I have just been out for an all expenses paid dinner with the ladies from work. One of the main benefits was that they wanted me to eat. What a life! I feel like this guy now, really blotted and full.

Since I last blogged I played some Monday night touch with a mixture of DCBC people and Pacific Island dudes. I was touched by foot touches with my feet three times. This was fine once but the third one from my mate Andy actually caused my left foot to bang into my striding other leg. It scratched the surface and there is some bottom of the calf bruising. Hopefully I can play tomorrow! Turf soccer starts Thursday so this will be marvellous.

Finally I have finally discovered how to upload audio and other materials to my blog. I will keep you posted. This will probably occur later in the week. I am also going to set up a sports kind of website using my knowledge as The Guru on testrugby.com.

A final thought is what specific aspect of summer makes females more noticeable? The biological thing? Trimmer more healthy looking specimens? Less clothing? More time outside? What? Is it the same the other way around?

Last night I went to the Twenty Twenty cricket match between Otago and Central Districts. It was introduced to provide entertainment for the public both male and females who do not like sitting around for days watching five day matches or even one day matches. From a purist viewpoint it lacked the lack tactical side of the game with Otago making 220 from twenty overs thanks to a Chris Gaffaney century and a hard hit 52 by Nathan McCullum. CD in reply won with an over to go. Ross Taylor was hitting it out of the University Oval. Id fe doesn't make the Black Caps, something is seriously wrong with our selection policy! The amazing thing about the game was the huge crowd. It started at 5:30 and was warm and relaxed, with only 10 minutes down time between innings. All up and enjoyable experience, with heaps of boundaries and all over in under three hours! I hope it doesn't get overused by the pundits, because I can see the novelty wearing off quickly.

I chose this picture because myself and Jon Beck took burgers into the game, and this man is an inspiration!

The human body is continually astounding!

Outing
On Tuesday night it was a scorcher and when I met Matt Dalman and Yogi on the way home we decided to go to the beach. I didn't have any gear with me, but instead of going home first we picked up Aaron Crampton and took him to his place. We thought I could borrow some of his shorts, but Cramps is a man of diminutive stature and I couldn't get into his shorts. Problem averted lets borrow some shorts that Kimberley's nana had lying around. These were some absolute beauties pepperment in colour and only two sizes too small. I was the man parading around the beach with these on. They gained the nickname "Snifters" . We were the motley crew but still the envy of everyone on the beach. Dalman in his unbuttoned work shirt and shorts with the pockets hanging out for the ultimate "Elephant Man" jokes, something about his trunk! Yogi in his wetsuit on the beach, hanging with the glamourous Kimberley and the scrawny wee Crampton with his freshly completed back,crack and sack wax. We had a great time at Brighton swimming and frollicking until the sun went down.

Sporting Moments
Last night we won our touch for two wins in a row since Christmas. The referee was pretty slack and let us away with a few play the balls of the mark. I managed to bag an intercept and three assists, we dotted down 5 times, including a girl try. It was windy at the park we play on surprise, surprise!!! The standard of opposition has really dropped off! Well it must have.

Tomorrow I will be off to the 20/20 match CD vs Otago.

Inspirational Thinking
My quiet times have been about getting out of your comfort zone and living for your dreams. This has helped me to continue in this hunt for the good life overseas. It is funny how people have different opinions to my potential movement to the other side of the world. The likes of my current mates like Matty Dalman and Jon Beck think that it is crazy, yet others think it would be a great chance to get out of the Dunedinism, as Dunedin is useless for anyone over 25. I would really miss things over here like sports etc, but I would also really love to get over there and gain some new experiences, because I have lived in Dunedin since 1997 and think of the potentially awesome job opportunities over there! I am hoping that mine and Justin's bid for tickets is successful because this would really ensure that I am making the correct decision. Since I am spending all that money I need to go over for a while, and why not work and meet some new people. Christians are all over the world and just waiting to be met by someone like me. I have only just realised that I have the ability to touch type which is a scary thought and shows that I have been hanging around computers and administration ladies too long!

This picture is all the way from China. We just don't know how lucky we are! Imagine the floaties! Imagine finding the culprits!

Another week down the drain at the council. I am still learning exactly what has to be on those plans for Building and Plumbing Consent applications. A real snooze fest as they go through explaining the ins and outs of the building and plumbing trade.

I had an enjoyable evening at my old flatmate Josh's new flat. We all took along pizza toppings. There were the old guys from down south like Lobster, Sammy, Febery, Malcs, Tony and Ollie Yeoman. Some nice ladies also took part in anything but polite and sophisticated conversation. The pizzas were great and Malcs Gordon was in his usual attention seeking behaviour with a handful of blue angel hand light farts.

Still trying to sort out my options for mid year, you can see why people go on tours etc.

I am still waiting for the warm weather to strike Dunedin. It is amazing how peoples' moods really pick up over the summer months as do their appearances! Damn!

Finally we won touch 8-4 on Wednesday night. Our largely social side rallied with a player down and scored some dazzling tries. I was left thinking the Chosen Ones would have won by twice the margin. Still I bagged a double and entered the backline Muliaina styles to put us away for four tries. Pretty satisfying!

One in a Million

The phrase one in a million takes on new meaning over the next couple of weeks as the ballot is drawn for the FIFA World Cup tickets in Germany. Six million tickets have been requested and mine and Justin's name are amongst them. It seems like it will take a miracle for us to win the right to buy them which is more exciting than the actual match, but I am sure the 3rd 4th playoff will be huge in Stuttgart and that just being in the area will be awesome. As far as plans go, it looks like Ali Simpson won't be going anymore and Kyle and Matt Emerson aren't really that sure what they are doing. This sucks because I really want to get things organised ASAP.

I have well and truly moved into Flat 1 - 63 Opoho Road, North East Valley, we are the flat on the extreme left of the complex. We have my 34 inch tv hooked up to SKY and have my DVD Home Theatre System in check for those quiet summer nights. So if you want to come around for a session just give me a text or something 027 303 9564. The only people that are around at the moment are boring work people which I have become, never home in the day and constantly making up for chores at night, so no fun! Having said this Matty Dalman, Jon Beck and myself went to St Kilda beach for a change of scenery and a swim yesterday. We bought hot chicken and potato crisps in soft bread rolls. We also played some golf with sand filled COKE cans and dug holes.

Finally tonight I have what Ritchie Winter calls "gumby touch" reknown for being of a more social and at times frustrating nature. Anyway it will be a great run around since we won't have enough players as some players are still away. It made me feel better when I saw some guys I often play against in the Otago Sevens team at the national tournament. They made the semis. Also one of them Taasi is in the New Zealand touch team. They are slippery suckers those boys.

Logisitcal Nightmare

It is getting to a crisis stage trying to vie for the right to purchase tickets to the World Cup. The latest sales period ends this coming weekend, and because it is still seven months away I haven't organised my plans. The 3rd/4th Playoff game could be the best bet. Tickets start at 45 euros but if you go for these you only can buy two rather than if you go for the more expensive ones where you can buy four. It is on the 8th July in Stuttgart which is in the South so would be handy. I am trying to persuade Ali Simpson/ Justin Latif, but at this stage much like my own situation they are uncertain. The annoying thing is that they need passport numbers and names of both the purchaser and the people they buy tickets for. There are less tickets than people.

I'm back at work and a concept I would like to sprout forth with is that if everyone else had less holidays then I wouldn't feel ripped off, but at the moment it seems that heaps of people are still off work enjoying the warm weather while I am at work avoiding the Boss. It is amazing how ungrateful we can be! At least I got two weeks!

Harsh Realities

I return to work on Monday. This is the shortest Christmas Holidays I have had. Welcome to the real world.

Holidaying around so many foreigners makes me even more hungry to see life on the other side of the world. With less than a week until the deadline for the next round of World Cup tickets I am thinking this is what I will do. I definitely will go for tickets for the 3rd 4th playoff which are remarkably cheap. I think I will try for two late pool play matches, probably featuring a few different teams as these are much cheaper than the finals. Is anyone else going to be there late June for these pool play matches? I need to know names. Otherwise who wants to also put my name down for 3rd 4th match and I will put there name down? If you go for the cheapest tickets you can only request two but if you go for the more expensive tickets you can request up to four. Hard to know which one gives us greater odds? I reckon I will fly to the UK then get a cheap flight to Switzerland then return to the UK to get a job, flat, wife that sort of thing. If this fails I can always return home. It is a predicament with the new student loan scheme, and what if I don't like it? I can always try working as an Admin chick for the rest of my life! Otherwise I could teach English on the way home in somewhere like Poland or Russia where Westerners are in demand. It is amazing that English is such a sort after language!

The Christmas rush is over for another year! I received a couple of books for Christmas including a signed a messaged copy of the Anton Oliver mudslinging book which should be great. I never read much, but maybe these gifts are a great opportunuty to broaden my intellectual boundaries. Other gifts were of a more standard nature some t -shirts, sleeping bag liner and junk food. Boxing Day sales were hectic in Invers but not as bad as other centres would be. I purchased the perfect addition to my beige wardrobe in the form of long pants, very comfy and shorts both 25% off at Rebel. It is a great chance to get the presents you didn't receive at Christmas and ensures Christmas isn't disappointing. Between the 23rd and 27th December I spent time rekindling my link with my brothers small kids and families they really get under your feet at times but bring the magic back to Christmas. My Swedish nephew is a hardcase with his Swedish baby talk, hard to say if babytalk is universal.

I went to Cromwell for Scripture Union Holiday Programme. My official title is drama queen, puppeteer and veteran. Being one of the older more seasoned campaigners makes it easy to prepare for programme in little to no time, but some of the younger leaders on display show how much people mature over their teenage years. The best day of summer was undoubtedly the cricket in Queenstown. Famous for the lack of available free water (the only free water there was at the two bars at the ground, which had half hour queues). I knew heaps of people there like Jon Beck, Matty Dalman, Ali Simpson and some Queenstown guys, some Cavvy mates of Dalman, Hamish and Lara Temple Doig, Cam and Suse Grindlay, Paulsy and Jac Copland, little Rach Van Rij. The view was splendid in our deck chairs on the boundary near the Remarkables end site screen. It was comfortable and friendly, hard to say if it was because of the alcohol strict environment. We went into Queenstown after the game. Had dinner and arrived at the Youth Centre which was cool with food, pool table and air hockey, along with lots of dancing Christian good personality looking females in evening wear. Unfortunately our main contact on the job Ali Simpson had to take someone to hospital so didn't make it. I knew a few people there from my summers at Queenstown Baptist but not as many as I would like to you know what I'm saying??? Had New Years on the lake front in the most siftiest of environments. Queenstown is a real nasty piece of work around New Years with plenty of young people doing a lot of things they shouldn't be.

Returned to holiday programme, I feel it may be time to move on. Hand over the reigns to the fresh faced teens. I stayed in Cromwell watching tv on Lachlan Gordon's projector before returning to Queenstown. I'm back in civilisation! Back in the game!