I see sport as the ultimate metaphor for life…. you come to experience many natural highs and lows as a result of being an athlete. Within that cycle you are constantly reminded of one of the "rules" of life as discovered by the late, great, Johnny Warren, "Life is not fair."

Through bitter experience I've become a strong believer in having a balance... my bootless sabbatical in 2008/09 certainly helped develop this belief! I love to travel and I love to write and, right now, for me, football provides me the "means to those ends". I love the fact I've met such a diverse group of people along the way, forging friendships that will last forever. Basically I travel the world, chasing a piece of leather with some of the best mates I will ever meet. This in itself is pretty powerful.

We have our Olympic qualifiers in September this year, so our fate will be decided quite soon. It is the most life changing experience on view and it seems quite brutal but this is our sport. Remember, not everything in life happens fairly.

I have belief in our team that we will clear the qualification hurdle but time will be the storyteller.

What I've been up to post FIFA's Women's World Cup 2011-

So far i have spent some time in Berlin- One poor yet sexy city!!!...tis the motto of the people and i must admit it is an accurate description. Incredible amounts of street art and EXTRAordinary amounts of history. I met some interesting folk on the Alternate tour and ended up spending hours cycling and exploring with like-minded souls. An advantage of traveling on your own- you make automatic connections with strangers.

From there i caught a train to Altenmarkt, Austria, where i was met by my family. We toured through Salt mines and Ice caves, visited a Castle and had a personal tour throughout the city of Salzburg. Two of my cousins are based overseas in Austria and Munich. The past week or so i amongst my brothers and Lyds have felt at home in a foreign world. They have been most hospitable and will be sure to send them some goodies upon arrival back in Australia. Requests such as Tim Tam's and natural Aussie lollies have been placed... Will see we can do ;)

Right now - I'm on a train destined for Brugge, Belgium. Beside me i have Lydia Williams. She will be flying home this afternoon from Frankfurt. I however, am off before flying home on Thursday to begin the chase yet again...

Following our loss to Sweden-

It's a strange feeling when you go from such a controlled environment to experiencing such a well...free one. So quickly you go from having decisions made for you. Schedules to follow, training in the morning then treatment and meetings swallowing up your afternoon. For an entire month we were together as a squad. Our days were similar however never too mundane as we moved around Germany in between games. We had some afternoons to explore the cities, something that I've appreciated more so as I've aged.

When in tournament mode for events such as the World Cup you have a false sense of security... you just don't realise the severity or impact of what happens when you lose. Its not only the loss you deal with its what you do next.

What do you do next? We have all spoken and I'm sure many athletes, if not all, experience a 'down' period post tournament. The whirlwind of emotions just experienced with your team/group of mates is now over and its your turn for reality to slap you in the face. I'm still overseas so haven't had to answer to the reality of life (not that it is bad- its just entirely different). Such a contrast.

This time round for me has been less severe as I have stayed in Europe and switched off from football. Spending time with family and travel are good ways to beat the post tournament blues.

And have we all recovered from Germany? Whats next for the Matildas?

Well only time will tell. Half of us are still on a small break from the leather ball and half have returned home. A couple of girls had club duties, much respect to them as they did not have a break from football at all.

We have received emails the last few days outlining the next few months. The only hurdle - but it is a "biggie" - for us before London 2012 is the AFC Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament coming up in China. Program of games is as below. Early August we are up at the Gold Coast for a camp. Together again on the 18th and fly to China on the 23rd of August.

1 Sept v DPR Korea, 3.30pm, Jinan Olympic Centre
3 Sept v Thailand, 3.30pm, Jinan Olympic Centre
5 Sept v Japan, 3.30pm, Shandong Sports Centre
8 Sept v China, 7pm, Jinan Olympic Centre
11 Sept v Korea Republic, 3.30pm, Shandong Sports Centre
The whole qualifying process for the Olympics is a lot tougher than people think. The six best teams in Asia play a full round robin and the best two go through!!

While our initial Asian Cup win and making the quarters in Germany 2011 counts for nothing for London 2012, there were some good things that came out of the World Cup: it was the first time we broke out of the first round with two wins to our credit and the efforts of two members of our team were recognized on the World stage - Elise Kellond-Knight was selected in the World team and young Caitlin Foord was selected as the Young Player of the tournament. WOW what great efforts, highly impressive and well deserved. Collectively it has been a successful few years for the Matildas. We have been working up the ranks and have now cracked the top 10. We are ranked 9th in the World. Just typing this feels surreal. Nice effort ladies.

Well I have a few more days in Europe before venturing home, Helllllllllllllo Belgium!!! Grabbing some chocolate of course.

.....Relaxing before returning home as a footballer again ;)