BIG NEWS: Paishy ran for the first time this week! Amazing! Well done Paish, we're all so proud of you!
Wednesday (Day 1): Arrival in Sydney after Paish gave me a lift into her workplace. I had breakfast, and went to the airport. I listened to a live busker while doing work which was very cool.
Arrived in Sydney at around 6ish, grabbed my rental and headed to our apartment in Parramatta - all a bit nerve-wracking doing it all on my own. Got to our place - looks amazing, and the views are excellent - very impressed.
Walked to Food Street - pretty amazing variety of foods. I went looking for The Little Corean - I couldn't find it, but finally found it shared with a Japanese Street Food place. I had spicy pork with rice - it was amazing! I left a 5-star review.
Thursday (Day 2): Went for a run at the local school - they had Star Wars as their bell! So funny. Did 10 uphill runs - felt so much like London! Had breakfast, then made my way to the stadium after my meetings. I got the time wrong, so I had to present at 2pm, not 12!
First match ACT - we won pretty convincingly, so a great start. Rox played well, with some great intercepts.
Got a Laksa takeaway which was 'okay'. It was too late to walk to Food Street. I perhaps should have done.
Friday (Day 3): 2 games today - QLD and VIC. We played well in the QLD game, but missed some critical shots, and could not shut Tia Crombie down and lost by about 4 which was disappointing, but they are beatable.
Went to pub at lunch with everyone - had an amazing seafood pasta. Good chat to Ruth and Dirk as we tried to fix the world's parenting issues, and supplements!
VIC we played well, and deserved to win - we shot very well, and were very determined and cohesive. A great one to finish on.
I went shopping after taking the train home, and then prepared dinner. We heard that the caterer had pulled out last minute, so the girls were not getting great food, so I decided to cook for Rox. Went to pick Mummy up from Sydney Airport which was a bit of a maze, but we found each other eventually!
Cooked Arrange Chicken, and packaged some up for Rox.
Saturday (Day 4): TAS - we won convincingly which was a good start to the day.
We had a relaxing morning but hardly any sleep. By the afternoon we were shattered and we intended to go to the Botanical Gardens, but as we could not find any parking, we just decided to drive randomly around town, and we stumbled upon he Sydney Opera House and then drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was pretty cool!
We headed back to Parramatta, and then walked to Food Street and went to Wingboy! It was so nice - we had 2 lots of wings (Korean and Crispy), and that was enough!
Sunday (Day 5): Big Day - SA and NSW!
SA we played pretty well, and won by a quite a few - we just shut them out and our defence was amazing! They had no response at all.
NSW was nuts! It was such a close game and we experimented with positioning, starting with Aaliyah at C. We were equal right up until the final minute there were 3 turnovers, and we finally got the ball to Halle who shot the winning goal! It was the best game so far, and so happy to have beaten them though.
Went to the Fish Markets with Zouzie, Ruth, Dirk, Rachel - had the nicest Scallops in the world! Ibises were everywhere!
Monday (Day 6): NT - should be easy game and we won convincingly.
Went for my uphill run at the school, the recorded my video for Roxy Roo before making our way into the game. After the game, we met Rox and we drove to the nearest shopping centre as it had Chinese, and we had a few dumplings before dropping her back early to have some downtime alone. We saw Kate, and there was a lot of gossip exchanged! Later on we then in the evening we met everyone at a pub - we were the first there for some reason, but eventually everyone arrived - it was good fun. I ordered a curry recommended by the barman - last time I listened to him!
Tuesday (Day 7): Semi-Finals - vs VIC - we are so glad we were playing VIC and not NSW. However, it didn't turn out the way we planned, and they shut us down big-time! We were not expecting that and we struggled in attack. Our defence worked well and we got quite a few turnovers, but in the end, we just couldn't convert them into points, and we lost by 4 in then end, which was so disappointing. We were so deflated after that game, and could not quite believe it.
We always seem to beat VIC, but on this occasion, we should be happy for them that they got to a final. We can't win them all, and we'll come back stronger next year.,
In another upset, QLD got beaten by NSW! NSW played an excellent game, and shut down Crombie so she had to be taken off. It was a crazy game and NSW deserved to win. Looks like we play QLD tomorrow then!
Moomy and Doody went to the spectacular Blue Mountains - even though we only had an hour, we are so glad we made the effort! They were incredible!
Wednesday (Day 8): 3rd Place Playoff vs QLD - this was a tough one, and we did not play our game again - it seemed like we'd lost our confidence in attack, and struggled again. We also could not contain Crombie, so we lost by a lot which was such a disappointing end to the tournament.
We can't believe we started so strong only to be beaten in the finals playing netball that was not to our usual standard. What a shame, and a wasted opportunity. We need to do better next year.
Moomy and Doody decided to go to the Fish Market again - disappointingly they were closing so didn't get our scallops, but had other yummy stuff. Mooched around The Rocks which was very cool!
We flew out on Wednesday night, and after trekking around Perth car parks until around 2am, we were eventually picked up by a bus driven by none other than Numi's Dad - how funny!
Got home around 3am - gung jai mein, then bed!
