London: Friday evening - Summer. Sydney: Saturday morning - Winter.

"Last Friday night we went to a Fugazees house party. It was a party where there was a heap of alcohol (bottles and bottles of it), a party where pizza hut was called on to provide dinner and a party where the only suitable container which could be found for sangria was a sauce pan. Yes, it was a party for young people. Andrew and I were more than a decade older than some of the people at the party (eek!).

We broke our night bus rule that evening. What is the night bus rule? If it takes more than one night bus to get home from a venue, we usually try and get the last tube home. Night buses are a pain in the butt. At last tube time (midnight) we were still having a good time so we made a decision to miss the last tube and stay a while longer. That meant two night buses and a 2 hour journey to get home. Ugh... I think I'm getting too old for these types of parties."




Check out Sue's day at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

On Day 2, we headed to a nearby river and caught a ride on a traditional Slovakian raft. The raft was a group of hollowed out logs that had been tied together. When Vili talked about rafting I thought he was talking about white water rafting. However, this was definitely not a fast paced ride, as it took 2 hours to complete a journey of a few kilometres. Kinda funny... but very relaxing.





More photos on Flickr and Facebook

On Day 1, we caught a cable car up into the Tatras and went for a hike. The mountain was submerged in the clouds, so though it was a sunny 25 degree day down on the ground, it was only a chilly 7 degrees on top of the mountain.

The others went for a hike to the top of the mountain. Andrew and I joined them for part of the hike and then stopped to have lunch on a rock (after a little panic attack from yours truly. Heights and Jess do not mix).


On the way back down, a group of FOOgs decided to try a different method to get to the bottom. There were Go-Karts (not motorised) for hire and they decided to give it a whirl. All of the boys fell off and Rupert hurt himself quite badly when he decided to use his hand as a brake (a hand brake... geddit!). He removed several layers of skin off his palm and there was lots of blood. The next day he decided that boiling water would be a good way of cleaning the wound. So he had burns on top of the scrape. It blistered and leaked pus and was generally pretty gross. For the rest of the week he wore a turquoise rubber glove on his wounded hand to protect it while we were doing strenuous activities. He looked like a strange Michael Jackson (as if it's even possible to look stranger Michael Jackson!)

The Fugazees is a very international team. We have members from Australia (obviously), New Zealand, Norway, Italy, Slovakia, America, Colombia, Uganda, Indonesia... we even have a token Brit or two. It's our own little multi-cultural society. (Sadly, our Canadian representation returned home in June. Hi John! Hi Leah!)

Apart from the hours of fun to be gained from paying out on people's accents (oh nuuuuu! I'm beached as bru!), this diversity brings another added bonus. Holiday homes! For our Winter team trip we were lucky to visit the snow covered slopes of Norway, with a trip to Hildy's cabin in the hills (Read Det snør! Det snør!). Recently, for our Summer trip, we were invited to central Europe to stay in the Holicka's Slovakian villa.

The poor Holickas. The team enthusiastically signed up for this trip and a group of 10 of us (plus kids) descended on the house. Luckily, the villa was enormous and comfortably fit us all. Andrew and I even had our own bedroom. The house consisted of two levels which can be split into two separate apartments with their own kitchen and bathroom. There was also a beautiful view of the Tatras from the backyard.

Our holiday was lots of fun. We went hiking, rafting and spent a fun / relaxing evening at Aqua City, a water park in Poprad. We even managed to fit in a game of ultimate against a Slovakian team.


We also played lots and lots of tractor. Slovakia was fertile tractor spotting ground. We recruited two young tractor spotters, Gabi and Dylan. I can see them both growing up to be avid tractor spotting enthusiasts. We're guaranteeing the future of our illustrious car game. (If Gabi stops spotting imaginary tractors that is... Gabi says "oh it was behind the barn, you couldn't see it.")


So where is our next team trip? I have my fingers crossed for either Colombia or Uganda (or maybe Vancouver!)

At Glastonbury, we awoke on Sunday morning to a white out. The entire field was shrouded in mist and visibility was poor. The first games of the morning were interesting to watch. Catching the Frisbee is that much more difficult when it's a white disc flying through a white mist.

The mist had burned off by the time our first game started at 10am. I was a bit disappointed as I'd been looking forward to the new experience of playing ultimate in the mist.