During April, 2007 I was introduced to an online football management game called "Hattrick".  It is a free game to play and claims to be the world's greatest and most popular online football manager game.  Now I do not know of any other games like this, however it is seriously addictive. 

In Hattrick, you run your own football team and compete against nearly 1 million human users from all over the world.  The reason why I like the game is that it brings together two passions of mine.

 

No.1 Business managemet - you have to manage a profit and loss statement, you hire and fire players and staff and you can strategise to improve your team to generate more money.

 

No.2 Sport - being an aussie, you name the sport and I have either played it or watched it.  There is nothing better than watching your team come from behind and win at the death.

 

The matches are played in real time twice a week (a league game and a friendly game). You can log on at any time to check the status of your team, issue training orders, trade players - or just hang out with other Hattrick users.  Like any online game you can make as many or as little friends as you like.  You can also upgrade for a small fee and unlock some amazing benefits.

 

www.hattrick.org 

The Victorian Winch Challenge was held over the weekend at a property just outside of Yea.  Competition was over 2.5 days and spectators turned up in the thousands to watch modified 4wds do their stuff.  There were three tracks to test out the 4wds.  It is called a winch challeneg for a reason, even with the drought and dry conditions many 4wds had to winch their way up the track because their 4wd was not capable enough, however it was noticed more on the third day that drivers were making positioning errors that result in them having to winch.  The WARN winch wall saw most of the winching, with a near vertical dirt wall climb and I do not recall anyone driving this wall.  Many teams at the start of the day were winching quickly, however as the wall was being destroyed due to massive wheel spinning the last few 4wds really struggled and a number were unable to finish.

 

The event proved a great way for Rod and I to investigate what it takes to do and prepare for a 4wd competition.  Even though we will do an easier introductory competition, such as Navrun, it illustrates the minimum modifications required to actually get out there and compete and also the $$$ you need to spend to actually be remotely competitive.  A great day was had by all and no doubt we will be talking about a few of the modifications and 4wds that we saw for a long time to come.   

The annual alpaca shearing took place on 11/11/2007.  It was a long and arduous 10 hours of manhandling alpacas into position to enable the shearer to do his job.  It also involved collecting and sorting the fleece while it was being shorn.  We had 30 alpacas to shear and the weather was perfect all day, average 25 degress celcius and blue skies.  The body is feeling the effects of 10 hours of constant moving...maybe a massage is in order!