Dark day for Liverpool FC

Today I am rather gutted to announce Michael Owens return to the premiership. Gutted because Owen will not be gracing the Reds on the Merseyside but will be scoring alot of goals for a certain Newcastle on the Tyneside instead. Owen for years has been my favourite striker in the world because of his speed, agility, finishing touch and his temperament on the pitch. He's an alround nice guy and a fantastic soccer player and happened to play for the Reds. So, this I think is the first significant blunder that Rafa Benetez has made since taking on managing Liverpool, why? Because firstly Owen wanted a return to the Reds and secondly he is a prolific goalscorer averaging about 20 goals a year, 8 more than last years top score for the red shirt. But what a situation: Owen one of the worlds best strikers finds himself without first team action due to Guti, Raul, Ronaldo and now Robinho as choices ahead of him at Real. To add to the frustration Sven has given an ultimatum that England players must be playing first team football to make his world cup squad. So naturally Owen wants to move to a club he will get 1st team footy only to find that all the English powerhouses have closed their checkbooks for the summer and he can't even get Champions League soccer back in England (the reason he left the European champions for Real in the first place) What a miserable situation for poor Owen, i feel for him but I'm also sad for Liverpool, they just didn't get in in time. In the words of Steven Gerrard (they may well be infamous in the near future) "Of course I want Michael to return, he's worth at least 20 goals a season. Imagine him returning to Anfield and scoring against us, it would be a nightmare!!" Those words will probably be lived down this season. However, my best wishes do go out to Owen as he was rather short on options . I hope to see him scoring for England at the World Cup next year.

In all this Real come away the fat cats again with about a 10 million pound profit on the player alone for a years worth of service to the club as Newcastle bought him for an estimated 17million.

Back to Invers

A family history
So i'm back in Invercargill with my family for the holiday week. Why there you might ask? I'm actually a 5th generation Southlander, my great great grandfather coming to Gabriels Gully in the goldrush from England. He managed to get enough gold to buy some land in Nightcaps (western southland) and find a wife to bear his children, one of whom became a butcher I think, and he doth begot my grandfather. Grandpa married grandma who grew up in green island (dunedin) and then mum and dad both grew up in Invers, went to uni got married and came back here. So what is it that keeps them here/makes them come back? I actually looked up what Invercargill had to say for itself on the net and it was quite insightful.

Here's an exert, from the tourism website

"New Zealand's southernmost city, Invercargill, is still arguably one of the country's most intact from our early development period. While in more recent times a number of fine old buildings have bowed to new structures, Invercargill remains much the city of consequence it became in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The once swampy site, which initially attracted European settlers eager to set up a flax-milling industry" and also, "Invercargill's early prosperity resulted not only in the construction of many fine commercial buildings, predominantly of brick and plaster, but also of some very notable churches."

I don't know about anyone else who reads this but it seems to say "hello I'm Invercargill, I flourished 100 years ago for about 50 years, we're more than just flax millers now. Come visit."

There are still plenty of reasons I love this little spot but I do get depressed at its lack of life and vibrance that it claims it has but doesn't. So to my friends who haven't been to invercargill what is the place like?

Here's my most honest account of the place. Invercargill lacks much but is so close to so much that isn't lacking. This includes countless National parks, Fiordland and Catlins are of significant note. Adventure capital Queenstown is only and hour and half away and the rest of the central otago which is actually faster to get to from Invers than Dunners. Stewart Is is just across the strait and all in all I would say that these are some of the worlds most beautiful, untouched areas.

So I'm by no means gutted about being bought up here, but as my horizons have broadened a little the only real drawcard to return is family and friends, then getting out of the place to the places I just mentioned. In a sense the southern south island is my soul country/homeland, not so much this funny wee city.

the pictures: a cockatoo that is under the "attractions" on the website? and then the Watertower which stands tall and proud by itself.

EMG and quadracep recruitment

Well since i'm a physio I have to put some interesting stuff about the body on my blog sometime. So I've been part of the control group in a study done my Gisela Sole at the physio school on recruitment of hamstrings after hamstring injury. To blow confidenciality I was subject number 8, so in the next 6 months to a year I shall be in a reputable medical journal as subject 8 in the control group. The study involved me getting parts of my leg and elsewhere shaved and electrodes put over different muscle groups like the young lady in the picture here. The electrode read how much electrical activity my muscles are getting sent via my nerves (recruitment). I was then put on the Kin Com machine which assesses muscle strength of leg muscles. It was found that in my left leg I have a very good balance between hamstrings and quads while in my right side I have hamstrings which are too strong, out of balanced . This has interesting implications as I have had a hamstring injury (grd 2 muscle tear) in 1st year. The fact that it is stronger is due to overstrengthening during rehab since injury which means the body actually starts to use it (the hamstring) more in functional activities such as running more than it should, creating more strain and a higher likelihood of reinjury due to this dominance. So as it works out I could have fitted perfectly into Giselas subject group only my injury is too old. She is hypothesising that too much rehab prediposes you to reinjury of your hamstring. If you find this interesting let me know and I'll tell you the journal to find the article is in once it is published.

Huge Sporting W/E

Well we started the weekend with England again off to a flyer against the aussies in the ashes, lets hope they can finish and the characteristic bad weather of the UK be kept at bay til day 6. Saturday found the big game of the season for the AB's at the den in sydney against an aussie side that is in an appauling state. Thankfully the night was complete with a solid win but the first 60mins were very frustrating given our dominace that wasn't materialising in points. Wasn't it good to see Joe back!?
And then finally this weekend kicked off another premiership season in England. My Liverpool started with a quote "limp" performance in a nil all draw with Borough. I think the premiership although its great to have the top flight playing again, the off season could have been longer, you don't quite get enough time to miss it before its back. Pics are Joe Roko beating David Lyons (no contest there) and Gerrard missing one of his 3 chances on Saturday.

Finally my photos start to flow!!

Hello, there we go, we have pickies capablitly now. This is me and Ols having a cheese and tomato relish sandwich for lunch in the Rockburn valley, Mt Aspiring National Park on your left. we stayed under a rock biv that night but were rained out the next morning, so no glacier climbs for us that time. bummer. This shot to the right is Wakatipu and the Remarkables at the height of summer from Closeburn at a wedding I attended. nice view for your big day

Blog networking

Well I've decided its time to add another posting since I'm now part of the wider blogging community. His majesty Darren "blog" Hight who gets thousands of hits on his blog and numerous comments has put me on his list of other people with blogs. So I decided that today might be a nice day to put some photos on of some of the lovely places I've been in recent months. these are turkey, mt aspiring national park and port pegasus on stewart is. justin once taught me but after awhile of fiddling in the templating section for awhile gave up, so no interesting eye candy on this site for awhile longer. As for the comment Darren about coming to see you for World Cups and hint hint....well I might not make the soccer one, but I'm pretty keen for the rugby one the following year, it seems a little more attainable for me so maybe Switzerland later in 2007 might be my best bet, unless of course i get a break from physio for a bit and get lots of money, then your wedding will be on the cards