Sporty

This is Jack.He has decided to cycle across Australia.  As you do.

So, on Thursday the eleventh of September, lil ol’ Jackman set off (with Dad) from Perth, to ride all the way back over to the Gold Coast.   So Harry and I have been home alone for almost a week now (oo

oeeiiioo - supposed to be the freaky supernatural sound effect.  Really didn’t work.)
To be honest I just find it interesting that having us two freaks at home alone was considered to be a good idea.  But whatever.  We have another week and then we’ll fly to Adelaide, then catch a TWELVE HOUR bus to Ceduna.  Cenduna’s  a teeny little baby town twelve hours from Adelaide

But sorry, back to Jack.  (It’s all about him right now.)  Well, he and Dad are riding a very long way for charity - Big Brothers Big Sisters Australia.  I think someone should mention to him that he is not a Big Sister, but apparently that doesn’t really matter.

But yeah, seems they’re going really well, they got to Uncle Trevor’s house in Kalgoolie earlier than they thought they would, which is always nice.

That’s really all I have to say.

Ja nee.

Dad and Jack in Kalgoolie.  Or somewhere equally as dusty.

They announced the winner of the sports carnival today.

D’bah: LAST.

Oh yeah, we suck. But as Jess said, we’d put too much time into our costumes to run.

Yes, I went. (Shock, horror, disbelief). AND I have photographic evidence. Mainly cause I knew noone would believe me.

Angie and I. Our theme was superheroes. Hence the outfits. (D for D’bah, guys). [click to continue...]

That’s really all I have to say.

This is probably the ONLY photo my brother took on the night (COUGHpervertCOUGH)

On Friday night, somehow (I’m not quite sure how it happened) I found myself at Skilled Park watching the Titan’s play rugby (league? union?).

I know it sounds strange, but HA! I have proof.

Wow. My chin looks massive in that photo.

But that’s not the point. Me, Laura at a football game! I feel so proud. They won 18-4, we’re all very excited etc etc.

But the main things that facinated me about the game were:

• the amount of people with huge quantities of body paint splashed across their bodies. I don’t get it. When Dad rang up to see if I wanted to go, the first thing that popped into my head wasn’t exactly “Hmm, I wonder if I have enough body paint in the Titans colours left to cover my entire body.”

• At half time, I went to the toilet. No line. Not really all that exciting. Then I walked down a little further and the men’s had a line about half a mile long. I don’t understand it. Since when do the guys have a line and the girls don’t. I guess there were probably more blokes there, but still. It was a phenomenon I shall probably never witness again in my lifetime.

Note: when you’re trying to take a photo of your brothers at a footy match, don’t do it when your team is near the try line. They WILL score as you press the button and instead of this:

You end up with this:

SMILE, IDIOTS!!!! Oh, sorry, Jack is, just not at ME!!

So, so much fun.

So, last Sunday… Got up at about quarter to four (grrrr…) and drove up to Brisbane with Mum, her friend Jo and our neighbour Renee, where we did the International Women’s Day 5km Fun Run at South Bank. It was pretty fun, but the run itself did have a degree of suckiness because there were SO SO SO many people that you couldn’t run at your own pace, because you were constantly dodging people, or being forced to walk because the path got narrower or whatever and there were so many people. Having said that though, it was pretty fun.

Oh yeah, and the shirt we got at the end was so good. They were actually women’s shirts instead of the man one’s they usually give out at runs like that. Bright pink… yeah!

Then we wandered around South Bank for a while, eating breakfast and stuff. Then wandered over the river to the city and walked up and down the mall for a bit. It was really fun.

I had to meet all my friends at the Sebel Hotel, which proved interesting as there are two (Note: I did not stay in the five star one. Sob.), so we did get a little bit lost.

So then I got dropped off there and the others went home. It was fun, we spent a lot of time wandering vaguely around all the shops and stuff.

Going to the concert was interesting, we were late (cough, Michael) so after running to the station and missing our train, we caught a maxi taxi instead. Which was good, because we could play music in there and sing along.

The concert was really good, there was Mandy Moore and Sean Kingston beforehand - Mandy Moore was good, but with Sean Kingston the music was so loud that at times it was hard to distinguish as an actual song. But whatever. Kelly Clarkson was awesome, I went out and bought the CD the next day. Our seats were really good, about halfway back in the middle bit, where the ice rink was last time I was there (Disney on Ice). By about this point I was consuming huge amounts of clouds in order to stay awake.

Yeah… went back to the hotel, collapsed into bed. The next day we pretty much just wandered around the mall and caught the train back home in the afternoon.

Yay. And that was my weekend.

I can’t say I’ve ever been the biggest fan of school swimming carnivals. Or athletics carnival. Cross country I like, but that’s about it.

Today was our swimming carnival.

To be honest, the only real reason I went was because of all the people saying “You HAVE to come, it’s our last one.” So I went. That’s me, saying no to peer pressure. But I actually ENJOYED it, something otherwise completely unheard of.

I am in Duranbah (red and black), the house who’s crappiness is surpassed only by Bilinga, except Bilinga, as pink and yellow, have the ability to fail miserably with so much more flair than we do.

But anyway.

I went in

• the championship (very, very good swimmers) back stroke, despite the fact that I am neither a very, very good swimmer, or able to do backstroke.
• the championship breast stroke, but although I’m better at breast stroke than I am at back stroke, I’m still not good enough to be able to really compete in the championship event. But I did anyway.
• the championship freestyle. Same kind of deal.

My result….

Last, last, last. But in breast stroke, I was only last by a tiny bit. Sure, freestyle I was half a lap behind everyone else, but yeah…

Had heaps of fun though.

Best moment: picture this. Nerdy school captain with pasty skin, glasses, dressed as though he’s on the way to the country club and who has an unhealthy obsession with politics (but still awesome fun despite all this), bomb diving in the bomb diving competition, fully clothed, with everyone present (about 2/3 of the school) chanting his name. It was so random.

Also kind of funny: the deputy got booed when we’d all returned to school and were meant to be watching the limbo competition, but were throwing beach bowls around, hitting them up and stuff. She confiscated them.

Oh my god. I think I’m going to have to go to the athletics carnival this year.

Also, just to demonstrate the kinds of getups worn at the carnival:

2007’s been a good year, I’ve decided. Not as spectacular as last year, maybe, but pretty good nonetheless. So. 2007 in summary.

Went away on a houseboat. Heaps of fun, but I kept randomly swaying as though we were still on the water for about a week after the trip had finished and we were back on dry land.

Got a job at Lenards, the local chicken shop. I think I have demonstrated a huge amount of growth. For instance: when I first started and I’d find a chicken head in the neck box, it would be a ten minute mission to get it out, involving about ten meters of paper towel and lot of suppressed shrieks of disgust. Now I can just chuck them in the bin. I’m very brave.

I played hockey again this year. Not very well, but still. It was fun.

Turned sweet sixteen and got a trip to Sydney with Mum. Very fun.

Played hockey for the school team. Almost scored my first ever goal (that one in the minkey’s carnival when I was about five years older than everyone doesn’t count) but there was a short corner a SPLIT second before I put the ball in. Actually if I’m honest, the whistle got blown just before I hit it in, but I hit it in anyway. It still counts!! Not really, but humour me please.

Climbed Mount Warning. Didn’t kill myself on the chain bit at the end. Very proud of that.

Went to a laser skirmish day with hockey. Played three or four games (about two or three hours) and only shot one person. Aimed a lot and died a lot. Had fun.

Volunteered at the Gold Coast Marathon with the Palm Beach Scouts (don’t tell anyone). Had a ridiculous amount of fun, but I jumped up and down so much that I couldn’t walk the next day. Kind of (okay, very) pathetic, since I didn’t even run. Yes, that’s me with the teased and coloured hair, T-shirt over the jumper and plastic crocs with long football socks which I very stylishly wore over the top of my jeans. Hey, fashion comes first.

Went roller blading of all things. Hilarious fun. Should do stupid, totally random stuff like that more often.

Hosted a Japanese student, once again.

Used as slave labour selling ugg boots at the Bangalow, Lennox Heads and Byron Bay markets. Although if I hadn’t done that I would never have seen the awe-inspiring sight of a full on bikie in leather and with tatts and piercings all over the place buying a pink pair of uggboots for himself. Also I wouldn’t have got any more of those incredible nachos.

I got my learners license. Did not crash or lose my learners license, despite my dad’s attempts to get me breath tested. Also, I think my mum’s coming around, cause she was always too scared to take me driving. She’s just told me a story about a friend’s daughter she used to take driving, who had a tendency to try and go up busy, inner-city Hobart (so really not that busy at all) one way streets. So she really has nothing to worry about. The Gold Coast doesn’t have any one way streets.

Spent two nights and three days home alone. During this time I realised that if I don’t want to get freaked out at night, animated Disney films are excellent. Also that it’s strangely lonely without smelly ones (and Mum of course) around.

Did Leadership and Business Week at school. My team kicked butt. Yes, we are fabulous.

Did the Salt 5km run!! So proud. Came first in my age group. Yes, I am a legend. (I’m getting rather good at the self-praise thing, if I do say so myself.)

Went for school captain at school. Screwed up the interview magnificently, due to my complete inability (somewhat surprisingly) to tell people how good I am and why I’d make a good school captain. However, I didn’t make an idiot of myself on the full school assembly when I had to do my speech, so I’m not too worried.

Went to Gympie for the Heart of Gold International Film Festival. Very pleased that my favourite film won the whole thing. Discovered that Gympie is very hot.

Went to Academic Awards night. Usually it’s the boringest thing ever, but it was made interesting because I was sitting with two exchange students and a friend who went to Japan for three months, after coming with me and everyone for the tour. After about an hour, it was me and the German guy, who was explaining to me the entire German education system and was completely outraged that the people who win all the massive plaques and trophies, the “special award” ones, have to give them back to the school. Quite hilarious.

Did the Noosa Marathon 10kmn run leg in 1:11:19!!!!! I’m very proud. Smelt pretty bad by the end, but you get that. Ooh, and here’s a photo of me looking athletic. Actually, can’t find that one, so here’s me and Jack (my little bro, who did the bike leg - Dad did the swim) in the transition area, with all the bikes in the background.

Attended the Sports Awards night just cause I could, since I’d never won an award for that before. Since I got the Mixed Hockey award, they put me on the boys list for the rehersal. I wore a dress especially for the actual night, so noone’d think I was a guy. Also I voiced my outrage to anyone who’d listen, even though they put me on the right list for the night.

Started going to the local youth group two weeks before it broke up for the holidays and started wishing I’d gone a lot earlier.

Went to the Salk Oval Rotary Carols By Candlelight. Left and walked home up the hill in preference to waiting half an hour for dad to pick us up, it was that bad.

Well, that turned out pretty long. So yeah… I’ve had a really good year.

Oh yeah. My friend Mitchell Stevens is going to Scotland for a gap year next year. That makes it sound really far away, even though he’s leaving on the third. So yeah. Very jealous and currently trying to convince Mum that I should do that when I finish year twelve. She’s not going for it as yet. Will continue to bug her.

Anyway… Happy New Year!!