We begin with a piece of sad news..... Uncle Bob contacted us yesterday, well Sally took the call since I was at work. His son and therefore my cousin Christopher was found deceased this past weekend, his liver and kidney just given up the ghost. We don't have any more information at this stage but will share if and when we have more information.

Now the disaster area that is the football tipping. This is the last round, and well unless something utterly extraordinary happens I am destined to suffer my first season of no prizes after first entering several years ago and always winning a prize of some sort. As for the Magpies, well we have an easy game to end the season with, playing some easy-beats team down on the lower rungs of the ladder..... who are they I wonder..... um..... I think they're called Essendon.... hehehe ;)

Each year on the Roman calendar there are four holidays of pain and torment - Xmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and my birthday. When we add the anniversary of mother's death in January, and Jewish Tisha B'Av in July, we see that pain and torment is never far from me. Aside from July, September is one of the worst months of the year. Two such holidays of pain falling during that month. In Australia Fathers Day falls the 1st Sunday of September.

It is said that Mothers Day and Fathers Day are Hallmark holidays in reference to the largest greetings card company on the planet. While in Kansas City I did actually visit the headquarters of Hallmark and it is immediately obvious that it is a company that is doing very well for themselves thankyou very much!! Even if the rest of America goes bankrupt Hallmark will not, there will always be a market for greeting cards. And for as far back as I can remember near to every card I have ever received carried the familiar "Hallmark" logo on the back. These days there are a few more card companies represented at newsagencies nevertheless Hallmark remains the overwhelming majority.

So the story goes like this in America..... starting in Spring we first have Halloween, or it could even be argued that due to the large Jewish population we have Rosh HaShanah in September. Then we have Thanksgiving in November, Xmas, then Easter. So from perhaps September, at least October through to April the following year Hallmark enjoys a profitable period. But since there were no holidays between April and September/October this leaves a period of 4 to 5 months of low sales. How to counter this. Some bright spark at the company hatched a brilliant idea, let's invent some holidays!! And since 99% of us have or had a mother and a father, a day in honor of each seems a perfect solution. Hence we have Mothers Day in May and Fathers Day in June. Here in Australia we didn't celebrate Halloween (until recently), there's not enough Jews around to register any significant sales in September, and we obviously don't have Thanksgiving Day. This leaves a longer period of low card sales, hence Fathers Day being shifted to September to help during the extended quiet period. So don't believe Google when it comes up with a certain woman called Sonora as being credited with originating the idea of Father's Day early in the 20th century, it is just a story to justify a purely commercial decision. Nevertheless after two to three decades of living a lie I now at least have a real Father to honor on Father's Day. However nothing can make up for the pain of those decades. Pain of the soul never goes away, it stays with you forever, haunting you for as long as you have breath.

Now the football and nearly everyone is picking the Weevils against the Magpies!! But this is the west coast and they are all biased anyway, they always pick the Weevils. I refuse to tip them, I am going for the Magpies. There are only two rounds left and there is no prospect of me winning any prizes, so logic goes out the window. It looks like the Weevils will win but it will be an utter catastrophe if they do so. Therefore its Magpies all the way for me!!

Well tomorrow I am back at work, it doesn't mean I am over the flu, it just means I am barely alive and kicking as opposed to hearing the knocking of the grim reaper at your door!! Docs generally displays more faith in my body's ability to heal itself than I do and does not give you enough time off work. My current doc is indeed relatively generous, he given me a whole week off work, but docs I have seen before generally gives no more than 3 to 4 days off work. And as I have painfully learned during one particular year the dept docks your pay if you take any extra days off work beyond what is stated on the doc's note even if it is just a single day extra!! We are allowed to take up to two days off work at a time sick without a doc's note but need a note for 3 or more days. However you can NOT add the two days of "without evidence" at the end of the "with evidence" period!! My pay was docked when a few years ago I added just a single such day!! So I could either spend another $50 (after Medicare rebate) at the doc and try to get another few days out of him, or I could just tough it out and go back to work. And since I have gone from " hearing the knocking of the grim reaper at your door" to "barely alive and kicking" which is about an 100% improvement, I probably be better off going back to work. And no our doc does not bulk bill but then he is one of the better docs that we have chosen to commit our health and lifestyle to. It is just unfortunate he doesn't do home visits, that would help Sally, some docs do home visits but Sally is very choosey about her choice of docs. 

And furthermore, I don't think it would cut it with the doc if I went and tell him I need a few more days off work cos I am depressed about the Magpies being beaten by lowly North Melbourne!! But that may be an option if next weekend the Magpies gets beaten by the Weevils. Yes there is a fate worse than death - Collingwood losing to West Coast Eagles!!! If the Weevils beats us I will remove all references to football on these blogs and never talk about football ever again!! I might take up the Dallas Cowboys in Gridiron! LOL! Or perhaps Manchester United in the English football!! LOL!! As for the football tipping we're close enough to the end for the winners to have been already decided - and I am not included for the first time ever, well since I joined the tipping comp a few years ago. Uh well as mother used to say, you can't win them all..... but it be nice if I could do so!!!!

Another warm sunny day, Spring has come early here on the west coast, it's the place to be.... hehe....

Just a quick report, I have been down with the nasty flu strain for two days, every part of me aches, i go from freezing to death to boiling hot sweaty, and my throat is so sore I have not been able to eat for two days except icecream, it is a struggle even to drink. Anyway I was at the doc today mainly to get more time off work, so am off work until at least Monday inclusive. He put me on some high strength codeine. If that doesn't work I will have to go back to see him. But this is looking like the horror month of September last year all over again. Gone are the days when I get over the flu in 2-3 days every 5 years. Last September it took me 4 weeks to get over the flu, and well I think the doc is a little optomistic this time but as I said I can always go back to see him if things doesn't improve by Monday.

Here on one of our rare wet days of winter after a run of clear sunny days of temps up to mid 70s (25 degrees Celcius) but even with the rain it is only a few degrees cooler. It's not often here on the west coast that we get such a wet and windy winter's day!! It will probably clear up tomorrow though they say we would get a little more rain yet.

I see my beloved Magpies won and I am very glad they did even if I tipped against them. You see I tip with my analytical mind, considering the circumstances, relative team forms, the weather, players availability, the ground, what the experts are tipping, and etc. And so given an analysis of these circumstances I thought Sydney would beat us. However my emotions will always root for my beloved team, I will always want my Magpies to win even if they mess up my tipping!! My heart is always with the Magpies regardless of how impossible it seems at the time!!! As for Essendon, well I did tip correctly there, poor ole Essendon just didn't have enough Weeties!! haha!! Anyway not really sure what my tipping score is yet, still waiting for the email as the Essendon match had just finished, but I know I missed at least three so may be an ordinary week. I'm not going to win anything this year anyway so it is kinda a mute point.

This will be my first year that I didn't win any prize in the tipping but then 2012 has been a very bad year on all counts. Worse than the horror years of 1985, 1989-91 and 1994/5. Things has really gone downhill since mother's death at the beginning of 2011, that year has been the worse year of my life thus far except this year 2012 which is even worse.

uhhhh i guess its about time i updated my blog here, being the time to submit this weeks football tips.  I did reasonable last week, gotten six points, but there is always someone in our office pool who gets all 9 points that is correctly tips all nine matches, and last week there were a few of them. This week things are not looking good for the Magpies so I will have to pick Sydney. I am also finding it hard to make a case for Essendon.... hmmmmm..... But hopefully Geelong will beat the Weavils tonight.

I'm yet to do my taxes, still have loads of medical receipts to enter into the computer to add up how much we spent. We always get a rebate for medical expenses cos we spend so much on it, but it means we have to add up all the receipts, and this year there is a lot of it. We won't get as much back anyway cos I think they cut out the spouse rebate which was a major source of my refund check. So instead of $1000s we are now talking only in $100s in the tax check even with the medical rebates. Last year I applied for the Carers allowance from Centerlink and they wouldn't give it to me cos they deemed that Sally's condition would be healed within 12 months. That was November last year when I applied, it is now August and there are no signs of improvement in her conditions. And they say we live in a rich country!! Uh well such is life......