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.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, February 04, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
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...
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...
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