Sunday, April 15, 2007

Round 3: I missed most of the action due to what I tend to regard as the reverse-jinx effect. They play well until I start to watch at which point the wheels fall off, so I stop watching only to return to watch them tidy up the match with ease. I don't know whether it's the fact that I'm watching that I get to see Schneider handpass to a Brisbane player, Spida miss several goals, whatever, but while I went back to my ironing in despair, they controlled the fourth quarter and won easily. Mick scored the first and last goals on his 250th game. Barring injury and making the finals, he could hit 300 by the end of next of season. He still has the desire because he definitely shows his emotions on the ground. Since Brisbane was undefeated, this was an important win. Not so nice seeing Ben Fixter playing for Brisbane but I don't know what the internal factors were which led to his de-listing and subsequent drafting by Brisbane. Might have been mutual for all I know. Because of the screwy nature of the broadcast rights this year, the match was shown on one free-to-air channel while the commentary was from the Foxtel pay TV network. They cut off coverage immediately after the siren so we didn't get to see Mick chaired off the ground or the team singing the team song in the locker room, which we had become accustomed to. Cheer cheer!

Yesterday we went to
Fishwyck markets which is so dangerous. Loads of lovely fruit and veg, 2 fish markets and too many deli/gourmet food shops. We came away with 2 kinds of plums, pears (a choice of 4 different kinds), a rockmelon (cantelope), the first mandarines (tangerines) of the season, flat beans, a sweet potato (which are absurdly expensive here), fresh corn (ditto re expense) and 2 of 8 different varieties of potatoes (from common Desirees to purple congo), a piece of swordfish for me and snapper for him, and blood orange sorbet and a smoked chicken breast from one of the delis. I resisted sheep's milk cheese and mango gelato, and figs were 2 for $2.50 which is a bit pricey even though I salivate in thinking about them.

I knitted away on the Bear's jumper while I watched TV last night and finished plying a bobbin of the filthy fleece.Tonight is combing locks of filthy fleece before I go back to BFL and I may take up a turquoise and black alpaca vest from the stash after the fiasco with the lace jacket.

BTW I finally finished His Majesty's Spanish Flock, and cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone with an interest in wool genetics and the commercial development of wool internationally. Only the illness of George III and of Sir Joseph Banks led to the demise of the experiment as the Regent had little interest in things agricultural. What surprised me was that the proceeds of years of shearing were simply stockpiled and then dumped on the market as an extremely bad time for the price of fine wool. I didn't find it terribly clear why this was unless it was Sir Joseph's withdrawal from ongoing management of the flock. The experiment certainly had profound impact of Australia through the purchase of some of H.M.'s sheep for Australia. I also found it interesting that the ordinary English judge of sheep found the merinos pitiful because they were used to looking at meat sheep. One pertinent comment was that you don't judge a merino on horseback, but get down and part the fleece. All that lanolin attracts a lot of dirt which obscures the true nature of the fleece. (Hence my filthy fleece which is delightfully soft but wouldn't look like much on the hoof).We call merinos in a paddock (field) stealth sheep disguising themselves as rocks. The normal washing procedure prior to shearing English sheep was to wash them in a river. This obviously doesn't not work with merino due to the level of lanolin in the wool.

Current BBBB is Beautiful Swimmers about crab fishing in Chesapeake bay. Australia is slightly lacking in crabs, making up for it in succulent oysters and enormous prawns. Mud crabs are found to the north in mangroves but are usually served as chili mud crab which leaved me out. I long for crab imperial from the Chesapeake or in desperation crab cakes. And can I have red Lobster cheese cornbread and a deluxe margarita with that?

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