Footy and chess

Playing some interesting Chess games on chessmaniac tonight. Trying to get into games for my Team, the Chess Fiends (a strange name but not the strangest on the site). I'm OK at longer Chess games but absolutely useless at anything of 15 mins and under, I've decided - I must need time to think!
Broncos lost to Rabbitohs tonight - first time Souths have won at Suncorp since 1990! Only one person at work tipped it, and it wasn't me. Not a great year for tipping. Watching Titans play Bulldogs now and looks like I'm going to be 2 losses down for the weekend - great (not).
Yr 10 multimedia spectacular lesson on Church history and Martin Luther went really well, I thought. Ran out of time in the end, but not badly.
Also enjoyed watching rest of the Gallipoli movie with Yr 11. It's been quite a while since I've seen the whole thing. I don't think I'd noticed before that David Williamson, the screenwriter, gets a cameo as a lanky Victorian soldier playing in a scratch AFL game against the Western Australians. Most kids had seen the film before but I think were still shocked with the final moments. Amazing film, definitely one of Australia's best ever.
Another good film on TV right now is Insomnia which I'm pretty sure I saw at the cinema many years ago. What a cast: Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank - wow! Can't remember much about the plot but Williams comes across as a formidable match for Pacino both in terms of their characters and as actors (imho).
Really need to have some time with Al to have a serious planning discussion about her 40th this year. She wants something special and by golly, she's going to get it. I think she wanted to be surprised at one stage, but I always think that's a bit risky. Think of that great scene in the surprisingly good In Good Company where Dennis Quaid walks into the 'surprise' party he knows is happening, wearing just his underwear - and proceeds to flash his butt at the guests - great stuff!
I'm thinking dinner at a small restaurant followed by hiring a whole cinema at the Blue Moon at Rosalie for watching something with friends and then going around the corner to one of the numerous cafes at Rosalie afterwards. Then we fly to Melbourne for a day or so. That's my plan anyway, but I'm happy to discuss it. My 'secret' present (or one of them) could be getting Al's uni graduation pictures finally printed, and her degree framed. I'm sure she'd also like some more Pandora jewellery for her bracelet, but maybe that should wait for Christmas... not sure.
Anyway, it's pretty bizarre that we haven't had much chance to have such a discussion recently - too busy and then we fall asleep in front of TV.
Must have a good sleep tonight and let all parts of my body do some healing! Throat still not great. Last steristrips came off knee today, which looks and feels fine to my way of thinking. Keep forgetting to do my 50-100 daily straight leg lifts, but I guess I could do them now. Looking forward to Saturday morning as always, especially with a late soccer game for Dec. Night night.

True Beauty

Time to be shallow! This isn't about the nature of beauty, it's the name of the latest ridiculous American reality show we're watching right now. Silly stuff - I'm going to bed asap after writing this. Can these pretty people really be so self-obsessed? Of course they can!
School was demanding in spots today - throat is still bad but at least I can still speak. Must go in tomorrow for big Yr 10 RAVE powerpoint lesson in the afternoon which has taken a lot of setting up across the 7 classes. Had quite a few IT issues today which were very annoying, including a profile problem which meant I couldn't log on to any computer in the school except my laptop - what a waste of time.
Told my Yr 12 Eng Comm class this afternoon they were the slackest class I've ever taught. I don't normally resort to negative comments of that kind - but no-one contradicted me! I added some qualifiers regarding the good kids, but then went ahead and cancelled library bookings because these kids are literally sitting around in the library doing nothing! How are we going to make it to the end of the year without coming to blows?
Started watching Gallipoli with Yr 11 today - having 2 female German visiting students in the class made it interesting. Some kids were disappointed to learn Mel Gibson was actually born in the US, though they were reassured when I told them about his time at NIDA etc. It's a great movie and good to watch via data projector on the 'big screen'. Then we need to get into our play 'The One Day of the Year' asap.
Al: has an interview with a company at Morningside next Wed as a part-time HR person. Will be her 1st job interview in a long time. If she gets an offer, we'll need to make some very crunchy decisions re: transport arrangements, kids' education, cooking - almost everything really! Interesting times.
I also got the usual letter from the QSA re: QCST, but this time telling me I'm a 'standby marker' - not sure if I'm interested in waiting around until the last possible day to see if I'm even needed or not during the first week of the September holidays. At most I could make about $1000 after tax for a week of marking papers - do we need it that much? Not sure! Time for bed.