Round 10: Not only did the boys win, but we watched them at Manuka Oval in Canberra along with the largest footy crowd ever at Manuka (14,900) . This is another of those "home" games by a non-resident team, in this case the Kangaroos who have made an attempt to become "Canberra's AFL team" except hardly anybody goes except when they play the Swans. Thier contract for this arrangement is up at the end of this season and one of the commentators was so brilliant as to mention that if the Swans played here more often, there would be bigger crowds. Duh. I will admit that the number of Roos supporters has increased over the years altho they are still vastly outnumbered by Swans fans. We had not-wonderful seats, staring into the sun all day but the folks in the shade must have been very chilly. Swans tore away in the first quarter, went to sleep in the second and third, got an earful from Roosy at 3/4 time and came out and wrestled the game back after being down by 37 points. When they play well they are unstoppable and the Roos only got ahead because the Swans played like they didn't care for most of 2 quarters (as well as some really doubtful umpiring calls). I thought it was strange that they were continuing to advertise on TV for people to come out and "support AFL in Canberra" all week when I knew the match was sold out. They meant "support the Roos in Canberra" but I don't think that will make money. Above you see Adam Goodes (at left) kicking for goal, and (at right) some match play with Michael O'Loughlin closest to the camera. As always go here for all the footy details. Those of you unfamiliar with the league may be very confused by the word "Roos." As a collective noun it applied the the (formerly North Melbourne) Kangaroos. As a singular name, and as in "Roosy" it refers to our head coach, Paul Roos. When he was a player, whever he got the ball the crowd would yell "Roooooooos!" which some might confuse people thinking that we were booing. He is immensely popular with fans and players. Everyone has a nickname in footy. Roos becomes Roosy.

And I have washed the socks and now will ponder how to dye them to get them the proper colour for the WW2 uniform. All I can say is that soldiers must have had awfully skinny legs in those days!