Well, there was a Rugby World Cup related story that the last time that a side went on to win the tournament other than the All Blacks & the Springboks was England way back in 2003 when I told Pops about it before South Africa took over in 2007 when they first won the tournament in France (With Scotland & Wales providing the co-hosting rights) followed by New Zealand in 2011 at our home World Cup & 2015 in England with some matches being played in Wales, then it was the Boks turn to dominate the last 2 Rugby World Cups in both 2019 in Japan & last year at the most recent one in France (In which our AB's side were gonna do it, but the experienced South African side clinged on by just a single point when they edged us in that controversial final which was fuelled by cards, incidents regarding to foul play & the bad TMO decision which let the AB's down especially our discipline to defend rugby's holy grail in which they achieved immortality for the 4th time last year to add to their triumphs in 1995, 2007 & 2019 as they became the most successful rugby playing nation in the world at the Rugby World Cup) which was immortalized already when they released Chasing The Sun 2 like in March on South African TV to follow up their 2019 success when they made the first Chasing The Sun doco.
And I just heard that I saw a photo on Pops phone of my cousin & honorary sister of Paige (Who is in her early 30's now as of today because she is no longer in her 20's, but it's been 8 years since I last saw her at her mother Cathey's place in Petone (That's Cathey Middelplaats's hometown along with Paige & Norah who both live their to be close with Paige's mother & Norah's grandmother Cathey) in Wellington in 2016 along with Cathey, Cathey's wife John & Cathey's sons as well as Paige's brothers of Nico & Luca (Well, one of her brothers is a diabetic already), but I first met her back in 1999 along with Cathey when I was a young kid at the time when I was with Dad at the late Nan & Pops place back then), Paige's husband Jarrod & their daughter Norah having a holiday as well as a honeymoon in Japan there when I told Dad about it at the Cobb on the 15th of April.
And onto a motor racing related story that there was Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais (The 2002 F3000 champion who is currently competing in IMSA) winning 4 Champ Car World Series championships to his name for the famed Newman/Haas/Lanigan racing team from 2004 to 2007 (That was the year that he made the jump in Formula 1 where he spent 2 years with Scuderia Toro Rosso (He was the last graduate crossing over from American Open Wheel Racing by winning the championship of course, to Formula One (First it was Michael Andretti in 1993 (That's 2 years after Michael won his only Indycar championship) in which the man known as 'Mikey Mike' had his ill-fated season before heading back to Indycars in 1994 along with Jacques Villeneuve (Son of the late great Gilles who was the world champion in F1 back in 1997 with Williams, 2 years after winning the Indycar title in 1995), Alex Zanardi (An Italian who was rookie of the year in 1996, then secured back to back championships in 1997 & 1998 with Chip Ganassi Racing before making an unsuccessful return to Formula One in 1999 with Williams, 2 years before having lost both his legs in a serious crash in Germany in 2001 during a CART Champ Car event in Germany), Juan Pablo Montoya (The man who dominated both the championship in 1999 (The year before his Indy 500 win in 2000, then he joined Williams where he made his F1 debut in 2001 until he left in 2004 to join McLaren in 2005 until his departure in 2006 to go to NASCAR) as well as claiming rookie of the year) & Cristiano da Matta (The 2002 champion in which he made his F1 debut in 2003 with Toyota until he left in 2004 to return to compete in Champ Cars) before being replaced by young Spanish driver at the time of Jaime Alguersuari in 2009), but there were others apart from Bourdais that have won championships with for N/H/L (They won 8 championships to their name & they were one shy of the record of most CART Champ Car team championship wins set by Team Penske who won it 9 times) such as Britain's Nigel Mansell (1993), Brazil's Cristiano da Matta (2002), & the 2 Andretti's of Mario (The Indy 500 winner from 1969) & his son Michael (Both of them are Italian Americans, but Mario was a champion in 1984 (Which was 6 years after winning his first & only F1 world championship crown), then it was Michael in 1991) according to the late great famous American Hollywood movie star & racing team owner of Paul Newman back in 2006 during an appearance with Bourdais at the Dave Letterman show (Before Letterman was replaced by Stephen Colbert as a late night talk show host since 2015) that I constantly remember watching on YouTube in the 2000s.
And finally that Dad is heading to Australia on a holiday for a week starting from the 16th of April until the 23rd with his wife Raewyn to attend the NRL rugby league match between the St George-Illawarra Dragons & the team that Dad always supports of the New Zealand Warriors (Who had a draw against Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles at Go Media Stadium Mount Smart in Auckland) in Wollongong at WIN Stadium in which he'll be there in due course (And Pops isn't into league that much not only it is always stop start but rugby union always have rucks & mauls to contend with so that's why he is a massive rugby follower).
So that is my 546th blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 22nd of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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