Round the dinner table.

[Roger Kettle]

Princes, pimps and prostitutes. The history of Britain!

[The Peepmaster]

I had Christmas dinner with an interesting bird last year, and a very nice turkey it was too.




Actually, it was a goose, which was too big for the oven, and had to be cut up first. Wasn't that great.

Hi from Manila, by the way!

[Mince]

Hi from Manila, by the way!

Have you got stuck in an envelope again?

[A Woman]

Just who were you and Sam dining with? (And, yes, I realise this leaves an opening for jokes about who on earth the cartoonist and colourist were).

She is an old friend of Sam's from the days before she plunged completely over into the dark side, and met me. He was her friend, and (we assumed) former 'business partner'. Both now pursuing very different career paths, and highly entertaining dinner guests. I did a vegetarian haggis.

"The dark side" being the Church!!! She was a newly transformed character with an amazing testimony and history - Huge amount of pain and baggage from her past but an even bigger heart for people. She's since worked helping other girls on the street get off the game despite the dangerous position it puts her in.

Hehe the most 'normal' friends I have got are the ones I've acquired since I've been with Tarq's.... and they're all cartoony types!!! Well if you'd class them has 'normal'!!

[Joan]

Joan, was that Graham Arnold you were with?

I'm not a fan, just football curious.

Yes, Malc - we moved into our street about the same time as the Arnolds, and our daughter and the Arnolds' eldest quickly became  close friends and remained so when they moved down the road to Newport.  They were more like sisters really - either one was always at the others' house, especially when they were little.  So we were quite close family friends.  Sadly, the teenage years hit with the associated complications and although it took a while, the girls had a "bust up" last year, the details of which I am not allowed to know, and no longer see each other.  So I haven't seen/spoken to either Graham or his wife for quite a while, because my dd would prefer that I didn't make contact.  I will though, when enough time has passed.

Sorry if that's a bit much info - just wanted to explain that our families were fairly close.  If you've got any daughters, you, or more likely, your wife will realise what I'm talking about when they hit the teenage years.  Boys' problems tend to be just going out, getting drunk and possibly getting themselves into trouble, while girls are much more complicated in their relationships, sometimes as well as doing what boys do!

From knowing very little about soccer in Australia, apart from that when my son was playing, that more children played the game than adults attended matches, I've become, by association, quite interested in the game.    Well, we went through the changing of Soccer Australia from an organisation which had its roots in ethnic rivalries and was apparently being run (not too well, to put it mildly) by a group of businessmen who harboured those same rivalries, to the Football Federation of Australia  - Graham and his contemporaries were involved in this a fair bit.  Northern Spirit and its demise.  Also two lots of World Cup qualifiers and the excitement of actually getting in for the second one and getting as far as they did in the actual Cup.  I can tell you that Graham works extremely hard doing what he does and he did all the grunt work (as he no doubt should have as assistant coach) when Guus (the coach) wasn't here, which was most of the time.  At the same time he was coaching the under-23s and trying to teach a few rugby league teams how to kick a ball properly.

[Malc]

No Joan, I have three sons (26, 14 and 13) from two marriages and I always wanted a daughter. It's the man's fault of course, pity they didn't know that during Henry VIII's reign.

Graham Arnold must be held in high regard by the Football Australia mob, as he's survived a number of administrations.
Thank god the ethnic aspect of Australian football is gone. Croats and Serbs reinventing the Balkan conflict in Sydney stadia.
It was a joke, and allowed the other codes a stick to beat us with.

[Joan]

Graham Arnold must be held in high regard by the Football Australia mob, as he's survived a number of administrations.

I think he is pretty solid, but they always wanted another high profile coach, and I have the feeling that when he coached for the Asia Cup, some of the top players in the Socceroos just didn't have enough respect for him because he doesn't have enough experience, and because some of them are somewhat full of themselves.  I know that Guus Hiddink was very good at keeping them grounded and not letting them think too much of themselves, especially in relation to other members of the team.

[Malc]

Ah, the Australian cultural cringe.
I'm a senior licensed coach here in Australia and it's the equivalent of a UEFA C licence in Europe, but (even though it's not something I seek) I would never be seriously considered for a coaching job in Europe because Australian football has that fourth world taint.

There are just so many well experienced coaches outside Australia why would anyone appoint a nobody from the antipodes?  Graham Arnold really does have a long row to hoe, believe me. It doesn't matter if you're an Australian international player with a high coaching licence, players are more likely to listen to some bozo who only made the reserves at Hamilton Academicals.

[Joan]

My dad went to Hamilton Academy at one point - he was a rugby player though - did a little better than the reserves.

We used to play hockey against them.  The main reason I played was to get out of the boarding house on a Saturday morning.  Going to play Hamilton Academy was a scary experience, though - you can imagine what they thought of us private schoolites.  This was in the days before shin pads as well.  What with them missing the ball accidentally on purpose, making contact with my shins and my landing on the frozen earth as a result, my knees and shins were scarred for life!