Last weekend I participated in a old school reunion with a twist -- the class of 1977 competed at various sports - Rowing, Tennis, Athletics, Swimming etc. We all tested our 'muscle memory' to contort our bodies in positions that we used and were masterful some years ago.
After three days my legs are still aching and from the numerous emails on this subject; I'm not alone! We all woke up feeling 17 years old again and engaged in sports that we for the most part have not played for many many years. In my case as Captain of Basketball we played and won 1 out of 2 games, alas the jump shot was not working as I wanted and if my legs were working.....
The basketball was particularly rough and nearly anything was allowed - this served as a great warm-up for the 'touch' rugby which followed a few hours later. In the end with all ended with aching bodies from bumps, scrapes and using muscles that frankly I haven't used for many years.
To me the highlight was not only beating our nemesis St Joey's at Rugby (touch) and reversing our last game of 30 years ago, but to be playing with old friends. For many of us, things didn't needed to be said, we understood each other well and it was a pleasure to be in company of old friends and united against old foe. And indeed they were also 'old'.
I was particularly glad to see faces that I have not seen for 30 year + years. The interesting demographic is that I noticed that while the waistlines were all thicker and the hairline less and more gray, and there were very few Tattoos. However the competitive spirit had not dampened with age, in many cases the mind was more willing than the body.
A great day for the old boys and a worthy charity also benefited from this challenge. Nice job Tony and the organisers !
One wonders who will be up for a game in 10 years time?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Saints...go marching in
Yes...the Saints won today (not St Kilda) I mean the St George Rugby League team. This is the first time since 1979; so represents a very long time since their last success. Congrats to the Dragons !!
Today in beating Eastern Suburbs Roosters they go somewhat forward in eliminating the ghosts of that 1975 Grand Final v Easts where they whitewashed the Dragons by 38 to Nil !
It is hard not to relate that match to the great Graeme Langlands and his white boots. I did not see any boots that looked 'white' or even 'cream', however did see one player with "red" footie boots.
However living in Melbourne this win commands little if any attention and the win by Collingwood after 30 years is all the talk on the street.
Today in beating Eastern Suburbs Roosters they go somewhat forward in eliminating the ghosts of that 1975 Grand Final v Easts where they whitewashed the Dragons by 38 to Nil !
It is hard not to relate that match to the great Graeme Langlands and his white boots. I did not see any boots that looked 'white' or even 'cream', however did see one player with "red" footie boots.
However living in Melbourne this win commands little if any attention and the win by Collingwood after 30 years is all the talk on the street.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Childhood
Michael Jackson has a beautiful song with these lyrics:
Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...
Last weekend I reunited with my old friend Rodney Quong who I grew up with in Darwin. We last saw each other in (I believe) 1976 so it clearly is a long time ! As fate has it a random photo online led me to ask who was in the background with me, that person was Rodney -- who now lives in the same city as I do.
He hasn't changed, yes we all age and we look a little taller, fatter etc than in our youth. But underneath that we are the same people. It was an incredible experience and exhausting at the same time, to be using a part of your brain that you haven't exercised to recall stories etc
We had alot of catching up and we connected instantly. The depth of our background relationship runs deep and this allowed us to move quickly into the present.
As children we played 'war'; which was politically correct to do then. Cowboys and Indians was less popular and lacked the same heroic overtones that war - of the second world war variety embraced. Rodney and I with our families went to countless parties and sleepovers were a very common event.
Despite our choice of 'war' for play, from my memory we only every fought once in all those years.
Childhood is a wonderful place, caught in our memories. But we need to live in the now so Rodney I look forward to making friends again with my old friend.
Have you seen my Childhood?
I'm searching for that wonder in my youth
Like pirates in adventurous dreams,
Of conquest and kings on the throne...
Last weekend I reunited with my old friend Rodney Quong who I grew up with in Darwin. We last saw each other in (I believe) 1976 so it clearly is a long time ! As fate has it a random photo online led me to ask who was in the background with me, that person was Rodney -- who now lives in the same city as I do.
He hasn't changed, yes we all age and we look a little taller, fatter etc than in our youth. But underneath that we are the same people. It was an incredible experience and exhausting at the same time, to be using a part of your brain that you haven't exercised to recall stories etc
We had alot of catching up and we connected instantly. The depth of our background relationship runs deep and this allowed us to move quickly into the present.
As children we played 'war'; which was politically correct to do then. Cowboys and Indians was less popular and lacked the same heroic overtones that war - of the second world war variety embraced. Rodney and I with our families went to countless parties and sleepovers were a very common event.
Despite our choice of 'war' for play, from my memory we only every fought once in all those years.
Childhood is a wonderful place, caught in our memories. But we need to live in the now so Rodney I look forward to making friends again with my old friend.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Little Engine
The Little Engine is a children's story about a train who is attempting to climb a mountain:
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can"
Last weekend I was in Sydney to see if Australia could beat New Zealand in the Rugby, I specially worn a wallabies cap marked August 28th 1999 -- this was the last time I was "live" at a game where the Wallabies had beaten the AllBlacks.
Sitting with my two sons; we cheered and sang with the 70,000 crowd with the optimism of that little train. In the end Australia, lost by 1 point and while we didn't win there was the benefit of self-belief and that we are getting closer to the mark.
"I thought I could, I thought I could"
Next year is the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand; a mountain if ever there was one worth scaling and hopefully we then will be chatting:
"I thought I could, I did, I did."
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can"
Last weekend I was in Sydney to see if Australia could beat New Zealand in the Rugby, I specially worn a wallabies cap marked August 28th 1999 -- this was the last time I was "live" at a game where the Wallabies had beaten the AllBlacks.
Sitting with my two sons; we cheered and sang with the 70,000 crowd with the optimism of that little train. In the end Australia, lost by 1 point and while we didn't win there was the benefit of self-belief and that we are getting closer to the mark.
"I thought I could, I thought I could"
Next year is the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand; a mountain if ever there was one worth scaling and hopefully we then will be chatting:
"I thought I could, I did, I did."
Saturday, September 4, 2010
What's in a name?
You know that I am as guilty as most for giving 'nicknames' to my family members. I've never thought about this too much it just is a natural inclination. For a person who grew up with Boobie, Boob, Jordie and other names it might come as a surprise that I would also wish to create these !
Wikipedia defines nickname as a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. "Bobby", "Bob", "Rob", or "Bert" for the name Robert). The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond.
My sister Kerry got the brunt of this when she was young. It is however a great mnemonic which allows one to remember a name from characteristics of a person. This usually works really well for me as I meet new people and my recall is pretty good.
Even when I first started dating Anna; I told my newington friends that her name was Margaux. This completely threw them off !!!
OK now for a quiz; name this person:
Wikipedia defines nickname as a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience (e.g. "Bobby", "Bob", "Rob", or "Bert" for the name Robert). The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond.
My sister Kerry got the brunt of this when she was young. It is however a great mnemonic which allows one to remember a name from characteristics of a person. This usually works really well for me as I meet new people and my recall is pretty good.
Even when I first started dating Anna; I told my newington friends that her name was Margaux. This completely threw them off !!!
OK now for a quiz; name this person:
- Bunny?
- Beebum?
- Fatguy Attitude?
- Bullfrog?
- Little Gub?
- Prawn?
- Jane of the Jungle?
- Disco Benny?
- Pumpkin?
- Kobe Beef?
- _____ Bear ?
- Pie Head ?
- Buzzar?
- Bee?
- Samsonite
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Barossa & Adelaide Hills Weekend
Last weekend I was treated to a long weekend at the Barossa, it was about 18 years ago that I last visited and it was indeed a treat. We flew into Adelaide and made our way to Adelaide Hills and the well known Bridgewater Mill for lunch and tasting of the wonderful Petaluma Wines. Next Next we wandered to Shaw & Smith and enjoyed a fleet of wines with matching cheese, the wines were superb and the highlight was having a good discussion with Michael Smith who introduced himself when he overheard a reference to Shanghai -- a place he had just returned from.
Our destination was the Barossa Valley -- renown for fine wines and gourmet food; and we were not disappointed. The Barossa Shiraz wine's are amongst the best in Australia and we tasted many great drops. Amongst our favourite vineyards were:
We also visited Trevor Jones, Penfolds and Jacob's Creek -- each of these were good but not great.
But for my birthday dinner, Anna booked us into Appellation, perhaps the finest restaurant in the Barossa Valley. The food was superb and very much a take on the 3 Michellin star -- Chateau Cordeillan Bages from Pauillac, it was really good but never reached the heights that the Bordeaux classic inspiration must have instigated.
As we had brought various gourmet food items from the Barossa Farmer's market and Maggie Beer's Farm, meant that the experience would linger for many more months after this trip !!!
Our destination was the Barossa Valley -- renown for fine wines and gourmet food; and we were not disappointed. The Barossa Shiraz wine's are amongst the best in Australia and we tasted many great drops. Amongst our favourite vineyards were:
- Rockford
- Torbeck
- Charles Melton
- Henschke
We also visited Trevor Jones, Penfolds and Jacob's Creek -- each of these were good but not great.
But for my birthday dinner, Anna booked us into Appellation, perhaps the finest restaurant in the Barossa Valley. The food was superb and very much a take on the 3 Michellin star -- Chateau Cordeillan Bages from Pauillac, it was really good but never reached the heights that the Bordeaux classic inspiration must have instigated.
As we had brought various gourmet food items from the Barossa Farmer's market and Maggie Beer's Farm, meant that the experience would linger for many more months after this trip !!!
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Bledisloe Cup
Last weekend I took my two sons to the Rugby - a tradition and the most revered game between Australia and New Zealand. It was a special event that I had planned and we had not seen a "Bledisloe Cup' together for at least 12 years.
Having been starved of live rugby for many years, I was looking forward to this game and hosting my boys more than I realised. The weekend together was really great and we spent some time with Anna doing some walks and of course lots of eating.
Anna prepared a feast of 'tapas' and then we made the short walk to the Eithad Stadium, which is just less than 10 minutes away.
We sat in Gold tickets and the view was good, but we wondered how liberal the definition of ''Gold' was applied to the seating arrangements. The Rugby game itself started perfectly with Australia scoring from a freakish kick chargedown, however when NZ scored the same try within 2 minutes ; it was clear that this was not going to be an easy evening.
If I summarised the game, the kiwis were playing a new style of game and trying new tactics. These tactics worked well and Australia simply had no answer. It was hard to watch as NZ were just so good, and as much as the Wallabies tried it was to no avail.
In the end the real winner of the evening was myself -- who had managed to get my two sons down for the weekend.
Having been starved of live rugby for many years, I was looking forward to this game and hosting my boys more than I realised. The weekend together was really great and we spent some time with Anna doing some walks and of course lots of eating.
Anna prepared a feast of 'tapas' and then we made the short walk to the Eithad Stadium, which is just less than 10 minutes away.
We sat in Gold tickets and the view was good, but we wondered how liberal the definition of ''Gold' was applied to the seating arrangements. The Rugby game itself started perfectly with Australia scoring from a freakish kick chargedown, however when NZ scored the same try within 2 minutes ; it was clear that this was not going to be an easy evening.
If I summarised the game, the kiwis were playing a new style of game and trying new tactics. These tactics worked well and Australia simply had no answer. It was hard to watch as NZ were just so good, and as much as the Wallabies tried it was to no avail.
In the end the real winner of the evening was myself -- who had managed to get my two sons down for the weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)