Another Sportspower Tournament
Yesterday Andrew and I played in the Sportspower tournament held in Wodonga again. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the draw on the card. Aidan Reid was on the card, fresh back from America and the number 1 junior in Colorado. I almost certainly prepared myself for a whooping. I'm glad I did because I got thumped 6-0. I also played the Mabon twins. They also thumped me 6-0 each. Even though I didn't win a game, I had a great time. It's good to know what the standard is at in the 21 and under division and it gives me something to work towards. You know how people say, "The match wasn't justified by the scoreline"? I'd like to agree as a copout, but no, they truly outclassed me. Playing people so much better than you always puts doubts into whether you should continue playing. I did that but then I was like, this is so stupid. There is no reason to, as there will always be lesser and greater persons than yourself (I remember this line from "Desiderata" up on our toilet door...very inspiring).
Anyway I leave you with the only picture I took that day when I was hitting with the Mabon twins + sister after the day had finished.
Sportspower Tournament
Seeing as though I played in it two weeks ago at Wodonga, I am back with those two extra weeks of practise this time. I hope to do a little bit better this time as I worked on my game a bit more. I fixed up that buggy forehand that had little shoulder rotation. Although I need to work more on my backhand, I think I can get some safe shots in with it. Wish my brother and I good luck!
Personal Loans for that new car
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VoIP is the way to go!
I'm pretty sure a lot of people have used the voice/webcam capabilities in MSN messenger and Skype even. This is what people in the tech world call VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). This basically means the transfer of audio over the internet. Some of you may have discovered that Skype can make calls to ordinary telephones after you attach credit to your account. I have been doing this for a while since I have friends scattered around the world until I found out about hardware VoIP. Hardware VoIP means that you have a dedicated "box" that controls your calls from normal telephone handsets instead of your computer.
I recently signed myself up to MyNetFone as my VoIP provider. The call rates are basically the same as SkypeOut would charge or even cheaper, except that you use the service with your normal phone. Getting hardware VoIP also means you can still access your ordinary PSTN number on VoIP devices with the fallback feature. This feature means you can still make and receive calls on the PSTN number.
I would recommend people to switch to VoIP if they have a high speed internet connection. You can finally bar all outgoing calls on your regular line (saving you money) and make all outgoing calls on the VoIP service which is exceptionally cheap for local, STD and international. The VoIP hardware will pay itself off in one billing cycle if you use the phone frequently.
Andrew Drage’s 21st Birthday Celebrations
It has been a while since I've updated I know... I've been quite busy doing other things but now I have found the time to recap from what has occurred within the past week. No doubt, the highlight of last week was Drage's 21st birthday celebration. His mum organised the weekend fiasco in late January all for a surprise. The whole Drage family was invited with the exception of me and his good friend, Sarah.
Our destination was Barwon Heads, not too far from Geelong and the Great Ocean Road. The spot is beautiful. Apparently the town is famous for the location of the television program "Seachange". The 13th Beach Golf Course was our accommodation. The rooms were excellent! Friday evening led us to the Geelong port to a fully hired boat. We partied all night on sea named cocktails!!!
Saturday led us to an early morning breakfast in downtown Barwon Heads. The big breakfast they so called it wasn't really big...but maybe it was because we were so hungover and hungry from the early hours of the morning. Andrew, Sarah and I went back to the hotel and got our swimmers. We walked to 13th beach, tanned and swam for a bit. The highlight of that had to be Sarah getting caught in a rip. I told Andrew and her on several occasions that we should swim in between the flags, but no...no one listens to me hahah. I can remember Sarah saying "I know where the rips are don't worry" I always kept my distance closer to shore than they did.
That night led us to the coastal town of Torquay. We had an excellent Thai based dinner plus the booze of course. The next morning I headed back to Albury town.
Drage receiving a present from his sister, Kerrie
Sarah and Drage, just about to get onto the boat
Gotta love that ocean view
Acting like children again!
This is what happens when food takes too long
Tennis Elbow
Every time I go out and play tennis, I'm always thinking of ways to make my game...well especially my groundstrokes more reliable. I easily forget the fundamentals and it really showed after playing a week of tennis. My forehand became really inconsistent and it was because the motion was all an arm movement, rather than an upper body movement. Dylan pointed out to me that my left hand should "track" the ball at the correct contact point and I should rotate my upper body through the stroke. If I had done this earlier, my elbow and arm in general wouldn't hurt this much. Ah well. Practice makes perfect...well closer to perfect.
Classic Singles Tournament, Wodonga
Andrew has been playing on the Sportspower tour for 2 years now I think, and I got a little sucked in to playing the 21's and under age group this time. I hadn't played competitive tennis in years, ever since I moved away to uni but I think it was great to play other opponents. It's definitely good practice and I came runner up! I was so happy that I even participated because I knew that the standard would be pretty high, especially when I'm not very fit. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one in Wodonga because I don't think I'll enter in the Yarrawonga one. Andrew did pretty well also. He eventually lost in the finals to his rival, Gareth. I think it's good to have these rivalries, it gives the youngsters something to work for.
One of Andrew's semi-final encounters
Just as we arrived to the courts, just having a little chat