Enjoying some exciting days

It’s been two weeks since I last wrote here. Where did that time go? 

In school colours

Wrestling again

I've been at two wrestling tournaments in the last two weeks! The first was a single, but long day with a lot of wrestling and three or four hours of travel.

The second, the first four days of this week, were spent away with the school’s current wrestling team as a female chaperone and fan. Also as the wife of the team driver. I’d thought my days attending such events were over, but was grateful for an official reason to indulge again. It’s a sport that can really get under your skin and, yes, this event pretty much confirms that we’ve got the bug. And we saw a lot of wrestling. The days were long, I estimate we spent about 30 hours in the gym where the three-day tournament was hosted, with 300 or more other people. The sport itself is pretty quiet but spectators and coaches can make a lot of noise!

The first 60 to 90 minutes of the days in the gym started quietly as we were often the first school to arrive. It was a time that they had warm-ups and meetings, so I pulled out my computer and got what work done that I could. But once the wrestling started I inevitably found it much harder to concentrate and, having already dealt with the “lower hanging fruit” of my to-do list for work, gave up trying to achieve much more. Editing and writing take a fair bit of concentration and I was concerned that I’d probably make errors I’d later regret!

This was one of my favourite moments of the
tournament (it's a screenshot from a video I
took for the wrestler's mum). An unexpected but
vital victory in the finals of the duals.

Of course accompanying the team means you’re pretty much on from breakfast time to after dinner. They were long day, but not as emotionally draining as when our own kids were doing it, though I can’t claim to be tear-less for the whole event! We know how much these kids put into training and it’s amazing to watch and encourage and walk alongside them, especially through an emotionally gruelling three-day event.

What was particularly amazing to watch again was the value of a good team. I’ve seen it before: individuals performing above what you think they can do because they have the higher goal of wrestling for the team. The team aspect of this particular event was really on a different level for our guys, and they pulled together so well. Everyone’s contribution was meaningful, even one point made a difference (each bout they could contribute up to 5 points to the team’s total, it depended on if and how they won or even lost a bout). The end result for the semifinal and final came down to just 2 or 3 points difference between the teams!

The US Army base is situated on towards the
south-western border of the Kanto plain, and
has a pretty nice mountain view. Blue sky
like this also thrills my Aussie heart.

The guys achieved what no other CAJ wrestling team has achieved: won both portions of the competition. The team got the highest number of points in the individual portion of the competition and then also won the team-portion (duals).

We had another surprise when we arrived home on Wednesday night: a bunch of teachers and their kids were waiting for us in the car park with pop-out streamers and a big sign: Champs. So fun!

Both working (and matching in
wrestling team hoodies)

The other wonderful part of this whole event was doing it with David. This whole learning to live without kids at home after being married 27 years includes a lot of choosing to do things together. And this is a shared interest, so it was lots of fun.

Ah, but I’m raving on about wrestling before and most of you couldn’t care less about that!

Other exciting stuff

It's been a great week all round. A couple of "big ideas" I've been working on are starting to gain traction (running a small writers retreat for our mission and taking an international trip to meet up with others doing social media within our organisation). It's taken months of patient work to network, get permissions, and gather information, but I'm excited to see movement.

After some quiet weeks at work, I've also hit a busy time with the magazine: 23 edited articles to check with authors before shooting them off to our designer. They've all landed on my desk in the last 10 days or so!

But I love this kind of busyness. I've mentioned before that I struggle with the changes in pace that come with my work. Sometimes they are predictable, but day-to-day sometimes not so much. A couple of weeks back I started the week waiting on a lot of people to get back to me, and then on the Wednesday it all started pouring in!

However, I'm tired. I ended last week with a cold and then jumped straight into four days of what was like a busy school camp. We got back around 8pm Wednesday and straight back into work on Thursday. I'm very much looking forward to a quiet, restful Saturday tomorrow.

Another crazy week: but I'm thankful

I'm starting to realise that having a few less responsibilities means I'm more flexible! So I'm able to take up short-term opportunities more easily and have the space to recover from them.

This last week I've done a few not-usual things and it's been crazy busy. In fact this is the first time in seven days that I've actually sat at my desk.

David's office where we spent several hours on
Friday sorting wrestlers into weight classes,
recording their names, and setting up the
 initial bouts.

Friday and Saturday were crazy busy, but fun. David and I did the admin side of the school's wrestling tournament. We had 250 wrestlers on campus (a large number for our league). The gym was packed to the rafters. We held a middle school tournament, as well as a full raft of male and female weight brackets for the high schoolers. It's very hard to easily describe what we did because it included so many moving pieces and a lot of copying of names. As bouts happened we had to add those results to the tree diagram (called a bracket) and then create the scoring sheet for the new matches with the relevant wrestlers. We problem solved and answered many questions. One of the most satisfying things personally was solving problems by tracking down wrestlers whose bouts had slipped through the cracks somehow. We've benefited from others doing this for our sons over the last 13 years, so it was great to be able to serve others in this way. I'm thankful it was just those two days, though!

The busyness didn't stop after Saturday...but here are some photos to show you something of the weekend (see more about my week after the photos).

CAJ campus was stunning over the weekend...
but I spent most of my time inside!

No filter here (or in the one above)!

Wrestlers, coaches, and supporters everywhere!
The noise level was very loud...for 12 hours.

I got 20 minutes out of the gym
at lunchtime and I went for a short 
walk around campus. This
ginko tree was stunning.

This was admin central: where we spent about 12 hrs on
Saturday. We had several helpers, including the veteran
coach (Dan Rudd) who did announcements
until he ran out of energy mid afternoon. Coach Rudd
is the one who taught our eldest son in the earliest
days of his wrestling career (and answered so many
of our early questions).

I didn't see much wrestling...we didn't have the 
best seats in the house! Past all the people in
this photo is a CAJ wrestler getting his gold medal, he's
a former long-time teammate of our youngest son.

And the days moved onwards: Sunday morning was our usual time at church with lunch afterwards, then chatting to our sons over an hour or two. 

We had overnight guests on Sunday night, but due to their short stay (34 hrs) in Japan they had limited data on their phones to communicate with us as they travelled from the airport and a lack of on-hand cash meant they had difficulty buying train tickets. We live 1 ½ hrs from the airport, so it isn't an easy drop-in, but they were determined. We waited an hour for them at the train station. Thankfully we could pop into the cafe there for some warmth as the temperature was around 5C. It turned into a late night! The next day I showed them around the school and our neighbourhood and they treated us to lunch. We've had very few supporters visit us in recent years, so it was a delight to have this couple visit.

Another great Japan Harvest issue completed!

On Tuesday I went into the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association (JEMA) office to help pack magazines. A friend from CAJ-parent era met me there and we caught up while stuffing magazines into packets. That was an excellent use of time and I felt refreshed afterwards. I left a little early to get back to school for (you guessed it): more wrestling! Just an hour as a spectator, this time.

Yesterday I had another new thing going on: I'm hosting a short term worker and I met her for coffee and to talk about her involvement with social media, her weekly schedule, etc. I then took her to meet a Japanese friend of mine at the JEMA office, we ate lunch and packed more magazines. Another really good use of time because while doing a manual job like that there is much time for conversation.

It's been a lot. I ended up on my bed before dinner on both Monday and Wednesday. I'm really tired! Today is an office day (and a short grocery run). I'm grateful for the peace here at home and that while I've been gone things have been chugging along in the two teams I work with.

Thankfully it looks like the coming weeks aren't quite so hectic. It's just under three weeks till we travel to Australia for our son's wedding, so hopefully we'll be a bit more rested and able to enjoy that time.

Life keeps me flexible

We're in the midst of wrestling again, after a hiatus of several years. Our last big year of wrestling was 2016-17. There have been bits and bobs of wrestling in the years since, but, for various reasons, neither of our younger two sons are as passionate about the sport as their big brother is. Plus there's been injury (and a pandemic!)—last season our youngest son only wrestled once before being sidelined by a concussion. This year he's a senior and has gone out for wrestling one last time. It's taken me a while to back into the roll of things. I've just looked back at some of the blog posts I wrote during our eldest son's high school wrestling career, and it was a very intense time. This doesn't feel as big, perhaps because wrestling isn't our youngest son's main sporting passion.

So tomorrow, for the first time in several years, I'm hopping on the team bus (before the sun comes up) and heading to a day-long wrestling meet at a US army base. The blog posts I read this morning reminded me of the friendships forged in the past at these meets, but sadly I don't think any of those people will be around tomorrow (at least none of the CAJ wrestling-parents from the past). We'll see what eventuates. At least David will be there!

Our son is the "heavy-weight" of the team, in the 215 lb (97 kg) weight class. He's been watching live wrestling since he was very young (he attended his first meet was when his big brother was in Grade 7 and he was in Grade 2). And he competed on and off since he was around 10, but never with such big guys! He's won twice this season already, so we'll see how he goes tomorrow, the last meet before Christmas.

Then on Sunday we've got a friend from my uni days coming to visit with her family. They are in church ministry in Australia, but they have a strong interest in mission. The weather is looking good, if a bit chilly, so, after church we're planning to head to my favourite big park (in our van) for a picnic. Monday is going to be a bear as we recover from all that! Tuesday and Wednesday next week are also big ones, with various meetings/responsibilities downtown.

In between all of that I've got some baking to do: fudge that people have ordered, snacks for Sunday and for the school's seniors (a once-a-month encouragement organised by the parents of the class), and a usual amount for our own family to snack on.

Holidays are coming up too: with some time in the mountains before Christmas, and then our eldest son is coming to visit for Christmas from Australia for the first time in 3 ½ years! I'm looking forward to the break, and have a few books lined up. I should probably pick up my cross-stitch again, I don't think I've touched it all year.

Meanwhile, I've got some editing to do before we go away, and some writing. I'm excited to have been asked to do a "small" writing project for our US office: a series of blog posts about preparing for home assignment. It's really helpful for me to have a background project like that to work on, one that doesn't have tight deadlines and multiple moving parts and people. Plus it's a project that engages my writing brain more than my editing brain—it's nice to be on the other side of the relationship sometimes, it keeps me limber.

Lining up ducks

I haven’t written a blog post yet this week, mostly because it’s been a busy week away from my desk. Actually a very different looking week to what most of the year has looked like. I spent a lot of the week with other people! All day Monday I spent at a prayer meeting with other OMF missionaries. And travelling across the city in peak hour on trains to get there and back (total about three hours travel and six trains). It was something I hadn’t been looking forward to. Last year when I did this long day I ended up with a nasty headache and actually fairly distressed at wearing a mask (the pressure on my nose and ears when I have a headache is close to unbearable). However I’m more used to wearing masks now and I didn’t end up with the worst of headaches, so it wasn’t so bad.

Tuesday morning I did a quick couple of hours catching up on urgent computer tasks and email before replenishing the larder with a grocery shop and then shooting off downtown again. This time I spent the afternoon packing the latest issue of the magazine that I play a significant part in publishing.

Wednesday was a cold, rainy day, so I was glad I got to stay home and work at my desk. I made good progress that I was able to continue into Thursday morning. Then Thursday afternoon was consumed with online work meetings, specifically about planning for the weeks ahead, which are less-than-straightforward weeks. More about that later.

Friday morning I spent at a school prayer meeting and then a couple of hours with small fellowship group in a restaurant. Friday afternoon was another shopping trip and then seeing what I could salvage from the rest of the day at my desk, but a headache caught up with me and I didn’t last too long there.

In the middle of that has been a few other things:

• 
  Fudge making: last year I raised some money for the school by making and selling fudge to staff and local friends. I’m doing it again this year. I’ve made it a little easier by using a silicon mold, which means that the size of the pieces is much more consistent. So in between other things, I’ve been making fudge this week.

• Wrestling: our youngest (16 y.o.) has rejoined the wrestling team this year. Last week they had their first meet, a small affair between two schools. It was weird to be back in person at a sporting event, but also great. Unfortunately he got injured in his first match and hasn’t been able to get back into training this week while he recovers. But we did watch the rest of the team via a live video link on Thursday night.
• 
  Cricket: cricket fans that we are, we’ve been enjoying live cricket this week for the first time in several months. The English team is in Australia at the moment. The two countries are playing the famous Ashes series. We’ve been able to subscribe to the series (that has rarely been possible in the years we’ve been overseas) and it’s fun. Alas, most of the play happened during our work hours this week so we haven’t seen much, but it’s been fun, another interest David and I share.

• I also passed 100 books read for the year (I also started more than 20 more, but for one reason or another they ended up in the "I don't want to finish reading" list). I've got more than a dozen lined up for the next few weeks, I wonder how many of those I'll get read?

Monday and Friday would have looked quite different during most of 2021. I’m so grateful that, for the moment at least, we’re not living under so many restrictions. It’s weird to look at the cricket and see crowds of people without masks on, though. Masks are still being worn by 99.9% of people in public here.

The coming weeks are a mixture of relaxation and business. This time next week we’ll be up in the mountains taking a week’s holiday. Our traditional pre-Christmas holiday. With school on a three-week break, I anticipate that I’ll be taking things a little slower after Christmas also. Certainly we won’t be getting up at 6am.

In January I’m helping facilitate the same OMF course I helped with last year. This year it’s still online, but we’ve changed a few things so that hopefully it will be a little less arduous. However, I haven’t completely stepped away from my social media job, so I’ll be juggling a few more balls than I did last year. Plus, there's a variety of wrestling events on in January and February. We'll see how well I come out of that busy season. I didn't cope very well in January/February this year, but part of that was an unexpected and traumatic loss in mid-February.

Meanwhile, I prepare as best I can for what's to come. First of all is getting my "ducks lined up" so I can go away and not check email or open my computer for a week. Ah...the bliss. I've got fruit mince pies to make and books to read!

How's your December looked so far?

Sport and transition

A fun option at the gym are these trampolines. Our youngest, particularly,
has enjoyed them. My neck is currently giving me some stick, but I'm
hoping I'll be able to give the trampolines a go soon.

Supporting our teens through this transition has been harder than perhaps we expected or you might realise.

One big thing we continue to struggle with is finding an appropriate outlet for our sporty boys. In Japan through the school it's built into the school year. Actually school-based sport there is quite intense, with practises most afternoons and competitions most Saturdays. When we take them out of that and into Australia it's a big misfit. Most sport seems to be private clubs, with only a little bit at school, but generally not starting in July and finishing in December! And of course as teenagers they are quite opinionated about what sport they'll do. We can't just throw them into cricket or rugby. They have no experience in either, and no interest in being newbies either.

And of course we've got one boy homeschooling, which includes no sport at all. The deal we agreed on with him when we said he could do homeschooling was that he got out and did some exercise. He's found that that was a harder thing to do than he anticipated.

Last time we were in Australia we tried to solve this sporting dilemma by having them all join a community wrestling club. It worked well for one or two of our boys, but not so well for the third. This time they are much more opinionated about what they want to do. 

We first tried an athletics club, which started out promisingly, but was a significant commitment as it was from 6.30-8 two nights a week about 20 minute drive from here. This was significant as I needed to work our meals around it and at least one of us needed to be plan to spend that time driving and being present. We were prepared to do all this. But we had a lot of trouble with this plan: especially with boy/s bailing at the last minute—either at home before we left, or once we got there. Some families might cope with this, but we didn't. It was upsetting and stressful for us all. We were prepared to go with the plan, but not if they couldn't make a solid commitment to doing it and the following through with that.

Plan B was to go to a local gym that is much closer to us, in fact we pass it on the drive to school. Not perfect, as it doesn't include much running, and that is really what our guys like to do, but it's flexible and we can do it at times that are much easier to manage (straight after school). David and I can also get involved here and get exercise ourselves.

So this is what we've been working with the last three weeks. Most days it's working, but not every time. We're paying per visit, rather than being locked in to a period of time.

Things will probably move up another level from October as our youngest plans to rejoin the wrestling club in preparation for joining the CAJ wrestling team in January when we return.

The stress of dealing with this is not something you might think about when thinking about the life of a missionary. It's been an element of this transition that's made it hard to feel settled as our lives are pretty lacking in routine anyway, and struggling to get a routine going for exercise has only added to the challenge.

Food for all-day wrestling meets

Wrestling starts on Saturday, and I'm starting to think about food for our family again. This time we will be split across two venues. I need to get back into the groove and was relieved to find this post from last year that showed some of the things I was taking last season.

This obviously won't work, but I thought it was a cute food
photo! We own a number of these "food eyes", bought
here in Japan.

Now I just need to do a bit of work to ensure that I can provide stuff like this. The boys particularly complain if I don't put enough savoury stuff in. At meets it's easy to just snack on unhealthy stuff all day long (there often is no defined lunch break). People eat when they're hungry and wrestlers eat when they can (usually very soon after a bout). The wrestlers particularly need protein-heavy food.

This week is a bit of an easy start for three of us because the high school meet is just down the road at school, we don't have 2–5 hours of driving to factor in, and we know that reliable lunch can be bought at the venue. Hey, I even know where I can buy coffee when I need it!

Now I'd better get my mind back onto today's jobs and the 15+ item To Do list that's waiting.

Thinking about stuff...

What am I thinking about?

Turns out, that, as usual, there's lots going on in my head.

I read this article yesterday about iNtuitives on the Myers-Briggs inventory. A lot of it describes me. In this case, the "overanalysing everything" fits. I had space this weekend to think and it was great! 

I'm thinking that a ride might be good thing to factor into my
schedule this week!

Editing and networking
I went to a meeting last Friday at our Japan headquarters about revamping the OMF Japan website with the aim of using it better for mobilisation of people into mission involvement.  One of the jobs is to get a bunch more current stories up there and keep them coming. My expertise is in the writing/editing side of things, so that's what I'm working on. I mentioned last week that I've recently started editing blog posts for one of our Japan regions, and that's going to be expanded to cover all our three regions. So I'll need help as my plate is already pretty full.

So I've been searching out new editors as well as thinking about guidelines for writers. As of today, we've got three potential editors on the sidelines, two of whom need a bit of mentoring. But I'm excited, I love getting people's stories out there. I love involving other people in my work, building a team. I also love seeing people develop their abilities and moving into areas where they're skilled. I also love new projects (another aspect of my iNtuitive personality). 

Illness among missionaries
Our mission's field director in Japan has been battling two rare blood cancers this year. A couple of months ago they received the unexpected news that the cancer hadn't responded well to the chemo he'd already received. He's now undergoing even stronger chemotherapy and has a stem cell transplant is coming up too. As I work closely with his wife (our personnel director) this is never far from our mind.

Then a couple of weeks ago we heard that the elementary art teacher from school had been diagnosed with a large brain tumour. She had emergency surgery to save her life last week and they found an extra tumour that wasn't there a few days earlier during her scan. There's another they weren't able to get and are planning to operate again this week. The cancer is aggressive and malignant. Her husband is the school's long-term and much beloved business manager. They grew up themselves in Japan and are both CAJ alumni, so have a real heart for missionary kids. They're also members of our church here. You can understand that it's been a big shock for us and many around the world who know this family.

Then yesterday I was reminded by FB that I posted about stress and missionaries two years ago on this day. I referenced a study that "revealed that 200 points of stressful life events caused 50 percent of people to become seriously ill (cancer, heart attack) within the subsequent two years." Noting that the missionaries they studied had an average of 600 points of stress! Though it distresses us when missionaries get ill, it really shouldn't surprise us. Especially when we take into consideration spiritual warfare as well.

Exhaustion
I was really tired last week (probably pushed over the edge by our snow-camp). It was hard to get out of bed every day (barring Wednesday when I woke early with news related to the above illnesses running relentlessly through my head). I also craved coffee every day, which is a sure sign that I'm over-tired, and a warning sign that I need to rest. 

Thankfully yesterday afternoon I was able to take a nap, I put my eye mask on at 2.45 and was awoken by the community "go home" bells at 4.20. My husband also reminded me of the borderline anaemia that showed up on a blood test in April, so I'm trialling a low dose of iron supplements. I'm hopeful this will help and very much looking forward to our week away in 12 days!

Wrestling
To finish on a less serious topic, wrestling season is upon us. Yay! This Saturday are the first tournaments and the high school one is in our "backyard". CAJ is hosting and I'm in charge of providing breakfast and lunch for 25 coaches and refs. Um...yeah, I'll let you know how that turns out.

It will also be our family's first time to split up during the wrestling season. Our youngest is an official member of the middle school team and they're competing at a different school at the same time. David's driving the middle school team and I'm staying here with the high schoolers. Thankfully it isn't too hard to video a wrestling match, and we'll be able to share!


So there, are you a bit scared at everything going on in my head? I didn't even mentioned Christmas shopping or the ongoing magazine editing or regularly feed-and-clothe-and-provide-a -home-for-the-boys, nor the all-day prayer meeting David and I went to today on the other side of Tokyo! If you pray, please do keep us in your prayers. Sometimes when I take a step back and look at our lives it scares me!

It's over

I have lots of photos from this season, but I think this is my
favourite. These two tussled all season long. Six times
they met, score? Our son 4, the other guy 2. Our son
pinned him twice. They pushed one another to be better.
It wasn't easy to watch, but a great challenge for them both.

At least for the spectators. The wrestling season finished on Wednesday. It's been nearly four months since they started training five-days a week and these last five weeks have been pretty intense. It finished off with a three-day 15-school tournament in Korea that really pushed them to their limits.

The tournament is an American military tournament for the "Far East" region where they invite a few private schools to join in. The team lived on an airforce base in a motel for four nights. David said it was like living at an airport!

The first day and a half was an individual tournament, like most of the Saturday tournaments we've been to in January, except it was seeded. It has a few twists and turns to the way it was organised, which meant that when our son won then lost then won then won then lost he wasn't out of medal contention. He went into the top six (all medalists) and had a chance to get third, but it seems he underestimated his opponent and lost his first bout on Tuesday, relegating him to sixth place. Still, not a bad result at all. It was, by all reports, a tough weight class with \ the 2nd to 6th place getters all very good wrestlers. I also think that if you put them up against one another on a different day you would end up with a different end result.

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday were a team-duel competition. Which means teams face up against one another, from the lightest category to the heaviest one, and the team that got the most points from that match-up won the duel and went on. CAJ lost, then won, then lost. They got 6th place out of the seven in their division. Our son pinned the guy who he'd lost to on Tuesday morning, which was a satisfying end to the tournament. That guy picked up 3rd place in the individual tournament.

Our son has come home with a determined attitude, he has one more crack at this competition next year as a senior. He and another member of the team are planning to train a couple of times a week with a Japanese university club in Tokyo. We'll see how it all pans out.

It's been a season of ups and downs. Certainly plenty of challenges on and off the mat. One of the most gratifying thing of watching the whole team through the season is seeing how they keep coming back each week and improving. I especially think of a couple of the lighter wrestlers who struggled early on. One didn't have much stamina and the other was a rookie, who was a bit at sea early on. Both improved significantly as the season went and it was fabulous to watch.

Of course watching our son do more wrestling than he ever has before in one season was exciting too. He's improved as well, having to dig deeper than he ever has before.

Watching our youngest son (nearly 11) start in on wrestling was also exciting, though we didn't see any of his seven matches first-hand he did very well and we got to see videos of them all. He moves into middle school in August and will be eligible to be a full-time member of the wrestling team. It seems as though next wrestling season will be even bigger than this one!

We get about a month's break until the next lot of school sport begins, though the athletes don't, training for the next season of sport begins in the next couple of weeks. The Spring season contains track and field, high school boys soccer, and middle school girls basketball. Our two oldest boys are planning to do track and field. The middle schooler to run and the high schooler for the throwing events (he's focused on building strength prior to wrestling starting again in November).

Phew! I've always encouraged our boys to be active (see our EF parenting philosophy), it helps them be nicer people and to concentrate. I guess this is where that kind of philosophy can lead! But I'm not disappointed. It is great to have active, healthy young men in the house. Much better to be out being active than stuck playing computer games as seems to be the great temptation when they don't have other things to do.

Neck-deep

I'm neck-deep and struggling to make headway. Here are the main factors:

Me at my editing/writing work-station today.

• David and our eldest son are away at a huge three-day wrestling tournament in Korea. David's been great at shooting me short texts with results. Our son has wrestled six times in the last day and a half. I love the news and crave the news (it's hard not being there), but it's also disrupting my concentration. Oh, and our son hasn't done as well as I'd hoped, so that messes with me too.

• Because David's away I have more responsibilities at home, as usual, so I'm busier than normal. Plus, I've not slept super well (wrestling tournaments seem to do that to me whether I'm there or not).

• In the last week I've had 20 articles submitted for the next issue (Spring) of the magazine I edit. That happens four times a year and always makes me feel time pressured. I've given these writers deadlines, it feels bad if I'm late in dealing with the articles, as if I've pressured the writers unnecessarily. Additionally, the whole process of getting the magazine out is a process, and if I'm late, that has a domino effect on the whole magazine (and team).

• I've got the other two boys home for their "Winter Break". It means we get sleep-ins and can be more flexible about bedtimes, but it complicates my days in terms of getting my editing done.

• The Winter issue is currently with the design team and they keep coming up with questions about editing, good questions...probably things we should have dealt with earlier, but they're intruding into my already dodgy concentration.

• I'm going away to Bangkok on Sunday for a week of training, so I've been trying to make bigger meals to freeze for dinners for the family next week. More cooking than usual and more washing up with no husband to help out.

So, no more blogging (or whinging) for me . . . back to editing land and hoping that I can make a little better progress in what is left of my afternoon.

Finals

Pin. Shaky mum = blurry photo.

Saturday was the wrestling finals for our region of international schools (six schools, three of which are US military base schools). Most of the wrestlers had seen each other before during the season. All the hard work of the previous weeks (up to five wrestles a tournament) came to fruition because he was seeded second and straight into the Varsity semi final. Varsity is American for "A team".

His first was a guy he'd wrestled four times before and beaten three times. All barring their first bout (where our son pinned him quickly) have been long drawn out affairs that sent my heart rate high. It was no different this time, except he pinned him after about five minutes. It was a satisfying win.

We had to wait four more hours for his next bout, the final. It got pretty dramatic. We're used to well-lit gyms, but after all the preliminary matches and Junior Varsity (American for "B team") finals, they dimmed the lights and it became like a theatrical performance. One mat was centred and they introduced all the guys who'd be wrestling for gold.

Then they wrested. We didn't expect a win (his opponent is a fine wrestler who's defeated our son twice before). It was, however, over faster than we or our son liked. This guy is very decisive and lightning quick. 20 seconds was all the bout lasted.

Finalists shaking hands.

It was upsetting, not that he lost, but how he lost and how fast it happened. It was also a physically painful move that did it (leg lace). It's like the difference between losing by twenty runs in cricket and losing by 200 runs. Or another sporting analogy, like losing by two lengths of the pool instead of a couple of metres.

He was upset, but conducted himself admirably on the mat afterwards. It's something that I really like about wrestling. Lots of handshaking, lots of opportunities to be a good sport. But it is also very obvious if you let yourself get carried away with being upset. That makes it hard to get up off the mat after being defeated, hard to shake your opponent's hand afterwards, and hard to look at the opposing coaches and shake their hands. But the wrestlers I admire are those who have the self control to do the hard things.

CAJ did well overall at the meet, third out of six. The top two teams (St Mary's and Kinnick) being almost in a league of their own.

Then last night there was a rescheduled match between CAJ and the school farthest from us, Kinnick (base south of Yokohama), they left at 2.30 and got home at 9, for one match each! The team as a whole didn't perform at their best. Not sure why. There is so much mentally that goes into this sport—if you are in the wrong frame of mind you can easily go down when you usually wouldn't. 

Our son lost to the guy he pinned on Saturday. We were surprised, but probably he underestimated his opponent, after beating him three times in a row. It's always a bad idea to underestimate your opponent, or overestimate your own ability. Anyone can be beaten on any one day, even yourself. And unlike many other sports, one mistake can be your undoing, you only get six minutes, but often less than that. It's not like tennis when they keep serving the ball to you after you make a mistake. One mistake and it can be all over.

I'm happy that he's gone to school this morning determined to train hard this week. For next Monday they will be in Korea for three huge days of wrestling, tackling the guys they met this weekend and some better ones too.

I'm also happy to see him learning to deal with disappointment and with difficult emotions. This is an important part of growing up.

Home tournament

Yesterday we hosted a six-school wrestling tournament at CAJ. In previous years our family has been merely observers or parent-supporters. This year that all changed. 

David in the coach's seat. Beside him is a
former CAJ wrestler from a few years back
who provided valuable coaching assistance
yesterday.

David was the main coach and coordinator of our team as the head coach was still absent, helping his wife settle back at home after both her and their new son were discharged finally on Friday. He had the valuable help of a former champion CAJ wrestler who happened to be in town just this week. 

Thankfully there were other experienced support people around, especially a former wrestling mum who is very experienced at running the complicated administrative side of such an event. We had the facilities coordinator on hand for issues like mike problems and circuit blow-outs. The school sports coordinator was on hand at clean up time to tidy up the gym. We also had a nurse on hand for any medical issues. 

Me and my friend Renee. This is the wider shot of the below photos,
the mums on the sideline.

And a couple of newbies. Our announcer had never done this before but did a fantastic job. He is a new wrestling parent, his son is having a great rookie year in 9th grade. 

I was the other newbie. I coordinated the hospitality room for the 19 coaches and refs. I had superb support from many of the team's parents and we put on a huge spread (wishing I took some photos of that too). It went better than I expected and I had hardly anything to do during the day yesterday because the four families I asked to help me keep an eye on the room did such a good job. 

Our son on top, manoeuvring his opponent into a position
for a pin.

Plenty of wrestling action to keep us busy and entertained. Our son won his three matches. Particularly satisfying was a win against a guy he's wrestled three previous times. This time quite a bit easier than the previous two. Now he's won three and the other guy just one of their encounters. Interestingly in the next three weeks they could meet again four more times!

Our youngest son also wrestled yesterday, also winning all his bouts and getting a gold medal. He can't wait till next season when he'll get to be a legitimate team member. 

Having lost about 3 kilos for this season, our son's muscles are even more
defined on the mat. That comes not from weight training per se,
but rather wrestling fairly consistently for more than four years now.

People keep asking about our middle son. Yes he can wrestle and he's actually pretty good for a beginner, but he's not passionate about being involved, especially in the rigorous training. But he does enjoy supporting his brothers. His chance for the spotlight is coming in the next sporting season where he's joining the track and field team to run.

Meanwhile I've only got one more wrestling meet to enjoy live this season: next week. The team has three more, the last being a three-day monster in Korea. I wish I could go, but as David has to go, I'll stay home with the other two. But next year, our eldest's senior year, my plan is to be there!

Another Saturday, another tournament

Yesterday started with plenty of drama. I woke at 4.30, even though I didn't need to be up that early. That seems to be the pattern these tournament Saturdays.

David and Callum along with another wrestler who lives too far away to get to school by 5.15am and therefore slept over at our house, left on the bus at 5.30. With David as driver and only coach. 

This was the draw from our son's weight class
yesterday. The top diagram is the main draw, if
you lost there, you got another chance
on the draw below. It was a random draw,
so unfortunately the three of the best wrestlers
in this class met in the first two rounds.
It meant that the wrestler who came third is
one that probably wasn't the third best wrestler
at the meet. But that, I guess is the meaning
of the "luck of the draw".

The main coach has had a medical emergency in his family with his newborn firstborn baby being admitted into NICU at two days of age. So David's been holding the fort while the coach is away. He's thankful for having watched wrestling now for four years and sat by the coach's side throughout this season, learning all the time.

The rest of us had a complicated plan for getting us and two other families to two wrestling meets in two different locations. High school and middle/elementary school. Two vehicles and three families plus one coach/friend/former CAJ coach from another school. You don't want the details, but it nearly went wrong when we ended up with two different meeting places, CAJ and our house (only 300m apart). Thankfully this was sorted out and we went our separate ways.

Our eight-seater van was full with four adults, one teenager, and three kids. It was a fun trip, a great way to pass the time and pretend we weren't tired.

Our destination was the Zama US Army Base. Going on base requires going through security and prior notice, they need several days to many weeks notice to know you're coming. Sometimes it is as easy as showing ID. Driving a car on base also requires car ID and in this case, proof of two levels of car insurance. We failed this test (missing documentation at home), so had to park off base and walk, about 1.5km.

As we walked in it had already begun and CAJ had three wrestles happening simultaneously. Two of which were sons of those I'd travelled with. 

Nearly a pin. This was nearly in our laps. It probably would have been a
pin in the middle of the mat, but you can see they are outside the wide
white line, the edge of which designates the edge of the mat.

The start of this tournament, with three mats running, was fast and furious. Each match needed David plus a wrestling team member (for the more technical coaching expertise) or just another team member as we only had one coach. Plus two team managers, who recorded the result, looked after the med kit, and wrestler's water bottle and towel, and took video and anything else that needed doing. It meant constant alertness to make sure we weren't missing anyone. These tournaments have a start time, that's all. There's no knowing when an actual bout will occur, when one finishes (which might be anywhere from 20 seconds to 6 ½ minutes) the next one goes on. The wrestlers generally get called up by an announcement when there's one or two bouts ahead of them.

It's a pin, but not a super angle. Here we have a female ref,
who was dwarfed by most of the wrestlers that she refereed.

We had two video cameras, I kind-of took care of the extra one, though the duties were shared around. Not relaxing at all. Neither is being in a gym full of shouting supporters and coaches. 

We had some interesting vocal coaches yesterday. At one point I wouldn't have been surprised if punches might have been thrown, but thankfully they held themselves enough in check to prevent that. Things did get a bit out of hand at one point when one wrestler won on the "buzzer". It took 10 minutes of discussion between the American coaches and Japanese refs for them to be willing to move on to the next bout, which happened to be our son's. There are some interesting cross-cultural and multilingual undercurrents.

It was a knockout tournament. After losing two matches, that was it for the day. So as the day wore on things slowed down as those in our team still in the competition were gradually whittled down.

The team bus as we neared home. It was a long day, but
not as long as two weeks ago. But still we returned these
guys to school 14 hours after they'd left.

In the end we had a couple of placings, two seconds, I think. And some fourths. But I could be wrong. There was no award ceremony, the medals had been temporarily misplaced.

Our son was fourth. He wrestled well, though. Like in most sports, there are good losses and bad losses. Close wins and easy wins. He made the two guys who beat him fight hard to beat him. It's great to see him being challenged over the season by some great wrestlers and rising to the challenge.

The other thing that raised the level of craziness of the morning was periodic news via texts about our youngest son's wrestling. First one pin, then a second, then a third. He got a gold medal in his first meet (just elementary students). He's very happy.