Week 4

Well this wont be very detailed. Read my AIS blogs if you want detailed..

Sunday - Travel to AIS
Monday - AIS
Tuesday - AIS
Wednesday - AIS
Thursday - Nada
Friday - Niente
Saturday - 아주 적은 aju jok-eun (I realise Saturday hasn't happend yet but I don't plan on doing that much on Saturday either :P )

Today I had my last on site meeting before handover. Looking good!


(1. My kitchen/dining area. 2. THE cheesecake that I spoke about in an earlier post :P)

Week 3's ramble aftermath

There are good people in this world! Well, a little naughty, but good overall!

I got a phone call this afternoon which pretty much made my day! It was my bank calling, asking me a few security questions and then told me that someone had found the clutch I lost last Saturday! They gave me their number which I rang, spoke too, got their details and then jumped into the car to go find them. Luckily the company it was at wasn't too far away. Someone must have handed my clutch into one of the event staff (after taking the $15 bucks, but hey! who cares!? I dont have to pay for a new drivers licence or car key!).

It made me remember something I read in one of my uni text books. How there are different theories on people's behaviour. How some guy thinks we are all born good, we just get bad habits along the way. But some other guy thinks deep down we are all evil, we just get good habits along the way. Looks like I was paying attention that day in uni, can't even remember their names.. Probably important people too :P

Anyway! I am one happy girl!

Oh, and I hope you like the new look blogg. I got bored this evening :P

The AIS continued..

After the big break on tuesday, we had our first on court training session for the day. We worked through our press breaker and were able to scrimmage against each other. The girls then had a team meeting with our interim manager Maz to sort out what uniform we have and which uniform we want to take to Osaka. We also tried on sample sizes for our new playing uniform. We were ment to have another round of individuals with the coaching staff but the uniform meeting went a bit overtime and we couldnt fit in the indiv's before dinner. After dinner we had another on court training session. This session was run by the two Ben's (E and O) and in it we concentrated on our defence. In the session we were introduced to new terminology so us wheelchair basketballers can get away from AB basketball terms. These new terms, which include helpline, pistols, 11 or 14, etc., will be spread around Australia so no matter what team we are playing in, whether it be a local team, state team or Aussie rep team, the terminology will be uniform across all fields. We also did alot of 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 and 5 on 5 scrimmages.

After the session a few of us utilised the ice plunge pool in the basketball stadium. While Red, Dori and Tina did the full body plunge, I lied on my stomach at the edge and had my arms in the ice cold water up to my shoulders. Afterwards, we went and had a late night snack of yoghurt outside the Residence Food Hall for a bit of a chat and laugh (especially when I ran a mile when a flying pray mantis flew at me) while our bodies (or limbs in my case) returned to normal temperature.

We finally got back to our rooms, showered (cold showers by the way), and went to bed. It wasn't long after that when I got attacked by a flying cockroach in my bed. According to Dori, she has never seen someone jump out of bed so fast. She had to come to my rescue and hit the horrible flying thing from the curtain above my bed onto the floor. I composed myself and got back into bed but was still nervous because I couldnt see where its little corpse was. I moved my backpack and there it was just sitting there but while looking at it, it moved. Yet again, I screamed like a girl and got out of bed. Pathetic, I know! But I hate, HATE, insects! Dori squished it and it was definitely dead but sleeping wasn't made any easier. We both kept hearing things jumping and flittering and crawling around. So the quality of sleep wasnt very high that night.

The next morning, the wednesday (also our last day there) saw us at breakfast for 7am and on the court for 8am. We learnt more new things in just over an hour of practice. It was a good session to end our first camp. We were showered, dressed, packed and driving to the airport at 10.40am. This time we flew home via Melbourne. We were delayed for our flight to Perth because our plane had just come from the hanger and apparently the inside temperature of the plane was around 55 degrees C. So we had to wait for it to cool down before loading. I pretty much slept the whole way. One thing I'm pretty good at is falling asleep on planes, so the actual flight seemed to go pretty quick. Before I knew it I was in my car, driving myself home. Lucky I only live 15 minutes away from the airport.

So here I am back home in Perth with the entire Robbie Williams discography (bit of a fan? umm yeah!) playing in the background. I have a few things I need to do, including trying to get some cash out at the bank without having any bank cards (new ones still havent arrived in the mail yet). Once I have money I will be able to fill my car up, buy some groceries and go to the lisencing centre to buy a replacement drivers lisence. Tomorrow I have my last on site meeting at my house before hand over. Excited!!

Anyway that will do.. Have a good weekend! :)

The AIS camp so far..

Well today is day 3 (technically) of being in Canberra. It started at 3.15am for me on the Sunday morning, driving myself to the airport to be there for 4.30am (good thing I only live 15 minutes away, feel sorry for any Southerners who had to drive so early in the morning). Me, Amber, Sarah and Kim were on the flight to Canberra via Sydney. The rest of the Perth group went via Melbourne. Our flight from Sydney to Canberra was cancelled for some unknown to us reason so we had to take a later flight which left us waiting around Sydney airport for 2 and a bit hours.

We finally made it to Canberra, got picked up by Gliders ass. coach Ben O, and got to the AIS just in time (maybe a tad late) for the combined u23's and Gliders team meeting. It was awesome seeing my 2 state coaches Ben E and John T there. Especially with it being John's first gig being head coach for the Gliders.

So day was consisted mainly of travel, with a team meeting, then dinner followed by another team meeting before bed to come up with our team words. These words are what we want the Gliders to be seen and known as. These words being encouraging, united, professional and relentless persistence. We then were able to go to bed. In my apartment is Dori and Doma: Dori being in my room and Doma lucky enough to have a room to herself.

Day 2 was our first full day together. Waking up at 6am to be ready for a 7am team meeting. These morning meetings are fairly short. John goes through what we are doing for today, including what we will be concentrating on in each of the on court training sessions. After the meeting we had breakfast and then our first on court session. It was a massive session of craming as much new info in as possible. Different plays, etc. I was mentally exhausted. We then had a recovery session in the recovery centre. 2 minutes spa, 2 minutes ice plunge. Repeat 3 - 4 times but finishing with 5 minutes in the ice plunge. We then had lunch. Then another on court training session where we were able to scrimmage against the u23's. Then we had dinner, then we had another on court training session which turned out to be more of a fun one. John put us into 2 teams and put us through a whole bunch of games where the winners got points. Got a bit rough especially the one where the only rule was the shoot elbow shots and see how many your team could get in. Other than that it was no rules. So there was defence against the opposite team. Throwing the other teams ball away, etc. We finished off the day with an Australia Day quiz. 7 rounds of 5 very Aussie questions. The Wrinklies (consisting of John and Jess P's dad Phill) came first, and it was a tie between me and Jess and Red and Dori (even after about 8 tie breaker questions!). Finally bed time!

Today (day 3) started pretty much the same. Up at 6am for a 7am team meeting. Then breakfast. But instead of a on court session we had a recovery lecture with Joe followed by the usual practical of 2 minutes spa, 2 minutes ice plunge, blah blah. Now we have had a bit of down time before lunch which is in half an hour. After that more down time until like 2.30 when our first on court training session begins. The down time has been much needed. My shoulders and lower back are kinda sore!

Anyway, thats all for now. I gotta go back to being social :)

Ciao!

Week 3 and a bit of a ramble

Apologies must be made before I try write anything. Its 10 to 4 in the morning. A rediculous time to be up in the morning but hey, its what you gotta do sometimes when you live in Perth and play in a basketball team that trains at the AIS in Canberra.

Met P.M. K Rudd yesterday. Well, more like he walked past me to get to the front of the room to sit and then talk on stage. Why was I there? Well the invite said to celebrate Australia Day, but there wasn't enough snags on the barbie and champers for my kinda Australia Day celebration. There was alot of inportant people crowding the Government House ballroom in their "lounge suits. day dress or service uniform's". I didn't recognise anyone (I really should watch or read the news a bit more) but my plus one, Joel, said he say Matty Pav from the Dockers. Meh. Never was an AFL kinda girl. Today was a day when the inportant people got their O.H.M's attached to their last name. Gold medalists get their names extended. I missed out by two colours. Maybe in 2012 I can have my already long last name extended :) I must have been invited just so I could enjoy the show, so to speak.

Anyway, couldn't really enjoy it that much. Inside I was in a panic. Somewhere between parking in Langley (where there was some Regae music festival on) to the Government House, my clutch (aka wallet or purse, but wasnt my usual one with everything in it thank god!) went walk about. I have this net thing under my chair which is pretty good at holding things. I must have just been a bad packer that day. But its not the first time Ive lost something important from it, so I really should learn one day. I think I have now. Anyway inside, as you can imagine, were a few things you dont want to lose! At first I thought my mobile was in there too but luckily I had accidently left that in the car.

So long story short, got Joels housemate to drive us back to their house where I could make a few phone calls. Then got driven to my place so locksmith could let me into my own house. Then went in got the spare car and house key. Then was driven all the way back to the city so I could get my car. This is when I realised I hadnt lost my mobile after all. So there was a little light in todays horror adventure. Sucks, I only had just memorized my cc number. Now I will have to learn a new one!

So a big thank you to Joel and his household for putting up with me for a few extra hours than expected, and for driving me everywhere and financing the whole thing. Will pay you back when I get my cards back in 5 or whatever working days (or so CBA says). And if you were the person who found my clutch in Langley please hand it in! Be a good Australian! (but yes very doubtful, always think the worst, then anything you get is seen as good)

Now its 10 past 4 in the morning. I need to leave for the airport in about 5 minutes. The Gliders have their first training camp at the AIS. Its being run along side the u23's Australian camp. Should be good. Im excited. Well not now. Right now Im friggin tired. But I have to drive. Taxi service is crapola and the Robin's are nice enough to drive my car back to theirs while Im away (thank you!!).

Anyway heres week 3.. Still didnt get the amount of swim or gym sessions that I wanted done. Really need to get my butt into gear when I get back from camp. When uni starts maybe I can get some sort of routine going..

Monday - 1 hour shoot around and then local league. Got smashed. Those men are tall and ugly.
Tuesday - 2 hour shoot around.
Wednesday - 1k swim and 2 hour shoot around.
Thursday - 2 hour shoot around.
Friday - 2 hour shoot around.

Quite possibly could make the shoot around a higher quality. Might need to draft a few structured sessions...

Anyway I need to go! Ciao!