I arrived to Perth 12 hours after I had intended and after collecting my baggage and getting in touch with the team to inform them I arrived (members from the club were at the airport early in the morning when the plane was initially set to arrive. To their surprise the plane was not there and when they asked what flight I would be arriving on, the Qantas representative was unable to share that information with them – apparently for security reasons. Thus the team had no idea when I was going to be arriving. The information they gathered was that the next flight from Hong Kong to Perth was due in 3 days later. They assumed this is when I would be arriving. Needless to say, when I phoned the manager of the club to get picked up at the airport, he as a bit shocked). From the airport I went straight to the gym to watch my side battle the Lakeside Lightning. This experience was a bit different from the way things went in Taiwan; where I arrived early in the morning and played that afternoon. Little did I know that I would be watching several games from the sideline before being able to suit up and play.
After one night in Australia I was up the next morning to attend a teammate’s “Buck’s party.” This is the terminology they use for a bachelor party. I figured it wasn’t half bad on my part to be in the country for less than 12 hours and already be at someone’s bachelor party. For the day we played pub golf, at least until one of the younger guys on the team blew our cover by wearing his scorecard into one of the pubs (pubs refuse to serve groups doing pub crawls.) The idea of behind Pub Golf was that we were going to “play” 9 holes. Each hole (pub) had a different score for par and then had different rules for certain holes. For instance, one hole was a “ladies tee,” this meant that you had to order a traditionally female drink such as a vodka cruiser or martini. A different hole was “golfing like Tiger,” and each person in the group was only allowed to talk women in the bar. Between the fifth and sixth hole e had a water hazard that did not allow you to go to the bathroom, without taking a penalty of course. The scoring was 1-5, and depending on the par for the hole, that is how many sips you had to finish your drink. If you finished in fewer than the allocated, you were under par. If you drink like my little sister, you were playing bogey golf. The night came to an abrupt halt when the bars started enforcing their dress code of pants and lace less shoes. It was 90 degrees out when we started and I was not going to be wearing jeans out for a day of drinking. After talking with the management I finagled getting some free drinks if I returned back to the bar with the proper clothing. The trip to and from my residence was about a $40 cab ride and when I returned (the night was still young) the manager provided a couple drinks along with a $50 voucher… Well worth it! Considering a pint of beer is at least $10 each. The day/night out was a great way to get to know most of the guys on the team away from the basketball court. It was also a pretty solid round of golf as I shot 9 under par.
After getting settled into town and getting some practices under my belt (I was still waiting for my visa to process before I could play in a game) I went south to Margaret River for a day of sun, surfing and wine. Margs was hosting a world class surfing competition that featured many of the world’s top performers including Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow. It was my first experience and first opportunity to ever witness a surf comp and it was pretty spectacular. After soaking in the sun and watching these guys shred through the 9 foot waves we took off to the town for lunch. We settled in at the “Settler’s Tavern,” one of the restaurants my family and I ate at last year. From lunch, where we established a good drinking base, we ventured out to tour several wineries from the famous Western Australia region. I could easily make visiting wineries a hobby of mine.
After a couple weeks of waiting, I finally received the phone call I was waiting for. My visa was processed and I was able to play in that weekend’s game. Unlike Taiwan, where I was able to play immediately after arriving, Australia waits until you have arrived in the country before they begin to process your visa. In order to play in a game, a player must have a Sportsman’s Visa. This process can take anywhere from a week to four weeks. My visa took two weeks to come through, and during that period I had to sit and watch 4 games from the sideline. With the processing of my visa, I was heading to Geraldton, a traditional power in the SBL, to play my first game of the 2011 season.
We have a very balanced team that employs several solid big men and a variety of guards. In my first game I battled foul trouble, nothing that came to my surprise, but did what I had to do to help the team get a big road victory. After the game we all hit the town for a big night of celebrating. On long road trips, such as Geraldton, a lot of the players bring “drinks” for the ride home. This trip was a bit different in that the driver did not want all the garbage and stench for his trip the next afternoon. Well, when there is a problem, we solve it. We placed our remaining booze in water bottles in case we felt we needed it. After being out all night and walking onto the bus at 6 am to head back, I was not in the mood to continue. I slept the entire 4 hours back and as we approached the exit for our stadium a bottle of water rolled up to my seat. To say I was a bit parched in the mouth would be an understatement. I reached for the bottle as if it were my only shot at getting the bottle and took a GIANT swig. After the first bit hit the back of my throat I nearly vomited. It was straight Vodka. I swallowed and looked at the owner of the bottle, for I knew who’s it was. I handed it back to him and he let out a, “there it is!” I was a little less excited.
Although I did not feel up to it that morning, the drinking continued at Supafest – Australia’s hip hop tour. I did not have a ticket, but Greg, a teammate of mine, played his Bball card and got me a free ticket to the sold out event and upgraded his and the rest of the groups tickets to VIP. We were right up front to see Bow Wow, The Game, Busta Rhymes, T-Pain, Nelly and Snoop Dogg. The concert was awesome, especially T-Pain, Nelly and Snoop. The weather was beautiful for the most part, but as Snoop took one of his many smoke breaks, the clouds opened up and poured down on us. I think it was during the song, “ I wanna make you wet” that it really started to come down.
The following week I suited up for my second game, and first at home. We played host to the Mandurah Magic and were expecting a win. We played a solid game throughout and finished with a 115 -81 win. It was a nice win to start a double header with. We were set to take on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns on the road 18 hours later.
This game provided an interesting event, something that I have never experienced. Similar to the night before, we came out and put it on the Suns. In the start of the fourth quarter, leading by over 30 points, our forward laid a pretty aggressive back screen on the opposing guard. Our player was called for a foul and received a bit of backlash from some of the players on the other team. The import for Kalamunda began talking trash to my teammate and then continued on to another teammate of mine after my teammate told him to shut it because they were down by so much. I was guarding this player and as he continued to talk I stepped in and questioned his ability to back it up. This is where he told me that he was going to have to shut my ___ ___ up as well. I laughed as he physically could not back it up nor could his performance on the court. In the ensuing play down the court I received the ball and squared up for a jump shot. As I jumped and released the ball the opposing player two-hand shoved my out of bounds. The play was deliberate and dirty. I was irate as the referee was standing only a few feet away from me and motioned for me to get up without calling a foul. I don’t care what the situation in the game is or what the score is; there is no place for that.
In the heat of the moment, I expressed my displeasure and was given a technical foul. I went to the bench for a break and to cool down. I returned minutes later and again received the ball in the post. I drove middle, put an up and under on their import and drew the foul as my shoulder went through his jaw on my shot attempt. I handed the ball to the ref and looked at the player and said, “Got ya.” I walked to the free throw line, took a deep breath and then found myself watching their import walk up on me. He got in my face and started talking more trash. Players came from both sides to break it up and at the height of the commotion he reached out and slapped me. He slapped me straight to the face. I didn’t even move; I was in shock. He was later ejected and received a 10 week suspension (7 of which were suspended if he completed some off the court things). He was later sent home by his club.
After the game we were riding a four game winning streak and heading into the following week set to play visitors at the reigning champion, Willeton Tigers. Unfortunately we were taken out of our game and were handed a pretty healthy loss. It was unfortunate, but with that we were able to see what some of our weaknesses were. It was then a matter of picking up the pieces, making some adjustments and getting back onto the court for the next game.
With the Easter holiday I was able to catch up with several friends that are playing on different teams in the league. Todd Brown and his wife Tarin from Geraldton were in town and we were able to spend time with Luke Payne and Ben Beran from Lakeside, Dean Hadley (the other import) from Kalamunda, and Casey Crevelone and his girlfriend from Mandurah. I went to Church with the Chegwiddens on Sunday morning, and like most holiday services in the Catholic Church, people come out of the woodworks and the church is packed. I found a pole in the back to lean against for the service. After mass we all gathered at the Chegs’ house for a brilliant Easter brunch. After eating, cleaning up and chatting I retired to the couch and rested for the dinner that was still to come!
The next morning the group of us gathered and went to the grocery store and picked up all the necessary ingredients for an American style breakfast. We were heading back to the Chegwidden’s to take full advantage of their outdoor tepanyaki. We had scrambled eggs, American style bacon (they just serve ham), sausage, toast, pancakes and mushrooms. It was glorious! For those of you who are thinking, “big deal,” when you don’t have access to that for several months you don’t take the little things for granted.
After the breakfast we went south to Mandurah to the petting zoo. Yes, the petting zoo. As I walked into the entrance and was set to pay my admission, the older woman behind the counter, sensing I was not from Australia because of my accent, asked if I had ever seen a kangaroo before. I responded with a, “not one that wasn’t in my scope,” referring to my kangaroo hunting trip with my Dad last year. She was less than impressed with me. This was, however, my first chance to get up close to koalas, kangaroos, emus and other animals that are native to Australia.
After the petting zoo a few of us headed towards Fremantle, an eclectic and artsy community in Perth for lunch and shopping (for Tarin). One of the advantages of living in Perth has been the variety of things to do and the ability to see the friends and families I have become close with while being in Australia. From Fremantle we continued on to Subiaco, a nearby suburb of mine, to watch the Fremantle Dockers take on the Western Bulldogs in an Australian Football League match. Australian rules football is the national sport and is massive over here. Each person has a team to support, mine being the St. Kilda Saints out of Melbourne, and they are passionate about their teams. To show their support most fans wear a scarf sporting the colors and name of their team. Fortunately we are at a very exciting game with a lot of action. Fremantle came back to win in the final minutes of the game.
Ok, I am almost up to date with everything. This past weekend we played host to Perry Lakes on Friday night and followed up at the Perth Redbacks on Saturday. We held a 10 point advantage at halftime in the first game and pushed it out to 23 late in the 3rd quarter. Unfortunately we packed it in a bit early and Perry Lakes began a resurgence. In the final minutes they took the lead from us and we were unable to capture a win that we held so tightly earlier in the game. It was disappointing and there were several of us that were in disbelief of what we let just happen. One of our mottos for the season is “never back to back.” We are not going to lose back to back games, and this meant we needed to get our stuff together and come out ready for a tough road game. This is exactly what we did. We went into the Redback’s gym and played very solid basketball for 48 minutes and came out with a 118-111 victory.
Looking ahead, we have a game this Saturday at Mandurah.
Since I returned to Australia I have quickly adjusted back to the cultural differences. I am back to the metric system or grams and meters. It has almost become second hand now and is no big deal. I even find myself talking in those measures without thinking about it. The vocabulary is very different and words like mate, reckon, cheers, beautiful and darling are used abundantly. I have even have been driving free of errors such as driving on the wrong side of the road or hitting my wipers instead of signaling a turn.
One difference that is a tough adjustment is paying for gas or fuel as they say here. I have seen a lot of grumbling back home about the price of gas and how bad it is. I have no sympathy for you. I believe prices are hovering just under $4.00 per gallon. This may vary depending on where you are. In Perth we are paying roughly $1.40 per liter. That equates to approximately $6.40 per gallon. On a per liter comparison, at $4.00 per gallon, the price per liter would be $.88. The other crazy thing in regards to fuel prices is that the price at the pump will often time jump $.10 in a day. That is the same as the gas price going up $.45 in a day back home. That is unheard of.
A major adjustment in coming back to Australia is the price of alcohol. Cases of beer cost between $40 and $50. The term case, unfortunately, is the same here as it is at home – 24 beers. And no the bottles aren’t any bigger and do not have any more alcohol in them. Bottles of liquor are just as bad, if not worse. For example, a 750 ml bottle of booze starts at $40. One gets excited when they see an advertisement offering 2 for $70. As a result, I have been enjoying my local wines which cost $10 a bottle.
As for where I am living and whom I am living with. I live in a suburb northwest of Perth called Wembley. It is walking distance to Subiaco, a trendy part of town with cafes, bars and restaurants and about a 10 minute drive to City Beach on the Indian Ocean. I live with my assistant coach and his “partner.” Partner is another term used to describe girlfriend or boyfriend, not of the same sex. It threw me for a long time last year. Rebecca plays for the women’s team. Things have gone relatively smoothly and I am enjoying my time and thankful once again for the opportunity to continue playing basketball, living abroad and meeting wonderful people. I am also thankful for skype so I can communicate with people back home. Finally, I am thankful for the Easter basket I received in the mail from my parents that included several items that I miss greatly from home (m&ms, reeses, sunflower seeds, etc.) as well as a couple other things I needed.
Until next time!
