Guest Blogger: Kieran- Summer Tennis Series

Hello all Kieran, the awesome champion dude here. Some random person says that I have to write this blog post and luckily I forgot until now which around 7:40 on a Monday night so I am going to be as quiet as possible and take as long as I can on the post. What am I supposed to be writing about ( read the title ) ah that's right, the summer tennis series held on Centre Court, not Left or Right Court, Centre Court at The Driveway, Down The Right Of Way. It was a best of 5 series between awesome Kieran and sometimes awesome Dad. It ended 3-2 to Dad ( fluke, very definite fluke ) in a thrilling final match. I won the first game ( as it always should be ) in 5 sets with a score of 11-2, 11-9, 7-11 10-12, 11-8. The scores might not be accurate because we started in early January so give me a break if they are not 100% accurate. The second game was the first of the three flukes that happened throughout the series won by Dad with an unknown score. The third ( fluke #2 ) and forth game won by yours truly had unknown scores also. The fifth game ( thriller/fluke the third ) was won by Dad 11-9, 11-8, 7-11,11-13,10-12.As you can guess from the pictures we are playing the third game or fluke #2 whatever you want to call it. I am getting tired but I am still going to continue. Watch this space for ( maybe ) posts on the cricket, forceback and touch series coming to a lawn near you.

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RNZAF Rocks It Again!!

Jeff Probst blogs the 'Survivor: Heroes vs Villains' premiere
by Jeff Probst
Categories: Survivor, TV Recap, Television

We’re baaaaaack… and it feels so good!

Might as well start at the beginning.

Last night’s two-hour premiere was one of our best ever. In fact, it was so good I think CBS should air it again. In the words of our fearless leader Mark Burnett, ”It was epic!”

It started with the kickass marooning where the Survivors landed on the beach courtesy of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and their Huey helicopters.

INSIGHT: We had to get special permission from the New Zealand government to get the use of the Huey’s and the Air Force personnel to fly them. We came to an agreement that allowed the RNZAF to use our rehearsals (without the real Survivors on board) as an opportunity to also practice various mission maneuvers for which they needed a location and situation to conduct them. It was a win-win.

If you watch it again you can see that when we did it for real with the Survivors on board and the Huey’s approaching the beach, it even resembles a mission. Two come in and land, sand flying around. They depart and the other two come in. It’s also worth mentioning that it went off without a hitch. Everybody hit their marks, it was magical.

As a thank you we had the RNZAF personnel rehearse one of our big challenges against our dream team. It was a great day in which I swapped one of my Survivor baseball caps for one of their RNZAF caps.

Hello????? How Freakin' Awesome is that???

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Faces 3

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Guest Blog: Merenia- Dad Day Out

We went to Mt Wellington and had a car picnic.

Then we went to the Museum and saw the Pteranodon,

and the Albatross(we thought they were seagulls).

We also saw an Ell it was all slimy and long.

Will pretended to be a turtle with the shell

So did I it was the best dad day out ever.

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Faces 2

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Like Father Like Son

Sigh.

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My Stars Made Me Do it

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Make a list of people who contribute to your life in a wonderful way. Do this on paper instead of only in your mind.

(VERY DEFINITELY In no particular order)

• Les
• Kieran
• Saskia
  
• Merenia
• Will
• Ruby
  
• Jim
• Carolann
• Miss Wendy
• Miss Vienna
  
• My Dad
• Sylvia
• Caitlin
• Sam
• Finn
• Macchi
• Nicole W
• Rochelle C
• Jozlyn
• Brody
• Alyssa
• Hunter
  
• Sally
• Kevin
• Tony
• Petra
• Daniella
• Elliot
• Lyn
  
• Jennie
• Linda
  
• Greg
• Narry
• Christy
• Grandma
• Nana
• Kathryn
• Monika
• Glenna
• Paula
• Niamh
• Fraser
• Finlay
• Sylvia's Lisa
• Delwyn
• Debs
• Tommo
• Aneil
• Dave L
• Ted
• Brace
• John D
• Karen
• Jake
• Sara
• Jo
• Viv
• Tony The Vinyl Layer (seriously)
• Ali Edwards
• Julie Fei-fan Balzer
• Cathy Zielske
• Janet Phillips
• Sarah Fain
• Tim Holtz
• Amanda Soule and the smaller Soules
• Emily Falconbridge
• Leo Babauta
• Gretchin Rubin
• Lenore Skenazy
  

That's a big list.
I am a most fortunate person.
I'm glad I realise that.

Thank-you.

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Faces 1

Going through the photos recently I have come across some classic and not so classic faces I've put together a 'week of faces' set of blog posts. Welcome to no.1.

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He's a Reader

I love that this is something he just chooses to do spontaneously and often.

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Awhitu Air

For the past couple of years we have taken a day trip up to Shakespeare to see our friends Sally, Kevin, Tony and Petra who were camping up at Shakespeare Bay on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. This year there was a change in plan because they didn't get their booking in on time. So we went to Awhitu which is south west of Auckland. VERY south west of Auckland. It took us a couple of hours to get there a whole bunch of which was on the motorway and pretty boring. But once we got past Waiuku it got really, really pretty.

Merenia said something along the lines of "Wow this place is really slow and quiet" By which I think she essentially meant that it was super serene and peaceful. Unlike much of greater Auckland that still retains that feeling of 'being city' even while looking 'country'.

The drive and Merenia's comment got me thinking about air.

There's the everyday air that we breathe- we don't think much of it and it serves the function of keeping us alive by supplying oxygen to our bodies. Unless we've been holding out breath or we focus taking a particularly deep thoughtful lung filling breath there's not much to appreciate about it.

When you change your environment and you are mindful you can be aware that the air is something really special.

Les and I have both commented that South Island Air is superior to this stuffy North Island stuff. The air has a clarity and crispness about is. If it was glass is would be clean clear crystal catching the light and sparkling. As opposed to North Island Air which is more like a dirty window in a 50 year old house grimy with dirt and fingerprints.

Sea air is something else altogether. On a hot day, or a windy day, on a cold day, at High tide or low tide, on the beach, on a cliff, or out on the open ocean- Sea air has so many notes and characteristics. Is is salty and blunt. It is sticky and sometimes biting. Breathing Sea Air is not a passive activity- you don't generally just breathe it in it is more likely to whip around your face, or blow across it trying to steal your hair, or plaster your skin. It leaves a taste in your mouth which may be as crisp as a fresh cool lime juice or as acrid as I imagine eating sulphur to be. Sea air tells a story of salty sea dogs, of seaweed long traveled washed up on the beach, of seals swimming among long strands of bull kelp to sun themselves on rocks, of trees whipped and buffeted into sloping shapes as they fight to stand up against the coastal winds, of birds soaring slopes and currents, dipping and diving.

Country air is still, slow, sensible.

Country air is peppered with the zips and clicks of cicadas, the baa-aaaaa of calling sheep, the gentle drone of a distant motorbike or the sharp barking of a dog. Country air is slow and solid. It is purposeful but calm. If it was a colour it would be straw- happy sunny yellow but somber and sensible, both crisp and warm. If it was a food it would be fresh clover honey with a little honeycomb wax- creamy and mellow, sweet but with a gritty after taste. Country air tells a hundred peoples stories. Of holiday makers enjoying slow lazy days awaking under striped canvas to a day all ready warm with relaxed promise. Of Farm houses wooden and weathered whose kitchen curtain flutters through the window dancing with the breeze as biscuits cool on a rack on the bench beneath the sill. Of farmers bailing hay or moving sheep. Of a rabbit stopping to check on a bovine paddock mate as it ambles hopping with no real direction across the field. Of children riding farm bikes and exploring a broken down villa now home to hay bales and possums in the everyday adventure of a lifetime.

Country air is my favourite and driving over the peninsular through the country with snatches of sea views promising the sea air still to come was just awesome. And then we got there.

The set-up was a lot different than Shakespeare. For one thing there were lots of trees.

Tall trees.

That were enjoyed by all.

Some things never change though....

Then we took the walk down to the beach.

Kieran borrowed Sally's very pink shoes as the kids (minus Will) and men folk walked out to the island. (Will and I did the same walk a little earlier without the beach shoes- ouch!)

The low tide was a bit of a bummer- it didn't come up will we left around 7pm. But we still managed to have a lot of fun.

On the way home we stopped to take some photos of cool stuff...

Pretty groovy what some people have in their front yards.

Isn't very 'Otago Peninsular'? I loved it!

Pity about the influence of modern man...
(Glenbrook Steel Mill- Merenia has visions of people slaving away in there as she had not long read the Lemony Snicket book 'The Miserable Mill')

The sun was setting as we came home and Merenia snapped some cool pics from a moving car.

Don't ask why I drove by this particular sculpture on the way from there to home especially considering I messed up with getting to the Petrol Station back in Manukau. Let us not speak of this at all.

So how's the air where you are?
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