Christmas 2010

 This year for Christmas I had my friends Dave and Ande come and stay with me as they had moved to Queensland and had decided they would come back and spend Christmas with their families, so we had a bit of Christmas spirit, with us as they have their two daughters.

Ande decided that we needed a tree and as it was only me usually, I hadn't bothered, so she bought a tree and  her and the girls decorated it.

Second stop for the day after we all left to go our seperate ways was at the Rances, who decided id been a stranger for to long and so rang me up to come over, so ended up their for lunch and a chat and a snooze on their couch :)

After the Rances I headed over to North Richmond and visited with the Hargreaves and the Sandelin-Mccanns and watched a movie and had tea.

Who knew that huggies nappies boxes would come in so handy for a piniata :)

 It was a nice day all up and was nice to spend it with lots of friends, who have meant so much in my life from early childhood friends to people who have taken me in and looked after me well the last few years.

Rams Footy Presentation night

Last night we had our annual football presentation and it was bigger and better than usual.

U18's best and fairest winner Matt Payne, who also won best and fairest for the u18's Sydney comp.

I took alot of photos of everyone on the night, so just thought I'd show a few.

There was a tie for first grade best and fairest this year, Lachie on the right won the Sydney best and fairest as well, but Dave got enough to catch him in the club vote.

I just thought this was a cute pic of the little kid with his Dad and his trophy, he seemed really proud of him and told him to put on his medal.

A couple of familiar faces I always sit with every year :D

I  hadn't got a vote since swapping clubs to Penrith in like 6-7 years of playing, but this year it was interesting to sit there and watch while the votes were read out and actually hear my name come up  few times.  Club voting is different to Sydney comp voting as one of my team mates won the Sydney best and fairest, but only came third in the club best and fairest.

One of the first things Ande said to me, was about where I'd come from a year ago, just having finished the third of my operations and hadn't been playing footy really for a couple of years and here I was getting best and fairest for the Rams reserve grade.

       We had a band this year, who after the awards and formal part of the night  took over.

                          Some of the boys watching the big screen of the grandfinal game for the first time.

Another Season Ends

If you know me at all you know apart from certain people, there are just a few things I love and two of them are footy and also taking photos  and this year I started to combine both of them.

I've played footy for the Penrith Rams the last few odd years and this year, we hd a successful year overall after hardly winning games the last 5 years or so. 

We ended up getting two of our three teams into the grandfinal, so I ended up taking around 1300 photos for the day, kinda crazy huh, but there was so much going on and great action to be captured.

Dave in action playing his last game for the Rams, where he is well renowned taking out a few awards over the years including best and fairest, when he was much younger I might add.

 Screamers are always plentiful and I started getting a little bit better with my shots by the last few rounds and finals

 One thing I do like about footy is the comradship between all the players.

 The final was played on the home turf of the new GWS team, loved playing on a nice surface and look at the crowd, AFL is slowly becoming more apart of Western Sydney.

At the end of the day, it ended up being a loss for the senior 1st grade, but a great season.  "Rams to rise again in 2010" will be replaced with "Rams in heaven in 2011", with hopefully going another step and taking out the big game.

One win for the day out of the two, with the 18's winning quite easily which was expected with them going undefeated through the season with an average winning score of over 100 points.

I thought I'd try some different photography and headed down to Penrith's 1st grade's match, where a couple of the boys from footy, were in the team, it's alot harder trying to get good shots at Cricket compared to footy, trying to get the perfect shot.  I'm pretty sure, I need a better lense for the job, ahh to dream of all these lenses I want :(



Swans training and slotting some Goals on the SCG

Today for work I had to deliver some computers to the Sydney Swans, so after I had delivered them I asked the receptionist if training was a closed session and it was except for a group of Aboriginal kids who were in Sydney for a visit.  She goes do you want to see them train and as I'd finished my work and it was very early in the day, I said yes if possible, so she gave me a contractors pass and opened a ack door for me and took me into the SCG to see the boys train. 

I just got there as they were all coming off the ground as most of them were going to the pool, but a few of the younger guys stayed out and ran laps and sprints, so I sat down and watched them do their thing.  The Aboriginal kids all got to go onto the ground and have a kick and as they were coming off, one of the balls came my way, so I decided it was for me and emptied my pockets of keys and passes and phone and went for a bounce of the ball and kicked some goals on the field.  Oh to have a field like that to play on, the ball came back from the lush grass when you wanted it to and it was fun slotting a few goals and having pot shots from 50 metres and the feeling of what it would be like to play in front of a packed house and the atmosphere you would.  Everyone can dream right :)

Captain Kirk

The boys came back after awhile for a quick jog and warmdown, Goodsey, Jude, rising star Hannebery and big Pikey stretching out

Goodsey and I, what a nice bloke he was!!  Definitely one of the good blokes and great players

Penrith Show

Ande had some Relief Society activity on Saturday and as Dave and I didn't have any footy on this day, we decided that we'd head off to the local show and check it out.

The girls had great fun riding on the ponies and Poppy had never been on one before but rode one handed like a cowgirl

No show is complete without a dagwood dog or fairy floss

There were reptiles to handle and to feel

This goat decided my finger was more tasty than the food we had bought the girls to feed the animals

It gets a bit that way after so many visitors, the koala decided he needed a little snooze.

Mon and I rode the Dodgems as you do

The gun actually shot straight, whats up with that