Advertisement
Dinner at the Fockers
Last week I cooked a roast dinner for Katy/Mark (and granny) Falcous & Chris/Ange. I temporarily withdrew the veggie banner from above my head, and prepared a shoulder of lamb with roast spuds, cauliflower cheese and courgettes (zucchini, for my north american followers). Don't worry all you hippies, I have not ventured back to the 'dark side,' Rusty (the lamb we ate - sounds so much better when your food has a first name, in fact it could have been Penny, but I'm convinced it was Rusty - just so I can tell all my scottish chums I ate Rusty) was organically raised on the Falcous farm and left this world humanely. She didn't get locked up in a wagon and transported to "the house of destiny" with a truckload of other 'knowing' sunday roasts, just a hop across the road to the neighbours shed where the butcher took care of business.
The cover photo is especially for you Emma. Every good blog has a veggie with animal blood on their chin.
Bye Bye Chow
Our Singaporean friend Jia Yi Chow (AKA Jerry Cow, the name adopted after a rather slipshod local newspaper article -
you think that's bad, did you the know that the highest, runs scored, batting partnership between two brothers at Nantwich Cricket Club was achieved in 1988 by Martin and Duncan Massahernahaffer, and also a record that day was 7 stumpings by Duncan Miscellaneous - yes, the local press has a lot to answer for) departed this week. We sent him off in a blaze of glory with a personalised varsity rugby shirt. He couldn't get out of here quick enough as the temperature is really falling now (he's used to 35 degrees celsius in Singapore - I swear the oven I cooked Rusty in wasn't that hot) and he headed for Sunny Brisbane where it's still a comfortable 25 degrees.
ANZAC Day
We had 2 days straight of rain last week starting on ANZAC day, resulting in a rising of the rivers (photos below) and a few evacuated homes in some of the low lying regions. ANZAC (Austraila & New Zealand Army Corps) day is a national holiday over here that celebrates the coming together of two armies in a 1915 battle over Gallipoli. The Aussies and Kiwis, despite losing this particular battle, still reward us with a day
off in remembrance. Great. So, if anyone wants to have a go at us - (bring it!) feel free - who knows we might get a day off work for our troubles. That is probably pretty disrespectful, although respect has rarely been a trait of mine, ever since my old junior school headmaster Mr Miller, gave us a speach about throwing snowballs (a hideous crime). Following a lengthy and doubtless, very dull one-way debate about the inherent dangers of throwing snowballs in public places, he asked us if he had made himself clear. Den, my worthy sidekick, I think responded "crystal," and by the time the question had made it's way round to me Mr Miller was losing patience -
"Is that clear Duncan" he asked
"Yes" I droned,
"You call me by name" he demanded
"Yes, Peter" I replied automatically and with a straight face (grinning from ear to ear inside).
The following few moments began with a gentle rising of Peter's blood pressure as the capillaries in his face flushed like a crimson tide. I have no clue what he said in response - in fact, it didn't really matter. Den and I were quite happy that
this debate was over and there was no doubt who'd won. There began a trail of disrespect and impertinence that, well, I've never looked back on really.
Soccer Update
Soccer's going well. Last week, despite losing, arguably, our best player in the first 5 minutes and then going 2-0 down, we clawed back to 2-2 (the equalizer coming from an 18yd strike by an underheighted, follically challenged, bowling ball of a chap - ring any bells?). Anyway, to cut a long story short, we won 8-4. I scored 2 with 2 assists and was awarded the MVP. Or I guess the MOM (man of the match) would be more accurate. Naturally I accepted the award with much humility - "thanks lads, yeah, I was pretty awesome today eh!" and "there's no harnessing raw talent is there boys". The MOM award (I think I should have just stuck with MVP) is a framed poem that the winner (me) has to recite whilst marinating in the admiration from his peers on the team. I won't recite it now - you can actually see it on my
Masters Games - Soccer Blog if you feel the need. Everyone was just really happy that finally my soccer genius
had been rewarded.
Work Stuff
Nothing major doing here work wise, still busy writing & reviewing papers, and getting final stats together for the report to SPARC (Sport & Recreation NZ, the gov funded dept who paid for this little surf trip of mine), although there was some fairly significant news from overseas.
After 18 years of job avoidance (very successful I might add, and some may say "unsurpassed" - for example, at my graduation, insetead of giving me a certificate in a scroll they gave me a carriage clock and a bus pass), unfortunately all the hard work has fallen through. I was offered a job at North East Wales Institute in Wrexham, and in a moment of weakness I accepted. Well, there's only so many letters you can get after your name before people think you're a complet pr*** - or at least that's what I thought. As part of the deal they fund me to do a postgraduate teaching certificate, yep, here comes another four letters. Anyway, the deal is sweet, chance to continue my research and applied work and get some great teaching experience in a small, cohesive and expanding department. I'm looking forward
Crazy foreign folk
A brazillian/japanese hybrid, a cockney hip-hop dancer and a Singaporean olympic diver enjoy a moment of bonding. to having some cash in my hands for once. I bet you are too. Yeah, on that, if I owe you money (I think that's all of you, one way or another, apart from Dick - that £20 you claim that I owe you from Gregs, 1987 you actually lent to Masc, not me!) please don't all knock at once.
On the bright side, I was introduced to 2 new words this week. I thought my vocabulary was pretty expansive, until Steve told me about the words "tax" and "rent". Or should I say t*x and re*t. They're practically blasphemous aren't they? Sorry if I've offended anyone.
So, in attempts to find out more about my future employers, I headed to their website for more info. It would be remiss of me not to point you in the direction of what I found. On
NEWI's website they have a splendid picture of a bald ginger bearded welshman, who looks like he just ate your children. Now, either NEWI really need to reconsider their marketing strategy, or, if that's the best looking guy they could find from their student population, I'm in for a real treat! Wedge, don't laugh -
Diving Cow
Jia Yi has a reputation on the soccer field for, let's say, falling over easily. In fact "cheating asian b*****d" has been mentioned more than once by the opposition. Some would say that's bordering on racism, but then I guess so is calling him Jerry Cow. Nice one thingy!! I'll give you about 3 years, tops. In fact, make it two - you've just got a job, so the hair will be falling like a rocky mountain avalanche.
I'm also reliably informed by my (south) wales office mate (Angelina the Angel, see the photo below of beautiful "lady in red") that I am now a "gog". Gog, apparently being a derogatory south Walian term for someone from North Wales - derived from the term "gogledd" meaning north, the welsh dictionary (my new bible) informs me. Feel free to abuse me as you wish.
My Vital Statistics
You will all be relieved to hear that my stats (no. of hits) have now reached 2,500. In fact I'm well on my way to 3,000 so keep on logging on and tell all your chums how gangster I am!!
Footy tomorrow, can't wait.
Did I tell you I was man of the match last week? Yeah, ... it's all about me baby!!
Until next time... (your humble friend down under).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0191s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb