This weekend has been the Australian Mixed Ultimate Championships. Michael has been playing, and, since I took the season off, I have acted as "team manager" (keeping stats), and "team cheerleader". I also experienced serving as a Line Advisor for the first time during a competitive game between Ellipsis and Kaf, two very good teams, for those of you who don't know. Our team, MCDUFF has made it to the division II finals! If anyone actually reads this in the next four hours and has is able to watch, the game will be streaming live here. Cheer the team on from wherever you are.
One day this week I had to have a discussion with kids in almost every grade about the topic of "resilience", as part of a health and wellness unit. We talked about strategies for what the kids could do whenever they were having a hard time. Every school should touch on this topic in each grade, every year, because it's so important. And yet, so few schools make teaching their kids about mental health a priority. Just having a conversation doesn't make every kid automatically more resilient, but it does help them become more introspective, mindful, and supportive of their peers. I'm sure some of them think it's a joke, but maybe at some point down the road it will resonate with them.
Over the weekend, we took Michael's cousin, Lizzie, to some local parks: Centennial Park, Ku-ring-gai Chase, and Blue Mountains. We had a fun time hiking and enjoying the weather, and seeing local wildlife (mostly birds, lizards, and snakes). Back when we were in Vermont over the [American] summer, we had stopped at the Yellow Deli in Rutland, VT. Coincidentally, or maybe not (since they're part of the same community), we discovered our waitress there's mother was very close to a woman who works at the Yellow Deli in Katoomba here. The waitress wrote us a note to bring to her, whenever we made it up that way again. While we were in the Blue Mountains this weekend, I brought the note and gave it to the woman, and she thanked me and said that it was "pretty special", since she hadn't seen them since the girl (waitress) was a baby. I suppose time and distance are all relative. Speaking of which, I can't believe it's already almost time for us to go back to the states again. We will have gone back to the US a record number of times this year (three for me and four for Michael), partially because we already had planned to move back by now and kind of committed to attending some special events. I'm sure after this it will be well into next year, at least, before we go back again. The cost of travelling back and forth adds up, as do our airline miles, but we never regret spending that money.
This week we had a joint celebration for Michael and (our friend) Kara's birthday. Michael's cousin, Lizzie, is visiting from the states, and she was able to join us. It was another fun night at the Royal Albert Hotel during music trivia. Today I had the day off work, so I walked with Lizzie in the Royal Botanical Gardens and we also took a ferry to Cockatoo Island in order to learn about history and be screamed at by aggressive nesting seagulls.
I'm spending the last two days of school holidays helping out at a youth ultimate frisbee camp. We didn't really know how things would come together, since the whole thing was planned and advertised in a less-than-ideal amount of time, but so far the camp has surpassed expectations.
This weekend was Michael's Birthday gift - a spring weekend away at Byron Bay (and surrounding area) with two of our friends, Andy and Lucija. All Michael knew beforehand was that we were flying somewhere for a few days. We had a great time hiking, spotting wildlife (humpback whales, an echidna, a wallaby, and an estimated 4-5 ft. python that was coiled up), checking out local beaches, celebrating a random 2 year old's birthday (the son of one of Andy's friends), sampling the local fare and market, and even unexpectedly running into a few familiar faces. We were hoping to get a chance to go hangliding like I had done 10 years ago in the same location, but the wind was never favorable at the right time. Oh well, maybe next time. Our favorite breakfast places in Byron were the Bay Leaf Cafe and the Treehouse on Belongil. The award for best smoothie goes to Naked Treaties - their smoothies are like drinking silk, and cost about as much. One slightly odd thing about our trip is that we were travelling during daylight savings weekend. In addition, we flew into the Gold Coast airport, which is in Queensland, but the majority of the time we were still in New South Wales (from there, you drive south about one hour). Queensland does not do daylight savings, but New South Wales does. So, when we flew in, it was the same time in both states. But when leaving, a day after springing forward, we had to drive to a different time zone an hour behind, then arrive back in the time zone we had left. We had to check several times to make sure we were right about the timing, so as not to miss our flight, which ended up being delayed anyway. I wonder how many people get tripped on that. Overall it was a fun long weekend, and we were reminded yet again of how lucky we are to live somewhere so naturally beautiful.
