Cracking and creaking in samoa

So dr rachel is currently visiting samoa and she comes highly recommended as a chiropractor by both adam and ray so i thought it was time i went to see if anyone could relieve the pain in my neck! Too much computer and mouse use and all that. After a consultation punctuated with many ohhhs, wows and ahs over the state of my spine and her ability to find every sore spot along it i was most impressed when an "adjustment" had instant effect. Since then there have been more cracks and creaks and slowly we are working through all areas. This is the first time i have been to a chiropractor and have to say it has been a positive experience and i now feel like i can move even if some days have been like a decrepit old woman while the body gets used to where it should be! Thank you dr rachel please visit samoa again soon!

Frangipani Flowering

The Frangipani that I planted from a cutting about a year ago has sprung in to flower while I've been in NZ.

UNISS – Upper North Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament

Oceania Umpires from Left - Raijieli (Fiji), Jona (Fiji), Angela (Samoa), Mela (Fiji) and Punanga (Cook Islands)

I’ve just returned from the UNISS tournament which was in Glen Innes this year at the Auckland Netball Centre. The centre was built about 4 years ago and the area is still being developed around it. It is a fantastic facility. Over 20 purpose built courts and 2 indoor courts that can also accommodate indoor netball and soccer etc. The building has space for a cafeteria, physio room, control room and umpires facilities. I was invited as one of 6 Oceania Umpires to this tournament so there were 3 from Fiji, 2 from the Cook Islands and me and we were part of the 100 strong Umpiring team there.

The weather was changeable. Sometimes bright and sunny and other times raining with a fierce cold wind! The netball was fast and clean compared to what I’m used to and the girls have great skills. They were all as tall as trees and very competitive, I’m sure it wasn’t like that in my day!! For the first 3 days I ran up and down frantically trying to follow the protocols and keep up with the game but on the 4th day I received some mentoring from one of NZ’s top umpires and had a couple of “ah ha” moments where things dropped into place. By the last day of the tournament I think I had nailed positioning and anticipating/reading the game so as to be one step ahead. I started to see how it was meant to be and discovered umpiring is completely different to playing the game. I observed some of the top umpires in action and learnt a heck of a lot in a short space of time.

I was super impressed with the way the game was controlled during the tournament. All the umpires from A to C grade followed the protocols and knew the rules equally as well. I found that the 2 of you on a game really did need to work as a team and control things together from before match checks to starting the game, injury breaks, advancing penalties and warning players. One thing I did notice is that the umpires don’t tolerate any nonsense from the players or the spectators and think nothing of awarding a penalty to the opposing team if grief is given. This is something we could do a lot more stringently in Samoa. I did have an incident on my first day with a player being “punched” in the back of the head and ending up in hospital with concussion and I didn’t even see a thing!! Now how can that be possible???

I learnt about “doing hot and colds”!! Basically this is standing in a plastic rubbish bin up to your thighs in icy water for at least 30 seconds. I braved this a couple of times and yes could feel the difference to the aching muscles however it was more like torture than fun as I was sure my legs were going to drop off. I wonder who discovered that this was a good idea for tired muscles??

Now it’s back to Samoa to practice my new found skills and work towards my NZ Badge starting with the NZ theory on the 13th September. Fingers crossed to pass that exam.

USP Open Day

Yesterday was USP’s annual Open Day – another reason why Angela has been so busy recently. There seems to be a lot organise and she has ended up on the Open Day Committee – they seem to have a committee for everything these days!

Anyway, it sounds like it was a successful day. Something that they did differently this year was the cultural performances. Each year they get students from the various countries that make up USP to perform some traditional dance items from their homeland. This has always been done in the afternoon, so those of us at work miss out – although I have been able to experience it second hand thanks to Angela’s movie clips and thousands of photos! This year they held it in the evening, so I took the opportunity to go and watch the performances first hand. For those of you not lucky enough to live here and be able to see the show, Ang will be uploading some photos and video clips soon – but she has plenty to sort through first!

The students did a great job – as always. For us Palagi it is a great reminder of what an important place song and dance has in the culture of the Pacific Islands. And it is a great way to see so many different cultures and compare the similarities and note the differences between them.

I am just grateful that they don't expect this uncoordinated, rhythmically challenged palagai to get up and perform some kind of dance from his homeland!

Weekend Away

Me again - this is what happens when Ang lets me loose on the blog!

In between all of the netball we did managed to fit in a weekend away recently. It was Father’s Day here a couple of weeks ago and in Samoa that means a long weekend! So we headed off around the coast to Le Uaina – this is the same place we went at Easter. At Easter I spent most of the weekend suffering with a bad back (I told you I am getting old), but this time I was fully fit. We enjoyed a very nice few days relaxing and snorkelling.

When I was making our booking I went to their website (yes, they are one on the few places here that have a website) and was surprised to see that some of Angela’s photos from our last visit now appear on the website! Check it our here: Le Uaina That is Angela holding the blue starfish! I think a couple more of her photos are some of the other pages of the site too.

We will be uploading some photos from the weekend to flickr soon.

Netball Update.

Sorry we haven’t posted anything for so long but things have been quite busy recently. All the usual stuff – netball, netball and more netball! So, it has fallen to me to give a quick update.

Angela’s team has been going OK, a bit inconsistent but they are currently vying for a respectable 3^rd or 4^th place finish in the A Grade. There are only a couple of weeks left in the season so they are keen to finish strongly and maybe take out third place.

The USP girls have finished the season undefeated and have taken out the B Grade – thanks largely to ‘Super Coach’. Yes, that’s me! While Angela was away in Toowoomba I had to look after the team. They were all very worried about how they would cope while she was away so insisted that I came down to the games with them. While in charge I helped them to hard fought wins over Hyundai (our club) and St Mary’s, and earned the nickname of Super Coach.

The USP Boys team has been a different story and the cause of a great deal of stress for poor old Angela. They never turn up to training, but then complain that they need more practice. Some weeks they turn up to the courts without enough players to make up their team and other weeks they will arrive with a whole bus load of players. Last week only 1 turned up, the rest of them had been out drinking on Friday night and were still in bed when the van came to take them to netball! I don’t think Ang is keen on having a boys team next season.

And of course Angela is still umpiring. As one of Samoa’s most highly qualified netball umpires she gets put on all the tough games. She is always worried about her performance, but I can see that she is doing a really good job. Last week she had to umpire the top 2 men’s teams. This is a game that has often got out of control in the past, with lots of dirty play, talking back to umpires and even the odd fight or chair being thrown! But last week she was in control of this unruly bunch of fa'afafines and it was a good game to watch. Soon she is off to NZ to umpire a secondary schools tournament in Auckland and after that she will be sitting her next umpiring exam. If only she could but down her Phillipa Gregory and start studying the netball rule book!

As for me, I have only played a few games this season. I have been struggling with a sore knee, or maybe I am just getting old! Not playing doesn’t seem to excuse you from spending all day at the courts though. I still have to watch the games Angela plays and umpires and am expected to give intelligent feedback, and of course someone has to man the club's sausage sizzle while everyone else is busy playing.

Because of my dodgy knee I have only been doing a limited amount of running, but am still planning to take part in the Samoa Perimeter Relay again. This is the 102km relay run that I did last year. There are 3 of us from last years team that are back to do it again, the other 3 have all returned to NZ, but we have rounded up 3 more suckers to join us. The event is next weekend and I promise to post a report as soon as I can.

University Games Success!

So it was freezing cold (yes even frost on the ground) in Toowoomba but none of that could dampen our spirits!! WE WON BRONZE!! I kid you not. It is awesome and we feel like we have done something great for Samoa even if it is just to win a bronze medal at the UniGames Netball competition!! It was an awesome week. Everyone was fairly well behaved (ah hem!! nough said) we fought hard, we played hard, we kept our cool when it was necessary and we did not give up for one minute even though we had to beat "Turbo" who was turbo sized from the University of Southern Queensland 2 team in the play offs for the bronze. Everyone is so stoked. Made all the organising and worrying over funding very worth while. Lets hope this can bring great things to Samoa for University sports. We certainly got noticed internationally by a FISU - International University Sports Fedreation member and AUS - Australian University Sports person both of whom came to support our games once they saw how well we were doing. Here are the results for the mixed netball:-

Gold - University of Southern Queensland

Silver - Griffith University Gold Coast

Bronze - Samoan Universities

Yeeee Ha still riding that wave!!