2001 / 07

  • The British and Irish Lions were humbled in the test series in Australia; England are currently being completely annihilated in the Ashes cricket series against Australia; The Sydney Olympics were an unqualified success and Australia was just voted the second best country on Earth to live in. Kind of makes you want to be Australian, doesn’t it? Well, I’ve just heard from my second/third(?) cousins from Melbourne who barely know me but have offered to meet Sue and me when we get there in...
  • Less than four weeks to go in Wellington before we leave for the South Island. This is despite Sue’s employers begging her to stay at least until Christmas and even offering to help talk me round! She’s flattered and it was quite tempting to stay - after all, we’ve both got good jobs we enjoy and love the place - but we’d just be delaying the inevitable and could miss graduate recruitment deadlines. And, of course, we’re missing home. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Marystaple gig on...
  • This is starting to get a bit rugby dominated but, hey ho, we are in Rugbyland after all. Sue and I had a mad day on Saturday when we finally got to see the All Blacks. We took our first train since England into Johnsonville for a pre-match house barbeque at one of Sue’s workmates. We also had our first taste of green-lipped mussels - apparently unique to NZ - which (fussy) Sue did very well not to spit in the chef’s face, bless her. She coped much better with the beer. The atmosphere at...