Billy Connolly Show

On Saturday evening, I went out with friends to watch Billy Connolly perform at the Vector Arena which is right next to my apartment building. I had the group of 10 or so over to my flat beforehand as it's a quick 1 min. walk from my place to the Arena. On a side note, the Vector Arena is where most all of the big shows are in Auckland (like Chris Brown & Rhiana, Billy Joel, Kylie Minogue, Kanye West to name a few of the recent shows).

Anyway, I had not heard of Billy Connolly before coming over here, but my Scottish friend, Paul, really likes him (claims he's the most well-known comedian in the world but I think that's just because he's Scottish as well). Paul bought a bunch of tickets on pre-sale and told me I had no choice but to come along. I borrowed a few of Billy Connolly's DVDs ahead of time to see what he was all about. He did a World Tour of New Zealand which was pretty good as it was a mixture between a travel DVD of New Zealand and his comedy shows. Anyway, the show was good and Billy's stories and tangents kept us all entertained. It was a nice evening but not a late one as I stayed out too late at Danny Doolan's (an Irish Bar in the Viaduct) the previous evening. A nice weekend in Auckland, but I'm going to have to plan a weekend away again soon while the weather is holding out. Also, I went for a nice run today - my knees have pretty well recovered from the half marathon. I think it's about time I started training for the next one.

Half Marathon

Well, today I can tick off two of my to-do boxes in life. I ran in the Cathay Pacific Half Marathon (21Km). Considering that I've never even run a quarter-marathon (~11K), I can successfully tick the boxes next to quarter and half marathons now. I was training for this a bit before the holidays, but once they arrived, my training drastically died down. At least I was still participating in some sports after the holidays which probably helped a bit. Anyway, myself and Paul from the office decided we'd run in this one about 3.5 months ago. James (another friend from the office) decided to join up last night. James has run a few of these before but Paul and I never have. We were pretty worried about it and thought we might have to cut it off at the 11Km point. We didn't exactly prepare the best since we haven't run in weeks, went out to the bars pretty hard on Friday night, then ate Burger King and Dominos on Saturday. At least I drank a good bit of water during the week to get me hydrated.

The actual race wasn't too bad for the first half. We went at a fairly slow pace but felt pretty comfortable. Things started to get pretty bad for all of us around the 14Km mark. I wasn't really all that tired from a cardio perspective but my legs and knees were in a lot of pain. This point was a little bit hilly which did not help matters at all. We carried on and then the worst part for me was the final 2Km. I can say that I jogged the entire way although it wasn't very fast. I finished the race in 2 hr and 20 min. which is certainly not a time to brag about, but the fact that I did finish and did not have to walk made me really happy. My legs are still killing me and I'm sure my knees will not function tomorrow, but I did it. I'll have to train a bit more for the next one. We'll see how long this takes me to recover.

Sports Day and GT's Leaving-Do

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday right after work, we had our office sports day. We went to a local park, Coxs Bay, and had an evening full of playing touch rugby, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, tug of war, and a bunch of other games. Our office is divided up into zones so each zone competed against each other for zone points. What we do with the zone points, I have no idea other than they are used to compete against other zones. Anyway, we ended up coming in third place but still had a great time. Afterwards, we all had drinks and a barbecue to wrap things up. It was definitely an enjoyable evening and something I will recommend to our office back home.

Saturday evening was valentines day, but also a going away party for friend and co-worker, Gareth "GT", and his girlfriend Claire. They are heading back to PwC in England after some travels beginning next week. In the theme of the day, we were all required to wear red or pink outfits for the evening. My buddy, James, went so far as to wear a pink panther outfit - I'm hoping he rented it and is not a Furry. We started things off at GT's place as we were required to finish off all the rest of their bottles of wine since they didn't have room to take them all home. We made pretty quick work of them. Actually, on the way to GT's, I went to Food Alley with friends: Jacco, Michelle, and Chi for a romantic $9.00 V-day meal. Next we headed over to a local pub called the Northern Steamship. We hung out there for a while and had a few drinks before heading over to a 70s/80s style disco called Boogie Wonderland. This place was pretty fun but not a place I would go to regularly. We fit in pretty well with our ridiculous pink clothes though. It was a late night, but fortunately my friends took me to a portable trailer food-place that is most likely only open the late hours of the weekends to serve delicious burgers called The White Lady. A great time was had by all.

Chi, Jacco, Michelle, and me at Food Alley

GT and Claire toast

The arrival of the Pink Panther

Val and Fiona

Michelle and Chi somehow talked their way into the DJ booth

Fi, Tara, and Mike

Paul, Caroline, and Paula


Me and Fi

Me and Paul

Erin and Jeremy

James and Chi

Don't know what to say...stunning

Me and GT

Waiheke Island (6 - 8 February)

This past Friday was Waitangi Day in New Zealand which meant another public holiday. I went with friends, James and Paula, to Waiheke Island which is an island about 30 KM from Auckland by ferry. It's a great weekend trip as there are a bunch of beaches, wineries, and generally beautiful weather (even though it's so close to Auckland, it's generally more sunny here) and is less than an hour away from a ferry port within walking distance of my apartment.

James and Paula know people who own some land on the island and they let us stay there for the weekend. It's a really nice 12-acre plot of land. I brought along my tent but they also have a permanent tent-like structure that is also sort of like a Teepee called a Yuit (I forget how this is actually spelled). They eventually plan on turning the place into something like a commune and hippy get-away which should be interesting.

It was great to get away for the weekend. The place we stayed was nice and secluded and relaxing with some pretty views from up on the hillside. We barbecued a bunch of food, had some drinks, and played some yahtzee in the evenings (we played 4 times and I did not get a single yahtzee or win a game - needless to say I was not happy).

On Saturday, we also went to the Waiheke wine festival up the road where we sampled a bunch of wines and stuffed ourselves with food while enjoying some live music. The festival was right next to Stonyridge Vineyard which is apparently famous for its red wine called Larose but I don't know much about that stuff. Afterwards, we went to a stunning local beach, relaxed in the shade under the trees, threw the football around a bit, and swam in the water (which is getting surprisingly warm). In all, it was a terrific and relaxing weekend and I was sad to have to get back to work.

Setting up camp at the Yuit

My Tent with nice views of the countryside

Inside the Yuit

James firing up the lamb sausages, chicken, and steak

View of the land from up on the hill (that's the Yuit on the left and the ocean in the background).

James on the hike up the hillside

Paula taking pictures on top of the hill

The moon was so bright we could easily see at night.

View of the vineyard from the wine festival

Waiheke wine festival

Me and James relaxing on the beach under the trees

Pittsburgh Steelers - Super Bowl Champs!!

A couple weeks ago after the Steelers beat the Ravens in the AFC Championship game, I plead my case to my manager that I needed the afternoon off today for the Super Bowl. Fortunately, I had a sympathetic manager who understood the importance of today's event. I headed down to a local bar called Fox's which is in the Viaduct at 12:30 PM today (Monday) to watch Sunday's 6:30 PM Super Bowl back home.

The bar turned out to be fairly crowded. It was interesting to see a bunch of different people wearing all sorts of NFL jerseys (most of whom were locals). I think people here enjoy watching the Super Bowl as an excuse to go to the bar in the middle of the day during a work week. People also seemed to be cheering for both teams - I guess they just wanted a good game. There were, however, a few Steelers fans. I did feel a bit sad not to be at home for the Super Bowl as I'm sure there were some crazy celebrations going on. It was nice that a few of my friends from work came out to watch. Jeremy (USA), Richard (Kiwi), James (Irish), Mike (Canadian), and Gareth (UK) came to support the Steelers so at least we had a bit of an international Steelers Nation going on. It was one of the best games I've ever seen capped off by a 27 - 23 Steelers Victory to get their record 6th Ring.

Richard and Jeremy Supporting the Team

Halftime

Victory!!