Here are some photos Ve took while at the match.

Some notes #1 & #2 by Byrd. #3, #4 & #10 by Abyss.

Some notes: #4 & #5 is by Foe. #10 is by Lister. The eye tag is by Abyss. #18 – #20 is by Abyss.
(Right-click and open in a new window or tab to see the full size)

This weekend was my first time back in Tuggeranong, to see the Roller Derby Season, I’ve been missing out on. I think I was in Melbourne for one of them. Anyway, I really enjoyed this match, between the Surly Griffins and the Red-Bellied Black Hearts, for one major reason. It was fast. It was the kind of derby that I fell in love with when I first saw it. It moved at a break-neck speed for most the hour, which just simply proved the stamina of most of these women.

This is waaaay better than the current trend of slowing the entire pack (and the game down). A strategy that was used heavily in a game I posted about earlier. I understand its use, but seriously it puts a dent in the spirit of the game. And that spirit is all about speed.

There were tumbles-a-plenty in this match, and while this what everyone expects at the derby, its still pretty dangerous, when you think about. I still sit in the suicide seating, remembering that private health form still sitting on my desk. At least I have dental I suppose.

Ve, once again, was nice enough to take photos of the match and not take other people’s souls for a change.

Anyway, this happened a couple of weeks ago. At the AIS, the Canberra Vice City Rollers got trounced by the SunState RollerGirls. The introductions for the VCRs was good, but unfortunately its the final score on the board that counts. Going through my tweets from a fortnight ago, it was something like this:

That’s it. Game Over. #CRDL 48 #SSRG 181

So, yeah. Trounced.

Ve, The-Thing-That-Lives-Upstairs, sent me these photos sometime ago of the action.

The people in Melbourne were nicer than I expected, even the homeless seemed hospitable to some degree. I expected attitudes of cynical big-city life, similar to the cynical we-think-we-live-in-a-big-city life I’ve come to expect from number of people in this town. But, I will admit I was surprised.

I stayed for a week in one of those short-stay apartments. A fully furnished kind of deal that is something of a hotel, but without so much interference from the staff. The problem was the location. While close to the city, it would have been less awkward by being on the other side of the river where the action was. There were a number of times I had to drag myself back and forth across Southbank and the River in order to leave things at the apartment and then go back in again for dinner or another appointment.

Catching up with my family was fun in the end. It was nice to see their faces once more. I also need to develop some contacts in Melbourne too. It would be nice to go back later in the year.

Just finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Now I know what the differences between the book and the film are now. You can read that as either good or bad.

I was interesting to be in a town that embraced street art, but there were also plenty of people that were taking photos, same as me. Got a little annoyed with that sometimes.

While I missed out on the ACT Comic Meet’s mid-month meeting, I did stumble across a illustration studio in the Atrium in Federation Square, where small human zoo of illustrators were plugging away at their work.

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We both rode to the meeting area to introduce ourselves to the other participants and organisers. There were a few people there already getting their bodies painted in the gazebo, behind the blue tarp. Now, despite what the name says, this was not going to be a bike ride in the buff. While in some countries, they might allow it, here in the Antipodes. The Federal Police were adamant that there could be no exposure, indecent or otherwise. And we got an escort through the streets to make sure of that would not happen or to hold traffic to let us through.

Our Path was across Commonwealth Bridge up to Parliament House, down past Old Parliament House back towards the lake. Since the main waterfront area was still closed from the previous night’s drunken orgy of fireworks. We made a detour around the art galleries and the high court. Then it was over the Kings Ave Bridge for a quick stop at the Carillion and then back across the shortfront to where we started. Just as we are making it to the gazebo it began to rain.

All in all a good day all round.

Click on the thumbnails to see the pictures. Right-click on them if you want to see the full resolution or you are using an iPad (apparently, lightbox code doesn’t work). Some might be NSFW, so you were warned.

With the entrance and introductions out of the way, the game begins. From the beginning the All Stars pretty much controlled the circuit, effectively blocking the Rollers’ jammers at every available opportunity, while let their jammer through. At halftime the score was 17 for Canberra and 105 for Victoria. The Vice City Rollers stepped up their strategy in the second half, the pivots becoming more aggressive to breakup the tight-knit wall of All Star defenses. This was not enough to close the margin. The final score when time ran out: CRDL 67 VRDL 166. The crushing defeat for the locals.

Not as many photos this time around. The battery was fairly low.