Keeping a Promise

It has been awhile but the video I promised you all.

South Island Trip Part I

International Press

I was going to sit here and type about how I found Tecmo Super Bowl for NES online but I found something way more awesome than that. Let me share it with you.

Huntly Half Warms UpMonday 12 May, 2008

With less than a week to go, the heat is on for runners taking part in the famous Huntly Half Marathon. May 18th will see Hakanoa Domain in Huntly become a swarming crowd of runners and walkers as they prepare to join the 45,000 people who have completed the Huntly Half Marathon over the last 27 years.

Entries for the 28th Retravision Huntly Half Marathon and the accompanying Solid Energy 10k are coming in steadily, and race organiser Graham Dudfield says numbers so far are looking similar to last year. He expects a rush of entries before the race, and on race day. Online entries are open until Tuesday 13th May, and late entries are open until up to half an hour before the event.

The Huntly Half started in 1981 and has a strong reputation among athletes, attracting runners such as John Walker, Dick Quax, Allison Roe, and many more. Favourites in the elite section this year will include Iain MacDonald and Kyle MacDonald from Tauranga and Paul Crowhurst (Pakuranga), who all have the potential for a sub-70 minute finish. Michael Petrina from the USA has run some fast track times but will be attempting his first half marathon. In the women's race, Australia's Hanny Allston will be the one to watch after her recent win in the Rotorua Marathon. Over $30,000 worth of merit and spot prizes will be presented on the day, and all participants have a chance to win.

It's rumoured that Bill and Ben from TV3's Pulp Sport programme may make an appearance in the half marathon, so any spectators who have witnessed past antics from the pair will be watching with interest.

The race is strongly supported by both the Huntly and Hamilton communities, giving the event a personal touch which is traditionally appreciated by competitors. Running club Hamilton City Hawks have had a long-term involvement in the Huntly Half. The Retravision Huntly Half Marathon caters for all levels of entrant, and Hamilton City Hawks take pride in presenting an event which looks after the needs of all runners and walkers. A carnival atmosphere prevails at the finish area in the Lake Hakanoa Domain, with performers and food/drink stalls. Race H.Q. is at Huntly Thistle soccer club rooms.

To enter, visit the Cool Running before Tuesday 13th, or enter early on race day – May 18th.

email dawntuffery@gmail.com or call 0274947999. Race Director Graham Dudfield:

Thats right I made international press. What can I say it is pretty cool and I am pretty honored to be mentioned in the same paragraph as John Walker. I was pretty excited when I found that quick little article.

M.D.W. II = Mother's Day Weekend Part II

Mother's Day

I hope that all you Mothers out there had a great day. My Mothers Day was fun filled. No I am not a mother.

The plan was to have it at the Joy Household. It was to be a pot luck afternoon tea. Afternoon tea can be described as either a late lunch or a really early dinner. Its like what Brunch is for breakfast and lunch. At the Petrina Household we call afternoon tea, Linner, or Dunch. It has been debated what it should be. Today we have a new term that can be used and thats what I will do.

Afternoon Tea

For afternoon tea Leo and I were encharge of salad and some sort of dessert, Bart and Cindy were making sushi and Nat was going to make shepards pie. The feast was turning at beautifully, Leo also decided she was going to make chocolate raisin bread as part of dessert. She baked the bread the day before and it was ready for the next day. We also decided to go with a Lemon Souffle. We made that the morning of the Potluck Afternoon Tea. Bart and Cindy had made many different types of sushi all with fun and exciting fillings. Nat's shepards pie was really good. It had mince, carrotts, mushrooms, peas in it with potato crust and melted cheese on top of that.

Everyone started to arrive around 1230. Once all accounted for Mr. Joy had a special suprise for us all to take part in.

Sheep Hearding

A little of 18 months ago 5 of the Joy's sheep had escaped. All by himself Mr. Joy set out to get them back into the Joy paddock. He was able to get three of the five to get back in, but two eluded him. For the next year and a half he and Mrs. Joy would set out to try and find the other two. One day not too long ago Mr. Joy spotted them in a neighboring paddock that was located behind the Joys Paddock. He was determined to get them back, so he decided that at the next family fet together we all were going to go out beyond the paddock and get back them two sheep.

For those of you who are not aware, sheep are easily freightened and will run and hide in obscure places and not come out. Another this is they will almost always run away from you. So for a single individual to round up two sheep in a paddock that is over 10 acres big is a very difficult task. The help of several other individuals will help make the task much easier. And when I say much easier I mean still difficult but not as difficult as before with one individual. You catch my drift?

So the six of us, Bart, Cindy, Nat, Mr. Joy, Leo and I, set off for the back of the paddock around 1330. We arrived to the paddock and devised the game plan. It was to sneak behind the sheep and freighten them to run towards the open in the gate. Once through the opening in the gate we then had to get them to go through the opening into the Joy Paddock. Our first attempt at surround the sheep failed, as they ran right up the middle of our half circle and down into the bush. We then had to try and surround them in the bush and force them up the hill and out the gate. This task should be a lot harder but for some reason we get a nice arch around them and scare them up out of the bush, up to the fence, along the fence and out the gate. Next getting them to walk through the gate of the Joy Paddock. This took time but was easy as pie. Just had to take a long road to get behind them and force them the other way.

Along the way we did stumble upon a large BULL. I was tempted to play slap the Bull on the ass. Like they do in Wild Hogs, but we all decided to quickly and descreetly exit the Bull's domain.

We got up behind the Sheep forced them the opposite way and into the Joy Paddock. Just in time too, it started to rain and we hopped into the Joy Paddock ran right through it to get to the house for our afternoon tea.

Afternoon Tea

It was well deserved meal for all. After 18 months of trying the sheep were finally back to where they belong. The pie, sushi and salad were all very tasty. For you that are wondering I had a cottage cheese sushi, salad with plum dressing and a rather large piece of shepards pie. All so very good. Following right after tea was the dessert and for that we had Souffle, chocolate candy, ice cream and snow. Mrs. Joy made snow last second because she wanted some. Snow it like a souffle but contains gelatin that makes it firm. All the desserts were fantastic. We got through the whole meal and now it was time to clean. Bart and Cindy scattered home, Mr. & Mrs. Joy left to see Nanny and Nat ran upstairs to the computer. So that left Leo and I on dishes. O well just have to do my part to chip in.

I know I know What about the bread? Leo and I realized that on the car ride back to our flat. So yesterday I picked some of it up to have as a dessert in the apartment. The beard is perfect when toasted with a little smear of butter. It melts in your mouth so sweet and delicious.

I am sorry that I dont have any photos. I have been slacking in that department lately. Dont worry I will have some photos to share with everyone shortly.

Updates

Gas is up to $1.93 at some stations and $1.88 at others. So that means gas is between $7.05-$7.24 per gallon of gas. So you guys can complain about your $3.something, but just remember that someone you know has to pay over $7 for gas. OUCH... I know... and Yes my pocket has a few holes in it...

On a similar note the New Zealand Herald has discontinued the section in there Entertainment Paper that gave me all the movie and dvd ratings for the week. Which is a bummer. So now all I have to share with you is the Top 15 Music Singles. I feel like I am letting you down. So I am thinking hard of a way to make the section of Whats Hott in NZ. Hip and Cool again. So for now I will post the Music and a video clip. Remeber it is still Kiwi Music Month.

Top 20 Music Singles

1LOVE IN THIS CLUB / USHER FEAT. YOUNG JEEZY
2 LOLLIPOP / LIL WAYNE
3 NO AIR / JORDIN SPARKS FEAT. CHRIS BROWN
4 SEXY CAN I / RAY J FEAT. YUNG BERG
5 BETTER IN TIME / LEONA LEWIS
6 4 MINUTES / MADONNA FEAT. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
7 SHAWTY GET LOOSE / LIL MAMA FEAT. CHRIS BROWN & T-PAIN
8 TOUCH MY BODY / MARIAH CAREY
9 WHAT IS IT / BABY BASH FEAT. SEAN KINGSTON
10 AMERICAN BOY / ESTELLE FEAT. KANYE WEST
11 LOW / FLO RIDA FEAT. T-PAIN
12 MERCY / DUFFY
13 LOVE LIKE THIS / NATASHA BEDINGFIELD
14 FEELS LIKE MAGIC / HORSEMEN FAMILY
15 KILLA / CHERISH FEAT. YUNG JOC
16 ONE DAY / OPSHOP
17 ALWAYS ON MY MIND / TIKI
18 BLEEDING LOVE / LEONA LEWIS
19 LEAVIN' / JESSE MCCARTNEY
20 PARTY PEOPLE / NELLY & FERGIE

And for some reason Kiwi Music does not dominate the charts. So I will have to post a video not on the list but is racking up a lot of air time on the radio and on the music television.

Business Time - Flight of the Conchords

"The next thing you know I'm wearing absolutely nothing,

Except for my socks, And you know when I'm down to my socks what time it is,

It's business time

It's business

It's business time,

When I'm down to my socks it's time for business

That's why they're called business socks"

Mother's Day Weekend

So it has been a long and busy weekend. With that being said here are my notes of what happened this weekend. I will go into more depth of each in continuing blog posts.

• New Flat
• Mother's Day
• Sheep Hearding
• Tecmo Super Bowl

It doesnt seem like that much but in it was.

A New Flat

Leo and I have been looking for a new place for a few weeks now. We have gone a looked at many apartments and flats. Nothing seemed to do the trick for us. We stunbled upon this one bedroom, one bathroom, open living space. No matter where you look you will not find the perfect flat. There will be something wrong, so this Takapuna flat is near perfect for us.

It will cut down Leo's commute by 50% and cuts mine from 25k to 7k. Also it means that we will not have to commute to go for a run. In Dairy Flat there are no street lights, and no shoulder to run along let alone a sidewalk. In Takapuna there are sidewalks and plenty of street lights. It is also within running distance of all the places that we used to drive to to go for our runs. We can run out to the coast and run along the cliffs. Hit the beach and run along the sand. We can hit some of the local parks and do some quick loops. All in all the flat is pretty handy.

It is located on Northcote Road in Takapuna. It is seconds from the motorway and across the street from the bus station. It is a minutes drive into Takapuna City and within walking distance of three supermarkets. The Flat is located in the back of the property off from the main house and surrounded by other flats and homes. One would think the noise level is loud but that is not the case, the motorway is pretty quit at night and we are sheltered by all the other flats and homes.

Pictures will come once we are set up. However I will give a brief description of the place. You walk in the front door and you have the open kitchen to the right and straight infront of you in the open living room. In the left corner of the kitchen is the entrance to the bedroom and to the right of that is the entrance to the bathroom and toilet. Within the bedroom the closet is to the left and it is a big inwall closet with a sliding curtain. The closet contains a rod that spans the whole width of it and has shelves on top of the rod and all along the right hand side of the closet. Within the bathroom you have the shower straight infront of you, the sink to the right of that. The toilet has a seperate door and is to the right of the sink. There is also a area to put a washer machine for clothes to the right of the toilet door. The living room has two sliding doors that open up to our little backyard. We have room for a garden, and we have a shed and we also have a clothes line to hang our washed clothes if we get a washer machine.

Over the last two days we have been slowing moving our stuff from Dairy Flat to Takapuna. We do not have a big suv or a van to put everything in, so it is going one trip at a time. Which is fine little by little. As we get settled and arrange the flat I will take some photos to share with you. Maybe it will be featured on an episode of cribs or something?

With that I leave you to ponder about what lies ahead for this week in my blog section.

Mother's Day?

Sheep Hearding?

Tecmo Super Bowl?