Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
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hacksterbator
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that papua trip will be epic. i was doing some mental masturbation the other day, thinking about what my first whack of cash would be spent on if i won the lottery, and i decided it would be a surf boat trip. i'd get a luxury yacht and bring a bunch of my friends along for a couple weeks of epic waves in the lap of luxury. time to start a gambling problem!
A.G.
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james_dean
- space cowboy
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Sounds epic, but Feb is very close eh?? That's sweet you're going on a surfing trip with your dad... I'm hiking the Overland trail in Tasmania with my Dad in March it's going to be sweet as. Should take around 7-8 days and we have to carry everything on our backs, will be a good achievement.boyle wrote:I can start saving for my next trip, which is going to be a surfing trip in Papua New Guinea with my Dad. I think I will do some trips inside Australia before that, as it's not til Feb next year, but I better start saving.
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boyle
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best of luck in the lotto, I will be first on board!
Feb is pretty soon, but I work two jobs, and if I put my mind to it, I can save pretty well. The fact that I came back from Europe with a little cash left over is a good sign. It's also long away enough for me to save up some cash, and to build up some annual leave as well.
And Jamie, apparently the hostel in Bendigo is no longer a YHA, so I guess I won't be able to arrange any deals. Check out if it's still a hostel, I think it'd probably be sweet to stay there.
The Overland trail would be great, I would really like to visit Tasmania again and see more than just Hobart.
Feb is pretty soon, but I work two jobs, and if I put my mind to it, I can save pretty well. The fact that I came back from Europe with a little cash left over is a good sign. It's also long away enough for me to save up some cash, and to build up some annual leave as well.
And Jamie, apparently the hostel in Bendigo is no longer a YHA, so I guess I won't be able to arrange any deals. Check out if it's still a hostel, I think it'd probably be sweet to stay there.
The Overland trail would be great, I would really like to visit Tasmania again and see more than just Hobart.
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james_dean
- space cowboy
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boyle
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So last night I probably went to the best rugby league match I have ever seen. Unfortunately my team the Canberra Raiders (better known as the GREEN MACHINE) are out of contention for the finals, but this week they were up against the Dragons, who are on the top of the table.
A few days before I put $10 on the Raiders to win at $2.80. Everyone I told laughed at me and told me I was dreaming. When the match started, I could tell they had this extra passion and determination that I hadn't seen this year. For every tackle the players charged in, stopped the Dragons from offloading, and most sets the dragons couldn't even get past halfway.
20 mins in was the first of one of three punch-ups, which are becoming quite a rarity these days. The crowd was close to 20,000 in a stadium that has a capacity of 25,000, and as the Canberra public are generally pretty fickle, the crowds have been a lot lower in the last few years, but this was a great turnout.
At half time the Dragons were only up 6-0. For some reason, the dragons had a penalty not too far out from the Raiders line, and the star player for the Raiders had been put in the Sin Bin for 10 minutes for too much backchat to the ref, but instead of aiming for a try, they just kicked a goal. I guess all their players were worn out from getting smashed up (one guy who used to play for the Raiders was knocked unconscious just after the first fight.)
After half time, the Dragons scored a try against the run of play, it was 12-0, and things were not looking good. Except that the Raiders scored 3 tries within 10 minutes, and then things were looking a bit different! Each time they went in towards the try line, everyone was up and cheering, getting excited, the atmosphere at the game was just incredible.
There was still about 15 minutes to go, so we couldn't be too excited with a 6 point lead. The Dragons gave away numerous penalties, which resulted in three penalty goals to the Raiders. Final score 24-12. It games like that which make you want to brave Canberra's cold night time conditions to sit outside and yell stupid things and people who can't hear you. This game was even better than watching them beat Penrith last year 74-12 (it snowed before that game).
Oh yeah, I have to pick up my $28 ($18 profit) at some stage. It was great everyone time a Dragons fan checked out of the hostel this morning. "Great game last night" *EVIL GLARE* "Great game" *More glare*
So anyway, I actually played some footbag this weekend. Played with Caroline by the lake on Friday. We played just as it was going on sunset, but this definitely paled in comparison to kicking by the lakeside in Vevey (Switzerland), then swimming out into the lake as the sun set. You can't swim in Lake Burley Griffin, and up until recently you have not even been allowed to row or kayak there because of a blue green algae problem. It's also winter and freezing cold, not that good for swimming.
The next day Copey picked me up after I finished work, we went out to a party that Caroline was at. We kicked there and all this people were like "wow". I was keener to shred properly, but we mainly stuck to some circle kicking stuff with a few tricks added in. My highlight of this was probably doing a long range pincher from the guy kicking it to me from maybe 5 metres away.
I have been playing the last couple of sessions in the planetfootbag shorts I got from worlds, they look sick, but I really resent the fact that they do not have any pockets at all. They are also a bit too flappy at the side, sometimes the bag will just go straight up the side of your shorts. And I would say they are little too much in length. But anyway, they look awesome, and have a picture of a footbag on them, so that's pretty sweet.
I plan on playing a bit more this week. I hadn't really played since I got back from Worlds as I got myself into a bit of pain in most joints in my body, but that all seems to have healed. I'm going to play indoor soccer tonight with my friends. I haven't played in ages, maybe not at all this season, but it can be fun when we're not totally rubbish, so hopefully we go ok today.
In other big news that no one will probably read because this post is so long and full of garbage, I bought a plane ticket to London for May next year. It cost me $500 (Australian), which is a lot less than what plane tickets normally cost. It was a special deal with Air Asia. Caroline flew with them this year on her way to Worlds, and she's still alive, so that's a good sign. I currently have absolutely no plan of what I will do, probably just get a Eurail pass valid for a couple of months, and travel all over the place. I got such good value out of my pass this time around...it cost the equivalent of 300 euros, I probably traveled over 1500 euros worth on my 8 day pass. I guess I should make use of this opportunity again while I am still classed as a "youth (under 26)", which will run out just over one year from now. Anyway, you can get cheap flights from London to anywhere, so I will be pretty set I imagine.
A few days before I put $10 on the Raiders to win at $2.80. Everyone I told laughed at me and told me I was dreaming. When the match started, I could tell they had this extra passion and determination that I hadn't seen this year. For every tackle the players charged in, stopped the Dragons from offloading, and most sets the dragons couldn't even get past halfway.
20 mins in was the first of one of three punch-ups, which are becoming quite a rarity these days. The crowd was close to 20,000 in a stadium that has a capacity of 25,000, and as the Canberra public are generally pretty fickle, the crowds have been a lot lower in the last few years, but this was a great turnout.
At half time the Dragons were only up 6-0. For some reason, the dragons had a penalty not too far out from the Raiders line, and the star player for the Raiders had been put in the Sin Bin for 10 minutes for too much backchat to the ref, but instead of aiming for a try, they just kicked a goal. I guess all their players were worn out from getting smashed up (one guy who used to play for the Raiders was knocked unconscious just after the first fight.)
After half time, the Dragons scored a try against the run of play, it was 12-0, and things were not looking good. Except that the Raiders scored 3 tries within 10 minutes, and then things were looking a bit different! Each time they went in towards the try line, everyone was up and cheering, getting excited, the atmosphere at the game was just incredible.
There was still about 15 minutes to go, so we couldn't be too excited with a 6 point lead. The Dragons gave away numerous penalties, which resulted in three penalty goals to the Raiders. Final score 24-12. It games like that which make you want to brave Canberra's cold night time conditions to sit outside and yell stupid things and people who can't hear you. This game was even better than watching them beat Penrith last year 74-12 (it snowed before that game).
Oh yeah, I have to pick up my $28 ($18 profit) at some stage. It was great everyone time a Dragons fan checked out of the hostel this morning. "Great game last night" *EVIL GLARE* "Great game" *More glare*
So anyway, I actually played some footbag this weekend. Played with Caroline by the lake on Friday. We played just as it was going on sunset, but this definitely paled in comparison to kicking by the lakeside in Vevey (Switzerland), then swimming out into the lake as the sun set. You can't swim in Lake Burley Griffin, and up until recently you have not even been allowed to row or kayak there because of a blue green algae problem. It's also winter and freezing cold, not that good for swimming.
The next day Copey picked me up after I finished work, we went out to a party that Caroline was at. We kicked there and all this people were like "wow". I was keener to shred properly, but we mainly stuck to some circle kicking stuff with a few tricks added in. My highlight of this was probably doing a long range pincher from the guy kicking it to me from maybe 5 metres away.
I have been playing the last couple of sessions in the planetfootbag shorts I got from worlds, they look sick, but I really resent the fact that they do not have any pockets at all. They are also a bit too flappy at the side, sometimes the bag will just go straight up the side of your shorts. And I would say they are little too much in length. But anyway, they look awesome, and have a picture of a footbag on them, so that's pretty sweet.
I plan on playing a bit more this week. I hadn't really played since I got back from Worlds as I got myself into a bit of pain in most joints in my body, but that all seems to have healed. I'm going to play indoor soccer tonight with my friends. I haven't played in ages, maybe not at all this season, but it can be fun when we're not totally rubbish, so hopefully we go ok today.
In other big news that no one will probably read because this post is so long and full of garbage, I bought a plane ticket to London for May next year. It cost me $500 (Australian), which is a lot less than what plane tickets normally cost. It was a special deal with Air Asia. Caroline flew with them this year on her way to Worlds, and she's still alive, so that's a good sign. I currently have absolutely no plan of what I will do, probably just get a Eurail pass valid for a couple of months, and travel all over the place. I got such good value out of my pass this time around...it cost the equivalent of 300 euros, I probably traveled over 1500 euros worth on my 8 day pass. I guess I should make use of this opportunity again while I am still classed as a "youth (under 26)", which will run out just over one year from now. Anyway, you can get cheap flights from London to anywhere, so I will be pretty set I imagine.
I love your logic re; Air Asia.
Anyway just wanted to say that if you want to come to Tassie for a greater explore than Hobart sometime, so long as it's not during uni times I'd be up for that. I haven't done the overland before (although I've done lots of parts) and there are also lots of other cool places to check out. I'm especially keen to do the West Coast stuff, although definitely around summer since it's notoriously wet, and if I'm walking in the rain I at least want it to be moderately warm. It looks like we're coming back into a serious El Nino cycle anyway, so a return to droughts, which isn't all bad
I have a short list of places in Australia I really want to visit, hopefully before I finish my phd (which is a pretty long way away, given I'm still in my first year of my bachelors) and after that I'm leaving Australia for a decade or so. Well that's the current plan, based on the assumption that the world will stay the same as it is now, my interests and goals won't change, and I won't fall in love with somebody who refuses to follow my plan
Anyway just wanted to say that if you want to come to Tassie for a greater explore than Hobart sometime, so long as it's not during uni times I'd be up for that. I haven't done the overland before (although I've done lots of parts) and there are also lots of other cool places to check out. I'm especially keen to do the West Coast stuff, although definitely around summer since it's notoriously wet, and if I'm walking in the rain I at least want it to be moderately warm. It looks like we're coming back into a serious El Nino cycle anyway, so a return to droughts, which isn't all bad
I have a short list of places in Australia I really want to visit, hopefully before I finish my phd (which is a pretty long way away, given I'm still in my first year of my bachelors
) and after that I'm leaving Australia for a decade or so. Well that's the current plan, based on the assumption that the world will stay the same as it is now, my interests and goals won't change, and I won't fall in love with somebody who refuses to follow my plan -
boyle
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it's definitely something I'd like to do. I think it's going to be a little while until I can build up some more annual leave, as I'm back to 0 now. I'm in the process of making a list of 100 things that I would like to do in Australia, I think I'm going to set a time frame of 5 years for it. I think at least 30% of it will be some different walks.
I'm going to start filming myself more often when I play. I guess I will put some up. When I look at how much footage Ken puts in his blog, just from a simple digicam, which I have, I am impressed. It's also good just for working on the various flaws in my technique, of which there are many.
Whilst I was in Europe, a lot of people commented that I play too aggressively, I attack the bag too much. Which is pretty much right. I like some parts of this style, but a lot of the time if I drop, I will try and go straight back into something, and drop again. I'm thinking if I try and focus on some more easy flowing, stylish tricks (zooming, xbd rakes, etc) and mix them into my game, that might come up with something more of a good mix.
I just watched my routine from worlds, then watched my routine from nationals. They both had about the same amount of drops, but I'm a lot more pleased with my nationals routine, and just plain disappointed with the routine from worlds. The drops in that were critical errors on main tricks, then would be followed by numerous kicks before I found my way again and got back on track, only to be followed by another drop.
The drops in my nationals routine didn't effect the flow of the routine so much. I suppose I was in significant pain for my worlds routine (left knee, right ankle) so it made some of the tricks quite difficult...however, some of the drops were just ridiculous. The video I have only begins 15 seconds in, so it's not complete, so I'm not going to post it up (also because it sucks and I hate it). Next worlds I will do a better one
. I was really happy with my shred 30 though..that was on after the routines...when I was practicing I couldn't even hit the first link I had planned (dimwalk>pdx mirage- hard combo I know), however, once I got up I think I hit 15 of my planned contacts straight away and ended up with a score I was pleased with, although 123 is definitely something I could improve on. I think 150 will be the next goal.
Oh yeah, the indoor soccer match I Played last night was a 5-5 draw. I scored 3 goals. I guess maybe I had some leftover aggression from the Raiders match, but this guy kept clapping to put me off every time I went for a shot at goal. I decided this was "not in the spirit of the game", so the next time he did I just kept running at him and shoulder charged him and knocked him to the ground. Then he was the one who got a talking to from the ref!
I think I will go play some footbag now. I don't have to work until 3pm, which is a pleasant change from 7am starts on the weekend. My "weekend" from the hostel is tomorrow and the next day, but I am doing tours all day tomorrow, but have a day off the next day, which should be nice.
I'm going to start filming myself more often when I play. I guess I will put some up. When I look at how much footage Ken puts in his blog, just from a simple digicam, which I have, I am impressed. It's also good just for working on the various flaws in my technique, of which there are many.
Whilst I was in Europe, a lot of people commented that I play too aggressively, I attack the bag too much. Which is pretty much right. I like some parts of this style, but a lot of the time if I drop, I will try and go straight back into something, and drop again. I'm thinking if I try and focus on some more easy flowing, stylish tricks (zooming, xbd rakes, etc) and mix them into my game, that might come up with something more of a good mix.
I just watched my routine from worlds, then watched my routine from nationals. They both had about the same amount of drops, but I'm a lot more pleased with my nationals routine, and just plain disappointed with the routine from worlds. The drops in that were critical errors on main tricks, then would be followed by numerous kicks before I found my way again and got back on track, only to be followed by another drop.
The drops in my nationals routine didn't effect the flow of the routine so much. I suppose I was in significant pain for my worlds routine (left knee, right ankle) so it made some of the tricks quite difficult...however, some of the drops were just ridiculous. The video I have only begins 15 seconds in, so it's not complete, so I'm not going to post it up (also because it sucks and I hate it). Next worlds I will do a better one
. I was really happy with my shred 30 though..that was on after the routines...when I was practicing I couldn't even hit the first link I had planned (dimwalk>pdx mirage- hard combo I know), however, once I got up I think I hit 15 of my planned contacts straight away and ended up with a score I was pleased with, although 123 is definitely something I could improve on. I think 150 will be the next goal.Oh yeah, the indoor soccer match I Played last night was a 5-5 draw. I scored 3 goals. I guess maybe I had some leftover aggression from the Raiders match, but this guy kept clapping to put me off every time I went for a shot at goal. I decided this was "not in the spirit of the game", so the next time he did I just kept running at him and shoulder charged him and knocked him to the ground. Then he was the one who got a talking to from the ref!
I think I will go play some footbag now. I don't have to work until 3pm, which is a pleasant change from 7am starts on the weekend. My "weekend" from the hostel is tomorrow and the next day, but I am doing tours all day tomorrow, but have a day off the next day, which should be nice.
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boyle
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Have been meeting a lot of people from around the world lately. Of course, this comes as part of the package when you work in a backpackers, but I've been meeting people properly and hanging out with them, which is always a lot of fun.
I met a guy during the week from Quebec, who played "aki". He had some quite good hack moves, he'd to stuff like a pendulum, up on to the back, then spin around and do a kick. He could do around the world and a few other "normal" freestyle kicks as well.
Last night turned out to be quite a wild one. After work, we all went to the pub, joined by a Canadian John, who had just checked in, so we invited him too. He had been sleeping with some girl who threw him out because she met some ex that "she still had feelings for or whatever". So at 4:15pm or so, we did shots (as you do). The bar is directly below work, so they give us some good deals, with the shots, they brought us enough for 2 or 3 shots apiece. Then we had 2 pizzas, at no charge. Bargain.
After that we won the meat tray. To do this, EJ asked for a ticket, and they gave him the tray. What a victory. So we had a BBQ up on the rooftop. After our BBQ, everyone went there own way, but a guy- Michael from Germany was keen to play foosball, so I challenged him. This was not much of a challenge, as in our two matches I scored 3 goals. I was heading to my friend's place, and he had just bought a cheap bottle of port ($5 from Aldi), so I invited him along. Then we got incredibly drunk and went to various bars and I was denied entry to the casino. Thankfully I had swapped my shift from a morning start to an afternoon, which I am about to finish.
I met a guy during the week from Quebec, who played "aki". He had some quite good hack moves, he'd to stuff like a pendulum, up on to the back, then spin around and do a kick. He could do around the world and a few other "normal" freestyle kicks as well.
Last night turned out to be quite a wild one. After work, we all went to the pub, joined by a Canadian John, who had just checked in, so we invited him too. He had been sleeping with some girl who threw him out because she met some ex that "she still had feelings for or whatever". So at 4:15pm or so, we did shots (as you do). The bar is directly below work, so they give us some good deals, with the shots, they brought us enough for 2 or 3 shots apiece. Then we had 2 pizzas, at no charge. Bargain.
After that we won the meat tray. To do this, EJ asked for a ticket, and they gave him the tray. What a victory. So we had a BBQ up on the rooftop. After our BBQ, everyone went there own way, but a guy- Michael from Germany was keen to play foosball, so I challenged him. This was not much of a challenge, as in our two matches I scored 3 goals. I was heading to my friend's place, and he had just bought a cheap bottle of port ($5 from Aldi), so I invited him along. Then we got incredibly drunk and went to various bars and I was denied entry to the casino. Thankfully I had swapped my shift from a morning start to an afternoon, which I am about to finish.
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boyle
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So Therese who I was working with tonight has had this Canadian visitor and she's been going on how he's so infatuated with her and she's not really interested.
I'm sitting at reception, and I come out and a guy is like "I've met you before". "oh really". "Yeah, you know Andrew Grant. We met at the Scubar". My first thought was that I hope he wasn't the guy who I threw a glass in his face. It seems it wasn't as my face is still in the same place it was at the beginning of the shift. This was the guy who had to step up to the plate at the surf camp when Andrew bailed to come to Nationals. So he has also done a favour to the Australian footbag community!
Anyhow, he met Therese in Byron Bay when she was there. Small world really. We discussed the desperation of Andrew's situation, trying to find waves in Manitoba. I hope he finds some. I will surf them next year. He was killing time waiting for the bus, I was going on my break so we played some hack. Andrew gave him a bag that he won from nationals, but he obviously hadn't been practicing
. Where we played was kind of dark, so we struggled to even get a few kicks together.
Another person who I met that weekend was Lauren from Scotland. She is coming back out to Australia for about a year. When she comes where going to travel to either Perth or Darwin or maybe both. There are some pretty cheap flights going at the moment. I just put in for some leave in November, so that should be pretty fun too.
I had a good kick with Caroline today. She was in an ultra positive mood, she seemed to have a whole new mindset, not just about footbag, but about a lot of things in general, and she was starting to work on some new tricks as well.
I played well at the start, badly in the middle and reasonably at the end. Here is a run that I did, begins with toe rev swirl (no plant)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFnBGnL4Ws[/youtube]
I'm sitting at reception, and I come out and a guy is like "I've met you before". "oh really". "Yeah, you know Andrew Grant. We met at the Scubar". My first thought was that I hope he wasn't the guy who I threw a glass in his face. It seems it wasn't as my face is still in the same place it was at the beginning of the shift. This was the guy who had to step up to the plate at the surf camp when Andrew bailed to come to Nationals. So he has also done a favour to the Australian footbag community!
Anyhow, he met Therese in Byron Bay when she was there. Small world really. We discussed the desperation of Andrew's situation, trying to find waves in Manitoba. I hope he finds some. I will surf them next year. He was killing time waiting for the bus, I was going on my break so we played some hack. Andrew gave him a bag that he won from nationals, but he obviously hadn't been practicing
. Where we played was kind of dark, so we struggled to even get a few kicks together.Another person who I met that weekend was Lauren from Scotland. She is coming back out to Australia for about a year. When she comes where going to travel to either Perth or Darwin or maybe both. There are some pretty cheap flights going at the moment. I just put in for some leave in November, so that should be pretty fun too.
I had a good kick with Caroline today. She was in an ultra positive mood, she seemed to have a whole new mindset, not just about footbag, but about a lot of things in general, and she was starting to work on some new tricks as well.
I played well at the start, badly in the middle and reasonably at the end. Here is a run that I did, begins with toe rev swirl (no plant)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzFnBGnL4Ws[/youtube]
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boyle
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Had a good session tonight. Copey sent me a message asking if I wanted to kick on the weekend. The weekend is a long time away, so I said let's kick tonight. We had a kick in the carpark of his new place that he is the proud owner of. Caroline came along too, so we had our whole Canberra scene there. Here in Canberra is really not hard to get the whole gang together. However, this was the first proper kick Cope has had since nationals, which were a good four months ago.
The lighting was pretty good, but maybe not the best, but I had a lot of fun playing. I am really enjoying my footbag at the moment, which is a really good sign, I think. The weather is also improving considerably as we get closer to spring, which is another enticing factor.
Today I hit
ss barrage (first time)
reaper>ss torque
revup> rev swirl
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ9jmJH7kqE[/youtube]
The quality of this video is not very high, the light was not good for video, but I want to have a video of most sessions I play in.
I think tomorrow I might have a footbag rest day. Today I also rode about 20km on my bike, and I have challenged Michael from work to a squash match, so I probably won't even have time for shred.
The lighting was pretty good, but maybe not the best, but I had a lot of fun playing. I am really enjoying my footbag at the moment, which is a really good sign, I think. The weather is also improving considerably as we get closer to spring, which is another enticing factor.
Today I hit
ss barrage (first time)
reaper>ss torque
revup> rev swirl
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ9jmJH7kqE[/youtube]
The quality of this video is not very high, the light was not good for video, but I want to have a video of most sessions I play in.
I think tomorrow I might have a footbag rest day. Today I also rode about 20km on my bike, and I have challenged Michael from work to a squash match, so I probably won't even have time for shred.
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hacksterbator
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Ha, you met Tommy Drop-In! That guy used to drop in on me all the time! Love him like a brother though!!! I Think it's funny that Trees says he's the infatuated one, because i though she was clinger in the relationship. For the last few months Tommy's FB page has been covered with her messages that often say "Miss Me yet? I miss you, XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX!!! Can't wait to see you!" and similar such posts. Interesting when you get the opportunity to see the other side. Tommy does genuinely like her though.boyle wrote:So Therese who I was working with tonight has had this Canadian visitor and she's been going on how he's so infatuated with her and she's not really interested.
I also resent you saying i "bailed to go to nationals" when it was YOU who weaseled my ass out of work.
and in BIG NEWS i had my first surf in canada. as it turns out i live 2 hours from one of the world's premier river surfing waves. It's hard to get to which mean's it's never got heaps of people on it, but it also means you need a boat to get to it, extra expenses. It's like doing tow surfing all the time. It's totally body board friendly, but i don't think it would be as exciting, as it's not gonna be barreling and i doubt you could do any airs off the lip. Any way, you get your self here and we'll rip it up!
A.G.
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boyle
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The prospect of this Manitoba super river wave has me quite excited.
It was definitely me doing the weasling, i think i did a great job of it! However, you should have just been bailing in the first place
Probably went a bit overboard on the partying this week. We had a massive party on Wednesday night for to celebrate 100 years of hostelling. I was the sucker who had to work reception while the party was on. I well and truly caught up to the rest, then overtook them once I finished my shift.
Thursday night I saw a bunch of bands, then Friday night we all returned to the hostel for another massive party, this one with free beer. Even though they had my favourite item, I didn't really enjoy it. They were playing games like "I never", and I wasn't really in the mood for that rubbish, so I didn't have so much fun.
Had a kick with Copey today once I finished work. It was super cold out, the weather has been decent the last week or so, hard to remember it's still winter, but this was a bitter reminder. Didn't hit anything too much of note, but it was good to have a kick.
It was definitely me doing the weasling, i think i did a great job of it! However, you should have just been bailing in the first place
Probably went a bit overboard on the partying this week. We had a massive party on Wednesday night for to celebrate 100 years of hostelling. I was the sucker who had to work reception while the party was on. I well and truly caught up to the rest, then overtook them once I finished my shift.
Thursday night I saw a bunch of bands, then Friday night we all returned to the hostel for another massive party, this one with free beer. Even though they had my favourite item, I didn't really enjoy it. They were playing games like "I never", and I wasn't really in the mood for that rubbish, so I didn't have so much fun.
Had a kick with Copey today once I finished work. It was super cold out, the weather has been decent the last week or so, hard to remember it's still winter, but this was a bitter reminder. Didn't hit anything too much of note, but it was good to have a kick.
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boyle
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I was just taking a look at the request combos from worlds, and this is where I got up to.
Round 1
Toe link: far legover to near mirage
or
Clipper link: far butterfly to far osis
Round 2
Toe link: illusion to dlo
or
Clipper link: ducking clipper to whirl
Round 3
Toe link: pixie near mirage to pixie near mirage
or
Clipper link: ripwalk to ripwalk
Round 4
Toe link: blur to paradon
or
Clipper link: drifter to gyro mirage
Round 5
Toe link: double around the world (in-out) to ducking mirage
or
Clipper link: fairy butterfly to reverse whirl
Round 6
Toe link: atom smasher to eggbeater
or
Clipper link: torque to paradox whirl
Round 7
Toe link: double switchover to pixie illusion (this is the one I dropped on)
or
Clipper link: dyno to symposium whirl
Looking around my circle was quite intimidating. In the beginning there were something like 20-25 people in 3 circles. Next to me was Jacob Wagner, just down the road was Anssi, Jay Boychuk a little further along, Nick Landes on the opposite side. It was a bit of an eye opener, and I was pretty pleased with how I progressed. It may have been less than half of the combos available, but at least I didn't drop out on the first go (although I did actually get confused in my first attempt and hit a normal osis instead of far osis. I am also not half as good as any of the players mentioned in my previous list.
I was glad we have done the request at a couple of Australian comps, though not many. I think this year I dropped on something like pdx whirl>barfly and the previous time was torque>blender. So having that build up was a good experience, rather than being thrown straight in the deep end.
It's not however, a competition I really like doing. I think there's generally too long a wait in between doing each trick, and it's not that exciting to watch once you get knocked out, until it's just one on one, and that's pretty awesome to see.
Round 1
Toe link: far legover to near mirage
or
Clipper link: far butterfly to far osis
Round 2
Toe link: illusion to dlo
or
Clipper link: ducking clipper to whirl
Round 3
Toe link: pixie near mirage to pixie near mirage
or
Clipper link: ripwalk to ripwalk
Round 4
Toe link: blur to paradon
or
Clipper link: drifter to gyro mirage
Round 5
Toe link: double around the world (in-out) to ducking mirage
or
Clipper link: fairy butterfly to reverse whirl
Round 6
Toe link: atom smasher to eggbeater
or
Clipper link: torque to paradox whirl
Round 7
Toe link: double switchover to pixie illusion (this is the one I dropped on)
or
Clipper link: dyno to symposium whirl
Looking around my circle was quite intimidating. In the beginning there were something like 20-25 people in 3 circles. Next to me was Jacob Wagner, just down the road was Anssi, Jay Boychuk a little further along, Nick Landes on the opposite side. It was a bit of an eye opener, and I was pretty pleased with how I progressed. It may have been less than half of the combos available, but at least I didn't drop out on the first go (although I did actually get confused in my first attempt and hit a normal osis instead of far osis. I am also not half as good as any of the players mentioned in my previous list.
I was glad we have done the request at a couple of Australian comps, though not many. I think this year I dropped on something like pdx whirl>barfly and the previous time was torque>blender. So having that build up was a good experience, rather than being thrown straight in the deep end.
It's not however, a competition I really like doing. I think there's generally too long a wait in between doing each trick, and it's not that exciting to watch once you get knocked out, until it's just one on one, and that's pretty awesome to see.
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boyle
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Today is my birthday. I planned to celebrate by drinking a beer at 09:09:09 on 09/09/09, but I decided to do something a little more productive and have a kick.
I am currently in Sydney for this week and next week. Should be having a few kicks with the other Sydney fellows in the next couple of days. I went to Brisbane last weekend, it was nice and warm. I went to watch the Canberra Raiders play their last game of the season. After holding an 18% away win record for the season, it was no surprise that they lost. It was a fun weekend though, I got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in quite some time.
In Sydney I've done a swap, and I'm working at the Railway Square hostel, it has such a great vibe. I'm staying at Central, which definitely does not have this fun, relaxed vibe. Everyone I've worked with so far has been really laid back.
After my time in Sydney, I'm going to spend a few days down the coast with my Dad, then it's back to Canberra. I think I will probably move to Sydney for a little while at some stage next year.
I am currently in Sydney for this week and next week. Should be having a few kicks with the other Sydney fellows in the next couple of days. I went to Brisbane last weekend, it was nice and warm. I went to watch the Canberra Raiders play their last game of the season. After holding an 18% away win record for the season, it was no surprise that they lost. It was a fun weekend though, I got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in quite some time.
In Sydney I've done a swap, and I'm working at the Railway Square hostel, it has such a great vibe. I'm staying at Central, which definitely does not have this fun, relaxed vibe. Everyone I've worked with so far has been really laid back.
After my time in Sydney, I'm going to spend a few days down the coast with my Dad, then it's back to Canberra. I think I will probably move to Sydney for a little while at some stage next year.
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boyle
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It's been a little while since I last wrote in here. 2 weeks exactly it turns out.
So the last couple of weeks I have basically had a nice holiday. I did do some work, but not really all that much. I finished my two weeks in Sydney with a 4 day long weekend, which was amazing.
I got a new bodyboard from my Dad for my birthday, it was pretty sweet. The surf was not huge, but we got some fun waves on Saturday and Sunday. There was no surf the last couple of days, so we played unfathomable amounts of table tennis, and I also went for a 30km bike ride.
When I was in Sydney I just got to have the one kick with Ian. It was a while ago now, so I can't really remember what I hit. Sydney is a big place, it makes it a bit difficult to catch up with anyone, especially if you're only available particular hours.
On the last day I was in Sydney I got to go on a personal private tour of the new hostel they are building, it's looking pretty awesome. What's also awesome is that it's looking likely as part of our venue for day 2 of the nationals next year.
This is the view from the top
A couple of nights before this I managed to get into an altercation with a security guard. Haha. I have been running my mouth for so long, it was due to come, but I'm reasonably sure that this time, it was fairly unjustified. Basically I got told to leave when I was just standing there, then I had a bit to say about this- the guard didn't like it so he started dragging me away. I wasn't particularly pleased by this so I gave him a bit of a push. I guess it escalated from there. Woops. So now I have a black eye. I am hoping that in the Sydney hostels I have a reputation as some wild guy- I think "The Bega Brawler" would be an adequate nickname.
It's times like this I'm glad Footbag doesn't have the high profile other sports have. The amount of times I would've been dragged before the "commission" or other body for "bringing the game into disrepute" would be quite incredible. Instead, I'm just some guy who kicks a little ball around. I think I definitely prefer the anonymity.
My friend that works at Central draws the chalkboards there- they are always pretty awesome.
Bendigo jam is the weekend after next. That should be quite a good time. I'm really looking forward to hangouts and shred.
So the last couple of weeks I have basically had a nice holiday. I did do some work, but not really all that much. I finished my two weeks in Sydney with a 4 day long weekend, which was amazing.
I got a new bodyboard from my Dad for my birthday, it was pretty sweet. The surf was not huge, but we got some fun waves on Saturday and Sunday. There was no surf the last couple of days, so we played unfathomable amounts of table tennis, and I also went for a 30km bike ride.
When I was in Sydney I just got to have the one kick with Ian. It was a while ago now, so I can't really remember what I hit. Sydney is a big place, it makes it a bit difficult to catch up with anyone, especially if you're only available particular hours.
On the last day I was in Sydney I got to go on a personal private tour of the new hostel they are building, it's looking pretty awesome. What's also awesome is that it's looking likely as part of our venue for day 2 of the nationals next year.
This is the view from the top
A couple of nights before this I managed to get into an altercation with a security guard. Haha. I have been running my mouth for so long, it was due to come, but I'm reasonably sure that this time, it was fairly unjustified. Basically I got told to leave when I was just standing there, then I had a bit to say about this- the guard didn't like it so he started dragging me away. I wasn't particularly pleased by this so I gave him a bit of a push. I guess it escalated from there. Woops. So now I have a black eye. I am hoping that in the Sydney hostels I have a reputation as some wild guy- I think "The Bega Brawler" would be an adequate nickname.
It's times like this I'm glad Footbag doesn't have the high profile other sports have. The amount of times I would've been dragged before the "commission" or other body for "bringing the game into disrepute" would be quite incredible. Instead, I'm just some guy who kicks a little ball around. I think I definitely prefer the anonymity.
My friend that works at Central draws the chalkboards there- they are always pretty awesome.
Bendigo jam is the weekend after next. That should be quite a good time. I'm really looking forward to hangouts and shred.
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boyle
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I kicked today for the first time in a while. I kicked with Caroline, and I didn't kick very well. It was a bit disappointing, because when I was doing a tour, I was doing the little talk about footbag I do, and some kid is like "what's the hardest trick you can do?". And I was like "I guess it's this one"...and I hit food processor on the 2nd try.
The proper kick I only had really one good run, I just kept dropping all over the shop. I haven't played properly and that was quite noticable.
At the hostel in the last couple of days, I picked up on a couple of names I would have no idea of their nationality if I didn't play footbag. First someone came in and their name was something like owcrzk or something like that. I was like "you must be from Poland", which he was. The next day a Finnish guy came in, and I was like "that's a very Finnish name" and he looked at me kind of like this
Soon after my friend came in, she is Finnish and works in the Embassy, I impressed her with my knowledge of Finnish names! That was kind of a weird coincidence, because I really don't know many other Finnish people, and she popped into the hostel almost immediately.
I'm getting myself into a little bit more debt than I would like, so I'm just going to try and work work work for a little while (such as my 8:30am start/11pm finish that I've been rocking recently), get myself back into positive figures. I still have quite a lot to pay for my trip to Papua New Guinea next year. I think so far I have paid off 1100/5000 so far. I still have a long way to go! I'll get there though. It's still quite a long way until Feb, that's for sure.
The proper kick I only had really one good run, I just kept dropping all over the shop. I haven't played properly and that was quite noticable.
At the hostel in the last couple of days, I picked up on a couple of names I would have no idea of their nationality if I didn't play footbag. First someone came in and their name was something like owcrzk or something like that. I was like "you must be from Poland", which he was. The next day a Finnish guy came in, and I was like "that's a very Finnish name" and he looked at me kind of like this
Soon after my friend came in, she is Finnish and works in the Embassy, I impressed her with my knowledge of Finnish names! That was kind of a weird coincidence, because I really don't know many other Finnish people, and she popped into the hostel almost immediately. I'm getting myself into a little bit more debt than I would like, so I'm just going to try and work work work for a little while (such as my 8:30am start/11pm finish that I've been rocking recently), get myself back into positive figures. I still have quite a lot to pay for my trip to Papua New Guinea next year. I think so far I have paid off 1100/5000 so far. I still have a long way to go! I'll get there though. It's still quite a long way until Feb, that's for sure.
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hacksterbator
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feb is sooner than you think! Switch to cheaper beer mate, haha!
What is your deal with getting "unfairly" kicked out of places. Pretty much every time we got into the piss you wound up doing something outrageous (like throwing a glass in a guy's face, throwing empty bottles onto crowded dance floors, etc.) hate to say it bro, but your track record doesn't do you any favours, haha!
That looked like a nice little slabby peak! where's that at? except that dude's never gonna get in the barrel taking off on the shoulder like that.
What is your deal with getting "unfairly" kicked out of places. Pretty much every time we got into the piss you wound up doing something outrageous (like throwing a glass in a guy's face, throwing empty bottles onto crowded dance floors, etc.) hate to say it bro, but your track record doesn't do you any favours, haha!
That looked like a nice little slabby peak! where's that at? except that dude's never gonna get in the barrel taking off on the shoulder like that.
A.G.
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boyle
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That's "No Toes", home of the "Bawley Boys" that we watch that DVD with. I think we may have stopped there on our trip (ps check the photos on my facebook for evidence of kangaroos at the places we went to- they were EVERYWHERE this time around). That's me on the wave. The right is an easier take off, the left is a real fast wave. If you stuff up on the left, it's hard work getting stuck on the rocks.
The thing with this night was I was legit not doing anything, I was just standing there and the guys like "right, time to go pal". Anyhow, this was a long time coming and should have definitely happened to me sooner in my life! I wasn't seriously hurt, so that's good (and lucky). My black eye is pretty much gone now, which is a pleasing fact.
There are some freestyle soccer guys in town this week. We are going to have session with them. I'm quite looking forward to it. It'd be good to get to know those guys better, things for them are blowing up quite a bit.
Unfortunately today I am super hungover. I went to karaoke last night....we sung "Layla" by Eric Clapton and "Tomorrow" by silverchair. It was a pretty good night, but went late, then I was back at work for a 7am start. I would describe my current feeling as "rough as guts".
The thing with this night was I was legit not doing anything, I was just standing there and the guys like "right, time to go pal". Anyhow, this was a long time coming and should have definitely happened to me sooner in my life! I wasn't seriously hurt, so that's good (and lucky). My black eye is pretty much gone now, which is a pleasing fact.
There are some freestyle soccer guys in town this week. We are going to have session with them. I'm quite looking forward to it. It'd be good to get to know those guys better, things for them are blowing up quite a bit.
Unfortunately today I am super hungover. I went to karaoke last night....we sung "Layla" by Eric Clapton and "Tomorrow" by silverchair. It was a pretty good night, but went late, then I was back at work for a 7am start. I would describe my current feeling as "rough as guts".
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hacksterbator
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Aaah yes, the Bawley boys! hahaha! how could i forget! Yeah we went to bawley point just to have a look around and see if they were up to their shenannigans. alas, no roos, no waves, no shenannigans, i lost out big time.
That sucks that they were every where when you went. i'm pissed off now :s
That sucks that they were every where when you went. i'm pissed off now :s
A.G.
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boyle
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Coastalwatch predicts 5-6ft swells for Thursday. I called up my Dad the other day and I was all "hey, I've got a couple of days off, I'll come down and hang out" and he's like "we're coming to Canberra those days". So I'm going down the coast really for just one day. I get down tomorrow night, leave in the afternoon the next day.
I kicked quite a lot last week. On Monday I got in a kick with Copey, that has been a rare occasion over winter. Maybe now daylight savings has begun it might not be so rare....we shall see.
I kicked a few times with Caroline, and then on Wednesday we kicked with Kaine and Chris, two freestyle soccer guys. The day before Chris had been the first Australian to hit triple around the world. We had a cool session, we didn't really shred hard or anything, but just hung out, did some kicking and compared notes on how our different sports operate.
The basic ideas from the coversation are that they have a lot more opportunity for sponsorship etc due to their close links with soccer and the fact that Red Bull is already running a worldwide competion. However, competitive events have not been running so long, so that don't have such a structured format for competition, meaning it is easy to be changed to the wants of TV broadcasters blah blah blah. Anyhow...it was good to chat to those guys, hopefully we can get some things going together in the future.
Thursday night I get an email from Tiger Airways saying my flight to Melbourne has changed, to a much less suitable time for me (arrival 2am when Leon was due to pick me up at 11pm). I changed my flight to a later date, then went to Melbourne with Caroline, Ian and Kayleigh. We were headed for the inaugral Bendigo Jam hosted by Jamie.
All was going well up until we turned off the main highway and the car started making some strange sounds. Soon after the engine cut out completely. This was worrying, as we were approaching the small village of Violet Town. I mentioned that this town was famous for being the hometown of the band Killing Heidi. After this for the rest of the trip I couldn't get the song "Weir" out of my head.
The mechanic gave Ian an idea of what might be wrong with his car, but said he didn't have the part. We drove on towards the town of Murchison. All was running smoothly so we decided we should power on. Of course, shortly after we passed through the town , the car starting having troubles again. We pulled off to this side road, and a guy stopped behind us. This was a bit frightening. We drove on a little further as we thought we may have been blocking the way for the bloke to turn, but this wasn't the case, he followed us past the side road.
"Youse guys aren't from round here, are yas" he said, noting our intersate plates. "Nar, mate". He asked us if we were having some troubles and Ian said we were hoping to make it to Bendigo. He was all "err, I kinda work for a mechanic". So Ian let him under the bonnet, but then he said he couldn't really do anything because he didn't have any tools. He said "I know a mechanic in Rushworth, follow me there, I'll show you the way". We piled back in, and headed for Rushworth, with no idea where we were actually going. We followed old mate to Rushworth, a small village in the middle of nowhere, we stopped outside a servo which appeared to be closed. He told us to go in and ask for Pete, and sped away into the distance.
Pete wasn't there and the kid who was said they didn't have the part, and Pete wouldn't be coming back til after the weekend, so we hoped for the best and went on towards Bendigo. We got there without having any more trouble.
We met Jamie in the carpark of a KFC. I had been itching to kick after a long while, so in cold and windy conditions, me and Ian played some hack. First of all we were just kicking around, I did a pendulum>sole kick...that was quite a lot of fun. Soon after I did something like kick>kick>clip>ducking clipper>clipper>tomahawk....I think this caught everyone by surprise, as we were just hacking and wearing long shorts etc.
Jamie came by soon after, fortunately the hostel was only a block away so it didn't matter if we broke down. That night we cooked up a big spag bol with garlic bread, it was like a nice family meal, which went down well with some Squires Golden Ale. It was pretty cold out, so we stayed indoors and played board games. Headache and Upwords were the games of choice. I had the worst hands in Upwords, I spent most of the game without a single vowel, and ended up being unable to use the "Qu" tile. At one stage I even changed my letters, to still have no vowels. I was super tired after this, so I went to bed.
The next morning I got up, I was feeling a lot fresher than the day before. When I woke up on Friday I just felt completely exhausted, like I hadn't slept at all. Most of the others had arrived in the middle of the night, so it was good to see everyone, and once everyone was up and about we got a big bacon and egg breakfast going.
There was a German guy staying in the hostel, he was looking at the map, and he was asking for advice of where to go. He had a hire car and 5 days to get to Sydney. I suggested Bendigo>Bright (near the Victorian snowfields)> Lakes Entrance (nice Victorian coastal town)> Merimbula (NSW coastal town)> Canberra (the capital)> Blue Mountains>Sydney. A couple of days later I checked him into the hostel here, one day ahead of the schedule (he had skipped Lakes Entrance). That's a lot of driving, but a good chance to see a lot of the different parts of Australia.
Everybody was like
why would you come here etc...these types of travelers are the best kinds, the ones who are really just exploring, getting a good picture of all of a particular country. However, there's not a lot to do in Bendigo! As we drove in, everything seemed to be "this thing AND tourist complex"... "Olive Grove AND tourist complex" ... "Pottery wheel AND tourist complex". After a while I was just like oh look "service station AND tourist complex".
We checked into the hostel, it was a cosy affair, and old house with a few rooms that had been turned into a hostel. It used to be a YHA, but moved out of the network only a few days before, which meant I had to pay for a room...something I hadn't experienced in quite a while! I did still get a YHA discount, even though it isn't a YHA anymore, so at least that was something.
After breakfast I was super keen to kick, I started kicking in the front yard and Olly came and joined me. We had a nice little warm up kick. I also hit flurry in this time. I was feeling pretty good during this kick, but once we all started kicking in a park just down the road, it was a total different story. I couldn't hit anything, no strings, no light tiltless runs, no nothing. It was hopeless really.
After a while my knee started to hurt, the same pain I got midway through worlds, which I thought had totally gone away, but apparently that's not the case. I sat down, took my shoes off, I was done. I was in such a bad mood as well, I was not pleased. I sat there with a displeased look on my face for a while, but then gathered it was going to be a long while to sit in the cold, so I put my shoes back on, joined a circle and got going again. This time I started out taking it easy, hit a few decent tiltless runs, then started going for some other tricks. I hit locomotion, which was probably my highlight for the day, hit a nice run full of 4s which began with diving osis>ducking osis rpt. My last trick of the day was fairy rev swirl, a new trick for me. I felt much happier in general, and also with my footbag game.
From talking to everyone it seemed like they had all been hibernating for the winter. It struck me that the people in Canberra, the coldest place in the country, were the only ones still playing through the winter.
We had a nice BBQ for dinner, this was accompanied by a range of beers including Coopers Sparkling Ale and Fat Yak, as well as a couple of remaining Golden Ales. At one stage I was totally keen to go out, but these feeling faded as we watched videos I have seen a few times before (the videos from worlds), and I looked in my wallet and noticed its emptiness. Most people went out, but I stayed in with Kayleigh and Leon. Like all old people, we discussed the deterioration of The Bill from focusing on actual police work to these days where it's all about the love lives of the coppers. An episode of The Bill had been on earlier in the evening, which is what brought that up. We talked a while then went to bed.
In the morning I got up, daylight savings meant it was another hour ahead of what it would normally be. I packed my things pretty quickly and headed to Melbourne. I caught up with a couple of friends and we searched for somewhere to watch the grand final. Apart from the poor form of the Raiders in the last few years, the worst statistic is that I have been in Melbourne to watch 2 of the last 3 grand finals. You would think that because it regards itself as a "sporting capital" and Melbourne were into their 4th grand final in a row, there would be some sort of notice taken of the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. We ended up in some crappy bar inside a shopping centre to watch the game. When we arrived there were only like 2 other people in there, but as the game went on it filled up a little more.
Immediately after the game I went to the bus station and sat on a bus for 8 hours. I sat next to a very fat man who kept coughing without covering his mouth. This was not a fun bus ride. When I got home Teigan had latched the door shut, so I had to call her (4:30am) to come and let me in. I went to work a tour at 10am, it must have been one of my worst, then I came to work at the hostel in the afternoon, and I just felt like a zombie all day.
I have started going to the gym again. I just had my first session back today. I wasn't there for a whole lot of time, as I had to come to work, but I guess it was good to get back in there. I did 2km on the rowing machine, I guess that was my personal highlight for the day. I'm going to look into getting some personal training once I get into a more regular schedule.
I kicked quite a lot last week. On Monday I got in a kick with Copey, that has been a rare occasion over winter. Maybe now daylight savings has begun it might not be so rare....we shall see.
I kicked a few times with Caroline, and then on Wednesday we kicked with Kaine and Chris, two freestyle soccer guys. The day before Chris had been the first Australian to hit triple around the world. We had a cool session, we didn't really shred hard or anything, but just hung out, did some kicking and compared notes on how our different sports operate.
The basic ideas from the coversation are that they have a lot more opportunity for sponsorship etc due to their close links with soccer and the fact that Red Bull is already running a worldwide competion. However, competitive events have not been running so long, so that don't have such a structured format for competition, meaning it is easy to be changed to the wants of TV broadcasters blah blah blah. Anyhow...it was good to chat to those guys, hopefully we can get some things going together in the future.
Thursday night I get an email from Tiger Airways saying my flight to Melbourne has changed, to a much less suitable time for me (arrival 2am when Leon was due to pick me up at 11pm). I changed my flight to a later date, then went to Melbourne with Caroline, Ian and Kayleigh. We were headed for the inaugral Bendigo Jam hosted by Jamie.
All was going well up until we turned off the main highway and the car started making some strange sounds. Soon after the engine cut out completely. This was worrying, as we were approaching the small village of Violet Town. I mentioned that this town was famous for being the hometown of the band Killing Heidi. After this for the rest of the trip I couldn't get the song "Weir" out of my head.
The mechanic gave Ian an idea of what might be wrong with his car, but said he didn't have the part. We drove on towards the town of Murchison. All was running smoothly so we decided we should power on. Of course, shortly after we passed through the town , the car starting having troubles again. We pulled off to this side road, and a guy stopped behind us. This was a bit frightening. We drove on a little further as we thought we may have been blocking the way for the bloke to turn, but this wasn't the case, he followed us past the side road.
"Youse guys aren't from round here, are yas" he said, noting our intersate plates. "Nar, mate". He asked us if we were having some troubles and Ian said we were hoping to make it to Bendigo. He was all "err, I kinda work for a mechanic". So Ian let him under the bonnet, but then he said he couldn't really do anything because he didn't have any tools. He said "I know a mechanic in Rushworth, follow me there, I'll show you the way". We piled back in, and headed for Rushworth, with no idea where we were actually going. We followed old mate to Rushworth, a small village in the middle of nowhere, we stopped outside a servo which appeared to be closed. He told us to go in and ask for Pete, and sped away into the distance.
Pete wasn't there and the kid who was said they didn't have the part, and Pete wouldn't be coming back til after the weekend, so we hoped for the best and went on towards Bendigo. We got there without having any more trouble.
We met Jamie in the carpark of a KFC. I had been itching to kick after a long while, so in cold and windy conditions, me and Ian played some hack. First of all we were just kicking around, I did a pendulum>sole kick...that was quite a lot of fun. Soon after I did something like kick>kick>clip>ducking clipper>clipper>tomahawk....I think this caught everyone by surprise, as we were just hacking and wearing long shorts etc.
Jamie came by soon after, fortunately the hostel was only a block away so it didn't matter if we broke down. That night we cooked up a big spag bol with garlic bread, it was like a nice family meal, which went down well with some Squires Golden Ale. It was pretty cold out, so we stayed indoors and played board games. Headache and Upwords were the games of choice. I had the worst hands in Upwords, I spent most of the game without a single vowel, and ended up being unable to use the "Qu" tile. At one stage I even changed my letters, to still have no vowels. I was super tired after this, so I went to bed.
The next morning I got up, I was feeling a lot fresher than the day before. When I woke up on Friday I just felt completely exhausted, like I hadn't slept at all. Most of the others had arrived in the middle of the night, so it was good to see everyone, and once everyone was up and about we got a big bacon and egg breakfast going.
There was a German guy staying in the hostel, he was looking at the map, and he was asking for advice of where to go. He had a hire car and 5 days to get to Sydney. I suggested Bendigo>Bright (near the Victorian snowfields)> Lakes Entrance (nice Victorian coastal town)> Merimbula (NSW coastal town)> Canberra (the capital)> Blue Mountains>Sydney. A couple of days later I checked him into the hostel here, one day ahead of the schedule (he had skipped Lakes Entrance). That's a lot of driving, but a good chance to see a lot of the different parts of Australia.
Everybody was like
why would you come here etc...these types of travelers are the best kinds, the ones who are really just exploring, getting a good picture of all of a particular country. However, there's not a lot to do in Bendigo! As we drove in, everything seemed to be "this thing AND tourist complex"... "Olive Grove AND tourist complex" ... "Pottery wheel AND tourist complex". After a while I was just like oh look "service station AND tourist complex".We checked into the hostel, it was a cosy affair, and old house with a few rooms that had been turned into a hostel. It used to be a YHA, but moved out of the network only a few days before, which meant I had to pay for a room...something I hadn't experienced in quite a while! I did still get a YHA discount, even though it isn't a YHA anymore, so at least that was something.
After breakfast I was super keen to kick, I started kicking in the front yard and Olly came and joined me. We had a nice little warm up kick. I also hit flurry in this time. I was feeling pretty good during this kick, but once we all started kicking in a park just down the road, it was a total different story. I couldn't hit anything, no strings, no light tiltless runs, no nothing. It was hopeless really.
After a while my knee started to hurt, the same pain I got midway through worlds, which I thought had totally gone away, but apparently that's not the case. I sat down, took my shoes off, I was done. I was in such a bad mood as well, I was not pleased. I sat there with a displeased look on my face for a while, but then gathered it was going to be a long while to sit in the cold, so I put my shoes back on, joined a circle and got going again. This time I started out taking it easy, hit a few decent tiltless runs, then started going for some other tricks. I hit locomotion, which was probably my highlight for the day, hit a nice run full of 4s which began with diving osis>ducking osis rpt. My last trick of the day was fairy rev swirl, a new trick for me. I felt much happier in general, and also with my footbag game.
From talking to everyone it seemed like they had all been hibernating for the winter. It struck me that the people in Canberra, the coldest place in the country, were the only ones still playing through the winter.
We had a nice BBQ for dinner, this was accompanied by a range of beers including Coopers Sparkling Ale and Fat Yak, as well as a couple of remaining Golden Ales. At one stage I was totally keen to go out, but these feeling faded as we watched videos I have seen a few times before (the videos from worlds), and I looked in my wallet and noticed its emptiness. Most people went out, but I stayed in with Kayleigh and Leon. Like all old people, we discussed the deterioration of The Bill from focusing on actual police work to these days where it's all about the love lives of the coppers. An episode of The Bill had been on earlier in the evening, which is what brought that up. We talked a while then went to bed.
In the morning I got up, daylight savings meant it was another hour ahead of what it would normally be. I packed my things pretty quickly and headed to Melbourne. I caught up with a couple of friends and we searched for somewhere to watch the grand final. Apart from the poor form of the Raiders in the last few years, the worst statistic is that I have been in Melbourne to watch 2 of the last 3 grand finals. You would think that because it regards itself as a "sporting capital" and Melbourne were into their 4th grand final in a row, there would be some sort of notice taken of the game. Nothing could be further from the truth. We ended up in some crappy bar inside a shopping centre to watch the game. When we arrived there were only like 2 other people in there, but as the game went on it filled up a little more.
Immediately after the game I went to the bus station and sat on a bus for 8 hours. I sat next to a very fat man who kept coughing without covering his mouth. This was not a fun bus ride. When I got home Teigan had latched the door shut, so I had to call her (4:30am) to come and let me in. I went to work a tour at 10am, it must have been one of my worst, then I came to work at the hostel in the afternoon, and I just felt like a zombie all day.
I have started going to the gym again. I just had my first session back today. I wasn't there for a whole lot of time, as I had to come to work, but I guess it was good to get back in there. I did 2km on the rowing machine, I guess that was my personal highlight for the day. I'm going to look into getting some personal training once I get into a more regular schedule.