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Published: October 5th 2008
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Torbay view, September 2008
....from the new house....not a landslip in sight.... Torbay is one of many 'bays' on the eastern North Shore above Auckland's main hub, and it has a quiet, comfortable feel about it - for those keen aficionados of 70s UK comedy, there is no hint of a Basil Fawlty or anyone resembling him in this particular 'Torbay'. I am in sleepy Torbay for the foreseeable future, and better weather is now well on its way following treachorous winter conditions that apparently claimed a house in some sort of landslip incident in the local area, back in August. Although I'd heard at an earlier point in time that the building in question was in Torbay, I thought nothing of it when I was busy house-hunting in various suburbs a couple of weeks back, but astonishingly the road in which I now live is, in fact, the one where this drama unfolded! My own place is on a higher, more secure part of 'Lingham Crescent', the road itself being wide enough to accommodate much foliage and many trees in the centre, dividing the two carriageways to create an really attractive thoroughfare. The whole road being on a steep hill, it was the lower aspect to one side of it that was
Sleepless in Singapore
With the omnipresent Starbucks looming large affected by the potentially dangerous slip, and evidence of any major trauma is difficult to spot behind the extensive vegetation that sits in front of each of the houses.
This part of town, with the higher vantage point a couple of kilometres back from the coast, offers beautiful views down towards the bay in what is a delightful spot. Mind you, if I get to sneak a few pictures of the landslip building that was at the centre of the local news, they'll appear later on the blog as well as the many fancy 'blue sky, blue sea, pretty flowers' images!
The trip to New Zealand, specifically Auckland, is a return journey following a successful term of office as Coaching Director at a premier cricket club there, and after toying with various travel itineraries in the past in order to actually get me here from the UK, I landed upon the idea of a brief stay in Singapore to break up the journey, although only in order to simply get my head down for a few hours in the very convenient transit hotel within the confines of the Changi Singapore Airport itself. What comes with the booking of
this very affordable and clean accommodation is really worthwhile, including as it does the free use of the outdoor swimming pool (the screaming jets taking off and landing right above your head while executing the perfect front crawl seem to be almost an irrelevance when you are not paying for the swim), free internet use and complimentary cinemas too, in the squeaky-clean airport terminal. Compared to a (thankfully more brief) half-way stop on the journey from the UK to NZ the previous year, which took in the vastly inferior and hugely frustrating Los Angeles International Airport, this place was pure pleasure. There was no hour-long queueing with 300 other passengers behind only two transit desks, no finger-print requirements, no retinal scans, no transit area with space and resources to comfortably accommodate about eight people at a stretch.......no, that was LA, this was Singapore. The bizarre luggage allowance rules when making the journey down under from the UK vary enormously depending on which direction you travel, and this can have a serious impact on the decision on your journey; tempting as it is to accept the FORTY-SIX KILOS you are allowed in cattle-class should you opt to go west-bound via LA,
it's far more preferable taking the route east via Singapore, where the treatment you receive is rather more acceptable, despite the vastly different baggage allowance, a measly 20 kilos. Why on earth is it so different? Answers on a postcard. Having left large amounts of coaching gear in Auckland at the back end of last year's stay (some rare forward thinking), I managed to check-in with the bare 20-odd kilos at Heathrow this time round.
During my first week in Auckland I bought a boomerang from a ghost. That'll come back to haunt me...
The majority of the cricket club's activity begins in the first week in November, but the two senior mens teams have started the traditionally early and very fashionable twenty20 tournament just recently, with promising results. The tournament lasts only three days and is stretched over three consecutive Saturdays, involving the 12 premier teams in Auckland, with two matches for each team on each of those three days. Our premier team, on the first day, had much the better of the day's play and should've nailed the match, but a tied match resulted in the need for a nerve-jangling bowl-out in order to determine the
winner. Cricket's answer to the penalty shootout. Early-season rustiness among players from both teams led to the first 12 deliveries missing the stumps completely, and when the wicket was finally disturbed it was our opposition that managed to do the damage. We redeemed ourselves in some style during the next match, however, as we convincingly overcame the tournament winners from last year by 40 runs as we began to hit some better form.
Our premier reserve team also ended with one win from two, and with plenty to think about for next week, things do look promising at our cricket club for the firthcoming season.
Roll on next Saturday...more fun in the sun.
MG
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Pikey
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Aaaiiihh!
Sounds great matey! Looking forward to more of the same. You not stopping at Cavan Palace then? A