I should have also mentioned in my last post that Stephen Larkham's nickname in rugby circles is 'Bernie', which is a little weird considering the name of this blog. I didn't know that when I named the cat, or the blog.
Poor Steve had a tough day at the office on Saturday night, the All Blacks winning fairly convincingly and they didn't give 'Bernie' much of a chance to shine. In fact they worked pretty hard to keep him out of the play and out of the game. A sensible tactic.
My favourite Kiwi player, Jerry Collins, also had a difficult night as he got caught on camera taking a pee on the field just seconds before the game started. Apparently it was nerves .. when you gotta go, you gotta go ... The camera caught Jerry kneeling down, trying to be discreet! In front of 40,000 people and millions of tv viewers!! Poor Jerry.
We got to the pub early to get a good spot, and I was very surprised at how long it took for the place to fill up. I don't know whether the Australians are all 'sported out' after the World Cup soccer, or whether they just knew this game wasn't going to go their way ... but relatively few of them turned out to watch on the big screens at the Oaks. I've certainly been in much more enthusiastic, larger crowds in that hotel.
We got there early enough to have mussels and 'frites', sitting outside in the courtyard under the big Oak tree, in the warm winter sun. Lovely.
The cat, by the way, was named after Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame. I got the idea from an episode of Murphy Brown, in which Murphy is trying to decide what to call her new child. She's trying out different names and in this episode, was experimenting with 'Woodward' - obviously referring to Bernstein's colleague Bob Woodward. I didn't think 'Woody' would suit the cat, so went for 'Bernie' instead. Given our household was concerned with journalism, and filled with journalists, most of the time, it seemed appropriate.
It was also not too far away from the dreadful 'Bertie' the woman at the pound had been using, so I figured the cat would not notice or mind too much. The pound lady was a very nice woman but she had an unexplainable fondness for Engelbert Humperdink. Hence Bertie.
Over the years Bernie got a few variations on his name, mostly 'Fat Bern' from my brother and 'Barney' from another friend who just likes to wind me up. It was my brother who took the photo that goes with this blog, and doctored it to include the FALSE measurements.
The speech bubble tho is probably fairly accurate.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
My Favourite Australians
Today is the day they play the first game of the Tri-Nations series. All Blacks v Wallabies. Rugby union. South Africa make up the rest of the 'tri'. It's going to be great.
As usual, I am wildly confident about the ABs and I know we will win.
This despite the Wallabies having the world's best rugby player in their team, and my favourite Australian, Stephen Larkham. The game changes when he gets the ball. Anything can happen. Kiwis have a grudging respect for this guy, the same way we used to feel about David Campese. Drives us crazy that someone so good should be in another team.
We are going to my favourite Australian pub to watch the game this afternoon. The Oaks in Neutral Bay, northern Sydney, is just a great pub. It's big and it loves sports occasions. It also does very good mussels.
The northern side of Sydney is known as rugby union country, where the rest of the city embraces rugby league. I like that game too, but union is my birthright. Of course, being a girl I can't talk about it much, and even Kiwi blokes think they like it when a girl knows about rugby, but when you start saying things like "we need to concentrate more on getting height in the lineout" ... well, that tends to freak them out a little. My husband challenges the comments I make all the time, but it's only because he doesn't want me going around sounding like an idiot.
I really stirred up trouble the other night by saying I'd learnt a lot about rugby scrums and rules here, because the tv rugby shows we watch here actually take the time to explain some of this stuff. I don't think they do that in NZ - you are expected to be born knowing how a scrum works. To explain it would be belittling your audience. I've been working on writing a Girl's Guide to Test Rugby for years .. so maybe I need to do a section on scrummaging. Fantastic!
The other good thing about northern Sydney is the large numbers of Kiwis living there ... meaning when we go into this pub today (and I'm wearing my ABs shirt already) we will be heavily outnumbered .. but we won't be alone!
The other challenge at The Oaks today will be to get there early enough to get a decent table with a good view of a screen. This will require about three hours of sitting there before the game starts. I'm up for it, just have to go off and motivate a few others now.
Go the ABs.
As usual, I am wildly confident about the ABs and I know we will win.
This despite the Wallabies having the world's best rugby player in their team, and my favourite Australian, Stephen Larkham. The game changes when he gets the ball. Anything can happen. Kiwis have a grudging respect for this guy, the same way we used to feel about David Campese. Drives us crazy that someone so good should be in another team.
We are going to my favourite Australian pub to watch the game this afternoon. The Oaks in Neutral Bay, northern Sydney, is just a great pub. It's big and it loves sports occasions. It also does very good mussels.
The northern side of Sydney is known as rugby union country, where the rest of the city embraces rugby league. I like that game too, but union is my birthright. Of course, being a girl I can't talk about it much, and even Kiwi blokes think they like it when a girl knows about rugby, but when you start saying things like "we need to concentrate more on getting height in the lineout" ... well, that tends to freak them out a little. My husband challenges the comments I make all the time, but it's only because he doesn't want me going around sounding like an idiot.
I really stirred up trouble the other night by saying I'd learnt a lot about rugby scrums and rules here, because the tv rugby shows we watch here actually take the time to explain some of this stuff. I don't think they do that in NZ - you are expected to be born knowing how a scrum works. To explain it would be belittling your audience. I've been working on writing a Girl's Guide to Test Rugby for years .. so maybe I need to do a section on scrummaging. Fantastic!
The other good thing about northern Sydney is the large numbers of Kiwis living there ... meaning when we go into this pub today (and I'm wearing my ABs shirt already) we will be heavily outnumbered .. but we won't be alone!
The other challenge at The Oaks today will be to get there early enough to get a decent table with a good view of a screen. This will require about three hours of sitting there before the game starts. I'm up for it, just have to go off and motivate a few others now.
Go the ABs.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Sydney's Ugly Mugs
Friends from home have just arrived here in Sydney, found a nice apartment, in a nice building, in a nice part of town.
Moved in their stuff (after of course the standard losing of freight in transit delay) and began the process of settling in. Figured out how the front door buzzer works, set up the clothes rack on the balcony, bought the IKEA sofa and ... cleared out all the former tenant's mail from the mail box.
It is probably relevant to point out these two people are journalists. They have curious minds. So when they found the big yellow folder hanging, half open, out of their letterbox .. well, it was an interest raiser.
It wasn't even specifically addressed to anyone .. so they opened it. As you would.
Well now they are the proud owners of a copy of Sydney's Prostitute Collective's "Ugly Mug List" ... a who's who of the scumbags who are low enough to cause pain, rip off and otherwise abuse Sydney's 'women of the night'.
It's a helluva read.
Obviously this very useful publication is circulated on a regular basis to the women who need to be on the lookout for guys like; "calls himself 'Jacko', 35, of middle Eastern appearance, told worker to get out of the car after the job was done and left her on the side of the highway".
The descriptions are short and .. well .. some are graphic, but at the same time only designed to inform, to help a girl spot a trouble-maker before she gets too badly hurt or .. um .. screwed.
The "UML" also comes with a copy of the PC's latest magazine and that's full of interesting bits and news and advice. What to do when a client leaves a condom in. Where to go to get tax advice. Keep your nailpolish in the fridge.
It has of course crossed the minds of my friends that they might get some late night 'buzzing' on the doorbell that now they can at least explain. But so far it seems the previous tenant has made sure her clients have her forwarding address, shame she forgot about the mail.
Moved in their stuff (after of course the standard losing of freight in transit delay) and began the process of settling in. Figured out how the front door buzzer works, set up the clothes rack on the balcony, bought the IKEA sofa and ... cleared out all the former tenant's mail from the mail box.
It is probably relevant to point out these two people are journalists. They have curious minds. So when they found the big yellow folder hanging, half open, out of their letterbox .. well, it was an interest raiser.
It wasn't even specifically addressed to anyone .. so they opened it. As you would.
Well now they are the proud owners of a copy of Sydney's Prostitute Collective's "Ugly Mug List" ... a who's who of the scumbags who are low enough to cause pain, rip off and otherwise abuse Sydney's 'women of the night'.
It's a helluva read.
Obviously this very useful publication is circulated on a regular basis to the women who need to be on the lookout for guys like; "calls himself 'Jacko', 35, of middle Eastern appearance, told worker to get out of the car after the job was done and left her on the side of the highway".
The descriptions are short and .. well .. some are graphic, but at the same time only designed to inform, to help a girl spot a trouble-maker before she gets too badly hurt or .. um .. screwed.
The "UML" also comes with a copy of the PC's latest magazine and that's full of interesting bits and news and advice. What to do when a client leaves a condom in. Where to go to get tax advice. Keep your nailpolish in the fridge.
It has of course crossed the minds of my friends that they might get some late night 'buzzing' on the doorbell that now they can at least explain. But so far it seems the previous tenant has made sure her clients have her forwarding address, shame she forgot about the mail.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
