amphigoric macoronical pointlessness

oh, before i forget it. a few memories from this lunch thingy in sydney. there was this union guy, nick far jones or something. he was really cool. they wanted him to talk about union, but we'd just had a draw with croatia in the wog-ball. so he talked about that instead. out comes the next guy, he's a league guy, james someone or other, he's the paramatta coach or something i think. a little less positive than the nik-far-jones character, but he was pretty cool. talked about the positives of life. like, his last state of origin he lost, and at the time he was gutted, but looking back, he'd reached the pinnacle he reckoned. he'd reached the peak and had a great career. so rather than concentrate on the downs, he took the ups. and they'd just recently beaten souths, so that was an up as well :-)

next dude was an afl guy. i think he was heading for some kind of goal kicking record, so his mates said they'd make a bet. whoever stormed the field and got to him first would win the bet. so he talked to the authorities and they seemed to be behind it. they encouraged him to spread the word. so it went out by word of mouth, radio, intermanet etc...

only the authorities changed their minds. and security got beefed up. his two mates saw the extra security, so rather than give up (cause they had a bet on who'd reach him first) they split up and moved to opposite ends of the field in order to have the best chance.

he scored the goal and they stormed the field. can't remember who he said got there first. but they were the only two idiots to go. i think they mighta reached him together. in any case, they both got kicked outta the stand. at the third break thingy he's feeling a bit bad so he rings them up. they're at a pub down the road. he's thinking how he can get them back in or recompense them. his mate says hey! we were on tv! did you see us?! we were on tv!

oh fuck,i have just seen the coolest thing ever. sbs. these mad dudes in ireland, got the maddest surf spot. i gotta go there and try that. got a coupla kids from the north and some from the south. some are one religion and some are another, but they're just kids. they chucked them all in the water and they went for it. apparently 3 days later their feet thawed out :-)

icicle grommets. go dude. like the kiwi surfing dudes. awesome. if they keep playing soccer and showing surfing, i think i'm gonna just leave the idiot box on sbs. it's groovy

the last speaker was a soccer guy. paul wade i think his name was. he was really cool too. told us some cool stories. i'll have to put my thinking cap on and attempt to tell one another time without screwing it up.


oh yeah, and the wog ball. argentina is always gonna be tough. and their game against mexico was a beautiful game. for both teams. but deutschland has been playing some very nice football. i never bet smart, but i want germany to win :-) i really like the way they've been playing and the way most of their country has embraced the game with the party spirit.

i think the lack of soccer violence and the love of the game is showing. it was quite depressing seeing how badly our fans were represented on the telly, but i reckon (and i hope) that they were only showing the worst and the other fans love the game enough to keep watching and enjoy it

hell, they've turned the berlin wall area into a beach! how cool is that

friday nite, and i'm home alone. kids aren't over, training ain't on, and i'm too pissed to play my computer game. so i'm watchin telly. flick flick flick, hmmm, looks interesting, nah it's shit, flick flick flick, ads, wait till they finish, big brother, bleah! flick flick flick.

the poms had the only reality tv show i'd watch. i think it was called superbike school or something like that. they talked a bit much and didn't show enough track stuff, but it was the right idea. wanna reality tv show that'd interest me, take a bunch of guys and girls (there are girl racers out there, and they ain't slow), put them on the track, and show the team and the riders and how they improve.

don't vote anyone off, or stuff around with stupid ego comments, get to the business end and have some fun with cool racing gear and top end suspension.

yes, another drunken blog entry. friday night in front of the idiot box. i'm sure i wasn't doing this last weekend. bring on summer. i need to work weekends for my sanity

ahh well. bit of a dodgy ref decision again, but if we had managed to score when there was only 10 of them, make something happen, then maybe we would have deserved to win. italy hung in there and got lucky.

i think i've changed my mind about umpires though, i reckon they should have an official lookin at the replays like in rugby league.

hold your heads high socceroos, i'm proud of yers

i was watching a bit of the world cup the other day, as you do, and i thought i saw one of my mates. rotten prick is over there watchin the games. so i'm feeling a little jealous.

played two games this weekend. one of the lads says he's feeling old. he's 25. heh. got beaten reasonably convincingly (4-1, they only scored 3 times, but the last one was between our goalie's legs, so that counts for two) on saturday with our usual slow start. a consolation goal with about 30 seconds to go.

we played better today, but against an easier team. won 3-1 and despite all feeling like we were over forty (except for a couple of lads from my over 35's team who played for us as well, they felt like they were 35 again) we felt pretty good at the end. on saturday i went up for a 50-50 header and the rotten prick kneed me and gave me a beaut corked thigh. took me about 20 mins of running around today before it didn't hurt like a bastard. a couple of hours later, and i feel like i'm fifty. but a few beers later and all is nice and numb.

ain't dead yet though. being fit and not drinking would help a lot, pity about that

today has been a good day. however, despite the result, i reckon it still woulda been a good day.

we'll start with the wog-ball. Croatia, like us, were plagued with poor refeering decisions. it's a sad state of affairs when the referee's ability to award free kicks determines the course of the game, but i guess when both we and the Croatians are such physical sides, free kicks are going to be awarded and set plays will play their part.

i thought we dominated the first half. much like my over 35's side. all posession, 3 milllion shots, no goals. the second half the croations were awake and we were not. poor passes, stupid errors. but then, i'm an amateur, and they are professionals, and they won the day. Harry Kewell totally redeemed himself in my eyes with a nice performance, but i thought kept the ball a little long when he coulda passed. While Mark Viduka also played well and passed the ball when he shoulda taken the fucking chance. however, remember, i'm an amateur, i know nothing, and they got away with it.

i was on the edge of my seat. rotten pricks.

in my completely ignorant opinion, we let relationships and pressure get in the way. against Brazil we played beautiful football, unrestrained and lovely to watch. against Croatia we allowed ourselves to play their game and had to work harder. it was a nice game to watch though. when i allowed myself to forget the scoreline and the consequences of the result, i enjoyed watching the challenge and the way both teams lifted themselves to achieve.

i'm sorry Croatia didn't make it, and i'm happy we did. i'm unhappy that such a terrible performance by a referee (again) has left the result clouded by doubt. i hope the game against Italy is better, and of course that we win.

but i will always remember the telecasts and news stories of the aussies and brazilians partying together as their teams played. that is the sort of sportsmanship that inspires me. play hard and fair, and celebrate the result, win, lose or draw. there is always enough beer...

just when i thought it couldn't get any busier.

last friday, up at 5:00, drive to syd, course all day, home at 7:00

sunday, drive to syd, course mon and tue, home 6:30 tue night. wed, at at 5:00, drive to syd, home at 4. sleep at 6:30

today, go to office, madly try and catch up, fail, but get some stuff done. in a few mins, go out for surprise birthday party dinner (yeah who does that on a thursday night!)

tomorrow, up at 4:30 to get ready for work, 5:00 watch international wog ball and us beat the croatians to get into the next round. drive to sydney, home god knows when, farewell party.

less travel next week, but still hectic.

randomn crap from my last few days

i've been in the big smoke for a few days. reinforcing why i don't live there. traffic, overload, squashiness.

well that’s not actually why I was there. I was learning a few things about my trade. learning again that i don't know enough about what i do for a crust.

they did a bit of a mini quiz, and i managed to score 3rd out of our class of 9. but i think that was more because i know how to play multiple choice, than knowing the subject matter. for being third i managed to get a set of logitech headphones for my computer. i'm happy with that. logitech invents, and everyone else copies. isn't plageurism the ultimate compliment?

there were two chinese people in the row in front of me. unfortunately they didn't speak any english, however they must have been able to read it quite well. plus i think they had more experience in our field than me. it was obvioius in the labs that they knew what was going on. plus they were polite and nice and i thought they were ok.

i did have a naughty humour moment though. we had network gear on each of our desks, and they were sitting in front of us, for us to connect to the rest of the class, we had to go through their network switch. during one of the practical labs they accidently reset their switch without saving their configuration. which was when the rest of the class learned how to save their configuration. we thought we knew, but we didn't.

for the rest of the class we were unable to connect. it didn't have a very big influence on our pracs, but i was thinking of that advertisement i've seen on telly, some dude was driving with his son and the son asks why the great wall of china was built, and the dad replies that it was built to keep the rabbits out. i loved that. for the rest of the class i was thinking that i was a rabbit and the great wall of china was keeping from my lab :-)

our instructor was malaysian, spoke english, malaysian, chinese and no idea what else. i wish i coulda explained my joke to him. he had a great sense of humour. he woulda got a kick out of it :-)

5:00am start for sydney tomorrow, in the office thursday, sydney again friday. well at least life isn't boring. as soon as i learn how to earn this much dough water skiing, diving, surfing and snowboarding i'll be a happy camper. bring it on

well i'm starting to learn a few things about myself. there is a bit of mongrel left in an old bastard. i wish i was fit. but i just don't want it hard enough.

on the field i can keep up with fit, fast, young pricks, but i can feel the punishment. the fittest i ever was, was when i was about 24-25 i think. i'd play a game of soccer and not even feel the pain. run 90 minutes and not give a shit. i wasn't very fast. my younger (and fitter and more skillful, but he don't play anymore and i still do :-p ) brother could outrun me in his sleep. he was one of those annoying fucks. he could do anything. when we fought (just playing) he could kick me in the head and when he was about 19, him and one of his equally annoyingly quick mates, took out three fuckwit fourth reich bikies. they were kicking someone in a gutter and it rubbed them up the wrong way. dunno if the guy in the gutter was a good guy or a bad guy. they don't have it painted on their foreheads.

i turned up to watch my brother play a game of soccer when i was 30-ish. another mate i knew was there, talked me into playing summer soccer with them. my marriage was breaking down, and it was the priority (only i hadn't, and still don't, have a clue on how when it comes to people situations) so i gave up soccer again. with my usual lack of style and skill, my marriage plummetted in fucking flames, and i decided, or well life decided, to let loose and play and have fun. pity i didn't learn to let go when i was married. but at least i'm equally skilled at football and relationships. and that's no good thing hehehe

so i played summer soccer, and started grade again as well. christ it hurt. i was training with some really fit and fast little young pricks. but it was really fun. about halfway through the season i finally got fit enough to play a whole game in the halves. i could run as fast as our quickest players, although i then needed a lot longer to recover. the next season i was less fit. and so on. got old enough to play over 35's, and thought i'd be laughing. only they are all "has beens", while i'm a "never was". i learn more playing with these pricks than i ever learned before. no matter how much i screw up, they still pass me the ball. in 3rd grade, they have yet to achieve this level of enlightenment.

oh yeah, where i started. it hurt like a bastard, but i was faster than ever.

now it hurts more, and i'm not as fast, but i'm too stupid and too much of a mongrel to give up. gym is boring. jogging is insanely boring. the ultimate training for me is to play a couple of games a week. i want to be fit, but i am completely unable to go to the gym and train on a treadmill, or go jogging, or bike riding. gimme a team fulla guys and make us work, i'm there.

this little prick i was marking today (i was fullback) heard me breathing heavy, and he sarcastically said to me, "having trouble keeping up with me?". i just replied "hell i have trouble keeping up with everyone". he started working me like a striker should, side to side, but he's got a ways to go, and then he subbed off. i really shoulda replied "heh, i'm twice your age, are you having trouble getting away?". but i don't care. i don't do confrontation, but i love a physical challenge. these kids really push me. if only i can keep up this intensity. unfortunately this lad twisted his knee and we had to carry him off. i reckon he'll do ok at this game, he's quick and has half a brain, he just needs a little experience. they beat us 2-0. it was kinda like over 35's. they had about 4 shots, 2 went in. we had about 20...

ahh well, shit happens. it was fun

i just found out that state of origin is on again tonight. while not being the biggest rugby league fan, i usually know when the league is on, but when the guy at the bottleshop asked who i was supporting tonight i thought he was asking if i was following ukraine or spain.

i really should just take the month off and turn nocturnal

ohhhllayyy ohhhlayyy ohhllaaayyyyy!

ok, i may be a pissed idiot, but we did win, eventually. but we got a long way to go!

well despite playing thursday night (i think we won), saturday (got our arses handed to us) and today (we won convincingly), i'm not feeling too shabby. a coupla beers and i feel like a million dollars, well maybe about 1100.

on saturday we played the local koori team. and we probably played the best we've played all year. kept them to 2-2 just after half time. sloppy wet conditions, it was raining on and off reasonably heavily and despite two goals, they were pushing us pretty hard and we were making some mistakes. played hard, a few tense moments on the field, but you get that. coupla lads on both sides kept the tempers checked and afterwards it was all good. woulda been nice to beat them, but they are coming first and we're dead last.

the last time we played the team we played today we lost convincingly. we blew away some chances, they were fitter, and took advantage of their chances, while we lost our cool and after 2 red cards ended up with only 9 players. today we were boosted by a couple of over 35 players. we put one in as sweeper which free'd up on of our lads who belongs up front. we had a bit better depth in defense, although i'd love to have just one more fullback with a clue. a couple of the lads you have to be careful who you get them to mark. which is pretty much what they do to me in over 35's, they don't let me mark anyone with skill :-) one of our slower but much more experienced lads looks after their key striker.

we also had one of the over 35's halves. he is easily fit enough to stay on the whole game, but chose to sub himself off often to keep our regular players going. we put him in as striker for a while as well, which meant he was bossing me around a fair bit. but i don't mind. i'd much rather a striker with a big mouth telling me where he wants me.

we ended up winning 5 or 6 to 1. played well, and despite some nervousness, started playing as a team and kicking to our teammates. i managed a few headers which actually went where i wanted them to go, one day i'll learn to keep my eyes open.

now for a nanna nap before aust vs japan

hair like jesus wore it, hallelujah i adore it.

when i was 18, and i started working for a living, i rebelled against my past. and in the true shallow fashion, i grew my my hair long. heh, i guess looking at the time, and looking at my old man's mates, that long hair wasn't so exciting, but at the time i just wanted to be different. in true unimaginative fashion, i started working weekends in about year 10, and after school finished, i just kept on goin.

at school i was the least. picked on, wimpy, easily intimidated, shit like that. and being of very little imagination, i grew my hair like a 3 season lost sheep. i wasn't vindictive though.

now i've got kids, when they get into trouble i think dark thoughts, but not then. a year after leaving school, labouring and growing a little, i really wish i'd run into my tormentors a few times. although then i really hadn't learned how to be a hard bastard so it probably woulda been wasted anyway. fit and strong, and as dumb as a hat full of arseholes.

then i went for short haired and respectable, well eventually anyway.

a bit older now, a bit of a spare tyre round the belly. a lot less fit than ever before, but more potential i think. when i started playing wog-ball again in my 20's i had better fitness, but i wasn't as fast, when i started again in my 30's i had more "arsehole". when i ran with them young buggers, i was fast, well at least for the first pass. i can do it again, just gotta be a harder bastard and run harder, and train harder.

aint dead yet

over 35's wog-ball tonight. we won, but it wasn't easy. we've managed to lose against the two lowest placed teams, but win or draw against all others. this mob we played tonight were easily the fittest. got about 3 players just turned 35, and a coupla older guys who are fit and fast.

i'm still feeling the pain from an elbow in the ribs last thursday, dunno if i have a cracked rib or just bruising (getting old hehehe) but some prick hit me there again tonight. goddamn! (which is not exactly what i said at the time).

my ankle is still strapped, and i'm hitting the frikking ball even worse than usual. i cannot wait to get the strapping off, or get half a clue how to do it properly. it's so restrictive. fortunately the god of idiots-who-play-soccer musta had a few beers tonight, and he made sure that some of the poxier passes i tried actually went to a team mate. not the one i was aiming at, but at least one of MY teammates. my left foot was working though, hit a few nice ones.

the good bit about being clueless, is that everyone tells me what to do, they call for the ball, i've always got lotsa options. unlike playing with the young buggers on the weekend. with over 35's everyone wants the ball, everyone runs to space, everyone has a clue (apart from me) and no matter how much i fuck up, they still pass it to me!

the bad bit is sometimes i get two players telling me conflicting things. oh well. shit happens.

a fun time was had by all, and a few cleansing lagers afterwards

ok, yeah, it's as boring as a hatful of arseholes here at the moment.

lacking inspiration, nothing exciting going on. but you get that.

i can't complain about work all the time. i do enough of that at work.

and yeah, i do work for the cancel. i nearly punched out one prick at the pub once (well, ok, insert "started a fight and got my head punched in" instead of "punched out") when someone gave me the classic response to me saying where i worked. normally i just grin or send a sarcastic remark back about dole bludgers or whatever occupation the tormentor belongs to, but that time i'd had a shit day, was in a shit mood and he annoyed the shit outta me.

so i did the next best thing. i bored the prick shitless about how hard i work, i've worked in private enterprise, etc.. etc... yadda yadda yadda. his eyes glazed over so quick you wouldn't believe.

i should know better, but some days, when more shit than normal has hit the fan, or the boss is being particularly ignorant, well i guess i'm human too.

after reading the article that Dirk referred to the other day, i think i just need to let more shit out. maybe i should go hunting again, or, my personal favourite, more ride days at eastern creek.

my little work subaru bops up and down the mountain here quite nicely (ok, it's not a mountain, its a hill, but it's a nice windy stretch or road), but you've gotta really buzz it hard to get any kinda, um, oomph or whatever. i'm in the process of buying a house, so another road bike is outta the question, and that definitely would give oomph. you don't even need to go hard. it's like surfing, when you're doing it, you're thinking of nothing else. and that's what i need. some kinda diversion, hard and fast, lets your brain go and frees your soul.

ahhh, i'm just venting. summer will come back, we'll go skiing (i frikkin hope) a few more ride days, we're talking about doing an endurance round at wakefield park, now that should really buzz. but i like the format. i think it's 5 hours, our fast rider does an hour, our next fastest rider does an hour, i do an hour, then the other two do two hours trying to catch up again. bring it on

not only should thou never post pissed. if you have a 3 second attention span, like i do, it's really embarrassing when you put a movie on, and you forget what you're watching before the credits finish.

however, the credits have finished, and it's all come back to me now, army of darkness, giggle giggle

winter is definitely upon us. day 1 and we were playing wog-ball in the rain. i think it's the first time since i left the southern tablelands that i've been cold while running around on the field. i managed to sub off for a while in the second half (unlimited interchange) then we scored a few times and started winning. (coincidence? i think not hehehe)

it was still fun though. winning or losing. the wet weather made it hard, the ball skipped and bounced wierd, exept in the middle, where it stopped dead. lots of missed passes. i tried to kick it up the sideline and managed to kick the ball in to an opponent's face. i copped an elbow in the ribs and my side hurts whenever i giggle. and being friday and in a stupid mood, i'm giggling a lot.

gotta learn how to do one of them slide-tackle thingies. and also how not to get got when someone else slide tackles me. we have a cricket pitch in the middle of our soccer field. at the start of the season it's usually not too bad, but a bit hard. after we play on it, it depends. now it's rained and been muddy, it'll turn into a big mud bath. when it's cold it'll be like an ice skating rink.

not working this weekend, the charter has been cancelled due to bad weather. on the bright side if it keeps on raining they'll take water restrictions off, but we'll be playing in the mud tomorrow, if we're even playing. find out tonight at soccer training