Spectator sports

Been a bit despondent since having a bird's eye view of this "brawl" on Friday night. One of the Sydney players was sent off for a shove of less force than I get from strangers on train platforms every couple of weeks* while the ref didn't seem to notice half a dozen punches and headbutts from Newcastle players.

And then the extremely parochial crowd started to yell "go home Sydney" (all right, two people near us) and I suddenly really really wanted to drive straight back down the F3. It was so unfair! We didn't say that the previous week when they visited us! So now, even though I thought they deserved to win and have had a brilliant comeback this season and have the best designed team colours and supporters' stuff in the A-League, I really hope they lose really horribly next week.

Can't imagine what it would be like to be in the sort of football crowd where they use teargas and people die.

The good news is that now we don't have to worry about trying to get tickets to the final.

My mood lifted a bit today when I went to a reading by David Malouf at the newish library in Customs House. Very civilised people go to book readings. Even though there weren't enough chairs, there were no fisticuffs at all. Everyone smiles and listens quietly then claps at the end. Maybe football games should start with a bit of poetry reading.

*inadvertantly, I'm sure, at least some of the time, maybe. But they're usually from young men with headphones in their ears pretending they can't hear the pushees' protests. When I'm a whitehaired purple-wearing octengenarian I plan to pull headphones off these young men and tell them they should have better manners. At this age I'm worried that they might punch me.