Melbourne: Sunday

On Sunday Marcus and I were both awake about 6.30am. I sent him out to the kitchen to do some drawing but there was no way I would get back to sleep. The previous night Alex and Suparna and I stayed up talking past midnight, which is pretty late for me these days.

While Suparna made us a deluxe cafe-style hot brekkie, Marcus was pinging around the house with excess energy, so he and Alex and I went to the park at the end of the street with a flat football. There we relived the heroics of the night before on the very dewy grass. There is a Seventh Day Adventist church beside the park which has been designed to look as though one corner is sinking into a swamp. I do not know what this symbolises.

Suparna called us in when our breakfast was ready. Their house is beautiful, a very calm and serene space. Alex has a wonderful collection of colourful tin robots. They are very keen to have kids, and judging by how they doted on Marcus, I think they would very happily swap their serenity for some noise, scuffed walls and the occasional broken robot. We really enjoyed their company.


They drove Marcus and I to the zoo via a neighbourhood cafe. Windsor is a little corner sandwiched between Prahran and St Kilda. It is notable for the Astor Theatre, a train station and a number of dodgy second-hand fridge retailers. Alex and I shared a flat two stops up the train line, sixteen years ago now. I remember buying a fridge and some Mexican tin folk-art ducks in Windsor. There was a tapas bar, which was a daringly new concept at the time.

After fond farewells to our hosts at the zoo gate, we went in, turned left and got amongst the simians. We paced ourselves fairly well, and although we only saw about two-thirds of the zoo, we saw all that we were capable of in one go, including all our favourites. Here is a rundown on highlights.

The gorilla lay very still, and seemed to have a hangover. His head was the size of a 44 gallon drum. The spider monkeys were a little subdued as well. The porcupine was in his box, but was very attractive nonetheless. The lions were a little bit skinny-arsed, like they were down on their luck. I really liked the fishing cats - I think the next new AFL team could be the Fishing Cats. They were pretty much like a domestic tabby sized up about 400%. There is a pic of Marcus below sitting back to back with a grizzly bear (with some thick perspex between them admittedly). Marcus enjoyed that. It looked a bit like he had dropped in to watch telly with the bears - and the other grizzly had gone off to get them all some snacks. The seals are the happiest animals in the zoo. They seem very pleased with their gig. All the big cats and many of the small cats radiate a sort of intense annoyance at being in a zoo in Melbourne. The elephant area now goes on and on - it was an "elephant village", but seems to now be a small elephant country. My favourites are the co-located zebras and giraffes. They don't have savannah or acacias, sadly, so they are very easy to spot. I'm all for animals having a good familiar habitat, but if I can't find them after five minutes looking I am likely to feel peeved. The zebs and giraffes are right there. Also I like the hills-hoist arrangement that they use to get the giraffes food up to the right height.





I teed up my old friend (and ardent friend of this blog), Michael to pick us up at 2.00pm. This he did with his beautiful kids Cooper and Mackenzie in tow, and we all went off to Barkley Square for late lunch. (No nightingales sang). Michael's just started his own business, and his office is located at the old Essendon Airport. This is handy, as he is a keen pilot, and uses a plane that lives on the apron there. He took us through the gate and out onto the tarmac where he opened up the plane for the kids to climb about inside. It's just occurred to me that I would have liked to do this as well, but I was too busy taking photos. We walked down a covered way, which I gradually realised was an old walkway for passengers coming and going from the aircraft. The signs for gates 10 and 11 were right there, mouldering away, complete with rotary handles to change the destination and flight number. I tweaked one around to advertise a Special to Flinders Island.


The kids got on very well, devising games, shouting and shoving quite happily. On the way out I saw a dog with one leg in a cast being walked, then another. Besides Michael's consulting firm, there are also a veterinarian, many other small offices of various kinds, the Armaguard headquarters, and soon a mega Coles supermarket. Perhaps the Essendon Football Club may need to change its nickname from The Bombers to the Hobbling Huskies.


After this Michael dropped us at the Real Airport, where we flew home uneventfully. Michael and Elf were delighted to see us, and we them. Marcus said a few times over the weekend that he was really having fun. He kept saying it right up to when he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Melbourne: Saturday

Marcus and I flew into Melbourne on Saturday morning. He was very relaxed, considering how uptight he used to be about the idea of flying. I took the magnetic chess onto the plane, with the idea it would distract him from any worries. We played a few games but he quite enjoyed the flying, the way a small boy should. Before landing he confided "This is actually quite fun".

We whisked into town on the Skybus. The driver didn't charge me for Marcus, although a sign I saw after we were aboard said he should have paid $5. As this trip was on a definite tight-arse basis I didn't quibble. Grown-ups pay $15, which is fine I guess except that some people stood and hung from a strap the whole way, at freeway speeds.

We alighted at Spencer St and walked around to the aquarium. We were quite close to the Telstra Dome where Carlton would be taking on Adelaide later in the day. Adelaide supporters were on the street and outnumbering the home fans about 10 to one. I guess the Crows fans had flown/trained there in many cases, while the Carlton fans were still at home washing the Porsche or supervising the gardeners.

The aquarium was a huge hit with Marcus right from the start. He remembered being there before once we got inside, although he was about Michael's age then. The aquarium builds to a climax very nicely - or should I say descends gradually to a climax, as you move down ramps to the bowels of the building as you go. This means you are looking up at the big critters in the major tank, and you can even pass through their world by way of perspex tunnels. Having a big ray waft over you and block out the lights is pretty amazing.

My favourite fish in the whole place is the maori wrasse. He is an aqua coloured fish about the size of a slightly flattened sheep, very even-tempered and quite regal. We spent a lot of time with him, then went around the corner to have fish and chips for lunch.

We spent about three hours there, culminating in feeding time for the big guys. We saw divers in the tank feed the sharks and rays with squid, with a large supporting cast of snapper and trevally picking up everything that the larger creatures missed. It's pretty amazing watching the big mouth underneath a ray just going chomp, chomp, chomp. You imagine they are thinking "I wish my eyes weren't on top of this big flappy thing so i could bloody see what this stuff is I'm eating". One of the rays had a wagging stump instead of a tail.

Comic relief was provided by the green sea turtles. They have very poor vision, and occasionally chomp the hand or face of a diver. The divers have a special turtle-rebuffing stick, and also give them a backhander to go on with when required. The green sea turtles are so called for what you see when you cut them open. There are grey nurse sharks, school sharks and a primitive version called the seven-gilled shark. I prodded Marcus to go and ask a question after the feeding presentation, and he was given a range of shark teeth to hold. They vary greatly from species to species.







We walked out of the aquarium thrilled to bits, and a little footsore. I should have got us on a tram to go along to Flinders St station, but I always feel its a bit fiddly to wait for one, go two blocks and get off. With a quite large overnight bag and a tired five year old, I think it is the way to go. We finally got to the station and onto a train to Windsor.

Marcus is very funny company - sometimes he is quite pessimistic, but in a droll way. We sat on platform 4, while the train across the vacant tracks from us on platform 3 moved out. After a few moments Marcus turned and said, with the rising inflection of derisive youth, "Dad, we just missed our train?" He is quite convinced he's right a lot of the time, and that can be tiring.

Alex met us at the station and walked us the short way to his house. His wife Suparna was there with her dad whose name I think is Kailash. He is a lovely retired engineering lecturer, who was delighted to meet Marcus. (When Kailash first met Alex he apparently said of him "he is very jolly jolly, but I hope that's not all there is to him". Marcus showed off a bit and enjoyed the attention, then I managed to get him to have rest as we had a late night in store.

Alex's mate Andrew arrived with his 3 year old Will. We had pizza for dinner, then set off (without Suparna who doesn't do football) for the train to the MCG. Marcus and Will got on very well, and after less than an hour together Marcus whispered to me "William is quite a good friend, even though we've just met".

I was looking forward to the first sight of the MCG's column of light from Richmond Station - but for the pre-match entertainment the lights were actually off. This was the AFL Indigenous Tribute round, and the game we attended was the annual "Dreamtime at the G" between Essendon and Richmond. I like that the name "MCG" is not short enough for Melbourne people, and has to be abbreviated to the "G".

Alex teed up our tickets, and did a superb job. We had a great view, we were in a fairly ruly family area, we enjoyed the night immensely. Will went to sleep about halfway through, but Marcus was bright eyed and leaping with excitement for the whole night, even though the first bounce was just after his usual bedtime. His fist pumping dance moves and innocent, curious but very loud questions caught the eyes and ears of people in seats 10 to 20 and rows U, V and W. Best of all, when cruel fate dealt our team the Tigers a blow in the final minute, and they lost the game by a kick, he was philosophical and refused to get upset. Unlike Richo.





It says a lot for Australians and Australian Rules footy that there is no segregation of fans, even at the biggest games. The two cheer squads sit behind the respective goals, surrounded by a penumbra of hangers on, but the rest of the ground is a stew of opposing colours, often sharing the same thermos and sandwiches.

We somehow lost the other three fellas on the long sad trudge out to the station. I thought it best to just get on the train and meet up back home. They put on a lot of trains to clear the post-game crowd out of the city as quickly as possible. Andrew and Will got off the far end of our train at Windsor, but not Alex. Suparna let us in, and Alex showed up only five minutes later, off the next train.

Marcus still claimed to not be tired, but accepted bed as inevitable. He slept pretty well, and says he dreamed of football, football, football.

Melbourne trip summary

The trip was terrific, and Marcus had a ball. He loved the flying, not a problem in the world. On Saturday we flew over, had a great visit to the aquarium, then a wonderful night at the footy (despite the gut-wrenching result). Today we visited the zoo, then had a guided tour of Essendon airport, and Marcus got behind the wheel of a light plane, before flying home again (with a professional pilot in charge). Details and photos to come in further bulletins!

Fish, footy and flamingos

Marcus and I are flying to Melbourne tomorrow, for a couple of days of fun. We'll go to the aquarium first, then hook up with some friends to see Richmond and Essendon play at the MCG in the annual Dreamtime match. After a late night we will take it easy on Sunday, stroll around the zoo and then fly home.

The genesis of this trip was a few months back when I was getting increasingly worried about Marcus's flying phobia. His last flight was when he was 2 or 3. He really hated it, and got quite panicky. We haven't really needed to fly him anywhere since, so he's had a chance to nurture his phobia.

I decided that if I could think of something unmissable we needed to fly to see, it might get him on a plane and over his fears. It actually worked too well - he was immediately so excited about the prospect of the zoo and the aquarium that his fears seemed to melt away. But that still left me needing to fork out for tickets. Fairly expensive therapy I suppose, buty it will be fun and as a bonus I might get to see Richmond win their first game of the season. Or not.

Ridiculous Age Video News

Extremely mixed bag of news offered by The Age online. I haven't got the right plug-in (or something) to watch any of their videos, all I can do is look at their headlines and feel flummoxed.

South Hobart Bonfire Night

We dropped into the old stamping ground last night to attend the annual South Hobart bonfire night. We picked up Lana from next door, and walked up past the brewery to the paddock where they always have the bonfire. It's a nice thing to be a half an hour walk from the city, but only ten minutes walk from a very large paddock.

There was a slightly out-of-kilter irish band playing, hot dogs etc and a small range of glowsticks available. We bought some glowsticks and hotdogs and wandered around the paddock in the dark, eating and glowing, like everyone else.

The PA man tried desperately to give away door prizes. "Ticket number Green 124 - we are still waiting....Flair Boutique... full body massage... what's that Kevin?... don't miss out on a full range of hair... er... services..."

The bonfire was lit by the deputy lord mayor Eva Ruzicka, who is arguably the most powerful person in South Hobart. It was a pretty good one, and kept the crowd on its toes with the constantly changing wind direction sending embers scattering generally. The boys and Lana were having a good time, it was a mild night and very pleasant to just sit and look at a large fire.

A little later the fireworks began all of a sudden, away off up the hill. Elf got Marcus's earplugs in just in time but not Michael's. He was fascinated but also quite scared, wailing eloquently "I want to go away from this place". The display was very good, went on for a while, and afterwards Michael seemed to bear no ill effects. Marcus had enjoyed fireworks for the first time (he hated it a couple of years ago), and Lana enjoyed her first encounter with them.

We walked Lana home again and that was it for another year.

Knackered 15 d DOTWS 3

I started this game with an own goal. I managed to just get a toe on a speculative shot from DOTWS, and that was enough to divert it past Daniel in goals.

I was pretty pleased to score two at the correct end pretty quickly to get the team and myself in the black. We had no sub this week, just Daniel, Paul, Brett and I. The four of us are quite even in skill. Our fitness varies (mine varies the most) but we are all running the game out a little better each week. I have never played a team sport with such a small team, except doubles tennis I guess. The team dynamic is very good, and although I'm a newcomer I feel very welcome.

We rattled on about nine goals to one in the first half. After the break we again conceded the first goal, and DOTWS were really having a crack at us. Unfortunately for them, their keeper fumbled the ball over the line for a goal to us, and the wind was taken out of their sails. We looked at one stage like we might rack up 20 again, but fatigue set in a little and we finished with 15.

Chess Club

Here is Marcus proudly posing with the rest of the South Hobart Primary chess team. (front row 2nd from right).

Interesting political blog

I just came across this blog, by Sen. Andrew Bartlett of the Aust Democrats, from Queensland. Sometimes its good to delve into the world of Queensland for a while, it makes the rest of Australia seem so sensible.

There is a very interesting and feisty debate going on among his commenters, about the Queensland lungfish. Is it a highly endangered crucial link in the history of evolution, or reasonably common and a lucrative business for lungfish breeders? There are threats of libel. The Queensland Govt seem determined to dam its favourite river. Click on heading above to check it out.

Marcus loves footy cards

Darts commentary

Some pearls from the great Sid Waddell. Mick O'Regan interviewed him on Radio National a few weeks ago, and he has an incredible Geordie accent, and a history degree from Cambridge. One of his first jobs out of Uni in 1962 was to work out the Indian election results. A comment he made that I will be using myself ASAP was: "if yuv invarted a tayger to tea, ya dorn't carver yeself in soss!"

If you had to throw a knife at your wife in the circus, you'd want to throw it like that.

Jocky Wilson - all the psychology of a claymore.

Keith Deller is not just an underdog - he’s an under puppy.

Taylor is so hot he could hit the bullseye standing one-legged in a hammock.

Steve Beaton. He’s not A-donis, he’s THE Donis.

Bristow with that little finger poised - fit to grace any garden party.

Circus Tavern packed - even a garter snake smothered in Vaseline couldn’t slide in here.

When Alexander of Macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer - Bristow is only 27!

Bristow’s effect on the audience like Rasputin used to have on the birds a long time ago.

It might have been a bit boisterous here earlier, but now it’s got all the courtesy of a Bourbon court on dance night.

The players are under so much duress, it’s like Duressic Park out there.

The invisible house

It might look "big" and "imposing" from right in front, but our house is pretty well camouflaged when you look from the other side of the valley.

Disturbing story from today's Age newspaper

It can be hard to relate to a lot of what goes on in the Middle East. For me, the scale and nature of this story was just right for it to make an impact on me.

LAST Thursday, as Jerusalem prepared for this week's celebration of the 40th anniversary of the city's "reunification" by Israeli forces, two very different articles appeared in Ha'aretz newspaper.

The more prominent of the two concerned a proposal by the council's planning committee to build three "Jewish neighbourhoods" in East Jerusalem, the Arab part of the city seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of June 1967.

The other piece told how shortly before dawn last Tuesday, the council sent bulldozers and police to demolish a small house in East Jerusalem used as a rehabilitation centre for disabled Palestinian children.

"They came at four in the morning, when it was too early for us to try and get a court order to stop it," said Hani Totah, 45, the building's owner."

Click on the heading above for the full story at www.theage.com.au.

Nedding

Michael likes to stand by a hole he has dug in the back yard, with a stick in his hand. For a few weeks the hole was full of water, but it has dried up again now. Still, he goes out in hope, with his stick, to catch fish. This is called "nedding". Yesterday he came in and told Elf he had caught an "Australian plumpfish". A little later he also caught a "bullfish", although I prefer the plumpfish. It sounds like good eating.

Marcus holds his own at the board

Today was Chess Tournament Day. Elf and Michael went along as volunteer supervisors and to help with transport. The only person they needed to transport was a grade 1 boy named Oscar. "So Oscar", said Michael by way of getting to know him - "are your Mummy and Daddy still married?" Gasps of horror mixed with giggles from Elf. "No" said Oscar. Ah. Off to a great start.

Marcus did very well, winning one and drawing three of his eight games. He enjoyed himself, and was sporting and gracious in victory and in defeat. The kid he beat was in grade 4 or 5. He had a gritty draw with a little chinese girl who Elf thought may perhaps have still been in nappies. She had a rook and a knight while Marcus was left with just his king, but he somehow evaded her tiny clutches to clinch a draw. We are very proud of his efforts and his composure representing his school.

The first thing he wanted to do when he arrived home was challenge Elf to another game of chess.

Knackered 6 drew with Guidos 6

This was the roughest, toughest soccer game I've played in for many years. Guidos have an uncompromising reputation and they lived up to it. I got a corked thigh about 2 minutes into the game, in a semi-intentional collision. We scored a couple of quick goals, and held them at 2-0 for a long time. I subbed off (this is the first time we have had a sub). When I came back on I was too slow to pick up the pace of the game, got caught with the ball right in front of goals and suddenly they were off the mark. It was something like 4-2 to us at halftime.

I was running badly out of puff in the last ten minutes of the match, and volunteered myself in goals. This was a mistake, as I am not very good at remembering some of the rules in the heat of battle. I gave away three penalties in quick succession. I saved the first one. With three minutes to go we led 6-4. Twice I threw the ball out over the halfway line, giving away penalties which were both slotted past me with no trouble.

I was very cross with myself for letting the team down and throwing (literally) away what would have been an excellent win. We are still on top of the ladder, but when we meet these guys again we'll be lucky to get such a good opportunity to beat them.

Beautiful photos

http://www.civilwarphotos.net/files/naval_officers.htm
Beautiful photos from US Civil War, in the 1850s. Spend a bit of time here, it's just amazing.

Voices from the coffee room 2

Tail end of discussion of heat pumps
He "...I'm just useless with fires."
She "I was Girl Guide of the year in Western Australia. In 1970-something. I've got a past."

Voices from the coffee room 1

"... she didn't know that if you turn your back on a ferret, they jump straight in the washing machine. Yeah, so, lucky she just put it on economy cycle though."

Horns + wings = ?

We've got a book about a boy who loves dragons. On page two he is dressed up as a dragon, with a horned viking-type helmet, and a blanket tied to his arms for wings. "He's being a cowbat" said Michael, confidently.

Grand-folks

Mum and Dad arrived on Friday to stay a couple of nights. The boys were delighted. On Saturday morning they climbed into bed with us as usual, then remembered there were grandparents to wake up. Elf and I lay in bed for about another half-hour listening to the amusing (but sometimes alarming) commotion from the sofa-bed next door.

Saturday was going to be a pleasant morning of noodling at home, until the phone rang at 8.45. It was Greg from Amnesty to say I was supposed to be at Salamanca Market 45 minutes ago. Yah! I got dressed and hotfooted it down there from Kingston in legal record time. I was nearly collected by a police car that was going through a red light - I saw it before I heard it.

In the afternoon Marcus and I went to his school friend Ebony's birthday party in South Hobart. It was fascinating watching the kids interact. Most of them were from school but a few were cousins or family friends. In the queue for the piñata, Ulrike from school was announcing "at my party we'll do this and at my party we'll do that. A bright eyed little guy in a Batman costume said "Can I come to your party?" Ulrike: "no - I don't know you".

Last night the grown-ups watched Little Miss Sunshine. It was a terrific film, laugh-out-loud funny and touching. Elf hated the ending, I must record. Without spoiling it for anyone, I can say that Grandad is a bit of a scamp. For instance the first time we meet him he is snorting heroin.

This morning we convoyed with Mum and Dad to the new house. Mum and Dad and Marcus and I climbed up the ladder to have a look around. Upstairs seemed somehow smaller than the first time I saw it. Elf produced a beautiful interior-decorator's orthographic drawing of our kitchen this afternoon. We have a sample book of 4517 different Formicas to choose from.

Artistic billiards

You've got your snowboarding, your luge and your BASE jumping from the Eiffel Tower. Some people push it a bit further and engage in train surfing, going downhill in a wheelie bin or nude hang-gliding. Free diving without oxygen is increasingly popular. There is still a place for the motorbike jump over a pile of flaming televisions.

But... they could all save themselves a lot of time and money, and get their thrills from Artistic Billiards. Its very big in Belgium.

Tree of Heaven Weatherboards

The cladding is going on, and the window frames are nearly all in place. Just some of the tricky triangular units still to be put in. The house will be the olive green colour (not the bright green), which goes by the name Tree of Heaven.

Marcus gets his knights out early

Elf rang yesterday to tell me Marcus had been asked to go to an interschool chess tournament. We are both very proud. As it happens he beat me (again) the previous day. I am still stopping the game now and then, giving him the chance to change his mind if he plays a clanger, and anyway I am certainly not a very good player. But the fact remains he is five and I am 39.

When I got home from work I said "Marcus - Mum said you're going to be in a chess competition!". He answered (scathingly) "Not a competition Dad, its a tunnymimp, er, turneymonk, er..." It runs pretty much all day next Tuesday. It remains to be seen how they will get five hours of chess out of prep and grade 1 kids.

More animations

These are old animations I did for a Workplace Safe campaign in 2001. I actually promised about 2 years ago that I would upload them - and now I have worked out how! You will need to have breadboard-band to see them really.

http://tinesofwolfram.blogspot.com/2007/05/workplace-safe-animations-by.html

"Crappy style" is back

I have just made a video clip for an original song by the Leonard Cohen Brothers. You can view it at
http://tinesofwolfram.blogspot.com/2007/05/wolf-song-animation-by.html if you have broadyband. Here are some stills. To find out more about the LCBs follow link on the right under BLOGS.

Knackered 22 d Red Devils 6

After a couple of weeks off it was great to climb into the net and run around like a fat idiot at indoor soccer last night. I was doubled over in oxygen debt after about 4 minutes, but we were already about 5-0 up so I felt like it wouldn't matter if I was a bit of passenger for the rest of the game. As it turned out I managed to contribute fairly well for mnost of the 40 minutes. I didnt count the goals but in the postmortem Daniel suggested I might have slotted about 11. I will humbly and modestly take this and proclaim it as fact.

It was a good hard game, with a fair bit of contact. I won a 50-50 ball against a very fit but wiry fella, and was alarmed to see him sent flying. When I looked at myself side-on in the mirror today, it occured to me that this was simple physics - I am a massive tub of lard.

Blood of A Distant Island in the shops

I completely forgot to blog that Patsy's book was launched two weeks ago, and is now in the shops, featuring the cover I designed. Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! Failing that I can lend you a copy.

Email your heroes

I love this time in history. You can email your heroes. They usually email back, sometimes later the same day.

I got an email yesterday from Martin Flanagan, Australia's most interesting journalist and an all-round fantastic writer. Today I got an email from Mal Sharpe, of early-sixties San Francisco comic japesters Coyle and Sharpe. I have filed somewhere an email from Tim Lane, doyen of football commentators, and another from Greg Miller, Richmond's director of football.

I was inspired by Sally, who long ago wrote to her favourite comic artist Jim Woodring. In reply she received an invitation to visit him in the US, and evn do some inking for him. I thought to myself - wow. You can actually contact these Famous People, and they appreciate it enough to write back.

So give it a go. Think about what you really want to say, preferably something specific and not creepy, find their email address on the net, and tell your heroes that they're your heroes! Go on!

Today's news and sport in Pidgin

America na Syria i holim top level miting.
Wanpela australia soldia i kism bagarap long suicide bom attack.
Fiji Attorney General i tok nogat human rihts abuse long kantri.

AFL. Round faive blong AFL i pinis lng wiken wantaim West Coast Eagles i "undeated" oa ino lusim wanpela game yet, wantaim 5 strait blong blong ol. Long game blong ol long Sarere agensim Richmond, Richmond i poretim ol liklik long namba wan kota we Richmond ibin kikim 5 gold 3 bihain na Eagles 2.6, tasol las tri kota, Eagles i kam bek na ronawei wantaim dispela game na win long 23 points. Final sko em West Coast Eagles, 14 gols 15 bihain 96 na Richmond 11.10 76.

Na ol arapela tim ibin winim game blong ol long wiken,long Trinde ANZAC de,moa long 90 tausen ibin pulap long MCG, bikpela Melbourne Cricket graun, lukim Collingwood i autim Essendon 16 points,96-79.

Friday nait graun i wet nogut tru long we bikpela ren ibin pundaun long Adelaide, lukim Port Adelaide i strong tumas long St Kilda na win long 53 points.

Na long Sarere Brisbane i winim Carlton long 12 points na Sydney i autim Melbourne long 49 points.Dispela ibin 5 stret loss blong Melbourne.

Tripela game aste long pinisim round 5 blong AFL, Western Bulldogs i winim Hawthorn long 17 points Kangaroos i autim Geelong long 16 points bihain long Kangaroos ibin lid long 43 points long third kota.

Na Fremantle i winim Adelaide long 1 points tasol. Sko em Fremantle 58 na Adelaide 57. So bihain long raun 5 tupela tim ino winim game blong tupela yet em long Richmond na Melbourne.

We've been up top

I can't actually say "upstairs" as we had to climb a ladder. We can see out to the backyard from the house now, a huge improvement. It was a very overcast day so the views were not at their best.