Month: June 2005

Sat 15^th Oct

Dairy Farmers’ Stadium

 

I waved our Cowboys’ flag above my head and yelled loudly as Matt Bowen scored the fifth try of the second half.  The Cowboys were flogging the Broncos by a huge amount.  Mum had to duck as I was waving it so hard.

“Watch out there,” she laughed. 

“Sorry, Mum…it’s just so exciting…if they win they go to the Grand Final!”

As the Broncos started the kick off for the sixth time in a row I felt my stomach rumble.

“I’m going to grab some food, be right back.”

I jumped up and wound my way through the throngs of Cowboy fans and found my way to the stall where Megan was selling hot food.

“Hey, I’ll have a pie…God, it’s crazy around here.”

“How’s the game?” Megan asked as she gave me my change and then served the next person behind me.

“Mattie Bowen scored another try…and it sounds like they just got another one,” I said as the crowd let out a massive collective roar. 

My friend chuckled, “Sure does.  Hehe…Grand Final…here we come…”

I grinned and took a big bite out of my meat pie.  Nothing ever beat a good hot Aussie Pie.  As I stood there I raised an eyebrow slightly as I recognized the next customer.  It was Josh Hannay, Cowboy goal kicker.

“Hey, Josh?  Got another injury?” I quipped.  He glanced over at me.

“Yeah, resting it up for the big game.”

“You sound confident.”

“Yeah…you see out there?  We’re way ahead of the Broncos.”

I smiled at that and nodded.  “Well, good luck.”

“Thanks…oh, I’ll have 4 pies please,” he said to a slightly bemused Megan.  I laughed inwardly to myself and watched as he took the four pies she handed him, thanked her and wandered off. 

“Well, I’m going back to watch the game, text me when you’re finished.”  I waved back to her as I set off back to my seats where my family was.  I arrived just in time for a try by Paul Bowman that was set up by Matt Bowen, no surprises there.  I screamed and cheered as loud as everyone else.  I glanced toward the clock.  Five more minutes.  I glanced at the scoreboard and grinned.  50 – 16.  There was no hope now for the Broncos. 

One minute…and Matt got an intercept.  Oh my God…

“GO, MATT, GO!!!” I was literally jumping up and down.  There was nobody in front of him or blocking him.  The Broncos have finally gone home…30 seconds…Matt ran across the try line and came back placing the ball down on the ground just as the full time buzzer sounded.  It was like an explosion had gone off in the stadium.  I grabbed Mum and we jumped up and down screaming like little kids. 

“Cowdies are going to the Grand Final!” I screamed in excitement.  “I can’t believe it…” The rest of the fans were yelling and screaming and generally just getting excited.  The usually sedate walk around the stadium by the Cowboys was a full on jog as they waved to us and jumped up and down and punched the air in victory.  They were definitely as excited as we fans were. 

I felt my mobile vibrating in my pocket and pulled it out and cupped my hand over my ear so I could hear.

“Marlz…they WON, they WON!”  Megan’s voice squealed out of the phone.

I laughed, “Yeah, I know…it’s so good…look I’ll come down to the entrance to see you.  It’ll be easier to talk.” I turned to my Mum.  “Mum, I’m going to go meet Megan, I’ll see you at the car soon.”

She nodded as I made a dash for the exit before I got run over by the rest of the crowd.  I cast around until I found Megan and went to join her.

“Grand Final…HERE WE COME!” I screamed loudly as I met her halfway.  She grinned widely unable to respond she was so happy.  She jumped up and down a few times and then said, “Yeah…and it’ll be here at Dairy Farmers’ too…not in Sydney.  Haha…sucks to be them.”

For the next few minutes we continued jumping and just yelling out to random people sharing in our excitement.  Several Broncos fans walked past and shot looks of disgust at us.  Megan and I were too happy to care.  I glanced at the clock on my phone then.

“Oh, got to go…if I don’t see you before Tuesday…I’ll see you, Tuesday.”

Megan laughed and waved as I weaved my way out to the car park just in time to see my family waiting for me in the car.  I jumped in just as Dad pulled out and we headed home.

Tues 11^th Oct 2005

Townsville Australia

James Cook University

 

“Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to Marly…

Happy Birthday to you!

 

Three cheers…”

 

Today I turned 20.  I’m no longer a teenager; I’m in that limbo stage between adolescence and adulthood.  Carly called it our tween year.  We were at Cassie’s place on campus celebrating my birthday during my five-hour break between lectures.  Yes it was a Uni day, worse luck.  Everybody was packed into the small common room and James already had chocolate mud cake smeared across his top lip.

“Hey, you given her the big present yet?” he said with a mouthful of cake.  I was a bit surprised that I could understand him.

“Big?  I don’t see any big gifts…” I was confused.

“Well, it’s not big as in size big,” Carly tried to explain.  “It’s big as in it’s err…big.”

I laughed as Megan added, “It could’ve been size big if you’d given it to me to wrap.”

“She’d be here all day if we let you wrap it,” Sarah joked as she picked up an envelope from the table and handed it to me.  I weighed it in my hand; it was light.  I turned it over a few times studying it.

“Open it already…” James prompted impatiently.  I grinned and slowly opened it not even ripping it a tiny bit in the process.  Once I had it open I pulled out the slip of notepaper inside.  I read it quickly then peered inside and pulled out four tickets.  I turned them over and my eyes widened in astonishment.  They were tickets to the Simple Plan concert here in Townsville at the Entertainment Centre.  Since when did their tour include our pokey little city?  Well, okay…we’re bigger than Geelong…we have 150,000 people…but…anyways.   I blinked hard.

“Are you guys for real?”  I looked at them all quizzically.

Cassie replied for all of them.

“We bugged management at the Entertainment Centre months ago and somehow they managed to convince the band management to bring a show to Townsville.  Anyway, there’s more in there.”  She indicated the envelope; I frowned and dipped my fingers into it and pulled out four ID sized cards…backstage passes.  This isn’t happening…my friends all knew I was a massive fan of Simple Plan but I never thought they’d do something like this for me.  I mean it wasn’t like it was my 21^st or something. 

“Pinch me,” I muttered.  James made to do just that, right on my butt.  “Ouch…not there!”

He laughed; I slapped him.

“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Sarah interrupted James and I just as we had proceeded to try and out slap each other.

“What’s that?”

“We get to show them around Townsville, for the whole five days they’re here.”

I was dumbstruck.  I wanted to ask how they’d managed that but I couldn’t trust my voice.  I needn’t have worried.  Cassie did the explaining for me.

“I told management at the Swamp (i.e. the Entertainment Centre) that I’d shown celebrities and dignitaries around in Brisbane when I lived there and that even though I’m in my chair some of the time I’m still capable of being a competent guide.”
”Yeah, and we get to help,” Sarah grinned. 

“So…” I finally found my voice.  “When is this exactly?”

“A week. Day before the NRL Grand Final.”

“Which the Cowboys will be playing,” Megan added slyly.

“You wish,” Carly laughed.

“No, they have a good chance,” I shot back defensively not registering what Sarah had said to me; at least not for a few minutes.  And then:

“A week?  God…And I thought the only interesting, fun thing next week would be the Grand Final…wow…that is so soon.  You guys are the best!”

They each gave me a hug and then Megan glanced over at me a question in her eyes.

“Are you going to the Grand Final?”

“If it’s here, I will.  Uh, when do we find out if the Cowboys are in or not?” I scratched my arm absently. 

“Saturday, once the last Qualifying rounds are played.  If they win this weekend they’re in.”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that the game’s being played on a Wednesday?” James scowled.

“State of Origin is played on Wednesdays,” Cassie pointed out.  That shut him up along with the second slice of cake I thrust in his hand. 

We lapsed into a heated argument about who we thought would get into the Grand Final.  As you can probably tell I’m a huge fan of Rugby League as are the rest of my friends and we were gearing up for the big game next week.  Anyway after awhile Carly and I had to get back to class.  I don’t think I concentrated for the rest of that day and when I got to bed that night I dreamed about the members of Simple Plan playing rugby in the Cowboys’ colours.