What's this? There's colour everywhere...

Christmas!!!

***

I don't know how I went for so long without ever watching Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's awesome. I borrowed the soundtrack from my library today and am now listening to it on repeat, learning all the lyrics.

What's this?
There are children throwing snowballs
Instead of throwing heads
They're busy building toys
And absolutely no-one's dead

Turns out I should have worked a bit harder at learning the lyrics to certain extremely well-known carols. That or learning how to count backwards from twelve. Whatever, New Tradition: Carols By Candelight was a (very cold and windy) success!



***

I have worked in retail for a ridiculous number of years, and for at least the last THREE, I have had Christmas Eve off. This year I was scheduled to work, but in a Christmas miracle, got it off, so I could continue my Wishing Tree Present-Buying Tradition.

Which was slightly not as per tradition, as the Wishing Tree people had evidently decided that yes, we should make more decisions at Christmas, and forced us to pick our own girl/boy aged [blank]. SO HARD.

In the end, I sat down and wrote a number so I wouldn't continue wandering around, changing my mind every five steps, or worse, end up with a present for a five year old boy that he could share part of with his sixteen year old sister and also his grandma. Actually that sounds rather nice.

***

For Christmas I bought myself a new hair straightener, my housemates a vacuum, and books for everyone I know.

Oh! And a Christmas tree! A real one! The discovery that this is a real thing that you can do (as in, you can do it without having to fly to America/Europe/The North Pole) is still very exciting to me.



***

I saw Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, at Marion while I was Christmas Eve traditioning. It's pretty cool that she just wanders around shopping centres having coffee (and posing for photos for ages. Seriously, I did all my 'maybe a three year old girl?' 'maybe a ten year old boy?' shopping while she was taking photos. That is a long time).



***

I visited my Grandma for Christmas Eve Carols and Mass. And SERIOUSLY, People In Charge Of My Traditions, WHY MUST YOU CHANGE THEM? 'Happy Christmas' is the exit song. Followed by 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas.' That is all. I expect the world to be back on its Christmas tradition axis by next year, thank you.



After our Christmas Treats With Grandma Tradition, we continued our Awesome Present Buying Tradition. This year's theme? Replacement jewelery. (Not sure if you can see that we're wearing matching necklaces, or that I'm wearing three. Not pictured: the ring I will get the next day.)



***

Christmas Day included a Not Quite As Good As The Real Thing, But Still Pretty Fun: Opening Presents Via Skype Tradition. Books! And more books!

***

Last year, at the Bay Sports Festival, I got the most ridiculous sunburn: a rectangle on my back with a zigzaggy top. So this year, I was careful about my back, which of course means I have a ring of sunburn around my belly-button, a line across the middle of my thigh, and a squiggle in the middle of my chest. It was a lovely day for playing frisbee (if you are the rest of the frisbee community) or lazing around at the beach watching frisbee (if you are me, and have a No Exercise In December Tradition to uphold).



***

And one more photo, because I missed posting about the SAFDAs and this awesome dress - which you can't really see - when they actually happened, and also I like this picture.



Merry Christmas, Everyone.

Christmas Pageant!

When we were young, we would fly down to Adelaide for Christmas, and since we would always have missed the Pageant (which is held in November, way too early for school holidays to be on), Grandma would have taped it for us (on videotape!). Watching the video of the Christmas Pageant was one of our Adelaide Christmas traditions.

Then I moved to Adelaide, but between my liking for sleep-ins and the fact that I was working in retail, I never made it to the Pageant.

UNTIL NOW! The moment I've been waiting 25 years for finally arrived, and It. Was. Awesome.

Step One: Pancake breakfast! For extra fun, require that the pancakes be Christmas-themed!




Step Two (not shown on tv, for maximum suprise fun on the day): Draw on the road with chalk! Age is not a factor on Pageant Day!




Step Three: Find a good place from which to watch the Pageant. As you are walking the route and searching for the perfect spot, pretend you are in the Pageant.



Step Four: Enjoy the Pageant.



4.1 Realise that your dream of riding Nimble in the Pageant will probably never come true, despite your excellently thought-out plan of having the little girl currently riding him fall off just in front of where you are standing, and then being the one picked to replace her for the rest of the Pageant.
4.2 Realise that the clowns probably won't be coming all the way back there to high-five you; make do with police officers instead.
4.3 Enjoy making people smile by your energetic waving, and sincerely love the ones who are enjoying it as much as you are, especially the kid in the toy truck who was going crazy with the dancing and the waving and the thumbs up.



Step Five: Wave to Santa. Have Santa turn to wave to the other side of the street as he goes past you.



Have Santa turn back to you at the last possible second, and wave to you AND BLOW A KISS DIRECTLY TO YOU OMG that was so awesome. Pass out from the excitement of it all.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 29

Oh, look at that. We jumped straight from Day 16 to Day 29. It's like I don't even understand the concept of posting every single day.

Day 16, you may remember, was the one where I whined about the hardship that is going away for awesomely fun frisbee tournaments. So... about that.

OF COURSE Mixed Nats was heaps of fun. OF COURSE my team was great. OF COURSE I did some not great things, and some average things, and some amazing things. OF COURSE it was worth the trip.

I got all the major stats: a run-though D, an assist, a couple of goals. Oh and a turnover! I skyed a boy, occasionally got the timing of my cuts right, and I stopped my player touching the disc for a really long point.

OH AND! I realised my life-long dream of eating dessert first, when the buffet was temporarily out of mains. I was starving, and there were four kinds of cake to be eaten. Was else was I going to do?

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 16

I think I will be making a mistake going to Mixed Nats this year.

Not a terrible, horrible, going to ruin my life kind of mistake.

Just the fact that of two sets of circumstances, one would have been better, and I chose not that one.

Then I just kept going along and going along, and now we're less than a week out and it's really pretty much too late not to go. All there is to do is go and run around and have as much fun as possible and don't take it too seriously and make the best of an okay situation.

(Which is unfortunate, because if I decide to skip Nationals next year, because constantly going to frisbee tournaments costs money, I will be doing it backwards, going to Mixed Nats and skipping Nats instead of skipping Mixed Nats and going to Nationals. Silly girl.)

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 13

I have some BIG NEWS. I have decided what I want to be when I grow up. Not only that, but I am taking steps to make it happen.

I have been accepted to uni! I will be studying a Master of Library and Information Services.

AND

I got a job! A casual job at a library, which will give me some library work experience to go with my new studies.

And you know what that means? (The second part of that, at least.) Battlestar Galactica Season Four! Oh yeah.*

*I told myself I couldn't get the fourth season til I got a "real job." This is not quite that, but since I have decided to study, a real/full-time job wasn't really a viable option anymore. That and I certainly wasn't waiting eighteen more months to watch it. STARBUCK!

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 11

1. I think making a team is a big deal, and that being asked/selected to represent a club/state/country is a big deal. The uniform you wear is important.

2. I know I said that playing on so many different teams is cool, but I was young and naive then. It's not really all that cool. A little more structure and club loyalty would be very welcome right about now.

3. There's kind of a contract involved when you sign up to play for a team. You're promising to come to trainings and get fit, and they're promising to hold trainings and SUPPLY YOU WITH A UNIFORM.

I think all three of these points combine to explain why I am beyond disappointed that I will not be getting my own uniform, with my own name and number on the back. (The fact that the number I will wear was my first choice of number (which I couldn't have had) maybe makes it worse.) This is going to ruin a year-old tradition.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 8

Alternate Title: It's Friday somewhere, right?

To promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month, someone - my best guess is someone who specialises in handbag B&E - has started a thing going on Facebook, whereby women are encouraged to change their status to [Whoever] likes it [wherever]. "It" refers to her handbag, but shh, don't tell anyone, cos it sounds like she likes having sex on the coffee table, on the end of the bed, wherever it's convenient, etc.

It's hilarious! Joke's on you, fellas! And what's more, it's raising awareness. Of ... women's favourite sexual positions? NO! Of Breast Cancer, obviously.

How about this, Facebook? The only way it's actually raising awareness of breast cancer is if it somehow (I'm thinking a hashtag, but I may be getting my social media confused) contains a reference to breasts, cancer, or awareness.

Otherwise, it's just an annoying (and very, very occasionally very, very briefly amusing) way to clutter up my Facebook news feed. Which should be kept for actually important things. Clearly.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 7

October, apparently, is now costume party month. (Possibly it's always been this way, what with Halloween occurring in it and all, and I just haven't noticed, since we never really 'did' Halloween when I was young, unless you count it being used as the theme for our Semester Two School Socials.)

I need to come up with three costumes, to which I am assigning a budget of, say, $1. Okay, $1 each.

Costume 1: Something starting with H. Horse, hermit crab, hadrosaurus. Hercules, the Hydra, Helen of Troy. Hornblower, Huckleberry Finn, Captain Hook. Hairy Maclary, Humpty Dumpty, Old Mother Hubbard. Hiro Nakamura, Howard Wolowitz, Han Solo. Or - with the benefit of ease (due to the low price of black material) if not too much originality - Harry Potter or Hermione Granger?

Costume 2: Something to do with GOLD. Princess Leia's gold bikini? Gold Bond-girl body paint? Wear a gold dress? Yellow toga that I already own?

Costume 3: Anything at all. This might appear attractive at first - you can go as whatever you want! - but really? TOO VAGUE.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 6

Also titled, Remembering Why Frisbee Is Fun

One of my teams this season is called the Menagerie. This is awesome for an as yet undetermined number of reasons, but we'll start a list and see what happens, and also it's almost midnight, so I'm cutting this pretty close.

1. It's kind of funny hearing other team captains' pronunciation of "menagerie." Sometimes it comes out very French and these are my favourite times.

2. Each week we pick a different animal to be. We've had moose, weevils, wildebeest, Aragog, and some others that I can't remember at ten to midnight. Today we were the Giraffes.

3. We have very fun girls on our team, so while the boys are off talking tactics, we are discussing the characteristics of our animal and how they apply to frisbee, and deciding what sound our animal makes, and developing animal-specific high fives. We have to do everything.

Also sometimes we get Vili's (24-hour bakery) afterwards. Yay Menagerie!

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 5

Shows That Are Awesome: Fringe.

Part One in a series, no doubt, because I am bad at finding things to talk about.

Fringe is an awesome show. You should watch it. I don't want to say it's like The X-Files, because that sounds too dorky, and also I never really watched too much of The X-Files. But regardless, perfectly "explainable" "scientific" occurrences occur, and the Fringe team is sent to investigate. That's what it's about. As for why you should you watch it, there are three reasons:

1. Joshua Jackson. My childhood crush from The Mighty Ducks. Frequently the only good part of Dawson's Creek. I really shouldn't need to provide any more incentive.

2. John Noble as Walter Bishop. Dude is amazing as the confused, brilliant Dr Walter Bishop, and is being awesome some more this season as Walternate.

3. Anna Torv. Did you know she's Australian? Me neither. Her boring-at-first-glance FBI character Olivia is seriously amazingly acted. This season, Anna Torv is essentially playing four different characters:
- Olivia
- Alternate Universe Olivia
- Alternate Universe Olivia pretending to be Olivia
- Olivia with the memories of Alternate Universe Olivia.
I don't usually care about how nuanced a performance is, I watch television purely for the entertainment factor, but seriously, the subtle differences she's playing here are so impressive.

Oh yeah, and she has gorgeously long hair, which is pretty much all a character needs for me to love her.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 4

I am not adventurous with my hair. I like it long. (It's easier to feel like a princess with long hair.) Every now and then I'll get a bigger trim than usual and freak out about how "short" it is. Last summer I got a fairly massive cut, to somewhere near my shoulders.

I immediately started growing it out.

Not that I didn't like it short, cos I did. I wasn't a fan of the inbetween stages, but hey, that's what ponytails are for. I finally feel like it's something approaching long. Yay! Anyway, I was due for a trim and decided to do something crazy - for me, anyway.



It has never looked that since, but I still like it. Now the rest of it just needs to grow another 10-15 centimeters and I'll be happy!

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 3

This marks the first weekend in many many months where I have been able to:
1*. not have my heater on at night
2. open up all the windows and doors during the day
3. hang my washing up outside and expect it to dry before it got rained on
4. sit outside reading a book, become engrossed in the book, forget the time, and end up with ridiculous-looking sunburn lines.
Good times.

I really really don't like winter. It depresses me. Not like I actually suffer from depression, but it makes me less inclined to go outside, play sport, go shopping or to the beach, spend time with other people if it involves me leaving the warmth and comfort of my house, etc. I am a boring, sooky person in winter (but I do get caught up on my books and tv shows).

Every year I throw up my hands and say I'm moving, and one day it will not be a joke. I can not handle this cold-weather shit for the rest of my life. I am (pale-ass skin notwithstanding) a shorts and singlet, out in the sunshine, no need to grab a jacket kind of person.

Daylight Savings started today, and I am taking that and the getting-to-awesome weather we've had so far this weekend as a sign that summer is on its way, and I can be happy again. Yay for the sun!

*Shut up. It's a tradition.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 2

I was going to say something about this being a struggle already, which led me to (what has just now become) the topic of today's post: words and phrases that annoy me.

Definitely on the list*: Struggletown. Maybe this is because it is chiefly used on Facebook to indicate someone who should be working on their essay but is instead on the internet whinging about hard it all is for them (Struggletown always has a population of one). Most people on Facebook are procrastinating to some extent and I fail to see how any of them can claim to be the only citizen of Struggletown (ick).

Next: Epic. Win. Fail. They all go together, and I especially hate the former being used in conjunction with either of the latter two. Epic (like awesome and literally) is ridiculously (a) overused (b) incorrectly. Epic should conjure up epicness, and instead it somehow equals, to my mind, nerds and their computer games. Fail I dislike because the situation indicated is rarely an actual fail - how many things are unsalvageable fails? Not many. Don't be so negative! Which of course leaves me with win, which is hardly negative, but I have to return to my nerd point, that is to say, point about nerds. Yes, nerds are taking over the world, but it doesn't mean we all have to speak in their monosyllabic sentences.

And finally, any word that can be used to fill in the blank in this sentence: "You're such a [retard, jerk, loser, etc]." Don't say retard! Don't call names! Don't put people down!

*Hee! Lists! Again!

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 1

Me: NaBloPoMo, where the object is to post every single day.
Everyone In The World: HAHAHAHAHA. HAAAAA!

Anyway.

The theme is PLAY.

I play Ultimate Frisbee. I am going to Mixed Nats to play lots of frisbee in less than three weeks. I am ... less than keen to go. How bad is that?! Let's try and figure out why I feel like this, okay? Okay.

1)* I was planning a road trip to the tournament with my best work friends. This has been cancelled and now I have to fly on a boring old aeroplane instead of cruising around to every country bakery from here to Bathurst.

2) My awesome fun Pillow Fight team is not going, and now I have to play with stupid successful Smurf, who were nice enough to ask me to play with them and I should be grateful for the opportunity.

3) My best frisbee friends aren't going and I will have no friends (on three whole teams of SA people).

4) (a) We have not trained as a team and
4) (b) I haven't trained by myself meaning
4) (c) I will mess up the plays and
4) (c) I am not fit at all and
4) (d) I've lost all my sprintyness.
(And also I (e) suck on defense, which is now, you know, my job.) I don't want to suck! I am supposed to be a Player To Watch!

On the other hand, there's only three weeks to go. Too late now! No point worrying! Let's just go and have some fun! Yeah? Maybe.

GO SMURF!!!

*Lists! And it's only Day 1!

Stolen

Today at work my housemate called to say we had been broken into. It looked like nothing had been taken but I should check when I got home.

I checked. Something had been taken. All my jewelery.

A couple of Christmases ago, Skywalker bought me a lovely silver jewelery box. I kept it in a shelf with other 'looking pretty' stuff - hair clips and ribbons and costume jewelery. The jewelery box was there, but open, and empty. (The stuff I had lying around on my dresser was untouched. And it was Tiffany, too. Idiot thieves.)

None of it was very expensive. Although the pendant and matching ring my Grandma gave me for my 18th wouldn't have been exactly cheap, it wasn't that expensive and it was the most valuable of the lot. But I started making a list for the cops, and everything item on the list, instead of starting with 'gold' or 'sapphire' began with the occasion or person connected to it: "18th" "Confirmation" "Gma/Winky".

When my Grandmother died, she passed on a pearl necklace to my dad. He gave it a friend of the family (after whom I was named), and when she died, she gave it back to him. When I got it, there was a note, all yellowed and creased, saying she felt she'd only been holding it for him for me.

I don't wear it that much; it's pretty but fairly old-fashioned looking. But I wore it for my birthday this year. I'm wearing it in that photo, although you can't see it very well. (Yeah, turns out all the times I'm photographed wearing my jewelery, the photos are of me, not my neck or fingers or wrists. Shocking, I know.) When I got home that night, I took it off, carefully placed it in its box, and teared up as I read the note. If only I had been a bit sloppier, tossed it down, carelessly left it on the dresser, I would probably still have it.

I called my dad straight away. To tell him what had happened, so someone would give me a hug, even if it was from across the country. But the real reason was to say: I'm sorry, Dad and Winky and Grandma V. You all kept it for me and I didn't manage to keep it safe, but I tried.

And now some loser who didn't even know to wear gloves when breaking and entering has my memories, and is probably giving them to his crackwhore of a girlfriend as we speak. Happy Important Family Mementos Day, fucker.

Eating And Driving

This visit from the boys was a little different to our past ones. No big trips were scheduled - no Great Ocean Road or Odyssey Trip. No old favourites were automatically pencilled in - probably due to the mere six month gap between this and the last visit.

Instead we had zero plans, unless they were of the Last Minute or What Should We Do Tomorrow? or That Sounds Cool variety. This resulted in what shall be known as the Holiday Of Eating And Driving.

We ate at bakeries, pubs, pancake houses, all-you-can-eat diners. We drove north (to a wheelchair basketball game that just finished), south (to the Fruchocs factory, where we proceeded to add imperfect chocolates to our menu), east (to Hahndorf, home of bakery, pub, and elusive doughnut place), and ... actually we didn't drive west, as that's the beach, and this is winter.

It was the holiday of frisbee, BSG, card games, and books. And for the old guys it was the holiday of woodturning.

It was pretty awesome, as always.

Which is more fascinating? A frisbee blog or a knitting blog?

It is winter here in Australia, the alleged land of eternal sunshine and hot weather. IT'S A LIE, I TELL YOU. Not the winter part, the sunshine part. The winter part is very very true right now, and very very cold.

The other thing that's happening right now is that frisbee is taking a little holiday. It's flown off to play in the sunshine (and lightning storms, so I hear) of Prague. Go Smurf!* This is awesome for me, because it means I get a whole month off** in which to eat, do zero exercise, and get massively fat and lazy.

*And Pie Wagon and Kaboom! And u19s and u23s, coming soon to a Germany and Italy near you.

**Actually, it has come to my attention that I have to go back to school frisbee next Monday. Robbed!

So I find myself in need of a project. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to tackle something I've never done before, which results in a very tangible way to measure how good I am (or not) at said new skill. Two bad ideas that taste awesome together.

I have decided to knit a scarf.

I found the address of a knitting shop, went in and told the woman what I wanted to do. She presented me with all kinds of options - for designs, for patterns, for wool - all of which were met with a vague "Um, yes? I don't really know. I guess so?" Once she cottoned on (that's not really a knitting pun) to the fact that I had less than no clue about all this stuff, she made a decision on the pattern, told me which section of wools I should be looking at, and left me to pick a colour that took my fancy.

I chose a purple mixed with black, paid for it all (I would never really pay $30 for a scarf), and that's how I ended up sitting in Adelaide airport with my dad and my brother (Skywalker was surprisingly good at following the pattern instructions, by the way) trying to figure out which exact piece of wool I was supposed to put the needle under and then around? Or though there? Oh well, that'll do! (In case it's not obvious, I would welcome any help the internet has to offer!)

I think my stilted efforts were causing pain to the lady sitting across from us, but she came over and whipped off a couple of stitches and flipped it around and got me going again - all at a supersonic speed - without laughing or crying, so all was well.

Yesterday I decided to figure out this casting off business, so I am now the proud owner of ... maybe a wristband? A remote control rest? An unassembled scrunchie? Plus I have started on the official scarf, which is currently about as long as my practice piece.

I feel like a month may not have been enough time for this project.

Phone Manners

I was looking at a book yesterday about blogs and the internet, which devoted an entire chapter to 'netiquette' - don't write emails all in caps, don't respond to trolls, things like that. It finished with a lovely 'be nice to people on the internet' kind of message.

However, I'm thinking that someone needs to write a book along the same lines about mobile phones. And the manners associated therewith.

It will discuss, primarily, what I have recently determined to be my Rule #1: NO PHONE CONTACT BETWEEN 10PM AND 10AM.

If I could turn my phone off when I go to sleep, I would. However, I frequently get 'called in' by work at the uncivilized hour of 8:30 or 9am, and I like money, so my phone has to stay on. This, unfortunately for me (as I like my sleep sometimes even more than my money), has led to phone calls or messages being received at the following times in the past week: 7:34am, 12:30am, 8:58am, and 9:07am. THIS IS NOT COOL.

Please see Rule #1 and you may also note that emails are really effective, quieter than a phone call or text message, and will be answered if I am awake (something I can't promise with a midnight text message, which is just as likely to be deleted and my phone hurled across the room. Then you'll never get an answer.).

17

You can pretend we're making 1-7 instead of two 7s.

I feel a little sorry for 17. It's sandwiched between 16 (drivers licence) and 18 (alcohol) and so fades into the background. But I liked 17. It was year 12, other people's 18ths, and lots of basketball. But as far as parties go, yep, 17 gets shafted. You want to save up (financially and partyingly) for the big one next year.


Party time!

And also speechily, which is why this post is not going to drag up all the embarrassing stories I could mention, in favour of saving them up to be used in twelve months' time.


Besides, who needs embarrassing stories when you have embarrassing photos?

Instead, I will just tell a little story of something that happened, not in an awkward childhood moment, but just a few weeks ago. It didn't strike me as anything massive at the time, but when I had it pointed out to me, I had to agree it is pretty cool.


How did we get so cool?

Wonders and I were out bookshopping when I came across a book we were interested in that I wasn't sure if I had back home or not. The following conversation ensued:
*ring ring*
Little Bro: Hey.
Me: Hey man, just checking if we have A Book?
Little Bro: I dunno.
Me: Just go look!
Little Bro: Yeah... no it's not here.
Me: Sweet. Thanks dude. See ya!
Little Bro: Later.
This was repeated approximately five minutes later, although that one ended with a promise of a book being sent to me.

Like I said, it was nothing, and I thought nothing of it. But Wonders (who has a sister in the same city, not a brother across the country) thought it was so awesome that I could call him up for a five-second query. And I agree, especially because I am equally able to call him up for a ten minute frisbee update or an hour chat about anything from English homework to the awesomeness of wheelchair basketball to ice-skating plans for two months from now.

And that is just one reason why it is my pleasure to wish my little brother (aka skywalker) a very Happy Birthday! Hope 17 is awesome for you, kiddo.

Nationals 2010

So. Nationals. Sadly not as awesome as I wanted it to be. Mixed Nats still wins for awesomeness. However, Nationals definitely had its awesome parts, a major one being, of course, the high level that everyone on Indies had gotten to - and the new high level we reached during the tournament.


Indies talk tactics. Or party costumes.

Before the tournament I wrote down some goals, so let's see how I did.
Play well. Heh, debatable, but I'm going to say yes. I could've played better in parts, but overall I was fine, and in parts I was better than that.
Cut in such a manner as to result in someone saying "You cut SO WELL in that game." Well I certainly didn't do it for a whole game, unlike at Regionals, which wins for me playing my best. However there were exactly two occasions when I cut perfectly. So yes, again.
Don't be lazy. I have to admit that I was pretty lazy in one game in particular, but I realised what I was doing, asked for help, and picked it up in the next game, and the one after that even more. That's almost a no.
Anticipate better on D. Hmm, I don't know. Defence in general, I find it hard to gauge if I'm doing it well enough. But I did get a nice D when I was in the wall because I anticipated the throw. That's a yes.
Don't throw anything away. Wow, I was being a bit ambitious there, wasn't I? I did throw a bad pass that resulted in a drop after I'd just finished telling myself how I should throw that throw, so that was dumb. But the work we did on dump-type passes was useful and I think it paid off.
Cut from the right front corner of the end zone to the back middle to the left front for the swing pass, catch and score. Meh, I'm over that one. I don't think my cutting in the end zone was as good as it was at Regionals, so we're going to work on that. On the other hand, I didn't do my horror cut and drop it - AGAIN - so that was nice. And I did catch it in the end zone a bit, which is even better.
For Indies to be ultimate. Well, OF COURSE WE WERE.


Indies and fACTory Girls practicing their dance moves.

Game 1: Indies vs Honey. There was a sweet long pass from Kaz, I got some space on my defender, jumped, caught it, and landed just in the end zone.

Game 2: Indies vs Sugar Mags. The first example of me cutting perfectly. I decided that someone was going to pass to Alex and then she would pass it to me over there. So I did that cut, Alex got it, passed it me - in the end zone, catch and score, just as I planned it. Awesome feeling.


The two best coaches that anyone ever had.

Game 3: Indies d Kaos! By far my worst game. But Indies won it, so yay! I don't even think I played that badly, I just got ridiculously emotional, started hyperventilating on the sideline, and required way more looking after than should be necessary. There is exactly one shot of me in the highlights video, and it's me sooking off the field, crashing into some poor girl, after not getting a handblock. Like, who gets so upset they can't breathe cos they didn't get a handblock? Like I said, ridiculous.

Game 4: Indies vs fACTory Girls. Indies were down 4-8, but came back to 10-all. Unfortunately, FG scored the next two to take game but I feel like this was our best game (best half?) as a team. Such a good effort.


The only shot I've seen with me on the field. I'm awesome at standing around.

Game 5: Indies vs Southside. I forgot to write any notes on this game, so clearly nothing amazingly good or bad happened. Southside caned us? Yeah, that happened.

Game 6: Indies vs Wildcard Spades. My second perfect cut! I kind of hate plays where one person is singled out, because it not working is the worst. (On the other hand, if I did get called for Superstar and then scored, that would be the best feeling ever.) Anyway, America isn't quite as pressure-laden, but you still have a job to do if you're the one I was and guess what? I did it! I did a fake out, hard cut in, got the disc AND did a successful pass upfield so yay.

Game 6.5: Party Time!


Game 7: Indies vs fACTory Girls for 9th/10th. I feel like this was my best game of the tournament. Not as many things were against me. We had less people. They played man. We got off some long throws. I was cutting harder. All this did not add up to a win for the Indies but I caught a goal off some nice flow, and caught a long pass for an assist-assist.


The traditional EmVic #4 spinning a disc shot.

So, what have we learned from Nationals? As ever, I have a lot to work on. First thing will be my in-cuts. It frustrated me that I couldn't adjust when I didn't get the disc long. In-cuts means I have to work on my dump/short passes some more. And the rest of my throws. And on the off-chance I still get it long, I need to work on catching the disc in the air. And low to the ground. And in case I drop it I should work on defence. I want to get lots of handblocks. And Ds in the field. Hmm, looks like I have a bit to work on.

Apart from all that! Mostly we learned that WE'RE FIT AND WE'RE FAST AND NOTHING CAN STOP US!

INDIES!!!

Almost There!

This time tomorrow night, it will be the night before Nationals, and the start of four days of frisbee all day every day.

In contrast to last year's "Hey Vic, wanna play Mixed Nats?" "Sure!" "Ok, let's go!" "OMG quick get fit and awesome," the lead up to Nationals has been long and steady. We joined the gym at the start of the year, and have gone at least once a week every week since. The Indies (squad then team) trained twice a week. I play Social and two games of League a week. Apart from work, it is pretty much all frisbee all the time around here these days.

We held our second-to-last training at the fields where Nationals will be held, to try and make the most of our home ground advantage. (The predicted sea breeze was non-existent, but rain is forecast for the weekend. Awesome.) Just being at those fields upped the intensity, and it was a great training. I know I've cut well if I think a game was good.

Our last training was crap for me so let's just ignore that one, except to note: if fake it til you make it isn't working, keep going, run harder.

Our last League game before Nationals on the other hand (ignoring the fact that I failed to stop a huck that won the other team the game, lesson learned) - I got my first hand block! I (feel like I) totally layed out! (Uh no, I didn't catch the disc, what does that matter?) I got an awesome high grab! (Which makes two in two weeks!) So lots of good things happened that I can use to make myself believe I may just have learned a few things this year, which is nice.

So, goals for Nationals: Play well. Cut in such a manner as to result in someone saying "You cut SO WELL in that game." Don't be lazy. Anticipate better on D. Don't throw anything away. Cut from the right front corner of the end zone to the back middle to the left front for the swing pass, catch and score. For Indies to be ultimate.

(You can keep up with all the ultimate happenings at #AUC10 on Twitter.)

Status Updates

Bought some Indies-green hair ribbon. Now I'm ready to play!

Entirely too casual about flying to another city. Packed in like 20mins.

Four hour wait for our flight. Reading Persuasion. Thinking of mugging a kid for his Heelys.

Delayed four hours by Tiger but was rewarded with a row to myself. For a one hour flight.

Made it to our apartments in Melbourne. Finally getting excited for Regionals!

At the fields, lovely sunny day. Sure we're in Melbourne?

Looong day. Played four games. Lost to Honey and Team Box, beat Honey DS and VicTas. Cutting awesomely.

Looong discussions about what to do for dinner. Just feed me!

Heading to the beach. Am starving.

Polished off a massive carbonara and garlic bread. At Baskin-Robbins having a Gold Medal Ribbon, appropriately I feel. Ready for sleep.

Final day! Weather still nice! Cooties up first, should be tough.

Having lunch. 1/2 so far today. Clean socks for the last game, should help us beat Cooties again.

Pretty sure the technical term is 'completely unacceptable.'

INDIES ROCK! Qualified third for Nationals. Bring it on in Adelaide!

At Melbourne airport in search of a burger. Yep, found one but it disappeared as fast as dinner last night. Yum.

Picking up Krispy Kremes for the flight.

OMG Tiger line out the door and onto the footpath. Hoping people riot.

Normal line turns out to be quicker than express line, but we're still talking hours of waiting in line.

In the space of 15mins: checked in, security, gate, on plane, take off - was that so hard? (And another row to myself!)

Krispy Kremes for breakfast. And also, can I have some new muscles? These ones are hurting me.

Flinders Social about to start - let's go Wolf Pack! (Wolfpack? WolfPack?)

Haha, another frisbee convert!

First Flinders womens training of the season. Yeah ultimate!

Made It

When I was in primary school, I represented my school (area?) in Zone Athletics. The fact that I had come third in high jump in my age group at our school's athletics carnival apparently qualified me to compete against kids who, I don't know, actually knew how to do the flop thing instead of the scissor kick I did.

Needless to say, it was not a massive success, but hey I got a day off school! The point is, I didn't really have to try hard to make a team I had no aspirations to be on.

I played NT Champs in basketball one year, but that was a matter of our club rounding up enough people to call a team. This included myself; at the time, and pretty much any time, a league reserve player playing up.

So I've never really had to try out for anything (oh! except Hall soccer! when we won the Cup! hell yeah) - even when I went to Mixed Nats I was just asked to be on the team - until now. And guess what?! I made it!

I made Indies.

Notes

Once you haven't posted for a while, it seems like the topic you return with has to be very dramatic. What could be so ultra-important that it would necessitate its own blog post? Well, I have no idea, and this is not that post.

I do not understand people who crumple up their money. How hard is it to keep your notes flat?

I started writing a song while I was falling asleep last night. Either I can't remember it right, or what I made up was horrifically poor semi-rhyming poetry. Probably both. I don't think composition of embarrassingly badly written lyrics is a daytime activity.

Most ouch line of the past week: "... and you haven't been happy at frisbee for a long time." Dude, that's strong. And only a little true. It may be the lack of attention getting to me, or the 40-degree trainings (turns out there is such a thing as 'too hot for frisbee'), or the expected to learn new shit every week thing. Either way, apparently I am happy again so it's all a moo point.

I think I should get in the habit of writing again, as there are a few things I shouldn't talk about with other people, either because it's about them or someone too close to them, or because it's about someone they don't know and yet will have contact with and on those occasions they shouldn't appear to hate them, you know? Me neither. Anyway, writing is a habit, and I used to be fairly addicted, and I'm thinking that's not such a bad way to be.