Posts by webweaver
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Sacha,
+1
* gives Sacha a standing ovation *
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On a slightly lighter note - Hitler has of course found out about the Opening Night fiasco:
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I had a lovely night - got my mojo back - for last night's game at least. Yay!
Wellington Batucada were performing in the Fanzone at 6pm after the Wellington International Ukelele Orchestra (w00t!) and we were planning to parade around the Fanzone keeping all the fans entertained.
However, there were so many people there by 6pm that once we'd made our way into the middle of the zone we were completely hemmed in by the crowds standing 10-deep watching us and it was clear we weren't going to be able to do any parading at all. We had a great time! The crowd seemed to really enjoy our performance and we got lots of cheers and smiles and applause all the way through.
After we finished our set we were able to leave all our drums in the Green Room and venture back into the Fanzone to watch the opening ceremony and then the game on the big screen.
Can I say how completely fabulous and awe-inspiring I thought the opening ceremony was? The graphics projected onto the performance arena were amazing - I'd love to know how they did that - it was jaw-droppingly good.
And the game - well, I thought that much of it was a thing of beauty - I LOVE it when the ABs are given sufficient space to play their running & passing game - it's like a sporting ballet - and some of those passes were pure poetry - like SBW's blind reverse pass inside to Toeva during the runup to the second try, and Dagg's backhanded pass leading up to the Kahui try. Fab.
The atmosphere in the Fanzone was fantastic - all very good-humoured and friendly, a few drunk-ish people but it just left them in a jolly mood rather than an aggressive one. They announced on the big screen that the Fanzone was at full capacity somewhere during the opening ceremony, and it remained packed but not uncomfortably so for the whole game.
Afterwards, like a haka flash mob, we all drifted away fairly rapidly, and I was able to catch a (very full) bus home no problem. The bus driver did his best to pack as many of us on as possible, and only had to refuse maybe 20 people along the rest of the route down Lambton Quay, which is about the same as you'd get after any game at the Cake Tin. I think Welli does public transport pretty well, all things considered.
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Field Theory: Four Years Ago, in reply to Danielle,
Webweaver, is there any room behind your cushion? I’m nervous.
Sure! There's room for everyone! I'll just get a bigger cushion....
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I completely lost my rugby mojo during that game 4 years ago. Since then I’ve barely watched a Super whatever-it-is-now game, and only watch tests from behind a cushion through my fingers these days.
Sad really. I used to love watching the ABs thrashing everyone in sight.
I remember having great arguments with the poms on The Guardian’s Comment is Free threads during the last WC – especially when they brought up the old “you guys steal the best players from all the other Pacific nations" and “you’re a bunch of chokers” chestnuts.
“We are so NOT chokers!” I would rant, stamping my tiny feet in disgust. “Best team we’ve ever had blah blah blah”. “I think we can win it this time yadda yadda”
*sigh*
I haven’t even visited Comment is Free this time. See – no mojo left at all.
Tell me when it’s safe to come out from behind my cushion, will you?
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I’ve been enjoying the snow SO much!
I’m with the puppyish Greg Wood – I went all 6-year-old when we got the first snow on Sunday evening here in Welli – and I’ve been like it ever since. There’s just something so magical about snow. It transforms the landscape so beautifully that you can’t help but love it – to some extent at least.
My house is pretty high up in the Wellington hills (top end of Kelburn) so we had a veritable winter wonderland by yesterday evening and I couldn’t get enough of it! I had to keep on going outside just to gaze in awe at the white roads, snow-covered trees and dusted pathways and verges. Fantastic.
I’ve been dancing around in the snow every time we get a flurry – even if it means rushing out of my grown-up contractor role at work and heading downstairs to my 6-year-old self. It brings out the inner child in all of us, doesn’t it?
I think that’s why Ro Tierney’s Snow on Cuba Mall in central Wellington is so bloody marvellous – because it demonstrates so beautifully our inner child and our innocent childlike wonder and delight at snow – simply because it’s such a rare occurrence in this part of the country.
Ro’s video reached 100,000 views this evening and is on the front page of both Stuff and the Herald website, which is pretty cool. It’s also listed as a Vimeo Staff Pick so it’s on the front page of the Vimeo website as well. Go Ro!
ETA:
I particularly liked the tweets from @stephenfry about us all yesterday – first there was this one:
Wellington is beside itself with delight. Snow falling in the nation’s capital for the first time for 35 years they tell me.
…followed a while later by this one:
NZ has, bless it, gone officially mad. First snow in Auckland since the 30s. Children running along with open mouths to taste the flakes :)
Bless!
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Also of note, I found it rather pointless having to swear allegiance to the Queen to gain NZ citizenship, me being a Pom an’ all.
Hehe. Me too. As I think I have mentioned before, I mumbletymumbled my way through that bit so I didn't have to say it. Not believing in all that monarchy stuff meself.
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I thought long and hard about what username to choose when I first joined PA, because of Russell's request that we use our real names on here.
The reason I stuck with webweaver is because historically that's who I am all over the internet and I decided I'd like to retain that naming consistency. Anyone who wants to know my real name only has to click the link to my website or my blog or my Twitter stream to see what it is.
I'm in agreement with Craig in that I would never post something online that I wouldn't say to someone's face. But I do identify very closely with my username (and I really like it and professionally speaking it's also my brand), which is why I use it pretty much everywhere, including here.
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Doh! Oh bugger! Is there a more Kiwi ketchup that I've missed? Horrors - I've been doing it wrong all this time!
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Rich Lock,
It’s a debate that’s been going on in the UK for quite a number of years. There is now a government-produced ‘life in the uk’ test that immigrants are supposed to take, but it has been heavily criticised.
Just for fun I just took The Official Practice (UK) Citizenship Test …and failed. I got 12 right out of 24, and TBH I guessed a lot more than half the answers. Granted I haven’t lived in the UK for nearly 20 years, but I was born there and lived there for longer than that. Stoopid test if you ask me :)
And in terms of becoming the “right” kind of Kiwi when I emigrated here, my attempts to “assimilate” properly have been along the lines of:
- convert from Heinz tomato ketchup to Watties
- support the All Blacks at all times, but especially when they’re playing England or the Lions
- attempt to cultivate a bit of a Kiwi twang (noticed by people in the UK when I go back for a visit, virtually invisible here to anyone else)
- wax lyrical about the wonders of Aotearoa/New Zealand whenever possible, to anyone who’ll listen
- take an active interest in Kiwi politics and many other things KiwiWould I pass the Kiwiness test, do you think? :)