STAR+BLUEBIRD

Derby, spice and all things nice.

Yes, it has been a while.  I apologise.  What’s been happening?  I don’t know, random stuff mainly.  But there are several good reasons for why I haven’t been writing.  Firstly, I haven’t had the headspace to be creative.  It turns out that studying, working and being on teaching prac. full time actually makes you a pretty boring person.  The second problem is my computer.  She’s dying.  So not only does anything internet-centric involve having to weave through a skewed path of virus redirections and malware pages, but it also means that the poor old netbook is constantly overheating.  And for some reason all of the heat feels like it escapes from the touch pad, which means I’m constantly burning my fingers.  Like, to the point that they feel numb for hours afterward.  So now I’m constantly paranoid that I have Finger Cancer.  Like this:

(on a side note – try a google image search for ‘finger cancer’…)

Anyway, there have been some good things to have come out of the last couple of months.  I had my final teaching prac. in a small school about 20 minutes walk from my house (it was awesome, by the way).  I finally finished my Grad. Dip. Ed., which means no more study ever.  We celebrated my niece’s 2nd birthday last weekend, which was awesome because she is the cutest little chick I’ve ever met, and any time with my family is simply golden.

What else?  Well, on Monday I got a phone call first thing in the morning to say I’d won an art teaching contract at a school I had applied for a few weeks earlier.  This led to dancing stupidly around the loungeroom and feet-tapping up and down the hallway.  I really held out no hope for getting any art teaching work in the near future and had resigned myself to picking up relief work whenever I could (a challenge in itself).  So now I get to start thinking about some awesome art projects I can subject all the kids to… and sneakily get to do myself.

I have been up to some other stuff as well.  This is the point at which I must make a confession.  I have been keeping a secret from everyone for a couple of months.  People have begun to notice me going out at nights regularly.  There have been times when I’ve turned down invites, with no real excuse.  Sometimes I’ve skulked in late at night with unexplainable bruises.  I know that it looks bad, I do.  But the truth is…

I’ve been training.  It started at a derby game, when I had a sudden flashback to my childhood – a childhood of skate dancing at St. Vinnies rec. centre and going sequin shopping with mum to make lycra dresses and matching skate boot covers… *sigh*.  That is, until it became too uncool to skate on quads… and when I also discovered that, for whatever reason, I just couldn’t do rollerblades.  And that’s when the skating dream ended.

But I’ve been watching those derby girls: the atmosphere, the community, the bumps, the bruises and the screams of the crowd.  And I thought, ‘geez, that’s my kind of place!’  Fast forward a couple of months, some hard training (in secret, of course) and a lot of energy and enthusiasm later, I’ve somehow managed to squeeze myself into the Adelaide Roller Derby League!  It has been a tough slog – we have so many amazing skaters in Adelaide!  Who knew?!  So from the 115 (approx.) girls that lined up on the first night of Raw Meat, there will be 16 (I think) going through to join the four existing teams in the league.  I never told anyone I was trying out because I wholeheartedly believed I wouldn’t get through.  I still honestly can’t believe that I made it.  The skill level amongst all of the skaters was just incredible and I’m honoured to have met so many awesome people.  So I’m glad that I’ll soon be part of a community that is just so amazingly supportive, fun and friendly.

Who knows, come along to a bout and you might be able to see me beat the crap out of someone one day.

Take care.

xox

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