Things I Love About Melbourne

1. The bars

2. The shops

3. Catching up with old friends

4. Trams

5. Various entertainment precincts.

The one thing I don't love about Melbourne

The weather

Thor: Movie of the Gods

Most of the readers of this site will have grown up watching comedian Tim Allen's sitcom Home Improvement back in the early to mid 90s.

Those who remember the show will remember the three brothers - the oldest of which was the mullet-sporting Zachery Ty Bryan (second from the left in the red shirt).

Anyway, after spending many a school afternoon watching him on TV he left my life for some time. I can't profess to be sad about it - he was just on TV one day and not the next.

But in the last two weeks and adult Zachery Ty Bryan has appeared before me in no less than two really bad movies.

Regular readers to this blog will know that I have a penchant for really, really bad movies occasionally - the idea being that sometimes movies can be so bad that they're enjoyable to watch.

The first movie I saw in which Zachery starred as a college jock/revhead (hell of a combination, right?) was Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Bad bad bad.

But the second, the one that really takes the cake, was the sci-fi/horror Thor: Hammer of the Gods.

That's right, young Zachery plays Thor.

It had everything - unnecessary gore, atrocious acting, mediocre special effects, duels between good friends over women - but the best part of it all was Zachary's appalling attempt at a Scandinavian accent. It was like the voice coaches worked with him for about two months and then just said "Fuck it. This is as good as it gets."

Think of a normal American accent with about one or two words a sentence slightly drawn out to make them sound foreign. It was an experience I'll never forget.

It's all been a bit glum around here lately, hasn't it?

So I decided to redecorate. I hope you like the new wallpaper. Please feel free to suggest changes to the colour scheme if you think something different would work better.

Before my last blog, I hadn't posted anything on here in about two months. Which is pretty poor, really.

I've also neglected to read my friend's blogs in that time - for those of you reading, I've caught up on the most recent ones at least.

I'm not sure if I have many readers out there anymore, but perhaps that's not such a bad thing.

I have a lot to say still and plan to pick up where I left off. In the meantime, take a look around, put your feet up, and feel free to comment in the topsy-turvy world that is Dave's Whirlpool.

Musings on death

Hi. It's been a while.

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long. To be honest I haven't had much to blog about.

But tonight I had news that my grandad passed away. This is the grandad who was married to the grandma of mine that passed away back in december last year.

When I went over for my grandma's funeral last year I was lucky enough to spend some time with my grandad. It was funny because the sort of stories he told me in that two week period were the sort of stories that would bore me to death if anyone else had told them to me. But because it was my Grandad and because I was there for my Grandma's funeral I hung on every word he said.

Even when we got out of the car at the funeral home to go to the viewing of my Grandma (at Purslowe Funeral Homes), he has a quirky historical tale to tell me:

"Did you know that the Purslowes were one of the pioneer families in Toowoomba?" he said. I didn't, but that didn't matter. I appreciated the fact that I was able to listen to my Grandad and spend that time with him.


My Grandad passed away this evening. He was an author, a World War II veteran, a historian, a gentleman and the sort of man I could only aspire to be.

The last time I saw my Grandad was at my grandma's funeral. I hugged him and told him I loved him "so much" - something I wouldn't previously have said to a grandparent.

"I'm very proud of you," he said.

That's enough to make me smile.

Even today.