Sunday, October 5, 2008

We are home....

Got home at 2am Saturday from our week in Perth so had one 2 hour time zone adjustment - and now another last night for daylight saving.
Bec skated really well and placed 5th out of 11 (places 3-5 were decided on countback). She was very happy as it was her first Australian titles as an individual. Her team event was incredible - they have had sickies, injuries and rarely trained with their full team of 16. The opposing team - also from Melbourne skated really well but when ours started the entire audience were holding their breath. Their speed and technical difficulty set them apart. They skated the best routine they have ever done - the coaches were in tears at the end of it. Now she has 2 Australian Champion medals for precision - last year for Open level and this year for International level and has retired from the team event.

The best bit for Bec was being able to cut the strapping tape off her foot after 5 days. It worried us that she became quite depressed over the first weekend - we weren't staying where her friends were, and even if we were there she couldn't swim or do anything that might damage the tape as it was a public holiday in Perth on the Monday and we could not get a physio to redo the strapping. A trip to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia) fixed that - the touch pool was so therapeutic. Especially when she was playing with the shark and starfish. It was fabulous to watch my young biologist explaining about the creatures to Em (who normally she wouldn't want to be seen with!) and any young children around her - Bec was right in her element. She has been behind the scenes at the Melbourne Aquarium to had some prior experience.

We managed to fit in a trip to the Zoo, day at Fremantle, breakfast at Hilary's Boat Harbour, a game or two at Burswood Casino and plenty of driving along the coast. None of this was too far from the lovely little unit where we stayed in Scarborough. Bec went to Kings Park with her friends and managed to fall of a swing and get a lovely bruise on her face.
We were also able to buy her new skating boots (on sale - only $600!!!) made with carbon fibre which weight a quarter of what her old ones do so that will also help her foot recover. We had planned on throwing the old ones out onto the Marmion Reef to make a house for some fish but didn't have the tools with us!
Emily enjoyed her first flights and wants to do it again.
Better go and get Bec up for work.

7 comments:

Leeanne O'C said...

All sounds full on over in WA, Glad it all went so well even with Bec's bad foot.

Have a lovely week

cheers

Leeanne x

On my way... said...

Sounds like a fun day out! Looking forward to seeing them in a LO :P

xx

wendy treseder said...

Sounds even better than you described in our 5 minute chat the other day.

Congrats to Bec for such a successful championship!!
Wx

Annie said...

Congrats to Bec, I loved watching the video. You must be very proud Karen :)

Karen said...

Well done to Bec....wow sounds like you had a busy time over there.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great trip all around!

Sorry to hear you have been a bit unwell too. I hope it all gets sorted out soon.

Amy x

Vesna said...

Congrats to Bec for doing real well, and yeah for the strapping comming off.

Looks like you had fun in WA.

Vesna
x