sport

enjoy your sport but be mindful

friday was a noisey day at work

i fear we’re not yet over the worse

we went to a fantastically retro bowling alley today.  apparently this is the more modern one of our two nearest.  i’m sure i remember this machine from trips bowling in nottingham from when i was a lad

the shoes certainly looked like they’ve seen a few years of action

and there were plaques all over the place celebrating big achievements on the different lanes.  this one showed the first time someone had scored over 300 on lanes 15 and 16.

the machines looked modern in a retro calculator sort of way

you could image people playing the original space invaders game in the background loving all the new technology

and the cafe was great too

and finally there was a lovely universal greeting sign as we came in.  all absolutely lovely and we shall be back for more of the same next month !

sport is a way of life over here in kiwi land.  here’s a good example.  two all blacks, a couple of olympians, an international triathlon lady and a national netball player came along to encourage the kids at a triathlon yesterday morning.

esther and kezia did their first triathlons yesterday.  i don’t think they would have done anything like that in england.  although the sea was a bit chilly a good time was had by all !

we did the auckland ’round the bays’ walk on sunday.  it was jolly good

we even got to be ‘wooped up’ by the new zealand prime minister john key

kezia said he was much bigger than she expected.  but that’s because she’s been singing “little john key” (to the tune of little donkey).  esther thought he should dress as a key and do the race in fancy dress.  but he didn’t

we went to the local stadium to see ‘the blues’ football team who were doing some signing

when we got there it turned out they were a rugby team

that serves me right for not doing my homework

rather than queue for an hour to get things signed we took a few photos

this chap was prowling the area trying to queue jump

but he was quickly sent to the back of the queue

a friend here told me that it’s quite amazing how close you can get to sporting stars over here and she was right.  if you know who they are (i don’t) then you’re likely to bump in to them all over the place, and not just (free) signing events like these

i love london.  and i love how you can walk down the street and see something fantastic that everyone else is ignoring.  like these athletes we saw being photographed after we’d dropped our passports off at New Zealand House (that’s the base of eros just behind them)

A bit of googling revealed the chap is Laurent Vidal  There was also a swedish athlete and another lady with her back to us (who perhaps could have done with longer shorts).

compii

used cups only

tree time

finish

i had the day off yesterday so i took the girls ice skating.  exhausting stuff, although esther and kezia are now much better than me which helps.

there goes esther up the climbing wall

this man was concerned.  so would i be with a fantastic beard like this