My Life's Ingredients

Now that I’ve attended the Clansmen (Uni Football) Vets training camp, one training session, 2 scrimmages and my first game I am getting to know the Clan better and that’s nice. :) What suddenly hit me though, is the fact that I may not see all of them again next season … because some of them finish their degrees over summer. Huh! Granted, we have players coming and going with the Wolves (Senior Football) as well, usually the guys I get along great stay … we still have quite a quota from our affiliation season in 2002 and the first season in 2003 … believe it’s a total of 5? Cavey, Ali, Alan M, Allan P & Pete (only coaching from 2010 onwards). Situation with the Clan is worse though… While the Wolves players usually stay in Edinburgh or at least Scotland, these guys are from all over the place … the joys of a Residential Uni!! :o Feeling a bit like when I was fostering cats back in Germany … don’t get too attached to them – might have to “give them away” in between 1-4 year...

Quite nice campus (not as nice as the improved Heriot Watt though ;) ) and first time ever for me to be act ually at Uni and living "on site" ... We've got flats here, sharing ours (flat 1 of Prestwold) with Mel and Jamie (don't know him I think) and have to say it's quite a nice flat. Small-ish rooms ... not designed for couples, so Doug and I have one room each ... en-suite shower and loo and a communal kitchen. Currently trying to get some channels to work on my laptop (TV) but I fear we won't get BBC1 or BBC3 on here :( Mobile phone doesn't get any signal either ... probably a steel cage ... :o My laptop has DTV, and we'd hoped to be able to record the last episode of DOCTOR WHO on it tomorrow night while we're at the Gala Dinner, but it doesn't look good. Wonder if we'd get any signal in the dining hall??? :D Drive down was ok, I woke up with headaches/migraine, so felt totally zapped in the car and probably could have slept all wa...

It was great to see "Friday Night Lights" on the big screen again... DH and I have seen it in Orlando when it came out in 2004. Shame that I don't seem to be able to watch a sport movie which shows injuries and/or scan results without diagnosing every injury! LOL!! Well... it failed as a fund raiser ... because the concept of a fundraiser is to raise money ... I think we broke even. Think we had 30 people in total turning up. :( Shame we couldn't get one of the American Football Films from this year ... "We are Marshall", "Invincible" or "Gridiron Gang". That may have gotten us a bigger crowd ... or maybe just a non-football movie? Don't know. Any suggestions for fund raisers for our Junior and Senior teams are much appreciated! :o

... or something along those lines... ;) Parcelforce has picked up the box, all went fine ... and I still haven't cleaned the bathroom ... will skip that and leave it for tomorrow I think. :o Have to go into town in 1 hour for the Fund raiser cinema showing for our juniors. Not that we expect lots of people ... :( Wasn't handled too well, and friends actually thought it was cancelled as they haven't heard anything last week etc. :o

Just a wee reminder ... Saturday is the first evening game for the Wolves ... and it's our first Saturday game as well. I know I still have to update the blog with lots of things, but just wanted to quickly give you this....

We've managed to put on our first Wolves season game at Meadowbank. Lots of hic-ups, including the ambulance arriving 1 hour late (fortunately within the time given by the referees :O ). But the biggest thing - WE WON!!!! By 9 points. That makes our HC 4-0, and it's the first season opener the Wolves have won (as far as we can remember). Totally knackered, so will give full report later ... but here's one of my fav photos I have taken today: And thanks to our fans - you were FAB!!! :) (we had about 160 paying people plus kids who got in for free with vouchers).

It's a long time since I've celebrated St. Paddy's properly. Must have been since I left Germany really. :( You'd think with me being in Scotland, so close to Ireland, I'd be celebrating it even more. But I think since I am not in close-ish proximity to the An Sibin in Sachsenhausen anymore (and later the An Sibin in Darmstadt) - while Danny Kelly was running either of them I had TONS of fun there for St. Paddy's, St. Bridget's, Samhain etc. With me not drinking that much anymore I'd probably out after the first 1/2 pint of guinness anyway! :o Today will be mainly going to the gym at 2pm, then scan receipts for Doug and then get the Wolves Forms done where I got all required documents together. And then ... I WANNA SCRAP!!!!! :D Have to get a CJ entry done for "Peppi" (Petra) from the SBS Forum to be sent on Monday. Very busy weekend again as usual, tonight we'll have the price draw for our venue sponsorship, and tomorrow is a double se...

I don't feel like I have been doing much lately, although I have been to the gym or pool 5 times out of the last 6 days and am about to leave again for some workout. Doing housework (but not as much as I'd like), cooking etc., Wolves stuff ... and it's nearly Sunday again - suspect I'll get the training kit for washing again as the weather has been WET here, to put it mildly. We had nice sunny spells, but that was about it ... SPELLS. Every time I was ready to continue weeding the front garden it started raining again... :( Had a nice chat with Sharon this week, haven't talked to her in ages, it's usually just MSN or text, but that doesn't replace talking on the phone. Somehow I feel a little run-over, far too much stuff to do, stuff I want to do, studying (Tony is coming over for some E&A in 2 weeks) and not getting time for myself. There's sooo much I want to do and just not enough time for everything. :( Once I am back from the gym I have to sort ...

I found several personal items in the Wolves lot of washing ... jogging bottoms, hoodies, t-shirts.... That made me post on the Forum about it ... had that before, and I am really not in the mood to do personal laundry as well!! All I want are the jerseys and pants, and that's it!!! GRRRRR!! One of our players said it could have been by accident ... but come on, we have collected a big moving box full of leftover clothing in 2 years and it starts out the same this year? Jumpers/T-shirts/Jogging bottoms feel different to jerseys & pants as well ... I just feel disrespected there ... and hopefully this won't happen again!!!

... slight progress... we had to soak the pants in our tub as well as the white jerseys from the England Youth Team. The Scotland Jerseys will be ok, they're dark blue. But I had to wash some of the pants twice!!!! And of course the weather doesn't really allow me to hang up washing outside.. :O So our living room looks like a laundry area! To top everything off - weather at training yesterday was MISERABLE and everything is caked in mud!!! One of the A&E Nur ses actually asked Chuck yesterday if he left any mud ON the pitch!! :o Soooo... let's see if I can finish all the washing by Saturday!

..for my sports therapy re-sit that is! Today was a little mad dash about with stuff because Doug had to take the van back to Tollcross, so it was all a bit rushed and I couldn't get forms from players really before the game. Set up my room again, and had one of our players coming for a look at his back and some DTM (deep tissue massage). I was just about to get our equipment manager for his examiniation & assessment when we had Kenny and Chuck stumbling into the building, Chuck holding his forearm and Kenny telling me that Chuck probably had dislocated his shoulder or elbow (quite a big area and hopefully I'll never come across a dislocated elbow!!). We rushed them into the changing rooms and I had a look ... and saw my first ever real life shoulder dislocation... :O Looks nasty, and Chuck was really in pain. So off I sent Allan to get some ice and then I phoned Doug to see if he was already on the way back to JKC - which he wasn't. Next order was to send Kenny off t...

And it's done ... after months and months of DH doing all the work as gameday manager we managed to stage the game, had quite a good crowd and all in all had a good day at Meadowbank Stadium. Don't know much how the game went on ... after declaring that today is going to be my "day off football" I ended up being the general dogsbody of the day... ;) From the start I have been doing work: From adding a photo from one of our youth players to his application form for our affiliation with BYAFA , getting signatures from our coaches for their forms, handing out access passes to Media etc, creating access cards for new volunteers, running around to get Daniel (a disabled teen who was Scotland's team mascot of the day and coin tosser) sorted, speaking to all those BAFL, BAFA and BYAFA people (would you believe, we had the chairmen/woman for each of the big British American Football Associations/Leagues attending!!! :O) ), handing over the Wolves Junior application pack...

Totally tired ... was up since 8:30am to get ready and be at JKC for 10am to do a 2-hour open clinic for the Wolves players ... and in the end only 1 showed up from the 3 who contacted me with their injuries and niggles .... :o Ah well, it was a "lift" issue etc. so not really a problem .. it's more theirs!! ;) So with nasty cough and stuffy nose at JKC until 2, DH had a little run in with one of the uni coaches about support etc, went shopping at Aldi & Lidl and then back home ... in the hope to get some sleep. But of course ... didn't happen!!! :) Helped DH doing contact forms and tickets and then it was too late to get sleep anyway. The party itself was great - we're going from strength to strength - this year we had 400 people through the door, the game started off great (touchdown in the first 15 seconds) but then dragged along the 2nd half with lots of turnovers. And amazing how bad the weather was in Miami ... we at least had a SUNNY Sunday!! :D Had...

No studying today ... my head was spinning a little (stupid cold), my throat hurt from all the coughing, and my back muscles hurt as well (from all that explosive cough stuff - isn't anatomy great!!! ;) ). So I did some ironing while watching telly. After dinner I started on my CJ (oops, leaving it late again .. but there you go, studying comes first) and checked in at the CyberCrop at the SBS Forum but didn't feel up to doing anything of the packed agenda!! ;) Definitely next time though!! Well...cover for the CJ is done, will do intro & my entry tomorrow or Monday before sending it off. Need to get some sleep, have an "Open Clinic" for the Wolves Players tomorrow from 10am - 12pm and then it's SuperBowl Party in the evening. And my could drains me enough as it is. Got an invite from my "colleague" Kai to help out as Trainer at the GB Lions Trials . Looks like I am getting enough practical training for my exam!! ;)

... and it went to oversize!! ;) Not sure why, probably did take a too complex topic for it... was just "Injuries" and all went huuuuuge!! :) However, I think for some things it will work... somehow! ;) Totally forgot ... some news about the Edinburgh Wolves in the news on 31.1.2007 ... :) Hurray! Now onto planning stewarding, tickets, programs etc etc etc ... !!! :o Mein erster Versuch mit "Mind Maps" ... und es wurde uebergross!! ;) Weiss nicht genau warum, habe vermutlich ein zu komplexes Thema genommen ... es war nur "Verletzungen" und alles wurde rieeeeesig!!! Aber egal, ich denke, dass es fuer einige Dinge funktionieren wird ... irgendwie! ;) Hab ja total vergessen...Neuigkeiten von den Edinburgh Wolves in der Zeitung vom 31.1.2007. Hurraaaaa! Nun muessen wir nur noch das "stewarding", Eintrittskarten, Programme usw usw usw planen... !!! :o