Eeeek!

So you know how people kill their fish by feeding them too much? Well feeling a bit that way now. My ex's dad used to have these golf balls he called gold fish that looked like they were more unnaturally buoyant than even fish have a right to. Such is the feeling of being loved to death by your family with hourly offerings of cake, schnitzel, wine and donuts, on the off chance that my new home doesn't have food :D Those evil saboteurs of good intentions and fitness classes... but it's food with love, and it could be a long drought before I get home made offerings that match those of my culinarily obsessed family. So I no complain :)

Shooting has been light on for someone with so much 'free time'....But I've managed a few days in and around the chaos. So hoping my bow isn't a foreign object come the Danish Indoor next week...but I suspect it is a lost cause. Still seeing a little jumpiness creeping in if I don't shoot everyday, but happy with the progress. And even pushups are a little easier this week.

Packing up my life and squeezing in visits with friends and relatives has proven more frantic than I expected...and gosh I have a lot of stuff! I'm one of those people who watches Hoarders on tv in morbid fascination.. and looking around at all my junk that fits in one room...I wonder how people can do it. I feel suffocated by the sheer volume and I don't own much. So it's been quite cathartic to throw out and sell off and rationalise the rest. A few things have survived the cull despite me trying to be ruthless... My ottoman... maybe just because people call it a poof and I get a giggle every time..Juvenile? Me?..And my hoolahoop.... haven't managed to part with it even though I know it won't get used. It's blue and silver with sparkles...how could I possibly give it away? The magical rediscovery of things long lost or forgotten and the mystification of why on Earth I bought that... or where on Earth did that come from? And that is never fitting in a suitcase!

In two days I get on a plane and my adventure begins. Are we nervous yet? :)

Getting my fit on! who's idea was that??

Quit my job last week. Packing my bags this week. I'm officially an archery bum until I find a new job in my new home. In the mean time I made a promise to myself to up my shooting and my fitness while I have spare sand in the hour glass and lots of fidget energy to spare.

Day 5 of being an archery bum. I shot 3 days, went to Barre classes 5 days, up at 5.30am every day, cooked a spectacular meal for my digestively challenged friends and went blackberry picking in my break :)

Shooting has been great. It's been a long stretch of just easy shooting, working out the target panic and knocking out the kinks. My first challenge is the Danish National Indoor in 3 weeks where I will be competing as a Danish resident for the first time. I don't currently have an indoor range and my indoor bow is in Denmark, so making do with my outdoor setup and shooting 20m on indoor faces. The first thing you notice when you haven't cared about score in a while is how crap your score is, and how much work is involved in just aiming steady. There's lots of theory out there about aim and whether you should or shouldn't and how important it is etc. Some folk will go as far as shooting open rings with no dot in order to relax their focus on aim. I think this is a useful technique for relaxing people, but personally I find it makes me lazier than a cat in front of the fire and when you start chasing those 1-2 points here and there, it's worth going for a dot.

Weightier issues are afoot. 4 years ago I was wasting away from type 1 diabetes and dropping weight faster than I could change clothes. Once I started insulin, I immediately started gaining weight.
At my strongest and fittest (pre diabetes), I was a solid girl of about 78kg, could run for an hour, was doing very respectable weights in the gym and shooting 60lb with spiral cams and doing it easy. At my lightest and weakest, I was so thin I had to run around in the shower to get wet (53kg), my bow was 45lb (busted down to GTX cams) with all mass weights down to bare minimum, I needed a nap to walk up a flight of stairs and my gym work out was thinking about exercise. Now I have a handle on the whole pancreas thing. My weight is a healthy 66kg and my bow weight a respectable 54lb.
I'm aiming to lean down some body fat, up my muscle mass and get back to 60lb this coming season. I'm focusing on high intensity interval training, daily barrecode (core strength work out) and intermittent fasting (one of the few ways to lean down that science actually supports).

I feel ready to face a few challenges :)

Are you a bully?

Are you that person only knows how to make jokes if it is at someone else's expense? Do you always have to put someone down, somehow trying to make yourself look better, by stepping on other people? Or perhaps you are a fan of 'tough love' - if you don't constantly point out someone's faults, who will tell them? Are you the person who hasn't said a single nice thing this week? I've got news for you. You are a bully. You are that person we all know. And sadly, you are the one we secretly don't like as much as our other friends. You are the one we make excuses to avoid spending time with because you are always so mean, as opposed to because we are just too socially retarded to make a time.

Social media is a fascinating melting pot of how people wish to be seen by the world and most of us alter reality by not posting the fugly photo or by editing our opinions, before we post them, so as not to offend. But the invention of the internet has also given rise to a new level of bullying and having any presence on the net seems to attract it. Anonymity gives courage to the coward and freedom to be as mean as you like and gosh if people aren't judgemental pricks:
'You're a fat bitch.'
'Your boyfriend is going to leave you, b/c you got fat.'
'Lose some weight.'
'You're a skinny bitch.'
'I hate you.'
'You think so much of yourself.'
'You're boring.'
'Lose some weight, you slut.'
'You just want attention.'
'You are so ugly.'
Bla bla bla bla and so on.

So let's take a look at the average garden variety bully... How sad your life must be, that trying to make other people sad is how you feel good about yourself. How much you must dislike yourself and how unhappy you must be, because the funny thing about secure and happy people is they don't need to be mean to feel good about their world. And the funny thing about being mean is that it actually makes you feel bad. Always saying negative things reflects back on your life and your life is more negative for it. And if you think about a bully you know (and even bullies know another bully), you will realise that you actually don't like them so much. Being mean makes them less likeable. They likely have no genuine friends, if it is always tainted by mean comments...or they have friends who are just like them and like themselves and their friends about as much as they like fungus - grows on you, but are you sure you want it to?

I would rather be the fat, ugly chick (that I am labelled now and then) that everyone likes than the catwalk model we all detest. I love my friends and they love me and none of them are ever mean. None of them give two hoots if I gain or lose a kilo or if I'm pretty enough. Sounds so simple and logical doesn't it? Your friends are decent human beings? Shocking!

Don't get me wrong... there are people in the world I am incapable of being nice to. That's why they aren't my friends and I don't speak to them unless I can be polite. See what I did there? silence :) that thing that saves your inner jerk from being an outie.

Real friends don't feel the need to put you down, they support you and make you stronger. So if someone in your life isn't doing that, you know what to do. And if they are an anonymous butt monkey on the internet - well who cares? They're an anonymous butt monkey on the internet, not a friend, so you don't have to care what they think.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....

Australia Day...

Okay so now I'm super behind on having anything to say.. but it's been a couple months so probably time I broke the golden silence and chattered away for the sake of continuity.

I'm generally benign about having national days, mostly it's an extra shooting day, but I think they have a purpose and a good one. I think people should have pride in their national identity. And yes everyone's experience of nation is different, but it does include your friends, family, sunny days, uniquely Australian humour, turns of phrase that only we understand (like died in the arse and gob smacked) and lamingtons (cakey, chocolatey goodness).

So seeing an article on a national lamington bake off...I'm some what incensed by the need to create new fangled versions of a national icon. And for that matter anything that doesn't need fixing. I like the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. So many things (including archery) don't need to be messed with if they aren't broken. Lamingtons are sponge cake with raspberry jam, coated in chocolate and coconut. It works. Don't mess with it. If you don't like it there are other cakes out there. And the funny thing about filling it with mango, and dipping it in white chocolate, is it isn't a lamington any more. Like putting extra things in the Anzac cookies - leave it alone!

And I think Australia Day should be approached with the same principle. Don't spend the day ear bashing people about what you hate about our home (yours and mine). Celebrate the things you love about your home. For all that isn't right or perfect, make it a day to remember what you love about life here. Our Prime Minister being an embarrassing knob is hardly news (and an awful lot of you voted for him) and we could perform better on any number of international, ethical and environmental issues.... but they aren't the only things that make Australia home.

If an Australian guy pays a compliment or buys his girlfriend flowers, she will ask what is wrong and check that the cat is still alive. And we find too many compliments really weird.
'hi, how's it going' means 'hi'. Just 'hi'. And we might look at you funny if you actually proceed to tell us how it's going.
No other nation on the planet thinks Beached Az is funny.
We all know what 'bugger me' actually means and yet no one thinks it's rude to say it.
We cook Xmas turkey on the BBQ and pretty much anything else come to think of it.
Our beaches have sand on them (you need to get out more if you haven't seen what passes for beaches elsewhere)
Our winters have sunny days with blue sky.
Kangaroos - nuff said
We all got condolences when Steve Irwin died
We're one of the most irreverent countries on the planet and super easy going

So if you don't celebrate Australia Day, no big deal, but maybe it doesn't hurt to appreciate the good things in your life now and then and not just list all the bad. There's more to being Australian than how and when the country was settled and whether or not we have gotten right all the things that no other nation has actually perfected either. So eat real lamingtons, BBQ some dead animal and just enjoy the day.

Bite your tongue....

Target Panic. Those nasty evil words. Had never thought to have a real dose of it, but this last month I think we are definitely in that zone. So break out the BT, bust down to blank bale and batten down the hatches and Gosh Darn it (I only know one guy who really says gosh and golly... it still makes me smile)!

Folk might have noticed a little peace and quiet of late. I've been light on shooting and busy with other projects, but up until a week or two ago had been happy with what little shooting I was doing. Then after 3 or more days shooting in super gusty evil nasty winds... I find I'm not trusting my trigger so much. I'm finding I lack the patience to let it go off in good time. And an insidious feeling it is too. As bad as the flinch that starts before you shoot when you've hit your arm one too many times... not too different to trying to give yourself a shot of insulin when the last one hit a nerve. No matter how awesome and gutsy you think you are...some things are just beyond self control and no amount of determination can still the flinch.

Contributing to this mess was a week in hospital as an out patient in the DAFNE program. This means I spend all day there, but get to go home at night. This is a program for type 1 diabetics. Your insulin, food, exercise and sickness regimes are all overhauled with a view to better blood sugar control. I met lots of other diabetics and got to see how other people cope or don't cope with our disease and I got to see that my world really just isn't so bad. Not that I ever thought it really was...but I had never realised how much this disease devastates some people.

So I guess I figured everyone approached the world with a gung-ho, take the bull by the horns attitude and I don't think I ever really thought that that attitude makes up for a multitude of sins..in fact I'm sure it gets me into a lot of trouble... But I met a person so devastated by illness that their lives had been on hold and they had never been happy in over a decade. Not just by any illness. But by an illness we share. I met people who in decades of diabetes have never been as well on their good days as I have been in the worst of my 5 yrs. And in every case the difference was distinct in the approach. It isn't like you can produce less than zero insulin so it isn't a matter of anyone being more sick, but rather having the tools and or the attitude to push back. And seeing people obtain the tools to gain control of their lives and smile for the first time in years was as heart warming as it was educational. I am blessed in the education, teaspoon of cement and friends and family that have made life with my dinky pancreas considerably less awful than it could have been. And if I knew the formula to giving people their own in built, come out fighting attitude with a hefty dose of education, I would give it. It seems to have saved me considerable trauma.

I have the strength and know how to keep George the Evil Pancreas in his place, so no stupid target panic is going to get me down! Enter patience and time and perseverance...and maybe a lot of recurve :) And gradually the jumpiness is getting better. I figure never let these things settle. So all I have worked on the last few weeks is a calm, strong shot. I'm told target panic is never really gone... but neither is diabetes so they can both bite me.

Target Panic You Evil Beast!

Spring cleaning time again

So having a lot of self esteem and attitude convos lately...

So the advice I give to me... and to anyone who cares to listen in no particular order:

Like yourself

If you don't like yourself why on Earth are you moping about someone else not liking you? They're taking your own advice and assuming if you don't like you, you're probably a jerk. And while we're on the subject - we're all jerks. No such thing as a perfectly nice, never said a bad word about anyone person...and if you've ever met one you know just how creepy they are. Budding serial killers the lot of them. If you really genuinely like everyone, there's something wrong with your wiring. Lots of people are worse than jerks. so getting back to the point, people take cues from other people. If you hate yourself, people will start agreeing with you. Better to be nice to yourself and get a head start on things. And lets face it, if no one else is nice to you someone has to be. May as well start with you.

Embrace your inner jerk.
Had a laugh when the cat fell off the bed or when that lady walked into the door? Can't bring yourself to like someone even though they seem nice enough? Don't want to do the nice thing today because you just don't want to? These are the hall marks of your inner jerk. We all have one and people who don't admit it are usually the worst kind of jerks (see comment on serial killers). So you really need to make peace with your inner jerk. It's part of who you are and often provides a different perspective to balance an overly fluffy world view. And over flowing self flagellation about the occasional jerk behaviour can lead to negative thinking and erosion of self worth.

Fake it till you make it.

I grew up in the teenage social disaster that says everyone will put you down so may as well get there first. Whose stupid philosophy that was I don't know, but lets face it teenagers aren't collectively bright. I'm pretty sure puberty kills brain cells for a few years and walking out of the emo whatevers of the teen years you really need to grow out of the follow the herd and hate yourself behaviour. Frankly it's boring and not terribly useful to you or anyone else. So I decided one day that I would not be that person. I don't like people like that so why should anyone like me if I'm like that. It isn't an overnight success. You don't wake up one day and think you are the best thing since chocolate crackles. You fake it, you lie through your teeth, to yourself and everyone and that includes the mirror. And one day you just don't think you're quite as bad as the squidgey stuff that smells bad on the bottom of your shoe.

Everyone is good at something

And you should not just learn what that is but you should learn to say so. Verbalisation is important in convincing the world and yourself that you are awesome. It's an interesting test with teenage girls - 'tell me you are gorgeous'. Most will go red with embarrassment and refuse to make eye contact. They'll stare at their feet, shrug their shoulders and mumble a negative. very rarely do you meet the teenage girl who can make eye contact and say with a smile 'I am gorgeous'. and I can guarantee you the one who can do it, even if they don't believe it, will be 10 times easier to coach or teach than the one who hunches over, crosses her arms and stares at her belly button lint rather than say 3 little words even in jest.

Pat yourself on the back

When was the last time you said yay me? Big or small. Doesn't have to be the discovery of the answer to fossil fuels or reaching the top of Everest. Just I did that and isn't it great! I shot that arrow with perfect technique. I made an awesome dinner. I look pretty in that picture. I didn't drop the f bomb in front of my nephew. I'm a great sister. The list is and should be endless of things you can congratulate yourself on even if it's just something small...assuming you got out of bed today. And if you didn't, well 'I am a most excellent sleeper.'

It isn't all about you.

Most people are actually thinking about themselves and how other people think of them rather than spending all that time thinking about you. When you are the last person on the line to shoot and everyone else is waiting, it is easy to think they are all watching you and get nervous. But a little walk through my own head when someone else is the last one on the line and I realise I'm wondering why they made Ivana (5'4") and Albina (6'1") share a spotting scope? Can't be for fairness or practicality. So I'm going with self amusement. I'm checking my blood sugar. I'm rehydrating. I'm wondering if there's enough time to take a pee break and if I can be bothered going even though I know now I had that thought I'm going to be thinking about it all through the next end...damn i shouldn't have had that drink of water. I'm thinking my sock is getting eaten by my shoe. And maybe just maybe I'm sparing a thought for the poor schmuck who's running down the clock and the wind is picking up. So assuming everyone else has that much rubbish in their heads at any one time... it is safe to assume they aren't sparing much brain power on you and what ever it is that you find embarrassing, mortifying or depressing about yourself... they probably didn't notice.

Own it.
And if 100 people actually did witness your mortification then own it. Embrace it and pay it. I was walking back to my car last week on an especially windy day and my very pretty dress blew straight up. My hands were full of coffees for my next appointment and there wasn't a whole lot to be done for dignity or modesty and as pretty as my knickers were I hadn't chosen them with a view to an audience. So I could shrivel up and die of mortification or I could own it. I had a good laugh, assumed the old man walking to the cardiology clinic was in safe hands if he got a little too much excitement and proceeded to share my laugh with various people throughout my day. Sharing a little mortification is often a good salve for the soul. Such things happen to everyone and either they will commiserate or they will get a laugh too and you made someone else's day a little brighter.
The same goes for screwing up. You screwed up six ways to Sunday. Own it. Admit it. Apologise. Fix it. And then forgive yourself. Anyone who can't forgive you can go and get their own self help advice. Whatever it is, build a bridge and get over it.

Can't is the same as won't.
Let's assume we aren't talking about achieving the impossible, instead a task set before you that theoretically is possible. The first word of failure is won't. The second word of failure is can't. Try using different words in your own head. Like 'I can' or 'no harm in having a go'. If you say 'can't' or 'won't' then you have already failed. No point wasting your time and everyone else's if you are already making excuses for why you have failed when you haven't even tried yet. Winners try things. Can't win the race you didn't enter.
And you know that putz that says 'not to be offensive, but'... well you all know that nothing good comes from people starting with 'but'. So if you really want to take a step in the right direction, you need to practice not saying but or any equivalents. Like not saying 'um' in a public speech. Saying 'ah' is the same thing and you know you are cheating.

Procrastination
How often do you put something off? I will clean my room. I will do my homework. I will do my taxes. I will change my attitude. I will be more positive. All great thoughts. All totally pointless if you don't actually follow through. Like the race you didn't enter, the room you didn't clean and the attitude you didn't change leave you in the same state of unchanged. In order to change something you have to not just decide you want to, you actually have to do it. And the best place to start is with a goal. Small goals are fine. But goal you must have. I've heard a few sayings along the lines of if you don't know where you are going it doesn't matter how you get there. I think more importantly if you don't know where you are going it doesn't matter if you don't get there. Where is the incentive to go in the first place? And if you know where you are going, but don't plan how to get there... that's called lost people. L O S T. For all those people who don't need directions or maps and wind up in weird places - this one is for you. If you decide to be a positive person and the next words out of your mouth start with but or can't or won't...you might need to rethink your strategy. Your room doesn't clean itself and neither does your mind.

Avoid the negative Nancy
That person who never says a positive thing. No encouragement passes their lips. They never make a joke that isn't putting someone down. They always give voice to the hole in your plan and always say I told you so if the plan goes awry and never offer a hand up when you fall. The glass is half empty and they're the person who drank the other half. Remind me why exactly you spend time with this person? And if this person is you, re read this blog post from the start.

And lastly, be nice. Be nice to yourself and be nice to other people and other people and yourself will be nice back. Everyone could use someone nice in their life, be that person for someone else and maybe someone will be that person for you. Better yet, hedge your bets and be nice to a few people.

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' :)