Children's Health Foundation

A nice little feature in the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation website - The Children's Health Foundation. Check out the Working Wonders website

I have been involved with the volunteers program, and LOVE playing with the kids, anything to take their minds off their illnesses. Mind you, it doesn't take away from their competitiveness!! :)

Brasil Baby

So I have since found out the marvellous wonders of facebook...I was contacted by a Barzilian journalist on facebook who put me in contact with a water polo club...who requested me fly over to Brazil to play in their National Championships...well thats a no brainer - yes please!

The journey started strangely - Emirates politely declined any request of an upgrade (I even took the medal with this hope in mind). I flew from Brisbane to Sao Paulo the WRONG way around the world...via Dubai, but in doing so I got to meet this guy

Marc and I made small talk at the start of the flight, one thing lead to another and we realised we had a mutual friend, from my home town of Murwillumbah...cue Adam Cambridge and his small calf muscles (sorry Adam, that came from Marc :) )

When I arrived in Brazil I was introduced to my club (Pinheiros) coach - Chiapinni, and his lovely wife Raquel, and after 38 hours of travel I got to meet my hosts Marina and Ricardo.  Marina took it upon herself to give me a culinary tour or Brazil, which suited me fine as i love food!

We went from emanadas to churrascaria, acai to guarana, fejoida to empadas, pastel to EVERYTHING quejo (cheese)...and who ever knew cashew nuts grew from fruit?? Craziness!

The best of Brasil below...havaianas, food, caiparinhas, beach and SAMBA!

But of course, the reason for the trip was water polo - and that was a lot of fun too! Especially since my team ended up the CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD...I mean Brasil (close enough)

Barras 2013 Water Polo Calendar

Our water polo calendars have hit the print and and the shelves just in time for Christmas! Get your fix of the best water polo players in Australia, doing their thang on each and every month of 2013!

The Barracudas Olympians are featured on the front cover (below), and every Barracuda squad member is featured through the months.

Massive thanks to the fabulous people that put this calendar together:

Damien Bredberg Photography

Vici Swimwear

Alexis Dawn

NAK Hair

Issada Makeup

Contact me at jane.moran.85@gmail.com for payment and shipping details.

Barras calendar photo shoot

We decided as the almost four-time (three-time sounds better anyway) National League champions, we decided that we would get together a calendar to incorporate our team sponsors and to thank them for their crazy amounts of support.

The calendar idea was born through Daryl Agnew, Brand Manager of NAK 'only a hair dresser knows'. Barras have been proudly using NAK hair care products since they became a brand sponsor for the 2012 season. We certainly have the most lucious hair in the league.

I carried Daryl's idea and looked for the area's that needed filling - and the massive void of photography was proudly, professionally and wonderfully filled by Damien Bredberg Photography | Production. After many an after work discussion, Damien and his producer Nicole Letherby gave there time and efforts to shoot our first calendar. 

The first half of the shoot happened on Sunday 5 November at the Queensland Academy of Sport Pool - many thanks to the QAS and namely Melissa Lord and Riley who gave up their Sunday to supervise. This shoot involved all members of the 2013 Barracudas National League squad in "action" shots, which Damien surpassed all expectations! Daryl (NAK) and Georgia (NAK and One Hair Salon) were on hand to fix and flyaways from under our polo caps.  Daryl also supplied the team and the photographers with our personalised NAK hair care kit...no more chlorine damaged hair!

The second half of the shoot happened on Monday 6 November at the Somerville House Gym.  Many thanks to Somerville House, and Aaron Clarke - Manager of the Marray Evans Sports and Aquatic Centre for the use of their space, and the gym matts and trampoline!!  Yes thats right, Damien was adament that this shoot would involve a trampoline! 

This was the cover shoot and incorporated the four Barras olympians - Mel Rippon, Kate Gynther, Ash Southern and myself. 

It wasn't only a trampoline however, this was the real deal - beautiful gowns from Alexis Dawn (thanks for the outfits - we will definitely be back to your James Street store!), stunning makeup from Issada, and the lovely makeup artists - Catherine and Jade, and of course hair by NAK with Georgia taking the reigns. 

The shoot took some time...pro polo players in hair, makeup and gowns, jumping from a trampoline backwards on to matts and posing mid-flight...sound easy?  Hours of not easy, but oh so much fun!  Damien would'nt take anything but the best, and he kept reminding us that Ash was the natural...well done Southo!

We cant wait for the shots to come through, and send them to print with Bayside Print Solutions.  Not thought of a Christmas gift yet?  Well, you just did :)

Aquadiva at the Olympic Village

Well it's been a while, but I finally received some shots of one of my sponsors - Aquadiva - from our last day in the Olympic Village. 

It was a hard task to get the five Aquadiva Godesses together for this shot, especially as we had seperate scheduled departures to get from the Olympic Village to our chartered QANTAS flight:

Melissa Gorman (open water swimming)

Annabelle Smith (Diving)

Emma Jackson (Triathlon)

Meagan Nay (Swimming)

and myself (Water polo baby!!)

I could only round up Megs in time, and here is the result

There were a few keen photographers hanging around the rings that took the opportunity to join in the swimwear happy snap.

Hero Messages

I received an email this morning from the Telstra hero message team explaining that the service for the London 2012 Olympic athletes will be closed down soon.  I got to re-read alot of the messages I got sent whilst I was preparing, competing and reflecting on our perfermances at the Olympics. 

Above is the Down Under ad for the London Olympic athletes

Thanks so much Telstra - it was so good being able to get messages from home during the Games!!

It's all about Layne

I have been lucky enough to be supported by Layne Beachley's foundation - 'Aim for the Stars' over the last two years in the lead up to the London Olympic Games.  It really has taken a load off considering I had 147 days off work in 2011, and I just added the days this year - 150 days (at least Im consistent).  However I think one of the best things about being an Aim For the Stars recipient is being involved in the "Layne Beachley" brand. 

In 2011 I attended one of Layne's corporate functions with the Commonwealth Bank's 'Women in Focus'.  At this function I attended as one of Layne's recipients and was fortunate enough to get on stage and tell a bit about my story.  There was a highly anticipated raffle of Layne's surfboard - the one she used in her 8th attempt at World Champion...and I won!  Some women at the function thought the raffle was rigged, others asked if I was going to sell it on eBay.  Definitely not!  I asked Layne how heavy (light) I would have to be to actually be able to (attempt to) use her surfboard, she stated "56 kilos".  Well, at least it's a dream.  The surfboard is a piece of art...until I get to 56kgs, hanging up for all to see.

Layne was announced as one of the Australian Olympic Team's Athlete Liason Officers in early 2012.  I had the honour of introducing Layne to our Olympic Water Polo Squad for a "meet and greet" (and to boast that I have Layne's surfboard).

So the next time I saw Layne was at the Olympics.  It was so much fun have her as our Athlete Liason Officer, but she really embraced the made-up position of Social Officer. 

Here I am with Layne and our water polo Athlete Liason Officer Steve Waugh.  They were joined by John Eales and Kieren Perkins in this role.  It was awesome having access to such great sporting figures through the biggest sporting event in our lives! And they certainly made it alot of fun too!

After my arrival back home from the Olympics I was invited to Layne's annual Aim For the Stars Gala. This was preceded by a day with the current Aim For the Stars recipients, in a day full of fun.  I arrived in Sydney on Friday morning and was thrown into a mentoring session with Kirsty and Davina from Seed Coaching.  It was great to meet the other recipients in such a cool environment.  Next up was a 'Brand YOU' session with Life's a Gym Founder and CEO, the super vibrant Nikki Fogden-Moore. We were prepped and practised to get on stage for the Gala that evening. But not before the Sydney College of Makeup Art made us camera ready with hair and makeup.

I arrived in style with some lovely friends I made on the Welcome Home Olympic Parades - Kim and Thomas from Sold Out Events. They actually were coordinating the parades whilst we were galavanting and having a blast - thanks boys!  Thomas even let me pose with his georgeous pugalier puppy Senor Camambert, such a cutie...both of them!

Navy Diver and shark attack victim Paul de Gelder was the guest speaker.  He had us all enthralled with his story, and was happy to take a few happy snaps afterwards (great taste in pose if I do say so myself).  And the hostest with the mostest - Layne Beachley with her main man, the one and only INXS band member Kirk Pengilly...yep, hanging with rock gods.  Oh, and Jess Watson (solo sailor extraordinair) made the cut for this shot too :)

Layne invited me to speak on stage about my Olympic experience, and how I was involved with Layne over in London.  When I got off stage I was introduced to a fellow "Stinger".  Not an Aussie Stinger, but a Sydney Stinger.  Justin Nel explained to me that he was the president of the Sydney Stingers - the gay men's water polo team.  Of course me and my teammates have heard of the Sydney Stingers, due to some naming rights issues.  It was lovely to meet Justin, and as we parted he asked if I would be interested in leading the Sydney Stingers in next years Sydney Mardis Gras!  Would I ever - my first Mardis Gras experience could be on a float...cant wait!  My first question to Justin however was what would I be wearing? His response still fresh in my mind "less is more"...oh dear :)

It has been great to be involved with Layne's foundation, and just to be involved with Layne herself, as a super star (and a normal sheila). I have made many people jealous with my connection with surfings greatest - Layne Beachley!
Thanks Layne :)