Winter of my discontent

Well, alone again at home, but at least it's nice and cozy.

It has been an indifferent sort of day. For three-quarters of the day, it didn't know whether to be fine or overcast. The overcast option was finally taken, and with that, the rain came as well. Not much, a couple of millimeters or so, but enough to make the winter's day just a little more colder.

Me, well, I couldn't care less to be honest. I didn't really want to go outside at all today, but sort of forced to seeing I'm almost out of bread. I'm also almost out of the other bread too, having pocketed what was left in the account in my wallet yesterday. I only got paid the previous Friday. So guess what I'll be doing for the rest of the fortnight? I'll give you a clue. Two words, second word is "all".

It has been a winter of discontent all right. I have never been broker since I moved over to East Gosford. Six weeks of having all the money gone well before the second week in the fortnight has started. Bills & rent. Most of what was left went to food. At least there is something to eat. If I don't go anywhere I should be fine. There's enough to grab essentials (like more bread - lol) and at least get me to Morisset and back twice.

But it really has been miserable, financially, meteorologically, and socially. With all the wet weather, soccer was called off last weekend. At the start of the month, we played two games in two days. Now we've played one in three weeks, seeing we've had a forfeit as well. Next weekend, we have two games in two days scheduled again. This means that I will not be attending Eucalyptus Blood Bowl tournament this year, not even for one day. My priority this winter has been to the round ball code, and seeing I had been given the responsibility as the last line of defence, I've taken it seriously. Besides, I have slotted into the team quite well. My efforts on the pitch have gained me some respect, and not just in the team I'm playing for. They're a good bunch of people, and I fully believe I made the right choice to play this year, despite all the heartbreak, the injuries, the extra expenses and the traveling.

The soccer, apart from being my regular exercise (both physically and mentally) has also been my major social function as well. Without it, and the trips to Morisset, I would have nothing, seeing I'm not gaming anymore. It's not because I don't want to game, just can't find anyone to game with. Time is also a problem. Saturday's at the games' store is the only day things are on that I'm interested in. Guess what I do Saturday's? I don't even see anybody locally these days, not even those outside gaming circles.

But I did do something different last weekend. I actually went to an NRL match, the first one I have attended since August 2005. The rain held off so that Souths could play the Warriors last Sunday, with the visitors thrashing their hosts 16 - 48. Souths, I must say, were lucky to get the 16. The Warriors should have won by a lot more. Even their junior side was way too good as well.

So, has league changed much in the last six years? Nope, not in the slightest. The game was quite predictable: Left, right, kick. Grind, grind, kick. Scrums, that even 12 year-olds have commented that are a waste of time. The home side fans booing the referees at half-time because they feel their side has been dudded. The home crowd booing the opposition goal-kicker because they can. The home crowd leaving early as the scoreboard ticked over regularly in favor of the visitors.

There were a few things that amused and bemused me. The first was the pre-match hype. There was montage after montage of Souths busting up opposition to loud thumping music. Then there was the introductions. Video of each player and the coach, walking through a steel door, punching/slapping/elbowing a button, which causes their name to explode onto the wall beside them. To be honest, I couldn't even recall if the Warrior's team was even announced.

The effect? With the home side coming off a nail-biting narrow win over eternal rivals Easts last week, they were "pumped" and so were the crowd. After five minutes they were down 0 - 6. After ten, it was 12. By halfway through the first half they were down by 18 and they never recovered. They dropped the ball often and at the wrong end of the pitch, their defence was about as reliable as a leaky bucket catching rain at times, and they showed hardly any imagination in attack at all. It appears, they had used up all their efforts last week to take care of their local rivals.

The half-time entertainment, well... I commented to my mate Rod, who had shouted me the ticket to the game (benefiting from a 2 for 1 offer) that "If I was on acid, this would be really, really good." What it was, was about twenty-four people, all dressed in different coloured body-suits, clad from head to toe, dancing, prancing about the field, bouncing giant rubber balls, bouncing off giant rubber balls, all in the name of promoting "the gym used by Souths". Anyone passing by would've probably mistaken the activity taking part on the pitch as some sort of avaunt-garde arty performance piece. Hardly the half-time entertainment the fans would have been expecting...

Gees, give me kids running about on shortened fields throwing the ball about. Give me a goal-kicking contest. Give me some local cover band playing badly for ten minutes or so. Sigh.

Strangely enough, my trip home was considerably quick. My train left Olympic Park station at 4.12pm. I arrived at my front door, after stopping off at the shops for some Tim Tams, at 6pm. Not bad eh?

So, apart from rain, an occasional match of soccer, what else have I been up to? Not much. The TV has been on quite a bit. I've watched a lot of DVDs, and have started listening to some H P Lovecraft audio books. (I downloaded a swag of stories, pictures, role-playing stuff and audio the other day and burnt the audio stuff onto a DVD.) I've also been working on my latest project/time-waster. A board game. I acquired a wonderful program that allows me to customize pieces of the marvelous Arkham Horror board game. My version? Springfield Horror. It has been a tiring process, especially trying to find images. Creating the template of the board was the easy part. Putting it all together and creating hundreds of playing cards... I find though, I am only limited by my imagination, and at times my imagination knows no boundaries!

As I said, time-wasting, or time-occupying (a nicer way of putting it). It's been rather successful in distracting me, keeping my mind concentrated on something constructive rather than dwelling on my problems. I'll post some pictures of the project when I get a chance.

Anyway, time to finish this up, and go attend to dinner. I have to eat at some point. Ciao!

P.S: Sorry, I'm honestly sick and tired of hearing about Amy Winehouse and Cadell Evans. I was disgusted when SBS decided that Cadell Evans just about to win the Tour de France was the most important news item in their broadcast on Sunday, considering there was a massacre of teenagers in Norway and bombings in the capital Oslo. Not only did we have three minutes of Cadell being hailed as the greatest Australian sportsman ever (pardon me for over exaggerating) at the start of the broadcast, but gees, another three minutes of it during the sports news! Grrr!

And for the recently departed? I am reminded of a ditty called the "Ballad of Kurt Cobain" (one of Dennis Leary's I think). I've amended it a little.

I'm drunk, I'm high, I'm nobody
I'm drunk, I'm high, I'm famous
I'm drunk, I'm high, I'm dead

I didn't like her music, and I'm not a big fan of cycling.

P.P.S: Has anybody else noticed that the logo for next year's Olympic Games looks like Lisa Simpson performing a sexual act on her brother Bart?