AFL Grand Final

Warren's team the Hawks (from Hawthorn Melbourne) was in the grand final yesterday and of course it was a must watch. The Hawks have been in the last four grand finals and won two up til the match yesterday and they pulled that one off too, so three in a row.

We have been watching the Marnbrook footy show on Thursday nights for most of the year, its very entertaining and they have former and current players on. It is an Indigenous program and not on the regular channels. Most of those on their panel choose West Coast Eagles to win.

West Coast are a Western Australian team and had o travel to Melbourne for the final on the other hand though Hawks had played two prelim finals in the West and traveled over there.

It was reported that more than 20,000 fans came across, Virgin put on extra planes to cope and then there were forty buses that left in convoy. 98,765 was the total to be at the game.

Ellie Goulding sang at the opening. My favourite player for Hawthorn won the best on ground, he is a little demon and has a big tattoo over his chest of an eagle, can see the wings of it on his upper arms.

Most of the players got their kids involved after, one guys baby had been born earlier in the week and he was nursing him when he collected his medal.

It was a good game although Hawks were in front the whole game.

Footy is over for the year what we do on Saturdays now?  

A weekend of Sports

I am an Armchair sports person, love watching most sports and this weekend has been a bonus for me. Davis Cup on Friday, unfortunately our two young guys lost.

Friday night we were switching between football and cricket, the Ashes are being played in London at the moment and Aussies lost the first test so we need to win the next.

Saturday was Davis Cup again a doubles match with our older guys, Sam Goth and Leighton Hewitt. Leighton is in his last year of tennis but still up there with the best of them esp when playing for country. We won and the boys played brilliantly, it meant that we were still in with a chance. After dinner was another game of footy, Warren's team and cricket. Again it was flicking between channels, something that doesn't usually happen in this household.

Early this morning we drove to Toowoomba, a three hour drive, completed our business there, had a late lunch and arrived home mid afternoon. Hoping that tennis may still be on, I turned the TV on to see Leighton s playing and it seems that he was pulling out all the stops. Yes, Sam had won this morning which meant we were still in the running if Leighton could pull off a win. He was one set up and just powered on to win, putting Australia into the semi finals against Britain later this year. It is the first time that Aussies have been in the semi's since 1938, seems incredible but that is what the commentators said. I will google it to be sure.

So a win in the tennis, a win for Hawthorn, Warren's team My team lost but we didnt get that on TV and it was a match between the two South Australia teams his afternoon and ended up very close. It looks like we will win the cricket too putting us on equal footing then with England.

Footy is supposed to be a winter sport isn't?

We had tickets to the footy yesterday and it was an early game so we left home around 10.30am to catch the train and bus. It was coolish and so I wore a T shirt and a jacket. We got to our seats which were ten rows back from the fence and boy was it hot in the sun. I didn't want to take my jacket off as I knew that I would get sun burnt.

We put up with it (the sun and the heat) for one quarter and then moved back to the back row which was in the shade. Then i needed my jacket on to ward off the breeze, I felt sorry for the players.

After we moved we were closer to the interchange and it was interesting to see how often they were changing, although now there is a limit and i think it is 175 for the game. As the players came off, ice towels were put over their shoulders and given drinks, most were back on within five minutes.

A nasty incident happened and they needed to stretcher one of the players off, they are hoping that he has only strained his neck but they were very careful how they got him onto the stretcher and took him fro the ground. He had the ball and ducked his head as another player ran over to tackle him. As normal, he got a standing ovation when he left.

We left early as Adelaide was twelve goals in front at three quarter time, I think they went on to win by 163 points.

A PJ day

I belong to a forum that I follow and I do make comments on at times, there was a comment made about a "PJ" day. I liked the sound of that and Sunday was my PJ day. It was a bit cold and I had no intention of going anywhere or seeing anyone. Breakfast was later than usual and I did decide that there was washing to do. Ended up with three loads, Warren hung it out for me (don't think he wanted me to go outside).

While clearing the kitchen I made a salad for lunch, had lettuce that needed to be eaten or thrown out in a couple of days also put on a piece of corn beef into the slow cooker. I spent the next few hours in the sewing room and got two projects finished, one had been sitting for some weeks and was done in 20 minutes, why hadn't I done it before.

Three o'clock and it was time for footy, I needed some wool to knit so went to my knitting basket and saw a ball of fancy wool in shades of black grey and bright pink, a scarf for me! The washing dried nicely and at half time in the footy, folded it all and put away. (My team was soundly beaten but I still like to watch)

Some frozen vege in the microwave and I did make a white sauce to go with the corn beef. Nothing that we wanted to watch on TV so went thru some things that we had recorded for a later time and found a comedy.

It was a change to slop around in jamas and slippers all day and I got a lot done, maybe I should make it a rule once every month or so.

Wimbledon tennis

I love watching the tennis and have been watching Wimbledon this week, unfortunately it is only shown on TV at 8.30pm. I have et the rule that i will watch the first set as its usually an Aussie up first and we tape the rest of the match.

Even though we heard that Lleyton (Hewitt) our number one player had won his first match we still watched what we had recorded.

This year Australia had the most player in years, I think thirteen, maybe it was an unlucky number as we only have one after the first week. Nick Kyrgio played last night but it was delayed because of rain so we were able to watch all of the footy (Brisbane v North Melbourne) I'm sure no-one expected Brisbane to win but they got in front and managed to stay there, winning by nine points in the end. During the week Jono Brown had retired, he had been their go to player for years but in his last game had been concussed again and doctors advised him to call it quits.  It did seem as though the players were giving 110% to win a game for Brownie, he was there for his send off and walked the boundary at half time with his kids. In an interview, he said that it had been a busy week for him, Sunday evening he had met with his coach and discussed his options, Monday he announced to the media his immediate retirement and next Tuesday morning his wife gave birth to their third child, since then he had been between the hospital and giving interviews.

Anyway, rather than chose between the footy and the tennis, we got to see both until the rain came and stopped it. Nick was down four games to one and we really thought that he may have gone out but we taped it anyway. This morning's news before we could stop it we heard that he had won thru.

We havent seen the match yet but will probably watch it tomorrow. Nick was/is the only teenager playing (male) as there is a sixteen year old female who has now gone out. Nick had to play qualifying to get a place and has already put out the thirteen seed no hes no slouch, looking forward to seeing him jump up the ranks. I have an app on my tablet re tennis and after his game two days ago he has gone from 245 place to 86, there are now five aussies in the top one hundred.

Friday night

We don't eat enough fish so I have been trying to introduce fish on Friday nights, sometimes it might just be a piece of fish and home-made chips as Friday nights is also footy night.

I decided to go a bit up market tonight and had taken out of the freezer last night a pack of mixed sea food, lots of squid, mussels,prawns and some pieces of fish.

A dish that I make is called a corn chowder but its more fish than corn but what's in a name? Its a Jamie Oliver one that I saw on TV and then made it, one of his 30 minute meal and really its takes much less than that. Mine is probably a bit different each time I make it and I don't get the recipe book out but the main things are there.

This is how I made it tonight, half an onion diced and some bacon (I have a diced pack in freezer so I just grab some) fried in a knob of butter. Add 1,2 or potatoes (I only had one so only one went in the pot) 2 or 3 sweet corn (tonight I used a tin). It seemed light on vegetables so four mushrooms and some shredded cabbage went in the pot as well along with a tin of coconut milk, then in went the fish pieces, lid on and I checked my emails.

Added a dash of fish sauce and a dollop of mustard sauce, stir in and ready to serve. I had nan bread in the cupboard so we shared one of these to dunk into the chowder. Eat, watch the news, clean up and ready to settle down and watch the AFL.

Half time at the footy

When the footy is on TV you will usually find me in front of it, doesn't matter who's playing of course if its my team that's a bonus. Saturday afternoons in winter, my spot is in my chair, coffee by my side, knitting in hand, my idea of bliss. However, I am not that keen on the blow by blow account that the commentators do, to pass the time at half time, so I tend to get up and do something else until the game is back on.

I drink weak black coffee and sometimes, I feel like something else, I used to buy a rather expensive coffee blend for those occasions but I have come up with an alternative that I make myself. The blend is called Swiss Moments and is described as 'Creamy coffee with a hint of chocolate." My blend is two part coffee, one part chocolate, one part sugar and two parts milk powder. To make it, I get out my mixer which lives in a deep cupboard. I didn't have any left so half time Saturday was a good time to make it.

I rinsed off the mixer and then decided to use it to make some fish cakes while I had it out. I had a tin of tuna and fish meals are a little lacking in our diet. I used the shredder on the mixer to grate some carrot, zucchini and sweet potato, all good to spin out the tuna and make it taste good plus use up some vegetables.

Warren wanders into the kitchen and asks what was I doing, I told him and he is still hovering. He then asks why I am making them, I reply for tomorrow's lunch. He has a strange look on his face before he says, "Have I forgotten something?"   "I don't know, have you?" "Well, are we going somewhere or having anyone over?" No, I said this is just for us on a Sunday afternoon. He looked relieved, and said "Phew, I thought I was supposed to know something" He does have a bad memory but not that bad.

Four cooked fish cakes and the rest are cooking, they will be for the freezer for another day.

Sunday a day of rest!

It was although I got a lot done of what I wanted to do. As we had friends for dinner on Saturday night, the house was clean and tidy so except for making the bed, meals and dishes, no other housework was required, I love days like that. Warren went to archery and I did have a bit of a sleep in. Decided that I should go for a walk but at 10 o'clock when I ventured out, the sun was beating in the front door so I closed it and stayed inside.

Spent some time on the computer and then cut out a sewing project that I have had in the back of my mind for awhile. Almost finished the cutting out when Warren got home. Lunch only took a few minutes and then I watched a recorded program on TV while I knitted. Cant watch TV without doing something, either knitting or some hand sewing.

I had a nana nap, really  read my book for a few chapters and play a couple of games on my tablet, these are word games to keep the grey matter turning over.

At four o'clock, I made coffee and we took it to the back patio, where it had become very dark, we watched the storm come in and had to go inside as we were getting wet, the rain drops were quite heavy. Spent the next hour in my sewing room then some hand sewing while watching Midsummer Murders. Heated some soup and sausage rolls for a quick dinner before the footy came on.

I finished knitting the beanie that I was on and then sewed it up plus the other four that I had done in the last few days. One beanie for an adult takes a night or two of TV watching and usually one ball, I now have six beanies for Knitting for the needy. Not often do I have such a productive day.