When I woke up this morning I didn’t feel any different. I felt flat, but that was more a case of being disappointed that my top place finishing Rugby League team had been beaten in the biggest upset of the year by the eighth placed underdogs in the first round of the finals series.
As the system goes, the only difference is that we now play next week instead of having the weeks rest and forego a home preliminary final. A hand full of cold beers took the edge off the disappointment and life goes on. The Melbourne Storm are still more than capable of whipping any of the remaining finalists and in the AFL my Hawks are still a red hot chance of winning their prelim this week and advancing to the Grand Final on the last Saturday in September.
Which brings me back to the original reason for my post. September is something of a celebration month in the Pilsner house with three of the five members having a birthday as well as Father’s Day, Dr Lager’s birthday and a full month of sporting commitments. And, of course, the accompanying beers.
The ‘Week of Candles, Cake & Kegs’ began on Thursday with the middle ‘little’ Pilsner reaching her fifth birthday. I counted off the beers in the fridge and the fifth was a new/old brew Platinum Blonde from Six Star Breweries. Old because it is one of these low-carb beers that want you to think are health tonics of sorts. In reality, they are as low in taste as they are in carbs and I’ll pick this theme back up in a follow up post.
Sunday was prepping the place for the onslaught of a dozen four and five year olds for the party before heading out to Olympic Park to see the Storm outplayed by the New Zealand Warriors. Standing out on the ground to hoist the players’ run-through banner, I had the feeling that this wasn’t going to be our day. The beers I had pre-game were like summer and winter – opposites, not one hot and one cold – one was ‘ice cream’ and the other ‘tide out’. And this despite the fact that it took THREE servers to get it wrong! Sanjeet, Ardip and Sharmi managed to take the order, the money and the pour and because I didn’t speak Urdhu we didn’t chat much. And, to top it off, the Kiwi’s got their national anthem in but then the sound system packed it in before the Aussie shiela could warble ours and the good natured crowd sang it instead – a Capella and out of tune. Badly. Should have seen the omen then.
Sunday was also the good Dr’s birthday and I raised a glass of St Arnou Premium Blond – because it is a nice low carb beer for those pretending to be health conscious and lead a good clean lifestyle. Much as Dr Lager does. Pretend.
And today I manage to put yet another year behind me and the girls made sure I had a lovely breakfast and plenty of presents this morning. A tradition in our house is that the birthday person gets to choose dinner and have it made for them but as I tap away here the forecast nasty weather is just beginning to break. As I am a volunteer with the local State Emergency Service unit I expect that tonight might be interrupted by a few call outs from the public and dinner may have to wait for another day. Plus, I don’t fancy driving in this weather if I don’t absolutely have to and so it might just be left over party pies and ‘little boys’ from the party for us.
I’ll just have to make up for this with a special beer from the ‘beer crisper’ when the storms die down and the pager stops beeping. So, wish me luck, happy birthday to me and cheers!
Prof. Pilsner
As the system goes, the only difference is that we now play next week instead of having the weeks rest and forego a home preliminary final. A hand full of cold beers took the edge off the disappointment and life goes on. The Melbourne Storm are still more than capable of whipping any of the remaining finalists and in the AFL my Hawks are still a red hot chance of winning their prelim this week and advancing to the Grand Final on the last Saturday in September.
Which brings me back to the original reason for my post. September is something of a celebration month in the Pilsner house with three of the five members having a birthday as well as Father’s Day, Dr Lager’s birthday and a full month of sporting commitments. And, of course, the accompanying beers.
The ‘Week of Candles, Cake & Kegs’ began on Thursday with the middle ‘little’ Pilsner reaching her fifth birthday. I counted off the beers in the fridge and the fifth was a new/old brew Platinum Blonde from Six Star Breweries. Old because it is one of these low-carb beers that want you to think are health tonics of sorts. In reality, they are as low in taste as they are in carbs and I’ll pick this theme back up in a follow up post.
Sunday was prepping the place for the onslaught of a dozen four and five year olds for the party before heading out to Olympic Park to see the Storm outplayed by the New Zealand Warriors. Standing out on the ground to hoist the players’ run-through banner, I had the feeling that this wasn’t going to be our day. The beers I had pre-game were like summer and winter – opposites, not one hot and one cold – one was ‘ice cream’ and the other ‘tide out’. And this despite the fact that it took THREE servers to get it wrong! Sanjeet, Ardip and Sharmi managed to take the order, the money and the pour and because I didn’t speak Urdhu we didn’t chat much. And, to top it off, the Kiwi’s got their national anthem in but then the sound system packed it in before the Aussie shiela could warble ours and the good natured crowd sang it instead – a Capella and out of tune. Badly. Should have seen the omen then.
Sunday was also the good Dr’s birthday and I raised a glass of St Arnou Premium Blond – because it is a nice low carb beer for those pretending to be health conscious and lead a good clean lifestyle. Much as Dr Lager does. Pretend.
And today I manage to put yet another year behind me and the girls made sure I had a lovely breakfast and plenty of presents this morning. A tradition in our house is that the birthday person gets to choose dinner and have it made for them but as I tap away here the forecast nasty weather is just beginning to break. As I am a volunteer with the local State Emergency Service unit I expect that tonight might be interrupted by a few call outs from the public and dinner may have to wait for another day. Plus, I don’t fancy driving in this weather if I don’t absolutely have to and so it might just be left over party pies and ‘little boys’ from the party for us.
I’ll just have to make up for this with a special beer from the ‘beer crisper’ when the storms die down and the pager stops beeping. So, wish me luck, happy birthday to me and cheers!
Prof. Pilsner
