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Category Archive: General
Subcategories: No categories
Who needs the iphone?
The Samsung i8510 has an 8 megapixel camera + a lot of other really cool features -no idea on price yet but probably an expensive phone – especially in New Zealand!!
See the review and product specs
Tagged 3g, smart phone
Busy Weekend
The first bledisloe game is here for 2008 – the showdown between the All blacks and the Robbie Deans coached Wallabies – I must say I’m a little nervous about the clash especially after our recent close loss to South africa – but I’m sure we still have the best team out there!
I’m off to Auckland for a texas hold’em poker night – but the game will be the focus at 10pm
The weather is supposed to pack up again today with possible storm warnings in Auckland and Hamilton.
I’m hoping to make it back to a special Taekwon-do training tommorrow so hopefully the weather doesn’t get out of hand!
With the Olympics only a few days away now the hype is starting to grow – NZ is pretty strong in rowing so hopefully some medals will be coming back at least in that sport.
The fundaraiser for the Hamilton TKD club is going ok but quite a few are still yet to pay. I’m confident we will raise some good money for the club 
Grading is not far away so I must get into gear and modify Scotts java training file into a web based TKD resource. It would be a good project and many people could get the benefit.
In my web surfing I found this great site to combine rss feeds into one area – http://friendfeed.com/dblackw is my address , it takes feeds from blogs, from flicker, facebook,twitter etc and combines them into 1 area – handy!
The drought of good tv continues – bring on September and all the new shows and returning favourites – Kirsty is hanging out for One Tree Hill to come back and is even watching the first series again.
My Brother just bought us tickets to Billy Joel in December so thats 3 big concerts this year (Bon Jovi, Def Lep, and now Billy) – plus the two overseas trips – quite a huge year really…
Its hard to get excited about events so far in the future especially when I have some much in between – I’m trying to concentrate on the grading in August first , then Craig and Marys wedding in the gold coast in September , hopefully I will even get to train with one of the Gold coast TKD clubs 
Our Birthdays are next – and 10 years together anniversary – then our 6th year wedding Anniversary! its all go
Def Leppard in November !! Then maybe (hopefully) another TKD grading to Green belt – then Billy Joel in December and our Trip to the States to see Nick + P over christmas and new years.
Yesterday was 16 years since Dad died – it sometimes still feels like its not long ago, other times it feels like forever -so much has happened in 16 years, yet I still remember the day clearly.
Tagged poker, Rugby, Tae Kwon Do
Winter Sickness
I have had 3 days off work this week with a cold – it feels more like I am dying – Kirsty is also sick so we have both been spluttering around the house. The weather has only become worse with constant rain and cold winds, which doesn’t help in making you feel better.
In some good news however Def Leppard have been confirmed for 1 concert in Auckland and tickets go on sale on July 9th – can’t wait.
Euro 2008 is down to the final with Germany playing Spain on sunday for all the glory – I have been going for Germany all along so hopefully they can do it.
I’ve been listening to some audio books of Terry Pratchet – starting with the first book in the Discworld series -(the Colour of Magic) its great to not have to read when I’m feeling head-achey like this – although I have dozed off a couple of times and had to rewind it -
Kirsty helped organise a Disco for her Kindy last Friday and I went along to party like a rock star and help tidy up afterwards – there was a big turnout and the kids looked like they had a ball – I spent quite a lot of the time watching little 3 year old boys hitting on my wife
Mark has decided to postpone the Def Leppard gig so thats gr8 cause I can’t even think about alcohol and loud music in my current state
Tagged winter
All Blacks remain undefeated this season
3 games down and 3 wins – vs Ireland 21-11, vs England 37-20 & 44-12 – although not always convincing and even with the quality of the opposition teams in doubt, I still think we have got a team that can retain the Tri -series and win the Bledisloe cup this year.
In other rugby news New Zealand have beaten England in the under 20 rugby world championship – we were a class above the other sides at the tournament – final score 38-3. South Africa was 3rd and Wales 4th.
In Euro Soccer news Germany and Turkey face off in one of the quarter finals while Russia who knocked out Netherlands in a shock upset will meet the winner of the Spain – Italy Quarter final – I’m hoping italy can come back from their poor start to the tournament and make it through to meet Germany in the final.
Its pretty much the middle of winter now with the shortest day having just passed – and true to form for Hamilton it is raining. Today is also one of my friends Birthdays and i’m in recovery for our few drinks out last night. He is having a Def Leppard themed party next week it will be great – the topic came up after Def Leppard have announced tour dates to Australia in October / November – we are anticipating NZ dates any day now as Kirsty emailed the promoter and they confirmed there will be some! They have not toured down under since July 25th 1992 a concert which I went to.
April
I started out with good intentions of writing more often, but as you can see it turns out I have been just too busy with life outside of this blog to write about it. I did read an article recently about how the stress from blogging can kill you – maybe its the stress from people nagging you to make updates – i don’t know ?
In the past month I’ve been on an exercise kick – grand total of 75km for March and over 70,000(kJ) -and i’ve been reasonably happy with my progress, getting faster every week and have managed to lose 5kgs since beginning of March. May 3rd I’m running the 10km at rotorua event hopefully working towards a Half marathon in middle of May.
This week I grade for my Yellow belt in Tae Kwon do – i’m feeling confident- so hopefully I don’t fall apart on the day
In other news the weather has been very good in Hamilton with mainly fine and sunny conditions – great for the hot air balloon festival this weekend. The Waikato Chiefs have also been winning and are now 4th on the table, although their next game is a tough one against top of the table Crusaders – I’m confident we can do well – GO THE CHIEFS ! Hamilton hosts the V8s that weekend as well – so it will be chaos in the "tron". Clubs and Bars have said they will be putting on door charges of up to $10 to cover their increased overheads, so I’m not sure how well that will work for a city who get annoyed at queuing let alone paying for entry!
On Anzac Weekend (April 25th) I’m returning to the Northern Circuit , a 2-3 day tramp around Mount Ngaurohoe (Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings) – I have completed the tramp twice before – On the first occasion nearly dieing (well a slight exaggeration) of hyperthermea when Kerry and I got caught in some bad weather – ah good times – spent mainly in Oturere hut for 1 day longer than we thought!
It will be interesting to see if all this running and fitness training has improved my tramping . I have never climbed to the top of Mt Doom either – so hopefully this time will allow the opportunity to get rid of the "one ring to rule them all" my preccciiiouus