Life on this planet: That Time Of Year...... Again !!!!

Last week gotten an email on my work email account with an invite to join the office football tipping competition for 2019....... I was thinking at first.... Sheeze that is a bit early..... until I realised the first match of the AFL season begins NEXT Thursday!!!! Sheeze time flies!!!! And I hadn't even had time to make up a new batch of Weevils voodoo dolls!!!!

Oh no need for reminders of the catastrophe that was the 2018.... who could bloody well forget it!!! Being beaten by those bloody Weevils in a Grand Final. This I will never get over it for as long as I live. I would not have minded so much if it was the Bombers, or Carlton, or Richmond, or even the Freo Dockers...... but the bloody Weevils!!!!! What henious sin have I committed in a past lifetime to justify such a heavy punishment as being beaten by the Weevils in a Grand Final? Must have been all those China men I have killed!!!!

Now this is war...... Weevils war...... they be so sure of themselves, they'll never shut up..... so putting out an urgent order for Weevils voodoo dolls. True enough the last batch didn't work very well, but perhaps new voodoo technologies may be the edge that I will need..... but first have to get hold of these Weevil voodoo dolls before next Saturday night when they play the Lions in the land of the banana benders.

This time last year I was in Mexico, and due to time zone differences, I missed out on the first match when it came to entering my tips. So already one game down from the beginning I never really stood a chance, and the curse of Chiron in Pisces made for a catastrophic year where I spent a long time at position 21 in the 21-player competition!!!.... until I managed to get off the bottom in the last few weeks, denying me even the boobie prize!!!!

This time however..... well Chiron is now out of Pisces, so just perhaps the curse of Chiron may be over..... but then Chiron is now in Aries, which previously heralded the eight years of poverty....... It is always difficult to tip the teams in Round 1, but I just cannot bring myself to tip the Weevils against the Lions despite the latter finishing near the bottom last year. Of course everyone here will pick the Weevils...... me, waiting on my supply of Weevil voodoo dolls, will hope that they will have Premiership hangover and be drained by the long flight to Brisbane......

Meanwhile the Maggies on a Friday night match against the puddy Cats...... well they say cats often trumps birds, but ever hopeful that the sharp beaks of the Maggies will prevail for a first-up win.... As for the other matches, pretty well anyone's guess..... The Bombers may find it difficult on their first-up road trip to the land of the Giants..... while we wait with bated breath of what the Dockers will do against the Skippies, will it be yet another Dockers flop year?

Other questions..... Will the Tigers get the attack of the Blues? Will there be Power yielded over the Demons? How will the Hawks fare in the land of the Crows? Will those Bulldogs make mince meat out of Swans? And will the Saints have their day in the Sun or will they be Sun-burned alive?

Now on other less world shattering subject matters......

Today is St Patricks Day which I do not celebrate. The legend of St Patrick is he drove the snakes out of Ireland. However, Ireland is like New Zealand, there has never been snakes in Ireland. The "snakes" referred to in the legend are Pagans that previously was the dominant religion of the land before them Christians came along, as symbolised by St Patrick. Although most faiths, religions and cultures revere the snake, eg as the creative force of Mother Gaia in Mayan legend, Christianity is one of a small few religions where the snake is universally condemned as a sign of evil. As we all know that story in the garden of eden, when the "serpent" often interpretated as a snake talked Eve into eating that forbidden fruit thus condemning mankind to a fate of pain, suffering and torment. The devil is symbolised often as a snake. And the Pharisees, the Jewish Sanhedrin who opposed Jesus were at times referred to by Jesus as "snakes". Therefore it doesn't take much to imagine that the "snakes" in the legend of St Patrick refers to Pagans who naturally opposed the spread of Christianity in the island hence were banished by the superior war technology of the Romans as led by the Roman Catholic Church - hence were "driven into the sea". And you're asking why we should be celebrating St Patrick's Day?????....... I rest my case.

Meanwhile.... thus week on Thursday we have the Equinox, Autumn here in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore we celebrate Mabon the Fall holiday of the Pagans. That is one day I will be celebrating..... or mourning as it being the end of summer, my favourite season of the year. Now the mornings are getting darker on my commute to work, and soon will be the rain, and the freezing cold of winter...... when my Seasonal Affective Disorder will kick in, as it does every year.

Also on Thursday is the Jewish holiday of Purim, the story of how a Jewish Princess saved the Jews from certain destruction at the hands of the Persian Empire. The story of Purim found in the book of Esther in the Bible, the only book in the bible where there is no direct references nor mentions of God. The story simply recounts a series of extraordinary coincidences which conspired to save the Jews despite overwhelming odds against the military superiority of the Persians. One could say, the story of Purim is proof of the saying - There is no such creature as "coincidence". It is said the reason why the story of Purim contains no reference to God is because the story is set in a time period after the destruction of the 1st Jewish Temple and before the 2nd Temple was built. The Jews regarded the Temple as where they meetup with God, hence while the Temple was there, God was also there. But since the Temple was destroyed, the Jews felt that God was no longer there, and they could not get in contact with God. Nevertheless He was still there, in all of those coincidences......

The pixs from my recent expedition to Wongan Hills is now online, at the link below....

WONGAN HILLS

There you should see a number of folders containing the pixs. Click on any of the folders, and when you see the pixs displayed on the page, you should also see "Story" on the top right corner of the display of pixs. Click on "Story" and it will display all of the pixs in higher resolutions that can be scrolled using the mouse.

Oh yes have also uploaded all of my pixs from my Augusta expedition, that link is here....

AUGUSTA

So now with Mercury being in retrograde, not planning on any more expedition for some time...... and next month concentrate on getting my car serviced and fixed.

Virgo experiences..... or lack thereof