shawThings.net : a collection of shaw things ...

Another season of the A-League has now come and gone. So how did it fare? It was a promising start: Kewell and Emerton were back in the country playing, Brisbane Roar looked unbeatable and set a new Australia record and crowds were up a little on last year. At the tail end though, Palmer lost the plot and Gold Coast folded and Tinkler tried to hand his license back. Clearly all is not well. However, I think on balance it was a good season.

Our local pub has already featured herein. After several years they have finally updated their menu, retiring some of our favourite typos. If you were thinking they would take extra care with their new menu, you'd be wrong. Leaping out is a new contender: Chichen Burger.

I was fortunate enough to see a presentation by NASA Administrator Charles Frank Bolden Jr. today. In addition to a brief outline of what NASA does, he had some very inspiring words.

The world needs more whimsy. Sometimes we're too serious about everything and we need to lighten up.

Case in point. One of my favourite TV shows is QI, almost entirely whimsical in and of itself. In an episode made last year, but only shown in Australia just recently, the host, Stephen Fry, is sporting a large, fake moustache. At one point during the show, one of the contestants, Bill Bailey, said something along the lines of, "I’m just imagining that that moustache is going to have its own website by the end of the show".

The Socceroos were a bit scratchy in the first and the Saudis deserved their lead at the break. A devastating spell from the Aussies saw them comfortably home and they finished top of their group.

A solid, but not spectacular Christmas special, loosely based on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, although in truth there were only a few similarities. The Doctor crashes to Earth (literally) and is helped by Madge Arwell. He re-pays the favour three years later (her time).

The floods in Thailand forced a change of venue, but that didn't put off the Thais. They played out of their skin and deserved something from this match. Unlike last month though, we hung tough and scored the winner through Brett Holman.

What a difference a month makes. After an excellent effort last time, we failed to show up and went down 0-1 in an insipid performance. We really need to eliminate these poor performances from our repertoire and become more consistent. Annoying.

A potentially tough match against a team we've struggled to beat in the past and we were without Schwarzer, Cahill and Emerton (and Kewell if you care). And we nailed it. A superb performance and a great 3-0 win. Top of the group and virtually guaranteed of progressing to the next stage.

An action- and information-packed series finale that wrapped up many, but certainly not all, loose ends from the past couple of series. A pretty good episode all up and one that foreshadows a lot that's ahead.