Last week we played the last games of our Tuesday Night Late League. Tonight we had a presentation for the last League. We came Third! Well out of Four remaining teams, I guess that’s a good thing??!! LOL We won $160 as a team for coming Third. I also won High Series with Handicap & ShadowKnight won High Series Scratch. Each of us pocketing $50 for our efforts. I was mightily happy with this as it was the first League I had ever bowled in.

So tonight our new League started, Tuesday Night Late League Singles. 15 people showed up & it was great to see some new faces to the League & also new faces to the alley. We played 2 bowlers per lane. And as luck had it, I bowled against ShadowKnight LOL

He won all 3 games as expected & wiped me clean off the lanes LOL! But that’s ok, it isn’t too hard to do & I am proud of him regardless.

It was a great night but I am mightily tired after a full day working today, leaving hme at around 5.30am & returning home just after 6pm. I’m off to bed to dream of my first pay packet since quite some time teeheehee!

Popularity: 6% [?]

SK & I spent some time out in the garden today. Unfortunately it started raining so we tried our best to get evrything done without getting too wet! However by the time we did come in & not too wet I may add, we just could not warm up! It became so cold! Plumeting to just under 10c by 4pm. EEEeeeek!

Anyway, we managed to transplant some beetroot, it looks small but strong. Don’t know how it will fair up. We also seperated & spread out the Rolli Polli Carrots. We ditched some plants not looking so well as we haven’t been giving the garden the TLC it has been needing & without offering that level of care, there was no use trying to salvage what had already been almost spent.

We planted 6 new Broad Bean seedlings that are quite strong into a tub with a downpipe trellis & a few thin stakes. 4 new Tomatoes were planted into 2 long tubs & incased into a warm Tomato Wrap LOL. If my memory serves me correctly we have a Sweet Bite Cherry Tomato, Acid Free Roma, Black Russian & a Yellow Zebra, I am looking forward to these fruiting when they do! A new strawberry plant was placed into a fountain tower to match the one we already have growing. Then we transplanted SK’s Green Tea Tree & The Eggplant into bigger pots.

All in all we did a few other things like place slug pellets, drain the worm farm & rotate some soil etc so we were kept pretty busy for the short amount of time we were outside. I enjoy the time we spend in the Garden & wish we had more days together to do it.

On another note, we will be heading down to mum’s at Batemans Bay in 2 weeks time for a night or 2. It will be nice seeing mum again however we are taking down a new oven & rangehood we purchased on behalf of my Bro K & his wife D. I know they will be looking forward to getting it installed as the stove in the kitchen currently is almost kaput!

Tenpin Bowling has kept us busy as we have recently joined a 2nd League. Sunday nights at 6pm SK, M-I-L & myself are the Channel Surfers in a Doubles League called The Good Times League. Therefore each Sunday only 2 out of the 3 of us bow. We still bowl in Tuesday night League however there is hardly ever more than 4 teams turn up on any given night. SK got some new gear for his bday which he loves using & has pretty much broken everything in. So we are enjoying our Leagues each week & meeting new people on the Sunday night.

Popularity: 29% [?]

I’ve added a Poll to my site (Right hand Sidebar) in the interest of my curiosity….
I am hoping everyone who visits the site votes on this poll for me.

I am keen to find out what the general public think of Ten Pin Bowling in respect to their own personal relationship with this Sport. This poll is soley created by me, for my personal use. I will however write a Blog on the results once the month is over & will offer something nice in return.

For all you Entrecard Droppers……
Leave me a comment on this Blog to let me know you have voted.
Leave your name & a message. You don’t need to state what your vote was. You don’t even have to Blog about this on your own site!
I will check all backlinks from your comment to ensure you are a genuine Entrecard member.
At the end of the month on June 30, one of you lucky duckys will receive 150 Entrecard Credits for yourself & an invitation to advertise with me, where I will refund you the amount of credits you used to purchase the ad once your ad has run! This is as a Thank You for voting on my poll as well as visiting my site.

Remember to be honest with your vote. Your time is definately appreciated.

Sound good? Get Voting!

P.S Don’t forget to leave your name & a message here on this Blog or you won’t be entered into the draw at the end of the month. Good Luck!

Popularity: 36% [?]

Not much has been going on around here, just the typical financial pressures etc.
I haven’t been lucky enough to find a job so these pressures will continue.

My mum is still staying with us & she is realy enjoying herself. She hasn’t been any hassle so we are happy for her to stay a little longer. We are expecting to keep her with us until roughly June 15th, which is when we will be all going to the WWE Smackdown Tour at Acer Arena. Mum hasn’t been to a WWE live event for a very long time, in fact since we went to the Global Warning Tour in Melbourne. As she is now in her 70’s, it will be a busy & tiring night for her, however I know she will enjoy absolutely every second of it!

We have been working in the Garden with lots of little achievments taking place. We have some lovely new seedlings sprouting & we are currently re-potting a lot of original plants etc. We are experimenting with a few ideas & have plans to build up an existing Garden Bed which basically only houses 3 Large Bird Of Paradise Plants. Stay tuned for another post regarding this mission!

Split Happens has been plodding along slowly. We are running last in our League however we are enjoying the game each week & try to do better.
We have both become active in the TotalBowling.com.au forums. We have found that the Sport of Tenpin Bowling is indeed struggling with numbers & seems to be that most of the general public do not realise that League is for every type of bowler, Beginner to Experienced, from juniors to the elderly & there are Leagues all over the country to suit different times of the day & also to include weekends etc. League players receive discounts on their games when bowling & there are fantastic prizes & awards to earn. You get to meet new people & socialise to your hearts content. Some Centres even offer a Creche! Each Centre offers something different. It would be great to see the community get more actively involved in Tenpin Bowling & support this Sport that doesn’t get the creditation it deserves like many other sports do.

Speaking of Bowling…. ShadowKnight scraped together the pennies to buy me my first ever Bowling Ball!

Thank you so much SK, I will use it wisely

Popularity: 33% [?]

Tuesday we played our first game with Handicap (mine 63 & SK 41). I was expecting to play very poorly as I had just worked 2 days at Bunnings Rockdale for stocktake & I haven’t worked since before the move….. in fact before Christmas last year.

I played extremely well & was very proud of myself! I did have a bad moment of feeling faint up on the approach, but that eventually passed.

We played a young pair who are very talented & have bowled some very important tournaments. Sam Cooley (pictured left) & Ashleigh Kloot (pictured centre) have named themselves Shitheads as a team name & they are realy great players. They sure showed us how to bowl & I got a feeling of influence which may have helped me bowl the 128-159-127 that I was & are still chuffed with. See that?! I bowled well over my goal of 110 & even broke my first 150! I just hope I can keep up with consistency.

We have received news today that my very own-new-first bowling ball has arrived at our centre! I am excited & a little anxious to go down to check it out & have it drilled to suit me. No more House Balls for me! I now have everything of my own that I need & hopefully can only improve. Wish me luck!

Popularity: 36% [?]

Last night we went for a bowl in preparation for our Wednesday Warriors League starting this week. Whilst in the middle of our 2nd game, one of the girls came to have a chat to us. Cutting a long story short, there was not enough people committed to playing the 8.30pm Wednesday Warriors, even though they had their name down to join. Therefore it has been cancelled. We have been invited however to join the Tuesday night League which also runs at 8.30pm. This is fine with us to join up, however what does upset us is that we will be joining into week 6.

We enquired originally about League & were informed that Tuesday nights had just started the week prior & that the W.W would be starting a week or 2 after our enquiry. When we fronted on the night, we were informed that in fact it wasn’t to start until May 7 as the current League was bowling it’s 2nd last week before the 3rd & final week, for them being a presentation night. However it was still preferred that we stay as scheduled to join the W.W.

Therefore we could have in fact actually been bowling League since the beginning of our enquiries, with having only missed 1 week. Now we are joining 6 weeks into the league! EEEEEEEEEEK! This league runs for 25 weeks & SK believes we have a good chance of being able to bring ourselves up the ladder. I am basing this league as a mere “practice run” if you will. Being my first league, I want to get used to the feeling of playing against others (being total strangers) & learning more about Me, the bowler.

I believe I have already found my bowling position, taking 5 steps instead of 4 & starting out on my left foot, starting my swing on my second step before releasing the ball off my right foot. This may sound weird to some but hey, for me it seems to work best. I am using a 10lb House Ball but have my own pair of AMF Sprint shoes, which SK bought for me for my recent Birthday.

We have been bowling twice a week being Wednesday & Sundays. This has been great practice for both of us as SK has found a new nemesis being the 10 pin & I am working on my strike. I hit the 1-3 pocket when i’m on it & know when it hits as the whole flow of the bowl from dot-to-line feels just right. I just don’t have enough of them yet! Hehe. I have however since the beginning of my bowling brought my average up from 82 to now being 104. My main goal was to bowl at least a 100 game each game. Since I have been doing that over the last 2 trips, I am now setting my goal to be 110 each game. I am actually quite suprised & very chuffed with myself as the last 3 games we played I bowled 133-129-113…… all with a sore back! I must have pulled a muscle the last time we played as I was in excruciating pain later that night & for the following 3 nights every time I moved. It started picking up on Saturday until I did a little “Garage Cleaning” with SK & had the pains coming back. I rested it for the arvo so I could still go bowling that evening. I am realy enjoying it & do not want to give it up for anything! Luckily enough the back held up & I bowled my best set of 3 to date!

We are trying to come up with a Team name for SK & myself. We have tossed around many names & ideas & still can’t agree upon 1. So I will offer you 2 names that I like from SK’s selections & hope to get some feedback from you to which you prefer.

Split Happens or

Channel Surfers

My back is now almost it’s old self again & I am looking forward to Tuesday night no matter what. So Shellharbour Bowl… here we come!

Will keep you updated.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Make a postcard - it’s easy!

A couple of days have now passed since my Birthday. After turning 30 I became well aware that the years just pass with nothing anyone can do about it. It does make me sad that we cannot turn back time however it has taught me that I need to make the most of it while I can.

My 2 nieces H & L had spent the week with us since Monday as it was School Holidays.

My family from Sydney & family from Batemans Bay spent the day (& in fact overnight) with me as well as everyone here in the home. It was a wonderful way to spend the day & we ended it with a little Finger Food party with home made foods & Birthday cake to celebrate. I got lots of lovely presents & feel very spoilt indeed.

On Friday being ANZAC Day, a group of 8 of us went Tenpin Bowling. A good chance for SK & myself to get some practice in & for the family to do an activity together. My mother, who celebrated her 70th Bday in Feb bowled her very first game of Tenpin Bowling! As she is fairly frail, we used the gutter bumpers for her & she started off pushing a 6 pound ball from the Ball Rail. However by mid game first game she was in fact bowling the ball with two hands by herself & no rail to assist! She ended up playing 3 games all up & on her last game bowled the last 2 frames with a 10 pound ball! Do you believe she even got a strike!!!! We were all very happy & so proud of her. Standing a mere 4ft8, she was a treat to watch. My eldest niece H was her greatest help. She guided her up to the lane & handed her the ball each turn. I know that Little Nanna (mum) enjoyed every second of it. I was the proudest Aunty in the whole universe

My Brothers & my sister in law enjoyed playing too, as well as my niece L. H & L had in fact already bowled the same week as SK, Mum T & myself took them on Tuesday evening to play. My Sister In Law D had never bowled before either, so it was also a treat for her. Both of my Brothers had played League many moons ago & has been a long time since either of the 2 had picked up a ball or shot at the pins. I couldn’t have been more happier than to see everyone enjoy themselves as much as they did.

It seems this may become a popular outing when the family is visiting. There aren’t any alleys close to my Bro K in Batemans Bay which means they don’t even have the opportunity to go bowl a few games anyway.

Today SK, Mum T & myself ventured north to Corrimal for a few games at Northern Bowl. I hated almost every second of it! I think I have become accustomed to playing at Shellharbour Bowl & I swear my allegiance to them after the feelings I went through bowling elsewhere. I just could not get a grip on myself! I literally felt like I was going to pass out with sweats, shakes & giddiness. I know I sound rather silly, but I just felt so out of my comfort zone. I know this is something I need to get used to if i’m going to play elsewhere for any reason. I just cannot explain what came over me. I put some of it down to the mug of hot gritty sugar drink they called Hot Chocolate which I managed to gulp only half of it down before retiring it. Then followed it up with a Chicken & Gravy roll, which was basically the stickiest, thickest goop of salt i’ve ever swallowed in my life. Knowing how much money was wasted on this stuff, I decided it was best to eat it rather than throw it out. By the time I was finished, my hands were sticky & slippery at the same time & kept sliding out of the ball as I was on the swing of my turn. I was also so thirsty that I believed I was going to die without a drink. Although as I have no money these days, I felt guilty asking for yet more to drink. However as it was, I was on the brunt end of a “Coke Frame” so SK took the initiative to go buy the round of cold drinks for us all. Thankfully for him I left Corrimal in a decent state of mind. LOL

So all in all, it has been a busy past few days. But now things have settled back down to everyday living & I am to find things to do with myself during the days as the job hunting continues at a slow & sad pace.

I am another year older. Not sure if I am that much wiser, but what I do know is…. There’s no place like home. I LOVE SHELLHARBOUR BOWL!!!!

Popularity: 27% [?]

Bowling in any form has existed for thousands of centuries, however the world of Ten Pin Bowling as we know it, has existed for well over a century.

It comes & goes in cycles of popularity to the social bowler. Usually finding a few years at a time of popularity, then a slump of quiet times, until it becomes fashionable or “cool” again. These “kids” will probably find that the game they enjoyed as a child is just as fun when they take their own children to experience the game. As long as there is an alley nearby.

Then you have your serious Bowler. This can start at League level right up to Tournament & Professional players. Year after year of bowling and in the most part, still enjoying it. This player will take on a more serious tone with their game & is usually brutally harsh on themselves when playing a lesser-than-great game. Afterall, their years of playing should reflect in the game they play. They also spend a huge amount on travelling across the state/country to play against others & indeed cannot afford to play under their own average.

On a personal note, I have just joined up a League which starts in May with my Fiance ShadowKnight. The Wednesday Warriors at Shellharbour Bowl, which awards us with our own Bowling Ball at the end of the season.

SK owns all his own gear & has had many years experience playing Leagues & Tournaments. Though he has been off the scene for a few years now.

My experience is less than a handful of games throughout my 30 years of existence. All of which have had many years separate them until recently. In the last week I have played 5 games. The first 2 games were last Saturday evening & the following 3 were last Wednesday evening. We turned up on Wed. expecting our first game of League to find that the dates were confused (on staff behalf) & that we were a few weeks early! However the wonderfully friendly staff offered us to play that evening at the League rate of $5 per game…. per person! Considering there was an extra person with us who has not signed up for League, I believe they were extremely generous & apologetic for their oversight. Even without the price reduction, we were happy to wait for League to start in May & were going to stay for a few games anyway!

So here are my stats of my first 5 games:

GAME 1: 92 - a spare in the 2nd & 9th frames

GAME 2: 73 - with a strike in the 6th frame, double gutters in the 7th frame then a strike in the 8th frame

GAME 3: 94 - with double gutters 1st AND 2nd frame, strike in the 7th, spares in the 9th & 10th frames

GAME 4: 130 - with spares in the 1st, 4th & 7th then double strike in the 10th frame (!!)

GAME 5: 119 - with a spare in the 2nd, strike in 3rd & spares in the 6th & 9th frames.

I am pretty pleased with myself & the assistance SK offered me was worth its weight in gold. He advised me after watching me bowl a couple of frames in our 3rd game & you can almost see the difference it made (Our first 2 games were for fun & a feel of the alley).

With the school holidays upon us, my 2 nieces H & L are staying with us for the next week & are looking forward to going for a game or two. I’m not sure what day we will head out to play but I am anxious to pickup my own set of Bowling shoes which are due to be in store Tuesday & I will receive from SK on Thursday as my Birthday present! I am very excited & can’t wait to try them out!

So I will keep updating the site with my scores etc as time goes by. Hopefully I will improve with practice & learn a few tricks of the trade so to speak.

I’d love to hear from you guys your thoughts, opinions & advice. Please leave a story of a fav Bowling memory or just a comment would be appreciated.

Finally i’ve added a vid for inspiration to all….

Popularity: 30% [?]