Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Gridiron Coming to an End


Since Andrew and Rachelle brought us my football from home in November, (almost) every week a group of us have met in a park and played an informal game of touch football.



The weather has been excellent every time we have gone out to play. We have only been rained on a handful of times, and it's usually at the end of our game, anyway.



Every Tuesday (and, in March, every Wednesday) we met at 5:30 to play. Rules were adjusted every game to keep everyone on their toes, but mostly to accommodate the varying numbers of players.



Everyone has had a great time playing, and Travis and I had a fun time teaching people how to play.

The time changes next weekend... back to standard time from daylight savings time. It will be dark by 6:20, and that doesn't give us a lot of time to play ball without someone getting some serious injuries. We have to call it quits.



But, I came here to learn how to play rugby, not to teach people to play football. Hopefully our "football nights" will turn into "rugby afternoons on Sundays" in the fall.

Thank you to my friends who have come out every week to play. It's been great! You're all AWESOME!!!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

After One Year

I was going through all of my vacation photos just now. Travis sent me a link to an ad for a movie we had heard about called One Week, starring Joshua Jackson. We'd been wanting to see this movie ever since we saw the interview he did with George Strombo on The Hour.

So, I found the trailer for it on youtube, and had the worst sob I have had since I moved to New Zealand. I think it was probably the juxtaposition of looking at New Zealand vacation photos and seeing images of the Canadian wilderness that made me crack - I don't know. But I thought I would share the trailer with you. Travis and I probably won't be able to see the movie for a while since I doubt it'll be screening in Auckland.

Enjoy. I did.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

South Island Photos Part 3/3


Dunedin
Originally uploaded by tkw954
I finally uploaded the last of my photos from our South Island trip. Click the photo to view them. This is the Dunedin Municipal Chambers.

Monday, March 2, 2009

North American Driving Times

As a follow-up to "Driving Times in NZ", I am pleased to present the equivalent chart for North America, centred on Saskatoon.



Notice that it takes over 80 hours to get to some parts of Newfoundland and Labrador. Also notice that Google seems to think that it's possible to drive from the middle of the Pacific.


View Larger Map

Here is a comparison of the North American and New Zealand driving time charts, using the same map and shading scales.



Be sure to click the images to see the high-resolution charts.

Liam Finn, Living Lounge


Liam Finn, Living Lounge


Liam Finn, Living Lounge
Amy and I went to see Liam Finn a the Living Lounge last night. Liam plays almost all the parts himself (with the help of a loop machine and EJ Barnes). It was an awesome show in an awesome venue. The Living Lounge is a tent in Western Park, Auckland, and has excellent acoustics. This is the first show we've been to where the PA system hasn't been overloaded to the point of distortion.