Fooling around with pics

 A couple of weekends ago, it was a stunning day, so thought id grab the camera and head up and have a look at Warragamba dam and go to Bents basin and fool around and take some pics.

Labour Day Long Weekend

 Grand Final day loomed large, after my Crows losing the week before to miss out on a Grand Final spot, it came down to one of my favourite teams the Swans and half the Family's team the Hawks, so it was a toss up, who I should be barracking for for the day, witht the Swans just winning out.  I ended up going around to watch the game with a few friends from footy and their wives/partners/girlfriends and having a bbq, with only a couple of people cheering the Hawks on and the rest wanting the Swans to get up as we were all Sydneysiders.

 

 How do you like my lovely Locks?!  I think they suit me down to a T :D

 The lovely hosts for the day, Dave and Corinne, Dave is the first grade captain for the footy team and one of the most courageous players you will see going around.

 Saturday night I ended up going to a friends 40th birthday bash, his wife had arranged her dance studio and designed it be be like a casino as her hubby works as a head security guy down at the Star City Casino down in the city.  She had arranged for a few different games, so we all got some chips, with blackjack being the only game I understood, so I blew all her money playing that, actually I did pretty good and came second for the night in chips, nothing like spending someone elses pretend money and going all in!

 Monday I thought that I'd finally pull the kayak off my garage wall and take it for a spin, I ended up going to the other part of the Lane Cove river, but I liked the other part more that was in the national park as there was more wildlife and fish and birds to see.

 It was a gorgeous day to just float along and enjoy the sights and hear the birds chirping away.

 Not far from the city of Chatswood at all, but you wouldnt know it with how quiet and relaxing it was.

The holy Grail

This year I was chosen to captain the reserve grade Penrith Rams football team.  Last year we were runners up and we were again able to make it back into the Grand Final after losing our first final and then having to win the next two matches to get back to the final.  I spent the qualifying final on the sidelines with the coaching staff as I had been pretty sick all week and it was thought best for the team that I dropped out and gave someone else my spot.  Before the game leading up to the team being picked, I kept getting text messages asking what I thought about this person or that person and got a couple of phone calls about myself and how I was to see if I would play, it's interesting having a say on who should get a spot in a team over someone else.  Can't say I enjoyed the experience of watching the team running around and me standing there and not being able to do anything to help get us into the final.

On the Monday night before the final, the best and fairest count for Sydney AFL was on and this year I was asked if I wanted to go along to it with a few other people from the club, coaches and players who were a chance for awards from the rounds during the year.  It was a formal occasion and the girls from the club who were in their first year in the competition were the ones with the awards for our mob who were there with one of them being in the team of the year and another of them getting the rising star award.  It was a good night out with a good meal and all you could drink.

  

I was very nervous during the week as there were another 2-3 guys as well as I, wanting to get back into the team and there wasn't really anyone who had played bad the last final or game before that.  I put in at training and every mistake I made I thought  "that's not good" wonder what everyone is thinking.  I usually don't doubt myself playing footy, but I went through a stage for a couple of games, where I made mistakes and kept getting reminded of it, so it plays on your mind a bit.

I found out Thursday night that I would get to play and Friday I had off work, so it was nice to relax and not have to worry till lunchtime when the official team would be posted, to see if I would get the chance to play the final.  I was still hanging out all morning while at LunaPark, checking my phone to see who was in the team and whose position I had taken.

 Saturday morning, the day of the game, I was awake early and excited to be playing, Lisa and the boys had spent the week up here and were staying with me and Lisa had gone to the temple to do an early session, so I took Harri and Kobe and went for a walk to the supermarket to get some powerade and other things to help me during the day.  I had spent most of the week taking all kinds of pills and liquids to get me well again and ready to play.  One of my friends Woody had been picking me up and dropping me home from training all week as Lisa had the car to get around, so he dropped by a couple of hrs before kickoff and picked me up and we went down to the giants first home ground at Rooty Hill, where four finals were to be held that day, with ours being the second one kicking off.

After getting to the ground which is only 10 minutes away, we had a bit of a kick around inside the changing room and got rid of some pregame nerves, then we all got changed into our game gear, so we could get a team photo done by the Sydney AFL photographer.  After the photo we went into our usual game day preperations, preparing just like we normally would do for a normal game, as when the first ball goes up, it's just us and the ball and everything is just another game.  We actually warmed up pretty well for once, usually people just dawdle in and do their own thing, but this day we were pretty together and the skills were pretty decent.

 I started off the bench instead of my usual position in the backline and after the first 5 mins  we were under the pump. we soon got on top and kicked the first three goals.  I got my chance to get on the field, starting on the wing and forward line and coming on and off when I was needed, escaping the backline except for about 5 mins, when two of our players collided and one came off concussed and the other came off for a few minutes groggy. I ended up playing most of the second half.

 We were well on top for the first two quarters and the halftime break came up.  This year we broke games open in like 10 minute bursts, but we seemed to always be on top, but then would fadeout for a quarter or so and this game proved to be no different, with our third quarter being the fadeout this game, with our opponents Gosford hitting back and getting within a few points of us.  The last quarter we ended up kicking the only goal and winning by three goals, which was closer than Gosford should have got with us kicking 9 goals and 16 behinds for the game and having 11 more scoring shots.

 As captain I had to give a speech, thanking our opponents and also the crowd who we could hear all day as they were loud in support of us and also giving it to the other team.  I should have thought more about the speech as I left out thanking and mentioning people, who were with the team all year.There were a few of the boys in the team who had lost a grandfinal with me or had lost two grandfinals in a row, so it was nice to celebrate the win with them after all the preseason we had done and all the trainings, even some sessions with the cold and rain.  It was also nice to have Lisa, Jay, Harri and Kobe there for the final, as they hadn't seen me play competition footy before and also to have a photographer for the day.  Thanks for the pics Marge!! :) And thanks to Ed also, for the pic I stole from him :)

It was nice to play with a great bunch of guys and make history as the Rams reserve grade had never won the GrandFinal before, having been in a couple of more grandfinals.

If you want to, you can still watch the match or medal presentations, just click on the link below.

http://new.livestream.com/digitalsportslive/events/1448984 

Wondering

Do you ever think if you disappeared if someone would miss you, or how long it would take for someone to realise you weren't around!?  Just a thought for you to ponder, is there someone out there who needs a call or a message, just to let them know you care and they are important.

Footy days.

 I find myself throwing myself into football more and more these days, I didn't grow up playing footy, but took it up when I was 24 and had moved to Sydney.  It's kind of weird really, Tassie is a big footy playing state, and NSW is a rugby league state and there's always competition between the two codes, but somehow I only ended up playing once I had moved.

 Do you ever feel like you have found a groove for yourself?  Something your actually not bad at!?  I grew up and was very uncoordinated and always took extra time trying to learn sports, I always had to do extra practice or sit back and watch a drill for awhile until I got it into my head what we were supposed to be doing.

I still have to sit back and watch some new drills for awhile, before I'm confident of what we're doing, but these days I have self confidence in myself on the field in actual games and really enjoy playing.

 Actually I'm not enjoying the backline a real lot!! :)  I guess you have to take the good and the bad and this year after making the grandfinal last year, we have had to start our team over again, with a lot of new players, in our first round out of the 22 from the grandfinal, we only ended up having 6 from that team.

If you get the chance, get down to your local park and have a look at the team going around, there's nothing quite like having a crowd to watch you play and they make you play that little extra hard.

23,800 views

I think that's crazy that I have had that many views on my blog, thanks family :)  It's actually pretty interesting to see where people are looking at it from around the world and wondering who they are and where they have come from.  A lot of people come from my Sisters blog after the last 6 months or so.

Actually I think it's to do with this guy who I miss very much and also to do with my nephew Noah who passed away  6 months ago now.

I've also been missing my Pop who I spent a lot of time growing up with.

Nan and Pop were such a great couple, they would do anything they could for you.

I woke up today and decided today would be a good day for me, I thought putting good thoughts straight into my head would help, work also helped with having a pretty easy day, so I actually got a lunch break at lunch time and so I went and had a walk along the rocks and sat awhile.

Easter Monday 2012

 Monday morning I got a text from Steph asking what we were doing, so we called her back and we all decided to head down to Port Sorell and spend some time down at Hawley Beach.  The weather wasn't real hot, the sun wasn't scorching, but we headed on down anyway.

 I'm not sure who grabbed my camera, but these are the results.

 I always laugh at myself when i see pictures of me kicking, with me pulling a face or the tongue hanging out, I wonder what I look like in a real game and I'm about to get hit for real.

 Ty and Cade came down to the beach for a kick with us for awhile until we got tired and hot.  Cade had just got back from serving a mission for two years from Japan, so it was good to see him while I was down, now to get Cade to move up to Sydney to try out for the giants! :)

 Eden has a kicking face too I see

 Haz and Jay playing in the water.

 Lachie

After a bit Eden and I were saying how flat it looked out there and we hadn't gone fishing as it was supposed to be a bit windy for boating, but Eden thought it looked ok, so Eden, Jared and I went to Eden's and picked up his boat and thought we'd try and catch some fish.

 We headed back to the family first and picked up Jay, who is always up for a fishing trip and Lachie also wanted to come, so we waded out and grabbed him too.  The water was a little choppy out, so we ended up trying to find a place where it was a little calmer and Jared and Eden were able to catch a few flathead and after a bit, we lost two rigs and were all pretty cold, so decided to call it a day and headed in. 

Was nice seeing all the family and getting to spend some time with them over Easter, it did seem different than usual though without Noah and also the clown of the family Aaron.