The Call/Bitter/Get Up: My 4th blog of the year 2022

Well, I've been telling wrestling stories about both The Rock & Shawn Michaels using the Sharpshooter made famous by Bret 'The Hitman' Hart as a signature move but the Rock's most iconic Rock Bottom finishing move that he had was in 2003 at Wrestlemania XIX when he was able to break the stranglehold against Stone Cold Steve Austin (The WWE hall of famer who was inducted by his old rival, the chairman of the WWE, Mr McMahon (Their rivalry between the Texas rattlesnake & Mr McMahon began in 1998 where Austin defeated the Heartbreak Kid of Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XIV for the WWE title (That rivalry ended in 2003 where Stone Cold had to retire) billed as the battle of Texas (Steve Austin hails from Victoria, Texas while Michaels comes from San Antonio in Texas) after losing on both occasions to him at Wrestlemania when he delivered not one, not two but 3 rock bottoms to Austin for the win meaning that Austin had to retire from wrestling through a serious head & neck injury that he had in 1997 but Randy Orton's most iconic RKO moment was against Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania 31 in 2015 where Rollins (Who had to bounce back by successfully cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase to win the WWE title against the likes of both his ex-Shield stablemate Roman Reigns & the Beast Incarnate who was WWE champion at the time of Brock Lesnar in the main event) was setting up for his finishing move called the Stomp until Orton reversed it & went for the mid air RKO with success by picking up the victory & has been touted as the best RKO from out of nowhere ever (And special but honourable mentions like several WWE superstars that used The Rock's Rock Bottom finisher such as Becky Lynch (The Manhandle Slam as she calls it), Booker T (He uses his own version but is called the Book End), Brock Lesnar, Edge, Goldberg, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin & Triple H but there's also a few WWE superstars that use Randy Orton's RKO such as AJ Styles, Edge & John Cena).

And the Winter Olympics is finally away in Beijing in China as New Zealand win our historic 1st ever gold medal by the young 20 year old of Zoi Sadowski-Synott in the women's snowboarding slopestyle event (It took about 70 years for our 1st gold medal at the winter Olympics but it was in 1992 that the New Zealanders brought home our 1st medal with the famous skiier of Annelise Coberger won silver in Albertville, France 30 years ago way back in 1992) but she picked up silver in the women's big air after a fall in the 3rd run in the final then the big headlines in Beijing 2022 is bronze medalist from Pyeongchang in 2018 of Nico Porteous becoming New Zealand's 1st golden boy at the winter Olympics (And that's the 2nd time New Zealand have won a gold medal at the Olympic winter games (Sadowski-Synott was the 1st) when he won the freestyle skiing event meaning that New Zealand had our successful winter Olympics campaign with 2 golds & a silver to cap off in style here in Beijing.

And there is a new addition to my favourite foods list along with both Italian (Pasta has always been my favourite but I like pizza) & Indian (Although chicken tikka masala has always been my favourite but I like butter chicken by the way) which is Japanese because sushi is always my favourite Japanese food but I like bento boxes as well (And Japanese is added on my favourite foods list in 3rd behind Indian & Italian which is always on top) compared to the Italians who are football lovers as well as the Indians are avid cricket followers & of course the Japanese are always sumo wrestling lovers.

And it's been nearly 23 years since I 1st starting to remember what year it was when I was at school & it was in 1999 (Well, my memory is better than Pops because 1991 was my year of birth 8 years before I started to remember what year it was) but we're now into 2022 because I'm now a 30 year old (I'll be 31 on the 7th of June this year).

And reports from the final round of the Six Nations that Italy pulled off one of the upsets against Wales in Cardiff by the barest of margins for their 1st win in the Six Nations since 2015 against Scotland then France (Who are now established themselves as a world class rugby team (Especially their star halfback & last year's world rugby player of the year of Antoine Dupont) after their Six Nations triumph this year, a year out until the Rugby World Cup) would finally win a grand slam & the Six Nations title after 12 long years after they outmuscled England (Who were without their injured skipper Owen Farrell) in Saint-Denis then Ireland win a triple crown after they manipulated Scotland in Dublin.

And in tennis news such as Ash Barty, the 3 time grand slam champion, calls time on her tennis career due to the travelling that couldn't fit her as I heard a comment from Carole last night.

And it has been a year since I bought the Xbox One S console at EB Games as a tribute to Buck (My late pet dog that I used to love until he got put down for 2 separate dog biting incidents (Including one on a mower lady & the other on my dear half brother Jansen (I was in disbelief & nearly got heartbroken when Jans had his near death experience (And it must have been the scent that they picked up as a result) as well as he got traumatized by that incident (It is very similar to my late brother Wiremu's cot death in 1993) & has had mental health issues since (He had both vehicle accidents which is one by a scooter near a school grounds last year & the other was a car which fell onto a ditch also last year) since January last year) because that was the reason why I started playing on the Xbox One was the Forza Motorsport 7 game (I've got 4 games now, such as Forza 7 as I mentioned before as well as the 1st 2 original Star Wars Battlefront games (Both the 2004 version of Battlefront & the 2005 version of Battlefront II (Which is by far, the best Star Wars game I have ever played in my whole life & I was channeling my inner Star Wars geek the other day since I own both the movies (Which is the Star Wars original (Part of the pre-Disney era), prequel (Also part of the pre-Disney era along with the original trilogy) & sequel (Part of the Disney era since its acquisition by Star Wars creator George Lucas in 2012) trilogies) & games (Both the 1st 2 Battlefront games that I mentioned before & now the Star Wars Jedi Knight games on the PS4) since) via the original Xbox & a Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown game via Xbox 360 (I played it on the PS3 before).

And finally that there was a story that Quade Cooper immediately blew the kick off by kicking it out on the full at the beginning of the game when he started the match with a mistake during the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi final match between the 2 great Trans-Tasman rivals of the Wallabies & the All Blacks (The AB's won in the end & had finally beaten the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup after losing to them on both occasions in the semifinal in 1991 & 2003 to set up a final showdown with France (Who defeated Wales by the barest of margins in the other semi after Welsh skipper Sam Warburton's moment of madness when he got red carded by an Irish rugby referee of French origin, Alain Rolland (Who never got to referee in a final but South African Craig Joubert (Who refereed in the 2nd semi of the 2011 tournament between Australia & New Zealand) got the nod with Rolland being overlooked) for a lifting tackle on French winger Vincent Clerc which was deemed to be a highly controversial decision made by the ref (And it was described by Nick Mullins in commentary as one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the RWC but I thought Warburton got yellow carded but it was a send off offence instead (But Wales could've won if Warburton didn't get the red card because he could've spent 10 minutes in the bin) but the match will always be remembered when world class All Black second-five Ma'a Nonu had a blinder when he scored an absolute scorcher for New Zealand's one & only try of the match after AB's fullback Israel Dagg (Who also had a blinder as well) set it up) but there are a lot of storylines to ponder in next years Rugby World Cup in France where the host nation are looking to end 36 years of hurt after reaching the final 3 times but lost on all 3 occasions while the defending champions South Africa (The world's toughest rugby playing nation to play against by far, due to their overwhelmingly dominant forward pack since they won the last RWC in Japan) who are hoping to become the 2nd rugby playing nation (After the AB's in 2015 after previously winning it in 2011 but will the ongoing success story as well as the dynasty & the age of the Springboks (Who have their key number 1 player Duane Vermeulen (The toughest player that former Argentina captain who is now playing for the Crusaders of Pablo Matera had ever faced) in the team (And there is another one who is an incredibly, exceptionally good player which is Boks second rower Eben Etzebeth (Part of the twin towers of the South African rugby locking stocks along with Lood de Jager) as well as a truly inspirational young leader of South Africa in the form of the last Rugby World Cup winning captain of Siya Kolisi & of course, the world class hooker who took over from Dane Coles is Malcolm Marx (He mainly is a bench player since the South African selectors prefer Bongi Mbonambi as a starting hooker) after he performed so well in a dramatic come from behind victory against the AB's last year on the Gold Coast in Australia during the last round of the Rugby Championship) at the Rugby World Cup continue if they win?) to successfully defend the RWC after their highly successful campaign at the most recent tournament in 2019 & to become the most successful rugby playing nation in Rugby World Cup history with 4 because they are on 3 (They won in 1995, 2007 & 2019 most recently as I mentioned before) at the moment along with New Zealand then England who are expecting to go one better than in 2019 & end a 20 year drought since they last triumphed in 2003 as well as the All Blacks are looking to return to glory after our failed bid of winning a 3rd straight RWC in the semifinal against England (Who had their 1st win against New Zealand at a Rugby World Cup in the semifinal in 2019 (When the English made all the correct maneuvers & it was no mistakes that time of going through to the final) after losing to them on 3 occasions in 1991 (In the opening game of the tournament), 1995 (Including the late All Black Jonah Lomu showing his class when he famously scored 4 tries (Including one when he ran English player Mike Catt over to score in one of the historic but memorable, iconic moments of the RWC) en route to the final) & 1999 (It was Jeff Wilson who scored the opening try then the late Jonah Lomu perhaps in which he mesmerized the English defence to go over for the try) in 2019 (And are seeking for our attempt along with the South Africans to win a 4th Rugby World Cup (We won it 3 times in 1987, 2011 & 2015) to become the most successful rugby playing nation in Rugby World Cup history) & of course, Australia, who haven't triumphed since 1999 & are hoping to end a 24 year hoodoo, will be looking for their 3rd RWC crown (And what about Ireland? Well, they can end their quarterfinal jinx (Their best result was always the quarterfinal in 1987 (Against Australia), 1991 (Australia yet again), 1995 (It was France who beat them), 2003 (It was the French once again), 2011 (It was against Wales in which the Welsh dominated), 2015 (Argentina were the ones who pummeled them) & 2019 (And of course the All Blacks who smashed them) Because they have never reached both the semis & the final before at the Rugby World Cup (And is one of 21 nations (Including Argentina (Their best finish was a 3rd place in 2007 in which they walloped the French the last time France had hosted the RWC (They hosted it along with some matches being played in both Scotland & Wales), Canada (They reached the quarterfinal in 1991 when they went down to New Zealand), Cote D'Ivoire, Fiji (Their best result was the quarterfinals in both 1987 (Including that they had to qualify for the quarterfinal by the highest number of tries scored) & 2007 (In which they edged the Welsh to book a quarterfinal place), France (I've mentioned them before that they appeared in the final 3 times but failed to win each one of them), Georgia, Italy (The only tier 1 rugby nation yet to appear in the knockout stages), Japan (Their best result was the quarterfinal stage in 2019 in which the eventual champions the Springboks decimated them after infamously losing to the Japanese (Who made history back in 2015 when they drilled the South Africans in rugby's biggest boil over or should I say the greatest upset of all time in international rugby (And I mentioned James 'Buster' Douglas's win over 'Iron' Mike Tyson in a heavyweight championship boxing bout in Tokyo, Japan 1990 in one of sports greatest upsets as well as the miracle on ice when the strictly amateur US team pulled off the grand daddy of them all as they famously outplayed the fully professional Soviet Union side at Lake Placid in New York during the winter Olympics in 1980 in my blog that I did in November last year) in the Brighton miracle in 2015), Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Samoa (They appeared at the quarterfinal stages in both 1991 & 1995 under the name Western Samoa), Scotland (They were semifinalists in 1991 in which they finished 4th after losing to the AB's in the 3rd & 4th place playoff), Spain, Tonga, the United States, Uruguay, Wales (3rd was their best finish in 1987 after beating the Wallabies in Rotorua during the 3rd & 4th place playoff game with a match winning sideline conversion by Welsh player Paul Thorburn) & Zimbabwe) that have appeared at a Rugby World Cup but have never won a tournament before (And 4 nations have triumphed at a RWC before such as Australia, England, New Zealand & South Africa).

So that is my 456th blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 4th of this year, stay safe & one love, viva Ukraine.

P.S. And I would like to give a huge shoutout to my dear female cousin of Paige Holly Williams (I once told her that she is a fan of decorations & she always listens to any music a lot especially the radio stations that she has heard according to the email that I sent to her compared to my female Malaysian best friend of Sophia Ong (Who currently lives in Upper Hutt now along with her Welsh husband & Shaia (Her son now because he was born last year) being a self-proclaimed fan of Final Fantasy (Her favourite character is always Rikku) along with Johnella) who is turning 28 10 days ago to wish her a happy belated birthday so best wishes (And I haven't seen her along with her mother & my biological aunty Cathey Middelplaats (Who still lives in Petone with her husband & her 2 sons) since 2016 (That was a day after me, Pops & John Coburn watched the All Blacks test against Wales at Sky Stadium (Known as Westpac Stadium at the time) in Wellington) as well as her step father the other John Mitchell & her brothers Nico & Luca (Who Pops told me last month that he is a diabetic now) but I mentioned in my previous blogs that both alternative rock & heavy metal are my favourite rock or metal music genres but I like nu metal especially from those big 3 bands such as Korn (One of Sophia's favourite bands along with 3 Doors Down, Nickelback & Linkin Park), Limp Bizkit & Linkin Park (That's one of Sophia Ong's bands that she used to like during her UCOL days because she was a huge fan of it) as well as grunge like Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam & Soundgarden & also that the new Transmission Gully route that Dad & Raewyn had driven up before has opened up when I told Pops today.

Shame Shame/Waiting On A War: My 3rd blog of 2022

Well, I recently purchased the wrestling game on the PS4 which was released way back in 2019 called WWE 2K20 (My 1st wrestling game since WWE 12) in January meaning that I became a wrestling follower again for the 1st time since 2014 in which the last time I watched a bit of WWE but my favourite wrestler now has to be The Rock (Who is Dwayne Johnson now & most recently he is now the owner of the XFL (He took over from Mr McMahon) as well as he has a super hero movie that he is due to appear called Black Adam which is due to come out this year & he took over from the Terminator star & ex-California governor of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Whom he met before during an episode on either Raw or Smackdown in 1999) as the highest paid action movie star way back in 2012 or 2013) because it used to be Triple H (AKA The Game, the Cerebral Assassin, King of Kings), Shawn Michaels (The Heartbreak Kid, the Showstopper, the Icon, the Main Event & of course Mr Wrestlemania), the Undertaker (The Deadman, the Phenom & the Demon of Death Valley), John Cena (The Cenation Leader), Rey Mysterio (The Master of the 619, the Biggest Little Man & the Ultimate Underdog), Stone Cold Steve Austin (The Texas Rattlesnake), Ric Flair (The Nature Boy, the Dirtiest Player in the Game), Brock Lesnar (The Beast Incarnate), Edge (The Rated R Superstar, the Ultimate Opportunist & the Master Manipulator), Randy Orton (The Viper as well as The Apex Predator & The Legend Killer (Formerly at the time) & Batista (The Animal) over these years but I like both Roman Reigns (Who is a relative of The Rock & cousin of the Usos twin brothers of Jey & Jimmy) & Seth Rollins now (They did have old heads like Hollywood Hulk Hogan, the late Andre the Giant, the late Ultimate Warrior, Bret 'the Hitman' Hart, Flair, Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Undertaker, Triple H (Who is married to the daughter of Mr McMahon & sister of Shane, Stephanie McMahon), Cena (Who is the partner of Nikki Bella), Edge (Husband of Beth Phoenix), Orton, Christian, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, the Miz, Jeff Hardy, the Big Show, Kane, Daniel Bryan (Husband of Brie Bella), Brock Lesnar, Dolph Ziggler, Goldberg, Sting, Kurt Angle, Batista & Rey Mysterio (In the women's wrestling department with old faces like Trish Stratus for example as well as Lita, Beth Phoenix (The Glamazon who is the wife of Edge), Mickie James (Who was Becky Lynch's idol growing up), Maryse (Wife of The Miz), Alicia Fox, Natalya (Niece of Bret 'the Hitman' Hart) & the Bella twins of Brie (Daniel Bryan's wife) & Nikki, but now they have modern day superstars like Reigns, Rollins, Drew McIntyre, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Jinder Mahal, the Usos (Consisting of twin brothers Jey & Jimmy), Cesaro, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Kevin Owens & Rusev (And in the women's section of the newcomers are Charlotte Flair (Daughter of Ric Flair), Ronda Rousey (An ex-MMA fighter), Becky Lynch (An Irishwoman who is part of the Four Horsewomen along with Bayley, Charlotte Flair & Sasha Banks), Sasha Banks (A female cousin of famous African American rapper Snoop Dogg), Bayley (Who was a fan of both Bret Hart & John Cena whom she met both of them when they took a photo of her & her wrestling idols), Paige (Who retired from wrestling due to injuries that she suffered in 2017 but they made a film that I've never seen about her when it came out in 2019 which is Fighting With My Family (The movie is about Paige (Her wrestling idol & mentor was in fact The Rock) & her brother trying to make it through the ranks in the world of professional wrestling), Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Tamina (Daughter of Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka who passed away most recently) & Asuka) but there used to be a wrestling tag team stable from our country of New Zealand called the Bushwhackers during the 70s & 80s period that I didn't know (And they have since been retired for a while).

And enough about the wrestling stuff as I switch gears to the sailing that it has been an emotional & rollercoaster year after the America's Cup, had remained, New Zealand's cup (According to the voice of yachting Peter 'PJ' Montgomery) or more like the Auld Mug, was indeed, Aotearoa's again (As famously said by Scotty J 'Sumo' Stevenson) when Emirates Team New Zealand retained the holy grail of world sailing yet again just like in 2000 & the sport's oldest prize (Or should I say, the oldest trophy in international sport) of the America's Cup on St Patrick's Day at the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland during the 10th & final race (It was a day after Team New Zealand won race 9 to be on match point against the Italians in one of the greatest but classic, all-time America's Cup races in history that the New Zealanders overtook Luna Rossa just before the penultimate leg of the race compared to the worst race in race 8 where Team New Zealand thought that they we're going to pull it off against the Italians with an overtaking maneuver but we fell off our foils, therefore handing advantage to Luna Rossa until we got back up to speed again & then all of a sudden, the Italians thought that they had their chance to win but they fell off the foils & got a boundary penalty 4 times before we took the lead during the race while Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli where still off their foils & I thought we lost that race & had to stop watching it until Pops told me that he found out that Emirates Team New Zealand won race 8 (Although the race was shortened to 5 legs according to the race committee) to go 5 - 3 up in one of the weirdest races in the history of the Auld Mug (And poor old Luna Rossa that they cost their huge chance of winning the 8th race to once again square the ledger after their hopes & aspirations to keep America's Cup 36 alive had been ruined but this is like the deciding race in the America's Cup World Series in which the New Zealanders won back in December 2020) on course A against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli that I'm so proud that last year had became one of my standout America's Cup moments of all time (And it was better than our triumphs in 1995, 2000 & 2017 but I remember during the big day of sailing that me, Pops & Carole went to Thai Villa in honor of that celebration) but Pops prefers 1995 where New Zealand (Who followed in the footsteps of Australia in 1983 which opened the door for our country to take part when we 1st participated in 1987 in the challenger selection series after Australia had won the Auld Mug for the very first time) had 1st triumphed in the America's Cup in San Diego as his favourite (And Leon said during a comment that I remember at Mint Cafe that the dual America's Cup champion from 2003 & 2007 of Alinghi (Now called Alinghi Red Bull Racing under new management) is locked in a chance of competing in the America's Cup again after being sidelined for a long time since losing the Auld Mug to the Jimmy Spithill led Oracle (Founded & owned by the ever popular, world famous American billionaire of Larry Ellison compared to Swiss pharmaceuticals billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli who is the owner of Alinghi (And Arnaud Psarofaghis (Who was skipper of the NZ Sail GP team when both key men of Emirates Team New Zealand of Peter Burling & Blair Tuke were preparing for the Olympics last year) could be the ideal candidate as the new Alinghi skipper) in 2010) but New Zealand is the 2nd most successful country in terms of victories in the America's Cup with 4 (Ahead of Switzerland who won it twice & Australia who won it once but behind the United States of America (The most successful nation in the history of the Auld Mug & founder of the America's Cup (Back when it was known as the One Ton Cup in the early 1850s) which won it a record 29 times of the 36 America's Cup campaigns being held) & of course there were different stories at the last America's Cup where American Magic was the best of the challengers in the America's Cup World Series (Including a win against the defenders of Emirates Team New Zealand in race 4) then INEOS Team UK bounced back from disappointment in the ACWS to win every race in the round robin to go through to the Prada Cup final before Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli became champions of the Prada Cup after beating American Magic (Who got capsized during the race against the Italians therefore costing them a chance of winning in the miserable conditions & were out of action for 9 days due to repairs being made on the boat after a massive hole had opened up) comprehensively in the semifinal then INEOS Team UK in the final & of course the real winner has gone to Emirates Team New Zealand for our 2nd successful defence of the Auld Mug after infamously winning the best of 13 first to seven series against Luna Rossa 7 - 3 as well as going into America's Cup 36 as champions of the America's Cup World Series (The Christmas race had been cancelled as a result due to a lack of breeze) but my love affair of the America's Cup began in 1995 when I was in Whanganui hospital after almost losing a finger when I was trapped in the old style swimming pool & I started to remember the news that the 1st time New Zealand had won the America's Cup after winning race 5 in the best of 9 first to 5 series against Stars & Stripes aboard the Young America yacht in San Diego.

And on to the motor racing stuff that there was both young Kiwis lined up in Formula 2 last year such as Marcus Armstrong (Who is part of the Ferrari Driving Academy by following the footsteps of the late Chris Amon from Bulls who raced F1 for Ferrari in the 60's during the golden period) & former Toyota Racing Series champion Liam Lawson (Part of the Red Bull Junior team setup) who has been called up as test & reserve driver for Scuderia AlphaTauri (And if either Pierre Gasly or Yuki Tsunoda gets hurt or fell out of form, Lawson may be the ideal replacement by stepping in) in this years F1 season (And there hasn't been a Kiwi in the F1 grid most recently since Brendon Hartley (Who was the 1st New Zealander to compete in F1 since Mike Thackwell in 1984 when he made his F1 debut at the 2017 United States Grand Prix) in 2018 when he last competed in Formula 1 for Scuderia Toro Rosso (2 years before the constructor had to undergo a rebrand by renaming themselves as AlphaTauri) while the late Denny Hulme (Who was part of the big 3 of NZ motor racing during the golden generation in the 1960's along with the late Amon & the late Bruce McLaren (A Kiwi who was the founder of the British sports car manufacturer & F1 constructor of McLaren) is the only New Zealander to win the world championship way back in 1967) but there are reports that Australian race director Michael Masi got fired as a result after former 7 time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton (Whose hopes of competing in F1 again this year after missing out on his record breaking 8th F1 crown last year, is at peril after being given a stern warning from Red Bull Racing as well as his rumors of retiring from F1 just like multiple Super Bowl winning NFL player Tom Brady most recently) had been complaining to him whether Max Verstappen took off quickly after the safety car had been expired, but that's not the case as Verstappen emerged triumphant when he overtook Hamilton on the very last lap of the title deciding race in Abu Dhabi by picking up both the win & the title as well (1st Dutch driver in history to do so by winning the F1 world championship (Compared to Alex Palou of Spain becoming the 1st Spanish driver in history to win the Indycar series title as well as the man who ended his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon's hopes of a record equaling 7th American open wheel racing title (AJ Foyt still holds that record by keeping it intact & there was a New Zealand 1-2 last year at the 1st race of the Texas Indycar double header at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas with the 6 time Indycar champion of Dixon (He is 3rd on the all time list for most wins in American open wheel racing behind Mario Andretti (Who has 52 but is behind AJ Foyt as the current record holder with 67) with 51) winning the race ahead of fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin (A Team Penske driver who is a 3 time Supercars champion (Jamie Whincup's successor & Shane van Gisbergen's predecessor) & of course last year's Indycar rookie of the year award winner but both Dixon & McLaughlin are Kiwi racing car drivers who are married to foreign wives such as Dixon's wife of Emma Davies-Dixon who is a former Welsh as well as British track athlete while McLaughlin's wife is American (And Carly is the name of Scott McLaughlin's American wife) but there's Indycar news as McLaughlin secures his first ever win in Indycar (He had been on the top step 56 times in the Supercars Championship including 1 Bathurst 1000 victory in 2019 as well as winning 3 Supercars Championship titles) in the season opener at St Petersburg, Florida to kick off proceedings in the brand new 2022 season) last year therefore signifying Indycar's next-gen takeover) & is set to run car number 1 as a result of becoming the new world champion last year for the 1st time since Sebastian Vettel did that in 2014 & is being praised by both Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff & Hamilton as well for winning his maiden world championship).

And it has been 2 years since Brexit had occurred before the pandemic had started when the UK left the EU (And there used to be the Kolpak ruling in which a cricketer from either South Africa, Zimbabwe or the West Indies (Players like Grant Elliott, Kyle Abbott, Lance Klusner, Faf du Plessis, Andre Adams, Shaun Pollock, Andre Nel, Colin Ingram, Brendan Taylor, Ravi Rampaul, Rilee Russouw & Morne Morkel) join a English cricket county or a rugby player like Andrew Mehrtens (Who was born in Durban in South Africa but he acquired a South African passport as a result of a Kolpak deal) join a English rugby club to play for them but it no longer exists as of today) after 47 years of joining them.

And onto the cricket news such as the Perth Scorchers (Who couldn't afford to host a home game due to the COVID-19 omicron strain over in the Western Australia state & had its former Blackcap Colin Munro into the team (1st it was White Fern Sophie Devine who helped the Perth Scorchers women's side win the WBBL & now it is Munro's turn of becoming a Big Bash League winning player from New Zealand) win their record breaking 4th Big Bash League title against the defending champions at the time now, the Sydney Sixers in the final at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne in which was the best BBL game that I have ever seen on TV (But there is a new addition to the sporting rivalry in Australia between the Perth Scorchers & the Sydney Sixers in BBL cricket compared to Carlton Vs Collingwood in the AFL, the NSW Blues & the Queensland Maroons in rugby league's annual State of Origin series & the Ford Vs Holden (Now a defunct car manufacturer from Australia) rivalry during the days of the Australian Touring Car Championship (Before rebranding themselves as the Shell Championship Series then V8 Supercars before adopting its current name to the Supercars Championship) a night before into the tennis stuff, as female Australian tennis star & world number one Ash Barty triumphant over American Danielle Collins in the final to win her 1st ever Australian tennis open women's singles title in front of her adoring home crowd after 44 years since Chris O'Neil won it in 1978 then a day later it was Rafael Nadal's time to shine as he makes an incredible comeback after surgery & COVID-19 when he dispatched the US tennis open men's singles champion Daniil Medvedev (Who was the one who ended Novak Djokovic's hopes of a historic grand slam (Rod Laver was the last one to do that) by doing the Flavia Penetta when she famously beat Serena Williams in 2016) in one of the greatest but classic men's tennis matches of all time (Compared to Roger Federer-Tennys Sandgren in 2020 in Australia then Djokovic (Who had to pull out of this years Aussie Open due to being an anti-vax (He tried to enter Australia to compete but he had been refused entry & gone back home to Serbia since) against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the French Open last year & Medvedev vs Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Australian Open in the quarterfinals this year) although the fans attending the men's singles final had to stay up until 4am in the morning after that marathon match which lasted until 1am (And man they must have had sleepless nights as a result).

And the newly formed Super Rugby Pacific season is about to begin as MP of Moana Pasifika are locking horns with last years Super Rugby Trans-Tasman champions the Blues at Mount Smart Stadium in South Auckland (Ther has been a venue change with Forsyth Barr Stadium set to host it for night games (Along with the Wakatipu Rugby Club also set to host day matches) with the franchises now being based in Queenstown instead for the 1st 3 weeks because of our country of New Zealand now experiencing troubles caused by omicron) on the 18th of February but I'll provide updates to it about the results along with the upcoming 2022 Six Nations season when I post this blog that I'm doing & about to post it on St Patrick's Day 2022 but the Six Nations is back next week where Wales will have a chance to defend their title after their successful campaign last year (They won the championship last year after Scotland defeated France with South African born Scotsman Duhan van der Merwe crossed over for the winning try but didn't claim the grand slam as they lost to the French) but their main challengers who are looking to dethrone the Welsh are England who are the favourites in the competition due to being ranked the top northern hemisphere side in the rugby world & are looking to regain the crown that they won in 2020 (Which was a corona virus impacted year) as well as Ireland (It's been 4 years since the Irish last triumphed the Six Nations in 2018 where they had to beat England to achieve the Grand Slam in England on St Patrick's Day) & hosts of next years Rugby World Cup France (Who have never won the Six Nations championship in 12 years way back in 2010) could be the dark horses of the tournament after both sides triumphed over the All Blacks during the end of year rugby tests (1st it was Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin followed by the French at the Stade de France (Which will host the final of the 2023 RWC (They once hosted a final before way back in 2007 where South Africa emerged triumphant over the English (They would meet again in another final most recently in 2019 where the South Africans once again manipulated England in Yokohama in Japan in a repeat of 2007 by ending the utter dominance of the All Blacks at the Rugby World Cup (It was the English who terrorised New Zealand in that infamous semi) when they won their record equaling 3rd RWC title as I mentioned before in my previous blogs (And it has been countless blogs since the Springboks famously took victory at the most recent Rugby World Cup in 2019) in Saint-Denis a week later) last year.

And finally that I probably think that I'm in danger because of COVID-19 omicron with about 400 to 800 confirmed cases that I heard like last night & this morning (There was 2 here in Whanganui) when doctor Tania Phillips stayed at our place (And we're still on red under the corona virus framework here in New Zealand for the time being since late last month meaning that the change had become permanent & is likely to stay that way but if we remained on orange, the figures would have been easily high but it's getting worse due to the growing numbers).

So that is my 455th blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 3rd of this year, stay safe & one love (And until next time it is bye from us), viva Ukraine.

P.S. And I would like to give a shout out to Cathey Middelplaats who I have not seen her along with Paige (She has a birthday next month on the 5th of April), the other John Mitchell, Nico & Luca since 2016 (The day after me, Pops & Jon Coburn went to my only live All Blacks rugby test match which was against Wales) by wishing her a 55th birthday yesterday but unfortunately, her son, one of Paige's brothers & one of my male cousins, Luca, is now a diabetic just like the now late Inga Tuigamala who passed away from it.

No Son Of Mine: My 2nd blog of 2022

Well, the penultimate Ashes test in Sydney between the current Ashes holders Australia (Who clinched it in the 3rd test with both tests to spare) & England has ended in a draw with Usman Khawaja (Born in Pakistan then bred in his adopted home in Australia) on his return to the side to replace Travis Head being the standout performer of the 4th test as he scored a ton when he top scored 137 in the 1st innings & posted an unbeaten 101 in the 2nd innings before Jonny Bairstow responded with a century in the 1st innings which is England's 1st ton in this Ashes series when he posted 113 but there's been an update in the 5th & final test as the Ashes cricket series is done & dusted as Australia win the most important cricket series, 4 - 0, as they won comprehensively at Blundstone Arena in Hobart against the depleted England side (Who are out of contention of making the final of the World Test Championship in 2023 as they had their points deducted/docked for slow over rates in their matches against both India & Australia & are without their front line players such as Jofra Archer (A player who was born in Barbados which is part of the West Indies) & Sam Curran (Brother of Tom) with Travis Head (Who was the man of the moment in the 1st Ashes test in Brisbane) being the stand out player in the 5th & final test on his return to the side as he top scored 101 but he was out next ball then he was awarded player of the series for being the top run scorer before Mark Wood being the pick of the bowlers for England in the 2nd innings as he achieved a 5 wicket haul when he picked up 6 wickets for 37 runs but was on the losing side (And the next Ashes series is in 2023 in England where the English hoping to put an end to the utter dominance of Australia in the Ashes as well as Australia's hopes of winning a 4th consecutive Ashes series after the Aussies completed a hat-trick of Ashes series wins since they regained the urn in 2018 in which they are still, the current holders), & I mean what went wrong for England to lose another Ashes test series? I mean, what a pathetic ruse (And former England cricketers are livid about it after their woes which affected their performance on the field (And they cannot even bat, bowl or field unlike the Australians came in into the 1989 Ashes series in England 2 years after the English fielded the worst side going into the 1986-87 Ashes series on Australian shores & they overcame it by winning the series, & after their resounding success, they began their 16 year dominance until the drought had been broken by England in 2005 before Australia regained the urn in 2006-07 when they had a series whitewash then in 2009, England had won it back before they successfully defended it in 2010-11 on Australian soil (The last time England did that) & 2013 on home soil then in all of a sudden, there had been a different story as Australia won the series 5 - 0 in 2013-14 before England changed the fortunes around when they dethroned the Australians as holders of the Ashes in 2015 & then in 2017-18 that the Ashes glory is back in Australia a year before the series ended in a draw but Australia had won the 4th test in to clinch it & now in 2021-22, the ongoing success story of Australia in the Ashes continues where they have not put a foot wrong since) but there's hypocrisy surrounding the England camp in which they promptly devoured after losing another Ashes series to Australia compared to most Australians were exhilarating how they were that they had another Ashes success (And great win by Australia though that they had by summing up the Ashes) that they wrapped up but it's been a privilege of me following the Ashes, see you in 2023 but unfortunately Sky Sport doesn't broadcast the Ashes in England because Spark Sport has now got the broadcasting rights to the England Cricket Board (ECB) both internationally & domestically in England.

And in other cricket news such as the Black Caps were stunned by Bangladesh (Who had their historic 1st ever test win against New Zealand on Kiwi soil) in the 1st test at Bay Oval in Tauranga despite a century from Devon Conway (Who made an incredible return from a broken hand sustained in the T20 World Cup semifinal win against England & is one of my favourite Black Caps players (It used to be both Brendon McCullum & Kane Williamson but I like both Kyle Jamieson & Daryl Mitchell as well) now) then the Black Caps bounced back from defeat in the 1st test to win the 2nd test against the same opponent in Ross Taylor's farewell test (The standout performer of that game was stand-in captain Tom Latham (Who filled in for the regular skipper Kane Williamson as he was ruled out of the test series against Bangladesh though injury) posting a double ton as he top scored 252 but Conway got a century again just like in the 1st test when he scored a ton with 109 runs then Ross Taylor picked up the last wicket in his test career when New Zealand won as they had a tremendous turnaround from that dreaded loss against Bangladesh in the 1st test) as the test series was drawn.

And continuing on to the cricket stuff I did not know in cricket that the rules state in all forms of the game such as Test, One Day & T20 that there is only both allocated fielders are allowed behind square therefore the 2 behind square rule was introduced as part of the fielding restrictions post bodyline (Known as leg theory in England) series during the Ashes that had happened between Australia & England in Australia in 1932-33 but that there's also that 3 times the England cricket team had lost the 2019 50 over men's Cricket World Cup before being crowned world champions in the final against the Black Caps, one against Pakistan (England's last win against Pakistan at a 50 over Cricket World Cup came in 2003) & the others are both Sri Lanka (The last time the English defeated the Sri Lankans at a 50 over Cricket World Cup was in 1999) & Australia (England beat them in the semis the next time they met (The 1st time Australia had suffered a defeat at a 50 over Cricket World Cup semifinal) to set up a final showdown with New Zealand by reaching their 1st final for England when they last played in the final in 1992 where they famously lost against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne). And of course I mentioned in my previous blogs that Ish Sodhi is a New Zealand cricketer of Indian origin along with Ajaz Patel (Who is an Indian Muslim born in Mumbai (Known at the time as Bombay), Dipak Patel (Born in Kenya but of Indian descent), Jeetan Patel (An off spinner who has no relation to both Ajaz & Dipak (There is a different Patel because they're not related) & most recently Rachin Ravindra (A former under 19 rep who is from Wellington) but there is both New Zealand cricketers of Pacific island origin like Ross Taylor (Who is of Samoan origin) for example & Murphy Su'a (Who is also of Samoan descent just like Rossco). But there's also a bit of family affair I forgot to mention in my previous blog such as England's Ben Stokes who is the son of the late New Zealand rugby league player Gerard as well as Stuart Broad also from England being the son of famous cricketer Chris Broad & Tom Latham is the son of also famous cricketer Rod as well as Daryl Mitchell being the son of rugby union player John.

And I can recall that story that I was watching a Bledisloe Cup test between the AB's & the Wallabies (Who were riding high after their success against New Zealand at ANZ Stadium in the Rugby Championship decider Sydney to claim the Rugby Championship in 2015) at Eden Park in Auckland on TV in 2015 with Dad that Wallaby first-five Quade Cooper made a genuine attempt to tackle Aaron Smith went horribly wrong as he deliberately tackled Smith high therefore preventing a try from being scored in the act of foul play, resulting in a double whammy, which is both a penalty try & a yellow card to Cooper (It would have been a red under the current laws regarding to high tackles (Which is an illegal tactic in sport along with ball tampering in cricket & a deliberate handball in football) unlike All Black midfielder at the time, Malakai Fekitoa tackled Irish winger Simon Zebo high during the test in Dublin which resulted in a yellow card (It would have been red under the current laws which was introduced in 2017, 2 years before the decision making framework for both no arms & head high tackles were implemented in response to & of the worrying trend of rugby players getting concussed & felled by dangerous tackles such as high shots) & had to serve a 1 week ban as a result for causing a high tackle (Sam Cane would've been sent to the sin bin as well under the current laws for a high tackle violation on Irish player Robbie Henshaw) therefore missing the last test of 2016 against France. And I also know that the only yellow card at the Rugby World Cup final was in 2015 with Ben Smith for a lifting tackle on a Wallaby player (The AB's managed to hold on for the win (The last time we triumphed at a Rugby World Cup (The 1st & only time the All Blacks won the tournament outside of New Zealand (After winning in both 1987 & 2011 on our home patch) & the 1st & only time, that a rugby playing nation had successfully defended the Rugby World Cup (And it was the moment that Grant Nisbett said after NZ triumphed in the 2015 RWC to our New Zealand viewers: "And the All Blacks are celebrating already! Rugby World Cup history! 1st team to go back to back, & the 1st to win 3 titles." (Or more like Miles Harrison in the world feed commentary: "The All Blacks, still the kings, of world rugby.") & New Zealand's 2015 triumph was my standout moment of the Rugby World Cup since I was born in 1991 ahead of the 2011 triumph on home soil (The moment Nisbo said after the AB's triumphed in 2011: "And the All Blacks! Are the world champions! For the second time."), Japan knocking over South Africa in rugby union's biggest boil over during the RWC in 2015 (The Miracle of Brighton as they know it) as well as the late great All Black winger Jonah Lomu running over English player Mike Catt to score a famous try when the AB's faced England in the semi in 1995 & Sam Warburton's red card for a spear/tip tackle on French winger Vincent Clerc also in the semifinal in 2011 which was won by France who went through to take on the All Blacks in the final) by fending off a Australian fight back with Beauden Barrett sealing the deal with the last try of the 2015 tournament which proved to be the game changer/turning point (Including Dan Carter's last conversion of his international test rugby career was with his right foot).

And in the football department that 5 time defending EPL champions Manchester City currently lead the standings by 8 points ahead of the winners of the last UEFA Champions League, Chelsea then Leon's favourite club Liverpool & Arsenal rounding out the top 4. But there's something interesting on the Football World Cup that the last time France had lost a Football World Cup match, it was in 2014 against eventual champions Germany (Who famously humiliated & embarrassed the host nation at the time Brazil (Who were without both Thiago Silva (The defender who was captain at the time) due to suspension & their star talisman Neymar through injury) in that infamous semifinal thrashing or should I say hiding before winning their most recent Football World Cup title (Their 4th (Along with Italy as the most successful European nation at the Football World Cup) behind the Brazilians (The most successful football playing nation at the Football World Cup with 5 (They 1st did it in 1958 followed by 1962 (The last time that a football playing nation has successfully defended the Football World Cup), 1970, 1994 (Including Italian striker Roberto Baggio missed it giving the Brazilians a successful shot at the title therefore winning on penalties & paid tribute to the late Brazilian F1 racer & 3 time Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna (Who was tragically killed (Along with the late Austrian F1 driver Roland Ratzenberger during a qualifying session in one of F1's tragic weekends at the San Marino Grand Prix way back in 1994 & is one of Lewis Hamilton's idols growing up (Compared to Senna's idol was definitely the late Jim Clark & Sebastian Vettel's idol was in fact Michael Schumacher) in a crash during a Grand Prix race at Imola in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy in May 1994) & 2002 (Including 2 goals scored by Ronaldo (Who made a successful comeback from a serious injury he suffered whilst playing for Inter Milan in a Serie A game in April 2000) in the final against Germany in Yokohama, Japan) as I mentioned before) who have never won a Football World Cup since 2002) in the final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil against Argentina with Leo Messi at the helm & with Mario Goetze being the stand out player of the game as he replaced Miroslav Klose (Who is the leading all-time goal scorer at a Football World Cup (He broke Ronaldo's record during the semi against the hosts at the time, Brazil) with 16 when he appeared in 4 tournaments (His 1st was in 2002 then 2006, 2010 & of course he emerged triumphant when he was part of the winning team in 2014 as a player) in the 2nd half then scored a goal during the 2nd period of extra time to give them a 1 - 0 lead & held on for dear life until the end & win their most recent Football World Cup title for the Germans to add to their previous titles in 1954, 1974 & 1990 (Including both Argentinians were the 1st 2 players sent off in a Football World Cup final (1st it was Pedro Monzon (Who was the 1st player to be sent off in a Football World Cup final) followed by Gustavo Dezotti (The next to go was Marcel Desailly in 1998 (Just moments before the hosts at the time went on to win the tournament (Including Zinedine Zidane scored both headers from corner kicks in the 1st half as well as he was the man of the moment of the final & of course, Emmanuel Petit finished the Brazilians off with a wonder goal to sign off in style but the match was overshadowed before the final with Ronaldo suffering a convulsive fit after lunch) for the 1st of 2 Football World Cup titles then Zinedine Zidane in 2006 (After an incident involving him & Marco Materazzi during the final in which he headbutted the Italian & got sent off by the referee for that after the 4th official saw something (The ref didn't see it at all) & John Heitinga most recently in 2010) in the quarterfinal at the Maracana in Rio in Brazil, 4 years before the French had become world champions in football at the most recent Football World Cup in 2018 (They placed Group C along with Australia, Denmark & Peru when they won 2 in a row against both the Australians & the Peruvians before their final group game against the Danish ended in a draw therefore topping Group C before winning 4 straight (Against Argentina in the round of 16 which was one of the greatest, classic Football World Cup matches of all time (Including that infamous goal scored by French defender Benjamin Pavard off a volley when Lucas Hernandez set it up in one of the greatest goals of the tournament), followed by Uruguay (Who were without Edinson Cavani as a result of an injury) in the quarterfinal, Belgium in the semifinal (Including Samuel Umtiti's header which put them through to the final) & of course Croatia in the infamous final that I mentioned before (The goal scorers for the French were Mario Mandzukic of Croatia off an own goal (Which is the 1st in history in the final of the Football World Cup) as well as Antoine Griezmann (Who is no longer France's main talisman now) off a penalty then Paul Pogba who scored a brilliant strike before young teenage sensation at the time, Kylian Mbappe (Who took over from Griezmann as France's main talisman), scored a delicate screamer to become the 2nd teenage goal scorer of the Football World Cup (The 1st was the great Brazilian football legend of Pele in 1958) but the goal scorers for Croatia were Perisic who scored an absolute stunner to equalize then Mandzukic who made a fatal mistake of scoring an own goal, chipped it in after French captain & goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made an error to score the last goal of the 2018 tournament) in my previous blogs) en route to the title). But I also mentioned in my previous blog that the champions of Euro 2016, Portugal are on the same side of the UEFA qualification playoff draw as the current European Football Championship holders Italy, although the Portuguese have not missed a Football World Cup since 1998 & are hoping to end the Italians hopes of making it to Qatar this year, but can Portugal's star talisman Cristiano Ronaldo (Although he is 37 or 38 but he has one last chance of Football World Cup glory along with his great, diminutive, formidable rival of Argentina's Lionel Messi even if the Portuguese can definitely make it by bringing it home) turn back the clock & send Portugal through to another Football World Cup? (And unlike Gianluigi Buffon as he failed to wind back the clock when Italy failed to qualify for the last Football World Cup (Along with the great football nations of the USA soccer team, the Netherlands & Chile) after being eclipsed by Sweden in the UEFA qualification playoff in 2017 but it's the Italians last chance to qualify for the Football World Cup this year before the tournament which is held in Canada, Mexico & the USA in 2026 is expanded to 48 teams (And what are our own New Zealand national football team, the All Whites chances of making it to the 2026 Football World Cup? I would say it would be happy & so proud especially given just the single Oceania qualification spot up for grabs. But it's our last chance to make it to Qatar 2022 before the expansion to 48 in 2026 (And we haven't been to the Football World Cup since 2010 (We lost to Mexico in 2013 in an intercontinental playoff then Peru 4 years later in 2017, also in an intercontinental playoff as well) in South Africa in which we ended our campaign undefeated against Slovakia, Italy (Who were defending champions at the time) & Paraguay with 3 draws (And it was way better than 1982 where it was the 1st time we actually appeared at the Football World Cup but we lost all 3 to Brazil, USSR & Scotland in the group games we played in).

And in the America's Cup department such as the next edition is going to be held in 2023 with Emirates Team New Zealand currently the holders of the Auld Mug while the challenger of record is INEOS Team UK then both Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Winners of the last Prada Cup) & American Magic are eager to stay on but the big news is the return of the Swiss syndicate of Alinghi (Dual America's Cup champions in 2003 including the one that broke Team New Zealand hearts in Auckland by hiring Team New Zealand stalwarts in 1995 & 2000 of both Russell Coutts & Brad Butterworth (And others) & in 2007 in which the last time Alinghi successfully defended the Auld Mug, once again ending Emirates Team New Zealand's hopes of bringing it home but ETNZ would have to wait until 2017 in which they triumphed in Bermuda against Oracle Team USA then we had another triumph against Luna Rossa when we completed our 2nd successful defence of the Auld Mug last year in Auckland) to the America's Cup fold for the 1st time since 2010 in which they haven't competed after losing to Oracle at Valencia, Spain in the deed of the gift challenge & spent years in the wilderness until they made the decision to make a comeback to challenge for the Auld Mug under new management in the form of Alinghi Red Bull Racing a year out in which they have yet to announce the venue (Like I said before that it won't be in Auckland but in either Portsmouth in the UK & Abu Dhabi or Dubai in the UAE).

And in the pop culture department (Especially the Star Wars related stuff) such as the guy who provided the voice of Yoda in the 2005 version of Star Wars Battlefront II, Tom Kane (Who exactly sounded like Frank Oz compared to James Arnold Taylor (Whose voice resembles Ewan McGregor a lot because he is a voice double to the famous British/Scottish actor) who voiced the iconic Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi in the same game along with Bob Bergen who exactly is the voice double of Mark Hamill by providing the voice of Luke Skywalker (And some other ones like Scott Lawrence who provided the voice of Darth Vader, exactly sounds like James Earl Jones) previously in both the Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast & Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy games as well as the Star Wars Battlefront II classic game), has announced last year that he's retiring from voice acting due to a stroke that he had in 2020 (And he was unable to cope with that ability to speak as a result of a stroke therefore calling time on his decorated voice acting career).

And in COVID-19 related news such as New Zealand are now under red due to the traffic light system (And we're back under shutdown that the New Zealand government had made its decision to declare a state of emergency last Sunday in an effort to slow the spread down (And protective face masks are currently mandated but they must give them room/space to others & supermarkets & pharmacies remain open because that is the only way that people can basically have their own food, drink & medications to survive) in order to flatten the curve) as a result of the growing number of confirmed cases of the omicron strain (Compared to Australia which is getting worse because of the high figures along with Canada, especially the Quebec province that Aunty Tania (Who works as a meat biochemist in Mont Saint-Hilaire) is currently living/residing) which can be contagious & is considered dangerous compared to the Delta variant (1st they had Delta in August last year & then in all of a sudden, Omicron now) which was the most dangerous & powerful of them all (And there had been over 300 confirmed cases now as of today).

And finally I'll be working on my blog next month (Not this one that I'm working on for which I'll post on Waitangi Day) which I'm due to post on St Patrick's Day about me being as a wrestling follower again (I haven't followed wrestling for a while since 2014 (The last time I played a wrestling game was in 2012 with WWE 12 until now most recently in which I got the new WWE 2K20 wrestling game digitally on the PS4) as well as the 1 year anniversary of the rise of Emirates Team New Zealand & its 2nd successful defence of the America's Cup & results of the newly formed Super Rugby Pacific competition which is due to start next month on the 18th of February with MP (Moana Pasifika) hosting the Blues at Mt Smart Stadium in South Auckland (The venue has changed to Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin (And at the Wakatipu Rugby Club in Queenstown where they will host day games) as one of the bio secure venues along with the Wakatipu Rugby Club in Queenstown due to the omicron strain in New Zealand which will host night matches as all 5 New Zealand & 1 Pacific Island team will be based in Queenstown for the 1st 3 weeks & have to be at their bio bubbles for both the players & team members like the coaching staff & medics & use the available training facilities there for the players but if there's fans attending a rugby game, they'll easily pick up the disease (This is like in South Africa where either a cricket or rugby union match was held without the crowds) in the opening match.

So that is my 454th blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 2nd of this year, stay safe & one love but it has been a privilege, look forward to seeing you next time, bye from us.

For What You Burn/Envy: My 1st blog of 2022

The answer lies, in the heart of battle...

Well, happy new year ladies & gentlemen but I'm now doing my 1st blog of 2022 starting with the cricket (Remember everything is about the cricket during the summer while rugby is not so much except in the northern hemisphere now that the rugby season is already over meaning that the cricket season has taken over this summer) that Australia (Coached by former test player Justin 'Alfie/JL' Langer while Alex 'Cez' Carey made his test debut in the 1st Ashes test followed by South African born player now playing for Australia (Along with Marnus 'Marn/Marney' Labuschagne (There has been a bit of South African flair throughout the Australian, English & New Zealand cricket squads) but England has Dawid Malan is the only South African born test player playing for England (The other was Jason 'Jas/J Roy' Roy who plays limited overs cricket for England & they used to have the late Anthony William 'Tony/Griegy' Greig (Who was an excellent commentator when his playing days are done & is one of my favourite cricket commentators along with the late Richard 'Richie' Benaud & William Morris 'Bill' Lawry), Allan 'Lamby' Lamb, Kevin 'KP' Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Michael Lumb, Jonathan Trott & Craig Kieswetter but New Zealand has Devon Conway (Whose nickname is Dev which is a homage to the great Indian all-rounder of Kapil Dev), Glenn 'GP' Phillips & Neil 'Wags/Waggy' Wagner & used to have Grant 'The Hairy Javelin' Elliott, Colin 'Col Munners' Munro, Kruger van Wyk & recently retired Black Cap Bradley-John 'BJ' Watling (There was once an All Black originally from South Africa named Greg Rawlinson but don't forget that there was Durban born Andrew 'Mehrts' Mehrtens as well but the All Blacks has always had a pacific island flair ranging from the 3 pacific island nations of Fiji, Samoa & Tonga (Perfect examples like Va'aiga 'Inga The Winger' Tuigamala & of course the late Jonah Lomu as Pops told me today) while Usman 'Ussie' Khawaja is an Australian of Pakistani origin then Ish Sodhi who is originally from India who plays for New Zealand & Ben Stokes who is originally a Kiwi, now playing for England compared to Jofra Archer who is an Englishman now after being originally from Barbados which is part of the West Indies & of course Imad Wasim is a Pakistani born in Wales which is part of England), Michael Neser in the 2nd Ashes test) led by their new test skipper Pat Cummins who took over from Tim Paine got off to a flyer to go 1 - 0 up in the 1st Ashes test against England at the Gabba in Brisbane (Which will host the summer Olympic Games in 2032 (32 years after the last time Australia had hosted the summer Olympics where Sydney hosted it in 2000 & it takes place 4 years after the American city of Los Angeles, California in 2028) by 9 wickets (Travis 'Trav Heady' Head was the standout performer in that game when he top scored 152 in the 1st innings but the test match will always be remembered as Australian opening bowler Mitchell Starc (AKA 'Mitch Starcy' who is the husband of Alyssa Healy (Niece of famous Australian cricketer & commentator Ian (Known as Heals (He shares the same nickname as his niece Alyssa (Who I label her as 'The other Heals' compared to New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox whose nickname is Foxy (Or more like 'The other Foxy') similar to his dad who was once a former All Black, Grant & another female Aussie cricket of Ellyse Villani who shares the same nickname of Junior as former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh (Twin brother of Steve & uncle of Austin (A former under 19 cricketer for Australia similar to South African Thando Ntini (Son of a famous cricketer from South Africa, Makhaya) & former NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr (Son of the late Dale Earnhardt) & is one of the commentators of the recently released Cricket 22 game along with Michael 'Mike Athers' Atherton, David 'Lord' Gower, Melanie 'Mel' Jones & Alison 'Ali' Mitchell) & one of the big three of Australian women's cricket such as Meghann Moira 'Meg' Lanning (Who is the skipper) & Ellyse Alexandra Perry) but there is a family affair in the Australian women's cricket team aside from Alyssa Healy such as Ellyse Perry (A female cricketer who used to be a football/soccer player) who is the partner of Wallaby rugby player Matt To'omua & there's a young White Fern named Amelia Kerr (One of the big 3 of the White Ferns compared to the Aussie big 3 of Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning & Perry along with captain Suzie Bates & WBBL winning player for the Perth Scorchers, Sophie Devine) who has a young partner who plays rugby union for both Wellington & the Hurricanes named Ruben Love) bowled English opening batter Rory Burns on the very 1st ball of the test match then Pat Cummins picking up 5 wickets on his captaincy debut (The 1st since Anil Kumble (Who is one of 3 cricketers to claim all 10 wickets in an innings during the test along with the late Englishman Jim Laker & Mumbai born Black Cap of Ajaz 'Jazzy' Patel (Who took 14 wickets of the match & was one shy of the all time New Zealand record set by Sir Richard 'Paddles' Hadlee (Son of the late Walter & brother of Dayle) did against Australia in Brisbane in 1985 when he picked up 15 wickets in a entire test match) most recently) of India while Courtney Walsh was the last pace bowler to take a 5 wicket haul as captain before Cummins) but there has been an update as the Aussies (Who were without Cummins who had tested positive for COVID-19 allowing vice captain Steve Smith to be at the helm again for Australia (His 1st since 2018 in which he was involved in sandpapergate along with David Warner & Cameron Bancroft as I mentioned before in my previous blogs) who were once again dominant against the English to lead 2 - 0 in the Ashes series after an epic, action packed day-night test (Known as the pink ball or rose test) at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide (Marnus Labuschagne top scored 103 in the 1st innings while in the 2nd innings that Jhye Richardson had picked up his 1st ever 5 wicket haul in test cricket but Labuschagne had been awarded as the standout performer of the 2nd Ashes test) but there is also been an update in the Boxing Day test as Australia have successfully defended the Ashes test series against England (The Australians are now 3 - 0 up in the series after the Boxing Day test & the ongoing story behind the success of Australian cricket in the Ashes continues (They have held the urn since they won it in 2018 in the 5th & final test in Sydney before retaining it in 2019 (A year after the ball tampering scandal involving the Aussie cricket team in South Africa which shocked the cricketing world) despite the last Ashes test series ended in a draw & it has been a roller coaster year for Australian cricket after they struggled last summer as they lost to India in the Border-Gavaskar trophy (Known as the AB-Sunny trophy) test series with Justin Langer's job as head coach of Australia was on the line before this summer but 1st, they had a magnificent but drastic turnaround as they triumphed in the T20 World Cup when they beat their Trans-Tasman rivals, the Black Caps of New Zealand in the final in Dubai in the UAE & now they complete a successful defence of the Ashes after victory against England in the Boxing Day test as well as the 3rd Ashes test (The Aussies were successful in the 1st 2 tests against the English in both Brisbane & Adelaide before Melbourne) to clinch it with both tests to spare (The remaining games are now in Sydney & Hobart (Originally Perth but had to be replaced by Hobart as a result of COVID-19 omicron in the Western Australia area) as the urn remains in Aussie hands after winning by an innings & 14 runs (Scott 'Scotty' Boland made his test debut as the 2nd male indigenous player for Australia after Jason 'Dizzy' Gillespie & was the standout player of the Boxing Day test for his 6 wickets for 7 runs in the 2nd innings but the match had been overshadowed by a positive corona virus test by one of the family members & support staff of the England cricket team yesterday (Although all players from both camps returned a negative result last night but day 2 had been delayed as a result) on Pat Cummins return to the side in his 2nd game as captain of Australia in the test format therefore capping off a year in style (And I will add updates on the next 2 remaining Ashes cricket tests if I want to but I saw a Facebook comment about me watching the Boxing Day test on TV which is 'C'mon Aussie C'mon' but I was like 'What! I never back Australia' but honestly I back England in the Ashes because of my family roots since I support both countries in cricket such as New Zealand & whoever was playing against Australia).

And in motorsport news such as one of Scott Dixon's Chip Ganassi Racing teammates of Alex Palou (A young 23 year old from Spain (A former Super Formula driver) known as the Sant Antoni de Vilamajor kid or the kid from Sant Antoni de Vilamajor who is Indy Car's equivalent of twice Formula 1 world champion of Fernando Alonso (Oveido in Spain is his birthplace compared to Lewis Hamilton's birthplace which is in Stevenage in the UK while Heppenheim in Germany is Sebastian Vettel's birthplace & Max Verstappen's birthplace is in Hasselt in Belgium but competes under the Dutch flag (Along with Michael Schumacher's son Mick who was born in Switzerland but is competing under a German licence (And unlike our very own UFC MMA fighter Israel Adesanya is Kiwi but is fighting out of Nigeria) Who is Palou's idol when he went on to win back to back Formula 1 World Championships in both 2005 & 2006 as well as the Spain's one & only F1 world champion & Carlos Sainz Jr (Son of twice World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz) but unlike in America where they had the 1st African American president of Barack Obama (He's of Kenyan descent but his birthplace was Honolulu, Hawaii who took over from George W Bush (Bill Clinton's predecessor as well as the son of the late George H W Bush & former governor of the state of Texas) & they nearly had its 1st female president should Hillary Clinton (Who missed out to Donald Trump before Trump was defeated in 2020 (1st since George H W Bush in 1992 as he lost to Bill Clinton in the US general election) in the hands of the current US president Joe Biden (The former vice president) be elected as president of the United States in 2016) has become the 1st Spanish driver in history to win the Indy Car series title (Although the rookie of the year award went to our very own 3 time Supercars champion (From 2018 until 2020) from New Zealand of Scott 'Scotty/Scotty Mac' McLaughlin (And it's not only the success of New Zealand motorsport this year as Shane 'SVG' Van Gisbergen (Who is a Kiwi of Dutch origin but his Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate as well as 7 time Supercars champion & 4 time Bathurst 1000 winner Jamie 'JDub' Whincup who had bid an emotional farewell to the sport when he competed his final full time Supercars Championship race at the mountain compared to the late Peter 'Brocky/Peter Perfect/King of the Mountain' Brock way back in 1997) is now a 2 time Supercars champion (He 1st won the Supercars championship title in 2016 & now this year to go with his Bathurst victory in 2020 with Australian Garth 'GT' Tander (A 4 time winner of the event (It was in 2000 with Jason 'Bargs' Bargwanna, 2009 with Will Davison, 2011 with Nick Percat & 2020 with van Gisbergen) but unable to follow it up last year as Chaz 'Chazzie' Mostert is now a twice Bathurst 1000 winner (He 1st did it in 2014 with Paul 'The Dude' Morris a year before he had a serious crash in which he was sidelined due to injury during qualifying & now he's done it with Lee 'Leethal' Holdsworth (Who will return to full time racing this year teaming up with 2017 Bathurst 1000 winning driver David 'Davey Dave' Reynolds) after successfully winning the annual Bathurst 1000 touring car race last month in a Holden which was considered the quickest car to triumph at the great race when he & Holdsworth started on the pole after dominating in the top 10 shootout) who came in 2nd behind fellow countryman of Dixon at the 1st race of the double-header at Texas Motor Speedway but beat the likes of 2 fellow rookies such as ex-F1 driver of France named Romain Grosjean & former 7 time NASCAR Cup Series champion (Along with 'King' Richard Petty & the late 'Intimidator' of Dale Earnhardt Sr) who is coincidentally one of Dixon's teammates of Jimmie Johnson) signalling Indycar's next-gen takeover followed by Max Verstappen (Son of Jos (Who used to be an F1 driver as well as he represented his country in the now defunct A1GP series) who made his debut in a Toro Rosso (Now AlphaTauri (The constructor that both Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Who was the surprise winner in Italy in 2020 after Hamilton got pinged for pitting when the safety car came out & the pit window was closed) & Japan's Yuki Tsunoda races for) in 2015 in which he was the youngest F1 starter at 17 at the Australian Grand Prix as well as becoming the 1st F1 driver born in the 1990's to win the world championship & is the 4th youngest F1 world champion ahead of Emerson Fittipaldi but behind Alonso (Sebastian Vettel currently holds the all time record as the youngest F1 World champion (Hamilton is 2nd on the all time list behind Vettel & ahead of Alonso) of Red Bull Racing (His 1st win in F1 came in 2016 in Spain in which he drafted in as replacement for Russian driver Daniil Kvyat (Who returned to Toro Rosso after being fired from Red Bull at his home race in Russia for causing a collision on 4 time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel (Who raced for Ferrari at the time before moving to Aston Martin (Formerly Racing Point which was the surprise winner along with AlphaTauri (And last year it went to both Alpine (In which Frenchman Esteban Ocon won in Hungary) & McLaren (In which Australian Daniel 'Danny Ricc/The Honey Badger' Ricciardo won in Italy) at the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020 (Hamilton was sidelined due to COVID-19 with George Russell of Williams (Who will now be at Mercedes this year with Hamilton as a replacement for the Alfa Romeo bound Bottas), drafting in as replacement) with Sergio Perez at the wheel (Now Perez (Who is now Verstappen's teammate) is with Red Bull that he races now) last year) & he has been with the constructor since) who is now the 1st Dutch driver in history to win the Formula 1 World Championship (I still don't follow F1 that much because of the halo except when playing the F1 games on the PS4) after winning the season finale which was a title decider in Abu Dhabi where he overtook the 7 time Formula 1 World Champion of Lewis Hamilton (He 1st did it in 2008 with McLaren then moved to Mercedes in 2013 a year before winning back to back F1 titles 2014 to 2015 then losing the title to his ex-Mercedes teammate & rival of Nico Rosberg in 2016 before he dominated from 2017 until 2020 (In which he equaled the all time record set by Germany's Michael Schumacher) until Max Verstappen ended Lewis Hamilton's 4 year reign as Formula 1 world champion with the 2021 F1 season similar to 2005 (Schumacher's only win in 2005 was in America that I remember watching the race in the morning before going to secondary school during my Ruapehu College days when only 6 cars fitted with Bridgestone tires took part in the race similar to a Gran Turismo Playstation game in which 6 cars took to the track after all cars fitted with Michelin tires opted to pull out after one of the Toyota cars crashed during a practice session (Although the race fans attending the Grand Prix were jeering by giving them raspberries & they weren't happy about it when the F1 constructors fitted with Michelin tyres elected not to take part in the race) when Hamilton was a bit like Michael Schumacher as the master while Verstappen played the role of Fernando Alonso when Alonso ended the 5 year dominance of Schumacher (Even though the talented Schumacher racing family (Which consists of Michael, Michael's brother Ralf as well as Michael's son & Ralf's nephew Mick & Ralf's son, Michael's nephew & Mick's cousin David (Who was named after the famous British/Scottish racer of David Coulthard (A relative of Supercars championship racer Fabian from New Zealand who is the second cousin of David) name is often compared to both the Andretti's (Which consists of Mario (1969 Indy 500 winner (That was the only triumph by the Andretti family at Indianapolis so far in 1969) & 1978 Formula 1 world champion (The last American F1 world champion (Compared to the late Gilles's son, Jacques Villeneuve was the last non-European F1 world champion before since 1998 that F1 has been dominated by European drivers (Mika Hakkinen (One of 3 Finns along with Nico's Finnish father Keke Rosberg & Raikkonen) won back to back titles in 1998 & 1999 followed by Michael Schumacher (One of 3 Germans to win the world championship along with Vettel & Nico Rosberg (A Finnish-German) & the most successful German F1 driver) in 2000 to 2004 then Fernando Alonso (The only Spaniard to win an F1 title) did it like Hakkinen in 2005 & 2006 before Kimi Raikkonen (Who was recently retired from Formula 1) took over in 2007 followed by Lewis Hamilton (The most successful F1 driver from Britain) in 2008 then Jenson Button in 2009 before Sebastian Vettel (The 2nd most successful F1 driver from Germany behind Schumacher & ahead of Nico Rosberg) took over to win 4 F1 world championships in a row from 2010 to 2013 then Hamilton again in 2014 & 2015 followed by Nico Rosberg (The most recent German F1 world champion as well as the 2nd son of a F1 world champion to win the title (The 1st was Damon Hill (Son of the late twice F1 world champion Graham) in 1996) in 2016 before Hamilton took over from 2017 until 2020 & now Max Verstappen most recently last year), Mario's son Michael (1991 CART champion), Mario's grandson & Michael Andretti's son Marco as well as Mario's now late twin brother Aldo & a few relatives such as the late John (Who passed away in 2020 due to a terminal illness who is the nephew of Mario), Jeff (Brother of Michael as well as another one of Mario's sons, uncle of Marco & cousin of the late John) & Jarrett (The late John's son) & the McRae's (Which consists of Jimmy, Jimmy's late son Colin (The 1995 World Rally champion (1st British driver & only Scottish driver to win the WRC crown followed by the late Richard Burns who is the only World Rally Champion from England & the most recent British driver to win the World Rally Championship in 2001) who tragically passed away in a chopper crash way back in September 2007 (2 years after Richard Burns passed away) & another one of Jimmy's sons & the late Colin's brother Alister) back in 2005) then missing out last year in which he lost the F1 crown to the new king in F1 of Verstappen (If Hamilton had won his record breaking 8th F1 world title, he would've solidified as the sport's GOAT (And what went wrong for Hamilton to lose both the race & the title? Well, to start with, he got overtaken by his main title rival on the very last lap of the championship which proved to be the game changer/turning point & cost him a big chance in a title deciding race billed as winner takes all in terms of the decision in which he lodged a complaint to the Australian race director Michael Masi in which Hamilton embroiled in a feud with Masi whether Verstappen had gained an unfair advantage after the safety car period had been expired (And it looks like Mercedes are in fact slower under the new cost saving measures compared to Red Bull which had the quicker car but however, Mercedes had managed to win the constructors title despite missing out on a driver’s championship (And it was the 1st time had been happened since 2008 when Ferrari had won the constructors championship, but Lewis Hamilton (Who was racing with McLaren at the time) eventually won the title when he overtook German Timo Glock in the Toyota during the last lap in Brazil to finish 5th which was won by a Brazilian of Felipe Massa (Who missed out on the title & was one of the greatest drivers in F1 history to have never won a world championship (Unlike French born Brazilian driver (Who was a Indycar rookie of the year award winner in 1995 as well as a dual CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) champion in 2000 & 2001 & winner of the 2003 Indy 500), Gil de Ferran, who was one of the 50 greatest drivers to have never raced in Formula 1 along with the late Canadian racer of Greg Moore (Who was due to drive for Penske in the 2000 Champ Car season with Gil de Ferran (Who left Walker Racing after the 1999 season) as his team-mate (It was Helio Castroneves who took over Moore's seat for the 2000 season after Moore got tragically killed during a CART race at the California Speedway), but that never happened due to the tragic accident that Moore had on the very last race of the 1999 Champ Car season (Unfortunately for Moore, he tragically passed away as a result of serious injuries he suffered in a crash) in the Ferrari but however, Max Verstappen's form has led many to mark him out as the future successor to Lewis Hamilton as the sport's number one driver (Compared to Alonso as Schumacher's successor), & has set up an explosion of Formula One interest in the Netherlands) during the final lap of the title deciding race (Verstappen did a Alex Zanardi (Who lost both legs in a crash during a Champ Car race in Germany in 2001) moment from 1996 in which he overtook Bryan Herta (Who is the father of current Indy car driver Colton (Who was one of the championship contenders during the 2021 Indy car season along with Mexican Patricio 'Pato' O'Ward & of course Palou who eventually became the new Indy Car series champion sponsored by NTT in the end but if Michael Andretti had taken over Alfa Romeo, Colton Herta would've got that race seat to team up with Valtteri Bottas but now Zhou Guanyu (Who will partner Bottas (Who raced for Williams from his debut in 2013 until 2016 in which he replaced the retiring world champion Nico Rosberg to join Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton's teammate from 2017 until last year & is now found himself racing at Alfa Romeo from this year as a replacement for the recently retired F1 driver, the 2007 world champion, Kimi 'The Iceman' Raikkonen (They'll be 4 world champions lining up in the F1 grid for 2022 (3 former (Such as Alonso, Hamilton & Vettel) & 1 current (Now Max Verstappen) & is China's 1st ever Formula 1 driver) has now taken over that race seat after the takeover deal had eventually been cancelled) on the infamous corkscrew turn on the last lap of an Indy Car race at Laguna Seca in which Zanardi won & took his rookie of the year honors (One of his teammates at the time of Jimmy Vasser had been crowned the new Indycar champion in 1996 beating the likes of other championship contenders such as Michael Andretti (Who had a disappointing result during the race) & Al 'Al Junior/Little Al' Unser Junior (The son of the now late Al Unser & missed out on a win in Road America in 1996 after his car's engine completely blew on the final lap of the race handing victory to Michael Andretti) to seal the title (Both Max Verstappen & Hamilton were tied on equal points going into Abu Dhabi but Verstappen has had the advantage with the most victories during the season at 9 (Now 10 since he won both the race & the world championship last year in which the 2021 F1 World Championship season was considered to be the best F1 season ever of all time) compared to Hamilton's 8) & has become the most successful racing car driver from Holland since Arie Luyendyk won the Indy 500 (Which was won by Brazil's Helio Castroneves last year who is now the most successful Indy 500 winner in which he won the event 4 times (The most by a foreign driver) along with the 3 Americans of A.J. Foyt (1961, 1964, 1967 & 1977), the now late Al 'Big Al' Unser (1970-71, 1978 & 1987) who recently passed away & of course, Rick Mears (1979, 1984, 1988 & 1991) in 2001 - 02 then 2009 & now last year) twice in 1990 & 1997 but will be able to run car number 1 next year as he follows in Sebastian Vettel's footsteps in 2014 (Unlike Lewis Hamilton (Who is a influential, iconic global figure in sport along with Tom Brady (An American football/gridiron player from America who is a 7 time Super Bowl champion (6 with the New England Patriots & once with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), LeBron James (A Basketball player also from the US who is a 4 time NBA champion (Twice with the Miami Heat & Once with both the Cleveland Cavaliers & the Los Angeles Lakers) & Virat Kohli (A cricketer from India who is a 50 over Cricket World Cup winning player for India in 2011) kept his car number for his world championship winning triumphs along with Valentino Rossi (The great Moto GP rider from Italy), Marc Marquez (The most excellent Moto GP rider from Spain), van Gisbergen, McLaughlin & Ott Tanak (The Estonian rally superstar) but I wonder the headlines would probably say after Verstappen's triumph in Abu Dhabi: VERSTAPPEN DETHRONES HAMILTON AS NEW F1 WORLD CHAMPION or more like SUPER MAX IS THE NEW F1 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. And I mean what a disappointing way for one of the sports all time greats of Lewis Hamilton who came agonizingly close & had fallen short of winning a record 8th F1 crown like this, what a race for our viewers right around the world.

And in COVID-19 related news such as the Australian state of Western Australia have already declared a state of emergency (There has been a setback as the 5th & final Ashes test will be played at Blundstone Arena (Bellerive Oval) in Hobart instead of the new Perth Stadium in Perth due to the shutdown that they have declared (They will have to spend a fortnight in MIQ (Managed isolation quarantine) upon arrival during the state of emergency) but the Premier League football in England could be suspended in wake of the Tottenham Hotspurs players testing positive as well as the Real Madrid (Who are league leaders in La Liga) players due to the omicron variant has reached across both the UK & Ireland already (And some players from the NBA, NFL & NHL have failed a COVID-19 test but the NHL (Who suspended its season until January 10th in Canada but they should split into 2 regional competitions such as one for the American teams dubbed as NHL USA & the other for the Canadian teams known as NHL Canada & the fans would've been happy if the competition is split into 2 so that the teams have less travel around the American-Canadian border unlike in both Super Rugby Aotearoa & Super Rugby AU competitions (I was having a discussion with Pops today on Christmas day about it) won't send its front line players/big guns for their country to the Winter Olympics in Beijing without paying a financial penalty (The players would have to spend a total of 5 weeks in MIQ on arrival as a result) after a passenger arrived from either Denmark, Germany or South Africa picked up the omicron variant (And there was a person arrived from Australia to New Zealand also contracted the virus which is less serious than the Delta strain but we are now on orange (Which is alert level 2 & a half under the new COVID-19 framework which was introduced from the 3rd of December) as well as the borders have opened up between the Northland, North Harbour, Auckland & Counties Manukau areas & the rest of the country since the 15th of December) but I heard it from today's newspaper that there's 11,000 confirmed cases in New South Wales in Australia (There was a person possibly arriving from Western Australia (Which is still under state of emergency shutdown as of today) picking up the omicron variant) compared to the 5 million in the American state of California (Our figures here are low compared to both NSW & California), it seems that more people are getting infected from a serious disease such as COVID-19 which still haunts us forever especially around the world during our difficult, harsh, tough times.

And in news related to the rock music industry such as the Foo Fighters have now been inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame joining the likes of Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica (Who I was a huge fan of that band back in 2007), Aerosmith, AC DC (I was also a huge fan of that band along with Metallica in 2007 but now I'm just an average Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Incubus & A Perfect Circle fan compared to Leon Benbaruk (Who I am meeting tomorrow (Pops is taking me there along with Carole) along with his Swedish Kiwi partner Michelle Johansson (Who I call her Chelle or MJ now as her 2 new nicknames compared to Jennifer Morgan who is now JMorgs & my second cousin Ben's partner Sanne (Once known as Robina before legitimately changing her name) who is now known as Sann (Formerly Robbo) & CJ (Carole's American friend known as Ceej) always being a Pink Floyd fan (And he supports Liverpool FC compared to my best friend who I haven't seen since 2017 of Sophia Ong (Mother of her son Shaia now as well as the sister to Amelia (Younger sister) & Jason (Brother) & she's the eldest daughter in her family to her parents Alex (Father) & Evelyn (Mother) who is a huge Manchester United fan (And her favourite rock bands are 3 Doors Down, Korn, Linkin Park (Used to be back in her UCOL days) & Nickelback (One of my favourite Canadian rock bands) & me being both a Chelsea FC (My favourite English football club) & FC Barcelona fan (My favourite football club) but never owned both a Filter & Shihad album (Which the 4 albums (Both from Filter & Shihad respectively but come in second hand) are on their way as one of my Christmas presents that I requested to Aunty Tania via email), the Rolling Stones, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana (That's Grohl's old band during his days as a drummer before the band had been dissolved in wake of the tragic passing of their lead singer & primary guitarist, the late Kurt Cobain (Who had once been together with Hole front woman Courtney Love & has a daughter named Frances Bean (Compared to Paris Jackson who is the daughter of the late Michael Jackson who passed away in 2009) way back in 1994), Green Day, U2, Queen & Guns N Roses (Well, to name a few but GNR is my mum's favourite rock band) although the lead singer of the band, Dave Grohl (Who recently released an autobiography called Dave Grohl The Storyteller: Tales of Life & Music (That Carole's son Andy has now got but Ben's favourite Foo Fighters song is Stranger Things Have Happened compared to Everlong which is my favourite song from the Foos). But this autobiography is about from taking grunge into the mainstream with Nirvana to helming the Foo Fighters and growing into a beloved elder statesman of alternative rock (And this one is about Grohl as he is a rock legend reflecting on his career because of that book is an extremely well-written love story to music) is now a double inductee (1st with his former band Nirvana as the drummer & now most recently with the Foos as the front man & one of the guitarists) but now I have 15 rock albums in my room including 3 from Shihad (Which is by far my favourite Kiwi rock band of all time & my 6th favourite ahead of Filter but behind A Perfect Circle) which I've got now, 2 from the Red Hot Chili Peppers followed by the Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Incubus & Filter & only 1 from both A Perfect Circle & Dire Straits (In which I liked the album so much because I was so impressed & I asked Pops I did not know he had a Dire Straits album (Even though Dad (Who used to be a FC Barcelona supporter like me but changed allegiances to Paris St Germain (PSG) because of the star Argentinian footballer Lionel 'Leo' Messi (A Copa America winning player for Argentina most recently last year who used to be a Barcelona player until his move to PSG (Which features the likes of Neymar (Messi's teammate during his FC Barcelona days & Olympic gold medalist for Brazil in Rio in 2016), Kylian Mbappe (A World Cup winning player for France most recently in 2018 who played against Messi at the last Football World Cup in Russia when the French played against the Argentinians in the round of 16), Sergio Ramos (Ex Real Madrid player & Football World Cup winner in 2010 for Spain) & Gianluigi 'The other Gigi' Donnarumma (Former AC Milan player & a European Football Championship winning player for Italy most recently in 2020 (The tournament was held last year instead because of the COVID-19 pandemic that they had in 2020) currently playing that club now) was a huge fan of Dire Straits back in the 80s & he was hooked into Mexican food so much during his days in America in 1982-83 with Pops (Who had a Fulbright when he went to America with his family), Aunty Tania & the late Nan (Well, I'm always both an Indian & Italian food lover compared to Dad who loves Mexican food a lot) but I used to like both Andrea Bocelli & Cafe de Paris & I thought I was going to listen Edith Piaf, Lou Bega, the O Brother Where Art Thou movie soundtrack, Roger Miller & the Topp Twins but I've decided not to now as a result because I prefer rock music (And I'll listen to Dire Straits if England win either the Football, Cricket or Rugby World Cups but if New Zealand win either the Cricket or Rugby World Cup, I'll be listening to Shihad but listening to these rock tunes remind me of a rave party in Namibia where they play rock instead of house or techno music).

And so many sporting events to look forward to this year apart from the corona virus such as the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the People's Republic of China (The last time Beijing hosted the Olympics was in 2008 during the summer Olympics) followed by the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England (Originally going to be held in Durban, South Africa but it has been moved to Birmingham in England) then the Rugby League World Cup in England (It was due to be held last year but it changed it to this year because of the troubles caused by the pandemic but the most successful rugby league playing nation of the Kangaroos of Australia have been the current holders since they successfully retained the RLWC when they won the last edition in 2017 against England in the final at Lang Park in Brisbane), the T20 World Cup in Australia (Where the Aussies will have a chance to defend it on home soil a year out until the next 50 over Cricket World Cup in India (England are the current holders going into the tournament in 2023 (Same year that the Rugby World Cup will take place in France (South Africa (Who are one of the All Blacks main challengers (It's up to 5 compared to 3 (Australia, Ireland & South Africa) before the last Rugby World Cup in 2019 (Same year that both Springbok Rugby World Cup winners in 1995 of James Small & Chester Williams who sadly passed away (They joined 2 other players such as the late Ruben Kruger who passed away in 2010 after a lengthy battle with a terminal illness then the late Joost van der Westhuizen in 2017 from MND & the coach of South Africa in 1995, Kitch Christie in 1998 due to a terminal illness just like Kruger but Christie was even a cancer sufferer since he 1st diagnosed it in 1979 until his passing 19 years later) of the 2023 tournament along with Argentina, Australia (The Wallabies), hosts France & of course Ireland (And I hardly mentioned England in terms of the test matches outside of the Rugby World Cup (They last beat us outside of the World Cup in 2012 but the last time New Zealand played England outside of the RWC, it was in 2018 in which we won the test (Including the English thought that they scored the match winning try but the try had been disallowed by the TMO as a result of Courtney Lawes in which he was adjudged to be in an offside position by charging down the kick from New Zealand therefore costing England a chance of sealing a win (And they had to wait a year before they rolled over the All Blacks in the semifinal of the last Rugby World Cup in 2019 (And I remember that I had to stop watching after the 39th minute when the AB's were trailing & after the AB's had famously been defeated (1st time at a Rugby World Cup since 2007 against France in the quarterfinal stages of the tournament), I wouldn't watch the final but if the AB's had won, I would watch the final) but they could be main challengers since they beat us in the infamous semi in 2019 compared to the Springboks main challengers of the 2023 Rugby World Cup are in fact the Wallabies of Australia, England & the AB's of New Zealand) go into the tournament as defending world champions & tournament favourites since they're currently ranked the best rugby playing nation in the world during recent times after previously winning their 3rd Rugby World Cup title in 2019 (Their 1st came in 1995 followed by 2007 & most recently in 2019 as I mentioned before) after winning the last 50 over Cricket World Cup in 2019) after dominating in the final against the Black Caps of New Zealand at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai in the UAE last year (And the only time Australia lost a 2021 T20 World Cup match, it was against England (Who lost to both South Africa in the group game & New Zealand (The nation that Australia beat in the final along with Pakistan (Who the Australians defeated in the semi) in the opening group game) in the semi final) in the group game (Unlike the Springboks at the most recent RWC in 2019 where the only time that they lost a match during the tournament before going on to become world champions after prevailing against the English in the final was against New Zealand (Who England beat in that infamous semi) in an opening pool match) & of course the most important which is the Football World Cup in Qatar (With the current holders of the Football World Cup, France (Twice world champions in 1998 (It was against the Brazilians in the final on home turf at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis in which they thrashed them by 3 goals) & most recently in 2018 when they famously beat Croatia by both goals in the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia) looking to become the 1st football playing nation since Brazil (The 5 time world champions who haven't triumphed since 2002 after previously winning it in 1958 as well as 1962 in which the last time that they famously retained the Football World Cup then 1970, 1994 & of course 2002 (Their most recent triumph) & is the only football playing nation to have appeared in every tournament since its beginning in 1930 (Both the 1942 & 1946 tournaments were eventually cancelled due to the war) in 1962 to successfully defend the Football World Cup title & have secured qualification at the next Football World Cup along with Euro 92 champions Denmark (Who lost to England in the semi final of Euro 2020 under controversial circumstances at Wembley Stadium (Venue for much of Euro 2020) in London), Euro 2020 runners up & 1966 winners England, 2010 winners & 3 time European football champions (1964, 2008 & 2012 along with 4 time world champions Germany (1954, 1974, 1990 & 2014) who won it on 3 occasions in 1972, 1980 & 1996) Spain & Switzerland (Who have never missed a Football World Cup since 2002) but the defending 2 time European champions (1968 & 2020 (It was played last year due to COVID-19 that had happened in 2020) & 4 time World Cup winners Italy (Who have done it in 1934, 1938, 1982 & most recently in 2006) will have another chance of making it to Qatar via the UEFA qualification playoff after missing out on top of the Football World Cup European qualifying group because it went to the Swiss who topped the group to secure qualification (And unlike in 2017 that the Italians failed to make it to Russia allowing Sweden (Who beat the Italians in the 1st leg before the 2nd leg ended in a draw) to qualify for the most recent Football World Cup in 2018, 3 years before Italy had a tremendous turnaround to claim the Euros as they defeated England (Who scored 1st in the 1st half then the Italians responded with an equalizer in the 2nd half, therefore the match was virtually decided by a penalty shootout) on penalties in the final at Wembley Stadium in London) but the defending European champions of Italy are in danger of failing to qualify again as well as not making it to Qatar in 2022 because they have been shunted on the same side of the UEFA qualification playoff draw as Portugal (Who want to extend/keep that run/streak going because the last time the Portuguese failed to qualify, it was in 1998 but have appeared at the Football World Cup since 2002 (Including in 2013 that Portugal nearly failed to qualify as they beat the Swedish to avoid missing out on qualification as they made it to Brazil in 2014) & they would have to retain Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo (Who would have his last chance of Football World Cup glory along with Argentina's Lionel Messi if Portugal make it to Qatar) as their best player the Italians not hoping for as part of Italy's worst case scenario strategy) but this is like the AB's who are in the same pool as the host nation France (First time since 2011) in Pool A who are due to meet in the opening match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup with the winner of Pool A will face Ireland (Who'll face the All Blacks again just like in 1995 & 2019 if they lose to South Africa in Pool B but have never been beaten New Zealand before at the Rugby World Cup & the Irish have never made it through to both the semifinals & the final & are looking to end that quarterfinal curse) in the quarterfinals but if the All Blacks (Who'll put their unbeaten streak in the pool games on the line in which they face the French in the 2023 RWC opener as well as New Zealand's 1st meeting with France at a RWC since the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarterfinals in which the AB's ran riot & were overwhelmingly dominant but the All Blacks have never lost a quarterfinal game since 2007 against France (In which was one of the AB's worst results at a RWC & the last time they lost until 2019 in which England ended New Zealand's hopes of winning a hat-trick of Rugby World Cups in our dreaded semifinal game as I mentioned before in my previous blogs) & the last time France had beaten the AB's at a Rugby World Cup (Their 1st win for the French against New Zealand came in 1999 in the semifinal where they came back strong after the late Jonah Lomu crossed over for his double but France enabled/launched beast mode when they were trailing in which they punished the All Blacks by utilizing a bit of French flair in the 2nd half to make the final) lose to the French, they'll face the current Rugby World Cup holders the Springboks (Who has never been beaten at a RWC match since against New Zealand in a pool game in 2019 (The last time South Africa had beaten their great rivals the AB's at a Rugby World Cup, it was in 1999 in the 3rd/4th place playoff) & are undefeated in every Rugby World Cup final that the South Africans (Who ended the utter dominance of the AB's (The English beat them in that infamous semifinal) in 2019 to win their 3rd Rugby World Cup title (Only once in RWC history that a rugby playing nation has successfully won back to back & that honor went to New Zealand who had won in 2011 before defending it in 2015) & are looking to win a 4th Rugby World Cup to become the most successful rugby playing nation at the RWC as well as the 2nd Rugby playing nation after the All Blacks (Who are also looking to become the most successful rugby playing nation in Rugby World Cup history) to defend the RWC) in the final against England in Yokohama, Japan) have played (They also never conceded a try as well & scored the 1st 2 tries of the Rugby World Cup final most recently in 2019 against England with Makazole Mapimpi (Who stepped up to the occasion as the 1st choice left winger after Aphiwe Dyantyi had served a ban as a result of doping) followed by Cheslin Kolbe (The fast agile, right winger who was there to show the world) in the other quarterfinal.

And finally 2021 was another year to forget with the pandemic still going (+ There had been a takeover by the Taliban in Afghanistan forcing people to flee the country as refugees) & it has been a magnificent but wonderful sporting year such as Emirates Team New Zealand retaining sailing's holy grail in our 2nd successful defence which is the oldest trophy in international sport, the America's Cup (Which last year (2021) is by far, my standout America's Cup moment because it was better than in 1995 (In which was one of Pops standout America's Cup moments because it was the moment that the voice of yachting of Peter 'PJ' Montgomery famously said before Team New Zealand crossed the line to win race 5 in the best of 9 races of the 29th America's Cup in San Diego, California in America "The America's Cup, is now, New Zealand's cup!"), 2000 (In which was our 1st successful defence) & 2017) against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Who are twice winners of the America's Cup challenger selection series (It was known as the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000 before it was renamed the Prada Cup earlier last year but it was the 4th straight America's Cup that Jimmy Spithill (Who is now the skipper of the American Sail GP team competing in Sail GP (Which is the breakaway America's Cup series) had been involved in (He was part when Oracle Team USA when they triumphed in both 2010 & 2013 (Including the miracle of San Francisco in which I mentioned in my previous blogs) America's Cups before being on the losing side in both 2017 in Bermuda with Oracle Team USA & last year in 2021 with Luna Rossa & the 3rd consecutive America's Cup that Emirates Team New Zealand had been in the America's Cup match (We missed out in 2013 in San Francisco before succeeding in both 2017 in Bermuda against Oracle & 2021 in Auckland against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli & was the 2nd straight America's Cup that Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling had been involved in (He was the helmsman serving under skipper Glenn Ashby in 2017) of Italy at the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland then the Black Caps winning the historic 1st ever World Test Championship against India in the final at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton in England followed by Italy winning Euro 2020 after beating England on penalties in the final at Wembley Stadium in London before the summer Olympic Games was held in Tokyo, Japan where New Zealand won 7 gold medals (The most that NZ had won a number of gold medals during modern times but just one shy of the all time record set by 8 in Los Angeles in 1984 as I also mentioned before in my previous blogs) as well as 6 silvers & 6 bronzes (The most successful number of medals that New Zealand won in the modern era) before the Australia cricket team completed the rare double by winning both the T20 World Cup (Their 1st T20 World Cup title to add to their 5 50 over Cricket World Cup triumphs in 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 & most recently in 2015 (The other cricket playing nations that have won the T20 World Cup are India, Pakistan, England, the West Indies (The most successful cricket playing nation in the T20 World Cup) twice & Sri Lanka) against the Black Caps in the final (Although the stand out player went to Mitch 'The Bison' Marsh who did a James 'Jimmy' Faulkner at the 2015 50 over Cricket World Cup final) at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai & successfully defended the Ashes (They have been current holders since they won the last Ashes held in Australia in 2018 before this year which was 4 - 0 (There was a drawn test in Melbourne in 2017 where English player at the time, Alastair Cook who posted a double ton of 244 not out when he carried the bat as England saved themselves from certain defeat) before the last Ashes series held in England in 2019 was drawn at 2 - 2 but Australia clinched it with a win in the 4th test in Manchester) against England by clinching it in the 3rd test which is the Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Known as the MCG or the G) in Melbourne with 2 test matches to spare.

So that is my 453rd blog of the year 2022 (MMXXII) & my 1st of this year, stay safe & one love (And until next time it's bye from us).