Disappointing end for the Eels

Well the NRL grand final has been run and won and in the end the better side came out on top.  Congratulations to the Melbourne Storm, they’ve been so consistent over the past four years and richly deserve the title.  I always felt that if Parramatta were going to have a chance in the big one they needed to get off to a flying start to keep the momentum going.  As it was Melbourne played it very professionally, got out to a ten point early lead and always really had the game under control.  Credit to the Eels they surged late but it was the first half lapses, and the extremely soft try they allowed Inglis to score, that really sunk them.

I thought Eric Grothe had a great game, he made a number of damaging runs and wasn’t the liability in defence that was touted pre-match.  Moimoi was inspirational, I’d like to know how many minutes he played overall, he seemed to be on the park more than usual and gave it everything he had.  But for me the star was as always Nathan Hindmarsh, an amazing 63 tackles and if there is ever a player that deserves a premiership its Hindy. Foxsports did an article that sums it up nicely, you can read it here.  Jarryd Hayne was disappointing, but hopefully the pain of defeat will spur him on to even greater things next season.

The real success of the day from my point of view was the pre-game cooking I did for the family.  Given the NRL grand final was on at the unusual time of 5pm, it was difficult to plan a full barbecue dinner or the like.  So I ended up opting for an appetizer type dish before the game, a recipe I found on taste.com.au called Five Spice Chicken Bites.  I ended up actually cooking them on the BBQ and they came out really well, everybody really enjoyed them and they were a great option just before the big game.  They actually ended up looking very similar to this:

Five Spice Chicken Bites ... tasty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s it for another footy season … a thrilling run for the Eels but not quite the fairy tale that was hoped for.

NRL Grand Final Day … Go Eels!

Its Grand Final day in the National Rugby League, and my team, the Parramatta Eels have made the big game in improbable fashion.  Despite being laden with talent the Eels had a shocking start to the season, and I think at season midpoint were coming second last.  Then somehow, something turned it all around … and they started playing to their potential.  Initially they put a few scatchy wins together, then suddenly they got on a roll.  With seven rounds to go it looked like they needed to win them all just to scrape into the finals in eighth spot, they continued to win and other results fell their way, to the point where with one round to go they had locked up a finals berth.  In the final round they were belted by minor premiers St George 37-0 and it looked like the run might have come to an end.  But into the finals they turned the tables, beat St George, then the Gold Coast, then arch rivals the Canterbury Bulldogs to make the Grand Final.  While everyone in the team has stepped up, the run has been sparked by the inspirational play of this man:

As far as I am aware no team has come from eigth under the current finals format to play, let alone win the Grand Final.  But they are up against the Melbourne Storm, who are making their fourth consecutive Grand Final appearance and are rightly favourites.  The weather forecast is a bit questionable too and if it’s wet that could dampen (ha!) our chances.  It’s been a fairytale run, and a win for Parra would make this run something special that will be remembered for a long time. If they lose I think it will fade into history reasonably quickly.  The key for Parramatta I think is to start well … they’ve been playing on momentum and emotion, and if Melbourne get away early that could all come unstuck.  It’s been 23 years since we won a premiership, so we are definitely due!  Good luck to the Eels and let’s hope the fairytale has the right ending!

Declutter!

I hate clutter.  Unfortunately, I am very good at it, always have been.  I would love to be more organised, and I constantly have great ideas for organising stuff, but somehow I never get around to it.  So I had a bit of a surf around to look for people that are good at it

I came across this excellent post over at Zenhabits.net.  18 Five Minute Tips to start De-cluttering your mess.  Sounds like exactly the sort of thing I need!  Thoroughly recommend this list, looks like some very simple strategies to make easy improvements.  Will report on progress!

Congratulations Rio

Have just heard that Rio De Janiero has won the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games.  I think this is a fantastic result, great to see the games head to South America for the first time.  While I appreciate the cost of hosting this monster is exorbitant, I think this is a world event that rightly should be shared around and not just held in the US every third games.  Nothing at all against the US, and I’m sure Chicago would have put on a top games.  But part of the games is giving countries, regions or even in this case a continent a chance to showcase itself and its culture and so I think Rio will be an outstanding choice.  It will be interesting to see the political reaction in the US, given that President Obama personally weighed in with his support.

In other news, I forgot to update with the results of my cooking extravaganza last week.  The strognoff turned out ok, and the family certainly ate it (not a given!) but personallyI found it a bit bland.  Not bad though, I give it 6.5 out of ten.  About to scan for next week’s attempts, I’m cooking twice this week!  Will blog the eventual selections.

Mitchell Johnson Wins ICC International Player of the Year

Scanning the sports news this morning I was really surprised to see that Mitchell Johnson has won the ICC International Player of the Year.  While Mitch undeniably has talent, I think he’s been fairly inconsistent so far … producing some great performances at times, and certainly has shown stamina.  But at times he has been awful, and often at the most crucial of times, witness the recently completed Ashes series in England.  Mitch is also quoted by Fox Sports News as saying: “I’m really blown away. I am just surprised to be up here. It has been a great 12 months for our side”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I don’t think it’s been a great 12 months, sure we achieved a good result in South Africa, but really struggled at home and of course lost the Ashes in England.  Still as has been endlessly repeated, you can’t stay at the top forever and clearly we will struggle to match the glory days of 1995-2007.  Congrats to Mitchell Johnson, but I think there must be a few disgruntled South Africans that somehow didn’t even get a nomination for the award.

Return of an Icon

Last night was the Hey Hey It’s Saturday Reunion Show.  I almost forgot it was on, but was glad I ended up watching.  For anyone in Australia that is over 21, you would definitely know what I am talking about. People from overseas are probably saying Hey Hey It’s Saturday, whats that? And yesterday was Wednesday anyway!

Hey Hey It’s Saturday is a TV show that had its origins as (I think!) Cartoon Corner way back in 1971 … incidentally the year I was born.  Somewhere along the line it became Hey Hey It’s Saturday and was a comedy/variety show starring Daryl Somers and a variety of other sidekicks over the years, most notably Jackie McDonald, John Blackman, Red Symonds, Wilbur Wilde and characters such as Ossie Ostrich and Dickie Knee … here’s and example from the final show of the series in 1999:

So anyway after 28 years of enterainment the show went of the air in 1999.  It’s hard to say what made the show so funny, but essentially it was all-Australian and the cast just gelled so well together.  In my opinion the show was at its peak in the mid eighties through the early nineties … when it focused more on just being funny.  Later in the show’s life it became more of a true variety show and reduced the number of funny characters and segments.  But most of all it was just good fun for the whole family, no violence etc, although at times the humour did become a little risque for younger viewers.

Apparently on Facebook there was a group started to “Bring Back Hey Hey”. Ultimately I don’t know how much influence the group had, but Channel Nine decided to bring the show back for two reunion episodes, the first of which aired last night. I was initially sceptical, thinking this will just be a reunion show where they show highlight clips, relive the glory days and thats about it.  But it turned out to be far from the case, sure there was a little nostalgia but mostly it was run as a full original show, bringing back plenty of the old concepts and characters (and even muscians such as Jimmy Barnes) but treating it more about the now than just replaying clips from the past.

The really interesting thing was that my kids (aged ten and six) both sat down to watch it, not having been old enough to have seen any of the original incarnations.  Fifteen minutes in, I looked around and we were all gathered around the TV, laughing madly and I couldn’t help thinking … this is what TV lacks these days, a genuinely funny show the whole family can enjoy.  The kids loved every minute, loved the music, loved the characters, loved the concepts.  My son was in stitches with Dickie Knee, Daryl’s phone ringing and segments such as Disaster Chef and of course Red Faces.

I surfed around the news sites this morning at it seems the response to the show was phenomenal, with the ratings peaking close to the top show of the year so far (AFL Grand Final).  Comments on various news sites from people were mixed but generally positive, there were the usual naysayers but the majority were in favour.  The critics had written the reunion concept off but the overall response was great.  There is a second show planned for next Wednesday, it will be intertesting to see if the ratings were a one off or if they will be repeated.

Personally, I think the fact that they did a “fresh” show rather than nostalgia clips means that this is a trial run.  If the show delivers ratings in the second show next week, then I suspect (and hope) Hey Hey might be back on a full time basis in 2010.  Last night watching I couldn’t help but think how much I had missed it, and how much it would be great to have it back … this time to enjoy with my kids.  From my point of view, here’s hoping.

I’m Cooking Tonight!

 

I’m cooking tonight! One of the things I have vowed to do as part of the whole “new fun attitude” is to start cooking more.  I’ve always kind of enjoyed cooking but in a very casual way … and it’s fair to say I don’t do my fair share of the cooking around the house.  So I’ve decided to rectify that, and have fun doing it!  I’m going to take it slow, one step at a time.  This week I’m cooking one night (tonight) and then next week I’ll expand to two.  Ultimately I’d love to take the cooking dinner role on completely and try all sorts of fun new dishes.

Here’s tonight’s first go … Lamb Stroganoff.  All going well, it should look like this:

Looks like a fairly simple recipe and relatively short preparation time.  Looking forward to getting into it, will post the results and feedback from the family!

As with the last post, Google Reader is my inspiration and source of new fun cooking recipes and ideas.  At the moment I am focusing on Taste.com.au as my main source, I’ve subscribed to their RSS feeds on top and new recipes.  If any readers that stumble across this blog have any other favourite recipe/cooking sites, especially RSS feeds, please share!

Addicting Little Game

Was surfing a few of the global tags, I think it may have been “funny”.  Came across Amnesia Blog which looks interesting, I’ve linked it for further reading. But what really got my attention was the game that this blog linked as the top post, which has immediately got me fascinated.  It’s called the Fantastic Contraption, and essentially it involves getting a small pink box into a bigger target box by constructing a machine with wheels and axles to power the box past the obstacles and into the target zone.  Here’s an example of a hideously inefficient machine I built that (eventually) gets the job done! 

http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=9264386

I love it, the levels get harder and harder.  I’m not intuitive at these sort of things, my ten year old son though wants a go tomorrow and I reckon he will be awesome at it – he’s great at building things.  I’ll link any imaginative designs he comes up with.

Fun Things I Like: Google Reader

I’ve just recently been initiated into the wonderful piece of software that is Google Reader.  I have to admit from the outset, I am a bit of a tech numpty but the whole RSS thing has always interested me.  A friend of mine about nine months back set me up with Sharp Reader, and while that did the job ok after a while I lost interest.  Recently though Google Reader was recommneded to me and I’m loving it so far.  Very easy to use and get setup, and some of the pre-available feed bundles on particular topics have been a really good way to find feeds straight away. So far I’ve added a fairly diverse view of fun topics:  Astronomy, Sports News, Gaming, Recipes, Poker, Tech News (I might learn something!), Gardening and more.  Looks like my top three favourite sites so far are ABC News, Cricinfo and Poker News.  Universe Today is also one that interests me a lot.  If I find any more cool ones that I like I’ll recommend them – meanwhile if I ever get any readers please recommend some fun feeds to me, I’m on the lookout for more!

In the beginning …

Well hi there .  I’m Buzz … and this is my new blog.  It’s not the first time I have blogged, but certianly I hope it will be the most successful.  Why have I started this blog?  Well it is kind of a long story.  I’ll tell some of it, maybe all of it at some stage, but for now here is the summary.

I’ve always been a competitive person, and something of a perfectionist.  I like sports, I played cricket for years, used to run a social golf club, I play poker, and had aspirations of becoming at least semi-professional.  I’m good at all of these things … but not great, but I’ve always strived to be better.  And to be better than others … well it was always a huge driving factor for me, I don’t know why.  I’ve always liked to win (who doesn’t) but I’ve never quite been the best, despite striving to do so.  In a lot of ways, I think this tempered my enjoyment of these social outlets.

Similarly with work, I’ve always put the pressure on myself.  I’ve always had to be better than others, to prove to myself that I am “good”.  I try to work harder, and longer, than others.  I admit, I’ve tended to look down on people who didn’t work as hard as me.  I couldn’t understand people that just turned up, did a reasonable job, then went home and forgot about it.  I had to be working harder, striving to be better, doing longer hours than anyone to show just how “good” I was.  And so it came to be expected … people just assumed I would put in, becuase I always had.  Soon I was acting in a reasonably senior, but not stratospheric management position, and I did this for 16 months (why the position wasn’t recruited is another story!).  I really tried to achieve in this position, regularly doing 55-60 hour weeks, working weekends, working nights, always thinking about work.  I wouldn’t take days off – taking days off was only for people that weren’t trying. I knocked back all manner of social outings and events – got to work you know.  I even neglected my family … they got used to me working all the time.  It got to the point where my daughter didnt even expect me to go to her birthday party, becuase she was so used to me working.

So eventually, the inevitable occured.  I ended up having a complete stress breakdown.  The job was finally being recruited, and I was desperate to win it permanently.  Why?  At the time … becuase it would prove I was good, it would prove I was achieving, and of course, there was the extra money. I began to get obsessively worried about the upcoming interview … but then I started to realise how obsessed I had become, and how I was thinking about nothing else.  So then I started to worry about getting the job and how I would cope long term, and I still worried about not getting it, onwards and upwards into a never ending stress cycle until finally it all got too much and I broke under the strain.

So now I am on stress leave … and suffering with depression.  I’ve had depressive bouts throughout my life, usually associated with worry about some event, usually work. Other things trigger it too … I was terrible for four weeks after the birth of my first child.  I tried to seek help once, and the doctor I saw basically just said “toughen up”, which shook me to the core and I swore I would never expose myself like that again.  But this latest episode, a total meltdown, forced me to confront my issues.  I saw a new doctor who was fantastic, and he referred me to a pyschologist.  I was diagnosed with ‘Adjustment Disorder’, which essentially is anxiety and depression brought on by specific stressor event(s).  Left untreated, it can develop into major, full blown depression.

So that’s where I am now, struggling to cope and get my life back on track.  I need to make some major changes in my life.  It’s taken this major meltdown to force me to stop and re-evaluate life.  I’m finally starting to realise that I don’t need to define myself by the level I achieve at work.  I don’t need to win all the time, I can play just for fun.  There’s a whole world out there, and I’ve been ignoring it all, focused on my own sense of self-importance.  Looking back now, I realise that I was the dumb one – those people who came to work and did their stuff and then went home were the champs, I was running around trying to be better and in the end it was them who had the balance, they had the life, they had the fun.  Well starting now, I am going to be one of those people.

So I have started to blog, as much for the outlet as anything.  Last week I started a blog called “One Day at a Time”, which was basically how depressed I was and how I wasn’t coping.  I still feel that way.  But that was negative, it was counter-productive, and no-one was reading it!  Today, while doing some work in the garden, I had the revleation.  I need to stop focusing on the negative, and start being positive. I need to start having FUN.  And so, Real Fun Stuff is born … my blog about Real Fun Stuff.  No more talk of depression, of stress, of worry.  Life is here to be lived and enjoyed, and if you aren’t having fun then there really isn’t much point.  Welcome to my fun blog.  I hope you’ll stick around, chat some, and talk about some fun stuff.  I’m in the market for fun stuff at the moment   Who knows where this may lead.