cricket pictures

OK. Some of you seem very confused by the cricket terminology. No worries. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Juli

Cricket anyone?

Churchie sports newsletter:

"Churchie sent Villanova into bat and while Villanova set about scoring runs at a steady rate, Churchie countered with excellent fielding. We worked on fielding during the week and the improvement was visible. Bryce Robinson held every ball that came his way and ended the day with 4 catches. Lachlan Hill took 2 difficult catches, one of them at ground level in front of him. The net result was that Churchie was able to contain Villanova to 115 and get them all out in the 22^nd over. One area for future improvement is to cut down on the number of wides and byes.

"Churchie struggled to score runs off Villanova’s excellent bowling. With most of our batsmen dismissed, it was left to Chris Binks, Bryce Robinson and last man in, James Picken to score the necessary runs. Once again, as with last week, the end of the match a ‘nail-biter’. What was almost certainly the last over of the day commenced c.11.25 AM with Churchie needing 5 runs. Churchie achieved the target on the second last ball of the day. We played out the rest of the over to ensure the result and our last batsman was out on the very next ball. The scorers checked back over the score card and Churchie was confirmed as the winners. Great atmosphere. Both sides demonstrated excellent sportsmanship. Once again our team experienced how exciting cricket can be."

Now I realize that not everyone is a cricket expert that reads this blog so I'll interpret. Each team gets 11 batters. Unlike baseball where the teams trade after 3 outs, in cricket each team gets one fielding chance and one batting chance. In cricket you can end the batters turn by either bowling the agreed amount of overs (overs are 6 throws) or by getting 10 outs (wickets, catches, or run outs). So Bryce had 4 catches of the 10 the team got. That is almost unheard of.

Then when batting a ball that rolls over the "outfield" line is called a 4, a ball that flies over the boundry is a 6. Bryce hit 3 or 4 4's and he and the other batsman Chris Binks racked up the points. Bryce made the winning point, and then the next bat he hit a good one but it was caught ending the game!

I was very proud of our budding cricketer.

Shon

Year in Review Video!!!

Can you tell we took advantage of living in the Western US near family? Grants New Mexico Quadrathalon, Grand Canyon, California twice, Cruise, Petrified Forest, Camping with Pattersons outside of Heber, Grandma Maleta's funeral, Lake Powell, Ireland Choir tour, Flew around the world, Juli's Marathon, Moved to Brisbane, Incredible beaches, Great Barrier Reef, Kangaroos, Koalas, etc.

Juli made me do it and I am glad I did.

Trip to the Great Barrier Reef

This is Shon:

I thought I would give you a snapshot of our most recent 10 days. I'll do it in top ten format so you get an idea of the best moments:

10. Having our friends (the Kofoeds) from Malaysia stay with us for 10 days (family of 7). Note from Juli: Curtis and Shon were roommates in college, both engineers, and both worked for ExxonMobil. Michelle is also from Idaho, which makes her a very nice person. We lived a mile from them in Texas. Needless to say, we had a great time together.

9. Seeing 100s of thousands of bats (big bats) fly at dusk in Bundaberg. We saw the bats at Carlsbad Caverns but this one put that to shame. They filled the entire sky from horizon to horizon and were LARGE. It was really cool and we just chanced on it. We were ordering pizza at Pizza Hut and just standing there watching in a strip mall. The sky literally became dark.

8. Getting the rental furniture moved out of our house (yes that means we have more than 8 plates now)

7. Getting our shipment (sans lawn mower, trimmer, and some pots that needed to be cleaned) Juli says: Yeah!

6. Going to the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, we found Nemo.

5. Seeing Caleb as a competent swimmer. He now swims across the pool at will, takes breaths in the middle and will just float there face down relaxing and then put his head up when he needs a breath.

4. Snorkeling with Juli and the kids at the reef. Lots of fish. We even saw turtles. Abby, Sarah, Emily, and Bryce were great and just went off on their own. Caleb even had a go. It was fun.

3. Walking on Lady Musgrave Island. There are 40000 birds. It was amazing to be on a coral island. The shells were stunning.

2. Hearing about the kids soccer camp. They are loving it and having a great time!

1. Riding the vomit comet. The ride from the shore to the GB Reef was 2 hrs through some ROUGH sees. Of the 14 in our group only 4 didn't loose it (all the boys in our family and Curtis). It was actually funny to watch (you could hear some people). I don't know why it was so funny to me I just thought it was and I have a big smile right now. Note from Juli: It was only funny the first hour. After that it was miserable - like two hours on a rollercoaster. The people running the boat said it would be rough (2.6m swells) and if anyone would like a refund they would re-schedule. If anyone ever says that again, I will take them up on it. At one point the waves were so big there were alarms going off on the boat. It was worth it though - the reef was beautiful. I have wanted to do that my whole life.

Year in Review

Juli reminded me today of my assignment. I am to make a slideshow of the year in review. I think it may be tough to beat our past year. I am setting a due date for this assignment as January 18th. I'll let the excitement build but my favorite memory for 2009 was when

Merry Christmas!

This is Christmas at the Robinsons:

In the pool. Caleb just learned to swim.

Peace.

Self portrait, just to prove I really was there.

Our stockings this year were really hosery (and yes, Santa brings toothpaste) - our stuff still hasn't arrived (it's two months late) - which also means that I had to bake my pies in a casserole dish and its lid. Yes, that is pumpkin pie. I bought a japanese pumpkin and steamed and mashed it. It tasted great, but too much work. I'm not really a fan of pumpkin pie anyway. I just wanted it because I couldn't have it.

Ginger bread houses.

We had dinner and played games with friends, then climbed around on Mount Coot tha.

Merry Christmas!

A tale of two Pies

Thanksgiving was great. We celebrated on Saturday with some fellow Americans. Christy (from Baton Rouge) and Mike (Colorado) cooked the bird (and made Christy's grandma's cornbread stuffing - yum!), which left us with the other stuff. I love pie and I was really looking forward to pumpkin pie. I decided to make a pecan pie too - mostly for Christy - she's southern and she's pregnant. Gotta have pecan pie.

Alright, I admit, I procrastinated. Friday night, I went to the store to get the ingredients. I already had the crust tackled. My mom sent me Crisco for Christmas. (Can't get Crisco here - we cook with butter.) Thanks mom. Pie crust just isn't the same without it.

On to the filling. I asked one of the nice blokes at the grocery store where I might find pumpkin pie filling. He looked at me like I was crazy. Ok. How about just pie filling, do you sell that? "Thud oil on the leeft, might." (Translation - third isle on the left, mate.) He sent me to the pie fillings. There was minced chicken pie, curried beef pie. Hmm. Apparently "pie" here is made with meat. Oh, ok. Could you direct me to the tart fillings? No pumpkin. Do you have pumpkins? Sure, would you like butternut pumpkin? Ok, so pumpkin is squash. How about apples? Do you have those? Good.

On to the pecan pie. My recipe calls for Karo syrup. I already know they don't carry it here, but I have connections. My friend Penny (just returned from living in Finland) just happened to see it at an obscure convenience store ($6 for an extra small bottle.) All I needed was the nuts. Once again, I asked the chappy in produce what he had. Do you have puhCAHNS? No, how about puhCANS? PeaCahns? Oh, never mind, I see them over there. Oh, did you mean PEAcins? Yes. The pie was great.

Next year, I will be ordering pumpkin pie filling from the American online grocery, and those little fried onion things for the green beans.