Amy's first Eucharist

The Making of: We Don't Dance

You guy's should never have encouraged me.
Here's the "Making Of".

late breaking news..

Poor old Dom: just another day at school and a kick of the footy in the short break. He reached down to pick up the ball and someone stood on his hand, breaking the middle finger just above the knuckle joint. He and Jules spent the rest of the day in hospital and his left hand is now out of action until further notice: no soccer, no cricket and no fretboard work on his new guitar. A knee reconstruction and a broken hand by 14 years - can anyone beat that? There is something of a family precedent: Adam and a mate were in a park once when Adam was maybe five or six and he said,"I'm going to point at an ant with my finger and I want you to hit it with a brick". As instructed, his mate hit his finger with a brick and split the bone in half, requiring 60 micro-stitches to reconstruct it. It still looks a bit funny - get him to show you next time you see him. In the meantime, remember Dom in your prayers so that whatever curse he's under can be lifted.

Chin Faces - Part 3

It's amazing what you can do with two berocca tablets, some blue tac, and alot of enforced parental time at home.

hey all, we are back

For those of you who do not know, alaine and i went to New Zealand for two weeks to go snowboarding, we did a bit of other stuff inbetween, this is the canyon swing, two weeks of travelling and these are the only photos we have. enjoy. Its a canyon swing- great fun.
the snow was excellent but now ive conquored new zealand i think ill aim north of the equator.

Aunty Betty and Uncle Ken

Just had a couple of days in Sydney where I caught up with Adam and Monica for an excellent feed at one of Adam's many clubs on the foreshore of Bondi Beach. We walked home afterwards around the coastal walk which was also excellent. Both Adam and Amanda spent the weekend in Newcastle partly to visit Cathie but also, for Amanda, to go to the Countdown show which is about to tour nationally. Amanda's flatmate, Lilly, plays in the stage band.
It was also a good opportunity to catch up with Aunty Betty and Uncle Ken who are both aging very gracefully. Aunty Bet reeled off a list of letters she's been trying to write to various members of the family but is frustrated by her declining ability in this area. You can be sure she's always thinking about the Roffs, though. We talked briefly about Annika who I described as 19 and was immediately corrected: apparently she's 20. Joe and Sara are on the "to do" letter list and she was interested in Tom's achievements last weekend at the Victorian Championships, asking after not only Sally but Chloe and Patrick as well. She's still carving-knife sharp. Uncle Ken was in fine form and was grateful that I wasn't able to complete the original Plan A which was to buy him a copy of the new Shane Warne biography at the airport. They get a glimpse of the blog from time to time courtesy of Martin arriving with his laptop but really appreciate any contact. Family pictures are good, as are letters, of course, and the mailing address is Unit 23, Lourdes Retirement Village, 95 Stanthope Rd, Killara (insert postcode, whatever it is).

strange land...

This story begins as all good tales should.
So we were out drinking one night....
in a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Picture the bar from "Love Actually" where 'Colin' goes to meet american girls, except there's no girls, just a few scattered crazy looking hill-billies in deer hunting gear and neon lights advertising Budwieser beer. Oh and a jukebox playing very very country music. You can imagine my suprise when it started playing a familiar tune...."Mm-mmmm...I love this bar" !! I must admit "Neils bar" was a better version but I always suspected Uncle Glenn might have made that one up, but as it turns out it's a real song, and around here Uncle Glenn's taste in country music is considered very fashionable.....
yes i have indeed entered into a paralell universe.
I was half expecting after that to hear "It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your arse off all day..." and other great hits of the country music channel.

Anyways that was my weird coincidence for the week, went to an Irish festival last weekend...crazy-drunken-musically brilliant-irish.....and recommend the band Enter the Haggis.

Uncle Grant here's a pic for you: Look - both hands!





















Luv Kate

Happy Birthday

Today is the 159th Birthday of Sir John Forrest, a man who has loomed large over Australia's history since his birth (if you haven't already worked it out) in 1847. He was a noted explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia (holding that position for 10 years), the first Minister of Defence in the Commonwealth Parliament and the first Australian offered (I don't like to say 'raised to') a British Peerage. He also weighed close to 20 stone when he died in 1918. Happy Birthday. But perhaps he ought to skip the cake.

-Daniel

Tom Terrific

I'm not long back from the seventeenth Victorian International Open Championships (Judo) where Tom covered the family in glory with a great win in his weight class. He managed Ippons (the judo version of a knockout) it his preliminary bouts against two Victorian fighters which put him into the final against David Bielby from NSW who he fought recently in the finals at the nationals in Perth. I missed the first fight but saw it on video and it was clearly a comfortable victory. His second bout was against a bloke named Mark Anthony who looked disturbingly like Bruce Lee, but Tom's main throw was very convincing and Tom used his age (experience) to his advantage. He tried three forward throws in succession and then used the expectation in his opponent of another forward throw to do something completely different. He made it look easy. Bielby, the other finalist, was easily a foot taller than Tom and it seemed to be a tougher match. Tom won on points and told me afterwards that it wasn't as close as it looked. We'd spent about an hour before the finals talking about family and babies and cute stuff like that and when they announced the fight I was filled with guilt that I'd softened him up rather than bringing out the mongrel the bout probably needed. As it turns out, he can switch on the agression on the mats and it's clear that nobody likes fighting him: he takes a closed, take-no-prisoners stance and always moves forward. He was the senior member of the ACT team there and he told me afterwards that he counsels the younger fighters to be as agressive as he is - even if you lose, your opponent will remember next time he/she fights you that it's likely to hurt. The picture with this report was taken about 30 seconds after the finals and Tom is with Quang Phung, a Vietnamese Australian who has two sons in Tom's club in the ACT. The China Olympics are certainly a possibility for Tom but the key issue will be how much travel is required to get the necessary points. He's 32, which isn't old for a fighter (one of the higher weight fighters retired recently aged 38) but after 15 years on the mats, his priorities are changing (hello Gnome and Sally!) He's a great athlete and it was a treat to see him fight.

Oxford update

I just finished an email to mum and dad so thought I'd post most of it here to practice my usage of the cut n paste, every students essential tool and something I will become quite accustomed to using.
Having been involved with Sar in a torrid negotiation as to which room will be my study, I am happy to say that we recently set up the attic as my study area (I brought the living room and the spare bedroom to the negotiation table but feel that the attic is still one up on the hallway cupboard, the other option proposed by Sar). I have been using it for the last few days reading.... magazines mostly at the moment, hoping to progress to books soon. Have a whiteboard, highlighters, pencils and erasers, it's all very first day of schoolish, but is a great area to be a hermit and there are no distractions at all except for the alcoholic bloke who comes around daily to shout abuse at his mother from the street until she throws money out to him so he can go and buy a 3 litre plastic bottle of Strongbow cider. (I kid you not, I followed him one day). To be fair, when she invariably does he always finishes with "God bless ma, God bless ya". Every cloud....
Sar hosted half a dozen of the lads for lunch yesterday, and based on their usual diet and the amount they enjoyed it I think she might be finding herself as the Italian mother figure to the young blokes. As Sar pointed out after they left they are all young (which I took as meaning virile) and good looking (by which I took as meaning 'do a lot of shagging') therefore I am hoping to fulfil the role of Father confessor to them - "More detail my son".
And the other bit of excitement for me is that I am off to the soccer/football tomorrow. Somehow jagged a ticket to go and see Aston Villa play Arsenal, and can't wait. I was quite bemused a few days ago when, after England beat Greece in their 1st match since the World Cup, the news followed with the headline "Are England on track to win the next World Cup". You just can't buy optimism like that...

So much things to say

Hello family! Once again I find myself apologising for my recent inattention to this esteemed journal; I have been busy enjoying the first four weeks of the university semester. My philosophy is that at university, holidays really only end the day before one's first assignment is due. Unfortunately this date is rapidly approaching, so it's probably time to think about attending some lectures. But that's beside the point - I'm at work now, so I've got plenty of time to update you on the exciting events that have happened in Adelaide recently.

Last weekend Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males were in town and I went along and caught their show. As usual they rocked the hizzy (do cool people still say that? 'hizzy'??), so I'd highly recommend seeing them if they come to a location near you. We kicked on to another pub after the gig and I got to chat with some of the other Alpha Males, which was fun. The new album is also fantastic, and I can identify quite strongly with 'Vice City Rollin', which is a bit of a worry.

Adam: in response your post a while back, of course we'd love to have you and Monica come and visit. You can stay at my place where you will experience the wonders of scotch, spontaneous loud noises and a single mattres + couch, or you are welcome to rock up at mum and dad's where you'll find wine, the ability to get some sleep and a fold out double bed. Your choice. Dad says to give him a call and he'll enlighten you on some 'interesting' walks around Adelaide.

Hmm. Actually, that's about all I can think of to write at the moment. I probably lead a relatively boring existence. My chin hasn't done anything of note recently (at least nothing that anyone had the presence of mind to video) and I've no overseas adventures to report. I'll end by adding my two cents to Grant's post below: if Campese had any sense, he'd realise that Latham and Burke are as crap as each other. May as well recall Wendell and stick him at fullback, I say.

Campo writes for the Roff Report

The current issue of ALPHA magazine in Australia asked David Campese to compare today's Wallbies with the World Cup winners. He says Nick Farr-Jones was better than George ("He doesn't kick well and he runs sideways"); Jason Little was better than Stirling but that Chris Latham was better than Matt Bourke. What about Joe?
"Roff and Tiquiri ahead of Tune. Both Joe and Lote could never be classified as just finishers. They are excellent footballers. They could find themselves in places to create for others. Tuquiri can still improve, too, He's got a higher workrate than Roff ever had and can hammer blokes in the tackle." Hmmm...

Tanzania

I recall dam knowing all the rugby players in the Burundi team when he had fox.Well I saw them play Tanzania as the children of St Judes sang the african anthem at the game.This is a real experience just reinforcing how nice power,hot water and toilets (flushing an extra bonus) can be.This will be short as the power is only on for unknown periods of time.We have been building a roof,storage shed,Library stocktake,bookstand and ends,painting play equipment and really getting to see and experience life in Tanzania.Visited Masai village of staff here and the lives of the children.As the kids were getting to school tired we have 12 buses that do three trips per day to collect and deliver children to the nearest road stop.Some then have one-two hour walk home and work by lamp at night.Mt Kili and Mt Meru were awesome to see as they are very close to Arusha.St Judes website is great to see what is happening for anyone that is interested.Safari was great the camping in the african wild nice except for the pit toilets used by hundreds mean't I went bush but as we camped alonside the animals I didn't go too far.The sunsets/sunrises and simple life appeals to me.I miss my rock and little ones and will have lots of stories for them.I hope this works.
Jan

Tribute...

Hi all!
I seem to be doing a waterfall tour of Northern Michigan, so here's a few pics and the last one is Joe and I paying tribute to Adam and Monica's awesome clip.....



























































Apart from a spectacular amount of hiking (which will pale in comparison to some certain New Zealand pic i look forward to...) I have been enjoying finally having some time to just chill and be lazy - a whole 6 months in the work force really took it out of me - and catching up with some crew i knew when i was at uni here.

Luv Kate

ps. they don't sell fountains sauce here in the states....sounds like a blackmarket opportunity if i ever saw one...

Yuppie attack!

Just off the 'phone with Naomi who is doing well with motherhood and who informed us that Tom would be fighting at Monash Uni his weekend in the Vic State titles. The Lemmings MC will be there in force to ensure victory. Call number two was from Stuart who was pleading poverty as an excuse for not riding down to Victoria to help me trash the Australian Motorcycle GP. He accidently let slip that he'd recently bought a new car!
"Oh, that old thing..." Yeah, sure. Mind you, it will help Marianne navigate the tretcherous conditions between New Lambton and the five-kilometre distant hospital at which she works ("No, really, sometimes they don't sweep the roads properly and there's all manner of loose gravel..") At least Ashley had the dignity to buy something unreliable.
Watch this space for Tom's results (victory is ours!) and for Damian's list of the top three FWDs - none of which will be the Mazda Tribute..

Roff Zombie

Paper Scissor's Music Video

I made this video last week after dinner with my mates (we only took 2 hours ok?). You'll need broadband but watch it again and again (if you can) because I need it to become an internet phenomenon. Just click on the picture and then leave it a few minutes to download (while the screen is black) and then it should play like a normal video. Points for guessing which one is me and which one is Monica...

The band's website (and the real clip for this song) is at http://www.myspace.com/thepaperscissors.

Sunday morning comin' down (again)

Melbourne really is a great place to live. Went to the launch of Dan's new CD on Friday night with Nicholas. Amanda and her mate Mai (the Uleladies) sang backing on one of the songs and it was a great night - around 300 people packed into the Corner Hotel. The CD is "CD of the Week" on JJJ so some of you will get to hear it (maybe not Ash, who's car radio is frozen on "Easy Listening 4KY). Last night Jules and I went to see Jindabyne in which Amanda does a bit of singing in the Paul Kelly soundtrack. Look for here name in the credits. It's a terrific movie and one reason is the focus is on middle-aged people. When I say it's terrific, its also quite distrurbing in lots of ways and should probably be rated for ages 35+. I don't think many younger people will see it as the plot development is slow. Nicholas' Harlequin 2nds got flogged again yesterday as his relectance to engange in any kind of physical contact on the field seems to be infecting the rest of the squad. We're about to take Dom into the tennis centre for ball-boy training, during which we'll have a look at the Picasso exhibition in the Art Centre. The sun is out and the days are getting longer.

Jake still rules

Oçonnor Catholic College just held its athletics carnival today and despite an under 12 from Uralla smashing 3 records, Jake Roff still holds the under 12 triple and high jump records at the College. You rule Jake!

Oh bye the way, we are off to NZ

Thats right, Alaine and i are going to New Zealand on friday, and in true Roff form, i left it up to someone else to plan our trip- that being Alaine. Bad idea? Yes, Very bad. In short, if anyone has any good ideas for the pair of us i.e. accomodation, particularly since we fly in at about 10:30 friday night, bungie jumping (i did hear a good one that is out of a cable car about 120m up and at night- but if there is a better one id like to hear it) that would be taken on board, acknowledged and forgotten in about two minutes. we are going to Queenstown to go snowboarding so yeah i think its an adventure holiday. Im excited.
Apart from that, im ok, works ok, i go fishing a lot now- i caught a shark the other day- that was pretty cool, it was about 5ft long and yes i let it go, i also caught an eel it was pretty long, it bit my dunlop volleys and left a mark in them.