There’s now only 22 days before I leave for Vancouver and my first ever World Ultimate and Guts Championship (WUGC). Training’s taking its toll as I’m left pretty tired every night from either a 90min gym session or sprints/shuttles in the park. Still, it’ll all be worth it when I step onto the pitch for my first point.

Farewell, old friend; I hope your tail is wagging as vigourously as ever as you chase cats, chew endless bones and avoid countless baths in the doggy-heaven you’ve made your way to.

Farewell, old friend; you’ve been the source of much joy, anger, laughter, frustration, love and sorrow for the past 15 years - the comedian and baby of the family.

Farewell, old friend; our lives will never be the same without your barking through the night and herculean leash-pulling at the thought of walks in the park and cats on a fence.

Farewell, old friend; always loved and forever missed.

As of 16:30 GMT, Wednesday the 30th April 2008, I am officially a homeowner!

I made only one new year’s resolution this year - to buy a house within 4 months, and I’ve done it (albeit *just* in time…)!

Move in date is the 16th May…when I’m in Sydney!

why is buying a house in this country so difficult?!

curse you politicians who can’t get off their lazy backside to streamline the process!

Wow. Dubai. Talk about a tall, sparkly, shiny city! There is so much construction going on in the city that apparently 1/3 of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. They’ve got the world’s best hotel (Burj Al Arab - shaped like a sail and will blow you away at £1300 per night), the middle east’s largest shopping mall (Mall of the Emirates) with its own indoor ski field, and they’re currently building the world’s largest shopping mall and the world’s tallest apartment tower (almost 1km high, 120 floors, with the very tip of the tower capable of swaying 1.6m).

Of course, you have to remember that Dubai is still in the desert, and a short 20 minute drive out of town will put you smack bang in the middle of nowhere, which is exactly where I ended up…on purpose!

More later. I’m sick again. Third time in two months. Ugh.

bridge-to-bridge. 40min.

I’ll let you in on a little secret - one of the motivations for me to leave NZ for the shores of the UK was the realisation that I had to settle down and buy a house. Strangely enough, I’m now in a stage in my life where I’m ready to purchase a house. Perhaps it’s discovering that a mortgage is only £300 per month more than what I’m paying in rent. Or perhaps I’m sick of paying off someone else’s mortgage and not being able save enough for retirement. All these grown-up things are great to think, but quite difficult to put into practice.

I went to my first viewing yesterday. A bit disappointing, but perhaps that’s good. Best keep my feet on the ground when it comes to spending £300,000 on bricks and mortar. I’ve got one more tomorrow, and some for next weekend. Should be good fun…for now!

Oh yeah, I’m off to Dubai for a week on monday

Whoops! I meant to post this a while ago, but only saved it as a draft!
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I can’t rave enough about New York, especially the shopping. I saved up my shopping urges for over 6 months and come 6th December (well, the 7th December by the time we had made it to the YMCA) they all came out!
New York for shopping is a place like no other. Even in London there isn’t the madness that exists when you have 1) a large concentration of retail stores, 2) retail stores that are always trying to be the biggest, largest, and most magnificent (case in point: Macy’s - 9 floors, 2 buildings of shopping heaven), and 3) a currency that is extremely weak against the British ££.

Anyway, I spent lots and lots (well over my budget!) and thoroughly enjoyed myself! One note of warning to those thinking of going though - while it’s cheap to buy stuff, accommodation is frighteningly expensive…

I can’t remember the last time I lost my voice completely. In fact, I don’t think I ever have. I couldn’t even pronounce my own surname to the hotel reception to check out! It just goes to show how dependant we are on vocal communications (even though much of what we “say” is communicated non-verbally) and how much we take it for granted! The ironic thing was that I’ve never had as many people call me during the time my voice has been gone and I can’t even record a new message on my voicemail saying that I couldn’t talk!

Having no voice got me thinking…is it possible to get vocal cord reconstruction? If so, I wonder if I could get mine extended so I could have a voice like Barry White…that would be so cool!

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at a seminar series in The Netherlands and took some time off afterwards to see a bit of the country. Amsterdam was great, albeit very interesting, and The Hague and Haarlem was fun to wander around. The Dutch are always pleasant and friendly, and even though the weather was quite bad the cities are still a beautiful place to be.

I was staying with a friend while in The Hague and they had an *interesting* toilet design…an “inspection shelf”! Instead of having the water-holding part of the bowl at the back where one would deposit ones goods, this toilet had the water at the front, and a mostly-flat shelf at the back. Now I know the Dutch can be a little crazy at times, but the person who designed this must have been on a diet consisting solely of space cakes because it makes absolutely no sense to have this “shelf”. When you’ve finished your business (number 2, of course), you have no option but to view the remnants of your bowels as you turn to reach for the flush button.

To this day I still shudder from the sight of what could only be described as “an unbelievably long single piece of dark brown human-chocolate”