Bowling in pictures

Rob lets rip...

and is gutted I wasn't filming...

 

Tiger Lunt

Stop what you're doing, put that notallthatimportantinthegrandschemeofthings piece of work to one side and get voting.

Let's win Lunt some golfing aid. I think you'll agree...he needs it...

Lunt spoils a good walk

In case that doesn't work, he's somewhere on here...

www.banthebogeys.com

Someone get Gaz off the fame academy/celebrity love island/x-idol websites - his experience in this sort of thing is vital.

Quiz transfer

I was poached last night and made an appearance in a quiz over in Albany on the North Shore with a friend - Jo, her sister and her friend. They are probably regretting asking me along as we did very badly indeed.

I was chuffed to get the answer to how many syllables there are in a Haiku, however, I failed to deliver on a couple of the pommy questions and probably won't be asked back.

I now only have a few hours to rebuild my self-confidence as we have an important bowls match later on today. I'm hoping to remember my camera this week so look out for some action shots and maybe even a video or two.

Quiz-related guessing game for you...

How much do you think the worlds most expensive bottle of Champagne costs?

Birthday bash...

The RSA in Onehunga was the venue for Leanne's birthday meal. In attendance were her mum, dad, brother, cousin Chris, Si, me, and her friends - Jessica, Kate, Jane and Jude.

We had a few drinks with the English batting line up collapsing quietly in the background then went up the restaurant for a vast feast that was so filling I didn't have room for any cake.

From there we went for a couple of drinks in Ponsonby. A fun night...wouldn't you say?...

Who's the birthday girl?...

I got up early on Saturday to take part in a football tournament. Miller's friend, Mike, was putting together a New Zealand team for a mini World Cup some Serbian guy was organising.

The final line up was Serbia, Argentina, England and New Zealand. Italy, France and Brazil were unfortunately late drop outs but it was still a good effort.

I had to keep my mouth shut as to not give away the fact that I wasn't a kiwi. Not that it mattered as we got tonked in all our games. We lost 3-0 to Serbia, 3-0 to Argentina, 6-1 to England, then 4-1 to England in the 3rd/4th place play off.

Still it was a good laugh.

The rest of the weekend has been a relaxing one, physically, and one of ups and downs mentally - not much to say about the cricket, but it was great to wake up on Sunday to read about Latics destroying Huddersfield at the Gaypharm. £15 should now be heading my way from the cobweb-covered Daniels wallet... 

Happy Birthday Leanne....

Pictures to follow from birthday meal tonight...

Little urn...

Nope, not the one with the short, fat, hairy legs...

This one...

Here we are...Day one of the Ashes series and I, for one, am very excited. The timing of the games couldn't be better really - starts at 1pm so I should see the 2nd half of midweek day's play.

I'll probably end up seeing more of this Ashes series than the last. Especially as I'll be in Australia for the last 2 tests.

Mystic Gartside says....

Australia to win the final test and take the series 2-1.

Top run scorers - Eng: Strauss......Aus: Martyn

Top wicket takers - Eng: Anderson......Aus: Warne (obviously)

Other news - Jacks Hit got back on track last night with a crushing win on the bowling green. Rob, Casey and I were the last to leave the club (again) after staying for a few beers and a game of darts. Considering this is a social event and they virtually give the booze away, the fact that everyone else had left and they were kicking us out to lock up at 9.30 (only 2 hours after play ended) was disappointing.

What else can I tell you? The Borat film opens here today and I'm off to see it. Quite excited at the prospect of watching a moustachioed Lunt cavort round the US for 2 hours.

Jingle bells, batman smells...

I've been a bit skinny on posting of late. 2 reasons. First of all, I didn't go out and get hammered this weekend. Yep, you heard right. Secondly, I can't for the life of me think of something witty to say in reply to Heyesie's comment. I guess I could either say "Yes", not true and not funny, or "No", true, but still not funny.

So I'm just going to ignore it, hope it goes away, and write about something that is really creeping me out...Christmas.

It's just over a month away now and the whole thing just doesn't feel right. I'm guessing in England the nights are really drawing in, it's a real joy to get back to a toasty home after work, curtains are constantly shut, big winter jumpers are being worn, people in Manchester have been through 3 pairs of wiper blades already and all thoughts are turning to giant turkeys and rubbish crackers. And I mean RUBBISH. Even the M&S ones...utter garbage. I'm not sure what's more frustrating - getting a posh prize like one of those plastic corks that don't fit flush in a wine bottle, or getting a more down to earth prize like a tiny plastic box with 3 holes to get the ballbearings in to. You play with the thing till the end of Boxing day trying to get all 3 in until you just end up standing on the bastard. But I digress.

Over here, the summer is starting to poke through the clouds, shorts and jandals (flip-flops to you lot) are usual weekend-wear and it's all about bbq's and cricket in the park.

Shops are now full of Christmas trees and decorations and the tv adverts are in full swing. They get to me even more..."Come to Farmers for all your Christmas gift needs. We have beach towels, barbeques, sunglasses..." it goes on.

It's just not right. I'm just not feeling very Christmassy.

Now the question is, do I embrace the topsy-turvy nature of a southern hemisphere Christmas, or do I make a one man stand and turn up at Rob's family home on Christmas day wearing 4 layers of clothes and demand we all go outside and throw ice cubes at each other?

Bowled over

Bugger. The confidence taken out of last weeks bowls win was slightly misplaced as we were edged out in Tuesday's contest.

It was a pretty close game but we could never get ahead and ended up losing 9-6. It was a poor performance though.

I played Skip this week, which for the uninformed is the person who goes last each end. I quite enjoyed the pressure of doing that, but it also means you stand with the opposing Skip for the whole game while your two teammates are up the other end. So it's pretty boring, unless the other Skip is alright. Unfortunately for me he was a complete tool.

We're still hanging onto the coat tails of the leaders.....TABLE

Favour needed...

Does anyone in the UK have one of those new fangled DVD recorders? More specifically, does anyone I know in the UK have one?

There are a couple of things I need recording and sending over if possible.

Also, any myspace users out there? I have a page. Although it's not as well looked after as this beauty so don't expect much. Linky on the right...

Quiz night, or not...

Tuesday night...quiz night? Not this week.

Everyone had something else on. Me, well I was down the boxing gym. Yep, you heard right. I did a boxfit class which involved an hour of punching pads and bags, crunches and push ups.

I'm absolutely knackered.

With Leanne away, Si was at a loss so he came round to recreate the old uni days... sat in the front room watching tv. We didn't do any uni work tonight either.

Bowls tomorrow night....come on...

Saturday night fever...

Dave finished his exams so a big night out was due. We started at 6pm in the student union and I got home about 6am.

Lots of funny stuff in between but I think a load of drunken pictures will tell a better story...




Here we get a good look at Rob and Dave's Movembers (charity mo growing for this month)

Me, Dave's girlfriend Sonia, Rob and Dave

Wesssside...

Brotherly love...

The Road to Delhi 2010 starts here...

The Kalamazoo Social Bowls tournament started last night. We have 4 squad members but only 3 play in the team so Rob sat out this week. Having never played before, Casey and I turned up early and received some welcome tips from the club regulars - ie how to hold it, where to bowl it etc. After several practice goes, most of which ended up in the gutter or curving off in the wrong direction, the competition started.

Miller was held up so it was up to Casey and myself to send down all 6 bowls of the first end. We didn't do too bad and were 5-0 up against one of the lower league winners from last year.

They came back to 5-3 after end 2, then Miller finally showed up and we were further pegged back to 5-4 after end 3.

Miller started to chip in and that was as close as it got as we stretched out our lead, ending up 13-4 victors.

A crushing win which made the $6 jugs of beer and free bbq taste even better.

Check out the League table - not bad eh? And next week we'll have team T-Shirts to spur us on to greater things.

Note: Our team name, Jacks Hit, is supplied courtesy of Mr Pun.

Mugs game

The Melbourne Cup took place yesterday. The "race that stops a nation" is the southern hemishpere equivalent of the Grand National and the state of Victoria has it off as a national holiday. No such luck on this side of the Tasman unforunately.

I did, of course, have a flutter. I liked the sound of Pop Rock and at 8/1 seemed like a decent punt so I stuck 10 bucks on. I also considered Delta Blues but the odds were a bit longer.

Here is the photo finish...



Pop Rock (went off at 5/1JF) is nearest to the camera and made a late charge only to be beaten by a nose by, you guessed it, Delta Blues (17/1).

Bugger.

The beginning of the end...

Quiz night again last night. Nothing out of the ordinary, we finished 7th (again), EXCEPT the fact that our beloved local now carries Snakebite & Black...ON TAP. For a mere $7 you get a pint of irresistable maroon evil.

I only had the one last night on top of a couple of normal beers, but I was feeling it this morning. This could make for particularly cheap weekends.

Anyone bothered about quiz questions? Here are a few...

Which one of these cathedrals is NOT home to a copy of the Magna Carta...St Pauls, Salisbury or Lincoln?

Upstairs Downstairs is set in which era...Edwardian, Victorian or Elizabethan?

Pele has featured in how many World Cup winning teams?

A week of firsts...

It's Sunday night, I'm feeling pretty tired so I'll be brief.

On Friday night me, Rob and Casey went out - nothing eventful happened.

On Saturday I went with Si to watch Auckland City FC snatch a last minute 3-2 win after being 2 behind. Then on Saturday night, having watched the Lions smash up the Aussies in the tri-nations, I headed into town with Casey. We met up with Will and made our way round a variety of bars. Again, nothing of note happened with possible exception of seeing a very drunk All Black (not in the current touring side), Troy Flavell, in a bar.

Today I did my first spot of fishing. Casey co-owns a boat and today me and him headed out to sea to catch some snapper. I caught 2, Casey caught about 5 - all of which were this sort of size so had to be thrown back...



A fairly relaxing day, except for when the hangover, cutting up squid for bait and the choppy sea resulted in me hanging over the side of the boat polluting the waters.

The fun and games didn't end when we got on to dry land as a scene that the Chuckle Brothers would have been proud of ensued when we were dropping the boat off. Perched precariously at the top of a steep driveway the plan was to release the blocks under the wheels and swing the boat round into it's little parking place. We didn't swing it round quick enough though and the boat took off with me and Casey hanging on to it, desperately trying to slow it down before it ended up crashing into the fence at the bottom. Unbelievably there was no damage to the boat or trailer and the fence needed only a small amount of repair work. Clowns.

Did I say brief? Oops.

Question...

The question on everyone's lips...would Lunt be safe in Kazakhstan?



you decide...

When in Rome...

Well I've seen a lot of rugby on the telly and down at Eden Park so it was only a matter of time before I got that egg in my hands and ran with it.

After work tonight I played touch rugby for a team Rob is involved in. It was the grading matches where your results determine what league you play in. We had a defeat and a 0-0 draw so I guess we'll be playing in a poor league. This is a good thing though seeing as I'm shit.

I haven't picked up a rugby ball since I got flattened by James Joyce (RIP) on a rock hard McAuley pitch in the middle of the winter in 1989. And it showed.

It was good fun though and I managed a couple of cheeky swerves as well as giving away a few penalties for something called "offside".

Fishing for comments...

Comments have dried up so I'll do my usual desperate attempt to get some interest by throwing a few quiz questions out there from last night. Although seeing as most of the people who read this are thicker than me, I'm not expecting much.

Only Rob, Casey and myself went and I thought we did pretty well to end up joint 7th, a few points off the placings. Here's one that I got, one that Rob got and one that Casey got (do I ever get ones that aren't about films/sport/games/celebrity gossip etc??) ...

1. What 6 letter word is a northern English game which involves throwing rings on to a spike? (this has 2 possible answers)

2. Name one year in the life of this German philosopher...



3. What structure was built for the 1889 World Fair?

There was controversy again though - a question asked for the character name of Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves. We put Dances With Wolves as that was the Sioux name given to him. Didn't get a point for it but this time we couldn't be bothered to complain. Mainly due to Miller not being there.