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Category Archive: General
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2011 update
Its been a long while between blog posts … in quick summary we went on holiday (August 2010) to Rarotonga, bought a new house in September, Graded to Red belts in November both with A passes 
(only 1 more grading before we go for Black Belt)
We also went to see Rhys Darby live, (dec 2010) Danny Bhoy, and Katy Perry both in May 2011.
For new years we stayed up in Maraetai House sitting – that was cool – and relaxing – had Xmas with Charlotte’s family.
We had a couple of tramps – one with Isobel round Lake Waikaremoana in January over long weekend, and the Northern Circuit with Charlotte’s Family for Easter.
In March 2011, the ITF Taekwon-do world championships were held in Wellington – I helped with the registration and ID card system which was really cool but a lot of work -Charlotte did not see a lot of me during the lead up to the tournament but the tournament itself was amazing and NZ topped the table with most golds!
In May we both competed in Midlands regional tournament held in Tauranga. I won my first two sparring matches and ended up with a silver in sparring:) Also a gold in power (which is an event where you break boards) winning with a reverse turning kick – my first gold medal in TKD – Charlotte also won a sparring silver and gold in patterns, and gold in Specialty – Nationals is in August this year -in Auckland so there’s a good chance she’ll do well in that.
We have bought tickets to Paris for November – and we are both looking forward to that trip
Postcards from Thailand
day 1: Thursday 15th Oct
after 36 hours of being awake and flying over 12 hours of that – we finally touched down in Bangkok – then after what looked like lax security – and avoiding a couple of over anxious and pushy tour opearator and taxi drivers – made it to our hotel – u definitely notice the heat immediately- its something like 8:34 am now and over 28 degrees C – so yeah its hot
Hotel is of a good standard and bathroom and shower works well – Breakfast was basic but plenty of it – from room temp fruit like watermellon, pineapple and papaya to eggs, ham , croissants and other baked products, to the usual cereals
Khao San road is 3 minutes from our hotel – so even though we were extremely tired we decided to go take a look once we had taken showers. You could tell straight away “this wasn’t kansas any more toto” -from the several touts trying to grab our attention to sell us something to the street full of clothes, silks, scarves, x-massed produced item – you name it – and the other somewhat bewildered looking western tourists- we bought a couple of items – being not that used to the bartering yet – paid the full $10 for two singlet tops – later i was crafty and saved $3.50 on a pair of billabong (maybe) shorts – go me
its overcast right now – and we are deciding between Shopping at MBK and the Grand Palace – prob both – if we survive the heat 
This internet is cheap though – 10b for 15 min – so $1NZ for 30min
Pinnacles Tramp
On Good Friday Mark, Charlotte, Tozan and I , along with two of Tozan’s friends went for a tramp up to the pinnacles near thames. The weather was warm and although rain threatened throughout the day it never happened.
It was definitely easier than my last pinnacles trip – which was around 3 years ago ? and being a holiday weekend was very busy on the track. Since last time they have put in stairs nearly all the way up to the pinnacles top from the hut so its a relatively easy excursion to reach the summit.
We ended up getting out just before dark thanks to daylight saving being over.
Tagged Tramping
Green belt – yah!
Well grading for my green belt in Taekwon-do was on Saturday 6th December and to my complete astonishment I received an A pass (my third in succession). Everyone else who graded from our club passed with Zac getting double graded to Yellow belt too There is only 2 trainings left for the year now- so I will miss it quite a lot I think… especially when I am in the states freezing for xmas and new years.
Its starting to feel like christmas now with all the decorations being up everywhere – I do like this time of the year , and it is certainly getting warmer too Although from today you wouldn’t know it – (its currently raining)
I have the Billy Joel concert on this sunday so that should be pretty cool. Third concert at Vector arena this time in the rafters! but should be fun – after being literally at the front row for Def Leppard and not too badly placed at Rihanna it will be interesting to see the sound difference
Its been a while …
So i thought I would update you all with whats been happening!
First of all since the Napier Moodle conference I’ve been up Te Aroha (and back down again), posted a personal best of 23min 15 sec in a 5km race, saw a Rihanna and Chris Brown concert, became an uncle for the 2nd time!!! and lost around 2 more Kgs!!
The Chris Brown part of the concert was the best – he may have been lip-synching part of it but still his dancing is awesome and he did make an effort to sing over his own soundtrack Rihanna started with barely any clothes and with each song it seemed like she put something on , the stage lights and effects were cool but her live singing voice or the acoustics in the Vector arena affected the performance detrimentally. Overall a 3 stars out of 5 – another comment I did think the beatles were on stage when Chris Brown came out – just the shear volume of screams from young girls was deafening.
Te Aroha was a little wet and we got rained on a bit, but by the time we got to the top the rain clouds had moved away – although the view of the Mount and Tauranga was a little obscured to begin with, there were glimpses as we had lunch up there. It was a really great day in the end – even with the rain
Corban Blackwell brother to Jayden and my 2nd nephew was born on November the 4th at 10am, I really like the name Corban even though my suggestion of David fell on deaf ears- maybe number 3??
November weather as always has been up and down with both Guy Fawkes and today being overcast with occasional rain and southerlies (meaning cold wind) I guess its preparing me for the cold of the States in December – not that long to go now – starting to get excited about that – but first I still have a lot left this year. Grading to green belt on the 6th of December, a tramp this weekend and Def Leppard next friday – row 5 baby yeah !!! Will be the best eva I have no doubt – I’m feeling almost Hysterical about it – I can’t control my Adrenalised body – its almost feels like im taking a Rocket to the moon ! lol
Ok enough of the silly puns – the sun seems to be shining right now wonder how long that will last – probably not that long – this is Hamilton after all !!
Right Election day tomorrow - and the polls don’t open until 9am 
- so I’m going to vote today i think and get it out of the way – cause the tramp is tomorrow and i want to get away earlier than then! Mind you I am yet to pack anything – but I do have tonight , plenty of time lol
I’m not telling you who im voting for – but if the current goverment stays i wont be happy !
Actually I did see Winston Peters speak on campus a while back now and while I think there policies are ok – I just can’t bring myself to vote for him. Yeah according to this site – im 71% in favour of NZ first policies , closely followed by United future - which is another one i would never consider!!
I’m very excited about the tramp – its been a long time since i’ve been on an overnighter – and while the weather looks a little questionable – im sure everything will work out!!!
Ok enough of my rambling for now
Watch out Love Bites!!
Tagged Chris Brown, election