Annual Hurricanes Navel Gaze

Sometimes I feel sorry for all you poor suffering Hurricanes fans out there. Every year its the same, they start off with a hiss and a roar, get your hopes up, only to crush you when the business end of the season rolls round. Its like a certain type of woman that men sometimes fall for. They know they shouldn't, however she charms them for a while. But before too long you just know she's going to get bored and move on to another man. And yet they take her back next year when she comes back begging for forgiveness.

Pretty much every year Tom Scott encapsulates this scenario perfectly with a cartoon along the lines of yesterdays Dominion Post gem.

Problem is if you Wellingtonians do start supporting the Blues, you know it won't bear any fruit. Go on, admit it, you know in your hearts there is only one side that will win the Super 14, and you know who it is.

The Warriors

I went to my first Warriors game on Sunday. It was fantastic! I've had a bit of a curse over the years, on the rare occasions that I watch a Warriors game they usually lose, no matter how well they've been tracking. So it was with some trepidation I went along to see them play the defending champion side from Brisbane.

I'm happy to say the Warriors were sublime, particularly for a 20 minute segment in the first half where they completely blew the game out of the water. It was a long time since I'd been to a league game (point proven by the fact it was at Carlaw Park!), but I will go again soon, making the most of the remaining time here in Auckland.

The hits were huge, you could hear them from the top of the stadium, akin to Mack trucks smacking into each other (I hope I'm still allowed to use the word smacking, has it been banned yet???). The crowd was passionate and noisy, the atmosphere fantastic.

At risk of perpetuating that curse....it could be the Warriors year. And wouldn't it be nice next to one or two World Cups in other sports?

Do Not Enter This Street

One of the more dangerous places in the Jaffabowl. Once you go down this road there is no way out. You have been warned.

Murder at the World Cup?

Man this is turning out to be a faster page turner than a Dan Brown novel....talk about conspiracy city. Pakistan's mentor Bob Woolmer is dead, they say it may be murder and even the Pakistani players are under suspicion of murdering their coach now by the police.

It makes NZ's slightly fanatical All Black obsession appear positively tame. Pakistani's were on the streets after the loss to Ireland chanting "Death to the Coach, Death to the Captain....". I wonder how we'd react if Tonga beat us in the rugby- would someone murder Graham Henry or burn down Richie McCaws house? For heavens sakes....its crazy.

In other news....when I was in Christchurch last week someone had been all round town putting up these.....Hmmm. Its a mad mad world.

The New Bradman

Australia has a new hero for the Cricket World Cup. They are just waiting on his Kitt to arrive.

The Housing Market

I have been having a long hard think about the current state of the NZ housing market. My conclusion is that its going to go 'ping' shortly and some people are going to get burnt. Why do I think this?

• There is a whole generation of first home buyers, loaded with student debt and credit cards from OE's etc, who are now increasingly becoming priced out of being able to enter the market.


• The Baby Boomers are soon hitting retirement age, at which point some are going to want to release some equity for lifestyle reasons.


• This country has a major deferred maintenance problem with its overall housing stock, compounded in Auckland by leaky buildings issues
• Interest rates are on the up

All in all I see this leading to the rapid onset of a 'buyers market' where prices simply will have to drop. For these reasons, among others, I would advise anyone to think twice about what sort of property they buy in the next year or two. Particularly if it is an entry level or 'investment/ rental' option. There is a correction in the marketplace coming, its a matter of when and how much. And its just around the corner.

Sluggo Update

The old addage "Catches Win Matches" may not be true for Bermuda, but that one is a ripper!

Sunday Excitement

Lots of news to report today, it is an action packed Sunday!

• Ruapehu has finally let go with the lahar. I had a standing prediction that this would happen on March 21, so three days out ain't bad! Only of moderate size so best case scenario really, little or no damage to people and property.

• Apparently Christchurch is getting smashed by biblical style hail and lightning, typically I've missed it by three days!
  
• Ireland have eliminated Pakistan from the cricket world cup. On St Paddies day to boot- there won't be a single drop of Guinness left in the West Indies after tonight!

• It really is the Day of the Minnows with Bangladesh also beating India. So the Pakistani drug cheats and Indian matchfixers are being done over by the minnows, hopefully they will stop trying to hi jack world cricket now! This will leave a host of amateur Irish reps scrambling for the phones home to apply for an unexpected extra months leave as they look to have qualified for the next round!

• The Black Caps road to the semis looks good!

• The Qantas Air Hostess who ravaged Ralph Fiennes on board a flight recently has been confirmed to be working a second job as a lady of the night in Sydney. I wonder how Mr Fiennes feels about it all now?

Johhny Cash RIP

This link is for perhaps the most powerful music video I've ever seen. Cash covers the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" shortly before his death. If you've seen Walk The Line I challenge you to have a dry eye at the end of this.

http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/losthighway/440063339_02_250k.wvx

Droughts and Climate Change

Seen the show Men in Trees?

Well in light of the "Man Drought" in NZ heres the small town USA equivalent "Woman Drought" solution, courtesy of the genuis that is Spareroom and friends.

Funniest thing I saw all week! Well apart from Mark "Peeping" Thompson that is.

Click:
http://www.spareroom.co.nz/rooms/spareroom/

Bay of Plenty Police drama's in the 80's

Perhaps if they had followed this Indian example it would have saved everyone a lot of grief 20 years later

Indian Police To Wear Flower Scented Uniforms
Police in India's Western state of Gujarat will wear new uniforms impregnated with the fragrance of flowers and citrus to help improve their image.

"Most policemen look hassled, drenched in sweat after coming from any scene of crime," said Somesh Singh, a designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad that drew up the uniforms on request of the state government.

"They are surely not the best person one would like to meet but if they smell good and fresh one might as well approach them," said Singh. The uniforms, to be introduced in the next few months to the state's 300,000 police, use cotton with a fragrant finish. The uniforms also use reflective prints and fibre optic technology so they glow at night, allowing police to be easily located. The uniforms will retain the scent even after washing as the fragrance is embedded in the cotton during processing.

(Source, NZ Herald)

Big Macca

Craig MacMillan apparently has his own world cup blog. Or else someone has too much time on their hands! This is going in the Razor Links!

http://blacksnacks.blogspot.com/

Zimbabwe

Mugabe shakes hands with Charlie at the pope's funeral

How long will the world continue to turn a blind eye to Mugabe and his henchmen, who have succeeded in macabre and spectacular fashion in completely dismantling the Bread Basket of Africa, and turning it into a despotic banana republic with inflation in 4 figures. The Zimbabwe Reserve Bank recently issued a $50,000 note, which will get you a loaf of bread if you are lucky. Its a farce.

The latest absolute fiasco sees Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Mugabe's main opposition party arrested, badly beaten in prison by the 'police' and currently in hospital with serious head injuries.

If they had Oil there the West would have sorted him out years ago. At the very least Zimbabwe should be thrown out of the current Cricket World Cup- Mugabe rates the continuation of their inclusion as endorsement of his policies, as long as theres not too many white guys in the team of course.

Come on world, wake up on this one!

OUCH !!!

Reconnecting

"I live in a town where you can't smell a thing......I keep forgetting the smell of the warm country air"








Am in Christchurch at the moment having an absolute blast of a time. The weather is magic, the pubs are busy (especially so since I arrived!) and the countryside is looking mint.

Its great to be back in the mainland. This visit is a most timely one, I'm really rediscovering the magic this place has and I'm going to have to be back before too much longer. In fact that will be just two weeks away for Easter and the next installment in the 2007 Wedding Series!


















Wednesday was a biggie, Captain Mark threw me and his bike in the Black Cat (http://www.blackcat.co.nz/) van and we headed off to Akaroa on a hot norwest day. Based on the handful of 5km bikerides I have recently done from Herne Bay to work I wasn't really in the greatest cycling shape but nevertheless I spent the rest of the day cycling 91km from Akaroa back to ChCh. I can confirm the hills haven't got any smaller!

Met some interesting folk along the way, I could really get into this cycle touring lark. Its a mellow way of soaking up the countryside. One Aussie guy named Terry was setting off for 6 weeks of it all around the South Island, so we had a great chat at the Hilltop over a beer for lunch while working out the best route to take for him. Then there was an inspiring 70 year old Austrian chap who was 3 months into riding the length of NZ , complete with 4 golf clubs lashed onto his bikeframe- his big thing was to play a round at every golf course he passes- as we left him he was hooning off to play the Duvauchelle course, the 38th course he's played in NZ. I hope and prey I'm doing stuff like that when I'm a septuagenarian, in fact I will settle just to be doing anything then!

So anyway, once the hill was out the way it was a fast freewheel down to Little River and a compulsory stop at my favourite Art Gallery on the planet...classic case of the Phoenix rising out of the ashes that one was! Then the slog back to ChCh round Lake Ellesmere etc was flat, but into the teeth of the baking hot norwester, was hard yakker. Briefly a storm threatened to blow in, and I even spotted a waterspout touch the deck as I rode the Little River Rail Trail (www.littleriverrailtrail.co.nz)

The Rail Trail is neat, and I sat on some of the initial committees that developed the idea a few years back when with the local council, so it was very satisfying to ride the finished product. A compulsory ride for anyone in ChCh with a bike!

Anyway thats enough waffle for one post....off to Bill' s wedding this afternoon and just to stay consistent it is another glorious day for it!

The Cricket World Cup

Well its not my intention to make this a sport dominated blog, but with World Cups in NZ's two highest profile sports this year its going to be unavoidable to make merry on the back of sporting superstars, like this bloke from the cricketing superpower of Bermuda, affectionately known as Slugger. And they hassle Macca for being porky!

Since I no one took up my 'sponsorship' request I'm going to have to put up with watching from home, in the middle of the night. The minnows are going to provide many cringes and maybe even a laugh or two, I suspect many club teams would compete better, but having said that this guy just got Kevin Pietersen out so anything is possible!

For the record I'm picking Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka and NZ to be the semifinalists. And from there its anyones guess!

Shakespearian Gecko Tragedy

Lifted from the Sideswipe Blog.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrixhUg1SCg

Job Stress

I got stuck in traffic for half an hour behind this abomination the other day. I am considering taking a Personal Grievance against my employer for working in 'Unsafe/ Obnoxious Circumstances".

Having said that, who am I to talk about rugby, I'm running abysmally on the Virtual Super 14 picks this year, currently ranked in position 135,017 out of 154,149 players. UGLY! Many of the games this year have been harder to pick than a broken nose with players being rested, drawn matches etc. I mean really, who picks a draw? Let alone two in one week!