Gameday Sunday

11:20am - I'm typing a quick draft here of today's post. while I kill some time before the New Orleans - Detroit game.  Or, specifically, before I go and make a Ro-Tel dip cheese dip before the game.

It's been a satisfying morning thus far.  Yesterday's long walk got me off to sleep at about 1:30am last night, the delay being chiefly because I got kind of hooked in an episode of 'Star Trek'.  I actually woke at about 5:30am and lay there with ABC-FM for a bit - very peaceful.  A bit after 6am I got up, went down to check when the game would start, and then fired up the laptop to carry on with the studies from yesterday, tolerably effectively.  I looked up the recipe for the cheese dip, and got the times for Mass at the church down the road.  I took it as a good omen for the day that one of the pieces of music playing as I was doing this was the duet from "The Pearl fishers".  This is one of my three favourite pieces of music (the other two usual nominees being Holst's 'Jupiter' and Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue').

Mass deserves a comment: The church is Our lady Help of Christians.  It's one of the older style of churches, with lots of stained glass and the faces of the Apostles in the stonework below the roofline.  On the Archdiocese website the service was described as "Bilingual English/Italian".  They weren't kidding!  It was a replacement priest this week, and the congregation looked like many of them had been attending ever since the 1950s.  I should explain that my knowledge of Italian is pretty much limited to names of pizzas.  I know enough French and Latin to identify separate words if I see them written, but not enough about the grammar or syntax to really understand it.  I don't even pretend I can understand spoken Italian.  Anyway, at the service today the hymns were in Italian (one of them was a very pretty tune I'd never heard, the refrain of which was "Gerusalem, Gerusalem").  The first reading was in English, the  responsorial psalm in Italian, the second reading was in Italian, and the Gospel and homily in English (the priest spoke as much Italian as I do). the responses to the prayers of the faithful and in the liturgy of the Eucharist came in a mixture of English and Italian.  It is a pretty language to hear, even if you can't understand it.

After Mass I got the week's groceries and then came back here.  I stowed the cold stuff in the fridge along with some DPs, and began to type this.

OK, game time.

* * * * * * *

10:17pm - And the rest of the day went well too!  So after typing the draft above I put my Saints jersey on and went down and made up the cheese dip.  While i was doing that one of the housemates picked my brain on a legal problem.  I felt it was all a bit of a storm in a teacup but referred them to my old firm to be sure.  the game was a good one - Detroit did put up a decent fight, but New orleans was just too strong on the day and kept piling on the touchdowns in the second half.  I had a couple of housemates watching the game with me for greater or lesser spells which was fun.  I tried interesting them in the chips and dip.  No takers, although in fairness mostly they looked like they'd only just gotten up after a big night, so a pot of melted cheese with chilis and tomato understandably had limited appeal!  All the more for me!!!

The game was over by about 3:30pm.  I think it was Sartre who said that 3:00pm is always either too late or too early for anything you want to do?  I said "be buggered" to that and decided to try the Merri Creek walking trail - I understand it goes all the way to the bay.  I knew the trail intersected with Nicholson Street, and I had a vague memory of seeing it from the tram, so I decided just to head off and walk until I found it and then turn right.  Naturally I didn't check a map before I left ... I think you can see where this story is headed.  Anyway, by the time I got to La Trobe Street without crossing the creek I decided I'd gone the wrong way and so I walked down to Swanston Street and walked up past the University in the general direction of Parkville.  I tinkered with the idea of walking through the Melbourne General cemetery, but frankly I've had a gutful of morbid things and instead just continued up Lygon Street, eventually making a left turn and winding up back here.  I'm note sure how far that walk represents; a good couple of miles at least.  My only regret was that I'd eaten so much of the cheese dip - I kept trying persuade myself I felt like stopping for a beer or for gelato and my stomach kept saying "nnnnnnoooooooooo"

Back here I cooled off and watched a bit of TV in my room and then went down and re-heated some chicken and rice and opened a fairly over-the-hill bottle of sparkling white and had dinner and watched most of Night at the Museum 2 with some of the housemates.  Nice people, although one of the English girls was a bit gypped that her DVDs wouldn't play in the machine (region issue).  Made tomorrow's lunch and came up here to shave, shower, watch "The Big Bang Theory" and finish this post.

I've kept giving Joni breathing space today, although I'd have loved to message her during the game.  I keep thinking about her and about our girls, and about all the times we've had together.  I dunno, but my instincts do tell me she's right, that after all that's been and gone some breathing time might be the best thing in the world.  I hope so.

Time for bed.  See you tomorrow.