WET WET WET

WEDNESDAY 23rd NOVEMBER

  No I am not refering to the pop group, but the weather.  Leaden skies and the wet stuff keeps coming down.  Horror of horrors the temperature was down to 17 degrees.  Robert went off to Beecroft where he is one of several parents involved in organising members of Nick's class in a group performance to take place in a week's time.

  I drove down to the new Polish deli and bought pierogi, poledwica and krakowska sausage.  The shop only opens Wed - Sat as they are smoking their meats on Monday and Tuesday.  Naturally I spoke Polish with the lady assistant.  Unfortunately they didn't have pierogi (Polish dumplings) with cabbage and mushrooms - only ruskie and with sweet cheese.  I opted for ruskie (with potatoes).

  Otherwise I had a quiet day until it was time to drive to Epping for Nick's indoor football which of course is not affected by the weather.  In a tight first half Nick scored a brilliant solo goal skipping over several tackles before firing in a long range shot about 12" below the crossbar.  Unbelievably the refree disallowed it claiming the ball had gone over the crossbar!  The net wasn't attached to the crossbar and the ball had gone in and then fallen behind the net.  There were howls of protest from the gallery with one of the other parents urging the ref to check the net properly.  However the score remained 0-0 at half time.  Not long into the second half, following a neat interchange of passes, Nick opened the scoring with a well crafted goal.  Two more goals followed, one a powerful shot from Tom and another one from one of the two Asian lads in the team to complete a well deserved 3-0 victory - a fitting result for the last match I shall see.

   The drive back to Oakhurst wasn't as bad as I thought it might be as it was the rush hour, albeit the traffic was heavy all the way back.  Robert has spoken to Jeannette and apparently she has been appointed temporary Customer Relations Manager for Victoria as well as NSW.  The boss there is already grateful for what she has done in a couple of days, and it looks like she will be going back for another week.  The manager there said that if they didn't renew her contract in Sydney, he would give her a job like a shot.  Robert said he wasn't moving to Melbourne!

  There were still some risoles left from yesterday and along with fried mushroom and onions, the pierogi went down a treat, washed down by the remaining red and white wine and then beer.  I saw that the Manchester teams hadn't fared too well in Europe - what a shame!

  Robert decided it was time to bring Muslim Johnny down a peg or two.  He texted him last night saying he wouldn't be into work.  Why, came the reply.  Please don't tell anybody but I've got a new job.  You can trust me. Where?  In Melbourne.  Well the best of luck.  And all the best to you it's been a pleasure working with you. Oh you're going to make me cry.  "I've really got him hooked now", said Robert with satisfaction.  "Just wait till I come into work in the morning and he asks me what I'm doing there - and I'll just say because I work here.  You really fell for it!".