Being the penultimate footy weekend, we sat around most of the weekend watching it. It was well-timed for us, because being night games in Australia made them afternoon games in Abu Dhabi.
The mister dedicated himself fully to the watching-ness of it, but after the first quarter of the first day, I got a bit twitchy, so I worked on my Commemorative Election cross stitch which I’ve been meaning to get around to.
I like to have the footy and the cricket on in the background, it soothes me. I guess it takes me back to the safety of childhood or something. The mister is always shocked that I can have been apparently watching or listening to an entire football game and still say, ‘Oh, is it finished? Who won?’
The cross stitch will be hung in the boys’ room. There are people who let their children develop their own political beliefs. I am not such a person. I would be, but I’m so right about my politics, that they don’t need to develop their own thoughts.
A funny thing has happened, just as I’ve been putting this blog post together. I have realised that this is a lot less true than it used to be. Events of the last few years – living outside a democracy, the swearing in of our first woman Prime Minister, the fear of living with Tony Abbott as Prime Minister – have left me caring very much that they learn to be politically engaged, but less inclined to bludgeon them (cross stitch evidence notwithstanding). I have been noticing more and more lately, that in politics and political action, I am much more like my mother than my father. The personal is political rather than the explicit political action of joining parties and so on. And that’s not the person I expected to be, I always thought I’d be much more involved in a political party than I have ever been.
Actually, this isn’t the cross stitch I was planning. I wanted to take the opportunity to do my first person cross stitch. That is, cross stitch an outline of Julia, pearls and all, but I just haven’t organised it, and I knew I could get this finished before the next election.
Fittingly, I completed it during the Collingwood Sydney game, so I was working on something else when Julia’s team got whipped by the Saints.
So now, all that’s left is the grand final. We have to get up really early for that. If I recall correctly, it begins here at 8 am. Which is definitely an early time to be watching football.
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| From miscblogphotos |
PS You’ll notice that I’m a bit of a sloppy cross stitcher, and I don’t go back and correct mistakes – like if I start a line too low, or do a run of stitches with the crosses reversed from all the others, I very often just leave it that way. Unless it’s a present. If it’s a present I do undo it.
adelaide from adelaide 
Do you take commissions? I think I could do with a commemorative “We love Julia” cross stitch.
If you really do want one, I’ll make you one…it can be my good-luck-with-your-move gift. what colours would you prefer? I’ve got a limited palette, and will never again be visiting the craft store here, but most colours available in one shade. Added bonus, easy to pack.
Was really just a joke…. but I’ve had a better idea. You could do a set of them, and then enter them in the Adelaide Royal Show, where they would be obliged to display them to all and sundry for show week.
I am booking you in for craft camp next year. I will not take no for an answer.
As a new parent, this taps into my fear about the boy turning into either a young Liberal or an AOG youth pastor or both, because of our strong opposition to both kinds of tediousness. It’s like that Larson cartoon with the Barnum boys (or is it Ringling?) sneaking out of the tent to join corporate America.
ps. My favourite cross-stitch this year, displayed in a silver frame on the dresser in the good room of a friend’s house: “FUCK CANCER”
(Can I say that here?)
OMG yes.