A couple of weeks ahead of the season, but we kicked off March with the annual AFL fantasy draft with all the regular drafters (and then idlers) turning up - Ahmet, Dave, Farhad, Jason and Matt. Too bad Amir hosting the night wasn't even home yet when we arrived. Highlights of the night included Ahmet trying to get WiFi connected by hitting his laptop, terrible auto picking by Dave and Matt and one of the worst movies I've ever seen, Vikingdom, which currently rates 3.5 on IMDB and was unbearable after about ten minutes.
The next morning was the 14th annual Lilydale Lake "Take On The Lake" fun run. This year's race schedule was quite odd as they sent off the 10km runners first, then the 5km runners just one minute later. This meant anyone in the 5km race with good pace had to overtake the entire field of 10km runners. Lots of stupid little kids got in the front row for the start which is always annoying, and I rolled my ankle a bit trying to sprint and overtake at the start. Jason was slightly ahead of me for most of the race - on the second lap we also had to overtake the 2.5km walkers, but I had enough left to sprint for the finish and took third place overall in 18 minutes and 29 seconds.
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| About to take on the lake. |
The start of March was very hectic as I was flat out trying to get a project finished at work and also trying to do lots of planning for the upcoming New Zealand holiday. I thought I had most of the planning done well in advance in January, but all the last minute stuff like getting maps, directions, times and costs figured out was quite stressful and exhausting. Like always I would have liked a few more days to have organised this holiday a bit better, but I was close enough I guess.
On Wednesday March 5 the final race in the Sunset Series was held at Princes Park. I was still carrying an ankle sprain from the weekend so again I was a little worried with how well I would do. Unlike the previous two races there was a few new runners in the field this time, and they looked like serious runners from an athletics club so I doubted I would finish second again. As I had predicted then, several runners just bolted away from the start and I was down in at least tenth. As usual I had a better race strategy than a lot of these lunatics and was able to overtake a few people. The most satisfying part was being able to overtake the last couple of runners just before the three kilometre mark, gradually closing the gap and then pulling ahead. I finished just sixth this time (fifth in the men's) with a time of 14 minutes and 34 seconds for 4km - almost identical to The Tan two weeks ago, but this course was quite a bit flatter by comparison.
On Friday it was off to New Zealand for nine days, the holiday report contains all of the information and some photos. Overall I had a good time and enjoyed the break from work, maybe I'll go again and visit some other cities like Christchurch and Queenstown.
Getting back to work was the most depressing time I can remember after a holiday. I was a bit out of the loop with what the team had been doing which didn't help, but generally just didn't want to be there - I got over it after about a week though. Even with such a short holiday, the amount of things to catch up on (or get back into) was a bit overwhelming:
- Endless laundry and ironing
- Paying all of my credit card bills
- Sleep!!!
- Shopping (and baking)
- TV shows
- Visiting family and acquaintances???
- Weight loss (sadly I gained 1-2 kilograms over the holiday period)
- Work
The second half of March also happens to be a pretty big month for sports:
- AFL
- The opening weekend was terrible, I could only watch thirty minutes of Melbourne vs. St. Kilda
- Baseball
- The season doesn't start until April 1, but they had two matches in Sydney like ten days before that strangely - I saw a few minutes on TV but baseball is a bit boring to watch
- The commentary on Nine was terrible too, it was as bad or worse than the American guy they had doing the women's gridiron (LFL)
- March Madness
- I watched a few games from the opening weekend (the first and second rounds)
- I missed most of Sunday though, when some good matches and upsets happened
- Twenty20 World Cup
- I think most people wouldn't even know this was on. I watched a little of the opening game for Australia vs. Pakistan. Australia looked like they would cruise to victory when I went to bed, then they collapsed shortly afterwards!
I had to do another Monday to Friday on-call session for work after getting back from holiday. I had to handle one call that ran from 6:30pm to 8:00pm - there goes my evening! - so this on-call thing isn't proving to be much fun so far. The next session I have is early May, conveniently the same weekend as the annual Puffing Billy race, so hopefully I can get out of it or swap with someone.
The day before the big wedding I went to see Need For Speed along with Amir, Dave, Farhad, Jason and Matt. I wasn't expecting a lot since the video games don't even have a storyline - you just drive a car - and that was basically what happens in the movie too. The driving scenes were decent, although the actors did a very poor job at pretending to use a steering wheel, but it was just too long at about two hours. I'd give it a standard 5 out of 10.
The final weekend then was the big wedding for Debbie and Matt, a chance to drag all of those classy clothes out of the wardrobe that are usually collecting dust. I don't mind formal wear, it's just a bit of a pain to have to deal with the dry cleaning. Anyway, the wedding ceremony was good, I'm not really an emotional person (much more of a sentimental person - or is that a regretful person) but it was a sad and happy occasion - all in a good way. We had a bit of a wait for the reception but it was also great once it got going:
- Constant supply of soft drinks - I lost count but I must have been close to two litres myself
- Decent music - Blurred Lines!
- Good meals
- Good speeches - Well one was a bit long, but Matt saved the day with a memorable conclusion
- Photo booth for group photos
- Plate smashing
It was a long day, 4:00pm until about 11:30pm, but it felt like it went by quite quickly.
I didn't get any time at all for video games this month. I borrowed Forza 4 off Matt again, thinking I was close to completing it, but finding out I had only completed like 15% of the game. Collectively I managed to find time for about two hours at best.
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