Atiu

As Rarotonga looms I have discovered an island that holds secret male beer drinking ceremonies.

I'm off there!

There may or may not be a report on this in September, if I come home.

Domestic Rugby

Yes folks, theres more to footy than the World Cup for the rest of the year. The "NPC" gets up and running this week.

The NZ Herald reported today that the Otago Squad has been having training sessions to the point of physical exhaustion up on mountainside 1500m above sea level. Its been -20 degrees down there last week in some parts of Central Otago.

By comparison the Auckland team have been on a pre season 'bonding' trip to Thailand.

It will be interesting to see which of those two teams goes better!

The Canterbury boys have been staring at an empty trophy cabinet for the first time in history for their training....soon to be sorted out.

Anyway, as usual I'm doing the Virtual Rugby thing, so if you sign up there look for 'Razor Sharpe to watch'

Haymans Beard

Well some of you may remember Bearduary....it looks like theres going to be a repeat performance that will run nicely into Movember 2007. Throw away your Razors everyone!

Apparently since he shaved it off the AB's lost their mojo, so what more reason to grow some face fluff. I was thinking the after the Wedding might be a good place to start with a week off in Rarotonga...unless of course I get a reason not to!

Full details at Stuff.co.nz here

Check this out... the official Haymans Beard blog is here.

These guys deserve a serious shout out. I'll have it linked on my favourates- I urge you to subscribe, if only to see the George Gregan arrest!

Where Was The Project Manager?

This is a classic that arrived in my email box this week...

The photo below was taken in Swansea, UK, from an office just opposite the site where council workmen were cleaning up after making an excellent job of erecting and cementing in traffic bollards.

This was to prevent cars parking on the large open area in front of the grey building on the right.

Take a closer look??!!!

The New Job

Well, believe it or not its almost a month into it. The job is everything I expected and more, its really quite a politically charged time to be working on Tenure Review but thats just another thing that makes the job fun.

Already I'm working on places dear to my tramping and mountain biking heart. Really the job is a combination of all the different careers paths I've taken merged into one very interesting role. Still very much in the induction phase, but we're getting quite a bit achieved already.

Now all I need to do is find a new home!

Yeouwch!!!

This is just naaaaaaasty

Rugby league prop Ben Czislowski ran around for 15 weeks without knowing an opponent's tooth was buried in his forehead.

Full story click here....

Kiddies

Today I became a godfather.

And a couple of weeks ago I became a brother again.

It's all very very cool!

Wellington To Be Dismantled And Shut Down

I guess this means the end for Windy Wellington! (Clickety)

The Luckiest Day Of Our Lives

In this crazy rollercoaster of a year, where the vast majority of my friends are either going through break ups, getting married or having kids this grabbed my attention....

Saturday just past was the 7th of the 7th of 07.

Among superstition circles the number 7 is the luckiest of all numbers, which makes last Saturday quite a special day. Apparently hordes of people were heading to the alter, having babies and playing Save The World concerts on this day, just because its such a lucky day.

And dammit, I forgot to buy a lotto ticket.

Heres an article link to analyse 7/7/07 further, for those of you too lazy to google it!

From the New York Times, click here

And no, I'm not reporting my luck stakes from that fateful day here. To be honest the 6th of June 2006 was probably more fun....

The State of the World

In order to celebrate this weekends Live Earth concerts....

Match Point to Mr Gore.

Razor Review- G n' F n' R

What a night. Arrived via a Kenny Rogers playing cab driver, which was rather surreal. Into the gig and straight into Angry Anderson and his brothers Rose Tattoo- solid sounding set for the oldies in the crowd (which I almost am now!). Nice Boys Don't Play Rock N Roll!!!

Then came treat number one- Sebastian "Mr Hard Rock Charisma" Bach played a full set of primarily Skid Row songs and if you knew them it was great. If not then it might have been a battle. Sebastian gets 7 out of 10- keep that energy pal! Probably the highlight was the crowd pleasing "I Remember You" which proved to all that his voice still has it and was never faked.

About midnight the first riffs of Welcome To The Jungle started bouncing around the dry ice and it was all on. I had my doubts until recently as to whether Axl Rose could still carry it off, but anyone who saw any of the gigs last week in Auckland and Christchurch will tell you, well, Rose is still a rock and roll legend in his prime.

I won't bore you all with blow by blow detail, suffice to say it was a two hour set of crowd pleasing greatest hits, along with three new songs- Madagascar being the outstanding one there. And the band- outstanding. It may not be Slash, Duff et all but this mob are as cohesive and together as any incarnation of G N R that theres ever been. Robin Finke of Nine Inch Nails fame is virtuoso, Richard Fortus of Psychadelic Furs fame is a treat- and my personal highlight of the night was Ron Thal's outstanding rendition of the NZ National Anthem that morphed into an instrumental version of "Don't Cry" on the "Flyin V" guitar- it was like Jimi Hendrix was in the room.

Best tracks- Welcome to the Jungle, the epic firework driven November Rain, Madagascar and Paradise City to close. And many, many more.

The Razor Review gives this 9 out of 10 and says its the best gig I've seen in 2007. Not quite into the Top 5 of all time, the 1988 version of G N R just cuts this one off at the pass, mainly due to it being my first ever gig!

Wasted Youth

In December 1988 I went to see these guys in the Jaffabowl....my first ever live concert. Its still one of my top 5 gigs ever.

In 1993 I saw them again, with Sebastian Bach's Skid Row in support. That night G N R were too drugged out to make the top 5 gigs list.

Tonight I'm off to see Axl's modern version of G N R here in ChCh, who from all accounts played great gigs in Auckland over the weekend. And funnily enough Sebastian Bach is in support. Ironically the last live act I saw in ChCh was Velvet Revolver 2 years ago....where the rest of the 'old G N R' currently play. Today Velvet Revolver released their new CD, and there are posters of both G N R and VR all over town. I wonder if Axl noticed the irony as he flew into the Garden City.

Its time for one huuuuuuge fucking party!!!!!!!!!!!

Razor Review to follow when the hangover eases........sometime next week probably!

All Blacks have a chink or two in the armour...

Aussies just beat the All Blacks. Most unexpectedly!

Ouch, that one hurt. Down trou. Oh well if nothing else this blatantly stolen Jockey/ Google Image (c) will get the female viewership of my blog up...

Well played Australia, that was a gutsy upset win, and for the second week in a row Ritchies boys failed to do the fundamentals- like catch the rugby ball- when it matters.

Can you coach grown men how to catch?

Having said that, I'm not at all upset about the boys losing that one, they were mucking around with a couple of blokes out of position and they got the answer that they didn't work (ie McAlister has to play at 2nd 5 not center...now I'm a big Aaron Mauger fan but I think he played himself out of the 12 jersey tonight.

And Dan Carter- what a monumentally crap season that bloke is having...if his name was Carlos I'm pretty sure they would have sacked him by now.

BUT .... form is temporary, class is permanent. The World Cup will still be ours....one day.

Go the Black Boat!!!!!!

Which All Black do you look like?

Courtesy of our pal Razork I have taken the Weetbix Challenge and found out that I am Byron Kelleher. Now ladies, please form an orderly queue ;-)

Take the challenge as linked above and let us know who you are!

Lyttelton Homecoming

Went to the Festival of the Lights in Lyttelton last night, it was a fantastic night- after having given 5 years of my life to the local council its just so bloody wonderful to see the place continuing to take shape as it is.

Lindon Puffin was MC for the night and played a stonking wee gig himself, as pictured below.

At this point, for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to catch the journey that is Lindon Puffin yet, its time for an introduction:

Lindon is one of Aotearoa's most engaging personalities and a highly talented musician that deserves more media spotlight than he's achieved so far. Mr Smoothfluid and myself have enjoyed many a fine gig and the doco Figure 8000 is simply the best roadtrip music movie ever released in NZ.

And his new album "Show Pony" is out now, go and buy it! I'll leave the man himself to do the rest of his promotion via his My Space website, Click here...

Its great to be home. Crisp clear sunny days, snow on the alps, and the mountain bike is coming out of the shed tomorrow!

Touchdown

Home now folks.

I just love roadtrips.

1400km's this time via Papamoa, Gisborne, Wellington, Kaikoura and finally ChCh.

The car survived. The drought is over in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay. Thanks so much for coffees and beds from the family, Rattus, Vanessa and Bill. A special mention to Mrs Rattus for enduring an impromptu Razor / Rattus recording session. The album will be out soon....we just need to locate Mike Watt to lay down the bass tracks and Keith Moon for the drums.

Time to catch the breath.

Who's the King of the Jungle Now?

Sometimes its good to be reminded just how kick ass it is to be a Taurus.....here puss puss puss!

In all seriousness, this is one of the coolest YouTube videos you'll see....Lions taking on Bulls and we ain't talking rugby....and the surprise third party is just a gamebreaker!!!!

A Long Battle Won

After a 6 month wrangle at the Tenancy Tribunal I've finally won my $1,000 that I've been after since the start of the year. Seems crazy to fight so long over it but they picked the wrong person to try on.

Vini, Vidi, Vici!

Bowie is The Starman

Found this article ( link here) online from a magazine thread which bought back memories of one of the Top 5 gigs I've seen. Man did it rain that night, but we didn't care, the Man Who Sold The World was with us.

I know this is likely to make Mr Rattus a bit upset though.

One Week To Go

Well I'm into the last week before the Drift South begins. Bit sad to be leaving DOC but all my projects are in good shape and I know they will carry on just fine without me. Its all come round pretty fast in the end. I could have left six months ago when the crap hit the fan, but I'm glad I stuck it out- DOC has been good to me and going to places like Great Barrier, Kawau, Rangitoto, Tiritiri, etc for work is pretty sweet really.

Theres no doubt the wider experience of living in the Jaffabowl is pretty vibrant. Of course I'm not going to miss the traffic jams...but overall Auckland ain't that bad, its a shame the political masters around the Council tables are still suffering from decision making paralysis though, the Queen City I believe is on the cusp of really great things, provided they find the right leadership. Personally I think the biggest issue is that 5 Councils running one city is a bloody disaster waiting to happen- and sadly in some cases it already is, as evidenced by Stadium debates, Roading disasters, and most recently the shameful decision to continue to allow wasterwater to be pumped into the harbours in order to continue meeting a profit target. But overall there are many worse places one could live- you don't have to look far overseas to see where!

So next Friday is the last day, theres actually three of us finishing on the same day -forming an orderly queue at the exit door! No doubt thats going to be a bit of a rowdy night on North Head. From there the plan is to catch up with Rattus in Tauranga, and then carry on down to Wellington for a couple of days before jumping on the ferry and being in ChCh very soon after that.

The good news is my faithful car Ubi is now in full working order. The bad news is its taken a grand total $1826.24 to get it there....but at least its now a machine I can sell for an overall profit rather than push off the cliff out Piha way! So if you hear anyone wanting a wagon that'll get them through a couple of years at a Razor Sharp price come and see me!

So anyway, overall I have learnt to appreciate Auckland a lot better this time round, it will be a wonderful place to visit in the years to come! One day I'll get round to giving the place a full review....