of course the football story is so much more complicated than i ever imagined. on sunday i just happened to be driving around listening to the radio, when i heard a story about the history of migrant soccer clubs in Australia, called Beautiful Game, Lucky Country.
The standard of play and the size of the crowds grew in leaps and bounds throughout the decade, yet to many Australians soccer remained ‘wogball’, a game for pansies. They also associated it with spectator violence, especially towards referees and a level of nationalistic fervour that new arrivals were supposed to have left behind in the old countries.
despite promising myself that i wouldn’t get up for the game last night, i found myself wide awake in bed at 1am, and so i did watch. it was still very exciting, even though we was robbed. Tim Colebatch wrote a prescient opinion piece in today’s paper. i have no idea whether he actually knows anything about football, but i almost always think his economics opinions are enlightening, so i’m prepared to take his word as truth.
in garden news, we bought a mini nectarine tree with the unfortunate name “nectazee”. despite the name, i think it will be a very sweet little tree! and we finally put in the avocado that i have always wanted. we harvested something like 25 pumpkins - we have given quite a few chunks away, but have still managed to store enough to last us for nearly a year (if they don’t go mouldy on us). i took a photo - i’ll post it when i download it onto the computer.
in ivf news, the lovely dr david is away this cycle, so we went to see his covering doctor. she wasn’t nice at all. it was all rather disheartening. normally the post-period visit to the dr in preparation for the next transfer gives us a boost, clearing away any lingering misery after the last failed cycle. dr david’s optimism, cheerfulness and careful attention is infectious, so that we feel excited and happy and optimistic all over again. this time, we just felt disrespected, stupid and insignificant. no surprise that it has been harder to bounce back. dr david definitely deserves a pumpkin when we see him next.
yes, the ref-ing has been … strange, by all counts. although people seem to whinge too much about sport. after all, it is ONLY SPORT!!! or is this only australians? the new whingeing pom?
Comment by nix — June 28, 2006 @ 3:04 pm
ain’t that the truth! i haven’t been into soccer before now, so i trying to *breathe deeply* accept the crazy refereeing as part of the game, almost like there are three teams on the field, one of whom has only one member and does crazy unexpected things.
Comment by sorenson — June 29, 2006 @ 7:54 am