End of a Season, Start of Another... (Take Two)

OK, so it turned out that I was wrong about the netball season for the women's team being over, they split the division in half so we ended up getting into the finals which amazed us all. We played the team we played against most of the time (every time we played them it was always pretty close but we had never actually won against them), again it was a very close game but even more so this time as we ended up having a draw. Due to it being a final we couldn't end on a draw so it went into extended time, the pressure was on but our team couldn't quite handle the intensity of it all and ended up losing by 3 goals. Despite losing it was a really good game and one we were quite happy to end the season with.

During the week we were yet again surprised to find out that the season still wasn't over for us and that we would be playing in the grand final! It turned out that team that was meant to be playing the team we lost against all pulled out as they all decided it would be better to go to the Pink concert instead, so we would have to play that team again. The day of the grand final came and everyone was really excited and pumped for the game, as we would have never thought we would ever make it to the grand final winning only one game. We all excitedly put our bibs on and got into our positions waiting for the other team to do so and for the game to begin. However, the other team were just sitting on the bench as it turned out that some of their players didn't rock up, leaving them with only 4 players when the minimum required is 5. The umpires gave them 5 minutes to try and find another player or else they would have to forfeit the game as it was the grand final. The other team frantically made phone calls trying to bring in another player at the last second, the 5 minutes ran out and still they had no fifth player so our team were declared the winners of the grand final. Our team were all pretty happy to hear this news and thought it was quite humorous that we had only ever properly won one game, miraculously got into the finals, got into the grand final by default and then won by default, classic!

Even though we had won the grand final we weren't quite satisfied as we had all psyched ourselves up for the game so we decided that it would be good to have a scratch match, the other team were good sports about the whole situation and agreed to the scratch match with Sarah (Alex's sister) playing for them. It was a good relaxed game, I got play shooter which was a bit a of change from my usual positions in defence which was fun and afterwards there was a presentation and our team were given blue water bottles that said Premiers on them. I kinda felt bad for the other team because they were only given small red water bottles that said runner-up but I suppose at least they got something.

Well anyway, now on to Chocolate Thunder... We have now played four games, it is lots of fun probably even more fun than women's netball and each game is always quite entertaining. We aren't overly good and haven't won any games yet but we are still getting used to the whole mixed netball thing and sorting out positions, mixed netball is quite a lot faster than women's so that means we are constantly moving. After the first game, Seth Mutton who was our backup enjoyed playing and now plays every game which is handy because Dane isn't available most of the time due to mutual. We have had one training but not everyone could make it and we didn't really take it as seriously as we could have, but yeah I guess we'll have to work on that. I now play in goals as GS or GA most of the time as none of us can really shoot which is probably one of our downfalls but I am slowly getting the hang of it. The last game we played was at 9:30 so Dane was able to play, this was probably our best game yet as we all worked well, my shooting was probably the best that is has been so far and the score was actually sort of close, although we did learn that because we didn't have a scorer the other team automatically got 5 goals put onto their score. So yeah we just have to get a scorer, figure out all our positions and maybe have another practice and I'm sure we'll improve and maybe even be able to win a game...if not then it doesn't matter too much because it is lots of fun.

End of a Season, Start of Another...

Alright, to sum up how this netball season went let's just say we never did end up having a training, our team was quite inconsistent with Ellen moving after the first game and just other players being unavailable some weeks making it so we never had the same people each week and constantly having to get fill-ins. However we did end up winning one game with the score being 13-16, we recruited two players who had never played a proper game of netball before, Tahnee Granger and Jaclyn (Jacy) Crosley, and we did have a lot of fun despite losing the majority of the time.

Well this Tuesday just gone was our last game of the season and prior to that we decided we would like to continue playing because it has been quite fun, except this time play mixed netball instead of just women's, so after we finished the game we filled out a registration form for a mixed netball team. Our new team will consist of Deborah, Jacy, Tahnee, Sarah Willoughby, Dane Granger, Jared Willoughby, Mitchell Herrick, and myself with our backups being Lauren, Eleazar (Ezz) Quinto and Seth Mutton. We were struggling to come up with a name so thanks to me we will be called CHOCOLATE THUNDERRR as this was the one most people agreed on...they didn't like the idea of Humpback Whales or White Lightning so Chocolate Thunder was the winner. Our season starts on the 11th of August so hopefully this season our team will be more consistent than before, we will be able to get on well, play well together, have as much fun if not more fun than before, and be able to achieve the things that I wasn't able to able achieve last season.

Well anyways, getting off the topic of netball I recently received another cousin that I forgot to mention previously, Olivia Mahoney born 12:01 on the 19th of May, daughter of Mel Kelly and Andrew Mahoney. This makes her my 18th cousin on the Mahoney side of the family and my 31st cousin all up. We saw her the other day when Aunty Mel dropped Charlotte at our house and brought Olivia with her. Olivia has grown a fair bit from when we first saw her at the hospital, she is looking pretty healthy and is quite pretty so you can tell she will be attractive when she gets older. Despite Olivia's growth, this hasn't really changed mum's first reaction to her, I think mum wants to steal her...

Well, I think this will be all for now, although I shall have to keep you updated on how CHOCOLATE THUNDERRRR goes this season.

Got That Netball Feeling..

Recently I have joined a netball team, consisting of Alex Crosley, Alex's older sister, Ellen Soininen, Sarah Granger, my sister Melanie, Deborah Clements, Deborah's school friend Sophia and possibly her other friend Veronica (Vonni), and myself.... (we may also recruit my younger sister Lauren).

We play at the Turramurra Rec Centre on Tuesday Nights in a 'social' competition against 7 other teams. We had our first game last week and I think it's safe to say that all of us were a bit rusty and needed to work on our 'gameplay'. Our first game went alright, we did lose, not by a whole lot but it wasn't quite as social as we had expected, as the other team were quite serious about what was going on and were a bit catty even though they were clearly winning. As a result, we decided that we needed to have a couple of trainings where would work on improving general fitness and our 'gameplay', even though we haven't actually got around to doing this yet.

Yesterday night we played our 2nd game of the season, Mel and Ellen were away because they went on a trip to Canberra, Soph was also away for some reason so Vonni replaced her. I got Lauren to replace Ellen, we went to the temple beforehand and other unfortunate events occurred making us extremely late and missing the first quarter. Mel and Soph play shooter and Ellen and I play defence, so for the first quarter we had no players that played shooter or defence as well as some missing positions, so I guess you could say our team was struggling, finishing the first quarter on something like 0-14. Lauren and I finally made our way there, running straight from the car park onto the court in time for the second quarter. Deb was playing GK and Alex was playing GD, they called time and went to swap with Lauren and myself but the umpire said that we couldn't do that and that Deb and Alex had to stay in those positions and that Lauren and I had to fill in the missing positions. These positions were a little foreign to Lauren and I, with Lauren going WD and me going WA, so the second quarter was still a little bad, however, we did at least score. Third-quarter we swapped and got into our usual positions which made things a little better apart from the fact that our shooters couldn't shoot overly well, but it was none the less entertaining. Fourth-quarter Alex had a go at shooter which was quite the change from her usual positions but she did eventually get a goal so that was good. We finished up the game with a total of 5 goals...which was kind of funny in comparison to the other teams 42 or so goals.

Overall it was a good game, lots of fun was had, lots of non-stop running occurred especially for Lauren and I as a result of our inexperienced shooters, the team we played against had a good time and were more relaxed than the team we first played, however, we decided we still need to have a training to work on some things and get to the netball game about 15 minutes beforehand.

From this netball season, I hope to able to have some good fun, improve my general fitness, and be able to get back into the whole netball thing. So once we we've sorted out some things and got our team to a similar standard as the other teams it should be all good, I'll have to keep you updated on how we go.

Easter Weekend

This Easter weekend Mel and I ventured over to Melbourne as there were a fair few other YSA's heading over there the annual basketball competition... but mainly because I had never been to Melbourne before. We left early Friday morning with about 3 or so hours of sleep, we didn't leave on Thursday because it was Emily King's 18th birthday party and I had promised her that I would be attending and bringing along an awesome present. The present I got Emily was a gumball machine...well really a jelly belly dispenser filled with gumballs because I searched far and wide and the only proper gumball machine I was able to find was this AFL one which would not do at all...well anyways Emily loved it.

The early morning travels were great, with lack of sleep not being a problem as our travels were filled with candy and a bunch of Cd's I made the night before containing many classics by various artists such as Prince, UB40, Backstreet Boys, The Cure, R.E.M., The Killers and other randoms, making for some awesome car karaoke. We made our first stop in Horsham at Maccas where we met up with Mike, Jonny, Simon, and Adam who were enjoying a nice breakfast...we missed Maccas breakfast so we resorted McCafe hot cross buns n frappes, which was a good change from candy. We then went our separate ways and continued our journey to the land of Melbourne.

After several more stops we finally made our way into Melbourne and as we travelled down the east link I noticed that Melbourne has a fair few random statues such as a huge crow eating a french fry or a square worm, a hotel, and something that looks like a large piece of farm machinery with leaves all over it or something. When we came to the Kannar's household where we were apparently going to be staying...they weren't home but they left the doors unlocked so we could shower and stuff. As we entered the house it felt so weird, like we were intruding because neither one of us had been there before and we had to search the house in order to find the bathrooms. Once we had showered and were dressed the Kannar's had returned home and I finally got to meet my 2nd cousin, Sally and her husband(Mel had met them before on a previous trip to Melbourne). They then informed us that we would not be staying with them but around the corner at my dad's other cousin, Craig Tennant's place. After we finished getting ready we followed Sally to the Tennant's and were amazed to see how huge their house was. Inside was really nice as well and we later found out that Craig's wife, Lesley was an interior designer, thus explaining why it was so nice.

Our Great Aunty Pat(Grandpa Foster's sister) was also staying at the Tennant's for the Easter weekend so we got to know her a bit better. We had hot Milo's and watched a bit of TV with her and she randomly got a buttered roll and started dipping it in her Milo which we thought was a bit weird..so yes we discovered that she's pretty much a girl version of grandpa which was hilarious. She told us many stories about grandpa when they were younger, like him wanting to help around the house by weeding..but instead pulling out all his dad's bean plants. She also showed us a picture of Nana with her friends when she was younger which was interesting.

We headed off for the dance and found that everything Melbourne takes forever to get to which was annoying. The dance was held in a random hall which was a bit weird and proved a challenge to find, but once we got there wasn't too bad. After the dance, a bunch of us went to Krispy Kreme's which made my night. Jonny discovered that we were able to get a free sample of a fresh, hot doughnut which was quite nice...and while experiencing the Krispy Kremes, Jonny took the chance to share a few of his token jokes(I had heard the majority of them before so they weren't quite as funny as the first time but still quality).

On Saturday we woke up later than planned so we just got ready and headed off to the DFO in the city where Katie works and met up with Laura and Emma Korte. We spent the majority of the day looking around the shops and even though I didn't actually buy anything was still good fun...but exhausting. Mel and I then checked out Federation Square and the Ferris wheel..or should I say 'The GIANT Wheel'...we also saw some weird statue that we couldn't actually come to the conclusion of what it was, and some bell display thing. We then headed up to Elliot Rancie's party where there was a small fire, in which we toasted marshmallows..the night was good fun.

On Sunday we hit up conference at the Tennant's ward and then after went to a Family Easter lunch/dinner where a lot of extended family and friends of the family were present... we didn't really know many people but there was good food..there were also a few interesting dishes such as a jelly dish which apparently didn't turn out as planned and as a result was given the name of 'alien vomit'. Afterwards we went back to the Kannar's and watched a bit of One Tree Hill, then Mel and I went to the Murphy's place. There wasn't as many Adelaide people at this gathering(well Jonny was there with his jokes again), so we got to met a few people from Melbourne we hadn't met before... and was introduced to the 'Awkward Turtle' which a hand signal made when you are in an awkward situation so friends will come and rescue you...this then evolved from a hand signal to a full body movement...I am yet to use this...but when I do it will be epic.

On the Monday before returning home we went with the Tennant's and the Kannar's to a beach at Sorrento for most of the day where we had a picnic lunch and played a variation of volleyball that then turned into a game of catch standing in the shallow water..if you failed to catch the ball then everyone else was obligated to splash you... as a result many became soaked.

At about 6ish we finally made our way back to Adelaide. We had already listened to the Cd's I made so we decided to explore my old CD collection and I must say...'there ain't no party like an sclub party!'

Overall, from my first trip to Melbourne I thought it was a nice place with nice people, despite the random statues and the travelling distance between places, and I enjoyed getting to know my extended family.

Finally...

Alright, I think like a week or so ago the idea of keeping a blog was presented to me. At first ill admit I wasn't overly keen on the idea but then I remembered how when I was younger I used to have a sort of blog thing happening on the MSN space thing and when I went back and read all the things I wrote I was able to remember the circumstances in which I wrote each entry which was quite entertaining for myself. Hence I concluded that I couldn't actually come up with any real reason for not writing a blog and that it couldn't hurt...so here goes.



(For all those people reading this blog I would like you to have absolutely no expectations...that way whenever I get around to writing blog entries, anything I write will be good.)



At the moment I am in the process of making a recipe book. I have been meaning to make this recipe book for some time now...2 years I think. The idea of making a recipe book came to me after one of my favourite brownie recipes was lost when my younger sister Lauren took the recipe book containing the magical brownie recipe to school for Home Ec and the Home Ec teacher (Mrs Mason) stole it from her and never returned it. From this horrible event, I decided that I didn't want any more of my favourite recipes to be lost so I would make a recipe book containing all of them. This recipe book is not only a compilation of my favourite recipes but also random recipes from magazines and other various places that I thought sounded nice or would be interesting to see how they turn out. Funny enough most of the recipes I have so far have been desserts...as I am quite the fan of all things sweet. I do however plan to build up the savoury section.

Once the recipe book is completed I have decided I will make copies for certain people... Laura, because she is quite the fussy eater and I want her to be able to have a variety of recipes to turn to once she eventually gets married so her husband will not have to suffer, even though she probably won't eat them herself. Mel, because she and her old housemate were given a recipe book to share as a birthday present...but that housemate has since moved out and is married, taking with her the recipe book leaving Mel with none. Levi, because he is going on a mission soon and will need to know how to make some nutrition yet simple and quick meals.


Even though at first they may not appreciate my amazing recipe book, they will one day be in need of one of my magical recipes and forever be thankful for the wonders that Jfo's Recipe book offers.