Seriously

what the fricken hell was that nutcase doing heading the ball at knee height, 2 yards from goal in the last seconds of injury time in a Champions league semi-final? No offence Stef, but your Norwegian Riise is a muppet with no right foot. All I can say is he can make up for it next week thanks very much. As for all that boardroom nonsense, well, what do ye expect when ye let a pair of yanks (sorry, 1 Canadian) buy a football club. I could probably have done more research on Google than Liverpool seem to have done.

As for the Celtic tiger economy. Well well well. Things have slowed down a bit. Quel surprise. A bit surprised it didn't happen some time ago to be honest. Be interesting to see how the Gen Y brigade handle it. And all those millionaire developers. Thankfully, things won't ever again be like the early 80's touch wood. And good ole Bertie is gone. Maybe he didn't want to be associated with the economy downturn. Tarnishing his teflon image.

Economy here is feeling it a bit, but not too much yet. Good old China wha?? Of course the central bank f&ckers were still raising interest rates (to over 7% - are you kidding!!) up to last month coz people seemed to just not give a cr&p and kept spending like we're all about to fall over the edge.

Thats the extent of my economics reporting for the year.

I believe I am acclimatising (have acclimatised) to the Brisbane weather. The first in a trilogy of defining realisation moments came in November when I was home for those few mental days. I froze my nuts off. I lost count of the number of times I had to ask why the hell the heating had been turned off in the house. Occasion number 2 came probably in late January, when I bemoaned the crappy summer we had just experienced. It had been over 25 C pretty much constantly for 4 months and true, had rained a bit, but lets face it by my old Irish standards...... And finally, last week I was standing in the bathroom early in the morning, and simply had to put my towelling bathrobe on to get warm and thought how quickly winter was descending. It was probably about 15 C, and within an hour was well over 20. I've thought about wearing a jacket to work already and may even go that far next week. Traditionally, this is the most perfect time of year, with temps in the high 20's and nice cool nights. But I now have a jacket and am willing to wear it.....

As for the most important stuff..... 4 weeks to go. And ye never know, maybe earlier......

One can always hope.