The first rule about Fight Club is....
Ok, so I'm breaking all the rules! This weekend I headed north of Perth to Moore River with a great group of 25 men from church. It was the Fight Club (church mens ministry) weekend away: time to hang out, chat, bond, eat meat, and have fun. I was responsible for buying the food (ahem, meat) for the weekend so got 100 sausages, 40 steaks et al en route to McDonalds where the weekend began. On Friday night we had a good chat led by Rory (our pastor) about being faithful as young Christian men - something increasingly counter-cultural in all senses I think. We then headed to the beach for some wrestling. The ring was drawn in the sand, and two guys were sent in to scrap it out. Once the champion had prevailed he did not have an instant to recover before a new challenger was at him - very amusing. On my turn in the pit I prevailed over two guys before taking a big hit from an eager challenger. I was concussed so decided to sit out the rest of the fighting, a physcial game of British bulldog, and a night swim in the sea. After everyone got back we stayed up very very late watching Arrested Development, and Braveheart. A hearty evening of good chats and relaxing banter.
On Saturday we headed to the sand dunes for some sand-boarding. It was quite a cold day, and raining heavily. Still, we spent several hours boarding down dunes, running back up, and generally having a good time. I also tried my hand at being towed behind a 4x4 on a rope - kinda like wakeboarding, though I struggled to get a hold of that one. After this, I went for a quick surf with Joel. It was amazing to drive in his 4x4 onto a windswept beach with no one else to be seen and hop into the water straight from the car (almost). The surfing wasn't great, & I took another knock to the head from my surfboard. Amazingly, just before this happened a dolphin breached the water about 2 metres away from me. It gave me such a surprise as it came out the water that I jumped off my surfboard - I then got nailed by a bomb, & got the surfboard to the head. Needless to say at that point it was time to call it a day.
After a big meat dinner a few of us headed to a random Inn in the middle of a national park, which feld like it was about 99 miles from any civilisation. We were hoping to catch Australia v Wales (rugby union) on the big screen, and were not disappointed when the barman switched channels for us. Good beer and hot potato wedges sustained a very good evening with friends. I will miss nights such as these. We then returned to College where we watched South Africa trounce the England 'C team' in a disappointing game. A few of my South African friends enjoyed the victory at the expense of myself and Ben (the other exchange student from Leicester) - richly deserved on their part, as the England rugby on show was fairly (actually, very) rubbish, and South Africa seem to be on the right track for the World Cup. I hope Ashton can turn things round a little before 14.9.07 when I will be watching the teams play again in Paris at the Rugby World Cup, nevermind before the second Test next weekend. Unfortunately, I've got no photos to share with you. Off to church now. Bye!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Australian Footy
I've just got back from playing AFL (Australian Football League aka aussie-rules, or footy) for college. It was quite good fun, though we got fairly well thumped. by 40 points. I really enjoyed it however - fun to learn a sport in a competitive arena (these guys took it fairly seriously) & I really enjoyed wearing a styley 'vest-shirt'!!
So, I thought I should eductae you on a central tenet of Australian 'culture' (I use that term lightly!). Footy is the most popular sport in Australia - like our football. As the sport of the masses, it is played by bogans (chavs) who sometimes get themselves in a little trouble, as do many of our footballers.
Thus, the star captain (Ben Cousines - see above, with the ball) of the West Coast Eagles (Perth team - winners of grand final last year eg Man Utd) has a crack addiction that was recently exposed. Now that isn't too good for a role model so he's been in rehab in America, & will soon be playing again. There are also a fair few fights in AFL games - the team we were playing thought this was a good idea too, & got a little fired up. Luckily it didn't boil over too much.
The basic rules are that you can't run more than 15m without bouncing the ball, you can't throw it to your team mates but have to 'handpass' it, & if you kick it more than 20m & your team mate catches it directly, that is a 'mark' & he has a few seconds to compose himself & play on. Catching a 'mark' near the goal kicking area is vital if you are to score goals.
Pitch: a huge 'oval' - a football/rugby pitch easiy fits in with space at the sides and end. So marking is man on man - I played in the half back flank (see diagram) .
Scoring: you just gotta kick it between the posts, as high as you like. Between the middle (taller) posts gets you 6 points (a 'goal') & in between the (shorter) outside posts gets 1 'point'.
Tactics: in defence the idea is to disrupt the flow of the attack, hassle them, & stop them from getting marks, then start an attack. Up front the guys are trying to keep the ball moving & get a mark in goal kicking distance.
Apart from that it is a free for all brawl with bodies, limbs, tackles, boots flying in every direction. There are so few rules governing the breakdown (as far as I can make out! I may have just ignored them) unlike, say rugby, that it really can get messy in there - anything goes.
I haven't been to see a live match yet, though I've seen a few on tv, but plan to before I come back. In other news, last night I went on 'the wonders of the east' tour - arranged by my friend Simon, where he shows friends what he considers to be the best sights of Perth. We had some good banter, & it was cool to hang out. In the car, we realised we were from 5 different continents: Me (Europe), Simon (Australia), Sara (US), Eugene (Singapore), Pat (South Africa). Also been working on essays, 3 deadlines this week. Only surfed once in 3 or 4 weeks, so will hopefully get going again once these assignments are done. Ciao.
So, I thought I should eductae you on a central tenet of Australian 'culture' (I use that term lightly!). Footy is the most popular sport in Australia - like our football. As the sport of the masses, it is played by bogans (chavs) who sometimes get themselves in a little trouble, as do many of our footballers.
Thus, the star captain (Ben Cousines - see above, with the ball) of the West Coast Eagles (Perth team - winners of grand final last year eg Man Utd) has a crack addiction that was recently exposed. Now that isn't too good for a role model so he's been in rehab in America, & will soon be playing again. There are also a fair few fights in AFL games - the team we were playing thought this was a good idea too, & got a little fired up. Luckily it didn't boil over too much.
The basic rules are that you can't run more than 15m without bouncing the ball, you can't throw it to your team mates but have to 'handpass' it, & if you kick it more than 20m & your team mate catches it directly, that is a 'mark' & he has a few seconds to compose himself & play on. Catching a 'mark' near the goal kicking area is vital if you are to score goals.
Pitch: a huge 'oval' - a football/rugby pitch easiy fits in with space at the sides and end. So marking is man on man - I played in the half back flank (see diagram) .
Scoring: you just gotta kick it between the posts, as high as you like. Between the middle (taller) posts gets you 6 points (a 'goal') & in between the (shorter) outside posts gets 1 'point'.
Tactics: in defence the idea is to disrupt the flow of the attack, hassle them, & stop them from getting marks, then start an attack. Up front the guys are trying to keep the ball moving & get a mark in goal kicking distance.
Apart from that it is a free for all brawl with bodies, limbs, tackles, boots flying in every direction. There are so few rules governing the breakdown (as far as I can make out! I may have just ignored them) unlike, say rugby, that it really can get messy in there - anything goes.
I haven't been to see a live match yet, though I've seen a few on tv, but plan to before I come back. In other news, last night I went on 'the wonders of the east' tour - arranged by my friend Simon, where he shows friends what he considers to be the best sights of Perth. We had some good banter, & it was cool to hang out. In the car, we realised we were from 5 different continents: Me (Europe), Simon (Australia), Sara (US), Eugene (Singapore), Pat (South Africa). Also been working on essays, 3 deadlines this week. Only surfed once in 3 or 4 weeks, so will hopefully get going again once these assignments are done. Ciao.
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