Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
We witnessed a brutal night of Rugby last night as the Springboks took on the All Blacks at Eden Park. There is nothing quite like being at a game to be reminded of how physical these matches are!
Unbelieveably the Boks haven't won at Eden Park since 1937, and they're fresh off their win against the Wallabies last week. The report I read of that match said they bullied and intimidated their to a win over the Australians - rugby journalists love writing stuff like that about the Boks don't they! Take captain Richie McCaw out of the game too due to injury and there were some Kiwis wondering if that winning drought might be over.
They needn't have worried, the match was brutal and bloody at times, but the home team were definitely on form with some of the newer players stepping up. The game was effectively brought to an end though when the referee red carded Bismarck du Plessis for elbowing Messam in the neck for what should really have been his first yellow card. (He had earlier been unfairly yellow carded for his huge tackle on Dan Carter. Carter is now injured for the rest of the series but the tackle was perfectly legal). New Zealand now go to the top of the championship.
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