The World's Greatest Shave

Yesterday, Friday 14th March, I was one of an estimated 100,000 participants in the 'World's Greatest Shave'.

This fundraising event sees people volunteer to either have their head shaved or to have their hair coloured as a means of supporting, raising awareness and raising money to support the Lukaemia Foundation. The foundation both provides support and care to those with Lukaemia whilst also researching cures for this illness.

I myself have a personal interest in this illness as I lost my mother to a form of Lukaemia 8 years ago.

With the help and support of friends and colleagues, plus a little baking and selling the produce on my part, have managed to raise nearly $1,000 for this cause.

Sporting Nadir.....

Well having moved to Australia has seen me engage in watching greater quantities of live sporting events. However that does not mean that I am entirely successful in my viewing: Saturday: Queensland Reds vs Stormers, loss and quite a convincing one too. The scoreline reflects how lucky QR were in preventing it from being higher. Sunday AM: Watch recorded coverage of England vs Scotland at Murrayfield. A loss to the auld enemy and to boot England had no idea and Johnny Wilkinson (the rugby player, not the bro-in-laws cat) seemed to lack inspirational qualities even if he did surpass Neil Jenkins test points record. Monday AM: West Ham v Spurs. I dread to think given that the Hammers are coming into the game on the back of two 4-0 defeats (Chelski and the Scouse). England v NZ in cricket: NZ win by 189 runs and England skittle for 110 in their second innings. Woeful. And to think that some of us were going to go and see it. That's surely a $1,000 saved? Jeez, I am depressed just writing about it. Nuff from me.

Top Five Places in Brisbane

Having just enjoyed the lovely riverside walk from Toowong into Town, and prompted by a conversation between the wife and I, I felt compelled to share my top five spots in Brissy:

1. Front or back of the City Cat (wife will disagree and be adamant that the front rocks);
2. The Jade Buddha terrace;
3. Boardwalk Bistro;
4. Suncorp stadium cheering on the Roar/ the Reds or recently the Feds (aka the Police); and finally
5. My little deck on a nice day; coffee, pastry and paper in hand.

Mad as a March Hair

Yes, definitely a hair and not a hare. very tenuous title but chosen to reflect that, for me, today is 1st March. Officially summer is now over and we are in Autumn! The hair reference is due to the fact that on March 14th I shall be shaving my head for charity - Leukaemia Foundation. So February left us and the 29th saw me have to work an extra day for no further reward - bah. Also in February, since my last blog, a big group of us went on a boat trip out to the islands in the bay and undertook snorkelling and other aquatic activities. It was a great day and the particular boat we were on was full of history being a former Sydney to Hobart winner, taking line honours in 1958 and 1959. She was called Solo. With Feb passed and March with us, my attention is now firmly on my forthcoming Darkinsons holiday to India. I am very excited about this amazing experience. I am anticipating it being such a cultural awakening with many sights, sounds and smells assaulting my senses. Cannot wait. Other news, the Wakely has actually booked some flights to Oz so April will also be an exciting time. Just got to try and see if we can factor in a trip to NZ to see the H-Meister.

Roaring Myself Hoarse

So since Australia Day weekend, very little has happened. Suffered the indignity of keeping myself relatively isolated from the news last Sunday to enable me to watch the England Wales six nations match without knowing the result - with hindsight there was just too much riding on it for Wales not to have won (not won at Twix in 20 years, England expected to walk all over them etc). Maybe that is just the opportunity to have spent a week reflecting on the game. So on to Italy, where I will be attempting again to stay clear of the web and news until I go round to a colleagues house at 6.30am (before work) to watch a re-run. Here's hoping. Friday just gone (8th February) saw myself in attendance at Suncorp Stadium for the second leg semi-final of the A-League with Queensland Roar taking on the Sydney Jets. The first leg resulted in a 0-0 draw so the Roar had to win or let a 0-0 draw go to penalties. As a pre match warm up eleven of us met up at the Caxton hotel and sank a few jugs of Coopers. whist in the boozer a tropical downpour hit and we learned that this had delayed KO by about 40 mins. Eventually we headed to the stadium, took our seats and awaited the match to start. And start it did. The Roar came out of the blocks in a fast and furious manner and at around the 12 minute mark, Reinaldo scored a cracker. I think it is fair to say that Sydney's fate was sealed in the 20th minute when they had a man dismissed for a professional foul, leaving them down to ten for the best part of 70 minutes. The beer had kicked in (for me anyway) so we set about trying to teach the rather quiet home crowd how to create some atmosphere. Simple standards like "1-0. 1-0, 1-0" were supplemented with "Frank Farina's Orange Army" and this gem (in my humble anyway) aimed at the small Sydney contingent "You're going home on a Jetstar aeroplane". Not sure how well it was received, but I am a little hoarse this weekend and can only really speak in the lower ranges. SO yesterday was pretty much a write-off. the week ahead sees the Super-14s kick off and I have taken a Reds season ticket. The Reds by all accounts are not the greatest side and I believe last year were on the end of same baseball style scorelines. There are some notables in the Reds line-up: Berrick Barnes, Chris Latham and Rodzilla to note. Let's see what the relatively short holds in store. More to follow.