Say Something...

Well another year has passed, and capping off the old year I am pleased to present you with Say Something's 50th post! I suppose I would've passed this milestone at some point sooner or later but my laziness seems to have coincided with the conclusion of what has turned out to be a pretty decent year. And with that it's time to tell my last story for the year, so sit tight and enjoy the ride.

We had the pleasure of going to see the Aussies take on the Indians at the MCG for Boxing Day this year, and I managed to be there for the first two days which is a lot more than usual, given that I can only take so much spectating of this fine sport in one punch. Cricket is not for everyone, especially when you consider the fact that the game is only outdone by football/soccer for the proportion of time where nothing happens. Even for a more than casual supporter like myself there are times when all that blocking doesn't exactly stimulate the senses.

But not to worry, we were all promised that the Indians would have more than enough batting prowess to menace the Australian Test squad. After all names like Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman are not to be taken so lightly. Surely they would do a better job than the Sri Lankans did when they came down here the month before. The huge gap in between innings for the locals had only made our thirst for the game even more umm... thirstier than before. It was time for a showdown.

For the first day it certainly seemed that way. The Australians won the toss and elected to bat, and the Indians did a fine job of it at first. It took Hayden and Jacques around three overs to get off the mark in a fine contest as the bowlers tried to tempt them into playing rash shots. It's always a good show when spectators sarcastically applaud the batsmen for making contact with the ball, even with a defensive shot.

At some point during the morning session a small party of Indian supporters came along and sat next to us. For some reason they were all wearing sailor hats and holding up nonsensical banners like "India makes cricket famous, and Indians make cricketers famous". Most of the other banners were in Indian, but if this was an example of things to come, perhaps it was better I didn't know. I'm not pretending to be all high and mighty about people's choice of slogans, but I'm sure there was an error in logic somewhere along the line. I hope that didn't come off as accidentally racist, but if you see this blog up on Today Tonight you'll know somethings gone slightly awry.

Taking pictures at the cricket seems to blur into one... all pictures seems to look the same after a while. But each year presents new opportunities to document and mock, so here we go...




Day One presented the MCG with an additional $12000 to the coffers of the mighty MCC as two streakers decided they had too much money and it was probably better off elsewhere. The guy grainily photographed here made it halfway to the pitch before being tackled by the police, while the second guy made it across the wicket before anyone could apprehend him. It really does highlight how unfit we as a nation are if our best streakers can't even make it across a field. They're not wearing anything that will slow them down aerodynamically which really does disappoint me.




Speaking of sources of unfit streakers, at some point during the day it was time to grab something to eat. On the way into the ground we saw a Nando's trailer operating near our gate which was very appealing, given that their food doesn't feel like it came out of a cesspool filled to the brim with enough grease to slicken John Travolta's hair in all those films he made back in the 70s. However it did come at a small additional price. How much more? If you couldn't be bothered squinting at the photo above, here it is in its full crapulence.




Holy Jeebus, what a bargain! Lining up at the end of the queue seven metres away didn't ring any bells, it was only when I was two customers away from the prize when I realised my eyesight was not deceiving me in some sort of cruel joke. At the outlet outside Telstra Dome they manage to sell combos for a decent price, but here it was clear that the definition of value has to be compared to each other overpriced store at the G'. It made little sense for me to pay full price for each item, especially when they didn't even give you a damn bag to carry all the crap you bought off them. It took me five minutes to find a spot to put everything down so I could reach for my reentry pass and even then it was hard not to feel hard done by.

Still I didn't let that minor piece of extortion get to me. We had the rest of the day to enjoy as the Australians batted on. The Indians had the best of the afternoon sessions as they took wickets at regular intervals and it really seemed like they'd be able to use that advantage during Day Two. How wrong was I.


Lousy Charades-Like Game

On Friday we all got together for a nice day of drafting at Darren's place. Nine of us turned up which was a pretty cool achievement considering the fact we are playing MtG after all. Describing details when it comes to card games makes for kind of dry reading so in summary I managed to come second playing a Giant deck that fell at the last hurdle to Xiao's Treefolk/Elf deck due to some unhelpful topdecking, some poor play on my behalf and the fact I passed on the Timber Protector which won him the third and deciding game. As the saying tattooed on Ben Cousins goes, Such is draft. Overall that wasn't that big a deal as we both got the cards we wanted.

Later on we played a game where we played idiots living in a small village accusing each other of murder Midsomer Murders style before lynch mobbing them in a game which required a lot of creative ways to die and a lot of sleeping. Random accusations and a lot of bluffing were required to be any good at this game in order to hunt down the werewolf mafia that were whacking people off at random. Fortunately we knew each other fairly well, as I reckon that a group with tensions running deep would manage to bring it all to the surface in a bout of wild allegations and the entire party would end up on the set of Springer in a show themed, 'When Good Games Go Bad'

My personal highlight of the night came when we started playing a game known as Taboo. The basic gist of it is to try and get your team mates to guess the word on the card without using any of the associated words listed alongside it. No gestures or funny sounds are allowed either so it's all in the phrasing. Answering the questions wasn't so bad for me for the most part, but trying to string clues together is slightly more challenging as you are racing against the clock. At one point I flipped over a card with the word 'benefit' written on it. I stumbled around with the neurons inside that thing I claim to be a brain before coming up with something that went a little like this.

"Umm, how about... 'Friends with _____?' You know, when friends become more than just good friends? Argh, (can't believe I was about to say this... especially in a friend's living room with his family several rooms away) you know what they call them... Fuck Buddies?"

Cries of "Come on! Someone has to know this!" were met with dumb silence (I mean that in the least insulting kind of way) while the opposing team sitting behind me cottoned on as to what the hell I was on about. In retrospect the reference was probably a little too obscure for everyone's purposes seeing as it wasn't exactly in common use. The most recent reference to that phrase came from Boston Legal... and only Xiao had followed that storyline. Maybe I should've gone with "the opposite of detriment" or something like that, I dunno. It was certainly worth a try though, and at least everyone left that night slightly the wiser.


And that brings us to the end of another journey for tonight. It looks like this will be the last post I'll be able to muster before the new year overwhelms us all, so I'd like to say thanks to everyone who bothers reading this whenever I get around to sitting down, typing and proofreading (kinda) for a couple of hours, the comments make it really worthwhile. It really started out as a way to chronicle all the crap I get up to during the year, and then I figured that if others could get a laugh or two from my bizzare and sometimes off putting outlook on life, well then all the better. I'll be off for a couple of days so in the meantime I hope you can keep yourselves busy. It's been a pretty good one, with all its ups and downs and upside downy parts and I'll be back to do it all again in the near future. Happy new year, y'all!