Choose your own adventure - September

​Choose your own adventure 28/9/23
 
Today’s blog is our “Choose your own adventure” addition! It’s fast becoming a favourite for our talented bloggers and having the freedom to write about anything they like shows us what is making their intelligent minds tick! As our regular support worker Jessy is on a family holiday we welcomed our support worker Krystle and Sheridan our Disability Cert IV student who is spending the next five weeks with us. They were both super impressed by the team and their writing.


Sporting in Spring is such a busy time, we’ve got the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup, Swimming competitions and much more since the weather is so nice, but today, I’m not going to talk about AFL or horse racing, in fact I highly doubt you have heard of this sport.

Maybe you’ve seen it on the Medicare Insurance advertisement 2 or 3 years back. What I’m talking about is called Swordcraft.  A LARPing game, where you fight your friends and teammates with foam swords and dress up in medieval clothing.

It’s quite an intense game of make believe and fun mixed with Warhammer fantasy lore.
I first started in 2019 just after my trip to Japan. My character is a half elf and I wear prostatic ears alongside my makeup and clothes, I am a speedy healer with a foam staff with a rapier by my side.

This hobby does come with an expensive build up to make your character and immersive yourself as your character. Here’s a quick rundown of how much I’ve paid for my equipment.

My main weapon is my mage staff which I heal and cast spells which comes with a hefty price of $326.95 (as of now) my rapier is $176.95 (as of now), my brown leather and red corsert is $195.95.

I would recommend playing this for an emersed environment and to get fit in a nerdy way and buying preowned items.

I’m planning on going back to play soon, they play on Friday nights in Melbourne at Westen Oval in Parkville Victoria, I sometimes even go to the Saturday games every fortnight in Traralgon.
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It is fun and very tiring but it is so worth it. – Holly
 

My dad Brendan was diagnosed with throat cancer on the 27th of June 2023. His journey has begun spending a lot of time in and out of hospitals like Monash Clayton and Peter Mac. He has been getting many tests done and is being given lots of medications. The effect has been really tough on my family and dad has been through so much, so have my mum and my family.
 
It’s been very hard watching him go through the treatment. Recently we received encouraging news which helps us to stay positive. Have you or a loved one gone though cancer treatment and if so how did it affect you? From my family to yours we can get through this. Don’t stop believing love Jess.
 

​Welcome to our blog today. I speak about my experiences about going to the AFL Grand Final.
 
​I have been to loads of grand finals. The first one was in 2014. I was a bit nervous because it was against Hawthorn who are a great AFL team in my opinion as I liked a couple of the players who used to play for them or currently do now. Sadly, this was my first loss.  I thought of the positive not every team can make the finals and my team the Sydney Swans have a chance like every team each year.
 
In 2015 I also went to a grand final. Sadly the Swans lost against Hawks again but at least we tried. I remember some of the players who played in these games. There we some players who have since retired. 
 
In 2016 I went to my first grand final parade. I got to see some of my favorite Sydney players. Issac Heeney remember me and gave me the thumbs up as I recently went to  Sydney the week before. I loved seeing the players as it brought me a lot of joy and happiness there were a lot of Western Bulldogs fans there. I also got to see Patrick Dangerfield as he won the Brownlow medal this year. The next day we went to the ground it was so cool. I got a Swans flag to wave at the game sadly we lost this again year. I still go to the games even though we lose.
 
In 2022 I went to yet another grand final even though we lost by heaps of points. I was thinking of the positives and got to see one of my favourite singers , Robbie Williams. He is a rockstar and he is a great singer. Swans tried their best but it was proven that the Cats were the better team on the day.
 
I also met Joel Amartey, James Bell and Peter Ladhamas as they didn’t play on grand final day. That was my positive, getting to meet  a couple of players who I’ve never met before.
 
Thank you for reading about my experience about grand finals. Have you ever been to one? They are great. If you don’t like sport its probably not for you. There are also loads of people there too. What AFL team do you barrack for? There are a lot to choose from even if you don’t go for a team. – Scarlett


I would like to talk about my hidden talents.  I have many.
 
Firstly, I have supernatural senses due to growing up in Christian home. I can tell the difference between undead and spirits and no, I am not an exorcist. 
 
I am also very good at cooking/baking as my dad’s side are all bakers and mum side are all chef’s. I picked these skills up from both my parents because it is in my blood.
 
Athletics is another hidden talent of mine as I am quite Athletic. I did lots of sports back at schools and day services. This includes tri-state games also I can put my legs around my head, but no this does not make me Spider-Man!
 
Lastly, I have great knowledge in mythology.  In many mythology’s around the world they have dark past also with pop culture’s such as movies, TV shows, novels (my favourite novel is Bram stoker’s Dracula).  This is a huge interest to me. 

Do you have any hidden talents? – Phillip


HELLO FRIENDS! 
 
Welcome to today's blog. Every month we do a choose your own adventure blog which means we get to choose our own topics, when normally we all have the same topic that is voted on by the blogging group. For this month's Choose Your Own Adventure Blog I have chosen to dive into my journey of becoming obsessed with reading. 

I have a “small” library of books at home and when I say small, I mean two bookcases crammed with over 200 books. After reading that sentence it might surprise you to learn that I haven't always enjoyed reading, in fact in my early primary school days I HATED reading, it just wasn’t something I was good at, and I couldn’t make the words make sense to me, it was really frustrating that I wasn’t able learn as quickly as my classmates and I wasn’t interested in the books I was using to learn to read.  
 
In 2003 my grade three teacher took us to the school library; it was a weekly trip for about half an hour or forty minutes. Never usually a life changing experience, except on this day it was. My grade three teacher asked me about the books I liked to read and obviously I said I don’t like to read. I think I might have offered my Grade three teacher a challenge that day and she 100% took it. 

You see what I didn’t know is that you could choose books about things that interested you and that everyone learns at a different pace. This is what happens when books are chosen for you, which is what most teachers did and when I didn’t read, I got told off or given extra books to read. Fun Right?  
 
However, this teacher took the time to ask what I was interested in. At that time, I was OBSESSED with horses and The Saddle Club. She took me to the area of the library that had books like Pony Pals, Black Beauty, Pony Tails and of course The Saddle Club.  

This moment was life changing for me because even if I wasn’t ready to start reading The Saddle Club Books that day. I had something to work towards and get excited about, plus my grade three teacher was there to help me get to all my reading goals. Guess who learned to read and enjoys reading now? 
 
ME! 
 
Shout Out to My Grade Three teacher for the time, patience and commitment. Also, to my mum who saw all my frustration trying and failing to do the reading thing. We got there in the end <3  

I must recommend books while I have your attention: 
The Resilience Project – Hugh Van Cuylenburg, Different Not Less – Chloe Hayden, First We Make The Beast Beautiful- Sarah Wilson, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart- Holly Ringland and Horrie The Wog Dog – Ion Idriess – Shan
 

Today's topic is the writer's choice and I have chosen coffee stores and reason is because people go to different coffee stores.

What is your idea of a coffee store?  Mine is Starbucks because in my opinion Starbucks is a good coffee store.
 
Let me start with history of the Starbucks company. It was founded in Seattle US on March 30th 1971, and there are 90 stores throughout America. In July 2000 the first Starbucks in Australia wasnopened in Sydney NSW by former Starbucks employee Howard Schultz.
 
At one stage there were 90 stores throughout Australia, today there are only 17 stores, 7  are in Victoria. There are over 8,000 varieties of drinks that you can purchase. My favourite is only available at Christmas time. It’s the Gingerbread latte but during the year I like a chai latte.
 
Do you have a favourite drink at Starbucks and if so what is it? - Charlotte
 
 Well there you go! Another snap shot into the minds of these creative writers. Join us again next week as our talented team… JUST WRITE!