For Sale

"1 x Setanta Broadband Package. Barely used. Upset owner."

I guess that's progress - at least they converted the try this time in their 32-6 loss...

No history repeat please!

I'm anxiously glued to my computer waiting for the game to start...

Very soon, like in 26 minutes, New Zealand's only pro Rugby League team will take on the Manly Sea Eagles in the last semi-final of this year's NRL (Aussie Rugby League competition), to see who takes the last spot in this year's final.

Middle of this year and they were doing terribly, everyone had written them off. While I was in NZ they turned their season around and started their current winning streak (10 in 12 games to today) which took them to the play-offs and, now, very against the odds, to the semi-finals.

I got to see about 2 of those first few games of that run and none since, bugger it.

Figuring I'd blow £10+ if I went to see it at the pub this morning, I thought I'd cough up the bucks for Setanta Sports so I can actually watch it from the comfort of my own home. Actually, with my laptop and my mobile broadband contract I could watch it from the top of the nearest hill, but home will do for this morning.

It's funny since I once saw the Warriors play live at the Sydney oval way back in '95, shortly after I'd first left left NZ. The club had only just formed and on the other side of the equation, I had a mate who had played for Manly in time gone by - so I was keen to see the game while passing through New South Wales.

Unfortunately, as the time for game start drew close, I’d been on a 50-hour bender, part of which was spent in the pub from the beginning scene of the massively crap film ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, which is worth a digression in itself. I'm not much of a fan of musicals in the first place, so it was never going to have much hope with me, but, to add to its doom, some clown had told me before the film started, way back when, that it was about 'aliens', or that is what I heard anyway. So, I sat there for 1/2 the film wondering when & how on earth aliens were going to come into this film?

When it finally truly dawned on me that they weren't and this was as good as it gets, I was pretty pissed!

Anyhoose, back on the day, entering my 49th hour with a wee accomplice at my side, I figured I was up to going to the stadium to watch the game. So, I actually made it across Sydney and into the stadium, but, sadly, faded as the game started, passing out ½ way through the game... falling asleep on the grassy bank!

I only woke up as the game was over and the crowd were all leaving. Lucky thing really – since the bloody mongrels lost by 52-4!

1 minute to go...