Tiger stripes: earned!

Fear not, my fellow Tigers supporters! I’ve called in a favour. You won’t be hearing Tigerland until at least Round 4 … when I can hear it. ;-)

At last night’s game we farewelled our favourite player, and one of the AFL greats, Mattie 'Richo' Richardson. I was most upset about missing the game, but wasn’t physically up to it so soon after surgery. Naps are still too frequent … large public crowds are a bit too risky. But I still felt guilty for missing the first game of the season, especially because of the token Richo 'lap of honour'. 

(Photo courtesy of Jase!)

So while other members swarmed to the MCG last night, donning their Richo masks, I instead paid a silent tribute at home by completing ‘Project Tiger Stripes’.

I’ve blogged about this one before – if you’ve missed the background, you can read it here:

http://back-in-the-loop.blogspot.com/2010/03/project-tiger-stripes.html

It is basically a little colouring-in project I’ve got going for myself, involving Cochlear’s zebra-striped processor cover and one, very sophisticated, non-toxic … Officeworks permanent marker. In yellow. ;-)

About the only other thing required for this project are steady hands – steadier than Richo’s every time he tried to kick a goal. (Sorry Mattie!) So no short blacks before you start. (Doh!) And, for diabetics like me, you also need sugar ranges outside of ‘shaky territory’.

Here are the original, zebra-striped covers from Cochlear: 

Here we are at the halfway point:

Colouring-in complete, and covers drying off: 

From far away, they look pretty authentic! Up close, well the yellow surface doesn’t look as glossy as the original white. But I can pick them up without making my fingers yellow, so that’s good enough for me!

Can I call this project a success? I won’t make a judgement on that until I’ve had a chance to wear them without any skin reactions. And possibly until they’ve successfully lead my team to a win. ;-)

If the skin doesn’t take too kindly to the new stripes, I think I’ll start again – but next time, I’ll only colour the area that sits facing out (rather than the parts that touch the skin).

I'm now hanging out for what'll probably be the first game I attend this season. Round 4. Tigers vs. Melbourne. Me and my new tiger stripes will be there. :-)

PS: It’s very interesting watching a silent football game on TV, by the way. I can now occasionally lipread what the players are saying and I’m pretty sure that stuff is not broadcast!