Gold Medal!

Coaching during the half time.

They won!

The silver and bronze WA teams and the Victorian champions getting their trophy.

Kami, Lucy and Shannon with their hardware.

The team and the parent chaperones.

The trophy for the men's elite team (which Shannon's team won).

Madelyn and Linden, retired at 40, at the after tournament party.

Simon from WA and Paul who competed in the first worlds in Vancouver in 1980.

Jumpy with Lucy. He's from the WA club and was one of the organizers of the tournament.

 Floreat Beach.

 Smoke from a bush fire.

Rhys, Kami, Shannon, Cam and Chloe.

January 13-17^th.

The 13^th was finals day. It started at nine and ended at twelve. The Victorian Women’s Elite team that Lucy played for did not do well in the tournament for a couple of reasons. One they were a team made up from players from other states and countries. As a result they didn’t have any time to play together before the tournament and two, there were, simply said, stronger teams. Lucy’s team lost their first game against her daughter, Kami’s team from WA. Now they were playing in the bronze medal game against each other again. Once more daughter beat mother and Lucy was out of the medals.

Next up were two games, the men’s elite game between WA and Tasmania and in the other pool was the championship game for under fifteens. Lucy’s team was up against the juniors from WA. No one really expected it, but they had already beat them twice in the tournament, could they do it again for gold?

I got in the pool and videoed the men’s elite. I wanted to see the best of the best. Watching the game from above water is almost impossible, all you see is when the players surface for air and then follow the play until they dive again to re-join. It was really interesting to watch the men. The game is very fast and rough. Players twist, turn and roll over to stickhandle around their opponents or to pass. The puck only goes about ten feet when shot, so the game tends to be very close quarters. Shannon plays for the WA team and after the first half they were leading 2-0. (They did win the gold).

I got out of the pool and went to see the score of Lucy’s kids. They too were at half time and the game was tied. As I said before there are no real spectators for this sport. No one sells tickets or comes to watch unless they know someone or are involved in some capacity. But, there was a real buzz in the air, because of the parent chaperones who were here with the Victorian team. I stayed at the end of the pool and watched as the game resumed. It was interesting to watch and listen to the kids as they encouraged each other before they raced for face offs. The game was a seesaw battle with never more than a goal separating them. The atmosphere was very electric with lots of other players from all age groups cheering from the edge of the pool. Victoria’s best player got a two minute retaliation penalty where he had to sit out. Everyone thought that was the end, but thankfully WA only scored once. When he came back in his team scored to tie it up and then scored another with two minutes left. They managed to keep the puck in the neutral areas and the game ended 6-5 for Victoria. This was apparently the first time that Victoria had beat WA at this age level in the finals and the first time Victoria won the gold medal for under 15’s. It was the first medal for Victoria in the last few nationals at any level.. So a very momentous game.

Medals, awards and plaques were given out for the winning teams, they all posed for photos, and then it was all over.

That evening there were two parties. One was on a boat cruise on the Swan River for the young players and their families and the other was at the Floreat Life Saving Swim Club facility at Floreat Beach for players and coaches. I was unaware that the party was a dress up event where many of the players let their hair down and dress in very silly or outlandish costumes. Some of the male players dress up as (very ugly) women. Lucy and I took an Uber there and stayed for a couple of hours. Everyone was congratulating Lucy and I talked to a few people I had met. It was good to talk to Madlyn and Linden again and a few others. We Ubered it back too. I am very impressed with Uber. You use the app and the car shows up within five minutes. Great way to get around.

It was another beautiful, hot, sunny day on the 14th, so we took advantage of that and headed back to Floreat Beach for brunch with Kami and Shannon at the Kiosk Restaurant and then a swim. The water is beautiful and clean and quite warm too. There was a big black cloud floating over just to the south. I thought it was storm cloud, but it turned out to be a cloud of smoke from a bush fire east of Perth. In the evening Lucy and I took an Uber to the airport for her to catch her flight back to Melbourne as she has to work on Monday. We met a few parents and kids from the hockey who were flying on the same flight. When Lucy went to check in she was told that her flight was not that night, but the next! She had mixed up the dates because of the date change over midnight. So she had to fire off a quick note to her boss explaining the mix up and we headed back again.

On the 15^th Perth experienced the tail end of a cyclone that landed up the coast and it rained all day. We hung out at the house with Shannon, Kami, Rhys, Cam and Chloe (who all live in the house) and watched some TV. Kami took us to a fish restaurant bar overlooking the beach and we had a great lunch. In the evening I took Lucy back to the airport for her flight. Because of the storm, it was delayed for two and half hours but eventually took off at 12:55. I Ubered back to Shannon and Kami’s house for the night.

On the 16^th, I stayed home and researched a few trips and worked on the computer for a bit before using Kami’s car to go for one last swim at Floreat Beach and to an IGA for a few toiletry supplies I need. Then back to finish my cut-up salad before Kami drove me to the airport to catch my flight at 10:30. I flew from Perth to Dubai, where I arrived at 5 am local time. I had a couple of hours between flights, so I wandered around this immense and beautiful airport. I took the monorail train from terminal A to B. I saw a bookstore and went in to browse. I found a book I had read about that sounded interesting. It is called ‘I Contain Multitudes (The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life)’. I bought it in case John and I get bored of each other, I’ll have something to read.

Then I typed this up and waited. I boarded the Dubai to Addis Ababa flight at 9:00 and took off for Ethiopia where I will meet up and travel with John for two months through Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Southern India.