photostory friday: netball

i've probably posted about netball in the past

netball is the number 1 sport played by women (and girls) in new zealand

we have the commonwealth games gold medal in netball

however, our arch rivals, the australian diamonds [netball team] - have wrested the world title from us in overtime twice in a row

it's always a battle royale

back in the trenches however, my girls are both playing in the same team this year (as they are only one school year apart)

this is GREAT news for me, as i never miss a game AND i get to umpire all their games

mr scrappy took some great shots on this particular day

so to re-cap the major differences between NETBALL and BASKETBALL

basketball: 5 players per team

netball: 7 players per team

basketball: dribbling

netball: NO dribbling

miss 13 looking to offload

ALWAYS keep your eye on the ball

not the other way around!

miss 14 receiving a pass

a mid-air take from miss 13

a take on the run from miss 14

miss 14 plays GS (Goal Shoot), so my girls play at opposite ends of the court

and a great re-bound from miss 13 (GD: Goal Defence)

this game was played during the world cup and we'd all been watching a LOT of netball on tv!

and there's me umpiring proceedings

the joy of victory

i think they won by 8 goals

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

wordful wednesday: this one's gonna need a little explaining

if you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that the most popular sport amongst young new zealand girls is NETBALL.

netball is KINDA like basketball, with the following differences:

7 on a team instead of 5

no dribbling

no contact (although that's mostly a joke!)

one of our national players is a wonderful woman by the name of irene van dyk

irene played 74 tests for south africa before moving to new zealand, where she was forever taken to our hearts.  she is the most upbeat, happy, smiley, non-celebrity celebrity you could ever hope to meet.

she once came to the girls' primary school to teach some netball skills and i wrote an article for the local paper.  she even gave me her cell number in case i needed to check some details for when i wrote the article!

she's that down-to-earth.

this is miss 12 at netball practice on monday

here, they're practicing a set move called "IRENE"

at a thrown-in from the sideline, the players are bunched.  all but one FAKE a move to the right (your left), leaving the receiver wide open.

as you can see, the non-contact is a joke, as miss 12 is about to be elbowed out of the way!!!

i wonder if it will work on game day!!!

for more wordful wednesday, visit angie over @ seven clown circus

wordful wednesday: however wet i look in this pic - trust me, i was a WHOLE lot wetter!

so, our first game of the netball season rolled around

i didn't pay particular attention to the forecast, because i always OVER dress or UNDER dress

(no more obvious than today!)

my coat was actually IN THE CAR, because when we got there the sun was shining down from the blue sky above!

about 15 minutes before the end of miss 12's game (which she eventually won 21-6) the skies opened

and when i say OPENED, i mean it HAILED

i was wearing jeans, sneakers, this lightweight sweater over a long-sleeved tshirt

it rained so hard i couldn't even see

it rained so hard i actually had water running down the INSIDE OF MY BRA.

(i'll give you a minute to get that visual)

in this pic i was on my way back to the car, because we had 1 1/2 hours before we had to come BACK TO THE COURTS!!!

yes we did.  miss 12 is a junior umpire and they did not cancel the morning 'for a little bit of rain'.

thankfully, the rain DID stop, and i was able to go home for a hot shower and come back to enjoy the rest of the morning.

for more wordful wednesday, visit angie over @ seven clown circus

photostory friday - GO WELLINGTON!!!

on the eve of yet another mighty wellington-canterbury ranfurly shield clash - it's time for a little history lesson.

this is the ranfurly shield. also known as the 'log-o-wood'. it has a long and illustrious history dating back to 1902, and is the holy grail of provincial rugby in new zealand.

it has changed hands 75 times
it's been held for as long as 8 years and for as little as 7 days

wellington wrested the shield from auckland last year, winning 27 nil, and our city held a parade in their honour.

it was a full circle moment for me (well, sorta).

back in 1982 (when i could wear black fishnets and heels squatting on the back of a truck), the canterbury rugby union held a parade BEFORE their first successful shield challenge against counties. this was in the days when no excuse was really needed to throw a parade.

still living in christchurch, DH ('the boyfriend' as he was the time) and i were part of a voluntary organisation called st. john (like boys and girls brigade, but with a first aid slant). hubs and friend dressed as counties players (by clevering adding a band of white tape around their red and black jerseys) and pretended to get 'beaten up' by the canterbury players (during the parade). see hubs' "black eye".

the 'injured players' (see leg in cast in background of VERY grainy old picture) would get tossed onto the hospital bed which was on the back of a truck, and 'slutty nurse sue' (that would be me), would 'tend' to them.

fun, fun; and look - there we are with the famous logo o' wood.

cut to 2008 and here it is again (except i'm photographing it, not holding it).

this is leo the lion - the team's mascot. it was a VERY windy day

wellington and canterbury have played each other for the shield at least seven times

and we haven't won many of them ('we' being wellington!)

back in 2003 they even had a 38-all draw

which brings us back to today - town is abuzz with 'shield fever'

we won't be at the game, because we're heading out of town for the night
if i'd known about the game, i think we would have stayed in town and gone, coz it's gonna be a good one!

i even have a bottle of chardonnary riding on it with a friend

GO WELLINGTON!!!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

tree's up!

so this is the weather at our place today. jealous much melinda? (and anyone else dealing with freezing temps right now!) hehe. me teaseth too much

we couldn't resist being outside and had a game of softball

lookin' cool

trying to look cool...

the game ended abruptly when this pitch connected with miss 10's face!

what date is christmas again?

smile dad!

i get to drape all the pearls around the tree each year

this pic is for all the dad's out there who've ever been frustrated trying to find the source of that one dead bulb

SUCH a poser...

sisterly love

"oh the humanity"

everytime we drag out the box and start decorating the tree, i get quite nostalgic over the history of our mish-mash collection of decorations. when we lived in the states, our tree was almost completely white.

in the years since (15 of them), the tree has slowly become more and more colourful. partly because some have been gifted, but mostly because of the cute decorations that the girls have made at school.

(from l to r: i cross-sitched one each for the girls; beaded angels - we made a tonne of these one year; atlanta dec gifted by a friend from our time there; macaroni decoration from kindy; baked decoration from school; stars and stripes - another gift from friends in atlanta; jandals - so kiwi!; decoration made by miss 19 in kindergarten. it says: "i wish for christmas, no more wars". pretty insightful for a 5 year old).

music to decorate the tree by


merry december to you!

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

we had an election too ya'know...

AND a change of government!

miss 19 was a first-time voter, but for whatever reason, was in a totally crabby mood and wouldn't let me take her picture.

the population of new zealand is 4 million and just under 3 million are registered voters: YES - we are an aging population! we had a 78% voter turnout in the weekend which was apparently VERY LOW. we've set ourselves such high standards!!!

and so we should - new zealand was the FIRST country in the world to given women the vote!!!

it was a gorgeous day too. we took miss 10 to softball at 9am and you only make the mistake of NOT bringing anything to sit on ONCE...

warming up before their softball game

what a difference a week makes!!!

(this was LAST saturday)

monday morning weekend report

i like using the words 'monday morning' in my monday morning posts, because it has a tendency to freak out some of my northern hemisphere readers when they surf in on a sunday and wonder in a moment of terror, if they have forgotten to go to work!

i know. sick sense of humour. get used to it.

friday night we watched our rugby team lose (on the telly, no rainy madness this time), but still hold onto their place in the semi-final to be played next week. YAY!

miss 10 decided to make this for dessert

but first she needed to take a burn with her daddy to the supermarket to buy fixins'

looks great!

other weekend events included a movie marathon. miss 16 and i watched this...

then this,

...and finally this

in preparation for this; a one-man star wars trilogy; "a gallop through the galaxy which condenses the three original films into a 1-hour show." miss 16 and i are going to see him on thursday night.
i also dragged missuz 10 and 16 out for a run. i'd like to say all participants were willing, and were happy to leave the warm house on a cool, crisp late sunday afternoon, but i would be lying.

"where are we going anyway?"

"why do we have to run uphill? it's just STUPID!!!"

strangely lush fitness plan participants (post-run). we started as 3, but lost one on the way. don't worry, she found her way home!

saturday morning dawned sunny and warm for the first games of winter netball. i was set to umpire 3 games, but was only needed for 2.

the first few weeks are grading games, so the games tend to be very one-sided and rather scrappy as players find their feet. miss 11's team lost 26-9, but they played a fabulous second half, and they are going to be a great little team.

miss 10 played TWO games - one for the A grade and one for her regular team (who are in the B grade). the A grade team won an awful 37 to nil. i say awful, because that kind of hiding is just no fun for anyone. i know, i watched my guys be on the losing end. her second game was a much more even 12-3 (they won that too).

that's me in the yellow all business with me whistle. the woman on the far left (in the sunglasses) had the tamerity to question one of my calls! i wasn't sure whether she was one of our parents (i don't know all the families in our team yet), and that's the only thing that stopped me from handing her my whistle!!!

miss 11's team photo. the grass was quite dewy (sp?) and they were all worried about getting wet knees!

photographing kids is like herding sheep!

hope you all had a fun weekend too!