New Seasons

Laurie with his three kids, Travis, Beau and Kara

I had lunch with Laurie today, we go back a long way, to pre-chaplaincy days, when he was running Warriuka white water rafting and abseiling camps for Scripture Union and I was working with Fusion, back in the late 80's. We did some great camps together and built up quite a bit of legend and folk lore which will have to wait for the book. He went on to become a chaplain at Rockingham which piqued my initial interest in the field and when I started at Carine we continued to work together, pioneering Wilderness Intervention Programs (WIPs) in WA. He moved on from there to complete further studies at Uni in order to become a clinical psychologist. He and Sonia moved down to Busselton after Sonia's mum died a few years ago. When we moved we re-established connections with them. Laurie has been my supervisor, and has fought a fruitless battle trying to get me involved in outrigger canoeing which is one of his passions. He loves the water and has a yacht which I went for a sail on last year but I'm not much of a boatie so I remain unconverted. Laurie reads my blog from time to time so he was aware of some of my recent struggles and that was the major topic of conversation over lunch. He made a couple of suggestions and recommendations regarding counselling options which I will follow up on. For those who are interested in the small details, we ate at "The Food Room" behind Red Rooster, I had a chicken schnitzel burger and it was very nice, washed down with an Agrum.

Term 2 heralds the coming of winter and the change of sporting seasons. That means soccer season for the kids and I am once again coaching Sport Boy's team, the 10's and under. We've got a few new players this season, and most of the kids from last season are back and showing signs of improved skills and concentration, especially the girls. Ironically, Stu, aka The Gardener, is coaching the 11's and they are short a couple of players so we may have to give them a couple of ours! I'm reluctant to break the team up, they've been together for a couple of years now and are starting to gel and work together. Sport Boy has been hanging out for this, he started wearing his soccer gear two days ago and had it all laid out in his bedroom last night ready for today, although he is disappointed that his beloved number 11 shirt is missing from the bag of team shirts!

Volleyball restarted tonight as well, my first serious sporting test since I broke my ankle in last year's finals. I'm glad to report that it held up pretty well although I confess I was being ultra careful and was quite nervous each tiome I jumped up at the net. We're short one player and had to have a fill in tonight, Wade from school. He played really well but unfortunately has his own team and can't play for us regularly. We're on the hunt for a 6th player to complete the team. Despite these uncertainties, and losing the first set, we came back strongly to win the second set against Breakaways and then went on to record a solid win in the 3rd to take the game. We had a new girl, Magda playing tonight and it was great having a good setter consistently putting up good balls for us to hit. My serve was rusty in the first set but soon got warmed up and I was getting some good power and accuracy and causing some problems for Breakaways.
I'm due to have a cortizone injection in my ankle sometime in the next couple of weeks to reduce the swelling which still hasn't fully subsided since the injury last September.
I also need to see a physio because my neck and shoulders have been bothering me for the last week or two and getting back into sport will probably aggravate them further unless I get some treatment.

I have a Dr's appointment in the morning to follow up on my blood test results, which probably means starting on a course of testosterone tablets. I also want to get some anti-inflammatories and a referral to the physio for my neck, and to a counsellor so it will be a busy appointment.
Saturday morning is the first soccer game of the season. I've swapped my regular Friday night shift in the cab to Saturday night. Tomorrow night I'm running a quiz night for the local business women's association.

Sunday we're going to Perth to drop Carolyn off as she is flying to Adelaide on Monday morning to go and visit her brother Raymond and possible the rest of her family for 10 days. She's been a bit anxious about whether I'll manage all the household tasks and running the kids around to sport, rehearsals, work, school etc. I hope she just relaxes and goes away and has a good time with her family and doesn't spend her time worrying about me/us. We'll be fine. I've got Dominoes number programmed into the speed dial of my phone.