So as the days of 2010 count down, the snow keeps falling and Great Britain is on the verge of self-imploding at the sight of the white stuff, its time to put to bed this past month on and off the court.
The start of the month seems ages ago and a trip to Habo. We were planning to go into the game with the same starting line up as the one the beat RiG the week before, however that got blown out the water, when the night before our new outside that got MVP against RiG fell victim to his own sofa and twisted his knee ligaments. So the decision had to be made as to how we played the Habo game, option 1 was to go back to how we had started the season, Option 2 was to throw a 19 year old rookie into the deep end. We/our head coach went for option 2 and it paid off with a comfortable 3-0 win only the 3rd set we had to stage a late comeback to seal it and the rookie did good. The following week brought us up against Linkoping, the defending champions and the team that beat us 3-2 in the semi finals last season. They had a bad start to the season this time around and we wanted revenge. We reverted back to the team that we started the season with, however the game was a complete disaster on our part. our passing unit got served off the court and our wing spikers could only seem to find the block time and time again. Before the game we had been given our tactics from our coaches about how they play and how we have to play to stop them, yet we didnt seem to buy into the system, they did what we were told they would do, yet stood around and let them do it. It seemed none of us had the right mentality, some of us, myself included wanted it to much and to get revenge for last season, plus i had been hurt about some comments made about my performances in the play offs last season, so i wanted to prove some people wrong, but I think I ended up concentrating to much on that, then concentrating on the game. I felt a few others didnt want it enough and let the game pass them by and some others seemed to get complacent, thinking that because we had won 7 in a row we would win this one whatever. I hope this game served as a kick up the arse for all us and will serve us well in the long term. So we closed out 2010 and the first half of the season at home to Sollentuna, who we in fact were the first team we played in 2010. Whoever won this game would be ranked number 1 in the league and the number 1 seed for the Grand Prix tournament at the start of January. The line up this time had the rookie back in so same team the started against Habo. The game was pretty similar to the Linkoping game with tough serving and us making to many errors, quickly we found ourselves 2-0 down, the 3rd set saw the return of our No.1 setter who has been injured all season, and was predicted to be back late January early February time, so it was positive to see him back, we won the 3rd, then raced into an early lead in the 4th however they clawed there way back and took the 4th. It was a disappointing end to 2010 and to the first half of this season. We need to raise our level of expectations of ourselves and each other and stop becoming complacent, just because things have happened in the past and turned out good for us, doesnt mean it will happen all the time. So we will head to GP as No.3 seed and face a difficult game against Falkenberg in the semi final.
NOw off the court and Christmas time and all that balls. So the day after the sollentuna game i was meant to fly back to England, but because Heathrow are run by a bunch of muppets and only have a spade and bucket to clear the runway I didnt even leave Sweden. So i got re-booked on to an easyjet flight to Gatwick for the next day. So tuesday comes i get on the train to the airport in denmark and their is signal failure, so i get to the airport an hour late and 10 minutes before check in closes, i get to the desk and they tell me i am not on the passenger list, I check my booking, and the person that had booked my flight had booked me on the flight for Wednesday instead of Tuesday!!! So a few phone calls and i get my ticket changed to a tuesday night flight which is meant to leave at 9pm (cet), after 13 hours in Copenhagen airport i finally get on my plane at 11pm, then the fuel hoses breaks, and we have to get de-iced, so we take off at 12pm. So i land at 1am (gmt) at gatwick, get off the plane to get my bag and my bag isnt on the baggage belt, so i go through to arrivals to get some help and in the end they find my bag in the back somewhere. I finally got home at 4.30am wedneday morning instead of 2pm monday afternoon.
First few days a home are fine, do some xmas shopping, see some people, chill out, then xmas eve i was hoping to see me dad and my sister, but for some reason he didnt get in touch so for the 2nd christmas in 3 years i didnt see him or my sister, the only plus was i got to see my nan and give her the xmas present i had brougt for them and her birthday present. This disappointed me more than pissed me off, maybe I need to stop jumping through hoops.
So onto the big day, and Mother and I went up/across to Portsmouth to have Christmas with my Great Aunt and my Mums cousin. After being in the door 15 minutes, my great aunt suddenly collapsed in the kitchen and had suffered a stroke, so i spent most of Christmas Day in hospital, while they could find out what had happened, she came round in and was talking by the evening after a few scares through out the day. The rest of the family arrived during boxing day whilst i was taken to the airport to fly back to Sweden. My plane was delayed buy a few hours and i ended up getting home at 2.30 am this morning instead of 11pm sunday night. This morning i got a phone call from my mum saying that my great Aunt had passed away in the evening about the same time i was taking off.
I dont want to get to emotional and OTT, but i just want to thank aunty Joy for all the wonderful family parties we have had at her house, all the wonderful food she has cooked for us, for treating me like a direct relative, for showing an interest in what i have been doing with university and volleyball and for being proud of me when closer members of family where being nasty to me.
RIP Aunty Joy, I hope Grandma doesnt boss you around to much up there.
Sorry to end my blogging year on a low note, hope the rest of you had a good Christmas and will have a happy new year.
Monday 27 December 2010
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Oh look, a snowflake and a snygging
So now that winter has officially started everywhere it seems and the fun yet bringing countries to a stand still snow is falling, I thought i might as well write something to cover the past month and the fact its -15 outside so would rather stay in and be warm.
The start of November seems age ago, but we started the month with a 3-1 derby win at home to Lund, a bit of a wobble by us in the 3rd and some unreal defence from the visitors pushed the game to a 4th set but we came through. 3 days later we made the long trip to the Stockholm area to play Vingaker, the gym smelt weird and they played with gala's, which rolled back the sheffield years. To cut a long story short, they bombed us from the service line and we found ourselves 2-0 down, and staring our first defeat in the face, however we then decided to play our volleyball won the 3rd, then won the 4th on a yellow card (pattern emerging here) and then we squeaked out the 5th 15-13 to keep our top spot and winning record. 5 short and snowy days latter we made the longer trip to Uppsala for the swedish cup finals, now we were meant to practice when we got up there, but because of the weather we got there late, so instead of practicing at 11pm on friday night, our coach decided to send us on a half hour run....... in the snow. Onwards to saturday and the semi final against sollentuna and de ja vu from last weekend, we went 2-0 down, then decided to play and 'make the girl say yes' as Martin would put it and won 3-2. Saturday night was mainly a snow ball fight against the american girls from Lindesberg, then bed, but not with the girls. So sunday was final day against Falkenberg, and to put it simple, we were poor, there game plan worked perfectly and we did nothing to stop it and it was our worse performance of the season and with it our first defeat. This may be a blessing disguise as now the tag has gone and we can move on. So after dusting ourselves off, mainly from the snow, we tinkered with a few things and closed the month out with a 3-0 win against the Swedish Junior National team that plays in the top league. Was our best blocking game of the season and we soon shut up the yapping they were giving us through the net. They pissed me off in the warm up in the fact that they would hit cross court, and if they hit one of us they would high five each other. Then in the 1st set after being 5-1 down, there coach moaned that the small light from the video camera at the other end of the gym was putting his players off, so after a lengthy delay the refs said we had to put some tape over it. Somehow I don't think the little light was the problem why there 'star' player kept getting blocked but hey ho.
So into December, 3 games before xmas and not a lot of traveling. This weekend we are away to Habo, following week we welcome the defending champions and team that beat us in the semi final last season, Linkoping. Then we close out 2010 at home to our lovely friends from Sollentuna. A hard run to end the year, but hopefully we end on a high.
Unfortunately I cant recall anyone doing anything really stupid this month apart from the Canadian girl in EVS firstly saying she thought they did stats from games 'just for fun' then followed by 'do you get extra points for doing different things', maybe they have a different scoring system in Canada compared to the rest of the world.
Joe has been normal this month, which will be of disappointment to his family as he never tells them when he does stupid things. (He did do something stupid but am keeping my mouth shut...for the time being)
Not many things to rant at this month, so will have a look at the videos
clever video, the longer version got taken off youtube
don't think everyone will understand, but its funny
pretty clever
this is just strange
enjoy the snow
The start of November seems age ago, but we started the month with a 3-1 derby win at home to Lund, a bit of a wobble by us in the 3rd and some unreal defence from the visitors pushed the game to a 4th set but we came through. 3 days later we made the long trip to the Stockholm area to play Vingaker, the gym smelt weird and they played with gala's, which rolled back the sheffield years. To cut a long story short, they bombed us from the service line and we found ourselves 2-0 down, and staring our first defeat in the face, however we then decided to play our volleyball won the 3rd, then won the 4th on a yellow card (pattern emerging here) and then we squeaked out the 5th 15-13 to keep our top spot and winning record. 5 short and snowy days latter we made the longer trip to Uppsala for the swedish cup finals, now we were meant to practice when we got up there, but because of the weather we got there late, so instead of practicing at 11pm on friday night, our coach decided to send us on a half hour run....... in the snow. Onwards to saturday and the semi final against sollentuna and de ja vu from last weekend, we went 2-0 down, then decided to play and 'make the girl say yes' as Martin would put it and won 3-2. Saturday night was mainly a snow ball fight against the american girls from Lindesberg, then bed, but not with the girls. So sunday was final day against Falkenberg, and to put it simple, we were poor, there game plan worked perfectly and we did nothing to stop it and it was our worse performance of the season and with it our first defeat. This may be a blessing disguise as now the tag has gone and we can move on. So after dusting ourselves off, mainly from the snow, we tinkered with a few things and closed the month out with a 3-0 win against the Swedish Junior National team that plays in the top league. Was our best blocking game of the season and we soon shut up the yapping they were giving us through the net. They pissed me off in the warm up in the fact that they would hit cross court, and if they hit one of us they would high five each other. Then in the 1st set after being 5-1 down, there coach moaned that the small light from the video camera at the other end of the gym was putting his players off, so after a lengthy delay the refs said we had to put some tape over it. Somehow I don't think the little light was the problem why there 'star' player kept getting blocked but hey ho.
So into December, 3 games before xmas and not a lot of traveling. This weekend we are away to Habo, following week we welcome the defending champions and team that beat us in the semi final last season, Linkoping. Then we close out 2010 at home to our lovely friends from Sollentuna. A hard run to end the year, but hopefully we end on a high.
Unfortunately I cant recall anyone doing anything really stupid this month apart from the Canadian girl in EVS firstly saying she thought they did stats from games 'just for fun' then followed by 'do you get extra points for doing different things', maybe they have a different scoring system in Canada compared to the rest of the world.
Joe has been normal this month, which will be of disappointment to his family as he never tells them when he does stupid things. (He did do something stupid but am keeping my mouth shut...for the time being)
Not many things to rant at this month, so will have a look at the videos
clever video, the longer version got taken off youtube
don't think everyone will understand, but its funny
pretty clever
this is just strange
enjoy the snow
Wednesday 3 November 2010
End of the Month
So October came and went and it went pretty quick. Thankfully for us it was a good month, as Novemeber rolls in, we sit top of the league with a perfect 3-0 record, and are 2 points ahead of second place. Obviously nothing is decided in the first month of the season, but it is good for confidence to have gotten off to a good start, especially in comparison to the start we had last season.
After me and Joe had been given the freedom of Hylte to hit and score all day in the middle, it was on to our home opener agaist Tierp, who the previous week had beaten the defending champions. So it was set to be a good game, in front of a good crowd 400+. Unfourtantly for Joe and myself the Tierp game plan was to shut us down, so we didnt get a lot of ball, but it enabled our outside's to score for fun and we ran out comfortable winners 3-0, a good win and more importantly a good win infront of the home crowd. This past Friday we made the short trip up to Falkenberg (via Engelholm, if you were in the car with Joe). Falkenberg have been one of the best teams in Sweden for the past 5 years or so, and they beat us 3 out of 3 times we played them last season. So we prepared for a difficult game, we won the first set, mainly because they couldnt keep out of the net, the second set they bombed us from the service line and we had no answer, after a bit of 'hair dryer' treatmeant fergie style from our coach we closed out the 3rd set to win after battling back from a few points down mid-set, the 4th set we had more control and wrapped up the set to win the game, although match point we won on a yellow card, which was slightly bizarre, I have never experienced this as a player or watching a game.
So onwards to November, we have a local derby at home, a trip to the stockholm area, a trip to uppsala for swedish cup final fours and the chance to win the first silverwear of the season and we close the month out with a visit from the volleyball high school. Hopefully we will carry on our positive start to the season.
Thankfully the Rooney saga has been put to bed, although he has a lot of making up to do when he returns. The way he went about everything was wrong although i think his so called 'advisors' didnt help the situation. Nani's goal was comical, it was harsh on Spurs, but Gomes must take some of the blame, the 1st thing you learn in any sport is play to the whistle, maybe they teach something else in Brazil.
Other highlights, Zlatan and milan losing to Juve in the san siro and Alessandro Del Piero scoring his 179th serie A goal to become Juve's top serie A goal scorer.
A previously mentioned non-swedish team mate taking a shot of sambuca after it had been set on fire and burning his lips on the glass. He now has blistered lips.
Whilst sat in the resturant at the Ice hockey arena eating lunch, the polish EVS girl looks at the ice rink and ask's if the big white thing is ice.
a few random videos
After me and Joe had been given the freedom of Hylte to hit and score all day in the middle, it was on to our home opener agaist Tierp, who the previous week had beaten the defending champions. So it was set to be a good game, in front of a good crowd 400+. Unfourtantly for Joe and myself the Tierp game plan was to shut us down, so we didnt get a lot of ball, but it enabled our outside's to score for fun and we ran out comfortable winners 3-0, a good win and more importantly a good win infront of the home crowd. This past Friday we made the short trip up to Falkenberg (via Engelholm, if you were in the car with Joe). Falkenberg have been one of the best teams in Sweden for the past 5 years or so, and they beat us 3 out of 3 times we played them last season. So we prepared for a difficult game, we won the first set, mainly because they couldnt keep out of the net, the second set they bombed us from the service line and we had no answer, after a bit of 'hair dryer' treatmeant fergie style from our coach we closed out the 3rd set to win after battling back from a few points down mid-set, the 4th set we had more control and wrapped up the set to win the game, although match point we won on a yellow card, which was slightly bizarre, I have never experienced this as a player or watching a game.
So onwards to November, we have a local derby at home, a trip to the stockholm area, a trip to uppsala for swedish cup final fours and the chance to win the first silverwear of the season and we close the month out with a visit from the volleyball high school. Hopefully we will carry on our positive start to the season.
Thankfully the Rooney saga has been put to bed, although he has a lot of making up to do when he returns. The way he went about everything was wrong although i think his so called 'advisors' didnt help the situation. Nani's goal was comical, it was harsh on Spurs, but Gomes must take some of the blame, the 1st thing you learn in any sport is play to the whistle, maybe they teach something else in Brazil.
Other highlights, Zlatan and milan losing to Juve in the san siro and Alessandro Del Piero scoring his 179th serie A goal to become Juve's top serie A goal scorer.
A previously mentioned non-swedish team mate taking a shot of sambuca after it had been set on fire and burning his lips on the glass. He now has blistered lips.
Whilst sat in the resturant at the Ice hockey arena eating lunch, the polish EVS girl looks at the ice rink and ask's if the big white thing is ice.
a few random videos
Monday 18 October 2010
Let the fun begin
So i have been back in Sweden for just under 2 months now, and everything is back in full swing, my dislike of zlatan, my dislike of various swedish foods, and now my dislike of swedish road works. Also back is my poor attempt at speaking and understanding the swedish language although i have learnt a few new words and they are not even rude ones. Any way, the past month or so has seen us in pre-season training, and playing 9 pre-season games, including 5 in one weekend at the Hylte tournament. The highlight of the trip to Hylte was on the way back, when my american team/room mate, decided to fill up the car at the petrol station, the only problem was that he put diesel in the petrol car. Cue complete melt down on his part, and hysterics on the rest of the teams part. After what seemed 3 days of deciding what to do, we drove on and all seemed well, the car didnt blow up and we made it home, just a bit later than planned. He will never live this down.
So fast forward to yesterday afternoon and 200 days since that disappointing night in Linkoping, we where back to the scene of the diesel crime , and our opening game of the season away at localish rivals Hylte, the team that we knocked out of the play offs last season. They have had a considerable makeover in personal on the court and off it with a new coach coming across from Habo. We knew they would come out all guns blazing in the first set, we talked about before the game, but we didnt really prepare for it on the court and we lost the first set 25-21, onto the 2nd and we had settled into a bit more of a rhythm, and managed to squeeze out the 2nd 27-25, after that we controlled the game and won the next 2 sets with out much danger and a satisfying away win and 3 points to kick off the season. Now on to our home opener next weekend against Tierp who beat the defending champions Linkoping 3-0 in there opener, so it has the potential to be a good battle.
Comparing things to this point last season, I feel the team we have know is a lot more settled, even with the new guy coming in, we have had a good month to get used to each other and get into the grove. We have had some off court drama's in the run up to this season just like last season, but we havent been rattled by it and have just got on with it. The temperament of the squad is a level above last season and there is a good team spirit which makes it a pleasure to play in. That team spirit shone through last weekend when we had a kick off party with our sister club EVS, and we were victorious in the party games, including a dance from our coach that MJ would of been proud of. But know pre-season and party season are over at the main business is off and running.
I watched a lot of the FIVB world championships over the past few weeks, and overall it wasnt a great championships. The system the Italians and fivb put in place was stupid and it basically gave Italy a free pass to the semi-finals and screwed over better nations such as poland and bulgaria. As a result there where teams trying to lose on purpose so they had an easier draw. In the 2nd phase Bulgaria played there bench, so Brazil put out there bench team and used there second opposite as a setter. Bulgaria won 3-0, but got knocked out in the next phase, Brazil went all the way and won the championship. Lots of people are slagging off Brazil, but if a system this bad is put in place then it is open to be abused, and Brazil did it for the best result for themselves. It was also suggested Serbia lost a first round game on purpose and they ended up 3rd in the championship as a result. After the opening week only Russia and Cuba looked like decent teams, but russia bottled it late on, Cuba got to the final but lost to Brazil. Brazil turned it on when it mattered. For cuba this was there first major final with this generation so big game nerves played a part, but now the young guns have experienced it, they could we worth a bet for Olympic Gold in 2012, providing they hold on to this group of players.
In other news, United sort yourself out, Rooney sort your life out, and the Liverpool saga is just to stupid to comment on. Yanks should just stick to their own sport, and leave ours alone. Nice to see Price doing his Halak impression as well, could be another run to the finals hopefully.
So fast forward to yesterday afternoon and 200 days since that disappointing night in Linkoping, we where back to the scene of the diesel crime , and our opening game of the season away at localish rivals Hylte, the team that we knocked out of the play offs last season. They have had a considerable makeover in personal on the court and off it with a new coach coming across from Habo. We knew they would come out all guns blazing in the first set, we talked about before the game, but we didnt really prepare for it on the court and we lost the first set 25-21, onto the 2nd and we had settled into a bit more of a rhythm, and managed to squeeze out the 2nd 27-25, after that we controlled the game and won the next 2 sets with out much danger and a satisfying away win and 3 points to kick off the season. Now on to our home opener next weekend against Tierp who beat the defending champions Linkoping 3-0 in there opener, so it has the potential to be a good battle.
Comparing things to this point last season, I feel the team we have know is a lot more settled, even with the new guy coming in, we have had a good month to get used to each other and get into the grove. We have had some off court drama's in the run up to this season just like last season, but we havent been rattled by it and have just got on with it. The temperament of the squad is a level above last season and there is a good team spirit which makes it a pleasure to play in. That team spirit shone through last weekend when we had a kick off party with our sister club EVS, and we were victorious in the party games, including a dance from our coach that MJ would of been proud of. But know pre-season and party season are over at the main business is off and running.
I watched a lot of the FIVB world championships over the past few weeks, and overall it wasnt a great championships. The system the Italians and fivb put in place was stupid and it basically gave Italy a free pass to the semi-finals and screwed over better nations such as poland and bulgaria. As a result there where teams trying to lose on purpose so they had an easier draw. In the 2nd phase Bulgaria played there bench, so Brazil put out there bench team and used there second opposite as a setter. Bulgaria won 3-0, but got knocked out in the next phase, Brazil went all the way and won the championship. Lots of people are slagging off Brazil, but if a system this bad is put in place then it is open to be abused, and Brazil did it for the best result for themselves. It was also suggested Serbia lost a first round game on purpose and they ended up 3rd in the championship as a result. After the opening week only Russia and Cuba looked like decent teams, but russia bottled it late on, Cuba got to the final but lost to Brazil. Brazil turned it on when it mattered. For cuba this was there first major final with this generation so big game nerves played a part, but now the young guns have experienced it, they could we worth a bet for Olympic Gold in 2012, providing they hold on to this group of players.
In other news, United sort yourself out, Rooney sort your life out, and the Liverpool saga is just to stupid to comment on. Yanks should just stick to their own sport, and leave ours alone. Nice to see Price doing his Halak impression as well, could be another run to the finals hopefully.
Wednesday 8 September 2010
Sweden Part 2... a humbling experience
So after a summer of not a lot of sun back in England, I have returned to a surprisingly sunny Sweden. I have been back for just over a week know, after traveling for what seemed an eternity via Bus, Plane, Train and Ferry I finally made it to Helsingborg, which will be my new home until April time. I have upgraded from living in the small town of Orkelljunga to the bigger city of Helsingborg, where there are actual things to do after 5pm. After sleeping on one of my team mates sofa's for a few days, I got the keys to my new apartment that I am sharing with my American team mate. Its a decent apartment and has a dishwasher in so can't complain. So obviously we had to have a house warming party as the weekend just gone is our last free weekend for a month or so. Party was good fun, got to meet/bully/take the piss out of the two new oversea's players that have joined the Engelholm team. Including a wannabe geography teacher from Canada not knowing her US states. Was good to catch up with the other girls that I had become friends with over the past year and find out how their summers had been. After the Friday party, Saturday was a lazy day and Sunday we had been invited to take part in an event organised for children that have cancer or have had cancer.
So on Sunday morning we made the drive to a farm in the south of Sweden. The event its self is run by the guy who owns the farm and this was its 8th time of hosting it. Apart from our team being their, their was Malmo fc who are top of the Swedish football league, rally cars, motorbike display team, a robin hood play, live bands, entertainers, face painting, an orchestra, emergency services and the Swedish airforce. The whole point of the event is to put a smile on the kids face's and let the parents have a good time to. Their was 400 kids and 900 people in total at the event, they had come from Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. The language barrier was a bit tough but we got by and it was good to see all the kids enjoying themselves and getting them involved with volleyball. It was a humbling experience for myself and the rest of the team, and it put a lot of things into perspective and made me realise a lot of every day problems are superficial when you hear about the stories of the kids such as one girl has had to fight cancer twice and she has just turned 11 and another girl who has gone blind at the age of 6 and thankfully we seemed to make a good impression (especially our captain) on her and her family. Am glad that for the 6 or so hours we where their we brought a lot of joy to the bravest kids I have ever met.
So on Sunday morning we made the drive to a farm in the south of Sweden. The event its self is run by the guy who owns the farm and this was its 8th time of hosting it. Apart from our team being their, their was Malmo fc who are top of the Swedish football league, rally cars, motorbike display team, a robin hood play, live bands, entertainers, face painting, an orchestra, emergency services and the Swedish airforce. The whole point of the event is to put a smile on the kids face's and let the parents have a good time to. Their was 400 kids and 900 people in total at the event, they had come from Sweden, Poland and Lithuania. The language barrier was a bit tough but we got by and it was good to see all the kids enjoying themselves and getting them involved with volleyball. It was a humbling experience for myself and the rest of the team, and it put a lot of things into perspective and made me realise a lot of every day problems are superficial when you hear about the stories of the kids such as one girl has had to fight cancer twice and she has just turned 11 and another girl who has gone blind at the age of 6 and thankfully we seemed to make a good impression (especially our captain) on her and her family. Am glad that for the 6 or so hours we where their we brought a lot of joy to the bravest kids I have ever met.
Glädje
Thursday 5 August 2010
Hello's, Goodbye's and carrying on
Well it has been a while since I blogged, so might as well get back in to the swing of things. It seems an age ago that I left Sweden and finally made it back to England! The summer (if you can class it as that) has so far been an enjoyable one, after 3 weeks at home not doing much, I ventured back up to Sheffield to start 2 months of training with the Hallam team that was going to Poland to compete in EUSA as the Great Britain representatives. It was good to be back with the boys and the ensuing banter-fest for the past 2 and a half months. No offence to the swedes/danes/rest of the world, but it was good to be back people of the same understanding of humour as myself. The past 2 months has provided many memories from days and mostly nights out, including certain jokes that made me cry with laughter, an interesting game of never ever ever, casino's, Mcdonalds at 5am, Callum's 'quiet' birthday celebrations, house mate's fighting, broken beds and living room carnage. Oh yeah there was also a world cup..... I could probably go on for days on end about the world cup so will try to keep it short. In short England were gash, Rooney wasn't fit, for the 100000000000000th time we found out fat frank and stevie g CAN'T play together, for the 3,000 good centre backs we churn out each season, not many of them can stay fit for more than 5 minutes, the world cup confirmed John Terry is some what of defensive liability against any half decent team, Midget wright phillips will run and run and run, even if he lost the ball 2 minutes prior, Heskey should not be classed in the 'striker' section of any squad list; carrick, dawson and joe hart's tickets where a waste of money, even though i think Hart should of been 1st choice GK, countries that went further than us had younger/inexperience keepers and it worked for them, Joe cole should of played more than the 5 seconds he got over 4 games. I was shocked at the calls for Capello to go, the players need to face up to the fact that they need to shoulder most of the blame, people questioned Capello's various methods, but they seem to have worked for him during his time as England coach, people weren't calling for his head after they battered Croatia, not once but twice. I dont understand how the players mentality changed from the style in which they qualified to the abject world cup, the group they had, they played against teams that were the same calibre as teams they brushed aside in qualifying. The Manager can only do so much, his record speaks for it self, 6 Serie A titles, 2 la liga titles and a champions league. When the whistle blows, its up to the players to put into action what they have been told and England just didnt. Think thats enough ranting about england. To be honest the world cup wasnt great, my highlights were Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez's handball the guy is a hero and anyone who says they would not have done what he did is a liar and the French doing what they do best and giving up.
Anyway, after the world cup came the trip to Poland, 9 days of volleyball fun. The trip started well, being delayed for good 5 hours, meant we got to Warsaw at about 3am the next day. Then we got to enjoy 2 days of +38 degree heat, and training in a greenhouse, i have never sweat so much in a training session. Then it decided to rain for the majority of the trip so we felt more at home. We ended up finishing in 9th spot, which was a good achievement for us, as our goal was to finish top 10, we lost to Lithuania, Poland and Turkey whilst beating Finland (the hard way), portugal and giving the Germans an absolute kicking, was a very sweet way to end the competition. I think we did our best for international relations, and we seemed to forge a bond with the serbian male and female teams and some of the boys took a shine to the swiss girls. Also one of the highlights was a wonderful perfomance by callum, tim, bake and kendray on an out door stage. The other stories can be left for another day(what happens on tour, stays on tours and all that pish). Then it was back to Sheffield to pack my life in my bag and return home, it was strange leaving sheffield as I don't know when i will be back, it has been my 'home' for almost 3 years and i have made a lot of good friends through out my time there and it seems strange that i don't know when i will see them again, hopefully in the near future, but who knows. So now i have a few weeks to relax, then back to Sweden for the new season and to see my friends that i made over the past year, and maybe even make some new ones, although it will be sad not to have Carlos and Jen around.
Quotes of the summer
"Damn girl"
"This isn't the first time the Germans have marched through Warsaw"
"Shmeeeeee"
any stuttttttttttttter abuse to millsy
"moleeeeeeeeeee"
"yeah, pish laugh"
"Lemon chicken?"
If i find any good videos will put them up
#41 Thanks for the memories
RIP fat cat
The End
Anyway, after the world cup came the trip to Poland, 9 days of volleyball fun. The trip started well, being delayed for good 5 hours, meant we got to Warsaw at about 3am the next day. Then we got to enjoy 2 days of +38 degree heat, and training in a greenhouse, i have never sweat so much in a training session. Then it decided to rain for the majority of the trip so we felt more at home. We ended up finishing in 9th spot, which was a good achievement for us, as our goal was to finish top 10, we lost to Lithuania, Poland and Turkey whilst beating Finland (the hard way), portugal and giving the Germans an absolute kicking, was a very sweet way to end the competition. I think we did our best for international relations, and we seemed to forge a bond with the serbian male and female teams and some of the boys took a shine to the swiss girls. Also one of the highlights was a wonderful perfomance by callum, tim, bake and kendray on an out door stage. The other stories can be left for another day(what happens on tour, stays on tours and all that pish). Then it was back to Sheffield to pack my life in my bag and return home, it was strange leaving sheffield as I don't know when i will be back, it has been my 'home' for almost 3 years and i have made a lot of good friends through out my time there and it seems strange that i don't know when i will see them again, hopefully in the near future, but who knows. So now i have a few weeks to relax, then back to Sweden for the new season and to see my friends that i made over the past year, and maybe even make some new ones, although it will be sad not to have Carlos and Jen around.
Quotes of the summer
"Damn girl"
"This isn't the first time the Germans have marched through Warsaw"
"Shmeeeeee"
any stuttttttttttttter abuse to millsy
"moleeeeeeeeeee"
"yeah, pish laugh"
"Lemon chicken?"
If i find any good videos will put them up
#41 Thanks for the memories
RIP fat cat
The End
Monday 3 May 2010
Good things come to those who wait.
What a load of bollocks that statement is. I am still in Sweden. I am still waiting on some swedish goblin to send me my cheques. It as been more than 2 months since i sent all the paperwork off, they said the money would come in 2 weeks. Well it has been a bloody long 2 weeks, everytime I talk to them they say it is in the post, well they are taking the phrase 'snail mail' to the extreme. I know most of my blog has a lot of 'anti-swedish' things in it, but 95% of it is tounge in cheek, and hopefully people understand that. But the swedes dont help themselves in giving me ammo, to slag them off, when there system does this to me. Anyway not a lot has happened, since my last post, just had lots of time on my hands and nothing much to do apart from wanting to go home. The whole world came to a stand still as a country that not a lot happens in, decided to have a volcanic eruption and cause havoc to pretty much everyone in northern europe, lucky for me I still dont have a plane ticket home, so it didnt effect me.
Over the past month has been the finals of the championship, so we have been supporting our sister club Engleholm, who were favourites to win, however they lost 3-2 in games and had to settle for silver after going 17-1 in the regular season. Now people may say that i am biased in the fact that I have many good friends on the engelholm team and of course i wanted to them to win, yet I have to go back to my comments from my previous post about sporting officials. The scene was perfectly set, the 2 best teams in sweden, and it comes down to effectively a one of game, winner takes all (insert more cliches if you want) game for the gold medal, the scene was set, the swedish volleyball federations were licking the lips, it couldnt have been scripted better. And then along came the refs to ruin it. I talked about refs not being strong in the games that matter, and it happened again in the biggest game of the season, with the whole of Swedish volleyball watching. The say that a ref has had a good game if they are never mentioned, yet after the game all the talk was about how poor the officials were (and not just from me) I mean whats the point in having line judges if you always over rule them. A big thing is the first few calls the ref makes, as it is supposed to set the standard for the rest of the game, yet they didnt do this, and made poor decisions at crucial times, and unfortunately it was always against Engelholm. I am not taking anything away from Katrinholm, they were the best opponent i have seen EVS play against all season, and stepped there game up from when i saw them at Grand Prix, when they got picked apart in the final. Although the setter is still bad, how she got MVP i will never know, it should of been the libero hands down. In my eyes EVS is still the best team, they were the most consistent team over the regular season losing only one game, but thats the upside/downside to a play off format not always the 'best' wins.
And with that, the seasons are over. I have said goodbye to some people that have become good friends to me, and hopefully i will be seeing them sooner rather than later, but who knows what the future will bring for me and for them. Either way they have made my experience here a great one and I thank them for that, I hope i returned the favour to them.
Ok enough of the soppy stuff, havent really got much else to say, The cherries are going up, Jaro Halak is my hero, Stevie G obviously wants to play for chelsea, Berbatov and Zlatan are the same person and couldnt score in a brothel. Some videos that have kept me amused over the past few weeks, enjoy
Over the past month has been the finals of the championship, so we have been supporting our sister club Engleholm, who were favourites to win, however they lost 3-2 in games and had to settle for silver after going 17-1 in the regular season. Now people may say that i am biased in the fact that I have many good friends on the engelholm team and of course i wanted to them to win, yet I have to go back to my comments from my previous post about sporting officials. The scene was perfectly set, the 2 best teams in sweden, and it comes down to effectively a one of game, winner takes all (insert more cliches if you want) game for the gold medal, the scene was set, the swedish volleyball federations were licking the lips, it couldnt have been scripted better. And then along came the refs to ruin it. I talked about refs not being strong in the games that matter, and it happened again in the biggest game of the season, with the whole of Swedish volleyball watching. The say that a ref has had a good game if they are never mentioned, yet after the game all the talk was about how poor the officials were (and not just from me) I mean whats the point in having line judges if you always over rule them. A big thing is the first few calls the ref makes, as it is supposed to set the standard for the rest of the game, yet they didnt do this, and made poor decisions at crucial times, and unfortunately it was always against Engelholm. I am not taking anything away from Katrinholm, they were the best opponent i have seen EVS play against all season, and stepped there game up from when i saw them at Grand Prix, when they got picked apart in the final. Although the setter is still bad, how she got MVP i will never know, it should of been the libero hands down. In my eyes EVS is still the best team, they were the most consistent team over the regular season losing only one game, but thats the upside/downside to a play off format not always the 'best' wins.
And with that, the seasons are over. I have said goodbye to some people that have become good friends to me, and hopefully i will be seeing them sooner rather than later, but who knows what the future will bring for me and for them. Either way they have made my experience here a great one and I thank them for that, I hope i returned the favour to them.
Ok enough of the soppy stuff, havent really got much else to say, The cherries are going up, Jaro Halak is my hero, Stevie G obviously wants to play for chelsea, Berbatov and Zlatan are the same person and couldnt score in a brothel. Some videos that have kept me amused over the past few weeks, enjoy
Tuesday 13 April 2010
If's, But's and stage fright
So it seems like ages since I last updated this. To be honest a lot has happened in the past 3 weeks or so.
The biggest thing was that we lost 3-2 in games in the semi finals, which felt heart breaking, after losing the first game away 3-0, we come home and won 3-0, it was possibly our best performance of the season, we served them off the court, we then traveled away and lost 3-2 in a tight game that could of gone either way, unfortunately it didnt go for us. So it was back home for game 4 and a must win game, we managed to pull out a 3-1 win after losing the first, then winning a tight 2nd set. So then it was to game 5 on april fools day, winner goes to the final. So it was time to get out the gret quotes an listen to motivational speeches. The first set we played like rabbits caught in headlights, there was no pressure on us, we were the lowest ranked seed left playing the top ranked seed, yet it felt like everything as on us. The second set was tight until a few mental errors at the end of the set cost us, so then to the 3rd set that was a must win, to cut the story short we were 24-17 down and fought back to even have set point at 26-25, but there was to be no fairytail ending as we lost 28-26 and with that the season was over. It was one of the most gutting feelings I have ever had playing sport, that the work for the past 7 months that we had put in had come to an end as the ball hit our defender and sailed in to the stands, then to look over and see the celebrations of linkoping and there fans. Its a feeling i hope i dont have to experience again anytime soon. After the pain come the "If's" and "buts", what if this had been different, what if this had happened etc. Looking back on the season it has been a good season for us, we have battled through a whole lot of issues, especially at the start of the season, being constantly over looked by the media in favour of the Engelholm girls, and some toss ice hockey team from engleholm that has just got relegated, yet they get more pages in the newspaper than a Wags night out and only slightly less pages than Zlatan breaking a nail. However, the way the season ended still hurts, the ideal of course would have been to win the gold, but the manner in which we played game 5 sort of tarnished the past 7 months of hard work, i think the pain would be less if we had gone out and laid it all out so there wouldn't have been the if's and buts. Yet it seemed something was missing on that thursday evening in Linkoping.
So now it means no more volleyball for a few months, and the chance to chill and relax for my last few weeks in sweden, party a bit, and go and support the lovely ladies in Engelholm as they are in the final. I enjoyed a good two days of partying this weekend for my birthday, I have been extremely lucky in the friends I have made in the short period of time that I have been here, so it made me happy that a lot of them came over to help celebrate my birthday, even if my Birthday twin and the rest of the Engelholm girls could only stay on the soft stuff as they had a game the day after. Playing 'arrogance' with swedish people is fun, they seem to enjoy the game, yet are grossed out by it at the same time.
This summer is yet a mystery for me and where i will be and what i will be doing, although watching the world cup will be top of the list. I will however miss the people that I have become friends with in sweden and the people that have made me feel welcome since day 1. I may never see them again, as they may move on or I may move on, but they have still made my stay here amazing.
One thing that has bugged me over the past few weeks is sporting officials mainly in football and volleyball, am not using this as an excuse as to why we lost, but when it comes to play offs you expect strong, down the middle officiating, yet it didnt come, in both series against Linkoping and Hylte, for all teams involved there were terrible calls, these people have players, teams and coaches fates and futures in their hands and they dick about like it doesnt matter and it pissed me off even more when you ask the ref after the game about his calls and he just smiles and winks at you, Knobhead. In football united where piss poor in the first half against chelsea, and deserve to be 1-0 at half time, Drogba's goal was a world class finish that all you could do was applaud, however he was 3 yards offside, stood infront of the linesman, how did he not flag, his job is to put his flag up and he couldnt manage that, in possibly the game that has decided the title race. I dont understand how fifa keeps putting off the development of technology in football, but how can they ignore it when so called officials are making more and more mistakes in big games. So in the past few weeks, my season has come crashing down, and so has Uniteds, all i need now is England to lose the world cup on penalty's to Portugal and that will be the hat-trick.
I think karma has caught up with me, and my laughing at children, yesterday at school, the first day out in the sun with the kids, i was chasing after a tennis ball, slipped and sprained my ankle, this was after a kid, twice in a row went to catch a ball missed it and hit him in the face. Obviously I laughed, maybe I used up all my 'laughing at children' points and it was there turn to get back at me. Oh well could be worse, could be in the finals and have to sit out....
The biggest thing was that we lost 3-2 in games in the semi finals, which felt heart breaking, after losing the first game away 3-0, we come home and won 3-0, it was possibly our best performance of the season, we served them off the court, we then traveled away and lost 3-2 in a tight game that could of gone either way, unfortunately it didnt go for us. So it was back home for game 4 and a must win game, we managed to pull out a 3-1 win after losing the first, then winning a tight 2nd set. So then it was to game 5 on april fools day, winner goes to the final. So it was time to get out the gret quotes an listen to motivational speeches. The first set we played like rabbits caught in headlights, there was no pressure on us, we were the lowest ranked seed left playing the top ranked seed, yet it felt like everything as on us. The second set was tight until a few mental errors at the end of the set cost us, so then to the 3rd set that was a must win, to cut the story short we were 24-17 down and fought back to even have set point at 26-25, but there was to be no fairytail ending as we lost 28-26 and with that the season was over. It was one of the most gutting feelings I have ever had playing sport, that the work for the past 7 months that we had put in had come to an end as the ball hit our defender and sailed in to the stands, then to look over and see the celebrations of linkoping and there fans. Its a feeling i hope i dont have to experience again anytime soon. After the pain come the "If's" and "buts", what if this had been different, what if this had happened etc. Looking back on the season it has been a good season for us, we have battled through a whole lot of issues, especially at the start of the season, being constantly over looked by the media in favour of the Engelholm girls, and some toss ice hockey team from engleholm that has just got relegated, yet they get more pages in the newspaper than a Wags night out and only slightly less pages than Zlatan breaking a nail. However, the way the season ended still hurts, the ideal of course would have been to win the gold, but the manner in which we played game 5 sort of tarnished the past 7 months of hard work, i think the pain would be less if we had gone out and laid it all out so there wouldn't have been the if's and buts. Yet it seemed something was missing on that thursday evening in Linkoping.
So now it means no more volleyball for a few months, and the chance to chill and relax for my last few weeks in sweden, party a bit, and go and support the lovely ladies in Engelholm as they are in the final. I enjoyed a good two days of partying this weekend for my birthday, I have been extremely lucky in the friends I have made in the short period of time that I have been here, so it made me happy that a lot of them came over to help celebrate my birthday, even if my Birthday twin and the rest of the Engelholm girls could only stay on the soft stuff as they had a game the day after. Playing 'arrogance' with swedish people is fun, they seem to enjoy the game, yet are grossed out by it at the same time.
This summer is yet a mystery for me and where i will be and what i will be doing, although watching the world cup will be top of the list. I will however miss the people that I have become friends with in sweden and the people that have made me feel welcome since day 1. I may never see them again, as they may move on or I may move on, but they have still made my stay here amazing.
One thing that has bugged me over the past few weeks is sporting officials mainly in football and volleyball, am not using this as an excuse as to why we lost, but when it comes to play offs you expect strong, down the middle officiating, yet it didnt come, in both series against Linkoping and Hylte, for all teams involved there were terrible calls, these people have players, teams and coaches fates and futures in their hands and they dick about like it doesnt matter and it pissed me off even more when you ask the ref after the game about his calls and he just smiles and winks at you, Knobhead. In football united where piss poor in the first half against chelsea, and deserve to be 1-0 at half time, Drogba's goal was a world class finish that all you could do was applaud, however he was 3 yards offside, stood infront of the linesman, how did he not flag, his job is to put his flag up and he couldnt manage that, in possibly the game that has decided the title race. I dont understand how fifa keeps putting off the development of technology in football, but how can they ignore it when so called officials are making more and more mistakes in big games. So in the past few weeks, my season has come crashing down, and so has Uniteds, all i need now is England to lose the world cup on penalty's to Portugal and that will be the hat-trick.
I think karma has caught up with me, and my laughing at children, yesterday at school, the first day out in the sun with the kids, i was chasing after a tennis ball, slipped and sprained my ankle, this was after a kid, twice in a row went to catch a ball missed it and hit him in the face. Obviously I laughed, maybe I used up all my 'laughing at children' points and it was there turn to get back at me. Oh well could be worse, could be in the finals and have to sit out....
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Bits and Bobs
So after the drama of the quarter final series against Hylte, the start of the semi finals was a bit of a let down on our part. We traveled up the day before, then practiced the morning of the game to get used to the hall, Linkoping has the biggest hall in the league, where as we have the smallest, also they play with the old Mikasa balls, where as mostly everyone else around the league uses the new ones. After all this we where sent packing from the big gym on the back of a 3-0 lose. All the hype and excitement in the build up turned into a damb squip as we were served off court by two Australians named Aiden and Hamish. Saturday wasnt a great day in my sporting world as all results didnt go in my favour, however sunday did. The little dog eating korean, Ji sung park popped up and scored the winner against the scousers to make my sunday a happy one, made even happier when el hadji diouf, decided for once in his life not to punch or a spit on people, and scored against chelsea. He is not a 100% retard after all.
This will turn into randomness now as i have different things to ramble about.
Fernando Torres, good striker, looks gash in a liverpool shirt though, as a good as he his, he turned into a whining little bitch on sunday, and kicking the penalty spot just made him look like a spoilt little tit.
Swedish press on volleyball, before i continue i would like to point out to any people that play for Engelholm women's team this is not slagging you off!!! The press around here love them, maybe love them more than there own children/families. Dont get me wrong the girls deserve there praise, winning grand prix, Nevza, and winning the league season with 17 wins and only one lose. But the press seem to cream over anything and everything they do, they won the gold last year, so where once again favourites this time around, however we have been slagged off by the press since day 1 of the season starting and the bias is starting to grate a bit. The girls setter, won player of the season and setter of the season and rightly so, she is unreal and head and shoulders above anyone else, our setter also won setter of the year for the men, yet in the press article got one line compared to mucks two paragraphs. The mens league is far closer than the women's league, the difference between top and bottom in the mens was 25 points, in the women's it was 43, and the top 4 in the mens were separated by 8 points, in the womens 19. Yet it feels like when ever we do well the press count it as lucky, we where written off for grand prix yet took the silver, we were written off against Hylte in the play offs yet won 3-1 in games, and yet again we have been written off against Linkoping, with out the consideration that we had the best results against them in the regular season. I have full respect for the girls in engelholm they train there arse's off and our deserving of the medals they have won this year. The journalist that slagged us off before xmas, a few weeks ago decided, that instead of coming to our game against the defending champions, and the 1st game in there new hall, he would go to engelholm and watch them play bottom of the league. We ended up losing 3-2, 16-14 in the final set in front of a Swedish record 1531 people, the engelholm game was canceled because of the weather. Yet he still couldn't be bothered to cover the game. You can be lucky in some games, but when we keep being 'lucky' it annoys me that they dont realise that we may actually have the talent and can achieve results like the girls down the road.
The retards i spoke of last week still haven't figured out how to write numbers on a piece of paper and send it in the mail.
Yesterday at school, kid jumps up in the air, other kids throws a ball in his face, kid is off balance and lands on his face, starts to cry, the kid was fine, was it cruel that I laughed slightly?
Now that is commitment and a desire to help your team win
I just like this
This will turn into randomness now as i have different things to ramble about.
Fernando Torres, good striker, looks gash in a liverpool shirt though, as a good as he his, he turned into a whining little bitch on sunday, and kicking the penalty spot just made him look like a spoilt little tit.
Swedish press on volleyball, before i continue i would like to point out to any people that play for Engelholm women's team this is not slagging you off!!! The press around here love them, maybe love them more than there own children/families. Dont get me wrong the girls deserve there praise, winning grand prix, Nevza, and winning the league season with 17 wins and only one lose. But the press seem to cream over anything and everything they do, they won the gold last year, so where once again favourites this time around, however we have been slagged off by the press since day 1 of the season starting and the bias is starting to grate a bit. The girls setter, won player of the season and setter of the season and rightly so, she is unreal and head and shoulders above anyone else, our setter also won setter of the year for the men, yet in the press article got one line compared to mucks two paragraphs. The mens league is far closer than the women's league, the difference between top and bottom in the mens was 25 points, in the women's it was 43, and the top 4 in the mens were separated by 8 points, in the womens 19. Yet it feels like when ever we do well the press count it as lucky, we where written off for grand prix yet took the silver, we were written off against Hylte in the play offs yet won 3-1 in games, and yet again we have been written off against Linkoping, with out the consideration that we had the best results against them in the regular season. I have full respect for the girls in engelholm they train there arse's off and our deserving of the medals they have won this year. The journalist that slagged us off before xmas, a few weeks ago decided, that instead of coming to our game against the defending champions, and the 1st game in there new hall, he would go to engelholm and watch them play bottom of the league. We ended up losing 3-2, 16-14 in the final set in front of a Swedish record 1531 people, the engelholm game was canceled because of the weather. Yet he still couldn't be bothered to cover the game. You can be lucky in some games, but when we keep being 'lucky' it annoys me that they dont realise that we may actually have the talent and can achieve results like the girls down the road.
The retards i spoke of last week still haven't figured out how to write numbers on a piece of paper and send it in the mail.
Yesterday at school, kid jumps up in the air, other kids throws a ball in his face, kid is off balance and lands on his face, starts to cry, the kid was fine, was it cruel that I laughed slightly?
Now that is commitment and a desire to help your team win
I just like this
Wednesday 17 March 2010
A week is a long time in sport
Well the saying is normally 'A week is a long time in football' referring to how much can change in a short period of time. Last Wednesday we left Hylte after losing 3-0, and the series being tied at 1-1. We hadnt played great, but by know means our worst performance of the season. I still believed that if we had won the 3rd set(we lost 30-28) we would have gone on to win the game, but it wasnt to be. So after Wednesday we began planning for Sunday, so with plan A not working in Hylte, despite working in the first game, we began hearing of plan B, C, D and E. However they where thrown out of the window during friday practice when one of our guys rolled an ankle, so it was back to Plan A, with a few tweaks. So sunday came around after the drama's of the previous days, the buzz that i though was missing from wednesday was back, there was no forced happiness and joy it was all back to normal just like the previous sunday. We won the game 3-1, it was a similar pattern to the previous sunday, a close 1st set , that we gained control in and coasted at the end to seal it, a tight 2nd set, won 25-23, a tight 3rd set lost 24-26, then a 4th set we never looked like losing 25-20. However there where 2 differences to the previous week, at the start of the 4th set, Hylte went 1-0 up, however one of their american players on court, but no where near the play suddenly fell to the floor and could not continue with a suspected torn achillies tendon. The second massive difference, was Lennie Hansson, in the 2nd set we were 21-23, coach decided to put lennie on to serve and well, the boy delivered!! 4 aces in a row!!
I don't think I have ever seen anything like it live.
Although we lost the set after, I think Hylte where still in shock, the crowd really got behind us, and every time he came on to serve Hylte looked like they were shi**ing it. The ironic thing is that lennie would most likely have not been playing had our guy not get injured on friday, but to be fair to the lad, he took his chance when it was given to him.
So that took us to last night and game 4 in Hylte, we won 3-0, (25-19, 25-20, 25-19), with one of there americans injured, they had to play with a different system, and we took advantage of it. We served them off the court and made few errors. I don't think anyone could have predicted what happened in the past 6 days, twists and turns in all sense's. Some good and some bad. But that's sport, and that's why people love to watch and play, the drama, the buzz, the passion.
Now its on to saturday and away to Linkoping, who won the regular season, but we had the best results against them out of any team in the division, also hopefully no more broken bones.
Now on to ramblings and moaning, now I believe this is slightly retarded, and someone in the swedish world needs to have a word with themselves. I am meant to get money for working in the schools during the work, but the money comes from the government. So to get it you have to fill out a form at the job centre, then send it half way up the country, for someone retard to check it and fill out a cheque and send it back, sounds simple, but this being sweden it is not. You send your form off, because apparently a bank transfer from one swedish account to another swedish account is far to advance for them, then wait for your cheque. I was thinking this would take a few days, how wrong i was, it has been 2 and a half weeks since my form was sent and i am still waiting. I don't know how people from england can send me stuff and it takes 2 days, yet it takes more than 2 weeks for a letter to arrive from a place 6 hours up the road in the same country. Apparently ASAP means as soon as we can be arsed.
Also, apparently when you play basketball with young kids here, they turn it to rugby, and try and beat the person with the ball up. And slightly cruel, but i found it funny, watching a kid bounce the ball off the wall and into his on face. Maybe you had to be there to fully appriciate it.
I don't think I have ever seen anything like it live.
Although we lost the set after, I think Hylte where still in shock, the crowd really got behind us, and every time he came on to serve Hylte looked like they were shi**ing it. The ironic thing is that lennie would most likely have not been playing had our guy not get injured on friday, but to be fair to the lad, he took his chance when it was given to him.
So that took us to last night and game 4 in Hylte, we won 3-0, (25-19, 25-20, 25-19), with one of there americans injured, they had to play with a different system, and we took advantage of it. We served them off the court and made few errors. I don't think anyone could have predicted what happened in the past 6 days, twists and turns in all sense's. Some good and some bad. But that's sport, and that's why people love to watch and play, the drama, the buzz, the passion.
Now its on to saturday and away to Linkoping, who won the regular season, but we had the best results against them out of any team in the division, also hopefully no more broken bones.
Now on to ramblings and moaning, now I believe this is slightly retarded, and someone in the swedish world needs to have a word with themselves. I am meant to get money for working in the schools during the work, but the money comes from the government. So to get it you have to fill out a form at the job centre, then send it half way up the country, for someone retard to check it and fill out a cheque and send it back, sounds simple, but this being sweden it is not. You send your form off, because apparently a bank transfer from one swedish account to another swedish account is far to advance for them, then wait for your cheque. I was thinking this would take a few days, how wrong i was, it has been 2 and a half weeks since my form was sent and i am still waiting. I don't know how people from england can send me stuff and it takes 2 days, yet it takes more than 2 weeks for a letter to arrive from a place 6 hours up the road in the same country. Apparently ASAP means as soon as we can be arsed.
Also, apparently when you play basketball with young kids here, they turn it to rugby, and try and beat the person with the ball up. And slightly cruel, but i found it funny, watching a kid bounce the ball off the wall and into his on face. Maybe you had to be there to fully appriciate it.
Thursday 11 March 2010
March madness
So the post season is upon us and play off time. Game 1 was Sunday just gone in Orkelljunga which we won 3-1 against Hylte, it was another great team effort similar to the linkoping game, although we sort of went one better in the fact that in the second set we were 15-8, then 16-10 down, but still managed to win the set 34-32, along with a few heart attacks along the way. Game 2 was last night in Hylte, and didn't go according to plan, we lost 3-0, it was a strange game we played well in the 1st set until about 16-16, then we seemed to deflate for no apparent reason and lost, the 2nd set was slightly closer, and then in the 3rd it was our turn to lose an epic this time 30-28. The atmosphere around the game last night was strange compared to Sunday, there didn't seem to be the same bubbliness as Sundays game and more forced joy and happiness than natural from the usual suspects. Hopefully it will return for this Sunday, when we are back at home.
So the tie is finally poised at 1-1 in the best of 5, of course we would have liked to be 2-0 up, but if someone had offered us 1-1 at this stage I think the majority of us would have taken it. All eyes are on the 'new' Hylte after their Christmas internet shopping spree, so it has taken the spotlight away from us. We are more than happy to keep a low profile and stay in the shadows, while the press write about them. The playoffs are won in mid April, not the first week of March, so we will keep plugging away step by step to be in the mix come easter time.
Away from volleyball, and my ramblings of all things swedish, just recently on swedish tv, they have started a show to find the swedish contestant for the next Eurovision song contest, it is on every friday, just after i finish practice (much to my annoyance), also from the translation it seems to be the most watched show in Sweden, which is slightly strange as all the contestants are toss. The only time i want to see a fat man in a red suit is on christmas day delivering presents, not trying to sing out of tune in swenglish. I know sweden and eurovision gave us ABBA, but i think they need to realise that it was a one off and move on.
During the weekdays, I spend time in different schools in the area helping keep the kids active during there free periods and gym classes. We normally start with a warm up game, then ask the kids want they want to play. For some reason all swedish boys want to do is fight each other, so this is classed as an 'activity' to them as proven the other week-
teacher- 'what do you want to do'
girl-'play on the rings'
boy1- 'fight'
boy2-'fight'
girl-'rings'
boy3-'fight'
boy4- 'football'
Think that's about it for now, cant seem to find any videos i like kicking around,stay safe and watch out for the tigers.
So the tie is finally poised at 1-1 in the best of 5, of course we would have liked to be 2-0 up, but if someone had offered us 1-1 at this stage I think the majority of us would have taken it. All eyes are on the 'new' Hylte after their Christmas internet shopping spree, so it has taken the spotlight away from us. We are more than happy to keep a low profile and stay in the shadows, while the press write about them. The playoffs are won in mid April, not the first week of March, so we will keep plugging away step by step to be in the mix come easter time.
Away from volleyball, and my ramblings of all things swedish, just recently on swedish tv, they have started a show to find the swedish contestant for the next Eurovision song contest, it is on every friday, just after i finish practice (much to my annoyance), also from the translation it seems to be the most watched show in Sweden, which is slightly strange as all the contestants are toss. The only time i want to see a fat man in a red suit is on christmas day delivering presents, not trying to sing out of tune in swenglish. I know sweden and eurovision gave us ABBA, but i think they need to realise that it was a one off and move on.
During the weekdays, I spend time in different schools in the area helping keep the kids active during there free periods and gym classes. We normally start with a warm up game, then ask the kids want they want to play. For some reason all swedish boys want to do is fight each other, so this is classed as an 'activity' to them as proven the other week-
teacher- 'what do you want to do'
girl-'play on the rings'
boy1- 'fight'
boy2-'fight'
girl-'rings'
boy3-'fight'
boy4- 'football'
Think that's about it for now, cant seem to find any videos i like kicking around,stay safe and watch out for the tigers.
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Wednesday ramblings
So then another wednesday, which means a day off from volleyball and looking after kids. Luckily and hopefully as of yesterday the worst winter in the history of the universe of sweden has stopped and the sun has come out :), which means the snow is melting. This is a good thing, however, snow melting means one thing...SLUSH. Slush to me is annoying, white snow is good and fun to play around with, no snow is good as everything is normal, however the inbetween bit is slush, and slush is piss annoying, it is dirty, grey, full of crap, and makes your feet wet when you walk through it.
Another thing that i find strange/annoying is the fact that sand sticks to things when they are wet, so who's idea was it to put sand next to the sea? and make sand stick to wet things.
One thing I find strange over here, is the fact you have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a bar, but you have to be 20 to buy alcohol from the off licence (system), I suppose this helps stopping young kids getting alcohol from the shop and the alcohol in bars is to expensive, so they won't try to buy any.
Run out of things to ramble about
Another thing that i find strange/annoying is the fact that sand sticks to things when they are wet, so who's idea was it to put sand next to the sea? and make sand stick to wet things.
One thing I find strange over here, is the fact you have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a bar, but you have to be 20 to buy alcohol from the off licence (system), I suppose this helps stopping young kids getting alcohol from the shop and the alcohol in bars is to expensive, so they won't try to buy any.
Run out of things to ramble about
Monday 1 March 2010
The end, Part 1
So the Olympics have finished, one wish came true, in that the swedes and Lundqvist choked in the quarter finals, and couldn't get past Jaro Halak in the Slovakia goal. The only downside was that sidney crosby scored the winner in the gold medal game.
The regular season here finished this weekend to, so now we all know the draw for the play offs and the route we are to take to the gold medal finals. The regular season was close with the top 4 teams (including us) fighting for the highest seeded place possible, after 16 games the league finished like this
Linkoping 37pts (we lost 3-2 away, and won 3-1 at home, we were also the only team in the league to leave linkoping's home court with at least a point)
Falkenberg 35pts (lost 3-1 at home, lost 3-2 away and lost 3-1 in the GP final)
Sollentuna 33pts (lost 3-0 at home, won 3-2 away, won 3-1 in GP semi final
Orkelljunga 29pts
Hylte 22pts (won 3-0 at home, lost 3-0 away)
Tierp 18pts (won 3-0 at home, won 3-0 away, lost 3-2 in Swedish cup semi final)
Vingaker 16pts (won 3-1 at home, lost 3-1 away)
RiG Falkoping (lost 3-2 away, won 3-0 at home)
Habo (won 3-0 away, won 3-0 at home)
so after all that the play offs are good to go next weekend with us against Hylte, Linkoping-Vingaker, Falkenberg-RiG and Sollentuna-Tierp, each round is the best of 5 games with the higher seed playing more home games.
Hopefully my finger will be healed in time for the start of the play offs, I was mad that I missed our last game away at Vingaker, so I definitely do not want to miss any more games, especially as they are play off games.
Hopefully we will have a Sidney crosby type play offs and not a Sweden/Henrik Lundqvist type play offs.
Also curling is the most boring sport to watch, people that slag off cricket should have a word with themsleves first and watch some curling, then see if they still think cricket is boring
The regular season here finished this weekend to, so now we all know the draw for the play offs and the route we are to take to the gold medal finals. The regular season was close with the top 4 teams (including us) fighting for the highest seeded place possible, after 16 games the league finished like this
Linkoping 37pts (we lost 3-2 away, and won 3-1 at home, we were also the only team in the league to leave linkoping's home court with at least a point)
Falkenberg 35pts (lost 3-1 at home, lost 3-2 away and lost 3-1 in the GP final)
Sollentuna 33pts (lost 3-0 at home, won 3-2 away, won 3-1 in GP semi final
Orkelljunga 29pts
Hylte 22pts (won 3-0 at home, lost 3-0 away)
Tierp 18pts (won 3-0 at home, won 3-0 away, lost 3-2 in Swedish cup semi final)
Vingaker 16pts (won 3-1 at home, lost 3-1 away)
RiG Falkoping (lost 3-2 away, won 3-0 at home)
Habo (won 3-0 away, won 3-0 at home)
so after all that the play offs are good to go next weekend with us against Hylte, Linkoping-Vingaker, Falkenberg-RiG and Sollentuna-Tierp, each round is the best of 5 games with the higher seed playing more home games.
Hopefully my finger will be healed in time for the start of the play offs, I was mad that I missed our last game away at Vingaker, so I definitely do not want to miss any more games, especially as they are play off games.
Hopefully we will have a Sidney crosby type play offs and not a Sweden/Henrik Lundqvist type play offs.
Also curling is the most boring sport to watch, people that slag off cricket should have a word with themsleves first and watch some curling, then see if they still think cricket is boring
Wednesday 24 February 2010
And another thing...
So its been a whole week since i went post crazy of my first day of blogging. So whats new... its snowed again.. a lot... United played gash in the 2nd half and lost to everton, which ruined my saturday to say the least as it was the only thing to look forward to on my day off.
Sunday was game day against top of the league and a team that is made up of mostly aussies. The game was good, one of our best performances of the season with us winning 3-1. I also scored possibly the best ace i have ever scored in volleyball, basically i served, the ball was going miles out, the libero turned to leave it and the ball hit him in the face. However the win came at a cost to one of my fingers being broken by a 212cm Australian opposite. This meant I got to experience the swedish health care system, which basically meant i sat in hospital for 5 hours for them to bandage my finger. The only highlight was the free biscuits and coffee in the xray waiting room.
Another thing to add to my dislikes is the swedish obsession with liquorice. They have liquorice sweets, drinks, powder that you eat, liquorice flavoured chocolate and liquorice flavoured biscuits. This is just wrong in every way.
Sunday was game day against top of the league and a team that is made up of mostly aussies. The game was good, one of our best performances of the season with us winning 3-1. I also scored possibly the best ace i have ever scored in volleyball, basically i served, the ball was going miles out, the libero turned to leave it and the ball hit him in the face. However the win came at a cost to one of my fingers being broken by a 212cm Australian opposite. This meant I got to experience the swedish health care system, which basically meant i sat in hospital for 5 hours for them to bandage my finger. The only highlight was the free biscuits and coffee in the xray waiting room.
Another thing to add to my dislikes is the swedish obsession with liquorice. They have liquorice sweets, drinks, powder that you eat, liquorice flavoured chocolate and liquorice flavoured biscuits. This is just wrong in every way.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Random pish
This blogging is quite addictive....some random thoughts that I need to share
I like volleyball and football so this made me happy
Am getting bored of the winter olympics already, all I care about is the Men's Ice Hockey, watching Lundqvist get lit up and sidney crosby fall on his face like the big girl he is. Also I want to see lots of snowboard/skiing/skating crashes.
The Olympics are nice, but can't we just settle all this with a world war? McDonald's can still sponsor it. (stolen from twitter)
Nani frustrates me, could be as good as ronaldo as the game against arsenal proved, but against milan he was back to his usual wankness, he just needs to stop trying to be ronaldo.
Since being in Sweden I have been watching Friday Night Lights tv series, and i am hooked, i reccommend it to anyone, you get easily addicted. Have also just finished the first season of Dexter , which is pretty decent and is helping me pass the time inbetween eating, sleeping, volleyball and looking after kids.
I like volleyball and football so this made me happy
Am getting bored of the winter olympics already, all I care about is the Men's Ice Hockey, watching Lundqvist get lit up and sidney crosby fall on his face like the big girl he is. Also I want to see lots of snowboard/skiing/skating crashes.
The Olympics are nice, but can't we just settle all this with a world war? McDonald's can still sponsor it. (stolen from twitter)
Nani frustrates me, could be as good as ronaldo as the game against arsenal proved, but against milan he was back to his usual wankness, he just needs to stop trying to be ronaldo.
Since being in Sweden I have been watching Friday Night Lights tv series, and i am hooked, i reccommend it to anyone, you get easily addicted. Have also just finished the first season of Dexter , which is pretty decent and is helping me pass the time inbetween eating, sleeping, volleyball and looking after kids.
Sweden so far......
I moved to Sweden at the start of september, leaving behind a grey, rainy, wet and windy Sheffield, for a grey, wet, cold and small orkelljunga. The town is about the size of meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield. I think there is about 7,000 people that live in this small town, which is about half an hour north of Helsingborg.
Luckly for me, I have come to Sweden for their worst winter (as i keep being told by everyone) since the ice age. It started snowing around the end of November and it seems like it can not be bothered to stop...even now in the middle of Febuary it still snows and snows and snows. Anyway I came here to play volleyball not build snowmen. So far the volleyball is going good, pre-season way back in september was good, but then things came crashing down just in time for the start of the regular season. We lost our first couple of games and got knocked out of Nordic Club Cup. It was difficult first month, especially for the past 2 seasons in England were I was used to winning! haha. Anyway things have picked up, the team has got closer and better as a unit, we came 2nd at the grand prix in January and are looking good to qulify as the 4th seed for the playoffs.
Over the past few months I have decided about the things i like and dislike about sweden so here goes
What I hate about Sweden-
Zlatan- Firstly he is not even swedish, yet if he breaks a nail, he gets a whole newspaper to himself about it, if anything worse would happen to him, I think sweden would come to a stand still for at least 6 years of mourning. Oh yeah and he isnt that good at football as people (swedes) think he is.
Henrik Lundqvist- He is an ice hockey goalie, that plays for the New York Rangers, I dont like the rangers therefore i dont like him, also he seems to almost be at the same status as Zlatan.
The Swedish Mile- Everywhere else in the world a mile is a mile, in sweden a mile = 10km! so when someone says something is a few miles away they actually mean 20-30km
Swedish CRISPS!!!- Firstly they call them chips, this is wrong, chips are hot and deep fried and served with burgers, Secondly the flavour of crisps are rubbish (sour cream and onion, sourcream and herb, sourcream and cheese, sourcream and sourcream) you get the picture
Swedish Alphabet- they have the normal 26 letters then a few of there own, with weird dots and circles above them, which in turn makes the sound of the words utterly retarded.
Swedish chocolate- apart from Daim bar, everything else is not cadburys standard
Swedish time- if you say half 5, to them it means 4.30, how?????
Alcohol- You cant buy any strong alcohol in supermarkets, you have to go the 'system' which in the small towns around here are open 10-6 mon-friday, and then 10-2pm on saturday, then closed on sunday. So if you want to get drunk you must plan it 3 months in advance to make sure the shop is open. Then when it is open you get charged a kings ransom for a small bottle of vodka. The price of alcohol in bars is a disgrace and means you have to rob a bank if you want a decent night out on the hard stuff.
Think thats all my dislikes so far
The likes...
Kebab- They serve it with chips, on pizza, with pasta basically you can get kebab on just about anything, and it tastes good.
Blackjack- They have blackjack tables in bars and nightclubs, which means you dont have to look for a casino to lose all your money in.
Heated seats- In orkelljunga at the bus stop they have heated benches, which means while the rest of you is freezing your arse and part of your legs are cooking.
English football on tv- In England on saturdays none of the 3pm kick offs are allowed to be shown on english tv, however in sweden they are allowed to be shown, which means on my day off from volleyball, which is a saturday, i can sit in the bar all day and watch at least 3 games back to back.
Thats about it so far
If anyone reads this, hope you enjoy it
Luckly for me, I have come to Sweden for their worst winter (as i keep being told by everyone) since the ice age. It started snowing around the end of November and it seems like it can not be bothered to stop...even now in the middle of Febuary it still snows and snows and snows. Anyway I came here to play volleyball not build snowmen. So far the volleyball is going good, pre-season way back in september was good, but then things came crashing down just in time for the start of the regular season. We lost our first couple of games and got knocked out of Nordic Club Cup. It was difficult first month, especially for the past 2 seasons in England were I was used to winning! haha. Anyway things have picked up, the team has got closer and better as a unit, we came 2nd at the grand prix in January and are looking good to qulify as the 4th seed for the playoffs.
Over the past few months I have decided about the things i like and dislike about sweden so here goes
What I hate about Sweden-
Zlatan- Firstly he is not even swedish, yet if he breaks a nail, he gets a whole newspaper to himself about it, if anything worse would happen to him, I think sweden would come to a stand still for at least 6 years of mourning. Oh yeah and he isnt that good at football as people (swedes) think he is.
Henrik Lundqvist- He is an ice hockey goalie, that plays for the New York Rangers, I dont like the rangers therefore i dont like him, also he seems to almost be at the same status as Zlatan.
The Swedish Mile- Everywhere else in the world a mile is a mile, in sweden a mile = 10km! so when someone says something is a few miles away they actually mean 20-30km
Swedish CRISPS!!!- Firstly they call them chips, this is wrong, chips are hot and deep fried and served with burgers, Secondly the flavour of crisps are rubbish (sour cream and onion, sourcream and herb, sourcream and cheese, sourcream and sourcream) you get the picture
Swedish Alphabet- they have the normal 26 letters then a few of there own, with weird dots and circles above them, which in turn makes the sound of the words utterly retarded.
Swedish chocolate- apart from Daim bar, everything else is not cadburys standard
Swedish time- if you say half 5, to them it means 4.30, how?????
Alcohol- You cant buy any strong alcohol in supermarkets, you have to go the 'system' which in the small towns around here are open 10-6 mon-friday, and then 10-2pm on saturday, then closed on sunday. So if you want to get drunk you must plan it 3 months in advance to make sure the shop is open. Then when it is open you get charged a kings ransom for a small bottle of vodka. The price of alcohol in bars is a disgrace and means you have to rob a bank if you want a decent night out on the hard stuff.
Think thats all my dislikes so far
The likes...
Kebab- They serve it with chips, on pizza, with pasta basically you can get kebab on just about anything, and it tastes good.
Blackjack- They have blackjack tables in bars and nightclubs, which means you dont have to look for a casino to lose all your money in.
Heated seats- In orkelljunga at the bus stop they have heated benches, which means while the rest of you is freezing your arse and part of your legs are cooking.
English football on tv- In England on saturdays none of the 3pm kick offs are allowed to be shown on english tv, however in sweden they are allowed to be shown, which means on my day off from volleyball, which is a saturday, i can sit in the bar all day and watch at least 3 games back to back.
Thats about it so far
If anyone reads this, hope you enjoy it
Popping the cherry...so to speak
Well, it seems like everyone and their dog has a blog these days, so I might as well join the group of vast bloggers that are out there. Maybe I will get famous and make loads of money from blogging, maybe I won't, but at least it will past the time of my boring days. At the moment I am living and playing volleyball in Orkelljunga, Sweden. This is my first year playing in a European League that isn't England. Orkelljunga is a small town in the south of sweden. Nothing much happens, the main part of the town is a cookie factory and then the Volleyball (or Volleyboll) team.
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