So what have we been up to since our return from the UK? “Not a lot”,  is the only honest answer. We’ve settled back into the old routines, back into the necessary boredom of working life, and back into our ordinary existence.

A kinder man would stop typing at this point and spare you the rest. I however..

On the good news front; the mother-in-law, Mary, broke the Aus record for the hammer throw the other day (women over 75’s) with a throw of 28 1/2 meters. Later this month she’s off to the “World Masters Games” in Sydney, to compete in all the throwing events, hammer, discus, shot, javelin, and some oddball event called the “heavy weight throw”. You have to hand it to all these old biddies that they are still competing at that age, it’s all I can do to hit the gym a few times a week. Though the idea of what they may get up to at night, in the Olympic village, is like something out of a Stephen King horror movie. I wouldn’t mind owning the viagra concession for there though.

We went to see the Opals (Aus’s women’s basketball team) stuffing China at the AIS, it was a great match. As most of you know Beth’s a keen basketball player, so to have the national side, who are the world’s top team, competing in our home town is a great plus. The Chinese seem totally joyless when playing, pretty bloody joyless lot all round Mr and Mrs Chinese, don’t you think?  Fair bit of niggle between the two sides too, “handbags at dawn” if you know what I mean. I must add that our attendance was totally in order for Beth to be inspired by the world’s top players. Nothing to do with my enjoyment of watching very leggy women running around and getting sweaty while wearing brief shorts, oh no. Not at all.

I also spent a couple of days at the  “Mountain Bike World Cup” which was being held here in Canberra. Amazing, and slightly scary to watch the almost suicidal antics of the downhillers. The cross country riders were human oxygen processing machines, and the “Trials” riders were getting their bikes to climb things that I could only get up with a rope and harness. Luckily my days off that week coincided with the heats, so I didn’t have to pay to get in.

The images from those days can be seen here. Some very good shots even if I say so myself.

Lee-Anne’s boss, the Minister, (the Min for short,) kindly invited us to his wife’s 50th birthday celebration. Seeing as Lee-Anne had worked her arse off getting things ready for it, that’s no big surprise.

It was to be held in a marquee, in the grounds of Canberra’s poshest yacht club. “You’ll have to wear a suit of course,” said her indoors. Only suit I have is the one I got married in. So it was dragged out and dry cleaned, and I’m proud to say, that fat bastard as I may be, I still fit in it. And I look fucking lush. Transport to the place was by the mother-in-law, as I’m too cheap to fork out for a taxi both ways. I made a bee line for the bar. I ordered a couple of glasses of Merlot, and was digging in my pocket for the cash, when the androgynous bar person told me; “Oh, it’s a free bar tonight sir, courtesy of the Minister.”

To which there was only one possible reply; “Great, keep those glasses, give me a couple of bottles of the stuff.”

Fatal.

Anyway, we grabbed a table for the evening with other staff from Lee-Anne’s work, and a good night was had by all. The food was great, the free bottles of plonk  kept vanishing, and I got to know Lee-Anne’s workmates a bit better, (and they got to know that Lee-Anne is married to the town drunk.)  The Minister made a big speech, he was as pissed as I was by this point, and was kind enough to recognise all the hard work done by other people in organising his wife’s party. The min’s best mate, made the mistake of drinking with me and the Min’s secretary’s husband, another hard drinker. He got severely pissed, and seeing as he was wearing an all white outfit,  it was all the funnier when he tried to stand to go to the toilet and managed to pour a whole bottle of Merlot over himself. Oh, I was the only, THE ONLY, man on our table wearing a bloody suit BTW.

Eventually I was poured into a taxi and shipped home. The hangover I had the next day was truly horrible.

The weather down here has been dead cold, with storms and rain at time, lovely. This has driven flocks of Cockies into the garden scrounging food. We even had one in our laundry the other day. It had a case of “Beak and feather” disease. But the warmth of the laundry, and my feeding it bread and seeds, soon perked it up enough for it to able to bite me on the toe when I got too close to it. It flew away the next day, which was sad, as I wanted to keep it as a pet. I think I’d have had to stop it shitting all over the laundry before Lee-Anne would allow that though.

Oh, being the only Pom in the office when the Ashes were being played was a hoot. Just before the last, and deciding match, I phoned the mother-in-law up from work; “Mary, be a darling and go to the bookies and put a tenner on England to win for me?” So being a kind person she did; “I’d like to put $10 on England to win the Ashes. It’s not for me it’s for my son-in-law, he’s a pommy.” Waking up on the last but one day of the match to find we’d already won, almost made me too scared to go into work. They didn’t appreciate me waving my betting slip about either.

Just to add insult to injury, Aus got well stuffed by the Boers at rugby in the same week.

On the sad side of things; Bethy’s grandad (on her father’s side) passed away last week. Bethy was very brave about it all, and even traveled down to Tasmania on her own on the plane for the funeral, as her father was already down there.

Bethy’s off to Japan for a couple of weeks soon. She’s very excited about this as you can imagine. Of course it requires a whole new wardrobe of clothes and shoes, and a new suitcase. But we cannot begrudge her as she’s a fine kid. (All her school results were “A”‘s apart from one “B” last year.) So we’ve decided, as we have a bit of time on our own, and it’s Lee-Anne’s birthday, to go to the coast and go whale watching for a few days.

Anyone here use “Skype”? It’s dead good for cheap calls, computer to computer calls are free. Put us on your list if you have one.

Ah well, that’s a bout it from us. Keep in touch, let me know your news.

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