Mini Socceroos

Abs and Cam have had their first soccer games of the season and I can confidently say that a) they look awesome in their kits and b) they both showed some decent skills (especially for kids with no prior experience).Cam's games are on Saturday morning and the first team he and his mates played obviously had a season already under their belts. One of the opposition 5-yo's was heard to say 'we're gunna smoke you guys' just before the commencement of hostilities, nice trash talk for a little leaguer. Cam displayed plenty of determination and some skill, he certainly isn't afraid to get in amongst it which is awesome considering he's not played any competitive sport before. At one point he was on with two fairly timid team mates (they play 4 a side, 3 plus a goalie) and while he was head down and totally in the fray his buddies were distinctly MIA. As he battled with the 3 opponents we clearly heard him yell out 'so I guess I'll do this by myself then guys!', no word of a lie.

He had a great time and we enjoyed sitting on the sloping sideline and cheering the mighty 'sky blues' on. Fact is though that they got thumped, around 9-3, which considering that none of his team looked like they had played before and the opposition was clearly superior (ie. they consistently passed to each other) was a good result. Cam also made some good saves while 'in net' as goalie, however it's clear that 5-yo's place more credence in style while throwing ones self to the ground than actually stopping the ball, if there were points for style he would have earned a solid 8 or 9, but it did result in a goal or two to the 'smokers'. Cam did a fair bit of passing himself which was great to see, I guess having older sisters helps you to develop sharing skills :-).

Jo took Ab's to her match, which are nicely timed always at 19:00 on Thursday evenings. Since I haven't seen her form I can't say too much but Jo was pretty pleased with the way she got on with it. Both the kids haven't played a team sport before, Ab's previous experience is really the 4+ years of ballet before coming over here. Hopefully they will have a good summer and enjoy themselves. Speaking of which it's 38 degrees today (that's a humidex temp, like with wind-chill it's a 'feels like' temp taking the humidity into account). So summer is here and the kids are clamoring for the pool to be set up in the back yard.

Had an interesting conversation today with our landlord. He's apparently got someone who wants to rent our house for about 50% more than we pay and is prepared to sign a 2 year lease. Now the way that rentals work over here is that usually you sign a 12 month lease and then after that it goes to 'month-to-month'. This means that if we want to move out we have to give 60 days notice and if the landlord wants to increase the rent (CPI only) or wants to move back into the house himself, he has to give us 60 days notice. Now apparently since he doesn't plan to move back in himself he can't simply give us 60 days notice and put someone else in who's willing to pay more, so that's a good thing. I suspect that he's trying to get more money out of us, so when he drops around tonight we'll have a little chat about our rights. Hopefully all goes well.

Andy, out.