farewell 2007

well, 2007's been somewhat a year of contrasts for me. obviously parts of it have been pretty dreadful and have left a pretty deep imprint on my life but there have also been some pretty great parts too. the opportunity to live and work in poland was amazing and something i'll always look back on very fondly. i really love that part of the world and can't wait until i have the chance to travel back there again. it's also fantastic to be living back at home and able to enjoy the lifestyle that perth offers. it's also been the chance to rekindle old friendships that are very valuable to me.

so here's a fond farewell to the good times, a flip of the bird to the bad times and a hope that 2008 is the best year yet.

poignant images

i came across this website which has 33 images that have captured moments in time and contributed to change. it is very interesting to see the photos and click through to the accompanying wikipedia and youtube links which give further background.

click here to go to the site but be warned, some of the images are quite confronting

a new stadium

the new stadium looks like it's going ahead and i must say i don't see the point. there are still memberships available for freo and as far as i'm concerned, the weagles have been around for 20 years so if people are only just trying to join up now then they've got no right to whinge about having to join a waiting list. the fair dinkum supporters of both clubs are already members. as for soccer and rugby, well they don't even sell out the grounds they've got now so why they reckon they need to use a 60,000 seat stadium i've got no idea. i reckon there's far more important things to spend a billion bucks on so they should can the stadium idea and put the money to better use.

but if it must be built surely they can't be stupid enough to build it in east perth. it's gotta stay in subi!

music

i finally picked up my cds and records from sal yesterday and have unpacked them. i file my cds in order of release year and sorting them today yielded some interesting statistics. the year from which i have most cds is 1994, followed by 1991, 1993 and 1996. i have at least one album from each year since 1961 with the exception of 1973 and 1976. and there are a number of cds in my collection that i look at now and wonder what i was thinking. after all, why on earth would anyone buy albums by the spin doctors, sonia dada or extreme??? oh the shame...

smoking banned on beach

in the news today was the story that the city of joondalup has banned smoking on the beaches from marmion to burns beach. now i'm sure that some people will start bleating the usual cliches about us being a nanny state and that they should have the right to smoke wherever they like but i reckon it's a great idea. it's about time that those of us who don't smoke stop having the cancer causing smoke of those who choose to smoke forced on us. this is a good start but i believe it needs to go further. as far as i'm concerned, anyone who smokes around a child is guilty of a form of child abuse. i've said before that i reckon it should be made illegal to smoke around kids and i still believe that. it should also be illegal to smoke anywhere food is served, whether inside or outdoors. it's time to start taking the health risks of smoking seriously and protecting those who don't smoke. if people want to smoke then they are free to do so but there needs to be restrictions on where they do it.

putin - man of the year

time magazine has named vladimir putin as their 'man of the year' which i find very interesting. he's a leader of such dichotomy. on one hand he seems to have put russia back under an iron grip and restricted many of the freedoms we take for granted and which russia seemed destined to embrace. on the other, he's brought economic prosperity to the country and stood up to the multinational oil companies in a way few others would have the balls to do. he seems to have such massive popularity in russia and there's no denying he's elevated the country back into a position of power in the world. i guess time will judge the merits of his time in power.

the greatest band ever?

ok, maybe not the greatest band ever (probably not even in the top 1000 or so) but enough time has passed now to be able to admit that i did really like v capri back in the day. i remember the day in 1986 when they rocked up to my high school to play a lunchtime gig in the gym and i was one very excited bunny even though i did get a certain amount of derision from a number of my mates. i still have my old vinyl copies of the 'in my world' album and 'that's the way' single and have found out that the album was reissued on cd last year so i reckon i'll be adding it to my collection as soon as i can find it.

i don't remember what happened to the band but obviously we all know and love the singer, tod, as the former channel 9 weatherman and he now does an afternoon radio show on (i think) 6PR on the weekends.

"it's been a day, it's been a week but time just looks the same/ i look through my misty window - can you tell me if there's sun or rain?"... indeed!

history repeating

not that many years ago intelligence was coming out that iraq had no links to international terrorism, no weapons of mass destruction and was not a threat to anyone. nevertheless, george bush jnr pressed on with his claims that they were the devil incarnate and had to be stopped before they ended civilisation as we know it. history shows that bush's rhetoric was a prelude to an illegal invasion of the country and the complete mess we see today.

to expect bush to have learned from his past mistakes is entirely reasonable but given the events of the past couple of days it's evident that he hasn't. we now know that iran has not had any sort of nuclear weapons programme in the past four years but this hasn't stopped bush from insisting on further international sanctions or led him to rule out a military attack on the country. it's all eerily similar to the leadup to the invasion of iraq in 2003. thank goodness this amoral warmonger has to leave office next year. hopefully the american people will have learned from their mistakes and elect someone with a decent moral compass... and more than half a brain.

what a fraud

i guess it was only a matter of time but now that it's happened i've gotta say it really stinks. warnie's record has been broken by a charlatan who's built a career on chucking the ball and taking bucketloads of wickets against third rate sides. it's a shame that the ICC has been so terrified of being labelled racist by sri lanka that they've not backed the umpires brave enough to have no-balled him for throwing the ball and nipped it in the bud. instead they've bent the rules to accomodate him and in the process allowed unfairness to flourish. it's a legacy on which they will be harshly judged.

dullsville?

ok.. it's confession time.. hand up whoever coined the term 'dullsville' to describe perth. right.. go stand in the corner for half an hour and stop being so silly. for anyone with even a modicum of initiative perth is far from dull. the fact is there is a lot to keep one entertained. admittedly we don't always have overt passive entertainment shoved down our throats but i reckon there's something lacking in people who aren't able to find their own entertainment once in a while. unfortunately perth is burdened with some exceptionally lazy journalists who latch onto catchphrases and then mindlessly repeat them ad infinitum so it would appear that we'll be stuck with news reports referring to the city as 'dullsville' for a long time yet.... sigh. is it too much to ask for journalists to present reports that are balanced, intelligent and well thought out and to avoid using hackneyed mindless phrases? surely they can leave lazy irrelevant journalism to 'today tonight' so those who want their prejudices reinforced have somewhere to turn. thank goodness for the abc and sbs news services!

old times

looking through some old photos recently has brought back a lot of memories. in 1981 i was in year 5. i'm in the second last row, 4th from the right with a nice full head of hair!! our classroom was located in a demountable building which is no longer there, having been replaced by tennis courts quite a few years ago. year 5 is a pretty good year as you're no longer one of the little kids but don't have the 'pressures' of being in the upper grades. even in those days the trend of banning any activity with even a vague chance of causing injury had started and i remember playing the recently outlawed 'british bulldog' behind the demountable away from the eyes of the teachers. marbles were also a bit of a favourite although i wasn't particularly good at them. i also remember the odd bee swarm settling in trees near our demountable which we would spend play time annoying and then running and hiding under sprinklers so the bees couldn't reach us.

year 5 was also the beginning of my love afair with the claremont footy club as they went on to win their first premiership in my lifetime. since then we've won another 5 and lost 8. it was also the year duran duran released their first single and album. ahhh.. what a good year it was!