Off to Japan
It sux but it is official that the inegmatic Richard Apanui is off to Japan along with blockbuster Number Eight Paul Miller and utility forward Daniel Quate. The later two have played for the Highlanders but decided to move on. All three had their moments but were let down by the system. Miller was Southland rugby rugged, up the guts and uncompromising. Our team was built around him. Apanui isn't the quickest man around but has the ability to make breaks and has become a really good footballer if not the best on defence. He also has one of the longest punts in New Zealand. Finally Quate was a great man to have in the squad but never really found his best position whether it be lock or flanker. We will miss you guys! Southland doesn't have the depth to such quality, but we have the best Development Team in the country so hopefully we may sprout some replacements.

Raw Hyde!
This weekend I went to Hyde with Jon and Dom my DCBC kudos buddies for Vanessa Reddy's 30th party. Hyde is slightly inland near Middlemarch (famous for the Orchard Naturists). It was basically a home group outing for the DCBC group which is a cool group apart from most people being in their 30s. We stayed in the Hotel and had a great action packed 24 hours. We arrived, had lunch at the cafe and walked 4km along the Rail Trail. This included a tunnel and bridge. Dinner was served in the form of a BBQ and dessert before we had a game of Trivial Pursuit the 20th Century edition. Jon and myself were on the same team with SI Read's flatmate Geoff Hughes, we won defeating 2 other teams in a tight game. The calibre of participant was relatively high with a doctor, some PHD people etc. Before we went on Cash Battle Jon, Paulsy and Andy went through the questions. Surprisingly last night I didn't recognise any of them so it wasn't an advantage.

I had one of those annoying night sleeps mainly because I was tired when I woke up after hearing Dom like a chainsaw through the night, although despite this (I knew he snored) I still have had worse night sleeps before. Anyway it is hot and sticky and no one is around to play touch or anything.

These sides (Brazil and Japan) are in the Socceroos Pool at the World Cup.

The following is from the official Soccer World Cup site. Is anybody going to Dagseys wedding that will be there early enough to see some games? Go to the official website to get into the ticket ballot. The catch is that to try and get more than your ticket you need names of people because to avoid scalping the tickets will be printed. The tournament starts on 9th June finishes on the 9th July whilst the wedding isn't on until the 21st July which means that you will need several weeks away from work. My plans are to go to the UK and then go down for the matches. The Socceroos are playing on the 12th, 18th and 22nd June. But by george let me know if you are keen and we can decide which matches to go for in the ballot. The more entries the better the chances.

Tickets News
Another 250,000 tickets on sale from 12 December10 December 2005by OC 2006 FIFA World Cup

The third sales period for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ will begin on 12 December 2005, with 250,000 more tickets going on sale. The page on www.FIFAworldcup.com containing the order form will be re-launched at midday, and tickets will be available for ordering until 15 January 2006. As with the first sales period, the tickets will be distributed after a ballot, since it is assumed that demand will outweigh supply. The order in which the bookings are received will have no bearing on the attribution of the tickets.
"The Final Draw on 9 December 2005 in Leipzig saw the match schedule finalised and the individual ties drawn for the various stadia. Fans from around the world now have a chance to order specific tickets. Since we also assume that demand will far outweigh the available allocation of tickets, we will perform a ballot on 31 January 2006 of all orders received. There is no fairer way of distributing the tickets than by drawing lots," explains OC Vice President Horst R. Schmidt.
Except for the Opening Match, tickets will be available for all games, including Germany’s games, the semi-finals and Final. “Of course, the availability for these games as well as for those involving teams considered to be more attractive will be relatively much smaller,” continued Schmidt.
Compared with the first two sales periods, in which more than 80 percent of orders came from Europe, with 90 percent of those from Germany, the OC is expecting a noticeable rise in orders from abroad. "We can feel the interest from participating teams and from neighbouring countries increasing enormously,” continued Schmidt. “We will thus be catering more to these international wishes and interests."
100,000 tickets in the third sales period have come from the Hospitality Programme. Added to these are returns from sponsors as well as national associations from the first two sales periods. Further blocks have also been released from safety reserve seats.

Cell Phone Saga

In my attempts to get my number changed across to my new phone there has been a stuff up and neither phone has coverage so that is something to sort out.

Shopping

I can't be bothered going Christmas shopping this year. Working in town doesn't help because it means you cannot be bothered staying in town you just want to get out of there.

Turf Soccer

We won turf soccer with a late winner with four minutes to go. We dominated but only won one nil.

Cellphone
After recently celebrating the return of my cellphone from the wilderness of McMillan Water Turf, I subsequently dropped my puppy onto a hard lino floor. Initially there was little difference, she was a wee trooper, but once I tried texting on her she suddenly flatlined and was being kept alive by a machine for a day. She can only receive texts and if I start pushing too many buttons she can't handle it so I purchased a new phone, which is an annoying expense at this time of year. It cost me $149 including $50 air time and I can still keep my old number. It is pictured above.

Banks
I opened a new high interest bank account today. I will pump a majority of my savings into this account with interst at a whopping 6.7%. The economy is pumping and New Zealanders are spending too much money so they are trying to encourage us to save by offering higher interest rates. It took most of my lunch hour to do the deed but Andrea at ANZ was really helpful. It is annoying how they keep trying to get you into other accounts.

I also have a flat account at Kiwi Bank. I received a call on my cellphone at work, from KiwiBank wondering if I wanted to sign up to an Insurance for men with heart attacks, angina or cancer. I said not now try me in a few years when I live at KFC. Currently I board there!

Christians at Work
Just when I thought there were no staunch builders cool enough to be Christians I discovered Vaughn. Vaughn is a clean cut guy with incredibly short sideys, he lives in South Dunedin and is in his early thirties. I noticed him not drinking at work drinks and asked him what he did for the weekend. He mentioned going to church and it ends up he attends Apostolic. I won't hold that against the guy. He is one of those real nice guys, almost to the stage that you think he might be slightly slow. It is great to have another God Squad member amongst these dirty builders and plumbers. A few others at DCC have mentioned going to church in the same sentence as swearing so it is refreshing to add this guy to the list along with myself and Ian McCabe on First Floor. We could start a club, like Fight Club! I ain't playing the part of Bitch Tits. Boss you should work at the Council.

After Work Piss Ups
After sharing in group time how he thought he was becoming a social recluse, Mike Moore has hit the nail right on the head. His comments evolved around the fact that we find functions like after work piss ups and hanging out at bars awkward therefore a non christian may find Church or home group strange. I didn't think anything of it until our Friday after work drinks. Today I was actually really tired after working in a hot office and didn't feel like staying there. In fact the whole thought of staying in a stuffy work environment even for drinks is not very appealing let alone the srinking culture of builders at the DCC. So I took off after waiting around for 10minutes and nothing much was happening. Should I be more sociable for the Kingdom?
Interesting thought.

It is amazing because a majority of New Zealanders have been brought up in a booze culture. Binge drinking is alarmingly high amongst youngsters especially around University. It is expected that you go out on the turps, get trollied and have a hangover.... But I wasn't brought up this way and people find that strange or at least unbelieveable. The funny thing is that I find myself using terminology along the lines of lets go out and get tanked etc but it is more of a sarcastic dig at the colloquial use of the phrase and how pathetic I consider drinking to be. I see it causing so many problems in society and another common theme is people never claiming to drink much but actually being that addicted to it that they end up getting sloshed (there I go again). People seem to seek some sort of comfort in the bottle that it is often used as a crutch. The grog issue is up there with smoking, gambling and rock and roll. I don't mind the ocassional flutter but some christians may frown on this. I guess moderation is the key, but when I see people that claim to be Christians staggering around town it is not a good look.

Turf Soccer
We had a 4 nil win on Thursday and my goal scoring run continues, bagging the first goal in the first ten minutes with a left foot clanger.

Realisation
It has finally dawned on me that I am living my life the same way as I did ten years ago. I still don't see myself as being from Dunedin and consider Invers home but haven't lived there since the mid nineties. I live the student lifestyle despite earning these days. Such things as responsibility and maturity are more for the squares of this world. My possessions don't change like I have never owned a car, always owned a video games console and television. Summers are made for playing outdoors and work is made to be avoided and endured rather than enjoyed. Avoid any situation and conversation which could be awkward or boring and finally keep on hunting for that babe with attitude and a hot bod rather than a mixture of personality and friendliness. Where did the days go???.... Maybe this has dawned on me as mates my own age are married and settling down with kids. Other symptoms I am finding is that I keep having to win at everything even if it means getting lippy. I yearn for the days when mummy used to clean my room, warm my pjs and tuck me in. Teenage movies don't help as I tend to think of myself as a jock from a movie like Revenge of the Nerds (2)(3)(4), especially around DCBC circles. These jocks are usually immature pratts who make fun of the nerds until there is a competition and the nerds as underdogs outsmart them and win in the end.


P.S. Crude movies like American Pie and Revenge of the Nerds are still funny.

The Class of People- The Cut of Ones Gib

Working amongst the Building Control team through long boring days, gives me the opportunity to do what us Geographers do best and analyse social class of work mates. These guys are hard as nails approach to life by the builders, they are more manual type guys who don't know how to do anything on the computers and make Hayden Luke look like the most organised guy on the planet. These guys always come to the ladies for help (which I am one of) for really simple tasks like printing documents etc. One of them belches, farts and takes about five minutes longer than everyone else to get the message, yet thinks he is the first to get it, and so points this out to everyone. Another guy has been mean't to get me a work sleeveless top. I have asked him 4 times and his same response is I will get it today. I am not used to working near this type of person.

The admin chicks are better behaved generally but several of them are onto their second husbands and have potty mouths to match the builders. It is sad when the old builders flirt with the old admin chicks. It has taught me how to hang around females and that success in life isn't built around getting a great education. In fact these days there seems to be more demand for manual type jobs, meaning these guys are probably batting on good wickets despite not doing many years of study.

You wonder if study is worth it?

The World's Fastest Indian
What a great movie this is. Tim Shadbolt proves what a character he is by having a decent speaking part in the movie. It is amazing how Lithgow Intermediate gets a few shots at glory. I used to bike past where Burt Munro was living although he didn't actually live on Lithgow Street. The area is full of state houses and the school closed down. Tisbury Hall also gets a shot at glory while it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when they say "All the way from Invercargill, New Zealand". Shadbolt is one of my more favoured people. I love the way he doesn't mind making a fool of himself whether it be on Dancing With The Stars, on that crappy New Zealand comedy show or in this movie.

The Phone is Found!

I received a call from this young guy called Nick. He found my phone yesterday while playing hockey. Obviously he heard my messages asking for him to get back to me. It was exposed on the water turf for 3 nights including several downpours which stuffed the battery, though he dried it out for me and is giving me a spare battery for $20. Hard to say who is getting the deal here, but at least I can get the numbers off it at the very least.

Weekend
The weekend had a rather boring beginning, but ended up becoming fun times. ON Saturday I wasted time watching nba games and the Black Caps dismal run of poor performances. On Saturday night I went to a Ceroc and cocktail evening for Vanessa and Jo Harray, it was rip snorting good fun. Some of the shielas were dressed to the nines which I didn't mind. Some of the old school crowd were there like Sam and Rach, Tony and Katie, Uncle Nige and Hannah came up from Invers and it was a Cromwell Scripture Union Holiday Programme reunion with some lovely lasses like Gina and Kirsten. Throw in some Mosgiel madmen like Hayds, Jonny and the Tom and we had a gay old time. Graham Beck was the instructor strutting his stuff on stage.

Sunday went to a BBQ at Matty Dalman's house. He graduated yesterday and had friends and family (around 60 people at his house). After this I went and played some touch and cut my feet badly on the hard surface.

PC Trash
Political Correctness has gone mad! I have this Scripture Union Holiday Programme coming up in Cromwell over summer. It marks my 10th camp, I think, but you lose count after a while. I have never had to fill out so many forms before. The odd form for a Police check is fine, but when you have to get two written references from people in high positions, it is a joke. Despite having the dubious distinction of sleeping with the male Southland/Otago Scripture Union worker Nige Winder, under the supervision of Sammy Callander no less, I thought this would be enough. But no! I guess I am thinking that I am above the rules. But when I am giving up my time and effort to attend, you would think that Lachlan the most laid back of directors in under the thumb of higher powers.

Did any of these guys see my phone?


Cellphone
I have parted ways with the wonderful world of technology. Last night whilst playing soccer at McMillan Centre my cellphone went missing from my gear in our team booth. This annoys me as my hectic social life has become increasingly reliant on it. The phone is a blue budget Telecom piece of trash, but holds several important phone numbers including elligible ladies and celebrity wannabies. Some texts which I have saved may contain saucy and private confidential information. The annoyance of it all is that it isn't the best phone in the world and I have lost everyones' numbers. I have rang the phone several times with no response from the gutless perpetrator. It has left a bitter taste in my mouth, especially after scoring my first goal on the turf for the season and my second ever. We won 5 nil.

Boss
This week marks the end of an era. Not only did the hit television show Sportscafe finish, but Boss has finally finished his tertiary studies. He started at Otago Polytechnic in 1996 and has been chopping and changing his way through courses of study without gaining much academic reward. Finally after receiving more knock backs than a nerd on prom night Boss has a qualification and he is stoked to join the academic elite, even if it is only a Diploma. It marks the end of an era. He was aiming to be the first man since Marty Shelton to be in tertiary education for three rugby World Cups. Congrats mate. I know he is reading this as we speak and struggling to hold back the emotion.