ozblog

Just a brief one today!

Hope everyone back home had a great Xmas. I haven’t done a great deal to be honest. Had my Chritsmas day with Mike and his family and the food was awesome!! We had a little present giving as well and amazingly me and Mike got each other the same presents!! Calvin Klein’s Crave.

Had a big night on Sunday – especially at Ocean’s. Alex is still in Thailand but we are having a decent time without “the king”. We kind of have a new addition to the group in Steph. She is great. Gets on well with everyone and is annoyingly witty!

Highlight of the night was undoubtedly when I just happened to have my video running then looked up to see Mike on the roof. He loves to get to the highest place possible!!

Hope everyone has a great New Year!!

Yep – we have finally won a game this season although we were made to fight for it.
The wicket looked a bit better this week as we arrived at St. Brigids and St. Louis but I still expected us to defend our total of 236 fairly easily. Basically, they have one bloke of quality and he scores at great pace as well. Get him and we should be ok I thought.

Early on and I had the ball moving huge amounts but sadly it was all at their gun and he seemed to have enough time ton play it off the pitch as it came into him (he’s left handed). I caused him a few problems but he caused me a few too, hitting me for two sixes!

He brought up his 50 out of 60 and I was starting to get a little concerned but fortunately Aron managed to get him to play on shortly after. Wickets fell regularly enough though they were never out of it. I think at tea they needed about 100 with 5 wickets left.

After tea I came back on and pleaded with the skipper to let me have a crack at some spin. Jason seems very dubious about my spinners this year which disappoints me as I think I am as good as any of the other spinners. Still, all I can do is keep asking! Anyway, I managed to get 3 quick wickets which pegged them right back. They had a little flurry at the end but ended up around 30-odd short. I ended up with 3-60 off 21.

The star of the show without doubt though was Aron. Absolutely superb. He bowled just like he did at Hampton Park last year and recorded figures of 17-5-25-5. All 5 were clean bowled. This performance has been coming for a while. He is such a good player on paper but just hasn’t done it for us so far. Hopefully this is where things turn for him!

With a win under our belts it allowed us to go back to our club’s Xmas party in high spirits. On returning we found out that 8 of our 9 teams had won that day. Fantastic effort!! I had a few beers but didn’t go daft as I had a big Sunday planned.

Sunday and I caught the train to Oakleigh where I met Mike and Katie for a coffee and a look round Chadstone shopping centre. Bought some nice white plimmys to go with a new t-shirt and I was feeling ready to hit the town. Me and Mike had to go pick up 3 promotion girls (Pier, Lucy and Rachel) for the energy drink he works for and the plan was to get a load of shots at Ocean Blue with people drinking the stuff.

I got in on a few of the pics. I am sure they will surface at some point!

Had a great night but obviously there was a tinge of sadness at the absence of A-Rob who is in Thailand. We felt it appropriate to perform the minutes silence in his honour.

Usual scenes went on. Cushion, Love Machine etc. Didn’t take any photos as I am sure there will be plenty from the drink promotion. There was one of me and Mike on The Clubsguide site though.

Didn’t do much yesterday to be honest. Just chilled out in a friend’s appartment in St Kilda. Shaz and Katie have gone to Queensland and said me and Mike can stay here if we wish. It’s a fantastic pad. Must cost a fair bit to live here!

And I’m still here now, on Tuesday. Probably hang around online for a while and watch a DVD or two before maybe heading back this evening.

I can’t believe Christmas is so close. It sucks over here to be honest. You don’t even know it’s here. At least I will have a good Xmas dinner at Mikes. Wish I could see a bit of the snow everyone back home is getting though!

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!!!

EDIT:

A few of the photos of surfaced. First one is with my mate Steph.

This week we were at Bridgits and St Louis in a game that we simply have to win. No two ways about it. I hadn’t played here for a couple of years and was disappointed to see how much the outfield and pitch had deteriorated. There was grass an inch long on the wicket!! Definitely a toss to win and bowl. Of course we lost it…

So we were stuck in and progressed reasonably enough to to 22-0 before Shane was given out to a very poor lbw decision. This triggered a sadly typical collapse and 10 minutes later we were 27-4
Jason and Thomsy stopped the rot for a while before Jason’s dismissal brought my housemate Harves to the crease. Harves replaced long standing first teamer Monkey in the side and as pleased as I am for Harves, I am very sad for Monkey. He’s a great lad and is definitely good enough for T2. Just struggling with his confidence a little. I’m sure he’ll be back soon enough.

Harves went for a dozen entertaining runs taking 15 year old Brendan Wilson to the crease to join Jeff. At tea, we were about 90-6 and thinks were looking dire. I needn’t have worried! For the second game in a row I didn’t even get in. The pair of them put on 150 for the 7th wicket. Incredible stuff! Thomsy just did what he always does. Plays within his game and makes you work hard to get him out. Quite simply, very few bowlers bowl balls which are good enough to do that! He made 97*

I was so pleased for Brendan. He’s been a bit scratchy this year and perhaps was feeling pressure for his place. But he’s responded magnificently and made 59* in notching his maiden first team 50. Well done son!! I believe we set them around 230 which wont be easy on that deck. They have one very good batsman but if we can get him early we have every chance!

Straight after the game, Alex picked me up and we joined Mike and Bernie at Shaz and Katie’s house. Just chilled out, drank some wine and babbled for a bit. It was still well into Sunday before we got some sleep though.

Sunday was the usual routine. We went out a bit later than normal and the weather was sadly quite cold and windy down on the sea-front. The good news though is that our little spot is really starting to get more popular. Maybe we are having some influence on this because we never stop broadcasting how good it is on Facebook. I reckon there was twice as many here there than on any given previous day!

We went to Cushion at about 11 and there was a large group of us. Sadly a lot of the photos didn’t work out. I think I had it on the wrong setting. It was absolutely bouncing in there – the best I have ever seen it.

We planned to move onto Love Machine around one ish but on the way there I got a call off Aleisha (the girl who won Big Brother) saying she couldn’t get in as they were 100% full no matter whos list you were on. She said they even turned away some famous guy called Molly Medrum (don’t know him) so she said not to waste our time. Mike though had other ideas! In his car he had loads of  “Pure Energy” drink merchandise and he insisted we all put on a cap and rock up there looking like we were part of the company looking stupid to be honest. I don’t know what Mike said though but they let us straight in past a huge queue!!! Mike is the rep for Pure Energy and the club DO get a lot of it off him but even so…I was amazed! And Mike was buzzing at pulling it off. I’m not sure there was anyone left in there that he didn’t tell!

And what a night we had in there. I even knocked a few shots back which is most unlike me but they went down well!

After that, Joel kinda kidnapped us to go to Circus but to be honest, none of us were up for it. Once in there he went to see a friend. We waited for about 20 minutes but he didn’t come back to us so we took the opportunity to call it a day. We made our way back to Katie’s but there was time for some good news to end the night!

Overall a great time was had which is good because that’s probably the last time I will go out with Alex for a month as he is going to Thailand on Sunday to see his brother.

Everything else is going well. Health drive continues to progess and I’m down to 14 9. I’d love to get to 14 clem by the time I come home but I fear that is out of reach as it’s getting much harder to lose it now. I’m determined to give my next season for GCC 100% and you can bet that you will never have seen me so fit when I return.

We took on leaders Cranbourne on Saturday with the unenviable task of having only 147 on the board to defend. Still, if we could get a good start, you never know. And yes, we did get a decent one. I bowled quite well and got 3 early wickets the funny part being all 3 were off pie deliveries! At 45-3 we had a sniff but there followed a strong patrnership in their middle order with 2 guys getting 50. We did storm back though with Jeff “Thomsy” Thom getting 4 wickts and in the end they passed us 8 down on their way to 161! This left us about 4 overs left to bat the day which is obviously ridiculous but had to be done. Rather than give one of the openers a no-win situation, I said I would open against their quicks. All a bit of fun but I did manage to hook a 6 and a 4 before falling in the last over.

Overall it was definitely our best performance of the season. We were hardly ever 2nd best against a team who are now 5 and 0  and there was a lot of plus points. Bowling wise I ended up with 15-6-27-3.

I stopped in on Saturday night and watched Titanic. Sadly Jack again died at the end of it. Personally,I would have dragged the stuck up bitch off the piece of wood at the end….

Sunday morning I played a bit of poker and won some monies which I felt justified me not going out on Saturday. This took me up to lunchtime which came in the delicious form of cold McDonalds at Katie and Sharyn’s new appartment. It’s a great little pad, they’ve really done well for themselves.

Bernie came round to join us and we had pretty much the standard posse for the standard Sunday night out. Started at Ocean Blue which is starting to get a bit busier and I’m certain it’s going to turn into the place to be this summer. I took a couple of videos of it to give you an idea of what it’s like. Mike always makes me laugh – he has to stand at the highest point wherever we go – podiums, chairs, stages etc. He loves it!

Had a great time in there. There was this ultra cool black dude who was MC’ing a lot of the time and it really got everyone going. There was the usual array of stupid photos taken during the day.

The night turned out to be a beauty to be honest. We ae managing to save a heap of money on entrance into all the clubs as we get more well known. Again, we didn’t have to pay to get in anywhere. Love Machine was going off it and it was hard to get in as we were knocked back by the bouncers. Mike made a phonecall to the owner and Boom! he came out and walked 7 of us in for nothing saving nearly $200!

It was probably about 5am when we got back to the girls flat. Mike and Alex thought it would be funny to run naked around the streets trying to wake Katie up. I wish I could show you the video, it is hilarious! How they didn’t get arrested I will never know. On the vid, you can even see the Federal Police drive straight past us and not even stop to investigate! Probably couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.

Spent the night on the sofa and most of the next day too. Recovery! At least the cricket was on.

It’s now Tuesday am and I am off to the gym as soon as we get a break in this rain. Tomorrow is the shareholders meeting for the SLA stocks I hold. It’s in Melbourne so I think I might go. Exciting times ahead I am sure. Hopefully these babies will make me a lot of money one day! 

I just realised today that I only have 3 and a half months left. Can’t believe how fast the time is going. I guess that means I am enjoying myself…

Saturday saw us take on league leaders Cranbourne. These guys got relegated from T1 last year but are a very good side in our league. They look a very slick outfit. We lost the toss and were stuck in on a pitch that didn’t look great. I was told I was number 9 in the order which I wasn’t overly happy with after top scoring in our last 2 innings. Still, it was Jason’s decision so fair enough.

The word for the day was “graft”. They bowled so tight that we had no other option. Shane Goldfinch is a bit of a dasher at the top of the order but he really dug in and did a job for us. He made 22 off 30 overs before falling to the first ball of the spinner. Talk about doing the hard work…

Jason top scored with 35 and 16 year olds Kyle (32) and Brendan both chipped in with useful runs before the rains came. We were 147-6 after 71 overs with me next in and looking to launch an assault. The rain rule is brutal. If they bowl more than 60 overs before the rain comes then that is it. It just means next week that they chase 147 in only 71 overs. The obvious problem with this is that we lose our impetus overs. And yeah, I was fuming not to get a bat!!

Saturday night saw us in a trivia night down at the club organised byDave Perrett. It was a pretty decent turnout to be honest. I teamed up with pre-tournament favourites Thomsy and Tex and things went well throughout the night depsite me not helping much. I was to play my part though. We held a narrow lead going into the final round when someone saw me look at my phone (text off Alex). This was against the rules and our rivals grassed me up!! We lost 5 points much to everyones delight and yes, I cost us the win. Gutted for Tex and Thomsy (and other team members Harvs, Monkey and Corey). Oh well, at least I won the raffle but I gave the $50 voucher to Thomsy because I felt so bad.

There was also a blind auction for various boxes. I had a random $20 bid for the “Sports Box” and despite the compere’s plea for a higher bid, I picked it up. What a bargain! 6 beers, a deoderant an aftershave kit, an AFL ball, some glasses, 2 free rounds of golf, 2 free golf lessons, a free driving range session, a pitch and putt round, and 2 free passes for the local (excellent) go-kart track. Buzzing!

As I have said before, Sunday is our new day to hit the city. Usual stuff but it really was a great night. We even had a new “tag-on” in former MMCC captain Brett Ernst!

We had to call it a night fairly early though (about 3) because Mike started his new job today working for an energy drink company. All good though and me and A-Rob slept on Katie’s couch.

Next morning, I drove Mikes car home and Al drove his own. 20 mins into the journey and I get a call from Al saying his car tyre had blown and he was stranded on the hard shoulder. Just as he said that, I looked up and there he was looking completely useless. So funny! And so typical. Nothing ever seems to work out for him!

Not much else going on. Weather is only average at the minute. Health drive has stalled a little. Still around the 14 stone 10 mark. Hope everyone is well back home! 

Saturday saw us play the second half of our match against Hampton Park and, because of the utter shite we produced in our first knock, we were still in the game (due to our innings lasting only 25 overs!). We had to “reverse outright” them, which happens very rarely. Basically it means we have to win a two innings match in a total match length of 160 overs.

We started off looking to get a lead of around 140 and leave us about 35-40 overs to bowl at them. Sadly, the pitch was a bit wet, and before we knew it, we only had 67 overs to do the business as a result of a late start (we lost 13) 

We scored at a fairly reasonable rate but wickets fell at regular intervals and by the time I got to the crease we were 45 ahead with 5 wickets to go and about 50 overs of the game left.

I was a bit shaky for my first 3 balls but hit my 4th ball through the covers for 4 and was away. I have to be honest and say I don’t think I’ve ever played a better innings. No slogging, just good cricket and I timed everything. I scored 65 with 11 fours and 2 sixes and probably faced 40-odd balls. It was so pleasing to play such an innings though for the first time ever I think I was dismissed through tiredness. I was absolutely knackered!!! Thomsy and Monkey (who made 41 and 32) both kept up the pace at the other end and our runrate was rocketing. A dozen overs and 90 runs later and we were right back in the game!!

We set them about 140 in 35 overs - near enough as planned - but sadly we couldn’t quite finish the job. I bowled as well as I have for a long time but had no luck whatsoever and somehow finished with 1-33. Funny game sometimes. All the bowlers chipped in, but sadly as the rain came, we had them 6 down. A top effort by the lads and we can hold our heads up, but we were always behind the 8-ball after the first 15 overs of the match. Here is the card anyway.

http://www.ddca.com.au/showrvcontent.aspx?matchID=599320&entityID=83&loc=/cricket/reports/match.asp&loc1/match.asp

Had a few beers after the game with the lads, but didn’t go out. Instead, went to Mikes and helped him with some flat pack furniture. What a great Saturday night!! 

Sunday and we were ready to party. “We’re On A Boat” day!!!

Basically 300 or so people rock up and get on a boat which then sails into the bay for about 5 hours as everyone gets smashed to great music. The atmosphere is amazing! To get fully involved, Alex and I decided to hire full sailors costume. Here we are having just got changed at Berny’s

When we got there, we soon found out that we were just about  the only two people in costume. Loving it! From the minute we arrived, we were like celebrities! Everyone wanted their photo taken with the sailors. Here’s some that people have tagged me in on on Facebook. Should be more to follow I reckon.

I managed to take a video on the boat. Not sure why I didn’t take more. I usually do!!

Sadly, the trip just was over waaaay too quick but the night continued on at a pace where a great time was had at Alumbra and Love Machine. Interesting that me and Alex chose to enter a predominantly gay club dressed as sailors but we were long past caring!! Me, Mike and Al all ended up spending the nite at different abodes but we all met up the next day and chilled out around Katie’s house. Pizza, chocolate, Transformers 2 and Oceans 12. Perfect recovery day!

Yes. They do. But first we had Saturday to go through and, at the moment, Saturdays suck!!

We were at home to Hampton Park on another sunny humid day and this was the big one. A game we had to win, as they are probably going to shape up to be our relegation rivals. Amazingly, even though I have been here for nearly 2 months, this was to be my first bowl on our home ground this season!!

The pitch looked ok (at best) but it never looks good at our place. It usually plays fine though so when we won the toss with temperatures near 30 Deg, we decided to bat.

An hour later, and we were 24-8.

I was still there and after talking to Thomsy we figured it would be best if I “swung from the hip”. Just my game!! I managed to connect with a few including one very big straight 6 and got us up to 58 all out (I made 29). Dismal dismal performance. Second top score was 5. No-one else hit a boundary.

To be fair, they had a left arm pommy who bowled full and fast. Add to that some big inswing and it was always going to be tough. But not THAT tough!!! Jason (our skipper) gave us a right bollocking at the changeover and it was thoroughly deserved. They could hear it all round the club!

Well, we went back out and they soon raced to 34-0 as Aron took a bit of tap. Not going to plan, but then we introduced debutant Darren Hardy. Along with myself, the next 20 overs saw Hampton Park lose 9 wickets for 27 runs! Darren had the spell of his life, taking 6-17 off 10 and I picked up the other 3. They edged home though and were 8 wickets down when they actually passed our total. Sadly for us, the last wicket then put on 57 runs. Bizarre stuff!

All is not lost though. There is so much time to go in this game that both sides will get 2 innings and this will give us a chance at a “reverse outright”. I can’t even be arsed to explain that in detail at this point! Anyway, we went back out to bat and made a much better fist of it this time as we reached 48-1. This leaves us about 10 behind with 9 wickets left. Game still on!

We had made a decision to stop in on Saturday – something we are going to do more often now. This is because we don’t want to spoil Sundays. Still, I thought it would be best to have a few in our club after the game. Well…a few turned into a few more. And then at 9pm I kept getting messages off Alex and his clubmates to go join them at theirs. I refused at first but they wouldn’t let it go and promised me free drink all night. Sigh….

So obviously I got a taxi through to Springy’s ground and their boys were good to their word. About a dozen free bottles later and I made my way home at 4am. The guys in that club are off  their nut….

Onto Sunday and I was excited (and a bit hungover). We were going to hit the city early afternoon but A-Rob had to play in a 2020 game so Mike and I decided to sunbathe round his house while we waited. Very pleasant in Mike’s garden with tunes pumping and his mam waiting on us with food and drinks!

We picked Al up and made our way into Melbourne at about 6pm. First stop Ocean Blue.

Mike got us in for free and as we got there we met up with some girlfriends, Billie, Chantelle and Jackie. Them Katie and Sharon turned up. Then Jordy. Then Anton! It was turning into a good one!

The whole night was turning into a replica of the week before. We moved onto Cushion at some time between 11 and 12 and Jordy got us in free this time. Cushion was on good form but by this time we were hammered! I’m not sure at what time Kim arrived but I think it was there that she met us. I just saw these photos on the Clubsguide website. We look far better than we were. And Anton is a fcking little oddball!

We moved onto Love Machine at some time. I don’t know when. This time it was Anton who saved us the $25 entry. On a roll! It was absolutely heaving and so good. Perfect setup. We were dominating proceedings and I remember thinking at the time what a great little group we had with Me, Mike, A-Rob, Jordy and the 2 mental Asians. We also saw Anna and Lisa who are good for a bit of banter and they seemed to be in great form!

For some reason we left. I don’t even know whos decision it was but we went up the road to Circus. Anton did the business again and we had completed the quaddy! All four places in for free. Probably saved us about $60-$70.

We were starting to fade by now though, so didn’t stop too long before heading back to Jordy’s. A-Rob and Jordy went straight to bed but me and Kim chilled out in the spa for a while, and then Anton joined us. Seemed a good idea at the time but it was baltic for about 10 minutes until the heat kicked in!

It soon made me sleepy though so I crashed for a while. We are still on a budget at the minute so decided to train it home when we woke up. And to continue with the way we roll, we didn’t pay for that either….

Sundays. Some of the best night’s out I’ve ever had. The vibe is so cool and I can’t wait for next week as it is the much heralded Boat Cruise. Yesssss!!!!!

Yep. It’s finally arrived. Over a week of 30 Deg C days!!!

Of course, along with heat, you get thunder storms. There was an absolute ripper last week. Lightening every 5-10 seconds for about 3 hours. Alex and I felt we couldn’t let the opportunity pass and attempted to discover whether being on a golf course really is the most dangerous place to be during a storm. Our experiment was crude and not well thought out but it did make me realise that I don’t much fancy hanging around out there with a 3 iron in my hand should the situation arise again!

The weather was beautiful on Friday for our weekly game of golf. Another new course for me to try. Rosebud is a good hour away but it was well worth the drive out. I will try to take a clip of all the different courses I play for posterity. I played poorly front nine but much better on the back. Whisper it quietly, but I may have got my driver back working at last. It’s been a year. Fingers crossed…

Didn’t get up to much else on Friday. Had a drive to Tessa’s to pick up the esky and Alex’s jacket and passport after the races. Also got chance to have a beer with Bianca and Alex but I didn’t stay long as Al was being a peen so I walked out of the pub!

Saturday saw us take on Buckley with us needing a shitload (335) and this was always going to be tough. The pitch was decent, but not as good as last week. Westy was the pick of their bowlers. He really did a good job though he didn’t get me out! I ended up with a pretty boring 16 out of about 160 and I think Westy got 5 wickets. A game to forget.

Saturday night was poker night down at our club which I was to organise. I’d hoped to get 20 or so players but to my delight more and more turned up and we ended up with about 30! The deal was $20 a head with $10 rebuys.  It was great to see Brett “Beaver” Ernst return to the club for the event. So great, that I put a $20 bounty on his head!!

The night was a great success with plenty being spent over the bar and on some delicious steak rolls. At the break, I worked out what I had taken and it was about$750. I gave Cutters (our club chairman) $250 of this to go to the club and we played for the rest with the first prize being $275.

Personally, I was never in with a sniff. Never got a single pair or and ace all night. Weird!!

As the night went on, it was looking worryingly like Beaver may go on an win the thing. I needn’t have worried though. With 5 left, and the top 4 getting paid, up stepped that man for a crisis – Jeff Thom. He sent the Beavdog to the rail with his AKs and in doing so claimed the $20 bonus as well as ensuring a perfect result as Beav went in “the bubble”. But that wasn’t all. Thomsy rode his luck a little to take down the whole thing. He took down young Brendan Wilson in the final with Mushy coming 3rd.

Everyone had a great night and it was probably the most enjoyable function I have been to at the club. Trish (Brendans mum) took loads of photos. I will add some when I get access to them.

Sunday was another scorcher but we had a great day lines up. Our mate Jordy (the guy who lives with Aleisha, the girl who won Big Brother) invited us over the a barbeque and pool party at his place in the city. Perfect! So me and A-Rob made our way there (via numerous taxis and trains) armed with plenty of booze! Big day planned!

Aleisha had invited over her sister and a few other friends and we were set. Great food, a glass of Rose by the pool and some pumping music. Happy days!

As the hours past, we got pretty smashed and decided to make a night of it. A quick shower and change and our first port of call was Ocean Blue, a bar with a real good atmosphere and plenty of dancing going on outside in the (now cooling) heat. Hence we all look like sweaty messes! Here is Jordy.

Aleisha

And Billie

After that, we moved onto Cushion for a few hours which I really enjoyed. The pics below were taken by some clubs guide photographer. Hence the quality if very good. I’m quite suprised how fresh we look. We were all completely hammered. I need to get me one of those cameras!

After this it all started to get a bit blurry. We went to the gay club, Love Machine where Al thought it would be an idea to stand in the middle of the dancefloor, take his top off and swing it round his head. So funny! To be fair I probably didn’t look much better walking round in a white singlet but I couldn’t care less to be honest.

It’s pretty good in there. You don’t get hassled much and there are lots of straight people who go too. And the music is banging good!

To round off the night, we ended up in Circus. God knows what time this was…probably after 5am. Had a good time in there for an hour or so before making our way back to Jordy’s to crash. Absolute men down.

And there we have it. We made our way back this morning after another quick dip in the pool. I think we will end up stopping at Jordy’s quite a bit over the next few months….

Well, it’s been a busy week!

First up, we had a game to play. Buckley Ridges away. Small ground. Deck like concrete. Batchy opening the batting for them. Hot day. Not a good toss to lose!!!

And things got worse. I started to feel pain in my back after a couple of overs and it got progressively worse. By 4 overs I was using a shorter run, and by 6 overs I was finished. It hurts like hell and that was that. I tried to hang around for a bit and took some painkillers but it never got any better. With everything stacked against our team, I had to walk off.

Chris Batchelor batted superbly in a chancless 150+. Even when he was out it was a bad decision! Westy, the opposition captain, suprisingly decided to declare, giving us 11 extra overs to knock off their 334. We will need them!!! We made a great start though, with Shano an Nellie taking us to 49-0 at the close. You never know…

Special mention to Jeff “Thomsy” Thom on taking 5-63 off 19 overs. A great performance given the situation.

We then moved onto a trivia nite at Alex’s club – Springvale South. I think we came last! One of the rounds was a karaoke round and Al thought it would be funny to get me up there and compete against a member from another table. This was about 5 minutes after arriving so I was totally sober. Al got the whole club chanting my name till I stood up and did it. Complete embarrassment!

The night was good fun though. Really enjoyed it. Oh…and I now own a BBQ. About 5 seconds before the end of a silent auction, he thought it would be funny to bid $175 for A-Rob and Goochy for this magnificent piece of cookware. We won! A shrewd move from him though as it retails at nearer $400. Nice. So now I part own a BBQ. All I need now it a house to put it in. Here’s a pic of the little beaut!

We moved onto the city which was heaving after Derby day. Usual crap. Motel and 161. Think I’m about ready for a change. Certainly from 161. The music is nothing flash, but it seems to be the place to be. Ended up stopping the night at Terri’s though didn’t get any photos which was unusual.

After a good sleep on Terri’s sofa, we made the disappointing decision to go back out. I was not pleased at Roberts here. I wanted to go home! Anyway, Terri dropped us off at Bernie’s where we met Aron and her mate. We tried to get a bit more sleep before we went out. At least that’s what I thought we were trying to do. Seems like Alex thought differently…

Got to Barkley in the evening and had a real good night. Far better than the Saturday. Caught up with Tessa and arranged to pick up our tickets for The Melbourne Cup from her the following day.

So on Monday, I made the trip with my esky to see Tess. Our plan was for me to drop off a load of booze with her and she would take it into the exclusive Nursey section at the racecourse that evening. Then, it would all be waiting for us in our own little carpark spot on the grass the following day. This is a great deal for us. We saved a fortune on drink this way even though the tickets were $100 (£55).

So Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day and we were buzzing. Aron drove us in to the city for the race that stops a whole nation. We looked sharp! Rory, A-Rob, The King Thing and myself!

How could we fail to have a good day looking so fine? lol. And yes, it was a cracker.

I didn’t manage to win anything though which is my fault entirely. I’d asked Thomsy to send me some tips and he sent me 4. I backed 2 of them and they lost. The other 2 won at 9/1 and 14/1……FUCK!

But I hardly bet anything. It wasn’t about that. It was about mixing with the posh end! Tess and her mates had made us loads of food as well and we had so much drink. Everyone was on great form. Took a few photos! 

Not many of Kingy because he had to leave after a couple of hours. We don’t know why yet, but he says everything is ok.

Anyway, what a top day but we weren’t finished. At about 6ish we moved onto The Nest and it was heaving.  The word of the day for A-Rob was “domination” and he lived up to it!! He’s a machine! Plenty of pics but can’t be arsed to show them. Didn’t really get many of him in action.

So the night moved on at a pace. We were completley smashed by the time we met up with Kim so not really sure what went on. I know we ended up stopping at her mates house.  We really need to get a house closer to the city. It’s just too expensive to get taxis home and I feel like a bum just crashing at other people’s houses all the time!

Got up this morning and walked the streets of St Kilda before choosing a nice restuarant where we had a great egg and bacon on toast. We sat and looked over Melbourne as the sun shone. What a sight. Life is good people.

Yep, not much great stuff gone on this week. On Monday, I hired Tiger Woods 2010 for the PS3 and had some fun with Mike and A-Rob. Also played some real golf with Mike and gave him a bit of a dusting.  Took a video to give you an idea of who he is.

On returning, it turned out that Mike had been talking to Alex about what we could do for his girlfriend Katie’s birthday. They had come up with the idea for a birthday message. Sadly Alex had to go to training and couldn’t participate, but me and Mike went ahead with it anyway. For the record…this is the first time I have done this and will very likely be the last. One or two people were surprised but in general it went down well!

So come Saturday, and we are playing Springvale South. I was really looking forward to a game and the sun was out at last – perfect. Well, maybe not. On arriving we found the two umpires looking very concerned with the state of the wicket which was, granted, poor.  I didn’t think there would be a problem though. We all wanted to play and the opposition also seemed keen as we suck and they wanted the win! The umpires were not happy though and amid scenes of confusion, the match was abandoned!!!

Now yes, it was a poor wicket. But I’ve played on worse, and the old heads in the team correctly said it would play better than it looked. Too late though. The umpires were out of there with (I presume) half their match fee (£35)  in their back pockets!

We were all left stunned, but what could we do?

Still, it was a gorgeous day and we wanted some form of cricket. So why not play out in the middle? We had a full scale practise match out there on that wicket and you know what? Not one ball popped all afternoon. We even took some video footage to back up our case in the inevitable investigation.

Obviously that didn’t exactly put  me in a great mood and things never really got much better. We got to Katie’s for her party way later than we had planned and that upset Katie (and put Mike on edge).  We did get a good photo though. I can’t believe how I caught the sun during the day!

Thing’s didn’t get much better though. Me and Alex had an argument over nothing and that worsened the mood further. Then, I got thrown out of Motel for wearing a beanie. I didn’t even know you weren’t allowed!! No warning, nothing. The bouncer though had kinda picked on the wrong guy because inside there were about 10 people talking to all the top brass trying to get me back in. At least Terri came out and said hi!

It was proving difficult though because the bouncer didn’t want to have to make an embarrassing climb down. In the end (after 45 minutes stood in the cold!), he had to as the very top man came out and had a word with him. Aron sorted this as he plays football for the team that this Albanian guy supports. This guy is not to be messed with in any way and is a very useful ally. Especially in situations like this! I was back in!!

We moved onto 161 and had probably our best time of the weekend. Al and I had decided that we would follow up our spatula antics with some more items from the $2 shop. Everyone seems to love the banter. Especially our little nutjob friend Kim! The poms are running the show over here at the moment!

After onesix we went to a mates house (Jordy’s) to crash. This was the 4th different house I have ended up back at in the 4 Saturday’s I have been out. Fun days. Jordy’s place is real nice and he has a spa and heated pool – he lives with the former winner of Big Brother Australia (though she wasn’t in). It wasn’t long though before we were all asleep, scattered all over the place.

On getting up, Mike (who had again been playing Sunday morning soccer for some crazy reason) came and picked us up in order for us to go to Ocean Blue – a club he is promoting. Free entry and drink cards and we were laughing. Sadly though, despite some rocking tunes, we couldn’t really get into it.

We met up with Katie and Sharon and tried to get into Barkley but it was just too full and we couldn’t pull any moves to beat the queue.

Then came a bizarre situation, Katie and Sharon invited us for a Chinese. We said we’d join them.  Now to put you in the picture, Alex has had a little fling (last week or 2) with Sharon before she ended it for no apparent reason. They now barely talk. Well, we walked in the resturant and the two girls were sat with her new fella. Awkward!!!! He had no idea what was going on and was being as nice as pie to us all. What games Sharon was playing I have no idea. No point going into it to much but there was plenty being said between the lads via text messages!

So yeah, overall not a great weekend. We got out of the chinky asap after the meal and Mike drove us back home. Those 2 went for a game of Fifa 2010 but I couldn’t be arsed. Straight to bed for me.

So here we are. It’s actually Monday evening but I’m not going to post this yet. I will wait for a few pics of Saturday to be put on Facebook by various people. I did get some good news though. My friend Tessa has got me, Alex and two mates into the members enclosure for the Melbourne Cup next week. CAN’T WAIT! Should be an awesome day!

Also, the fitness campaign is still going well. Current weight is 14 stone 12. The lightest I have been in about 6 months.