I was up very late to start off the weekend. I’m not sure why but I ended up sleeping at 5am but I do remember tweeting some stuff. I set the alarm to 8am but woke up a few minutes before 9am realising I was very late!
I jumped out of bed and got ready quickly before hopping into the rental and heading down the highway to another town to meet with some old refereeing friends. It was good to meet them for breakfast and chat together again. I hadn’t seen many of them for quite some time. A lot of chatting about old stories, current news and my future plans. I realised all of them were Futsal referees as well!
After breakfast, I had to run a few errands, visit relatives and visit my new niece. I was on a clock however. I needed to get back home in time to make it to the running track by 7pm. I had convinced the RA secretary to push the running group time to give me enough time considering it was my probably my last time running. I made it well on-time but unfortunately being so late in the holiday season, it was only me, him and his wife. Everyone else must have been busy. A good run though!
After the run, I had time to make a few phone calls; multi-tasking while packing. A very old mentor of mine came to meet me which was very nice since I hadn’t seen him for a while and he got me started in refereeing when I arrived in the country.
I was exhausted by the end of the night by the day’s proceedings and decided to leave it to a last-minute marathon in the morning. By then, I had only finished my referee box. I knew it would be a long time before I saw my Ervocoms or anything else in that box again so I took a careful look at everything before placing it into the box.
Come morning, I was busy right up until the movers arrived and when it was time for me to get to the airport. A close friend came by for the last few minutes and before I knew it, a local high-level referee came to give me a ride to the airport.
I think I surprised half the people I said goodbye to by hugging them. Most of them went for handshakes but hadn’t realised that my refereeing family was and had become my home-away-from-home.
I knew I wasn’t going to miss the snow very much though. I was about to dodge the cold bullet.
On the way to the airport, I asked him how he managed jet lag and travel fatigue with games. He mentioned that arriving at least mid-way through the prior day helped along with a mild high intensity workout the same night to calibrate the body to weather and temperature. I decided I may give it a shot when I landed.
A new chapter is about to begin.
Refereeing the Beautiful Game 