Today was a travelling day for me, and a bloody miserable one at that.
I headed north to meet the family who have been up at the in-laws since Thursday. It’s the school holidays and we’ve had to be a bit creative to keep the boys under control. Creative, for me, has meant a little break while Jean has had to manage the kids. She’s done well, with the help of her parents.
But now I’ve headed north to join them for a couple of days and it was wet out. Very wet, and windy and grey and wintery. It made for a fun drive…
Before heading over the bridge I planned to stop in at Kiwitea Street, ostensibly to take a few photos for a Chatham Cup preview I’ll be putting together during the week. The two teams on show in today’s NRFL Premier League match, Central United and Hamilton Wanderers, meet at the same venue in two weeks in the quarter finals of the cup. So this was a perfect opportunity to get a few pics and a heads up for what’ll go down in that far more important match.
But the rain put paid to that too. By the time I got to the Bombay hills I’d decided not to bother as I couldn’t think of too many things worse than getting soaked at a match I had no real stake in. As it turns out the decision was a good one because the game was called off anyway. Wanderers were probably happy to have a respite from their weekly trek up the goat track.
As an aside, there probably aren’t too many places more bleak than the toilets at the Bombay services. I know them well. I was forced to stop there today as my body still hasn’t got over years of driving the bus to away games in Auckland. My body quickly got into the rhythm of stopping at the services and going for a wee. And I needed a wee today. Just for old times’ sake I guess. Walking into those messy bloody toilets, though…
Needless to say I was on the road pretty damn quick.
I made it to Whangaparaoa and my family in good time and found out not long after that my Swifts had won again. Four in a row. What a turnaround. I’d better make sure I’m at the Domain next Saturday to see if they can make it five.
Pick for Day 31
Brazil 3-2 Netherlands. The 3rd place game always has goals so I expect this will be a far more open and high scoring match than the final. I don’t think either side overly cares about this match, but Brazil owes a result to their nation. The Dutch will probably have all their subs out. Van Gaal will probably give himself a run – that’s how little he appears to care about this match.