Bird and buoys on Lake Ginninderra

The ceremonial birthday of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

It’s a long weekend and my “out of office” message mentions that in the Australian Capital Territory, the local government, is observing the ceremonial birthday of Her Majesty, Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II. Which means by extension it’s a public holiday in Canberra even if we don’t work for the ACT Government.

While I’m not a monarchist, I wish the Queen of the Commonwealth all the best.

 

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We only just had Reconciliation Day, so it’s a bonanza of long weekends.

With so many long weekends in the Australian Capital Territory, I do wonder about the financial productivity of the national capital. I suppose it’s not like living in the Northern Territory or the states where primary and secondary production along with natural resource exploitation creates wealth for the nation.

State of Origin

It’s that time of year again when lovers of rugby league get excited. For those not familiar with footy, rugby league is not the same as rugby or rugby union (which are the same thing). The rugby league splintered from the rugby union in the late 1890s and both codes have existed in a sort of harmony ever since. They are similar games but very different. The codes are similar enough that inter-code poaching occurs so that really good rugby league players like Israel Folau are now Wallabies rather than Queensland Maroons (pronounced ma-RONES) and Australian Kangaroos.

If you say or write rugby, the assumption is you’re referring to the 15-person game characterised by rucks and mauls, lineouts, and proper scrums. Rugby league is a 13-person a side game characterised by hard almost violent hit-ups and fierce tackling, piss-weak scrums, and a stop-start rhythm required because of the need to ‘play the ball’ after each tackle. The concept of forwards and backs is less clear in rugby league when you see a fullback locking a scrum like Billy Slater does.

I used to watch rugby, but when rugby became commercialised through the professionalisation of the game, the TV rights went to cable networks and free to air (FTA) broadcasting suffered. I’ll pay for Netflix but I won’t pay for Foxtel. In rugby league, there is a split between cable and FTA, and because my team, viz., the Brisbane Broncos seem to play a lot of Friday night games, I get to watch them play on FTA. I dread to think how I would react if the State of Origin games was confined to Foxtel.

On Wednesday evening, the first (of the three) ‘origin’ game was played. This game was played in Melbourne, the home of the Melbourne Storm. Residents of Melbourne are known to be sports mad and while the game is played by men representing Queensland and New South Wales, the crowd was impressive. I know many Queensland supporters who travelled to Melbourne to watch the game.

In my opinion, rugby league is the greatest team sport of all. While I prefer watching swimming as a sport, rugby league comes a close second.

This year’s State of Origin series has been promising to be very different. The Mighty XXXX Queensland Maroons (aka cane toads), despite always claiming underdog status, were never going to be favourites. The retirements of champions like Cooper Cronk, Jonathan Thurston and Cameron Smith, from the game and the injuries to other regulars, like Billy Slater, meant the team was very different to those of the past. The new captain, Greg Inglis, played magnificently and really led by example.

Likewise, the New South Wales Blues (aka cockroaches), with eleven debutants and a new coach, had their own challenges.

The odd thing about this year was the lack of anyone in the NSW Blues team including their coach who I really dislike. Unlike teams of the recent past which contained self-confessed performance-enhancing drug using captains, along with people best described as arrogant thugs rather than sportspersons, both teams were teams of very talented football players who haven’t done anything remarkably stupid or arrogant to make anyone dislike them.

So on Wednesday night, game one saw the defeat of the Mighty XXXX Queensland Maroons. While the margin wasn’t great, it was a lot better than I had anticipated. Game two is on Sunday night, 24 June and I can’t wait to watch what I hope to be a great contest in the greatest competition of the greatest game of all.

Books starting with ‘Yummy’

I was reading Emma’s blog this week and she went through the fun exercise of using the first word of her blog title and seeing if it was also the first word of any books.

I typed Yummy into the Australian Amazon site and as you’d expect there were some food-related books.

Emma checked the UK Amazon site and came up with a non-food book.

Check out the actual post at https://emmabaird.com/2018/06/05/high-heels-and-pink-glitter-the-books/

Mouthy Broadcast 200 episodes

My favourite NSFW podcast will reach 200 episodes this week. New shows are released on Tuesdays. In Australia, the new show usually drops late afternoon or early evening.

I’ve been a listener for a long time and now I count the Broads, viz., Jennie, Lauren, and Peter as friends. If you don’t mind swearing and adult themes, check out their website which has all the information on how you can listen to them.

As a Patreon Patron, I’ve had a sneak preview and this show is fantastic.

Anthony Bourdain

I was in bed on Friday night when I started to read tweets about Anthony Bourdain. I have enjoyed watching his shows on TV and found his take on food and travelling to be compelling. I know I’ll never travel to the places he did and enjoy the meals he ate, but watching him and listening to his stories has allowed me to live vicariously through his lived experience. He was a very good storyteller and he really exemplified that food doesn’t have to be cooked by an award winner to be good and to represent a never to be forgotten life experience. While rewatching his shows will bring some sadness knowing there are no more to be made, I will enjoy them for what they are.

While laying in bed I started listening to music and began to ponder life and the universe. I remember in medical school when doing psychiatry rotations being taught to ask patients about suicidal ideation, that is, asking if a patient had thought about dying by suicide. I used to think about death and dying a lot in those days. Not so much these days. I have too much to live for.

I didn’t enjoy psychiatry as a medical student and as an intern, a patient grabbed me and tried to choke me. I much preferred pathology, parasitology and microbiology. Apart from the carcinogens and mutagens, the practice of laboratory medicine is a safe space from physical violence.

Horses for courses as they say. It’s interesting to see how people move into different fields. The one path I can’t understand though are those who pursue unconventional practice and practise naturopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and homeopathy. Those horses are way off course in my opinion.

House, MD

I finished my rewatch of House, MD this weekend. While the notion of a diagnostics department headed by a misfit like Gregory House seems feasible, there is so much about this show that is inaccurate and implausible.

That said, it’s compelling TV and I love the character Hugh Laurie played. The cast remains young enough to get them together for a telemovie to satisfy the curiosity of fans to see what happened to them all, apart from the dead characters. Amber and Kutner could still return in the mind of House, and there’s always the possibility that Wilson somehow survives the carcinoma growing and spreading in his chest.

One of the other great things about House is the various actors who have also had roles in the Star Trek franchise.

A statistical anomaly

Early yesterday morning a dear Canberra Tweep who is a friend retweeted a tweet from Marl.
Follow @boxedupheart

Expecting Parents,

PLEASE
I beg you
Please look at what your child’s name will be spelled backwards.

Sincerely,
Marlana

— Marl (@Marlebean) June 7, 2018

I replied and included a link to a post I wrote last year.

Not to mention names with medical meanings like Melaena https://t.co/OFfemVnC6o

— Gary 🖖 (@garydlum) June 7, 2018

It made an appreciable difference to my viewer and visitor stats. I get very few page views on this blog. I am content to have a few good friends read what I write and interact in the comments. I expect no further interaction on this but it’s a lesson on how a tweet can share a link.

What I ate this week

This is a gallery of photographs in no particular order. Click on one and scroll through the rest.

Photographs I wanted to share

This is a gallery of photographs in no particular order. Click on one and scroll through the rest.

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Final thoughts

I got a bit ranty and opinionated this week. I’ve been feeling a little snarky of late. I’m not enjoying winter and I think I need an escape.

Have a good week. Catch you next week.

Footy food round up for the 2017 State of Origin series

How to make the most of 4 nights in Cairns