Grand Final postscript: How good was that! What a great team Geelong is. Two out of three premierships on the trot. Absolutely fabulous. GO CATS! Let’s make it three out of four in 2010.

I was very sad to learn of the death of John Michell, the eccentric ‘Dr Who-like’ author of many books on geomancy and sacred geometry. I corresponded with him when I was doing my Masters on building ceremonies in the early 1980s, inviting him to give a lecture at the University of Minnesota in 1984. When I picked John up at the airport, he had a brown paper bag full of clothes and a suitcase full of books. His lecture at the university was the best … and the worst. He needed a heliograph (?), and when I asked him what that was he said after a moment’s thought, ‘A toaster for books’. And he was absolutely right! The spine of the book he was projecting broke, the extreme heat melted the glue, and the in-built fan blew the pages out of the machine one after the other while he was speaking. It was hilarious! But John wasn’t fazed one bit. He stayed in our tiny one-bedroom flat in Minneapolis for a couple of days, and there were stories galore concerning that. For instance, he slept in the nude, blanket-less, on our sofa, waking very late, while we woke early and had to ‘divert our eyes’ as we tip-toed around him! Then in 1992, when I was doing my PhD and flat broke, I stayed with him for a few day in London (his house was just around the corner from the Portobello Road Market) and he was an extremely gracious host. What a colourful character John was!

Grand Final post script: What a disappointing game for Geelong. Where were our forwards? Where were our goal sneaks? What really hurt us was scoring only one goal nine behinds in the second quarter. It should have been nine goals one behind! Oh well, never mind. Gary Ablett, you’re still a star. Tom Harley, you’re still captain courageous. David Wojcinski, you were very unlucky to miss out. But let’s not forget, there’s always NEXT YEAR! Go Cats!

Yesterday I arrived home from China at 7.00 in the morning and I went to the AFL Grand Final at 1.30 in the afternoon to see the mighty Cats give the Port Power-less an absolute shellacing, 163 to a miserable 44. I was completely buggered by the China trip, but I wouldn’t have missed Geelong’s premiership for the world! By half-time my voice was completely gone from cheering so much. Sol Traheo, Telstra’s CEO, was on the same flight home as I was, no doubt to attend the Grand Final as well. However, unlike me, he didn’t fly econony and I’m sure he didn’t have a standing room Grand Final ticket either. But I can almost guarantee that I enjoyed the Cats’ record breaking win more than he did. After all, I’ve been supporting them for as long as I can remember. I just wish Dad could have been around to have seen it. At least Mum saw it on TV. The Cats were absolutely magnificent! Let’s make it back-to-back premierships guys! GO CATERS!