Round 14 - ETPBC Div 5

Spent alot of the long weekend thinking about how the title for this article should read, many ideas came to mind but in the end thought - keep it as usual and let the article describe the game...

So Divvy 5 took the long road north out to Gawler, which I earlier learned is more so Evanston Park now as the club has moved from its previous site to a new oval about 10-15 minutes down the road. Great for us as the usual 40-45 minute drive is now only 25-30 minutes... I went my usual way, up the new Northern Expressway, should be put as one of the best things this state has accomplished, a dual freeway which connects Port Wakefield Road and Main North Road... Simply a delight to drive on, so smooth, it makes driving it pleasurable and you hardly notice the length of the drive.

Previously we used to go up Main North Road through Elizabeth, Munno Para etc... don't really need to describe why I prefer the other way...

So, mix tape was in featuring great's such as Blink 182, Good Charlotte, Linkin Park and System of a Down (also a hint of Nirvana and Eric Clapton...), rest of the family was either already down at Lady Bay for our big family holiday or at home getting ready to head down...

Arrived at Gawler super early after allowing too much time to get there, Quickly scoped the oval and it looked to be also used as a hockey ground, very square and not very long or shaped like a diamond...

Game time finally arrived and we took first dig at putting some runs on the board, Gus managed to do some very handy base running, stealing two bases and in the end scoring our only run for the first inning.

Matt said early on our team looked flat and this was very evident in the first 3 or 4 innings of the game, the bats we know we have weren't showing early on, fielding we were going ok too but lacked the edge to keep Gawlers mind from thinking they had a chance...

After 4 innings I think we held a lead of about 5 runs, which is good but against one of the bottom teams it was far less than expected.

Cummo was in on the money for most of the game, hitting the zone and sitting them down nicely, we just weren't backing him up with the lead he deserved.

A bit of feeling started to come into the game, coincidentally the same time Robbo went deep out Left Field which for all money looked like a Home Run but was called a Double by the Gawler player. The heat came after the opposition pitcher decided to "chat" a bit more about it and even claim wind assistance in the hit.

Well, the moment all have been waiting for..

The pitcher moved to Short and his new protege stepped to the plate to salvage what was left of the sinking ship, Robbo and Ralph were sitting on 3rd and 2nd and I recall my first thoughts was I wanted to belt the living daylights out of this ball as when I got to the plate the pitcher was mouthing off to Robbo, not good first impressions haha

I left the first ball as I usually do, just to see how fast and how controlled the ball was as it hits the catchers glove. The 2nd ball was perfect for me, inside and high to the inside, this time I put everything behind it.

As I ran to first I watched it sail over the left field line and the left fielder whacked his hands up to show Home Run... The moment I've been yearning for since I last hit my first ever Home Run down at Glenelg.

Now, alot will say I was a tad excited... couldn't be further from the truth hahaha, to hit a Home Run is the best feeling, to think you've hit the ball that far, something we've done a little this year but not heaps so I've joined the group...

Funniest thing was, as I touched 2nd base on my way to 3rd the Shortstop went out to get the ball from the Left Fielder and was yelling out "Not bad for a wind assisted Home Run"....

There are some who accept things happening to them and there are some who act out when losing, he was the latter unfortunately, I laughed really hard when I heard that then made reference to his mouth being wind assisted...

I'm sorry and this might just be me, but if your languishing on the bottom of the ladder, losing too to a team who is in the Top 4 and also your using the same conditions as this Top 4 team... I don't think you have any ground to stand on to then ark up at the opposition by trying to bring their score down...

So, I hit home plate and the team was there to meet me as we celebrated my bat waking up but also the 3 runs just quickly added to the scoreboard..

Matty went down quickly with a strained calf so Jonesy who was sitting down with a strained neck came back on, Matt's was more so a light strain and more cautious than anything...

Scoop pulled up late in the last inning with a hamstring, not sure how bad at this stage but hopefully just minor...

So our ET Boys ran out winners 14-1, could have been much worse but we were certainly flat both with the bats and in the field in the first half of the game.

This week we're at home against Golden Grove which is going to be tough, but we seek revenge for the last game we played there when I think it is safe to say were nowhere near where we are now...

PS - I'm still grinning from ear to ear, here's hoping I can do it again in the not so distant future!

Sostas Argentinian Kitchen - Restuarant Review

Hi All,

Received some good feedback from my last restuarant review of The Albion so thought I'd share some more restuarants that we've tried recently.

As mentioned before school holidays are some of the fun times for my wife and I as we get to venture out to restuarants whilst our children are holidaying up at their nanna's in the Clare Valley. Don't get me wrong I certainly miss my kids whilst their away but its a chance for us to have some alone time and venture to restuarants we either haven't yet tried or are more adult orientated.

Our 4 year wedding anniversary was last Thursday night, we've been together for over 13 years however finally took the plunge 4 years ago. This was the first year the kids were away on holiday so I decided to look around for a more formal location than a regular place like the Daniel O'Connell or similar where we've been previously.

I stumbled across a place called Sosta's located on Rundle Street in Adelaide, its an Argentinian restuarant famous for its steak.

I looked at the menu online and straight away I could see us tucking into the 600g Rump or T-Bone.

My wife loves her food yet packs it into her tiny frame without showing any weight unlike her more plumpy husband... So this place looked perfect, happy wife when T-Bone on the menu.

I made the booking and arranged for my wife to pick me up from work in time for us to go straight there for a 6pm booking.

Sadly it was a 44 degree day, can't change that but we were hoping for some good airconditioning, which on a 44 degree day in Adelaide its not something that would be easy to come by unless your in the freezer section of Woolworths or Coles...

Unfortunately I think Sosta's airconditioner was working as hard as my house was but struggling.

Anyhow, we jagged a window seat which we were very pleased with. First impressions was it was very nice, pleasing to the eye and the menu wasn't overly expensive.

My wife quickly eyed off the T-Bone and I was tossing up over the Rump and the Mixed Grill. I opted last minute to go Rump but wish I went Mixed Grill as for me Rump is a hard one to master, Medium Rare is always needed for me, if cooked longer and more around Medium it gets very tough and chewy..

We also ordered the Pan Espanola which is crispy toasted Ciabatta bread with tomato, garlic, herbs and spices, this accompanied my wife's Bife de Costilla (T-Bone) and my order of Cuadril (Rump). We added a side of Ensalada Mixta (mixed lettuce, fetta, red onion, tomato, cucumber and kalamata olives).

We both added Hongos to our steaks, their oven roasted field mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, rosemary and beef glaze... sounded awesome so had to add it!

The Steaks were accompanied by crispy fried potatoes.

Our Entree (Pan Espanola) arrived first, impressions were high as to us it was a different version of Bruschetta (My wife's favourite!). It was more so like a pizza version of bruschetta and wow it was tasty! Definately recommend as a good starter.

Our mains came out and again impressions were high, both steaks looked amazing. Both sides of salad and potatoes came out equally looking good.

I quickly dived into the potatoes which were coated in spices, crunchy and super tasty I loaded up my plate with as many as could fit next to the steak.

The steak cut nicely, although wasn't medium rare, was closer to medium. The taste was a different story, just so tasty, not like an Outback Jacks steak, this had a standalone taste of flame grill that I haven't had before.

My wife's T-Bone was exquisite. That description is an injustice, perfectly cooked medium rare and hardly any effort to cut. The taste was second to none, never have I had a tastier T-Bone which the meat just melted in your mouth. The taste was similar to mine of flame grilled but this was truly the best steak we have encountered at a South Australian Restuarant.

The salad was very nice too, a great compliment to the steak, the fetta however was similar to the T-Bone, best we've ever tasted. To me it reminded me of melted tasty cheese in texture, it just melted. The taste buds were diving around in a mad frenzy, sadly there was only about 5 or 6 cubes, we could have easily polished another 10 each...

We both worked hard to finish the meals, they were very big steaks and to finish them along with the sides was a great feat but we managed to just finish.

With no room for dessert we sat patiently as we finished off our beers and sat shaking our heads at what we had just been served.

Sostas Argentinian restuarant rates up there as one of the best restuarants we have been too, The steak is close to the best and entree's and side dishes are amazing.

The atmosphere and friendly service pieced together a fine evening and truly memorable for our 4th year wedding anniversary.

I would truly recommend this restuarant to anyone keen for a great steak but also anyone looking for a more intimate dining experience for you and your loved one.

Had the weather been our friend that night we probably would have stayed longer and tried a dessert or two however the air was muggy and we were keen to retreat home with our bellies full and happy.

If I was to put a rating out of 10, I would give Sostas a 9 out of 10, for me if my rump was medium rare it would have pushed it to another level and the rating would have been a 9.5-9.7 out of 10.

Many thanks to the chef's and service staff at Sostas for making it a great evening for our anniversary!

For anyone keen, Sostas Argentinian Kitchen is located on 291 Rundle Street in Adelaide, website has a copy of their menu and can be found on http://sostaargentiniankitchen.com.au/ and can cater for smaller intimate bookings or large and functions!

Top Eleven - Soccer Manager (Game Review)

Here is a great game i've stumbled upon whilst on my return to app games via Facebook.

When I first joined Facebook years ago I was captivated by the ones everyone at the time were playing, Mafia Wars, Farmville, Cafe World etc.. These were ok games and very addictive...

Mafia Wars, like the rest of them, was fun at first but lacked that real ideal of playing it longer than a few months. Mafia Wars was getting annoying, you would build your Mafia and compete against others, was super hard when coming up against Mafia's with 100's of members against your 15...

Farmville, that was fun at first, just like the zombie version, but mundane and became very boring... you grew alot of stuff and collected money - thats about it...

Cafe World, same, you built up your cafe, put some neat stuff in there but after a while you think, What for....

Top Eleven is different, this allows you to control the team, friends and users don't affect your team other than playing against them. Level 1 you are given a team to control, depending on when you start your team could be anywhere, my first season my team was sitting around 12th I think. Ended up finishing 6th after buying a few players with little cash available.

Its taken me until now to realise some of my earlier mistakes, when I first started I played 3 or so friendlies a day, then had my team play their normal league games. Soon realised players fitness levels were way way down and lost alot to injury..

Friendlies are an annoying feature but I don't mind playing them every now and then, when it suits me... I usually will play them for example if I had a late game the night before scheduled and nothing til the next day. This allows ample time for my players to recoup fitness in time for the next game, but I don't play a heap of friendlies, just one or two. I then use the training feature to help raise the players skills and attributes.

So lets take a look at the app version for iphone, its a great version and the developers are putting time and effort into making it better and more like the PC version. It contains alot less options than the PC version has but, is still a great game.

So your given a squad of 22 players, this is made up of 11 starters, 7 subs and 4 reserves. You don't get alot to work with but you will get the odd 4 star and some 3 star players, rest will be mostly 2 star players.

To help also, Top Eleven have provided opportunities for you to earn extra cash through sponsorships, at level 1 you can earn $600k in Sponsorship through "Frontmen"... When you crunch it down, you can pick up some very handy 3 or 4 star players for that amount, possibly 3 or 4 players if done correctly...

One item that is worth the gold colour it represents is "Tokens". Tokens allow you to buy extra items and also to bid on players in the trade market, careful though - this is where alot of people waste their tokens while in bidding wars with other users. I once lost 20 tokens just on one 5 star player and still lost the auction...

As a nice bonus, along with Sponsorship $$ terms you can also obtain a Token Sponsor through the Finances section, here you can sign a TV Rights sponsor who will give you tokens on a daily basis, you can either receive one through Nordeus 1 daily regardless or the one I'm with now Speed who gives me bonus tokens if I login consistently each day...

Luck and Patience often gets the player, I've found that if I bid on players early in the morning I will come up against big users who have alot of tokens to use, either by earned through sponsorship or bought with actual $$'s... But i've had more luck getting players, good 5 star players, later in the arvo, the other day for example, I had 4 tokens... I put two dummy bids on two 5 star players finishing in 15 minutes, another one had someone bidding on.

In the second stage of bidding the other user failed to put a bid on and I put one on with 3 seconds to go, nailed a new 5 star midfielder.

Then to my amazement while on the bus heading home from work, the two dummy bids went through without opposition, so I scored a new 5 star GK and a 5 star DEF. In the end 3 5 star players and it only cost me 4 tokens...

If you play around with it you'll find the best time to bid and sell, for me its afternoons, by then most of Europe and US are in bed tucked away from robbing me of tokens and players...

If your lucky enough to finish within the top 7 teams in the league you qualify for the Cup, this is where you play against much harder opponents on the off chance you may beat them. Beauty of Cup is the prize money per game played is big, especially for a level 1 player,

The top 4 teams for each league move into the Champions League, prize money is much lower than Cup but still a great addition if you can reach it... So far this season I haven't done too well in either but the proze money made up for it as i've managed to sign 4 5 star players...

One of the other "nice" functions is the addition of upgrading your stadium and supports, I include this as a nice addition as some of it impacts your team like health and the ground however its just nice to upgrade stuff every 3 days - ie: we're not playing this game to upgrade stadiums so its just a nice compliment to the game.

Most of the upgrades take 3 days to complete however if you want to upgrade the size of your ground your looking around 15 days... You can use tokens to speed this up a bit however my advice would be to save those up and buy players...

As I mentioned previously theres two options, you can try your luck on the transfer market and try and snare a decent player, it definately can happen - you just need to find times best suited to your bidding so you don't get stuck in a bidding war... or, you can save your tokens and buy a 6 star player through the Scout.

The Scout offers you high quality 6 star players at a premium cost, minimum $1m signing fee and each player will set you back 50 tokens. Yep, 50, thats alot for a regular user that doesn't buy tokens with real money... Best advice is to save up your tokens, participate in as many free ways to receive tokens such as watching video's or going in surveys and then target your best player.

The Scout updates 6 times a season, if theres a particular player your keen on but not currently listed best to wait... I recently was looking for a midfielder but only ones on Scout were 28 years old and over, Ideally I wanted a youngy so I held off two days and the scout refreshed, luckily a 22 year old MC appeared with awesome stats, averaged 38 Defence, 39 Attack & 39 Health. Cost me $2.75m but was well worth it!

To compete at Champions League & Cup level you will need to consider stacking your squad, hence using the Scout function, lets be honest, there are players out there that frequently buy huge amounts of tokens with real money - prob nothing else better to spend it on... so if you have high ambitions of winning and taking big titles then you have to compete via tokens...

Training is another great function included, here you can chose to train or rest your players, the more game time and training they get the more they earn skill points to increase your players attributes.

I usually tend to have my starting 11 plus 2 or 3 reserves I keep resting unless no games are on, then the remaining reserves and substitutes I use as train hard. Now I'm definately no expert and I'm probably doing it wrong but this is the way I do it... Seems to work ok and my players not featured in games are still upping their attributes whilst the starting squad upgrade too by working hard in the game.

Careful though, injuries can strike at any time. For example, I signed a new 5 star striker, his states were in the 40's in attack and is not far off being a 6 star striker. Scored him at a bargain 2 tokens... First game he went out and played really well, didn't score like I hoped but assisted a few and rated highly, then late in the game he suffered a broken leg, prognosis, out for 16 days.... 16 days without a 5 star player is like an eternity... Injuries can also hit during training, so if your actively training players always try to have some that are left as reserves for the starting 11, just incase you lose players in the game and then also backups off your bench through training...

The Club shop is another "Nice" function added in by the games creators, here players can go nuts buying guernseys or patches of their favourite teams, sadly though it only has a handful of teams for you to choose from, so if your a Manchester United fan reading this, sadly you can't get a Man U strip just yet...

The shop is a place where you can send gifts to friends you have added either through the game or via facebook, you can send one gift daily of either a skill point, health pack, morale booster or a rest. These are very handy and you can receive one daily of the all four, so receive one each of the above but you can only send one to friends...

Well now a quick look at how i've gone since joining, i'm into my 4th season, my first I joined really late and won a few games but finished 6th overall.

My 2nd season was much better, I dominated the comp for the whole season, only losing once I think and took the League Title, With that I entered my first Champions League and Cup... I only won one game in Champions League and sadly missed out on progressing, Cup... well I was only really in it for the money haha - I lost both games and came away only with money...

My 3rd season was tougher, I started the season trying to juggle a team around my obligations to League, Champions League and Cup which would sometimes be played same day and I had issues that I would play a League game at 6am and then at 8am I would play a Champions League game... Players would be tired by second game and wouldn't play as well...

So I struggled in League early but fought back midway through, led the league until 4 rounds to go when I dropped the bundle and finished 2nd... Still shaking my head over that as not sure how I drew and lost games against players well under my team....

Anyway still finished second and entered my 2nd campaign for Champions League and Cup.

Cup I managed to win my first 2 games which blew me out of the water, haven't won a cup game before so was a pleasant change... Beauty of it was, $1.58m per game was mine. I lost in straight sets in the Qualifying stage but was happy with how the team performed only narrowly losing - more importantly i received $2.36m per game...

Champions League is still going as we speak, Lost my first two games 3-0 & 1-0, since then i drew my next game 1-1 and just then demolished a team 5-0. So now I'm sitting 2nd on the ladder with 2 rounds to go and a good chance to progress further. Prize money isn't huge for this but I'm just excited to get further considering i've only won 2 champions league games in the career haha.



League, well again I started very slow, had some issues with the formation I was using and found I constantly changed the formation which was impacting the players and how they performed. A friend guided me into using a much better formation and since then have only drawn a game but scored 21-0 in last 4 league games... I'm now sitting 3rd on the ladder and should be good to finish 2nd overall - doubt I can overtake the first placed team.



For me its a great game, very addictive, alot needs to be added to it though and more of the nice functions needed. Personally I'd like to see things like;

*Ability to update squads for each game, so nominate a squad for League, Champions League and Cup
*Extra tournaments where you can buy into and compete against players on your level
*Cheaper players placed on a "Buy" now function, similar to Scout.
*Staff Hiring - ie: Recruiter, Scout, Finance Manager etc.

These are a few of the idea's i've sent to the creators to see if they can add, each has its factor, the main one for me would be the first. What players tend to get stuck on is being asleep while your squads play... sometimes if you have League & Champions League playing close together players can get fatigued.

My idea is in the squad screen have extra menu's available called Champions League & Cup, this way you can nominate which players will play. Now, the onus is completely then on the player, if they don't nominate then you have the default team selected at league level but this could be good.

For example I use 2 DR & 2 DC players which I rotate every game, they're all too good to get rid of and all rate around 7-8 per game so I decided I'd play them every 2nd game. This morning I played League and Champions League within 1.5 hours of each other, would have loved to be able to set my squads the night before for both games rather than one default squad playing each game.

So, if your reading this game and considering playing this going forward I give this a 4 star rating (out of 5).

If the makers can add more nice features like some I mentioned above it would move my rating up to a 4.5 atleast and push hard towards a 5, its fun, addictive and keeps the player second guessing every game, especially when they draw or lose...

The other positive, you get to play against people from all over the world, and friend them too if they're nice.

Try it out and enjoy!


**Update 24/01/13:

One feature I forgot to mention was the fact you can watch and manage the game as it happens, one good thing about that is should an injury occur you can be there straight away to take the player off. You do have the extra option too if its playing while your away of having automatic players to be subbed on should this happen...



I like to jump in after each game and check out the stats.

Here you can see your substitutions, carded players and scorers.








You can also check the performance of your players and if lucky who from your player scored man of the match.

As well as check below how many supporters attended the game:

Round 13 - ETPBC Div 5

Hi All,

In happier sorts than last week, nowthat the Seahawks are out of the playoffs I can focus solely on what the Mariners are doing and exactly which player they are going to trade for, rumor has it we are going big for Giancarlo Stanton.

Michael Bourne's name is still out there which could be a handy inclusion to take the pressure off Dustin Ackley, although I wouldn't mind betting now John Jaso was moved on for Michael Morse that the Mariners look for a veteran catcher to fill the shoes, a hitter no less.

Anyhow, we're here to discuss Divvy 5's game against lower ladder Flinders. Last game we played them they were severely depleted from previous seasons and this was no exception. Fielding the bare 9 they had to give up one of their players to use as umpire, rules are home side must provide an umpire.

Game got off to a flyer and our boys were getting the hits and a couple of runs on the board, i went down swinging in the first at bat after the umpire called second strike on me which I thought was way outside the zone, this caught me off guard so I swung at the third strike regardless... not a good idea...

Probably should have been a 7-0 inning as the pitcher wasn't throwing much, our bats seem to guide it straight to the fielders for easy outs...

Next few innings it remained within reach for Flinders but I don't think we were any real chance of losing control of the game, our hitting just wasn't working and we weren't making the most of at bats especially with 2 out..

Matt opened up the Home Run column with a big blast to left field in the 3rd inning, this proved to be the turning point with Ralphy putting one out in the same spot while 2 runners were on, then the pitcher awoke the sleeping giant when Fish returned the favour and put one out of centre field, also with 2 runners on.

By then the game was all but over and we ran out clear victors 19-4. Good to see a one J Laws starting to connect with the ball alot better, hit two safely into the outfield.

A look at my own game, hitting I was happy, although the strike out was poor I got good contact on my second at bat which was caught deep in right and my 3rd at bat produced a nice contact single out to centre so all up I was happy with the contact and to come away with a hit.

Fielding, was another story, for some reason I have lost a hell of a lot of confidence sence midway through season, I'm not doubting myself and doubting everyones thoughts on me playing that role. I need to regain my confidence soon or I will sit most of the rest of the season, including finals if we make it, on the pine as I don't feel the coaches have the confidence in me to play 3rd at the moment.

I am determined to regain the confidence, after all it is my position at 3rd - two errors cost me last weekend, I need to make sure I don't do any out at Gawler this weekend or I may as well bring a cushion and get comfortable on the pine...

Ok so with that out the way training this week to iron out some issues with my footwork while batting and will look to get extra fielding to help get the confidence back.

We're away to Gawler this weekend, 12.30 game which is good as I'm expected at Lady Bay ASAP after the game so lets get in, get the kill and head home early!

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover....

This was the term my wife used last night while we were sitting at dinner..

It's school holidays here in Australia and every December/January school holidays my children head up to their nanna's in the Clare Valley, they usually go for a week each school holidays however over the big break they head up for two trips...

So as you can imagine, my wife and I tend to eat out alot while their away...

The night before we went to our local Caffe Primo, not bad, it has my loyalty at the moment due to the current Chef's Special BBQ Ribs, slow cooked in honey and BBQ sauce with a dash of apple cider... Just brilliant, almost as good as the massive bench of ribs at Outback Jacks...

My wife mentioned the night before about a local pub called the Albion Hotel, its located in Kilburn, South Australia. For those that don't know, Kilburn is one of those areas which generally you lock your doors when driving through, has a bad reputation and will take many years and alot of redevelopment to finally lose the name...

I was hesitant due to the factors above, and I didn't expect the quality of the food to be big, I had vision's of a dodgy pub in the outback not very clean and stuff..

Probably a bit harsh but unfortunately impressions of the area aren't great, I had heard though of a group who piled a bit of cash into the pub and renovated it so part of me was thinking this might turn out ok...

And I was very pleasantly suprised, we walked into the pub and it was huge, it has its own sports bar and drive through bottle shop but the restuarant section was massive.

Looking at the menu my eyes quickly jumped to the Seafood Platter for one, has to be one as i'm the only one in my family that likes seafood... I was enticed though by the schnitzel's and the mixed grill...

However looking at the Seafood Platter... Salt and Pepper Calamari, Grilled Prawns, Deep Fried Flathead, Kilpatrick Oysters on a bed of fries.

My wife decided on the Chicken Minion so with that I dashed up to the counter.

Might just be me but some things really crack me up, like when standing in a line for a long time while you watch 4 waitresses finding stuff to do whilst one takes orders.. So my impression was still a little ho hum..

Whilst at the counter I noticed a special - "Try our new improved Garlic Bread for $2.90".. Well, $2.90 is worth a punt so I added that to the order.

We decided to get into the salad/vegie bar first, not bad and a good selection.

The garlic bread arrived and I was ecstatic, 3 big pieces of turkish bread slathered in garlic butter... Very very tasty.

Our mains came out not long after which was another good suprise, nothing worse than waiting hours for meals to come out...

The Seafood Platter looked awesome, so did my wife's Chicken Minion... Could have comfortably taken either dish.

Tucking into it the taste buds were dancing for joy as the calamari was perfectly seasoned and cooked just right, oysters were just a delight and the prawns were the highlight of the dish perfectly grilled with a hint of spices added to it for a little extra kick.

The let down for me was the fish, the batter was very dense and doughy.. but, added to their beautiful tartare sauce it wasn't too bad.
Overall though I would definately order again, the Seafood Platter only cost $22 and was value for money!

My wife was very happy with the Chicken Minion, I managed to snare a small morsel and the piece I tried it looked to be a great dish, one my wife thoroughlly enjoyed.

We sat both happy and content overall with the mains, one thing stood out though.... the dessert menu sneaking out of the drinks card, there it stood for all to see, Sticky Date Pudding.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a big weakness for Sticky Date Pudding... We don't usually order desserts at the restuarants, most of the time we're too full to have anything else...

This time we took the plunge, My wife ordered a gluten free chocolate cake and I took the plunge on the sticky date.

From all reports the chocky cake was very very tasty, the sticky date for me was too cakey, very fluffy almost like the banana cake I cook... The sauce was good but a bit weaker than i'm used too. Don't get me wrong it wasn't the worst one i've had, actually i'd get it again, it just didn't have that wow factor.

An example, we dined at Charlies Diner last week, this is an all you can eat restuarant, after gorging myself on an array of spaghetti, chinese, roast, seafood etc. I decided to try the dessert, the sticky date pudding was simply the best I have ever ever had. It reminded me of a chocolate brownie, the way the cake was, it wasn't fluffy and light, it was dense and thick like the brownie, the sauce which came with it was also stunning. Rich, really rich and full of flavour, that one piece of Sticky Date simply had the wow factor.

So, overall, our experience at the Albion Hotel was very good, My wife reminded me afterwards never to judge the book by its cover, or I guess of its surroundings...

I would absolutely recommend the Albion, it had a great atmosphere and the food was really good quality. If your keen to check it out, head to www.albionhotel.com.au. It caters for families well with probably the cheapest kids menu i've seen of only $5.50!

Round 12 - ETPBC Div 5

Ok All, this ones tough to write, probably more so as i've been up snce 4.30am heartbreakingly watching my beloved Seattle Seahawks...

To paint the picture, we've been renowned for our defence and also Lynch with his awesome running and our Rookie sensation QB Russell Wilson. First half there was none of the above, no defence, run from lynch or Wilson to help us - 20 - 0 at half time.

3rd Qtr you could see the fight in the hawks, but at 3qtr time we were still 27-7 down. Then, just like out of a movie/fairy tale, with 40 seconds to go, Seattle takes the lead and we're up 28-27.

Already running late I thought best to make a dash for the bus whilst glaring at twitter feeds the whole walk, what was a 2 minute walk lasted an eternity as I hear 2 passes from Atlanta brought them within Field Goal distance and just like that Atlanta stole the game....

So, you can now see why I am in one heck of a downer right now...

First game back ETPBC were up against Adelaide, who for most of the year has remained on top only losing 3 games, and we were at their home ground...

One thing identified by Matt & Robbo was the need for our team to get early runs, when up early our team is hard to beat! And thats exactly what we did, early runs were ploughed on the board with the help of Jonesy's replacement lead off hitter Ralph, with some great base stealing too he helped us get the momentum early and maintain a healthy lead.

Unfortunately we couldn't hold the lead and Adelaide, pulling a swifty, untied Ralphy's shoes and he tripped over which brought in 2 runs - from there Adelaide had the momentum and took control of the game.

Not being outdone however, ET pulled back the lead with some great hitting, especially from one J Laws going deep to bring in the runner - might have to work on his sliding though....

Sadly Adelaide were too strong and we fell short 11-10.

Now a look at my game, fielding I was happy until two players pointed out I'm not doing my job... news to me and now I need to get out and learn my 3rd base role again.. Didn't realise my role was the cutoff for left field, something I haven't done all year - but, now I know I can work on that for rest of season...

Batting, terrible, the previous game I went 4 from 4, this week, didn't look like getting on. Struck out in the first at bat (although still think last two were out of the box...) and flied out in my 2nd bat... was benched just over halfway through and actually glad I was, head wasn't in it and I tell you as a fielder it can be a very lonely place when the heat is on you, especially if your doing the wrong thing...

So, from here - yep i'm filthy, we're 6 games from finals and I'm a very massive chance of losing my 3rd base role and playing alot more bench time - something I don't want to happen. Need to get out wednesday, work on my hitting/fielding and hit it hard from there. If someone wants my position you better come hard cos Bo Gas is gonna come harder...

Flinders this week, time to hit these Uni students and show them what the Red Sox are made of!!!!!

Happy New Year - 2013

Happy New Year to all my readers!!!

At this time of the year everyone decides its a good idea to make changes or alterations to themselves to better the year to come.

And this year will be no different to the last so I will try and add some things I would like to achieve below...

Weight... Always on the cards and I'm sure this occurs in 90% of the New Years resolutions people make every year.

About 6 months ago I set out to get under 100kg's, would be the first time in 15 years then if I could.. Weight loss was going well and I was exercising alot too during that time, Sadly I got sick with a bad throat infection, from then on I slowly stopped exercising and maintained my current weight.

So the good news from the last push was I acheived 2 out of the 3 goals I set myself which I am happy about, my last goal was to get to 109kg's which I did well, good thing also (sort of..) is that I've been sitting on 108-109kg's ever since. So no stacking getting on...

Couple of key factors get me into gear; Motivation, Will and Support. If I have heaps of people (especially family) encouraging me or getting me involved I become unstoppable and love exercising, if I get negative feedback I tend to go back to old ways and can't be bothered... Time sadly is also a factor in our household as we have very few hours left in each day once you take work and sport committements into account.

The good news is I'm active in sport 4 days out of 7 due to baseball both with my team and my sons team, so its not like I sit at home playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 every day (although I wish I could hahaha). The important part for me though is utilising the other days we don't have baseball and get the most out of each day...

Sickness is another factor, I need to make sure I don't get sick, each time I get into a fitness regime something happens and I go back to old ways, each time I get sick I also crave shitty foods like a combo yiros with double onion and double garlic sauce...

So - I'll give it another go and see if I can get myself to my main goal weight - 99 kg's. I also want to increase a bit of muscle in my arms so will hit the weights machine at home..

I guess another resolution I'll need to consider is study, I'm currently completing my Diploma in Financial Planning and halfway through, due to time restraints I've found it hard to take on the final subjects but again, like exercise, I need to find the time..

Investment is another one I'd like to nail too with Renovations, one of my long term goals is to have 5 Investment properties by retirement, this way we have a regular income coming in and hopefully won't need to rely on the government! So this year I would like to get my hands on an investment property, be it a small little unit somewhere, a holiday house down the coast or a house. Whatever the size I need to get moving on an investment.

So that'll be the first step, I'm not fussed if I haven't bought one, just as long as I am in a position to be ready to buy one, not jump out too eagerly...

A wise person once said to own 5 Investment properties before retirement is a very sound investment plan, you should have one new one every 10 years...

Well I think thats all for now, Hope you all had a very good Xmas and an excellent New Year, hope you didn't make an a*& of yourself like I did...