Perth Trip Day Three

Perth Trip Day Three

Morning Training

To start the day of netball matches, Mr. Njoo brought us out to the park near our hotel for an early morning jog. We walked past many brick houses. They were gigantic compared to the shoebox we lived in Singapore. Upon reaching the park, I stared at the wide green field around us. “Wow!” was all I could say. The view was fantastic! We are going to jog along the Swan River which overlooked the CBD in Perth City. We placed our tumblers at a bench and the netballers set off leaving me behind to look after their tumblers and towels. After a few minutes, they were out of my sight. They were supposed to jog for 15 minutes from where we were, do some core muscle exercises and then jog back. My job was to stay at the bench and ‘guard’ our stuff. I waited for 30 plus minutes before the netballers started appearing on the tracks again. Their cheeks were flushed and you could hear them panting from afar. I was so glad I did not take part in the exercise even though Mr Njoo invited me to.

Coaching clinic and Matchplay @ Joondalup Arena

Next, we were off to Joondalup for our first netball match of this trip. The netballers looked focused and were not as chatty as before. They wanted to start off with a victory and like what Mr Njoo has mentioned to them the night before at the debrief. We were not just playing for the school but for the reputation of our country! We had 14 players so Mr Njoo split us into Team A and Team B.

Team A (Green) (basically the team that played in the victorious National Final)

GK - Jeraldine Lee, GD - Jamie Wong, WD - Fatin, C - Rukmini, WA - Xing Hui, GA - Seak Im and GS - Corrine Kwek

Team B (Red)

GK - Anna Marie, GD - Josephine Yeh, WD - Chalisa, C - Pepe, WA - Vanessa, GA - Isabel and GS - Syazana

After a short coaching clinic focusing on agility and more core muscles training by coach Carrie, the matchplay began. TKP A vs Saints and TKP B vs Balmoral. TKP A started the match badly. As usual, they failed to score in their first centre pass. I could see the disgust on Mr Njoo's face when Seak Im threw the stray pass. Jeraldine was at the top of her game and gamely intercepted the Saints attack. Soon, TKP A began to rain attack after attack on Saints. Their tactics of defending very tightly at the opponent's goal paid off. TKP A began to lead by 9 goals after the game. TKP B played gallantly against the stronger Balmoral team (Yellow jersey). Though they gave their best, they were not able to defeat the more superior and faster Balmoral team and lost the match.

For the second game, Team A was going to play the tougher team, Balmoral. Again, they had a rocky start, due to losing the centre pass again. This time, it was not as easy to get back as Balmoral were just as good as them. It was like playing against St. Margaret’s. The GA (a malaysian) was very swift and accurate often giving Jamie a torrid time trying to guard her and the GS was very accurate. But their defense was not as good as their attack and it was easy for Seak Im and Corrins to take advantage of that having played together for quite some time now. Their understanding was somehow telepathic, each of them knew where the other would be and it was easy for the midfielders to find them in the 'D'. TKP A won the match but the difference was only about 5 goals. Team B got to play with the easier team, Saints. They started quite well, managing to get their centre pass all the way to the shooting ‘D’, but our inexperienced GS missed. For the first quarter of the match, Team B didn’t catch their rhythm so Balmoral overtook them by leaps and bounds. But after Pepe, the captain for Team B, pointed out their mistakes, they improved a lot in the end, only losing by a few points.
So, final review. Team A did their thing and won all two games while Team B lost all two games but tried their best.

Immersion Activity - Hillary Beach

‘Everyone change into your wet clothes because we are going to the Beach!’ that was what everyone was thinking as we arrived at the beach. That was what kept us going for the whole day. Unfortunately, it was drizzling so I held a sandcastle competition under the tent. The winner would get an ice cream for free! After hearing that, everyone immediately got to work. Unfortunately, they were distracted by two trays of fries bought by Mr Njoo. Only Xing Hui and Josephine didn’t stop building so I crowned them the winner. Then suddenly I was carried to the water and they threw me into it! I felt like I was turning to ice! The water was freezing cold. To make matters worse the wind was so chilly. I had to stay in the water to stay warm. I threw sand balls to those who threw me into the water. I finally got my revenge. Tee Hee! Once the hot sun came out, all of us emerged from the water and played Frisbee. My team kept losing because the wind was blowing the opposite direction . Grrr… Still, it was just a game. When we almost had to go, we had a big sand war to end the day off.

Perth Trip Day Two

Immersion Activities - Farmstay @Windmill Farm, Bindoon

Shopping @Harbourtown

Check in to Metro Hotel on Canning

Bang! Bang! Bang! What was that deafening sound? I opened my sleepy eyes and realised we were late for breakfast and Mr Njoo was banging angrily outside trying to wake us sleepyheads! It was such a good sleep, the fresh crisp air and the warm sheets that I was in made me very reluctant to leave them and open the door for our teacher. As it was daylight savings in Australia now, the time in Perth was one hour ahead and we forgot about that and set our alarm wrongly. Anyway, this aside, we were definitely excited about the programmes awaiting us today.

Before breakfast, we fed the kangaroos Mango and Bella and the sheep with milk. They were sucking their milk bottle greedily, like a new-born baby sucking their mother’s milk. Everyone was shouting,’So cute!’ to all the animals. For breakfast, we had normal cereal, milk, sausages, scrambles eggs (yummy) and hash browns, buttered bread with jam (all home-made). Then it was time for the tractor ride! Anxiously, we jumped onto the tractor and set off to the vast ‘grassland’. When we came to a stop, a group of sheeps surrounded us. We took a handful of food and put it in front of the sheep. Many of them would fight to get it first. It would munch greedily and ‘smear’ their saliva all over our hands. Eww… It was just so icky! But in the end, all we could do is laugh. Our second tractor ride was at the orchard. We passed by peach trees, nectarine trees, mandarin trees, orange trees and grape vines! We stopped at every different fruit tree to listen to the owner of the farm, Bruce, explain about it. We were also allowed to buy the different fruits mentioned too. Like typical Singaporeans who love a good bargain, we immediately formed long snake-like queue to purchase the freshest fruits you can find!

The next programme that would make anybody jumped up and down with excitement --- Horse Riding!!! Even though each of us only rode the horse for a small round, it was FUN! Later, as we were feeding the horses with fruits and vegetables, we also got to know more about them. It was a valuable experience. Right as we stepped into the dining area of the farm, the smell of meat rushed to us, Our BBQ lunch! It included, tender lamb meat (no smell at all), tasty chicken wings and sausages. Delicious! Then came the sad part, we had to leave. We bade the animals and the owners of the farm farewell before driving off to Perth City. However, I know that there will always be a place in my heart for them.

million dollar view from our hotel room - well done photographer

Day One Perth Trip

Perth Trip Day One

First Coaching Clinic with Coach Tracey @ Salvado Rd, Wembley

Day one in Perth, Australia. As 14 netballers, 2 teachers, 1 tour guide and I walked out of the airport, the hot sun and cool air rushed out to greet us. Despite the fact that we did not sleep much on the plane (it was a midnight flight), our faces were radiant upon arriving for the 1st coaching clinic by Coach Tracey. Coach Tracey got us pumping by making us jog the entire area (30 over netball courts) as a warm-up. Next, the girls were taught new drills to improve their footwork, agility and ball-handling. Mr Njoo, our netball teacher, was busy trying to take down all the new drills. I'm pretty sure we'll be doing these drills when training starts next year! It was a whole new experience training in Perth. The weather was fantastic...though the Sun was blazing hot, we could not feel it as the air-con like chilly wind kept us cool and we did not even perspire during the whole session!

Immersion Activities - Desert Storm 4WD and Sandboarding @ Lancelin

Next Stop, Lancelin! It was a long journey there. When we reached there, the humongous gigantic Desert Storm 4WD bus caught our attention. The tyres were as big as a human being! We stared in awe...Soon, we were all huddled inside and the ride started. Up and down, up and down we went up the sand dunes, some very steep! The driver purposely stopped at the top of the sand dune and as we tipped slowly down, our hearts stopped like as if we were in a roller coaster...Wheeee....we swooped down the sand dunes at breakneck speed and it felt like we were going to topple but it didn't...the ride then carried on for a couple of times. Not long, we stopped and got out for picture taking. The sight was a joy to behold. We felt like we were in another planet...nothing around us but just the sand and the clear blue sky. It was perfect! Soon, we were taught how to sandboard. The driver brought us to the top of a steep sand dune about 20 to 30m high. Gosh! we are going to slide down with it...It was another heartstopping moment for me as I was the first to slide down. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee...the ride was phenomenal, no words could describe how I feel as I slid down the sand dune. Soon, we were all trying to slide in a variety of ways - sitting down, superman style and even backwards. What other activities could beat this?

Immersion Activities - Farmstay @ Windmill Farm, Bindoon

After a 'high', we proceeded to the Windmill farm at Bindoon to stay for the night. It was beautiful. The only thing we saw were green trees, farm animals and grassland. No tall skyscrapers, traffic jams and people. It was definitely a whole new experience for us. Immediately, when we got off, we were introduced to our hosts and were led to feed the kangaroos, sheeps, cows, chickens and a pony. The rooms we were to stay for the night seemed warm and nice (two huge houses with 3 bedrooms and attached toilets), just like those farmstay you read about in Enid Blyton's storybooks. The food was home-cooked, curry chicken, fried minced duck and mushroom soup (much better than campbells). Soon, we were given a sheep-shearing performance and learnt about spinning wool thread. What a first day! Before I could think of what the next day's programme was, I fell asleep...images of the sheeps and kangaroos in my dreams.

Perth....here we come...

Perth.....here we come!

Ms. Serene Ng, Our photographer of the trip