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end of season awards for the Stallions, but after further investigation it appears this information was slightly out of date and Wolf now lives in Queenstown, on the South Island.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...