Festive Season Update

Well it wasn't until Christmas Day that I was starting to feel almost normal after being sick. Went over to Mum and Dad's Christmas Eve to spend the night and do a Christmas morning there and even then wasn't feeling 100%. Still just a bit weird.

Happy to say it got better though and Christmas Day was ok for me physically. In terms of emotionally etc it was a great day. Got to spend the morning and Christmas present opening with my family early. Charlie had a ball, he absolutely loved ripping off the paper more than looking at the presents though! He got some good stuff though, in fact we all did! Awesome presents so thank you to everyone.

After a nice breakfast off the BBQ it was time to head off to Gympie and meet up with Bee's family for lunch. We left later than we wanted and traffic was a bit of a nightmare on a few occasions which meant we didn't arrive until about 13:30. Turns out they had waited for us for lunch which we told them not to do when we saw we were going to be lateish... but they also waited for presents all day too!

Opened some presents, mucked around in the spa and then had a nice lunch. Relaxed throughout the day and night with drinks, food and fun. Great way to finish off an enjoyable Christmas Family orientated day.

Boxing Day was more of the same in Gympie. Up for a nice breakfast and then we went out to the park. Despite a bit overcast weather Bee still managed to get sunburnt. We played some footy, cricket and attempted for a while to fly the kite. Then home to relax with some food and drinks and watch the cricket.

Relaxed a bit the next day with a movie (The Golden Compass... not that great) and then headed home Thursday night. Last night went out to a 10 year High School drinks affair. Not the proper reunion as that is now going to happen next year, but it was a pretty good turn out to be honest. Lots of faces you barely remember and lots of names you don't remember. Easy to do though in a class of some 400 students. I'm not sure I knew that many of them at the time, let alone now!

Got some drinks and dinner tonight with Wilson who is in town and a bunch of friends which means I need to get cleaning on the house. *sigh* And there is cricket on to distract me too...

Can't blog, sick.

In honour of Ben's Can't blog, working blog, I'll do a similar one.

Had today and yesterday off work sick. Very, very sick yesterday. Can't remember the last time I vomited prior to yesterday but more than made up for the memories of whenever it was yesterday.

Still not the best but at least my stomach has calmed down.

Better shake it soon as I still have some Christmas shopping to do!

Small Update

While I don't really have a true topic for this blog I thought it's been a while I should perhaps blog something. At least that way I can continue to show Ben up who has become ridiculously slack at updating his own blog after sledging my commitment to mine multiple times.

As discussed previously last night was the last informal and completely voluntary end of year training down the club. I'll need to try and get off my arse now and keep something going. Here's hoping that can happen.

On Monday I attended my Bee's University Graduation ceremony. She looked very smart dolled up in her gown and mortarboard and I think she enjoyed herself as she didn't stop smiling most of the afternoon. Congratulations baby on your achievement, I am very proud of you. I'll pop some pics up on Facebook sometime soon and will post some on Picasa as well.

Other than that life goes on. Finished up the latest poker nights down the club. Had a shot at winning overall for the 6 weeks if I managed to win the last night and Spyder came last but in the end I came last on the night. I think that put me 2nd overall, maybe not as it might have slipped me down. Either way I played better and was happy with my efforts.

Still preparing for Christmas. Spent some time shopping over the last couple of weeks and have some kick arse presents lined up for people. They better damn appreciate them! :p Still got a few outstanding but lots less than normal for this time so hopefully can knock them off in the next few days.

Wilson is arriving in the land of Bris Vegas sometime today I believe. Should be a good chance to catch up with him again after not seeing in a year or so. Am looking forward to that.

Anyway this was always going to be a small, disjointed update. No real intent. Just to share a bit of what is happening.

Bye bye 7 a side

Well last night saw the end of the social 7 a side comp I've been running a team in. Quite enjoyable in the last few games but I did find it a bit hard early on to get into it and enjoy it.

Chatting to a few of the boys last night and it is amazing how important that cliched "Match fitness" is. The first few games I struggled to recover from little darts around the field. Towards the end I was recovering faster and still running at the end of the game. I found that in the latter half of the proper season this year too. Match fitness is not just a myth.

Now I get to look forward to the long few months ahead before any footy is available to play or watch. Sure pre-season will start about the 11th January or something like that but our first matches, even of the practice variety, won't be for a month or more after that. So what to do in the meantime?

I guess I'll continue to attend the voluntary training on Tuesday nights, but that ends next week. I'll then have to try and go for a bit of a run and keep up some level of push ups/sit ups etc in the meantime to tide me over until pre-season. And then the pain begins.

Still at a much improved level of fitness from last year so here's hoping that a full pre-season awaits and it knocks me into even better shape before the matches begin. And then here's hoping that match fitness kicks in sometime quickly after that and I can get cracking on playing good footy.

Alcohol

Alcohol is like family members you never get to see. It's great to catch up with them and have a good time but it always ends up in drama and mess later. Family fights and dramas in the case of old family members, hungoverdness (yes that is now a word) and the inability to function as a human being in the case of alcohol.

Saturday night was obviously a huge night. Obviously in the sense that while it was truly enjoyable and I had a good time my body has been telling me for the last 24 hours or so (since I woke up yesterday) that it was bigger than I thought. I'm going to take it's word for it.

Yesterday saw me sleep, get up to eat some Bacon & Egg subway (thanks baby), sleep some more then get up and collapse on the couch for the remainder of the day. While I've been hung over before this was a weird new style I can't remember experiencing. Even now, as I sit here, I feel like I can't think straight and just need to rest my head. Obviously maybe not so much hung over as very drained and tired now but the after effects go on.

My usual chat buddy isn't in the office today (damn you Jamie!) so I feel like I'm alone in this office despite being surrounded by people and my fellow team members. Just going to concentrate on getting through the day for now, hope everyone else's weekend was a good one.

Happy Birthday Bee

Just a quick shout out to my Belinda to wish her a very Happy Birthday. Hope you have a great day babe and all the best for the future! :) :)

Big things...

... in Australia we're somewhat obsessed with "big things".

Here is one for you Ben... not sure how much you're following Aussie news while over there.



And there is an entire gallery of the production process here

Form

Form is such a fluctuating thing. The last couple of Tuesdays, and even Thursdays at 7 a side, I've felt that I've been out of form when it comes to playing the game of Aussie Rules.

My kicking is struggling, my marking is struggling and generally I don't feel confident anymore as a result... which means it is only going to get worse. Is it possible that I am getting worse instead of better? Is it temporary and when I get back into the full swing of twice a week training plus games on weekends that it'll return? These are the things that I'm pondering somewhat.

If I continue to train as I did last night I'll be playing 4ths for Yeronga next year... and yes there is no 4ths at Yeronga. I was absolutely shithouse. Every kick I attempted I either stabbed the ground with my foot, it came off the side of my foot, it wobbled towards the target and didn't make the distance or just sprayed off in some entirely wrong direction. I'm not setting myself up well in other's eyes for my desire to play 2s next year that's for damn sure.

In my defence I just wasn't in the zone mentally last night. I rocked up late to training, I had little sleep and felt drained and just couldn't get going. But basically I felt like I shouldn't have bothered showing up and I was worse off for showing up than I would have been sitting at home.

7 a side I've been playing ok but dropping marks and not quite putting in 100% commitment when it comes to making a hit or getting to my opponent to put pressure on his possession, or attempt to gain possession.

Hopefully it's all just a temporary form/motivation/whatever thing and it'll pass. For now I'm desperately clinging to that famous Aussie Rules quote "You're only as good as your last game" in an effort to maintain some level of reputation as being able to somewhat play this game. For those that don't know the 3rds last game of the season I was awarded Best on Ground in the official vote and kicked my highest ever tally of 3 goals. Hopefully, at some point, that sort of form can return...

The Great Babysitting Experiment

So Sunday saw Bee and I embark on a great adventure. The quest? To babysit my 18 month old munchkin nephew for an entire day from the time he woke up until about 2000 that night.

Now we've never looked after him for more than a handful of minutes without someone else in the room, let alone completely by ourselves prior to this so we were unsure as to how it would go. I didn't think about it too much, had way too much other stuff going on, in the week leading up to Sunday but I must admit Saturday got me feeling a tad nervous about the situation.

My big worry was that he would crack the shits and we'd be unable to control him. Or worse, that he'd start asking for his Mumma or Dadda and we'd be unable to produce them and that would lead to massive drama. Even his Nan & Pa (my Mum and Dad) were out of town which left us without much of a fallback.

I'm happy to report that the day was a blinding success. There was only a few minor hiccups including; a head bump against a door frame, him not really wanting to take his mid morning nap (solved by us driving back to our place an hour or so earlier as we knew he'd fall asleep in the car) and a bit of attachment issues. There were points during the afternoon if I took a couple of steps away from him he started to whimper and complain. Hey, I can't help it, I am THAT important to ppl... and you readers out there have always scoffed at this suggestion of mine :p

Anyway it was a fun day albeit slightly tiring. Which wasn't helped by not being able to sleep much due to my itching dramas. I really gotta go to a Doctor about it... but that's another story. So happily the day went well and we had a happy and very well behaved boy most of the day. We rock! :) I think I love the little guy more than before, if that's possible, and like to think it helped to cement our status as importantish people in his life.