Work Do 24 June 06
MWH had its Mid-Winter Social Club function on Saturday the 24th of June last. Up in the Nothern Hemisphere, we have Christmas to brighten up our winter, but sadly there isn't much to look forward to in winter down here, unless you're a keen snow-boarder or skier, that is. So in order to cheer us all up, there was a fancy dress theme of "Around the World in 80 days", the idea was to think internationally with our costumes, so I went as an ancient Greek type girlie. Matt, below, didn't really go along with the theme (as far as we could tell, anyway) and went as both the bride and the groom. One of the other guys at the party took this photo-stitch picture of Matt... it's quite clever actually, isn't it? Kind of like Haley Mills in the Parent Trap....
Anyhoo - Matt's endeavours won him a prize in the "Most Inventive Costume" category, and also ensured his qualification in the "Best Couple" category...
The next (slightly controversial) category was "Most likely to get kicked off a plane". To start with, the category was exclusively Arabs, but Rhys, our English supporter, felt that he was at least as likely as any of them to get kicked off a plane
Andre (centre, in black) was the undisputed winner there, and I have to admit that Alan (to the right of Andre) looked more like someone out of the bible than a potential terrorist.
Work Do 24 June 06
Some more pictures from the night...
Margaret, her husband and Dan
Dan did a fancy frame type thingy on her camera for this photo
This is Patrick (aka Trish), who did a great job organising the whole evening and his girlfriend, Natasha. They were our cabin crew for the night
From left to right: Axl (who claimed to be from Galapacus - or however you spell it), Andrew (we assumed he was supposed to be Canadian) and Andre... needs no explanation
Karisa, who is actually from Brazil, went as a Brazilian.
Everyone enjoying the prize giving...
Work Do 24 June 06
Heather (Roman), me (Greek) and Pam (Gypsy - although she never told my fortune like she promised)
Lisa and Me
Ange (Saloon Girl), Bryan (Indian Afro dood), Crystal (also Saloon Girl), Janine (Bumble Bee?!?!) and Joanne (Queen of the sea... she and her friend John won best couple, he went as Neptune)
Ireland V All Blacks - Hamilton 10 June 2006
All day, the excitement and nervousness was rising in our group. "Imagine," we said "Imagine being able to say 'I was there the night Ireland beat the All Blacks in Hamilton'" Besides it's looooong past time that we got over the whole Munster beating the All Blacks in 1978...
we
definitely needed something else to brag about.
Dancing shamrock things and a weird black dismantled rugby ball thing with a silver fern inside helped to build the atmosphere (and contribute to its dry ice content. It was starting to remind me of the Super 14 final)
Then there were some fireworks and random explosions, the heat from which I could feel in the stand... I felt sorry for the dancing shamrocks that were prancing off a little too close to the blasts.
Once we had sang the anthems and the boys in black had done their line dancing, it was on with the game.
The first few minutes were fairly disasterous to be honest, with a try for New Zealand while some of the Irish players were still doing up their bootlaces. For a moment there, I thought were in for a repeat of the match in Landsdowne road last year where we didn't score until the dying seconds of the game. But I was wrong. Ireland scored WAY more than that, and by half time, my throat was sore from singing "The Fields of Athenry" (Chorus only, as is traditional at sporting events). The two kiwi women behind me had sore throats from shouting 'FECK' at the ref, the players, the linesmen... everyone really. I had taught them a new word, and although they seemed to enjoy it, it may not have been one of my betters ideas since I had to endure hearing it at full volume, right into my ear for the remainder of the first half (they never returned to their seats in the second half.. couldn't figure out why). By the end of the first half, Ireland's score was
double that of New Zealand's.... happy days!!
Ireland V All Blacks - Hamilton 10 June 2006
So there we were, it was half time and the scoreboard looked like this:
Ireland were really putting it up to the All Blacks and we were beginning to hope that this one might actually go our way (except for Paul... he KNEW we were going to win). As you can see, he and Gen were in good spirits at half time
Andrew even switched colours (well, only for the photo really...)
We were all starting to believe that this could be it... this could the the night that Ireland beat the All Blacks for the very first time... and we were THERE! But sadly, it wasn't to be. The last 15 minutes of the game were just so sad for me that I couldn't even watch it on the replay the next day. It was like a typical Mayo Gaelic Football match, where they somehow forget to play in the second half and it all goes horribly wrong. Final Score: All Blacks 34 - 23 Ireland.
Ah well, there's always the second test in Auckland on the 17th. Here's hoping that O'Gara is in good kicking form again
Ireland V All Blacks - Hamilton 10 June 2006
And so to the pub to drown our sorrows...
Mind you, Gen and I are looking pretty happy
As are Trish and her diving pal, Tony
Paul is a wee bit depressed though... especially since he had spent the past few weeks winding EVERYONE up about how Ireland were going to beat the All Blacks...
Andrew's mate, Kingsley isn't looking too impressed either, despite the fact that his team won. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we made him wear the tricolour.
Even though we lost, we all still had a great weekend in Hamilton. Trish was to be admired for sticking Saturday evening out, despite the fact that she had flown in from San Francisco at 5am that morning. Big thanks to Paul for dropping Trishes car off for Andrew and I to use on the Friday. But the greatest thank you goes to Mammy Slaney for looking after all of us so well for the whole weekend. We had Irish Stew
AND Bacon and Cabbage on Friday night night, yummy brunch on Saturday and just a lot of generous hospitality. So thank you very much for that, Marion. :)
Mayo, Kerry and Kiwi people hurling (continued from front page)
Exclusive:Vetern Cork camogie player, Trish Trainor (nee Murphy), of Aghabollogue had this to say:
"Looks to me like Andrew is the one doing the tutoring ;)"
Trish's husband, Paul Trainor, (shown here between Marian Grealis and Andrew Slaney) was unavailable for comment.
Mayo, Kerry and Kiwi people attempt Hurling... Exclusive SHOCKING pictures
While were all in Hamilton for the Ireland V All Blacks match, Genny, Andrew and I had a go at hurling, under the expert tutelage of Trish and Paul Trainor. The concentration on my face is apparant, as I try to run with the sliotar on the hurley... I got about 8 feet so I did!
I can't remember exactly, but there's a pretty good chance that this one was a swing and a miss... many of them were...
Andrew got right into it, although he found it difficult to figure out whether he was a right-handed or left-handed hurler. Being from New Zealand, we suspected he was neither... but we may yet be proved wrong...
Only Gen can see the ball....
Theresa was happy just to watch us all make fools of ourselves (except for Trish and Paul, who actually knew what they were doing, of course...) .
Bye bye to Welly 07 June 2006
Christchurch Half Marathon 04 June 2006
As part of Andrew and John's rigorous training regieme, Irish Coffees were served the night before the half-marathon.... purely medicinal, of course, and we were in luck that Jameson's wasn't added to the list of banned performance enhancing substances.
Jessie is learning to play the guitar and gave us a lovely rendition of "Yellow Submarine". Emily is learning to replace the traditional lyrics with more... amusing.. alternatives ;)
Once Andrew got the timer thingamy working on the camera, we got a nice group photo before John and his family headed back to Nelson.
Christchurch Half Marathon 04 June 2006
Andrew and his brother John took part in the Christchurch half marathon over Queen's birthday weekend (or as we at home in Ireland call it, the June Bank Holiday weekend - no excuses needed for a nationwide day off). Even though he had turned on his ankle playing volleyball on Thursday night, Andrew still ran the 21km course in a respectable time of 1hr 33 mins. As I said frequently in the weeks before the race, if I need to travel 13 miles, running would
not be one of the options I would consider... so all credit to John and Andrew for doing it
voluntarily. John's wife Katherine and their two children, Jessica and Emily came down from Nelson to support their Dad and Andrew and John's Mum, Marion flew down from Hamilton to join the rest of the family for the weekend. The day before the race, Jessica and Emily made some colourful for their Dad and uncle, so we displayed them just around the corner from the finish line
Rapiki 28 May 2006
After spending Saturday evening squinting through the fog at Jade stadium, we took a stroll up the Port Hills on the Rapiki track. There were still a few patches of fog hanging about, and as we got higher up the track, we came through the fog into beautiful sunshine. There were loads of people out and about in the hills, some running (!?), some biking and some just taking a stroll, like us.
At the top, there were a few people doing some abseiling...
Andre (centre, in black) was the undisputed winner there, and I have to admit that Alan (to the right of Andre) looked more like someone out of the bible than a potential terrorist.
