luckycanuck | Entries tagged with afl

Rowing continues. Nearly 10km yesterday and over 12km today. I'll make 200km by Friday easily and apparently this will entitle me to a 200km Holiday Challenge pin. Oh yes. I WILL have that pin.

I have found myself getting annoyed at some people I encounter during my rowing. Yesterday there was a guy who was maybe 20 who sat down at the machine next to me, changed the resistance level down to three (yes, three, not ten like I do and even the old arthritic blind guy does) and rowed for less than a minute before getting back up and letting the handlebar retract all the way up to the machine rather than replacing it in its catch and leaving the gym. Prick. Today there were two gym babes (the girls who do their hair and makeup before a workout) who set the resistance very low and went at a pace slow enough that it wouldn't impair their ability to gossip through their workout. I was right between them for the duration of their pathetic 500m row and was subjected to the full gossip experience as they chattered back and forth over my head.

It's the longest day of the year. I wonder why it can't be like this all the time. Long sunny days and mean good moods.

I never really liked the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Even as a young child something didn't sit right with me. This is why. Apparently Santa is a fascist dictator.

A news story broke today sparked by a girl who has claimed she was sexually involved with some AFL players and is not satisfied with the way the league treated her complaints. Now she has posted a naked photo of an AFL player on Facebook. This player was not one of the ones named in her complaint as far as I've heard. He just plays in the same league as other players who were. Some of the reaction was centred on how the naked player has behaved badly and is now having to defend his actions.

This reaction bothered me, to the extent that I actually commented on the linked article.

I'm happy for footy players who act as though the rules don't apply to them get their comeuppance, but as far as I can tell, the player who is now defending himself deserves no comeuppance. He's not a rapist or a sexual predator, he's just a guy who likes to sleep naked and whose friend once snapped a photo of him just afer he got out of bed. This may be odd, but so what? It's nothing he should have to defend in public, and his bedroom habits are really nobody's business. I kind of wish he had said so.

If nothing else, I feel as though anyone who wants to criticise sportsmen for acting like asshats has plenty of better things on which to base their criticisms.

I stayed in Canberra this weekend. Dad left on Saturday morning and I was going to go up to Sydney to take him to the airport but I was going to see him again soon anyway, and in the end staying in Canberra was a better choice, especially given that I leave next weekend. I'll have enough going on without driving up and back to Sydney.

On Friday I got home from work and Malice, Roxy, and Helga were into our dress up box. As soon as I walked into the room I was in a very good mood. They got a pair of bunny ears and a pink feather boa and fairy wings on me, which I wore in my typical masculine fashion.

(Picture to come... hopefully.)

We then made plans to go out to a friend's house for cocktails they were having, and I quickly went from "extraordinarily good mood" to "periodically rocking with stress" just before we left the house. It was aspie time and there was a minor freakout. The evening had gone from being spent with people I know and like to being in a foreign and far more complicated environment. I did go with them, and felt a bit stressed in the early stages of cocktail night, but eventually relaxed a bit. I did spend more than my share of time outside alone on the balcony where there was nobody to talk to. (I decided that aside from my housemates, I wasn't all that interested in speaking to anyone else.) I did have a mojito for the first time in my life (and possibly the last as I'm not really a cocktail guy) and I chose not to go out to a bar in the city with everyone afterwards.

On Saturday, there was footy to be played. It was Politicians v Press in a pretty fun game.

(Team photo to come... hopefully)

The Sydney Swans donated their training tops for our team to wear, and I discovered after the fact that the guy who normally wears number 8 (chosen by me because it is 2*2*2 and therefore one of my preferred numbers) is the same height as me, but is 17kg lighter.

(Not pictured, Luckycanuck)

They put me at a key position at centre half forward and I nearly managed to kick a point in the first half but the play had already been whistled dead. The Australian Capital Territory Minister for Sport kicked all three of our goals in a match that ended Politicians 3.2.20 Press 1.4.10.

I also got to use my rugby tackling skills to good effect and caused a couple of turnovers, one of which led to a goal about ten seconds later. I wasn't allowed to play in my rugby boots as they have metal studs, but a borrowed pair of more appropriate boots were found just in time.

Later that night the girls came to the pub where we were having drinks after the game, and after I went home for a shower, I joined them at a pub frequented by university students. I was at least a decade older than most of the people there, and Helga's assurance early in the evening that I would "pick up for sure" was ultimately unfounded. It was really not my scene. Coming home and having sausages and poached pears in mulled wine made by Malice was much nicer.

Today I picked up an electrical adapter for my trip to America and went for a big session at the gym.

TW: Tabata "Pushing". Bench press, wall ball, dips, kettlebell swings, pushups, corner presses. Then practicing thrusters to improve my form and my willingness to go deeper in the squat part of it, and later 100 more pushups in the sauna. HOORAH!!!

I think I may do tabata workouts for pulling, legs, and core for the remainder of the week.

Also, the housemate formerly known as Malice really doesn't like the name, so I think I'll change it.

I wrote two Shadow Cabinet briefs today, managed to avoid responding to a series of time wasting letters, and had an aussie rules football training session with nine journalists at lunchtime. Guess what was the most fun.

I'll be playing in the first Politicians v Press Aussie Rules game on Saturday, which should be fun. Some of my MP friends are playing (and part of me wonders if this might be an opportunity for settling of scores. "Give me a bad editorial eh?" *SMASH*) Some of the journalists were pretty skilled and had played before, but some of us might have it over them in terms of fitness. I lack skill, but a couple of times today I got some really nice kicks away and was pretty good at picking up the bouncing ball.

TW: A real solid one. 50 cleans, 50 clean and press, 50 bicep curls, run 800m, 50 calorie row, 50 dips, 50 pullups, run 400m, 50 walking lunges, 50 pushups, 50 situps, run 800m, all for time. Total: about 33 minutes. Later on at home I was especially happy so I put on my "Mr Happy" shirt.

I also had a chat as I often do with one of the trainers there. Initially I suspected she might be flirting with me on account of her telling me about breaking up with her boyfriend and asking me directly about my relationship status and saying she likes doing weights because "you get to hang around with hot guys." Also we share Crossfit as an interest. Also she's kind of hot.

We became Facebook friends, and recently I discovered that the age difference between us was larger than I thought. I just turned 33. She's 19. I knew she was younger than me but not by that much. Someone who is 19 is pretty likely to be in a different place in her life and to have a different idea of what constitutes a good time compared to me, and in this case I get the feeling it is very true. In addition to the age gap which is pretty substantial, I don't think I'm her type and I don't think she's my type.

No matter. It's still good to have friends at the gym. Until just recently I didn't really have any. Now there is her and my friend the Israeli basketball player.

Somehow it's been a full long weekend and it's still not over, though I suspect not much will be done today.

Saturday was spent at the Collaroy Castle making sure things weren't too out of hand for dad to arrive on Wednesday from Canada for a university reunion. Luckily he is a lot more relaxed about tidyness than mum. I didn't get to the beach (though it's just a three minute walk away) for my monthly ocean swim on account of the rain that was just bucketing down for most of the day. Instead I delighted in the fact that there were two grand finals on at the same time which meant a lot of switching channels. Sydney Uni won in the rugby union and Collingwood won in the AFL for only their second win in something like 12 grand final appearances since the 50s, both of which made me happy. (A joke making the rounds on Twitter is "Collingwood fans will be unbearable, but at least it will piss off Carlton fans.)

That evening I went to a pub in town with some people I hadn't seen for a while which was fine except that the music was louder than I needed it to be and for some reason they had a smoke machine that was pumping "smoke" into the room all night.

Sunday I woke up with a sore throat and a voice that had dropped several tones in pitch. I decided against changing careers to become a classical music radio announcer and set out to be plied with food. A Convict related friend from New York plied me with eggs benedict and advice for my upcoming trip (she suggested I go to all five boroughs, which I was already planning on.) Then there was just enough time to get to the gym to do a celebratory crossfit birthday workout as suggested by one of my gym friends.

YW: "Fran" - Thrusters and pullups - 21-15-9 for time. My time: 3:18. (Crossfit has a number of benchmark workouts that have girls names, I suspect because some crossfit people like being able to say "Bro, I TOTALLY nailed Fran yesterday." I didn't say that. But the idea of a celebratory workout is a good one and not a new one to me.)

minxyminou and I spent part of the afternoon together and I was filled with steaky goodness and plenty of chatting about what we have been through recently and what we have in store.

By the time I got home, Helga the proceeded to fill me with cake that Malice had made (apparently three bars of white chocolate went into making it, two of which were in the icing alone.) So it was a day of women giving me food. What's not to like?

My right ankle was sore from rugby yesterday (nothing that probably won't go away on it's own, thought Roxy advised me to seek medical attention when I staggered into the kitchen this morning when I had a pretty good limp going) and my left bicep was too sore to realistically do pullups so my workout had a chest and tricep focus.

TW: 50 bench press to warm up, 15 bench press and 1 pushup - 1 bench press and 15 pushups, 30 dips, 50 incline press, 5 shoulder press, 50 tricep extensions, 50 weighted pushups.

I did manage to get up in the morning and watched the AFL Grand Final, which ended with a score of 68-68. So what do they do? Play 10 minutes of extra time? No. They are playing a whole new game one week later. WHAAAAAAA?

Tomorrow is a holiday in the ACT (Family Day or Community Day or some excuse for a holiday) but the shadow cabinet will be meeting so I will probably go in briefly. A very interesting week awaits.

Malice gets back tomorrow, but with Helga gone it will be Thursday before the household is all together again.

Also, I promised

minxyminou that I would show her my jungle wallpaper.

RAHHHHHHHHHH!!! There's a tiger in my room!

Right now I'm up late watching the opening match of the World Cup between South Africa and Mexico.

I noticed in 2006 that during the world cup, soccer/football fans went a bit over the top in extolling the vitues of their game relative to other sports, and most notably other codes of football. Hearing at long length about how their preferred sport is "the world game" or "the beautiful game" got to be a bit much. It's happening a bit again now. I suppose when you are a minority then the one time every four years when you are front and centre would inevitably have that effect.

Still, I find it difficult to get swept up in some of the hysterical arguments about which sport is the best that rival devotees often get swept up in. My personal preference is for rugby union, but I can also enjoy rugby league, and australian football, and gridiron, and soccer/football and plenty of other sports.

A few months ago I read a series of articles arguing whether union, league, or afl was the best code. It was amusing for someone who has an interest and appreciation of all three to read a pretty good tempered ribbing of rival codes, but the way some people react is to disparage the others as the kind of game only a private school snob or meathead or metrosexual could like. Some people get positively tribal about their sport.

I've also noticed that people assume supporting one side means being inextricably opposed to another. People have told me I can't support the Brumbies and Waratahs or Parramatta and Manly or in the current World Cup, Australia and England.

I live in Australia, I'm an Australian citizen, and I'm happy to watch and support the Socceroos when they play (though I won't be getting all bandwagony.) But I also lived in England for two years and followed the game much more closely there than I do now, so I see no reason why I shouldn't also support England. There seems to be an Australian attitude amongst some people that in sport you must support Australia and whoever is playing England. I find that undignified. It doesn't diminish Australia for England to do well, and acting like it does is unworthy of a mature and self assured nation.

Enough ranting. Bed now.

Parliament is back today, which means it was a busy day. It seems I've been tasked with responding to a large and growing pile of letters and e-mails, some of which have been written by real live crazy people complaining about things that have nothing to do with us. Luckily I've become adept at coming up with responses that are pleasantly non-commital.

One of the nice things about working in Parliament is that we get interesting visitors bringing interesting things.

( Read more sports fans... )

TW: 50 Medicine Ball Crunch Throws, 50 Reverse Crunches, 100 Leg Openers, 100 Leg Closers, 200 Leg Presses, Just over 5k on an incline on the treadmill.