Well, it has all come down to this because it is New Years Eve so I will be doing my so called last blog of 2016 (Which is the year in review: part 6 because this is #TheGrandFinale before New Years Day 2017 tomorrow (Although tomorrow is next year so imagine that because it is not only a holy diver & I so wanted to end a year on a high because I did 40 blogs this year but not only breaking the record of 14 blogs that I did in 2012 (I did 8 in both 2013 & 2015 & of course last but not least, 10 in 2014).
So here is some bits that have happened over the course of the last 2 months starting with Everyday Is Exactly The Same/Just Like You Imagined/The Hand That Feeds: The Chicago blues disappointment (+ a brand new POTUS) which is about the All Blacks shock loss against Ireland & Donald Trump being elected President of the United States:
Well, we are in mourning as Ireland (Led by hooker Rory Best (Who took over the reins from Paul O'Connell (Although Jamie Heaslip took over the captaincy for the quarterfinal match against Argentina (Who had qualified for the quarterfinals after finishing 2nd behind the All Blacks (Who had gone on to retain the William Webb Ellis cup after beating traditional Trans Tasman rivals the Wallabies 34 - 17 in the final, no question about it) in Pool C) because O'Connell was injured in their victory against France (Who had lost to New Zealand in the quarterfinal) in the final pool game to top Pool D during the Rugby World Cup last year & ruled out for the tournament) after their disappointing Rugby World Cup 2015 quarterfinal exit against Argentina (Who progressed to the Semifinals against Australia (Who had fought against Scotland after topping the pool of death (With all 4 victories against Fiji in the opener, Uruguay, hosts England who have been knocked out on their own home turf & Wales (Who had lost to the Springboks in the quarterfinal because South Africa topped Pool B by virtue of 3 wins & a famous upset loss against the might of Japan led by Kiwi born Chiefs player Michael Leitch with fellow Kiwi born replacement winger Karne Hesketh going in for the match winning try to shock the rugby world by completing the biggest boilover in Rugby World Cup history (Compared to France who had just beaten the favourites, the AB's at Twickenham during the semifinal of the 1999 Rugby World Cup which shocked the rugby world in it's entirety) but the Japanese failed to make it through to the quarterfinals on points difference after losing to Scotland) & won under controversial circumstances in the quarterfinal & lost the Rugby World Cup final to the All Blacks) & lost before losing to the Boks (Who had just lost to New Zealand in the semifinal) to decide who will claim 3rd place in the bronze final) & coached by New Zealander Joe Schmidt just like Australian Eddie Jones coaching England led by Rotorua born Dylan Hartley as they pick up a test series victory down under against the Michael Cheika coached Wallabies led by Stephen Moore 5 months ago 3 - 0 (The same month that the AB's defeated Wales to win a test series 3 - 0 & South Africa won the test series against the Irish 2 - 1 after losing the 1st test then winning the last 2 tests after coming from behind) shocked the rugby world by taking a monumental upset victory against the Rugby Championship winners & reigning world champions the All Blacks (I was like oh my god, why...but that wasn't just the case as our 1st ever test loss against them because Ireland joined the tier 1 nations club along with Australia, the Springboks, Six Nations champions England, France & Wales by deservedly crushing the AB's but only Argentina, Italy & Scotland are the other tier 1 nations to have never beaten the All Blacks, oh well, just tell me the truth WILL YA! Tell me the truth, what on earth is going on, good lord (Sarcasm) because we finally tasted our Irish curse at last because the streak...is over at 18 & 1 (It's 10 & 1 this year because it is now 11 & 1 since we beat Italy) which created rugby history (The final score was 40 - 29 to the Irish because Ireland thwarted our comeback plans not once but twice, slowly but surely & of course the All Blacks had a locking crisis as 2 of the world's best locks Brodie Retallick & Sam Whitelock both gone due to injuries as well as Luke Romano withdrawn from the squad due to family bereavement (Although Romano's family are in mourning right here, right now) so Patrick Tuipulotu ended up being our sole specialist lock for the All Blacks (Although one of Beauden & Jordie Barrett's brothers Scott Barrett was called up into the squad as injury replacement to Whitelock) with Jerome Kaino wearing the number 4 jersey but they proved to be a failure just like Leon MacDonald wore the number 13 jersey against the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup semifinal way back in 2003 (Although the selectors preferred MacDonald at centre ahead of the fit again Tana Umaga because Umaga's 2003 World Cup campaign was over because of an injury picked up in the opener against Italy coached by World Cup winning All Black in 1987, John Kirwan (Who was one of the players along with Beauden Barrett to score a try in both the semifinal & final of the Rugby World Cup in 1987 against Wales in the semis & France in the final (John Kirwan) & 2015 against South Africa in the semis & Australia in the final (And of course Beauden Barrett) as Irish lock Devin Toner totally dominated the lineout for Ireland as tall as Metcalfe) as the All Blacks winning streak is over with 18 straight victories before the luck of the Irish ended the so called #Blackout of 2016 (Ireland just avoided becoming a latest victim right there so this means that Wales & the Wallabies on 3 occasions & literally, of course, Argentina & the Springboks twice) by humiliating, pummeled & smashed them into pieces (Although our All Black defence got penetrated so we are not gettin good but still to improve on the next game we'll see if it works)...so we might get a 2nd chance of redemption in Dublin (At last we will reveal ourselves to the Irish, at last we will have revenge) but 1st we have got to face Italy to avenge the demons here in Chicago which is on celebration mode as their beloved team in Major League Baseball, the Chicago Cubs won MLB's World Series after 108 long years (Well their last win in the World Series was in 1908 & their last appearance was 1945 (The same year that the 2nd World War ended in fashion since it began in 1939) against the Cleveland Indians who tried desperately hard to add a MLB/NBA double following their NBA finals dominance with the Cavaliers (Which features the likes of superstar LeBron James (Although he is the greatest NBA player of all time along with Kobe Bryant (Who played for the Los Angeles Lakers during his career although the Lakers have never won an NBA title since 2010) & Michael Jordan (Who also during his career played for his beloved Chicago Bulls side which last won an NBA title in 1998), Kevin Love, J.R. Smith & Kyrie Irving) by getting some payback or should I say revenge over the Golden State Warriors since the Cavaliers lost last year which includes Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant (Who had moved from Oklahoma City Thunder which features Russell Westbrook & New Zealander Steven Adams) & Klay Thompson.
And finally in this blog, America has found a new leader with 70 year old billionaire mogul & Republican Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States of America (Well the last Republican (Although I did not know that world famous Austrian American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was a Republican when he became Governor of California AKA the Governator from 2003 until 2011) to be elected president was former Governor of the lone star state of Texas, George W Bush because Bush defeated former Vice President Al Gore by so many votes & 4 years later got re-elected by defeating Democratic candidate John Kerry) but most Americans hated the new leader becoming president so they decided to move to Canada (But Canadian immigration officers are left fuming so they refuse to let those Americans to move across the border) & New Zealand (Although 1 American family said that they decided to move here because those kids decided to go to a New Zealand school because they felt that they did not want to go to an American school under the leadership of Donald Trump). And Trump had a great speech about former 1st Lady & Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton (Wife of former president Bill Clinton (He defeated George W Bush's father George Bush Sr in the 1992 general election because Bush Sr took over the presidency from the late Ronald Reagan) until Bush took over as president before Barack Hussein Obama 8 years ago when he got elected ahead of Arizona senator John McCain to become the 1st African American or black president (He was born in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii (Aloha) not Kenya because his family came from Kenya) & re-elected 4 years ago ahead of Mitt Romney) because she just missed out on that top job to become America's 1st female president & what do I think about Trump, because he is just one of those billionaire bozos that just got elected I mean & most Americans are livid about that especially Diana Kent, just simply plain rubbish so watch your backs which are rightfully mine, & so too are the All Blacks because the AB's are getting sick about Trump being elected president at the moment after winning so many votes & Hanne told me today at the New World supermarket that she dislikes Trump at the moment compared to our Prime Minister John Key (And hey, the election is coming our way next year so I hope that we have a new leader like Andrew Little of the Labour party just like Trump at the moment) so move over Obamacare because it now been renamed to Trumpcare so I can care less about what I do.
From Broken/Fine Again/Remedy: The Italy Vs All Blacks report (RIP Nana Minnie Ngapo)
It was on Saturday that we went on a road trip to Auckland (Although we stopped at Taumarunui where I had mince & cheese & butter chicken pies for lunch & I even saw my old hometown of Raetihi where Jansen & I spent most of my childhood there) to go on the ferry to Waiheke Island to attend the funeral of Nana Minnie Ngapo who was passed away aged 95 because she was born in 1921 & went to see the family there including Kathryn, Ken, my 2nd cousins Gemma (Although I had a selfie with her which felt good) & Huia (Ex fashion model to be), Gemma's daughter Rosalie (Although I did not know that Rosalie is my 2nd cousin) & one of the late uncle Andrew's daughters & we had dinner at Wilma Road where Kathy lives before we stayed at Tawa Lodge for the night before heading off to Piratahi marae where I saw my 2nd cousin Ben (Although I also had a selfie with him & I gave him a gift which is a list of my favourite bands that i listen to when I wrote it down although Gemma listens to Mai FM) & we had a feed there like lunch & dinner at the marae (Although I saw during the funeral was Uncle Wal although I said Kia Ora to him & his house is clean because he had moved previously) then we stayed the night before the funeral was held then (I had breakfast there) & after that we had lunch x dinner before I said goodbye to Kathryn as well as Gemma, Ben & Huia (Although I finally had a selfie with her so no hard feelings eh?) before going on the ferry to Half Moon Bay in which I enjoyed the ferry ride & I watched the news report about the earthquakes in Kaikoura & after that we went on a motorway (Although I would like to go back to Auckland or Waiheke Island again, that is disgraceful because of the heavy traffic) but we spent the night in the Kiwiana capital Otorohanga because Dad was feeling sick & tired along with Poppa & Jansen & it was 2 days ago that we departed Otorohanga to go back home to Wanganui where we stopped at Taumarunui again to have morning tea where I had a chocolate & caramel slice & mocchachino & linch where I only had a butter chicken pie & Raetihi where Dad went to the loo before we headed back home.
And finally in this blog that the All Blacks led by Sam Cane for Kieran Read took on Italy led by 120 cap veteran Sergio Parisse at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome (Host of the summer Olympics in 1960) after our Chicago blues disappointment against Ireland (Although they beat Canada in the next game because they were on a high in which they shocked the rugby world) at Soldier Field by making so many changes including both Liam Coltman & Rieko Ioane making their test debuts on the bench respectively so here's a news report about it (Although I missed the game live because I was in Waiheke Island but I saw the replay the same day as we went back home to Wanganui):
New Zealand put Italy to the sword as they ran in 10 tries at Rome's Stadio Olympico in a 68-10 victory.
Malakai Fekitoa (2), Charlie Faumuina, Patrick Tuipulotu, Israel Dagg, Wyatt Crockett, Steven Luatua, Elliot Dixon, Rieko Ioane and Waisake Naholo scored for the All Blacks, with first five eighth Aaron Cruden kicking 7 conversions and Lima Sopoaga 2.
Italy's points came from the boot of Carlo Canna, with Tommaso Boni scoring their solitary try in the 2nd half with Tommaso Allan adding the conversion
New Zealand scored 5 tries in the 1st half, with Fekitoa dotting it down in the 4th minute and Cruden converting, only for Canna to cut the deficit shortly after with a penalty to make it 7-3.
Faumuina extended the lead in the 15th minute and Tuipulotu crossed the line 5 minutes later, with Dagg and Crockett also touching down before the break as Cruden did not miss from the tee.
Luatua continued the scoring 4 minutes into the 2nd half before Fekitoa claimed his brace and Dixon got his 1st ever test try. Ioane and Naholo also crossed and Sopoaga took over kicking duties from Cruden with 2 successful conversions.
And finally in other rugby news, the Wallabies coached by Michael Cheika have taken victory against Scotland by a single point in their 1st meeting since the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal (Although referee Craig Joubert got the decision wrong of awarding the penalty to Australia instead of a scrum which cost Scotland a place in the semifinal against Argentina) as well as England coached by Eddie Jones defeated South Africa after 10 long years that has been & Wales beating Argentina by 4 points.
And from Go With The Flow/Make It Wit Chu/No One Knows: All Blacks Revenge of the Irish:
Well, what a way to exact revenge for the All Blacks since that loss in Chicago a fortnight ago but the next game is the final test match of the year which is against France at the Stade de France (Hosted the Euro 2016 final between eventual winners Portugal & hosts France) in Saint Denis & how did Rugby World Cup winning player from last year, Beauden Barrett (One of her favourite All Blacks players according to one of Uncle Andrew's daughters) get his World Rugby player of the year award because he was the best first five-eighth this year because Dan Carter (Who won the player of the year honours last year because he now plays for French Top 14 champions Racing 92 but how did he get cleared for a positive drug test? Because he claims that he took drugs or should I say steroids in order to win the Top 14 title against Ma'a Nonu's Toulon in the final (Although Nonu did not play due to concussion) along with his teammates Joe Rokocoko (Used to be my favourite All Black player because he kept scoring tries a lot along with the late Jonah Lomu, Richie McCaw & Kieran Read because my favourite All Black player at the moment is Anton Lienert-Brown) & Argentinian Juan Imhoff) no longer played for New Zealand since our World Cup success last year in England & he overtook Aaron Cruden as the AB's premier first five eighth since their Super Rugby triumph this year with the Hurricanes & the All Blacks getting team of the year as well as the super coach of Steve Hansen picking up coach of the year after missing out to Wallabies coach Michael Cheika last year.
And finally in other rugby news such as Australia beating France by 2 points as well as the Springboks getting beaten by 2 points against Italy because the Italians exactly created rugby history for their 1st ever win against South Africa + Scotland mowed down Argentina by 3 points with a match winning penalty by Scottish halfback Greig Laidlaw & England getting the benefit against Fiji to remain unbeaten in 2016 & of course finally that Wales almost succumbed to Japan by tearing them apart with a match winning drop goal by Sam Davies.
And from All Over You/I Alone/Selling The Drama: Spoiling the French revolution in Paris (The last rugby report of MMXVI):
Well, the All Blacks (Coached by Steve Hansen (Former Canterbury & Wales coach & All Blacks assistant coach to Ted, Sir Graham Henry) & captained by Crusader & Cantabrian Kieran Read (Although he was born in Papakura which is located in Auckland & took over the reins from the legendary Richie McCaw) ended our year with a win against the Guy Noves (Who took over as coach from former player Philippe Saint-Andre after France were completely annihilated by New Zealand in Cardiff last year during the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals) coached & Guilhem Guirado (Who plays for former All Black Ma'a Nonu's glamorous French club Toulon (Who has formed a foreign legion of players) which features the likes of Nonu himself, Georgia's finest of Mamuka Gorgodze & Levan Chilachava, Argentinian Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, American Samu Manoa, South Africans Duane Vermeulen, Juan Smith (Who is the captain for Toulon), Marcel van der Merwe, Juandre Kruger & Bryan Habana, Aussies Liam Gill, James O'Connor (Who is exactly, once known as the Justin Bieber (Although Aunty Tania is in Justin Bieber land so she's coming here to New Zealand next month for Christmas, New Year & the 1 year anniversary of Nan's passing on the 6th of January) of rugby (AKA James O'Bieber) because he looks like him a lot), Drew Mitchell & Matt Giteau, Japanese rock star of rugby all the way from the far east: Ayumu Goromaru, Welsh playboy Leigh Halfpenny, current & former French internationals Xavier Chiocci, Charles Ollivon, Sebastien Tillous-Borde, Francois Trinh-Duc, the big & impressive Mathieu Bastareaud, Maxime Mermoz & Vincent Clerc & of course the flying Fijians of prop Manasa Saulo & gold medal winner at Rio in sevens rugby, winger Josua Tuisova) led France at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France & I managed to wake up at 8am (Although I already set the alarm clock at 8am because I always get up there) 30 minutes till the start of the broadcast so I managed to have breakfast just like I watched the Irish game when I had breakfast because I had a cereal with yoghurt as well as having a croissant (Which is a French food that I had) before I had sausages with bacon, tomato & eggs so Pops managed to watch the game just because I had Sky along with my Dad who only watched the 1st half in my flat here but we didn't have smoothie (Well I had a smoothie for dessert on Thursday & Saturday when I saw the lights at 15A Kells Avenue right there) because we were full then but so here's the full match commentary of the game so far to end 2016 on a high for the All Blacks despite the defeat against Ireland which shocked the rugby world in Chicago by putting their train off our rails:
But 1st of all, here's the starting lineup for the All Blacks to play against France:
1 (Loose head prop): Joe Moody (Canterbury/Crusaders)
2 (Hooker): Dane Coles (Wellington/Hurricanes)
3 (Tight head prop): Owen Franks (Canterbury/Crusaders)
4 (Lock): Brodie Retallick (Hawke's Bay/Chiefs)
5 (Lock): Sam Whitelock (Canterbury/Crusaders)
6 (Blindside Flanker): Jerome Kaino (Auckland/Blues)
7 (Openside Flanker): Matt Todd (Canterbury/Crusaders)
8 (Number 8): Kieran Read (Captain, Canterbury/Crusaders)
9 (Half-back): TJ Perenara (Wellington/Hurricanes)
10 (First five eighth): Beauden Barrett (Taranaki/Hurricanes)
11 (Left Wing): Julian Savea (Wellington/Hurricanes)
12 (Second five eighth): Ryan Crotty (Canterbury/Crusaders)
13 (Centre): Anton Lienert-Brown (Waikato/Chiefs)
14 (Right Wing): Waisake Naholo (Taranaki/Highlanders)
& 15 (Fullback): Israel Dagg (Hawke's Bay/Crusaders)
And in the reserves are Codie Taylor, Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Scott Barrett, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith, Aaron Cruden & Rieko Ioane.
And finally in other rugby news such as the Joe Schmidt coached & Rory Best led Ireland (One of the All Blacks main challengers along with England for possibly the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan) who had to win against the Wallabies (Who will try to end England's hopes of a perfect year just like the Irish who almost ended the All Blacks unbeaten run in 2013) coached & captained by Michael Cheika & Stephen Moore respectively at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin ending Australia's hopes of a Grand Slam & the Springboks (Coached by Alister Coetzee & led by Adriaan Strauss for the last time before retiring for good) are in turmoil after being brassed off & embarrassed by Wales (Coached by Rob Howley who is filling in for Warren Gatland who is coaching the British & Irish Lions & captained by Gethin Jenkins who is also filling in for the injured Sam Warburton) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff as well as England (Coached by an Aussie Eddie Jones & captained by a Kiwi born in Rotorua who is now officially an Englishman, Dylan Hartley) who defeated the Daniel Hourcade coached & Agustin Creevy led Argentina side to remain unbeaten in 2016 after an ill disciplined match (A player from each team got sent off for that aerial challenge which landed on it's head (Which is winger Elliot Daly who will miss the crucial clash against the Wallabies due to suspension because he did that to Argentinian Number 8 Leonardo Senatore just like Malakai Fekitoa did against Ireland for the head high tackle or should I say a high shot on Irish winger Simon Zebo (Although the Irish aren't happy with that because they were livid about it well that is disgraceful) because New Zealand were playing dirty to seek utu after the Chicago blues disappointment & how did Sam Cane (Who missed the final AB's game of the year against France due to injury along with Ben Smith) got away from it after being cited?) & stomping on the face of the opponent (Which is prop Enrique Pieretto who did that to English prop Joe Marler (Who got sin binned for a probable retaliation) in the England 10 metre line) in the ruck) at Twickenham in London + Scotland pipped Georgia (Who entertained last year at the Rugby World Cup by securing automatic qualification for the next Rugby World Cup in 2019 which is going to be held in Japan with both victories against Namibia & Tonga in Pool C) in Kilmarnock & Tonga getting their 1st win against Italy in Padua since the Rugby World Cup pool match in 1999.
And from Freaks/The Dolphin's Cry: The year in review part 1 (The best of 2016/MMXVI):
Well, Pops took me to watch the Wanganui Christmas parade & it was sensational because my favourite part of the parade was seeing Santa Claus (AKA Father Christmas) before Poppa took me back home to end an incredible day it was (Well I had a chocolate bar & a drink of water to keep us hydrated) because I am now doing a blog which is the best of 2016, the year in review.
And from Loco/Scooby Snacks: The year in review part 2 (The best of 2016/MMXVI):
P.S. My 2nd cousin Gemma (Rosalie's mum because Rosalie is my 2nd cousin) has sent me an email because I never emailed her before so here's her message in it's entirety (And that's the 1st time I emailed her as a result):
Hi Whetu
Thanks for your nice long email. It was very pleasant to read. I'm good, thank you. I hope you are well too.
I'm sorry to hear about your Dad, Poppa and Jansen being ill after the funeral. We were exhausted after the funeral, there was a lot of cleaning to do and it ended up being me, cousin Waimaria and my mum, Kathryn, cleaning with Maikara (she was the maori lady with the large bone carving and the moko on her chin and the guitar and beautiful singing voice) and my Dad and our family friend Bill. But we got it all done by about 7:30pm and then we went home and had some leftovers too and fell asleep quite soon after that.
I'm not a workaholic but I am kept quite busy being Rosalie's mum and looking after Nana Minnie's house and garden and dog. I love to do it though. I'm missing Nana Minnie quite a lot since she passed away, but I find it comforting in her house, surrounded by all her things.
In answer to your questions, Kathryn, Huia and Ben are all good. Kathryn is starting a yoga class today to improve her fitness. She isn't sure what she is going to do now. I think she will start to look for a job. Huia and Ben are back in Auckland. I haven't seen much of them. Ben wanted to go and work on Raoul Island again - it's up in the Kermadecs - but he didn't get it so I'm not sure what his plans are now. Huia is working at her new job at Fashion Tv and she spends a lot of time with her new boyfriend.
I better go, I've got a job interview to get ready for.
Take Care
Gemma
And from Take A Picture: The year in review part 4 (The best of 2016/MMXVI):
It was today that a Fijian woman named Silo took me to Pops place for lunch & dessert that we had & it was fantastic I have got to say (Although me & Pops did some work on the fence so it was not that easy though) but John & Lim arrived to see Nan's memorial garden once more before we had a smoothie while I was reading 2 Richie McCaw books but I have another favourite part of the Richie McCaw book The Open Side that it was a referee at a World Cup final in 2011 saying to the players when trying to turn the ball over in a ruck, the referee said ''Hands off, get out of there'' so that was my most interesting part of the book there along with ''Hands off, it's a ruck'' & I HOPE YOU'RE READY QUADE, RICHIE IS. So I had to say goodbye to John & Lim because they were leaving so I had to leave by finishing my smoothie & reading The Open Side book so I had to go home to end an incredible day it was (And it was on Thursday that I was with Poppa because he was running late so we headed to 15A Kells Avenue for some garden work before we headed to Nan's grave then to Caroline's to have afternoon tea so I had a carrot cake with mocchachino there & went to New World to get some stuff there).
P.S. Boxer Joseph Parker has beaten the 'Mexican Destroyer' Andy Ruiz Jr last night on Saturday to end a boxing year on a high (I don't know what his next fight & title defense his because defending a boxing title is incredibly but relatively difficult) & become the 1st Kiwi to win the WBO World Heavyweight Boxing Championship with a unanimous decision victory at the Vector Arena held in Auckland but how good must that boy be feeling because he is so proud to be a New Zealander like that not only because he is of Samoan descent so both the Samoan & Kiwi people are so proud of him not only because he is 24 years old & the best part was the 1st judge revealed their scorecards because it was a draw & the other 2 judges were in favour of Joe meaning that Parker had a unanimous decision win to become the new WBO champion of the world but I told Dad that he lost so Dad told me that Parker won instead so it was touch & go from the self proclaimed Samoan New Zealander so his trainer Kevin Barry & his family were so proud because the championship belt was Joseph Parker's early christmas present meaning that he had to win comfortably to get the big prize early for christmas because he had wins this year against Jason 'Iron Man' Bergman in Samoa (His family's homeland), a world title eliminator against Carlos Takam (In which he won the 1st of his 2 unanimous decision victories), Kiwi born Aussie Solomon Haumono & Russian or Ukranian boxer Alexander Dimitrenko (In which he won with a clear & obvious body shot KO because it was not even an illegal low blow below the belt) before Ruiz Jr because his record now is an astonishing 22 - 0 record.
And on Tuesday that Pops took me to 15A Kells Avenue to stay for 7 days so I was the nightwatchman for the light up your home Christmas competition (For dinner on Tuesday night was salmon with pasta & salad & Pops pays me 15 bucks each night that I was the nightwatchman but nobody pays me & all I wanted for Christmas is money & there was about 60 people on Tuesday, 55 on Wednesday & 59 or 60 last night & we did arrange those lollies for the kids when they visit Nan's Memorial Garden during the dark) & Wednesday we went to remembrance where I saw Dad which is about the people including my Nan who lost their lives this year (We had a BLT (Bacon, lettuce & tomato) sandwich for lunch & dinner was turkey stir fry) & Yesterday that we went to a Japanese restaurant called Japanese Kitchen Wa where I had sushi for starters & a chicken teriyaki bento box for the main course where we had a big meal because we had a cold meat sandwich for dinner (Although today for lunch we had a salad because we drank a 0.5% low alcoholic Clausthaler beer & for dessert was hokey pokey ice cream with weet-bix bites, canned apricots & coconut cream & for dinner tonight that we are having is pasta (Well it has always been my favourite food for like 16 years since 2000 (Well I 1st tried pasta & it felt so good), superb) after we went to the prize giving at the church were head boy Jansen picked up his awards (And I was doing the lights yesterday & today because we brought these at The Warehouse) & I'm always reading the Rules Of The Game book as well as the 2 Richie McCaw books Richie McCaw: The Openside & Richie McCaw 148 & the book that I have got at the moment for my birthday which is Sir Graham Henry celebrates The World Cups! 1987 to 2015 so lets see how it unfolds on the Richie McCaw: The Openside which is about Richie McCaw in the events to the 2011 Rugby World Cup after the agony of 2007 against hosts France with my 3 favourite parts of the book (And today I was watching on YouTube about the 2016 New Zealand rugby awards sponsored by ASB which is about World Rugby player of the year & the All Blacks 1st choice first-five eighth Beauden Barrett winning both Super Rugby (Last year went to Lima Sopoaga) & the Kelvin Tremain memorial player of the year (Last year's honours went to Ma'a Nonu because I thought Dan Carter was going to win) because he not only managed to complete the rare double award just like his younger brother who is a utility back, Jordie Barrett who got both age grade (Akira Ioane won the award last year) & Mitre 10 Cup player of the year (George Moala also won the award last year) as well as the All Blacks winning team of the year (Last year went to the All Blacks too) & Steve Hansen winning coach of the year (Also last year went to Steve Hansen too) & finally hooker Dane Coles of the Ngati Porou tribe winning the Tom French memorial Maori player of the year (Because last year went to Nehe Milner-Skudder):
Broken
''The Ball's just sitting there with no one over it, so I pick it up just before Dickinson says 'Hands off, it's a ruck'. I drop the ball and look at him, still basically on my own, as he raises his arm for a penalty. I'm bewildered.''
Semi tough
''On the way to the ground on the bus, I looked out on the Great North Road part of the Fan Trail and saw a sign on one of the car yards.
I HOPE YOU'RE READY QUADE. RICHIE IS.
I wondered whether Cooper had seen it when the Aussie bus went by.''
And The right picture
''Trench warfare. France has gone 16 phases. We're still hanging in there. The penalty is the danger. Andy's trying to referee us, I hear him screaming at us - Hands off! Get out of there!
JK has a dab at the next ruck, is blown away, too late, we think, appealing. Joubert holds his hands wide again - play on.''
And finally from 1979/Bullet With Butterfly Wings/Jeremy/Semi Charmed Life: The year in review part 5 (The best of 2016/MMXVI):
So, it is Christmas tomorrow because I will be looking forward to it so I will be doing a blog about part 5 of my year in review & I have been staying at 15A Kells Avenue for like 12 days so yesterday Aunty Tania Manu Ngapo had just arrived here along with her French Canadian partner Rejean/Giuseppe Pedersen to spend Christmas, New Year & the 1 year anniversary of Nan's passing so we saw them yesterday at the airport because I missed Aunty Tania so much because I have not seen her for like 10 months so the last time I saw her was in February this year & I have been doing well working as a nightwatchman for the light up your home competition until tonight because we had about 164 people last night so I worked so hard for that (Well I had a sandwich for lunch yesterday but dinner was chicken with fried potatoes, carrots & red onions & peas).
P.S. The world is a vampire
set to drain
secret destroyers
hold you up to the flames
and what do I get
for my pain
betrayed desires
and a piece of the game
And my cousin Paige Williams has finally sent me an email wishing me a merry Christmas (Did you know it's Christmas today so finally) just because I have never emailed Paige for like 4 months so here's her message in it's entirety:
Hi Whetu,
So lovely to hear from you. Merry Christmas!
Have you got a lovely day planned for tomorrow?
Jarrod and I are meant to be going up North in January so we will definitely be in touch and come and see you.
Yes we definitely felt the earthquake it was pretty scary, did you feel it at your house?
Tell your dad and Henry I say Merry Christmas also.
Lots of love,
Paige xx
And I have found a new favourite part of the Richie McCaw: The Openside book which is DC's wrecked along with Hands off, it's a ruck, I HOPE YOU'RE READY QUADE, RICHIE IS & Hands off! Get out of there! So here's the full rundown of my new favourite part of the book:
''It's only when I'm wandering back towards the changing rooms that I notice he's no longer out there. One of the management team is standing outside the changing room, ashen faced.
'DC's wrecked,' he says.
When I get inside Dan's with Deb, in agony. Ted's hovering, stricken. I can see he's having in one of those This can't be happening moments.''
And finally I have been having a great Christmas because I had to stick my tradition of opening the presents & my favourite Christmas present was the money (Although I had to spend $200 at The Warehouse when I bought a cricket game which is Don Bradman Cricket 17 (Although I decided not to play that game now because I don't want that game) & a PS4 controller which I can use a a back-up or spare but Pops & Dad bought the TV for the PS4 & I wrote down the objectives & rules of playing Don Bradman Cricket 17 & today we are seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars story today but the movie includes stars such as Felicity Jones (Who plays Jyn Erso & appeared in the Jimmy Fallon show by demoing her Star Wars fight moves by giving him a fight sequence or should I say masterclass that she learned from her Kung Fu training background as well as also appearing in the movie Inferno with Tom Hanks who appeared in great movies such as Forrest Gump & The Green Mile with the late Michael Clarke Duncan), Chinese martial arts movie superstar Donnie Yen as well as the guy who played the evil Le Chiffre in Casino Royale which is Denmark's finest, Mads Mikkelsen (As Jyn Erso's father Galen), Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Jiang Wen & Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma & I even saw it yesterday because I was mindblown (Although Pops was waiting for Rejean so he could leave the Cemetery Circuit as far as they can) but my favourite part of the movie was the ending such as Darth Vader mowing down the troops of the Rebel Alliance as well as Princess Leia Organa appearing in a cameo role which is CGI enhanced because the original actor Carrie Fisher (Although she passed away due to a heart attack on the flight from London to Los Angeles, California along with her mother Debbie Reynolds due to a stroke & George Michael due to heart problems where he died peacefully) might have been too old to play that instant classic character) as well as the mat saying loyal All Black supporters live here as well as the rugby calendar & the cricket photo album but we had a great traditional Christmas lunch there then I listened 16 rock songs on Youtube this Christmas, went to Nan's grave for the festive season, having a leftover chicken sandwich for dinner & spending time with Aunty Tania in the closing moments of Christmas on that occasion (And I won't tell you the drunken post Christmas incident last night straight away).
And finally what have I been doing here, well on Thursday I went to Palmerston North to visit the Rugby Museum there (Although the museum is about the sport of rugby because my favourite part was seeing the decades of our history of the sport & although we went through towns such as Kaitoke, Whangaehu, Turakina, Bulls (I always listen to the Rage Against The Machine song Bulls On Parade in my head when I'm at that town), Sanson, Awahuri and Newbury before reaching Palmy although we went to Tangimoana) & I did enjoy that experience especially when Pops took a photo of me with both the William Webb Ellis Cup (I was doing my best not to touch the trophy because my medication that I took helps although one of the people touched the trophy but someone said ''You can't do that'') & the Bledisloe Cup trophy (Although we were allowed back in because the trophy was covered in glass) & after that we had lunch at cafe Cuba where I had a burger & fries with a smoothie there & then we left Palmerston North to end a beautiful day it was & yesterday we went to 28 Koromiko Road for afternoon tea because we saw Jansen opening his presents because he went to Hawke's Bay to spend time with the family for Christmas & we went to Caroline's were I had breads & dip for starters & a Tex Mex steak with fries & salad for the main course (I had a 2.0% alcoholic citrus lemon beer drink twice & I saw the cops patrolling the area for a few minutes to see how is everything going) before we went home to watch the Bruce Willis (Who played John McClane in the Die Hard series) movie the Fifth Element (Although Milla Jovovich (The girl who played Alice in the Resident Evil movies) appeared as well as Gary Oldman (AKA Ivan Korshunov/Commissioner James Gordon/Sirius Black), Chris Tucker (Mr Detective James Carter himself) & Ian Holm (As Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) & during the movie we had dessert there & after the movie we went to bed (Although I am listening 87 songs on New Years Eve right now & 2 on New Years Day because that's a total of 88 because I wrote them down last night which is sorta like a playlist) but the next movie I am going to possibly see is The Avengers (Well I've seen that movie before because I 1st watched it back in 2012 at Embassy 3 Cinema because the movie was released that year and my probable favourite part was Captain America saying to Hulk ''Smash'' as well as Thor's brother Loki getting destroyed by Hulk in the process which is kinda funny although Hulk called Loki ''Puny god'') which is on TVNZ 2 at 8:30pm on New Year's Day 2017.
So that is it, we will be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow in 2017 (MMXVII) so that is my 40th (XLth) blog of the year 2016 (MMXVI) & my 80th overall (20 more blogs until I hit the century mark which is 100 because that is my main objective for next year) but I would like to say thanks to my whole friends & family such as Dad, Raewyn, Jansen, Poppa, Aunty Tania, Rejean (Giuseppe Pedersen), Uncle Bryan, Aunty Viv, Ashley, Charlotte, Leon Benbaruk (The King), Hanne (The Danish Terminator), Sophia Ong (The Malaysian Princess), John Coburn, Lim Chin Keong, Murray Gray, Viluz, Cathey Middelplaats (The Scorceress), Cathey's husband John Mitchell, my cousins Paige Williams (The Female Revenant), Nico & Luca Mitchell, Kathryn (Poppa's sister AKA Princess Kathryn Organa), Ken Branch (Kenshi, the Englishman from between Bristol & Portsmouth), Nufemmia (Uncle Wal's daughter), Kathryn's children Gemma (Gemma-Wan Kenobi), Huia (Master Huia Skywalker, the honorary Jedi) & Ben Blain (Ben 3PO because he used to be with Vrndra Torckler (Vrndra D2) but then, they broke up because they are no longer together) & Gemma's daughter Rosalie (Although she is my 2nd cousin once removed at the moment by the way) as well as Diana Kent for all my support, thank you as we sign off 2016 in style.
P.S. Cathey Middelplaats has sent me an email wishing me a merry Christmas so here's her message in it's entirety:
Dear Whetu
Merry Christmas too you too!!
Arohanui
Cathey
And finally here's the list of my favourite rock bands that I listen to during the course of the year 2016 not only because I still listen to alternative rock & heavy metal music which is part of my gimmick (I always listen to rock music when I'm blogging as well):
Linkin Park (Sophie's favourite band)
Limp Bizkit
The Offspring
Breaking Point
Filter
Soundgarden
Stone Sour
The Smashing Pumpkins
Breaking Benjamin
Guns N'Roses
Faith No More
Airbourne
The Mooney Suzuki
Shihad (Formerly Pacifier)
Dire Straits
Audioslave
Garbage
Halestorm
Queens Of The Stone Age
Red Hot Chili Peppers (My favourite band)
3 Doors Down
Green Day
Pearl Jam
Ugly Kid Joe
Counting Crows
The Wallflowers
Godsmack
Korn
A Perfect Circle
Nine Inch Nails
Seether
Live
Fun Lovin Criminals
Fuel
Third Eye Blind
Weezer
& last but not least, Lynyrd Skynyrd (Rejean's favourite band).
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