photostory friday: local perspiration - global inspiration

one of the great things about living in a small country is that our 'celebrities' (such as they are) - are incredibly accessible.

for example, the sports co-ordinator at miss 17's sports awards ceremony is the brother of an iconic new zealand cricketer (whose daughter went to school with miss 19).

kate horan, who is an ex-pupil of miss 17's college (high school) - is a one-legged single mother who competes on the athletics world stage almost year round, and won a silver medal at the beijing paralympics.

she also presented the awards at our local college sports awards recently.

here she is showing off 2 of her 6 legs. this one's worth $10,000!

showing off her silver medal. apparently it's very heavy!

who says students don't have a sense of humour?

i was sitting on the opposite side of the room to the teacher who was taking photos (meaning i would get a crap shot of the back of my daughter's head) - like so...
...but because i'm the world's most embarrassing scrapbooking mother - after posing for the teacher, my child (who had previously teased that she wouldn't!) says "can you turn this way so my mum can take a picture?"

i love how my kids indulge me.

oh yeah - miss 17 won the MVP for girls' hockey for the THIRD year in a row. that girl sure knows how to stop a hockey ball; and her bestie won 'most improved' on their badminton team.
when we got home, all i wanted was a pic of miss 17 relaxing on the sofa with a hot chocolate. this is one of many faces she pulled once she realised i had a camera in my hand.
you can see kate's dramatic race here. make sure you watch it! notice how i said 'dramatic', and now you're curiosity is REALLY piqued! it really was dramatic, and you should go watch it. seriously.


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

stand up and take a bow

so proud

our gold medal winning shot putter valerie vili (wearing the flag) will have to wait until tomorrow for her share of the bling, but that didn't stop her celebrating. it's been 56 years since a new zealander has a won a 'field' gold medal, so another 24 hours won't hurt.

winning last night's gold medal on her FIRST throw, valerie is an ex-world junior champion, who won gold medal the 2007 world championships. at 23 years young she has overcome a rough upbringing and the death of both her parents, which makes her achievement all the more incredible.

i'm proud to call her a fellow kiwi.

not even a rampant case of 'beijing belly', and a 4kg weight loss in 7 days could stop our mighty mahe from claiming new zealand's first medal at the 2008 olympics. dramatic scenes followed his race finish, and you can read about them here.

ten minutes later we won another rowing bronze with our pairs sculls,

then our golden girls, twin sisters caroline and georgina evers-swindell won gold in a photo finish; defending their olympic title from athens in 2004.

not long after our golden moment, cyclist hayden roulston won our first silver medal of these games in the individual mens' pursuit. a great night at the office for the men and women in black.

GO KIWIS!!!