First day of junior cricket today, which meant being at the ground early to set to for the junior program. My son and middle daughter are both doing junior T20 this year and I am still coaching g the very little ones (age 5 and 6). We had about 30 kids this morning and it went well. First day is always a little unorganised but no problems today. Had one of the parents tell me they had been to a few junior programs at other clubs and that ours was the best run and most organised they had ever seen. Pretty happy to hear that.
My son and daughter both made a few runs and my daughter bowled someone out with her second ball so she was super happy. Good day.
4 Likes
Giving back man, Love it.
1 Like
Thanks mate. I am a big believer in finding time to give to your community, whether through kids sport or any other medium. What makes the place we live so great is the sense of community and how friendly everyone is. But that doesn’t happen unless people do something.
2 Likes
I couldn’t agree more, and well put.
Perfect 
And Simo, what @Koestrizer linked is one of the poses that I was doing in my daily yoga routines (to get rid of my niggling back stuff). It really works. I forgot I even did it since I “cured” my pain, but it really did help me feel better (plus the shitload of back extension & GHR I did). I should probably start again.
What got rid of my pain was the McKenzie method, McGill big 3, yoga, and hanging from a bar and kind of flexing your abs to bring your body forward and back. I’m sure reverse hyper would have been great too, but I didn’t have one at the time. I know you already do a lot of exercises that strengthen the glutes and low back and hams, so you have that part covered. But yea, if your back is still bothering you those helped me. Not to give unsolicited advice, but I know how much back tweaks suck and am offering anything that could help 
2 Likes
@dagill2 yea man, giving back is so important. Everyone has different things they can offer, but the important thing is just helping where we can when we can. It’s sort of like donating money to charity. Even though we can’t donate as much money as millionaires, every little bit counts for the people on the receiving end
1 Like
I’m not a rich man, and any “spare” money I have belongs to my kids as far as I’m concerned. I’m pretty big on doing stuff for charities/communities rather than giving because that’s where I feel i make a bigger impact. YMMV.
2 Likes
Monday 4th November - Restorative block week 3
Bike 5 mins
GHR - body weight (3.5 holes)
BW 10 x 4 sets
DB bench
20 x 15 warm up
32.5 x 10 x 4 sets
Shoulder still a little angry so was careful on these. Nice little pump.
Lat pull down
70 x 12 x 4 sets
ABS
Landmines - 15kg
20, 20, 20
Nothing too exciting going on here. Got the work done with no problems. Shoulder still a little upset but not worse.
4 Likes
Full day with the family today. Think I might need some Valium!
1 Like
Ear plugs?
Mate you better believe it !! This weekend the wife and her sister and dad and niece all go to Sydney. So it will be just me and the kids. Can’t wait.
4 Likes
Is your missus Australian or did you both move there?
Both moved here mate a bit over 15 years ago now. We were both from Hertfordshire in the South East. We had never even been here before and had pretty much no friends or family here when we decided to immigrate.
1 Like
That was our plan when I met the missus. Then kids appeared, so its gone on hold for a few years. How easy was the process?
Initially not that easy. We tried to go down the skilled visa route. Did all the paperwork and has skills assessment done (took about 9 months) but unfortunately I didn’t have enough experience in my career at the time so we didn’t qualify. I was lucky enough to apply for a job through the company I was working for and got it. The company then applied for a temporary (4 year) sponsored skilled visa. This was very easy, got the visa within 6 weeks.
After 2 years the company then sponsored me for a permanent visa and then 2 years later we took citizenship, So now have dual citizenship.
My wife’s sister and her husband just (3 years ago) went through the skilled visa route and it took about 18 months and a few thousand pounds but wasn’t too bad.
1 Like
This was the route we were looking at, but my degree at the time wasn’t enough to qualify me. I’d probably have to look at another route these days, not in an industry Australia cares about anymore.
Seems like a smart immigration system from the outside though, only bring in the people you actually need.
It is kinda smart, but we also have a fair amount of refugees that haven’t come through the skilled visa route. I guess no system is perfect.
What do you do for a crust these days ?
I work in retail unfortunately. Took the job straight out of uni at the height of the financial crash to support my girlfriend at the time through her degree. By the time I looked up again, my degree was worthless. Whoops. Pays the bills, and has some advantages, but it’s tricky to get out of.
Ah that’s not too far from where I grew up; my parents live around 20-30m from Watford.
I packed it all in and left London myself in 2011, though I only went over to Gibraltar for a spell before winding up in Dublin so not quite as far!
1 Like
There is always the potential for applying for a job with a minor retailer here and they may consider a sponsored visa. Only way to find out would by to email a few of their HR teams.
1 Like