It has been a year to the weekend that we had officially had trials with an estimated 50 girls to compose 4 teams to compete in the Vegas 7s 2011. Vegas last year was our first tournament that we had won as a 7s team. Following Vegas in 2011 we went on to win Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Dubai. We have just come back to Victoria with another victory, starting off 2012 with winning Vegas 7s for the second year in a row. It was great to see our Senior Men came out of Vegas winning the Bowl final. That is a huge accomplishment for them and their staff. I look forward to seeing them grow as a team and have their success only become greater. Way to go boys!
Since starting this new centralization program, what we like to call "the good life", we have come together and can all honestly say we are working towards one goal. The same hope and dream in mind.
The 2016 Olympics. One step, one tournament at a time, we will work collectively to strive for excellence. Not only that, but the balance of pursuing the rest of our lives.
When this 5 months comes to an end, we will all be dispersing and going about our lives as if we were pre centralization. So girls will go home, get their jobs back, re unite with their partners, and the privilege of having their families so close again. With all that in mind, the rugby never stops! There will still be club rugby, the NWL, World Cup qualifiers, and camps. Not only the events will still keep on coming, but the girls will go back and the training will only get to be more intense. Not one person will leave centralization and take their foot off the gas. Not with all we will have been through, with all the hard work we will have put in, with that one goal always in the front of our minds. This team is one of the most determined group of girls I know. I can assure you that every morning I will be waking up knowing that 19 other girls are out there training to be better, faster, and stronger. That will get me up and going everyday until we meet again come January.
On a different note some fun things that have been going on in our lives on the Island.
Last week, I woke up to discover that someone had come into our drive way late at night and decided to so kindly remove my windshield wipers. Not doing me any favours, they didn't just remove the wipers, they decided to rip off both arms clean, ridding me of both Windshield wipers completely. Thank your kind folks of Victoria! I don't think I'll be needing those, especially during the most rainy season of the year. What really put me off about the situation is that you cant just replace those! Thankfully I have an amazing mechanic (Mike Lance here in Victoria, I recommend him 100%) who is in the process of calling auto wreckers of Victoria to find me two that will fit mt 2002 very inconvenient Hyundai Accent.
Today actually I needed to do a grocery shop. On my way home from a couple hours of work, I stopped at the Save on foods in West Vic. There was what appeared to be a homeless man standing right in front of where I parked. Naturally I was not looking forward to him asking me for money. I got out of the car, and he did just that, but finished with "for some food please". I didn't actually have any change at all, so not that I lied when I said "sorry you caught me at a bad time" I just didn't have any change to give. As I was walking away I had a feeling that I wanted to get him something, and since I was going to Booster Juice to get a snack anyways, I decided to get him one to. For Christmas I had asked for gift certificates, mostly for food and Booster Juice. So I thought since I had the gift certificate I was feeling a little more generous today. As I was walking out of the shop towards where the man was standing I noticed he was gone! I thought "no way!". So I searched the parking lot for him only to find he had disappeared. I ended up just putting the drink in my car and going to buy my groceries. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I spotted the man! Reversed back into the spot, put the car in park and sped walked towards the man. I then said to him "Ive been looking for you, now whether you are hungry or not I got this for you", he said "thank you" and I walked back to my car. I didn't really know how I felt until I was driving out of the strip mall and found the guy happily walking down the street sipping his Booster Juice. My heart felt bigger, that at that moment I might have put a smile on his face, restored his faith, and maybe my own in humanity. Maybe that's what I want to think, in a perfect world.
In Vegas we had all our breakfasts, lunch and dinners at the hotel. Luckily Americans know how to do it right and it was buffet style all day every day. You learned real quick what was a good idea to eat and or steer clear of. Not by mention, but by how your guts were feeling the next day. You could usually pin point what caused the damage. I would say the safest meal would be the BBQ chicken, steamed rice, steamed veg and the salad bar. The pasta station was also a safe bet. I think the common theme for gut rot and late night tummy parties would have been the brownie with fudge sauce and or the pudding...it was definitely the pudding. Some of the more tempting foods of choice would have been the fried chicken, the larger than life desert bar, chicken wings, spring rolls, taco station with all the fixings, and the traditional roast dinners. It all looked so amazing, but we all knew not to go down that road as it probably would have ended poorly!
Since starting this new centralization program, what we like to call "the good life", we have come together and can all honestly say we are working towards one goal. The same hope and dream in mind.
The 2016 Olympics. One step, one tournament at a time, we will work collectively to strive for excellence. Not only that, but the balance of pursuing the rest of our lives.
When this 5 months comes to an end, we will all be dispersing and going about our lives as if we were pre centralization. So girls will go home, get their jobs back, re unite with their partners, and the privilege of having their families so close again. With all that in mind, the rugby never stops! There will still be club rugby, the NWL, World Cup qualifiers, and camps. Not only the events will still keep on coming, but the girls will go back and the training will only get to be more intense. Not one person will leave centralization and take their foot off the gas. Not with all we will have been through, with all the hard work we will have put in, with that one goal always in the front of our minds. This team is one of the most determined group of girls I know. I can assure you that every morning I will be waking up knowing that 19 other girls are out there training to be better, faster, and stronger. That will get me up and going everyday until we meet again come January.
On a different note some fun things that have been going on in our lives on the Island.
Last week, I woke up to discover that someone had come into our drive way late at night and decided to so kindly remove my windshield wipers. Not doing me any favours, they didn't just remove the wipers, they decided to rip off both arms clean, ridding me of both Windshield wipers completely. Thank your kind folks of Victoria! I don't think I'll be needing those, especially during the most rainy season of the year. What really put me off about the situation is that you cant just replace those! Thankfully I have an amazing mechanic (Mike Lance here in Victoria, I recommend him 100%) who is in the process of calling auto wreckers of Victoria to find me two that will fit mt 2002 very inconvenient Hyundai Accent.
Today actually I needed to do a grocery shop. On my way home from a couple hours of work, I stopped at the Save on foods in West Vic. There was what appeared to be a homeless man standing right in front of where I parked. Naturally I was not looking forward to him asking me for money. I got out of the car, and he did just that, but finished with "for some food please". I didn't actually have any change at all, so not that I lied when I said "sorry you caught me at a bad time" I just didn't have any change to give. As I was walking away I had a feeling that I wanted to get him something, and since I was going to Booster Juice to get a snack anyways, I decided to get him one to. For Christmas I had asked for gift certificates, mostly for food and Booster Juice. So I thought since I had the gift certificate I was feeling a little more generous today. As I was walking out of the shop towards where the man was standing I noticed he was gone! I thought "no way!". So I searched the parking lot for him only to find he had disappeared. I ended up just putting the drink in my car and going to buy my groceries. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I spotted the man! Reversed back into the spot, put the car in park and sped walked towards the man. I then said to him "Ive been looking for you, now whether you are hungry or not I got this for you", he said "thank you" and I walked back to my car. I didn't really know how I felt until I was driving out of the strip mall and found the guy happily walking down the street sipping his Booster Juice. My heart felt bigger, that at that moment I might have put a smile on his face, restored his faith, and maybe my own in humanity. Maybe that's what I want to think, in a perfect world.
In Vegas we had all our breakfasts, lunch and dinners at the hotel. Luckily Americans know how to do it right and it was buffet style all day every day. You learned real quick what was a good idea to eat and or steer clear of. Not by mention, but by how your guts were feeling the next day. You could usually pin point what caused the damage. I would say the safest meal would be the BBQ chicken, steamed rice, steamed veg and the salad bar. The pasta station was also a safe bet. I think the common theme for gut rot and late night tummy parties would have been the brownie with fudge sauce and or the pudding...it was definitely the pudding. Some of the more tempting foods of choice would have been the fried chicken, the larger than life desert bar, chicken wings, spring rolls, taco station with all the fixings, and the traditional roast dinners. It all looked so amazing, but we all knew not to go down that road as it probably would have ended poorly!
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