Beach vball story in the Nelson Mail

Check out the main sports story in todays Nelson Mail! Click on the title above.

My 3rd cousin Daisy from England came to visit for 3 days on her round the world trip. She brought 2 of her friends with her, from left is Rose, Sam, Daisy and me. It was great to find another cousin!

 

The winning team!

 

Champions!!!

WE WON!! We are promoted to Mainland League for 2007! We were so pumped yesterday as we beat Avon 3-1 in the home leg of our promotion/relegation series. Last Friday we travelled down to Christchurch again for the first game against Avon on Saturday which we lost 0-1. Their ground was bumpy and very small and there was a very strong wind. Really hard to play on. We had a lot of chances early that hit the post or got cleared off the line. I only played about 4 mins at the end. Yesterday was another tight, close game. Battram scored an absolute stunner against the run of play about 30 mins into the game so it was 1-0 at half time. Batty scored again not long into the second half so we led 2-0 which was enough for us to win as last weeks goal counted for them. Then they scored off a corner--the same way they scored their goal in Christchurch. 2-1 and looking like extra time. I got subbed on for Batty with about 20 mins to go and was really hopin to score the winner!! I put in a good cross to Mike Fifi that went just over his head in front of goal. Then in the 90th min, Fifi chased a ball and managed to cross it back from right on the line across the keeper and Jimmy Lattimore somehow deflected it in as he was diving across the goal! We were ecstatic and after a long 2 mins of injury time we all screamed and jumped and hugged and went crazy! Their was a big crowd their and they were all yelling for us too. The ground looked awesome, the grass was perfect and smooth and it was a perfect Nelson day! I will post a pic later. We then had a pig on a spit and our prizegiving and kept celebrating into the nite! Its been a huge year in our club and we have made history by challenging for this and winning the promotion. There is now 2 teams from Nelson in this league and 6 from Christchurch. I have loved playing in this team and although havent got much game time lately its still been an incredible journey and yesterday felt so good to get out there to play firstly and then to win!

So its been a pretty busy month!! Last Sunday I also moved out of Teapot Valley Camp and am now living with my uncle and aunty again. Its nice to be in a house again and have meals cooked! I plan to live here for the next 3 months.

The week in review

Last Monday at 6:15 I got picked up for work and we drove to Golden Bay (90 mins) to work on a house at Pohara Beach. The owner has a bach (cottage) there so we stayed over. It was a fun job to work on. I cooked up dinner for everyone on Monday nite and also cooked panckaes for breakfast Tuesday. I came back home for soccer training Tues nite and went back to Golden Bay Wednesday morning. Did 2 more long days coming back for training again Thursday night.6:20 friday morning Clint and Alice picked me and took me to the airport. All the computers were down so check in was done manually meaning delays but my friend Anna made me a free chai latte at the cafe and I managed to get a direct flight to Auckland rather than stopping in Wellington. Had a nice flight up. Got a shuttle into Auckland City where we had a hotel booked. Met Kate and Mark there. The lady in reception told us it was 1.5 - 2 stars!!! It was really disgusting. Anyway we got changed and then a 10 minute walk up the street got us to St Pauls church. Cam and Chloe were married in a simple ceremony at 1:30pm and then we celebrated with champagne and wedding cake. A few hours break and then at 5:30 we went to Mantells- a cool venue in Mt Eden where we had the most sumptuous meal! The salmon and beef were so nice. Some great speeches were made-Gapesy as best man told some hilarious stories and read an email that Cam had written which was priceless!! "We are soo cool"!! Back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Saturday 9:15am arise and try out the shower. Got face scalded as cold water came and went.

9:45am Mum and Dad picked me up and we went to Parnell for breakfast to celebrate mums birthday. Happy Birthday Mum!! My sister and her husband and my niece and nephew joined us too.

11:30am Mum and Dad took me to the airport.

1pm Flight to Christhchurch. Fell asleep.

2:30pm Stew met me at the airport and took me the team motel.

4pm Light training run at St Bedes School. freezing cold--about 10 deg Celsius.

8pm Dinner at a local restaurant. Buffet all you can eat!

11pm lights out

Sunday sleep in and then rise and relax

11am check out of motel and drive to English Park. Watch some of the curtainraiser.

1pm our game kicked off and Mike fiff scored inside 1 minute!! 2 goals in the first 10 mins and 3 by halftime. I only got to play the last 8 mins but almost scored when I got the ball past the keeper only to have a defender clear it off the line. We won 3-1 meaning we sang in the showers and were very happy! After food and speeches we had a long slow ride home in the vans arriving home about 11:30pm very tired but after a fun successful weekend. But before bed I managed to watch a replay of Maria Sharapova win the US Open.

2 more sleeps to get my licence back and looking forward to our next soccer game--back in Christchurch again on Saturday.

Springtime

Well I haven't written much on here lately--maybe thats a change I should make! Today was hot! Even got the aircon on in our smoko room on the building site at lunchtime. Our building is going pretty slow due to an engineer interfering but it should be speeding up next week. We are building a pretty big warehouse which will be divided up into many storage units of varying sizes. It will be known as Storageworld! Next week we will spend 2 days in Golden Bay working on a real nice beach house that the company is also building. I don't love my job but thankfully I don't hate it either! It is a means to an end. I am still looking into camping options in the USA. Tomorrow is the first playoff game against Burnside from Christchurch. I have been on the bench the last few games and it looks like that will continue. I have way more speed and fitness than our 2 starting wingers but my ball control is not always as good. Our coach has put a big emphasis this year on speed and getting into the corners and this is not happening. But hopefully I'll get some decent gametime and maybe an injury or something will give me an opening to get my spot back. Only 12 days till i get my licence back!!

changes

Yep you might notice this page has changed its format. I like change--that is one thing I don't have in commmon with my beautiful region, Nelson. Maybe that is one reason I want to move away again. Here's a few changes taking place.

• I'm employed!-I have been building now for 3 weeks
• 3 more weeks and I will get my licence back and move out of Teapot Valley
• I have applied for some camping jobs in the USA but if nothing opens up there then I will stay around at least until early next year
  
• We have 1 soccer game left before our playoff games so trainings have intensified and we are aiming to win the playoffs
  
• It feels like winter has been and gone and spring is here as it is pretty warm most days
• Getting my licence back will assist in my life being not so boring!
  
• Summer will soon be starting and along with it beach volleyball and touch rugby
  
• The Bucknam family is leaving our church and moving back to the USA
• Cam and Chloe will be getting married in 3 weeks time so I will be flying to Auckland for the wedding. Will also be able to say Happy Birthday to Mum!

I can't wait for some more changes to come along!

Innocent Civilians?

Just what is an innocent civilian? I remember asking myself that question after 9/11. Were the citizens in New York innocent? Or does one lose innocence by merely living in a country and thereby aligning oneself with that countries government and policies and also that countries culture. This week I have asked myself that again as I have watched Lebanese people displaced from their homes and listen to them talk to foreign journalists saying they are innocent and the Israelis are taking innocent lives. This was especially noticeable to me in a valley just north of the Israeli border. This valley has been a Hizbollah stronghold for 20 years with training camps held here etc. Now I suggest that any citizen who lives there has either learnt to tolerate the terrroists who live and train there or they don't really care about them or they might even like what they are doing to annoy their neighbours, the Israelis. The Lebanese have not just allowed Hizbollah to live and operate in their neighbourhood but have also allowed them to be involved in their government where they now hold about 10% of the seats and their influence is much greater than that. Would we in New Zealand stand by if the Mongrel Mob decided to turn from crime to terrroism and then attempted to get seats in our parliament? Interesting to see 60 minutes tonight where I see good kiwi citizens influencing the mongrel mob to give up crime and focus on their families and getting jobs and becoming good citizens themselves. And its working!! I believe the people make the country and whether you have a choice of government or its forced on you, people throughout the centuries have found ways to influence and change their society when needed. I think to do nothing for 20 years does not really allow you to be called an innocent civilian.

1st Division Soccer Championship Winners!

Yes Saturday our 4-2 win over Marlborough sewed the title up for us. With 3 games to go we can't be beaten on points. My part in Saturdays win became very small. Thursday night at training something went crazy in my neck--Dads phone diagnosis was torticollis or wry neck which is a muscle spasm. Man it was painful! I had to stop training and could hardly move my head. 4am the next morning I awoke with huge pain--every few seconds another spasm would kick in with massive pain and then fade away. Next day it was much better and by Saturday it was all but gone. But that combined with Batram Suri joining our team put me in the reserves instead of starting. Batram had a great game and scored 3 goals! So I only got about 5 mins at the end of the game during which I came close to scoring! So the boys are all very happy but we still have 3 more games that we want to win. Then we have playoff games to attempt to get into the Mainland League for 2007. So plenty to play for yet!

Back to work

Yep today was first real paid day of work since I finished camp end of May. I have about 2 weeks work at Fields berry farm planting berries. Last week was still a real busy one tho. We had another win in soccer where I came on at halftime as a striker and played an awesome thru ball to my fellow striker who went 1 on 1 with the keeper and scored. We won 3-1. Then Sunday nite I barely slept as I watched the mens final of Wimbledon followed by the World Cup Final. Unfortunately Henry didn't score any more goals so I didnt win anything in our sweepstake. Monday evening kids camp began. Tuesday to Friday I coached soccer at my clubs holiday Soccer Academy in the mornings and ran around camp in the afternoons as the white wolf from Narnia! Saturday just gone we played Nelson College. I finally got back into the starting lineup playing up front as stiker. We had a great game and I played out of my skin! We only won 2-1 but we dominated most of the game and had many close chances. We are now 9 points clear on the top of the table and if we win next weekend against Marlborough then we can't be caught!! (3pm Jubilee Park-come and watch us win the league!) 4 regular season games left and then we will go into playoffs to attempt to get into the Mainland League for the 2007 season.

Mt Arthur looks stunning under a coat of snow

 

Nelson as I have never seen it before

can even see the curvature of the earth!

 

Come on England! or should I cheer for France??!!

World Cup quaterfinals start tonite. I have been fortunate enough to be able to watch nearly every game of the world cup so far as I have not been working this month. Its been a very relaxing month although the last week or so I have begun to get rather restless and wanting to do more! My hamstring has healed and last weekend I scored the winning goal in a game for the 2nd division (1st div had a bye). Our 1st division side is now clearly on top of the table and we are on the homestretch to winning the league. I have spent a few weekends up at Redwood Downs this month which has been very nice and relaxing-and of course great meals! I have also finally had my licence taken for 3 months which can be a bit of a pain. I'm hoping my car will sell pretty soon. Also this month I have developed the website for Tasman Volleyball. Check it out! Last Sunday we farewelled Marcos and Denise who were here from Paraguay but then welcomed Lolita from France! 4 of us took her to Poppy Thai for dinner and then to our old favourite Cafe Affair. Lolita is working at Waimea nursery in the footsteps of Juliette, Emmylou, Laure and Charlotte. She is a very fun, beautiful girl as you will see in the pic below! Tomorrow nite we will have a midwinter xmas dinner which I expect will be a lot of fun. And I have just got a job planting pine trees and will start either Monday or Tuesday. I have worked out a plan to work and save over the next 3 months and then head overseas. Not sure where to yet but watch this space!

me and Lolita

 

Sounds for Queens birthday weekend

me and tim with the new toy at Ohingaroa Bay--heaps of fun!!

 

Birthday party

Last Saturday we had a win in soccer against Nelson College which my parents made it to after flying in from Auckland. Then about 15 of us had dinner at the Lonestar Restaurant as we didnt have enough people for the Bar-b-cruise. Lisa and Katie made a treasure hunt for me which involved some challenges such as getting a girl to kiss me, getting someone to buy me a shot of tequila (very nice!!) and then buying feminine product at the supermarket and climbing into the fountain to retrieve a 50 cent coin. Then to Delaneys apartment on the waterfront for more clues to follow around and finally found "the precious" which was a ring made of gold foil in a treasure chest full of chocolate coins!! We had dessert here and I cut the yummy fruit cake which my mum made and dad iced. Thanks!! Watched the rugby and hung out. It was a cool night overall--pity more couldnt make it. Big thanks to those who did make it and special thanks for the cool cards and pressies. Sunday I worked but spent Monday with Mum and Dad and went to the new Nelson museum which gives a good history of the area. Dinner up at Redwood Downs. So my birthday was extended over a week really. I'm now 30 and today I pulled my hamstring!! Its the most serious injury I have ever had so I'm pretty fortunate. We won again today tho so we are now top of the table. I finish working at Teapot Valley next Wednesday so am lookin for a job--anyone got one for me?

birthday pics

katie, me and myke

Sinky andTim deep in thought at dinner

 

the new tv showing liverpool in the FA cup final

turning 30

Yesterday I turned 30! Slept in until about 10 which was much needed after a long weekend working and staying up late for the FA cup final on Sunday morning. Liverpool had an awesome finish again thanks to Gerrard--awesome!! Went to Nelson with Katie and she went clothes shopping while I went TV shopping! Since it was my birthday I bought myself a new TV-- a 28 inch flatscreen Sony. Was on special too! Then the WRX wouldnt start so had to get Daymans to have a look and they ended up putting a new small part in which is now all good! So had a nice Chai Latte with Kate while waiting for that. Then drove up to Redwood Downs for dinner and when I got there Aunty Jan and Lisa were setting the table for about 10 people!! They had arranged a small surprise dinner party!! So that was pretty cool to have some good mates there for dinner. Aunty Jan had made a great favourite dinner being corned beef and hot mustard sauce--mmmm. And kumara, peas and carrots. After dinner we played Settlers--it was a long drawn out game which Katie finally won! I don't feel any older but now I have to say 30 which sounds older than 29!! A great day really and thanks to all who made it special and wrote me emails or sent me texts. And praise to God for His leading of my life--its been a pretty amazing journey so far and I just wonder what the next 30 years holds!!