Monday 23 June 2008

golf at nudgee


golf mosaic, originally uploaded by jsteel.

Bright and early Saturday morning, 4 young lads headed out to Nudgee for a round of golf. Clockwise from top-left, Jim, Neil, Jesse and Ross. We played an ambrose, because it was Neil's first 18-hole outing, and matchplay, to add some competition. Neil and I ended up winning 3-and-2.

This hole, the 18th, is the prettiest hole on the course, a 155-metre par 3 flying over water and front bunkers.

Monday 16 June 2008

Interesting weekend.

Quite a weekend.

On Friday night, a few of us met up at Mick's place for a few drinks before heading to the German Club for beer and wine festival, replete with nice beers, bratwurst, pretzels and yodelling.

On Saturday afternoon, Lachy had a party for his 30th, starting at the cricket club around 2pm and finishing, in my case at least, at the Regatta around 1am. This included some weird encounters, including being approached by some random chick (which happens to other people, not to me), for a chat about Nabakov, Steinbeck and Graham Greene.

The plan on Sunday was to ride out to the DSTC barbeque at 17-mile rocks. 10 hours of drinking the day before, however, proved an inappropriate preparation for a long ride (to be remembered for next time), so I licked my wounds on the couch and watched the US Open golf and Collingwood-Carlton.

This week is a busy one - paper reviews due, and a visit from our boss/industry partner including delivery of the first alpha version of our tool.

Monday 2 June 2008

A weekend where two sports was quite enough

This weekend past held promise of a lot of sport. The Lions were playing North on Friday night, the Brissie to the Bay bike ride was on Sunday morning, and the Socceroos were playing Iraq on Sunday night.

Normally I'd look forward to such a weekend, but this Friday I was relieved when I got an email from the Brissie to the Bay folks saying that the ride had been cancelled due to "anticipated high winds and rain". I was home sick on Friday (and am again today) with a cold, and the prospect of a 7am ride in the rain and wind wasn't really appealing. Doubly so, since it was likely to bookended by trips to watch football, also probably in the rain.

In the end, it didn't really rain at either the footy or the soccer, which made both much more pleasant. The footy was a good game, with the Lions winning comfortably, but in a game that never lost its intensity (as the Lions' games against the Demons, Blues and Saints had). We were losing most of the ruck taps (MacIntosh is a quality ruckman), but winning a lot of ball out of the centre. Up forward, Brown and Bradshaw were marking everything that came their way, and although the former struggled with accuracy early, they kicked 6 each for the second straight week.

The soccer wasn't quite so satisfying.

The socceroos were ragged. Their shabby defense in the first half gifted Iraq a number of very good opportunities that they failed to grasp, and the lack of a true socceroo centre half really hurt them throughout the night. Kewell played well, but is no Viduka when it comes to holding up the ball on the top of the box, and no Kennedy when it comes to providing a target for crosses, notwithstanding his very good headed goal in the second half. Djite came on late to fill the role, but he spent his time fiddling about on the wing, which was less than useful. Despite dominating possession and playing well in the midfield, there are problems in defense and in attack (both of which can be partly explained by missing personnel - Neill, Viduka, Kennedy, etc).

I was once again very frustrated by the softness of the game, with lots of soft free kicks from the referees, and diving from the players.

There were 22 000 at the Lions' game, and 48 000 at the soccer, which as far as I'm concerned was completely out of whack with the quality of the spectacles.

As for the bike ride, it has been postponed, and the organisers have yet to set a new date. My apologies to those who have sponsored me (although obviously the money is far from wasted). I will post here when I find out the new date. In the meantime, if anyone wants to sponsor me, for a ride at an unknown date, they can still do so here. All monies go to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Queensland.