Charlatans in New Zealand and goodbye....

If burglarising 30-40 year old British males is your bag then last night must have been like Christmas as we were all at the Powerstation in Auckland to see the Charlatans' first ever NZ gig.

They were as good as ever (5th time I've seen them I think) and played a mixture of the new album and the greatest hits. They've been around for so long, and the only band who've been there right through my music/drinking lifetime. Just about everyone of their songs took me back to significant events in the past... The Only One I Know - dancing like gimps in Britpop, A Man Needs To Be Told - table football in Withington.

I think the last gig I saw in the UK was Charlatans in Salford and when they played Here Comes a Soul Saver, followed by One to Another then The Only One I Know, I was ready to go straight to the airport and get the first plane back to England. Either that or build a time machine to go back to SLAM c. 1995.





I think this is as good a time as any to officially sign off from this 'blog'. It's titled "Kiwi Adventures" and as I've been here for nearly 3 years, the adventures have turned into everyday life. Besides, I think I'm down to one reader per day on average and that's because I set it as my mum's homepage.

Thanks for reading and commenting and you'll be the first to know if I get the blogbug again in future.

OG.

OG's Top 3s...

Until the Olympics started I didn't give them much thought, but watching the closing ceremony envoked feelings similar to the last day of the summer holidays.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of weeks for many reasons. The performance of the British athletes for one, but that wasn't the only reason seeing as they understandably didn't get a great deal of coverage on New Zealand television. The time zone worked so well for me here which helped. The main bulk of the competition was between 3pm and midnight NZ time so I was able to watch a lot of sport in two weeks.

My memory is appalling, so I thought I'd give myself a permanent record of the highs and lows of these Games with a series of Top 3s...

Top 3 Controversies

* There were billions of sighs around the globe as cute little Lin Miaoke got up to sing in front of the world. It looked like she mimed, but that's fair enough given the enormous amount of pressure on shoulders so young. However, it was later revealed that it was not her voice doing the singing but that of mini gargoyle, Yang Peiyi. Now, I very much doubt that the watching world would have been of the opinion that the singing was beautiful but the face was munted. But the organisers didn't want to take that chance and put a pin up girl out in front of the cameras. It's one thing having some stupid boy at school tell you you're a minger but having that view endorsed by your country and reported around the world isn't going to do a great deal for her self esteem.

(pic: mirror.co.uk)

* There was something very democratic and unexpected about the Chinese decision to have three 'Protest Parks' in Beijing for the ordinary folk to express their grievances. As long as they applied for and received permission to do so. According to this article HERE all 77 applications were either withdrawn or rejected. Spare a thought for these two gutsy grannies who were rehoused after their homes were knocked down in the building of the Olympic venues, their persistant grumblings almost landed them with a year's hard labour.

* It must be very frustrating to train for four years and have your Olympic dream crushed by the opinion of judges. This is one of my main gripes about the validity of certain sports in the Olympics. In my opinion, an Olympic medal should be given to those who've bettered their opponents. Faster, higher, stronger and all that. However, I do feel amateur boxing and gymnastics have a place at the Olympics so I'm all over the show on this issue. The judging in the contact sports has been a big controversy of the Games and the few boxing and Taekwondo bouts I've seen certainly seem very dodgy when it comes to points awarded. It probably doesn't excuse Cuban Taekwondoist Angel Valodia Matos kicking the referee in the face in protest. He is facing a life ban from the Olympics and his sport isn't faring much better. After many judging controversies at this Games and the last it's facing the boot (in the face).

(pic reuters)

Top 3 Brits

* Rebecca Romero - she won a silver medal in Athens 4 years ago and a gold medal in Beijing. Impressive but not Top 3 material except that her silver medal was in rowing and her gold was in cycling. Winning the individual pursuit in a no lose situation for Great Britain made her the first British woman to win medals in different summer Olympic sports.

* Rebecca Adlington - 2 Gold medals and a world record makes her the best British swimmer in 100 years. She edged out the field in the 400m free then destroyed the lot and a 19 year old world record to win her favoured event, the 800m free.

* Ben Ainslie - more historical greatness as sailor Ainslie won gold at his third consecutive Olympics to become Britains greatest ever Olympic sailor. Maybe Team NZ should have given him the helm in the Americas cup! At the age of 31 Ainslie will probably be chasing down the likes of Pinsent and Redgrave.

Top 3 Kiwis

* Evers-Swindells - as the reigning Olympic champions, the rowing twins had had a nightmare couple of years of injury and poor performance but came through at the last to pip the German crew by 1/100th of a second in the double sculls. They were rewarded with gold, the job of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony (the only country to have 2 representatives) and no doubt many more meat adverts.

* Mahe Drysdale - single sculls World Champion, Mahe, had a rocky road to the Olympic final. Expected to represent New Zealand in Beijing, Mahe was made to race off against Rob Waddell after the latter (2000 Olympic champion) came out of retirement and beat Mahe in a club race. There was massive hype over the 3 race head-to-head Olympic trial and poised at 1-1, Waddell's long standing heart condition resurfaced and Drysdale eased to victory. His problems weren't over though as a virus during the Olympics lost him 4kg's in weight and affected his preparation and qualification races. He squeaked through to the final and put his all into building a lead but couldn't hold on unfortunately and collapsed after finishing 3rd.

* Nick Willis - Another bronze medal but given the competition from the East Africans, Willis finishing 3rd in one of the flagship events of the Games, the 1500m, was an outstanding achievement.


Top 3 Athletes

* Usain Bolt - 3 golds and 3 world records (one of them while jogging)
* Michael Phelps - 8 golds made even more remarkable by his diet
* Chris Hoy - track cycling's equivalent of the above two. He destroyed all-comers despite being Scottish.

Top 3 special mentions


* Matthias Steiner - 1 year on from the death of his wife in a car crash, this German weightlifter held a picture of her up to the cameras along with his gold medal. His reaction after the winning lift was a great moment.
* BBC live text coverage - I needed constant info on how the Brits were doing and the BBC website provided it. With surprising quality too given their embarrassingly laddish speak on their internet cricket over-by-over coverage.
* Opening/Closing ceremonies - breathtaking.

Top 3 unexpected sports

* BMX - races last about 35 seconds and it's all out carnage. Thrilling stuff.
* 10km swim - both male and female races had incredibly close finishes after a couple of hours in the water. All manner of underwater shenanigans too apparently which added spice.
* Gymnastics - I've never been a fan, and coupled with what I said earlier about sports that are decided by subjective human opinion, I was totally surprised by how much I enjoyed the gymnastics. The Chinese and American teams dished up some unbelievable physical feats that changed my view on the sport. I still probably won't watch it again till 2012 though.

Top 3 sports to get rid of

* Walking
* Water dancing
* Any sport where the Olympics isn't the pinnacle of achievment - namely football, basketball and tennis.

Top 3 hair tearers (sub title: TVNZ coverage)

* Events repeated in triplicate daily - for some reason whatever main event shown in full at around 4pm was then repeated, in full, in the early evening and then again at about 11pm. Why? Especially when...
* Some events got zero coverage - shooting, archery, modern pentahlon and often they were on at times when TV One was showing a basketball group game between Lithuania and Iran. Frustrating to say the least.
* Showing group games in full when other sports on - I just covered that. But it was VERY frustrating.

Top 3 comedy moments

* Screens up for stricken weightlifter - we can laugh at this now the poor sod's injuries aren't career threatening. But it did have a look of a horse about to be put down. I won't put a link up for this, it's a family site.
* Toni Street's interview of Irish sprinter - Flying the kiwi journalism flag (well worth a watch!)
* Marc Willers BMX - one of my favourite BMX moments... about 1 minute into this clip. First he causes a big pile up by spinning round, he manages not to fall off then spins round and plows straight into one of the felled riders.

All in all, I loved every minute of the Games and am already looking forward to the next one. However, I don't want to think about that too much as I'll be 35. Wow.

If anyone still reads this site then please add comments of your favourite moments.

On the move...

Jo and I have our own place! We signed up at the weekend and move in next Saturday. It's all happening very quickly.

We're currently living with Jo's parents as they returned from overseas at the beginning of the month. But, the freeloading must come to an end and we're off to live in the trendy Grey Lynn/Ponsonby area. We'll be close to town, a short hop from both our work places and the area has lots of bars/cafes/niceties to keep us entertained. Most of our friends live nearby too. In short, we got lucky in getting such a nice flat in this area for this price.

I'm sure you're wanting to see it after this build up, so here it is in all it's glory...

We went in to measure up for the furniture we needed to buy so I borrowed a nifty little program off the internet and created this floor plan. Cool, eh? It's a 1 bedroom apt with a very good sized private courtyard (the top bit). I'll get some proper photos up when we move in.

Batten down the hatches...

There's a cyclone coming...

Nuptials...

3 posts per month is the average for this year so far. That's not particularly prolific. But then again, I swore this wouldn't turn into a diary of my breakfast habits nor did I want to bore anyone reading with my views on political matters such as the anti smacking bill. (Unnecessary, in case you were wondering)

Nope, I'm going to stick to my guns of only posting personal events of interest. Events that may be include comedy pictures...

Or nice ones for me Ma...

The other weekend Jo and I and family attended the wedding of family friends. It was a very churchy affair, not in a good (catholic) way though, one of those new fangled ones that you see on GODTV should you ever stay on it long enough while channel surfing through to programming for the discerning gentleman (Boz).

The ceremony took place in a "church" with that word given the old nodding fingers routine because it was more like a state of the art theatre. Complete with giant screens, several very fancy cameras, a booming sound system and a full on band with very shiny, and therefore presumably expensive, instruments. St Joseph and St Teresa in Woodlands it was not.

However, each to their own and I escaped without being brainwashed or fleeced for 50% of my income. Not that I'm using stereotypes or anything! It was querky in parts (especially when some of the congregation appeared to be having actual out of body experiences during a Christian soft rock ballad), but enjoyable and they're a lovely couple and I was made to feel very welcome despite only having met them once before.

The evening bash was set in a country club about an hour south of where we're based on the North Shore. Jo and I had taken advantage of the wedding guest room rate of $100 (about 40 quid) which bought us a 1 bedroomed villa with huge bathroom and great views of the course and the water. The speeches were very funny, food was outstanding and, given that quite a number of the guests were teetotal, the booze was free flowing.

The following morning we headed back to Auckland after taking time to have a stroll along a beautiful beach...

Shootin' sum B ball outside ova school...

I scored some more free tickets from Radio Sport. This time for the Tall Blacks vs Boomers (New Zealand vs Australia in old money) basketball international at the North Shore Events Centre.

It was my first ever live bball game and it was pretty interesting. I had no idea how much elbowing and shoving people over went on. Netball it aint.

There were quite a few other things going on to entertain us when the game was on of it's many breaks. Such as an entertaining 4-4 draw between to U13 girl sides shooting at hoops that 7 footers have to jump to reach. Some guy had a free throw for $1000. He rimmed it but netted the rebound from further out for no reward. Unlucky.

There was also a half time presentation for recently retired Tall Black Dylan Boucher. Although the PA system wasn't quite up to scratch as Jo thought some random guy was being given a dinner voucher.

We left before the end to beat the traffic and the aussies were so far ahead it didn't really matter.

If I can get the picture from my phone to here I'll show you one of the best mullets I've ever seen in person. Hicktastic.

Weather...

Weird weather recently, which I'm still not used to... Dark, dirty storm clouds for as far as the eye can see so I take shelter in my truck. Then, 10 minutes later bright blues skies and warm sunshine. By the time I got home later in the day, a giant (20 second long) hail storm struck before more glorious sunshine. Crazy.

When the weather isn't as buck wild as this I have to find other ways of entertaining myself when working. One is to try and get texts read out on radio sport. I've not had much luck lately, they don't seem that interested in my pro-English sport ramblings, until today. The subject was great sporting family dynasties. Here's one especially for my mum...

CLICK HERE

Nice bit of editing if I do say so myself. Apologies for the sound quality - that's what they put on their website.

I could talk about the rugby at Eden Park the other week but the NZ Herald says it all really. Even if they do say it like a drunk pom hater in the pub with his mates.

The planned big night out didn't go that well either. A few of us congregated at Will and Jiah's place for the AGM of the Eden Stallions (done for purposes of gaining sponsorship money) where I managed to lobby successfully for president. Sweet. I say AGM, but that lasted about 2 minutes. The rest of the time was spent on Guitar Hero and drinking our way through an epic table tennis tournament.

We got to the pub near the ground about an hour before kick off but the queue was massive so a bit of street drinking took place before getting to the game. The game was a bit of a blur. A packed house, but not the atmosphere of the Twenty20 game and a poor result. Afterwards the original group of 13 got broken up and Jo, I, Dave and Sonya were the only ones who made it to town. Sonya didn't make it much further though and the night came to a close.

Sport over the last 8 or 9 days didn't get much better. England were saved by the rain at the cricket, then imploded to gift the Black Caps their first win. I predicted wins for Portugal, Croatia, Holland and Italy in the Euro quarters and got 0/4. Good work! Now my Italian brothers are out I think I want ......... to win. I have no answer to that question. The worse thing has been that England weren't in it.

Then the rugby team got beat again.

In my lifetime there's only been a few spells of enjoyment for me as an English sports fan. Italia 90 - brilliant, but ended in tears. Euro 96 - best time of my life, then ended in tears. Ashes 05 - longest sustained period of joy for me as an English sports fan and at least we won, but been crying ever since.

It almost makes me want to give up and become a yank. They invented sports as we did. But they were clever about it, unlike us they kept the sports to themselves and called winning teams the world champions. They can never lose! Genius.

From the birthday weekend of one England's best loved characters here in NZ to another - mine! 29 again and I don't look a day older.

As I've previously hinted at, there will be a major booze up in celebration next weekend with the focal point being the rugby test between NZ and England. There are 13 of us going with only 3 being poms so we'll have to go some to outshout them.

This weekend has been fairly quiet. Jo lavished me with plenty of gifts, including several items from the english shop (mmm dandelion & burdock...). The main gift being a new phone. I've had my other one since my first week in the country and, like my camera, has been through the mill somewhat. Including being dropped more times than Graeme Hick (or Matthew Sinclair depending on which country you're reading this). Finally, it's been consigned to the draw of other shitnaks that will get moved around from place to place till I eventually decide I don't need to keep it in about 10 years time. The big shock for me is that it's my first non-Nokia so my texting speed has dropped right off. In fact, I'm so slow my mum could probably beat me in a text-off. Grate. (In-joke).

And so back to work tomorrow after a relaxing birthday weekend. I think I've pushed the "you cook tonight, it's my birthday" privileges about as far as I can. Although, those who witnessed me drag out my leaving do(s) over several months will probably not be too surprised if Jo gets subjected to that for the rest of the week.

Finally, for those who witnessed mine and Millhouse's sporting war on the comments a couple of posts ago, don't worry, it's been put to bed. I killed him. Gartside knows best.

I'm a streamer...

It's Queen's birthday weekend. I don't think that means a great deal in England but here in NZ old queenie grants us a day off work to partake in the celebrations. There are street parties, bunting and Vera Lynn on the wireless. Or maybe no one cares and just puts their feet up and watches Rachel Ray.

We've been living here in Browns Bay for a couple of weeks now and the loss of sky sports hasn't hit me as hard as I expected. I've managed to find just about every sporting event I want to watch streamed on the internet and I'm currently watching England 'B' sweep aside the plucky Trindad & Tabogganists. I even prefer the US channel, Wheels TV, coverage of the Formula 1.

I also live a lot closer to the English Shop here in Browns Bay. I met Jo for lunch the other day and was very cosmopolitan in choosing sushi. However, I followed it up with a Lion bar and washed it down with a can of Tizer. Just for old times sake. I presume they've taken all the good stuff out of Tizer (sugar, additives, red dye) as it wasn't quite as nice.

Another good local attraction is the British Isles Pub. It's a mere one minute walk away and has all manner of english paraphernalia on the walls. And, obviously, a giant South African flag on the ceiling. In the quiz on Tuesday Jo, I, Rob and Mia finished a creditable 6th out of 13. We had food too which was outstanding. I had the beef and vegetable lasagna which was probably the best I've had in NZ and it came with a salad served in a popadum! Unorthodox but delicious.

There has been a lack of posts, mainly due to lack of exciting things I've done but watch this space... It's my birthday soon and there'll be a big night out taking in the All Blacks vs England rugby test at Eden Park. Swing lowwww.............. and so forth.

JT take a bow...

...for having the guts to stand up and take a penalty. Nicolas Anelka - hang your head. 7th penalty? You soft git.

What a great final it was. Not a free flowing footballing spectacle but it was fantastic to watch. However, the penalty shootout was the most agonizing viewing to come out of Moscow since Police Academy 7.

Justice was about to be served up on a plate after Ronaldo's smug grin was wiped following his joke effort. But sadly, the pitch gods were smiling on Manchester United as the mighty John Terry's foot was taken out from under him as he sent Van De Sar the wrong way. Although we'll never know, it looked like the penalty would have gone in if it wasn't for that slice of bad luck.

Oh well. In better news, Anthony Quinn crossed first for New South Wales in the first State of Origin game winning me the massive $6 sweepstake pot. Get in there.

The quiet life...

There hasn't been much going on of late - business is slowing down a little with winter on it's way so the social life has been put on the back burner somewhat.

Jo and I celebrated 18 months together this weekend with a Mongolian BBQ at Gengis Khan restaurant. Lunt will vouch for it's quality. And so will any future visitors from the UK who'll definitely be taken along.

There has also been a new addition to the household as one of my fellow Eden Stallions, Nick, has lent me his playstation 3 while he's overseas. I've got to say I'm pretty impressed - I've already completed Drake's Uncharted Fortune and Jo is currently enjoying Crash Bandicoot (the most annoying game in the world... why can't you just save at the end of a level?!?!?) which Nick had downloaded. Maybe this is the real reason for a slower social life?

And so on to the Stallions - check out the website for their progress. We're top of the table after 5 games and this weekend we won in the first round of the cup against a team from 2 divisions above. On a personal note, I'm having a better season than previous with 10 goals so far.

I'm not sure whether it's the fact that we play in Chelsea kits or not, but having just watched highlights of the end of the Premiership season, I am going to be totally behind the blues in the Champions League final.

I used to be about as anti Manchester United as you could get but that eased off over the years almost to a state of indifference. I'm even managing them on Champ. But a few things have re-ignited that particular flame. I'll incur the wrath of Millward for this (if he still reads this site) but here goes...

1. The spoilt brat attitude...
1a. We don't like the new owners so we'll start our own football team in protest. Then still support both.
1b. Other english fans hate us (a natural by product of a decade of domination) so we'll hate England and sing anti-English songs and pro-Argentina ones. I'll add Tevez draping himself in the Argentinian flag when collecting his medal. Urgh.
1c. The BBC once said something bad about someone so Ferguson won't talk to them ever again.

2. Ronaldo. A horrible player. I hated the way he stops playing when he thinks he's been fouled with almost a "how dare you even try to tackle someone as good as me" smugness about him. A great talent, no doubt, but does he really have to act like a total (&^(^#&)$*&) (*^#?

Take a deep breath.

Back to real life, and the end of an era is upon us as I shall be moving out of the flat I share with Rob and into Jo's parents place to house sit as they go to Europe for a couple of months. As much as I'm looking forward to living with Jo, I'm not sure how I'll cope with out Sky Sports.

Finally, they've had a series on tv here called the 7 Ages of Rock and last night it was an indie/Britpop episode. Wow, it took me back. You don't hear much Roses over here so that was a joy. With Suede, Elastica, Echobelly, Sleeper and Pulp all getting a mention, I was transported back to SLAM (Students Love Alternative Music) in Karisma on a Tuesday nights, hammering back those pints of snakky b for a pound a go and dancing like a nutter to The Only One I know. Speaking of which, Charlatans didn't get a mention which I thought very strange given they're the longest lasting of all the Britpop era bands.

And the winner is...

My long search to find the world's greatest shopping mall food court is at an end. With the title going to...

bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum bdum

...the Atrium in Auckland city centre. That was a drum roll by the way.

They even refer to it as a "Food Gallery" on the website. Classy. With food on offer from the med, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Italy, USA, Mexico, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, China and Korea, (yes I looked those up) and all at McD's prices it is well worth a visit. No McD, KFC, or Wendy's either. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

And to think Jo didn't think I'd be able to get an interesting post out of this. Hmmm.

Awooooogaaa...

American Gladiators made a comeback on our tv screens this week in NZ and what a welcome return it is. The games haven't lost any of their charm and a hilarious eliminator at the end with 2 female contenders looking like a couple of punch drunk boxers staggering around trying to finish.

It prompted some reminiscing from Rob and I about the classic contests of the mid 90s. I bizarrely managed to remember Eunice Huthart and Wesley '2 scoops' Berry as being the most famous contenders.

So we decided to do a bit of a where are they now internet search and uncovered an astounding piece of information..... Wolf now runs a children's playground centre in Auckland...New Zealand!

Crazy plans were being hatched of getting him to present end of season awards for the Stallions, but after further investigation it appears this information was slightly out of date and Wolf now lives in Queenstown, on the South Island.

For Gladiator fans here is a video of the greatest eliminator ever between 2 scoops and Phil Norman, who probably starts crying every time he goes up the stairs at home as it triggers memories of that travelator...

CLICK HERE - sadly embedded has been disabled so you'll have to do it the old fashioned way.

Hello again...

An update is long overdue isn't it? So what have I been up to since my last post. Not a great deal really, my back injury got quite bad and forced me to miss work (legitimately) and sport. As this had a direct effect on my pocket my social life suffered similarly. So there haven't been many nights out to write about. There was Dave's birthday a couple of weeks ago at his local pub. I got one photo which goes someway to answering the age old question... Just who is Breeny's Fella?

I'm back at work now though thanks mainly to a back brace the physio sold me to give me more support. It's certainly doing the trick although I'd call it more of a corset given how restricting it is. I might bring it into regular circulation to squeeze in to some of my old clothes again. I'm starting to feel connected with the women of yesteryear. I wonder if they experienced the same phenomenon I do... Just like when you lean against a wall on one arm, then move away and the arm raises up by itself. When I take my corset, sorrry, back brace off my stomach muscles force my gut right out and I get a bit of Ethiopian Belly. That must have played havoc with some of the great love stories of the past. "Mr Darcy was aghast as he finally lay his eyes upon his love, he was staring at the worse case of Ethiopian Belly he had ever seen."

On to cricket matters... The England tour of NZ was great. I made it to one day's test cricket in the picturesque ground of Hamilton where I lounged on the grass banks and saw one of the best day's play I'd ever seen live. Lots of NZ wickets tumbling as England fought themselves into a winning position. Which they then blew the next day. Some better cricket followed in the remainder of the series and saw us triumph in the end. I could wear my England cap with pride again. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

On a personal sporting level, our new 11-a-side Sunday League team, Eden Stallions, is up and running and after 2 games we top the table. Follow the link on the right to our website (remarkably similar looking to this one) containing match reports and a top scorers table (ahem) amongst other things. Due to a team from a higher division pulling out at the last minute there was a league restructure and we now find ourselves in a division with only 3 others.

In other news Jo and I have caught up on a few films. I've always avoided the Pianist for some reason but it's a fantastic film and almost makes me want to watch Schindler's List. Almost but not quite. We've also watched the Back to the Future trilogy... amazing. Watching it this time I realised a couple of things, namely Michael J Fox plays his daughter (don't think I noticed that before) and we're only 7 years away from hoverboards and hydrating pizzas. The world will be a better place...

Old man troubles...

No, not my waterworks, my back is giving me some stick. I strained it lugging my mowers about and have damaged one of the joints on the spine or something. It's meant starting a course of physio and lightening my workload, with a by product of being home mid afternoon and catching the last session and a half of the test match.

My visit to the physio yesterday was an interesting one as I had my back "manipulated" for the first time. This involved the physio and I getting into the sort of position you'd expect to see in one of Heyesie's cook books then one sharp movement and one loud click later, I was fixed. Only temporarily though and I've got more of the same to come.

Anyway, I'd better go, the sofa is calling and England's batsmen need my support...

Hey now, hey now, don't dream. It's over...

Today was the day of the big draw and STINK I didn't win. They drew someone out from Christchurch then rang him and he didn't answer. Unlucky. They drew it again and although it was a bit closer (south Auckland) it wasn't close enough and the lucky winner will be off to his chosen event... the Monte Carlo Grand Prix in May.

Jammy bastard. Looks like I'm going to have to pay for my own trip back to the UK. See you all in 2015.

I like those odds...

The radio station that keeps me entertained during work, Radio Sport, have recently been running a competition offering the winner a free trip to any sporting event in the world in 2008. To enter you fill in a form on the website, then several times during the day they draw a name out and that person has an hour to call the station back. If you managed this, you were entered into the draw which took place last Monday. I eagerly entered and listened when I could during the day but sadly my name wasn't drawn out (or if it was I missed it).

The winner had selected the NRL Grand Final as his dream sporting trip anywhere in the world. For those who aren't clued up, this is the final of the Australian Rugby League competition. In Sydney. Wow. What a waste! You can pick anywhere and they will fly you there FOR FREE, give you tickets for the event FOR FREE and put you up in a hotel FOR FREE. Maybe this guy doesn't have very lofty ambitions, or has seen and done it all.

Either way, the station decided to run the competition again seeing as sending someone to Sydney would probably eat up about 2% of their budget for this. Can anyone see why I'm bothering you with this yet?

Yesterday I decided to buy a personal radio to listen whilst I'm out of the car mowing lawns. This turned out to be the best $10 I ever spent as during my final lawn today this happened....

CLICK ME

For those who aren't that technologically minded (hi mum), the gist is my name was read out, I called back and I'm now in the draw on Monday to win a free trip to the British GP. Apparently there are thousands registered for this so I've done pretty well to be picked out.

I think there's a maximum of around 100 people who could be in the draw, maybe a lot less depending on how many people didn't call back in the allotted time. So I've got maybe a 80/1 shot of a free trip home.

Sounds ok to me.

I don't like cricket, I LOVE IT...

I suggested a romantic weekend break in Wellington to Jo and she was very keen. By some coincidence England's first One Day International against NZ was being played there on the Saturday. It would have been silly not to go see it. Especially when Radio Sport were giving away pairs of free tickets for any talkback callers. CLICK HERE to hear what I had to say this time (about 6 mins in again and isn't very exciting I'm afraid).

We decided to be even more thrifty and make a road trip of it rather than fly, so we set off early Friday morning to make the journey down the length of the North Island.

We stopped first just shy of Taupo, at a place called Huka Falls...



Where the incredibly fast flowing water of the Waikato River was making it's way back to our taps in Auckland. We then went into Taupo itself and had lunch on the beach of Lake Taupo.

From there we headed on south and arrived in Wellington about 9 hours after we left Auckland.

I like Wellington, it's a more down to earth city than Auckland with a much broader spectrum of bars, restaurants and theatres on offer. It is very hilly and the weather isn't all that great which would probably put me off living there. It is still the only other place in New Zealand I would consider living though at this stage.

On the morning of the game we took the cable car up to the observatory and walked back down to the city through the Botanical Gardens before making our way to the stadium...labeled the Cake Tin. I was a bit worried about the gathering clouds but I really should have worried more about England making a half decent game of it. They didn't.

The ground wasn't anywhere near as full as Eden Park, or as vocal. But it was a good day.

By the way, the DJ at the ground confirmed what I knew already, if you want to get a kiwi crowd singing then you have 2 options...

Kenny Rogers', The Gambler works pretty well,



But nowhere near as well as The Exponents...



Heyesie (c. 1995) lookalike anyone?

Kiwis everywhere go mental for this song...guaranteed!

Twenty20...

My first taste of watching England play in person on these shores and it was a good one. After plenty of effort by Rob and I our fancy dress outfits were ready for action.

We convened in a park near to the ground and had a few pre-matchers - flagrant flouting of the public liquor ban but fortunately for us the coppers were all checking handbags at the gates. Here is me, Dave, Sonya, Rob and Milan being tidy kiwis...

On to the game. Last week it was the Wellington Sevens where it's almost compulsory to dress up, however Aucklanders don't have quite the same passion for looking ridiculous. It didn't bother us too much though...

It was a nice setting, a vociferous crowd and a great result. Get in!...

That sign wasn't too annoying.

A catch up...

The lack of posts may give the impression that I've done absolutely nothing since I got back but that's not strictly true.

Take a couple of weeks ago for example... Jo's mum scored some free passes to a corporate box for finals day at the NZ Beach Volleyball Open. She kindly donated the tickets to Jo so we went along with Rob, Bonzo and Sonya. Forgot my camera so here are a few images from day one my cursory internet search found. It was a great day and our box was nicely placed courtside, I felt like Spike Lee at the Knicks. We had an umbrella for shade and a cool box for the 3 beers we bought there. Definitely not for any illegally smuggled in ones. Sadly, the NZ ladies team lost to Brazil in the final to the delight of the samba gang who took over one stand but the mens team (ranked only a few outside Olympic qualifying) scored a fine win to save the day.

Last weekend Jo and I took a trip to one of the 400,000 beaches within an hour of Auckland. Even though it only took 40 minutes to get to Bethells Beach and we weren't there that long it felt like going away on holiday. The beach was pretty busy but given it's size that didn't matter. It's a west coast beach which means black, volcanic sand and wild surf. In fact, the Independent apparently voted it in the world's top 10 beaches a few years ago.

Finally, this week sees the start of the England cricket team's tour of NZ. I remember seeing the planned 2008 tour a few years ago when I was first thinking of making the big move. It sounded so far into the future, but here we are. The first game is a 2020 at Eden Park, just up the road, on Tuesday evening. This will be my first limited overs live England game, quickly followed by my second as Jo and I are off to Wellington next weekend, with the first ODI coincidentally there on Saturday. What a stroke of luck. For me, anyway.

Sadly no test matches in Auckland, the nearest being in Hamilton, mainly due to the poor attendances at tests at Eden Park in recent years. Speaking of which, I made my radio debut (any face for radio gags like Jo's are not welcome) the other day during a phone in on Radio Sport. For those who are interested in my view point, miss hearing my voice or simply fancy a chuckle as I get a dry throat and nearly choke only a few seconds in, the link is below. You have to skip forward about 6 minutes in for my bit.

Click here for me on my soapbox

More pictures to come in the next couple of days...

UK Trip - final post...

Better late than never.

It's 2 weeks since we arrived back in New Zealand and the whole trip seems like a lifetime away now. The flights back were a mixed bag - Lufthansa cocked up our seats and we were sat in the middle 2 of the bank of 4 for 12 long hours on an old plane with some non-descript film on a tiny screen 10ft away. Air New Zealand however provided much more leg room, personal entertainment systems and didn't run out of breakfast meals by the time they got to our seats.

We also had a pleasant mini stopover in Hong Kong airport. We were there for 7 hours, which seemed pretty daunting beforehand, but they have a transit lounge you can pay to get in to. We chose the 5 hour option with 2 hour nap. Comfortable seats, free food and drink, free internet and shower facilities. All for only 45 quid for the 2 of us.

In the end we got home feeling fairly well apart from the bad cold that laid Jo up for a few days. Now I'm feeling pretty settled back into life and work over here. Next on the agenda is to get fit for the new football season....3 months and counting...

UK Trip - penultimate post

I'm currently sat at my parents house, relaxing, no running off to various parts of the country for a drinking binge, just waiting for a home cooked meal to be prepared for one of the last times before I head back to NZ.


So why not spend this quiet family time with a quick (yeah, right) post?


First of all, thanks to everyone for making Jo feel so welcome on her first trip over to the UK. It'll hopefully be her first trip of many so it's been good for her to have a better impression of the British people than the 2 nutters screaming at her gave. Boz and Breeny really need to learn some manners.


She's in Paris at the moment but I think she'll allow me to speak for both of us when I say that it's been a great trip. I haven't been able to see everyone and those I have seen I haven't seen enough of, so sorry about that.


It's been a bit of an eye opener - I don't think we'll want to be doing a 3 week trip every 2 years. There's too much to cram in. I also don't want to move back to England, I enjoy New Zealand too much. So it seems there are 2 options...


1. Persuade all my family and friends to move to New Zealand or, if need be, Australia.


2. Make an annual trip back to England.


I'd better make sure my business is successful then...

UK Trip - post 4

After just the one Christmas in the sun it was back to the wintery wonderland festivities I'm accustomed to.

Here are the cooks doing what they do best...

With the turkey sandwiches barely digested we were on the road again. This time off to Ireland (North and South) for the wedding of my old pal Andrew Creegan and his lovely lady, Sharon. It was a great day and the ceremony went without a hitch (except the obvious one).

He's me and the man of the day...

We've got a Breeny coming through...

Check out James' site for some more pictures.

A few hours of recovery from the booze and the hotel bill (being able to charge drinks to the room is a dangerous business) were spent at Brodsworth Hall the day after we got back before we were back on our travels.

This time we were off to London for New Year. We arrived on the 30th just in time to get over to the ice rink in front of the National History Museum with Natalie and her boyfriend, Dan. There are a couple of pictures that I'll get my hands on and post, sadly none of my tumble (the only one of us to fall) nor of my near tumble where my arms flayed about as I did a triple John Salako before just about regaining my balance.

On New Years Eve Dan cooked us all a tasty full English before we headed out into London for some sight-seeing with Jo's sister Maree...

After the Eye and St Pauls we were back to Natalie's for food and drink, joined by her friend Sarah and boyfriend Bern before heading off to the Frog...

Despite the Frog being free entry it was pretty empty so after sending Dan on a reccy to the Sun we decided to move and pay the £10. The free ice shot and Fools Gold being played after midnight confirmed it was the right move.

The last sensible picture of the night - I'm just about clinging onto a look of sobriety...

It was an early rise on New Years Day. Jo and Maree were off to Paris, Natalie was off to work and I was driving 200 miles up the M1 to see my only Oldham game of the trip, away at Leeds. We were just off the back of a poor home defeat, Leeds were unbeaten at home all season. It was fairly obvious we'd be 3-0 up by half time. It ended 3-1 and Acres and Lunt who'd foolishly agreed to come to the game with me were pleasantly surprised with the feast of football on show. After several hours spent in the Elland Road car park we made it back to Harrogate for a curry with some of my old work gang - Errington and Millhouse came over from Manchester, Smaje and his girlfriend from Leeds and Kwai and Nicola from round the corner. It was great to see everyone again and even greater that Lunt didn't repeat his previous curry house show. He did however cause a mess at Acres' house where just about everything he touched crashed to the floor. Disaster for Lunt...

Now I'm back home and putting my feet up until the end of the trip and the journey back to New Zealand.