From the smallest to the biggest

It was the big football finals long wkend (well, we're actually still in the middle of it as it's public holiday monday tomorrow). This year we have the minor premeirs taking on No 2 in both the AFL & the NRL Grand Finals, with the minor premiers (Geelong & Melbourne) heavy favorites. I personally don't really care that much anymore because (1) after the Swans falling at the 1st hurdle of the finals there really was not point in watching the rest of the finals series, with the exception of hoping & praying that Collingwood doesn't win (they didn't :D), (2) have not been into league (NRL) for quite a few years, but I did have a soft spot for the Storms way back when. So, here's a quite recap:

Last year we (Swans) lost a nail-biter to the bloody Eagles by 1 point (after pipping them to the post the year earlier by 4, but still, the 1 pointer hurts so much more than it would've had it been the other way 'round). It was only the 2nd time in 100+ yr history that a Grand Final was decided by 1 point, ie the smallest winning margin. This yr, however, with both Swans & Eagles not making the Grand Final (no 2 teams have made 3 successive Grand Finals ever) there was no history to be made there. Anyways, 2007 has really been Geelong's yr. Not only have they nabbed the most All-Australian spots ever (9 out of 22, compared to the previoous high of 6), the minor premeirship (by a mile), the 1st 200+ games in a few years, the Brownlow to Jimmy Bartel, now the biggest winning margin in VFL/AFL Grand Final history (by 119 points. That's 20 more goals than the runner-up. 20!!!) & the Norm Smith medal to boot. The display of form in the Grand Final was simply too awesome to contain even though Port Adelaide didn't play that badly at all (well, they weren't actually given any opportunity to play let alone play 'badly'). I guess the Premiership cup has to return to Victoria every now & then (1st time since 2000 that any Victorian team has won the premiership, even though it's supposed to be 'their' game. Ha, suck on that Melbournians~!)

Meanwhile, the NRl Grand Final today was also a bit of a shut-out, with Storms taking it out 34-8. Not flawless like the Post thumping by Geelong, but still Manly was really given any chances at all. I guess knocking Brett Stewart out cold in the 1st half helped also. That's pretty much all I can say about the game 'cos I only watched it p-in-p while also watchign Idol :P

Giving myself until the end of tomorrow to finish this section of the chapter (cutting from 8 pages down to 6) then it's only 13 more pages. Should be done by end of wk. Yes!

BTW, moon festival gathering last night at the Mo's & I my home-made strawberry ice-cream totally killed (not literally of course, 'cos if I did I'd be writing this from prison or the big beyond right now). Have already made another batch 'cos we currently have an overload of strawberries in the fridge (tray of 15 for just $5, how crazy is that!?!?)

Strange way to dragon boat

It was the Dragon Boat World Championship at the Penrith Regatta Centre & I was invited to go along & cheer on by Becks. I happily agreed since (1) I've never watched a dragon boat race live, and (2) I've never been to the Penrith Regatta Centre. 2 new birds in 1 stone, fantastique! It was slo free bar the parking! Was prepared early & baked a whole bunch of food to bring alone & feed the hungry. What I wasn't prepared for was the overcast & cool day. It's been mighty fine & warm up until that end of this past wk so it really was a bit of a shock to the system. What was even a bigger shock to the system was the fact that the majority of the competitors & spectators at the World Champs (yesterday at least) were not Chinese! I've been brought up (by TV) with the idea that dragon boats are paddled by Chinese-men & consumed (as ini 'watched') by Chinese-men. The abundance of non-Chiinese ppl, particularly White ppl, at the World Champs was a bit different. No good or bad, just different. A lot of them must be ring-ins from other paddling/rowing sports 'cos Anne who came up to the mountains with me (yes, we went UP a mountain to watch a water sport) recognised that 1 of the Canadians was an Olympic rower or somethin'. Anyways, so Becks managed to win a bronze while I was there & she told me she got another bronze from earlier. She even got 3rd in the Women's 200m heats when I was watching also! (smelling a trend here...) Didn't manage to snatch the bronze off her neck & pretend it was mine. Instead have to settle for her bf delivering the medal to her mum & brother & me snapping a Kodak moment, even though I was using a Canon digicam.

Cottage food

Heading to dragon boat world champs this Sat so I thought I'd better make something to bring along. Have been listening to the Essential Simon & Garfunkel & since Anne will be joining me I thought what a great opportunity for some herb cookies again! So I ended up making 'Simon & Garfunkel' cookies, which of course were 4 types of herb cookies (parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme) all bagged into 1. After that I thought we'd need some 'lunch-y' food, so popped came the lavender muffins! I've only had a taste of 1 thyme cookie. It only tasted like normal butter cookies. Thyme was not strong enough, even though I put in a fair bit. Rosemary might be ok though seeing it's such a strong herb.

Banana-peeling dog?

After a gruelling wkend of 1st yr field trip, I settled down to a day of Emmys, finishign chapter & writing job application. In between though we tried a little experiment on the dog:

It loves fruit. Well, food, but he eats almost anything, including lots of fruit. Sometimes he even goes & pick his own (from our strawberry patch, tomato vine, & peach blossom). We also feed him a lot of fruit & veg, like carrots & apples & stuff. When bananas are cheap enough we'd give him an occasional bite also. But the thing is, he only eats these things when they've been peeled. No picking off the mandarin tree, only when it's been properly de-skinned. How precious! So, the experiment was to see if he can successfully peel his own banana. Well, here's the result. Check it out for yourself.

Choca-block sporting long weekend

APEC was in town so we Sydneysiders got a free long wkend just past. Not that it made a tremendous difference to my usual work week apart from getting Friday off 'work' work. The city was apparently chaotic with the uber-expensive fence/cage & road closures to 'protect' Dubya (and the other whoevers). Naturally non-political me (apart from quietly listening to the Dixie Chicks at home) I stayed very well away from the city & protests. Which was just as well because it was a choca-block sporting long weekend. Got up early Sat morning to watch the Venus vs Henin semi-final. It wasn't great but good enough. And as expected, much better than the final. Sat night was of course the Swans' Elimination Final away at Collingwood. A good fight back towards half time but we simply faded away in the 3rd & final quarters. The lost means finishing 7th for the season & no (boooooo!!!!!!) Grand Final for the 1st time since 2004. This AFL season just seems so short now that I don't give a toss who wins anymore (it looks like a Geelong yr).

Quick few hours sleep after a bit of work Sat night & it was time for the Henin-Kuznetsova final Sun morning. Didn't (want to) get up for the men's semis (bloody 2am in the morning!!) but from what I heard they were great matches anyway so didn't miss much at all. Women's final was, of course, a boilover so I went pottering about in the garden & the dog before settling down for some work & a night of TV (Enstein Factor, Idol, Rove, W&G....). Got up early again to watch the R-Fed vs Djoker final which was quite entertaining. Why didn't the Djoker imitate Sharapova again at the end of the match? What a waste, with her already in his supporter box.

1st Yr fieldtrip coming around again this coming wkend, & next wkend is the Dragon Boat World Championship at Penrith with I promised to go so no wkends for me for a couple of wks. At least I planted out my stuff this past wkend in time for spring-y weather.

Clinically depressed

Work has died down a bit at work while we wait for the new Census stuff to arrive, so I had a few minutes to spare to look up stuff & just basically bum around. According to the July 2007 issue of Australian Men's Health, apparently I'm clinically depressed (I scored a very even 0). I know I haven't been at my happiest, but who knew!?!! Now I get legit excuses to bum around in order to 'recover', ha :D So, are you depressed?