Richmond supporters prove me right about not backing them…

https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/swan-street-erupts-as-richmond-fans-revel-in-huge-grand-final-victory/news-story/18ce031e12e16691b7000fd7dcadd519 This shows how all class Richmond supporters are. The Western Bulldogs (aka Footscray) are also a club based on working class battlers, but we don’t behave like this when we have something to celebrate. Indeed, their behaviour Saturday night makes me grateful Collingwood didn’t make it through as well, and makes for a great …

At last, I encounter Fosters Lager!

No one in Australia drinks Fosters Lager. That is mostly due to a marketing decision made about 30 years ago to gradually withdraw it from the Victorian market (back when we still had our beer allegiance on a state by state basis). So finding it overseas like this at Hamerica – a restaurant with an …

Whatever happened to the torpedo punt?

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/tayla-harris-pays-tribute-to-danny-frawley-after-blowing-afl-stars-out-of-the-water/news-story/ab8d4d0e46c84d2ac16c7e4bb654a824 I’m sitting in Bologna reading up on my AFL news, as you do. Reading that Tayla Harris came third in a contest on grand final morning sinking a torp is great, but also goes to illustrate that the torpedo punt, that most beautiful and spectacular, and riskiest, of kicks, is next to extinct, saved …

Salerno – everything Naples is not

I must say, Salerno is everything Naples is not. Clean, civic minded, friendly, and with a great sense of joy of life. Compare that to the squalor, passive aggressiveness, and general apathy on the slopes of Vesuvius. I walked down the Via Vittorio Emmanuele as it got progressively narrower and narrower til I found myself …

Reggio Calabria – the cathedral

A couple of photos of the cathedral in Reggio. Note the Greek inscription over the entry – it’s not too long since they used to speak Greek in this part of the world. Prior to emigrating in the late 50s, my mother still had an uncle from a Greek speaking village slightly inland from her …