You're Just A Stop On The Freeway

If a picture tells a thousand words then this is my longest blog entry ever. Well done me.

As you can see, Beth is continuing to enchant us with her good nature and all-round cuteness. I genuinely believe that she is the cutest baby I’ve ever seen, but I suppose all parents would say that about their loinfruit. The only difference is that I’m right and everyone else in the world is wrong, naturally.

The weather is here is good, in that it’s constantly raining and New South Wales is in a state of drought. Nick, Lou and I braved the rain on Sunday to go and watch Sydney FC which was a good night out. The surprise came when we weren’t allowed into the Member’s Stand because we weren’t wearing collared shirts. Eh? We ended up sitting in the lairy Bay 23 area with the nardcore fans, which turned out to be very entertaining.

We went to a wine-tasting evening on Saturday night. i was driving so I missed out on the wine, and actually I skipped half the evening to slip out to a pub and watch the Arsenal v Spurs game. Glad I did at that, well chuffed to get away with a draw from that one.

I finished “Middlemarch” and raced through a modern novel called “Everything Is Illuminated”. Both were worthwhile. Any reading suggestions more than welcome. I watched Orson Welles’ “Mr Arkadin” in one of the more confusing of the many versions knocking about. I’ll have to rewatch when a decent copy is released.

I remember quiet evenings trembling close to you.

I'll see you at The Beech

Everything is going along at a nice relaxed rate at the moment. Beth, as ever, is our main source of entertainment. She is still very happy and sleeping well, and at the moment she seems to be discovering the joys of music. Snobby child experts seem to reckon that Mozart is the best music for kids, although they don’t really explain why other than general cultural prejudice. We’re going with Franz, the Boo Radleys and Teenage Fanclub, all of whom produce smiles and excitement, especially when combined with a bit of knee-bouncing.

I went to see Sydney FC in the new football league on Friday night with some guys from work. The standard was round about third division (old money), and it was entertaining stuff. Despite him being our star player, I particularly enjoyed watching Dwight Yorke sky a couple of sitters. I’ll be there again this Sunday with Nick and Lou.

Video watching still ploughing ahead; the very wonderful Aguirre, Wrath of God, a horrible colourised copy of Orson Welles’ The Stranger and, somewhat belatedly, the first series of the sublime Spaced.

I still see my ex-girlfriends. Well, not so much see as…watch.

You have found a bag of gold

A nice trip to Avoca this weekend, despite various confusions surrounding food and transport. In essence, I made a bit of a hash of things but we still had a good time with Lari and Rob. In particular, I do love a good game of Talisman which my mate Dave describes as the only game in which the mule is mightier than the sword.

The low point was watching the godawful Constantine, although that did lead me to read the very amusing Guardian review which is about spot on.

Last night Val very kindly babysat, so we nicked out to the movies to watch the marvellously marvellous The Proposition; think Apocalypse Now meets The Wild Bunch in outback Australia. When we got home we naturally felt like watching a movie, so we stuck on Targets – interesting. Quiet night in tonight – reckon we’ll bung on a video or 2.

The kid's fine, if you're wondering.

The Dude abides.

The weekend revolved around M's birthday picnic on Sunday arvo. Friday was planning, Saturday was making up lots of salads, and Sunday was party time. It was striking how many kids are suddenly around on these occasions. Luckily beth is really comfortable with new people and seems to enjoy being passed around. Lots of fun had by all.




What else? Not a lot. At the moment we are both happy just staying in and playing with the baby. She's changing so fast (cliche but true) we're trying to soak it all up.

Mixed week for films: on my cinema course we did The Hustler and we watched a few videos including the wonderful Hoop Dreams. We saw Stripes and Mr & Mrs Smith too, but you can't win em all.

Ronnie Barker RIP

Doctor: Any history of the following complaints....
Fletch: No, Doc just these bad feet...
Doctor: ...diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma...
Fletch: ...just these bad feet, they're killing me....
Doctor: migraine, back problems...
Fletch: ..these feet...
Doctor: any history of homosexuality?
Fletch: What, with these feet?...

More, including a splendid gag about Nicholas Parsons at http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/10/04/comic_genius.html

MC squared. Oh very clever.

It was the long weekend here in Godzone, so we fled north to Avoca to rest and beachify. Jolly nice it was too. Beth has learned to hold her foot with her hand. To us, this is the most exciting news ever.

January's beginning to look like a busy month as usual, with the coincidence of the Sydney festival (Robert LePage, Antony and the Johnsons) and the Big Day Out with attendant spin-offs (Franz Ferdinand, Beck, Iggy Pop, White Stripes). Expensive but fun, and we'll be on the guest list for the Franz gigs.

I just finished reading a not very good book about British comedy, containing some nice gags:

“I went to a restaurant the other night called “A Taste of the Raj”. The waiter hit me with a stick and got me to build a complicated railway system.” – Harry Hill

“They say cleanliness is next to Godliness. Well, the hairdressers is next to the chip shop but I am not persuaded to visit either.” – Simon Munnery

“I took an MC squared the other night. It was great, just like an E.” – Phil Kay

I'm on Middlemarch now; better written but with less Vic and Bob.

Who gives a damn about the profits of Tesco?