Finals Season
09 November 2010
The end of Winter and the start of Spring brings the AFL football finals here and also the local competition season for bodybuilding. We have a few friends and acquaintances from the gym who were competing in bodybuilding this year so we went to two of the local shows. The first was the CCI in Bendigo at the beginning of August where Ali, who is trained by our friend Darren, came second in her figure division.
My trainer Al was competing three weekends in a row, in Darwin, in the state competition and in the national competition in Sydney. We saw him compete in the state competition where he won his division as did his fianceé Ellena in figure. Phil Heath was the guest poser, and we were lucky enough to meet him at the gym a few days before. It was only two weeks since he had placed second at the Olympia in Las Vegas.
The other sporting finals we went to were in football. Our friend Daniel asked us to come along to the final of the college football competition at the University of Melbourne. Jay might have been thinking of the kind of spectacle we saw at the Rose Bowl, but I knew better.
The game was played on a Sunday afternoon on the University oval which had obviously had a lot of use through the Winter as it had the texture of a freshly ploughed field. Newman College easily defeated St Hilda’s which pleased Daniel and his college friends. The whole event had changed very little since I last went to it twenty years ago.
The condition of the ground was a lot better for the Grand Final of the AFL football competition at the MCG. We had good seats for the game which was one of the most exciting finals for years as it ended in a draw in front of a completely full house of over 100,000. Instead of extra time, the AFL rules call for the game to be replayed the following Saturday. This was the first time this had happened since 1977. I wasn’t able to attend the replay as I was attending the Australian Society of Anaesthetists conference where I had to present a workshop on ultrasound-guided nerve blocks.
Our other sporting activity has been with the rowing club. We both qualified as “Boat Race Officials (level 1)” as the club has an obligation to provide officials at regattas through the rowing season. We have been irregularly attending rowing sessions, though I am committed once again to rowing in the Head of the Yarra in November. This time I am with a combined crew from our club and Glebe Rowing Club in Sydney. We will row together for the first time at the regatta, so the practice will be minimal.
The rowing club held a fund-raising trivia night which we agreed to help with. Our role turned out to be accompanying Brian the MC (seen here as Lady Gaga). The sequined tights were a one-off costume for the event which we were able to keep for the next time we need to dress as mirror balls.
Our other social function was the first birthday party for Tuong and Simon’s twins. They had also just moved house so it was combined with a housewarming. The boys were surprisingly interested in their cake, but not really up to blowing out candles just yet.
In news at home, we finished putting together a sideboard to match the cabinets in the kitchen. It was mostly from Ikea, but the benchtop was a custom size and the plinth reflected my very basic carpentry skills. Little else has changed in the house as we still can’t isolate the last small leak from the deck.
My friend Jen decided to pursue the medical practice she has always wanted to, and joined a rural general practice about an hour and a half from Melbourne. We went to visit her and see her new house in Woodend. I remembered the town mainly for the area nearby where we were required to go camping as 12 year olds at school. It seems a lot more pleasant now. Her new house is spacious and close to the shops.
Our friends Sarah and David have also bought a house out of Melbourne. Theirs is a holiday house at The Gurdies which is an hour from Melbourne. We stayed for the weekend and spent the time walking in the forest nearby and playing with their three kids. It turns out that the rules of chasey have not changed. We have had a wet spring so the forest was very lush and the garden at David’s and Sarah’s house had an amazing display of grevilleas, proteas, callistemons, lavender and other hardy flowering plants.
Christmas will be here soon and we are making our plans to spend it with Jay’s parents and his sister Denise, but whether it will be somewhere cold or warm is still undecided. The year has gone by extremely quickly.
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My trainer Al was competing three weekends in a row, in Darwin, in the state competition and in the national competition in Sydney. We saw him compete in the state competition where he won his division as did his fianceé Ellena in figure. Phil Heath was the guest poser, and we were lucky enough to meet him at the gym a few days before. It was only two weeks since he had placed second at the Olympia in Las Vegas.
The other sporting finals we went to were in football. Our friend Daniel asked us to come along to the final of the college football competition at the University of Melbourne. Jay might have been thinking of the kind of spectacle we saw at the Rose Bowl, but I knew better.
The game was played on a Sunday afternoon on the University oval which had obviously had a lot of use through the Winter as it had the texture of a freshly ploughed field. Newman College easily defeated St Hilda’s which pleased Daniel and his college friends. The whole event had changed very little since I last went to it twenty years ago.
The condition of the ground was a lot better for the Grand Final of the AFL football competition at the MCG. We had good seats for the game which was one of the most exciting finals for years as it ended in a draw in front of a completely full house of over 100,000. Instead of extra time, the AFL rules call for the game to be replayed the following Saturday. This was the first time this had happened since 1977. I wasn’t able to attend the replay as I was attending the Australian Society of Anaesthetists conference where I had to present a workshop on ultrasound-guided nerve blocks.
Our other sporting activity has been with the rowing club. We both qualified as “Boat Race Officials (level 1)” as the club has an obligation to provide officials at regattas through the rowing season. We have been irregularly attending rowing sessions, though I am committed once again to rowing in the Head of the Yarra in November. This time I am with a combined crew from our club and Glebe Rowing Club in Sydney. We will row together for the first time at the regatta, so the practice will be minimal.
The rowing club held a fund-raising trivia night which we agreed to help with. Our role turned out to be accompanying Brian the MC (seen here as Lady Gaga). The sequined tights were a one-off costume for the event which we were able to keep for the next time we need to dress as mirror balls.
Our other social function was the first birthday party for Tuong and Simon’s twins. They had also just moved house so it was combined with a housewarming. The boys were surprisingly interested in their cake, but not really up to blowing out candles just yet.
In news at home, we finished putting together a sideboard to match the cabinets in the kitchen. It was mostly from Ikea, but the benchtop was a custom size and the plinth reflected my very basic carpentry skills. Little else has changed in the house as we still can’t isolate the last small leak from the deck.
My friend Jen decided to pursue the medical practice she has always wanted to, and joined a rural general practice about an hour and a half from Melbourne. We went to visit her and see her new house in Woodend. I remembered the town mainly for the area nearby where we were required to go camping as 12 year olds at school. It seems a lot more pleasant now. Her new house is spacious and close to the shops.
Our friends Sarah and David have also bought a house out of Melbourne. Theirs is a holiday house at The Gurdies which is an hour from Melbourne. We stayed for the weekend and spent the time walking in the forest nearby and playing with their three kids. It turns out that the rules of chasey have not changed. We have had a wet spring so the forest was very lush and the garden at David’s and Sarah’s house had an amazing display of grevilleas, proteas, callistemons, lavender and other hardy flowering plants.
Christmas will be here soon and we are making our plans to spend it with Jay’s parents and his sister Denise, but whether it will be somewhere cold or warm is still undecided. The year has gone by extremely quickly.
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