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The story of me becoming a Hawthorn supporter has been covered before, but needless to say, it was a great decision and I love watching the Hawks work their magic. I don't go to many games, but decided to go to the season opener against Geelong - our nemesis.
Carolyn has slowly moved from being a half-hearted Essendon supporter to a more interested Hawthorn follower having endured enough games with me on TV. So she joined me along with Trudi and Marion - two fellow Hawks.
It was a great atmousphere and following the trend, Geelong got their 10th straight win against us - the last time we beat them was in the 2008 Grand Final - the game that mattered!
Anyway, it was good to be there and I had a ball.
Each year Melbourne has a comedy festival that is apparently the world's second largest behind Montreal. Though there are heaps of shows available over the month, it is hard to choose what to attend - do you pick the ones you know or do you try something new? Over the years, I have drifted towards the former and also fewer. The first show this year was Sarah Millican who I have seen on more and more British TV programs - she comes over well and I had the impression that her live shows would be a bit out there. Well - it was just an hour long but it was great - just felt like listening to a funny mate chatting about things - as always, I can't remember a thing that she said, but I laughed quite a lot.
Yet another wonderful show from the girls. This time it was at The Substation which is a wonderful building out in Newport. I hadn't been there before and was very impressed - it is an old power substation and now contains lots of gallery space and a large room in the middle where they are now hosting gigs and shows. It's a large room with a high ceiling, so you need a good sound person to make it work. As such, there was a long sound check that we enjoyed from downstairs prior to it starting. We had good seats and thoroughly enjoyed the show.
It is good that Dion is back on guitar as that makes the dynamic great, his playing is soulful and his voice enhances the sound. In fact the band seemed to be enjoying it as much as we did - and that energy fed the girls into some stunning vocals. I have never been disappointed by these people.
My second footy game of the year and a fine victory by my boys. Carolyn declined this one, so it was just Trudi and I and good times indeed. I went to no games last season - though I watched almost all of them as they happened. This year, I hope to go to 3 or 4 games. It was strange to see the way Australian Rules Football came into my world and how my appreciation grew and grew. When I arrived in etc etc
My second (and last) visit to the comedy festival was to see Jack Dee who I have probably seen for about 20 years in various things. He's a funny chap and plays a grumpy man in the same way as Les Dawson used to do. I find 'grumpy' to always be funny - I don't know why. Anyway, Jack's show showed him playing a warmer side and was funnier than I have found him on recent programs from the UK - well worth going - very funny. And no, I can't remember anything that he said.
We went out for dinner for AJ's 18th birthday. AJ (Andrew James) is Carolyn's nephew - he sister's son. To expand a bit, Carolyn has two siblings, a brother Mark and sister Denise. Denise is married to Andrew and they have three children; Katrina (a doctor living with her boyfriend in Adelaide), AJ (birthday boy) and Caroline. To celebrate, we went out for a meal in Chinatown and were joined by Kath (Carolyn's mum), Anne and Nathan (Anne is Andrew's sister and Nathan is her husband) and Victoria who is one of the daughters of Carolyn's brother Mark (from his second of 3 marriages). It was a good night
We came to this event mainly to see Kerry Greenwood who Carolyn likes. We have been to one other event that Kerry was part of and that was as part of the Writers Festival where Kerry 'hosted' a meal at a restaurant in the city. People booked and shared dinner with her and her hubby and she chatted about what she does and answered questions - a really lovely type of event that I think there should be more of.
I have never read anything that she has written, but there are a lot of books and she is very successful. They have even made a TV series around one of her characters and the stories about her i.e. Phryne Fisher.
Anyway, back to the event.
So, as ever, these people were given a theme that each of them wrote a letter on and then performed/read them on the day. And as usual, there was a mixture of good and bad. To summarise ....
Jane Kennedy: funny talking about letters her and her friend used to write to each other when they were teengers - her friend was there - so she wrote a letter to her friend using the language that teenage girls use now - very amusing.
Jess Cornelius: wrote to her sister about what they had been through and their mothers suicide attempt and things like that and also the gulf between them - very personal - I liked it though Carolyn didn't.
Rose Chong: I can't remember her letter, but it was enjoyable and entertaining.
Bindi Cole: writing about the child that she is dreaming of having and the disappointments and losses that have occurred as she tries - this is more for Oprah's audience than me.
Kerry Greenwood: she was a bit pissed and was rushing through her letter without giving the audience a chance to laugh or listen or absorb - it was just a pointless stream of nothing. Shame really.
As ever, being at one of these events was a positive experience.
Yvette, Frank, Deanne, Tonia, Nic, Steph, Matt, Francine, Jackie
Yvette is a friend from work who I've got to know over the last couple of years and though she recently left NAB, we still like to catch up every now and then and swap tales - she is always enjoyable company.
Jackie is the sister of Christine - a previous boss and now a friend. When I first joined Chris's team, her and I would go for lunch on a Friday and Jackie would join us. We have stayed in touch and catch up every now and then. Jackie has an interesting life and has had many adventures based on her nature of embracing travel and adventures. She is good company and we always have fun when we catch up.
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