As you could guess, given my physique, sport was not my forte at school.  When I was about 8, I was put on a course of medication which increased my appetite and I’ve just never got my figure back (as if I’d ever look like a 7 year old again).  So from that point on my life was one of being picked last for the cricket team in Primary School and being rather forgetful when it came to bringing my sports uniform or swimmers during high school.

My one memory of primary school sport was getting hit in the neck with a cricket ball.  Usually I’d stand fairly far back when fielding and hope to avoid having to do anything.  Catching and throwing was not my strong point.  Although in terms of my sporting skills it was neck and neck with running and swimming.  I could whack the ball pretty well for t-ball on occasion, so I’m not a complete loss.  But I got hit with the ball twice, the first time I collapsed in shock.  The second time I managed to cup my arms, and be the only one to catch one of the guys that were good at sport out.  In retrospect if they were so good, I half wonder if it was deliberate…  who knows.  In year 7 I was almost at risk of enjoying archery, but got annoyed that the girl I was sharing a target with kept missing, but then took my arrow from the target, leaving me to run up the oval to retrieve hers.  Cow.

In year 11 I changed schools and thought I’d give the team sport thing a go again.  Unlike most Australian girls, I have a passionate hate for netball.  Most of the girls who where good at it were b!tches and/or extremely aggressive.  By then I’d given up on swimming as I hated my body shape (although I hear this is common amongst most teenage girls regardless of size).  I also discovered that I can not get a volleyball to go in the right direction and was hopeless at all forms of track and field sports (including ones that required a bit more weight and strength).  One sport I had enjoyed was hockey.  And much to my mother’s horror I signed up for the team, which also meant 7am winter training sessions and being driven to my game anywhere from St Hilda’s to our home field in Chermside on a Saturday morning.  I often reminded her that I had wanted to do rowing, which had 5am training sessions, which seemed to be a good tactic.

At this school I also got over the not wanting to swim thing and just enjoyed it for the good work out it is, and also it meant I got to do snorkelling lessons.  AND in year 12 we got to actually do some fun stuff like self-defence lessons and finally, for the first time ever tennis.  My mother had forced me to do tennis since I was 8.  I sucked at it, but she persisted as she thought it was quite a social sport and you only needed one other person to play rather than a whole team.  Possibly, if I had played more team sports as a child I would be less individualistic, but that’s neither here nor there.  I had tried out for the tennis team at my first high school only to find that there was only one team, not one for each year level, and that it was already filled with fanatics who played every day and could serve faster than I could see.  It was no place for intermediate players with low fitness levels like me.  However, when it was played with every one in my class in year 12, I could kick the butts of most girls including the ones who were actually quite good at sports, based on skill alone.  It was a minor victory until I only scored a B.  I suspect my teacher may have just assigned marks on some sort of preconceived idea of how good we were at sports or it was like the time that I went from a D to an A in Word Processing because our teacher actually had no idea who any one was and just seemed to randomly choose marks and comments.

Since I left school I’ve dabbled from time to time in other sports.  I tried to go to the guy and aerobics classes at uni, and my Christian group had Friday arvo sports.  Friday arvo sports, however, mostly consisted of the guys playing touch and me and the other girls gossiping on the sidelines.  I think I played once, but didn’t enjoy it.  I also played tennis on occasion with one of my best friends, but again shied away when it came to Christian camps etc as it was mostly boys playing.  Their idea of a game was hitting the ball as hard as possible with no regards for it being in or out.  I think points were awarded on how many balls got stuck in the fence.

When I went to Japan I also had the opportunity to try kendo, a sport which I can’t find practiced in Australia, and I have been told may be illegal as the point of it is to strike your opponent on the head with a big stick and fend them off with a small wooden sword.  It was fun!

Since then I have finally found two activities which I enjoy – yoga and golf.  (I've also learned that watching Union is fun, but that's a whole different topic).  Yoga is awesome in that it is energising and relaxing at the same time.  There is none of the aggression and competitiveness of the sort of sport you learn at school.  If I had know sports could be like that at a younger age, I would have stuck with it and I may have even been a happier person.  Golf I got into a few years back as I figured it was pretty much compulsory being in finance.  So I took a few lessons and found that it was rather therapeutic trying to hit that little white ball as far as it will go.  I wasn’t too good initially, but I have improved after about 3 years of play.  There are times when my faith has not been strong, usually after episodes of seeing that 10 year olds can out-drive me, but I’ve stuck with it for the most part.  I also enjoy the fact that I can do something active with my boyfriend without forcing him to go for long walks on the beach or through national parks.

But I guess this is a very lengthy way of saying that school sports suck.  I don’t know why we aren’t exposed to games that are social, popular with adults and actually enjoyable from a young age.  I have a sneaking suspicion that most sports teachers are highly fit and highly competitive and have never struggled to enjoy sports, but that’s far from the majority of the population.  And they are disenfranchising the vast majority of students from forming good, lifelong habits of engaging in physical activities which they enjoy.  I’ve been appalled to learn in recent years that sport is not compulsory in all schools any more – at all my schools there were a minimum of 2 PE lessons a week and after year 8 we could choose to do HPE (health and physical education) as an elective and get an extra 4 lessons of it per week.  I hated it but it kept me fit.  If I’d had a choice, I wouldn’t have done it at all.  Most kids wouldn’t because most school sports are hard, unfair and embarrassing to all but the fittest.  I am kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to do fun stuff like golf or yoga at school, but I’ve found them now and one day I may even do them often enough to have an average level of fitness.

The Olympics haven’t even started and I’ve decided they are a travesty that should be rejected by any sensible Australian.  That’s a big call as it took several hours of viewing the 2020 Summit before coming to that pre-conceived idea.

About two weeks ago I was growing tired of hearing about the pre-games lead up.  The person most responsible for this would be Nick D’Arcy, who unfortunately is not known for his amazing swimming talent, but his ability to be involved in a criminal matter outside of his vocation.  I think he’s mis-judged his forte.  He’s probably well suited to playing AFL.  Initially I was quite dismissive of calls to ban him from the games, I thought it was just another case of the media hysterics taking over.  After all, going to the Olympics is a big deal for a young athlete, and at best they will have the opportunity to go two or three times.  Image how much you would want to do something you’ve trained your whole life for, if you only get the opportunity to do it twice.  There’s no way you would back down.  For this reason I was initially sympathetic towards D’Arcy’s case, however then I saw the pictures of the face of his victim.  If this guy gets to go to the games, I will be sorely disappointed.  As brilliant as he may be at swimming, as much as he may be our best chance to win gold, he does not deserve to represent Australia if he behaves like that out of the pool.  And the once or twice in a lifetime argument was also the reason why I was only half-heartedly in support of a general boycott of the games by Australia.

However, now I’ve also decided to jump on the bandwagon and personally boycott the games.  I won't say every one should, but it's my little one-woman protest.  Not just not going there, which I wouldn’t anyway, but the TV broadcasts and also any sponsored products.  I realised the extent of this today as I went to get Band-Aid’s for my aching feet (new shoes), as the cheaper brand had the five Olympic rings on it’s packaging.  I shall also have to be careful about my breakfast cereal and any other food which may be marketed to children.

My reason for this has nothing to do with Tibet (which I think is an issue strategically stirred up by Tibetans at this time by people who probably aren't associated with the Dali Lama and may be exaggerating for their own end), or even China’s human rights record, which is appalling I agree.  But it’s because even the torch relay has become a huge display of Chinese Nationalism of the worst kind.  And I don’t agree with militant, authoritarian, non-representative governments flexing their muscles like this – albeit social and political muscle for the most part.  With the exception of the security thugs that we weren't going to let in the country, but spinelessly caved into in the end.  I’d rather see a display of Iraqi or even Zimbabwean nationalism…  …well maybe not Zimbabwe but you get my drift.  I was actually quite angered by the fact that the day after a pro-Tibet rally in Sydney that an extremely large group of Chinese students gathered in support of China.  One memorable comment from one of the spokes people was, “See how many people are here, there are so many more of us so obviously China has more support.”  Perhaps he was relying on the fact that we didn’t notice that there were no non-Chinese faces at the pro-China rally.  There were many at the pro-Tibet rally, even if they were mostly the sorts with political persuasions I make it my mission to disagree with.  The comments were also a rather lengthy way of saying “Might is Right.”  And as much as most people would think some one right-wing like me would agree with that, I also have this Libertarian bent which says you shouldn’t make any one do anything they don’t want to.  Including ceding sovereignty to an authoritarian, unelected dictatorship like China.  If might is right then the US would never be wrong, we should treat Iran (with their nukes) as a model middle-eastern country and the UK should have given into the IRA, regardless of the fact that Northern Ireland voted, by referendum, to remain part of the UK.  Flawless logic.

Also in a time when one in eight students in some Sydney Universities are from China, and that does not include ABC students, it’s hardly going to be difficult to organise a great big rally.

The pro-China rent-a-crowd that were along the path of the torch in Australia was a further disappointment and also further re-enforcement that to the Chinese, the Olympics are not just the Olympics, they are going to be a sickening grand show of nationalism and probably interpreted as some sort of symbol of the superiority of the country.  All I can hope for is that the whole Chinese team, not just the swimmers, test positive to doping and never gets invited to another Olympic games.  (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/drugs/stories/top10.html see number 6).

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Usually I will tolerate cricket and those who insist on following it all summer long, but this year, mention the cricket and I almost want to scream.  Not just because the game would be just as interesting if we were watching the field with no one on it, but the way it’s crept into the news EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY THIS WEEK.

Cricketers sledge each other, it happens.  They even say some stuff that most of us wouldn’t dream of saying or ever deem appropriate.  This Indian dude who’s called our captain a monkey is out of line.  I’ve also since been told by one of my friend’s mother’s (who is Indian) that calling some one a monkey is significantly more insulting than in English (apparently our equivalent is like calling some one the n-word racial slur).  But the treats to not play because this guy’s got caught out – well it happens.  To be honest I’m over it.  What I think would be a preferable solution would be that we just won’t play India again at all if they’re going to politic like this.  There are heaps of other cricket playing nations in the world.  One or two of them have even beaten us once or twice (and seem to keep harping on about it).  And to be honest, it would definitely be no loss to most of us, especially those that sit at home all day drinking beer and watching the game.  They may even go out and enjoy the summer sun (once it comes out).

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I take no responsibility if you like my tips and the horses don’t win.  But good luck to all for the cup.

AJ’s trifecta: - Master O’Reilley, Mahler, Douro Valley.

AJ’s two way tips:- Master O’Reilley (favourite), Purple Moon (Damien Oliver is jockey and good rating) , Sirmione (Bart Cumming’s horse and good recent form in this class) and Mahler (UK horse that has won in the UK over similar distances).

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I'm ashamed to say it, I have given into the craze and become totall addicted to Texas Hold 'Em.  In the last 24 hours alone I have lost $1000 and that's just on the micro stakes.

Fortunately thanks to the wonders of Poker Room, which R referred me to, I can do this at no more expense than I would if it were monopoly money.  Otherwise I'd be in big trouble.

The set up is rather amusing as each player is given an online persona from one of ten.  There are only three women - I've given them names.  There's Doris the old granny with the tartan handbag on the table.  She is obviously a bossy old granny having no manners like that.  There is Raquel, who has awful short wavy blonde hair and her blue dress is way too low cut.  Obviously she just got a divorce and a tit job.  Finally there is a dark haired lady in red whose back is to the screen, I'm yet to give her a name as she's my film noir type seductress.  Perhaps Tessa.

There are seven guys as well.  The first one I was is a big fat guy with a cigar and a hawaiian shirt - Felix.  Next to him is a guy in an okay suit with his tie loose and jacket off, he's a hard worker and probably trying to unwinde before he goes home to a wife, crying baby and a mortgage.  I think I call him Ross.  He's next to tracky dack Dave.    Between Doris and Raquel is a Dark guy in a vest, Jason seems appropriate for some reason.  Next arround the table is a tuxedo-ed dark haired man who probably fancies himself to be James Bond but I will call Sean.  There are then two men with their backs to the players, one is a farmer called Jack and the other is probably a cop so Robert will do.

As you can probably tell, I sit a few hands out and invent back stories.

As long as I can keep my head a the races tomorrow, because I may just use real money when I go $2 each way on my favourite.

Seeing as I'm in the habit of showing off some of my recent purchases...

Seeing as we have a World Cup to win and all. 

Schedule here.

I picked up Vogue last night which includes a style guide for the races.  Fortunately it urges elegance over the skimpy gear you usually see track-side. 

It also taught me that whilst you can purchase a $750 fascinator from Myer, it's ugly.

The guide is a keeper for me as it explains lots of racing terms, but this I had to repeat:

Track Work: The training horses do every morning in the lead-up ot the races.  Take a leaf out of the book of equine fillies and get to the race track ready.  Always break in your shoes to ensur they will last longer than five minutes and make sure you practice walking on grass.

Chariots: The trots, kind of like horseracing but with a buggy attached and zero glamour.  It's best to avoid being tempted to bet on the chariots or greyhounds when horse races are over.

Mounting Yard: Whatever you are thinking, stop!  Horse parade in numerical order in this yard and punters gather around the outside to view the condition of the horses before they race.

And to think, Vogue usually just makes me wish I was earning a zillion more dollars rather than teach me something

Onya Broncos!!!!!!!!!!

... and in other news George Smith will never be the same again!

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,,20444377-23217,00.html

I know I resolved to not talk about politics, but I'm watching sports tonight!  I can't help it.

You know when you think about it, politicians are constantly saying the wrong thing in the press, caught saying stuff at the wrong time or before they've gone through the process or just can't stick to the script.

Sports people can.

Have you noticed that almost every sports interview is the same?  Some guy pretending he can't string a sentance together muttering something incomprehensible or totally gramatically incorrect about team work and playing the field and doing their best.  Occassionally they'll talk about how emotional an experience was.

To be perfectly honest, polticians could take a leaf out of their books.

I think the problem is sports people have built up an image of not being too articulate or smart (and I mean smart not intelligent, there are some very intelligent sports people out there).  Where as our nations "leaders" have built up an image of being smart and sumg and knowing what's best.

Think about it: Ms PM what were you thinking when you made this decision?

Sports answer: Well I was just supporting the team, doing my best and at the end of the day it was a victory for the other team.

Political Answer: Well all this comes from the underhanded agenda of the opposing party/opposing faction/press etc.  We resarched this and had the best advice and at the end of the day some times we have to play hardball with the public.

Which one did you like better?
Now if we could just get every one in Canberra looking buff instead of polished, I'd actually consider running for office when I get bored with finance.

NZ 34 - OZ 27

Actually my secret is that I didn't see the game as I've been sick and didn't wake up until Andrew texted me...

Yet again Australia wins the Rugby

Australia - 20 South Africa - 18

Close, but well played

New Zealand - 13  Australia - 9

How ashamed am I?  Fortunately I had a dubious bet with a buddy in NZ going that I was more than prepared to lose

I just got an email from one of Brisbane's less reputable night clubs with the chance to win free tickets to an even for the most creative answer to the question, "Which team will win the Bledisloe Cup and why?"  I thought I'd throw this one open to discussion.

Personally I think Australia will win but that's for no other reason than blind patriotism.  And the not so blind observation that Aussie rugby guys are definitely prettier

AUSTRALIA WON 49 - 0

STICK THAT IN YOUR SOUTH AFRICAN PIPE AND SMOKE IT!!!