Worlds Breakdown - Twenty Ten
With your host, AG!
Part 3: "Oh Brother, Where art thou?"
I don't think there has ever been a world championship that has had a talent pool as deep as this. Easily not from a technical stand point, that's for sure. My previous post listed the 6 most likely Contenders (as I see it) to win the world championship. I also listed a couple Dark Horses that i thought could be long shot winners. Even whittling down that list was difficult, but based mostly on their competition results. I didn't try to pick worlds finalists. Trying to pick the players that could potentially make the top 8 would have found me researching the past competitive history and tracking down youtube clips of half the damn field! Trying to pick the semi finalists, well... might as well have just got every registered player to send me their personal profile. It's really any body's game to get to that round. Have a look at the pools. Many qualifiers looks like "pools of death". For example, Pool G: Rory Dawson, Reid Strellner, Evan Gatesman, Tuukka Antikainen, David Clavens. No, that's not a semi finals pool. That's a qualifier. 2 Bappers, A tech wizard, and 2 very strong guiltless players. Rory is the lowest seed in the pool, and he was 13th at worlds in 2007. Wow. Or Pool B:Eric Chang, Rafal Kaleta, Szymon Kalwak, Anssi Sundberg, Arkadiusz Dudzinski. Rafal Kaleta, who ducks ps torques for breakfast is the 4th seed. Szymon ain't no slouch either. Add in Anssi and Norek... well. Wow. Perhaps this puts it in a better perspective: Only 1 pool doesn't have 2 Bappers in it.
And while this is all very interesting, what's even more impressive is the people who aren't there...
Here's a less than exhaustive list of individuals, past and present, who could have raised the quality of this year's worlds even higher.
Dan Ednie: While he's not competing much any more (he hasn't attended that past 2 Australian championships) he did a magnificent dropless routine in 2007. He had strong and consistent choreography, and wasn't afraid not to throw in big tricks like jani's, even back then.
Serge Kaldany: 2008 world circle champion, a routines 5th place finisher, and multi-time french champion. With a style reminiscent of Yacine Merzouk, he's a threat in any event. He's a champion bloke too!
Juho Marjo: Has 2 finals berths, including a worlds podium. One of Finland's finest, and the saviour in the BOTS video. While he is in Oakland, he has opted not to compete. (Regardless of his competitive status, he's still bringing the bar higher for the overall level of players at this years event)
Sergey Kozlov: He rose to fame so quickly. 9th at his first worlds in 2006, and 3rd at his next in 2008. And he disappeared just as fast. Last spotted surfing waves at Kuta Reef in Bali, chasing the morning of the earth. I hope Huey's good to you.
Felix Zenger: While he dropped out of the footbag scene to pursue his blossoming musical career, anyone who's following him on twitter (or lives in Finland) know's he's kicking again. In the mid 2000's i think he was the style most people wanted to emulate (maybe, after Vasek). He even had a request contest win, and a second placing at the Finnish Party Bombe comp. His return to the world stage would be a dream come true for many.
Olaf Piwowar: Better known for his incredible technical ability than his routine performance, Olaf is a force to be reckoned with. This sick 3 world champ is still kicking, but never made it across the pond. His presence certainly would have upped the technical ante.
Johnny Suderman: Style for miles, super tech, perfect execution, and legs that don't quit. While Johnny doesn't compete in routines, he shines in circle. If he put the time in and really worked on one, i can guarantee it would be phenomenal. He's got that X factor that most just don't have, and for that he'll sadly be missed.
Jorden Moir: Quite possibly the most creative footbag player ever. His inventions probably rank in numbers with those of Kenny and Rippin, who had the upper hand getting in at the ground floor. Jorden has the ability to think so far outside the box, you can't even see it from where he's shredding. And he's a hell-man competitor too!
The last one was a bit of a pipe dream. I checked to see if he was attending as the registration closing date loomed nearer. I don't even know where he is these days, or what he's doing. He'd come out of retirement before and went to a one-off event. The last i saw of him was a one off routine on youtube, that he did in pants with some massive bags...
Ryan Mulroney: It's come full circle. it was 9 years ago that the world changed. In 2002, in San Francisco no less, Ryan Mulroney passed the crown to the young Vasek Klouda. It still ranks as one of the greatest routines ever (IMO) and it would have been amazing if Ryan had come out of retirement one last time, in the place that the world changed, to give it a go.
Routines start in 12 hours.
Could you imagine if they all had come...?
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
With your host, AG!
Part 3: "Oh Brother, Where art thou?"
I don't think there has ever been a world championship that has had a talent pool as deep as this. Easily not from a technical stand point, that's for sure. My previous post listed the 6 most likely Contenders (as I see it) to win the world championship. I also listed a couple Dark Horses that i thought could be long shot winners. Even whittling down that list was difficult, but based mostly on their competition results. I didn't try to pick worlds finalists. Trying to pick the players that could potentially make the top 8 would have found me researching the past competitive history and tracking down youtube clips of half the damn field! Trying to pick the semi finalists, well... might as well have just got every registered player to send me their personal profile. It's really any body's game to get to that round. Have a look at the pools. Many qualifiers looks like "pools of death". For example, Pool G: Rory Dawson, Reid Strellner, Evan Gatesman, Tuukka Antikainen, David Clavens. No, that's not a semi finals pool. That's a qualifier. 2 Bappers, A tech wizard, and 2 very strong guiltless players. Rory is the lowest seed in the pool, and he was 13th at worlds in 2007. Wow. Or Pool B:Eric Chang, Rafal Kaleta, Szymon Kalwak, Anssi Sundberg, Arkadiusz Dudzinski. Rafal Kaleta, who ducks ps torques for breakfast is the 4th seed. Szymon ain't no slouch either. Add in Anssi and Norek... well. Wow. Perhaps this puts it in a better perspective: Only 1 pool doesn't have 2 Bappers in it.
And while this is all very interesting, what's even more impressive is the people who aren't there...
Here's a less than exhaustive list of individuals, past and present, who could have raised the quality of this year's worlds even higher.
Dan Ednie: While he's not competing much any more (he hasn't attended that past 2 Australian championships) he did a magnificent dropless routine in 2007. He had strong and consistent choreography, and wasn't afraid not to throw in big tricks like jani's, even back then.
Serge Kaldany: 2008 world circle champion, a routines 5th place finisher, and multi-time french champion. With a style reminiscent of Yacine Merzouk, he's a threat in any event. He's a champion bloke too!
Juho Marjo: Has 2 finals berths, including a worlds podium. One of Finland's finest, and the saviour in the BOTS video. While he is in Oakland, he has opted not to compete. (Regardless of his competitive status, he's still bringing the bar higher for the overall level of players at this years event)
Sergey Kozlov: He rose to fame so quickly. 9th at his first worlds in 2006, and 3rd at his next in 2008. And he disappeared just as fast. Last spotted surfing waves at Kuta Reef in Bali, chasing the morning of the earth. I hope Huey's good to you.
Felix Zenger: While he dropped out of the footbag scene to pursue his blossoming musical career, anyone who's following him on twitter (or lives in Finland) know's he's kicking again. In the mid 2000's i think he was the style most people wanted to emulate (maybe, after Vasek). He even had a request contest win, and a second placing at the Finnish Party Bombe comp. His return to the world stage would be a dream come true for many.
Olaf Piwowar: Better known for his incredible technical ability than his routine performance, Olaf is a force to be reckoned with. This sick 3 world champ is still kicking, but never made it across the pond. His presence certainly would have upped the technical ante.
Johnny Suderman: Style for miles, super tech, perfect execution, and legs that don't quit. While Johnny doesn't compete in routines, he shines in circle. If he put the time in and really worked on one, i can guarantee it would be phenomenal. He's got that X factor that most just don't have, and for that he'll sadly be missed.
Jorden Moir: Quite possibly the most creative footbag player ever. His inventions probably rank in numbers with those of Kenny and Rippin, who had the upper hand getting in at the ground floor. Jorden has the ability to think so far outside the box, you can't even see it from where he's shredding. And he's a hell-man competitor too!
The last one was a bit of a pipe dream. I checked to see if he was attending as the registration closing date loomed nearer. I don't even know where he is these days, or what he's doing. He'd come out of retirement before and went to a one-off event. The last i saw of him was a one off routine on youtube, that he did in pants with some massive bags...
Ryan Mulroney: It's come full circle. it was 9 years ago that the world changed. In 2002, in San Francisco no less, Ryan Mulroney passed the crown to the young Vasek Klouda. It still ranks as one of the greatest routines ever (IMO) and it would have been amazing if Ryan had come out of retirement one last time, in the place that the world changed, to give it a go.
Routines start in 12 hours.
Could you imagine if they all had come...?
Worlds Breakdown - Twenty Ten
With your host, AG!
Part 2: "I coulda been a contender"
Welcome back sports fans!
While my last pre-worlds post dealt primarily with with past winners, in particular Vasek Klouda, this one will look at the contenders, as i see it, for this year's world title: Vasek Klouda, Damien Gielnicki, Jan Webber, Milan Benda, David Clavens, and Jim Penske, along side my Dark Horses.
Vasek Klouda,the king: 1,1,1,1,1,1,2,1. Those are Vasek's placings in the past 8 world championships. He is the reigning world champion. Based solely on that you would have to say he's the favorite to win.
However, he does appear to be less invested in footbag these days. When typing "vasek klouda" into youtube's search engine, it will pro-offer "vasek klouda freestyle football" above "vasek klouda footbag", so that must be telling you something. While in the past it seemed that Vasek made a strong effort to attend as many events in europe as possible, this season he attended only 2: Todexon 11, held in his home town of Prague, where he placed 3rd behind Milan and Arkadiusz Dudzinski (AKA Norek). His other showing this season was at the 2010 European Championships. Instead of giving us a glimpse of what he has instore for worlds (i hope he was just keeping the mystery alive), he reused his 2006 routine "Hernando's Hideaway". Unfortunately he didn't perform it with the same amazing execution as he had in 2006. Instead he opted for some very difficult tricks (throwing a mid-string montage), possibly to make up for the lacking variety, artistry, and difficulty (too many 1 add bails). Unfortunately, he had 3 drops, which is pretty unheard of from a guy who's nick name is super-glue. He placed 5th, behind Damien, Milan, Honza, and David. Not a strong showing for the 8 (or was it 9?) time european champion. The upside is that he is the most talented, progressive, technical player that has ever lived. He has a wealth of competitive experience to draw upon unlike anyone else in the game that may help to bring him to the top above the competition. Like wise, it has been one month since the european championships. I imagine it would not take too much for Vasek to regain his old form. A few sessions per week with some solid routine practice and, who knows, once worlds is over it might be laughable that i even wrote this. I hope he has a new routine to shock and amaze, but it is always easier to be the hunter than the hunted.
Damien Gielnicki: "Winning a world title isn't the hard part, It's winning it again"- Famous words uttered by 9 time world surfing champion Robert Kelly Slater to (then) first time world champion Mick Eugene Fanning.
Not too long ago Poland wasn't even a blip on the world footbag scene. Like Finland in the mid 2000's, the late 2000's belonged to Poland, as an amazing scene and a large group of dedicated and talented players emerged. Atop the long list of amazing players is Damien, who defated Vasek Klouda in a close battle for the world title. History repeats. The challenger drops, the old champ doesn't. After a heated conversation and with the judging panel split, Damien walks away the victor.
I remember when they announced it. I was standing just beside Damien, having just received my own shiny hardware from shred 30, when they announced Vasek came second. Before Dexter could even fully announce it, the Polish contingent screamed in victory, Damien covered his face with both hands. He was thrown into the air and his name chanted by the polish crew. It was a pretty powerful moment.
At present, Damien sits atop the World Rankings. With a solid compliment of tier 3 events, a 4th at euros (second in circle), and second at the USO (and a win in circle) he sits 350 points ahead of second place. With a solid showing at worlds he may well be able to capture the title of World Tour Champion, even if he doesn't win the whole show. However, if we look at his results in euros and USO his results are headed in the right direction and he may be poised to peak at the right time.
Unfortunately Damien has had few victories this year. According to the World Rankings, Damien has had only one routine victory this year: The Wilano Cup, where he beat out fellow countryman Norek (with a role reversal in circle). At Zocha Jam, he came second again to Norek (in both routine and circle this time), while he again came second to a countryman, Olaf Piwowar in circle at the FC Footstar Birthday jam. At euros he placed 4th behind Milan, Honza, and David (the only event this year that saw the Contenders go head to head), while at the USO he placed second behind Jim Penske. So far, The only Contender that he has managed to get over in routines is, as unlikely as it sounds, Vasek. The cards don't seem to be in Damien's hand at the routine table (circle may be another story). If he can retool his routine between USO and worlds maybe he can pull off another win and put the 2008 nay-sayers in their place. He also has an ace up his sleeve that the others don't: He's been the underdog before and unseated the champ.
Jan "Honza" Webber: Always the bride's maid, never the bride. Honza has been playing second fiddle to vasek for years. While he has a number of doubles world titles (partnered with Vasek), the individual routine title has always been out of reach. For 9 years Honza has consistently been at the pinnacle of the sport, and he has attended every world championship since 2002, making the podium at many of them! He came close on many occasions, taking second in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Honza missed the podium in 2007 and 2008, but again claimed a spot in 2009 with a bronze medal behind Damien and Vasek.
Honza is not as well known for his technical prowess (which is still incredible), but he has dropped a slew of high tech videos this year with a couple nucleus video releases (1 | 2) and a battle vid with David. Yet, like Vasek, remaining under the radar in the competitive world. According to the World Rankings, the only event Honza participated in was the european championships. He didn't compete in circle, but he did very well in routines, taking second place behind David, but above Milan, Damien, and Vasek. While it is his only result of the year it does show that he can bring his "A" game on the day.
In the past Honza has been synonymous with his jumper's knee brace, but recent videos show him playing with out it. Honza talks about knee injuries holding him back in the past during an interview with the epitome of cool, Asmus Helms. Honza also says he has begun to take footbag more seriously (no, seriously!), cutting unnecessary pounds, and working on his form and execution. And it shows. He resembles one of the polish players, and his blades are as sharp as ever, but will losing some baby fat and finally overcoming a niggling injury be enough to put him on top?
Milan Benda: After Ales bulked up and started focusing on his body building, it was Milan that filled his place at the round table of footbag's elite, completing the czech trio. Like another certain czech, he got good really fast, and really young. The kid's only 18! And he's been holding it down on the world stage for the past 3 years, making finals at his first worlds in 2007 and maintaining that spot through 2008, and 2009. You kinda know you're good shit when Steve flies your ass out to the states to come to tournaments. As well as being a crazy good shredder, he's also a hell-man party animal! Milan... that's a closet.
Milan started this year off with guns blazing, Taking out wins at Todexon, The French open, and NYJ. He may have peaked too early though. He had a strong showing at Euros, but he placed only 3rd in routines with a great song from the movie Amelie (with an unfortunate sum41 outro), as well as a 3rd place in circle. Third seems to be Milan's number as of late, as he's also currently ranked 3rd on the World Rankings list.
Milan has a number of things on his side: He's the youngest of this year's contenders, and if this isn't his year he has a number of years after this. He's got ability in spades. some have likened his style to a young Vasek. Obviously, look at who he's trained under. But he's also one of the least experienced, with only a few years under his belt. Nerves, mistakes, maybe taking too big a risk. It could be his downfall. However, Milan may have to risk it all if he wants to break his recent streak of thirds.
David Clavens: David may not have seen as many world championships as the others, but he's no stranger to the podium. His first attendance was in 2004, and people took note, as he won intermediate routines on his first go. From the humble beginnings of crappy webcam productions he blew up, and produced a string of massive videos, like 20 fearless, and many videos from his time spent (in the basement) at Penn State with Bevier.
His competitive wins across all events is impressive. Let's start chronologically: 2004: 1st- World's inter routines 2005: 2nd-Funtastiks routines, 2006: 1st- NYJ, 1st, Funtastik routines, 1st- GRASS, 1st-CSS7, 1st-USO routine and shred, 2007: 1st- NYFA routine and circle, 1st-GRASS, 4th-World's routines, 2008: 1st-Funtastik routines, 1st-USO routines and circle, 2009: 1st-Funtastik, 2010: 1st- NYFA routines and circle, 1st-Funtastik routines, 1st-East Coast's routines and circle, 1st- Euro's routines and circle (1 | 2).
When the going gets tough, Dave doesn't flinch. in 2007 he was diagnosed with an L5 stress fracture. When most would have pulled out of the world's, Dave went on to perform 3 dropless routines, a feat that hadn't been done in over a decade.
Dave has taken one jewel in footbag's triple crown, and easily the most difficult competition of the year up to this point. When faced with the other contenders of the year, he came up aces, taking out reigning world champ Vasek, past world champ Damien, along with czech stars Honza and Milan. And it really looked like he had fun doing it too. The only player he hasn't gone head to head against this year is Jim Penske, who holds the other jewel. Barring any other injuries to deter his 3rd worlds appearance, dave may have another world title to add to his already impressive list of victories.
Jim Penske: Jim is the only Contender who is part of the pre-vasek generation (with the exception of vasek and honza who ushered it in). He started kicking back when the US was the dominant force, when the original members of BAP were still competing in freestyle, 5 fearless was a big deal, and when footbag vids came out on VHS. The pantheon of footbag gods were all well established, and half in the grave by today's standards. The groms were coming and it was Jim along side Honza, Ales, and Vasek (all 4 Baptized at worlds 2002) that would be the ones to bring about the revolution.
While the old regime was overturned, and footbag mecca moved east, from the US to prague, Jim remained as US defender. He has been sitting at the top of the sport ever since, with lightning fast legs and pure athleticism.
Living outside the denser shred areas of the states meant that Jim has kept a lower profile over the years. He hasn't attended as many events as others, but that hasn't stopped him from racking up a number of wins. He's the ONLY winner of the Montana Freestyle Jam (all 5 of them), has wins at The Santa Cruz invitational, as well as finals berths at worlds in 2004 and a 2nd place showing in 2007. Like dave, he's also a multiple USO champion (along with a handfull of runner up spots), winning in 2007 and again this year in 2010. Having taken a win at the largest footbag event in NA, and defeating 2008 world champ Damien in the process, Jim holds the second gem of the triple crown. If he can pull off a dropless routine (especially if he ends with nemesis as attempted), he might finally get the title many state side believed he was destined for.
The Dark Horses:
Arkadiusz Dudinski: Big wins through out the year, sits 5th in the rankings, but didn't attend euros. He's knocked Damien out of top spot a few times this year. In the past he has been to the finals, and has been world champ in other events. I haven't seen enough of him or his routines of late to put him in my Contenders list, but having seen him play i know he's full of surprises.
Nick Landes: He was leading the USO going into semi's, but failed in finals. Nick has the skills, but his competitive results don't reflect that talent. If it happens that he brings his A game on the day, look out world.
Juho Marjo: He rips, and every one knows it. He's flying under the radar, and even fellow countryman Tuukka wrote him off online. Truth or fiction? maybe Tuukka's playing it down so he can blind side us all. He's previously placed 5th and 3rd at worlds. Maybe it's his turn for another jump up the ranks.
(EDIT: Juho Marjo's status at these world championships is, saddly, only as a spectator. Expect to see massive side line shred, but don't look for him on the podium. Tuukka's comment of "I don't think he'll make it to top 40" makes a bit more sense now. Cheeky bugger.)
Ken Somolinos: Like a fine wine, he keeps getting better with age. He currently sits 6th on the world rankings even though he has only attended 2 events (won routine, and circle in both, although they weren't deep events). Knowing Ken, i know how much time he puts into his routines. It's a long shot, but if he is on, and every one else is off, well... Stranger things have happened (for proof, see the finals results from 2008 world's shred 30).
Two Americans hold the European and North American championships, but don't count out the others. The door remains wide open. It's all gonna come down to the day.
I got $20 that says the title comes back to North America, but even that's playing long odds.
Routine Qualifications begin tuesday. Good luck to everyone.
Monday, July 26, 2010
With your host, AG!
Part 2: "I coulda been a contender"
Welcome back sports fans!
While my last pre-worlds post dealt primarily with with past winners, in particular Vasek Klouda, this one will look at the contenders, as i see it, for this year's world title: Vasek Klouda, Damien Gielnicki, Jan Webber, Milan Benda, David Clavens, and Jim Penske, along side my Dark Horses.
Vasek Klouda,the king: 1,1,1,1,1,1,2,1. Those are Vasek's placings in the past 8 world championships. He is the reigning world champion. Based solely on that you would have to say he's the favorite to win.
However, he does appear to be less invested in footbag these days. When typing "vasek klouda" into youtube's search engine, it will pro-offer "vasek klouda freestyle football" above "vasek klouda footbag", so that must be telling you something. While in the past it seemed that Vasek made a strong effort to attend as many events in europe as possible, this season he attended only 2: Todexon 11, held in his home town of Prague, where he placed 3rd behind Milan and Arkadiusz Dudzinski (AKA Norek). His other showing this season was at the 2010 European Championships. Instead of giving us a glimpse of what he has instore for worlds (i hope he was just keeping the mystery alive), he reused his 2006 routine "Hernando's Hideaway". Unfortunately he didn't perform it with the same amazing execution as he had in 2006. Instead he opted for some very difficult tricks (throwing a mid-string montage), possibly to make up for the lacking variety, artistry, and difficulty (too many 1 add bails). Unfortunately, he had 3 drops, which is pretty unheard of from a guy who's nick name is super-glue. He placed 5th, behind Damien, Milan, Honza, and David. Not a strong showing for the 8 (or was it 9?) time european champion. The upside is that he is the most talented, progressive, technical player that has ever lived. He has a wealth of competitive experience to draw upon unlike anyone else in the game that may help to bring him to the top above the competition. Like wise, it has been one month since the european championships. I imagine it would not take too much for Vasek to regain his old form. A few sessions per week with some solid routine practice and, who knows, once worlds is over it might be laughable that i even wrote this. I hope he has a new routine to shock and amaze, but it is always easier to be the hunter than the hunted.
Damien Gielnicki: "Winning a world title isn't the hard part, It's winning it again"- Famous words uttered by 9 time world surfing champion Robert Kelly Slater to (then) first time world champion Mick Eugene Fanning.
Not too long ago Poland wasn't even a blip on the world footbag scene. Like Finland in the mid 2000's, the late 2000's belonged to Poland, as an amazing scene and a large group of dedicated and talented players emerged. Atop the long list of amazing players is Damien, who defated Vasek Klouda in a close battle for the world title. History repeats. The challenger drops, the old champ doesn't. After a heated conversation and with the judging panel split, Damien walks away the victor.
I remember when they announced it. I was standing just beside Damien, having just received my own shiny hardware from shred 30, when they announced Vasek came second. Before Dexter could even fully announce it, the Polish contingent screamed in victory, Damien covered his face with both hands. He was thrown into the air and his name chanted by the polish crew. It was a pretty powerful moment.
At present, Damien sits atop the World Rankings. With a solid compliment of tier 3 events, a 4th at euros (second in circle), and second at the USO (and a win in circle) he sits 350 points ahead of second place. With a solid showing at worlds he may well be able to capture the title of World Tour Champion, even if he doesn't win the whole show. However, if we look at his results in euros and USO his results are headed in the right direction and he may be poised to peak at the right time.
Unfortunately Damien has had few victories this year. According to the World Rankings, Damien has had only one routine victory this year: The Wilano Cup, where he beat out fellow countryman Norek (with a role reversal in circle). At Zocha Jam, he came second again to Norek (in both routine and circle this time), while he again came second to a countryman, Olaf Piwowar in circle at the FC Footstar Birthday jam. At euros he placed 4th behind Milan, Honza, and David (the only event this year that saw the Contenders go head to head), while at the USO he placed second behind Jim Penske. So far, The only Contender that he has managed to get over in routines is, as unlikely as it sounds, Vasek. The cards don't seem to be in Damien's hand at the routine table (circle may be another story). If he can retool his routine between USO and worlds maybe he can pull off another win and put the 2008 nay-sayers in their place. He also has an ace up his sleeve that the others don't: He's been the underdog before and unseated the champ.
Jan "Honza" Webber: Always the bride's maid, never the bride. Honza has been playing second fiddle to vasek for years. While he has a number of doubles world titles (partnered with Vasek), the individual routine title has always been out of reach. For 9 years Honza has consistently been at the pinnacle of the sport, and he has attended every world championship since 2002, making the podium at many of them! He came close on many occasions, taking second in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Honza missed the podium in 2007 and 2008, but again claimed a spot in 2009 with a bronze medal behind Damien and Vasek.
Honza is not as well known for his technical prowess (which is still incredible), but he has dropped a slew of high tech videos this year with a couple nucleus video releases (1 | 2) and a battle vid with David. Yet, like Vasek, remaining under the radar in the competitive world. According to the World Rankings, the only event Honza participated in was the european championships. He didn't compete in circle, but he did very well in routines, taking second place behind David, but above Milan, Damien, and Vasek. While it is his only result of the year it does show that he can bring his "A" game on the day.
In the past Honza has been synonymous with his jumper's knee brace, but recent videos show him playing with out it. Honza talks about knee injuries holding him back in the past during an interview with the epitome of cool, Asmus Helms. Honza also says he has begun to take footbag more seriously (no, seriously!), cutting unnecessary pounds, and working on his form and execution. And it shows. He resembles one of the polish players, and his blades are as sharp as ever, but will losing some baby fat and finally overcoming a niggling injury be enough to put him on top?
Milan Benda: After Ales bulked up and started focusing on his body building, it was Milan that filled his place at the round table of footbag's elite, completing the czech trio. Like another certain czech, he got good really fast, and really young. The kid's only 18! And he's been holding it down on the world stage for the past 3 years, making finals at his first worlds in 2007 and maintaining that spot through 2008, and 2009. You kinda know you're good shit when Steve flies your ass out to the states to come to tournaments. As well as being a crazy good shredder, he's also a hell-man party animal! Milan... that's a closet.
Milan started this year off with guns blazing, Taking out wins at Todexon, The French open, and NYJ. He may have peaked too early though. He had a strong showing at Euros, but he placed only 3rd in routines with a great song from the movie Amelie (with an unfortunate sum41 outro), as well as a 3rd place in circle. Third seems to be Milan's number as of late, as he's also currently ranked 3rd on the World Rankings list.
Milan has a number of things on his side: He's the youngest of this year's contenders, and if this isn't his year he has a number of years after this. He's got ability in spades. some have likened his style to a young Vasek. Obviously, look at who he's trained under. But he's also one of the least experienced, with only a few years under his belt. Nerves, mistakes, maybe taking too big a risk. It could be his downfall. However, Milan may have to risk it all if he wants to break his recent streak of thirds.
David Clavens: David may not have seen as many world championships as the others, but he's no stranger to the podium. His first attendance was in 2004, and people took note, as he won intermediate routines on his first go. From the humble beginnings of crappy webcam productions he blew up, and produced a string of massive videos, like 20 fearless, and many videos from his time spent (in the basement) at Penn State with Bevier.
His competitive wins across all events is impressive. Let's start chronologically: 2004: 1st- World's inter routines 2005: 2nd-Funtastiks routines, 2006: 1st- NYJ, 1st, Funtastik routines, 1st- GRASS, 1st-CSS7, 1st-USO routine and shred, 2007: 1st- NYFA routine and circle, 1st-GRASS, 4th-World's routines, 2008: 1st-Funtastik routines, 1st-USO routines and circle, 2009: 1st-Funtastik, 2010: 1st- NYFA routines and circle, 1st-Funtastik routines, 1st-East Coast's routines and circle, 1st- Euro's routines and circle (1 | 2).
When the going gets tough, Dave doesn't flinch. in 2007 he was diagnosed with an L5 stress fracture. When most would have pulled out of the world's, Dave went on to perform 3 dropless routines, a feat that hadn't been done in over a decade.
Dave has taken one jewel in footbag's triple crown, and easily the most difficult competition of the year up to this point. When faced with the other contenders of the year, he came up aces, taking out reigning world champ Vasek, past world champ Damien, along with czech stars Honza and Milan. And it really looked like he had fun doing it too. The only player he hasn't gone head to head against this year is Jim Penske, who holds the other jewel. Barring any other injuries to deter his 3rd worlds appearance, dave may have another world title to add to his already impressive list of victories.
Jim Penske: Jim is the only Contender who is part of the pre-vasek generation (with the exception of vasek and honza who ushered it in). He started kicking back when the US was the dominant force, when the original members of BAP were still competing in freestyle, 5 fearless was a big deal, and when footbag vids came out on VHS. The pantheon of footbag gods were all well established, and half in the grave by today's standards. The groms were coming and it was Jim along side Honza, Ales, and Vasek (all 4 Baptized at worlds 2002) that would be the ones to bring about the revolution.
While the old regime was overturned, and footbag mecca moved east, from the US to prague, Jim remained as US defender. He has been sitting at the top of the sport ever since, with lightning fast legs and pure athleticism.
Living outside the denser shred areas of the states meant that Jim has kept a lower profile over the years. He hasn't attended as many events as others, but that hasn't stopped him from racking up a number of wins. He's the ONLY winner of the Montana Freestyle Jam (all 5 of them), has wins at The Santa Cruz invitational, as well as finals berths at worlds in 2004 and a 2nd place showing in 2007. Like dave, he's also a multiple USO champion (along with a handfull of runner up spots), winning in 2007 and again this year in 2010. Having taken a win at the largest footbag event in NA, and defeating 2008 world champ Damien in the process, Jim holds the second gem of the triple crown. If he can pull off a dropless routine (especially if he ends with nemesis as attempted), he might finally get the title many state side believed he was destined for.
The Dark Horses:
Arkadiusz Dudinski: Big wins through out the year, sits 5th in the rankings, but didn't attend euros. He's knocked Damien out of top spot a few times this year. In the past he has been to the finals, and has been world champ in other events. I haven't seen enough of him or his routines of late to put him in my Contenders list, but having seen him play i know he's full of surprises.
Nick Landes: He was leading the USO going into semi's, but failed in finals. Nick has the skills, but his competitive results don't reflect that talent. If it happens that he brings his A game on the day, look out world.
Juho Marjo: He rips, and every one knows it. He's flying under the radar, and even fellow countryman Tuukka wrote him off online. Truth or fiction? maybe Tuukka's playing it down so he can blind side us all. He's previously placed 5th and 3rd at worlds. Maybe it's his turn for another jump up the ranks.
(EDIT: Juho Marjo's status at these world championships is, saddly, only as a spectator. Expect to see massive side line shred, but don't look for him on the podium. Tuukka's comment of "I don't think he'll make it to top 40" makes a bit more sense now. Cheeky bugger.)
Ken Somolinos: Like a fine wine, he keeps getting better with age. He currently sits 6th on the world rankings even though he has only attended 2 events (won routine, and circle in both, although they weren't deep events). Knowing Ken, i know how much time he puts into his routines. It's a long shot, but if he is on, and every one else is off, well... Stranger things have happened (for proof, see the finals results from 2008 world's shred 30).
Two Americans hold the European and North American championships, but don't count out the others. The door remains wide open. It's all gonna come down to the day.
I got $20 that says the title comes back to North America, but even that's playing long odds.
Routine Qualifications begin tuesday. Good luck to everyone.
Worlds Breakdown - Twenty Ten
With your host, AG!
Part 1: The deal to date...
I am part of, what is affectionately known by the sport's old guard as, the "post-vasek generation." I started playing in the spring of 2003, less than one year after Vasek won his first world championship title in 2002. Before that, i get the impression that, while there were favorites and challengers, the world title was really up for grabs. I could be wrong. I'm no expert on footbag history (Ethan Husted is, read his article on "The Day Vasek Took Over" at Fourkast), but if you look at the list of world champions before Vasek there are a number of names scattered across the previous decades.
The first recorded world freestyle champion (according to footbag.org) was in 1983 (Jack Schoolcraft). Between 1983 and 2001 there were 9 different world champions. Kenny Shultz and Peter Irish each won 5, while Rick Reese and Ryan Mulroney each won 2, while a handfull of individuals got to wear the crown for a year. However, the longest streak was that of Peter Irish ('91, '92, '93 (also won in '95, '97)). The fact that Reese's 2 wins were 8 years apart ('88, '96) and Shultz' 5 wins spanned a decade ('85, '87, '89, '90, '94) overlapping Irish's early 90's dominance, seems to show that there was a number of strong, talented players and any year it could have been won by any of these men.
9 world champions in 19 years...
enter young Vaclav (Vasek) Klouda.
Flash forward to 2007.
10 World champions in 25 years. 6 consecutive world championship wins. And what's more impressive: He was only 15 when he first did it!
Vasek's win in 2002, over 2 time and defending world champion Ryan Mulroney, ushered in the new era, at first on shakey ground. people still review tape and discuss the win and it's legitimacy (Vasek dropped on a fairly minor component, Ryan bobbled but didn't , Vasek wins, Ryan second). Since then, Vasek ruled with an iron fist. 2003-2007 there was no question as to who was the world champ, unanimous decision across the board, unquestionable. Nearly every competition he entered he won with ease, miles ahead of the competition in every event. The number of repeat victories and title defences he amassed is absolutly astounding.
2008, when the worlds returned to Prague (having previously been held there in 2003), Vasek finally showed he was human. Though dropless, Vasek bailed a number of times during his finals routine, decreasing the difficulty and artistry, and for the first time since 2002, the audience was unsure who just won. In another controversial decision that split the judging panel, Damien Gielnicki of Poland won while Vasek humbly accepted second place.
The unthinkable had happened. Vasek was no longer world champion. Up to that point, for my entire footbag career i knew only two things: 1) gravity always wins, 2) Vasek Klouda is world champion. It was like the day i found out Santa Claus wasn't real. Infact, i think i believed in Vasek Klouda for longer.
Damien Gielnicki slid in and snatched the crown off the golden child's head, but poland's raucous celebration was short lived. Vasek returned in 2009 to reclaim what was (rightly, depending who you talk to) his. And then he faded into the background.
Many claim that other opportunities and interest in freestyle football had averted the king's attention, resulting in his second place result in 2008, and scratches from shred 30 and circle, and his loss in request, but that the loss relight the flame (maybe only vasek knows for sure). Similarly, while in previous years Vasek toured europe doing the full circuit of tournaments, the 2009-2010 season saw him attend only 2: Todexon 11, at home in Prague in early march (3rd place), and the European Championships in july (5th). Indeed, on the new "World Cup" rankings the defending world champion is currently tied for 29th...
Perhaps the era is over and the door is open. Maybe not. But one thing is for sure. There's 5 guys standing on the porch waiting for the door to be left open so they can rob the joint.
Friday, July 23, 2010
With your host, AG!
Part 1: The deal to date...
I am part of, what is affectionately known by the sport's old guard as, the "post-vasek generation." I started playing in the spring of 2003, less than one year after Vasek won his first world championship title in 2002. Before that, i get the impression that, while there were favorites and challengers, the world title was really up for grabs. I could be wrong. I'm no expert on footbag history (Ethan Husted is, read his article on "The Day Vasek Took Over" at Fourkast), but if you look at the list of world champions before Vasek there are a number of names scattered across the previous decades.
The first recorded world freestyle champion (according to footbag.org) was in 1983 (Jack Schoolcraft). Between 1983 and 2001 there were 9 different world champions. Kenny Shultz and Peter Irish each won 5, while Rick Reese and Ryan Mulroney each won 2, while a handfull of individuals got to wear the crown for a year. However, the longest streak was that of Peter Irish ('91, '92, '93 (also won in '95, '97)). The fact that Reese's 2 wins were 8 years apart ('88, '96) and Shultz' 5 wins spanned a decade ('85, '87, '89, '90, '94) overlapping Irish's early 90's dominance, seems to show that there was a number of strong, talented players and any year it could have been won by any of these men.
9 world champions in 19 years...
enter young Vaclav (Vasek) Klouda.
Flash forward to 2007.
10 World champions in 25 years. 6 consecutive world championship wins. And what's more impressive: He was only 15 when he first did it!
Vasek's win in 2002, over 2 time and defending world champion Ryan Mulroney, ushered in the new era, at first on shakey ground. people still review tape and discuss the win and it's legitimacy (Vasek dropped on a fairly minor component, Ryan bobbled but didn't , Vasek wins, Ryan second). Since then, Vasek ruled with an iron fist. 2003-2007 there was no question as to who was the world champ, unanimous decision across the board, unquestionable. Nearly every competition he entered he won with ease, miles ahead of the competition in every event. The number of repeat victories and title defences he amassed is absolutly astounding.
2008, when the worlds returned to Prague (having previously been held there in 2003), Vasek finally showed he was human. Though dropless, Vasek bailed a number of times during his finals routine, decreasing the difficulty and artistry, and for the first time since 2002, the audience was unsure who just won. In another controversial decision that split the judging panel, Damien Gielnicki of Poland won while Vasek humbly accepted second place.
The unthinkable had happened. Vasek was no longer world champion. Up to that point, for my entire footbag career i knew only two things: 1) gravity always wins, 2) Vasek Klouda is world champion. It was like the day i found out Santa Claus wasn't real. Infact, i think i believed in Vasek Klouda for longer.
Damien Gielnicki slid in and snatched the crown off the golden child's head, but poland's raucous celebration was short lived. Vasek returned in 2009 to reclaim what was (rightly, depending who you talk to) his. And then he faded into the background.
Many claim that other opportunities and interest in freestyle football had averted the king's attention, resulting in his second place result in 2008, and scratches from shred 30 and circle, and his loss in request, but that the loss relight the flame (maybe only vasek knows for sure). Similarly, while in previous years Vasek toured europe doing the full circuit of tournaments, the 2009-2010 season saw him attend only 2: Todexon 11, at home in Prague in early march (3rd place), and the European Championships in july (5th). Indeed, on the new "World Cup" rankings the defending world champion is currently tied for 29th...
Perhaps the era is over and the door is open. Maybe not. But one thing is for sure. There's 5 guys standing on the porch waiting for the door to be left open so they can rob the joint.
Summer 2010: half done, in more ways than one.
Blogger has up until now kept us from posting, but erik, in all his computer wisdom, has figured a way around it and we are back up and running! siiiick.
So i'm back to playing. A year and a half off has been good, made me realize how much i missed it while allowing me the opportunity to pursue some other things. There's a few people have taken breaks to come back and become better than ever, so i'm stoked to continue my kicking career, in what ever form it takes...
Came back by playing net. Wow is net fun! such a change from freestyle, which is good. a bit more dynamic. We have enough interested net players in the city for 4 doubles teams. have yet to get them all out at one session yet, but i hope to soon (when scott comes back, he has the net). I look forward to playing more net through the end of the summer. Some great freestylers have gone over to be dominant net players, but at the same time it feels like i've already got one foot in the grave.
Erik has just recently moved to toronto for the forseeable future. We had a great last session on a monday a couple weeks ago. he had planned to come out again on wednesday, but had to bail to finish up his packing, etc., which was too bad, because i had wanted to go for a goodbye dinner/drinks with him and manna after the shred. Instead we settled for talking hackey for about an hour after the session was over. he filmed the session, so i hope he got some good stuff on film. i know he got good stuff from manna, i just hope i got a couple runs that were film worthy.
So now freestyle is down to manna and my self. Jess was making a comeback but busted her knee again (possibly for good now), mike was also making a return to freestyle (mike and i started kicking together back in highschool) but he has just had a second shoulder surgery, so he's out too. And then there were 2. looks like net is poised to make a take over. if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em...
Manna is insane. his runs are so creative, and he can throw out crazy tricks mid string. he is also good at really hard tricks that no one else throws, so it's even cooler. he has some stylistic and technical problems that he really needs to get on before they destroy his game. Since erik and i haven't been playing much i guess no one has been there to make corrections, and it's really gotten away from him. We've been working on it though, and with the speed this guy picks things up, i imagine he'll have them cleaned up by the end of summer.
Manna is off to USO and both he and erik are going to worlds. I can't afford the trip this year, as i need school money as well as i want to get another surf trip in and buy a new 5mm wetsuit this year. Considering i only just came back to playing, have no shred 30, and no routine, it wouldn't have been worth going anyway. Plus i just crashed my bike and banged up my knee, and i also have the flu, so i'm not kick at the moment. A doubly good decision on not going! i'll still miss hanging out with people though, that would be the only real reason i would like to go. I'd really like to see MC, Tuukka, Dan B, and Ken. Not sure if the french boys are going to be there this year, but i'd like to see Tut, Zerg, and Leuch again. Those boys are legends. Haven't seen them in some time. sigh. Maybe next year.
until next time shred fans!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Blogger has up until now kept us from posting, but erik, in all his computer wisdom, has figured a way around it and we are back up and running! siiiick.
So i'm back to playing. A year and a half off has been good, made me realize how much i missed it while allowing me the opportunity to pursue some other things. There's a few people have taken breaks to come back and become better than ever, so i'm stoked to continue my kicking career, in what ever form it takes...
Came back by playing net. Wow is net fun! such a change from freestyle, which is good. a bit more dynamic. We have enough interested net players in the city for 4 doubles teams. have yet to get them all out at one session yet, but i hope to soon (when scott comes back, he has the net). I look forward to playing more net through the end of the summer. Some great freestylers have gone over to be dominant net players, but at the same time it feels like i've already got one foot in the grave.
Erik has just recently moved to toronto for the forseeable future. We had a great last session on a monday a couple weeks ago. he had planned to come out again on wednesday, but had to bail to finish up his packing, etc., which was too bad, because i had wanted to go for a goodbye dinner/drinks with him and manna after the shred. Instead we settled for talking hackey for about an hour after the session was over. he filmed the session, so i hope he got some good stuff on film. i know he got good stuff from manna, i just hope i got a couple runs that were film worthy.
So now freestyle is down to manna and my self. Jess was making a comeback but busted her knee again (possibly for good now), mike was also making a return to freestyle (mike and i started kicking together back in highschool) but he has just had a second shoulder surgery, so he's out too. And then there were 2. looks like net is poised to make a take over. if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em...
Manna is insane. his runs are so creative, and he can throw out crazy tricks mid string. he is also good at really hard tricks that no one else throws, so it's even cooler. he has some stylistic and technical problems that he really needs to get on before they destroy his game. Since erik and i haven't been playing much i guess no one has been there to make corrections, and it's really gotten away from him. We've been working on it though, and with the speed this guy picks things up, i imagine he'll have them cleaned up by the end of summer.
Manna is off to USO and both he and erik are going to worlds. I can't afford the trip this year, as i need school money as well as i want to get another surf trip in and buy a new 5mm wetsuit this year. Considering i only just came back to playing, have no shred 30, and no routine, it wouldn't have been worth going anyway. Plus i just crashed my bike and banged up my knee, and i also have the flu, so i'm not kick at the moment. A doubly good decision on not going! i'll still miss hanging out with people though, that would be the only real reason i would like to go. I'd really like to see MC, Tuukka, Dan B, and Ken. Not sure if the french boys are going to be there this year, but i'd like to see Tut, Zerg, and Leuch again. Those boys are legends. Haven't seen them in some time. sigh. Maybe next year.
until next time shred fans!
2009 in review, well,... sorta
Hey blog, been a while. Thought about doing the blog with video a while back, using my comp's built-in camera, but i just couldn't be bothered. First off, school interfered with those plans (i think i may have also suggested i'd be making more footbag vids soon too [bwahaha] and never managed that either), second, i just really had nothing noteworthy to say. If you really want to know what i'm up to add me on facebook (i'll ignore you) and check my updates. I'm narcissistic enough, i really shouldn't blog. heaven help me if i ever sign up for twitter. Heaven strike down those foolish enough to follow me...
2009 was awesome. it ranks up there with 2008, 2002, 2003. Pretty bitchen! gonna be hard to beat. While my footbag fell off, slummed it, curled up in a gutter someplace covered in feces and urine and eventually died, i had an awesome year. spent the first 6 months of it living beachside, surfing as much as possible, and travelling through oz. the last 6 were spent mostly in debt and living again as a poor student, but it has been good getting back into school. I don't know how 2010 can top it (it probably can't) but there's a few things i am looking forward to:
- Prairie surf- now that i know where to get on waves at home i look forward to as much surf as i can get in.
- Cold as fuck north pacific surfing - i still need a thick wettie but with tommy drop-in coming back from oz in a month's time i expect to get out there maybe once or twice.
- Summer! i missed out on the best part of summer in winnipeg this year (actually, most of winnipeg did, we didn't really have much summer) but in 2010 i'm gonna be straight into it!
- Getting back into footbag (a bit, the purist footbag player in me is gone, but i sure do enjoy a game of kicky bag!) and getting the crew out on the regular again.
- getting back into shape. that's my big goal for the year. Feel like i've been spending far too much time sitting on my ass (thanks school work!) and i look forward to getting my self back into good kicking and surfing form.
2009 had some shitty parts: Lost a couple really good friends to selfishness and stupidity. One died in a single vehicle accident after having a few too many and thought he would be fine driving home. On the plus side, he only killed him self and not any innocent people. The down side is he left his young family behind. Another lost a battle with drug addiction and overdosed on heroine. he also left his young family behind. Those shook me up a bit. At one point or another in my youth, these two were my best of best friends. Even though we had drifted apart in the past years it still cut me deep. There were alot of good people lost in 2009. The older we get the more frequently it happens. I just didn't expect it so soon.
At the same time, lots of people are getting married, graduating, having kids. Lots of happy stuff happened this year! While i'm happy for them, it scares me a bit- no, alot!
Every one is getting so adult. I'm still a kid. At least that's how i feel, even though i'll be 25 in 2010. fuck, isn't that scary. I don't see my self getting married any time soon, or graduating and getting a career any time soon. Shit, i certainly don't see myself having kids at any point ever. I'm just too selfish for kids.
On thing i do look forward to is getting some cash together and moving out soon. Gosh, love my folks to death, but after spending another free wheeling year on my own, coming home is hard to do. Maybe that should be my resolution this year. make money and move out...
But who knows, i got a whole year ahead of me... i could be married by the end of the year with a baby in tow (i ask that every one pray that this doesn't happen to me). Well, maybe i'd like to find a nice gal who's open to the idea of a relationship and has no aversion to practicing the baby making process, you know, just to get it right... just incase (every one can pray that i find a nice, stable, monogamous, smoking hot nymphomaniac who's into surfing and playing hackey sack).
Who knows.
there's a whole year ahead of me.
(oh, i don't think i ever posted this anywhere, but i made a vid back in august.
check it here)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Hey blog, been a while. Thought about doing the blog with video a while back, using my comp's built-in camera, but i just couldn't be bothered. First off, school interfered with those plans (i think i may have also suggested i'd be making more footbag vids soon too [bwahaha] and never managed that either), second, i just really had nothing noteworthy to say. If you really want to know what i'm up to add me on facebook (i'll ignore you) and check my updates. I'm narcissistic enough, i really shouldn't blog. heaven help me if i ever sign up for twitter. Heaven strike down those foolish enough to follow me...
2009 was awesome. it ranks up there with 2008, 2002, 2003. Pretty bitchen! gonna be hard to beat. While my footbag fell off, slummed it, curled up in a gutter someplace covered in feces and urine and eventually died, i had an awesome year. spent the first 6 months of it living beachside, surfing as much as possible, and travelling through oz. the last 6 were spent mostly in debt and living again as a poor student, but it has been good getting back into school. I don't know how 2010 can top it (it probably can't) but there's a few things i am looking forward to:
- Prairie surf- now that i know where to get on waves at home i look forward to as much surf as i can get in.
- Cold as fuck north pacific surfing - i still need a thick wettie but with tommy drop-in coming back from oz in a month's time i expect to get out there maybe once or twice.
- Summer! i missed out on the best part of summer in winnipeg this year (actually, most of winnipeg did, we didn't really have much summer) but in 2010 i'm gonna be straight into it!
- Getting back into footbag (a bit, the purist footbag player in me is gone, but i sure do enjoy a game of kicky bag!) and getting the crew out on the regular again.
- getting back into shape. that's my big goal for the year. Feel like i've been spending far too much time sitting on my ass (thanks school work!) and i look forward to getting my self back into good kicking and surfing form.
2009 had some shitty parts: Lost a couple really good friends to selfishness and stupidity. One died in a single vehicle accident after having a few too many and thought he would be fine driving home. On the plus side, he only killed him self and not any innocent people. The down side is he left his young family behind. Another lost a battle with drug addiction and overdosed on heroine. he also left his young family behind. Those shook me up a bit. At one point or another in my youth, these two were my best of best friends. Even though we had drifted apart in the past years it still cut me deep. There were alot of good people lost in 2009. The older we get the more frequently it happens. I just didn't expect it so soon.
At the same time, lots of people are getting married, graduating, having kids. Lots of happy stuff happened this year! While i'm happy for them, it scares me a bit- no, alot!
Every one is getting so adult. I'm still a kid. At least that's how i feel, even though i'll be 25 in 2010. fuck, isn't that scary. I don't see my self getting married any time soon, or graduating and getting a career any time soon. Shit, i certainly don't see myself having kids at any point ever. I'm just too selfish for kids.
On thing i do look forward to is getting some cash together and moving out soon. Gosh, love my folks to death, but after spending another free wheeling year on my own, coming home is hard to do. Maybe that should be my resolution this year. make money and move out...
But who knows, i got a whole year ahead of me... i could be married by the end of the year with a baby in tow (i ask that every one pray that this doesn't happen to me). Well, maybe i'd like to find a nice gal who's open to the idea of a relationship and has no aversion to practicing the baby making process, you know, just to get it right... just incase (every one can pray that i find a nice, stable, monogamous, smoking hot nymphomaniac who's into surfing and playing hackey sack).
Who knows.
there's a whole year ahead of me.
(oh, i don't think i ever posted this anywhere, but i made a vid back in august.
check it here)
Better Late Than Never...
Wow. okay, so, it's nearly august now, and i've been back in canada for a while. I really should try to get this back on track (ha!) and hash out some of the details of the rest of my time in Oz.
Here we go, coles notes version recap:
Played with flav and dan at federation square the following day, but we didn't play long. It was an alright shred as i remember, followed by a night on the piss at a cool bar located down a sketchy looking back alley. The place was called hell's kitchen, but i don't think they even served food... at least i don't remember seeing any.
That was the last shred i had with the crew. The other melbournians were MIA, dan left for prague a couple days later, and flav and andreas headed north in their wicked camper. I think i had 2 solo kicks in st. kilda for the rest of my time there. However i got major props one day from a former professional soccer player. The guy was in his late 50's and used to play in some pro league i europe back in the 70's and had moved to australia to raise his family. He was absolutly gobsmacked at what i was doing and sat there watching me kick for over an hour, completely ignoring the tennis match he and his grandson had been having, despite the attempts of the little grom trying to get pappy back on the court. eventually teh kid gave up, dejected and sat on the bench beside pops and watched without interest while pappy clapped and shook his head in amazement after ever string i did.
The real "highlight" of my time in melbourne was the valentines day party at the hostel, where i met some crazy icelandic people, drinking their crazy cough syrup vodka stuff, having complete memory loss, and waking up covered in sand with bruises, a very tender ankle, and 2 bloodied, gashed fingers. Heavy night. I managed to piece the night together over the following days with the help of the other guests. To my surprise, it turned out that i managed to pick up the girl at the front desk (despite being blind drunk) and we headed to the beach for a root. The rest of my time in melbourne, thankfully, passed quite uneventfully.
Next stop was Tassie, where i crashed with jeremy o'wheel. The guy is a legend! After meeting him, i now look at all the posts he has made over the years and finally get that about 99% of the time he's taking the piss. And that he's very intelligent and just enjoys a good debate without getting emotionally invested in it. He's also a damned good shredder! He throws down big combos mid string with ease, has a mastery of a heap of different concepts, and unlike most shredders, seems just as confident on both toes and clippers in a world full of clipper dominant players. we had a number of memorable kicks in hobart that were all time, and i especially enjoyed one at salamanca markets. He really loves sports, and does some form of it everyday of the week it seems.
Jezza's house is also awesome, located right on the waterfront, and his roomies are good fun. We drank alot of beers and played alot of halo3 that was projected on the wall. One of the best parts of my visit to tasmania was a trip we took to the upper florentine, and the hike we did through there. Absolutly gorgeous, and it was interesting to visit the logging protesters camp. The protesters are very passionate about what they are doing, but i'll be damned if i would put my life on the line they way they do. Props to them for having big brass ones!
Meeting Lotus was also a big highlight for me. I had seen him post on the forum a number of times, mostly in the bags and equipment forums, as well as in the arts and leisure section where he posted alot of his photography. His photos are really awesome nature shots. He obviously has a great eye for the uncommon and finds some of the most amazing and unusual patterns in his surroundings. A leaf that looks like a person's face, a geometric pattern that appears to have been drawn into a rock formation. Things that the average person would overlook, or pass by completely. And his shredding is on another level!
Sure, his name is not going to appear in the nemisis head count, and he won't knocking on BAP's door any time soon, as he is just grasping the basics of high performance footbag, but his performance style is unmatched by anyone. He uses feet, legs, hands, arms, head, eyes, any unusual surface he can get the bag to rest on, and mixes it with spins, flyers, and a mixed bag of ducks and dexes to blend it all together seamlessly. I have to pick my jaw up off the floor hen i see him kick. I think to my self, 'what he's doing isn't hard', but try as i might to replicate what he does, it never works out. He's got a strangle hold on his own style, and i doubt any one in the world can hold a candle. Unfortunately, the 'rules' of freestyle competition will never allow him to be world champ, or even pass through a heat at a high level competition, but the guy deserves an award or atleast some recognition for what he does. It's absolutely phenomenal! And he's always smiling. Always.
After a week in tassie i left incredibly early in the morning (i didn't bother to wake up jer to say goodbye. yes, that early) and caught a ride to the airport with one of his roomies. I bummed around in Bondi with Max and Ben for a couple more days, and had an absolutly epic session. Max and i both were really on fire, each of us racking up combos that we had never done before. I think i posted the highlights earlier, on the day they happened.
I had been wanting to pick up surfing again for a long time, and decided to go to the Ripcurl Surf Camp Australia. This would ultimately end my footbag froth in australia/ life. I spent an awesome 4 days in Gerroa (a small coastal town of 500, 2 hours south of sydney) surfing and having fun with the crew down there. My surf coach and i got on really well, and at one point i said that i was really into footbag. She bugged me all week for a demo, and finally on the last night i did a little demo for her. Before long, there was a big group around me checking out what i was showing. Eventualy she just said "every one needs to see this" and i was hauled into the centre of the barbecue area where i gave a full on footbag demo for about half an hour, ending with my worlds routine. The staff went absolutly nuts, and the 49 other campers were also really stoked on it! Hands down, the best reaction i have ever received for a demo!
After my first day there i had been interested in working there. It just seemed like it would be the greatest oz experience i could have: living by the beach, surfing all day, meeting heaps of people, and doing a bit of cooking on the side. They had a full staff and didn't need any one, and a bunch of other people who wanted the job when there was a vacancy. after my demo they were stoked for me to get in as soon as possible, and when they saw my resume they wanted me there even more. After a week, i was running the kitchen.
I went up to the northern beaches after surf camp and just frothed on surfing for about a week before they called me back to camp. I would be replacing one of the cooks, a bloke from norway, who was heading back home soon. Working along side me was another canadian kid from vancouver, who i would really bond with over the following months, and a crazy belgian dude, along with about 14 crazy aussie instructors and 1 from the UK. To sum up the next 3 months of my time there: wake up, surf, make breakfast, surf, make lunch, surf, make dinner, drink beers and party. Daily.
Having been a skateboarder/ snowboarder since i was 10 i caught on quite quickly, and the crew was amazed at my progress. All of them agreed i was the fastest learner they had ever seen, and it wasn't long before i had my own quiver of boards and was heading out on mini surf trips to heavier breaks in the area in the surf van with the instructors.
On occasion i would do little footbag demos for the crews that came through, but only a couple minutes at a time. I also had maybe one or 2 solo sessions when the waves were flat, but really surfing took over and i would just as soon paddle around the line up when the waves were 1 foot as have a kick.
some times we would go up to sydney to Scubar on thursday nights with the past week's crew to party with them. I did this the weekend before the Asutralian open, and txted Dan Boyle, who was already in sydney for the comp. We met at scubar and i introduced him to my frinds and co-workers, had some beers and caught up a bit, talked footbag and about the open. I wasn't going to be attending for a number of reasons, first of all i hadn't kicked in about 6 weeks, and i didn't have days off that coincided with the event, and i didn't want to miss any swells. My days off were thursday night, friday, and sunday night. Technically, the rest of your waking hours your are working. Of course, there was cleaning to be done during this down time around camp, but just so long as it got done before a new crew rocked up on friday night, it didn't matter when. However, asking for time off was a no no, as there were a bunch of people ready to take your position if you left, and i was also the most junior of the crew.
Well, Dan is a fucking legend. After we got a few beers in us, he pretty much talked me up to my "bosses". "Do you know who this guys is? he's second in the world. the WORLD! He NEEDS to be at this event! etc., etc." After a few more beers, both the guys were like "fuck yeah andy! show em how it's done! We'll make sure no one takes your spot! You're the best guy we have at camp!".
I was pretty stoked, but didn't have any of my gear so friday morning i hopped a train back to camp (2.5 hours), walked to camp from the station (45 minutes), packed my gear for the weekend (15 minutes) and headed back to the train station (45 minutes) for a train back to sydney (2.5 hours). Dan had managed to swing us a cheap rate at the central YHA so i went and checked in and we all went for a few drinks.
The event was pretty awesome, and was held at the 2000 olympic grounds. We played on a big stage at the royal easter show, and did request, battles, shred 30 and sick 3. Ian and Dylan did an awesome job of putting the whole thing together, and for the most part it ran really smoothly. I came away with 4 bronze i believe, but felt pretty rusty through out the event. Again beers at night and we all danced up a storm. The following day we went to north sydney to do routines and circle. I came 2nd in routines and 3rd in circle and felt alot looser this day, but man oh man was i dropping alot of things i should not have been dropping!
After an awkward awards ceremony in a rainy, wind swept park due to us running out of time at the event site, we all said our goodbyes. it was going to be awkward to get back, as the trains were not running from sydney to wollongong (3/4 of the way home), but copey and dan said they would go a couple hours out of their way and just drive me back to camp! Legends!!! I still owe them for that!
After that went back to camp and pretty much just surfed for another month and a half. Had some days that were all time out the front, and a couple good ones out at werri, bombo and jones. I won't bore people with the details of every swell, and every surf i had, but be happy in knowing i went out every day got some good waves, surfed with dolphins on the regular, saw some whales, etc., etc.
Camp finished up on the 7th of june, 3 weeks later than expected. Me and a couple of the boys did a surf road trip up the coast. We hit as many surf beaches along the way, and we wound up getting crazy lucky with swells in bonny hills. It was also the time i saw my first shark in the wild.
Sharks are ambush predators, they like dark murky water, making river mouths nice places for them to congregate. Also, river mouths are full of little fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, which are eaten by even bigger fish, which are eaten by sharks. Well there was an awesome right peeling off from a river mouth break wall. I had caught the first wave of a big set and then paddled back out whil every one else was catching waves in. As i made it out just past the break wall, i saw a big fuck off fin go past me, maybe 10 meters infront of me, cruising the river mouth. I freaked and pulled my feet and arms up on my board, yell to my mates. Locky was right behind me paddling out, and started rapid firing me questions. We figured out it was a bull shark, a man eater and one of the most aggressive sharks around. Locky weighed the situation, and decided the waves were too good to pass up. I reluctantly agreed to stay out, and we continued to surf for 6 hours. Upon coming in we talked with a couple other surfers. turns out there had been 4 shark sightings in the past week. heavy.
We made our way north to byron bay and on to queensland and coolangatta, but to my disappointment, d-bah, snapper and the superbank (R.I.P Kirra) were all flat. That's okay though, because they are all rights. Eventually we made our way up to the sunshine coast, where we had a place to stay in mooloolaba. We called it the shakey shack, because white ants had decimated the beams in the place. every one walked very softly. I wound up staying there for my last month, no job, just surfing the beaches of the sunshine coast. My big disappointment was that when i went to Noosa it was flat (also okay, because they are rights), but a small session at A bay with no one else out made up for it. The major highlight of the trip was getting shacked! i had pulled into dozens of tubes but never made it out. i finally scored a clean ride at wurtulla and it was the most amazing thing i have ever experienced. If you've never experienced it you won't understand, but it's something like this:
Eventually i went back to sydney and crashed with Max and Benoite again. Ben had decided she is done with footbag, and is moving on to other sports. She was frustrated by her inconsitent play and decided she was happy with how far she had come, so good on her for being one of the small had full of girls in the world who has played as long as she has and hit as many tricks as she has. Best of luck to her in what ever her new athletic endeavour may be (golf i'll bet). Max continues to kick and we had a massive gathering on my last saturday. Dyalan, Ian, Max, Dan who was on his way to europe for worlds, my self and a new guy were there to throw down and we finished up in the pub for a number of hours where we all eventually said our good byes. Dan and i later went to diner a couple nights later and re said our goodbyes and good lucks then. Before i knew it i was on a plane and headed back...
to canada, but i'm not going to say "back home". I feel really out of place here now. All i do is watch surf vids, think about surfing, and work when i have to. I didn't bother to watch any of the worlds stuff, or even follow it. i was too busy watching the US Open of surfing. I got updates on who was winning via Tuukka's fb status updates. I had one session with manna and scott the week i was back, but damn was i rusty! Haven't kicked since i've been back, and untill just recently haven't even had the urge to, but i'm starting to get itchy feet.
I think i'll keep playing, but the drive to challenge my self is gone. I'll kick simply because busting the occasional trick is fun, but i won't be a stickler for adds, big tricks, or even both-sidedness for that matter. expect alot of repetitive, one sided strings in all future videos (even more so than i used to be!). And that being said, i think i'm gonna turn this into a video blog. even just my average updates will be via video. It's easier for me to just talk shit and post it, or quickly edit it, and post it, instead of spending the time that i do typing. I rewrite things 1000 times to try to get my tone across, or to make it a better read. I also tend to remember stuff once i'm 3 paragraphs along and go back and edit everything, so doing it one shot or just rearranging it in video form will be faster. it might also encourage me to post some videos, which i think i will do for my first new style blog post. I also have some ideas for how i would like to do the blog, but we'll see if they pan out. i won't say what they are just incase it doesn't work and people are like "OMGWTFBBQ?"
SO, that's pretty much got you caught up on what happened in Oz. Thanks for following along my travels, even if i didn't actually do it while i was on my travels, and check back in a couple weeks for Blog version 2.vide0.
Cheers!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wow. okay, so, it's nearly august now, and i've been back in canada for a while. I really should try to get this back on track (ha!) and hash out some of the details of the rest of my time in Oz.
Here we go, coles notes version recap:
Played with flav and dan at federation square the following day, but we didn't play long. It was an alright shred as i remember, followed by a night on the piss at a cool bar located down a sketchy looking back alley. The place was called hell's kitchen, but i don't think they even served food... at least i don't remember seeing any.
That was the last shred i had with the crew. The other melbournians were MIA, dan left for prague a couple days later, and flav and andreas headed north in their wicked camper. I think i had 2 solo kicks in st. kilda for the rest of my time there. However i got major props one day from a former professional soccer player. The guy was in his late 50's and used to play in some pro league i europe back in the 70's and had moved to australia to raise his family. He was absolutly gobsmacked at what i was doing and sat there watching me kick for over an hour, completely ignoring the tennis match he and his grandson had been having, despite the attempts of the little grom trying to get pappy back on the court. eventually teh kid gave up, dejected and sat on the bench beside pops and watched without interest while pappy clapped and shook his head in amazement after ever string i did.
The real "highlight" of my time in melbourne was the valentines day party at the hostel, where i met some crazy icelandic people, drinking their crazy cough syrup vodka stuff, having complete memory loss, and waking up covered in sand with bruises, a very tender ankle, and 2 bloodied, gashed fingers. Heavy night. I managed to piece the night together over the following days with the help of the other guests. To my surprise, it turned out that i managed to pick up the girl at the front desk (despite being blind drunk) and we headed to the beach for a root. The rest of my time in melbourne, thankfully, passed quite uneventfully.
Next stop was Tassie, where i crashed with jeremy o'wheel. The guy is a legend! After meeting him, i now look at all the posts he has made over the years and finally get that about 99% of the time he's taking the piss. And that he's very intelligent and just enjoys a good debate without getting emotionally invested in it. He's also a damned good shredder! He throws down big combos mid string with ease, has a mastery of a heap of different concepts, and unlike most shredders, seems just as confident on both toes and clippers in a world full of clipper dominant players. we had a number of memorable kicks in hobart that were all time, and i especially enjoyed one at salamanca markets. He really loves sports, and does some form of it everyday of the week it seems.
Jezza's house is also awesome, located right on the waterfront, and his roomies are good fun. We drank alot of beers and played alot of halo3 that was projected on the wall. One of the best parts of my visit to tasmania was a trip we took to the upper florentine, and the hike we did through there. Absolutly gorgeous, and it was interesting to visit the logging protesters camp. The protesters are very passionate about what they are doing, but i'll be damned if i would put my life on the line they way they do. Props to them for having big brass ones!
Meeting Lotus was also a big highlight for me. I had seen him post on the forum a number of times, mostly in the bags and equipment forums, as well as in the arts and leisure section where he posted alot of his photography. His photos are really awesome nature shots. He obviously has a great eye for the uncommon and finds some of the most amazing and unusual patterns in his surroundings. A leaf that looks like a person's face, a geometric pattern that appears to have been drawn into a rock formation. Things that the average person would overlook, or pass by completely. And his shredding is on another level!
Sure, his name is not going to appear in the nemisis head count, and he won't knocking on BAP's door any time soon, as he is just grasping the basics of high performance footbag, but his performance style is unmatched by anyone. He uses feet, legs, hands, arms, head, eyes, any unusual surface he can get the bag to rest on, and mixes it with spins, flyers, and a mixed bag of ducks and dexes to blend it all together seamlessly. I have to pick my jaw up off the floor hen i see him kick. I think to my self, 'what he's doing isn't hard', but try as i might to replicate what he does, it never works out. He's got a strangle hold on his own style, and i doubt any one in the world can hold a candle. Unfortunately, the 'rules' of freestyle competition will never allow him to be world champ, or even pass through a heat at a high level competition, but the guy deserves an award or atleast some recognition for what he does. It's absolutely phenomenal! And he's always smiling. Always.
After a week in tassie i left incredibly early in the morning (i didn't bother to wake up jer to say goodbye. yes, that early) and caught a ride to the airport with one of his roomies. I bummed around in Bondi with Max and Ben for a couple more days, and had an absolutly epic session. Max and i both were really on fire, each of us racking up combos that we had never done before. I think i posted the highlights earlier, on the day they happened.
I had been wanting to pick up surfing again for a long time, and decided to go to the Ripcurl Surf Camp Australia. This would ultimately end my footbag froth in australia/ life. I spent an awesome 4 days in Gerroa (a small coastal town of 500, 2 hours south of sydney) surfing and having fun with the crew down there. My surf coach and i got on really well, and at one point i said that i was really into footbag. She bugged me all week for a demo, and finally on the last night i did a little demo for her. Before long, there was a big group around me checking out what i was showing. Eventualy she just said "every one needs to see this" and i was hauled into the centre of the barbecue area where i gave a full on footbag demo for about half an hour, ending with my worlds routine. The staff went absolutly nuts, and the 49 other campers were also really stoked on it! Hands down, the best reaction i have ever received for a demo!
After my first day there i had been interested in working there. It just seemed like it would be the greatest oz experience i could have: living by the beach, surfing all day, meeting heaps of people, and doing a bit of cooking on the side. They had a full staff and didn't need any one, and a bunch of other people who wanted the job when there was a vacancy. after my demo they were stoked for me to get in as soon as possible, and when they saw my resume they wanted me there even more. After a week, i was running the kitchen.
I went up to the northern beaches after surf camp and just frothed on surfing for about a week before they called me back to camp. I would be replacing one of the cooks, a bloke from norway, who was heading back home soon. Working along side me was another canadian kid from vancouver, who i would really bond with over the following months, and a crazy belgian dude, along with about 14 crazy aussie instructors and 1 from the UK. To sum up the next 3 months of my time there: wake up, surf, make breakfast, surf, make lunch, surf, make dinner, drink beers and party. Daily.
Having been a skateboarder/ snowboarder since i was 10 i caught on quite quickly, and the crew was amazed at my progress. All of them agreed i was the fastest learner they had ever seen, and it wasn't long before i had my own quiver of boards and was heading out on mini surf trips to heavier breaks in the area in the surf van with the instructors.
On occasion i would do little footbag demos for the crews that came through, but only a couple minutes at a time. I also had maybe one or 2 solo sessions when the waves were flat, but really surfing took over and i would just as soon paddle around the line up when the waves were 1 foot as have a kick.
some times we would go up to sydney to Scubar on thursday nights with the past week's crew to party with them. I did this the weekend before the Asutralian open, and txted Dan Boyle, who was already in sydney for the comp. We met at scubar and i introduced him to my frinds and co-workers, had some beers and caught up a bit, talked footbag and about the open. I wasn't going to be attending for a number of reasons, first of all i hadn't kicked in about 6 weeks, and i didn't have days off that coincided with the event, and i didn't want to miss any swells. My days off were thursday night, friday, and sunday night. Technically, the rest of your waking hours your are working. Of course, there was cleaning to be done during this down time around camp, but just so long as it got done before a new crew rocked up on friday night, it didn't matter when. However, asking for time off was a no no, as there were a bunch of people ready to take your position if you left, and i was also the most junior of the crew.
Well, Dan is a fucking legend. After we got a few beers in us, he pretty much talked me up to my "bosses". "Do you know who this guys is? he's second in the world. the WORLD! He NEEDS to be at this event! etc., etc." After a few more beers, both the guys were like "fuck yeah andy! show em how it's done! We'll make sure no one takes your spot! You're the best guy we have at camp!".
I was pretty stoked, but didn't have any of my gear so friday morning i hopped a train back to camp (2.5 hours), walked to camp from the station (45 minutes), packed my gear for the weekend (15 minutes) and headed back to the train station (45 minutes) for a train back to sydney (2.5 hours). Dan had managed to swing us a cheap rate at the central YHA so i went and checked in and we all went for a few drinks.
The event was pretty awesome, and was held at the 2000 olympic grounds. We played on a big stage at the royal easter show, and did request, battles, shred 30 and sick 3. Ian and Dylan did an awesome job of putting the whole thing together, and for the most part it ran really smoothly. I came away with 4 bronze i believe, but felt pretty rusty through out the event. Again beers at night and we all danced up a storm. The following day we went to north sydney to do routines and circle. I came 2nd in routines and 3rd in circle and felt alot looser this day, but man oh man was i dropping alot of things i should not have been dropping!
After an awkward awards ceremony in a rainy, wind swept park due to us running out of time at the event site, we all said our goodbyes. it was going to be awkward to get back, as the trains were not running from sydney to wollongong (3/4 of the way home), but copey and dan said they would go a couple hours out of their way and just drive me back to camp! Legends!!! I still owe them for that!
After that went back to camp and pretty much just surfed for another month and a half. Had some days that were all time out the front, and a couple good ones out at werri, bombo and jones. I won't bore people with the details of every swell, and every surf i had, but be happy in knowing i went out every day got some good waves, surfed with dolphins on the regular, saw some whales, etc., etc.
Camp finished up on the 7th of june, 3 weeks later than expected. Me and a couple of the boys did a surf road trip up the coast. We hit as many surf beaches along the way, and we wound up getting crazy lucky with swells in bonny hills. It was also the time i saw my first shark in the wild.
Sharks are ambush predators, they like dark murky water, making river mouths nice places for them to congregate. Also, river mouths are full of little fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, which are eaten by even bigger fish, which are eaten by sharks. Well there was an awesome right peeling off from a river mouth break wall. I had caught the first wave of a big set and then paddled back out whil every one else was catching waves in. As i made it out just past the break wall, i saw a big fuck off fin go past me, maybe 10 meters infront of me, cruising the river mouth. I freaked and pulled my feet and arms up on my board, yell to my mates. Locky was right behind me paddling out, and started rapid firing me questions. We figured out it was a bull shark, a man eater and one of the most aggressive sharks around. Locky weighed the situation, and decided the waves were too good to pass up. I reluctantly agreed to stay out, and we continued to surf for 6 hours. Upon coming in we talked with a couple other surfers. turns out there had been 4 shark sightings in the past week. heavy.
We made our way north to byron bay and on to queensland and coolangatta, but to my disappointment, d-bah, snapper and the superbank (R.I.P Kirra) were all flat. That's okay though, because they are all rights. Eventually we made our way up to the sunshine coast, where we had a place to stay in mooloolaba. We called it the shakey shack, because white ants had decimated the beams in the place. every one walked very softly. I wound up staying there for my last month, no job, just surfing the beaches of the sunshine coast. My big disappointment was that when i went to Noosa it was flat (also okay, because they are rights), but a small session at A bay with no one else out made up for it. The major highlight of the trip was getting shacked! i had pulled into dozens of tubes but never made it out. i finally scored a clean ride at wurtulla and it was the most amazing thing i have ever experienced. If you've never experienced it you won't understand, but it's something like this:
Eventually i went back to sydney and crashed with Max and Benoite again. Ben had decided she is done with footbag, and is moving on to other sports. She was frustrated by her inconsitent play and decided she was happy with how far she had come, so good on her for being one of the small had full of girls in the world who has played as long as she has and hit as many tricks as she has. Best of luck to her in what ever her new athletic endeavour may be (golf i'll bet). Max continues to kick and we had a massive gathering on my last saturday. Dyalan, Ian, Max, Dan who was on his way to europe for worlds, my self and a new guy were there to throw down and we finished up in the pub for a number of hours where we all eventually said our good byes. Dan and i later went to diner a couple nights later and re said our goodbyes and good lucks then. Before i knew it i was on a plane and headed back...
to canada, but i'm not going to say "back home". I feel really out of place here now. All i do is watch surf vids, think about surfing, and work when i have to. I didn't bother to watch any of the worlds stuff, or even follow it. i was too busy watching the US Open of surfing. I got updates on who was winning via Tuukka's fb status updates. I had one session with manna and scott the week i was back, but damn was i rusty! Haven't kicked since i've been back, and untill just recently haven't even had the urge to, but i'm starting to get itchy feet.
I think i'll keep playing, but the drive to challenge my self is gone. I'll kick simply because busting the occasional trick is fun, but i won't be a stickler for adds, big tricks, or even both-sidedness for that matter. expect alot of repetitive, one sided strings in all future videos (even more so than i used to be!). And that being said, i think i'm gonna turn this into a video blog. even just my average updates will be via video. It's easier for me to just talk shit and post it, or quickly edit it, and post it, instead of spending the time that i do typing. I rewrite things 1000 times to try to get my tone across, or to make it a better read. I also tend to remember stuff once i'm 3 paragraphs along and go back and edit everything, so doing it one shot or just rearranging it in video form will be faster. it might also encourage me to post some videos, which i think i will do for my first new style blog post. I also have some ideas for how i would like to do the blog, but we'll see if they pan out. i won't say what they are just incase it doesn't work and people are like "OMGWTFBBQ?"
SO, that's pretty much got you caught up on what happened in Oz. Thanks for following along my travels, even if i didn't actually do it while i was on my travels, and check back in a couple weeks for Blog version 2.vide0.
Cheers!
Through fire and brimstone...
Sleep was not to be on my journey. My new mates proceeded to watch crappy camera phone videos of their escapades in canberra, mostly of them wandering around drunkenly in canberra, at full volume late into the night laughing hysterically. I counted street lamps as they passed, trying to nod off. The back of the buss was shaking alot, so when ever i would nod off and lean my head against the window it would bounce and rattle against it, painfully bringing me back to counciousness.
The moon was quite bright and you could see into the distance out of the bus window. Not much to see really, the hume highway passes through a fairly barren stretch of oz. Rolling hills and a bit of scrub brush bored me quite quickly.
Nod off.
head on window.
Back awake.
Looking out the window again.
As time passed i thought it was getting foggy out, but soon realized the fog went far too high. It wasn't fog. It was smoke. The bush fires, still burning had spewed smoke across the hills, and the full moon made visible what i can only imagine was one hell of a fire.
The farther south we travelled the thicker the smoke got, untill it obscured my view from the window. At one point you could just glimps light beyond the hills and the sky became orange just on the horizon. It may have been a town with orange street lamps, but we had passed a number of towns and i had yet to see that orange glow.
I wasn't concerned for my safety, obviously it would look terrible for grey hound if they drove a bus full of folks into the blaze and killed them all, but i was hoping we wouldn't be turned back.
At some point stupidly early in the morning we had a "dinner stop". More than any thing it was a chance for the driver to stretch his legs and down a 4 pack of redbull. I happily used the full sized, non-moving bathrooms, as bad experiences on egyptian busses have made me fear coach bathrooms, grabbed a meat pie and a orange juice at the stop point and boarded the bus again. the tiny girl who had the aisle spot beside me was still asleep, and i felt bad waking her for a second time.
We continued on down the road, most people asleep now, but i remained awake watching the scenery for a good few hours. All traffic was detoured off the highway at one point and we used a couple smaller roads to wind our way around, what i assume was a fire ravaged area. The smoke was thick here again; i wondered if the fires were still burning.
At some point i must have fallen asleep in the dark, because i awoke to sunlight streaming in under the brim of my cap and the driver saying we would be at the coach terminal in mere moments.
i stuffed my gear back into my bag as we pulled in and got off to grab my bags. Considering i was one of the last people to load my bags on, i was a bit annoyed that it was one of the last to come off.
Having glanced at my melbourne maps while on the bus i knew i needed to exit the south end of the terminal to get to my hostel, which if the map was correct wasn't that far off. I exited the central doors and started down the road, but my legs were pretty tired. A good breakfast and a coffee were needed, but the best i could find was a Hungry Jack's (Burger King in the mother land). To be honest, i didn't look hard. it was simply the closest, and i was a hungry andrew.
After my brekky sandwich and an instant cappu that i lingered over i set off to find my hostel.
I quickly realized that i was wearing the wrong shoes for the walk as sharp plantar fasciitis pain crept into my right foot. Damn you, stylish loafers. i also realized that the map was a bit misleading on the scale. It was taking me forever and it seemed i was only just making some progress into the walk. The numbers were passing by and my destination getting closer when i got a nasty shock: I was back at number 1. I though perhaps i had passed by my hostel, so i wandered back to check the numbers.
No, i hadn't past it yet, assuming my 2 year old guide book still had the accurate address. I then wondered if it was one of those strange roads that turns or stops at one cross street only to start up a block south, so i grabbed my book again to figure out what was going on. I sat on a park bench to consult my map and rest my foot. it had been over an hour of walking by this point.
My issue now was that i didn't have one totally accurate map. i had one map of the city its self showing major routes, which this road was, but didn't list any of the minor cross streets. A second map showed the city center and the start of the road i was on. the third map showed the end of the road and the section that my hostel was located on.
Being sleepy i decided to just keep on walking, assumiong that the road changedfrom street, to lane, or way, or similar and began counting over again. Later a sign confirmed my suspicions and told that i was now on "south" as opposed to "north", and thus why the numbers had started recounting. I trucked on.
The neighborhood seemed to deteriorate as i crossed one of the streets. Now away from the office buildings of the center, old buildings, some poor on the up keep, and townhouses now lined the streets. It had a friendly vibe though, and people smiled and said "g'day" as i passed.
I finally got to my hostel, checked in and carted my gear up. I flung of my stylish loafers and opted instead for my runners, as it was a bit cool for thongs. I scouted out the hostel and then sent a txt to flavio and dan. Flavio rsponded and we made plans to meet up in the city in the arvo. This time i opted for the tram.
We met up at flinder station, under the clocks. It is obviously a frequent meeting spot, as many groups and couples were greeting eachother as i waited for flavio.
Andreas, andother swiss bloke was travelling with flavio on the journey. We nabbed a spot on a terrace on the south bank of the yarra and gulped coffee while we caught up on what we had been doing in astralia and since we last saw each other in prague.
We opted for a wander around the south bank, taking in the sights, and eventually corssed and made our way to an asian pub, just across from the state library where dan was doing some research. Flavio and Andreas were staying with dan, and had said they would meet him there at 7pm.
We got duped into buying expensive jugs of beer, altough it was quite good. Apparently that was their day's special, so i would hate to know what it normally cost. We later realised they had much much chreaper jugs, and tucked into those instead.
It soon became apparent why these ones were so much cheaper, as we got one that was nearly undrinkably skunked. The keg was off, no doubt, but we were already half way through the jug and decided to power through.
It was andreas' turn to shout, and we strictly told him to get something else. He came back with a jug in hand and proceeded to pour for us. At first sip, i thought it was just a bad lingering after taste. I was wrong. He had inadvertantly purchased the same crap as before. We all had a good laugh and decided that, since we were men (rool eyes now), we'd just skoll them and be done with it.
At some point Dan sent a txt to flav saying he was done, we told him to come up, but he refused. After some pestering he told flavio to enjoy his night, and we wondered what was going on. turned out he had a group of people waiting for him. We stuck around for another jog and got a txt from dan later saying they all had gone to pub down the road, so we drank up, payed up, and headed to the lounge.
Lounge was a cool place, and we chatted and caught up with dan. Turned out that a swiss girl who was friends with one of flav and andreas' friends was there witha group of other swiss folks, so we formed one big table. We all spoke french and tutoured dan, who has a great love of languages.
I managed to escape a real goon the tram stop. He was really really drunk and seated, but i was standing, which gave me the advantage. I kept a close eye on his other hand, but fortunately he didn't even ball it up. with a well timed shove to the face he toppled over backwards into a garbage bin and i hopped onto the tram just as the doors were closing. it wasn't my train, but the bloke was still reeling about with the apple cores and cursing me out as the tram pulled away. It started out going the right way, but took a turn a few minutes up. I hopped off, walked back to my street and started the walk back to my hostel, now a bit paranoid that i'd just pissed off some guy who was about to be coming the same direction. The tram had taken me a good part of the way back though, so i was shortly home.
An interesting start to my time in melbourne, i climbed into bed and hoped the rest of my week would be less exciting.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sleep was not to be on my journey. My new mates proceeded to watch crappy camera phone videos of their escapades in canberra, mostly of them wandering around drunkenly in canberra, at full volume late into the night laughing hysterically. I counted street lamps as they passed, trying to nod off. The back of the buss was shaking alot, so when ever i would nod off and lean my head against the window it would bounce and rattle against it, painfully bringing me back to counciousness.
The moon was quite bright and you could see into the distance out of the bus window. Not much to see really, the hume highway passes through a fairly barren stretch of oz. Rolling hills and a bit of scrub brush bored me quite quickly.
Nod off.
head on window.
Back awake.
Looking out the window again.
As time passed i thought it was getting foggy out, but soon realized the fog went far too high. It wasn't fog. It was smoke. The bush fires, still burning had spewed smoke across the hills, and the full moon made visible what i can only imagine was one hell of a fire.
The farther south we travelled the thicker the smoke got, untill it obscured my view from the window. At one point you could just glimps light beyond the hills and the sky became orange just on the horizon. It may have been a town with orange street lamps, but we had passed a number of towns and i had yet to see that orange glow.
I wasn't concerned for my safety, obviously it would look terrible for grey hound if they drove a bus full of folks into the blaze and killed them all, but i was hoping we wouldn't be turned back.
At some point stupidly early in the morning we had a "dinner stop". More than any thing it was a chance for the driver to stretch his legs and down a 4 pack of redbull. I happily used the full sized, non-moving bathrooms, as bad experiences on egyptian busses have made me fear coach bathrooms, grabbed a meat pie and a orange juice at the stop point and boarded the bus again. the tiny girl who had the aisle spot beside me was still asleep, and i felt bad waking her for a second time.
We continued on down the road, most people asleep now, but i remained awake watching the scenery for a good few hours. All traffic was detoured off the highway at one point and we used a couple smaller roads to wind our way around, what i assume was a fire ravaged area. The smoke was thick here again; i wondered if the fires were still burning.
At some point i must have fallen asleep in the dark, because i awoke to sunlight streaming in under the brim of my cap and the driver saying we would be at the coach terminal in mere moments.
i stuffed my gear back into my bag as we pulled in and got off to grab my bags. Considering i was one of the last people to load my bags on, i was a bit annoyed that it was one of the last to come off.
Having glanced at my melbourne maps while on the bus i knew i needed to exit the south end of the terminal to get to my hostel, which if the map was correct wasn't that far off. I exited the central doors and started down the road, but my legs were pretty tired. A good breakfast and a coffee were needed, but the best i could find was a Hungry Jack's (Burger King in the mother land). To be honest, i didn't look hard. it was simply the closest, and i was a hungry andrew.
After my brekky sandwich and an instant cappu that i lingered over i set off to find my hostel.
I quickly realized that i was wearing the wrong shoes for the walk as sharp plantar fasciitis pain crept into my right foot. Damn you, stylish loafers. i also realized that the map was a bit misleading on the scale. It was taking me forever and it seemed i was only just making some progress into the walk. The numbers were passing by and my destination getting closer when i got a nasty shock: I was back at number 1. I though perhaps i had passed by my hostel, so i wandered back to check the numbers.
No, i hadn't past it yet, assuming my 2 year old guide book still had the accurate address. I then wondered if it was one of those strange roads that turns or stops at one cross street only to start up a block south, so i grabbed my book again to figure out what was going on. I sat on a park bench to consult my map and rest my foot. it had been over an hour of walking by this point.
My issue now was that i didn't have one totally accurate map. i had one map of the city its self showing major routes, which this road was, but didn't list any of the minor cross streets. A second map showed the city center and the start of the road i was on. the third map showed the end of the road and the section that my hostel was located on.
Being sleepy i decided to just keep on walking, assumiong that the road changedfrom street, to lane, or way, or similar and began counting over again. Later a sign confirmed my suspicions and told that i was now on "south" as opposed to "north", and thus why the numbers had started recounting. I trucked on.
The neighborhood seemed to deteriorate as i crossed one of the streets. Now away from the office buildings of the center, old buildings, some poor on the up keep, and townhouses now lined the streets. It had a friendly vibe though, and people smiled and said "g'day" as i passed.
I finally got to my hostel, checked in and carted my gear up. I flung of my stylish loafers and opted instead for my runners, as it was a bit cool for thongs. I scouted out the hostel and then sent a txt to flavio and dan. Flavio rsponded and we made plans to meet up in the city in the arvo. This time i opted for the tram.
We met up at flinder station, under the clocks. It is obviously a frequent meeting spot, as many groups and couples were greeting eachother as i waited for flavio.
Andreas, andother swiss bloke was travelling with flavio on the journey. We nabbed a spot on a terrace on the south bank of the yarra and gulped coffee while we caught up on what we had been doing in astralia and since we last saw each other in prague.
We opted for a wander around the south bank, taking in the sights, and eventually corssed and made our way to an asian pub, just across from the state library where dan was doing some research. Flavio and Andreas were staying with dan, and had said they would meet him there at 7pm.
We got duped into buying expensive jugs of beer, altough it was quite good. Apparently that was their day's special, so i would hate to know what it normally cost. We later realised they had much much chreaper jugs, and tucked into those instead.
It soon became apparent why these ones were so much cheaper, as we got one that was nearly undrinkably skunked. The keg was off, no doubt, but we were already half way through the jug and decided to power through.
It was andreas' turn to shout, and we strictly told him to get something else. He came back with a jug in hand and proceeded to pour for us. At first sip, i thought it was just a bad lingering after taste. I was wrong. He had inadvertantly purchased the same crap as before. We all had a good laugh and decided that, since we were men (rool eyes now), we'd just skoll them and be done with it.
At some point Dan sent a txt to flav saying he was done, we told him to come up, but he refused. After some pestering he told flavio to enjoy his night, and we wondered what was going on. turned out he had a group of people waiting for him. We stuck around for another jog and got a txt from dan later saying they all had gone to pub down the road, so we drank up, payed up, and headed to the lounge.
Lounge was a cool place, and we chatted and caught up with dan. Turned out that a swiss girl who was friends with one of flav and andreas' friends was there witha group of other swiss folks, so we formed one big table. We all spoke french and tutoured dan, who has a great love of languages.
I managed to escape a real goon the tram stop. He was really really drunk and seated, but i was standing, which gave me the advantage. I kept a close eye on his other hand, but fortunately he didn't even ball it up. with a well timed shove to the face he toppled over backwards into a garbage bin and i hopped onto the tram just as the doors were closing. it wasn't my train, but the bloke was still reeling about with the apple cores and cursing me out as the tram pulled away. It started out going the right way, but took a turn a few minutes up. I hopped off, walked back to my street and started the walk back to my hostel, now a bit paranoid that i'd just pissed off some guy who was about to be coming the same direction. The tram had taken me a good part of the way back though, so i was shortly home.
An interesting start to my time in melbourne, i climbed into bed and hoped the rest of my week would be less exciting.
The end of the ATC...
Weather is kinda crappy right now, which wouldn't be a problem, but the waves are no better, so i'm gonna kill off an arvo here and finish up my canberra bloggings. Expect it to be short and sweet...
We woke up on sunday at about 4 in the arvo. Nursed our hangovers in the pool and infront of the televison for most of the day. The news was frightening. Apparently the extreme heat and 100km/h winds had whipped up the bush fires in victoria so that they were completely unmanageable. Aerial video from the king lake area showed that the entire town had been razed to the ground. It looked like a war zone. There were some truly amazing stories of close escapes, but unfortunately, just as many reports of those who had tried to battle the blaze only to succomb to the flames. There was a very thin line between life and death; One clip that has stuck with me was a shot in king lake of a mail box and a news paper box, not 1 meter apart. The mailbox was charred black while the news box stood untouched.
The fight-or-flight policy (either flee your home or stay and battle the blaze) seems like it caused more damage than good in this case. Apparently the day before the fire brigades and computer monitoring systems had predicted the worst conditions ever on record for saturday. had they had a straight up evacuation policy, perhaps alot of these lives could have been saved. Yes, some houses were saved by their owners armed with fire pumps and gardening hoses, but I imagine these house were insured. A life insurance payout will never replace a parent or spouse. In my mind it wouldn't have been worth it to stay and fight.
I think the big higlight on the day was we went to KFC for these super greasy monster chicken burgers called "tower burges". And towers they were. A breaded chicken breast, deep fried to help with the hangovers, with all the usual fixings and topped off with a deep fried hash brown. Sickeningly good. A solo to wash it down and we were back infront of the tv. With all 3 seasons of the might boosh under our belts we moved on to "It's always sunny in philadelphia", which was just as funny. Danny DeVito is hilarious in this show, and the episode where 2 of them are trying to get on social security by smoking crack was incredibly funny, while also being incredibly horrifying.
Brookly returned in the evening, having gone to sydney for the weekend. Lucky bastard spent his weekend on the beach as opposed to the paddle pool. I was green with envy.
Hangovers in check, we called it an early night and went to bed.
Monday i went into town, catching a ride with brooklyn again, and met up with dan at about 11. he was working evenings this week, so didn't start untill 3pm, leaving his morning open for some shred. We went to city walk and played for a couple hours. The heat was still incredible, but it had dropped to a down right chilly 30. After shred i think dan went to work and i went along with him and enjoyed a schooner at Transit and hopped on the internet, abusing Dan's free YHA internet card.
Copey picked me up around 6 and we headed back to the castle. We ate, jumped in the pool and settled in for some more philadelphia. It was at about this time that i started my preparations to get outta doge and head down south. I secured a spot on an overnight bus to Melbourne and scored some fantastic flight deals from melbourne to hobart and back to sydney for about $160 all in! Sweet.
Greta, the house mate who just moved out and whos bed i was currently sleeping on came back to pick up a few of her things in the evening, but thankfully left the bed behind. And with that we called it a night and went to bed.
Tuesday went similar to monday. Caught a ride into the city with Brooklyn and met up with Dan for a kick at about 11. The heat was a bit less intense today and we managed to play a bit longer before getting totally exhausted. Dan hit a couple really good sick three's, a couple first try! We gave each other some combos to hit and over all had a pretty sweet session. Again, headed back to the YHA in the arvo and abused the crap outta dan's free internet access (the reason why i managed to blog at all in canberra). Back to the castle in the evening and chilled in the pool. And uneventful day, but a nice one, none the less.
Wednesday was to be my last day in Canberra. In fact i may have left on tuesday, this was quite some time ago. If it was infact tuesday that i left, simply add the end of this section on to the end of the last section. Since i'm not sure, i'll just post what i think happened...
Ride to the city with brooklyn, kick with dan, yha internet abuse, ride back to copey's, arvo shred at the tennis courts with copey, shower and dinner at copey's, chill out untill my bus, pack my gear, drove to the city to catch the bus.
The bus left at midnight and there were some loud, unsavoury fellows waiting for the bus when we arrived at the spot. They drunkenly bellowed "which one of yez is taking the bus?"
Copey very very quickly pointed at me and said "He is! He is taking the bus. I'm not taking the bus."
They then asked if i had any dope i wanted to sell them. I replied that i don't smoke, to which they responded "too bad, it's gonna be a long ride, hahahahaha!"
this first encounter did not give me much hope for getting any rest on the bus.
"They sound like fun blokes, dun they? You're in for a nice trip i reckon!" copey joked while i silently prayed that i wasn't going to be seated anywhere near them.
The bus pulled up eventually, so i thanked Copey for the good times in canberra. Got my seat assignment (said a little prayer again), loaded by bags onto the bus and said good bye to copey.
"Have fun with your new mates!" Copey called out. I gave him the finger. We lauged and i boarded the bus to find that the bus gods had smiled on me, placing me towards the back while "my new mates" were closer to the front. I had a window seat, so i got my gear organized and settled in for the 9 hour ride to melbourne.
The driver informed us that the road we were to be taking was going to be passing straight through bush fire country, and while the road was clear and the fires were under controll at the moment, if the winds changed we may have to turn back. He said he had driven the route a few times in the past days and had yet to have a problem, but had to detour off the hume highway a few times, and fancied our chances of getting through.
"My new mates" started talking shit quite loudly, so i put my ipod on and settled in to try to get some sleep, hoping that, with a bit of luck, i would wake up in melboure well rested and still in one piece.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Weather is kinda crappy right now, which wouldn't be a problem, but the waves are no better, so i'm gonna kill off an arvo here and finish up my canberra bloggings. Expect it to be short and sweet...
We woke up on sunday at about 4 in the arvo. Nursed our hangovers in the pool and infront of the televison for most of the day. The news was frightening. Apparently the extreme heat and 100km/h winds had whipped up the bush fires in victoria so that they were completely unmanageable. Aerial video from the king lake area showed that the entire town had been razed to the ground. It looked like a war zone. There were some truly amazing stories of close escapes, but unfortunately, just as many reports of those who had tried to battle the blaze only to succomb to the flames. There was a very thin line between life and death; One clip that has stuck with me was a shot in king lake of a mail box and a news paper box, not 1 meter apart. The mailbox was charred black while the news box stood untouched.
The fight-or-flight policy (either flee your home or stay and battle the blaze) seems like it caused more damage than good in this case. Apparently the day before the fire brigades and computer monitoring systems had predicted the worst conditions ever on record for saturday. had they had a straight up evacuation policy, perhaps alot of these lives could have been saved. Yes, some houses were saved by their owners armed with fire pumps and gardening hoses, but I imagine these house were insured. A life insurance payout will never replace a parent or spouse. In my mind it wouldn't have been worth it to stay and fight.
I think the big higlight on the day was we went to KFC for these super greasy monster chicken burgers called "tower burges". And towers they were. A breaded chicken breast, deep fried to help with the hangovers, with all the usual fixings and topped off with a deep fried hash brown. Sickeningly good. A solo to wash it down and we were back infront of the tv. With all 3 seasons of the might boosh under our belts we moved on to "It's always sunny in philadelphia", which was just as funny. Danny DeVito is hilarious in this show, and the episode where 2 of them are trying to get on social security by smoking crack was incredibly funny, while also being incredibly horrifying.
Brookly returned in the evening, having gone to sydney for the weekend. Lucky bastard spent his weekend on the beach as opposed to the paddle pool. I was green with envy.
Hangovers in check, we called it an early night and went to bed.
Monday i went into town, catching a ride with brooklyn again, and met up with dan at about 11. he was working evenings this week, so didn't start untill 3pm, leaving his morning open for some shred. We went to city walk and played for a couple hours. The heat was still incredible, but it had dropped to a down right chilly 30. After shred i think dan went to work and i went along with him and enjoyed a schooner at Transit and hopped on the internet, abusing Dan's free YHA internet card.
Copey picked me up around 6 and we headed back to the castle. We ate, jumped in the pool and settled in for some more philadelphia. It was at about this time that i started my preparations to get outta doge and head down south. I secured a spot on an overnight bus to Melbourne and scored some fantastic flight deals from melbourne to hobart and back to sydney for about $160 all in! Sweet.
Greta, the house mate who just moved out and whos bed i was currently sleeping on came back to pick up a few of her things in the evening, but thankfully left the bed behind. And with that we called it a night and went to bed.
Tuesday went similar to monday. Caught a ride into the city with Brooklyn and met up with Dan for a kick at about 11. The heat was a bit less intense today and we managed to play a bit longer before getting totally exhausted. Dan hit a couple really good sick three's, a couple first try! We gave each other some combos to hit and over all had a pretty sweet session. Again, headed back to the YHA in the arvo and abused the crap outta dan's free internet access (the reason why i managed to blog at all in canberra). Back to the castle in the evening and chilled in the pool. And uneventful day, but a nice one, none the less.
Wednesday was to be my last day in Canberra. In fact i may have left on tuesday, this was quite some time ago. If it was infact tuesday that i left, simply add the end of this section on to the end of the last section. Since i'm not sure, i'll just post what i think happened...
Ride to the city with brooklyn, kick with dan, yha internet abuse, ride back to copey's, arvo shred at the tennis courts with copey, shower and dinner at copey's, chill out untill my bus, pack my gear, drove to the city to catch the bus.
The bus left at midnight and there were some loud, unsavoury fellows waiting for the bus when we arrived at the spot. They drunkenly bellowed "which one of yez is taking the bus?"
Copey very very quickly pointed at me and said "He is! He is taking the bus. I'm not taking the bus."
They then asked if i had any dope i wanted to sell them. I replied that i don't smoke, to which they responded "too bad, it's gonna be a long ride, hahahahaha!"
this first encounter did not give me much hope for getting any rest on the bus.
"They sound like fun blokes, dun they? You're in for a nice trip i reckon!" copey joked while i silently prayed that i wasn't going to be seated anywhere near them.
The bus pulled up eventually, so i thanked Copey for the good times in canberra. Got my seat assignment (said a little prayer again), loaded by bags onto the bus and said good bye to copey.
"Have fun with your new mates!" Copey called out. I gave him the finger. We lauged and i boarded the bus to find that the bus gods had smiled on me, placing me towards the back while "my new mates" were closer to the front. I had a window seat, so i got my gear organized and settled in for the 9 hour ride to melbourne.
The driver informed us that the road we were to be taking was going to be passing straight through bush fire country, and while the road was clear and the fires were under controll at the moment, if the winds changed we may have to turn back. He said he had driven the route a few times in the past days and had yet to have a problem, but had to detour off the hume highway a few times, and fancied our chances of getting through.
"My new mates" started talking shit quite loudly, so i put my ipod on and settled in to try to get some sleep, hoping that, with a bit of luck, i would wake up in melboure well rested and still in one piece.
The Amazing Magic of The Disappearing Copey...
(I'm so far behind in this blogging, like about a month behind. Yeah, i was in canberra in early february. For serious. So i might fast forward through any thing that wasn't either footbag stuff, or happened with footbag players, or was a big Australian event, or moment... or was just straight up really really funny. And it's a good thing i made that last exception, because this story, dear reader, is a very very funny one!)
Woke up yet again to sweltering heat. The forecast on the morning news was for 41 degrees in canberra. What a shit day not be any where near the beach. I was quickly growing tired of the paddle pool as the mosquito larvae were slowly taking it over.
After eating some quick brekkie, we made our way into town in the commodore. We arrived around noon, but most of the streets around city walk had been closed off, which meant we had to hoof it from a ways out to get to the festival. In acctual fact it wasn't that far. Probably less than 500 meters, but in that heat it felt alot longer.
We walked along the many many stalls in city walk, having a look at what was on offer for food and drink. These were our observations:
Central and eastern europe: Sausage inna bun, Beer.
Eastern and southern europe: Pasta/ Payallea, Beer.
Asia and Pacific Rim countries: Stir fried veggies with chichen, your choice of rice or noodles, beer.
Africa: Curried Chicken, Beer.
South America: Empanadas, Beer
Middle east: Falafels or lamb wraps, Beer.
India and surrounds: Veggie curry, peach juice.
Regardless of what coutry in the specific region, they all had exactly the same fare. for exaple we'll look at japan, korea, vietnam, china, thailand, and nepal. Stir fry at all of them. The exception being the opportunity to also have sushi at the japanese place. And to make it even more monotonous, there were about a dozen indian places, falafel huts, and chinese joints.
Thankfully, there was beer, so every one was happy.
Nathan: "what's in that one"
Indian food guy: "Lentils, chic peas and rice"
Nathan: "okay, how bout that one?"
Indian Food guy: "Lentils and chickpeas. You should try it with rice."
Nathan: Looks at me ".......okay." walks away
We wandered to the center of it all where there were some cultural demonstrations happening. We watched some old white australia guys giving knug-fu demonstrations ( wtf?) which were fairly entertaining. A guy punched the bottom out of a wine bottle, but i laughed and explained to copey that it was a party trick a bunch of friends do at home, just simple physics. Every one in the crowd applauded.
Next an old dude spent alot of time warming himself up for another wonderful display of physics. Long concrete slabs were perched one atop the other, with little spacers at the very end of each so that it was a couple centimeters above the next one. Essentially, all you need to do is push down on the center of the top one and it will crack, placing the weight into the center of the next one, and tada, they all break through the middle. Old guy spends alot of time just getting ready for the trick. And by warming up i mean screaming. He screamed at them bricks good!
"If i were those bricks and he was screaming at me like that i would break too" said Copey after it was all done.
We bumped into A couple of Cope's friends, Hodgey and Laura. We chatted a bit under the shade of a tree (which still didn't stop the sweating) and then made our rounds of the european beer tents. Coopey and i decided the Czech republic was a must considering worlds in prague was where we met.
It must have been about 1pm, and after a bit of klorean food (or vietnamese, or chinese, or loatian, like it mattered, all the same shit any way)we decided to play a little footbag.
Worst.
Idea.
Ever.
We lasted all of 30 minutes. In that time i downed 2L of water and still was sweating so much i was dizzy and dehydrated by the end of it. Got a few good long runs in, which was probably the worst idea as single tricks would have consumed less energy.
We sat on a bench for about another 30 minutes to get our energy back. Sweating continued, so we called it a day and decided to head back to the car and the cool waters of the paddle pool.
The 500 meters now felt like 500km, as the heat was so stifiling that it was hard to really get a breath in. We dazedly walked around in the parking lot looking for the commodore, but for the life of us couldn't remember where we parked.
By this point sweat was coming off me like a water fall, but all i was doing was walking leisurely to the car, which we eventually found, only to open the door to an oven.
We cranked the aircon after letting the steam billow out of it, and sat there enjoying the barely cool air blowing from the vents. We had to sit there too. The steering wheel was burning Copey's hands.
We were going to go to the Socceroo's game at 4pm, meeting Dan after work outside the AIS but due to the bonkers heat the game was pushed back to 6pm. We instead went back to Copey's Castle for a dip in the paddle pool and a few beers. I downed about another 2L of water as well to combat the dehydration.
After we were all adequately cooled off we decided to play some Botchi in copey's garden. I'm not sure if the garden has ever been attended to, so the grass was very thick, pitted all over the place, and slanted steeply to one side, making a straight and accurate shot a special feat.
Copey claimed to have played only once or twice before, but he was a shark! The first 4 or 5 bowls, copey racked up 2 points each. In the end it was copey 45, dan 10, andrew 9. Rough.
We showered and decided to head back to the MC festival for the evening, as well as to hit up Moose Heads bar (which has a gigantic sign out front that is pretty much identical to the Manitoba Moose logo, just minus the hockey stick and helmet) at my request.
We met up with Hodgey and laura again, as well as some of their friends, one who was raucously drunk and making outrageous and outlandish statements. At one point she asked Dan if he was gay, or something to that effect, to which he replied "no". She then went on a tiff, calling him a homophobe and saying he just insulted her gay friends and this, that, and the other thing, and then went to get pictures with one of the guys running an indian food stall and forgot all about it. We just kinda looked at each other with a communal "ooooooohhhhhhh-kaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy....."
We followed the drunk girl over to cube, a gay dance club where she tried to get us to come in with her, mostly by telling us we were homophobes if we didn't. She then proceeded to tell us all about how she brings her boy friend here all the time and how much he loves to go there, and how he even goes there by him self when she can't make it out...
Thank god she was shitfaced and payed no attention to the piss taking nathan gave her about that one, and the howling laughter of hodgey, laura, dan and my self.
We left her to dance then night away at cube and made our way to Moose heads, which had a line up around the block, so we opted to go else where.
Dan is not a fan of dance music, which is what was going to be at the bar we decided on going to (lougne, the loft, the library, can't remember but i'm sure it was something similar) and opted to head home.
We made our way in and chilled in the up stairs lounge. I went to order a beer when nathan told the bar lady to put that beer down and get me a real drink. Vodka was the choice, as scotch on the rocks seemed a little too golf club cigar lounge for the occasion.
After a few drinks we made our way down to the dance floor area. nathan was obviously feeling it. I can finally tell when he's drunk, but damn does that boy hide it well.
He continually was bugging Laura to find hot girls for us to hit on and to act as our wing chick. He struck out about 6 times in the course of 15 minutes. He then tried to act as my wing man which was an even worse idea, as he started making up the dumbest lies. It was entertaing though, and i spent the whole night lauighing when the girls would ask if i really worked as a grizzly bear wrestler in a travelling road show back in canada and i was here in Australalia to box kangaroos.
As Copey continued to strike out, Hodgey, Laura and i made our way to the dance floor and rocked out for a bit. every so often i would look up to see if copey was still hanging out by the couches, because he had made comments about wanting to leave (the bar was dead since none of the girls were buying his bullshit).
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
Nope.
I figured he may have just gone to the toilets and decided i would wait 5 minutes.
5 turned into 10, which turned into 15.
I decided to check the bathrooms: no. The Bathrooms in the lounge: no. Made 2 passes of the dsance floor area: no. made 2 passes of the lounge: no.
Shit.
Grabbed my phone and tried to call. No answer. I thought that maybe, against all the odds, copey had picked up and was heading home so i sent him a txt.
"where are you?"
Now i had lost hodgey and laura and i was a bit worried, because now i realized i didn't know copey's address...
*beep beep*
Copey's response "I'm at Bar 32."
...uhhh....
"WTF? where is that?"
i looked for laura and hodgey because now i had no idea where i was, where i was supposed to be, or where i was supposed to be. I again did m,y passes of the bathrooms, lounge and dance floor... Nothing.
*beep beep"
Copey's respons: "Just follow your nose!"
oh fuck...
*beep beep*
oh thank god, i though. he was just kidding, these must be the directions...
Copey's msg: "Come to bar 32!"
I was in deep shit at this point, so made my way to the door to try to find someone sober enough to maybe give me accurate directions. Thankfully i ran into Hodgey and laura who were just stepping back into the club. They had also noted copey's absence and decided to go looking.
"This is classic copey, he'll follow girls all over the damn city when he get's a couple drinks in him." said laura
They knew where th bar was, so off we went. We found him sitting in a corner nursing a drink and looking for prey.
"Oh, hey. You made it!" he said when we finally walked up to him.
When we were going to get a drink he stopped us and said "Naah, forget it, this place is dead any way, let's go to the moose."
We got to the moose and made our way in. I was last in line, and every one else made their way ninand the bouncer looked at my liscene and said "can't let you in"
"what, why not?"
"I need to see a passport"
"what? why?"
"It's the law,". this was the first i had heard of this.
"Well, you saw my drivers liscence. I'm from Canada. I should pretty much be allowed in on principle. You don't even have moose in australia!" i said jokingly.
I then got the death stare and was forcefully told to get out of the line. I tried to call copey again, but no luck. Laura eventually came looking for me and after i told her the deal she grabbed every one and we called it a night. Hodgey and laura were within walking distance of their place and hoofed it, and copey and i stood in the taxi lineup.
I talked hockey with some aussie girl behind me while copey sway and talked about the giants.
"Copey, that's football"
"Yeah, well if they played hockey they'd still be awesome."
We got the cab and copey gave the directions, but the cabby seemed to be having a bit of trouble with them. In all my drives back to copey's place i distinctly recall turning at a car dealership, and when we flew past it i asked copey if were were going the right way.
"yeah we're getting close now"
i figured he knew, so i just let the cabbie keep going. Eventually there were no more streetlights.
"Okay," says the cabbie "which way from here?"
Copey wakes us and has a look around...
"Fucked if i know," I started laughing, but was also a bit concerned, "Head back and we'll figure it out."
Copey eventually got his bearings and gave him directions to get us back, and it turned out i was right about the car dealership. After our stupidly long (and extra expensive) cab ride, we wound up at the right house at about 5am and crawled onto bed (can't say into because at 36 degrees covers and sheets were not an option) and dropped off to sleep, dead to the world.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
(I'm so far behind in this blogging, like about a month behind. Yeah, i was in canberra in early february. For serious. So i might fast forward through any thing that wasn't either footbag stuff, or happened with footbag players, or was a big Australian event, or moment... or was just straight up really really funny. And it's a good thing i made that last exception, because this story, dear reader, is a very very funny one!)
Woke up yet again to sweltering heat. The forecast on the morning news was for 41 degrees in canberra. What a shit day not be any where near the beach. I was quickly growing tired of the paddle pool as the mosquito larvae were slowly taking it over.
After eating some quick brekkie, we made our way into town in the commodore. We arrived around noon, but most of the streets around city walk had been closed off, which meant we had to hoof it from a ways out to get to the festival. In acctual fact it wasn't that far. Probably less than 500 meters, but in that heat it felt alot longer.
We walked along the many many stalls in city walk, having a look at what was on offer for food and drink. These were our observations:
Central and eastern europe: Sausage inna bun, Beer.
Eastern and southern europe: Pasta/ Payallea, Beer.
Asia and Pacific Rim countries: Stir fried veggies with chichen, your choice of rice or noodles, beer.
Africa: Curried Chicken, Beer.
South America: Empanadas, Beer
Middle east: Falafels or lamb wraps, Beer.
India and surrounds: Veggie curry, peach juice.
Regardless of what coutry in the specific region, they all had exactly the same fare. for exaple we'll look at japan, korea, vietnam, china, thailand, and nepal. Stir fry at all of them. The exception being the opportunity to also have sushi at the japanese place. And to make it even more monotonous, there were about a dozen indian places, falafel huts, and chinese joints.
Thankfully, there was beer, so every one was happy.
Nathan: "what's in that one"
Indian food guy: "Lentils, chic peas and rice"
Nathan: "okay, how bout that one?"
Indian Food guy: "Lentils and chickpeas. You should try it with rice."
Nathan: Looks at me ".......okay." walks away
We wandered to the center of it all where there were some cultural demonstrations happening. We watched some old white australia guys giving knug-fu demonstrations ( wtf?) which were fairly entertaining. A guy punched the bottom out of a wine bottle, but i laughed and explained to copey that it was a party trick a bunch of friends do at home, just simple physics. Every one in the crowd applauded.
Next an old dude spent alot of time warming himself up for another wonderful display of physics. Long concrete slabs were perched one atop the other, with little spacers at the very end of each so that it was a couple centimeters above the next one. Essentially, all you need to do is push down on the center of the top one and it will crack, placing the weight into the center of the next one, and tada, they all break through the middle. Old guy spends alot of time just getting ready for the trick. And by warming up i mean screaming. He screamed at them bricks good!
"If i were those bricks and he was screaming at me like that i would break too" said Copey after it was all done.
We bumped into A couple of Cope's friends, Hodgey and Laura. We chatted a bit under the shade of a tree (which still didn't stop the sweating) and then made our rounds of the european beer tents. Coopey and i decided the Czech republic was a must considering worlds in prague was where we met.
It must have been about 1pm, and after a bit of klorean food (or vietnamese, or chinese, or loatian, like it mattered, all the same shit any way)we decided to play a little footbag.
Worst.
Idea.
Ever.
We lasted all of 30 minutes. In that time i downed 2L of water and still was sweating so much i was dizzy and dehydrated by the end of it. Got a few good long runs in, which was probably the worst idea as single tricks would have consumed less energy.
We sat on a bench for about another 30 minutes to get our energy back. Sweating continued, so we called it a day and decided to head back to the car and the cool waters of the paddle pool.
The 500 meters now felt like 500km, as the heat was so stifiling that it was hard to really get a breath in. We dazedly walked around in the parking lot looking for the commodore, but for the life of us couldn't remember where we parked.
By this point sweat was coming off me like a water fall, but all i was doing was walking leisurely to the car, which we eventually found, only to open the door to an oven.
We cranked the aircon after letting the steam billow out of it, and sat there enjoying the barely cool air blowing from the vents. We had to sit there too. The steering wheel was burning Copey's hands.
We were going to go to the Socceroo's game at 4pm, meeting Dan after work outside the AIS but due to the bonkers heat the game was pushed back to 6pm. We instead went back to Copey's Castle for a dip in the paddle pool and a few beers. I downed about another 2L of water as well to combat the dehydration.
After we were all adequately cooled off we decided to play some Botchi in copey's garden. I'm not sure if the garden has ever been attended to, so the grass was very thick, pitted all over the place, and slanted steeply to one side, making a straight and accurate shot a special feat.
Copey claimed to have played only once or twice before, but he was a shark! The first 4 or 5 bowls, copey racked up 2 points each. In the end it was copey 45, dan 10, andrew 9. Rough.
We showered and decided to head back to the MC festival for the evening, as well as to hit up Moose Heads bar (which has a gigantic sign out front that is pretty much identical to the Manitoba Moose logo, just minus the hockey stick and helmet) at my request.
We met up with Hodgey and laura again, as well as some of their friends, one who was raucously drunk and making outrageous and outlandish statements. At one point she asked Dan if he was gay, or something to that effect, to which he replied "no". She then went on a tiff, calling him a homophobe and saying he just insulted her gay friends and this, that, and the other thing, and then went to get pictures with one of the guys running an indian food stall and forgot all about it. We just kinda looked at each other with a communal "ooooooohhhhhhh-kaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy....."
We followed the drunk girl over to cube, a gay dance club where she tried to get us to come in with her, mostly by telling us we were homophobes if we didn't. She then proceeded to tell us all about how she brings her boy friend here all the time and how much he loves to go there, and how he even goes there by him self when she can't make it out...
Thank god she was shitfaced and payed no attention to the piss taking nathan gave her about that one, and the howling laughter of hodgey, laura, dan and my self.
We left her to dance then night away at cube and made our way to Moose heads, which had a line up around the block, so we opted to go else where.
Dan is not a fan of dance music, which is what was going to be at the bar we decided on going to (lougne, the loft, the library, can't remember but i'm sure it was something similar) and opted to head home.
We made our way in and chilled in the up stairs lounge. I went to order a beer when nathan told the bar lady to put that beer down and get me a real drink. Vodka was the choice, as scotch on the rocks seemed a little too golf club cigar lounge for the occasion.
After a few drinks we made our way down to the dance floor area. nathan was obviously feeling it. I can finally tell when he's drunk, but damn does that boy hide it well.
He continually was bugging Laura to find hot girls for us to hit on and to act as our wing chick. He struck out about 6 times in the course of 15 minutes. He then tried to act as my wing man which was an even worse idea, as he started making up the dumbest lies. It was entertaing though, and i spent the whole night lauighing when the girls would ask if i really worked as a grizzly bear wrestler in a travelling road show back in canada and i was here in Australalia to box kangaroos.
As Copey continued to strike out, Hodgey, Laura and i made our way to the dance floor and rocked out for a bit. every so often i would look up to see if copey was still hanging out by the couches, because he had made comments about wanting to leave (the bar was dead since none of the girls were buying his bullshit).
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
Nope.
I figured he may have just gone to the toilets and decided i would wait 5 minutes.
5 turned into 10, which turned into 15.
I decided to check the bathrooms: no. The Bathrooms in the lounge: no. Made 2 passes of the dsance floor area: no. made 2 passes of the lounge: no.
Shit.
Grabbed my phone and tried to call. No answer. I thought that maybe, against all the odds, copey had picked up and was heading home so i sent him a txt.
"where are you?"
Now i had lost hodgey and laura and i was a bit worried, because now i realized i didn't know copey's address...
*beep beep*
Copey's response "I'm at Bar 32."
...uhhh....
"WTF? where is that?"
i looked for laura and hodgey because now i had no idea where i was, where i was supposed to be, or where i was supposed to be. I again did m,y passes of the bathrooms, lounge and dance floor... Nothing.
*beep beep"
Copey's respons: "Just follow your nose!"
oh fuck...
*beep beep*
oh thank god, i though. he was just kidding, these must be the directions...
Copey's msg: "Come to bar 32!"
I was in deep shit at this point, so made my way to the door to try to find someone sober enough to maybe give me accurate directions. Thankfully i ran into Hodgey and laura who were just stepping back into the club. They had also noted copey's absence and decided to go looking.
"This is classic copey, he'll follow girls all over the damn city when he get's a couple drinks in him." said laura
They knew where th bar was, so off we went. We found him sitting in a corner nursing a drink and looking for prey.
"Oh, hey. You made it!" he said when we finally walked up to him.
When we were going to get a drink he stopped us and said "Naah, forget it, this place is dead any way, let's go to the moose."
We got to the moose and made our way in. I was last in line, and every one else made their way ninand the bouncer looked at my liscene and said "can't let you in"
"what, why not?"
"I need to see a passport"
"what? why?"
"It's the law,". this was the first i had heard of this.
"Well, you saw my drivers liscence. I'm from Canada. I should pretty much be allowed in on principle. You don't even have moose in australia!" i said jokingly.
I then got the death stare and was forcefully told to get out of the line. I tried to call copey again, but no luck. Laura eventually came looking for me and after i told her the deal she grabbed every one and we called it a night. Hodgey and laura were within walking distance of their place and hoofed it, and copey and i stood in the taxi lineup.
I talked hockey with some aussie girl behind me while copey sway and talked about the giants.
"Copey, that's football"
"Yeah, well if they played hockey they'd still be awesome."
We got the cab and copey gave the directions, but the cabby seemed to be having a bit of trouble with them. In all my drives back to copey's place i distinctly recall turning at a car dealership, and when we flew past it i asked copey if were were going the right way.
"yeah we're getting close now"
i figured he knew, so i just let the cabbie keep going. Eventually there were no more streetlights.
"Okay," says the cabbie "which way from here?"
Copey wakes us and has a look around...
"Fucked if i know," I started laughing, but was also a bit concerned, "Head back and we'll figure it out."
Copey eventually got his bearings and gave him directions to get us back, and it turned out i was right about the car dealership. After our stupidly long (and extra expensive) cab ride, we wound up at the right house at about 5am and crawled onto bed (can't say into because at 36 degrees covers and sheets were not an option) and dropped off to sleep, dead to the world.
Realized i have talked about playing footbag on this trip, but still haven't updated with any highlights. So this post is just gonna be a quick one to note some mile-stones and achievements i can remember:
-fury> dimwalk> rpt
-Bedwetter> dimwalk> rpt> fog> fairy butterfly> rpt
-pdx blender> gyro dlo (bs)
-pdx blender> flurry (bs)
-flip alpine fog
-alpine blurry whirl bsos
-blur> dillusions bsos
-pdx blender> blender> rpt
-genesis bs
-over dexed clown face
-pixie ss whirl> steppin ss whirl> haze> rpt
-jani> jani a couple times
-A long run with pixie whirl, pixie ss whirl, blurry whirl, stepping whirl, ps whirl all bsosed.
-other stuff
Friday, February 27, 2009
-fury> dimwalk> rpt
-Bedwetter> dimwalk> rpt> fog> fairy butterfly> rpt
-pdx blender> gyro dlo (bs)
-pdx blender> flurry (bs)
-flip alpine fog
-alpine blurry whirl bsos
-blur> dillusions bsos
-pdx blender> blender> rpt
-genesis bs
-over dexed clown face
-pixie ss whirl> steppin ss whirl> haze> rpt
-jani> jani a couple times
-A long run with pixie whirl, pixie ss whirl, blurry whirl, stepping whirl, ps whirl all bsosed.
-other stuff
...Into the World of the Mighty Boosh...
Was rudely awoken friday afternoon by sweltering heat! Having the window open, even at night, in the middle of an australian summer doesn't do jack shit! Seriously. It must have been about 35 degrees by noon when i got up. Obviously by that point the working stiffs/ contributing members of society/ my ride had gone to work, and while Copey had given me some basic directions on how to get to the city ("yeah, you catch the bus out front, change at the woden interchange, and catch a bus into the city"), i opted to just hang out at the house.
I decided that perhaps i should also contribute something to the cause, so after i ate brekky, had a dip in the pool, drank a beer, and took a shower, i took on the immense task of cleaning the kitchen.
I think all that was left for clean dishes were a few coffee cups that had been spared for the sole fact that beer comes in bottles. A mess of pots, pans, plates, cutlery, and glass ware, most of which still coated in the remains of what they once held, was piled high on nearly every flat surface of the kitchen. Crumbs, dirt, lint, and dead bugs covered the floor and counters.
This would be mess work.
With ipod buds firmly pressed into my ears i set to my task, organizing the piles. silverware, glass ware, china, pots, pans, and miscelaneous, to be done in that order.
It wasn't made any easier given the cleaning supplies i had: One (1) small sponge attached to a plastic soap containing handle, one (1) faucet with running water, two (2) working upper limbs.
I imagine the point of the sponge handle soap holder is so you can easily wash out deep cups, but let me tell you, it lacked the muscle required to wash the pots and pans that had been turned into small mushroom farms since being placed in the sink.
After every grouping of items i had to switch to dryer mode because the rack would be chok a block. After about an hour of washing and drying i finally made my way through it all.
I then moved every thing off the counters and proceeded to give them all a good scrub and dry. I then moved to the floors, but with the increasing heat from the day mixed with the extra humidity from the hot soapy water, i gave it a half assed sweep and called it a day.
I then jumped back in the paddle pool with another beer to battle the heat. After getting a good bit of sun, and feeling unable to cope with anymore of it, i headed back inside and plunked my self in front of the tv. It was not quite as hot inside, but it felt stuffier. I watched some neighbors, but obviously had missed the last 20 years of episodes, so had no idea what was going on, and made my way back to the boosh.
Nato got home at some point, and we were back in the pool with the sun setting finally and giving us the relief of it not beating down unbearably upon us. Still hot as though...
Oh, when we were walking through the kitchen to get out back to the pool i proudly pointed out the work i did in the kitchen.
"Yeah, it's clean in here"
"took me a couple hours."
"Yeah,... but you didn't take the rubbish out dija?"
(pause to look at 48+ beer bottles, a number of empty pizza boxes, and a full rubbish bin)
"Yeah, well i gotta have somethin' to do tomorrow, dunn I? I've already seen canberra."
"Touche"
There was some talk about heading into the city for the Multicultural festival (which is kinda a crappier version of Folklorama for you winnipeg readers), where there are a bunch of stalls lining city walk selling food and drinks from different countries. We passed on it and decided to head in on saturday night which is the big night for it.
Ultimately after our dip in the pool we ate something and made our way to the couch to adventure into season three of the boosh.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Was rudely awoken friday afternoon by sweltering heat! Having the window open, even at night, in the middle of an australian summer doesn't do jack shit! Seriously. It must have been about 35 degrees by noon when i got up. Obviously by that point the working stiffs/ contributing members of society/ my ride had gone to work, and while Copey had given me some basic directions on how to get to the city ("yeah, you catch the bus out front, change at the woden interchange, and catch a bus into the city"), i opted to just hang out at the house.
I decided that perhaps i should also contribute something to the cause, so after i ate brekky, had a dip in the pool, drank a beer, and took a shower, i took on the immense task of cleaning the kitchen.
I think all that was left for clean dishes were a few coffee cups that had been spared for the sole fact that beer comes in bottles. A mess of pots, pans, plates, cutlery, and glass ware, most of which still coated in the remains of what they once held, was piled high on nearly every flat surface of the kitchen. Crumbs, dirt, lint, and dead bugs covered the floor and counters.
This would be mess work.
With ipod buds firmly pressed into my ears i set to my task, organizing the piles. silverware, glass ware, china, pots, pans, and miscelaneous, to be done in that order.
It wasn't made any easier given the cleaning supplies i had: One (1) small sponge attached to a plastic soap containing handle, one (1) faucet with running water, two (2) working upper limbs.
I imagine the point of the sponge handle soap holder is so you can easily wash out deep cups, but let me tell you, it lacked the muscle required to wash the pots and pans that had been turned into small mushroom farms since being placed in the sink.
After every grouping of items i had to switch to dryer mode because the rack would be chok a block. After about an hour of washing and drying i finally made my way through it all.
I then moved every thing off the counters and proceeded to give them all a good scrub and dry. I then moved to the floors, but with the increasing heat from the day mixed with the extra humidity from the hot soapy water, i gave it a half assed sweep and called it a day.
I then jumped back in the paddle pool with another beer to battle the heat. After getting a good bit of sun, and feeling unable to cope with anymore of it, i headed back inside and plunked my self in front of the tv. It was not quite as hot inside, but it felt stuffier. I watched some neighbors, but obviously had missed the last 20 years of episodes, so had no idea what was going on, and made my way back to the boosh.
Nato got home at some point, and we were back in the pool with the sun setting finally and giving us the relief of it not beating down unbearably upon us. Still hot as though...
Oh, when we were walking through the kitchen to get out back to the pool i proudly pointed out the work i did in the kitchen.
"Yeah, it's clean in here"
"took me a couple hours."
"Yeah,... but you didn't take the rubbish out dija?"
(pause to look at 48+ beer bottles, a number of empty pizza boxes, and a full rubbish bin)
"Yeah, well i gotta have somethin' to do tomorrow, dunn I? I've already seen canberra."
"Touche"
There was some talk about heading into the city for the Multicultural festival (which is kinda a crappier version of Folklorama for you winnipeg readers), where there are a bunch of stalls lining city walk selling food and drinks from different countries. We passed on it and decided to head in on saturday night which is the big night for it.
Ultimately after our dip in the pool we ate something and made our way to the couch to adventure into season three of the boosh.
Come With Us Now On A Journey Through Time and Space...
Ungh. I'm sick. In The Upper Florentine we picked up a hitch hiker and brought him back to hobart. Only about half way through the journey did he mention he was sick. 2 days later i've got a sore throat and i'm all stuffy. Thanks Iftar. So where was i...?
Woke up, ate breakfast, and caught a lift into the city with Copey's room mate, Brooklyn. Really cool guy, he reads the news for the local radio station. Both the people in the house work in the media, with Copey doing the logs for channel 10. The other person had just moved out, so i got a whole room and bed to my self again!
Once in the city i wandered around the canberra center and city walk areas, drinking coffee at cafés and watching the people go by. I also wandered up to the City hill and had a look around. Dan was finished work at 3 so i made my way over to the hostel a bit before then. We met up and headed to the conveniently located Transit Bar just under the hostel where you can actually get a proper pint. Thank goodness, because schooners just don't cut it. Plus, at happy hour, a pint is only a fiver.
It was caroline's birthday the following day, so we invited her down for a few pints as well.
Dan managed to get his shift the following day pushed back untill noon, so he made the most of it by getting rocked. He spilled a beer all over my bag and my shorts. He also started trying to speak german to a german girl named Innis (Dan: "it's said just like Guiness, but with out the 'Gu'") who had come to sit with us, but she didn't understand a word of his slurry sprechen. Another guy named Joey joined our table and Dan's drunken comments provided him with plenty to laugh about. Kate eventually dropped by, a cigarette between her lips and a "how to quit smoking" book in her hand. After making her way about half way throught it hadn't yet made an impact. At about 7 or 8 Nathan popped by and we headed back to copey's castle.
We grabbed some pizzas and another slab of thooey's and vegged out on the couch, polishing off the end of the first season of the mighty boosh before calling it a night.
The following day i again caught a ride into the city with Brookly, getting dropped off at canberra center. Today was to be my big Canberra adventure day. I started it off by going back to a coffee shop i had found the day before. The coffee was really good and well priced AND they gave you a cookie! Aah yes, life in canberra is good.
While i sipped my coffee i thumbed through my book and planned my route for the day. Having already seen the war memorial and quickly snapped photos of parliament, i decided to wander down to centennial park where the capitan cook memorial fountain sat out in the lake. I enjoyed the sun shine and from there decided to walk to the national museum. On a peninsula that juts out into the lake it sure looks alot closer than it actually is. The temperature was really hot, in the mid 30's, so the long walk really tired me out. I thoroughly enjoyed the air-conditioning in the museum. Also really enjoyed the museum as well. There were alot of really impressive exhibits on wildlife, colonization, and aboriginal history. There's a very strange "garden" in the middle that of the museum's courtyard, which is an artistic amalgamation of australia's two histories. It's a bit of a trip, full of strange sculptures and a gigantic camera obscura.
I walked out of the museum and back into the sweltering heat. I could see that the Capitan Cook fountain was shoot water about 100 meters into the sky, and also that the wind was blowing towards shore. I made my way back to coronation park to let the fountain spray cool me down before making my way across the bridge and up to parliament hill.
The lonely planet books have city walking tours, and ever since my first oversea stop in London i have done every listed walking tour for the cities i have visited (with the exception of the Sydney walking tour, because it's actually in manly... but i plan to do it soon) and the canberra walking tour meanders it's way through the pretty parliament area.It goes back and forth for about 6 km's through the area, taking you past new and old parliament, the aboriginal tent embassy, the national portrait gallery, magna carta park, the flag exposition and many other sights. By the end of it i was completely knackered. I sat on the water's edge, looking out at the carillon and listening to the bells toll while i sipped my water and continued sweating profusely even though i was in the shade. And apparently it was just going to get worse as days wore on...
I must have walked like 40km's that day, finally getting back to the YHA to check up on Dan. His hang over had subsided and he and Kate had gotten the AOK on their new place that morning, so he was in good spirits. I slunk back for a moment while he talked to a customer, only to be grabbed by Joey.
The day before we had chatted a bit about this that and every thing, and he found Dan's drunken anticts to at first be entertaining and later annoying. today his speech was just barely understandable. How the tables had turned. He was just plastered, but told me we were going swimming, grabbed me by the arm and wisked me off to the pool. He then realized (and i'm impressed by this because of the state he was in) he didn't have his boardies on, or a towel, and so wewent to his room where he got his kit and lent me a towel. He went to the bathroom to change and i think he fell asleep in there for a bit. He later emerged with his boardies on (backwards) and we headed for the pool. Thank god i didn't have to play life saver, because as we passed reception Copey was there chatting with Dan. I explained to Joey that i had to leave because my ride was here, so he suggested we play tennis early the next morning.
I knew that wouldn't be happening, but gave him my number any way. He never called for the tennis... Infact, i never heard from him again. Dan never said anything about someone drowning at the YHA so i'll assume he's still alive.
Copey and i went back to the castle where we grabbed a couple beers and hopped in the paddle pool to cool off. We then jumped into season 2 of the mighty boosh, laughing hysterically at the antics of old gregg.
Ungh. I'm sick. In The Upper Florentine we picked up a hitch hiker and brought him back to hobart. Only about half way through the journey did he mention he was sick. 2 days later i've got a sore throat and i'm all stuffy. Thanks Iftar. So where was i...?
Woke up, ate breakfast, and caught a lift into the city with Copey's room mate, Brooklyn. Really cool guy, he reads the news for the local radio station. Both the people in the house work in the media, with Copey doing the logs for channel 10. The other person had just moved out, so i got a whole room and bed to my self again!
Once in the city i wandered around the canberra center and city walk areas, drinking coffee at cafés and watching the people go by. I also wandered up to the City hill and had a look around. Dan was finished work at 3 so i made my way over to the hostel a bit before then. We met up and headed to the conveniently located Transit Bar just under the hostel where you can actually get a proper pint. Thank goodness, because schooners just don't cut it. Plus, at happy hour, a pint is only a fiver.
It was caroline's birthday the following day, so we invited her down for a few pints as well.
Dan managed to get his shift the following day pushed back untill noon, so he made the most of it by getting rocked. He spilled a beer all over my bag and my shorts. He also started trying to speak german to a german girl named Innis (Dan: "it's said just like Guiness, but with out the 'Gu'") who had come to sit with us, but she didn't understand a word of his slurry sprechen. Another guy named Joey joined our table and Dan's drunken comments provided him with plenty to laugh about. Kate eventually dropped by, a cigarette between her lips and a "how to quit smoking" book in her hand. After making her way about half way throught it hadn't yet made an impact. At about 7 or 8 Nathan popped by and we headed back to copey's castle.
We grabbed some pizzas and another slab of thooey's and vegged out on the couch, polishing off the end of the first season of the mighty boosh before calling it a night.
The following day i again caught a ride into the city with Brookly, getting dropped off at canberra center. Today was to be my big Canberra adventure day. I started it off by going back to a coffee shop i had found the day before. The coffee was really good and well priced AND they gave you a cookie! Aah yes, life in canberra is good.
While i sipped my coffee i thumbed through my book and planned my route for the day. Having already seen the war memorial and quickly snapped photos of parliament, i decided to wander down to centennial park where the capitan cook memorial fountain sat out in the lake. I enjoyed the sun shine and from there decided to walk to the national museum. On a peninsula that juts out into the lake it sure looks alot closer than it actually is. The temperature was really hot, in the mid 30's, so the long walk really tired me out. I thoroughly enjoyed the air-conditioning in the museum. Also really enjoyed the museum as well. There were alot of really impressive exhibits on wildlife, colonization, and aboriginal history. There's a very strange "garden" in the middle that of the museum's courtyard, which is an artistic amalgamation of australia's two histories. It's a bit of a trip, full of strange sculptures and a gigantic camera obscura.
I walked out of the museum and back into the sweltering heat. I could see that the Capitan Cook fountain was shoot water about 100 meters into the sky, and also that the wind was blowing towards shore. I made my way back to coronation park to let the fountain spray cool me down before making my way across the bridge and up to parliament hill.
The lonely planet books have city walking tours, and ever since my first oversea stop in London i have done every listed walking tour for the cities i have visited (with the exception of the Sydney walking tour, because it's actually in manly... but i plan to do it soon) and the canberra walking tour meanders it's way through the pretty parliament area.It goes back and forth for about 6 km's through the area, taking you past new and old parliament, the aboriginal tent embassy, the national portrait gallery, magna carta park, the flag exposition and many other sights. By the end of it i was completely knackered. I sat on the water's edge, looking out at the carillon and listening to the bells toll while i sipped my water and continued sweating profusely even though i was in the shade. And apparently it was just going to get worse as days wore on...
I must have walked like 40km's that day, finally getting back to the YHA to check up on Dan. His hang over had subsided and he and Kate had gotten the AOK on their new place that morning, so he was in good spirits. I slunk back for a moment while he talked to a customer, only to be grabbed by Joey.
The day before we had chatted a bit about this that and every thing, and he found Dan's drunken anticts to at first be entertaining and later annoying. today his speech was just barely understandable. How the tables had turned. He was just plastered, but told me we were going swimming, grabbed me by the arm and wisked me off to the pool. He then realized (and i'm impressed by this because of the state he was in) he didn't have his boardies on, or a towel, and so wewent to his room where he got his kit and lent me a towel. He went to the bathroom to change and i think he fell asleep in there for a bit. He later emerged with his boardies on (backwards) and we headed for the pool. Thank god i didn't have to play life saver, because as we passed reception Copey was there chatting with Dan. I explained to Joey that i had to leave because my ride was here, so he suggested we play tennis early the next morning.
I knew that wouldn't be happening, but gave him my number any way. He never called for the tennis... Infact, i never heard from him again. Dan never said anything about someone drowning at the YHA so i'll assume he's still alive.
Copey and i went back to the castle where we grabbed a couple beers and hopped in the paddle pool to cool off. We then jumped into season 2 of the mighty boosh, laughing hysterically at the antics of old gregg.
A continuation of Canberra...
Been a while. I've made my way throught melbourne and hobart and arrived back up in sydney, yet i still haven't finished my blog for leg 4 of my journey. So where was i...
Woke up to Daisy licking my face. Tammy picked her up from the pound the day before. Went back to sleep...
Woke up again when dan got up to go to work. I ate brekkie, pulled out my trusty guide book, jumped on the computer and started to plan my day. It was about 8:00ish when Tammy came knocking.
So as it turned out no one was going to be home for the inspection, as people were either working (dan and others) or going to school (tammy's first day back to class). Any way, the there was supposed to be an oven repair man coming to fix the oven at the same time that the inspector was comming, just to make it easier timing wise (which it wasn't). They were supposed to be there at 11am, and she asked if i wouldn't mind hanging out to let the inspector in. I didn't because i still didn't have my plan figured out yet, and it would give me more time to figure it out.
Tammy put daisy out side so she wouldn't be a nuissance to the inspector, but daisy doesn't like being tied up and barked alot if i wasn't immediately visible, so i had to sit in dan's room with the door open. Tammy also left her food and water next to where she was tied up, but daisy just managed to dump the water into the food bowl making dog food soup with a dead ant garnish.
Regardless, the oven dude came right after tammy left, not 2 minutes after departure! Thankfully the other house mate, who's name i forget, was also there. The guy was there to fix the oven door and it turns out that the part he needs has to be ordered in (go figure) and that he'll be back tomorrow. The down side was that the oven dude was incredibly early, but there was no inspector in tow.
I wound up waiting all day for the dude, letting daisy in just to shut her up about an hour later, with the intention of hurrying her outside if the inspector came...
but they never did. 2 oclock rolled around and finally the other house mate returned so i passed off all duties to her.
ALL THAT GUTTER CLEANING FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!
I was going to meet dan and caroline at Dan's work, The Canberra city YHA, and so found it on the map. It didn't look like a far walk so i headed out at about 2:30. Turns out the map was a bit misleading. Shortly after 3 i was still a ways away and Dan and Caroline picked me up in Caroline's car.
We drove up to parliament with the intentions of kicking but it was windy and a bit chilly. We then headed to the war memorial and had a look through a number of their exhibits, doing a good job of the ANZAC memorial room. Could have spent days there and still wouldn't have seen everything. We stayed for the closing ceremony and then went to dixon shops (wait was this the same day? I think it was but maybe it wasn't... it's been a while) Caroline, Dan and i started kicking at about 6 when Copey was supposed to be finished work. he works about 2 minutes away, so we expected him to be there shortly.
He rocked up about an hour later.
Caroline had to go to work shortly after copey's arrival and Dan, tired from starting work at 7am, bailed shortly there after. Copey and i finished off the session and then went Back to Dan's place to pick up my gear. I quickly explained the deal to Tammy (who's parents were there to pick up the dog! Good idea!) about the oven and the non-inspection, grabbed my gear, said thanks to Dan , Kate, and Tammy and jumped in Copey's Commodore for the long ride out to Copey's Castle in the southern burbs.
Once showered and quasi set up copey and i decided it was time for food. We hit the Coles. I don't know if copey had gone shopping for anything other than beer or DVD's in quite some time. We loaded up a big ass cart, continually arguing about price, quantity and preparation.
C-"What you getting that for?"
A-"It's cheaper"
"But it's the home brand!"
"Yeah, but it's like 200g more for a buck less than the other one!"
"Yeah, but i like the good stuff. pick another one..."
"okay..."
"What you getting that one for?"
"Well, it's more expensive than the last one-"
"Yeah, but it's from New Zealand!"
"...what the fuck is 'tasty cheese' anyway?"
We also picked up a slab of thooey's extra dry at some point as well. It would be gone the following day.
After a few beers, a delicious dinner of 2 steaks each (that's what frugal buying will get ya!) with veg on the side (microwaved in bags as nathan likes :s) we sat down to watch the tennis--
Ooh that's right! The tennis was over. My evenings from now on shal be ruined for ever!!!
Enter Nathan:
"Have you ever seen 'The Might Boosh'?"
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Been a while. I've made my way throught melbourne and hobart and arrived back up in sydney, yet i still haven't finished my blog for leg 4 of my journey. So where was i...
Woke up to Daisy licking my face. Tammy picked her up from the pound the day before. Went back to sleep...
Woke up again when dan got up to go to work. I ate brekkie, pulled out my trusty guide book, jumped on the computer and started to plan my day. It was about 8:00ish when Tammy came knocking.
So as it turned out no one was going to be home for the inspection, as people were either working (dan and others) or going to school (tammy's first day back to class). Any way, the there was supposed to be an oven repair man coming to fix the oven at the same time that the inspector was comming, just to make it easier timing wise (which it wasn't). They were supposed to be there at 11am, and she asked if i wouldn't mind hanging out to let the inspector in. I didn't because i still didn't have my plan figured out yet, and it would give me more time to figure it out.
Tammy put daisy out side so she wouldn't be a nuissance to the inspector, but daisy doesn't like being tied up and barked alot if i wasn't immediately visible, so i had to sit in dan's room with the door open. Tammy also left her food and water next to where she was tied up, but daisy just managed to dump the water into the food bowl making dog food soup with a dead ant garnish.
Regardless, the oven dude came right after tammy left, not 2 minutes after departure! Thankfully the other house mate, who's name i forget, was also there. The guy was there to fix the oven door and it turns out that the part he needs has to be ordered in (go figure) and that he'll be back tomorrow. The down side was that the oven dude was incredibly early, but there was no inspector in tow.
I wound up waiting all day for the dude, letting daisy in just to shut her up about an hour later, with the intention of hurrying her outside if the inspector came...
but they never did. 2 oclock rolled around and finally the other house mate returned so i passed off all duties to her.
ALL THAT GUTTER CLEANING FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!!!
I was going to meet dan and caroline at Dan's work, The Canberra city YHA, and so found it on the map. It didn't look like a far walk so i headed out at about 2:30. Turns out the map was a bit misleading. Shortly after 3 i was still a ways away and Dan and Caroline picked me up in Caroline's car.
We drove up to parliament with the intentions of kicking but it was windy and a bit chilly. We then headed to the war memorial and had a look through a number of their exhibits, doing a good job of the ANZAC memorial room. Could have spent days there and still wouldn't have seen everything. We stayed for the closing ceremony and then went to dixon shops (wait was this the same day? I think it was but maybe it wasn't... it's been a while) Caroline, Dan and i started kicking at about 6 when Copey was supposed to be finished work. he works about 2 minutes away, so we expected him to be there shortly.
He rocked up about an hour later.
Caroline had to go to work shortly after copey's arrival and Dan, tired from starting work at 7am, bailed shortly there after. Copey and i finished off the session and then went Back to Dan's place to pick up my gear. I quickly explained the deal to Tammy (who's parents were there to pick up the dog! Good idea!) about the oven and the non-inspection, grabbed my gear, said thanks to Dan , Kate, and Tammy and jumped in Copey's Commodore for the long ride out to Copey's Castle in the southern burbs.
Once showered and quasi set up copey and i decided it was time for food. We hit the Coles. I don't know if copey had gone shopping for anything other than beer or DVD's in quite some time. We loaded up a big ass cart, continually arguing about price, quantity and preparation.
C-"What you getting that for?"
A-"It's cheaper"
"But it's the home brand!"
"Yeah, but it's like 200g more for a buck less than the other one!"
"Yeah, but i like the good stuff. pick another one..."
"okay..."
"What you getting that one for?"
"Well, it's more expensive than the last one-"
"Yeah, but it's from New Zealand!"
"...what the fuck is 'tasty cheese' anyway?"
We also picked up a slab of thooey's extra dry at some point as well. It would be gone the following day.
After a few beers, a delicious dinner of 2 steaks each (that's what frugal buying will get ya!) with veg on the side (microwaved in bags as nathan likes :s) we sat down to watch the tennis--
Ooh that's right! The tennis was over. My evenings from now on shal be ruined for ever!!!
Enter Nathan:
"Have you ever seen 'The Might Boosh'?"
You get some good views from up on this roof...
Woke up and Dan and i put our heads together and planned our method of attack for the gutter business. We decided we would need buckets, gloves and breakfast. Especially the breakfast!
As we were departing the house Tammy approached us again. Right after i closed the front door it swang back open again. I think she thought we were skiving off our duties, but we quickly assured her we were going to get our kit for the job.
After getting our gear we started getting to work. We first attacked the gutter on the car park. Standing on a picnic table we dawned our gloves (dan's broke right away, what can you really get for 99 cents these days?) and reached up into the gutters, but it wasn't going well. First of all, this was probably the first time they had ever been cleaned in the house's history. Secondly, trying to clean gutters from well below makes for tough work. Thirdly, there was a mesh netting that was supposed to keep sticks and twigs out of the gutter that was now acting like a pin cushion, keeping them nicely trapped.
After a few false starts, the acquisition of a ladder, and a sunscreen break, we got back on track, beginning with the mesh removeal which really sped up the process. We finished that one and decided the middle of the day was a bad time to keep going so took another break. After lunch we got back to it. I eventually climbed up on the roof. A sketchy contraption was rigged up by balancing a ladder on the wobbly picnic table. The roof was crazy hot! i could only put my hand on it for 5 swipes at the gutter before i had to switch hands. After about 5 hours (5 hours!!!) we got them all finished. I couldn't believe how filthy my shorts got, and i had just finished my washing!
We had a kick after the guttering. It went pretty well, and dan and i spent alot of it giving each other challenges. The last one i got was blurriest> blurriest... and it took me forever! I don't know how many times i footed it without a seal. Damn you flip barfly!!!
The big thing for the night was the tennis final! Dan, Kate and I hit the wollorths to get snacks and beers for the event. We went to Rhy's place, who has quite a nice media set up with a big hdtv and surround sound speakers. We settled in, Cascade in hand, and watched the match. All the boys were rooting for Federer and Kate was urging on Nadal. I pulled out my support for federer about half way through when i realized he was going to lose. And he did. We didn't bother to stay around to watch the award presentation, we headed home, but like federer i hung my head and cried... What would i do at night now that the tennis was over???
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Woke up and Dan and i put our heads together and planned our method of attack for the gutter business. We decided we would need buckets, gloves and breakfast. Especially the breakfast!
As we were departing the house Tammy approached us again. Right after i closed the front door it swang back open again. I think she thought we were skiving off our duties, but we quickly assured her we were going to get our kit for the job.
After getting our gear we started getting to work. We first attacked the gutter on the car park. Standing on a picnic table we dawned our gloves (dan's broke right away, what can you really get for 99 cents these days?) and reached up into the gutters, but it wasn't going well. First of all, this was probably the first time they had ever been cleaned in the house's history. Secondly, trying to clean gutters from well below makes for tough work. Thirdly, there was a mesh netting that was supposed to keep sticks and twigs out of the gutter that was now acting like a pin cushion, keeping them nicely trapped.
After a few false starts, the acquisition of a ladder, and a sunscreen break, we got back on track, beginning with the mesh removeal which really sped up the process. We finished that one and decided the middle of the day was a bad time to keep going so took another break. After lunch we got back to it. I eventually climbed up on the roof. A sketchy contraption was rigged up by balancing a ladder on the wobbly picnic table. The roof was crazy hot! i could only put my hand on it for 5 swipes at the gutter before i had to switch hands. After about 5 hours (5 hours!!!) we got them all finished. I couldn't believe how filthy my shorts got, and i had just finished my washing!
We had a kick after the guttering. It went pretty well, and dan and i spent alot of it giving each other challenges. The last one i got was blurriest> blurriest... and it took me forever! I don't know how many times i footed it without a seal. Damn you flip barfly!!!
The big thing for the night was the tennis final! Dan, Kate and I hit the wollorths to get snacks and beers for the event. We went to Rhy's place, who has quite a nice media set up with a big hdtv and surround sound speakers. We settled in, Cascade in hand, and watched the match. All the boys were rooting for Federer and Kate was urging on Nadal. I pulled out my support for federer about half way through when i realized he was going to lose. And he did. We didn't bother to stay around to watch the award presentation, we headed home, but like federer i hung my head and cried... What would i do at night now that the tennis was over???
The Australian Capital Territory, where there's room for a dog to roam...
So Dan checked in on my blog and revealed that all my tennis is a day out. Damn. I thought i had at least THAT right...
We woke up early and Mr. Boyle drove us to the bus stop. It would only be a short trip to canberra, and i slept through most of it. We stopped in a little town for breakfast and i had a coffee and a meat pie. We ate our meat pies next to a statue of an elephant in this back water town called mimmitable (sp?). Why they had a statue of an elephant i don't know.
Dan and i noted that like all the other small towns we had visited, this place had the mandatory "Ye Olde Lolly Shop", but this one wasn't nearly as nice as the one in Tilba.
You can tell the quality of a small australian town by the quality of it's lolly shop. A bustling, busy, and well stocked lolly shop indicates a town that's making moves. Tourism is booming, people have disposable income for sweets, and the town as a whole is on the rise. A lolly shop that is dingy, has limited selection, and also doubles as the local letting agency is demonstrative of a town on it's way out. The original industry that put the town on the map has gone under and the village is slowly dying. A small town without a lolly shop should just be skipped by the average tourist.
Dan and i talked footbag technique on the side of the road untill we boarded the bus again. We got into canberra around 11, 40 minutes earlier than expected, so Kate hadn't made her way to the spot yet. We casually waited in the shade untill Kate made her way over in her car that was packed to the rafters with her belongings. Her and Dan were making plans to move in together, and she had already bailed out of her place on account of a psychotic room mate.
We squeezed into the car, dropped our gear at Dan's place and headed out to lunch at Tilley's. We ate on the patio and then went to where kate was staying so she could get some of her things. Dan got a call from his friend about their indoor soccer league. We decided to play, despite having only 4 players, and Rhys picked us up and took us to dan's to get our gear. I forgot my shorts and wound up playing in my cargo shorts. Thankfully it was airconditioned. In their co-ed league you need to have atleast 2 girls all the time, so we just played for fun with no subs. And we won! I scored the first goal and assisted Dan on another. We finished up 3 or 4-0.
We went back to dan's to struggle with The task of uploading pictures to facebook. Dan let the dog out at about this time. About 2 hours later, Tammy, one of dan's room mates and the owner of said dog, returned home. Dan was half asleep when he heard Tammy ask their other room mate "Did someone let the dog out?"
I saw dan's head snap up right and look down the hall.
"Who let the dog out?!?"
Dan jumped up and walked to the living room...
He explained that he did, to which Tammy freaked out.
"You Can't let Daisy out!!!"
"Oh..."
"Great she's probably DEAD!!!!!"
I then jumped up and head towards the conversation. Tammy stormed off into the yard and started calling the dog. Dan asked the other room mate what the hell was going on and since when was the dog confined to the house. Apparently since dan had left Daisy had figured out how to escape from the yard and so was to be monitored at all times while outdoors, but no one had told him about it.
I had gone out to half-assedly help look for the dog in the back yard when tammy approached me.
"When did you let the dog out??!!??"
"Uhh...er- about, what... half an hour ago-" i lied.
"WHAT?"
"-probably more like 20 minutes, actually..."
"she's probably miles away by now!!!!!"
She stormed off, and i figured it probably wasn't the best time for an introduction.
Dan seemed a bit upset so he, Kate and i went to look around the neighborhood. No luck finding her, but it also gave Tammy a chance to cool down. Kate had made a suggestion to call the pound, and it turns out that's where she was.
Unfortunately, Dogs only go IN on sunday, but don't come OUT. Tammy would be charged for a capture fee and an overnight housing fee.
The Storey of How I Became a Gutter Cleaner
It made her happy to know her dog was alive, but it also made her passive-agressive side come out when she heard about the fees.
"Yeah so she's at the pound-" said tammy.
"That's good..." said dan.
"-But they're gonna charge me like $100 worth of fees..."
"oh...sorry"
"yeah, so don't let her out unless you watch her, okay?"
"yeah, sure. sure. sorry."
"Oh yeah, and we have an inspection on tuesday (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"Yeah, and i cut the grass (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"Yeah, glen said he would do it, but he didn't (and you let my dog out)..."
"aah..."
"and i had to borrow a lawn mower from the neighbors (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"yeah, i spent all day doing it (and you let my dog out)..."
"umm..."
"Yeah and glen said he would clean the gutters, like 2 weeks ago (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh yeah?..."
"Yeah, but he didn't (and you let my dog out)..."
"aah..."
"Yeah, and we have an inspection on tuesday (and you let my dog out)..."
"well... i have monday off."
"Oh yeah (remember when you let my dog out)?"
"Yeah, we...," looks at me "we can do it..."
"Okay, good (because you let my dog out)"
"uhh... yeah we can do it." i agreed.
And that's how i got guilted into cleaning gutters in Canberra.
So Dan checked in on my blog and revealed that all my tennis is a day out. Damn. I thought i had at least THAT right...
We woke up early and Mr. Boyle drove us to the bus stop. It would only be a short trip to canberra, and i slept through most of it. We stopped in a little town for breakfast and i had a coffee and a meat pie. We ate our meat pies next to a statue of an elephant in this back water town called mimmitable (sp?). Why they had a statue of an elephant i don't know.
Dan and i noted that like all the other small towns we had visited, this place had the mandatory "Ye Olde Lolly Shop", but this one wasn't nearly as nice as the one in Tilba.
You can tell the quality of a small australian town by the quality of it's lolly shop. A bustling, busy, and well stocked lolly shop indicates a town that's making moves. Tourism is booming, people have disposable income for sweets, and the town as a whole is on the rise. A lolly shop that is dingy, has limited selection, and also doubles as the local letting agency is demonstrative of a town on it's way out. The original industry that put the town on the map has gone under and the village is slowly dying. A small town without a lolly shop should just be skipped by the average tourist.
Dan and i talked footbag technique on the side of the road untill we boarded the bus again. We got into canberra around 11, 40 minutes earlier than expected, so Kate hadn't made her way to the spot yet. We casually waited in the shade untill Kate made her way over in her car that was packed to the rafters with her belongings. Her and Dan were making plans to move in together, and she had already bailed out of her place on account of a psychotic room mate.
We squeezed into the car, dropped our gear at Dan's place and headed out to lunch at Tilley's. We ate on the patio and then went to where kate was staying so she could get some of her things. Dan got a call from his friend about their indoor soccer league. We decided to play, despite having only 4 players, and Rhys picked us up and took us to dan's to get our gear. I forgot my shorts and wound up playing in my cargo shorts. Thankfully it was airconditioned. In their co-ed league you need to have atleast 2 girls all the time, so we just played for fun with no subs. And we won! I scored the first goal and assisted Dan on another. We finished up 3 or 4-0.
We went back to dan's to struggle with The task of uploading pictures to facebook. Dan let the dog out at about this time. About 2 hours later, Tammy, one of dan's room mates and the owner of said dog, returned home. Dan was half asleep when he heard Tammy ask their other room mate "Did someone let the dog out?"
I saw dan's head snap up right and look down the hall.
"Who let the dog out?!?"
Dan jumped up and walked to the living room...
He explained that he did, to which Tammy freaked out.
"You Can't let Daisy out!!!"
"Oh..."
"Great she's probably DEAD!!!!!"
I then jumped up and head towards the conversation. Tammy stormed off into the yard and started calling the dog. Dan asked the other room mate what the hell was going on and since when was the dog confined to the house. Apparently since dan had left Daisy had figured out how to escape from the yard and so was to be monitored at all times while outdoors, but no one had told him about it.
I had gone out to half-assedly help look for the dog in the back yard when tammy approached me.
"When did you let the dog out??!!??"
"Uhh...er- about, what... half an hour ago-" i lied.
"WHAT?"
"-probably more like 20 minutes, actually..."
"she's probably miles away by now!!!!!"
She stormed off, and i figured it probably wasn't the best time for an introduction.
Dan seemed a bit upset so he, Kate and i went to look around the neighborhood. No luck finding her, but it also gave Tammy a chance to cool down. Kate had made a suggestion to call the pound, and it turns out that's where she was.
Unfortunately, Dogs only go IN on sunday, but don't come OUT. Tammy would be charged for a capture fee and an overnight housing fee.
The Storey of How I Became a Gutter Cleaner
It made her happy to know her dog was alive, but it also made her passive-agressive side come out when she heard about the fees.
"Yeah so she's at the pound-" said tammy.
"That's good..." said dan.
"-But they're gonna charge me like $100 worth of fees..."
"oh...sorry"
"yeah, so don't let her out unless you watch her, okay?"
"yeah, sure. sure. sorry."
"Oh yeah, and we have an inspection on tuesday (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"Yeah, and i cut the grass (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"Yeah, glen said he would do it, but he didn't (and you let my dog out)..."
"aah..."
"and i had to borrow a lawn mower from the neighbors (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh..."
"yeah, i spent all day doing it (and you let my dog out)..."
"umm..."
"Yeah and glen said he would clean the gutters, like 2 weeks ago (and you let my dog out)..."
"oh yeah?..."
"Yeah, but he didn't (and you let my dog out)..."
"aah..."
"Yeah, and we have an inspection on tuesday (and you let my dog out)..."
"well... i have monday off."
"Oh yeah (remember when you let my dog out)?"
"Yeah, we...," looks at me "we can do it..."
"Okay, good (because you let my dog out)"
"uhh... yeah we can do it." i agreed.
And that's how i got guilted into cleaning gutters in Canberra.
