Ally Does Cali – Part Four – A Taste of Freedom

The day after the Championships closed, most of the team were set to check out and begin their journeys home. Only Amy, Evie, Nicole, myself and the South Australians were staying on an extra day, so after getting a long awaited waffle from the breakfast buffet and saying farewell to our other teammates, the nine of us organised to finally see a bit of Cali. Up until this day, all we’d really seen of the city was what we had seen from moving vehicles, so we were keen to get out of the bubble that the the State of Hotel Spiwak and actually explore.

Photo cred: Evie Karp

We had the hotel staff call us some taxis and we all paid 30,000COP each (around $15AU) to get three taxis to accompany us on the entirety of our adventure. For all the stigma attached to Colombia and all the concerns of catching taxis, all the cab drivers we encountered were more than lovely. They helped us out all day, taking pictures for us and just being generally helpful.

The first place we headed, was up the mountain to visit Jesus. We’d seen him all week from a distance, but we figured it was about time we went to have an up close and personal visit with him. We drove to the gates of Cristo Rey, and then had to walk the rest of the way up the mountain. The sun was scorching and the hill was steeper than it appeared, but getting up there was worth it to see the great view of Cali.

Cali from Jesus’ perspective

Seeing Cristo Rey up close was very cool as well. Fun fact, Cristo Rey is only four metres smaller than Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro, so he’s still pretty big, and luckily for us, he casts a nice cool shadow so we could get some respite from the burning sun. There’s got to be some kind of metaphor there.

The man Himself

We headed back down from Cristo Rey and our next top was San Antonio, a church in town. In front of the church is a square that just so happened to be host to artisan markets that day and a band that was playing Colombian music. We bought souvenirs from the markets and salsa danced the best we could to the music. The band even translated a lovely message to us, telling us that when we go home to let Australia know they are always welcome in Cali. It was so lovely and beautiful and the people were so wonderful and kind that it made me want to go to every person who made ignorant comments about Colombia and who profiled and joked about the people and give them a good slap. Never once did I feel unsafe, I mean, it was close the time we broke down, but even when we were broken down, we were never approached or felt threatened and our driver only did the best he could to make sure we were back on our way. We were so well looked after.

After our stint at San Antonio, we decided to go commercial again and find another shopping center where we could grab some lunch and spend some more of our money. After getting way to overwhelmed in an Adidas outlet store with massive discounts, the four New South Welshmen said farewell to the South Australians and headed back to our hotel.

All week we’d been hanging out for a swim, and we knew that the pool closed at 6pm and was going to be closed the next day which would be our last day at the hotel, so we rushed home to go for a dip. Once we finally made it to the pool at 4:45pm, we were informed that today the pool would be closing at 5pm. Annoyed, but still keen for a dip, we hopped in for 15 glorious minutes of fun in the sun.

Just a friendly reminder of how awesome Crepes and Waffles was

Once we were kicked out of the pool area, we decided we didn’t want to party to end there, so we went up to our room, filled up the bathtub, and the four of us squeezed in. After filming a very weird vlog, Amy decided to pretend that my soap dish was a conch shell and she was a mermaid servant, bathing the mermaid princesses (I told you it was weird).

After we’d had enough of that, it was time for one last meal at Crepes and Waffles. We went all out and pigged out on delicious savory crepes and then devoured ice cream treats fit for mermaid princesses. We just so happened to bump into the South Australian’s one last time, so we gave them all big hugs and said our farewells.

After our dinner, we headed back to our room to begin the task of packing all our junk away. Well three of us did. Evie fell asleep and we mocked her profusely for snoring. Our plans to organise our room never really happened that whole week, so all our things were strewn about the place. Of course, it felt like we had accumulated so much stuff, despite us barely having shopped, and we were still planning one last shopping trip the next morning! It didn’t take long before we all decided to follow in Evie’s footsteps and get to bed, so we would be well rested for the epic journey home we still had before us.

Ally Does Cali – Part 3 – Game Day

The day we found out our order of skating we were out to lunch with the South Australian girls. The Show Group time slot for official practice was from about 7am to 10am and each team had 15 minutes and would train in the same order as we compete. So we didn’t really want to draw too early because that would make our Saturday a very long one as we would have training in the morning, competition in the afternoon, followed by the Grand Gala and the Closing Ceremony in the night. However the skating order draw gods gave us a firm middle finger as we drew third. Not as rough as drawing first, but meh, it meant we had to be at training pretty darn early.

When my alarm went off at 4:30 am I wanted to cry, but today was the day, the whole reason we had traveled for 48 hours. Game day. We had an early breakfast and got our taxis down to the venue.

We’d spent nearly a week sitting up in the stands, looking down at the venue from up high, peering down on the competitors rolling around in the warm up area and now here we were, looking up. It was quite bizarre being on the other side, seeing the whole place from a new perspective.

Looking fly as hell

We suited up in our gorgeous Australian Leotards, everyone looking fab, and pushed our way through Argentinians and Italians to get our time in the sun (literally, dude the glare from the sun that morning was brutal).

We had fifteen minutes and we knew exactly what we needed to do to milk every second. We skated our positions, then skated our key section of the routine before doing a complete run through. After a week of skating on the awful plastic floor of the training venue, to finally get on the glorious, smooth concrete surface of the official venue was something divine. We skated our routine strongly and cleanly and we were really happy with how we did. Over the course of the week, things had begun to fall into place at the last minute. Parts were tightened up, arms were matching better, facial expressions were improving. This would be the second last time we would hear Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now” and know we had an exhausting five minutes of skating ahead of us.

We felt great after our official practice; we were hot and sweaty, but everyone was in good spirits and ready for the real thing. We popped back home and started the clock, we had about four hours to get everyone’s hair and makeup perfect.

Smouldering in our 60’s roller derby looks

Evie was in charge of hair and I was in charge of makeup, and neither of us had gotten a chance during our busy week to trial anything on anyone despite saying several times that we would. Evie settled on a beehive, and I decided to recreate Twiggy’s look, we recruited another skater from outside of our team, Sarah and we were good to go (our routine was a 60’s theme if you couldn’t tell from that description).

We all met in my room and I got started on my own makeup, praying to God that I wouldn’t stuff up and end up with black eyeliner smeared all over my face. Four hours and one Subway run later and we had eight skaters fully hair’d and make-up’d.

After one last review of our official practice footage, it was time to head back to the venue. It was show time.

Before the skate

The roll-around, warm up area was busy at the best of times, but during the team events it was pandemonium. Fourteen teams, all with eight to twelve skaters each, all decked out in crazy outfits, it was like some kind of even more bizarre circus. Before we skated, I didn’t even feel nervous. I was just pumped to get out there. This was going to most likely be our last hurrah as team Platinum. Four years of Platinum, two for me, coming to an end and I was just ready to get out there and put on a show.

Competing at World’s is like having an out of body experience. I’ve only done it twice and after both times, I had little memory of actually doing it. I remember having the best time and I remember being happy with how I skated, but everything in between was a blur. Standing there in position, waiting for the music to start and counting in the first movement and it was like I just left my body and didn’t return to it until I was back in the marshaling area awaiting our scores. I didn’t hear anything other than our music. I didn’t see any individual faces except my team members. I didn’t think about anything except what I was doing.

And after

We were very happy with our skate. We did the best we could on the day, and we told our story. When it was all over, we could finally relax and enjoy watching the other teams compete. After our even was the Large Show Group event and following that was the Grand Gala, where the medal winners of the week had a chance to skate again and entertain the crowd. The Grand Gala was great except for the fact that I hadn’t eaten since 3pm and by this point was absolutely starving.

When the Grand Gala ended, it was time for the Closing Ceremony which consisted of a bunch of speeches in Spanish and a lot of selfie-taking. It had been a huge week and everything for the last year had built up to that day and when it was over we were all exhausted.

Evie was pretty keen to go out after. The Italians were hosting a little celebration in a conference room at the hotel and I said I might make an appearance, but the second my body hit the bed once we got back to our rooms that night at 11pm, I knew there was no way I was going out. So my roommates and I had a quiet night in and got the sleep we so desperately needed after the crazy week we had just had.

Ally Does Cali – Part Two – Getting into the Groove

Fighting the heat

The next several days followed this general routine. We’d wake up bright and early, eat breakfast, go to country training, train, come home, eat lunch, head to the competition, come home, do  some off skate, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. Training sessions became less and less exhausting as the days went by. The floor didn’t get any less horrible, and the heat didn’t get any less crippling but we felt a bit better about it all. In our rare moments of free time, we’d explore the shopping complex.

Limonada de Coco aka Nectar of the Gods

We hit the supermarket and looked at all the weird and wonderful food. We bought some random fruit to try, we’d try out all the different restaurants. Our restaurant of choice ended up being Crepes and Waffles, so Colombian, I know. I swear, I ate sushi, teppanyaki, Italian, Mexican, Subway and crepes. All Colombian classics, right? One thing that we discovered was amazing was the Limonada de Coco. Coconut Lemonade. Holy Lord it was good.

My very Colombian waffles (at least there was coffee involved)

The people we bonded with most were the South Australian girls. They were so supportive and friendly and actively cultivated a spirit of unity and team-togetherness. We couldn’t skate a program without them hollering encouragement from the sidelines. We, of course hollered back. We shared crazy taxi rides with them and had lunch with them. If you had told me when I was 8 years old that I’d be on the same team as and having lunch and hanging out with Tammy and Amanda Bryant I would have told you to shut up.

After hearing all the comments people made about Colombia before I left, I was tentative about going there, but there was never a time while I was there that I felt unsafe. One of the big things is dodgy taxis. As soon as you walk out of the airport at Bogota a sign reads “Don’t get into unregistered taxis” so it’s obviously a problem. But at every taxi rank, at the hotel and at the venue, there were security people and even police verifying the legitimacy of each taxi and making sure everything was in order. And the taxi drivers were lovely! I mean, none of them could speak English and hardly any of us could speak Spanish but we still managed to have conversations through pointing, gesturing and laughing. The only time when it was a bit hairy was on a day after country training where there was a protest in the city so the traffic was intense. In an attempt to cheat the traffic, our taxi driver took us a convoluted way through the back streets. Unfortunately, the back streets were also chocker block with traffic. (Side note: In traffic, people on motorbikes, just drive up on the footpath like it’s no big thing.) Suddenly, the driver pulls over and makes a gesture that we interpret to mean that he’s hot and needs a drink of water. We very quickly learned that what it actually meant was that the engine was hot and needed a drink of water. So he got a bottle of water out of the boot and started cooling down the engine while we sweltered in the sun on the cramped backseat. Then he disappeared for ten minutes while he got more water. Panicking, that we didn’t know where we were and the taxi wouldn’t start and not wanting to hail a random unverified cab in the middle of the city, we hung tight until eventually, the engine started. What should have been a 20 minute trip took us over an hour that day. Not funny. What was funny, however, is that the sketchy hair salon we broke down in front of had a huge photo of Taylor Swift in her “Fearless” days as the model. Pretty sure Tay-Tay doesn’t know that she is endorsing a dodgy hairdresser in Cali, Colombia.

The view from our rooftop terrace training venue

When we weren’t training on skates at the rink or sweltering in taxis, we were doing video analysis of the morning’s training on Esther’s king sized bed or doing some off skate matching. A couple of days we did the off skate in the gym as you’d expect, but one day when the gym was occupado, we ended up doing our off skate practice on the rooftop terrace at the hotel to an audience of confused shopping center patrons. It was pleasant up there in the evening but it was extremely windy and none of us wanted to lose our jackets in the breeze during the costume change so it was very high-stress.

It was a stellar view though

Most evenings were spent watching the competition. The venue was a cycling velodrome with open sides, through which you could see the mountains over the horizon and the Jesus statue looking on from his spot up the hill. The open air feel was nice, until you realised that you had to add glare off the floor, intense wind, dirt being blown in onto the floor and being blinded by the afternoon sun to your list of things that make competing stressful.

The days flew by, and before we knew it, it was time for Robert’s Long Program where he finished 12th, and then it time for quartets and before long, it was the day we had waited and worked for.

Ally Does Cali – Part One – Settling In

Soooooo happy to be in Cali at last

When the plane touched down on Cali soil at about 11am on that Saturday morning (was it Saturday? It was such a blur) my whole body heaved a sigh of relief. My friends and I had been in transit for around 40 grueling hours and after our long-haul flight from Sydney to Santiago, our 12 hour layover in Santiago (which turned into 15 hours after delays) and our last two legs to Bogota and finally Cali, the sight of Stephanie, our volunteer guide was one for sore eyes. She greeted us with a huge smile and we collected our luggage which all arrived safe and sound. My luggage felt about as heavy as the bags under my eyes as we lugged it out to our team manager and our minibus. The first thing we noticed when we hopped into the minibus was that there are apparently no road rules in Colombia. Or if there are, no one follows them. Despite the fact that the road seemed to appear fairly smooth, the half hour trip felt more like a rollercoaster than a bus and as Evie pointed out several times, it was quite beneficial to wear a sports bra.

All we wanted to do was sleep in a bed. In Santiago, we had managed to score a few hours worth of naps in between Cards Against Humanity matches, on the seats at the gate, but it didn’t really suffice. Of course we weren’t allowed to sleep. We had to get ourselves back into routine which meant staying awake until Cali bedtime, plus the opening ceremony was that night.

Our house for the week

We arrived at the hotel, checked in and met with the rest of the team before heading down to the food court for lunch, which I ordered in a combination of non-existent Spanish and awkward pointing. Team Manager Nigel took us on a speed tour of the complex which consisted of the four of us incredibly jetlagged and achy girls scurrying weakly behind him. The complex was fantastic. It was an open air shopping complex with a gorgeous four and a half star hotel right in the middle which was where we stayed.

My roommates, Amy and Nicole and I found our room (we were upgraded to the top level so that was a bonus) and tried to organise our lives before getting ready for the opening ceremony.

Struggle Street, Population: Amy

The bus ride to the venue was just as, if not more, horrifying than the minibus ride. Amy had bought a burrito on the go to eat on the bus, and swiftly discovered that it was a terrible idea as she got more on the floor and on her face than in her mouth. Arriving at the venue was intimidating for one, it was absolutely crawling with armed security. We were moved from place to place until we finally found where we were supposed to be. Some people went to get photos with other skaters, but I was so tired I just hung out with some Aussies and waited for people to get photos with us.

The flawless Karp children

I found the other Ally in Cali

The inside of the venue was crawling with media so I turned on the happy for the cameras despite wanting nothing more than to just curl up in a ball and sleep. I’ve never wanted to pass out more than during the opening ceremony and when we were finally released to either go home or stay for the salsa entertainment, we all opted to go home. It was unfortunate to miss the entertainment, but as we sat half asleep in the gutter waiting for some taxis we realised that going home was a pretty decent idea. Even though we thought it couldn’t get worse, the taxi ride was even more horrifying than both buses. The funny thing I noticed about the roads in Cali, was the fact that even though no one seemed to be following the road rules, and everyone seemed to be driving like crazy, all the traffic seemed to have a way of working itself out.

Casually on Colombian TV

We found out that we had our first training session the next day at 10am, a fact that none of us were overly thrilled to hear in our state of crippling lethargy. We got our dinner, and headed to bed, we had two king single beds and a trundle, so I, being a martyr, took the trundle the first night and immediately regretted my decision. That thing was like a slab of concrete.

The view from our balcony

In spite of the incredibly uncomfortable bed, I crashed almost instantly and only randomly woke up once, resisting the urge to check my phone and ruin my sleeping plans with bright screen light.

We awoke the next day, bright and early, and feeling slightly better and headed downstairs for a 8:30 breakfast at the breakfast buffet. Just quietly, breakfast buffets are the only reason I do these trips to be honest. We dined like Queens on our freshly squeezed juices, omelets, granola and yogurts and other random South American things before grabbing taxis to the country practice rink.

The practice rink, complete with practicing world champ skater, Gustavo

The practice rink was a hockey rink, complete with blue plastic ice-court floor and blue white and yellow barriers. It was almost identical to the old Skate Worx rink I grew up in except for the fact that it was open air.

The first training session was rough. It felt like learning to skate again. The air was thick and hot and it felt like trying to skate through mud. We didn’t go overboard, but we did push ourselves a little bit and while it felt good to make progress, we were all the colour of beetroots once we were finished.

Before we turned into beetroots

We headed back to the hotel to get some lunch with the team before heading off to the rink to watch Robert skate his short program. Robert did an awesome job and ended up coming tenth! That meant that he got to skate in the  top groups  which was such an amazing effort.

We headed back home at last and hit dinner at the the beds, ready for another long day.

T – 24 hours

Friday 18th Sept – 10:22am – Sydney, Australia

I stayed up late the last couple of nights watching Star Wars Episodes 4 and 5 (I’ll probably watch Return of the Jedi tonight) and had a lie in, hoping in vain that this might ease the whole time difference pain. Who knows if this is even beneficial, but whatever, I enjoy watching movies.

When I woke up this morning, my first thought was, “holy crap, we leave tomorrow” and despite how organised I’ve been, I still felt completely overwhelmed.

Yesterday I didn’t really have a lot to do. I had my last training session before leaving and I cleaned and oiled the first lot of my bearings. The second lot is currently having a bath right now.

Evie and I were contemplating whether or no we wanted to fake tan for this trip and after much deliberation, we decided to not throw away our pale morals and rock our fair skin. At least we’ll look exotic in South America.

As for right now, I’m going to head back to the shops one last time to pick up some final essentials before coming back home, finishing my packing and probably just having a bit of a chill.

Talk soon.

Ally x

11:54am

So I thought that was going to be my last shopping trip but apparently it’s impossible to buy a freaking power adapter anywhere. So I now have to go back to different shops. I did pick up a few last minute things including a new pair of togs.

Saaahh cute

Got this whole thing for $32 from Kmart. I’m a simple gal and if something looks cute and isn’t going to send me broke, I’m all about that. I’m obsessed with Kmart right now, to be honest.

While there I also grabbed some last minute tops because why not. Just some simple singlets and a Wonder Woman shirt because I’m a sucker for anything superhero related.

Annoyed I have to go back to the shops but I’ll get there. My last set of bearings have been oiled and are now just chilling for a bit before I pop them back in my wheels. I’m so ready for this. So close to being done packing. But first lunch.

4:19pm

God, trying to find a power adapter was harder than expected, but now I have one and I’m pretty sure I have everything I need (except for sneaky snacks). My wheels and bearings have enjoyed their spa day and are now all ready and raring to go. I have packed four different sets and a whole lot of spare bearings so I won’t be missing anything.

Evie and I are planning to Vlog this trip as well as blog so here’s hoping that works out and I can share a lovely little series of videos once I get back home.

My amazing mother has finally completed my Australian Leo. It was designed by our coach, Esther and is absolutely stunning! Events have begun over in Cali now and I’m so glad we leave tomorrow so we won’t miss out on anything else!

Tonight we’re going out for dinner as a bon voyage celebration, so that will be nice. I don’t know why I feel like I have so much still left to do. I’m pretty much good to go.

I’ll check back later tonight.

Ally xo

6:14pm

Okay, my carry on luggage is packed. I know it is, but even so, I keep thinking that maybe something with climb back out.

What’s in my Carry On Luggage?

• Show costume
• Australian leotard
• Training clothes
• Aussie uniform
• My orthotics
• Spare knickers
• My pjs
• Stockings
• And most importantly, Cards Against Humanity

Follow me on Snapchat: allymulvey

My handbag isn’t packed yet but we’re getting there. Checked luggage is almost packed. I started to feel the excitement but also the anxiety.

8:21pm

Well I’ve done really all I can do and after I pack my hair and makeup stuff after I use it in the morning, I’ll be as ready as I’ll ever be. I can’t believe tomorrow’s the day. It doesn’t feel real. Who knows if I’ll get much sleep tonight. I might be too pumped. We’ll see. Our flight leaves at 9:30 tomorrow morning so we’ll have to get to the airport at the crack of dawn. I think once we’re through security and have checked our stuff and are on our way it might finally hit me that we’re going to Cali.

Goodnight for now. I’ll speak to you very early in the morning.

Ally xo

What a Difference a Year Makes

Two years ago I hadn’t had skates on my feet for seven years. Two years ago I was lamenting the fact that I had never left this part of the world, having only ever traveled around Australia and one time to Christchurch, New Zealand. Two years ago, I was so desperate to see the world, I made a Pinterest board of places I wanted to see, but just figured that it would be a very long time before I could make my wanderlusting dreams a reality.

One year ago I was a  few weeks away from boarding a plane to Spain, to embark on my second overseas adventure in the last twelve months. Twelve short months and I went from complete skating retirement to being on the Australian Team and headed to compete at the World Championships alongside my team mates in Platinum.

Twelve months later and here I am, two sleeps out from traveling to Cali, Colombia. But the last twelve months haven’t been easy. The Road to Cali was shoddily paved and full of bumps and potholes.

The first blow came when we lost four members of our 2014 team, bringing us down to six. Two more members joined, but one left only weeks later due to her own circumstances and the other we knew was only going to be with us until Nationals. Thankfully we managed to rope Evie back into the team after she adamantly told us she wasn’t going to be able to do it. HAHA sucked in Evie, you love it.

The second blow didn’t just hit us, but the entire skating community. The news of Steve Bowman’s terminal cancer. Steve was a skater, a coach, and most recently a beloved official, and all around awesome man. Skaters from all across the country dedicated their every skate to Steve and not too long before the National Championships in July, Steve passed away. At Nationals we skated for Steve. But when it rains, it pours.

Nationals. It was a very dramatic time for everyone. People had their own things going on, there was a lot of stress. But the night after we skated show, we were taken to the dressing room by our coach. We thought she was just going to be talking about the small controversy we had (you had to be there) but instead she informed us tearfully, that Bob Kersten, the owner of our clubs rink and another amazing man loved by us all, had passed away. We’d only known he’d  been sick for a few weeks and even then a lot of us didn’t know the extent. We were of course, devastated. Nationals was a blur. It had it’s highs, but unfortunately it also had some very dark lows.

At the end of Nationals, we had to make the decision, do we go to Cali? We’d been selected, but after all that had happened, would we be able to pull it together and get things in check to head to Worlds. Last year we killed it at worlds. Scored well and ranked well. We didn’t want to go and go backwards. We knew that one of our girls was leaving us after Nationals already, but with the addition of Robert, who traitorously left us at the beginning of the year returning, we were back to eight.

We hit training hard. Our program got a complete overhaul and went from zero to a hundred. We were determined to make sure that the year of drama had a happy ending in Cali.

Then, it happened, just a few weeks ago. I was at work, casually having my lunch when I checked my phone. A messaged had been posted to Platinum’s Facebook group from our coach Esther. Our friend and teammate Kat had had a fall at training the night before and had broken her ankle in three places. The news rocked us all. We were absolutely shattered for Kat, who not only was skating with us, but was due to compete in Senior Solo Dance. We were back at seven skaters. Could we even do this? Three weeks from leaving and we’ve lost an amazing member of the team. It was the Saturday night of that week that we were informed by Esther that she was going to be strapping her skates on and not just going to Cali as our coach, but she would be skating with us.

In all this drama, we also were informed that our amazing coach Nicole was going to be leaving us at the end of the year and wouldn’t be coming to Cali with us. This was going to be Platinum’s last hurrah.

That brings us to tonight. Esther and Robert are over there already as Robert is skating Junior Freeskating, the rest of us had our last training sessions this week. And now two sleeps.

Amidst the drama of Nationals, I turned to my friend and teammate Amy and said, “maybe I’m naive, but I just want this crappy year to have a happy ending”. I still hold to that. We’ve worked hard, our routine is ready, and so are we.

This World Championships, we skate for Steve, who the skating world loves and misses.

This World Championships, we skate for Bob, who’s face we miss at the rink every day.

This World Championships, we skate for Kat, who we wish was with us, instead of working on getting herself better and stronger.

This World Championships, we skate for Nicole, who has got us this far and who we wish was going to be coming with us.

This World Championships, we skate for ourselves, because we’ve worked hard.

I know today’s post was kind of a somber one. I didn’t do too much today, so I had some time to reflect. Two sleeps to go. Let’s do this.

Ally x

Mission To Get Organised Enters Phase Two (Packing Begins)

Wednesday 16th Sept – 11:13am – Sydney, Australia

This morning has been relatively productive, except for the fact that I walked over to the shops to buy a bottle of Febreeze and a lint roller and came back home with this:

Do you see a bottle of Febreeze and a lint roller? No. No you don’t. So now I’m going to to haul ass back over there again. I did, in this above haul, however, manage to pick up almost all the toiletries that I’ll be needing with me so that’s a plus. The other day I bought a three piece toiletry bag set from Target for $15 and I thought it would be perfect but I think it’s probably going to be too small. Ugh! Why can’t I travel light!? Speaking of, I also started packing my suitcase. I found a medium sized one that I was planning to use as opposed to my gigantic one but it’s not looking good for me, I may need the bigger one. Why!!!??? It’s the skates and skate gear that takes up all the room.

Why!? That’s  just casual clothes and superfluous bits of Aussie uniform I won’t be wearing on the plane.

Last year, when we went to Spain, my teammate Sam had her bag go on a mysterious adventure around the world instead of arriving in Barcelona when it was meant to. Luckily for Sam, she wisely packed all her costumes and gear in her carry-on so, whilst she had a whole big thing trying to get some skates to use for the competition, she at least had her costumes. It occurred to me, that I had checked all my costumes last year so if it had been me I would have been screwed. So Sam served as a cautionary tale to me and any others who checked their costumes. I will not be doing that this year. Unfortunately, security means we can’t carry-on our skates, but at least if we have all our irreplaceable costumes with us in our hand, we can always work around finding replacement skates.

So I’ve started packing my carry-on luggage which I really wanted to just have one bag with all my stuff in, but I’m probably going to end up taking my carry-on backpack with my costumes and whatnot, plus, a really small purse to shove my phone, passport and all that jazz in. I’ll probably do a post later about what I put in that bag.

I feel kind off today. Not sure why. Maybe it’s the excitement for the trip or the anxiety setting in. Who know. It’s probably both. I’ve been trying really hard this week to take extra good care of myself, drinking lots of water, trying to cut down on caffeine and eating and resting well so I had a yummy breakfast of Cacao Five:Am Organic Yoghurt and strawberries and got to work blinging my costume. I’ve finished a big portion but I still have quite bit left so I’d like to get a good lot of it done by the end of the day.

I’m going to go now and have lunch and also go back to the shops to buy the bottle of Febreeze and lint roller.

Ally x

12:09pm

Welp. I’ve caved. Transferring all my crap  into larger bag. I’ve failed. It’s the skates I tell you. Okay now I’m really going to have lunch.

Yes I’ve caved. Yes that’s a bra.

1:36pm

Okay, I’m back on track now I’ve upsized my suitcase. I swear to God, that medium size just doesn’t cut it. Not when I’ve got a pair of skates and a whole bunch of tools and parts to pack too. Forget that. The large bag will be fine.

I’m on point with my blinging, and only have one more bling task to accomplish before I can gather all my costume bits and bobs and pack them.

Whoa, we’re halfway there-ere!

Good Lord. It’s Wednesday, three sleeps before we leave and I have started packing. I am so surprised and also impressed at how organised I am right now.

You’ll be happy I got my Febreeze and my lint roller (it’s pink so no one else in my family will pinch it) which will kind of serve as my laundry while I’m gone.

Mission accomplished

Tonight I’m going into the rink for my second last training session before lift off. Despite all my organisation and preparation, it still doesn’t really feel real that we’re leaving in three sleeps.

Tomorrow and Friday my brother is off from uni so tonight we’re going to stay up as late as possible. I want to try and see if I can begin adjusting my sleep schedule just to lessen the blow of jet-lag when we arrive. Because we aren’t just going for a holiday and we actually have to get to the other end and be worth a damn to compete, we can’t afford to be jet-lagged for a ridiculous amount of time when we arrive so I’m going to try and do my best to prepare myself.

Talk to you later.

Ally x

Operation: Be Organised Commencing (Travel Threads Haul)

Tuesday 15th Sept – 11:04am – Sydney Australia

Okay, I actually started to try and get my crap together yesterday. You’d be so proud. After getting my “hurr did”, I headed to the mall with a mental shopping list and planned to smash out a bunch of the stuff I needed for my trip. Obviously, the primary reason I’m going on this trip is for the World Championship so most of my time will be spent in uniform, but there are a few other bits and pieces I needed. I thought I would try and be purposeful about what I brought, so here is the little haul I ended up with.

First is my casual stuff which you can see here. I’m a huge fan of dressing simply, especially while travelling and an equally big fan of black, white and grey paired with denim for a very simple day to day outfit. If I were at home, I would still wear things like this but would maybe dress it up with accessories, but traveling to  Colombia, I’m keeping it real simple. My shirts are from JB’s Wear which is a clothing wholesaler that I scored these from as my dad has a business selling work wear. The white one is a scoop neck and the black is a V-neck. I also picked up a pair of medium blue high-rise skinny jeans (high-rise is my fave) and a pair of light blue high-rise ankle biters from Jay-Jay’s where they had a 2 for $60 deal going. I’ve been buying my jeans from Jay-Jay’s for years and I think they’re great and they don’t burn a hole in your pocket. Lastly, my casual kicks. I picked up some black flip-flops (or thongs as we say here in Oz) for $4 and some grey sandshoes for $5 from Target.

Next up, my pretty things. I’m just packing two pretty, slightly more dressy items for if we go out for a post-Championship celebration. The left is a very swingy, loose cover-up style dress, which I may wear over my swimmers if we hang by the pool and the right is a really cute little number from Dotti which I’ll probably end up wearing for any post-Champ celebration. The weather in Cali is pretty warm and humid at the moment so I’m packing for spring/summer. I love these pieces because of my penchant for wearing black and white. They are perfect because they are cute, summery and also meet my black-wearing needs. My mum actually picked these up for me from a Mission Australia Big Heart Op-Shop (thrift store for you Americans). They were both brand new with tags however and cost her around $10 for the two of them. Thanks mum!

Next are my chilling threads. Real simply, my compression tights from JB’s Wear and my adorable kitty jammies from Kmart. These compression tights are my whole life now and I intend to wear them on my flight. We have to wear our uniform to board but I’ll have these on under my tracksuit pants and will be shedding the trackies in favour of these babies quick smart. They are so comfortable it’s ridiculous.

Next up is unofficial, country training gear. This is the brainchild of our coach so we can keep cool, training in the hot Cali weather. The singlets were from the Coles brand Mix and the leggings are from Active&Co. Our coach had the Australia and Platinum Australia transfers made.

Last but definitely not least is the Official Australian Team Uniform. This is what I’ll be living in most of my trip. I have two polo shirts, a crew neck shirt, shorts, three-quarter length shorts, a lights long sleeved hoodie, and the official tracksuit. I’m not including all of the uniform in this post because I’m sure you’ll see many pictures of us rocking it in the days to come. Skate Australia has it’s uniforms made by Engage Athletic.

So that is my little clothing haul. Obviously didn’t include socks and undies and all that lovely stuff. I also didn’t include my official Australian leotard or Platinum costume (so don’t panic Nicole). I still have a few things I might throw in for good measure. But I’m thinking I’m doing a pretty good job and being organised. Usually I just throw in a bunch of random stuff without thinking ahead what I’ll do with it so here’s hoping!

Ally x

Let the Countdown Begin

Monday 14th Sept –  1:20pm – Sydney, Australia

For the last several months I’ve known that this week was coming but I still feel incredibly disorganised and unprepared. That’s par for the course for me when it comes to any kind of travel, overseas or otherwise. It’s just the struggle of every person who loves to see the world but hates the logistics of travel. Airports are right up there with hospitals in places I hate to spend any large amount of time in, and considering I’m about to embark on a 30 hour journey to South America, I’m going to be seeing quite a lot of them.

Every time I’ve mentioned that I’m going to Colombia, some hilarious son-of-a -gun who has watched too many movies has quipped with such biting wit, “make sure you don’t get kidnapped”. Well firstly, that’s racial profiling so thanks for that, and secondly, getting kidnapped isn’t exactly on my agenda. I’m well aware that Colombia is a higher risk country and that there are real dangers of traveling there, but I also know how well looked after I will be. I also know that there are potential dangers of going anywhere and doing anything and you’ve got to live you life. You don’t need to ask me if I’m going to join a drug cartel, what would be a much more appropriate comment would be to say “travel safe and have a great time”. That would instill in me and my parents a lot less anxiety.

I can’t say that the thought of travelling to Colombia had crossed my mind before. It wasn’t on the top of my list of places to visit for the simple fact that, being obsessed with Europe, it didn’t really occur to me. I wouldn’t even be going over there if it weren’t for the fact that this is the fourth and final time my skating team Platinum Australia (and my second time as part of the team) will be representing the country at the World Artistic Roller Skating Championships. Thanks skating. Always stretching me and broadening my horizons you jerk.

Platinum Australia’s last training session together in Australia.

So it’s Monday  afternoon and I’m sitting in the hair dressers waiting for my hair colour to develop and thinking of all the things I have to do between now and leaving for the airport at 6am on Saturday morning. And what do you do when you have a lot of things you have to get organised to do? Obviously go and get your hair done.

I get overwhelmed very easily when preparing for and during travel and when I’m overwhelmed, my first reaction isn’t to start on the ever growing to-do list but instead to procrastinate and thus, cause the anxiety to heighten, and the vicious cycle continues.

After my hair is finished I need to go to the shops and get some extra bits and pieces for travel. It’s my goal in life to travel lightly but I never manage to achieve this. Every time trip I venture on, I promise myself that I’ll be more organised with my packing the next time and it just never happens. It doesn’t matter whether I’m traveling to the other side of the world or to the other side of the city, my packing game is so far from on point it’s not even funny. So I plan to buy a suitcase of appropriate size seeing as of the only two I own, one is tiny and the other one is massive.

Finally, about this blog. I wanted to keep it just in case anyone is interested in me and my friends shenanigans and also so my anxiety ridden mother can see what I’m up to. So firstly, I’d like to point out that Cali in this case is the name of a city in Colombia (where I’m going) and not the shorthand for the sunshine State of the US. And I’d like to mention that Cali is actually pronounced like Carly not Ally but for the sake of a catchy blog title, just roll with it okay? Secondly, I’m the single worst keeper of diaries in the world so don’t be alarmed if I stop writing this blog after two days. It’s much more likely I’ve just gotten lazy than it is I’ve been kidnapped or joined a drug cartel (seriously people, lay off the Hollywood movies for a bit yeah?).

So the countdown is on  five sleeps. Holy crap.

Ally x