SOPAC...and AFL

     SOPAC is shorthand for the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center.  Mia had a swim meet there last weekend.  What a great venue!  If you've got to sit at a swim meet for 6 hours, this is the place to do it.  When the announcements started, Chris and I looked at each other in amazement.  We've never heard such a lovely sound system at a swim meet.  Usually it's too low and the acoustics are so poor that everything is completely garbled.  This was crystal clear!  Plenty of comfy seating (chairs with backs!), not steamy hot inside, working scoreboards and timing system, cafe and water park in the building - not much more to say.  We're spoiled now.  Mia might only be allowed to attend swim meets there in the future...or perhaps other recent Olympic venues (but, no, we're not going to Athens, London, or Beijing).

      We didn't have to spend the whole gorgeous weekend inside though.  "Winta" soccer season is nearly over now, but that just means a short break until "Summa" play starts.  We still can't get over the view from the field - straight across the harbor.

     AFL stands for Australian Football League which is what everyone calls Australian Rules Football.  Sam had his last week of Auskick this weeked which is the indoctrination of all young Victorian (the state where Melbourne is, not the era) boys into the "code".  In addition to Football (soccer), Australia has three major football "codes" which battle for surpremacy.  Rugby League is the main game in New South Wales (Sydney) and Queensland, while AFL is THE game in Victoria, and Rugby Union is a distant third to the dismay of the POMS (English people) and Kiwis.  So, they all battle to get the kids as young as possible and build their life long barrackers (that's the Aussie unique word for 'supporters' which came from army guys leaving the barracks in Melbourne to watch AFL many years ago).  While Sam has already started lobbying for Rugby next year, he had a good end to the AFL season which ended with him kicking the final goal before all the boys gathered together to sing the team song (yes, every AFL club has their own song...very English of them)!



This is what a typical 'Oval' looks like where cricket and AFL are played with the white
picket fence and the movable screens to give the cricket batters a white background



Kicking for goal which is worth six points



Sam going for a 'Mark' - i.e. catching a kick in the air