Over the years we have had a number of players and staff who have been great to know as people as well as volleyballers. Some have moved on to careers and study which have taken them not only away from Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, but in many cases overseas. We would love to hear from you.
Tell us what you have done and are currently doing. Send us a photo. Friends from those days may wish to renew acquaintances...
Here is a note from Marion Kipfer who worked and played in Townsville as an exchange student from Switzerland in 1998..
16 April 2006
hy Dick!
sorry that I didnt get back to you earlier... I spent last weekend in the
alps with my parents and as I got back home my computer didn\\\\\\\'t want to
cooperate with me... . I\\\\\\\'ve worked at so many different places since I
finished high school in 2001. first I became a flight-attendant and worked
one year for swissair. i loved this job--but you might have heart about the
grounding and all that. so I had to move on... I did a stage in a sozial
institution with disabled children. but I was too young for this kind of
work. after that i did one year at the school of arts. it was great, but I am
not an artist. I changed to a totally different work- the security section.
that was a very good experience again and finally I found out, that I have
to go back into the sozial work. I found a job but finisched again by the
end of february as it wouldn not be possible to do the apprentiship there.
after 2 months of reorganizing my living-situation, my live and finding a
new boyfriend, I am ready for my new job with disabled adults. I still do a
lot of sports in my freetime such as fitness, running, snowboarding and of
corse volleyball. Next week I will go to Italy for a
beachvolleyball-trainingscamp. Here in Switzerland we had still snow last
week?!
It is weird- citibeach with all you guys was all those years always
on my mind. The time I spent with you was just great and I will always
remember it. I never had any contact to my hostfamily- I guess It is better
that way. Sometimes I was very angry- but it is not even there fault. They
did not know what to do either...
I have learnt a lot about myself and what life is all about. I am very thankful
today for this time. But i never want to turn back time!!!
I try to send some brandnew pictures of me- I just had a photoshooting!
Let me know how things go- I am already very excited!
Happy easter! my nutrion has been very bad lately - chocolate eggs, bunnies,
... but it is so yummy our swiss chocholate!
lots of love
marion
.....and a note from Anders Thornblad. Anders, a Swede, lived in Townsville for many years before meeting his now wife Korre, on the internet, and marrying her in Sweden in 2005. He is working there now, and Korre had a serious skiing accident. I think he misses the tropics....
March 2006
Korre is in good spirits and is making a speedy recovery. Main problem is the fact she can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t sit for any extended periods of time. 5 mins here and there otherwise on foot as homo erectus or lying down. At this stage we are unable to even guess about any permanent damage and the first evaluation of any such God forbid problems can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t be done until after 1 year after the completion of rehab, our guess some 18 months or so away. One can only imagine the size of the mountain.......of paperwork!!
Our plans are to leave Sweden behind this October or November and return to Australia for a longer period, probably until June 2007. I managed to get a full-time permanent position here but find life in general at a pace not suitable for living. Everyone appear to be trying to catch their tails here and at a speed and ruthlessness which leaves no room for consideration to their fellow man. Further more, to live and survive here through the long, cold and dark winter proved to be a task more difficult and harder to cope with than I at first thought. Sure one grits one\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s teeth and survives but the longing for the warmer and friendlier climate of lazier latitudes becomes harder and harder to sweep under the carpet, impossible to ignore. The saddest thing of all is that everyone appears to be living for tomorrow, forgetting about today. An incessant dream of better times to come creates a situation where enjoyment is postponed till later. Once this later arrives and proves to be the shittiest later they have experienced in the last decade, all hope is reinvested in some other future. In the meantime everyone is getting on with the job of chewing the time which remains till that future date. At the moment we are all waiting for the snow to melt, latest forecast however is more snow tomorrow afternoon and temperatures well below zero. Once the snow melts one awaits the first spring flowers. Once the first spring flowers arrive, one can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t wait for midsummer. Once midsummer arrives, one can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t wait for the annual holidays usually taken some time during the summer. Once the summer holidays have been and gone it is time to don the fur and wait for the next highlight on the calendar: Christmas, a commercial event of Gargantuan proportions.
A noticeable difference from 25 years ago is that the entire community fabric is weaved around economy, making ends meet and profits grow, at the cost of the general level of service. Take for instance the clearing of snow which used to be a city council responsibility but these days is put out to tender and awarded the lowest bidder to the detriment of the roaduser. It is not unusual the contractor only attends to the job once the mounting pressure for him to do so becomes greater than his resistance to spend money. The rule is unfortunately applicable everywhere except public transport which is absolutely excellent. I cannot understand why people even contemplate taking their cars to the city, especially now that the city toll on vehicles has been implemented. Between 6am and 6pm weekdays, you are charged a fee every time you enter and leave the city - the pollies Christianed it the CONGESTION TAX and has apparently cost some 3800 million crowns to put into place, a price tag which will take some 500 years to recover in fees. No doubt we will see a rise in the fees shortly once the pollies discover that equation!!! Buses run everywhere, on time and frequent, as do trains, the subway and what remains of the tramlines. Sven however, is a creature of habit and finds it difficult to change his ways, hence continues to drive his car into the city only to be jammed in traffic every morning and every afternoon, spewing carbonmonoxide, lead and greenhouse gases. It is a laughable matter to notice the speed limit is set to 30 km/hour as it is impossible to drive any faster anyway because of the amount of cars moving about the city already at a snail\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s pace. No I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'d take the public transport any time and don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t find it derogatory for my status nor denegrading upon my social standing. As a semi-Swede I acknowledge the prestige to drive a Mercedes, BMW, Audi or even the latest Volvo or SAAB but is it not obvious the deflated genital does not support a coherent thought process. Who in their right mind would want to spend twice as much time travelling in the car than it takes to move by public transport?? Besides finding somewhere to park your wheels is impossible anyway! Besides if you happen to find a parking spot, you can be sure to get a ticket the same moment your meter expires as the meter attendant corporation is a moneymaking venture, driven by the same economy and probably a very good investment!
Over here Sweden is still in a post olympic golden euforia, counting medals and successes larger than ever. The last event was the ice-hockey final where Sweden against all odds managed to beat Finland who beat Russia in the semi-finals, no small feat indeed. Somehow in spite of the Swedes showing no apetite and lacklustre skills during the first rounds, managed to advance and then went from strength to strength, surprising both the trainer, coach, opposition and the Swedish people! The team is to be greeted by the people at a freezing outdoor ticketade this afternoon but at that time I will be busy celebrating Friday night with my wife on a Tuesday evening, the price of shiftwork!
And who remembers Damien Searle?? Damo was beach development officer for QVA (after obtaining the prerequisite Master of Science degree), and developed his passion for beach refereeing to the point that he is now Australia\'s most experienced, and a regular on the FIVB Tour. His passion was largely inspired by his recognition at the Sydney Olympics of the opportunity it offers for late-night nude romps on the sand. He bases in London with partner Kris........
Oh I say old chap...is that another Damo's Travels...simply spiffing
when one left you last time one was proposing seasons greeting to you all...hang on...I havn't been here that long that I'm starting to sound like the queen have I?
Anyway...
Dec 25 - Christmas was at our little house this time. Kris' parents, brother & fiance (yes they got engaged a week ago) come to visit. As usual we all eat too much and drink too much - we'll I get to play wine waiter for the spanish themed wine tasting Kris has come up with...it's moments like these I wish I drank wine...hang on, no I don't....I still think it tastes terrible
Boxing Day - Tim (Kris' bro) and Tash (fiance) are flying back to Oz today after being based in Liverpool for 3 years...so a few tears (Kris) are shed at the airport as we see them off, & Kris' parents head back to Nottingham.
New Years eve - we host a New Years Eve party...with our neighbours! Our house is one of 5 in a terrace and all the neighbours are about our age...so rather than all go into London we stay at home. We always chat to the neighbours but somehow you never really get to know them until you spend a bit of time together so this was a chance for us all to do just that...throw in a few drinks and a mini pub crawl around our local area and a good time was had by all. I crash at about 2am with the party still in full swing downstairs, including using my flashing bike lights making an impromptu disco - I'm told some made it thru to 7am...crazy
Jan 3 - Damo becomes an uncle ! For those who don't know, my bro Rowan and his wife Melanie had a little girl, Jessica. We're all proud as punch
Jan 8 - Aunty Ann returns from Oz & New Zealand so I meet her at the airport. She has some more pics of Jessica for us to see - so cute
Jan 11-13 - Friends of ours, Jonathon & Ellen are moving to Oz. Jon's from the Gold Coast, while his wife Ellen is from Bolton, England. We go and visit them in York for the weekend. We even manage a day trip to Whitby. This is where Captain Cook set sail from on his way to Oz. Quite a nice little town but freezing at this time of year.
Jan 25-27 - Kris and I take a day off work and head off for a long weeknd. We take the bikes and cycle along the Grand Union canal, which joins London & Birmingham - some 200 miles long! We do a section near Leicester - it's sooooo windy we almost get blown in...oh well, any excuse for a pub lunch by the fire. We then stay with Kris' parents near Nottingham. Kris' dad and I go to a football match, which is a round of the FA Cup (surely even you non-sporties have heard of this!). The game is Mansfield Town v Middlesborough; 2nd division v Premier League. The big guns win it, but a good atmosphere for the smaller mansfield to host such high profile opponents.
Feb 8-10 Kris takes her mum to Lyon (France) for her birthday. Apparently Lyon has over 200 antique shops - and I'm sure the girls tried to visit every one! I stayed home...well... sort of. I did go to Seffield with Kris' dad to watch more football, this time Sheffield United v Scunthorpe...possibly the most boring match in history, but we did have fun watching the locals calling for the team's manager (coach in Aussie speak) to be sacked. Sunday I'm down to Brighton to run a referees course...so only 500 miles driving for the weekend.
Feb 14 - Happy Valentines. Having been running all around we decide to stay at home, get some good food in, and spend the night in front of our roaring log fire...mmmm
Feb 16-17 - DIY time! We stripp all the wall paper in the spare room in readiness to do it up
Feb 23-25 - Again we make a long weekend of it and head away for a 'city-break' as they call it...to Amsterdam... thanks to a major traffic snarl we end up running through the airport to check in and make our plane! But once there it's a very plesant weekend. It's cold but clear. We join a walking tour of the city, through the red light district, along canals, past 'coffee' (ie dope) shops and finish at Ann Franks house, where her and her Jewish family hid from the Nazis. One evening we went to a Jazz club for a gig. The music wasn't to our taste so we ended up leaving early, but a good experience all the same. I even tried taking in a little culture & visited the Van Gogh museum (are ya proud of me mum?). Bottom line, Amsterdam is definitely worth a visit, even if , like us, you're not into drugs &/or prostitutes.
Feb 2-8 - Kris is off for a weeks skiing with a bunch of our neighbours. I've used all my leave on volleyball so am home alone...oh well...at least I have sports channel to keep me company.
So that's where we are at the moment. Summer is looking really bust for me, with volleyball trips to Gran Canaria, Shanghai, Barcelona, Stavanger & Hamburg....an if all goes well, fingers crossed, Beijing for the Olympics...wish me luck !
hugs and kisses all round