I get on the field again

Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th

Monday was the rest day for our grade and I did indeed have a restful day. I spent the morning just reading, watching TV etc until my appointment with the physio at 1pm. Most of the others went to watch a couple of games.

The physio said my pelvis was still straight which was good and worked some m ore on various leg and back muscles. Quite painful at times. I bought a resistance band and was given a set of exercises walking both against and with the stretch.

We then went to the the movie Mamma Mia at a cinema a bit out of town. This was the nearest that had it on at a time that didn't clash with the game watching or the dinner.

The tournament dinner was a gourmet barbecue. General opinion was that is was not what one expects for $70. We did have free beer, wine and soft drink for 3 hours but you needed a lot of drinks to make up the value. It was held at the hockey centre, outside under the patio and some tents. The latter were gone today so they were obviously only their for the dinner. We had some plates of wontons, sausage rolls etc once we'd sat down. A good thing too as, despite being right next to one of the BBQs and salad tables, we were the last table to be served. By then food was running out and not everybody got everything. We had to get salads from one of the other tables.

It was a chance to catch up with friends both in the other WA teams and from interstate including the Australian team from NZ. There were the usual group photos of girls from particular clubs and our buddies from the other teams. The band started up about 9 but I thought that no-one would be impressed if I re-injured myself dancing so I gave that a miss. It was about 10 when we got home and I did my walking exercises be fore we went to bed.

This morning I stayed in bed reading while my roomies went for a walk. The team meeting was at 10-30 and Bev was presented with a Fireman calendar to celebrate her setting of the fire alarm with some burnt toast the first day.

We played SA and I was picked in the starting 11. I did the warm up runs without problems although I skipped a couple of the exercises that potentially could have strained my injury. I played high most of the time I was on. I was probably on the field for about half the game, in 4 separate runs. We scored 2 goals, both of them from rebounds off my shots at goal. Unfortunately the also score twice, once on a short and again on an against the play big outlet hit from out attacking area. It was deflected high and wide of the full back to a high striker who had a one on one with the goalie. We were a bit disappointed not to win since we again had most of the play.

Tonight we hosted the 35's at a BBQ by the pool, proving that you can put on a BBQ for less than $70 per person. I wasn't overly involved in the organisation but someone had streamers and balloons to decorate the area and we had a glowing shot glass, smiley badge and a glass of champagne waiting for each of our buddies. They in turn gave us a tournament souvenir stubby holder and a tag for a phone.

4 of them, including their male coach wore the "virgin" dresses as well as make up and wobbly eyes to look like aliens. Dinner was good and we got to know the younger WA players.

I did my exercises with the resistance band before getting to bed relatively early.