Mother's Day

Yesterday, the Colac Football Netball Club held a Tickled Pink afternoon tea to celebrate the work the 'ladies' (mums/girlfriends/wives etc) do at the club. The event also raised funds for the Colac Well Women's Clinic.
I was honoured to be guest speaker, especially when I looked around the room at the amazing women present. I'd rather have heard their stories than shared mine, but a guest speaker can hardly interview the audience. The afternoon was terrific (And the football team won a tight match, so everyone was happy!).

 Here are the two quotes I mentioned during my speech, quotes which I return to both regularly to keep me on track!
The first is a Chinese proverb -
It's not what life does to you that is important, but what you do with what life does to you.
 The second quote I discovered on a postcard in a shop in St Kilda. That postcard lives above my computer, though I don't know the name of the author.

 
Courage - not the absence of fear or despair, but the strength to conquer them.

Happy Mother's Day.

From the MCG to the Recreation Reserve...

I couldn't help but smile on Saturday when we drove into the recreation reserve where my daughter was playing and umpiring netball. My daughter plays for a local team, who wear red and black, so again I was watching the Bombers play.
What a contrast.
Last week I was sitting behind the interchange bench at the MCG, one of 90,000 people watching Collingwood do battle with Essendon.
This week, I was at the footy again, only the interchange bench was a tin shed, the crowd was a fraction of the previous week's and instead of physios, fitness staff and endless trainers rushing after the players, parents carried drink bottles onto the oval  and stood by the coach with clipboards.
But the passion and love for the game was the same.

Mind you, this week, I paid scant attention to the football, and concentrated on the netball.
This week, the Bombers had a win.

Anzac Day

It's become a family tradition for us to spend Anzac Day at the MCG with dear friends. As much as I love the game,  the most important part of the day for me is the pre-match ceremony. The servicemen and women's lap of honour, the last post and minute's silence are truly moving. There is nothing like a capacity MCG crowd standing in silence, nor the roar that fills the ground after the national anthem.
I'm fortunate to have been to about 20 grand finals, but nothing, not even a Collingwood win (well...) compares to the atmosphere at the G on Anzac Day.
Before the game, as the servicemen and women past our seats, my 20-year-old friend turned to me and said, 'I just can't imagine what they have been through.'
The respect and admiration woven through each word is what Anzac Day is all about.
And a Collingwood win ;)