We are the Champions...

Yes, it's a shameless self-plug.  Chilly won the Open Division title at Australian Ultimate Frisbee Nationals; here's the write-up.  Unfortunately, the official photos are not available yet, but 2 guys on the B team have put their collections up at Flickr, here and here.  Enjoy!  My personal favorite is the one below, which is why I always say that Ultimate is non-contact "in theory".  Nonetheless, he didn't call foul - perhaps because he was too dazed!

The tourney was fantastic, and to win a third straight title on home soil was great.  Even better, Dad came over for the tournament, and watching 3 out of the 4 days of the tourney really allowed him to get a feeling for the team and the sport, in a way that watching a one-off game doesn't.  I was happy with my performance overall; I feel like I've managed to make a role for myself on the team, and to be expected to make big plays and contribute makes for lots of nervous excitement (in a good way!).  University ultimate is just starting to really get going, which ensures that I'm never too far away from throwing a disc. :) We had a few beers Wed night to celebrate the win, needless to say.

Unfortunately, with New Zealand (photos on Facebook here and here) and Nationals both just memories - though very, very positive ones at that - I now need to get back into work mode.  My next chapter is due in about 4 weeks, which is somewhat daunting.  Nonetheless, I am excited about it.  I'm hoping to go to Singapore (and Indonesia if I can swing it as well) for 2-3 weeks in July as a sort of reconnaissance trip for my "real" research trip in Jan/Feb.  It looks like the cost of flights will be will be around A$1300-1500, which is a bit steep, but I figure I really need to get there to check things out.  It will be my first trip to Asia, which is reason enough to get pretty stoked...