Aki, Brendan, Joshua & Kyle: October 2011

What an amazing 2 months of World Cup!!
I managed to watch a lot of games (thanks to a very patient wife!) and enjoyed the whole tournament down to the last whistle! There are many great rugby memories from this World Cup....
* Went to Roppongi, Tokyo for the opening game. I had the day off work so got to the pub very early (I was actually thye first there!). Lucky though, coz about 30 minutes later it started filling up and was packed by kick-off. The mostly kiwi crowd seemed very proud of the opening ceremony, as was I. Good start for the ABs too.
* The first weekend had some amazing games that set the scene for the pool play- Romania pushed Scotland to the end, Japan gave France a scare, England and Argentina played their "who can miss the most kicks game", and Wales was unlucky against SA.
* New Zealand v Japan was a lot of fun to watch here, a bit like a reversal of watching a Japanese Whaling boat slaughter an NZ whale!!! NZ looked pretty sharp for their other pool games too.
* The two big upsets were amazing - Ireland over Aussie and Tonga over France....nobody would've guessed that.
* DC getting injured - not a highlight, but something that won't be forgotten.
* Quarters - Great games, setting up a repeat of the '87 semi finalists. Watched game with ATs mate who is coaching Ricoh. Saw Ma'a Nonus house (next door to coaches house) and met Tamati Ellison at the Ricoh training grounds. Awesome!
* Semis - Can't believe the Wales red card and then their spirit to stay in the game. Unfortunate they lost. It was also time to head back to Roppongi for the All Blacks v Aussie game. Got there an hour before kick-off and all the pubs were packed!!! We actually managed to get a primo spot to watch the game in Hobgoblins pub and the atmosphere was electric!!!
* Final - A very long week waiting for this day. Back to Roppongi where a few of us met for lunch then off to Hobgoblins again. Unfortunately our spot had been reserved but a bit of quick thinking soon led to us getting some of the best seats in the house! Again, it was an amazing atmosphere, and while the game itself wasn't such a great spectacle, we came out on top. I'm proud to say that there were tears of happiness from me and a few other kiwis in the crowd!

.....back to reality.....

Aki and the boys didn't miss me too much!!

Kyle is growing, smiling, grabbling and dribbling a lot. We're trying to get him to roll and he is getting closer, just needs a bit more practice. We'll start giving him some food from this week (he just turned 5 months old), so he'll probably be pooping a lot more soon!

Joshua is great! He has been doing potty training and is getting there slowly....still not quite ready for undies yet.

Aki had a nice birthday as we all went out for lunch, then watched a movie at night (a rarity) and we're off to Disneyland this week to celebrate! She has also been loving her new ipad.

I grew a good beard for the All Blacks and will keep it for another day as I'm goonna be a pirate for halloween tomorrow.