amsterdam
Sitting at the airport thinking back on the trip to Qatar. It took me a while to do this post cause I wanted have some time and reflect about it.
I am so disappointed. I have so high expectations on myself at the moment and I was so devastated after bowling 3 squads AND the desperado. 11 hours in the bowling center, 19 games of bowling. My best squad was ~80 over and it took +117.
I struggled so much to carry. The pattern was tough. It was not hard to get to the pocket but to carry, if you did changes you could easily end up leaving splits. As in more than just one.
I never got the feeling that I could just bowl and enjoy it, I had to chase it the whole time. Need to figure out a way to get out of that zone.
On my way home now. I have made it to Amsterdam. 3h more and then it's time to fly to Copenhagen, then a 1,5h train ride before I'm home.
I cannot wait to go home, sleep in my own bed, eat some Christmas food tonight haha and then go back to practice. I need more practice. I need to get stronger in my mental game. I need to prepare better for AIK.
#determined.
squad 1
My bowlingballs made it just in time for the last squad yesterday. Actually, we arrives to the bowling center only a few mins before the squad was gonna start. A little stressed out but so excited to bowl.
My plan with that squad was to bowl and collect as much information as possible for today. Even though I have bowled in this bowling center before I still feel like I know nothing about it. I have NEVER bowled good here. There is just something about this center that it's can figure out but yesterday's squad put me one step closer.
I'm not sure about my total score but I bowled 180, 210, 220 and 170x3. I shouldn't have move that far left as I did yesterday, I think that is what I have done wrong every single time. I'm gonna try and stay a little further right (we are still talking like feet on 25) and let my Hyroad pearl do the work in the end.
Yesterday my Asylum, IQ Nano and Hy Road Pearl had the best look.
Giving it another try now at noon.
Doha, Qatar
The last day and a half has taken so much energy. Traveling itself takes alot of energy but when it doesn't run smoothly AT ALL, yea I have no words for it.
I'm just gonna explain and let you decide if I'm exaggerating or not.
It all started with a 2.30am wake up call and I was so tired cause I only got 2h sleep.. my own fault I guess but I just couldn't fall asleep. Got up, showered, got dressed and packed the last few things before mom picked me up at 3.30am.
We drove to the airport, it took us a little over an hour cause we made one stop for breakfast on the way down.
When we got to the airport, mom gave me a big hug, wished me luck and drove back home. I took all my stuff and went to the check - in desk. I thought: "this is gonna be an easy trip since I already paid for my extra bag and I'm probably gonna sleep the whole flight." HA! If only I knew what was coming.
When I stood there at the desk she told me there is a possibility that I'm gonna miss my flight cause it's overbooked. I told them that I have to be in Doha tonight and they promise me that will happen.
Boarding at 5.30am and when it was my turn to go through the last check point they called me to the side and said "hey, we need to change you flight cause it's full."
GREAAAAT
my options:
1. Fly out at 11 am, have a layover in frankfurt and get to Doha at 9.30pm.
2. Fly straight from Copenhagen to Doha at 3pm and get there one our later.
So my options from my point of view:
1. Fly our earlier but give them a chance to mess it up with bags or even get unlucky and miss my connection flight
Or
2. Sit at cph airport in 9h and fly straight.
I chose option number two.
I got free access to the lounge and also 4400dkk as a compensation.
It took me about two hours to get all that fixed with new tickets, vouchers etc. When I finally got to the lounge I had breakfast number two and then I built a bed out of two chairs and fell asleep. I slept off and on for about 4h and then it was time to eat something before heading over to my gate.
Boarded.
Flight was good. I had the whole row to myself, like literally the whole row to myself. Of course I took advantage of this and laid down and slept. Well after I cried my eyes out when watching the movie "the fault in our stars".
Woke up just before we were gonna land cause the whole plane was shaking, so turbulent but the landing was good.
Went through customs without and problems but went I got to the belt where my luggage was supposed to be at, I couldn't find them. Sad face.
They had 9h to get my bowling bags on the flight and they failed.
Made the report and left the airport and hour and a half later.
No bowling balls and 6 hours later than I was supposed to.
It's 5.30pm now. I still have no bowlingballs but I'm gonna go to the airport in 30mins to see if they have arrived. Fingers crossed please!
Now: table tennis with the swedes. :)
Doha, Qatar
The last day and a half has taken so much energy. Traveling itself takes alot of energy but when it doesn't run smoothly AT ALL, yea I have no words for it.
I'm just gonna explain and let you decide if I'm exaggerating or not.
It all started with a 2.30am wake up call and I was so tired cause I only got 2h sleep.. my own fault I guess but I just couldn't fall asleep. Got up, showered, got dressed and packed the last few things before mom picked me up at 3.30am.
We drove to the airport, it took us a little over an hour cause we made one stop for breakfast on the way down.
When we got to the airport, mom gave me a big hug, wished me luck and drove back home. I took all my stuff and went to the check - in desk. I thought: "this is gonna be an easy trip since I already paid for my extra bag and I'm probably gonna sleep the whole flight." HA! If only I knew what was coming.
When I stood there at the desk she told me there is a possibility that I'm gonna miss my flight cause it's overbooked. I told them that I have to be in Doha tonight and they promise me that will happen.
Boarding at 5.30am and when it was my turn to go through the last check point they called me to the side and said "hey, we need to change you flight cause it's full."
GREAAAAT
my options:
1. Fly out at 11 am, have a layover in frankfurt and get to Doha at 9.30pm.
2. Fly straight from Copenhagen to Doha at 3pm and get there one our later.
So my options from my point of view:
1. Fly our earlier but give them a chance to mess it up with bags or even get unlucky and miss my connection flight
Or
2. Sit at cph airport in 9h and fly straight.
I chose option number two.
I got free access to the lounge and also 4400dkk as a compensation.
It took me about two hours to get all that fixed with new tickets, vouchers etc. When I finally got to the lounge I had breakfast number two and then I built a bed out of two chairs and fell asleep. I slept off and on for about 4h and then it was time to eat something before heading over to my gate.
Boarded.
Flight was good. I had the whole row to myself, like literally the whole row to myself. Of course I took advantage of this and laid down and slept. Well after I cried my eyes out when watching the movie "the fault in our stars".
Woke up just before we were gonna land cause the whole plane was shaking, so turbulent but the landing was good.
Went through customs without and problems but went I got to the belt where my luggage was supposed to be at, I couldn't find them. Sad face.
They had 9h to get my bowling bags on the flight and they failed.
Made the report and left the airport and hour and a half later.
No bowling balls and 6 hours later than I was supposed to.
It's 5.30pm now. I still have no bowlingballs but I'm gonna go to the airport in 30mins to see if they have arrived. Fingers crossed please!
Now: table tennis with the swedes. :)
Qatar Open
Lazy day on the couch.
Watched a movie, TV and packed. That pretty much it. Well I ate too! Mom came by with Chinese food for dinner- she's the best!
It's 10.53pm right now and I should be sleeping. My alarm will go off in about 3,5h. Can't wait for that to happen 😴
Maybe I should tell you guys why? Cause I'm flying to Doha, Qatar!! :)
I have picked my bowlingballs, I have packed my bags, I have shaved my legs - I'm ready for some sunny weather and good bowling! 😀
I'm flying for Copenhagen, I have a 2h layover in Amsterdam and then I land at like 4pm in the afternoon swedish time which is 6pm Qatar - time. It's a 2h time difference.
I will give you all the websites you need to see the results tomorrow! I bowl on tuesday and Wednesday allndnd hopefully Thursday too, in the finals. Flying home again on the night between Thursday and Friday so I'm back by lunch on Friday. :)
Bedtime!
Gnite -S.
What the hell just happened?
I can't explain what just happened. I'm lost for words. That was one tricky match! We bowled on Montreal and it was nowhere close to last weekends match. I bowled 713 today on my four games and I tried everything I could think of. I have so many splits today!
I don't know how many times today I felt like "that one is good" and then it turned out it was not. It looked like the ball was gonna move but it didn't and sometimes it hooked WAY to hard. I tried every single ball in my bag today and actually I think I did OK the last 3 games, started with 145. I couldn't get comfy and just bowl. I had to chase it the whole time.
And Btw, should I mention that I only have one open today except the splits?
Not fun at all and it was our second lost match this season.
Rough day on the lanes to say the least. Blaaaah
♡
Just wow! The last 24h has been crazy. I'm overwhelmed by all the nice words from all of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and everyone of you who has reached out to me. I have read every single message, comment and seen every single "like". I can't stop smiling! Your support means the world to me!
♡
I just got home from work. We had around 80people eating our buffet today in the bowl so I had to show off my weitress-skills today, haha. I love to work during the cosmic bowling cause I love to meet new people. And tonight was one of the best nights working in a very long time. So many nice and fun people that made it very easy to do my 6h of work.
Did a test today too, I have an app on my phone that is counting steps, so I kept my phone in my pocket all night to see how many steps i would take before the end of my shift. I started on 3900 from earlier today. Anyone wanna guess what I ended up at?
Answer is:
OVER 12000STEPS IN 6H!!
haha I think that's alot? At least my feet hurts.
OK, it's time to pack my bags for tomorrow and then get some sleep. Bowling league tomorrow with my girls!! Fingers crossed :)
FINALLY!
I can finally announce the big news!
I'm very happy and excited to share the news that I have signed with Roto Grip!!
To read more about it:
http://www.rotogrip.com/news/?article=506
on the same website you can find my profile if to you wanna know more about me, click on "team RG" and then "International Staff".
So thankful for this opportunity and I can't wait to go to Doha and bowl my first tournament as a Roto Grip International Staff member!! :)
nightmares
When I went to bed last night I could've even imagine how I would feel when I woke up. That was one of the worst nightmares in my life. It feels like I slept for 5 minutes. I'm so tired and I woke up hysterically crying at one point. I can't tell if it was the first time, second time or the third time but it just went on. Something heartbreaking happened in my dream and I was crying my heart out.. I cried so much I woke myself up.. still crying..
What does that even mean? I didn't even know you could do that.
That was just one thing. One other thing I can remember is being somewhere, new place, somewhere warm. Meeting new people when I all of a sudden I'm running and someone is chasing me. BAM, I wake up.
Hope I can get some more sleep tonight.
Even though my day started out really bad it actually ended up pretty good. I finally took time to clean my apartment, I coached the kids, I practiced for a little while myself.. and.. dadadam! I booked flights for my next trip! Already on Monday :) I decided to go to Qatar and give that country another try. I've never qualified in that bowling center but I feel more confident this time.
Can't wait to go, it's gonna be good weather too 😍
Bedtime!
-S
makeup store
I am being very lazy at the moment. I sleep too much and I barely eat. Bad circle. I'm just not hungry. I'm just tired and lazy.
So no, I did not go to the gym today. Guess I have to try and go again tomorrow. And I'm gonna try and get this messy apartment cleaned tomorrow too. Booooooring.
Anyways.
Did my third day at makeup store today. Actually starting to feel more confident working there already. It's fun and a good challenge for me.
Look of the day:
Eyebrows and lips.
When I got back home from work I thought it would spoil myself with some waffles so I got something in my stomach today. Cooked a chicken wok before I left for work but that's the only thing I ate before 9.30pm. Waffles made me happy.
I better get some sleep soon, I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day - I have to get up in time!!!! Come on sandy.
spader dam
Another win yesterday for me and my girls! We had already won after 3 games. Great weekend if you ask me :) personally I had trouble figuring the lanes out. I felt that I was behind on the moves the whole time. Finally found a good look after two games and finished off with a 279 in the last game for 874.
What I am most proud of this weekend is that I was the oldest girl on the team with my 23years. How crazy is that? 8 other girls, all younger than me and still we are kicking ass on the lanes! We have a really talented team and it's fun to see all the young girls step up and take some space. Love my team!
Also great job to Lina and and Fia who did there first matches in the highest league division. Proud of you!
After the match yesterday we jumped in the car and drove back to Helsingborg to Watch my brothers team against their big rivals. Derby! Unfortunately my brothers team lost.
But that didn't hold us back from having a great evening. We stayed in helsingborg, bowled, danced on the bar, sang along to many songs and just enjoyed a Sunday in great company! Never a boring moment with these guys and girls. :)
Not feeling too well today though haha. Totally worth it though.
Just had a relaxing day today, had a few stuff done - two very good things that I will share with you this week!! :) can't wait!
Soon very soon bedtime. Tomorrow is gym and work day number 3 at makeup store. :)
league
road trip to gothenburg today for league with my girls. Its a 2h drive one way so that makes it 4 hours in the car today. Our match was supposed to start at 2pm but the matches before us were delayed so we didn't get on the lanes until 2.50pm. 50min behind schedule!
The center we bowled in today is one of the bigger centers in Sweden. They have 27 lanes in what feels like 3 different parts. I hope the photo below can show how they are sectioned:
So they have 9 lanes, aisle and then the other 18 but lanes 19-27 are under a lower ceiling. See how the higher numbers are further back in the center, so when you're on the approach on lane 11 - you're in the middle of the lane on 1-9. Different!
We bowled on lanes 11-18, on the pattern Montreal. We won 15-5 and I'm superhappy with the highest score of the match : 892. My Crux rolled phenomenal the first two games. Struggled a little in the middle of the third when I had to change balls and last game I had my only two opens of the day, washout and a split. I bowled very well today and stayed focus the whole time. The whole team did a great job today, you can see our scores here:
(My team is Spader dam ♡)
Dinner was served when I got back home, mom made lasagna and a mudcake for dessert 😍 she's the best.
Now time to get some sleep before another match tomorrow - off to Halmstad - my old hometown!
-S
officially my longest blogpost. EVER.
Las Vegas
I counted the days and I was so excited to go on this trip. What I was even more excited about was to share this whole experience with my mom. I am so happy she could come with me to see and try out the life on the road with me. This trip was not as bad as it normally is, I had a lot of time off bowling but many things to do outside of the lanes. Meetings, practice sessions, ball drilling, photoshoot, jetlag. I got to do so many fun things this trip, I wish every trip was like that!
We arrived Wednesday late evening, got all our luggage and took a taxi to the hotel, South Point. We checked in, I dropped my bags off at the rooms and took a quick shower to head downstairs to meet up with some friends that I had not seen since a year back and they were gonna leave the morning after. Mom went straight to bed, tired after the long flight. I didn't stay up very late.
Thursday we went downstairs to watch some bowling. I signed up for the PBA regional tournament that was played Friday but the practice session was Thursday. After the practice session I drilled a few balls. The rest of the day was spent around the hotel and bowling center to try to figure everything out for the TV show. I got my schedule for Friday and also Sunday when we were gonna bowl the show. Other than that Thursday was not that exciting.
Friday though. Breakfast. Then off to the new arena, they had the opening ceremony for this place on Thursday so we were gonna be one of the first people to bowl there! At the arena we did a commercial photoshoot for the show. Can't wait to see the result, the photos were looking very nice on set. When the photoshoot was done I had to wait around for a little while do to an interview with Randy and Mike J for the show. Just a short interview to update them on what has happened since last time, 2011. :)
I was done in the arena just after noon, so I went straight to the other bowling center (so yes, they have two centers in this hotel with 64lanes in each I believe) to get ready for my squad in the PBA regionals event. My first one and I bowled very well. Ended up about +80 or +90 for 8games and I cashed! This was a good start to my trip. Going straight to dinner after the tournament and then back to the arena for a practice session on the TV pair. First time bowling on blue oil.
Ended the Friday night with going out with a few friends to see Tiesto play at one of the big clubs in Vegas. The Hakkasan at MGM Grand. Had a blast and really enjoyed my evening off.
Saturday was my day off were I could really relax and prepare myself for Sunday. We drilled a few more balls. I watched Jesper Svensson win his first PBA regional title and I watched Martin bowl his first TV show. So cool!
And then we have THE day.
Sunday. Woke up, got ready and went downstairs to eat a big breakfast buffet. I was gonna bowl my show in the early afternoon so I had to fill my tummy up.
We had the opportunity to practice in the other end of the bowl for almost 2h before the show, which was nice and comfy and gave me a good chance to get loose.
They called us over about 30mins later than scheduled, they were running a bit late but that didn't get to me at all.
We got a few mins of practice before it was time to bowl. During practice they were annoucing our names and I heard: Sandra Johnson!
He corrected himself and got it right: Sandra Andersson and Liz Johnson!
You may or may not know that we were not gonna bowl the normal scoring system, that we were gonna test out the new scoring system that is supposed to help us become an Olympic sport or at least one step closer.
For those of you that didn't know about it I'm gonna try and explain how it is supposed to be bowled: you bowl for one point in each frame. If bowler A throws a strike while bowler B leave a 9 count - bowler A wins that frame, no spare shot needed and the scores are 1-0. If both bowlers throws a strike then the frame is tied and no points. If both bowlers leave a 9 count then spare shots are required. One game is 12frames but will end when one bowler has shot out the other.
Of its tied after 12frames a frame by frame/shot by shot shootout will take place.
SPOILER ALERT
I wanna start with saying I'm very happy with how I bowled and how I was able to control all my feelings on the show. I felt so much more in control now than last time and that was my main goal. To come back and to have learnt and grown from my past experiences. I can't really remember everything but as far as I know right now there is only one shot out of the 13 frames we bowled that I am unhappy with and that is the shot where I lost focus on staying in the moment and wanted a little too much so I grabbed it too early and missed the head pin to the right. That's the only one out of 13shots that I can remember being unhappy with. Unfortunately this was not enough. I'm gonna save all discussions about the new scoring system until all of you have seen the show cause I would really love to hear what you all think about it and I promise to give you my thoughts as well.
The show is aired January 25th but for those of you that wants to read someone else's opinions already then go to the websites below to read some more about it. One of them is Jeff Richgels blog and his thoughts and the other one is an interview I did with the Swedish Bowling Federation for their website (only in swedish)
Please share your thoughts if you have any after reading these two posts.
http://www.11thframe.com/news/article/7002
http://www.swebowl.se/Nyheter/NyheterSwebowl/Sandrautslageni13erutan/
I could not have done it better. I don't have any regrets at all. I felt confident, I enjoyed it and I bowled my heart out. The rest is yet to come.
We were flying out Tuesday and Monday was spent at the premium outlets for some mandatory shopping. :)
Still jetlagged, one and a half week later. No fun.
I wanna end this very long blog post with thanking all of you who supports me and believes in me, my readers, my friends, my family. All of you who reached out to wish me good luck and to know the scores, all of you who said so many nice things to me before and after the show. A big thanks to Cecil and Vise Inserts for helping me out with getting all my grips and thumbs ready for the show. A big thanks to Storm and Roto grip for supplying me with the best balls on the market. Even bigger THANKS to Del, Jim and Schlemer for everything before, during and after the show.
I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people that always takes good care of me.
Much love
-S
Nov14th
It warms my heart to see your comments ♡
It's 2.48am and I'm wide awake. I might as well just start this catch up right now. :) I'm excited to share what I've been up to lately but first I wanna explain why I took my break.
I had a lot going on in my life in October. School took a look of time, I made some changes with my game and I took a break from the gym and the blog to be able to catch up with myself, all the feelings and everything that was going on. For those of you that know me (probably everyone reading this blog by now) knows how much of a struggle it is for me to get up in the mornings. I'm NOT a morning person. For me to get up at 4-5am every Monday - Friday morning, sometimes even on the weekends for bowling, for 10 weeks was exhausting. I chose to put all my energy on school and my bowling and leave the other things a side for a little while. Right now I feel that it was the best decision I've taken in a while. It gave me the opportunity to spend a little more time on myself and what I really needed to do at the moment.
So thank you guys, for having patience!
I finished school about two weeks ago, I'm finally a certified Makeup Artist! So excited about this. I'm right now trying out at a store right now that sells makeup etc. Fingers crossed!
Don't worry, I'm not gonna let this affect my bowling. It's just nice to have something WAY different from the daily routines I was used to and to have something that is my thing that let's my brain focus on something other than bowlingballs, breakpoint, ballreaction and pinfall.
I told you guys I made some changes with my game and maybe you want me to explain what? Me and my beloved mom have been talking back and forth about the changes I did when I went to the ITRC in February. Even though I wanted it to work really bad I never felt confident or comfortable enough to get it to work. The big change was my startposition to get a straight swing. Since the shape of my arm is like a pinguin-arm, haha, we decided to move my arm infront of my body so that my push away would ended up in a straight swing. Cause of the under arm being shaped to the right (right handed) my push away ended up to the right which made my swing go in the shape of an 8.
I have decided to go back to what I was doing before that. Like way back. We have been studying video after video and now I believe we have found something that is gonna work for me. Again, fingers crossed! I'm bowling much better than I have in a long time so I think that's a sign that we are going the right direction. :)
Oh I can go on and on and on. There are so many things I wanna tell you guys but I'm gonna stop now. This is pretty much what has been my daily worries from the beginning of Oct to the end of it. At the end of october I went to Las Vegas for the World Bowling Tour TV Finals.
I'm gonna save the trip to Las Vegas for its own post, cause there is alot of thoughts and feelings behind that one. Stay tuned!
-Gnite
s
Back on track
I'M ALIVE!!
I'm so sorry for the bad update lately. There are so many fun things going on in my life right now and I promise I'm gonna share it all and update you guys on everything. It's gonna take some time but I'm back on track now. So let's start over tomorrow! Let's play catch up :)
And Btw, thanks for still keeping an eye on my blog. :)
♡
