Running practice and then drinking (alcoholfree) beer

Caught in the action...

For some reason I haven't really been excited about coaching for a bit. I've just felt like I haven't been progressing and I'm just spending time on others. I know it's not the way it is, but sometimes it just feels that way...
BUT for some reason everything changed when I went to Montpellier and coached with Fenix and Pooky. I realised I acctually LOVE to coach and that it is superduperfun to see how everyone progresses.
I am one of those coaches that will yell at you to get better, I will make you skate for the entire three hours if we have a three hour practice... Yesterday we had a three hour practice - and my amazing leauge skated hard for three hours! I felt when our A-team skated against Crime City that we all needed some more endurance and also to work on our footwork, I figured if that is what the A-team need, then it's probably what the rest of the league need too... So skills and footwork - with mixed in endurance was what we did... For three hours... And almost everyone lasted the entire practice!

We might look crazy but we smell good

We have a bunch of girls that jus passed their minimum-skills a few weeks ago, and they are all looking stellar! I am EXCITED to coach everyone in our amazing leauge! Yay Stockholm Rollerderby, we ROCK!

After practice we sprayed some "smell good" on, washed our wrists and hit downtown Stockholm... Well, a few of us did, some other people hit up the pizza place, and that was probably smarter... After an (alcoholfree) beer I was just too tired to even think and hungry as a wolf, since I hadn't had time to eat before practice, so I just had to go home... and so I did...

Kix, Salivet and Becky....

Stockholm rollerderby vs. Crime City Rollers: PART 3

Our Fresh Meat came and cheered us on!

Third time is a charm, whatever that is supposed to mean, this is called part three, since it's the third time Stockholm and Crime City play each other.....
So the first full WFTDA sanctioned bout in Sweden happened yesterday. Stockholm and Crime City have done lots of firsts, and it's about two years since we played the first bout in Sweden... In Malmö - and at that time me, Loony and Firebird all played with Crime City, and now we play with Stockholm, both amazing teams, and I'm so happy to be a part of Swedish rollerderby!

I been sort of not into derby lately, I've acctually honestly thought about retirement, I've just felt like I don't have it in me. But after this weekend I do feel much more positive and I remembered why I love rollerderby... I still have decided to re-prioritise some things... Life will rule rollerderby and not the other way around! Yesterdays game was fun, I wasn't prepared for it to be as much fin as it was and our off-skate is freaking HILLERIOUS, we all do the off-skate and then randomly starting to sing "My Girl" and half of the team don't really know the lysrics, but we fake it really well...

This is how much fun it is to talk about line-ups before the game...

We won yesterday, and the game was a nailbiter, it was our first game with the new rules, and we had one player foul out, in the last 10 min, I guess it could have been worse. We are still playing rollerderby, and as long as we keep it legal, the changes aren't that crazy different... Oh, and I got MVP and it really meant a lot to me, thank you CCR, and thank you STRD for helping me pushing myself and being a part of something that is amazing, and sorry I've been pissy and difficult lately...

I also wanna give out Fresh Meat an extra shoot-out for coming down and cheering us on, we needed that extra love!

I love rollerderby Sweden, you guys are awesome, I love the hard work we put in together! Amazing!!

My really cute MVP award!

And I do admit I love my A-team a tad extra, what is there not to love after seeing them sing karoke or dance at the stage in sports bras? Seriously! I must say I miss Husse, with her in the crew we knew we would win the afterparty, she's an animal... (and she was good to have on the track too)

Lets continue work hard and have those stupid laughs together..: and the drive to play great and amazing derby (and it feels good when we win too)

Karoke afterparty... and seriously... me and Becky do NOT sing... Amy is the star!

STRD Allstars team meeting

Our Allstars are all moooodels..... 

So another day with no practice, so we had a team meeting instead. I love my team, everyone are so sweet and silly, we also have a few new additions to the Allstars, that I hope will work out really well. It feels like the season hasn't really started yet and people are just done decompressing from last season...

We are playing Crime City on Saturday. That will be fun and also my last weekend trip in quite a few weeks.

Don get me wrong, I love to travel, but it's really tiering, and I wanan be home and cuddle!

Look HOW excited we are... probably need less cupcakes and more beer?

South 'n Roll Camp in Montpellier Day TWO

Sunday we ran a three hours of practice - mostly pack-drills... since the previous day we had worked on more induvudual work... and since we all know that rollerderby is a team-sport it's important to get all those induvidual skills into the your packwork... and so we did... and it was great to see how many opf the girls already were using things we had taught them the previous day.
We kept on havingPooky translating the drills into French and me and Fenix showing it with our non-French speaking bodies... It was a good time!
Lunch was tons of food and that made me SUPERDUPER happy, sicne all we got for breakfast was a pain au chocolate (tha's like a chocolate crossiant) and hardly breakfast for athletes, and made me think about the World Cup in Toronto, when the breakfast was NOT suitable for girls that were about to play 1-4 bouts that day. Eating nutriousious is SO important when you work out and use your body for hours and hours...

Nevermind, we got lot's and lots of yummy food for lunch and after that it was scrimmage time for the girls in the bootcamp... It was superfun to watch and see how well everyone were doing, using different skills we had worked on during the two days of the camp... I have NO clue if the white or the black team won, but both did great...

And then it was just for me to head back to the train that would take me back to Paris and another night of haning out with my favorite Em.

Trivial Pursuit...

I love quiz games... and I just discovered that you can play TP on Wii... I am not completly down with those handheld damn devices that usually do exactly the opposite that I want... but I am totally down with the game!
Britta keep on beating me... but not for long... not for long.... 

A free day in BERLIN

So on Monday I stayed in Berlin to just hang out with Titty and Anna, and sadly enough Titty got sick... so I had to hit town with Anna and Kosmic... and after almost carting Kosmic off to the wrong airport (Berlin has two main airports) it was just me and Anna running out and in in stores... I tried on hiiiigh heels and then we had some Aisian food before we headed home to Titty who was in bed with the flu. To make my life a little more exciting I missed my flight, since i for some crazy reason had looked on my arrival time in Stockholm and assumed it was my departure time from Berlin. So I had to spend some hard earned savings on a new ticket home, because staying another day was not an option, I had a late night date waiting in Stockholm and a job e next day that enable me to go on those travels...  

Best shoes EVER.... I did NOT buy them!

South 'n Roll Camp in Montpellier Day ONE

Putting the fork together...

So after spending that short, hot time in Paris I jumped on a train to Montpellier toghether with Pooky, Fenix, Bella and Tique. With the risk to come off as very ignorant and clueless, I have to admitt I had NO clue were I was going. I knew I was going to Montpellier but had NO idea where in France it might be.... I googled it to find out that I was going trough almost all of France to hit the town.
We got picked up at the trainstation and taken to the place we were staying, to our horror we discovered that they were smoking inside. We all know how strongly I feel about not smoking, and I can tell you having a cold deos not make it more delightful... Well, well.. we got fed and it was LOVLEY with food, and the girl who lived in the house was amazing, she also gave me some red wine, and in France I'm quite sure it's a law that I have to drink a ghlass of red every night...

Tall Coaching... 

The next day we got up to coach, and we had two tracks an 58 mostly French ladies (I learned later there were three girls from Switzerland there too)... We started with a quite hard-core warmup, went into footwork, followed by blocking... and then lunch, some more contact drills to end the day with more specific juking and jammign exercises.
It was fun to coach with Fenix and Pooky, and it really was a help to have someone that spoke French, sometimes everyone looked at me like I was speaking Swedish (and not English)... It's so awesome to see how everyone took one exercise and used it in the next drill. It's what's sooo rewarding as a coach, when everyone are just pushing themselves and learnign. Everyone looked POOOPED in the end of the day, and so were we, just loooning to get som food into our bellies.
So after showers we were taken downtown to get some Italian food (when in France) and then get escorted to the afterparty... There was rugby on the screen and I watched some of that while drinking my Kriek (true story) and then me and Fenix took over the dancefloor with Barbie Girl... yeah... this is also true story... 

At dinner we realized we are Charlies Angels...

Montpellier by night... 

In Paris - transit

Burgers and red wine... when in Paris.... 

So on my way to coach in Montpellier I spent one night in Paris with my best friend Em. Em has NOTHinG to do with derby, we know each other from back in the day when we both competed in snowboarding... Now neither of us really snowboard anymore, but we are friends for life. She's probably the person in the world that knows me the best! It was great to get to hang out with her and to catch up on what's happening in both of our lives. We haven't seen each other since we went to Barcelona with my mother in May, and as we all know, lots of things have changed since then.
We went out for food, had some red wine, I insisted on the red wine since we were in France, I mean, she lives here, and I don' 't but I like red wine.

In the morning we went to the bakery and got the baguette and the croissant - just like they do in the movies. Back at Ems 17m2 we made coffe and had a mellow and supernice breakfast.

Best friend EVER!

The bread is still WARM from the bakery! 

Say no more...

EROC day TWO

Titty, me, Kosmic and Bananna on our way to the venue

Another day of getting up early - even if it's technically my day off - yaya... When will I get to sleep in? Well, at least not when EROC is going on... and it's exciting enough for me to not mind getting up by the crack of dawn...

Breakfast with everyone before the first "class" that contained two hours of Bloody Mary going over the new rule-set with some Q & A. I enjoyed going thruogh it all, and I took notes in Swedish, thought it might make it more accessable for some of my skaters that are native Swedish. It's interesting when you think about it, how much easier lots of things are in your native languauge and that is also one of the things we touched upon during the weekend, the language barrier... In general Swedes are quite good in English, so we get around quite well, but it probably has to do with that nothing really gets translated ever, who really cares enought to translate something to such a small language as Swedish... There is about a maximum of ten million people speaking Swedish as a first language...
Ah, well.... that was off topic, but Bloody Mary did a great presentation on the new rule-set and gave us some pointers about things that are quite important not to miss out on.
Well, whatever is cleaver, after teh two hours of new rules I headed into a disskussiongroup with WFTDA reps and reps for National Organizations...

EROC ended as always with a HUGE discussion with ALL the attendees... and once again we ended up talking about WFTDA and our National Organizations. I had to stand up and do an impromptu presentation about the Swedish Skating Federation infront of over 100 ppl. Made me nervous...

After that we went and scrimmaged, and it was GREAT fun, black v.s white, and we were about 40 ppl on each team, so we ended up splitting our team to only play one half. I played the first half and got to play with Rotation and Mainey and also Sabo and Bunny from Copenhagen. So it was good times and fun, felt like it was well-deserved after 2 days off siting down... argh... it does seem like everyone are catching some sort of  sickness, Shevil was hiding at home all weekend, and that was sad, because she is one of my favorites... she did come out for dinner ... I am CROSSING my fingers I didn't catch the derbyonic pleauge...

Dinner was with some of my favorite Berliners and Americans and it was classy and vegetarian, I love eating out in Berlin, soooo many options! MMmmm... rollerderby and food.... life is not about to get much better! 

Last BIG discussion!

EROC day ONE

Me and Titty on our way to breakfast... it's dark outside and it's Saturday...

I love how EROC evolve each year... I am very happy to be a part of the ever growing European rollerderby scene. I am not sure how excited I am about getting up at 07.00 my days off work...

I came to represent Stockholm together with our new Chairperson/Leauge President Reddie and our most experienced referee Fluke, both are two people I respect and enjoy spending time with.

First day was getting up early and hurry to the breakfast, say hello to a bunch of people that I like to call my friends (that would be the people I hadn't seen the night before at the welcoming party). It's always nice to see how many we are that show up to shape the future of European Rollerderby...

Say HELLO to Chairman Red... (I wanna star calling her Mao for no reason at all)

The conference started with leagues being grouped together. According to when they were founded : veteran, intermediate and veteran. Since Stockholm was founded in 2007 we ended up in the veteran group, the discussion pretty much followed the theme of what EROC 2013 would be about - WFTDA membership, national organizations, growing and merby.

After that I spent a little time listening to the Social Network System that sponsor Berlin and how they structure their communication. It was quite interesting, but not really sure if Stockholm need another forum...

Bloody Mary doing simple math so we all can understand what she's talking about...

Bloody Mary held a WFTDA talk with member leagues and AP leagues, as usual it's interesting to hear what Bloody has to say since she's going in on her 11th season as a player and have worked with WFTDA since 2009.

Paying attention... 

In the end of the day I was starving and headed for dinner with Red and a bunch of mostly officials (I don't know how this happens all the time) and had AMAZING Pho! Best Pho since I left Seattle!

When finished with food I went over to Master Blasters store Quad and hung out , Stefanie Mainey was fitting people with atoms new boots, I tried them on and they were surprisingly comfortable. And then I went out for a bite with KidBlock and Mainey, before I headed home to Titty and Anna

Pissy mood when not working out...

Like SERIOUSLY - I become a freaking PISSY little freak if I don't work out... So after being a completly inpleasent person at work yesterday I grabbed myself to the gym and forced myself upon a 50 min boxing class and then 30 minutes with my fab PT Cai, with him I have sort of a hardcore upperbody/core program - since rollerderby gives me lots of the lowerbody workout...

I have to admitt I felt just amazingly much calmer afterwards all this crazy working out and feeling like I wanted to bite someones head of, and I cannot even blame it on PMS, or maybe I can.... So I went home, made dinner, had to think about three good things during the day and watch an episode of Veronica Marsh.

So note to SELF: You are not allowed to skip the gym/work out, because you become less pleasent to your surroundings, and we don't wanna ruin your reputation of being such a delightful lovley creature... And also you have a big challange coming up on the 3/3 - so you are all about getting fit for that. (Britta you better watch out)

I am so totally BOOKED the next two weeks it is not even close to funny - I am going to EROC, home for two days and then heading to Montpellier to coach at a bootcamp, back home just to head to Malmö to bout CCR... Yes... so I need to get some daily routines in, even when I am away.

Don't get me wrong, I love to travel, and I know it will all be great fun, but I wanna sit on a couch and eat pancakes and watch friends with a special someone, and havign to postpone it three weeks - is just not so great!

My work just got me a membership at SATS - plus I still have five more times left with my PT Cai... plus that I just discovered that all of Friskis and Svettis outdoor classes are free... so when I am no longer booked for traveling - be prepared to find me at a gym or at rollerderby practice...

Yay for the gym

EROC for the third time

So many things have happened the past two years... I had just lived in Europe for about a month when I was asked to come to the first EROC - and it has evolved so much... European derby that is... my German has just gotten a tad better and I've visited Berlin probably about 10 times the past two years... VIVA Berlin... I had a short time I really thougth I wanted to move there, I still might be harboring a secret dream about Berlin... but I love Stockholm and I am getting quite serious about Stockholm being my hometown.

Anna and Titty - my weekend hosts

I am staying with Titty Twista and her GF Anna and I'm psyked to get to spend some quality time with them, just chilling and talking... Maybe some drinks and good food! I've made so many good friends through derby, and I am truly thankful to this sport that has made such a great impact on my life! Last year I stayed with Rotation and Shevil and the year before with MasterBlaster, and I am truly excited to see them all! It will be quite amazing!

When I came to Europe we only had one WFTDA leauge - now we have several - we have so many that we can sit down and discuss at EROC. I am truly happy and excited that rollerderby is pushing forward and to be a part of this! An to all the people that are in derby that have challanged me to be a better player, coach, captain and person in general!

STRD finally got our WFTDA-patches

Scrimmage with Freshies

So we had four girls yesterday that got just passed their minimumskills - and now got to partake in scrimmage for the first time. We made sure that each line only had one girl, and I really tried to be peppy and verbally help the new girl that got to play when I was on track. All participants knew it was their first scrimmage - so we tried to work really hard on teamwork and bootyblocking - rather than big hits. We didn't wanna kill our newbies at their first scrimmage, it's confusing enought to just be oin track for them. And I was really impressed, they all did really well, and all of them got the opportunity to both block and to jam.

Sometimes it's frustrating to tone your game down, but at the same time you know it's good for the leauge in the long-run, so it's ok, plus it's so great to see when the new girls just progress, and progress, and progress... and soonish I hope to see them bout with our B-team. .

I thought i was gonna die...

So yesterday was another of my really busy days, work and all that regular things and I'm supposed to get a lot prepared for Stockholm Rollerderbys annual meeting on Saturday... I really do not have the time... Grrr...

Well, so I got a gymcard from work, and I'm really excited about that - so I decided to take a class right after work, and of course I left work too late and missed it. And decided to join Britta on a run with her gym, and OMFuckingG I thought I was gonna die. We ran and ran, there were intervals and most of all it was freaking negative twelve degrees outside...

I do admit - it felt FANTASTIC afterwards and I am happy I did it, but seriously I feel like I deserve a medal or something... I am not kidding, going running in this cold weather does not make you look sexy at all... Snot pouring out of your nose and breath freezing your lungs... Oh yeah... I miss running on the beach of Natal in Brazil!

And its getting warmer - but I do prefer snow over rain... I guess I am never happy...

Well, this is in Celsius... but still...

Athletic wear... why is it so hot..?

Is it odd that I get turned on by seeing the girl I like in an Addidas overall? Do I have some sort of perversion because I think girls in athletic wear is far hotter than any thing or bra? A girl that excels in sports is quite a turn on to me... and seriously, I love to buy athletic wear too... Yeah... I might have a problem... Help?

Last night: Shopping for free!

AKA "Klädbytarkväll" (clothes exchanging night)... this was just sooo much fun! And it's so great for the environment, it saves you money and you totally update your wardrobe and your old clothes beome someones new cool clothes.

I think it's just a tad too small, I can't lift my arms

The concept is really easy and simple: Each person get to bring between one to ten items, clothes, shoes, acessories that they don't use anymore, but still think are great. I know we all have some items in our wardrobe that we really like, we just don't think it fit us, or something we bought on sale just to realize that it's just the wrong color. The clothes have to be clean and in nice condition, when you arrive to the "party" you put the clothes in a pile, and then it's just open for everyone to start looking through the things and grab whatever you think is amazing and cool...

Me, Amy and Kix being FAB

So I had about seven people turn up, and I think everyone left the switcheroo night feeling like they had something new, cool and fun with them. I got a awesome dress and sone shirts that will work amazing for work... and I had a great night with friends and we got to try all the clothes on...

We turned Kix into a VERY traditonal looking lesbian and then into a politican, and then we all decided we were Russian mailorder brides and I think we ended the dress-up with some Cabaret style clothes... I totally recommend doing this, it's environmental friendly, cheap, HILLERIOUS and you get to get rid of some clothes and gain some fun additons to your wardrobe!  

CABAREEEEEET... if you only kneeew...

An amazing weekend

Sometimes roads just end... Rudeass hitting the wall... 

This weekend was chill but quite awesome, it contained good company, good food, good friends, good movies and ice-skating... I woke up this morning and felt really relaxed and happy...

Saturday was mellow and I went to watch The Godfather on the big screen, and birthday present from Britta, and afterwards we made some version of a pasta carbonara. Before bed-time I swung by Minna and Maloonys move in party... Crash had made a very impressive vagina cake... I think it almost made me blush...

Weather on Sunday was stellar and the plan was to go to the movies all day (Gordfather II and III), but we played hookey and went for a walk and then ice-skating instead. I skipped derby practice, and I felt OK about it, and that my dear friends, does not happen very often. Life is supposed to be about fun and what you adore doing and the people you love in your life... It's about feeling appreciated and pushing yourself and the people around you to be the best they can be. 

Britta is fit for fight for some skating 

Crash is talented and yes - it made me blush

2013 practices have started again

Back in business... 2013 season has started

Friday we had scrimmage and that was kick-ass... like really awesome and fun, playing rollerderby makes me happy and skating is really kick-ass fun. Lot's of our B-team players are looking just fab... and of course the A-team girls are amazing as always. After practice we went for a beer and enjoyed each others company, and to be honest, sometimes it's really important to just hang out, outside practice... I like it! I love it!

 It's good to be back... even if I made some big decisions about how much time I will devote to derby this season...

I will not go to two derby related meetings the same week, and will neither go to more than two on-skate practices a week, and I will attend the practices that are targeted towards our more advanced skaters. I wanna reserve time for friends, family and otehr experiances... maybe even soem time to catch up on sleeping (I know crazy thought)

2013 here I come...

And it of course involves physical activity - and that is not only the kind of activity that happens on the derby track... I have signed up for Tough Viking... It's gonna be CRAZY! And we all know since Team Cruz, I am all of what a viking can be... otherwise Demanda wouldn't have invited me to play with them... it might also be the way I handle a big hammer... or my war-makeup...
I really don't know why I think this is gonna be a good idea, but I guess it will keep me motivated... also in mid-March me and this awesome girl Britta have a face-off challange. We still have not decided on the exact 8 challanges that we will face off against each other in... but I am quite sure it will be tough.. and I am planning on winning. I told my PT all about it yesterday, and then he made me do all those crazy exercises involving chins, inverted burpees and planks... Britta you are soooo going doooown...

I also have found a place where I can get my breakfast smoothie/juice and right now I'm drinking something that is warm and involves a banana and almondmilk... just can't be wrong... it taste so good, and I've decided that it's good for me! Beach 2013 and Tough Viking, you will NOT know what have hit you...

Rollerderby practice has also started, it is still really mellow with focus on our Fresh Meat that have their minimumskills test in 2 weeks. I haven't really had the time not the energy to focus much on our FM, I think I'm at the point in my derbycareer where I acctually mostly wanna focus on the highest level play possible within my leauge. Can't wait to do windsprints tonight... and some scrimmage... some scrimmage will be AWESOME!!

So my plan is two onskate practices a week, one session with my PT (crazy guy called Cai) and then at least one or two other off-skate activities... it might be ice-skating, playing rugby, Nordic Military Training or somethign in the line of that... I am getting a gympass to SATS and I know that Kim has a pass to there... adn she is about as work-out crazy as I am... so I think that is a good idea... I just don't like to work out by myself, it is just no fun at all! And yesterday I wore yellow to the gym to show of the last tad of my tan... yeah...