Another finish - but no pic :-(

I finally finished my butterfly themed design, a little later than the deadline, but better late than never. My partner has lost her stitching mojo, so that makes me feel better about being overdue. I still need to make it into something but hopefully tomorrow I will get around to doing that. Obviously I can't post a pic just yet of my finish, but as soon as it is received, I will.

C.V.I State Calisthenics Titles

Saturday was our 2nd competition for the year, and our 2nd in a week. We were hoping to take home a trophy, but it was not to be. We did perform well and managed a 2nd for march, 3rd for clubs, honourable mention for free exercises, 2nd for rods, 3rd for aesthetics and 1st for revue. We were super excited about the first placing, it's our first one ever in masters!!

Next up is Mountain Districts in a few weeks, which will be tough as we are combined with the higher division again. Wish us luck!

Holiday in Surfers Paradise

We recently had a family holiday in Surfers Paradise in Queensland which was a welcome getaway. DS #2 and I drove back down from Caloundra where we attended the National Karate Championships and met DS #1 and DH there. Our hotel was wonderful, and we'd definitely recommend it. It was a massive 2 bedroom apartment with ocean & river views, and a bigger walk in wardrobe than our bathroom at home! Here it is, including the view from our 19th floor balcony:

Here's some pics of the resort facilites, including a lizard who roamed around the heated outdoor pool/spa area:

Monday was spent at the Movie World theme park, where we hit some rides and met the TV presenter Shelley Craft, who posed for a pic with the kids:

Tuesday was spent on the "Superduck" (a bus that drives into the water and becomes a boat), at Timezone and then dinner & a show at the Aussie Outback Spectacular:

Wednesday was another theme park, Dream World this time:

Thursday we had a buffet breakfast in the restaurant on site, followed by one last swim and spa and a wander through town ending with ice cream before heading back to the airport and home.

Australian Karate Federation National Championships

As you may know, my 9 YO son is on the Victorian Karate team for both kumite (sparring) and kata. The National Championships were last weekend in Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He and I were booked to fly with Tiger Airways, but we had to cancel as they were grounded for safety reasons. I'd booked with them ages ago as I got a good price and in the end paid something like 3-4 times as much with another airline. That hurt, but I can't complain, at least we got a flight at a reasonable time.

Once we landed we got our hire car, stopped for an all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut buffet overlooking the beach, then drove to our hotel. The following day DS had both his events. As usual, kata started the day. He performed really well, winning his first 2 rounds 3 flags to 0. He then came up against the 2010 National champion in the 3rd round and lost 0-3. This boy made it through to the final so that meant DS had a chance to try for a 3rd place medal. In my opinion, he deserved the 3rd place but very early on in his performance he went to do a kick and his supporting leg came out from under him and he stumbled, rolling his ankle in the process. He recovered well and finished beautifully, but lost 1-2 flags. He did really well to earn a flag as stumbles and mistakes normally cost you any chance of a vote from one of the 3 referees. He handled the disappointment like a trooper. He did hurt his ankle a little bit too, as a bruise came up and we got some ice on it to stop the swelling. Although his results have been a little disappointing in the 2 National Championships he's entered, I would still put him up there as one of the top few kata kids in his age group. On one prior occasion this year he has even beaten the boy who took out this year's title, so that's exciting!

Not much later that day he had kumite. He came up against the eventual winner 1st round and lost 0-4 I think. He got another chance to come back for 3rd but lost that round also. He has a few strong competitors in his age group and as he is a little I think he is still overcoming a lack of confidence. It is scary to face an opponent who's aim is to kick and punch you as much as possible (That sounds harsh, but it is controlled and they barely make contact. They are also suited up like Michelin Men!).

The following 1 1/2 days were spent at the tournament, before we drove back down to the Gold Coast where we met DH and DS #1 for a family holiday, which I'll post about later.

Whew! Time to relax!

As you can see it's been a LONG time since I last posted. There has been so much going on at times I wondered if it would all get done, but I have managed to get through it all and now life should return to "normal", whatever that may be!
I won't bore you with all the details in one post, I'll start with the most recent event (calisthenics competition) and go from there. We have been working towards them since early February, with a few hiccups along the way, and a bit of a rush to get all the work taught and learnt. It was a race against time to complete costumes too, with one being finished on the morning of our competition. The ladies have been working so hard, even having an 8 hour practise session! We did work well and gained a 3rd, 4th & 2 5th placings against 2 other teams in our division and 3 teams in the division higher than ours. There's room for improvement and hopefully we'll do better at the State Championships next week.