Mr. Tom Gets Around

Some how being up in the mountains and having 3 jobs isn’t getting me that peace I was looking for. Well, I mean, maybe this week was an exception, with the 50plus hours spread over 3 jobs, I was back and forth between Katoomba and Sydney at least three times, with only one day of ultimate this isn’t the ratio I was looking for. I did however manage to catch up with old friends from Worlds. Piere and Izzy, two french-canadians, who also volunteered at Worlds. They had gotten stuck somewhere in the Outback just above Adeliade working on a drilling site for 12weeks with a break somewhere in the middle taking a trip over to New Zealand to get some fresh air so they called it. They had hit it big at the Casino in Perth walking out of there with 5grand and buying a decent Toyota Van to trek oz with. They finally made it to sydney and I managed to get em out for a game of ultimate at the Naremburg fields in north sydney. After we had some proper Thai Two in Newtown that is.  We managed to crash a league ultimate nite and pick up with Abra’s team 11 or Legs11 as we called it. The boyz hadn’t touched a disc for at least 3 months they said. I tryed to picture this, with myself but just couldn’t do it. That discraft plastic is just in my blood at the moment and things just aren’t the same without it.  Izzy managed to get himself right in the game as Piere looked on a sec and then almost forgot the no contact rule as he snatched a disc away from the other team. Regardless, it was a pretty good nite.Gus Guy, who I had contacted for a place to crash, was taking Abra’s sports psych participation and totally got his head spinning that is. We later meet up with him and chewed the phat with the canadians about trips and traveling, Gus Guy having just been to Espana for three weeks, lucky him work related non the less. The next day, those Crazy Canadians bought a used mattress at my work for 40bucks. Slightly stained but we gave them MateRates so everything turned out for the best. While the boyz were re-fitting their van, Joe my co-worker decided to help them feel more at home by doing up a head gear made from some mattress parts, (see photo with Piere and Joe above).

After that I had two tranquile days on the farm, weeding, planting, using the chipper and cutting wood down for the house fire. I didn’t manage to get my hands stuck in the wood chipper but did get the hang of choppen wood, a skill I had learned back in high school. Remembering those high flame fires back at the old house on Grand Central Ave in Amityville. Well, as I was chipping wood , I heard the dogs barking, turns out they were chasing a Wombat outta the woods. It looked more like a small black ball at the distance I was viewing it but, Richard had us, chase the dogs down and get em back on the farm so the Wombat could have a lazy afternoon. Later on that day, Richard gave me the rabbit treatment round some plum trees as I hung out in the back trailer of the lawnmover. He was traveling at turtle pace and suddenly in a downhill path, switched into turbo rabbit. it was like riding a rollacoaster without a safety belt. Wicked good that is!

So, somehow, it’s possible to work 50+ hours and still manage a bit of the old fun in there, lesson learned. 

Taking the Sydney express from Katoomba, I managed to get to centennial park in time for my first training & meet&greet with my mixed team FAF.  Bright and sunny sky’s made me feel silly for not bring any sun protection along. Lucky for me, Mike brought some team-screen along and I layed up. After meeting some of the team we finally got around to cleating up and doing some flow drills before out game against the NSW team headed by fellow BAREFOOT boyz Abra and Ryan. Putting on the FAF jersey, black with white-teeth seemed truely natural, and playing with mostly experienced players came natural aswell, having been a pick-up so many times, it just becomes habit. We played good against NSW, playing out 2 O plays and working a variety of D types.  Pre-training emails had told us of an ice cream affair afterwards. Pat has started his own ice cream company back in 2004. Pat and Sticks, makers of the “World-Famous” ice cream sandwich. I think it was Fe who said she had eaten 4 once, so I was thinking to either match or beat that team record, just to get things off to a positive note as new team member to FAF.

 Paddington Markets, was our lunch time destination after training. After a quick loading of chicken tandori and curry potato at the himmalayen, I was ready for my first Pat and Stick ice cream sandwich. I started out with a caramel pecan, figuring it would be a decent base, the cookie was heavy but the caramel delicous. Within a few minutes I was on line again for my second, the Strawberry chocolate. I discussed with Pat that I was having trouble tasting the strawberry, he mentioned that with the chocolate cookie the watery strawberry taste was over powered a bit. He also mentioned that production plans are in progress to get a different cookie for the strawberry flavour. But anyway , on to cookie three, the double chocolate, ideal for any chocolate lover like myself. I waited for the sun to melt it just a bit and then I could easily enjoy the rich chocolate in double.  A short but chatty break with the team didn’t keep me distracted from #4 as I tryed the secretly new Peppermint. Tasty indeed, the flavour bring my head back to the tube of mint chocolate chip sitting in my fridge back at the hostel. Not only did I finish it in record time, but was looking to break the record. Pat said I’d get the 5th one for free, cause he was feeling the cream so to speak. We picked out the mochaccino, not being a coffee drinker this seemed a bit strange, but the flavour was good and plenty. Rich beans with a touch of ice to keep you cool. After that I had broken the team record, hopefully to be broken again at Nationals, if I can get Pat to bring some of those ice cream sandwiches that is.
 

Worked at the farm again today and learned that chinese artichokes are indeed delicate and delicious. Something about getting around 600 of those suckers in the ground had me feeling a bit buzzy. Then after lunch we were moved over to the 400 plus  Alpine strawberries which somehow had managed to grow either to a acceptable size or where just too small to plant, but then again if I thought it would grow , I had to plant it.  Something about the plants having spent months in the greenhouse and that there time was due. Richard(the boss) also managed to fix the three-bladed lawn mover, which he had in a moment of truth, taken out in the rain to cut some grass.

photos of the farm to follow…     and those two great dogs that is…

After a long days work, who wants sushi?

Sure, but I can’t believe what easy pick-up sydney sushi has become in the last months.

 Just a reminder to those who eat sushi.

canned tuna is not sushi

smoked salmon is not sushi

dryed tomato is not sushi

terriyaki chicken is not sushi

so, Not is more likely the answer at this point in time.

I don’t understand how people can purchase and eat this inferior sushi , maybe not knowing of the wonders of real sushi or sashimi .

NUFL #2

Boys and Girls

Team BAREFOOT members for NUFL #2, Abra,Gav,Sasha,Adam,Joe,Drucey,Charlie,Ryan,TomW,TomW,TomT,Mitch

This past weekend, I was down in Melbourne’s St.Kilda for the second installment of NUFL.  With a promising 5 games to look forward too, we had our palette’s wet for some high-level ultimate. With a smaller than usual team of 14 down to 13 at the end we managed to allow everyone to play up too, or above their level.Everyone seemed to step up there roles and adapt with the core unit. Great weather and no freezing rain’s keep our spirit’s up too, something NUFL 1 had washed away.

Our post-breakfast game on saturday was against Perth’s Sublime. With some pick-ups from Newcastle and Southern Australia the team proved a threat early, taking halftime.BAREFOOT composed and fired up to take the second half and the game by two points.

With a half hour to spare, we mangaed to get a tiny bit in before, we again fired up to get some sweet revenge on the Victorians(Chilly) who had taken a one point game away from us in the first NUFL.We took a lead, mostly through errors made by them but still managed to almost let them back into the game. On a personal note, I managed to be involved in 4 d call’s, either landing ontop of my oppontents(softer landing, I thought) or having them call a foul on me, when the rest of the team , spectators included thought there was no foul.(?)

Well, we kept out lead and won our first Grudge match of the weekend, getting the Chilly team back for the lost suffered in the freezing rain at NUFL #1.

Our last match of the day , was against, yes again, Faculti. After having a 28-0 record until our semi-final match at Nationals, getting beatin by Faculti was a bit of a disappointment. So our Second Grudge match of the weekend started solid, we took the first 3 points with ease. Our defense knew it was upto them to keep us in the game by getting “in their heads”. Playing aggressive marker D & running your man down so they couldn’t get any throw’s off. We managed to keep our lead and take half 9-4. Keeping with the Relaxed O, BAREFOOT took the second half, although the Defense did have some troulble keeping the Faculti throws down.  In the end, the score read 17-14 in our favor and we could happily walk off the pitch knowing we were the best Sydney team at NUFL. Grudge Match 2, rockin to victory.

That nite, some of the guys went to the AFL finals game between Sydney and Melbourne, myself included, where we saw a different story. As Collingwood, took out the Sydney swans with a victory of 125-87.

Sunday morning we started with 13, Mitch not nowing we started at 9,thinking 10.Regardless, we had Heads of State on menu, and a vicious cross-wind that made us think twice about hucking?They managed to take half on us 9-6, but after we put the fire back in our game, we took the deficit and turned it on them. Maybe leaving them thinking they should of stayed in bed a bit longer?

With a peek at the standings, and seeing we had no chance at taking the title away from Faculti, who with more bonus points from NUFL 1 would stay on top regardless of our last game against Firestorm. But we had something to prove against those Brisbane boyz, would had somehow managed a mini upset at NUFL 1 against us.

 Our team, was set, the last game, blow out those legs, get the body temp up & keep it there. We went up at the start and still managed to take the half. Then the Pottsy-Bretty show started to take place and they crawled back a bit. Also Tall Mike managed to get a couple of grabs in the zone against us. I unfortunaly was trading with Mitch and Gav, as to who would D him. As long as he didn’t get the disc and our D turned the disc over, we were solid, he was less lethal on D, himself. At timecap we were still up 15-12 game to 17.Then those grabs kept coming and they took a 16-15 lead on us. Bretty almost finished the game with a massive layout attempt that left him in the dirt eating more earth than disc.  We managed to tie it up at 16-16 and get the D, and respond quickly as Ryan hucked a flat one over the middle to a running into the endzone Drucey who managed to reflex-pluck it out of the air for the win.

  The team bonded more and more after each victory, the small core team picked up steam and sailed over our own ideas of the weekend. After saturday, all we wanted was the 5-0 feeling at the end of the day on sunday.  Some beers(provided by Ryan on bike) made for the perfect ending to the weekend for most people. No guys, i’m still not drinking, I think I had a 7up? Joe and I talked about how somehow with less legs, we managed more, we thought is was just spaces on the pitch being open and everyone taking time to explore the cuts and treats deep and too the disc. Also hats off to the handlers, their game was key this weekend, no getting stuck on the sideline and losing it. No miscommunication’s, no crazy huckers. solid play from everyone, gelled the team together.

As I took the train home that nite from Melbourne to Sydney(12 hours) I have to be honest, I was gone, lights out, like a baby beaver just dropped off after logging all day. The body had spoken and it never lie’s./ 

In keeping with tradition, I’ve been reading and bi-nitely having been watching a flick.  Below are some of my rants and raves, including ratings ofcourse. Keeping in mind that my movie tastes are often, off the beaten Hollywood tracks.

The Bourne Ultimatum , Jason does it again, but not really. What we liked about the first two installments of this trio, was the change of location’s, high-speed chase scenes and so on.  Not that its not here in this blockbuster feature but something is missing. Maybe just the fact that those Harry Potter movies start to look alike after a while, will give some incite into how the 3rd Bourne movie feels.

Spirited Away(Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) a Studio Ghibli production was internally recommending itself to me, for quiet a while now. Ever since I saw Princess Mononoke(photos below), I was convinced that animation could tell a powerful story and somehow relate it back to reality and everyday life.  In Spirited Away, the fantasy world is entered from the real world and a story is told about a young girl who is trying to save her parents.  The plot unfolds as dragons and creatures souls are introduced in the unfolding stroyline.

Kenny is an aussie production, a mockumentary of sorts. It follows Kenny around who’s daily life as a plumber for Splash Down, a rent a toilet business in Melbourne. We see what kinda shit Kenny has to put up with and how he deals with it, in progessing stages.  Topped on this is his personal life with his ex- who seems to call always as Kenny is having a good time or in the middle of something. His father, who doesn’t accept his job as a plumber as a real job.  He calls him a ‘glorified turd-burglar’.  The film is great in how it shows the humour in dealing with shit and what people really think and do about it. Everything comes together at the Melbourne Cup, where Kenny is scolded for having his son with him and letting him work in the toilets.  The upper-class ladies who said this are later shown peeing, drunkardly in the parking lot. Makes you think how upside down and in the shitter the world is sometimes. I’ll save the finally for those people who actually will go watch the film but its even better. Kenny deals with things his own way. Shit and all!

Recently the other gender has been on some sort of rampage of sorts, trying to find out what makes Mr.Tom tick.  As finding this can be quiet tricky, it proves tiresome and a lengthy process.  Sometimes not even the half way point is reached and then things turn for the best or worst depending on the situation.  I’m sure the below excepts of txt messages will clear up some of the mystery.

Txt from Gender W 2 Mr.tom

“I wont pretend to be happy you came.  My nature has been warped into something unnatural.  But we all make mistakes and hopefully learn from them..  Bye tom. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ “

Txt from Mr.tom 2 Gender W

“Believe what u will. I apologize 4 it. Maybe one day u’ll take a step outside urself and u’ll understand what i mean.”

Recently, having had enough freetime to actually read a bit and catch up.  Some books I’ve been carrying around with me for the past couple of months but only touched to move them from my backpack onto a shelf and then back into the backpack again.  So a favorite author of mine, Charles Bukoswki was on the list to read and absorb. He writes poems, shorts stories and also books. I’ve even managed to get a book that has letters written by him which show the rise of the author from the park benchs to accutual recognition as an established author, whatever that means, he would say.

Having also been watching quiet a few movies in the last two weeks, I found a poem of his explaining his views on the movie industry. Kinda makes you think.

movies

by continuing to attend we make many of those

producers, directors and actors

very rich.

they make millions of dollars, marry one another,

live in mansions, and once a year at the Academy Awards

they heap praise upon

themselves.  all this causes them to believe that

they have actually done something important but

it’s only the mind-less public which watches and

swallows their tasteless pap,  which makes

them rich, which turns some of them into so-

called legends, which then exaggerates their pitiful

talent.

fools turn other fools into idols.

the people waste their lives and their minds

sitting in the dark

as more adn more movies are made. 

a poem by Charles Bukowski from Book, Slouching Toward Nirvana