Not wanting this to become a rugby-dominated site I’d like to leave the national obsession, and last night’s game until later. I’d like to talk about where I’ve travelled to this week and the things I’ve seen; unfortunately the daily trip across town and the inside of an office aren’t that exciting.
So the Lions lost to NZ Maori; and on friday the All Blacks defeated Fiji a staggering 91-0. The Lions are putting a brave face on it, but it looks like the spirit of the Sydney world cup is all but dead. Still, New Zealand is home to the world’s best rugby players, even outside the mighty All Blacks. New Zealand teams have won the Super 12 competition more years than not. The Lions are just warming up; they haven’t even wheeled out Jonny Wilkinson yet. All is not lost.
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It was a match that the Kiwis were gunning to win; so certain are they of Rugby superiority that the first tour match was a golden opportunity to show the Poms who was boss. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out for them as the Lions played a tough game and won against Bay of Plenty 20-34. Some derision of performance aside this was an important first hurdle; defeat by a provincial team in the first match of the tour would have been a psychological disaster for the Lions, especially coupled with the unfortunate ankle injury sustained by Lawrence Dallaglio.
Today, June 6th, is apparently the Queen’s birthday, and lucky New Zealanders get a public holiday to celebrate. Now that I’m a temping office boy this is a special cause for celebration; not only do I get the day off – I also get paid for it. Fantastic. Working today would have been all the better though, the law here is that working on a public holiday gets you time and a half and a day in lieu. It almost makes up for the sub-standard wages they pay everyone the rest of the time.
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Remember Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Minister of Information? He was ridiculed during the Iraq war (2003) for making statements like ‘The Cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river‘, ‘The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies‘, ‘Iraq is a country that promotes freedom‘ and ‘There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!‘*. Something I read today reminded me of him.
Aussi aujourd’hui, les francais et le ‘non’. C’est un grand surprise (!)**. I can thoroughly recommend Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century by Mark Leonard, which I read a few weeks ago. Despite the title Mark makes very clear where he feels the EU, now the world’s largest economy, succeeds and where it will fail. Federalism, presidents and foreign ministers are things he is not only against, but predicts will simply not come about because they would fail to serve any useful function. Plus of course most of us (even a la France) simply don’t want them. Duh.
I’m still in Auckland, staying in The Brown Kiwi. It’s raining a lot, I’m doing dull temping jobs and I’ve just had a very short, sharp cold (all those years in London has made my immune system rapid and thorough). Sydney is definitely beckoning.
*Actually one of these quotes is not Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, but an appropriately altered quote from George W Bush. See if you can tell which.
**Je suis tres desole pour moi francais tres mal
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