I must know this Aussie Rules Football more. I cant go on living in Melbourne without appreciating this sport, as it is virtually the only sport people talk about. I mean, Man Utd creamed the barcodes on Sunday and no one has anything to say about it the next day. Tiger regains the US Master and no one has anything to say the next day. But when some otherwise obscure footy player says something, gets injured or simply cries, it gets heaps more column inches than Prince Charles’ wedding. So, what do I know about this game so far? The teams I have heard of include: Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Brisbane Lions, Carlton Blues, Collingwood Magpies, Essendon Bombers, Geelong Cats, Hawthorn Hawks, St Kilda, Fremantle, West Coast Eagles, Melbourne, Kangaroos (or are they both the same team….) Any player could be in any part of the field at any time during the game. You could give the ball a big kick like goalies do by carrying the ball a few yards before dropping it for that kick. A team member who takes a clean catch from such a kick is said to have taken a good mark, who is then free to take that kick, unimpeded (sort of like a free kick). You could also volley (using your hand) the ball to pass it to a player near you. You could kick it normal soccer style, ie along the ground, to another player who is free to pick it up any way he chooses. You could simply throw it rugby style, to another player. All this while (except when you have a good mark), any player can tackle you, rugby style. The objective of course is to get the ball past the middle goalposts, which gives your team 6 points. If you get it past either of the side goal posts, your team scores only 1 point. I have yet to watch a whole game (in fact I have not watched more than 2-3 minutes of any given game), so I don’t really know anymore stuff, like whether each quarter really lasts 15 minutes or whether there are only 4 quarter in a game. I also don’t know how many players there are in each side. I shall make efforts to find out however, as I am now strongly anchored to the bottom of the tipping table in my office. My daughter and I agreed that we shall take steps to identify a team to call our own, by the end of the current season, and perhaps start attending games next season.

So there’s this poem making the rounds. This poem about our pretensions to developed world status. You know, for many of us, living in Malaysia has serious drawbacks in terms of having third world mentality rub off on us. If we re-settle in a developed world, we must consciously and deliberately do stuff in ways which are correct, accurate, efficient and generally-works with minimum fuss. I struggled, and continue to make deliberate efforts to find my groove, because 40 years of living in a third world context meant it has rubbed off quite a bit. To cap it off, we were made to believe we had developed world systems, so we think we are ok. But we are not, and it hurts to experience the difference.