Really wanted to get along to the Cats game tonight, but was just too tired. (Haven’t been out of the house since I went to the gym on Monday.) Very frustrating. I would only have been there for the first half, as the traffic at Challenge is just awful, due to its location, and I just couldn’t get motivated. Staying until the end hasn’t been a problem before, as everyone’s (just) gone by the time the pressers are finished, etc, but it’s impossible if you’re just going to watch.
Followed the scores on the NBL site, and the boys did very well to get ahead in the last term after being so far down at 3/4 time, but they lost by a point. They’re clearly missing the juice!
During the last week we had the official season launch, and announced a new captain.
The launch was really well organised and run, and was marred by one bizarre outburst against the media in a speech, which, despite claims to the contrary from the outburstee, has quite hurt us. The day before that, we got maneuvered (despite my best efforts) into giving an exclusive to the paper, thus very effectively putting the TVs offside.
I went VERY close to quitting, on the basis that I really didn’t want my name associated with this trainwreck.
I’m still here though, and have kicked up a fair old stink, and now have been given the task of putting together a media policy. the basics of it (as agreed at today’s media meeting) is that the only spokesmen are the MD and the coach, and they are to keep me closely informed as to who and what they’ve said to whom.
I can’t say I’m overly confident, but we’ll see. Last week was such a disaster that maybe it will work, if only for a while.
Here on the flight home, I’ve got a pair of side seats to myself. Not too bad.
The cheapo Philips (league sponsor! noise-cancelling headphones I bought in Taiwan are really good. Especially for $40. Got my money’s worth in the one trip, and the adaptor so you can use them on the plane is great.
I’m SO Looking forward to getting home and eating some cereal with some cold milk. Oh yeah. Then I get to go back out to the airport and pickup Cha, which will be very nice, as I’ve been away for nearly 2 weeks and she’s been in Melbourne for a week.
Watched “The World’s Fastest Indian”, which was a movie I thought might be OK, despite me not being a real fan of Anthony Hopkins. (Not, errr, that I’ve actually seen much of his stuff, obviously.) I quite liked it, although I thought it dragged a bit in the middle. (Does that ring a bell?) Not that I could tell you WHY it dragged, which makes me suspect it’s me, not the movie… Yes, I’m well aware that I’ve shocked you there.
Really could have done with some sleep. They’re doing breakfast now @ 5:30. I did try to sleep, but I’m a pretty bad sleeper at the best of times…
Well, I wouldn’t have fed that breakfast to my cats, because I don’t hate them. Abysmal. “Frittata, bacon, sausage, quarter tomato” – just appalling. I ate some of the fruit, a mini-squashed muffin, and drank the OJ. Man, there’s some serious research gone into making it THAT bad – good work, Qantas!
Not a good 12 hours for food, it has to be said.
Good winds, so we’re into Perth 20 minutes early, apparently.
Stayed awake all day, in order to get to sleep tonight. Cha’s flight was way late, because of something to do with a fuel pump, which didn’t help. Wasn’t too thrilled to be told I had to go to work tomorrow because we had a “media even on Wednesday, so you’ve got to come in”. Yeah, great.
About 8300 words written in the blog in Taiwan, so if you read most of it, you deserve a medal.
Phone rang at 7:40 - even though I had it on silent, the buzzing woke me up, but not in time to get to it. Then I went to breakfast, and left it in my room, and it was rung then, and then it went when I was in the shower. Annoying.
Talked to Ross and Lachy – both were of the opinion I had done a great job up here, so that’s really good, as they both really know.
Packed and got down to the lobby in plenty of time – discovered I had to pay for the internet access – I’ll claim it back, but I thought it’d get charged to the room. Not so.
Got on the tour bus to go to the airport. Just like being Bon Jovi, really.
Plenty of places to live, mate!
Lovely aesthetics on the freeways
Giant metal butterflies
Got out to the airport and was assured that there was no way I was going to get on the same flight as the boys, as the plane had been downgraded and was smaller.
The boys went through to the departure lounge and I got left out in the main area with their Taiwanese groupies. I had about 7 of them following me around for about an hour, like I was the Pied Piper or something. The obligatory photos were taken, and posters signed. I don’t have a number, so I sign them “The Juice (then under that) #MM” for media manager. Learned that from the physio, who uses “PT”. Gotta laugh.
So I hung around the check-in counter for Dragon Air in the hope that I’d get on the same flight as the boys. Not much hope, but I passed the time talking to the most intelligent of the groupies who clearly wanted to practice her English, which was fine by me – learning a language as stupid as English is hard work, and the best way to practice is with a native speaker.
Anyway, 2:00 comes and goes, 2:10 comes and goes: 2:20 comes and goes: I’m sure I’m not going to make it.
Then it happens – they point to my luggage, I grab it, they take it, I get a boarding pass. Second-last person on the plane. Oh yeah.
Nowhere near the guys, but who cares?
We get to Hong Kong and spend forever at the ticket counter for Qantas, trying to get the talls into exit rows or bulkheads. No promises, but they’ll try.
Fish, Connor, Tinkerbell and I head off into Hong Kong. (The rest of the boys just stayed at the airport for the seven hours.)
Tinker and Fish on the super-duper train into HK.
Fish checking his phone. On the entire trip, I reckon he did this, on average, about every 14.7 seconds.
Don’t the apartments in HK look much nicer than in Taiwan?
The magic sign that tells you how far along yer journey you are. Fortunately I took 4 shots of it, as the other 3 were when the LEDs had blinked off. (To the naked eye they appear to be always on.)
We actually end up in some huge shopping mall thing, that I don’t discover has more than one story until kinda near when we’re due to meet back at the lifts. But I did get Cha a birthday present. Not what I was planning to get, but hey, you can’t have everything.
A mosaic…
Made of beads
I did find what I’d initially been looking for, in a shop on the top floor of this shopping complex, But it was all of about AU$15 less than at home, so what’s the point? It’d cost me that much to get an Australian adapter for it. I’ll get it for her another time.
What I did get was a watch. I know I said I got a watch in Taipei, but this one wasn’t AU$4 I was in this watch shop, having been lured there by Fish, who is a great watch connoisseur, and Connor, who wants to be one, I think. They had some there that were 60% off, and I’ve bought her one which is actually a pretty small watch, but it’s on a wide leather band that’s bright pink. Will be interesting to see if she wears it or not. But she’s always breaking the bands on watches, and I reckon this one won’t suffer that fate. But it’ll be interesting to see if she wears it given that it’s such a girly colour.
The train to the destination and back to the airport was pretty cool. Not a bullet train, but still pretty fast. You go onto the platform, which is just a glass wall and when the train turns up, doors open in the glass allow you to get on. Nice.
I wish I’d found the KFC there earlier at the shopping mall, but I didn’t, oh well. So I had some Popeye’s chicken at the airport, with Cajun fries and a medium Coke. It was the worst “Chicken Sandwich” I’ve ever eaten, and I’d forgotten how much I hate post-mix Coke. Awful.
I was at filing just after 1am this morning when I lost my internet connection – painful. I had to wait about 25 minutes for it to come back up, (checking it every 5 minutes while reading a book on the bed), which isn’t what you need at that time of night (or morning).
I’ve been booked on a different flight to the rest of the team, (the travel agent screwed up, but has given me a number to call here in Taipei), so I’m trying to get it changed so I’m on the same flight. Of course, I can’t call out from my room, so I’ll have to go downstairs to call from a public phone. Why is everything difficult?
Just talked to the reservation people – I’ve been put on the waitlist by the travel agent in Perth, but I’m way down it. Pointing out that I’m the media manager for a team that’s travelling on the flight hasn’t helped.
Of course, I’m guessing we have to be out of the rooms here by a certain time, so it looks like I’m going to be stuck at Taipei airport for hours, rather than in Hong Kong with the boys for hours. Just fantastic! Don’t get to see Hong Kong, and I spend 6-8 hours in a terminal by myself. Thanks heaps, Travel Associates Australia.
The agent just emailed me and said she was 99% sure I could get on the plane – I have my doubts, but I’ve got to go to the airport anyway, so we’ll try.
Went to the markets again with Shawn. Priced an iPod Nano and a 60GB iPod from an Australian site before going – the prices here were about AU$20 lower. No way. Much more choice in Australia anyway, as I’d rather not get an iPod, really. But it’s a VERY long way home if we leave here at lunchtime Sunday and get in at 7am Monday… Should have just bought a cheap one, I guess. Oh well.
We did buy some stuff though – Shawn bought a Bluetooth adaptor and headset for his laptop so he can skype more easily – we looked for headphones for his iPod but couldn’t find anything he really liked. But we did buy a few wired headsets for like $4 each - I got a couple, and he bought 4 or 5 to send to rellies to do skype with. I bought one for Cha’s computer at home, and one to carry with the laptop.
And I bought Cha a couple of presents – a little (5-6cm across?) ceramic teapot for her desk at work, (or whatever) and an amber looking bracelet which she’ll no doubt give away as she doesn’t really wear bracelets. And a watch, because she’s always breaking them. I should have bought a few, rather than the bracelet. Stupid me.
SMS bombed Cha through most of the day – I sent 3 or 4 to other people, but I used up my allocation of 30 for the day, and most of them were to Cha. (It actually said I’d sent 31, but I dunno about the last one.)
We won the comp. pretty easily. Clearly our best game of the competition, and at exactly the right time. The defence was awesome all night – it’s been mostly good, with some lapses, but tonight it was great. Kept the Korean team to just 9 point for the entire second quarter, which was outstanding.
OK, I’m getting better than I was.
Good screen, Rogey!
One of the brains behind the outfit, new boy Adam Caporn
Steve Leven on the move
GREAT D from Tony
We even had a decent crowd there on the last night
Adam again
Tony makes a point
A sign
Brad again
The bench
Big Jeff Dowdell
Yes, I was really there
Tony & Brad
Brad
Darren
Shawn, Justin and Rogey
Steve
Yep, we won it
Outside the rooms
The boys went out to some club, I worked until 2am. Still got to bed before most of them though. Tinker threw up in a taxi, and Adam did likewise elsewhere. Glad I worked, really.
Fish put breakfast back to 9am from 8:30, as it’s been so far. Tired boys appreciated it, including me.
Most of us went off to the “Kwang Hwa Computer Mall” thin the late morning/early afternoon. Better prices, but not outstanding. I couldn’t get any of the ATMs to recognise my card, so I needed to find a place that would do Visa, which was not many of them.
It’s a very cool place – it’s an indoor market, which it needs to be, so it’s air-conditioned, but it’s really several buildings, so you can get wet going from one to another if it’s raining, which it was. It’s hundreds of these little stores jammed in next to each other, all selling pretty similar stuff. Hard to remember shop was which, though!
Eventually ended up getting a 4GB USB stick for myself, a 2GB USB stick for Cha (so she doesn’t have to keep moving stuff off her MP3 player to take stuff to church), and a 2GB SD card for my not-yet-bought digital recorder. Got it all for about AU$230, which I was pretty happy about. And it was good fun explaining what I wanted – had to draw a couple of things
Also got these wikked blank DVDs with a ‘Hello kitty’ cartoon print on them – very Asian-looking male and female cats wearing human clothes and holding junk food. Just brilliant! I might get some more tomorrow if we go back.
This image isn’t the one, but it gives the flavour.
Had lunch when we got back, then back up to the room so I could talk to Cha on Skype, which I did. I showed here the DVD blanks, because they’re so great. It’s the last time I’ll get to talk to her until Monday when we’re home, because she’s at a non-computer place for the next couple of days Oh well, I can still SMS-bomb her…
We play Korea tonight, and also tomorrow night. Saturday night is for the championship, so tonight is a dress rehearsal. Was talking to Fish and Connor at lunch about how to motivate the guys for a completely meaningless game. Interesting talk, really.
DJ Adam, who does the court announcing at the tournament, is dumping a couple of his songs to my new USB drive. They’re wikked, and I’ll put them up here when I get them. “Old McDonald had a Farm” done techno. Just brilliant. I’ll put them up here when I get them, they’re great.
Played Korea, beat Korea for the second time in the tournament, play them for the third time in a week tomorrow night. Better game than last night, everyone seemed to have got over the flat spot a bit. It rained pretty hard today, and that made the weather FAR more pleasant, so maybe that helped.
Forgot to put this screenshot in the other day, showing the weather…
Doing a cross into 98.5 SonshineFM this morning @ 7:35, so of course, despite getting to sleep last night at midnight or later, I’m woken up by my brain at 5:30. Makes sense somewhere, I guess.
Day off for the boys today – no training or shootaround, so that’s a couple of hours extra I’ve got, which I can use to catchup on my blog, and compensate for our trip for Fish to meet the mayor or someone. Perth is a sister city to Taipei, so we’re being all fraternal, or something.
Talked to Fish – apparently he has to present him with a cap. Nobody appears to be too well briefed on this one. Guess I’ll do a story for the website this afternoon, which will be riveting.
Cross to Sonshine went well, Bear talked to Goss on Nova and that went well, Fish is talking to 6PR tonight. All good.
Another very strange moment this afternoon: Scott and I went to see the “Executive Director, International Affairs Commission, Taipei City Government” as cultural ambassadors for the Wildcats and the City of Perth.
Neither of us had the faintest idea what to expect – Jack and Andrew were supposed to be going, but Andrew was back in Perth because of a family medical emergency, and Jack was on a plane flying back, so Scott was drafted and I went to take photos.
It was all very pleasant – both he and Scott sat out the front of the room with a table between them with their nameplates on it, but he spoke excellent English after living in the US for years, and we spoke of how nice Perth was, how it had an enormous amount of beaches and golf courses, and how we had nothing to compare to their huge tower (Taipei 101).
He kept talking at me, and Scott looked over a fair bit, so I happily joined in, explaining how wonderful Perth was… (Really!!)
About 20 minutes of chat, then Fish grabbed the caps we’d brought to give them, he gave Fish a pen, and off we trundled. Diplomatic mission accomplished.
Certainly a new experience for me!
We played Japan and belted them. No surprises – they’ve played with just 8 blokes from the start, so they’re all playing around 30 minutes a night, every night. Killer.
I was just too tired to write much in the game, so I had to do it all when I got back here. It’s a cheat report – what do you say about a game where the better side goes ahead early and then continues to do so, and it’s the sixth game in seven days? Stats and coach comments, mostly…
Took a photo of some of the local support for the boys. I’ll do an article for the website next week – we’ve got match reports going up every day at the moment, so I might as well save it for next week, as I’ll do with the “Ambassador Fish” one.
The Darren Brooks show!
JB (Justin Brown) runs through him
Brad Robbins – pressure personified
I just liked it
Rogey hangin’ in there
Symmetry
You can tell how tired I am- the backgrounds show how off-level I was…
And, sure enough, on the walk back to the hotel, sort of talking to my mate from the Japanese team, Hasegawa, (my Japanese is … limited, fortunately his English is a lot better, but not very good at all, really), I got stopped by some girls who wanted their photo taken with me. I dunno if they thought someone has compressed Bear so that he still had the same mass but had somehow lost a foot or so, but I guess it kept them happy. The power of a uniform…
Didn’t finish until 1:30am, which was wonderful as I’d pretty much been working since Fish and I left for the city reception thing…
Website stories:
Cats v Japan
Radio stories:
Cats v Japan
Radios:
Mic – Sonshine 7:40
Tony – Nova 8:10
Scott – 6PR 19:20
Not done much today – everyone is starting to feel it.
However, I did talk to Cha on video Skype today – I’m in Taiwan, she’s in Melbourne. So cool. Really. I know I’m a geeky gadget-head, but you have to admit, it’s very very cool.
This laptop we bought has a built in mic and webcam just above the screen in the bezel – tiny little things, but work surprisingly well. Was good to see the new hair colour and cut.
Gym for an hour, bike and circuit.
Went to shootaround at lunchtime, took the computer but didn’t get to use it much, as I was collecting balls and giving them back. Got a bit of exercise and helped a bit.
In the afternoon did some blogging stuff, and had lunch, etc. Pretty uneventful.
Playing the same team tonight as last night – Chinese Taipei. “Cheat” is such a strong word when applied to hometown referees, but it might not be misused here…
Anyway, we got out of it, just. We had a 24-point lead at one stage, but they had it back to just three with three minutes to go, and we won by six. Tight.
The boys were clearly a bit tired – Fish kept Rogey on the bench for most of the second half – but as the coach pointed out in the rooms, fatigue isn’t an excuse anyone wants to hear, and it’ll be forgotten in a week anyway.
Yer height’s no good here! Justin Brown is desperate.
The Fish
Darren Brooks pulls up
Brad Robbins goes to work – the shortest guy on the court goes at their 6’9” bloke. Great to see.
Brooks under the basket
The delicate touch
Ben goes to the hoop
What happen if you stand on the wrong side of the court – you get the back of the bloke’s head
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Really wanted to get along to the Cats game tonight, but was just too tired. (Haven’t been out of the house since I went to the gym on Monday.) Very frustrating. I would only have been there for the first half, as the traffic at Challenge is just awful, due to its location, and I just couldn’t get motivated. Staying until the end hasn’t been a problem before, as everyone’s (just) gone by the time the pressers are finished, etc, but it’s impossible if you’re just going to watch.
Followed the scores on the NBL site, and the boys did very well to get ahead in the last term after being so far down at 3/4 time, but they lost by a point. They’re clearly missing the juice!
During the last week we had the official season launch, and announced a new captain.
The launch was really well organised and run, and was marred by one bizarre outburst against the media in a speech, which, despite claims to the contrary from the outburstee, has quite hurt us. The day before that, we got maneuvered (despite my best efforts) into giving an exclusive to the paper, thus very effectively putting the TVs offside.
I went VERY close to quitting, on the basis that I really didn’t want my name associated with this trainwreck.
I’m still here though, and have kicked up a fair old stink, and now have been given the task of putting together a media policy. the basics of it (as agreed at today’s media meeting) is that the only spokesmen are the MD and the coach, and they are to keep me closely informed as to who and what they’ve said to whom.
I can’t say I’m overly confident, but we’ll see. Last week was such a disaster that maybe it will work, if only for a while.
Here on the flight home, I’ve got a pair of side seats to myself. Not too bad.
The cheapo Philips (league sponsor!
noise-cancelling headphones I bought in Taiwan are really good. Especially for $40. Got my money’s worth in the one trip, and the adaptor so you can use them on the plane is great.
I’m SO Looking forward to getting home and eating some cereal with some cold milk. Oh yeah. Then I get to go back out to the airport and pickup Cha, which will be very nice, as I’ve been away for nearly 2 weeks and she’s been in Melbourne for a week.
Watched “The World’s Fastest Indian”, which was a movie I thought might be OK, despite me not being a real fan of Anthony Hopkins. (Not, errr, that I’ve actually seen much of his stuff, obviously.) I quite liked it, although I thought it dragged a bit in the middle. (Does that ring a bell?) Not that I could tell you WHY it dragged, which makes me suspect it’s me, not the movie… Yes, I’m well aware that I’ve shocked you there.
Really could have done with some sleep. They’re doing breakfast now @ 5:30. I did try to sleep, but I’m a pretty bad sleeper at the best of times…
Well, I wouldn’t have fed that breakfast to my cats, because I don’t hate them. Abysmal. “Frittata, bacon, sausage, quarter tomato” – just appalling. I ate some of the fruit, a mini-squashed muffin, and drank the OJ. Man, there’s some serious research gone into making it THAT bad – good work, Qantas!
Not a good 12 hours for food, it has to be said.
Good winds, so we’re into Perth 20 minutes early, apparently.
Stayed awake all day, in order to get to sleep tonight. Cha’s flight was way late, because of something to do with a fuel pump, which didn’t help. Wasn’t too thrilled to be told I had to go to work tomorrow because we had a “media even on Wednesday, so you’ve got to come in”. Yeah, great.
About 8300 words written in the blog in Taiwan, so if you read most of it, you deserve a medal.
August 20 (Sunday)
Phone rang at 7:40 - even though I had it on silent, the buzzing woke me up, but not in time to get to it. Then I went to breakfast, and left it in my room, and it was rung then, and then it went when I was in the shower. Annoying.
Talked to Ross and Lachy – both were of the opinion I had done a great job up here, so that’s really good, as they both really know.
Packed and got down to the lobby in plenty of time – discovered I had to pay for the internet access – I’ll claim it back, but I thought it’d get charged to the room. Not so.
Got on the tour bus to go to the airport. Just like being Bon Jovi, really.
Plenty of places to live, mate!
Lovely aesthetics on the freeways
Giant metal butterflies
Got out to the airport and was assured that there was no way I was going to get on the same flight as the boys, as the plane had been downgraded and was smaller.
The boys went through to the departure lounge and I got left out in the main area with their Taiwanese groupies. I had about 7 of them following me around for about an hour, like I was the Pied Piper or something. The obligatory photos were taken, and posters signed. I don’t have a number, so I sign them “The Juice (then under that) #MM” for media manager. Learned that from the physio, who uses “PT”. Gotta laugh.
So I hung around the check-in counter for Dragon Air in the hope that I’d get on the same flight as the boys. Not much hope, but I passed the time talking to the most intelligent of the groupies who clearly wanted to practice her English, which was fine by me – learning a language as stupid as English is hard work, and the best way to practice is with a native speaker.
Anyway, 2:00 comes and goes, 2:10 comes and goes: 2:20 comes and goes: I’m sure I’m not going to make it.
Then it happens – they point to my luggage, I grab it, they take it, I get a boarding pass. Second-last person on the plane. Oh yeah.
Nowhere near the guys, but who cares?
We get to Hong Kong and spend forever at the ticket counter for Qantas, trying to get the talls into exit rows or bulkheads. No promises, but they’ll try.
Fish, Connor, Tinkerbell and I head off into Hong Kong. (The rest of the boys just stayed at the airport for the seven hours.)
Tinker and Fish on the super-duper train into HK.
Fish checking his phone. On the entire trip, I reckon he did this, on average, about every 14.7 seconds.
Don’t the apartments in HK look much nicer than in Taiwan?
The magic sign that tells you how far along yer journey you are. Fortunately I took 4 shots of it, as the other 3 were when the LEDs had blinked off. (To the naked eye they appear to be always on.)
We actually end up in some huge shopping mall thing, that I don’t discover has more than one story until kinda near when we’re due to meet back at the lifts. But I did get Cha a birthday present. Not what I was planning to get, but hey, you can’t have everything.
A mosaic…
Made of beads
I did find what I’d initially been looking for, in a shop on the top floor of this shopping complex, But it was all of about AU$15 less than at home, so what’s the point? It’d cost me that much to get an Australian adapter for it. I’ll get it for her another time.
What I did get was a watch. I know I said I got a watch in Taipei, but this one wasn’t AU$4
I was in this watch shop, having been lured there by Fish, who is a great watch connoisseur, and Connor, who wants to be one, I think. They had some there that were 60% off, and I’ve bought her one which is actually a pretty small watch, but it’s on a wide leather band that’s bright pink. Will be interesting to see if she wears it or not. But she’s always breaking the bands on watches, and I reckon this one won’t suffer that fate. But it’ll be interesting to see if she wears it given that it’s such a girly colour.
The train to the destination and back to the airport was pretty cool. Not a bullet train, but still pretty fast. You go onto the platform, which is just a glass wall and when the train turns up, doors open in the glass allow you to get on. Nice.
I wish I’d found the KFC there earlier at the shopping mall, but I didn’t, oh well. So I had some Popeye’s chicken at the airport, with Cajun fries and a medium Coke. It was the worst “Chicken Sandwich” I’ve ever eaten, and I’d forgotten how much I hate post-mix Coke. Awful.
Website stories:
NONE
Radio stories:
Fish on Sportsfocus (ABC)
I was at filing just after 1am this morning when I lost my internet connection – painful. I had to wait about 25 minutes for it to come back up, (checking it every 5 minutes while reading a book on the bed), which isn’t what you need at that time of night (or morning).
I’ve been booked on a different flight to the rest of the team, (the travel agent screwed up, but has given me a number to call here in Taipei), so I’m trying to get it changed so I’m on the same flight. Of course, I can’t call out from my room, so I’ll have to go downstairs to call from a public phone. Why is everything difficult?
Just talked to the reservation people – I’ve been put on the waitlist by the travel agent in Perth, but I’m way down it. Pointing out that I’m the media manager for a team that’s travelling on the flight hasn’t helped.
Of course, I’m guessing we have to be out of the rooms here by a certain time, so it looks like I’m going to be stuck at Taipei airport for hours, rather than in Hong Kong with the boys for hours. Just fantastic! Don’t get to see Hong Kong, and I spend 6-8 hours in a terminal by myself. Thanks heaps, Travel Associates Australia.
The agent just emailed me and said she was 99% sure I could get on the plane – I have my doubts, but I’ve got to go to the airport anyway, so we’ll try.
Went to the markets again with Shawn. Priced an iPod Nano and a 60GB iPod from an Australian site before going – the prices here were about AU$20 lower. No way. Much more choice in Australia anyway, as I’d rather not get an iPod, really. But it’s a VERY long way home if we leave here at lunchtime Sunday and get in at 7am Monday… Should have just bought a cheap one, I guess. Oh well.
We did buy some stuff though – Shawn bought a Bluetooth adaptor and headset for his laptop so he can skype more easily – we looked for headphones for his iPod but couldn’t find anything he really liked. But we did buy a few wired headsets for like $4 each - I got a couple, and he bought 4 or 5 to send to rellies to do skype with. I bought one for Cha’s computer at home, and one to carry with the laptop.
And I bought Cha a couple of presents – a little (5-6cm across?) ceramic teapot for her desk at work, (or whatever) and an amber looking bracelet which she’ll no doubt give away as she doesn’t really wear bracelets. And a watch, because she’s always breaking them. I should have bought a few, rather than the bracelet. Stupid me.
SMS bombed Cha through most of the day – I sent 3 or 4 to other people, but I used up my allocation of 30 for the day, and most of them were to Cha. (It actually said I’d sent 31, but I dunno about the last one.)
We won the comp. pretty easily. Clearly our best game of the competition, and at exactly the right time. The defence was awesome all night – it’s been mostly good, with some lapses, but tonight it was great. Kept the Korean team to just 9 point for the entire second quarter, which was outstanding.
OK, I’m getting better than I was.
Good screen, Rogey!
One of the brains behind the outfit, new boy Adam Caporn
Steve Leven on the move
GREAT D from Tony
We even had a decent crowd there on the last night
Adam again
Tony makes a point
A sign
Brad again
The bench
Big Jeff Dowdell
Yes, I was really there
Tony & Brad
Brad
Darren
Shawn, Justin and Rogey
Steve
Yep, we won it
Outside the rooms
The boys went out to some club, I worked until 2am. Still got to bed before most of them though. Tinker threw up in a taxi, and Adam did likewise elsewhere. Glad I worked, really.
Website stories:
2006_08_18_Cats_Korea_final_Saturday
Radio stories:
2006_08_18_Cats_Korea_final_Saturday
Fish put breakfast back to 9am from 8:30, as it’s been so far. Tired boys appreciated it, including me.
Most of us went off to the “Kwang Hwa Computer Mall” thin the late morning/early afternoon. Better prices, but not outstanding. I couldn’t get any of the ATMs to recognise my card, so I needed to find a place that would do Visa, which was not many of them.
It’s a very cool place – it’s an indoor market, which it needs to be, so it’s air-conditioned, but it’s really several buildings, so you can get wet going from one to another if it’s raining, which it was. It’s hundreds of these little stores jammed in next to each other, all selling pretty similar stuff. Hard to remember shop was which, though!
Eventually ended up getting a 4GB USB stick for myself, a 2GB USB stick for Cha (so she doesn’t have to keep moving stuff off her MP3 player to take stuff to church), and a 2GB SD card for my not-yet-bought digital recorder. Got it all for about AU$230, which I was pretty happy about. And it was good fun explaining what I wanted – had to draw a couple of things
Also got these wikked blank DVDs with a ‘Hello kitty’ cartoon print on them – very Asian-looking male and female cats wearing human clothes and holding junk food. Just brilliant! I might get some more tomorrow if we go back.
This image isn’t the one, but it gives the flavour.
Had lunch when we got back, then back up to the room so I could talk to Cha on Skype, which I did. I showed here the DVD blanks, because they’re so great. It’s the last time I’ll get to talk to her until Monday when we’re home, because she’s at a non-computer place for the next couple of days
Oh well, I can still SMS-bomb her…
We play Korea tonight, and also tomorrow night. Saturday night is for the championship, so tonight is a dress rehearsal. Was talking to Fish and Connor at lunch about how to motivate the guys for a completely meaningless game. Interesting talk, really.
DJ Adam, who does the court announcing at the tournament, is dumping a couple of his songs to my new USB drive. They’re wikked, and I’ll put them up here when I get them. “Old McDonald had a Farm” done techno. Just brilliant. I’ll put them up here when I get them, they’re great.
Played Korea, beat Korea for the second time in the tournament, play them for the third time in a week tomorrow night. Better game than last night, everyone seemed to have got over the flat spot a bit. It rained pretty hard today, and that made the weather FAR more pleasant, so maybe that helped.
Prematch
Paul elevates
Darren Brooks, yet again
Brad Robbins, gotta love this bloke, all heart
Steve Leven does it backwards
Ben Hunt gets up
Website stories:
2006_08_18_Cats_Korea_Friday
Radio stories:
2006_08_18_Cats_Korea_Friday
Forgot to put this screenshot in the other day, showing the weather…
Doing a cross into 98.5 SonshineFM this morning @ 7:35, so of course, despite getting to sleep last night at midnight or later, I’m woken up by my brain at 5:30. Makes sense somewhere, I guess.
Day off for the boys today – no training or shootaround, so that’s a couple of hours extra I’ve got, which I can use to catchup on my blog, and compensate for our trip for Fish to meet the mayor or someone. Perth is a sister city to Taipei, so we’re being all fraternal, or something.
Talked to Fish – apparently he has to present him with a cap. Nobody appears to be too well briefed on this one. Guess I’ll do a story for the website this afternoon, which will be riveting.
Cross to Sonshine went well, Bear talked to Goss on Nova and that went well, Fish is talking to 6PR tonight. All good.
Another very strange moment this afternoon: Scott and I went to see the “Executive Director, International Affairs Commission, Taipei City Government” as cultural ambassadors for the Wildcats and the City of Perth.
Neither of us had the faintest idea what to expect – Jack and Andrew were supposed to be going, but Andrew was back in Perth because of a family medical emergency, and Jack was on a plane flying back, so Scott was drafted and I went to take photos.
It was all very pleasant – both he and Scott sat out the front of the room with a table between them with their nameplates on it, but he spoke excellent English after living in the US for years, and we spoke of how nice Perth was, how it had an enormous amount of beaches and golf courses, and how we had nothing to compare to their huge tower (Taipei 101).
He kept talking at me, and Scott looked over a fair bit, so I happily joined in, explaining how wonderful Perth was… (Really!!)
About 20 minutes of chat, then Fish grabbed the caps we’d brought to give them, he gave Fish a pen, and off we trundled. Diplomatic mission accomplished.
Certainly a new experience for me!
We played Japan and belted them. No surprises – they’ve played with just 8 blokes from the start, so they’re all playing around 30 minutes a night, every night. Killer.
I was just too tired to write much in the game, so I had to do it all when I got back here. It’s a cheat report – what do you say about a game where the better side goes ahead early and then continues to do so, and it’s the sixth game in seven days? Stats and coach comments, mostly…
Took a photo of some of the local support for the boys. I’ll do an article for the website next week – we’ve got match reports going up every day at the moment, so I might as well save it for next week, as I’ll do with the “Ambassador Fish” one.
The Darren Brooks show!
JB (Justin Brown) runs through him
Brad Robbins – pressure personified
I just liked it
Rogey hangin’ in there
Symmetry
You can tell how tired I am- the backgrounds show how off-level I was…
And, sure enough, on the walk back to the hotel, sort of talking to my mate from the Japanese team, Hasegawa, (my Japanese is … limited, fortunately his English is a lot better, but not very good at all, really), I got stopped by some girls who wanted their photo taken with me. I dunno if they thought someone has compressed Bear so that he still had the same mass but had somehow lost a foot or so, but I guess it kept them happy. The power of a uniform…
Didn’t finish until 1:30am, which was wonderful as I’d pretty much been working since Fish and I left for the city reception thing…
Website stories:
Cats v Japan
Radio stories:
Cats v Japan
Radios:
Mic – Sonshine 7:40
Tony – Nova 8:10
Scott – 6PR 19:20
August 16 (Wednesday)
Not done much today – everyone is starting to feel it.
However, I did talk to Cha on video Skype today – I’m in Taiwan, she’s in Melbourne. So cool. Really. I know I’m a geeky gadget-head, but you have to admit, it’s very very cool.
This laptop we bought has a built in mic and webcam just above the screen in the bezel – tiny little things, but work surprisingly well. Was good to see the new hair colour and cut.
Gym for an hour, bike and circuit.
Went to shootaround at lunchtime, took the computer but didn’t get to use it much, as I was collecting balls and giving them back. Got a bit of exercise and helped a bit.
In the afternoon did some blogging stuff, and had lunch, etc. Pretty uneventful.
Playing the same team tonight as last night – Chinese Taipei. “Cheat” is such a strong word when applied to hometown referees, but it might not be misused here…
Anyway, we got out of it, just. We had a 24-point lead at one stage, but they had it back to just three with three minutes to go, and we won by six. Tight.
The boys were clearly a bit tired – Fish kept Rogey on the bench for most of the second half – but as the coach pointed out in the rooms, fatigue isn’t an excuse anyone wants to hear, and it’ll be forgotten in a week anyway.
Yer height’s no good here! Justin Brown is desperate.
The Fish
Darren Brooks pulls up
Brad Robbins goes to work – the shortest guy on the court goes at their 6’9” bloke. Great to see.
Brooks under the basket
The delicate touch
Ben goes to the hoop
What happen if you stand on the wrong side of the court – you get the back of the bloke’s head
Website stories:
2006_08_16_Cats_Taiwan_Wednesday
Radio stories:
2006_08_16_Cats_Taiwan_2