Goal! Goal! Gooooooaaaal!

Total soccer weekend. Abbies team this season, the Blue Jets, has looked like it's struggling. No regular coach was offered and the alternative to having each set of parents volunteering to coach a week each was... well no team. So all the parents pitch in. They're a team of relative new comers too, I don't think any of them have played much soccer before. So right away they're behind the 8 ball and it's tough work, sometimes it doesn't look like their hearts are in it and I don't blamed them. On Thursday night it was up to Jo and I for the first time and it was hard work, as soon as the game started it began to pour with rain. I think our girls went into shock... I mean when it's raining mum tells us to get inside, don't get those clothes wet... we don't stay out here... The other team looked like they'd played in bad weather before and made quick work of our girls who walked around shivering and a bit stunned really. Now don't get me wrong, we have some good players, and every girl has given something to the team, but it appeared as though the odds were against them this year, a bunch of newbies without any consistent help, on the outer.


There's no ladder, scores aren't officially kept in division 3C, in mid-summer there's a tournament, 6 teams play off and 2 get into the final for medals. Our girls don't have much of a chance but we're not missing out on the action. Two games on Saturday, both against the same team due to two teams dropping out, the dreaded White team who have already beaten us earlier in the season. Some of the parents, especially me, are a bit annoyed that the opposition coach has kept his best player, the dreaded No.4, on for every minute with no sub to try to force the win. She circles back from the main play, cherry picks the lose ball and is deadly accurate in front of goal. We rotate all our girls evenly to give them a fair go. The Whites bring on the trash talk too... our girls fight but lose. History repeats, our girls go down 2-0.

The re-match is at 16:15 and our coach Chris, Sarah's Dad, puts a plan into action to shut down the oppositions star player, White No.4 will have no impact on the game this time around if we can help it. The girls from the Blue Jets play out of their skins, they demolish the White team 7-2, not so much trash talk now. Sarah is a wall at center defence, nothing gets past her, the two Nadia's dazzle us with fancy footwork and spirited running, Melissa has morphed into a sniper-like striker, Abbie is fearless and strips the ball from dazed opponents... where did these girls learn to play? The chant that our Jazz introduced to the team is sung with real feeling -

We're Blue,
We're White
We're Dyn-a-Mite!
We've got the fever!
We're hot!
We can't be Stopped!
Gooooo, Blue Jets!

Eight girls are grinning and there's a look of confidence we haven't seen before... is a Cinderella-story brewing?

Today, Sunday and it's warmer than yesterday. A game at mid-day and a ticket to the final is on offer for the winner. The Blue Jets are against the Greens who haven't won a game this weekend, beaten by the Reds twice the day before. It looks like an easy assignment but no one looks comfortable, parents who expected nothing are now just a little excited, much more stressed than the kids, can our girls do it? It's a hard won game, Green gives it everything, in the end it's our Blue Jets 1-0, kids and parents are over the moon. On the neighbouring field we see that the Whites have beaten the Reds (our rainy day conquerors) so we'll be meeting them in the final at 15:00... destiny beckons.

The air temp is actually pretty good, maybe around 25 degrees, but in the sun reflected off the dry and parched brown pitch it feels like 35 with a northerly wind off the desert. Everyone has slapped on the sunscreen, has plenty of water handy and has freezies and ice in a cooler. We worry about the goalies who are forced to actually wear the silver long-sleeved jerseys rather than tie them around their waists, it's too hot for long sleeves. Add to that the fact that in the final the halves will be a full 30 minutes each and they're playing on a much larger field than normal... it's hot work with only one on the bench. Our goalies had been penalised in an earlier match as the ref was a stickler for the rules, giving the opposition two free kicks in front of goal for our goalie touching the ball with her hands while inches outside the goal box... a rule that the girls didn't even know existed... the weekly field aren't even marked with a box... Still they saved the penalty both times and are now much wiser. The tournament play has been a real step up, are we proud that they made the final? Damn right we are. Do we want them to win it? What a stupid question.

The first half is tension packed, White No.4 circles the pack looking for easy pickings, Sarah shuts her down. Melissa, Nadia and Cassidy threaten the goal but can't convert. The ball is in our attacking half most of the time but the girls can't capitalise, will they pay the price? At half time the feeling is up beat, the team chant goes off like a rocket, the girls try to cool down, the parents call for paramedics, this is too tense.

At last the dead lock is broken, Nadia scores a goal and we go one up, all parents go berserk. We clearly have the better of the Whites but we can't put them away, they get a few chances at goal on break aways and No.4 looks the goods. Abbie is goalie for the second half, she stops a sure goal with a fantastic effort. On her kick out she finds an opposition player, it looks like a certain goal and our hearts sink... our Blue Jets recover and clear the ball, it comes back in and Abbie stops it again. Surely Abbie will have learnt from her mistake, she'll kick to a Blue shirt this time.. the kick is strong but she's mis-queued it a little [heck!], again the Whites pounce... this time it's in the back of the net, we're 1-1 with less than 10 minutes to go and it looks like we'll be into overtime. But our girls have something left, they know they can win now, they have some faith, they have roles and some understanding of where they need to be, where their friends will be when they need them. Down the field they drive, Cassidy is a tiny dynamo, Melissa gutsy, Nadia's footwork dazzling, Maddy has her game-face on. We watch, they run, they score! We spend the next 5 minutes saying 'only one more minute to go'... the Whites threaten again! The Blues shut them down. They keep coming, their parents urge them on too, everyones hearts are bleeding, everyone keeps it clean, no one 'goes postal', I don't know how.

The Blue Jets Win! From zeros to heroes. If you got this far, thanks for putting up with my bullshit. I'm stoked.Andy, out.

It's Raining Video

Man, it don't rain, it pours. I must have a lot of time on my hands (well until 2am anyway). I've cut together most of our clips since last fall and with Jo's excellent musical taste have put them to the Silversun Pickups awesome tune Lazy Eye. There's something for everyone in this one from Cam's pirate birthday party to skating and snow and our trip to the lake cottage.

Our Washington Video

I've finally put together an edit of our trip to Washington DC. The quality on YouTube isn't great and I'll put up a higher qual version shortly for those that care. For some reason YouTube has changed the widescreen format into 4x3 so forgive the slightly squished look, I'll try to fix it in the next day or so. [Updated] fixed the aspect ratio problem, it's now in widescreen so our heads aren't as skinny :-)We've had a fairly busy week, the kids are making sure that they have as many pool parties, sleep overs and play-dates that they can. Summer weather has cooled down some in the last few weeks and we've had mostly cloudy days with only patches of blue. Jo and I are finally organising the girls birthdays, very late but better than never, Abs party is shaping up nicely. I took Cam to see Transformers on the weekend, even his assessment was only 'good' rather than the normal 'awesome!' and I have to agree. Effects were great, story/script was wack, even for a cartoon/toy adaption.

Jo and I have bought new tennis racquets and my game improved slightly on Friday night, until the last match when clearly my racquet let me down [grin]. I'm a little sore and sorry after face/knee planting the fence while attempting a tough shot (Leyton Hewitt hustle-style, sans talent). We are off ten-pin bowling tonight courtesy of a free voucher that I won during an IBM social night. We can take another 12 people with us for 2 hours of bowling and snacks at Lucky Strike, it's a pretty cool place with bar service to the lanes and a DJ spinning tracks. We have our friends Mark and Sue, from South Africa, and Garry and Laura coming with all their kids so we'll have a good time for sure.

I am working on transitioning my work to some other IBM'ers here in preparation for us coming home, so a date is somewhere on the horizon, before Xmas for sure now. But we'll be making the most of our last few months here; hopefully one last Halloween for the kids, maybe one more road-trip and Kent and Aleyx are returning the favour by inviting us to their cottage on Lake Muskoka in August, maybe we'll do some more water skiing. Then we'll be looking forward to returning home to Aus for a second summer, save some water for us willya?

Andy, out.

Summer Holiday

In Australia summer holidays are usually a time for the beach, sun and surf. Sometimes we're lucky enough to have parents who own a beach house, or know someone who has one, or we even rent one for a week or two. We get tans, salt bleached blonde hair, drag sand into everything we own and spend the next month getting it out. Canadians have a similar summer pilgrimage, but there's no surf and mostly no sand, certainly no salt (except on your french fries). Once the warm weather hits and the days get long people like to head north into 'cottage country' for their summer break.If you're lucky, just like back home, your parents own a cottage and you free-load, or if you're like us you rent one. Cottage country is a big area but generally what you're looking for is a lake surrounded by dense pine forest populated by bears, moose and beaver. Of course, again just like back home, cottages have become very popular over the last 10 years, property values have soared and cottages are sprung up everywhere. Most lakes have lots of properties on them so we're hardly talking about a quiet lifestyle, it can get busy on the water I'm sure. But you are a lot closer to nature, even if the bears, moose and beavers like a quieter life and tend to stay away from the humans. The images I had in my head, mostly from movies, were pretty much on the money.

We left Oakville around 7:30am Monday last week and drove about 250 k's north to a little town called Burk's Falls and from there another 15 minutes to a work colleagues cottage on Lake Cecebe. Terry and his wife Doris have had the place for about 9 years so he bought at the right time. He rents it out through the summer months but also has a small attached unit for his family so I guess he can continue to make some use of weekends with his family even if it's rented out, it's a good deal. The cottage is not much to look at as you arrive down the lengthy gravel driveway, it's when you step inside and see the lake through the picture windows that you see what's it's all about. Terry's place is about 30 feet from the water, a little sandy beach to the left and a floating dock to the right where the jet boat is tethered. The view straight across the lake, actually a large, enclosed bay off the main lake, looks amazing and the water is only around 12 feet deep so it was really warm.We might have been in the boonies but we weren't without the mod-cons, satellite TV, gas-log fire, hot tub, pool table and heaps of stuff for the kids to play with, both inside and outside. By far the biggest hit were the two kayaks and the pedal boat. At any given point through the week the three kids could be found out on the water paddling around. Both Jo and I thought that they'd find the kayaks difficult but they all took to them really quickly, even Cam, and on the last day went about 1 km of shore (life jackets were mandatory). Terry was good enough to take us all out on the lake in his jet boat on the first day and the kids and I enjoyed hammering around in his 'biscuit' being towed behind the boat at about 40 knots. On the way we saw a lot of the lake and spied how the rich people live, some with floating 'car-ports' for their float planes (sheesh!). I don't know why you'd need a boat house with room for four boats, like a floating four car garage. Clearly I don't have the imagination or the cash to answer that one.

The weather was mostly grey to start each day but after 2pm it would clear up and give us some sunshine. It certainly wasn't what we were expecting as our summer so far as been hot and often short on clouds. But it wasn't too hot either and that made things more comfortable than it might have been. Wednesday was our only really rainy day and we spent a lot of time indoors playing games and finishing some Tomb Raider levels on the 360. We made our way into the local town of Magnetawan (say that 10 times fast) and checked out the lock that allows boats to travel between Lake Cecebe and the next lake down stream. Most lakes in Ontario are actually connected by streams or rivers, they're really more like just wider parts to a long river, so it's possible in some cases to travel by boat from lake to lake through locks all the way into Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron. The towns up there are all pretty small and I think rely almost completely on tourism. Most of them were booming earlier last century with the lumber trade (I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok) but now they're small and many shops are empty as people have moved on, a little sad really.

On Thursday we had some friends, the Emersons, Kent, Aleyx, Melanie and Jacquie (Abs closest friend here), coming up from TO to join us for a few nights but since they weren't due until later in the day we set out for Algonquin Provincial Park, the largest in Ontario, for a day trip and some hiking. Algonquin is the quintessential Canadian great ourdoors, populated with moose, bears and beaver. Sadly the wildlife we saw was limited to mosquitos and a few chipmunks but we did stay pretty close to the main road and the delights of the park need dedication, canoes, tents and serious camping. In any event it's a pretty place but the mossies turned us off a bit so we headed back on our 1 hour return trip to the cottage to receive our guests and crack the first of many beers and caesars. For the unitiated, and that means everyone except Canadians, a caesar is similar to a pre-mixed bloody mary. However while it is made with vodka and spices the tomato juice is substituted for Clamato juice. Clamato juice is tomato juice mixed with clam juice.... I'm not having you on. In fact Jo had until recently just thought that it was a brand name and had being buying/drinking it as a type of V8 juice. I can confirm that despite how awful this combination might sound the actual taste is great and if I hadn't mentioned it you'd have no idea. Like clam chowder it's slightly sweet, which works with tomato juice anyway. Jo was herself put off when she learned of the Clamatos true origin, but she got over it pretty quickly :-).On Friday I had booked a powerboat and we planned to hit the lake and tow around the biscuit so the kids could have some fun. I got the third-degree from the local marina owner on staying out of shallow water (I mentioned that the whole bay wasn't more than 12 feet deep right?) and to mind the rocks. We took it easy for a while when passing through the tighter sections as the warning bouys weren't completely obvious to us (ie. which side of them to stay on). But after an hour or so we pretty much knew where we could go in safety and started hammering around at a decent clip. Kent has a bit of water skiing experience in his past and he suggested that we give it a go, the boat came with a rope and skis so we had everything we needed, now we had an experienced skipper to drive the boat and were in business. I took the first try and after maybe 6-7 attempts got up on my skis and we went for a cruise around the lake. I hit the deck pretty hard on one attempt after I got out very wide on a turn, slingshoted and started to get up a lot of speed. After that I handed over to Jo who gave it a go but couldn't get up sadly. Later in the day we went out again and I had about 5-6 more runs, getting up first time for every one of them, it's like riding a bike. Kent drove straight for the beach and turned hard, the object being for me to sling shot, let go of the rope and free ski into the beach. I didn't get quite enough speed but my last runs had me travelling maybe 20 meters or so without the boat, pretty fun stuff. Kent and Aleyx often get a cottage later in the season and might give us an invite for a weekend so maybe we'll get to try skiing again soon. Mind you I was sore across the shoulders for the next two days, man it was harsh on my old bod :-).

That's pretty much it, now I'm back at work, it's 40 degrees outside and Jo has taken the girls to Jacquies house for a swim in their pool. Summer rolls on.

Andy, out.