We had some absolute class posters form the NH.
I rememeber meeitng Gailimh, Irish Richard , and PDP in a Irish bar in Dublin on the eve of the AB's playing a grand slam game in 2005, it is my Wifes 30th and we had a roaring night... my wife quickly got over the fact her long awaited 30th birthday evening in Dublin was crashed by a bunch of Irishman and a Frenchman that I had met online and had never seen before....
At about 11pm we got news that there had been a fire at Landsdown road and that one stand would be unavailable and tickets refunded. It was the stand the wife and I were going to. Gutted, as we were going to all 4 grand slam games, and would have been one short.
PdP stepped up and gave us one of his tickets, and I think Gailimh gave us another. Refused money, just took a guiness each.. actually I think Pdp took a whiskey..
Next afternoon we were on the terraces amongst a sea of Irish fans... BEST MATCH EVER.

Thanks TSF.

@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Black Caps v Pakistan:

Bad declaration imo.

Check out this clown.

This thread is again open for new applicants..

Ardie Savea is not fit to lace up Canes boots

This kid is going to have a hard time in life if this is the attitude he is being instilled with.
Life as an adult is about adapting and being a bit of a chameleon, some of the highest flyers I know are complete and utter muppets when hanging with the mates form the 'ole days'..... I know some guys who look like a member of the Sons of Anarchy with a shirt off and look like finely cut gentlemen with a business shirt on.
Newsflash to this youngster and the people in this thread defending him, society makes arbitrary and no logical rules/social norms all the time, and nearly everyone follows them, of course you don't have to, but there are always consequences, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
He wants to look like Hansen.. fine. Go to a school that allows that.
This isn't about the length of his hair, this is about him wanting the school to bend to his wishes rather than the other way around.

After some heavy in depth analysis, listening the experts, scientists and facebook.. I have decided

I have no fucking idea what to think. Like none at all. I swing between just saying fuck it, lets just lift all bans and let it play out and get back to normal faster as the disease doesnt seem that bad, to lets lock everyone down it s gonna be a disaster.

I have now settled on... having no idea what to think about it. I have found myself agreeing with posts that contradict each other....

I do know I hate the media though.

And anyone who hoardes toilet paper should be stripped of the right to vote or drive a car.

@hydro11 said in Tennis:

It's amazing that you can abuse an appointed official by calling them a liar and then say it is sexist when you get punished for it. I'm no tennis expert so I can't speak to the coaching and racquet violations and whether they are consistently enforced. Sexism comes down to just being disrespectful to women so if you are going to throw those terms around, you should make sure you treat other people properly.

I can. I am a qualified Tennis referee.
Coaching at lower levels is always a warning. Always. At ATP and WTA tournaments, they sometimes are, sometimes not. Could go either way. In this case the coach admitted it so.....
Raquet breaking is always a violation, umpires don't even have discretion with it.
Personal abuse is more discretionary, but is usually a violation. Guys get waaay more violations, but they usually calm down after the first or second. She just kept going at it.

Men have lost points and games before. McEnroe even forfeited a match at a grand slam tournament,.

Williams is a disgrace.

@jegga said in All Blacks vs. B&I Lions test #1:

@Crucial said in All Blacks vs. B&I Lions test #1:

@jegga said in All Blacks vs. B&I Lions test #1:

My brother in law has scheduled a party for his birthday on saturday kicking off at 7:30.
He doesn't have sky.
I got a severe frowning from the mrs when I suggested we perhaps skip it.
Did I mention he doesn't have sky?

FFs.

What a turd.

I'm sure you won't be alone if you slink off to another room and watch a stream on SkyGo (if SkyGo actually goes).
Failing that drop her off and go to the pub.

His friends are like him so I will probably be alone.

Some being such a wimp and your wife needs to pull the stick out of her ass.
It is a birthday party.. big woopdy fucking doo.

We are having an interesting time of things in regards to life plans and housing at the moment.
We have a house (3 bedrooms plus office) 1 bathroom and extra toilet.. pretty modest. Has views over harbor and top half of mount and also part of golf course, plus biggish yard with fruit trees, trampoline, tree house etc. All very middle class suburban, but in a nice area 2 minutes drive to CBD.
We also own a rental in same neighborhood.
We also own a rural residential piece of land inside the city limits, about 8000 sqm. Nice spot, very nice area got a few hundred sqm of native bush etc enough room for pool, tennis court, pony/sheep etc.

We did plan on living there....

We are currently building a house on it, about 250 sqm, so not huge McMansion, but definitely nicer than our current house.

But now.. we are just going to build and sell. We basically had a choice of living in a very expensive house... or not.

We have chosen to sell it clear all our mortgages and have a large wedge of cash in the bank, and keep our rental. But we will still be living in quite a modest house. I think it is an age thing. I just really like the idea of not having a mortgage, having money in the bank and a rental giving us goods money every week.... alot more than owning a super flash house. I drive a clapped out Kia and the wife drives a little Suzuki Ario.. we probably wont change cars either.

Basically i think we really look like we are struggling, and to be honest it is weird when I pick my kids up form school in my crappy old car and are surrounded by massive flash SUV's, I do feel like i m pretty poor! Makes no logical sense.

Now I am just rambling, but I do find the whole finances vs images social dynamics massively fascinating. Most people do not not how well off or poor they really are. we have some friends who are on a continual mission to be in the best house they can afford, always totally leveraged, I suspect they will likely do quite well .. as long as house prices don't crash.

@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - Overall:

So this is interesting
https://pandemic.internationalsos.com/2019-ncov/covid-19-data-visualisation

Apart from Hubei which is still pretty much locked down it looks like other regions of China are starting to see cases increasing again following relaxation of restrictions. Although I guess it could be what the Chinese govt line is travellers.

There's actually quite a few good graphs. In terms of cases every country shows the same sharply accelerating trendline except for China and South Korea who have the hoped for bell curve. And the US where the climb is steeper

Deaths is similar much the same curve except for Italy, Spain and (it looks like) the USA.

I dont believe anything coming out of China.

@Mokey This was in NZ? I hated your post BTW.. Very grim

@Mokey How old?

@JC said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@Machpants said in Coronavirus - Overall:

Amazing how a handful, few hundred? Communist bureacrats have managed to pretty much fuck over the entire world

For all our failures as Western democracies, this is worse

I don't know about worse. But every bit as bad in a different way. That they had the system in place and it was derailed by mid level apparatchiks is an epic fail. Heads will roll in the wake of this, they need to encourage more transparency down the chain of command

That's rubbish, it failed because the top in China are corrupt evil bastards and everyone knows it.

This. If the people who report to you perceive that there is an advantage to be gained in hiding a difficult truth from you then your governance system is to blame. Doesn’t matter whether it’s a social club, a corporation or a country.

The first rule of being ruled by corrupt evil bastards? Dont give them bad news.

@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@Machpants said in Coronavirus - Overall:

Amazing how a handful, few hundred? Communist bureacrats have managed to pretty much fuck over the entire world

For all our failures as Western democracies, this is worse

I don't know about worse. But every bit as bad in a different way. That they had the system in place and it was derailed by mid level apparatchiks is an epic fail. Heads will roll in the wake of this, they need to encourage more transparency down the chain of command

That's rubbish, it failed because the top in China are corrupt evil bastards and everyone knows it.

I think China and the WHO are lying through their teeth.

@chimoaus said in Coronavirus - Overall:

I see the US is over 80,000 cases now, they will be the most infected country in next 24 hours. Whilst the virus originated In China I think the US were the ones who spread it far and wide. Will be interesting to see the death toll if they open up by Easter.

They were leaders in stopping flights and banning travel. I am not sure if your logic in accusing them of spreading it a far and wide. Sounds like Chinese communist party propaganda.

@voodoo said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:

The no cars def makes it so tough. We were hoping to move from our current digs to another place in a few days - the new place is isolated, empty and unattended, so we could have no contact with anyone in transit or at the end. But the updated advice seems pretty clear that we are not allowed to move

Pretty clear you are not supposed to move. There is no grey area.