So. the morning of our first game.... The tension was in the air. Funky was up early as was I, but I don't think we were nervous, I think it was just we didn't know what to expect. Was the level higher then we were at? How would we fit in with Boxmeer's players? the team? how would my leg go? hand? would my eye weep open? umpires? etc etc. Anyway, we arrived on time, for once again my hate to stand around and talk instead of being at the ground at a time for a reason, people reading this from hockey will understand, but others prob won't, but I find it annoying. So we beat the coach by 30 mins, and down into the rooms we went, we got given our uniforms, and listened to the coach give his before game speech. (of course, we had no idea what it meant) we got a loose translation on the warm up. Was this followed? I don't know, but that is not a topic of conversation for this blog. ;-) So I started at CF... my favourite position......, and I am going to talk hockey for a little bit, - if you aren't interested in hockey, scroll down.
So the dutch fullback was marking me almost in front, the two wingers were playing almost as high inners, and the inners (or midfielders) were playing wide. So there was not a whole lot of space to lead into to get the ball, especially being marked from almost in front. So i was moved back into midfield thank goodness after many frustrating minutes (maybe 10-15) of running around without really touching the ball, and it was much easier. Andrew and mark started on the bench, but they were on shortly after also, and really it was almost harder working out what our team was doing rather then what the opposition was doing. (beat your man - easy) pass to your teammate... much harder. So training this week will be interesting. But I almost hit a few goals, the game was quite scrappy, but we (Funky and Tarks and I) are SL3 scrap specialist. So when the going got a little rough - well.. lets just say the yellow card count at baw baw will drop this year... We got abused in dutch, and then English, and then back in dutch again. But we ended up winning 3-2, I got interviewed by the local paper, and the Boxmeer team were absolutely ecstatic with the win. So all good. After the game was weird. no cool down, I missed the team talk due to my media commitments lol but they gave us food, and then there was a black light party at the club - at 3:45!!
|I sat outside and talked about the game with some of the senior guys for a long time, hopefully we can try and teach them some things so we don't go crazy on teh field. My quote was: I don't know if we don't understand what they are doing, or if they have no idea, I hope it is the former.... That night our bike wheel got buckled by mark and funky trying to ride it home, but we got a new wheel today.
So if you are back after scrolling down and skipping the hockey talk, we had a busy day the next day after the game, I found out that my photo was back page big picture...
http://www.gelderlander.nl/sport/hockey/8320545/Australiers-blijken-aanwinst-voor-Boxmeer.ece#
But we had other things to o then think about apart from not being able to read a dutch article... We had immigration papers to print, i had my insurance for my eye to deal with, we had phone plans and people to ring, banks to call, and so on and so on, it was a busy day, - wouter was so much help, he printed things off for us, called when we couldn't understand the dutch, and we used his internet to send him documents also, couldn't have been more helpful. We had a scratchy lunch/dinner at our local restaurant, and then went home and watched tv and a few movies. - one of which was the 'next three days', of which I highly recommend. Later that night bongo's dad came over (who is a physio) and helped look at my leg, - as I didn't really play 100% - turns out that I'm just limping around, but if boxmeer was happy with today, then all good... but I do have to be careful...
The next day was the start of our working time at boxmeer - but before that we took wouter to the Airport, and not the netherlands airport, it was dusseldorf. We didn't know this until wouter said" we are in germany now" we are like.... ahhh cool... and the speeding started. That was fun. no 100kmph here... other cars were doing like over 200... and some 100 - we were about in the middle, but boy we were moving... When we go back we had to work - we have a working agreement that pays for our rent. We had to clean up massive amounts of well - rubbish. Our landlord owns multiple houses around the town and all of them seem to be stuffed. The tenants just leave all their stuff there.... rubbish, clothes, beds, etc, it is a total mess. We kinda cleaned out the house, which I took a video of, and will upload somehow.... We were working with a polish guy named yo, which was a little funny, and he spoke "not a word of english" although how ironic that seemed, we couldn't tell him that anyway hahaha.. So we got our bike fixed in the afternoon, played our lunchtime game of cricket with a piece of board, and went home via Aldi and cooked tea. Tomorrow and thursday are working days. We are painting tomorrow we think, and maybe dumping the rubbish somewhere...
A little note about food - the food here is well differernt. (obviously you may say) but it is so close to what we have, but just well... weird. I have mentioned many times that I miss my beloved boston bun, and custard... oh how I like you custard tarts... but to no avail here. The best we had was a pizza style roll from the bakery, some biscuits, and some weird cake. Do the dutch know about boston buns? surely the custard recipe would have made it across the channel... (I'm claiming to know that custard originated from england now...) maybe I should make some and sell them to the bakeries.. now that could be a money maker... Anyway, we cooked tea, had chicken (very cheap here, about $5 a kilo - being the home of intervet and chicken is what they do) and about to watch a movie and start work again tomorrow. Good thing that we are not doing this everyday, cause it's not the greatest fun, but being with 2 other friends does make it much better. I met a weird looking dog today too, it was like a extra large cocker spaniel but very friendly - and explaining what a kelpi or a blue heeler to a dutch person is like trying to order a boston bun in a bakery... hahaha... A little tired here, but it good spirits. Hope everything is going well back in Aus... Kasihan tentang negara Japan...
Doi
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