Enlistment Ceremony

Forgot to add the photos of Robbies enlistment ceremony and the bus ride to the airport!

Recruit Robert Wolff

This is a video that I made for Robbie who has left for HMAS Cerberus yesterday to eventually become a Clearance Diver! We have had very upset little children in our house who really miss their best friend, 'Uncle Robbie'. So this is a video to show some of things that Clearance Divers do and the things that Robbie will be doing.

To all of the mums:

I Love Footy

Just wanted to say that I love being an AFL fan, in particular a Collingwood Fan! Such a great game!

The Machine, by Michael Roberts, tells the inside story of the great Collingwood side of 1927-30.
A freak piece of play

Some critics pointed to the St Kilda match at the Junction Oval as the game in which Collingwood might be tested. The conditions were bleak and the ground was caked with mud. Almost 30,000 people turned out to watch a “gloriously sustained struggle on a horrible day”.

St Kilda led by five points at half-time, the Magpies by one point at the last change. Late in the match it appeared as if the home side would become the first to knock the Magpies off their perch in 1929. Then, just when all looked lost for the Pies, a freak piece of play made it seem as if fate was playing its part in the Collingwood streak.

Gordon Coventry, well held for most of the day, gathered a loose ball just before the final bell. Almost simultaneously he copped a bump from St Kilda’s full-back Ernie Loveless, and tried to kick the ball in the direction of goal. The bump “shook Coventry to his foundations”, while the ball miraculously made contact with the side of his left boot and trickled through for a goal, to give the Magpies the game by four points. Ever the gentleman, the self-effacing Coventry all but apologised to his opponent, saying, “It was one of the flukes of the game.”

In keeping with [club president Harry] Curtis’s pre-season pledge to aim for records, Gordon Coventry booted an individual record of 16 goals in a game against a hapless Hawthorn before a deliriously happy Victoria Park crowd. He bagged four goals in the first five minutes and an astounding eight in the first quarter, to set him up to break the decade-old record of 14 kicked by South Melbourne’s Harold Robertson. ‘Nuts’ broke the old mark in the last quarter and was then congratulated off the ground by friends and foes alike. Even the umpire shook Coventry’s hand. Another to shake his hand in the rooms was John Wren, the club’s occasional benefactor, who slipped a 50-pound note into Coventry’s enormous palm. That was a huge sum of money in those dark times.

The only fear for those within the club was that the team could “go stale” late in the season, as they had in the previous year.

There were, however, no signs of staleness when the club ended the regular season with an emphatic 56-point win over Melbourne in front of 41,316 fans. It was the first and only time a team has gone through a home-and-away season undefeated, and seemingly the perfect entrée into the finals.


Sorry Saints! Better Luck next time!

Mr. Romance

Tim and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on August 1st. It was a very memorable night. We got dressed up and went out sans kids which is always a treat. Tim had been shopping earlier in the day and carried a parcel on our way out. He wanted to wait to give it to me when the timing was just right. I am skilled in the art of sussing out what contents a package holds and ascertained that it was most definitely a book. But what book? I imagined a book of famous love poems or a book filled with the world's most romantic locations (I love travel books with beautiful pictures).

We pulled up to our favourite restaurant and Tim turned to me and said, "I think its time." He handed me my gift, I was giddy with excitement. I carefully opened the parcel and looked down to discover that yes it was a book...but not exactly the book I was expecting:

I was surprised to say the least. At this point many wives may have: a]exploded in a volcanic rage or b] fallen into a sullen stupor speaking only in grunts and sighs for the rest of the evening.

I did neither. Yes I was surprised, maybe even a little disappointed, but I know Tim well enough after 12 years to know that his heart was well-intentioned. That he truly thought this book would be something I would love.

I did have to laugh (and tried not to take it personal) when I read the subtitle: "Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours" and also when I flipped through the book to find it peppered with real-life stories of no-hopers in the kitchen who had used this book and turned their lives around.

It turns out the book is fantastic! Filled with delicious and easy recipes. We have already tried 6 recipes from its pages this past week. . .actually 5 (one was so good we made it twice). Tim and I have both been cooking up a storm and it has been so much fun.

Throughout the week we have purchased new kitchen utensils and filled our pantry with new ingredients. We have even been inspired to start a herb garden (it gets expensive buying fresh herbs all the time). We have enjoyed spending time together curled up on the couch flipping through the pages deciding what we will try next.

If anyone is looking for romantic gift ideas talk to Tim he will definitely steer you in the right direction.