Movember is here!

Movember is here! A great reason to present a hairy face to the world, all in the name of a good cause. If I can help raise awareness or money, then why not? Plus who doesn't love a mo'?






Check out my progress here

More Lyrics

I feel like I’m broken
Like I’ll never be whole
While the life inside of me
Leaks from the void in my soul

I’m broken. So broken

The blue sky mocks me
The sun laughs in my face
The birds take delight
In my falling from grace

I’m broken, so broken

I want the laughter made silent
I want the joy sent away
I want the music made muffled
And the colours made grey

I’m broken, so broken.

For the warmth of the sun
And the light of the day
That passed briefly over,
Have gone on their way

and left me broken

Religious Education

It's been a while since I bothered typing here. A combination of being flat out at work, not being able to prise either of my sons away from a pc at night and reading the book "Blind Faith" by Ben Elton has conspired to keep me silent. However, something has been bugging me recently and I find that trying to articulate things that bug me often help me to resolve them, at least partially, in my mind.

My wife is a Catholic, and went to a Catholic school. It has always been her wish that our boys go to a Catholic school. As it turned out, they now go to the same high school as she did.

To be honest, I have never had a lot of faith in Religion (note the capital), but I I could see no harm in my boys being taught the values from the Bible. To me, the teachings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament are insightful and uplifting. However, the mistake I made was thinking that the religious section of the curriculum would be these teachings, when in fact, from what I have seen, it consists mainly of teaching the workings of the Church and its dogma. To me, this is where organised Religion falls down and has made itself increasingly less relevant. Everything it teaches is underpinned by because God says so. While this probably worked its arse off in the Dark Ages on the back of the Inquisition, it seems to me that we have enough information available to us now that no one is going to take that at face value.

It is better, surely, to educate our young to respect each other because it is the right thing to do, because we would like to be respected, to teach them empathy above blind obedience. I may burn in hell for asking it, but does anyone with a modicum of education believe the Bible is a factual historical account? I am not advocating the dismissal of the Bible, for as I said earlier, there is a plentiful supply of good advice for life. What I do advocate is that the Church make itself more relevant. Go back to its roots. "Jesus died for your sins" means nothing to me. "Judge not, lest you be judged" does. And, yes, I see the irony.

What the fuck?

In the wake of yesterday's historical apology, the element that drove me to despair in this post are back and haunting me.

What worries me is this question. What does it say about my personality and my friends that I keep receiving these racist 'jokes' via email and text?

Why would anyone think I would find redneck propaganda, like the fake 'apology' that has been doing the rounds, even mildly amusing. Its not 1970 anymore.

You people shit me.

Sorry

"Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia."

Cricket again

This story on baggygreen.com.au really got up my nose this morning.

Before I start ranting, I will point out that I am not one of "those Australians" that "doesn't see what all the fuss is about", as the general cricketing public has often been referred to since the Sydney Test. There is plenty of room for improvement of the behaviour of both cricketers and spectators in the recent past, but the smarmy condescension of Peter English in this article is beyond belief.

Mr English's use of the good behaviour (which I wholeheartedly applaud) of both teams and the crowd as an excuse to not-so-subtly attack their Australian counterparts is both odious and counter-productive. Surely any cricket writer worth his salt should be able to report on the harmonious atmosphere without sly and demeaning digs at an absent party? Anyone reading this article would think that it was Australia's recent history that included games being stopped due to rioting crowds, that Australia's board had threatened to cancel a tour if the ICC did not dance to it's tune or that an Australian captain had threatened to take his team from the field because he didn't agree with the no-balling of one of his bowlers. I'm sure that even the Indians and Sri Lankans would agree that there are incidents in their collective pasts that they would rather not have occurred, that reflect badly on their cricket, but apprently the fact that they are not Australian on this tour absolves them of any wrongdoing.

I am glad that the cricket watching public of Brisbane last night were well behaved during the half a game they got to watch, and I truly hope that it continues. Australian crowds can sometimes get rowdy and uncomfortable to be in, but as anyone who watched "An Aussie Goes Bolly" last week will agree, I know with whom I would rather be watching my cricket.

p.s.
Because I am a sucker for punishment, I also read this article by the aforementioned journalist about the fining of Rohit Sharma for dissent. It could be because I am sensitive but this sentence "The Sri Lankans were convinced Sharma had edged the ball to Kumar Sangakkara, but the replays showed Rudi Koertzen made a serious error." I found to be in stark contrast to the hammering Adam Gilchrist and the Australians copped during the Sydney Test for appealing when Rahul Dravid was "incorrectly" given out. To make matters worse, I found this on the Fox Sports web site.

"Murali initially failed to appeal but went up in support of Sangakkara, who later said he heard a noise."

Is this fair and balanced journalism?

Whiny Indians Go Home

I'm sick if the Indian Cricket Team already. They talk a good story about the spirit of the game, then threaten to call off the tour when things don't go their way. I say let them go, we may as well play the Kiwis again, for all the good that India are. It is also really disappointing to me that all the news stories around I have read seem to be targetted at the Australians, accusing them of a lack of integrity for standing their ground until the umpire makes a decision. Michael Clarke's standing his ground when he nicked it to slip certainly was ridiculous, but at no stage it insulting or racially motivated. How can 90% of the cricket stories around be questioning the spirit of the Australian team when Harbhajan Singh gets a three Test suspension for calling Andrew Symonds a monkey?? Do not be fooled by the spurious Indian claims that monkey to them is not a racially offensive term. The fact that it is was made clear to them when Symonds was subjected to, not only the name calling, but to hooting from Indian crowds late last year when Australia toured. While the Australian team will undoubtedly be painted as the bad guys (again) after this Test, surely their behaviour is less offensive than racial vilification and their awful display of petulance by blaming the umpires for costing them the Test. Of course, the Asian dominated ICC will do nothing about their outburst and may even go so far as to censure the Australian team for the way they play.

If, or maybe I should say, when Singh's ban is overturned, rest assured, I will be in the outer of the WACA, hooting like a monkey for all my worth whenever he touches the ball.

Is there anything better than a beach house?

Spent Thursday to Monday in Guilderton with just about the whole Schoie clan. Our nephew Shane invited us to stay at his wife's (Helen, above) mum's place in Guilderton. Only an hour out of town, it was fantastic. We were originally going to stay only 2 days but we were having so much fun we didn't leave until yesterday (NYE). 9 adults and 11 kids from 15 to under a year was a tight squeeze but a few tents and couches saw us right. No television reception made it feel like all the holidays I went on as a kid, with us playing pool or sitting around the table playing cards.
Interior view. Maddison, Jack and Shane-o
Azza in the back yard.

We spent Friday and Saturday in our newly acquired sunshade in "The Desert" on Moore River, kayaking, fishing and skurfing along behind the boat.
Jillie and Kim


It struck me while I was reminiscing that what was for us a weekend away hopefully lay the foundation for future reminiscing of childhood holidays for our kids.

p.s. Have you ever noticed that you suffer from hangovers less on holidays?? Four days of late nights and early mornings on holiday and no discernible discomfort. I'm back less than 24 hours and I've been almost comatose all day.

Or is it just me?