Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
-
boyle
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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So this is Christmas...
Merry Christmas, modifiends. This has been a great year, for myself personally, for my footbag game, and also for footbag in general I think.
Had a session yesterday, by the lagoon, lots of sweat, same old, same old. Was playing reasonably. I started off really poorly, it seemed to take a long time to find my rythm, find my groove. I got there eventually and hit a couple of new tricks: scrambled eggbeater and scrambled dlo. My final trick for the session was a bedwetter. I tried flip fog a couple of times...I think I should be able to get that in the next couple of weeks if I keep working on my flip dlo, which has seen a lot of improvement in the last few weeks.
So this is a basic overview of my year, mainly highlighting the footbag stuff.
Begun the year living in Canberra, was living in a sharehouse, at this stage I was sharing a large family home with just one other dude, one girl was yet to move in, the other was away on holidays.
Went up to Sydney on the first weekend of the year to meet Flavio. Had a fun session with Ian, Flavio and Ben Lynn. A few days later Flavio came to visit my place in Canberra. We had a quick kick with Caroline, and then with Copey, there Wikced camper broke down numerous times and we went to this huge paper party, played cricket in a field at 3am. Awesome party.
Narooma Jam was next on the schedule, awesome times. Good turnout, with an international flavour with Max, Benoite and Andrew Grant as well as the regular crew...Copey, Caroline, me, Jeremy, Ian, Kayleigh, Leon and Olly. Australia Day was awesome (BBQ, beer, Australia Rock). Andrew and I spent the next week wandering around the south coast, which was totally awesome. We watched a lot of tennis in that trip, as the Australian Open was entering the final stages.
In February I moved in with Kate again. I got fed up with living with a passive agressive 17 year old and she was sick of living with some other crazy bitch. We got a house within a day. I didn't really like it at first but I grew to quite enjoy it.
Footbag wise, Nationals was the next main event. The Sydney crew, especially Ian did a great job. Got to play on the big stage at the Easter show. I convinced some backpackers to come and watch us on the second day, and my Grandma and Grandpa came along to watch. My routine was ok, I dropped early on a far legover which put me off balance for the rest of the time. I also had a mean hangover, hopefully next year I will not repeat the same mistake.
My placing were generally 4th or 5th in all the events. In the shred battles, I kept losing matches I should have won, then winning matches I should have lost, it meant somehow I was playing off for the bronze with Andrew, after coming through about 9 rounds, as opposed to everybody else just playing about 3. Outside of the competitions, I barely played at all during nationals.
Kate and I broke up in May, just before her birthday. She ended up moving out to some other place, so I stayed in the house and found a new housemate.
In June I put on a small jam in Canberra. This was just when Teigan moved in, it all went reasonably. It was cold as ice and on the last day Leon's van broke down in one of Canberra's busiest intersections.
July it was off to experience the big wide world. Had a great shred in Sydney just before I left, Andrew flew back to Canada the day before I flew out so we gave him a farewell shred. Nice turnout, I played with an intense hangover, it was good training for worlds.
Flew from Sydney-Seoul, stayed a night in the Hyatt as part of my flight, flew to Frankfurt, stayed in the HI (foc), visited Heidelberg and Stuttgart before staying a few days with relatives in Karlstadt.
Headed down to Switzerland, met Flavio in Zurich. We stayed the night at Tina's place in Zurich, went to a vegetarian restaraunt. Had a session withe just the 3 of us in the afternoon. I was playing quite well that day, Tina gave me props for something.....felt good! The next day we met the rest of the Zurich crew, kicked again the headed to Luzern. Walked up Pilatus the next day.
Traveled via Interlaken, Bern and Freibourg to Vevey, in the French part of Switzerland. This was such an awesome day. Kicked on a rooftop by the river, swam in the river, then kicked again with the gang in Vevey, watched the sunset into the lake as we went for a post shred swim. We stayed at Laurent's house and went to the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
I spent the next few days making my way to Berlin via Zurich, walked from one side of Liechtenstein to the other (Buchs, CH to Feldkirch, AUT, about 12km). Couchsurfed in Innsbruck and Munich then got on the train to Berlin.
Walked from the hauptbahnhof to the Hostel X-berger (about 8km). Met some of the Polish crew on the way. Checked into my room...shared with 7 other top blokes- Olaf, Pawel, Matt, David, Alvaro, Tuuka, Phil and me. That was a great setup, I'm so glad I got in on that, mega props to Phil for organising that.
Played hard on the first day (rookie mistake). Jumped over a really high fence when I was drunk and hurt my knee (rookie mistake no 2). Had a great time at worlds, got to meet some really awesome people, especially Roy and the Austrian crew.
Went swimming in the badeschiff every day, drank beer every night and got to see a lot of bands. Propaghandi were incredible. I like to party fucking hard/I like my rock and roll the same. That is a matter of fact how I live my life.
Went to Prague for a couple of days got a lift with Petr, Tomas and Vasek. Caught the train to Vienna, stayed at Alex's for like a week. Hung out with Anita most days, and got lost after falling asleep on the nightbus. I had an incredible time in Vienna, definitely will visit again.
Flew back out from Frankfurt, back into Sydney. Don't think August brough much excitement, we had a lot of parties in the hostel. In September I worked a couple of weeks at Railway Square in Sydney. It was also my birthday, and I also got punched in the face by a security guard (that wouldn't be the last time that happened to me this year).
In October we headed down to Bendigo. Tiger Airways stuffed me over so I went in the car with Ian, Kayleigh and Caroline. After experiencing car troubles in Violet Town, we looked headed for a Wolf Creek moment when this guy started a conversation with "youse guys aren't from round here ay". Bendigo was fun but I didn't really get the full experience as I had to leave a day early to take the bus back and work.
November was when I met Francisca, my current girlfriend. She's coming up here this evening and that will be completely awesome. December I got this job as a manager at Airlie Beach for 6 weeks, so that's where I'm going to bring in the new year as well. Probably with a shred by the lagoon and lots of sweat...
That's been my year. It's been pretty incredible as a matter of fact. I've met sooooo many incredible people this year. Through working in a variety of hostels, travelling and through footbag. I feel lucky to have so many awesome friends right through the world.
Merry Christmas, modifiends. This has been a great year, for myself personally, for my footbag game, and also for footbag in general I think.
Had a session yesterday, by the lagoon, lots of sweat, same old, same old. Was playing reasonably. I started off really poorly, it seemed to take a long time to find my rythm, find my groove. I got there eventually and hit a couple of new tricks: scrambled eggbeater and scrambled dlo. My final trick for the session was a bedwetter. I tried flip fog a couple of times...I think I should be able to get that in the next couple of weeks if I keep working on my flip dlo, which has seen a lot of improvement in the last few weeks.
So this is a basic overview of my year, mainly highlighting the footbag stuff.
Begun the year living in Canberra, was living in a sharehouse, at this stage I was sharing a large family home with just one other dude, one girl was yet to move in, the other was away on holidays.
Went up to Sydney on the first weekend of the year to meet Flavio. Had a fun session with Ian, Flavio and Ben Lynn. A few days later Flavio came to visit my place in Canberra. We had a quick kick with Caroline, and then with Copey, there Wikced camper broke down numerous times and we went to this huge paper party, played cricket in a field at 3am. Awesome party.
Narooma Jam was next on the schedule, awesome times. Good turnout, with an international flavour with Max, Benoite and Andrew Grant as well as the regular crew...Copey, Caroline, me, Jeremy, Ian, Kayleigh, Leon and Olly. Australia Day was awesome (BBQ, beer, Australia Rock). Andrew and I spent the next week wandering around the south coast, which was totally awesome. We watched a lot of tennis in that trip, as the Australian Open was entering the final stages.
In February I moved in with Kate again. I got fed up with living with a passive agressive 17 year old and she was sick of living with some other crazy bitch. We got a house within a day. I didn't really like it at first but I grew to quite enjoy it.
Footbag wise, Nationals was the next main event. The Sydney crew, especially Ian did a great job. Got to play on the big stage at the Easter show. I convinced some backpackers to come and watch us on the second day, and my Grandma and Grandpa came along to watch. My routine was ok, I dropped early on a far legover which put me off balance for the rest of the time. I also had a mean hangover, hopefully next year I will not repeat the same mistake.
My placing were generally 4th or 5th in all the events. In the shred battles, I kept losing matches I should have won, then winning matches I should have lost, it meant somehow I was playing off for the bronze with Andrew, after coming through about 9 rounds, as opposed to everybody else just playing about 3. Outside of the competitions, I barely played at all during nationals.
Kate and I broke up in May, just before her birthday. She ended up moving out to some other place, so I stayed in the house and found a new housemate.
In June I put on a small jam in Canberra. This was just when Teigan moved in, it all went reasonably. It was cold as ice and on the last day Leon's van broke down in one of Canberra's busiest intersections.
July it was off to experience the big wide world. Had a great shred in Sydney just before I left, Andrew flew back to Canada the day before I flew out so we gave him a farewell shred. Nice turnout, I played with an intense hangover, it was good training for worlds.
Flew from Sydney-Seoul, stayed a night in the Hyatt as part of my flight, flew to Frankfurt, stayed in the HI (foc), visited Heidelberg and Stuttgart before staying a few days with relatives in Karlstadt.
Headed down to Switzerland, met Flavio in Zurich. We stayed the night at Tina's place in Zurich, went to a vegetarian restaraunt. Had a session withe just the 3 of us in the afternoon. I was playing quite well that day, Tina gave me props for something.....felt good! The next day we met the rest of the Zurich crew, kicked again the headed to Luzern. Walked up Pilatus the next day.
Traveled via Interlaken, Bern and Freibourg to Vevey, in the French part of Switzerland. This was such an awesome day. Kicked on a rooftop by the river, swam in the river, then kicked again with the gang in Vevey, watched the sunset into the lake as we went for a post shred swim. We stayed at Laurent's house and went to the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
I spent the next few days making my way to Berlin via Zurich, walked from one side of Liechtenstein to the other (Buchs, CH to Feldkirch, AUT, about 12km). Couchsurfed in Innsbruck and Munich then got on the train to Berlin.
Walked from the hauptbahnhof to the Hostel X-berger (about 8km). Met some of the Polish crew on the way. Checked into my room...shared with 7 other top blokes- Olaf, Pawel, Matt, David, Alvaro, Tuuka, Phil and me. That was a great setup, I'm so glad I got in on that, mega props to Phil for organising that.
Played hard on the first day (rookie mistake). Jumped over a really high fence when I was drunk and hurt my knee (rookie mistake no 2). Had a great time at worlds, got to meet some really awesome people, especially Roy and the Austrian crew.
Went swimming in the badeschiff every day, drank beer every night and got to see a lot of bands. Propaghandi were incredible. I like to party fucking hard/I like my rock and roll the same. That is a matter of fact how I live my life.
Went to Prague for a couple of days got a lift with Petr, Tomas and Vasek. Caught the train to Vienna, stayed at Alex's for like a week. Hung out with Anita most days, and got lost after falling asleep on the nightbus. I had an incredible time in Vienna, definitely will visit again.
Flew back out from Frankfurt, back into Sydney. Don't think August brough much excitement, we had a lot of parties in the hostel. In September I worked a couple of weeks at Railway Square in Sydney. It was also my birthday, and I also got punched in the face by a security guard (that wouldn't be the last time that happened to me this year).
In October we headed down to Bendigo. Tiger Airways stuffed me over so I went in the car with Ian, Kayleigh and Caroline. After experiencing car troubles in Violet Town, we looked headed for a Wolf Creek moment when this guy started a conversation with "youse guys aren't from round here ay". Bendigo was fun but I didn't really get the full experience as I had to leave a day early to take the bus back and work.
November was when I met Francisca, my current girlfriend. She's coming up here this evening and that will be completely awesome. December I got this job as a manager at Airlie Beach for 6 weeks, so that's where I'm going to bring in the new year as well. Probably with a shred by the lagoon and lots of sweat...
That's been my year. It's been pretty incredible as a matter of fact. I've met sooooo many incredible people this year. Through working in a variety of hostels, travelling and through footbag. I feel lucky to have so many awesome friends right through the world.
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PoisonTaffy
- Egyptian Footgod
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- Location: Israel, center
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Yay I got a special mention! 
Great year write up! Do you keep a diary or do you have a phenomenal memory that's miraculously untouched by alcohol?
I hardly remember what I did last month so although a year write up is a great idea, I simply can't do it. If I did, though, it'd include "Had an amazing time at worlds, largely thanks to Daniel, who wasn't just an awesome person & player, but also responsible for me seeing some kick-ass shows. Worlds 09 would've been two digit percentage less memorable without him".
Great year write up! Do you keep a diary or do you have a phenomenal memory that's miraculously untouched by alcohol?
I hardly remember what I did last month so although a year write up is a great idea, I simply can't do it. If I did, though, it'd include "Had an amazing time at worlds, largely thanks to Daniel, who wasn't just an awesome person & player, but also responsible for me seeing some kick-ass shows. Worlds 09 would've been two digit percentage less memorable without him".
"Childhood is short, immaturity is forever"
Roy Klein
Roy Klein
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boyle
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Had a really good kick yesterday, hit a couple of new tricks including:
Alpine Blurry Whirl (!)
Spinning Ducking Whirl
Francisca took some photos, I will post a few up in the next couple of days, some of them look awesome with the lagoon in the background.
Unfortunately I'm feeling super sick at the moment. I'm catching a cold (you know, in the middle of summer) and it's not that fun.
Alpine Blurry Whirl (!)
Spinning Ducking Whirl
Francisca took some photos, I will post a few up in the next couple of days, some of them look awesome with the lagoon in the background.
Unfortunately I'm feeling super sick at the moment. I'm catching a cold (you know, in the middle of summer) and it's not that fun.
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PoisonTaffy
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: 23 Jun 2007 15:42
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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I had only my second kick for the year yesterday evening. That was probably also the second time I have worn shoes for the new decade. I have had my girlfriend staying up here the last couple of weeks, she left a couple of days ago, but that hasn't been putting me of kicking....we did quite a lot of travelling, so I just didn't have heaps of time, then when we came back I had to work a whole bunch, so I still didn't have any time.
This place has done a good job of tiring me out. All of the staff here do a whole lot of complaining, it drives me crazy. The next couple of days I'm going to spend giving the new boss some training, as we haven't done very much so far, as I took quite a few days off, then he's taken the last couple of days off. So now we begin. Tomorrow night we have to go to dinner with the boss from the head office, I guess that will be interesting.
So just one more week to go up here. That's going to be followed by a couple of nights in Brisbane (going to see Polar Bear Club one night, Jungle Fever the next- it's been so long since I've been to a show).
I have a flight at 5am to Canberra, then I'll probably just go straight down to Narooma. Have a few sweet days down there, head on and visit my parents, then either head directly to Sydney or stay in Bega a few days and get in some surf practice before flying over to PNG.
That's going to be a totally incredible trip.
Oh yeah, so my session last night, I played pretty rubbish, didn't hit any new tricks, it was actually quite dark when I got to my usual spot so I had trouble seeing the bag properly. I did hit an extensive run while a nearby couple were having a domestic...I guess that could be called a highlight?
This place has done a good job of tiring me out. All of the staff here do a whole lot of complaining, it drives me crazy. The next couple of days I'm going to spend giving the new boss some training, as we haven't done very much so far, as I took quite a few days off, then he's taken the last couple of days off. So now we begin. Tomorrow night we have to go to dinner with the boss from the head office, I guess that will be interesting.
So just one more week to go up here. That's going to be followed by a couple of nights in Brisbane (going to see Polar Bear Club one night, Jungle Fever the next- it's been so long since I've been to a show).
I have a flight at 5am to Canberra, then I'll probably just go straight down to Narooma. Have a few sweet days down there, head on and visit my parents, then either head directly to Sydney or stay in Bega a few days and get in some surf practice before flying over to PNG.
That's going to be a totally incredible trip.
Oh yeah, so my session last night, I played pretty rubbish, didn't hit any new tricks, it was actually quite dark when I got to my usual spot so I had trouble seeing the bag properly. I did hit an extensive run while a nearby couple were having a domestic...I guess that could be called a highlight?
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boyle
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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I was planning on playing this afternoon. Unfortunately when I finished work it was raining, and I don't really have an indoor location. I'm into my last days here in Airlie Beach. From tomorrow there are just 4 days left. I have Sunday off work, so I just have three work days remaing. That is pretty good news.
Today I had a shift of just working reception, no managment duties. It was a nice change. I sold more than $2000 of travel stuff (the average here is about $800 for a whole day). I pretty much totally kicked arse, I was pretty pleased with that.
So we have the Narooma Jam coming up in the next couple of weeks. This is something we started a few years back, 2010 will be the third in a series of what has been some pretty incredible times.
It is so laidback, we just go to the beach, drink beer, do some fishing, go to the beach again, etc. We don't play that much footbag, but we still play every day, and it's fun just hanging out with other footbag players.
In Australia our interests are really varied, however it's a very small scene and we've all known each other for so long, that I guess we just have a lot to talk about.
The first Narooma jam was a good time for me. I was just recovering from a pretty heavy period of depression, my time living in Melbourne was pretty rubbish overall and it was just after that. I had just had a really good time over new year's, then pretty much went direct to Narooma. My footbag game wasn't really crash hot at the time, but from the period after that up until Nationals 2008 I went through a really solid and fast improvement, and was really inspired playing footbag. Copey and Caroline moved to Canberra soon after, none of us even had a job in the beginning, so we just played every day.
Last year's event was just as good. I was in a much better position with my life, had a solid job, got to take some leave and travel around one of my favourite places with a new friend, who also happened to be a great footbag player.
I was playing reasonably well last year in Narooma, I hit some cool stuff, and I was always keen to play. Got to get a few surfs in as well, I borrowed Dad's car, and it was really awesome having the independence to just go anywhere, anytime. We also got to go out to Montague Island which was really sweet too.
This year I've rented out a house right in the centre of town. This should be awesome for anytime we make party in the evening, as it means not having to wait for a taxi or anything like that.
Hopefully this year we'll see a round of golf, a walk up Mt Dromedary, a return to the DBC for lawn bowls and beer and 4-5 rights off the point at Dalmeny.
The celebrations for Australia Day were a perfect way to finish off our jam last year, we'll probably do more of the same this year. I'm also really excited to go to a beach that has waves and is not inundated with box jellyfish. That's super exciting.
After the trip I have a few days in Sydney, then I'm heading to Papua New Guinea for the surf trip. Super exciting times ahead.
Today I had a shift of just working reception, no managment duties. It was a nice change. I sold more than $2000 of travel stuff (the average here is about $800 for a whole day). I pretty much totally kicked arse, I was pretty pleased with that.
So we have the Narooma Jam coming up in the next couple of weeks. This is something we started a few years back, 2010 will be the third in a series of what has been some pretty incredible times.
It is so laidback, we just go to the beach, drink beer, do some fishing, go to the beach again, etc. We don't play that much footbag, but we still play every day, and it's fun just hanging out with other footbag players.
In Australia our interests are really varied, however it's a very small scene and we've all known each other for so long, that I guess we just have a lot to talk about.
The first Narooma jam was a good time for me. I was just recovering from a pretty heavy period of depression, my time living in Melbourne was pretty rubbish overall and it was just after that. I had just had a really good time over new year's, then pretty much went direct to Narooma. My footbag game wasn't really crash hot at the time, but from the period after that up until Nationals 2008 I went through a really solid and fast improvement, and was really inspired playing footbag. Copey and Caroline moved to Canberra soon after, none of us even had a job in the beginning, so we just played every day.
Last year's event was just as good. I was in a much better position with my life, had a solid job, got to take some leave and travel around one of my favourite places with a new friend, who also happened to be a great footbag player.
I was playing reasonably well last year in Narooma, I hit some cool stuff, and I was always keen to play. Got to get a few surfs in as well, I borrowed Dad's car, and it was really awesome having the independence to just go anywhere, anytime. We also got to go out to Montague Island which was really sweet too.
This year I've rented out a house right in the centre of town. This should be awesome for anytime we make party in the evening, as it means not having to wait for a taxi or anything like that.
Hopefully this year we'll see a round of golf, a walk up Mt Dromedary, a return to the DBC for lawn bowls and beer and 4-5 rights off the point at Dalmeny.
The celebrations for Australia Day were a perfect way to finish off our jam last year, we'll probably do more of the same this year. I'm also really excited to go to a beach that has waves and is not inundated with box jellyfish. That's super exciting.
After the trip I have a few days in Sydney, then I'm heading to Papua New Guinea for the surf trip. Super exciting times ahead.
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boyle
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Had a good session today, I guess I should get a couple more in, I've got just two days left in Airlie Beach. I switched to a new location, just down the road with water views. Probably not as much foot traffic as my normal place, but I think the view was better, looking straight out at the boats moored on a calm see on a sunny day.
So as it was a sunny day, it was hot, so I sweated a huge amount. I had no plan for the session, I was wasting time in the morning and I only had a short while before work. I had some nice long runs going on, I would have played for about 45 minutes.
Right at the end I decided to do a practice shred 30. I didn't have a timer or anything, just wanted to have a bit of a crack at it, I used the same plan I was using in my practice for worlds, and I hit something like
dimwalk>pdx mirage>butterfly>pdx mirage>DATW>butterfly>diving clip>ducking clip>diving clip>ducking clip>ripwalk>ducking butterfly>ducking osis>ducking butterfly>butterfly>spinning clipper>spinning osis>ducking clipper, then I dropped and rushed anything else, only resulting in more drops.
But I was very happy with that beginning and will work on my shred 30 throughout the year. I need to get back to playing almost every day, that is the best way for rapid improvement. I think 4-5 sessions per week should be suitable. I am hoping to see a lot more improvement out of myself in footbag this year. The last couple of years I have really improved a lot, but in footbag, there is always so much more to learn. I feel a lot more confident in my game now.
In other news, I'm going on a holiday, tomorrow is my last day of work for almost one month. I'm going to see a lot of places and spend a lot of money, it's a bit scary as I'm going on leave without pay, so I will probably run out of money midway through, which wouldn't be so great.
So as it was a sunny day, it was hot, so I sweated a huge amount. I had no plan for the session, I was wasting time in the morning and I only had a short while before work. I had some nice long runs going on, I would have played for about 45 minutes.
Right at the end I decided to do a practice shred 30. I didn't have a timer or anything, just wanted to have a bit of a crack at it, I used the same plan I was using in my practice for worlds, and I hit something like
dimwalk>pdx mirage>butterfly>pdx mirage>DATW>butterfly>diving clip>ducking clip>diving clip>ducking clip>ripwalk>ducking butterfly>ducking osis>ducking butterfly>butterfly>spinning clipper>spinning osis>ducking clipper, then I dropped and rushed anything else, only resulting in more drops.
But I was very happy with that beginning and will work on my shred 30 throughout the year. I need to get back to playing almost every day, that is the best way for rapid improvement. I think 4-5 sessions per week should be suitable. I am hoping to see a lot more improvement out of myself in footbag this year. The last couple of years I have really improved a lot, but in footbag, there is always so much more to learn. I feel a lot more confident in my game now.
In other news, I'm going on a holiday, tomorrow is my last day of work for almost one month. I'm going to see a lot of places and spend a lot of money, it's a bit scary as I'm going on leave without pay, so I will probably run out of money midway through, which wouldn't be so great.
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boyle
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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So I'm no longer in Airlie Beach. in the past week I have been quite a few places, in the next week I'm going even more.
I had 2 nights in Brisbane and partied pretty hard. I saw Polar Bear Club x 2, they were incredible. Break Even and The Gifthorse were both supporting, both bands are so good. There was another show on the second night I was there with Jungle Fever playing, I only caught half of the last song, but then there was a lot of dancing on a disco flashing lights dancefloor with a bunch of people from the bands and other people from the shows.
I left at 3am to go catch my 5.10am flight to Canberra. I remember walking into the airport, then waking up and being in Canberra. That was an easy flight. I got a taxi home, but had to stop for a spew on the way in. Not such a great start to the morning.
I was going to book a bus to Bega to stay with my parents one night before heading to Narooma, but that was booked out, so was the bus to Narooma the next day. I called Dyalan and asked if he could pick us up in Canberra, he said no worries.
However, about 9pm I got a message saying "I'm only in Berry". This got me worried because Berry is not on the way to Canberra at all. He had some car troubles early on and missed the usual turnoff, so decided to go the longest possible way.
So at about 1am, Dyalan arrived. If things went to plan we would have been in Narooma around 11pm or so. He stayed the night in Canberra and we drove down the next morning with no troubles.
We met the rest of the gang (Copey, Caroline, Jeremy) at a cafe in Narooma. I had a milkshake, caramel flavour, it was quite tasty. This year we got a little place to ourselves, it was pretty small, but the location was convenient and it fit all of us in.
We had a shred at the plaza, this was pretty good, everyone was hitting some decent stuff. This was a while ago now, so I can't actually remember what anyone hit. We played in the plaza, and had quite a few people watching. I had an article in the Narooma News that week (back page, sports section, with picture -in colour). So you know, I'm kind of a big deal.
So this guy came up to Dyalan and he said "oh wow, is this footfag, I've read about this in the paper". Dyalan didn't even bother correcting the guy, and then he proceeded to ask the same old questions that everybody asks, I was glad not to talk to him.
From the shred we went down to the beach, the water was a little bit chilly when you first got in, but it was fine once you were used to it. There were quite a few rips running through the water, the lifeguards actually closed the beach to swimmers just as we were leaving.
Next event on the sports smorgasboard was lawn bowls. We had a game last year at the Dalmeny Bowling Club, this year we tried the Narooma Bowls Club, which I think is slightly more expensive. They do however, have an incredibly cheap restaraunt. The beer unfortunately is not at "genuine 1950s prices". I am also really bad at bowls. I was teamed up with Francisca, up against Jeremy and Caroline, we failed to score a point, or even get close to a bowl. So that was not so much of a success. I think we lost 13-0, not much of a performance.
We went to the million dollar view hotel for a few beers. It was dark, so we couldn't actually see this view. We watched some of the tennis and then some of the others were playing pool, I was just watching, but I was super tired, I was coming close to falling asleep in the pub, so Francisca and I went home early.
Next day Mum and Dad drove up, we went to lunch at Anton's in Kianga. This is Narooma's version of a trendy city cafe, it comes with the same long waits. The food was pretty good, but we waited a seriously long time for it, and paid a fair bit for what we got.
Dad and I went for a surf at the beach directly in front, Francisca took some pretty awesome photos, I might put a couple up in the near future. So this was the first time Mum and Dad met Francisca, I think they were very impressed, as she's super nice and has a cute accent (She's from Chile).
Soon after we got back to the house, Ian and Kayleigh arrived, and we joined the others at the golf course. They were just on their last hole of 6, then we went to the 19th hole (the clubhouse).
We all picked numbers on the keno, Caroline put the money in, I think it started at $5, which came back with $2, that came back with $1 and then I think it was all over. The next day Dad told me my cousin just won $16 000 on keno.
We had a big feast at Cope's family house, we also played footbag net, which we were all incredibly unskilled at. There was some basketball as well, after dinner Francisca and I drove back to Bega. She caught the bus back to Canberra and I drove back to Narooma to take a trip on the BBQ boat. We'll talk about that next time...
I had 2 nights in Brisbane and partied pretty hard. I saw Polar Bear Club x 2, they were incredible. Break Even and The Gifthorse were both supporting, both bands are so good. There was another show on the second night I was there with Jungle Fever playing, I only caught half of the last song, but then there was a lot of dancing on a disco flashing lights dancefloor with a bunch of people from the bands and other people from the shows.
I left at 3am to go catch my 5.10am flight to Canberra. I remember walking into the airport, then waking up and being in Canberra. That was an easy flight. I got a taxi home, but had to stop for a spew on the way in. Not such a great start to the morning.
I was going to book a bus to Bega to stay with my parents one night before heading to Narooma, but that was booked out, so was the bus to Narooma the next day. I called Dyalan and asked if he could pick us up in Canberra, he said no worries.
However, about 9pm I got a message saying "I'm only in Berry". This got me worried because Berry is not on the way to Canberra at all. He had some car troubles early on and missed the usual turnoff, so decided to go the longest possible way.
So at about 1am, Dyalan arrived. If things went to plan we would have been in Narooma around 11pm or so. He stayed the night in Canberra and we drove down the next morning with no troubles.
We met the rest of the gang (Copey, Caroline, Jeremy) at a cafe in Narooma. I had a milkshake, caramel flavour, it was quite tasty. This year we got a little place to ourselves, it was pretty small, but the location was convenient and it fit all of us in.
We had a shred at the plaza, this was pretty good, everyone was hitting some decent stuff. This was a while ago now, so I can't actually remember what anyone hit. We played in the plaza, and had quite a few people watching. I had an article in the Narooma News that week (back page, sports section, with picture -in colour). So you know, I'm kind of a big deal.
So this guy came up to Dyalan and he said "oh wow, is this footfag, I've read about this in the paper". Dyalan didn't even bother correcting the guy, and then he proceeded to ask the same old questions that everybody asks, I was glad not to talk to him.
From the shred we went down to the beach, the water was a little bit chilly when you first got in, but it was fine once you were used to it. There were quite a few rips running through the water, the lifeguards actually closed the beach to swimmers just as we were leaving.
Next event on the sports smorgasboard was lawn bowls. We had a game last year at the Dalmeny Bowling Club, this year we tried the Narooma Bowls Club, which I think is slightly more expensive. They do however, have an incredibly cheap restaraunt. The beer unfortunately is not at "genuine 1950s prices". I am also really bad at bowls. I was teamed up with Francisca, up against Jeremy and Caroline, we failed to score a point, or even get close to a bowl. So that was not so much of a success. I think we lost 13-0, not much of a performance.
We went to the million dollar view hotel for a few beers. It was dark, so we couldn't actually see this view. We watched some of the tennis and then some of the others were playing pool, I was just watching, but I was super tired, I was coming close to falling asleep in the pub, so Francisca and I went home early.
Next day Mum and Dad drove up, we went to lunch at Anton's in Kianga. This is Narooma's version of a trendy city cafe, it comes with the same long waits. The food was pretty good, but we waited a seriously long time for it, and paid a fair bit for what we got.
Dad and I went for a surf at the beach directly in front, Francisca took some pretty awesome photos, I might put a couple up in the near future. So this was the first time Mum and Dad met Francisca, I think they were very impressed, as she's super nice and has a cute accent (She's from Chile).
Soon after we got back to the house, Ian and Kayleigh arrived, and we joined the others at the golf course. They were just on their last hole of 6, then we went to the 19th hole (the clubhouse).
We all picked numbers on the keno, Caroline put the money in, I think it started at $5, which came back with $2, that came back with $1 and then I think it was all over. The next day Dad told me my cousin just won $16 000 on keno.
We had a big feast at Cope's family house, we also played footbag net, which we were all incredibly unskilled at. There was some basketball as well, after dinner Francisca and I drove back to Bega. She caught the bus back to Canberra and I drove back to Narooma to take a trip on the BBQ boat. We'll talk about that next time...
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hacksterbator
- Washed-Up Child Star
- Posts: 4141
- Joined: 12 Jul 2003 18:33
- Location: Winterpeg, Manisnowba
- Contact:
man, so sad i couldn't make the return trip to the oom jam. i hope it was epic.
haha, nice. i did the same thing leaving cairns. Had to kick a gal outta my hostel room at 4:15, managed to get to the airport for my 5 am flight, woke up in brizzy at 7, threw up on the skytrain. niiiice.I left at 3am to go catch my 5.10am flight to Canberra. I remember walking into the airport, then waking up and being in Canberra. That was an easy flight. I got a taxi home, but had to stop for a spew on the way in. Not such a great start to the morning.
A.G.
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
haha, well played sir. I bet the other commuters were happy to share their train with you.
I am Sydney at the moment, I've just got back from a ten day boat trip in Papua New Guinea, which was, in short, incredible.
We travelled for hundreds of nautical miles, in this time, we only ever saw one other boat. We got some great surf on the last two days, got to visit a few different islands that would have not had a lot of contact with white people before.
I performed a footbag demonstration for about 100+ people on one of the islands. I've got a video of part of that, I'll try and upload that later.
I'm back to Canberra this afternoon, it's been quite some time since I've been there, looking forward to getting back.
I am Sydney at the moment, I've just got back from a ten day boat trip in Papua New Guinea, which was, in short, incredible.
We travelled for hundreds of nautical miles, in this time, we only ever saw one other boat. We got some great surf on the last two days, got to visit a few different islands that would have not had a lot of contact with white people before.
I performed a footbag demonstration for about 100+ people on one of the islands. I've got a video of part of that, I'll try and upload that later.
I'm back to Canberra this afternoon, it's been quite some time since I've been there, looking forward to getting back.
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
I havent written anything sice I came back from PNG. Had a couple of kicks with Caroline at ANU- one day I played really well, the next day we filmed some stuff, I played like shit. Always the way, isn't it.
That afternoon I started to feel really sick. I was quite ill for a few days, I recently got a blood test to check if I had picked up malaria in my travels to png, which is renowned for malaria infestation. I will probably get the results back tomorrow I guess. I have been feeling better, but not 100% which is a bit worrying.
I just went for an interview today for a promotion at my work. There are three other applicants, I guess I'm the favourite because I already work there, but it's not a big concern to me if I don't get it. I am quite content ith my current job situation.
I went to soundwave on the weekend. I was pretty excited, but in the end it was a bit of a letdown. I'm really kicking myself I didn't see AFI. The main stage ran between 20-45 mins behind schedule (even though one of the bands got kicked off the bill), so it was hard to guage when a band was playing. I was also not so keen for the long, hot walk between stages.
I did see Alexisonfire, one of my favourite bands, that was awesome. I went to their sideshow with Comeback Kid and Anti Flag the next day, I enjoyd that a lot more than Soundwave.
On Tuesday night I came back to Canberra. I saw Wolves In The Throne Room and Monarch. I hadn't heard either band before, but it was a good show. I had fun.
I really have no footbag news to report. I went for a promotion at my work today. See how that goes.
That afternoon I started to feel really sick. I was quite ill for a few days, I recently got a blood test to check if I had picked up malaria in my travels to png, which is renowned for malaria infestation. I will probably get the results back tomorrow I guess. I have been feeling better, but not 100% which is a bit worrying.
I just went for an interview today for a promotion at my work. There are three other applicants, I guess I'm the favourite because I already work there, but it's not a big concern to me if I don't get it. I am quite content ith my current job situation.
I went to soundwave on the weekend. I was pretty excited, but in the end it was a bit of a letdown. I'm really kicking myself I didn't see AFI. The main stage ran between 20-45 mins behind schedule (even though one of the bands got kicked off the bill), so it was hard to guage when a band was playing. I was also not so keen for the long, hot walk between stages.
I did see Alexisonfire, one of my favourite bands, that was awesome. I went to their sideshow with Comeback Kid and Anti Flag the next day, I enjoyd that a lot more than Soundwave.
On Tuesday night I came back to Canberra. I saw Wolves In The Throne Room and Monarch. I hadn't heard either band before, but it was a good show. I had fun.
I really have no footbag news to report. I went for a promotion at my work today. See how that goes.
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PoisonTaffy
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: 23 Jun 2007 15:42
- Location: Israel, center
- Contact:
As I recall from studying parasites at uni a couple of years ago, malaria can infect multiple parts of your body. If it goes to your brain, you're in big trouble, however if you live in a Western country like Australia and it doesn't go to your brain, you have an almost certain chance of a full recovery. This is from one lecture 2 years ago though, so I could be completely confused. I don't even remember what causes malaria (precisely) and if it was a lecture on that or on mosquitoes. I do vividly still remember the video with the guy with a maggot under his skin on his head though, and also the tape worms that made me not eat steak for months.
Anyway good luck with your malaria results and also your promotion Daniel, I'm confident you'll get the job and not have malaria either
Surely you were taking pills for it right?
Anyway good luck with your malaria results and also your promotion Daniel, I'm confident you'll get the job and not have malaria either
Surely you were taking pills for it right?-
PoisonTaffy
- Egyptian Footgod
- Posts: 1003
- Joined: 23 Jun 2007 15:42
- Location: Israel, center
- Contact:
Parasites are disgusting, disturbing, yet fascinating. I've been considering getting a popular science book about them: http://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Biza ... 74320011X/
Good luck with the promotion! Keep us updated.
Good luck with the promotion! Keep us updated.
"Childhood is short, immaturity is forever"
Roy Klein
Roy Klein
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Long time no update.
I'm not dead, so I guess no malaria then. I went to the doctor and he told me the tablets I was taking would kill any malaria bugs anyway.
Malaria is spread by getting bitten by infected mosquitoes. Going to malaria infested areas such as Papua New Guinea increases your chances highly. However, I don't remember getting bitten at all.
So it's 3.40am, and I am, of all places. At work. Our main night guy is a way so I'm filling in on a couple of nights shifts. As you could imagine, there's not much happening in the middle of the night on a Tuesday in Canberra.
Nationals is coming up, less than a month now. It's quite concerning that I'm nowhere near prepared enough. Only in the last couple of days have I started seriously practicing for it. I have a feeling that will show in my performances, but hopefully I can build up enough if I play most days until the competition.
I've gone back to studying, I'm doing a course by correspondence. It's a Master of Arts in Writing. It mixes journalism, creative writing and a number of other genres, I'm doing it through Swinburne in Melbourne. Funnily enough I used to live about 3 blocks from Swinburne.
It feels a bit strange just to be able to waltz in to a masters course with no previous writing study (my undergrad is in Sports Management). I'm sure that will give me some difficulties during the course, but after one week I'm definitely enjoying it. For each of the subjects you have to post weekly responses on the forums, and I have been getting some really positive feedback to this week's work.
I'm mainly doing the course out of interest, and to improve my writing in general, take it to a professional level. I have done plenty of writing with zines, trying to get articles about footbag in newspapers like the Narooma News, but through this course I would like to step up my work.
A couple of bands that my friends are in played their final shows in the last couple of weeks. One band, Slowburn, they played a song that their sing wasn't comfortable with singing anymore, so I sang it instead. I don't know if there are any pictures, hopefully there is one of me looking like a rockstar.
Francisca is moving in with me next week. I still have a couple of backpackers living in my house, as I haven't been staying there too often, but they should be moving on quite soon. She is from Chile, in good news there was no damage to any of her family during the earthquake.
So I'm doing a bit more travel coming up. Tomorrow I'm going up to Newcastle with my Dad. We're going to a funeral there the next day, it's his "aunty", she's not related to us, but she's my Nanna's best friend and everybody treats her like an aunt. She doesn't have any of her own family, so it's almost like Dad's family is her family. It's something I probably wouldn't go to in a normal situation, however, I already had the days off with nothing planned, and it will be good to help Dad with the drive, otherwise it would be an 8 hour drive for him.
I am hoping to catch up with Jason Po, he's a footbag player, he hasn't played in a few years. The first time we played together, that was in Sydney, quite some time ago....that was the first time I ever hit phoenix.
I may be able to catch up with another guy, Chris. He's a freestyle football guy, we've played a couple of times before. However he seems fair
I had a pretty good session today (and a really bad one yesterday). I hit a couple of new 5>5 links, phoenix>paradox blender and bs blur>motion. I should really be able to hit a 5>5>5, but so far that has remained elusive to me. I'll get there.
In a couple of weeks I'm flying to Adelaide and seeing Machine Head, they're my favourite band, so that should be sweet. I've never been to Adelaide before either. I'm contemplating hiring a car and driving the great ocean road to Melbourne, then watching Machine Head again, that would be a sweet trip. They're playing with Hatebreed and Bleeding Through, pretty exciting. In Adelaide I'm also going to see Between The Buried and Me, they were incredible when they toured last year.
The week after that is nationals, in Sydney, that will be a lot of fun, nationals is always a good time.
In may I head to London on that ticket I bought a really long time ago. I still haven't bought a ticket home (that's next week's task). Looks like I'll only have a couple of weeks for my trip, I'm going to fly back into Brisbane so I can see Evergreen Terrace on their last show of the tour.
By mid may I will have seen nearly all of my favourite bands this year, it's been a great year already, and there's some really good shows coming up. I'm going to see Break Even in London, they're a band from Perth. They were meant to be playing the show on the weekend with Slowburn, however the singer broke his leg stagediving naked to The Get Up Kids, so the tour was called off.
The rugby league season starts this week. I'm pretty excited, however I'm not so sure about the Raiders. I think if they can avoid injuries they will fight for a place in the top 8, but any major injuries and they could be in serious trouble. I think the Bulldogs will win the premiership.
So, just three hours to go. Sigh.
I'm not dead, so I guess no malaria then. I went to the doctor and he told me the tablets I was taking would kill any malaria bugs anyway.
Malaria is spread by getting bitten by infected mosquitoes. Going to malaria infested areas such as Papua New Guinea increases your chances highly. However, I don't remember getting bitten at all.
So it's 3.40am, and I am, of all places. At work. Our main night guy is a way so I'm filling in on a couple of nights shifts. As you could imagine, there's not much happening in the middle of the night on a Tuesday in Canberra.
Nationals is coming up, less than a month now. It's quite concerning that I'm nowhere near prepared enough. Only in the last couple of days have I started seriously practicing for it. I have a feeling that will show in my performances, but hopefully I can build up enough if I play most days until the competition.
I've gone back to studying, I'm doing a course by correspondence. It's a Master of Arts in Writing. It mixes journalism, creative writing and a number of other genres, I'm doing it through Swinburne in Melbourne. Funnily enough I used to live about 3 blocks from Swinburne.
It feels a bit strange just to be able to waltz in to a masters course with no previous writing study (my undergrad is in Sports Management). I'm sure that will give me some difficulties during the course, but after one week I'm definitely enjoying it. For each of the subjects you have to post weekly responses on the forums, and I have been getting some really positive feedback to this week's work.
I'm mainly doing the course out of interest, and to improve my writing in general, take it to a professional level. I have done plenty of writing with zines, trying to get articles about footbag in newspapers like the Narooma News, but through this course I would like to step up my work.
A couple of bands that my friends are in played their final shows in the last couple of weeks. One band, Slowburn, they played a song that their sing wasn't comfortable with singing anymore, so I sang it instead. I don't know if there are any pictures, hopefully there is one of me looking like a rockstar.
Francisca is moving in with me next week. I still have a couple of backpackers living in my house, as I haven't been staying there too often, but they should be moving on quite soon. She is from Chile, in good news there was no damage to any of her family during the earthquake.
So I'm doing a bit more travel coming up. Tomorrow I'm going up to Newcastle with my Dad. We're going to a funeral there the next day, it's his "aunty", she's not related to us, but she's my Nanna's best friend and everybody treats her like an aunt. She doesn't have any of her own family, so it's almost like Dad's family is her family. It's something I probably wouldn't go to in a normal situation, however, I already had the days off with nothing planned, and it will be good to help Dad with the drive, otherwise it would be an 8 hour drive for him.
I am hoping to catch up with Jason Po, he's a footbag player, he hasn't played in a few years. The first time we played together, that was in Sydney, quite some time ago....that was the first time I ever hit phoenix.
I may be able to catch up with another guy, Chris. He's a freestyle football guy, we've played a couple of times before. However he seems fair
I had a pretty good session today (and a really bad one yesterday). I hit a couple of new 5>5 links, phoenix>paradox blender and bs blur>motion. I should really be able to hit a 5>5>5, but so far that has remained elusive to me. I'll get there.
In a couple of weeks I'm flying to Adelaide and seeing Machine Head, they're my favourite band, so that should be sweet. I've never been to Adelaide before either. I'm contemplating hiring a car and driving the great ocean road to Melbourne, then watching Machine Head again, that would be a sweet trip. They're playing with Hatebreed and Bleeding Through, pretty exciting. In Adelaide I'm also going to see Between The Buried and Me, they were incredible when they toured last year.
The week after that is nationals, in Sydney, that will be a lot of fun, nationals is always a good time.
In may I head to London on that ticket I bought a really long time ago. I still haven't bought a ticket home (that's next week's task). Looks like I'll only have a couple of weeks for my trip, I'm going to fly back into Brisbane so I can see Evergreen Terrace on their last show of the tour.
By mid may I will have seen nearly all of my favourite bands this year, it's been a great year already, and there's some really good shows coming up. I'm going to see Break Even in London, they're a band from Perth. They were meant to be playing the show on the weekend with Slowburn, however the singer broke his leg stagediving naked to The Get Up Kids, so the tour was called off.
The rugby league season starts this week. I'm pretty excited, however I'm not so sure about the Raiders. I think if they can avoid injuries they will fight for a place in the top 8, but any major injuries and they could be in serious trouble. I think the Bulldogs will win the premiership.
So, just three hours to go. Sigh.
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boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
- Contact:
Been pretty busy. I am at work and I can already see it being a disaster of a night.
I had a couple of days off, I guess you could say I made good use of them. Some might argue I spent a whole lot of money to not do so much, whatever. I went to Adelaide and Melbourne. I saw Machine Head and Hatebreed on Wednesday night, the crowd was a bit weird but the bands were good.
I saw Between The Buried and Me on Thursday night. I'm not hugely into them, but they are really an incredible band. I just went to that show by myself and didn't really talk to anybody.
I flew out early from ADL. There were these kids juggling, they were doing a few tricks with their feet as well, I got talking to them and their Dad. He said he used to play hack in airports all over the world 20 years ago. I asked where he was from, he said Bega. That's my home town (pop 5000). What a strange coincidence.
I flew on Tiger, it was fairly rubbish. The flight didn't leave on time, and it took longer than expected to get there. As the grand prix was on the weekend, flights were really expensive, so I caught the bus home. I slept most of the way, so it was no big deal.
I had a pretty good time in Melbourne, although I wasn't there for any reason. I had a kick with Leon and Ryan, that was pretty good. None of us played spectacularly, but it was good to get a multiple player session, it's good to get that anywhere.
I caught up with my mate Michael. Here used to work at the hostel in Canberra, but he's moved to Melbourne for uni. The life he lives now reminds for of myself in my student days, a lot.
Then I caught up with Lauren, she's living in Melbourne now. That's the girl from Scotland that was at the nationals last year. She's travelling up the the east coast with her friend and they'll be in Sydney for Easter. I think they're going to stay at the YHA, so they'll come and watch too.
So it's not in any order, but I should talk about last weekend, that was probably the most footbag related weekend that I've had in a while. Silvan from Switzerland was staying at Caroline's. Before meeting them I went to a party with some of my friends from Finland.
One guy always wears a BTBAM shirt, that was why I first started talking to him. We went to a metal show a while back, he said "This as close to Finland as I can get here in Canberra". Anyhow, I was talking a little about footbag and Ulla says, "I have a friend who plays footbag, I think he's pretty good". "His name is JUHO MARJO"". She had even seen "Reindeer Games", I was impressed.
We met up with Caroline and her guests later on, Silvan knows some Finnish, they said his pronunciation was better than most non-Finnish people.
The next day we went to this fundraiser for the earthquake in Chile. I offered to do a footbag routine, as Francisca knew the people organising it. It was out in Hall, which is kind of on the edge of Canberra, about 20 mins from the city, but it's basically a country village.
It was in this shed in the showground. I did a routine, which started well, but then I dropped a few times, couldn't get things back together. Immediately after Silvan and I had a battle on the stage. I was also announcing, and hadn't had any rest from the routine. It was no surprised I went down 3-0, however they were all close matches. The first round must have started with at least 15 contacts apiece.
On the Monday I went to watch the Raiders, the GREEN MACHINE, and they had a win, which is always nice. They got off to a great start, fell away in the second half, but then scored the final try in the last minutes. They play tonight, away, against the gold coast. Their away record is terrible, so a win here would be great news.
This time next week, hopefully I will be sitting back after performing a strong shred 30/sick 3 in front of a screaming crowd at the easter show. Let's see how that goes. It's pretty exciting that the nationals are coming up so soon.
I had a couple of days off, I guess you could say I made good use of them. Some might argue I spent a whole lot of money to not do so much, whatever. I went to Adelaide and Melbourne. I saw Machine Head and Hatebreed on Wednesday night, the crowd was a bit weird but the bands were good.
I saw Between The Buried and Me on Thursday night. I'm not hugely into them, but they are really an incredible band. I just went to that show by myself and didn't really talk to anybody.
I flew out early from ADL. There were these kids juggling, they were doing a few tricks with their feet as well, I got talking to them and their Dad. He said he used to play hack in airports all over the world 20 years ago. I asked where he was from, he said Bega. That's my home town (pop 5000). What a strange coincidence.
I flew on Tiger, it was fairly rubbish. The flight didn't leave on time, and it took longer than expected to get there. As the grand prix was on the weekend, flights were really expensive, so I caught the bus home. I slept most of the way, so it was no big deal.
I had a pretty good time in Melbourne, although I wasn't there for any reason. I had a kick with Leon and Ryan, that was pretty good. None of us played spectacularly, but it was good to get a multiple player session, it's good to get that anywhere.
I caught up with my mate Michael. Here used to work at the hostel in Canberra, but he's moved to Melbourne for uni. The life he lives now reminds for of myself in my student days, a lot.
Then I caught up with Lauren, she's living in Melbourne now. That's the girl from Scotland that was at the nationals last year. She's travelling up the the east coast with her friend and they'll be in Sydney for Easter. I think they're going to stay at the YHA, so they'll come and watch too.
So it's not in any order, but I should talk about last weekend, that was probably the most footbag related weekend that I've had in a while. Silvan from Switzerland was staying at Caroline's. Before meeting them I went to a party with some of my friends from Finland.
One guy always wears a BTBAM shirt, that was why I first started talking to him. We went to a metal show a while back, he said "This as close to Finland as I can get here in Canberra". Anyhow, I was talking a little about footbag and Ulla says, "I have a friend who plays footbag, I think he's pretty good". "His name is JUHO MARJO"". She had even seen "Reindeer Games", I was impressed.
We met up with Caroline and her guests later on, Silvan knows some Finnish, they said his pronunciation was better than most non-Finnish people.
The next day we went to this fundraiser for the earthquake in Chile. I offered to do a footbag routine, as Francisca knew the people organising it. It was out in Hall, which is kind of on the edge of Canberra, about 20 mins from the city, but it's basically a country village.
It was in this shed in the showground. I did a routine, which started well, but then I dropped a few times, couldn't get things back together. Immediately after Silvan and I had a battle on the stage. I was also announcing, and hadn't had any rest from the routine. It was no surprised I went down 3-0, however they were all close matches. The first round must have started with at least 15 contacts apiece.
On the Monday I went to watch the Raiders, the GREEN MACHINE, and they had a win, which is always nice. They got off to a great start, fell away in the second half, but then scored the final try in the last minutes. They play tonight, away, against the gold coast. Their away record is terrible, so a win here would be great news.
This time next week, hopefully I will be sitting back after performing a strong shred 30/sick 3 in front of a screaming crowd at the easter show. Let's see how that goes. It's pretty exciting that the nationals are coming up so soon.