What I've been in to - February 2018

Hard to believe, but we're almost at the end of February, so its time again to write about what I've been reading and listening to. 

Books

Well I've managed to read a few more books this month. The first was from Tanya Marlow 'Those Who Wait'. The book is about seeing God in and through disappointment, doubt and delay. The book uses the stories of Sarah, Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary to talk about finding God as we deal with disappointment. What I really loved about the book is the stories it wove about how these biblical characters may have felt as they waited for God's promises to be fulfilled. In her book, Marlow includes chapters that talk about why she made certain interpretations as she retold these familiar stories, also highlighting that there were other ways you could read the story.

The other book I've been working through is Samantha Lane's book Roar.  Roar tells the stories of some of the players and coaches from the Women's AFL competition, which launched during 2017.  I really enjoyed reading it - and hearing how much the competition and game mean to these women.  I am totally blown away by the book, and the women who shared their stories.

Music

I've posted about this briefly elsewhere to, but the music on heavy rotation during this month has been Andrew Peterson, Sandra McCracken, Christa Wells. I've only just got Sarah Blasko's new album so am expecting to listen to that a bit more. First impressions, I just love her unique and powerful voice. The songs are so emotional and human. Well worth checking out.

The highlight of Andrew Peterson's EP Resurrection Letters - Prologue is the song Last Words which is a beautifully constructed song featuring Jesus' last words on the Cross. Just a really thought provoking EP.  The album beautifully prepares our hearts for both Lent and Easter.

I've also been listening to another band called 'A TreehouseWait'. Totally recommend listening to them too. Great lyrics and a unique sound.

It's kind of fitting to post here that it has been twenty years since I saw U2's Sydney PopMart concert, my first U2 show. The enduring memories I have from the concert, are the man who climbed up a lighting tower during Where the Streets Have No Name, the fact that the band could not use their lemon due to an electrical storm, the band playing One (in memory of Michael Hutchence) illuminated only by the electrical storm, and the crowd singing INXS' Never Tear Us Apart after the show finished. The album Pop is still one of my all time favourite albums, and the concert one of the best I have ever seen. Hard to believe that's now twenty years ago.

Sporting shorts

I don't know about you, but I've really been enjoying the Winter Olympics. Sadly the coverage this year has been fairly ordinary. There's something I just love about watching an event where either New Zealand or Australia are not very likely to win. My favourite story from the Olympics so far is the Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecka who shocked the field to take the Alpine skiing gold medal.

I've really enjoyed the start of the AFLW competition. From my point of view more people need to see these amazing athletes play the sport they, and I, love.

I was also disappointed by AFL-X. Which really seems like a televised training drill. Disappointing because money was directed away from the Women's Game to AFLX-, disappointing because the women's game deserves its time in the sun.  The real driver behind AFL-X seems to be the desire to play the game on rectangle fields, and maybe win hearts in NSW and Queensland (with a quicker form of the game and make an event like the Rugby. Some have also said that its part of a plan to develop an international game.  It's disappointing an international game would come ahead of a team based in Tasmania. Yep, North Melbourne and Hawthorn play games there; but I feel Tasmania deserves its own team, given their history in the game.                   

Read ABC's take on the AFL-X here. My gut feel is that the game will be back next year with a little bit of tinkering.

Sporting shorts...

So, its time for the annual, how much egg can I get on my face post. Especially seeing as the trails start next weekend. Here's a top eight for the AFL and NRL. 

AFL: (Not in order)

Sydney, GWS, Adelaide, Geelong, West Coast, Richmond, Essendon ad Melbourne.

Hawthorn are a good of making the finals again too. I'm picking Melbourne as my darkhorse; each year seems to be an improvement on the last one.

In terms of the Premiers - I'm leaning towards Adelaide, though Sydney are a chance (more so if they don't lose the first six games like last year),

NRL (Not in order)

North Queensland, Roosters, Melbourne, Brisbane, Parramatta, Penrith, Cronulla, St George.

At the moment, I think that I'm favouring North Queensland, or the Roosters to win the title. Depending on how Melbourne covers its losses, and the representative season, they could well go back to back. 

The most confident prediction I'll make is that the Warriors will have another disappointing year. 

I'd softly lean to Queensland winning the Origin series. Australia will beat New Zealand, if they play this year. 

Other sport:

I really love the Winter Olympics, primarily because I can watch it for the joy of the sport. I'm not really expecting any New Zealanders to place in the top three so its fun to watch the best in the world go at it. 

Next week the UEFA Champions League returns - with a couple of great ties to look forward to as well.

The Women's AFL game between Fremantle and Collingwood attracted a crowd of almost 42,000. The 41,975 is the largest crowd for a women's AFL game in Australia. The only larger crowd for a women's sporting game in Australia was the 58,432 who saw Sweden play Brazil during the Sydney Olympics. 

Sporting short.

Time for a new post on this sporting life.

• The Footy Season has started with the beginning of the 2nd Season of the Women's competition. Looking forward seeing the competition continue to grow. 
• I enjoyed watching the Big Bash Cricket. My hope for next year is that the Men's and Women's Final are played on a weekend without international cricket and as standalone events. The Women deserve to play in a full stadium, with the traditional home ground advantage given to the highest finishing team. 
• In contrast to the above, I would love to see us move to a system where the Grand Final of the Rugby League and Australian Rules Football competitions rotates around the country like the SuperBowl. 
• On the SuperBowl - why was this an upset? The Eagles beat the Patriots earlier in the year, and they both had identical records for the season (13-3). Don't understand the hate for the Patriots, but also glad the Eagles won.
• The highlight of the year so far seeing both Roger Federer and Caroline Wozniacki win the Australian Open Finals. I've run out of words for Federer - his achievements are staggering but above that I am impressed with the respect He has for the sport he plays, and how he recognises his place within its history. Federer is the fourth tennis player to win 20 Grand Slam Single titles (and the first man). The others, Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and Margaret Court.
• Looking forward to the start of the Winter Olympics on Friday. Along with the Football World Cup, its my most anticipated sporting event for the year. I'm also looking forward to the Champions League restarting - with some mouth-watering ties set up including Real Madrid v Paris St Germain and Chelsea-Barcelona.
• Impressed with F1's decision to remove the Grid Girls and replace them with Grid Kids. 

What I'm in to December/January

Boy those Christmas holidays disappeared. Can hardly believe school's started for the year. We had quite a busy January, catching up with family over Christmas and New Years, before taking a road trip to Victoria for a wedding, and then away with friends for the Australia Day weekend.

The trip to Victoria was great fun. The first time we'd driving long distance with the kids and they both coped with it fairly well. Planned breaks (and exercise) at McDonalds helped, as well as the Wiggles (their Meet the Orchestra CD is quite fun) and various audio-books. On the way down we also stopped at Holbrook, The Submarine and Museum there was a big hit. On the way down we spent the first night at Beechworth. Just a lovely town - with an awesome Bakery, and a rich history.

One of the many highlights of the trip was our day in Melbourne. We caught a bus into the city, and stopped at Brunetti's, Reading Kids, before going to the Museum. Sad to say, but I definitely preferred it to any of the Museums in Sydney. The day we arrived in Melbourne we also went to the Collingwood Children's Farm - which I totally recommend. It was just wonderful for the kids. 

The other highlight of the trip was a visit to Hutch & Co in Lilydale. We visited the cafe because in an earlier life it was a shop owned by Fiona's family, and I can totally recommend the Tonic Expresso on their menu - a shot of coffee, with Tonic water poured over ice served with Lime. Just wonderful

It was really great to be off treatment - it meant that I had so much more energy for these things. I felt so much more myself. The challenge now is trying to retain some of that energy now I'm back on treatment. I'll have a scan later this month so we can see how things are going.  I'm trying not to be too anxious about this, as whatever will be, already is.

How else have I kept myself busy during the past few months.

Reading
I've read a little bit more over the past few months, not a lot mind you.  I finished Jamila Rizvi's book Not Just Lucky. While it is geared to women, I found there was a lot I could personally take from it, as well as being another helpful book to remember as my daughter grows up.  Since then I've started Zoe Daniel's Story Teller. If you don't know, Zoe Daniel is (or perhaps was) ABC's South East Asia Correspondent. The book is as much about the events she covered and her reflections on her working life. I've just started, so more later.

On my list to read next is Samantha Lane's book Roar and Tanya Marlow's Those Who Wait. Roar focuses on stories from the inaugural Women's AFL competition. Those Who Wait is a book about the perspective and purpose we can find through waiting for the fulfillment of our longings.

Music
December is normally filled with Christmas carols and Christmas songs. While I did listen to a few carols, the album on high rotation was U2's Songs of Experience. I've blogged my thoughts on the album here. If its possible I think I like and enjoy the album more now than I did then. I'm still hoping their Experience and Innocence Tour comes here, but I have doubts.

In January, we went and saw the Carole King Musical - Beautiful.  I really enjoyed the musical.  I was familiar with some of the music but none of the story.  The musical told the story beautifully, and was quite fun.  One of the highlights of the musical was You've Got a Friend, it was beautifully placed in the musical and gave me the chills. Seriously, if you can go to Melbourne and see it, you won't be disappointed.

After seeing the musical, I was inspired and listened to a bit more of Carole King. Along with the musical CD, Carole King's album Tapestry, was also on heavy rotation. I also did some exploring and listened to a concert she did with James Taylor in the 1970s. (Live at the Troubadour). It has beautiful versions of 'You Can Close Your Eyes' and 'Fire and Rain'. I knew You Can Close Your Eyes because of the duet performed by Brooke Fraser and William Fitzsimmons.

The other highlight was Glen Hansard's new album Between Two Shores. I'd been hearing songs from the album since 'Time Will be the Healer' was released last year. I love Hansard's voice; and the songs sound great. Think they'll grow a more when they're played live, so hopefully we'll see him out here soon.

I didn't expect it but the new album from Andrew Osenga (The Painted Desert) has also been really great to listen to.

During January the other highlight was going to the Brickman Awesome show in Sydney. Brickman Awesome is an exhibition of some pretty amazing models made completely out of Lego bricks.  I couple of the ones which really jumped out at me were the Killer Whale, Red Back Spider, Rosewell and the Sydney Opera House.

Movies
It's actually been a good month for movies - I had planned to go and see the latest Star Wars film but I never quite got to do that, but I did take the time to watch The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie, I found both to be really fun, a lot of cultural references for the mature viewer. The Lego Batman movie certainly is my favourite Batman movie.

If I can find a way to make it work I hope to see some of the Oscar nominated films. I was delighted to see Lou (a short film released with Cars 3) nominated in the Animated Short Film category. Will let you know how I go next month.