Tomorrow's the start of a new week, and it's been an enjoyable 4-day break :) On Friday my wife and I were invited to stay over at a villa at Pacific Harbour (by the parents of one of our friends). It was a totally relaxing stay... all I did was eat, sleep and swim. The weather was bright and sunny, and the pool water was cold - a great combination! After swimming I'd take a nap in the lounge chair and then it would be time for lunch. And on Saturday morning we went for a walk around the suburbs. There're a lot of empty lots just waiting to be purchased and have villas or houses built there, and a quite a few little streets just sitting empty, without any houses whatsoever there. Some villas were halfway built; apparently their owners ran out of money to complete the construction. A great place to get away on the weekends if you had your own place there (and the cash to build or buy it!).
I couldn't leave without a visit to my favourite place in Pac Harbour, ParadICE (which sells fruity drink combos and ice creams), so before we left, we paid a visit there. The frozen yoghurt was good, as always, but I bought a black pearl tea (sour lychee flavour) which wasn't that good at all. It was full of ice (which it shouldn't be) and the flavour... was actually mango! Their black pearl teas must have been a new addition and maybe they're still getting used to making it, but I think I'd rather stick to the ones I can buy at Easyway in Australia.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Fiji Wins!
Fiji won in Adelaide tonight and victory was sweet. Coming back after the loss to Samoa in HK last week, the boys made up for it and gave them a good hiding, 21-7. YESSSSS! Fiji had an especially tough journey to the finals. First they had to dispatch a tough Tongan team, almost going down 22-21, had an easy victory over Canada (33-7), but were overcome by a resurgent England team 20-12 (who incidently, were beaten by Tonga 12-5!!) Well, that was all just during the pool matches!
Even tougher was the quarters & semis - Fiji had a draw with South Africa 17-all at full time and scored in sudden death to win 22-17. Then we had another showdown with NZ and again scores were tied 17-all almost at full-time, but Ryder saved the day by scoring just before the final whistle to nail it, 24-17. Then, Samoa. We were expecting a cracker of a match and weren't disappointed. There were some freakin' tough tackles done on the Samoan players; just as well Naevo didn't get sent off for that bruising judo throw on his unfortunate Samoan victim! In the end, we got what we came for... the Cup.
Now it's just left for the England & Scotland legs, and then the Sevens circuit for 2006/07 is finished. All the best boys and bring back the title of Sevens champs for the year again!
Even tougher was the quarters & semis - Fiji had a draw with South Africa 17-all at full time and scored in sudden death to win 22-17. Then we had another showdown with NZ and again scores were tied 17-all almost at full-time, but Ryder saved the day by scoring just before the final whistle to nail it, 24-17. Then, Samoa. We were expecting a cracker of a match and weren't disappointed. There were some freakin' tough tackles done on the Samoan players; just as well Naevo didn't get sent off for that bruising judo throw on his unfortunate Samoan victim! In the end, we got what we came for... the Cup.
Now it's just left for the England & Scotland legs, and then the Sevens circuit for 2006/07 is finished. All the best boys and bring back the title of Sevens champs for the year again!
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Long Weekend
Well, tomorrow's the last day of a 3-day work week, and I'm sorta wondering what we'll be doing on the long weekend. This past Monday was a holiday, as it was Prophet Mohammed's b'day, and Friday & the coming Monday are part of the Easter weekend.
Already it looks like quite an eventful week, as far as natural disasters are concerned. On Monday an earthquake of around 8 on the Richter scale hit the sea off the Solomon Islands and a tsunami warning was quickly issued. Unfortunately, the Solomons got hit pretty bad and there's been a number of people killed. However, here in Fiji, people just didn't seem to take the warning seriously. Police were out on the beaches trying to get people off the shores and safe onto high grounds but apparently this had the opposite effect, as people instead flocked to the beaches in the hopes of seeing a giant wave come up. According to the papers, a few even brough along binoculars!!! WTF...
Anyways, it seems there are a lot of idiots out there who have already forgotten the tragedy of the South East Asian tsunami and the wave of death it brought. A beach-goer here was even quoted as saying "It doesn't look like there'll be a tsunami considering the beautiful weather we have today". I truly fear for his kids if that's the kind of common sense he's dishing out. I mean, does he really think a tsunami cares what kind of weather it is out there before coming in to shore?
Oh, and just today we had a tropical cyclone alert for the Northern parts of the Fiji group, meaning that Vanua Levu (our big northern island) and the Lau group (little islands in the east) are going to get affected. Looks like the poor North is up for trouble once again after just getting flooded recently after heavy rains. Just hope there aren't any mariners who've ignored warnings and decided to go fishing or something.
Maybe I'll just catch up on my sleep this weekend. Or play some games. Or hopefully, catch some rays at the beach!
Already it looks like quite an eventful week, as far as natural disasters are concerned. On Monday an earthquake of around 8 on the Richter scale hit the sea off the Solomon Islands and a tsunami warning was quickly issued. Unfortunately, the Solomons got hit pretty bad and there's been a number of people killed. However, here in Fiji, people just didn't seem to take the warning seriously. Police were out on the beaches trying to get people off the shores and safe onto high grounds but apparently this had the opposite effect, as people instead flocked to the beaches in the hopes of seeing a giant wave come up. According to the papers, a few even brough along binoculars!!! WTF...
Anyways, it seems there are a lot of idiots out there who have already forgotten the tragedy of the South East Asian tsunami and the wave of death it brought. A beach-goer here was even quoted as saying "It doesn't look like there'll be a tsunami considering the beautiful weather we have today". I truly fear for his kids if that's the kind of common sense he's dishing out. I mean, does he really think a tsunami cares what kind of weather it is out there before coming in to shore?
Oh, and just today we had a tropical cyclone alert for the Northern parts of the Fiji group, meaning that Vanua Levu (our big northern island) and the Lau group (little islands in the east) are going to get affected. Looks like the poor North is up for trouble once again after just getting flooded recently after heavy rains. Just hope there aren't any mariners who've ignored warnings and decided to go fishing or something.
Maybe I'll just catch up on my sleep this weekend. Or play some games. Or hopefully, catch some rays at the beach!
Monday, April 2, 2007
Fiji 7s
Well, yesterday was a pretty disappointing day for me. The reason is, Fiji didn't get to win the Hong Kong 7s, despite overcoming some tough hurdles to reach there. We beat an inspired Scotland team after brushing them off in the pool games (played them again in the quarters as it was a six-pool tournament), then defeated our arch-nemesis, New Zealand, pretty nicely. But it looks like our main competition won't be NZ, or even England. It will be Samoa. These guys almost demolished us in the finals, scoring 27 points to Fiji's 0 in the first half. While Fiji came back bravely in the 2nd half to make 22 points, it wasn't enough in the final seconds as we lost the ball and Samoa ended the play to make it 27-22.
The thing I noticed was, at the kickoff they targetted the ball toward the middle of the field, toward the shorter Fijian guys, instead of at Naevo, who definitely would have got the ball for Fiji. They've defeated us twice now in the IRB 2006/2007 7s circuit, and we've beaten them once. With them just behind us by six points (along with NZ), the competition is sure to become tougher and the pressure will rise to keep the lead up.
One thing is for sure, Serevi still has some of his old magic left. He side-stepped a number of NZ players to score the final nail in the coffin for NZ, and made it 21-12.
All the best for Adelaide boys. If you meet up with Samoa, make sure you thrash them!
The thing I noticed was, at the kickoff they targetted the ball toward the middle of the field, toward the shorter Fijian guys, instead of at Naevo, who definitely would have got the ball for Fiji. They've defeated us twice now in the IRB 2006/2007 7s circuit, and we've beaten them once. With them just behind us by six points (along with NZ), the competition is sure to become tougher and the pressure will rise to keep the lead up.
One thing is for sure, Serevi still has some of his old magic left. He side-stepped a number of NZ players to score the final nail in the coffin for NZ, and made it 21-12.
All the best for Adelaide boys. If you meet up with Samoa, make sure you thrash them!
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