Category: Sport

Woah Mama!

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Hubs and Chanbe and I are on our way to becoming a family of 4 🙂 I’m not quite 14 weeks pregnant, and check out this belly!!

Here I am wearing the same top in my first pregnancy. Except that in this photo, I was 20 weeks pregnant…

I heard that in subsequent pregnancies, you show a lot earlier, but this is ridiculous! Ha ha. Anyway, everything is going very well. The first trimester coincided with some of the hardest weeks/months of my life, but I’m feeling much better now. Chanbe and I have all but recovered from our nasty colds, and we are enjoying the gorgeous sunshine that Brisbane has to offer. My diary is filling up nicely with catch-ups, and the grandparents are loving having us (Chanbe) around.

So there you have it! The next lot of big news I’ll be sharing will be the location of Hubs’ internship next year, which we will find out in the next 2 weeks. Let the fun begin!

Bumper weekend part II

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After our late bed time Saturday, Chance had a bit of a rough night, so I was more than pleased when he went back to sleep at 7am and didn’t wake us til 9am Sunday morning. We rushed around and got ready for church, and were our usual 5 minutes late which isn’t bad all things considered. The service was run by a visiting minister from Albury and his message was really great. I’m so glad we made the effort to go. We did the usual mingling afterwards and played “pass the baby”. We belong to a really lovely congregation, who we will also miss once we move. Hopefully we will feel the same sense of homeliness at the UC in Mt Beauty.

After church we headed home for some yummy leftover pasta bake for lunch and some faffing around for a couple of hours. The weather was pretty nice in the morning, and we were hoping it would continue for the afternoon as we were going to…. the local footy match! I’ve been wanting to go to watch a local footy game since we got here, and the local derby was on so I begged and pleaded with Hubs to take me and he finally agreed. I was SO excited! We walked there around 1:30, paid our $6 each to get in, and took our “seats” on the hill (i.e. sat on the grass).

(That’s a yellow teddy bear on Chanbe’s new beanie, not a flower!) A couple of the guys Hubs studies with play for the Magpies, and a few of Hubs’ uni friends joined us later on to cheer them on. I just sat there soaking up the atmosphere. I don’t know what made me so giddy with excitement – maybe it was the fact that I felt like a local. That feeling of belonging to something/somewhere is obviously very important to me, and you could not wipe the smile of my face.

Not even these storm clouds rolling in could dampen my mood.

It was a very one-sided match with the Magpies dominating over the Rovers from the start. At the three-quarter mark, it really was starting to get dark and we contemplated leaving but thought we’d come this far, we might as well stay. Plus if we started walking home then, we’d probably get caught. Just as the teams ran on for the forth quarter, down came the rain.

We had to admire these fans – they had obviously done this before!
Chance didn’t really see what all the fuss was about…

…and decided it was time for a nap!
The rain just got heavier and the clouds darker, so once the full-time siren sounded, we graciously accepted a lift home with a friend. But even that couldn’t dampen my spirits! (No, I do not pardon the pun.) Particularly since Hubs loves wet, muddy football, so he was in quite a chipper mood as well. It was quite a spectacle in the end, and the Magpies ended up winning 117-55.
And last night just capped it off. We rugged up with some yummy beef stew and watched a bit of this (QI) and a bit of that (Hung). An absolutely bonza weekend (yes, I said bonza.) And I’m still on cloud 9 🙂 Not even Chance’s worst-night-sleep-in-weeks can bring this little chicken back down to earth! (Though I’m hoping and praying for a better night tonight!)

Oh the Saints

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I don’t want to talk about the game on Saturday. Which is a shame since there are so many Collingwood supporters at work wanting to rub it in. It was so disappointing, especially after the previous weekend’s efforts. Oh well. There’s always next year.

(In case you haven’t heard, Collingwood belted St Kilda in the Grand Final rematch over the weekend. And I don’t want to talk about it.)

Oh what a game

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Even if your life doesn’t revolve around AFL, that is, you’re not a Victorian, you would have heard about the drawn grand final on Saturday between St Kilda and Collingwood. Hubs and I were with friends at their friend’s place in Melbourne, so we only knew 3 other people out of the 30-odd who were there, but that didn’t stop us from cheering like mad. As I’ve mentioned, you either support Collingwood, or you hate them, so most people were hoping the Saints would win.

St Kilda were behind for almost the whole game, and at one stage by 3 or 4 goals, but we were never out of it. We never lost hope of being able to come back. And in the 3rd quarter, named “the premiership quarter” we came back and kept Collingwood goal-less. It was incredibly exciting and certainly the best game of football I’ve ever seen in my life. When we hit the lead for the first time, the room, bar the 3 Collingwood supporters, went absolutely nuts! But it wasn’t won yet. Both teams stepped up to the challenge and played like they’ve never played before, and to be honest, a draw was one of the best results possible. What I mean by this, is that you just couldn’t separate the 2 teams on the day. They were both deserved winners, and Hubs thinks they both should have been able to take a trophy home and be done with it.

But that’s not how it works in the “real world.” When the final siren blasted with the scores deadlocked at 68 all, we assumed extra time would be played. But no. That’s not how they do it in the AFL. They started talking about “coming back next week to battle it out again.” Say what now? I have to go through this all over again??? I barely avoided labour this time around!!!! (People at the party kept looking at me and a few asked “when are you due again??”)

So that’s the way it’s going to be. This Saturday at 2pm they will have a re-match. In a lot of ways, it’s no big deal. Another game of footy to watch – what’s wrong with that? But if you consider all the things that are planned for the week after the AFL grand final, Victoria is a mess! All the grooms who have said to their brides-to-be “as long as the wedding isn’t in September, that’s fine” to which they reply “okay honey-bunny. We’ll make it for the first weekend in October.”

Oh boy. There would have been a lot of nervous brides at full-time.

Anyway, the main point of this post was to say how amazing the game was and how much Hubs and I enjoyed it and how it was all people could talk about afterwards. We witnessed history and it was great to be a part of that. Now we just have to go through it all again this Saturday. GO SAINTS!!!

It’s that time of year again…

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FOOTY FINALS WEEKEND!!! You may recall that 2 years ago we watched the Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn at our friends place. In that post I wrote something along the lines of “St Kilda are unlikely to deliver the goods for us” and last year, I had to eat my words when I posted about the Grand Final between the Saints and Geelong. I don’t know if I ever actually mentioned that St Kilda lost the grand final last year, and it was a little devastating. Being the supporter of a team who has won every grand final they have played in (Brisbane Broncos) this was a little heartbreaking, but we were beaten by a better team on the day and we were able to get over it (eventually).

This year is a different story. St Kilda have again made it to the grand final (woo hoo!) but our opponent is Collingwood – the most hated, yet most supported team in the competition. Collingwood supporters are scary. I went to a Collingwood vs Bulldogs game this year and feared for my life – no one was safe! They abused the opposition players, the referees, the Bulldogs fans, AND their own players! AND THEY WON THAT GAME!!!!

I don’t know how I’ll cope if we lose to them, but worse still, I think there will be rioting in the streets if Collingwood lose. I’ll still be cheering the Saints on like crazy though. We’re watching the game with some friends and friends-of friends, so of course, I wanted to bring some baked goods along. I was busy last night making this recipe (with a slightly different to-die-for frosting) and, as usual, a) it took longer than I thought; b) since I don’t regularly make cupcakes, I overfilled the patties and my first batch ended up looking like mushrooms; c) I realised (again) I need a bigger mixing bowl and d) the decorating was the best part!!

Note Wifey’s “concentration tongue”… (and piping goods!!)


What?? I was obviously concentrating really hard!!!


Oh when the Saints
Go marching in
Oh when the Saints go marching in
Oh how I want to be with St Kilda
When the Saints go marching in.
GO SAINTS!!!


Gone shootin’

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Okay. So this is a post that I started writing on the 2nd of February 2009 (yes, 2009) about an activity that took place on the 2nd of January 2009 (yes, 2009). I know I know. I’ve been busy! So the story goes: Hubs wanted to do some shooting at the rifle range while we were on in Brisbane for Christmas holidays almost 2 years ago, so Dad offered to take us. He owns a few (registered, legal) hunting rifles, so we invited Lsl and NephNath along and headed down to The Queensland Rifle Range at Belmont.

After a (very brief) safety demonstration, we waited for a break in the “traffic” and set our targets up.

Ready Hubs?
Ready Wifey?
Ready Lsl?
Aim NephNath and Dad, and FIRE!
We even managed to hit some targets! I think this was one of mine?
I didn’t like to use the animal-looking ones… That’s so mean!
All the gun shots left me quite on edge and to be honest, I was quite happy to leave. We had a great time though!

Why, oh why?

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Dear Channel 9,

I am a Queenslander living in Melbourne. I have embraced AFL and watched many games, and have attended several live matches as well. But like I said, I’m a Queenslander, so I’m a Rugby League supporter at heart. I was so excited when Victoria embraced Rugby League and was positively elated when they had one of the State of Origin matches at Etihad last year, which I eagerly attended.

I think you know where this is going.

I watched the first State of Origin match of the 2010 series from the comfort of my home, and I’m sure you can imagine how pleased I was with the result. I unfortunately missed the second match due to a Melbourne University function (only Victoria would book an event on State of Origin night), so for the last 3 weeks, I have been so looking forward to watching game 3. I know it was a “dead rubber” but when you love a sport, these things don’t matter. Plus, both teams still had a lot to play for – Queensland were looking for their first clean sweep since the 1995 and New South Wales were looking to regain some pride.

So, perhaps you can imagine my utter dismay when I turned the TV on at 8pm only to find Daryl Somers staring back at me. “It must be a mistake”, I thought. So I turned over to Foxtel to see if they were showing it live. And then I noticed the delayed telecast to start at 9:30pm.

Are you for real? You want Victoria to embrace Rugby League, so you delay the telecast of one of the biggest matches of the year? This makes no sense to me. Especially considering that there are a few Melbourne Storm players in the competition. I just can not fathom it.

Can you please tell me why you chose to do this? I noticed in today’s paper that you have axed Hey Hey because of poor ratings, which is even more frustrating, since I’m sure you would have had a number of Victorians wanting to watch the State of Origin over Hey Hey. I hope I don’t have to write another letter like this, this time next year.

Regards,
Wifey

NOTE: FYI I stayed up for the delayed coverage and watched Queensland win 23-18 in an absolute CRACKER of a match, and I’ll be posting this letter to Channel 9 today.

Wifey’s World Cup

/ Renae / 4 Comments

I wasn’t going to say anything, but as most of you know, I find it hard to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I’m talking about this. I didn’t actually watch this game, but a friend of ours at college has been watching most matches and was telling us about it the next day. After he gave me a run down of what happened, I had to check it out for myself. Here’s the story:

It was Ghana vs Uruguay in the quarter-finals. The game was being played with the usual amount of theatrics, as well as a lot of skill. At full-time, it was dead-locked at 1-1 (as so many soccer matches are) so they started extra time. Towards the end of extra time, it happened. (if you’re looking at the video link, it’s about 1 min 22sec in) Ghana were attacking and took a shot at goal, which was saved, then they had another shot, which was deflected, and on their third attempt, the ball was in. At least, it would have been in, if a Uruguay defender hadn’t used his hand to save the goal. Note I used the word defender, not goalkeeper. This defender took it upon himself to cheat to save the goal. It was so damn blatant and it has made me so mad. He cheated and that’s that. There’s nothing more to it. It was a certain goal, and he knew it, and he decided in that split-second to “sacrifice” himself (knowing he would miss the next game), use his hand to stop the goal, get red-carded and sent off, and give his team an opportunity to save a goal in a spot kick. (Incidentally, Ghana missed the spot kick – the player hit the crossbar. This is not the point).

I cannot tell you how much this has upset me. How it has taken the fun out of watching the World Cup. If this was a Rugby League game, and a player committed a professional foul to prevent a certain-try, the team would have been awarded a penalty try. This should be a rule in soccer. Now before you get all up in arms about how hard that would be to police, give me an alternative. Do we just let teams win any way they can?? Any way they want?? And you know the worst part about all of this? That cheater has been hailed a hero.

Yeah, well done for being a big fat cheater who cheats his side into the final. Nice work. Bravo. Three cheers for the big cheater. And the comments left on one of the forums really paints a sad, sad picture:

“congrats uruguay. you deserve this. the sacrifice made in this game shows you have true passion for soccer. sorry ghana, not a good day. GOO URUGUAY!” 
Passion is no substitute for fair play; for being a good sport; for not being a lousy cheater. (Or for bad spelling).

“Well, Uruguay played well and deserved to win. Suarez (the dirty cheater) made a wise move and paid the price for it.”
A wise move?? Paid the price?? Missing a game?? Aw the poor cheater misses a game. Waaah waaah waaah.

Seriously! What is this teaching young kids who want to play professionally one day? Winning is everything? Win at all costs? “Sacrifice” yourself for your team’s glory??

If Uruguay make it past the next round (I’m not going to watch their game) or if worse comes to worst, they make it through to the final, I’ll never watch another world cup game again.

Note: The Netherlands knocked Uruguay out in the following round. Justice has been done.

Wifey’s World Cup

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Well, I did it! I got up at 4:15am yesterday for the Socceroos last pool match, and am I ever glad that I did. It was a cracker. A great way for the boys to, unfortunately, end their World Cup campaign. Apart from a few wah-wahs, it was a classy match by the Aussies, and a deserved win. Shame about that damn goal difference!

I think that may be the last game I watch this world cup, but I may get up for the final, depending on the teams playing.

I also think that this may have been the last World Cup that I’ll be getting up to watch. The game is just too theatrical and whingey for me, and it really takes away from the great spectacle of soccer which is such a shame. I know that there is a huge following for soccer around the world, so I’m sure they won’t miss me not watching the games in Brazil in 4 years time.

It’s been fun!

Wifey’s World Cup

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I stayed up on Saturday night to watch the Socceroos vs Ghana match, and it was a very exciting game indeed! I came away from that game feeling proud of the way we played and impressed by Australia’s regrouping after the game against Germany. There was still a bit of OTT theatrics but on the whole, it was an enjoyable match. Our defence was more solid and Schwarzer seemed to be much more in control of his backline. Our goal was a great clean up of a tentative save by the Ghanan goal-keeper and the friends I was with got very excited indeed.

The mood changed when Kewell was given the red card, but after looking at countless replays and talking to people who live and breathe soccer, it would have been hard for the referee not to give it in that instance. I mean, it clearly wasn’t deliberate, but it was an arm in front of a certain-goal, so it was a pretty expected call I would say. Disagree if you like, but I’m happy to move on from it.

So we’re still in with a chance to make it to the knock-out round, albeit a small chance. Their next game is at 4:20am on Thursday and I’m going to try really really hard to get up for it. I have every good intention to do so, so wish me lots and lots of luck!!