest member of the Shaw clan. I am sure there will be many others to come!

Click here to see all the photos from the day.

There must have been something about ice cream that increased fertility rates as you can see by this photo. No less than five little kids / babies and another one “in production” - congratulations Mirella!

At least this time, with so many babies, we didn’t have to wrench them away from Rosy - there were enough to go around!

Sonia was very reluctant to give up Nick Whelan... I think I am screwed.

a pretty big deal - the burnley cowboy

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:19:50 +1000

I was pretty excited this month to get 1... 2... 3... 4... votes in the Flickr Melbourne photo comp for my pic “burnley cowboy”. Basically, everyone uploads their best pic taken in the month and all the members vote. 6 - 8 votes is usually enough to get you over the line for a win.

Okay, 4 votes was never going to get me the gift certificate, but it is a pretty darn good showing. The only other photo I have ever gotten votes for (from memory) was my pic of the girl at Workshop (below). This was a fair while ago now, and I was starting to wonder if votes would ever be coming my way again!

Getting 4 votes really made my month - for a second I thought I had actually scraped through for an inaugral win, but the deserved winner go about 10 votes in the end. When you consider the quality of the pictures that are submitted for the comp, you get a feel for what a great feeling it was for me to have a few people say “well done”. Thanks for voting. Your money is in the mail.

what do I have in common with harvs

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:19:02 +1000

It was Harv’s last home game today. It was nice to see the team slay Adelaide to celebrate.

Harvs has been playing for such a long time... 20 years I think the number was? And in that time he won brownlow medals, michael tuck medals, etc etc etc. But just like me, he has never seen the Saints win a flag.

We were oh so close in 1997, but coughed it up in the second half of the GF. It sometimes feels like the day will never come. We got close again in 2004 and 2005, and absolutely crap in 2006 and even worse in 2007.

So, both Harvs and I have turned up each and every week, rain - hail - or shine, and still not tasted a beer from the cup.

Maybe this year, but probably not.