Fat, rich westerner

By James Marshall

Ten years ago I made a resolution to go overseas every year.

It wasn’t in response to anything in particular, apart from a love of travelling, but I realised that if I didn’t prioritise the planning process, it would be easily neglected.

I didn’t want to wake up one day, realise that I was old and had not done the things I wanted to do. Since then I’ve managed to get to all sorts of out-of-the-way places, even if I cheated slightly one year by going to relatively un-exotic New Zealand for a couple of weeks. So far, so good …

Bandwagon jumpers

By El Guapo

I grew up a mental Western Suburbs Magpies fan.

My dad and brother and I endured years of heartache, attending most games in the days you could drive to every venue, lob five minutes before kick-off and find plenty of standing room on the hill.

(I don’t think I actually sat down to watch a match until my 20s. And that was in the early 90s on a demountable, uncovered, plywood and aluminum “grandstand” at Campbelltown Sports Ground that Wests bought on the cheap from the 1982 Commonwealth Games “stadium” in Brisbane.)

Our fervour peaked during the apocalyptic 1984 season which produced one win in 24 matches (a 13-10 home victory over Illawarra). We sat, or stood, through every single match. We drove to Penrith, Wollongong and Canberra. We capped off the season in Round 26 with a drive to Endeavour Field in the Sigma, where Cronulla walloped us 48-10 in front of 3230 fans …