good old times
Since most of you who had to do exams have probably finished them by now, I'm assuming that there will be no complaints if I write another blog entry in which sunshine and smiles feature prominently... because the past few days have featured a fair bit of pleasant weather and a decent proportion of smiling.
There was plenty of fun and mateship to be had at last Saturday's basketball game. At first, being one of the players in the game was a little like being backstage at a theater production. I entered the stadium through the loading dock, which was teeming with busy looking behind-the-scenes type people. I wasn't sure if I was at the right place, so I approached the guy at the front booth and he said, "You're playing, right? All players go through this way". That made me feel special. As I made my way towards the centre of the stadium, a busload of cheerleaders drove in and they spilled out of the vehicle by the dozen, scurrying towards the changerooms.
The basketball courts were top notch, as you'd probably expect. The rings felt a litte low and were smooth and springy; they were built for dunking on. As well as that, playing in a 17,000 seat stadium is certainly a different sensation to playing in a dingy gym somewhere. Everything felt so spacious and open on the court. It was hoops heaven. If I was a billionaire intent on wasting money on unworthy personal indulgences, that is the type of court I'd build in my rediculously sized mansion.
As a raw ACBA rookie my court-time was limited to intermittent 3-5 minute bursts, but despite that, I think a played decently. My most spectacular contribution was probably getting a hefty shove in the chest by a big Korean dude, and maybe I could've done something real fun for the audience and used that as an excuse to start a bit of a melee. Unfortunately, the thought didn't occur to me at the time and I missed my opportunity at infamy.
Here are some photos that my dad took. The first one is of me jumping in the air and throwing a rubber ball wrapped in leather into a metal ring with a net affixed to it. This was done during a period of time in which I was attempting to increase blood-flow into my muscles such that I could perform at my peak-physical capabilities during the designated competing time.
This second photo is of me projecting a rubber ball wrapped in leather into a metal ring with a net affixed to it, such that my team's points total increased by one scoring unit during the designated competing time.
Yesterday was also particularly enjoyable, as I was able to catch up with and/or gawk at a whole bunch of people who I hadn't seen for about 5 years at a high-school reunion BBQ. Aside from a few odd facial hair experiments and one notable feat of extreme weight loss, everyone was perfectly recognisable, though it usually took me a few moments before I could match a name to a face. I reckon around a third of the grade showed up, it was a really good showing for an informal event and big kudos should go to John Molomby for organising it.
Our grade's mean social skill level seems to have increased considerably since year 12. Instead of spending our time shoving each other's heads whilst yelling out "working! working!", one of the main forms of social interaction during our high-school years, we spent much of our time engaged in enjoyable and civilised discourse amongst old friends and acquaintances. We also consumed food and beverages, and I ran around flailing my legs at a soccer ball. While I was doing that, the other guys played soccer. Mike Cardillo was running rings around me, Izhar was a beast as a goalie, Matt Whalan certainly seemed to know what he was doing, and even Hugh managed a slow motion kung fu style goal. It was all lots of fun.
The weather was perfect. It rained pretty heavily in the morning, but soon cleared into a bright, sunny day. The rain left the air feeling fresh and crisp, and the clear skies and sunshine remained pleasantly mild.
I finished off a great day at an all you can eat fajita restaurant with Chris Delaney, Dale North, Alex Menzies and Josh Green (it was Josh's birthday and I was semi-crashing it). I doubt any of those guys realise that this blog exists, so mentioning them here seems like I'm talking about them behind their backs. If any of you guys ever happen to stumble upon this blog and unexpectedly see your names mentioned in here, I hope you don't mind me gossiping about you. If you do, I'm sorry. But in fairness, I wouldn't really classify what I wrote as "gossip", I did just mention your names in a passing manner. If I mentioned the fact that Chris was wearing an awesome "Top Gun" T-shirt that he bought off the internet, perhaps that would start to count as gossip. I'm sure that talking about Josh's extended flavour-saver type facial hair would be counted as gossip, as would mentioning the fact that Alex shares a common pain with me in that we are both wearing braces long after our teenage years. Would saying that Dale hasn't changed a bit since year 8, stubble and all, also count as gossip? I don't know. To be on the safe side, I'd better not mention any of those things.
The only downer to the reunion was that a significant chunk of people of Asian descent decided to boycott the event. Granted I see these people all of the time, but it would've been great if they could have come. I mentioned before that the mean social skill level of our grade seems to have increased, but perhaps I was wrong to say that. After all, the vast majority of these boycotters had no legitimate excuse for skipping the reunion, so I'm assuming that they all suffer from acute social anxiety disorder and need counseling. Seriously, why did you guys not come? Everyone would've been happy to see you there. Don't you guys get a feeling of regret when you know that you've missed out on something potentially worthwhile because you weren't willing to take a slight step out of your comfort zone? The day would've been even better if you'd have made the effort to show up :(
There was plenty of fun and mateship to be had at last Saturday's basketball game. At first, being one of the players in the game was a little like being backstage at a theater production. I entered the stadium through the loading dock, which was teeming with busy looking behind-the-scenes type people. I wasn't sure if I was at the right place, so I approached the guy at the front booth and he said, "You're playing, right? All players go through this way". That made me feel special. As I made my way towards the centre of the stadium, a busload of cheerleaders drove in and they spilled out of the vehicle by the dozen, scurrying towards the changerooms.
The basketball courts were top notch, as you'd probably expect. The rings felt a litte low and were smooth and springy; they were built for dunking on. As well as that, playing in a 17,000 seat stadium is certainly a different sensation to playing in a dingy gym somewhere. Everything felt so spacious and open on the court. It was hoops heaven. If I was a billionaire intent on wasting money on unworthy personal indulgences, that is the type of court I'd build in my rediculously sized mansion.
As a raw ACBA rookie my court-time was limited to intermittent 3-5 minute bursts, but despite that, I think a played decently. My most spectacular contribution was probably getting a hefty shove in the chest by a big Korean dude, and maybe I could've done something real fun for the audience and used that as an excuse to start a bit of a melee. Unfortunately, the thought didn't occur to me at the time and I missed my opportunity at infamy.
Here are some photos that my dad took. The first one is of me jumping in the air and throwing a rubber ball wrapped in leather into a metal ring with a net affixed to it. This was done during a period of time in which I was attempting to increase blood-flow into my muscles such that I could perform at my peak-physical capabilities during the designated competing time.
This second photo is of me projecting a rubber ball wrapped in leather into a metal ring with a net affixed to it, such that my team's points total increased by one scoring unit during the designated competing time.
Yesterday was also particularly enjoyable, as I was able to catch up with and/or gawk at a whole bunch of people who I hadn't seen for about 5 years at a high-school reunion BBQ. Aside from a few odd facial hair experiments and one notable feat of extreme weight loss, everyone was perfectly recognisable, though it usually took me a few moments before I could match a name to a face. I reckon around a third of the grade showed up, it was a really good showing for an informal event and big kudos should go to John Molomby for organising it.
Our grade's mean social skill level seems to have increased considerably since year 12. Instead of spending our time shoving each other's heads whilst yelling out "working! working!", one of the main forms of social interaction during our high-school years, we spent much of our time engaged in enjoyable and civilised discourse amongst old friends and acquaintances. We also consumed food and beverages, and I ran around flailing my legs at a soccer ball. While I was doing that, the other guys played soccer. Mike Cardillo was running rings around me, Izhar was a beast as a goalie, Matt Whalan certainly seemed to know what he was doing, and even Hugh managed a slow motion kung fu style goal. It was all lots of fun.
The weather was perfect. It rained pretty heavily in the morning, but soon cleared into a bright, sunny day. The rain left the air feeling fresh and crisp, and the clear skies and sunshine remained pleasantly mild.
I finished off a great day at an all you can eat fajita restaurant with Chris Delaney, Dale North, Alex Menzies and Josh Green (it was Josh's birthday and I was semi-crashing it). I doubt any of those guys realise that this blog exists, so mentioning them here seems like I'm talking about them behind their backs. If any of you guys ever happen to stumble upon this blog and unexpectedly see your names mentioned in here, I hope you don't mind me gossiping about you. If you do, I'm sorry. But in fairness, I wouldn't really classify what I wrote as "gossip", I did just mention your names in a passing manner. If I mentioned the fact that Chris was wearing an awesome "Top Gun" T-shirt that he bought off the internet, perhaps that would start to count as gossip. I'm sure that talking about Josh's extended flavour-saver type facial hair would be counted as gossip, as would mentioning the fact that Alex shares a common pain with me in that we are both wearing braces long after our teenage years. Would saying that Dale hasn't changed a bit since year 8, stubble and all, also count as gossip? I don't know. To be on the safe side, I'd better not mention any of those things.
The only downer to the reunion was that a significant chunk of people of Asian descent decided to boycott the event. Granted I see these people all of the time, but it would've been great if they could have come. I mentioned before that the mean social skill level of our grade seems to have increased, but perhaps I was wrong to say that. After all, the vast majority of these boycotters had no legitimate excuse for skipping the reunion, so I'm assuming that they all suffer from acute social anxiety disorder and need counseling. Seriously, why did you guys not come? Everyone would've been happy to see you there. Don't you guys get a feeling of regret when you know that you've missed out on something potentially worthwhile because you weren't willing to take a slight step out of your comfort zone? The day would've been even better if you'd have made the effort to show up :(
posted by Gene at 10:53 pm
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