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A Kiwi looks at 55 and is the juice worth the squeeze.

 Been just under 5 years since I have put pen to paper here - just seems like not much has happened since March of 2020 that is worth writing about :) But in honor of my birthday and because Aimee made a comment on the book of faces let's see if we can start banging out a few more of these - as long as they are at least half decent to read. Firstly a Kiwi looks at 55 (less the 50 that I wrote about 5 years ago (link at the bottom of this if you care - so technically A Kiwi looks at 5) - well 2020 sure was fun. We did a roughly 3,200 mile road trip in June 2020 to see friends as the kids and the chick needed to get out some, so it was St Pete Beach, Pensacola, New Braunfels, Dallas, Nashville then home - rented a Denali for very little as no one was travelling and had a blast. We have also been to Thailand for 2 weeks with the kids and the chick, to NZ for 2 weeks with the kids, Thailand, Hong Kong and NZ with the chick and probably some other places (do not go to Universal in FL ar...
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4 weeks can make one interesting month

2nd Poets Day post in 2 weeks after a 15 month hiatus - something is going on :) Ruggerfest was 4 weeks ago tomorrow in Charlotte NC - 2 days of rugby on 7 all weather paddocks with a warm up area. 90 something teams with ages from U10 through High School, boys and girls teams and some Co-ed at the up to U14s. It was an amazing fun weekend and marks the beginning of the club season in the south pretty much. We made some jokes about the Corona virus (apparently it is from 'Gaina'), hugged like we normally did, chatted, got inside socially acceptable physical boundaries, high fived winners, consoled losers, had a couple of beers and walked a whole lot. I love Ruggerfest, it is one of the rugby highlight of the year. Raleigh Redhawks (the club where my son plays in Raleigh and who I carry water bottles for) didn't go to Ruggerfest, they had a commitment to play at Gonzaga in DC, a 9th grade game, a JV game and the all important Varsity game against the top ranked rugby ...
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A kiwi looks at 50

To put it mildly, the world is a pretty odd place right now. There is a terrible beer virus (named after a terrible beer obviously) causing havoc all over the planet, and the ride has only just really begun here in the US. Looking forward to hopefully riding this out without too many issues and getting to the other side with just enough toilet paper :) So let's try and quickly look back over the last 50 years, since there will not be a big party this weekend to celebrate, in cricket terms, a decent innings so far - 50, not out. There will be a party later this year though :) 50 years ago Jeff and Raewyn realized that they had made a huge mistake when I was bought kicking and screaming into the world at Middlemore Hospital, Otahuhu. At the time we lived on Great South Rd in Papatoetoe I think (what do I know) and then we moved to Tui Rd to the Papatoetoe Motel that they owned for a bit then to Redoubt Rd in Manukau. School was Papatoetoe Central for me and all of the time it wa...
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2018 in the rearview mirror

Well - let's be frank, 2018 was not a big year for Poets Day posts - only 10 blogs written - about 1,700 reads total but which means about 170 people read each blog, which is not horrible considering they are, let's be honest, not always that good and very rugby centric  :) So what have I been up to since I haven't been writing Poets Day posts you ask ? Well, you probably didn't ask, so I am taking a bit of a liberty here :) Rugby, I have been doing an awful lot of rugby stuff in my free time. I am a founding board member with Cary Rugby who had U10, U12 and U14 tackle teams in 2018 plus a U8 and sometimes U10 touch teams. I also assisted Coaches Tim and Jose on a local select U14 team that went to a 2 day tournament in South Carolina. I then decided it would be fun to go to Asheville to drink beers with the local Raleigh Rugby Old Boys team and somehow ended up on the paddock for a brief stint. For the first time in about 27 years I actually "played" tack...
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How to motivate like a pro

Just a word of advice there might be some bad words in this weeks blog according to my Mum  - who was a teacher, luckily never mine though :) It has been a month since I quit smoking. I quit once in 2012 but then I told someone the product they had come up with was, and I quote - well close to quote - "A complete waste of fucking time and one of the stupidest things I have ever seen" (which conveys the content of my statement at the time) whilst sitting next to the CEO of my soon to be ex-employer. I started smoking again soon after that statement when my new job was to find a new job :) This time the motivation was different and two-fold and combined they created the perfect storm (so far). Firstly there was the emotional blackmail motivation from 5ft 6 of terror known to most as Turtle, my daughter. She threatened to pack up her bags and run off to New Zealand if I didn't quit, I am guessing at this point some people back home would prefer I was still smoking  :)...
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The sport you never knew you wanted to play

So the other day I was tasked with coming up with a banner to help promote the youth rugby club that I am on the board of and I was trying to come up with a tag line. I searched the world wide inter web for guidance but quickly got sick of cat videos, Fox News and just blah. So I delved into the recesses of the grey squishy bit between my ears and came up with: Rugby. The sport you never knew you wanted to play. Now, I could have stopped with ' The sport you never knew ' as in the US that seems to be the case. Very few people know of the sport, some know of it but really know nothing and those that do know, well they play :) So lets start with the first group, those that don't know. Can't really blame them that much as it is not a prime time game with overhyped songs inquiring if you are ready for some football (the too-may-pads one, not the kicky one). It doesn't appeal to the major networks as it has that one thing that American sports hate, a lack of timeo...
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I tried writing this post before....

Well at least a post that was something like this. Actually I may have already written this post but I forget stuff so here we go again maybe :)  Earlier this week a friend of mine posted the comment on the book of faces " If you decide that one of my children don't belong somewhere because of the color of their skin and decide it is ok to assault or taunt them, I WILL protect and defend my own. If you have an issue with someone, best to keep it to yourself. This is not the 1960's or earlier when you can say and do things to people with racially motivated hate and not have some action reciprocated." This person is my friend for a couple of reasons, we first met met when I coached his son on the rugby field when the team he was with was a few players short and we would create what they call motley teams over here in the US (I prefer to call them The Barbarians but then again I am correct)  :)  My friends son is a wonderful kid, absolute joy to coach and to...
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