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Published: December 29th 2008
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Christmas Day
Santa's been! We were expecting a quiet Christmas Eve, but did we get one? No!
It started with Phyl, Matthew, and me. Becky decided to join us, then Becky brought along a guy called Bomber, who turned out to be from Castleford. Then we were joined by Mo, a New Zealander. How many do you need for a session? We had a great night, in good company, but it's a good job there were a few of us, as most of the locals seem to have celebrated when work finished, and then gone off to their families. Not that we cared, once Mo had seen us off with a round of Tequila Slammers, we were on Planet Zog. (And there was a very nice Istanbul Kebab shop there!)
So Christmas Day, expecting a lie-in, we got an early call from Matthew who wanted to know if Santa had been. Nothing changes, though sorry, no new pyjamas and no new bike this year!
After opening our presents it was off to the beach with a packed lunch. Not only were the buses in Auckland running, they were free, nice touch. So Mission Bay it was. Just as an aside, this was the beach
where the French agents landed in 1985, before jogging down to Auckland Harbour and blowing up the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. So, listening carefully for French accents, we were a bit taken aback during our picnic when a Frenchman went by and said "Bon Appetit". But it takes more than that to put us off our food. By the time we left the beach the place had really filled up, and we had to endure some Oriental-style queuing at the bus stop going back.
In the evening we went up to the revolving Orbit restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower. This was exciting, with superb views in every direction, and the food and atmosphere were excellent. We realised it was the first time we had ever been out for Christmas Dinner. I'm sure Phyl appreciated the break. Amazingly, I opened the NZ Herald yesterday and there was a picture of a car that had driven through the glass doors in the main entrance late on Christmas Day night! We must have just missed that incident, thank goodness!
Boxing Day in England is usually a sporting day, usually at a freezing rugby ground, watching a freezing cold
match, drinking freezing cold beer out of freezing cold glasses, because that's what you do! "Bracing" our friend Rob calls it.
Well this year it was different, (cricket haters had better skip the next two paragraphs). After a healthy fry-up, it was off to Eden Park, another packed lunch/dinner on our backs, to see the 20-20 cricket between New Zealand and the West Indies. After a couple of drinks to get us into the mood (don't worry, we're going to join AA when we get back!), we went into the stand and saw that the first three rows were bathed in sunlight, not a cloud in the sky. And we were in row three! Hot! Don't worry said Mr Clever-Pants here, the sun will disappear behind the roof of the stand in a few minutes and we will be nice and cool. Which would have been true if we were in the northern hemisphere. But of course in this part of the world the sun takes a different trajectory and we just got hotter and hotter and hotter! But we were well protected with caps and sunglasses and sun block, so we were able to enjoy the game.
Orbit Restaurant
I don't think the bloke behind wanted his picture taking! Incidentally, I'd always wondered how they managed to prepare a decent cricket pitch in the middle of a rugby ground. The answer is, they don't. They simply remove the turf from the middle of the field and lower in a cricket pitch they've prepared elsewhere. Well I thought it was interesting, anyway.
And what a game it was! Not two of the highest-ranked cricket nations at present, they treated us to an absorbing cricketing contest, both teams ending , remarkably, with the same score, 155. Nobody was really sure what was supposed to happen next, a few people even got up to leave, believing it to be all over. But the best was to come. Each side had to select three batsmen and a bowler, and play one over per team. West Indies went first, with Chris Gayle, one of the top players in the world at present, facing Daniel Vettori, NZ's best-known player. It could have been me or my granny standing at the other end, it wouldn't have mattered, because he just cracked everything out of sight, there was a run-out in between, and he ended up with 25. NZ never had much chance after that, though
Eden Park
NZ v W Indies they kept it interesting and needed 12 off 2 balls, but just couldn't make it. A great day out; apart from the cricket there were dancers, a steel band, music, and we even had umpire Billy Bowden prancing around for our delight. I never once found myself wishing I was at Post Office Road.
A brisk walk back, not much chance of getting a bus, nor the free drink we could have had by presenting our ticket at the pub, and we were back in time to watch most of it again on the telly!
So Christmas was all over, and a brilliant time was had by all.
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