You don't say...

So on the roller coaster that is my life there was no time to write and so much to say and then you are in that moment between heart beats and all is silent and not a single syllable comes to mind. So I'll apply my usual tactic and just go BLAH on the page and cross fingers something intelligent can be found in the fluff that comes from my little brain :)

Got sent a link from a friend today, while he was shamelessly asking for a plug for his new athlete page http://t.co/qXVN8fRmji (that I'm shamelessly plugging for him now and mine while I'm at it http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erika-Anear/539989942706093...
and Martin's http://www.facebook.com/pages/Martin-Damsbo/154436418077850?fref=ts
and Ivana's http://www.facebook.com/ivanabuden10?fref=ts).... but he sent another link I mean to say...

The other was a talk by a doctor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMhLBPPtlrY) who admitted to feeling contempt for a diabetic patient and then developed insulin resistance himself. It is a good speech and well delivered and offers a perspective that we could all afford to see. While I'm not sure I agree whole heartedly with the science and philosophies discussed, I think everyone should know what it is like to have a chronic disease and have not just your friends and family and colleagues think you did something to deserve it, but your doctor too. I doubt there is a diabetic (type I or II) out there that hasn't heard 'did you eat too much sugar?' or 'what did you do?' or 'if you just ate right', at some point in their lives. My favourite lately has been 'surely you have gotten the hang of it by now' from perfectly healthy individuals who have seen a doctor less times in their life than I have in a week and feel somehow superior because in the advent of developing a life long illness they will over come the disease that baffles scientists and doctors and millions of patients alike, in an instant, and never make such silly mistakes. And you smile and make some inane and polite response and hope the homicidal eyeball twitch isn't giving away what you really want to say.... something like 'I'm so glad you felt the need to offer your scientifically make believe advice because it makes my life of illness and needles so much more bearable and I really appreciate the helpful and compassionate way you accuse me of hypochondria when my body is failing me.'... something like that, but maybe with a lot more bad words.

Of course we could all always do better. But sometimes you are sick because you are sick, and sometimes life handed you lemons and sometimes life handed you lemons and then stepped on you like a bug and sometimes maybe, just maybe you could have avoided it...but it's a particularly bumptious acquaintance that fails to realise this information after the fact is going to make them about as popular as a fart in a space suit. Nobody likes the know it all with hind sight.

Not to mention the purse lipped suggestion that maybe insulin should be injected in the toilet instead of the dining room...because that's the cleanest place to be giving yourself a needle and you have so much in common with back alley junkies in train station bathrooms. Yes I did hear this just the other day from a very well meaning woman. And I didn't step on her toe because ignorance is a disease and while squishing her toes will make me feel a smidgeon better, it won't cure her. I'm quite sure the restraint made my homicidal eye twitch worse. You know the look cats get when you stick silly hats on them...

I think I put off writing that for a while because I was feeling a bit 'stab people with forks' about some things and I'm working hard on my positive attitude. But I think too it actually clears it out of the system if you just say it out loud and I wonder if ignorance is allowed to perpetuate because no one ever says anything to change it. I make no secret of my disease because for some reason it makes so many people uncomfortable and quite frankly if I can live with it the rest of the world can survive knowing I live with it. I once heard a particularly heinous cow say 'we don't talk about people's conditions' and with that one sentence made someone else's disease a taboo topic that people should be embarrassed and ashamed about. I wanted to stomp on her toe too.

But like I was saying - positive attitude. Let's talk about archery instead :) Turkey was a good trip.

OMG I totally forgot about the complete fuzznut I got stuck next to flying from Sydney to Abu Dhabi. Pause the positives! So the gentleman, and I use the term in it's loosest sense, did that oafish 'I need to prove I'm a man' thing and sat so sprawled out that he's taking up half of my seat and half of the lady's on the other side of him. And he was vertically challenged so not like he needed much room. And then proceeds to touch my leg through 10 hours of a 15 hour flight. I tried smiling politely and moving my leg, I tried pushing his hand away, I tried telling him not to touch me, and in the end I tried yelling loudly enough for the pilot to hear 'stop f***ing touch me!' And then got an 'I wasn't doing anything' look. Just a bit of word from the wise to the desperate and dateless...touching strange women on airplanes is not historically the best way to acquire companionship. I know such graceless rejection must be truly shocking, but if that is the best action you're getting I suggest you go back to basics...try a new pick up line and maybe work on your personal hygiene. I hear they do wonders with soap, deodorant and toothpaste these days.

So positives!! Turkey was a good trip :) There's cake, kittens, archery, photosynthesising and shooting all in walking distance of the hotel. What's not to like :)

I was disappointed in my ranking round and I'll admit to having a behind the scenes cry about it. I've been shooting so well and so much stronger and I just couldn't do it when it counted. And I struggled with my blood sugar all day which was the real heart breaker. Just feeling like I'm never going to get it right when I need to and wondering if it is really holding me back or if I'm making excuses to fail as so many suggest, when really I should be celebrating the improvements that got me there in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTK-WeJX9_A

Matchplay against Colombia's (once Slovenia's) Maja Marcen was, as in Shanghai, a strength and a disappointment. I shot my best arrows and let myself down with one arrow. Came down to a one arrow shoot off in the end and Maja shot a 10 to my 9, but the disappointing arrow was a 6 earlier in the match. I struggled with that arrow and thought I was out of time so shot when I really should have let down and started again. Every archer on the planet has shot one of those so I can forgive myself for poor judgement under matchplay nerves when I recall it is only the second match I have shot in a year. Australia needs matchplay practice, and despite the elite archers saying so since matchplay became the international standard, even the National Championships does not include matchplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFcK2vbfmFY

And that was me once more on holidays and training and playing tourist.

We saw a clash of the titans again with Denmark versus USA for the gold medal match in teams with Denmark finally taking gold. And Patrick Laursen from Denmark taking down Georg Dollinger from Austria in the gold medal individual match. Paddy wowed the crowds the day before putting down a perfect round against crowd (and my) favourite Martin Damsbo in the semi finals.

And perhaps a more notable match because of their history was Martin shooting the bronze medal match against Braden Gellenthien. Like the Danish/USA teams matches, this match seems to occur regularly. Braden decided to up the stakes by discovering 14 strands on his cable where broken under the roller guard less than an hour out from their match and lacking a back up bow on hand he borrowed Martin's for the event. Martin took the match with some solid shooting and the guys put in a good show of friendship and sportsmanship for the crowd.

But a bigger smile for Sara Lopez as the face of that first big win taking a gold medal for Colombia with the 3rd leg of World Cup and World Games coming to her home country next. It's quite something to see pure enjoyment on the face of the new comer to the world stage. A very cool reminder of why we do what we do :)

Returning home was smooth sailing until I reached home and discovered my bow and clothes hadn't even made it onto the first plane. And then began the merry go round of phone calls trying to find out where my bag was. Which might have gone smoother if the first 4 people I spoke to hadn't been looking for a duffle bag. At the end of every call I left a description of my bow case and at the beginning of every call I spent some time explaining that it wasn't a duffle bag. Including sending them a photo of the bag. They finally decided it was a surfboard (because archery gear looks so similar) when they said 'well no wonder we couldn't find it if it wasn't a duffle bag!' and then wasted another few days looking for a surfboard bag. You don't need childhood traumas when you have such wonderful lost baggage staff :P

Thankfully my bow case arrived in tact and in time for The National Archery Series. This growing initiative was started by Urban Archery with a mind to addressing our lack of matchplay in Australia. And just a few weeks post Turkey I got to shoot some matches and put in a solid performance ranking 6th and finishing 4th. I even managed to shoot a 60. It was a great day to shoot, great day with friends and just a nice boost to put in some respectable arrows for a full day of shooting. I cannot claim to have shot better outside of practice in over a year.

So I'm patting myself on the back and saying 'oh look I can do it' :)