Summer Break Ends

The kids went back to school this week. I start teaching full time again next week.

Kristen will be teaching less now, since she found another job. She is now working as a clerk in a small accounting firm here in Albury called Stevens Bellmore. Paul and Graham are her bosses. She really likes her job. The work is not that exciting (since she does things like imput numbers into databases) but she really likes it. She particularly likes having air conditioning.

We don't really have any new news to report. We have been taking it pretty easy this week. I am posting some more pictures from the open, including one of Kristen with the winning doubles team, kristen with a statue of Rod Laver, and me enjoying a night match in Rod Laver Arena. Take Care. I'll post again soon.

Australian Open 2008

Hello Everybody.

We went to the first week of the tournament and just got back from Melbourne. We had an awesome time and saw lots of great tennis.

We stayed at Paul’s sister’s apartment, which is walking distance from the tournament. For only $99 we bought 5 day passes that allowed us to go in and out of the tournament all day for 5 days. During the day we typically watched tennis on the smaller outside courts. Some afternoons we watched practice courts instead of match courts. Kristen loved getting pictures with some of her star crushes (including David Ferrer - the #5 player in the world, and Tommy Robredo - the #11 player in the world).

In the evenings we moved into the stadiums to watch the big name players. One night I waited by the exits to Rod Laver Arena and watched for corporate-looking non-tennis fans that were leaving early. I found some people with great tickets that were leaving before the men’s evening match had even begun. We got to watch A-Rod from row 4 that night!

Update

Hi everybody. We are trying to survive the heat this week in Albury. It has been in the hundreds every day, and the humidity has been upwards of 40%. Coaching in this heat is hard. Even in the middle of the night it is HOT. In the morning, we drive to the courts with the AC on full blast. In the afternoons we swim in the river (because pools get too hot).

Our alternator broke on the hottest day of the year so far. Our car died and left us stranded with absolutly no shade in sight. Luckily we were not too far away from albury when it happened, so we were able to get Paul's parents to come rescue Kristen (Who thought she was going to die from overheating). I had to wait a long time for the NRMA (AAA) to come, and then even longer for the tow truck driver to arrive. It was terrible. The good news it that the car was still under warranty, and our alternator was fixed for free.

One of the biggest junior tennis tournaments in the country is going on right now in Albury. It is called the Margaret Court Cup. It is named after one of the many famous athletes to come from Albury. (I saw Margaret at the tournament today.) Just before the tournament started I got pretty busy running pre-tournamnt clinics for all of our top juniors who were preparing for the tournament. Meanwhile, Kristen has been running some holiday clinics for younger kids. She is getting really good at coaching. All of the kids (and all of their parents) really like her.

We took next week off and are getting ready to go to the Aussie Open. We are really excited, not only because of the tennis, but also because the weather forecast is considerably cooler in Melbourne than Albury.

Our Wedding Anniversary!

While we were in Potato Point, we decided to spend New Year's Eve in Melbourne with Paul, Amy, Julie, Chris, and Graham (Paul's best friend and co-worker). We all thought we wouldn't be able to get into any restaurants but Dylan was put in charge of making a reservation and he lucked out... as usual. Dylan called a restaurant named Taxi, just minutes after they had received a cancellation for a party of 8. Taxi is in the center of federation square and looks out on the Yarra river, where the fireworks are. Because of its location, Taxi is the hardest place to get into in Melbourne on New Years. We were able to watch 700,000 Australians party down below us, while we ate and watched the fireworks from our balcony table!