Well, in Formula One news such as the triple world champion in the Red Bull of Holland's Max Verstappen (Who is now 4 & 0 in Abu Dhabi since 2020) capping off the year 2023 in emphatic style with a record extending 19th win of the season at the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Island in the UAE, the most when he surpassed that unwanted record in 2022 that he scored 15 wins when he broke the all time record set by Michael Schumacher in 2004 & Sebastian Vettel in 2013 (Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished in 2nd while George Russell in the Mercedes has rounded out the podium (And one of Verstappen's teammates of Checo Perez has missed out on a podium due to that costly penalty for an avoidable contact on McLaren's Lando Norris, but he manages to finish 2nd in the championship in the runners up position behind Verstappen, but he had to finish ahead of Sir Lewis Hamilton in terms of the championship), & I mean what an incredible end to a magnificent F1 season last year, but will it change this year in order to dethrone Verstappen & Red Bull? Just like Australian Brodie Kostecki (Who is the first Aussie to win the Supercars Championship since the current Triple Eight Race Engineering team principal of Jamie Whincup in 2017, a year before the series had been dominated by New Zealand drivers such as Scott McLaughlin & Shane van Gisbergen until Kostecki broke that trend last year, but I wonder the headlines would say: BRODIE KOSTECKI DETHRONES SVG AS NEW SUPERCARS CHAMPION or more like: VAN GISBERGEN OUTCLASSED BY KOSTECKI ON THE STREETS OF ADELAIDE, & what a disappointing end for van Gisbergen, what a race for our viewers right around the world) who surprisingly ended SVG's 2 year reign on top of the Supercars Championship summit on the streets of Adelaide (Who once again played host to the season finale in which young New Zealander Matt Payne won the final race of the season as he pipped SVG (Who had a DNF in the penultimate race of the season, therefore allowing Kostecki to take advantage by edging closer to the championship that proved successful, just like Spain's Fernando Alonso in the Renault did at the Japanese Grand Prix in 2006 that he won the race after his championship rival Michael Schumacher (Who had his first retirement 4 years before making a comeback in 2010, but then he retired again from competitive racing in 2012 just like fellow German Sebastian Vettel (Who made his debut in F1 in at the United States Grand Prix in which he got the call up as injury replacement for Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber before joining Toro Rosso for the remainder of the season from the European Grand Prix, a year after tasting his first pole & win in Italy for Toro Rosso in 2008 in which he made the jump for Red Bull in 2009 a year before winning 4 world championships with them in 2010 to 2013 before leaving a year later in 2014, then he joined Ferrari in 2015 in which he had constantly struggled in which his cars had been uncompetitive until he left in 2020 to join Aston Martin where he spent the last 2 years with the team in 2021 & 2022 before retiring in due course from active competition) had 10 years later in Abu Dhabi) had a DNF due to his engine in his Ferrari had let go during the penultimate round of the championship, therefore allowing Alonso who was having a crack of successfully winning back to back Formula One world championships in which he did at the next race in Brazil which hosted the season finale) in his final ever Supercars Championship event, just like last year which was memorable, as Chaz Mostert in the Walkinshaw Andretti United brought Holden's penultimate victory in Supercars as he brought Shane van Gisbergen's 5 race winning streak to a grinding halt, a day before Triple Eight Race Engineering's Broc Feeney who became Holden's final ever winner in the Supercars Championship, 2 years after the car brand had already been closed down in 2020 before Chevrolet's arrival as replacement for Holden of competing in the Supercars Championship since last year as well as the introduction of Gen 3) in South Australia, Australia, in the now former Kiwi 3 time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen's farewell Supercars Championship event before going on an expedition in the United States to take part in NASCAR (Just like fellow New Zealander Scott McLaughlin who left Australia to head over to the United States in 2020 (In which the year was overshadowed by the global COVID-19 pandemic that they had) to compete in an Indycar racing for Team Penske (The most successful racing team in American open wheel championship history, but on the 29th of December last year, the motor racing world was in mourning as the former Indy 500 winner from 2003, as well as the twice CART Champ Car champion in 2000-01 & Indycar rookie of the year winner in 1995 of French born Brazilian Gil de Ferran who passed away aged 56 due to suffering a cardiac arrest in the American state of Florida, so requiescat en pace to him but all thoughts, prayers & condolences go to the family of de Ferran (Who is widely regarded as one of the greatest racing car drivers to have never competed in Formula One, alongside the late great Canadian of Greg Moore (If he had been alive, countless number of championships would've won by him so he would've gone to F1 straight away) as he is survived by his British wife Angela & his 2 American born adult children of daughter Anna who is a singer, & son Luke) after winning his 3rd & final Supercars Championship for DJR Team Penske before rebranding themselves as DJR again since 2021, but remember that van Gisbergen won in the streets of Chicago, in his first ever start in NASCAR in the Cup Series last year (And that's the first time they had done that in which a driver won their debut NASCAR race in over 60 years), & remember folks, keep in mind that the first race of the new F1 season (In which Dutchman Max Verstappen is defending his Formula One title after winning his 3rd straight World Championship last year) begins in Bahrain on the 2nd of March compared to the Indycar Series in which St Pete, Florida in the United States will play host to the season opener (Spain's Alex Palou is the reigning champion going into the season opening round of this years NTT IndyCar Series) on the 10th of March which is 8 days after the Bahrain Grand Prix & of course (Last but not least), Mount Panorama in Bathurst is expected to be the venue of the opening round of this years Supercars Championship season on the 24th-25th of February (In which the new champion Brodie Kostecki (Who'll not take further part in the season opener in the aftermath of his turbulent relationship with the defending teams champion of Erebus Motorsport about that toxic workplace environment culture that he had was to blame, although he is yet to openly make a comment on his future, with negotiations over his contract, which which runs until the end of this season, thought to be underway with Todd Hazelwood likely to draft in as his replacement for the Bathurst 500) will start his title defence at the Mountain, but maybe not as Kostecki could have a spell by sitting on the sidelines in the midst of an ugly rift about being split with the team in which he had an nasty feud about his contract), which is 8 days to 1 week before the Bahrain GP.
Gil de Ferran
1967 - 2023
And we have not had a good sporting year last year in 2023 such as the AB's miss out on regaining the Rugby World Cup against the now 4 time world champions & the most successful rugby playing nation on the planet of South Africa led by Siya Kolisi (And no wonder why that Kolisi is still the self-proclaimed rugby god following the Springboks retention of this year's RWC) in the aftermath of All Black skipper Sam Cane's costly red card which took the AB's out of contention of regaining the World Cup therefore we were playing the remainder with 14 men also following the sending off from Cane who was marched from the field by English referee Wayne Barnes (Who had a disastrous performance as a referee including the winning try by the All Blacks that had won us the World Cup for the first time since 2015, had been disallowed due to a knock on at the scrum but would've counted according to the ex-All Black coach Sir Steve Hansen who suggested of getting rid of the TMO, but I somehow label Wayne Barnes as a woke & corrupt referee (And he had a damn good job when he retired from refereeing as the New Zealand rugby fans praised him for his efforts on the field throughout these years) in light of him being a victim of online hate by those Kiwi yobs who got salty being spread across social media following the final in which World Rugby is beefing/ramping/stepping up to curb hatred towards rugby referee's social media accounts so that they can be held accountable (And they need to introduce a security operating cryptic code system to every famous persons social media accounts) in disgrace, in the RWC final at the Stade de France in Paris, France, then the Black Caps unfortunate defeat against hosts India in the semifinal in the men's Cricket World Cup at the Wandhede Stadium in Mumbai despite a century from New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell, in which the Aussies are feeling generous about it, but let's hope all that can change in 2027 (With Australia set to defend the men's CWC in South Africa, Namibia & Zimbabwe in which the number of teams will increase again to 14 (Up from the original 10 that they had in the last 2 men's Cricket World Cups), while the Springboks will defend their Rugby World Cup title down under in Australia when the number of rugby playing nations will expand to 24 as they have a chance of securing an historic first-ever threepeat in which New Zealand tried & failed in 2019 after a devastating but gut wrenching defeat against England (Who had Samoan born Manu Tuilagi score that all-important try that New Zealand came crashing down to earth to not make the cut of appearing our 3rd straight final) in the semi in which the AB's were missing Damian McKenzie who got injured in a Super Rugby game against the Blues for the Chiefs which changed the course of the RWC therefore opening the door for South Africa of ending a 12 year wait of winning Rugby World Cups as well as ending the utter dominance of the All Blacks at the Rugby World Cup) as well as this year at the Olympic Games (The world's largest sporting event which begun life in Greece during ancient times before it came back as the modern Olympics when Athens hosted it in 1896 which was founded by a late Frenchman named Baron Pierre de Coubertin who was once the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the rule states that during the opening ceremony that the Greeks go first then the host nation go last except in 2004 that Saint Lucia went first instead of Greece who came in last during the parade of nations) in Paris where we have a massive gold medal chance in any sport, particularly in the rowing front as well as rugby sevens & kayaking (And my favourite Olympic memory would have to be in 2012 in which George Bridgewater & Joe Sullivan (Who was the future America's Cup champion sailor) getting the gold in the men's double sculls, then a day later when our nation had a golden hour with the virtually unbeatable but unstoppable dynamic duo men's pair of Hamish Bond & Eric Murray (The most successful pairing in New Zealand sporting history compared to Peter Burling & Blair Tuke in the yachting & Brodie Retallick & Sam Whitelock in rugby) who both successfully dominated before Mahe Drysdale finally at last winning gold after missing out in Beijing 2008 in the men's singles sculls when he got the bronze medal instead, but he revealed that he vomited & had been dehydrated at the time before the gold medal race had begun according to the story that I remember now) while special honourable mentions have been around as well as gathered such as Lisa Carrington (Who is now Dame Lisa Carrington due to her knighthood that she recieved following her success at the last Olympics in Tokyo 2020 which was held in 2021) & her heroics at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 to become our country's most successful Olympian since the glory days of Ian 'Ferg' Ferguson as well as the greatest female Olympian from our country ever produced, then Dame Valerie 'Val' Adams & her gold medal winning performances in both Beijing in 2008 & London in 2012 (After a Belarussian opponent who thought she initially won the gold, but got DQ'ed for failing a drug test allowing Adams to step up & still become the Olympic champion), while the Evers-Swindell twin sisters in the women's double sculls section & their successful chances of claiming the gold twice in both Athens 2004 & Beijing 2008 (Which included a close finish in which we almost missed out, needless to say just like Drysdale did in Rio in 2016) as well as Burling & Tuke's gold medal winning performance in Rio 2016, just a year before the pair were part of Emirates Team New Zealand's success at the America's Cup in Bermuda back in 2017 against the Jimmy Spithill led Oracle Team USA, then our retention of the Auld Mug in Auckland in 2021 just like in the events of 2000 against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli led by co-helmsmen of Spithill & Francesco Bruni, & last but not least, Danyon Loader & his success in the pool as he won both the 200 & 400 metre freestyles respectively in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States way back in 1996.
And the Blink-182 song One More Time is an pop punk anthem charged in which they joked the song according to Brian Davids of The Hollywood Reporter in which living proof that they made grown men get emotional about the song which reflects on the band's career especially with the song focusing on the history of the band (As well as the highs & the lows), & the interpersonal relationships between the 3 members of the classic line-up (And at one point that one of the band members (Mark Hoppus (A cancer survivor along with other celebs such as New Zealand rugby player Aaron Cruden, female Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue & famous American Hollywood movie actor Mark Ruffalo) sings about his own battle with a terminal illness in which he eventually survived as well as the band's drummer (Travis Barker (One of the famous Vegan celebs along with the famous successful British Formula One race car driver Sir Lewis Hamilton, New Zealand rugby star TJ Perenara as well as American musician Moby & the lead singer of the American punk rock band Rise Against of Tim McIlrath, compared to both German tennis player of Eastern European origin of Alexander Zverev, famous British rower Sir Steve Redgrave & American race car driver Charlie Kimball as the celebs who are diabetic) having a taste of surviving that fatal plane crash back in 2008 & his fear of flying which haunted him for the rest of his life until he overcame that fear recently like in 2022 by getting over it).
And finally, the Northland trip that me, Pops & Carole went was sensational (And it was a great trip by the way but it was my first holiday post COVID-19 era (Compared to my last holiday pre-COVID 19 era was the South Island trip in 2019 when I was with Pops, Aunty Tan & Rejean which took place after Dad & Raewyn's wedding that I've been & the year right before the global pandemic in 2020) as well as my first holiday with Carole (And before that, I had never been on a holiday with my close mate Carole before up until that point) as we saw our whanau such as Kathryn (Who is 64 now but I once saw a picture of her in Auckland with Paige (My cousin & officially now my honorary sister who I haven't seen since 2016) & her daughter Norah (Who I have never ever met her in my whole life) at a ferry), Ken (Who I didn't know that he had a brother named Phil (The one that wears the England rugby team apparel not only because he is a passionate rugby watcher according to the comment that I remember from Ken), Andy (Carole's son who is my best male friend indeed), Kelsey (Who is another of my honorary sisters along with Paige), Gail, Richard, Margaret & Rex as well as the dogs of Yodi, Daisy & Millie (A & K's pet dog), but my favourite part of the Northland trip would have to be the food of course (And I nearly had a bout of food poisoning because of the mango kulfi that I ate at an Indian restaurant during our Christmas eve dinner, but somehow I was feeling okay by getting over it during the morning on Christmas Day) ahead of the family & Kathryn & Ken's house near Hihi (The place that I've been where we had a Thai dinner there) that I've been twice now, especially on Christmas day where we had our epic Christmas dinner in which the holiday took place before the new year as well as Aunty Tan & Rejean's arrival to New Zealand on the same day, but I have already made an announcement that my next holiday will be in Wellington (I haven't been to that place since 2016 where me, Pops & John Coburn went to that All Blacks - Wales rugby test, the day before the last time we met both Cathey & Paige) between late December this year to early January next year (Compared to Carole & Pops next holiday will be in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands in the middle of this year which is a follow up to the holiday that they had in 2022 which I will not be going due to me looking after the house at 15A Kells Avenue in Whanganui, but I think I can handle myself of using the new air fryer thingy that we got at home when both Carole & Pops are away on a holiday) with possibly Pops or Dad where I'll be seeing my biological aunty Cathey Middelplaats (Who I have not seen her for 8 years), my cousin & honorary sister Paige Ahearn, Paige's daughter & Cathey's granddaughter Norah & possibly Toa Waaka (Who I last met him during Dad & Raewyn's wedding in 2019), but there is mainly traffic in Wellington because of Pops saying to me on the 12th of February that Northland is his & Carole's preference of going back there mainly the reason that the province are having to deal with has less emphasis of traffic.
So that is my 530th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 6th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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