Ho Ho Ho

Hi all, back again after a long absence, not been a good month or two for SMINE Products, but you get that in business, as most of you would know and appreciate.

Christmas is almost here, which means joy and good will to most and I will leave it at that. (I am not a Christmas person at all). Good news is, I will have all my three wonderful children with me from the 22nd Dec to the 30th Dec. 

I think I mentioned last time about my eldest daughter turning 16 last month. Well on the 22nd of this month, my eldest, Troy, turns the magical 18. Well it was magical for us, way way back, at the time, not to sure about this generation. Ha ha. He and I have decided that we will have a small quiet BBQ at my place, special invite only from him. Which means no social media announcements. Personal invite only, which I applaud him for, immensely. I can handle 20 or 30 people...not 300, who, if you watch TV, have seen it on a social media site and decide to gate crash. Again, a sign of the times. Privacy, respect for others peoples lives and social gatherings, are a thing of the past to the current youth. There is a party at so and so's house, let go there and who cares if they didn't invite us. We will invite ourselves and get out of order if they dont want us there. Yeah...well I will get down off my soap box.

Last week, for all the right reasons, I was in Jakarta again, visiting WarbyGK endorsee, Aleks Vrteski, who starts a new season in the IPL tomorrow, with his new club, Persija Jakarta. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch any games with him playing, but we did go down to Bandung and watched another ex Perth Glory and WA footballer, Robbie Gasper and his team Persib Bandubg play. I was amazed. I seem to remember telling you all about the last time I was in Jakarta and watching the National Indonesian team play in a World Cup qualifier. 80000 people. All one eyed for the home team on a national scale. well this was a little bit smaller, only 35000 people, inside the stadium. We estimated another 15000 outside, who for some reason or another couldn't get into the ground. Imagine if you can, an oval stadium. At either end, with no cover, about 7000 supporters per end. Under cover, in the middle of the stadium, about another 3000. The left hand side, singing and waving either their hands or scarves from left to right. Now, at the opposite side of the stadium, the exact thing is happening, except they are going from right to left. In the middle they are singing they same song...but under cover. Twice as loud as the two sides, but moving back to front. Then, they all change and do the opposite to each other again. It was amazing and I can only say, that you have to see it to believe it. Then at one stage, the whole crowd in unison singing a particular song, they all have cigarette lighters in their hands and flick them on.  I spoke to Robbie Gasper afterwards and he was saying that even the players on the park nearly all stopped to watch it. Unbelievable. Then to top it off, there was the ride home, behind the team bus with a police escort.  I have never before in my life, seen such adoration and hero worship from the supporters towards the players in that bus. If you have ever been to Indonesia, you will know what I am talking about, when I mention the motor bike riders. They are everywhere. But imagine if you can about 150 bikes, with two or even three people on them, following the bus on the way from the ground back to the club headquarters. Now, we have a police escort and all the road ahead has been cleared for the bus and us. At times we are up to 80ks per hour and they are with us all the way...phone cameras going off everywhere. Like I said, I have never seen anything like it before. But the passion for the club, the players and more importantly, the football, is unbelievable.

Lastly, before I go, we did secure another WarbyGK glove wearer over in Indonesia. Yandri Pitoy. An Indonesian GK who players for Persib Bandung. That gives us two professional keepers in Indonesia now. One, Aleks Vrteski, in the IPL and Yandri in the ISL. The love for the glove is growing.

Speaking of which, I have been given information that a European National keeper is also after a glove deal for WarbyGK. Will keep you posted.

Sorry, no pictures at this stage, but will have some for the next blog.

Big shout out to Lewis Italiano, Perth Glory #2, almost got a run on the park against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday. Great TV coverage from FoxSports on him warming up, showing him wearing his WarbyGK gloves. It was also his 21st birthday that day. What a great birthday present for him if he got a run.

It will happen Lewis...

If you want it... IT"S SMINE