Fever of the footy variety

So, it's footy finals time....and almost all of Geelong is decorated (Go the Cats!!).

Almost every shop window is blue and white.

There are huge cat-faces staring at you from every spare bit of wall (that wasn't already graffittied).

Even those of us who think football is for men who are not coordinated enough to use all four limbs at once have jumped on the bandwagon. (Yes, I see the irony of a wheelchair basketballer complaining about using only 2 limbs!!!)(and of "jumping").

And this is all new to me. This is the first time that I've lived in a football-finals-town. We didn't have an AFL team in Ivanhoe. However, we probably had a world-class croquet club, not to mention a kick-ass gymkana and pony circuit!

So, into a brave new world I ventured when, today, I took my research for coffee.

It was all going swimmingly. It's t-shirt weather (well, if you don't mind hypothermia), so I sat outside the cafe, glancing at my research (but really trying to eavesdrop on everyone else's conversation - try it, it's really fun!).

Anyway, my eyes were scanning the page, and then they accidentally wandered to the street.....where I saw a man staring at me from across the road. He was standing beside a 4-wheel drive (apparently Pako St is quite an unstable surface according to the number of Landcruisers in the street), so I could only see his head over the car.

I smiled back, then got on with my work.

A little while later (well, the end of the paragraph that I was reading), I glanced up again, and he was still looking at me.

Once again, I smiled back, then got on with my work.

Half a latte and half a page later, I looked up......and he was still staring at me.

Now, I'm used to being stared at. Intuitively, we'd all think that it's kids that stare, but actually, mostly it's adults that watch me do such rivetting things as get my groceries, put my wheelchair into the car, or have a few bevvies. Kid's are fine, and they usually ask inappropriate, but funny questions. For example....

Cate and I were at a festival once when this little 4 year old boy was staring at me for quite a while. Eventually, he wandered up to me and said, "You have a great bike!".

Where was I up to. Oh yeah.

So this adult had been standing across the road, staring at me for about 10 minutes.

I had gone from politely smiling, to ignoring, but now I had moved to blatantly staring back.

Then.......
- somebody hopped in the car
- and drove away
- to reveal......
.....................................
The rude, impertinent starer was actually a cardboard cutout of Gary Ablett staring at me from a shop window!!

Go the Cats,
Cheers,
L