Here is a photo of me before entering into the Roller Disco World. Thanks to all those who showed up and those who didn't show because they couldn't skate. We would've been in fine company. It left me feeling that I should keep spluttering my way around the rink!
Big thanks to Rudolf Looyenga for posting these puppies. The pockets in my pants were too tight to fit any cameras in them!
Here are some photos of my party all of those weeks ago. It was dark on the skating rink, which was bad for taking photos of me staggering on roller skates!
The dorky 3D glasses are one step up on binocular visors!
This was the best 3D movie I have ever seen. Mind you it has little competition from Beowulf 3D and the King Kong movie from the early 1990s where glasses purchased from Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't work on the television at home. The storyline and one liners were cheesy, but with Brendan Fraser the star, what else would you expect? It actually held your attention well and I developed a soft spot for the tour guide. She was practical and very resourceful. She also happened to be conveniently hot!
Because it was school holidays it was a full house with plenty of kids. I would recommend it.
One guy I was with is wondering if he is colour blind after admitting that the movie only seemed normal. To everyone else there were some great scenes which kept you awake with things jumping out of the screen at you. He has gone home to do the online colour blind test!
I showed up slightly late to the Phoenix vs Sydney FC game at the Cake Tin. As I was about to enter the stadium with my three friends who all had free tickets, we were approached by three people offering us four free tickets. I accepted and wondered why these people were leaving without using their tickets.
I was left scratching my head during a great game of football on a balmy Wellington day, when Tim Brown scored a winner with fifteen minutes to go. It had been a great match and the Phoenix held on for their first win of the season.
Why did these people give me one of four free tickets?
Possible answers They got called away to save the world or work?
They got them free and were wanting to pay it forward. They left themselves, without watching the game.
They only realised once they got to the concourse that the Phoenix hadn't won a game and the Sydneysiders were at the top of the table.
They tricked their nagging wives who had gone in thinking their husbands were right behind them, and wanted to head off to the pub?
Why do you think these people so duly obliged?
In other news, my tennis racquet has arrived. As described in the video above, the Wilson K Tour 95 is an ideal mixture of power and control, heading into my interclub season on Monday night! It arrived at work today, after a card was left at home as no one was there. I am getting it baby sat for while I go to the movies! (Thanks Greer).
I am off to my second Brendon Fraser movie. This time I get to see him in 3D, after the Mummy 3 last week.
There seems to be a renewed sense of fellowship at The Street at the moment. This keeps me busy, but could be because the spring season is upon us. I went to Friday Night Drinks at D4 and there was a group listening to Uncle Monkey (thanks for the mention Sammy). On Saturday morning I went to The Baywatch flat (near the coast, not because of any Hoff or Pammy impersonators unfortunately). Great food and company. Then Saturday night I watched a DVD and Warriors at Dave Meerman's house. This brought more of a sense of belonging to my life and restored my faith in the reputation of The Street which has received bad press from certain quarters over the lack of friendliness and fellowship!
Today I spent up large on my credit card. I finally brought a new tennis racquet. I went for the K Tour 95 from www.thumpsports.com It is Lindsay Davenport's racquet and is a solid combination of power and control. It is like my Hammer and I got a deal with the good folk at Thumpsports, getting their advice and a deal with a court side bag for around $370. I already got some money for my birthday. The racquets come with average strings initially, so I have better strings in it.
I purchased a flight down to Invers on December 19th. I am going to Graham Henderson and Debbie Nicholson's wedding on the 20th. I saw flights on the Friday night for $162 via Christchurch during the week, but saw cheaper ones on the Saturday, but thought it may be cutting it fine to make the wedding. Then I saw it on the House of Travel website www.houseoftravel.co.nz which offers a brilliant database. I clicked on it and was about to enter my details when it said that the flight was no longer available. Seats on this flight were $211. I actually traded up to a $234 which means that I don't have to stop off in Christchurch. Direct flights are best and you don't have to mix with the crazy one eyed Cantabs that people assume because you are from the South Island, you can relate to. Their fans are notoriously crazy. One time they abused and picked on Steven From Dunedin who I saw on television tonight. No one picks on Steven, even though he is a pain in the butt for the media.
For once Rebel Sport had compression garments like Adidas and Nike (Skins equivalent) for 40% off. They didn't have any XL long pants. There is plenty of beauty of living in Invers, because my sister went along to the Invers Rebel Sport and got some. They get all the specials down there, without the queues or people, it does have its benefits! These are never reduced by much, so sometimes you have to splash out! I am glad I am now a fulltime worker!
I went and saw Uncle Monkey tonight after drinks with some of The Street crowd. It reminded me of last year. Doddsey was back to in town. He used to flat with Sam Hyde the base player, while I played tennis at Kilbirnie, but he has now defected to Thorndon and can't get a game. The beauty of a smaller club, I guess. They were actually pretty good and they seem to get heaps of gigs around Wellington. It was great getting mentioned by them. I guess, it involves the crowd and gets a few laughs! I must admit that sitting around listening to music for more than an hour gets boring for me. They were singing classic songs, but I left after a while. I can watch hours of sport on end, but only about an hour of music!
A riveting review of the tennis racquets I demoed in the holidays! The Wilson K Surge and K Tour 95. I found the K Surge to be really light and both to be a good combination of power and control. They are both user friendly. It is so difficult to tell which one I will get, but I am leaning towards the K Tour 95.
I can't believe that this was awarded as a goal. Maybe the touch judge forgot to take his medication! The FA are refusing to let them replay the game which is stupid as the result was changed because of it.
I just had a thought about hugs last night. IT was a bizarre thing for a southern man to think about last night. It dawned on me that it is usually smaller people and emotional people that give an take hugs. Are most emotional people small? I was thinking of my best mates and most of them are from the bottom of the South Island. I have never hugged Boss or Stevo Downey. Others like Andy Jamieson, Doddsey, Matt Landreth and Dave Marsh are also off the hug list. It is funny because these guys are all my top mates, yet I would never think of hugging them. It is as if I see the act of hugging a brutish southern man and something really gay. It must be something from my upbringing. Yet I would probably not think twice of hugging Matty Dalman or Aaron Crampton or in Wellington Karl Eagle. Maybe even Sammy Callander. These guys are all smaller and maybe more in touch with their emotions.
It is different with females, but still depends on personalities. Hugs are much like my behaviour. I feel able to express myself and give them to members of the opposite sex who I do not consider to be a potential mate. I can act awkward and shy around people I like, yet am far more open with females who are taken married or going out with someone else or definitely don't see them as a potential mate. Am I alone with this? I get on best often with married women or taken females than heaps of others. It is as if I am not worried about impressing them, so can just be myself!
Finally, my lasting memory of getting close to a man is with big Rory in Dunners. Rory is the same dimensions as Jonah Lomu. He is almost two metres and weighs about 120kgs, but he isn't the same muscle type shall we say and he is white. We were playing some form of game after a Samstock meeting which involved passing an apple between each other from under the chin of one person to the other, without using hands. Needless to say, the sight of two burly southern men getting so close to each other caused everyone in the room to lose it and crack up. What a site to behold. Unfortunately myself and Rorzer let the emotions run and we both lost the plot and the apple fell to the ground. We were eliminated! It was priceless!
People are probably wondering what I have done with my holiday? I mainly get up at a very unrespectable hour and walk into town (about 40 minutes). It is remarkably quiet walking through Queen's Park. Life is leisurely down here.
I met up with Chris Dodds for some cheese rolls upstairs at H+J Smiths one day. I went to the movies one day. I don't mind going to the movies on my own. I had vouchers for free popcorn and $5 off. The movie Taken was one that movie club didn't attend, and it was better than average. The action had me entertained for two hours on a cold and wet Invers afternoon.
I am borrowing two tennis racquets from Outdoor World sport store. It is funny how we went along and had a hit. I was down one end and hitting with my sister and a friend. We kept getting comments from people asking if we were rep players. It is funny how small Southland is, as I used to play Premier Tennis about 10 years ago and for Southland at age level and am very much just solid in Wellington Club Tennis. My sister actually used to play and even made the Southland B team. There is less depth around here.
It is hard demoing racquets. You don't know whether shots are down to the racquet or the shot. The Wilson K Surge and the Wilson KTour 95 are my weapons of choice. The Surge is really light, but probably a year or two old, while the Tour 95 is very much a new version of my current racquet. It is difficult knowing which one is more powerful! Receiving your own shots in an impossibility.
Anyway, I am off to the Lone Star for my final birthday meal, about 2 weeks late, but I don't mind. We will watch the Stags and the Warriors. It is brilliant with provincial New Zealand how much the province gets in behind their team in the competition. Usually about about a quarter of Invers show up to the games and it is the same in all the small provinces. That is where the passion is, but the wallets aren't as full in these places. Yet the smaller provinces are on the outer from the Air New Zealand Cup next season. Where's the justice!
In Southland there are no queues, so I opened up a new flat bank account and I will hit the shops this afternoon as although the CBD is large geographically, there aren't many people snappling those bargains! Since I am full time now, I have a bit more in my wallet these days! I am out of here, to do some J Walking on four lane roads!
Last night I went with my family to a Tripe and Onions evening. It was through the Pressy Church I was brought up in and it was a start reminder that I am back in the provinces. I feel like a snob coming back down to earth to mingle with the elderly and the honest toilers living in the sparsely populated, but highly profitable south. These people are genuine and they love their traditions.
I ordered something else from the menu, while a few other groups of over 60s enjoyed their buffet of tripe and onions. My Dad was getting amongst it and one guy even recited his poem about tripe. It was big in the old days, and there was a theme of peoples' mothers cooking tripe, while their wives don't. Basically, tripe and onions is a thing of the past, but the inside of a cow can't be all that bad for you can it?
It is a far cry from Cuba Street, Wellington and a reminder how vastly different this end of the country is. I hope the NZRU listen when I say, that there aren't the busy streets down in Invers, but there is the passion and the money. It is middle class central and with the farmers, there is no way they should relegate the fifth placed Stags into the Heartland Championship!
There will be photos to come. The evening started when about 15-20 people gathered at my place and we chatted and then left for the Roller Disco at Kilbirnie Recreation Centre.
What followed was an eye opener. A few hundred people roller skating and blading in so many magical outfits. It was like something out of a Sci- Fi Film. The late 70s and 80s were big with plenty of tight and skimpy clothing and I had my orange tartan suit. There were heaps of glitter and lights. The DJ played some great classic hits.
Reality set in when I remembered that I actually can't skate to save myself. This was entertaining for everyone else, but since I had organised a group of about 30 to go, I felt that I couldn't sit on the seats, even if this mean't embarrassing myself. I was left going around the outside holding onto the walls, but I just didn't have the balance. It ends up that heaps of other people weren't great, but they were better than me!
Then I had flashbacks to mucking around in the corner with Andrew Gordon in Form 2 on the class trip. It hit me when I had a conversation with my sister who told me of the Donaldson lack of co-ordination with things which don't involve a ball. I was also reminded of a moment in Donaldson history, watching my brother take 10 minutes to get onto a lilo in the pool. We are genetically superior in most aspects of life, but Roller Skating is not one of them. Again, because I organised it, I felt I had to spend the time out in the middle and even accepted charity from Sara Watts and The Dolf, who guided me around like a geriatric for some laps. I am used to being good at activities I do, like most ball sports etc, so it is a bit of turn up when I drop from the lofty upper rungs, to the bottom step. It was a very humbling experience for me and probably a lesson. There were heaps of people in amazing attire, from lycra body suits, to flashing light mouth guards and roller skates with lights in the wheels. There were also an abundance of tight and small 1980s clothes and females. Although my best move was travelling five metres on my own, so I was hardly in a position to impress. My only move would've been wiping them out! Thanks to those who went along with me, and those who stopped for a chat on the way around. It made my evening fly. The DJ was great and played classic hits and while everyone rode anti clockwise, during some songs like Ghostbusters, every time they were mentioned you would change direction. I felt like a little kid floundering around in the shallow end.
We returned to The Goatshed and had dessert and watched that epic Bledisloe Cup match. Only about half of my guests returned to watch the game. It was a shame, but it is hard to house 35 people. It did mean that I over catered, but better full than hungry! Some people didn't want to watch it, so went home. I don't regret having the rugby as a part of my birthday, because otherwise I would've wondered what was happening in the game, so I was a happy man when we won.
I am off to Invers tomorrow, so thanks for the birthday wishes and helping me celebrate.
Telethon is coming back next year. It will be interesting to see if there is still some magic left. I remember being on television at the Invercargill one. My school choir was singing Puff the Magic Dragon. We didn't know that it was a song about smoking marijuana. It would be scary to see it now, about 20 years later. One friend of mine at her 21st had footage of her at Telethon Dunedin from 12 years earlier.
I saw some highlights of Jimmy Connors making the US Open tennis semi finals at the age of 39. What an impressive performance. It triggers memories for me, and makes me realise where myself and Stevo Downey get our celebratory raised forearm in triumph from. We pull them out no matter what we are playing. The celebration comes at the very end of the match against Aaron Krickstein. I would be doing more celebration moves if I made the US Open finals!
I had the Kilbirnie Tennis Club Open Day yesterday and it made me realise how old interclub tennis players are. Even though world top tennis players are young, club players are older and it is a throw back for me to yesteryear, the concept of a club. The thing is though that most of the old people at the club are handy tennis players. It is great to be back on court.
We are looking for a new flatmate to take Thomas's room. Thomas is moving out. If anyone is keen to flat in Newtown then let me know. It is $90 per week!
Tonight the Glee Club got wasted at the Realm Hataitai Pub Quiz. We got 2nd last week but could only muster 5th this time. We got two gems though, with the following two questions.
1) What animals make a pizzly? 2) Which Dr Who villain puts people in a candy like substance?
We got them both right 1)Polar and Grizzly bear 2)Candyman
The gems were few and far between, with several of times those ones we got down to 50/50 calls, we went with the wrong call.
We only got 5/10 for sports and games. The questions included.
1)Which sport came from the French verb to hold? 2)Which Central American country won their first gold medal in the mens long jump in Beijing?
Answers 1)Tennis 2)Panama
In other news,
Tennis club open day starts on Sunday at Kilbirnie my birthday. It is also Fathers Day, but will give me a chance to have a hit again. My achilles insertion is still slightly stiff, but hopefully stretches will keep me on the sports field into my 30s. The raft of injuries which take longer to heal, have left me questioning how much time I have left in sport and I can see why so many people retire in their 30s. You lose pace and get injury niggles. You generally have experience though which helps keep you head strong over the opposition. Tennis is big on this as there are heaps of older people playing interclub. ATP players are over the hill at 25, club players are young at 25. I will also get a new racquet of choosing for my birthday.
I am now a full time worker. It is interesting to see how my work load differs from my full time job to my 30 hours a week. I guess it may change depending on the stage in the publication process. THe money will definitely improve. I had better go to bed soon!
It is also a year since that gastly, yet thoroughly enjoyable lip sync at Muzza's 30th. Although there were plenty of filming media there, I don't have any footage, but there is some stuff on You Tube from the song we did, Numa Numa. Things have changed since then. We used to be far more sociable at The Street. We used to have Friday Night Drinks and social activities every night, but it seems that The Street demographic are now the marrieds or youngs, and people tend to lie low.
I had better go and rest my old weary 29 and 363/365 year old bones. I am turning 30 on Sunday, hoorah hoorah! The main celebration will probably take the gloss off Sunday and move it to next Saturday, where I attempt social suicide by trying to enjoy a dancing event and seeing the most important rugby game of the year.
It is fine to mention that on this blog, because unlike last year, no one reads this now! If you do, please click on the Google ads!
The All Blacks are paying $3 (per $1 invested) to win by 99+ points against Manu Samoa tonight. The conditions should be great, given it is a night game and we are fielding an almost full strength side (given previous years of rotation). I also like our chances, because we have been training hard and actually playing together in the past month. Manu Samoa are a scratch team of mainly home grown players. They are under strength, with Filipo Levi the only player who has played much Super 14 (Romi Ropati did, years ago!). The only thing that will stop us is if Stephen Donald comes on too early and if we ease of to encourage sportsmanship. Otherwise, this will be a cricket score! Get your dosh in first before the odds drop!
I broke through the social boundaries today and went to an evening movie on my own at Reading. I have been to movies alone before. In Invers and even at Hoyts I went alone in total, with no other patrons. This time I went to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and have to say that despite Movie Club boycotting it because of The Dolf's stance, it was a funny movie. I rate it above Tropic Thunder, for sure. It also shows Jackie off That 70's Show in a whole new light. She has grown up into a fine actress who is no longer the annoying spoilt teenager she once was portrayed as! I am comfortable in myself, going to movies alone. I guess, as long as you arrive once the movie/previews are playing, you don't really notice the difference. The movies aren't really a place for D and M sessions. (Deep and meaningful).
Here are some absolute gems from the old days, featuring Jason Donovan. He was big in the late 1980s, but he also appeared in 1979 on Skyways the television show. He is making a comeback now, for the first time since 1993. He was also Scott Robinson on Neighbours. Enjoy the footage below, it is brilliant!
This clip was from 1979 Skyways. Apparently Kylie also starred in 1976 on the Sullivans. Another quality Australian show!
This is the promotion of Neighbours from 1986. Look for Paul Robinson (been in it for ages). Scott Robinson is in the Erinsborough High maroon uniform, but he got replaced in the second series by Jason Donovan, in an attempt to boost ratings.
Neighbours had a few jokes in it. Guy Pearce is Mike here, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I actually remember these days on Neighbours. Mind you, I am almost 30! I love the mulletts are great!
