Stupidly overdue nationals report
Oct. 17th, 2004 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rallamajoopI have returned!
...wound up ridiculously busy, got heavily sidetracked and spent ages trying to catch up on uni work, eventually realising I’d been back for two weeks without posting this. Yeah, shut up.
Anyway, the nationals themselves went surprisingly well. Queensland was lovely, with the exception of some humid weather and the fact it seemed to object to the concept of my ever getting a proper night’s sleep. Didn’t get to see much other than the hotel and the rink (largely thanks to Mum and Dad being tied up with officiating work for most of the time they weren’t skating). This seems a bit of a travesty for a holiday on the Gold Coast, but it gave me a nice chance to relax, which is never something to argue with.
Ignoring periods of competition-related stress, that is.
My first event was Advanced Solo Dance (they choose two set dances, and everyone does the same steps), and was an odd experience. For a start, not only were there only three of us in it this year, I was the only girl. Given that solo dance events were originally introduced largely because it’s so difficult for the girls in skating to find partners in a sport with so few males, and that the events are usually pretty large, that’s a decidedly non-typical start. Secondly, we were on the first night, a time usually reserved for the most exciting events - serious international level stuff. Probably this is some kind of bid to get people to actually show up to the opening ceremony, which tends to be pretty dull. Either way it works - it’s usually the busiest night.
So, in summary, opening night = lots of extra people watching + expecting something particularly good from everyone in the program => not doing good things for Joop-nerves.
As it turned out, they’d put us on the first night as a favour to one of the other competitors who had to leave before the end of the week, which at least ruled out my vague fear they were expecting international standard skating from our event. Also on the up side, we were working on a great floor which was, for a change, actually almost perfectly clean; and the competition was fairly friendly. I was happy with how I skated in the end, just missed out on second (curse these enormous males and their ability to skate so much larger patterns than me!), and won the first medal I’ve gotten since moving up into this event. This means, of course, that I didn’t actually beat anyone to get it, but I like to think of it as a Medal for Unrivaled Persistence In Being The Only Skater Not To Miss This Event More Than Once Since They Started Doing It rather than just a Medal For Actually Showing Up The Year Everyone Else Slacked Off, since it sounds slightly better.
Second event was Creative Solo Dance (they tell you the dance (tango this year), you choose the music and make up your own steps), and was a little more standard . There were four in this one and a couple of them looked like being tough competition, so I was well aware there was only an even odds chance of me placing. My routine went surprisingly well, however (and despite the fact that lack of sleep was starting to get to me by this point and I’d picked up a fairly stupid worry that I’d stack it in the middle of the event again like last year), and I managed to take third place again. So, by the end, I had two bronze medals to show for it, which was nice; and a couple of comments from people who’d thought I should have gotten silver, which was even nicer; and we got it all on video if anyone’s interested in seeing it.
Finally got to do some sight seeing on the last day, during which time I saw a large collection of grounded hang gliders, didn’t manage to buy a cute toy mouse toy, failed to get attacked by a kookaburra, but overall enjoyed myself.
In other news, after around five years of repeatedly starting the things and never getting them finished, I have actually completed a fanfic. Judging by the fact the world hasn’t ended yet this doesn’t seem to have too greatly affected the fundamental balance of the universe, which is probably good news. However, since it’s Naruto based and the only person I can think of on my friend’s list who’s read far enough into the series to make sense of it has already seen it, posting it in my journal directly seemed like a bit pointless. It’s been posted up here though, just for the record. People even liked it! Yay!
...wound up ridiculously busy, got heavily sidetracked and spent ages trying to catch up on uni work, eventually realising I’d been back for two weeks without posting this. Yeah, shut up.
Anyway, the nationals themselves went surprisingly well. Queensland was lovely, with the exception of some humid weather and the fact it seemed to object to the concept of my ever getting a proper night’s sleep. Didn’t get to see much other than the hotel and the rink (largely thanks to Mum and Dad being tied up with officiating work for most of the time they weren’t skating). This seems a bit of a travesty for a holiday on the Gold Coast, but it gave me a nice chance to relax, which is never something to argue with.
Ignoring periods of competition-related stress, that is.
My first event was Advanced Solo Dance (they choose two set dances, and everyone does the same steps), and was an odd experience. For a start, not only were there only three of us in it this year, I was the only girl. Given that solo dance events were originally introduced largely because it’s so difficult for the girls in skating to find partners in a sport with so few males, and that the events are usually pretty large, that’s a decidedly non-typical start. Secondly, we were on the first night, a time usually reserved for the most exciting events - serious international level stuff. Probably this is some kind of bid to get people to actually show up to the opening ceremony, which tends to be pretty dull. Either way it works - it’s usually the busiest night.
So, in summary, opening night = lots of extra people watching + expecting something particularly good from everyone in the program => not doing good things for Joop-nerves.
As it turned out, they’d put us on the first night as a favour to one of the other competitors who had to leave before the end of the week, which at least ruled out my vague fear they were expecting international standard skating from our event. Also on the up side, we were working on a great floor which was, for a change, actually almost perfectly clean; and the competition was fairly friendly. I was happy with how I skated in the end, just missed out on second (curse these enormous males and their ability to skate so much larger patterns than me!), and won the first medal I’ve gotten since moving up into this event. This means, of course, that I didn’t actually beat anyone to get it, but I like to think of it as a Medal for Unrivaled Persistence In Being The Only Skater Not To Miss This Event More Than Once Since They Started Doing It rather than just a Medal For Actually Showing Up The Year Everyone Else Slacked Off, since it sounds slightly better.
Second event was Creative Solo Dance (they tell you the dance (tango this year), you choose the music and make up your own steps), and was a little more standard . There were four in this one and a couple of them looked like being tough competition, so I was well aware there was only an even odds chance of me placing. My routine went surprisingly well, however (and despite the fact that lack of sleep was starting to get to me by this point and I’d picked up a fairly stupid worry that I’d stack it in the middle of the event again like last year), and I managed to take third place again. So, by the end, I had two bronze medals to show for it, which was nice; and a couple of comments from people who’d thought I should have gotten silver, which was even nicer; and we got it all on video if anyone’s interested in seeing it.
Finally got to do some sight seeing on the last day, during which time I saw a large collection of grounded hang gliders, didn’t manage to buy a cute toy mouse toy, failed to get attacked by a kookaburra, but overall enjoyed myself.
In other news, after around five years of repeatedly starting the things and never getting them finished, I have actually completed a fanfic. Judging by the fact the world hasn’t ended yet this doesn’t seem to have too greatly affected the fundamental balance of the universe, which is probably good news. However, since it’s Naruto based and the only person I can think of on my friend’s list who’s read far enough into the series to make sense of it has already seen it, posting it in my journal directly seemed like a bit pointless. It’s been posted up here though, just for the record. People even liked it! Yay!
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-17 11:38 am (UTC)You've completed a fanfic,
You've brought home two medals,
You've seen some grounded hang- gliders and got at least a mild bit of relaxation in,
I want to see the video. :-)
I'm baffled by the phrase "Queensland was lovely" as I don't believe that's a sentence I've ever seen written anywhere else, except as a prefix to "before it was colonised". I'm glad you had a good time. :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-17 12:03 pm (UTC)Also, the weather was nice.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-17 02:19 pm (UTC)I'd read the fic but I probably haven't seen enough Naruto. :(
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 12:43 am (UTC)And since 'enough Naruto' for the purposes of this fic is 'all the manga released up to about fifteen chapters ago', no, probably not. Read more Naruto, damnit! You have no idea what you're missing out on!
(...er, the series, I mean. The fic is entirely secondary.)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-22 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-26 02:24 pm (UTC)...come to think of it, didn't I plug that site to you last time this subject came up?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-29 04:52 am (UTC)