Who would have thought that I liked sport so much?

One of my biggest childhood tragedies is that when I was about nine or ten I decided that I would play softball. I went along to one of the practices and one of the older girls took me under her wing and taught me how to bat and stuff and I remember I wasn't bad but the boys laughed at me, I went home and I never went back.

This week is the official start of my triathalon training. A couple of years ago, Kat, Liz and I did the the Blokefree Triathalon at MacAndrew Bay. I have decided that this summer I am going to do the whole series, I think there are three of them.

This week I have been quite active. It also helps that I have rebelled against public transport. As I have promised people that I won't bike to work in the snow or the frost I have been getting up at 6:30, checking the weather and deciding on my mode of transport from there. So on Monday, it was very frosty. I walked to work, it took me 25 minutes longer.

On Tuesday, I walked to work, went for a swim after work then walked home again.

On Wednesday, it was fine enough to bike to work. Because I had got up earlier to check the weather I started work at 7am. I went for a 4k run with Lori at lunchtime and biked home.

I walked to work on Thursday (I probably could have biked but better to be safe than sorry). Brett, Lori and I went running at lunchtime. I did my first non-stop 4k and shaved 1:47 off my previous time. I had worship team in the evening and walked home after that. I was exhausted.

I walked in on Friday, I was going to go for a swim after work but ended up having dinner with my workmate at his flat. Tradition American cuisine - medium well done cheese burgers, potatoes with sour cream and Pepsi. I was going to catch the bus home, Charles lives in North East Valley so we walked to the Gardens corner. It was 8:45, the timetable said that the Normanby bus left there at 8:15 and 9:15, my bus left the Octagon at 9:30 so I decided to walk to the Octagon, I ended up catching the Normanby bus on my way to the Octagon. Really!?! That took me to South Dunedin and I walked from there.

Yesterday I went for a 23k bike ride.

Today I biked to church. Football was a home game against Dunedin Tech. I was so prepared, I played bass at church this morning, I was wearing my football gear under my dress pants and jersey so as soon as the service finished I was ready to go.

I played the second half today. I am loving football. Today I was in the backs. The game was a draw 1-1. I am keeping up my tradition of one ball to the head each game. It was kind of funny actually, I think it was half fluke/half defensive, the ball hit me in the hand, carried on and hit me in the head. The other team kept yelling 'Hand ball, hand ball' and Gala yelled back 'it was defensive, it would have hit her in the head' and I yelled back, 'it did hit me in the head'. I found it amusing, actually I don't really know what the outcome of that was. I still don't really know how to play football but I love it.

I am trying to get a group of people together at work to start our own 10,000 step challenge like we did last year, put in an entry fee and have prizes for the best individual, best team, most improved, most consistent so I am going to dig out the pedometre and start counting my steps.

Bending it like Beckham

This is not me, this is Keira Knightly and this is not what I looked like today. Today I graduated from super supporter to not-quite-as-super player. The team were down in numbers so I got to play. I played a full game of soccer and it was awesome. OK, we lost but it was great. I had so much fun. I started on the wing, I spent a lot of time running, I don't think I managed to fool anyone into thinking that it wasn't my first time playing soccer. I got shifted to the forwards with Jemma half way through half time. Haha! Sarah the striker, not quite but I did get a shot at goal, it didn't go in but still, impressive I thought and I only took one ball to the head the whole game which I felt surprising. I am knackered now though.

Invercargill

So much for trying to blog regularly.

So, last week, very exciting, I took my first official annual leave (other than when the office is closed and you have to take leave). Today was my official one year anniversary at the Ministry of Health as permanent staff and I was the only person in my team who hadn't taken any leave or sick days so it was well over due.


I headed down after work with Laura and Jimmy for Liz and Katrina's combined 30th, which was cool, five years ago I was at their combined 25th. It is kind of weird being around all these people who went to my high school, I think I see maybe five people from high school and even that is very rarely.


The main purpose to my holiday was to meet Sally's beautiful addition to their family, Stella Maree Hamilton. She is beautiful. We had lots of cuddles. Aunty Sarah has the magic touch, she can get the baby to go to sleep. I had a fun couple of days with Sally and the kids - Blake's 5th birthday, blue birthday porridge and a visit to kindy.

It was a baby week, I also met my cousin's bubba, Tessa Jane, who is a little giggle monster, she also does a very good blue steele.

Other highlights included improving my driving skills at McDonalds drive-thru and not dropping my change on the ground this time.

Walking through Queen's Park - one of my favourite places in Invercargill.

Catching up with my friend, Erin who I hadn't seen in a couple of years.

Movies and dinner with my Mum.

I got back to Dunedin on Saturday.

It was great to spend some time with Cate, who is over from Perth on Sunday. We had lunch at the Meridian.

I managed to power up to Tonga Park after lunch and catch the last ten minutes of the match. It was a draw, 2 all against Balclutha. Better than a loss I guess and they are finally off the bottom of the table. And, I am stoked, the girls got their team jackets on the weekend and Donna ordered an extra just for me, the super supporter. I can't wait to wear it to the game this Sunday.

Hey there sports fans!

Just an update on a few things that have been happening. With cricket January being over my workmates decided I should support rugby league for the month of April. I had to pick one team to support. I couldn't decide, Jemma wanted me to pick the Sea Eagles, Greg wanted me to pick the Warriors (back in the day when I used to follow league, they were my two favourite teams, after much persuasion I decided to choose a different team. I went with the Roosters (In 1975, Jemma's mum's cousin scored the 60th best try in NRL history for the Roosters, it was impressive too). I have no idea where the Roosters are ranked, it was way more fun making up my own team - the Naylor Ninja Robots! (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=76183598383&ref=ts) A fake team is way more entertaining.

My latest hobby is football! A couple of months ago I got a Facebook invite from one of my teaching friends, inviting me to join a women's soccer team, I decided that I was fun too unco-ordinated for soccer and declined the offer, the last time I played soccer I ended up running up and down the field, almost kicking the ball and getting thoroughly grumpy.

Anyway, it turns out my workmate is playing for the same team so now I am super football supporter. We tried to come up with some chants but they need some work:

Cavy girls are very savy,
All the rest can go down the lavy!

You can't expect too much from a night at the Southern.

I even went out and bought sports tops and footy socks in team colours. Every Sunday, I go and watch the girls play football, so far they haven't won any games but they score one goal each match. I missed last week, I would have been kind of gutted if they did win and I wasn't there to see it, maybe this week will be their week.