The very first day I arrived in Oz I saw the football team I would be playing for, playing their last game of the season and it was to be 6 long months til I was to grace the hallowed fields of the northern beaches making my debut for the mighty manly vale fc. After 20 odd games and finishing third in the league we went into "Finals".
In Australia most sports finish the season then have the top 4 or top 8 go into a finals system 1st playing 4th and 2nd playing 3rd in this case. So we went into our semi final last Saturday confident of making the Grand Final (or GF to those in the know) playing against a team full of "Poms" it was like being back home. We clawed back from 1-zip down at halftime to be level 1-1 after about an hour. We gave their goal an onslaught that could have been compared with the battering at helms deep, chance after chance went begging. It was down to penalties.
After the penalty competition we'd had at training on the Tuesday before hand, where Ben, Phil & Myself had been the most consistent penalty takers you would have thought we would have started off....well our gaffer & captain, best mates Pete & Gav decided they'd get things going and both missed. One was as worse a penalty as David Batty's in France 98 & the other clipped the outside of the post. I had gone to get the match ball from behind the far goal and when I returned the order had been sorted to my annoyance.
After the game everyone was cheering what a great season we'd had and I was sat in the corner having my beer, muttering why, why, why to myself. As you can tell its still a bit roar, we'd planned for the instance of penalty's and our plans were not put into place ARRRRGGGHHH.
This was nothing that couldn't be fixed by us going out and getting mashed that very same night, and yes we did! On the Sunday however it is apparently tradition for a sporting team to go out on a "mad Monday" where you go out on the Sunday after your season is over and continue into the wee hours of Monday. I turned up a couple of hours late after going for lunch in the city with Lia. To be met by half the team at the pub, drinking COKE'S!! some had been and gone, others left 1 hour after I got there. This was a rubbish effort (no matter how much id of rather been laying on the couch). Five of us soldiered on until we were met by Phil & Chris who had been working and we drank to a promising season in which we fell at the final hurdle.
Now the long wait of 6 months til next season, the best thing about the weekend however was the JetCat trips to and from the city on Sunday morning. On the way there we managed to get the JetCat just as the hooter was going. The gate actually didn't let me through but my card had gone in and Lia was through so I hopped it with a knowing nod from the Wharf personnel. On the way back we the exact same, we got to the gate as they were saying last call. 10 seconds from disaster each time but just on the right side, am I the only one to get such exhilaration from this?
Not sure if they will have them in every Aldi across the globe but next time your in one (if you ever do go in them) look out for choco pillows, no its not a cliché for a poo ridden nappy, its the best cereal in the world! like a desert in a bowl for breakfast mmmmmmm & the bag is dual sealed! so you get two bowls out of the top....then you rip off the plastic bag and you have another bag attached to the bottom with enough for another 2 portions (3 portions if your not a pig like me).
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