Still recovering

What a wonderful experience going to State of Origin was. I had the best time - just being with my guys to experience it was awesome. The atmosphere, the noise, the crowds, the music, the fireworks - just mind blowing. The best part was that we WON..... not just the game but the series.

It was a really interesting experience - I was one of a handful of woman on the flight down. I caught the air train into the city, I was the only woman in my carriage, there was one BLUES supporter, and the rest were all men QLD supporters. I was blown away because several of the guys had flown down from GOVE (in the gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory) just for the game. That kind of blew me away. They were so excited, and it was so interesting to sit back and listen to their conversations, and their prediction of the outcome of the game.

I met the kids in the city and we went out for dinner before WALKING to the Game. What a walk - Pete assured me that the walk up Caxton Street to the Stadium was worth it - the streets were closed off and the pubs and eateries were overflowing with people who were there to watch the game - there were even guys sitting on deck chairs on the roof of their house. There were buskers and it was just awesome ( even if we did walk for miles)
We had really great seats in the first section down near the field, right in front of the goal posts. Got to see plenty of action the first half when Queensland was scoring TRYs and GOALSWhen we arrived the stadium was about 3/4s full, but by the time the game started, there wasn't a spare seat anywhere to be seen. We had a couple of blue supporters in front of us and a very vocal blue supporter behind us - I felt sorry for them. QUEENSLAND had scored the first 10 points within the first 10 minutes of the game - the crowd, the noise was unreal - so exciting.
We were also entertained by those sitting around us - especially this QLD supporter behind us who was happy to be snapped in photo with Pete and I.
He was giving the very vocal Blue's supporter a bit of a hard time. Every time Qld scored, he would sing out - "What's the score mate - How many tries- I forgot to bring my glasses" . It was really quite hilarious.

Sarah really got into the action and I love these photos of her.We knew quite a few people there, so there were text messages flying to check where we all were, we did get a nice surprise when these guys found us.
Had to take photos to prove to my friend Shaz that we did catch up with each other even if it was only for 5 minutes.
I wanted to get some photos of my wonderful son who made this whole experience possible for me, but as he hates getting his photo taken, he wasn't always co operative with me and my need to take some photos.
But I did manage to get a couple of half decent photos of him.
Managed to snap a couple of photos of Sarah and her husband Colin. Might just have to scrapbook some of these.
After the game we walked back to Roma Street to catch the train home.... That was an experience also, as the train was packed with Qld Supporters - a very happy bunch of people.
It was almost midnight by the time we got home. My feet were aching, we had walked for kilometres. I had to be up at 4am to get the 6am flight home to go to work. I didn't manage to get much sleep. I was desperately tired, but too worried that I would sleep through the alarm, so seemed to wake every 40 minutes or so to check the time.

Pete had me at the airport by 5.15am ( plenty of time to make my flight) I had a quick flight home and spent most of it with my eyes closed. Got home and had a quick shower ( more to wake me up than anything) and headed to work where I spent the day in a Prep classroom, so it was pretty full on. My the afternoon I was aching all over and completely exhausted - couldn't wait to get home and have a nap.

It was the most amazing experience - would love to do it again one day, but next time, I would love Steve and Chloe to be there to share it with us too.

Another busy weekend is ahead so I probably should get some shut eye.