Final Words from America

Hello again and its about time I gave you an update on how I have been and what I have been up to. Well…heres some quick news to start with

Ice Hockey: Saw an attempt at a fight. I pressed the wrong button on the camera so I missed the action. Sorry

In sporting news the original Nintendo I bought off eBay got a bit of a workout and me and Greg passed the ninja turtles game. I even have film to prove it. Turtles rock.

Andrew was also caught betraying his country when he was spotted playing a bit of “football” for lack of a better word.

Went and saw STOMP in concert. STOMP is a band that plays the drumbeats with anything but drums…so I guess they don’t do drumbeats at all but you get my point. It was so good. I even bought their DVD the first DVD I have ever bought!! I had a little jerk kid (who would have been me 12 years ago) sitting next to me who complained mum this is so boring before it started and at the end half admitted he liked it ‘it wasn’t that boring’ or something along those lines. Hehehe, I remember those days. Anyway the concert was fantastic.

I played golf with Sally a girl who plays with a handicap of 1. Let’s just say I beat her on the first hole. We need not go into any more detail.

Had my first Tornado warning, what a waste of time.

I have figured out Americans don’t understand some other basics essential to Aussie life.
They haven’t heard of or eaten Dim Sims and they do not know what ‘full toss’ means. Bludger, Maccas and Uni are also words not found in the countries very limited vocabulary.

I also figured out that some guy has been thinking I have been swearing every time I say cool as, sweet as, wicked as, nice as. I found this out after the supposed 3rd time he has asked me. I can’t remember him asking me before but I’m sure he said. Are you saying sweet ass (I would hear sweet as) to which I would reply ‘yeah sweet as’. He ended up asking me bluntly after thanksgiving after I was commenting his grandma was cool as. Glad we got that one cleared up. I hope he is the only one that thinks I have been saying that! That may even rate a score on the embarrassment stakes along with a few more café dropped tray incidents.

So anyhow. Me and Mat (the ‘sweet as’ guy) drove up to Colorado after a thanksgiving meal. It took us twelve hours and we came within inches of our lives (I can use that term coz I’m in America but centimeters for all you stuck in the metric ages!!) We came so, so close to running into a deer. Thankfully we missed and that was the start of Gods protection over me for the weekend as you will soon see.

We got to Denver, Colorado and then trekked a bit further to a ski resort. I was about to try my hand at snowboarding as Tony is about to report.

In sport Andrew took to the Rocky Mountains to glide the gradients, slide the slopes, to to to…well you know? After an hour of phone tuition from an expert snowboarder back home he was ready, or was he??

No, no he wasn’t. He now knows how a boxer would feel after 5 rounds in the ring. And now knows God must be lookin out for him. Reports claim he fell at least 150 times and these are extremely reliable sources. Some claim up to 200 falls in his first day.

Is this the definition of persistence or perhaps the definition of stupidity? Reports confirm the latter. Andrews failure to learn caused him much pain both mentally and physically. It is believed he has bruises where he never thought physically possible (AKA bum crack). The next morning he was forced to roll over on his stomach to get up because his neck was so sore from its eccentric (lowering – for you uneducated non PE students) contractions from breaking his fall that it could not properly support his head. His many big spill left onlookers with quite an impression…one in particular, who got up close and personal. Hes her to talk us through the ordeal.

So there I was snowboarding behind this tall guy who didn’t look like too much of a clutz. He was traveling fairly fast so I assumed he knew what I was doing. Never ever assume. He must have decided he was boarding outside his ability and tried to slow down by cutting across the mountain. He cut across hard and fast and fell just before would have gone off the edge and into the nearby trees. At this point I was far too close to do anything about it. Clunk, I ran into his board…that’s all I remember.

Right, we’ll have to go over to Andrew to finsh this story.

Yeah so I take another fall and before I have a chance to sook about it I hear a clunk on my board. I look round to see this guy go flying. One bounce into a nearby tree. I heard the branches crack and saw him get wrapped round the tree. My first thoughts were. ‘Oops are you ok’ my second thoughts were ‘I wish I had a camera that would have one first prize on funniest home videos for sure’ After a few moments on the ground the guy makes his reply to my first thoughts which by then I had spoken out. Only a few of his words are appropriate to relay on this news cast but the jist of what he said was. I hate you why would you do that, you nearly broke my back. Suddenly my second thoughts were looking good. I made my reply ‘Like I meant it I couldn’t see you’. He proceeded with the four letter words that weren’t dumb, snow or fall. My friend who had stopped nearby and heard/seen all this then stuck up for me. You shouldn’t have been so close rah rah rah. It was good. I wasn’t worried, as he was downhill from me and on a snowboard so it would have taken forever to get me. Plus if he did get me I would be aiming for his fresly wounded back!! In short I do hope he isn’t hurt but dang that crash was awesome. My personal favorite out of stockpile to choose from.

While Andrew made it to the highlights reel for bringing pain to others the next day he woke up with some of his own As explained earlier. Today no doubt, he will be trying skiing. According to his friend Mat this will be a much safer option for both him and everyone on the slopes. How true…

Perhaps not. Being the all round klutz he is Andrew managed at least 20 crashes with the skis. He got down the end of the run and decided his body could not take any more beatings. A frustrated and dejected Andrew indeed.

The next day he gave himself off opting to limp around the city of Denver. ‘Nice and clean’ were the best three words to describe most of Denver except for the Maccas toilets which even a busting Andrew refused to go.

He had earlier found some relief at an ESPN urinal which was fully equipped with a TV above it. Just incase you had any spare attention!

The remainder of the day included resting and cruising round taking photos. For the record he did not fall over once.

This was another day spent thinking and resulted in a few thoughts.

First of all that God was serious when he said to have one rest day a week. To chill out and think about life and focus on him. Its great. So I’m gonna plan to do that a bit more.

I am also going to miss America (I have her phone number!) was the second thought. Its funny how people don’t tell you how much they care or how much you mean to them until you tell them you are only here for 2 more weeks.

Back to the news

The next morning Mat and Andrew were on the road again. The trip back got quite complicated. High winds closed all sorts of roads and forced them to take the backcountry. Andrew was delighted to see his first tumbleweed bouncing across the road.
He also spotted and snapped photos of two trucks which had tipped over on the road in the strong winds. Even this didn’t deter Mat and Andrew, (well mainly mat since he was driving), from getting home. Eventually after a few wrong turns, some alternate roads and a few pit stops for junk food and they were back in Springfield, bringing the snow with them. The first snow Andrew has seen in Missouri. It was also reported that they passed a sign reading “Correctional facility nearby, do not pick up hitchhikers”.

Andrew’s eating and health took a dive over thanksgiving. He knew he was in trouble when he started looking forward to the “healthy food” they serve at the on campus café.

I have got on the veggies since ive been back. All is well and I hope you all are too.

Love Andrew