Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 10 Sep 2010 13:03

Thanks Roy! I will see you at whichever mysterious location Worlds happens to be in. And it will be awesome.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 10 Sep 2010 19:12

I would really like to go on a Footbag holiday.

I think next year I would like to spend some time in the North of Europe. Or just in Europe in general. I think I would like to go to Poland for a while. I wrote to Hania, she said if I came there I could live like a king. I like the sound of that.

I sent an email to the Polish embassy the other day actually...I asked if they would be interested in helping to fund a Polish player to come to Australia, maybe for Nationals, or any kind of Footbag event in general. They said that would be a great experience, but as they're the Polish embassy, they haven't got any money. I need to think of more ideas like this and maybe someday something will come through.

So I'm going to the Raiders match tonight, up in Sydney. It's in Penrith which is the western edge of Sydney, a bit of a dump actually. Hopefully the Raiders win. I saw a Panthers v Raiders game there when I was 8 years old, I cried after the game. Not tears of happiness either. Hopefulyl it's better than that. If they win, the green machine will be through to a home final, that will be really awesome.

I have pretty much not played seriously all week. I don't really know why, I guess I've had a lot of things on and I played quite heavily last week. I think it was last week that I went to Melbourne. Anyway, I played a lot then, so I guess it's a rest. I'm really itching for a strong session though, and I guess that's a good thing.

Probably won't happen today as we drive straight to Sydney as soon as I finish work. Maybe tomorrow. I think we will drive straight back after the match. Maybe we can go to the Panthers club and play aqua golf, that game is pretty awesome.

I just booked tickets to go to Sydney and Melbourne next month. I think once I come back from those trips it will be time to start saving hard.

It will be interesting to see my next pay actually, my salary is quite a bit higher, but not so sure how that's going to come out with tax etc. Hopefully it works well.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 12 Sep 2010 03:10

So this week has been pretty hectic. I probably ended up driving over 1000km or so.

We went up to watch the Raiders game, Francisca came to her first ever match, it was a good introduction, the Raiders won their first finals game in 10 years.

It was very nerve racking though, they ended up winning by 24-22. After the game some Raiders fans went to meet the players...and then the fence collapsed under their excitement.

So then it was a long drive home, especially because I took a wrong turn midway through the piece.

So I actually played Footbag today. There was not really any focus, it was just good to get out in the sun and play. I felty really tired after the trip to Sydney, but that didn't worry me too much. I felt much better after kicking.

Some friends of mine came by, they are in this band called Jerkstore. I did an impromptu interview with them for the next issue of my zine. It was quite rambling really. They are releasing a tape in the UK though, so we talked a lot about first tapes, a fair bit of nostalgia.

From tomorrow I start working 9-5. Will be interesting to see how that affects my footbag schedule. I wouldn't mind getting a few kicks in at night in the near future.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 12 Sep 2010 05:27

Unless you're one of those people who play 5+ hours a day, a steady job can be good for your game, because it makes it very easy to follow a weekly routine.
I find that going out to shred by myself is much harder to do, mentally, on my days off.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 12 Sep 2010 14:16

PoisonTaffy wrote:Unless you're one of those people who play 5+ hours a day

That's definitely not me!

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 12 Sep 2010 14:31

whats ur job by the way?

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 13 Sep 2010 13:31

Still at the YHA (hostel), but now I'm the groups co-ordinator. So we get a lot of school groups, some sports teams, we have a lot of different ones. Basically I just make the bookings for all this people, make sure everything's ok once they come and demand their money when they don't pay...that kind of thing.

I still get all the perks as previously, such as free accomodation in other YHAs and 6 weeks of annual leave, but now I have much more comfortable hours.

I had a short kick yesterday, during my lunch break. I only had a short time because I did an interview with this band Shihad, they are from NZ kind of..they actually have been based in Melbourne for about ten years. But I've started writing for BMA, the local street press, which I think is going to be really good.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 16 Sep 2010 17:10

Have barely kicked at all this week, the weather has been quite nice actually, but I'm trapped indoors on the 9-5.

It will be awesome as the daylight lasts longer and the weather improves even more.

Raiders playing tonight, Raiders jerseys everywhere, it's the first time they've had a home final in a long long time (possibly ever?). They're playing against the Tigers to a sold out crowd, it's going to be crazy I think.

Can't wait for the match.

Went to Transit downstairs for "one beer". Had like a hundred or something. Not in a good condition today.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 18 Sep 2010 03:13

Had a good day of Footbag today. Yesterday was a rubbish day, woke up with a mean hangover, then the Raiders lost by 2 points, with a missed goal being the difference.

So I was working at the AIS, I did a bunch of tours, and people seemed to really be appreciating Footbag. I was playing pretty well as well. I did a whole bunch of tours, and now probably 300 people that didn't know about Footbag yesterday, now they do. So that's good.

Then we played in the afternoon. It was me and Caroline to begin with, then Jonathan came along. Jonathan was hitting inside stalls and toe stalls, doing a fair few kicks as well. His housemate came too, and Caroline was giving her some good advice.

So I felt like I was playing pretty well today, don't think I hit anything new, but I had some nice long runs, I just felt in a good condition today. It was simply nice because this week and last week I didn't play much, it was good to play, and play well.

Going to Sydney for a work meeting on Thursday, going to stay at the Sydney Harbour YHA, hopefully get a kick on the rooftop there.

Going to Melbourne in a couple of weeks as well, hope I can get in a kick there too.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 19 Sep 2010 02:47

Did some more tours today. Wasn't quite as busy as yesterday, so probably 100 more people know about Footbag who didn't before.

It was a bit boring comparatively today, yesterday they had the gymnastics squad going through their routines in preparation for the Commonwealth Games.

So after work I kicked with Caroline. I was really struggling to get momentum for any sort of runs, but I hit a few reasonable individual tricks. I was working a bit on diving torque. I think that would be a very nice trick to hit.

Over the weekend I also came very close to ducking barfly and double spinning clipper...both of them would be handy additions to the repertoire as well.

After shred I went to watch my friend's band- Hoodlum Shouts go to play at Transit Bar. They played pretty well, there was a reasonable turn out, but everyone was sitting down.

So I may have mentioned that last week I have one of the girls who works on the bar a Footbag, I was about to head home and she's like hey! Let's play and brought out the bag. So we had a bit of a hack around, it was the two of us and Brad, head of security...he was kicking around at a rate of $60/hr. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

That was a bit of fun for the afternoon. I think I'll be off to sleep soon, I've played a lot this weekend actually, it's been good because I probably played about 30 mins in the previous week.

Not a bad week coming up ahead- I go to Sydney on Thursday for a work meeting, I'm going to meet Francisca's mum for the first time, then I'm going to play Footbag that night with Dyalan. We're going to have a nice lunch on Saturday, probably do a bit of sightseeing on Friday.

Over the weekend I have also managed to spend not a single cent, something which I am very pleased with myself for. Hopefully I can keep that up until we go away on Thursday.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 21 Sep 2010 03:14

I had two short sessions today- probably played for an hour in total.

Had an insane day at work today, mainly involving this one woman going insane at me. Her parting words were calling me a pack of sluts...

After that she spat on two cops...what a pleasant lass.

So the sun was shining, it was one of the best days in a long time here, although all this week there's been some ripper days.

I finished work and the sun was still shining, so I went for another session at my local shops.

What I was thinking about today was to start doing different links. Even if it's a trick where normally, say, I'd go into a gyro legover, why not do a gyro pickup.

Some other things I was playing with were

drifter>blender
tapdown>symp whirl. I didn't quite hit that one, but I like the combo.

What I basically want to do is really shy away from doing ducking clippers. I do waaaayyy too many. So if I'm going to do a ducking trick, it should be at least something different to a ducking clipper.

The weather was starting to look rough, I hit pdx blender, I thought that might be a good time to end the session but then I worked on some other things.

My final trick ended up being ripped warrior.

My pal I met at Worlds this year, Iron Clad Ben, he made a post talking mainly about work/life balance.

I'm not so sure why, but it's got me thinking. I think I have my balance at a reasonable level, even through working two jobs. The fact that the second job, I am talking about sports, hanging out with my friends and playing Footbag in front of people, that doesn't make that job too hard.

It's interesting to see how the balance will change over time working 9-5. I have found so far that I'm mainly just coming home after work, and staying home, rather than going out anywhere. That may just be this week though, I have had another aim which is to not spend any money, and the last time I spent money was 5 days ago now, so that's been a success. I think tomorrow I should be able to keep that running, but the next day I'm heading to Sydney, so I guess that run will come to an end.

I've done it before, gone for a week without spending a cent. The main ones I remember, there were a few times when I was at uni, I simply didn't have any money, so I would just hold out until the end of the week.

Before heading to Deutschland last year, the week before leaving I decided I wouldn't spend any money, so that I would have more to spend when I was there. Also a good idea.

So anyway, going to Sydney on Thursday, should be a good time I think. Going to a work meeting, then just hanging around, mainly doing family stuff, including meeting Francisca's mum for the first time.

Well..I have talked to her on Skype a few times...

So we're having a big lunch with lots of family types. We might have an important announcement to tell them.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 21 Sep 2010 19:24

Incredible weather again, so stoked by this weather.

Played in my lunch break. Couldn't seem to get strings together, but I did finish with phoenix>tomahawk.

So I don't know, just playing is the important thing I think. Especially in my lunch break. I would really like to keep these habits going. Bringing my own ingredients for lunch, taking it to eat in the park, and getting some footbag in. Or at least some kind of activity. Footbag is a good one when you only have a 30 minute break though.

So off to Sydney tomorrow, if this kind of weather is on in Sydney, that will be real good.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 22 Sep 2010 03:36

200 more people know about Footbag.

Good session tomorrow in Sydney: me, Dyalan, Ian and Mitch on the YHA rooftop.

So I'm excited about that.

Some interesting discussion on the Australian Footbag Forum re: nationals next year.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 23 Sep 2010 21:44

Played last night with Ian and Dyalan.

Not a bad session, not great either, but it was good to kick. It's always good to kick with those guys, because we've all known each other for a really long time, we're about the same age, and we all get on pretty well with each other.

So I guess I met Ian in 2001, and Dyalan either at the end of 2003 or the start of 2004, so yeah, quite some time ago for both.

So anyway, we kicked. We were going to kick on the rooftop of the YHA, but the light wasn't good enough, so we kicked down near the harbour. The place we kicked had quite an unfortunate smell to it.

I also had a mind numbing headache which didn't make things so much fun. I didn't hit so much great stuff. Actually, I don't really remember much at all of what I hit. It was good seeing those guys those, Ian I hadn't seen since nationals almost 6 months ago, Dyalan I hadn't seen for a couple of months.

So anyway, it was good to talk to them and play a bit of footbag. Nobody had any great great highlights, but everyone had some nice runs. What always happens is that we talk too much shit and end up in fits of giggling like little schoolgirls.

Hopefully we can all go to Worlds at the same time some year, that would be awesome. If we could get like an Australian "team", that would be a lot of fun.

Dyalan is down in Canberra this weekend actually, hopefully we can get a kick in on Sunday when I return.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 25 Sep 2010 23:34

Let's start this off with something pretty exciting.

I'm getting married next year.

Big move, the boy's all grown up now...

In other news, we had a great session today, a turnout of 5. Beautiful spring weather as well. It was about 20 degrees with a light wind and the sun shining bright.

Dyalan was in town, then we had Copey, me, Caroline and Jonathan as well.

Some random guy came and gave us bananas..that was kind of weird.

So Dyalan had some great runs, some cool atomic and nuclear stuff, good shuffle.

I hit stepping ss torque which was probably my best trick of the day. It was good to have a guest in town and get some sunshine as well.

I think we'll do a small jam before the end of the year.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 28 Sep 2010 15:30

wow! congrats bro!

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 28 Sep 2010 17:14

thanks man...

if you're looking for an excuse for another Aus visit, the wedding will be in February next year.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 28 Sep 2010 20:29

Had a short session today during my lunch break. The weather was perfect spring style.

Looks like it's cooling down now, so it was good to get that in. I played in the park just down the road.

I worked on some bigger tricks, things like atomic ss dlo, fairy blender, some other stuff.

I had both those tricks come off my foot, but they were still a long way from being hit.

Looks like it's going to rain actually, I'm going to have some beers after work with some good friends I haven't seen in ages. Really looking forward to that. Just have to wait a couple of hours for that.

That's the problem with working from 9-5, those last couple of hours really drag on.

However, next week I'm doing the night shift, start at 11pm, finish at 7am...not that excited about doing that.

After tomorrow my credit card balance will be back to 0, that's good news for me.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 30 Sep 2010 17:55

It's really quite unfeasible, but it would be awesome if some of my (overseas) footbag pals came to the wedding.

It would be cool if we had a turn out including Roy, Andrew Grant, Matt Bailey, Tuukka, Anita and Verena, Alex, Flavio and Silvan, etc.

I would imagine this wedding is going to cost a lot a lot of money, hopefully a rich aunt or something will help us out in that regard.

It's my Dad's 50th birthday today. We have made him this book filled memories from his friends and family. It's turned out really awesome. So we're going to present that to him in the Blue Mountains tomorrow.

So that's my big project complete for the moment, the next big project is a really big one, it's to prepare for the wedding. Big time.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 01 Oct 2010 15:25

I had a great Footbag session yesterday with Caroline in the city after finishing work. For some reason I was just feeling really strong.

New tricks- far swirl, dragon set reverse swirl.

Off my foot for the first time- void, stepping ss dlo, far swirl on the other side, pixie swirl.

Off to the Blue Mountains today.