The Age/SMH Cryptic by LR #20,734

I've had a day of leisure today and could slob about as I pleased. I watched youtube painting videos, I did my crossword, I got a couple small errands done in town without the kids so no one nagged me to buy them anything. It was great.

The puzzle was a great start to the week. I found it easy to get into but got harder into the bottom half and then I was stuck in the SE corner for ages. 18D, 26A and 31A were being stubborn. I went to Twitter to beg for a hint when a fellow puzzler had shared their finished grid pic and I had to quickly avert my eyes! No, why is there this "while you were away" thing anyway? Luckily the pic cut off towards the middle but it did show me the second letter of 18D - my eyes would not avert quickly enough - and *Bing* I had it. The rest fell into place with the new cross letters and I was done. Here's my pic:

The only clue I'm not sure about is 26A and I chose FORWARD as it was a sports position and I figured "goalkicker" was the definition. I don't know how "pro rejects fixture" gets us the answer so I may be wrong. Ok, I'll peek at my friend's pic...Yes! It's  FORWARD. Awesome. Rhett tells me it's "pro" = FOR and "reject fixture" = DRAW reversed to WARD and the "draw" is about football draws.

It also looks like there was a football theme that I never would have seen because I didn't know the footy lingo. I'm sure lots of people noticed but I didn't. It's like the magic eye thing all over again.

I think it will be lazy dinner tonight of hot dogs with all the fixings (chilli, cheese and cabbage!) (Ok not cabbage I was kidding) and then I'm going to play Fable Anniversary. I'm not enjoying it very much yet but I'm told it improves. We shall see. I needed something to keep me from pining for Fallout 4 until November. Also I don't have a PS4 so I'll have to scrounge pennies from the grocery money until I can buy one.

Anyone want to buy a painting?