2024, my year that was

Reading Time: 11 minutes

It’s amazing how quickly the years pass by.

Before the memories fall into a dateless mix of my life, or worse and completely forgotten, I wanted to chronicle some key moments from the last twelve months for future reference. I’m hoping my recordkeeping is good enough to support the new habit of producing a yearly report. My own State Of The Union.

Events

20/01: Some mates and I attended the Geelong Beer Festival again. Each year it seems to get bigger & better. What made it interesting for me was our dubious attempt to archive the event by recording videos of the different beers we tried, with thoughtful reviews which just got louder and less articulate as the day went on. Well, until my phone died altogether – along with my method of payment.

A mate and I also navigated a very creative route from Johnstone Park to a nearby bar, which I learned the next day that I had helpfully saved to Strava.

24/02: Pakofesta, Geelong’s multicultural festival (on Pakington Street) we lock in to attend each year. This time we had my parents staying with us, and as always we all enjoyed eating various delicacies from around the world. It’s our challenge each year to eat from more countries.

27/06-04/07: One of the most significant events of the year was our full family trip up to Queensland.
It was under the pretence of my brother’s 51st Birthday Party (as Corey & his family came down to celebrate his actual 50th birthday milestone with us). The night out at Redcliffe Leagues Club was actually a surprise celebration for our Mum. She got to see so many of her former colleagues, friends & family from various parts of Australia without having to wait for a birthday, or to put it morbidly as we did, for her own funeral where she’d be disappointed to miss the party.

We combined the trip with a few memorable activities, like flying into Coolangatta where we stayed and caught up with our old Dubai friends who had moved back to the Gold Coast, whom we haven’t seen for quite some time. We even went Go-Karting with them the following day. There it became very obvious they’re a family of petrol head / motorsport enthusiasts and my kids & I clearly are not. It was definitely fun tho.

Lewis, Owen and I stayed up in Qld for another couple of weeks as we had no work/school pressures to get back to. It gave us time to stay up with my brother on the Sunshine Coast for longer, and even drive up to Hervey Bay to stay with my cousin John/Jason for a night and explore the region a little – including a selfie or two with Mary Poppins.

It’s a little perplexing that we had such a great time and fitted in so much, yet I posted nothing online during or immediately after this trip. In hindsight, it was probably too daunting to do justice to such an awesome holiday. So I did keep the photos to myself and just shared with family. And we certainly enjoyed being in the moment.

Movies

It’s pretty rare for me to visit a cinema, but I did go to watch two films this year.
03/04: I kind of reluctantly watched Kung Fu Panda 4, which wasn’t bad. Just felt maybe longer than necessary, and predictable.

25/08: And Lewis & I went to watch Deadpool & Wolverine. It was such an epic movie, we seemed to need quite a debrief afterwards to check on some of the content & gags that we struggled with, which maybe only true fans might get.

Sports

2024 was a wonderful sporting year for me in many ways.

Brinky boys sport

Lewis & Owen both won their first rugby union premierships, after moving clubs to join the Wyndham Rhinos.

Lewis had another significant year in rugby. He captained his school team, who went undefeated to become Rebels Shield premiers of Victoria. He also became a key player in the Super Rugby Under 16s competition for the Melbourne Rebels in their final season. And he joined the Lloydies Aboriginal team with Uni of Sydney again for the Ella Rugby 7s competition in Sydney. His performances got noticed by others as well. A player agent reached out, and has supported him to take a new trajectory with his rugby. It will now see Lewis shifting to Queensland in 2025 to join in the private school’s GPS rugby competition. He’s looking forward to it, with far fewer hesitations than his parents having a first son leave home.

Myles’s Aussie rules team, the Anglesea Reserves struggled more in 2024. I think it’s fair to say it was a rebuilding year. And despite the coaches placing Myles into defensive roles for significant parts of the season, he still had a wonderful year and in the final match kicked four goals to narrowly leapfrog his competition to win the coveted leading goal kicker award.

We recognised these amazing achievements with our own “Sporting Legends” dinner at Squire’s Loft for the family. And we felt it important to reiterate that their successes are amazing achievements and not something we can’t take for granted.

My own sporting exploits were definitely hampered this year due to my age and a string of reoccuring injuries.
I “played” in both the VACSAL Basketball Tournament in Shepparton (09-10/03), and the VACSAL Football Carnival in Portarlington (05-06/10). But each resulted in me having pretty bad (and different) knee complaints.
At the basketball I’d put it down to me doing too much before the tournament began. At this stage I was playing basketball every week or so with the AMC (old farts) league, and usually doing well with 2-3 casual games on a Thursday evening. But while in Shepparton I thought it’d be a good idea to run from the hotel down to their ParkRun, do that & run back again. Then, by no surprise at all, after the 2nd or 3rd game, my right knee had enough and started swelling. We played better as a team this year. In 2023 I was frustrated watching from the sidelines, with the same knee issue the year before. But this group made it one game away from the grand final. Once we were done there, the kids and I still managed to climb Mount Piper on our return journey.


At the footy carnival, I’d put my knee injury down to me thinking I was young again and trying to match the athletic kids leaping high for a mark. My body has clearly become unfamiliar with such heights, and on the landing I hyperextended my left knee. I was able to play one more game very sheepishly, then sit on the bench for the final game of that day. Day two I had to play a couple more games, on account of our team lacking numbers. The correct taping of my knee joint by a proper footy strapper though made it bearable and allowed some pain free movement. Apart from those limitations it was wonderful to be out with our local Aboriginal community and have lots of fun.

Golf

On the 01/01/2024, Myles and I with another father & son played a round of golf at Anglesea. The scoring went a bit off, but it was great to start the year right by getting out and having a social hit. And I’m happy to report it’s become an annual tradition now, after we played together again on 01/01/2025. That’s been great, if we ignore that we all said last year that we should do this more often. HA!.

Myles returned to working at the golf course this year, and has taken more of a shining to playing golf in recent months. So with Lewis, we’ve played a handful of times almost weekly. It’s been lovely to see the boys figuring out their games and rapidly improving. Myles in our final game beat me for the first time. I’m sure it won’t be the last.


Sports spectating

When the kids or I aren’t playing sport, I enjoy watching most sports. I’d say I enjoyed some mixed results this year.

Olympics

Just five months on, I had almost forgot that 2024 was an Olympics year. It was hosted marvelously in Paris. There were many highlights, and sadly for breakdancer Raygun quite a few lowlights that will be the main memory for many. I see in my notes from the time, I made the most of the timezone difference on a few evenings to watch the whole Olympics program until our morning. Australia did amazingly well. The Australian team came fourth overall, winning a record 18 Gold medals.

Aussie Rules

The Brisbane Lions are AFL Premiers, after beating the hapless Sydney Swans (their 2nd Grand Final loss in 3 years). What a HUGE relief for Brisbane after losing the grand final the year before, against Collingwood of all teams. We couldn’t get any grand final tickets (for less than $5000). So we happily watched at home, well initially it was more nerves than happiness. The game finally finished 9.6 (60) – 18.12 (120). In many ways the grand final was an anti-climax after the Lion’s two preceding games needed massive come from behind wins. Being behind by 44 poinst against GWS in the Semi-final, and winning a tight contest again Geelong Cats (our local team) after being behind by almost 30 points at one stage.

Two months later Brisbane almost pulled off ultimate bragging rights, with their AFLW team also playing for the premiership in the women’s comp. Sadly that wasn’t to be. It flipped the outcome of the 2023 season, where the lady Lions won, and the men’s team lost.

Before the biggest day on the AFL calendar, I attended an AFL Grand final eve golf day. It had many promotions & special activities, sadly I didn’t manage the year’s worth of beer Hole-in-one. With so much on the line the following day with my Brisbane Lions, I had less interest in the game of golf and much more interest in contributing to the profits of CBCo, the event’s beer sponsor. It was fun day I’ll probably do again.

We attended a couple of matches this year.
07/06: Bulldogs vs Lions in the Medallion Club of Marvel Stadium was a highlight. We sat alongside some of the injured Bulldogs list in the fancy seats. Lions got a nice 40 point victory. It led many nearby Western Bulldog fans to quite hilariously complain incessantly about the umpiring which we viewed as absolutely perfect.
That victory was the first in a record nine match winning streak, which was desperately needed to get the Lions back into a position to battle for the premiership. And it was also the first time Myles saw a Lions win live, after him attending matches since 2018.


28/06: While in Brisbane for my Mum’s celebration we managed to catch Lions vs Demons with nine of us. Brisbane won by less than a goal in the final minutes courtesy of a Hugh McCluccage 6 pointer, after being behind from basically the middle of the second quarter.

Rugby League

04/04: In a pretty sad annual tradition, I went to see Melbourne Storm beat Brisbane Broncos down here at AAMI Park. This time it was terribly close, ending 34-32. A couple of mistakes the only thing keeping Broncos from achieving quite the upset.

17-19/05: I loved attending the NRL Magic Round again. This time I took two mates from Torquay up to Queensland to make it a boys trip. One of the guys had not attended a single match before that weekend.

Unfortunately in the NRL, my Brisbane Broncos failed miserably in 2024. So miserably, the powerbrokers realised a change was needed and Kevin Walters their coach was dropped, along with a few other off-field changes like club stalwart Allan Langer no longer running the water on the field.

And one the other 5 league teams I support, the Redcliffe Dolphins in just their 2nd season narrowly missed out on finals again, due to a final round loss to Newcastle. Though they had a fantastic season.

Sadly, Queensland lost the year’s State of Origin Series despite looking unassailable again after winning Game 1 of 3. That result was massively assisted by (new rugby union recruit) Joseph Suaali being sent off in the 7th minute for a brazen high shot on Reece Walsh. It seemed Mike Maguire the NSW coach was worth his money, turning around the series very impressively. Now that he’s the new Broncos coach, things are looking up for Brisbane in the 2025 season! And hopefully bad again for NSW for three foreseeable future.

Rugby Union

Last year I attended only a couple of professional matches.

23/02: We saw Rebels vs ACT Brumbies at AAMI Park while my parents were in town. The stadium lived up to its informal title as the coldest place on Earth. Sadly the Rebels got smashed 30-3 in the opening round clash.

13/07: And we also watched the Wallabies playing Wales at Marvel Stadium. It was good to see Wallabies playing better, winning 36-28.

Wrestling

11/05: Something entirely different, was when Owen & I went to watch Lucha Fantastica (Mexican) Wrestling at Geelong Town Hall. It was so much better than I ever expected. We’re definitely on the look out for when wrestling comes to town again.

Running

I was happy to easily complete another 100km per month, finishing the year at the Dawnbuster Fun Run on the morning of New Year’s Eve with a total of 1290km. This year I was less motivated to round up and force in another run. It was the same time at the Dawnbusters two years earlier that I learned how to find my yearly km total in Strava, where I had a meagre deficit to make a 1200km year, which I rectified when home with a second run.

10/02: The first event of the year though was the half marathon at Bellarine Sunset Run, which I unexpectedly joined up with my friend Gary.

21/09: The highlight event for me was Surf Coast Century 50km trail run. What a delight that was! Training went well with the Surf Coast Trail Runners, and it was a worry to open my eyes to the potential of going further, when in the final 3 kms we actually sped up and had plenty left in the tank.

13/10: I also ran the 10km at Melbourne Marathon with Myles and our family friend again. This goal time was reduced again to support Todd, and somehow I managed it – despite the hyperextension of my knee at the footy happening the weekend prior. I thought that was a sign the knee wasn’t serious. Nope. The physio clarified running in a straight line is easy. My PCL injury is bad with all other types of movements.

2024 was my most prolific year at ParkRun. I ran 21 events (in the preceding 6 years I ran just 37 times). It’s hardly a noteworthy number, with some people religiously completing 52 each and every year. But for most of the year I do have a clash with the kids Saturday sports. At ParkRun I enjoyed volunteering twice also, including being the photographer for the first time. It was definitely fun, although the whittling down & editing of 400+ photos was a mammoth undertaking.

Actually I volunteered a few other times this year:

  • Marshall at the inaugural Torquay Triathlon – where I basically just cheered on for all my friends out on the course
  • Aid station at Afterglow, which was lots of fun, and
  • Sweeper at the Anglesea Roo Run.

Health

I started the year with big hopes for being super healthy, returning to Yoga after many years off. It became a solid weekly practice thanks to a ClassPass benefit from my employer. I’d even pack my mat when meeting mates at the brewery, before walking on to my Yin Yoga session nearby which got a few laughs. A couple of knee complaints though put a stop to me wanting to stretch in non-mandatory ways.

Overall I think I was pretty healthy in 2024, given it’s the oldest my body has ever been. There was one further hip/adductor complaint in late July that had me painfully glued to the couch which required physio attention. The physio sorted that out without it hampering my Surf Coast Century training, which I remember being an absolute relief.

I am surprised to spot that I actually had COVID again in 2024, on 9th January missing the first few days returning to work after the new year.

One further blemish last year was that I donated blood only once. And that occasion was a #fail, with the blood flow slowing too much to continue in full. I sufficiently drank far too much water as usual beforehand to help, which I learned from past experience. But my veins weren’t playing on the day. There was a trainee nurse who did seem to struggle with the needle. And it was the week after the 50km ultra marathon. But neither of which should have mattered.

Reading

I managed to complete my 2024 reading goal of six books. Having a 2 hour commute a couple of times per week has been really helpful. I actually read 7 books, https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024/12648231.
I noticed in the initial Goodreads summary, one of my tally was a graphic novel which I didn’t even enjoy. So I fast-tracked finishing a more appropriate book before the year was out.

This is in quite stark difference to previous year’s reading goals where I included audio books, which I was well aware I had very little recall of moments after listening to. This was particularly the case while listening during a run, to manage the final book’s completion on the final day of the year.

And that’s a wrap

2024 was another great year that I’m terribly grateful for. My family and I experienced so many joyful moments & events.

It’s been lovely to review and recount many of those moments in pulling this together.

Here’s hoping, we all have a happy and safe 2025!

Review: Happy-Go-Lucky

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Gotta Get Theroux This
Happy-Go-Lucky written by David Sedaris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book by Sedaris I’ve read, and again I enjoyed his perspective throughout. This book – loosely arranged around events culminating with his father’s death, gave a clearer visual of his family’s dynamics. It obviously helped make him the interesting character he is, with so many entertaining takes. But you should probably look up his sister Amy, I hear she’s even more so. 😛

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ADDENDUM: I saw the library also had a copy of “Pretty Ugly” (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165940550-pretty-ugly), the first children’s book David Sedaris has authored, which was illustrated by Ian Falconer shortly before he passed away.

I saw Sedaris spruik it on an American late night show, although not very convincingly. He claimed it took a few minutes to write, which did NOT fill me with confidence.

While I can tell it probably took longer than that, it was not a book I’d proudly gift a friend’s kid. Which strangely might be my new measure of children’s book quality. But I thought the book was kind of fun, with an obvious message coming through after all.

Bellarine Sunset Run – 10 Feb 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes

On the weekend I ran the half marathon at the Flying Brick (Cider) Bellarine Sunset Run. It was my 21st half marathon.

I think there were almost 900 people at this event in all. 369 runners and walkers for the half alone.

I spotted Australian cycling royalty Cadel Evans collecting his runner’s bib which got a lot of interest from our group. Cadel was looking very fit, altho a shadow of his Tour de France champion physique. Definitely still athletic, he went on to finish in 6th position for the half marathon, in a respectable 1hr 30.

It was a warm day, at least 26 degrees which led to lots of people struggling through the afternoon. But the support of the crowd and caravan park party people didn’t subside. A few along the course sprayed us with their garden hoses, which everyone appreciated. When I checked facetiously if it was in fact water, there were a variety of funny answers.

My own running pace was very controlled for the first 10kms, and I was pleased with my training to be on track somewhere under 1:50 pace, but the heat was definitely becoming a factor.

While I was running, I saw my mate Gary, my coaching counterpart for the Under 12s rugby team last year. Gary surprised me by giving me a high-five as he ran by from the other way. He’s new to running long races and had started in the group which began 20 minutes earlier.

Just before this chance encounter, doubts were entering my head whether I could continue at this pace or if my body would reluctantly slow down. I continued on, even speeding up a little as I was distracted with a mini goal to catch up to my mate. It didn’t take long to reach him, and the poor guy was definitely struggling. I thought it’d be a lot more rewarding to help him pull through his ‘hurt locker’, and also catch up with him for the first time since our kids rugby season concluded last year.

He tried unsuccessfully for me to return to my race alone instead of joining him. I wondered, did I really choose to slow down and help him with some company through the race, or did I just choose the easy option and opt out on the hard work to run faster?

It didn’t matter in the end. It was enjoyable to take it easy and ignore my finishing time and spend the time more socially. He lives on the Bellarine, not far from the half marathon route and knew the course quite well. He even ran the whole thing a few days earlier – probably contributing to the massive muscle cramps he suffered in his quads. So he knew the landmark tree to spot which signalled the final two kilometres. We finished up our last resting walk before raising the pace, and even adding a sprint down the hill and around the corner to the finish.

It felt so rewarding to cross the finish line to the cheers of the remaining crowd. Maybe a sign of our mutual struggle, we didn’t give high fives at the end, we had a hearty hug.

After getting our medals I found a grassy spot for my mate to crash and relax his painful legs, while I got us two Apple Ciders (including quite an unusual line called a Splicer). Unfortunately my phone had unlocked at some point inside my hydration vest and had pressed wrong passcodes. It resulted in the phone locking me out for 10 minutes, which blocked me from making mobile payments. So my friend had to regrettably stand up again on his painful legs and pay for the drinks I was supposedly buying us.

I ended up having more with some of our Surf Coast Trail Runners who had returned from their volunteering duties at the event. Given the afternoon’s heat they were impressed with everyone’s effort, and more than a little pleased with their decision to volley instead of run. We stayed on at the finish line cheering the finishers until the final participant crossed, closely followed by more of our SCTR friends who were the volunteer tail walkers.

The night ended with us making the last order of Bahn Bao Buns from the final food truck yet to pack up. Then we found the local pizza place still open at 9pm, which provided a great (only?) dinner option, before I made the 50 minute drive home.

Starting a half marathon at 5:20pm doesn’t feel natural to me. It’s near impossible to spend an entire day around my kids without them consuming most of my energy. Perhaps that helped with the decision to take this race comfortably in the end, which made for a wonderful running experience. Think I’ll add this event to my annual running schedule.

Review: Gotta Get Theroux This

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Gotta Get Theroux This
Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television written by Louis Theroux
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fascinating backstory, and journal of process and progression from someone I think I always admired. Louis’s humble and raw account of his major accomplishments encouraged me to watch and rewatch several of the documentaries he recounts in entertaining and educational detail. I don’t often finish a book of this length, let alone within a month!

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Movie reviews collection

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I really enjoy a good movie experience (sometimes that can even involve bad movies). Thanks to IMDb I have a growing record of all my more than 200 ratings. And on Twitter I often share what I think about the more noteworthy movies or series I watch. My summaries really don’t conform with regular reviews, partly due to a Tweet having a limited number of characters, which I think is a lot more fun. Here’s the definitive archive of Ryan’s movie reviews for your info – and to prevent me from starting to watch something again by mistake.

The list is sorted by most recently watched/reviewed, not when it was released. You can filter by choosing Genre and/or Star rating.

Perhaps my tongue-in-cheek comment about Willis’s unwise decision to be part of this movie could be in bad taste. As it turns out, his declining mental state has been quietly known about for some time.

Hard to believe it’s 30 years since Romper Stomper was infamously released. Now we’re living in Victoria I finally got around to watch it – immediately recognising the Richmond train station subway and Point Addis finale. Kind of an important story still here, regardless of its age.

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Review: Growing Up Aboriginal In Australia

Reading Time: < 1 minuteGrowing Up Aboriginal in Australia
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Dr Anita Heiss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful book Growing Up Aboriginal Australia is.
Full disclosure, my amazing Mum wrote one of the stories featured.

It’s a touch sad to finally complete it. I’ve enjoyed flicking through and reading one or two of the stories from time to time at random.

This is apparently a sign of a good book.

Some of the accounts brought joy, truly brightening my day with appreciation. Others shared a more solemn account worthy of reflection.
I acknowledge the strength of all the authors putting their very personal stories to paper.

It made me think deeply about my own view of growing up Aboriginal in Australia.

For that I am grateful.

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Chance encounter with The King, and Review: Out Of The Shadows

Reading Time: 3 minutesDuring our Australian holidays, we had a chance encounter with rugby league great, Wally Lewis while walking into Brisbane Airport.
It’s interesting how sometimes you can spot a celebrity from a mere flash of them quite a distance away.

He was kind enough to pose for a photo with us.
In case he needed some convincing, to seal the deal I mentioned I did name my second son “Lewis” afterall.
I forgot to add that my first son is Myles, so we have pretty close to the famous Wally Lewis and Gene Miles combination.

Wally and wife Jacqui were lovely during our short interaction/interruption while they were on their way to the Dally M awards.
We were grateful, and it had me recounting to the boys again how inspiring he had been as a player.

 

Out Of The Shadows

A few days later at my parents’ place, the boys were flicking through some papers on the bookshelf when they came across the Wally Lewis book, “Out Of The Shadows”; by Neil Cadigan, and Wally Lewis.

We should ignore the fact that my Lewis saw the cover and excitedly exclaimed “Oh look, it’s Dr Phil!”

I decided to read the book before leaving Brisbane, as a result of our chance encounter at the airport.

When you’re like me and average reading 5 books a year, completing an entire book in just three days is what’s called a challenge.

Reading it was quite simple really. The book was a lovely and warm account. I’m probably similar to a lot of Queenslanders, who knew only some of the story of Wally’s epilepsy. The book gives great perspective. It shares the full chronology leading up to the diagnosis, and then living long-term with the disorder while still leading a busy professional schedule. I really had no idea how big an ordeal this was, and accounts from others supplemented the events along the way. It really uncovered my own ignorance around epilepsy. It’s no spoiler that the story has a happy ending. Many aren’t so lucky.

I’m glad I read this book, which I was certainly encouraged to do after seeing The King in the flesh. It made me appreciate how inspiring Wally is as a man.

A wonderful account of The King’s biggest battle outside of rugby league, epilepsy. It was nice to read more about the man who inspired so many on the sporting field, and now is arguably doing even more important work in lifting awareness of the disorder – and even taking control of your health generally.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Also, I went through our Brisbane holiday photos from 12 months earlier.
On that trip we managed to catch a Broncos home match, where the boys got their first encounter with King Wally Lewis, the Emperor of Lang Park!

Wally Lewis statue
Broncos vs Parramatta Eels 24/08/2017

 

Touch down Australia, “summer holidays” begin – Aug 2017

Reading Time: 2 minutesIt’s 4 in the morning, I’m wide awake, and my body feels like it should be eating dinner.
Dubai right now is 37 degrees at 10pm. Outside here in Launceston is 1.
My summer holiday has again become a freezing one.

It was quite a day of flying. In summary, my plane took off from DXB at 10:41am. With a short stop to change planes in MEL, I arrived and reunited with my family at Launceston airport 10:08am the next day.

I already got into the Aussie mood in Dubai. The family behind me at the boarding gate were speaking in Greek. I like the sound of the language. Then occasionally they would switch to a thick, regional Australian accent when they were cursing so impressively. I guess Greek has no equivalent to “flamin‘”

As I boarded, Bob Marley & The Wailers were singing “Don’t worry, ’bout a thing … Cause ev’ry little thing, is going to be all-right.” Not just a cool song, perhaps a great ploy to calm the nervous traveler?

I had the window seat, a vacant spot next to me, then one neighbour on the aisle. It was a lovely, old British lady. She looked like a small, female version of Tim Cook. We exchanged pleasantries. Soon after she took off her shoes, and asked if it’s ok to store them in the seat pocket between us. I said it’s fine. A little while later, she put her feet up on the seat next to me, after asking if it was fine. I figured it wouldn’t be long before I’d be asked to give her a foot massage. It didn’t come to that. She was actually lovely company, even helping me finish my large bag of cashews before Australian Customs.

I watched three movies, which is my standard for this leg. 

  • I watched Fate of the Furious – #8 in the franchise. It’s a lot of fun, and must be the best movie written by a 10 year old boy. 
  • Then I watched Ghost In The Shell. It’s hard to go past an action flick with a near-naked Scarlett Johansson. The movie is quite amazing. It’s the movie you’d expect if The Matrix and Total Recall had a baby. 
  • And the pick of the bunch was Off The Rails. It’s a documentary about Darius McCollum. Darius had issues growing up, and has Asperger’s syndrome, which resulted in his unhealthy love of the New York transit system. He continuously, quite innocently, takes control of trains and buses and impersonates employees. It has landed him in jail 32 times and for more than half of his adult life. His problem is exacerbated by a justice problem which continually proves unable to help. I watched it 1.5 times.

And now the two week whirlwind whistle-stop tour begins. It’s good to be home.

Glen Moray Whisky Tasting – 08 August 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutesFor several years I’ve been an occasional whisky-tasting attendee. These events are usually pompous single malt promotions with a bit of exclusivity to taste something unique that I may not buy myself.

Last night’s Glen Moray tasting was quite different. The label’s master distiller, Graham Coull, presented his finest whiskys for us to taste. Perhaps due to the format it was a larger crowd than we’re used to.
It was also the biggest audience the distiller had ever been part of. And this was after having a promotional tour of Australia – Glen Moray’s 3rd largest market.

The Hilton Double Tree’s COPPERDOG was a superb bar to host this.  It overlooked the amazing Ain Dubai (“Dubai Eye”) which seems to have almost 75% of the wheel completed. Building a massive pie chart is such a handy shape to report upon progress.

Rather than a speech and stories, Graham patiently took endless questions from the many curious folks. Most were pretty standard stuff which I think I could answer after a dram or two.  There are always questions like the exchange of whisky, and blends. Fun fact: Glen Moray might be the best thing in Johnnie Walker Red – even the only good thing in Johnnie Walker, depending on your tastes!

Then a guest asked Graham where the bathroom was.  But my highlight was someone asking if after opening a bottle of whisky, is it recommended to finish it on the same day. I can’t recall his detailed explanation, but what I chose to hear was Yes.

Out of the five samples, the 25 year old was clearly the smoothest.  But we were taken on a real Speyside journey from the Classic, to the 12 year, to the 15 (inferior to the 12 in some eyes), to the port casks and the sherry cask.  The 12 year old was finished in a bourbon cask, Jack Daniels to be precise if you could believe the perceptive guy next to us – which I didn’t.

It’s an interesting story how whisky has become so dependent on the casks of other spirits to finish and improve their flavour. And other spirits aren’t keeping up with this demand. This has led to some whisky companies going into the sherry business not for the content but the container.

Glen Moray generally use their casks twice or three times.  Graham explained he sees casks similar to tea bags.  Their first use is a bit strong, the second is fine, but the third can be a little too weak.  Being a proud Scotsman, he said it’s only natural they get maximum use out of everything.

The five of us were in a booth that had places set for seven. Handy. We thought to get maximum use out of things also and devoured the extra whisky samples.

We spotted another three untaken places at nearby table.  A guy was one step ahead of us about to help himself to one or two glasses when the lady at the other side of the table snapped at him.  It was quite funny to see her fury, and the gentleman deflate away. She scooped up the glasses into her chest like a protective dragon cuddling her eggs.

The next morning was the concluding chapter. Still quite seedy, I taxied back to the venue to pick up my car. I couldn’t tell if the attendant was joking when he asked if I had forgotten my car.

Review: True Girt

Reading Time: 2 minutesTrue Girt
True Girt by David Hunt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the outset, it’s probably a good idea to clarify, this book is not True Grit by wee-drinking author Mr Bear Grylls. Although if you’re after a tale of desperate and deprived actions of slightly deranged people in perilous conditions, you may not be disappointed. *sound of tucker bag being zipped up*

I enjoyed this follow-up to Girt.  Both books provide a great antidote to the shiny history of Australia we were taught in schools ‘down under’. Many of the key figures in founding the land became celebrated as place names, but it took a volume like True Girt to aptly describe how many of these characters were.. well.. a bunch of pricks.

Along the way, we appreciate how unique Australia is.  Where else is there a such a massive convict past, a sponsored horror of injustice against the original inhabitants, an unexplorable land so enticing to work-experience explorers, and then an uprising culture of rebels who appear to this day as tattoos amongst proud pre-grownups? And then there was the discrimination against other religions and races – glad we sorted out that issue long ago.

Australia has a history that beggars belief, but it’s what a few of us call home.

Many gold nuggets were shared, like Australia inventing what became standard democratic processes (with a few oversights).  And we finally learn the collective noun of Hipsters. It makes sense.

True to the author’s word, this follow-up has even more hilarious moments where I laughed out loud before looking around nervously.

I look forward to whatever next installment comes.

A good thing about history, it doesn’t stop.

 

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