richardirvine.com

Category: new zealand

  • Lad’s weekend

    Last weekend, 6 old friends drove to a remote Coromandel bach for a weekend of hard-drinking, bullshit-talking good times only possible when partners stay at home (no offence!).

    It was a brilliant, save the PS2 plug non-compatibility SNAFU. The best bits were:

    – The fridge:

    n529588185_424429_5246

    – Unashamed, unapologetic and unmuffled farting was definitely on the menu. Mixed blessing, this one, in fairness

    – Meat and potatoes was the order of the day, cuisine wise. I did cop a load of flack of buying Rosemary at the supermarket, though

    – Winning the golf was nice – Coromandel golf course is a neat little track, and they didn’t mind us playing as a six

    – The sunset on Saturday:

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    – Especially heartwarming to see the chaps quickly revert to a pack mentality once we started playing Mexican, descending like wild dogs on anyone DARING to drink with the wrong hand, use first names, or caught making false accusations (if you’re my Facebook friend you can see all the action). I didn’t even get my usual ‘dice hate me’ hammering, and all liquids enjoyed stayed on board. That shit’s beautiful

    Massive thanks all around, esp the providers of said bach. Looking forward to next year alright.

  • Unplugged in Opito Bay

    opito

    I went off the grid for a few days with my girl. As I left the office on Friday, I wrestled with my conscience – does the laptop come or stay? With my T3G card, I get reasonable  connection pretty much anywhere – but that’s not really a holiday is it? It wound up staying.

    So, apart from a couple moments of PDA email weakness, I was unplugged. And it was great. Spent quality time. Got loads of reading done. Ate well.

    Learnings? NEVER check work email while you’re away, it’ll only stress you out – there’s not much you can do about it, is there? And what about returning to 500+ unread RSS items? Time for a good old trim, methinks, going through that seems too much like work.

  • Lookalike – is it just me?

    Has anyone else drawn comparison between alleged murderer / vigilante Bruce Emery  and the Michael Douglas character from Falling Down?

    In other, related questions – am I a terrible person?

  • Narrowneck beach, anniversary weekend

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  • Climb every mountain

    One of our greatest died today. I’ve only got one Sir Ed story (it’s not even my story, technically, but anyhoo).

    A good friend used to look after Sir Ed’s feet at his Meadowbank podiatry practice. He was making small talk and remarked that it was pretty cold that morning. We’re talking Auckland in maybe June or July.

    Sir Ed looked at my friend and said in that deep, deep voice: “This isn’t cold, son.”

    I met Colin Meads one time in a pub toilet (not circumstances I’d have wished for, really, but I’ll take it) and I imagine Sir Ed had a similar presence. Meads was huge, with impressively out of control eyebrows, and screamed of the no-bullshit, ‘get the job done and get the jug on and have a yarn about it by the fire in our woolly socks’ rugged-ness that makes us guys working in offices all day pausing only for sushi feel very un-manly indeed.

    Guys like Hillary and Meads made this country what it is today (I’m thumping my desk here), and it makes you wonder where today’s equivalent is. And no, blogging doesn’t count.

  • Mount QB weekend 040606 002


    Mount QB weekend 040606 002
    Originally uploaded by richirvine73.