Grand Final

Yes everyone I am still alive. I know you were all worried about my well-being but I just haven’t had anything noteworthy to write about for the blog. So I figured, rather than bore everyone with the mundane details of my life as a waiter/ janitor I would wait until I had something more exciting to write about.

This past Monday I attended the end of the season banquet for the Brisbane Premier League with the rest of the Wolves squad. It was a fun night, especially having the entire team and support staff there to celebrate our achievements thus far. In addition to receiving the Premiership trophy for keeps ,the league passed out individual honors and named the team of the season. Steffen Vroom took home the Golden Boot award for scoring the most goals in the league this year, he was also named to the Select XI team of the season along with myself, Drew Jeskey, and Trent Clulow, and our head coach Sam Saif was honored as the coach of the year. I just missed out on being named the player’s player of the year by one vote, the reason being I didn’t play in the final game due to suspension, guess that’s what I get for being a rebel.

After attending the banquet most of the team decided to extend our night a bit further, and where else to go on a Monday night at 11 than the Treasury Casino, which was conveniently located across the street from the hotel our banquet was at. Now, this is my first visit to a casino ever so I was quite happy when I walked out up $5 including drinks, some high roller I am. I was able to make my money playing roulette on these monitors that they have at the casino, that way you don’t have to bet in front of everyone, and it gives you all the information on the 15 previous rolls so you can make a more informed bet, or at least makes you think that you are. Either way it was a good way for me to get my feet wet and learn the game.

Other than this night out with the boys, these last few weeks have been focused on ending the season on as good a note as possible. We have finally been able to get back on to a regular training routine leading up to the Grand Final this Sunday evening. We also know that our opponents will be Rochedale, who will have played 3 games in 8 days, including a double OT Cup final Wednesday night, while we have been regaining our legs and sharpening our play in anticipation for the final. Needless to say I can’t wait to play Sunday night, and I know the entire team is looking forward to capping the season the proper way.

So look out for the result of the Grand Final. Hope all is well back home!

Last weeks of the season

Having lived in Australia for over 6 months now everything about the culture seems like second nature to me. I may notice a few dissimilarities when I really think about how things are back in the states, but with being so well acclimated to Australian culture I no longer find things odd, so I figured that while my parents were down here I would see what they noticed about Australia throughout their short time in Brisbane.

I remember writing in one of my first blogs that driving on the left side of the road isn’t really that big of a deal so long as there are other cars on the road. It’s the little things about driving that are completely screwed up, like using your indicator, checking your blind spot over your right shoulder, and getting in the proper door when you are going to drive, my father noticed the exact same things. Other than consistently turning on his wipers when he was trying to indicate a turn my father did quite well. The only scary moments were when we drove up into the mountains on a single lane road, his first impulse was always to swerve to the right when a car suddenly appeared around a blind corner, which would have resulted in 3 or 4 accidents if he hadn’t then corrected his mistake.

In Brisbane, the streets aren’t laid out in any recognizable pattern, with roads that routinely change names 2 or 3 times within the course of a few blocks. I was frequently giving my dad directions like “Stay rightish at this next intersection” when I was trying to navigate him to the right spot. Ultimately, the only way to navigate around Brisbane is to follow the traffic, there are “main” roads that meander towards some unknown destination and you really have no choice but to follow these routes even if it isn’t the most direct route to your destination.

Frequently, during my parents visit, they observed that Australia has more of a European feel than American. Retail stores and shopping centers close at around 5:30, the only exception to this being grocery stores which stay open until the late hour of 8 pm. Almost everyone that you encounter is genuinely nice and courteous. The pace of life here is much more relaxed than life in the U.S. On the roads, walking around, and when just hanging around Australians are rarely in a hurry. I really enjoy this part of life, until I need to get somewhere in a hurry, it then becomes difficult to walk around people when everyone is going the same pace or pass cars on the motorway when every single person is driving 100 km.

On the soccer front, we lost our first game of consequence this past week to Rochedale. We fell 3-1 in the semi-final of the Canale Cup. It stinks because we can no longer win a treble (League, Cup, and Playoffs) but it isn’t a huge loss. Hopefully, all the loss will do is make us hungrier as we play Rochedale in a bigger game next Wednesday in the first round of the playoffs. We played in our penultimate game of the league yesterday, winning 5-2. The fourth goal of the game helped us eclipse the century mark for the season, the first team in the history of the league to do so. The win also helped us accumulate the most points in league history, 67, surpassing Rochedale’s 65 from last year. We’ll receive the trophy this weekend after our game against Rochedale, although most players for both teams will be rested in anticipation for the playoffs matchup next Wednesday. Only 3 games to go in the season so its time to buckle down and grind out results to win the championship.

Hope all is well back home!

My parents visit

My parents should have arrived back in Chicago by now so I hope they had a good trip home. It was a fun visit but I’m glad they left. Not because I didn’t enjoy seeing them, but because we didn’t even win a game while they were here! 3 whole games without tasting victory! But don’t worry we won our game last night immediately following my parents departure. However, that is the last I will speak of soccer in this post. I will dedicate this entire blog to talking about my parent’s visit and the things that we did.

The first 2 days of my parents visit weren’t too exciting, especially compared to the adventures that we had the rest of the week, but they got to sightsee around Brisbane quite a bit. I took them over to the Lighthouse, where I work, for a cup of coffee early on their first morning and they were amazed by the views that I have from work. I’m not sure if I ever explained that my restaurant looks right out over the ocean to an island just off the coast, which we visited later in the week, and because the water is protected by this island the area is almost always filled with sailboats and other recreational fishing vessels (almost all of my sunset pictures are taken from right next to the restaurant.). After hanging around for a bit I took them to the hotel they were staying in for the first 2 nights. I had them staying right in the heart of Brisbane so they could walk around and experience some of the unique sights the city has to offer.

On Sunday morning I picked my parents up from their hotel and we drove up to the Brisbane botanic gardens on Mt. Coot-Tha and the scenic lookout located there so they could get a great view of the river city and surrounding area. From that vantage you really get a sense of how important the river is to Brisbane, with the way it meanders through the region, the city is defined by it’s interaction with the river and landscapes it has carved out.

Monday is where things started to get interesting, as we made our way up to O’Reilly’s mountain resort in the Gold Coast Hinterland. I had made a visit to this area once before for a hike and knew it would be a good spot to showcase the hiking that is available around Brisbane. We arrived late in the afternoon, due to my poor navigational skills, but it turned out to be perfect timing, we were able to complete a short hike and then watch the sunset over the hinterland from our balcony. I think that view helped them appreciate why my days are so often scheduled around sunset, especially when we were feeding parrots out of our hands as the sun dipped behind the mountains. After the sunset we went for a quiet dinner followed by a relaxing hot tub session under a starlit southern sky.

The next morning we went on a hike into a deep gorge carved by a river cutting its way through dense rainforest. The views that you get of the surrounding area are spectacular but impossible to photograph. The hike was great until the snake charmer, Beth Hopkins, decided to make her first appearance. Our path was blocked by a couple of red-bellied black snakes sun bathing on our trail. Unfortunately, my mom had already passed the snakes when she caught sight of them. So she was stuck on one side, while my father and myself were stuck further down the trail. This standoff persisted for 45 minutes until a boisterous family scared off the venomous snakes and we were able to resume our trek back up the mountain.

On Wednesday I sent my parents up to the Steve Irwin Zoo so I could prepare for my game that evening against the Brisbane Roar. Having been to the zoo I know that they loved every second of the experience. It is well worth the price of admission, especially when you get to see the crocodile feedings.

The highlight of my parents visit was our trek up to the Great Barrier Reef. We could only spend one day at the reef, but even that short amount of time is enough to understand the beauty that the reef has to offer. We visited Lady Elliot Island, which is a miniscule oasis in the southernmost reaches of the reef, but it was a spectacular showcase for what the Great Barrier Reef represents. We arrived on the island and had 40 minutes to walk around before we embarked on our glass bottom boat/guided snorkeling tour. Unfortunately, because the day was overcast the colors of the reef didn’t really pop out as we would have liked but it was still breathtaking, and that is just from above the waterline.

Once in the water, you enter another world, teeming with life and color. It was absolutely amazing to experience from such a close distance. We saw every single fish from “Finding Nemo,” including sea turtles, and if you dove down about 10 feet you could even hear faint whale calls echoing in the water. The only thing I didn’t like about snorkeling was when I found myself in really shallow water, hovering only 2 feet above the reef. That experience was unnerving for three reasons; First, I didn’t want anything to come out of the reef and bite me, second I didn’t want to break off any part of the reef by kicking it, and third the reef is really sharp, all 3 of us have scratches from coming in contact with the reef as we were snorkeling. All in all the trip north was breathtaking, especially when you include the views of the coastal islands we had from the plane ride to LEI.

In the last two days of my parents visit I took them to North Stradbroke Island and Byron Bay. On Straddie, which was a short 30-minute ferry ride from where I work we got to do some whale watching and enjoy spectacular views of the rocky coastline on one of the locals favorite weekend destinations. From our short time on the island we understood why the locals have such great affection for Straddie, it boasts secluded beaches, great surfing, and spectacular landscape. On our ferry ride back from the island we got to witness another breathtaking sunset over the ocean before making our way to The Lighthouse for a more than satisfying dinner.

The following day we made our way south into New South Wales for a scenic flight over the coastline at Byron Bay. Once again the vistas were spectacular because Byron Bay boasts jagged coastline mixed with pristine beaches, and is also a popular area to whale watch. Being able to experience all of the sights from the air made the trip even more spectacular than it already would have been.

In my parents short time Australia they got to experience everything that this country has to offer; a beautiful city, spectacular coastline, stunning mountainous regions, and unique wildlife. I know that they enjoyed their time visiting me and I definitely enjoyed having them around.

I hope I was able to paint a good picture of all our many activities. I have posted heaps of pictures on facebook already so hopefully everyone can find a way to view those.

Quick update

Unfortunately due to the restrictions on my time I haven’t been able to update my blog as often as I would like. However, over the next few weeks I hope to remedy that and provide plenty of stories for everyone to read up on.

I had hoped to provide my parents with a cheat sheet of Australian culture so that they would know what to expect when they arrived, but I missed that chance. So, instead, I have asked them to take note of the most significant differences between our cultures and I can tell everyone about them, because I have been in Australia so long I no longer take notice of any weird customs, other than their accents.

I will also be sure to write about the many adventures that I will have while my parents are visiting. As I’m sure anyone who knows my mom at all would expect she has scheduled nearly every hour of the trip with some type of sightseeing trip. We have already begun our travels and everything is going great, other than encountering a couple of venomous snakes sun-bathing on our hiking trail this morning, but welcome to Australia mom and dad!

In regards to soccer, we lost our game this Sunday to Olympic, 3-1, so now we are only 11 points clear at the top of the table. We match up against the Brisbane Roar tonight and then have another tough game this weekend in the league so we are going to have to bounce back from our most recent loss very quickly.

I promise to post a few more blogs in the coming weeks to catch everyone up on what has been going on down here in Australia.

Until then…

First Loss and The Steve Irwin Zoo

Long time no update…

In the past 3 weeks a lot has happened. We have played in 4 games, losing our first match of the season to Capalaba, and we have won 2 more league games, bouncing back from the loss with an 8-1 victory over Souths, and we progressed to the

quarterfinals of the Canale Cup with a 4-0 win Tuesday night over a second division side. We are still creating an unbelievable amount of scoring chances in every game, we just haven’t been putting away an early goal, which usually gives us the confidence to go and score for fun.

In our loss to Capalaba we still dominated the game but were unable to come up with the plays that we needed to win the game. I give Capalaba credit because they only had 4 shots (compared to our 20) and scored 3 goals, although 2 of them came from fortuitous bounces.

Other than the games, I had been on trial last week with Gold Coast United, one of the A-league sides, and did fairly well. It was nice to train again every day with good competition. However, I wasn’t able to make enough of an impression on the head coach. At the end of the trial he told me that I was good enough to play in the A-league but not good enough to take up an international roster spot. He had a few critiques for my game, all of which were weaknesses that I am well aware of and know that within a professional environment I can improve upon those weaknesses. But if I didn’t think that I could become an impact player for a first division club what business do I have pursuing a professional career? The good news is that, Patrick McMahon and Trent Clulow, my roommate and good friend/teammate were invited to come back and train with Gold Coast after our season has concluded, so they will get another opportunity to impress the coaching staff and possibly earn a contract.

Outside of soccer I took a trip up the coast to the Steve Irwin zoo, which was totally awesome. We got to see all of the native Australian animals like koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, salt water crocodiles , and we watched one of their famous croc feedings in the “Crocoseum.” The show was really cool and we learned about the crocodiles eating habits and got to watch them in action, when they are in the water and make a move for food they are unbelievably fast. I’m glad I made a trip up there and I’ll need to go back to that area sometime soon because the mountain range that is close to the zoo, the Glasshouse Mountains, are quite a sight and made for good scenery on the drive.

Recognition

Because my life in Australia has been uneventful over the past two weeks, I would like to recognize one of my very good friends for his outstanding achievements.

A new ESPN website launched this week, Grantland.com, which will feature one of my oldest friends, Robert Mays, as a writer. This is an incredible opportunity for Robert to display his unique writing talents and insights, and I would encourage everyone to visit Grantland.com when they have the time, just be sure to visit his columns frequently so that he can get a pay raise soon.

Robert chose to pursue his dreams of being a sports columnist because he idolized Bill Simmons, a popular ESPN columnist, who is now his boss. I know that Robert has worked incredibly hard to achieve his dreams, although being paid to attend sporting events hardly seems like difficult work. His strength of will and exceptional talent as a writer helped him to accomplish his goals much quicker than I think even he would have though possible. Because of his successes I am reminded of the rewards you receive for putting in the extra work that is necessary to accomplish your goals, his successes give me hope that I will soon be achieving my dreams in becoming a professional soccer player in a top division.

I would also like to say happy birthday/ happy father’s day to my dad. His presence in my life is another constant reminder that hard work and dedication are important traits if you hope to be successful and happy with your life. Now, if only you would teach me how to grow a half decent moustache! I love you Dad!

Moving on to soccer, we have played in two matches since my last blog, winning both games. We won our big match against Rochedale 3-0, I hope everyone caught the highlights on the washingline.com.au, and we won our game last Saturday against Easts 2-0. I am very happy with keeping two straight clean sheets and looking forward to having our squad back to full strength this weekend as we match up against Easts again. I’m also itching to end my 2 match scoreless streak! This game will be taped so highlights should be available on thewashingline.com.au a day after the match.

In other soccer news, 5 guys from our team should be getting called in for trials with Gold Coast United in a fortnight, so hopefully that is the start of more opportunities for myself and a few of the other deserved players on Wolves.

Fastest Team to 50 goals

As the title suggests, Wolves recently became the quickest team in Brisbane Premier League history to score 50 goals! Now if only we could keep that elusive clean sheet. Since my last post we have played 3 matches, winning our 2 league fixtures against North Pine and Mt. Gravatt 3-1 and 9-1 respectively. We also had a Canale Cup match against Capalaba and won that game 5-2. As you can see we certainly don’t struggle to find goals but we haven’t been keeping other teams out of the back of the net like we need to. Some of the goals have been unlucky, but we are at times letting our opponents dictate the flow of the game for 10 or 15 minute spells, something that we need to remedy to reclaim our dominant form. Obviously, considering the results we have had I’m nitpicking, but as a defender I really want to keep a clean sheet, regardless of how many goals we score.

I bring up our “poor” defensive form because our next match is against Rochedale. If you have been an avid reader of my blog from the beginning you will recognize Rochedale as the traditional power of the league, so this is the biggest game of the year. This is also a huge rivalry game, both teams hate each other, so I can’t wait to step on the field and feel the atmosphere, knowing that everybody in the stadium wants us to lose (it's an away game). I know that our entire team feels the same way and we are going to have a good week of training leading up to the match to make sure that we are sharp for the kickoff. The game will be recorded so highlights will be available by Sunday morning back in the states on Thewashingline.com.au

Outside of soccer I recently found myself a job as a waiter at an upscale seafood restaurant, of all things. Now, when I think about your typical waiter, I’m imagining an outgoing and talkative person who converses easily with others. Obviously, if you were asked to describe me I doubt that any of those traits would be at the tip of your tongue. But, hey, it will put me out of my comfort zone and force me to work on those things. So maybe the next time you all see me I’ll be super outgoing, doubtful ha.

Either way it will allow me to make some money so I can start knocking off more items on my bucket list.

Although I have already fulfilled my quota of waterfalls I took a trip down the coast to Springbrook National Park early last week to see probably the most stunning waterfall I have witnessed yet. The 4k trail led you down a rainforest covered mountain to the base of the waterfall, where you are then taken under the falls before continuing out the other side back up the side of the mountain and finally ended with a great view over the falls looking west. However, there is a spur in the trail before you go under the falls that leads you down further into the valley, following a small river that eventually pools about 1k from the falls. The boulder strewn river bed offers a great opportunity to engage in some extracurricular off-trail hiking and both Pat and I were happy to take that opportunity to explore some more of the rainforest before returning back to the main trail to complete the hike. Both Pat and I are hoping to return to this hike soon so that we can take in a sunset over the falls that I’m sure will be spectacular.

Anyways, that’s all for now, hopefully the Bulls can pull things together in this next game, play within themselves, and stop turning the ball over at critical points of the game. I think they will! Lets Go Bulls!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m second in the league in goals. I now have 9 from 10 games. This is getting absurd but I hope it continues at least one more week. Go Wolves!