Now that was close....

hello everyone!!
this past weekend i had my first experience with an earthquake without even realising/feeling it whatsoever! yip, it's true ladies and gentlemen, the centre of the earthquake was about 15km from palmy and it was on sunday nite at 18:55! it registered 3,9 on the richterscale! now, no need to panic, i'm still okay and the batmobile doesnt have a scratch on it, so everything is fine down here, thanks for being concern though! i guess if they never mentioned it on the radio the next day, i wouldnt have known about the earthquake anyway. here's a link to the quake's details and stuff, very interesting...http://www.geonet.org.nz/x2639172g_l.html
i was thinking this morning that in 2 days time, it's gonna be 3 weeks before i fly back to SA and one, i dont know whether i'll be able to keep on updating this blog and two, i cant believe how fast this year is gone by. i must admit, this has been one heck of a season and i loved every minute of it, all the things i experienced, new places i saw, people i met, friends i've made and setting structures in place for my future....it's been one good journey i tell you and i only realises looking back now, how blessed and fortunate i really am.
"Time sneaks up on you like a windscreen on a bug" John Lithgow

It's WHO you know....

Hello everyone! isnt it nice when you have friends that

is friends with famous people and sometimes the perks of being friends with famous people rubs off onto you who are friends with friends that is friends with famous people??!!!

haha okay, now that i have your attention after that rather interesting paragraph, i have been a friend of this guy for like nearly 13 years and he has been dating this girl for almost a thousand days (oraait, 961 days to be exact) and she is also his fiance now after he proposed to her in the beginning of this year ( 20th january 2006 for those who wants finer details) so they have been engaged for 268 days and will get married in 55 days (on the 9th December 2006) They have also been friends with Jennifer Aniston and Tom Cruise for some time now and the 4 of them caught up recently in London (thats where the photo above were taken). Jurgens and carma decided to travel the world before they settle down after their wedding and their journey took them to London where Jurgens is working at a company in the finance department and Carma is a Occupational Therapist at one of the leading private hospitals in London (she treats famous patients there and thats how she got to know Jen and Tom). i must tell you, for people who knows a lot of celebrities, jurgens and carma are very down to earth friends and they never distinguish between their normal friends and their famous friends. Jurgens is a character on his own and he's had his fair share of "trouble" over the years. I know he was almost sued by craig davidson for copying his running style en i also know that he has been the victim of crime once.....his one crutch was stolen during "new year's" of 2004 (after a grueling knee operation 2 weeks earlier he was very dependable on his crutches for aiding him in walking). Carma on the other hand has been the more responsible one of the two. She's been involved in only one fight her whole life and that was the fight for her fiance. You see, back at varsity she was in competition with a gay guy to see who can get jurgens first (we wont mention any names), but as all good love stories go, jurgens got to carma first and it was love at first sight! After making a few phone calls to the Scorpions (just to make sure there's no skeletons in any closets) i can confirm that they have so much in common and will be an exemplar of married life for the next generation! Here's a toast to wonderfull friends!

Back to business....

i'm very honest in writing the following cause i wouldnt be able to lie about this.......BUT this has been the most laziest, boring, not-doing-much-actually-nothing-at-all week of 2006! it was so strange not to get up in the morning and pack your bag and go to the Sport Institute and spent your day there training, analyzing or just hanging around in between sessions. i must admit, i didnt know what to do with myself during this week, although i did spent about 10 hours fighting in World War 2 and also catching up on my sniper skills. actually, i only did what my psychologist told me to do.....take a mental break away from the game!! haha!! the weather also didnt come to the party and i was literally confined to being indoors the whole week!
oraait, so this coming monday it's back to gym and some light training. i'm itching to get exercising again cause i find myself to feel very "unhealthy" when i'm not active. i'll be looking at various ways of cardio training like mountain bike riding, squash, more basketball and the best and most efficient i believe of all will be golf!! (weather permitting of course!).
As you can see, not much exciting news here from palmy! have a blessed week, chin up, work hard but play harder. remember, we dont stop playing cause we grow old, we grow old cause we stop playing! :)

More team photo's!

here are some more photo's of the team day after our last game. i think there were a few guys that got up with a headache the next day! :)

The bench woes continues....

Hallo everyone!
It seems to me that during the latter part of 2006 i was meant to be sitting on the bench the whole time! It just turns out that maybe i'm a good impact player like Bobby Skinstad!! Haha only joking boys and girls! A friend of mine from church runs the basketball league up at massey university and i asked him if it would be possible for me to come play socially with them. I ended up sitting on the bench for his team last nite in their final league round robin game before the play offs next week (hence the title for this post). They already qualified for the play off's and the other players didnt mind me being on the "bench". It was so much fun and i so badly wanted to score an "official basketball point", but it never happened. i was so bad when i came on that after a while i noticed that they never passed me the ball when we were on attack and shooting for the loop. I was actually laughing so much cause i sucked! it's okay though, i was having a blinder of a nite on defense though and that made up for the missing shots (yip, i missed like 5 easy shots), but hey, you cant be good in everything! :) haha just joking!
Today's also the new start of my "diet". I've been having a real good feast the last few weeks indulging in some nice food and that let to me gaining just a few unwanted pounds. The main reason is that the last few games i was on the bench, but you still had to eat like you were playing a full game, cause you never knew how many minutes you could end up playing, and although we had extra fitness sessions, it's just not the same. BUT it's okay, nothing i cant handle and it's actually an exciting couple of weeks ahead!
For those of you who dont know yet....I'm getting married on the 24th February 2007 to the prettiest, funniest, most companionable, smartest, most perfect woman ever in the whole wide world!!!!!!!!! yay!! so be happy for me and tell everyone you know! (there is only a limited number of seats available for the wedding and right now we are selling them for R500 pp so hurry and get yourself a seat! haha just joking!! )

Last Team Day of 2006!!

Hi all!
We had a team day on friday morning after our game and had to dress up to represent the "mini teams" of the squad!

What a TEAM!!!

Hello everyone!!
I cant tell you how sad i am to sit here and to know that the 2006 season is over! This has been such a great season and so i've enjoyed every minute of it! even though we didnt manage to win one game, the experience we gained throughout the year will be the basis to build from next season!! If you have to look the word "sacrifice" up in a library here in Palmerston North, you'll find a photo of the Turbo's!! Cause thats what this season has been all
about!! most players had to give up their jobs to be able to train during the day, our coach and manager moved up from wellington to settle here in palmy and then i think the biggest sacrifice was from our baggage master/assistant manager.....he does all the "dirty" work as manager eg. make sure there's clean training jersey's, fill up waterbottles, take all dirty rugby stuff to laundry, make sure training equipment is ready and so much more. BUT he is doing all that stuff voluntary and not getting paid a cent from the union! AND he is a local baker and has to get up every morning at 3am to start at the bakery and after work he'll come to our trainings and work till late. Now that is 'love for the game' and 'sacrifice' i tell you!! (by the way, he will get paid from next year on! ) I have the greatest respect for this team and what we've achieved this year with so little. I just cant wait for the next 2 years here at the turbo's!!
By the way, we lost our last game 24-16 infront of a home crowd of about 9500. now i know that doesnt sound like a lot, but trust me, in our small stadium it was huge and the atmosphere incredible!
there will be a follow-up on this post within the next 2 days with more pics!

Losing draws to an end....

Yes everyone!! Not only is this the WINNING title for my post that was given to me by the one and only jurgens bosman, but it finally happened!! We didnt loose last nite!! yeah, yeah okay, and we didnt win either, it was a draw at the end, 25 all! Sooooo disappointing i tell you! we scored in the last 7minutes and our first-five just had to put the ball over the crossbar to seal the victory, but pulled it to the left! Not his fault though, they brought him the wrong kicking tee to kick from! now whats that all about i say!!! nevertheless, a very good game indeed and things are just getting better and better down under i tell ya! I also had the privileged to meet Joeli Vidiri, he was, and still is, a famous fijian 7's and 15's test player that also played for the All Blacks in both the rugby codes. Currently he is coaching the Counties B-team and i met him through kevin putt and joggie on friday nite. a very down-to-earth and friendly guy.
Other great news, another good friend of mine got engaged today. He was my roommate in high school for 3 consec years! Congrats Frikkie de Jager!
No other instant news flashes!
Just a shout out to jurgens! thanks mate! Enjoy the UK and will see you on the 9th Dec!

Update

Hello everyone!
Just a quick update. We playing in auckland again on friday night against counties manukau. ironically, kevin putt is their main coach. (those who dont know, he used to coach at the sharks). anyway, i'm on the bench again, but we've been told that the coaches are trying out other players at this level so they can assess the depth for next year, although i know i havent been playing well the last 2 games and dont deserve a starting spot, so i'm cool with it.
have a great weekend and will keep updating as we go along! :)
PS. I need a suggestion for the title of my next post and there will be a prize for the winning one! :)

experience...??

I was reading an article this afternoon on Jake White and his obsession with the experience of the springbok team and how the "more" test caps a player has the "better" it is for the team. (In some way i tend to agree with him cause when you have to choose between 2 players who's current playing form are the same, but one has more caps than the other, you will chose the more experience one. but a coach should always pick the player that is in better form first before he goes with the amount of caps! )
anyway, as my agricultural science teacher would put it: "thats besides the point" !!
It made me wonder what is the Turbo's current average age and caps and here they are:
Position Age Caps
1 ~~~~~24~~ 4
2 ~~~~~22~~7
3 ~~~~~27~~ 5 (He also played for the Western Force a few games)
4 ~~~~~24~~ 50 (This past w-end was his 50th)
5 ~~~~~27~~ 7
6~~~~~ 20~~ 7 (He played NZ U/19 last year)
7 ~~~~~24~~ 38
8 ~~~~~24~~ 7
9 ~~~~~30~~ 7 (Joggie is the oldest in our team)
10 ~~~~25~~ 16
11 ~~~~18~~ 5 (thats the school boy in our team)
12 ~~~~24~~ 20 (can be a few more, not 100% sure)
13 ~~~~25~~ 16
14 ~~~~26~~ 14
15 ~~~~24~~ 7

The above caps are the players in that position that started the most games. the average age for the team is 24 years old and average caps are 14. so if you look at our team, probably (i would say definitely) the youngest and most inexperienced team in the competition. Give us 2 years together and the average age goes up to 26 and the caps to about 30 and we can win this competition!! Oraait, you can stop laughing now!! Thats what you think is impossible i will try my best to prove you wrong!! :)
have a good and blessed week!

2 weeks left

yup, thats all that is left of the 2006 season, 2 weeks and then it all starts again for next year. It has been a very interesting 2006 for me and i have learnt a lot. from playing vodacom cup for the eagles to playing in the Air NZ Cup for the turbo's.
So for those that dont know, i have signed another 2 year contract with the turbo's and will be looking at settling in NZ permanently, after my 2 years i just need another 6 months and i can apply for permanent residency here in NZ. I've been enjoying my time here in NZ and once chantel joins me, it will be even better! No other news really. Have a blessed week!

Latest update from Palmy!

The latest from the land far far away!
So i was actually wrong in my previous post! We didnt get a thursday night game this week and we play Hawke's Bay away on friday night! I'm on the becnh again this w-end, i'm soooo dissapointed in myself cause i know i didnt have the best of games last friday against North Harbour and i shouldve played better, but have you ever expereinced that the harder you try, the worse things get? Anyway, i'm not gonna let that get me down, just keep on working harder and trust in God for the right things to happen!
Nevertheless, this week has still been fun and we had such an amazing cellgroup tonight, singing worship songs and a good message! And i'm really looking forward to church this coming sunday, it's gonna be really cool!
I've been spending more time recently on my "new" thing and things are getting better! yay!
Okay, so not any major news really, just the usuall, but it would be great to hear some news from YOU!! yes, you reading this blogpage right now, well, if you too shy to post a comment then sent me an email!
have a nice week all of my friends and family!
Last thing, i've heard something this week that i couldnt believe at first, but after thinking for a while i thought it might be true. someone made the following statement:
Every person on this earth is connected to each other through 6 persons or less! (well, dunno if it makes sense to you, but it does to me!! haha)

What a LEGEND!

Hello everyone!
What an unbelievable weekend it was! Apart from 40min of bad footy we played, i would say that the w-end lived up to its expectations! I was so looking forward to playing against jonah and also to get another start in a NPC game. We had a good first half and were leading 6-5 going into half time. Then came the second half and we conceded 23 unanswered points. pretty disappointed bout the 2nd half and it reminded us that we still have a long way to go in terms of being able to play a full 80min of competitive rugby, BUT things are falling into place slowly! I had the honour of tackling jonah once, but i have to be honest, he was almost over me! :)

The morning of the match day we went for a tour of the North Shore. Our game was only at 19:30 and management didnt want us staying inside all day, so they arranged a tour. It was very interesting and i got to see and take some beautiful pictures of the auckland scenery!

It looks like we'll have a thursday night game this coming week, so it will be even shorter than last week (training wise). Depending on results we'll either play Hawke's Bay at home or Southland in Invercargill on the South Island.

Have a nice w-end!

Biggest game....

Latest news from palmy is the following: I have been included in the starting lineup for our game on friday against North harbor (i'm very gratefull to get another opportunity) and one of the biggest legends in world rugby will be wearing an opposition jersey....the man himself Jonah Lomu! I feel privileged and honored to play against him on friday. Doesnt mean i'm gonna stand back for him or let him run over me (and if he does it wont be on purpose!) but it's gonna be so good if i can pull off a good tackle on him. Something to tell your grandkids about! :)
Have a great w-end and will post again on saturday after we return from north harbor!
b y e!

Touching words!

We sang the following song in church tonite and the words are just so amazing.

The Stand (By Hillsong United)

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke all life into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all
So I’ll stand

My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Show me Your heart
Show me Your way
Show me Your glory

A Journey .....

Of a thousand miles starts with one single step!

As a team we are getting better each week, but that "killer instinct" just not seem to be there yet. (I would say we at about step five now referring to the title ) If you take a look at our stats you will know what I mean. During all our games we tend to dominate the 2nd half, both in territory and possession, but we dont get to score tries. We get so close (literally), yet we dont get to put the ball down behind that ever elusive white line! Patience I guess, we just need to be patient and work harder at what we doing. It's gonna come right for us sooner than later i hope!

Well, without wanting to sound too philosophical today, it struck me this morning how mentally tough it actually is to be a professional sportsman. And no, it's not meant to be bragging or anything, it's just i dont think people always see what's going on behind "the game". What i mean is all the extra hard work that sportsmen put in, without anyone knowing or acknowledging, and that requires a discipline that reminds me of the earlier era of the East. (eg. China, Japan). This morning all the bench players had to do a fitness session (cause we didnt play the whole game yesterday) and 2 of us decided to do a 'tackle/jackle' session instead of the 'stairs' session. Now this tackle/jackle session is very hard and you cant just cruise through, it's really tough. At the first relay fo the session it started raining. Now imagine, it's sunday morning 8am, you a bit tired from last nite cause you played bout 20min and also had to do the warmup and stuff, you cold and longing for the warm bed and here you are running in the rain while you couldve done the stairs session which is hard, but not nearly as hard as the tackle/jackle. It really took a lot to get my mind on running hard and to push myself as hard as i could and not to think of how i dont have to run as hard everytime. At the end it wasnt that bad, once you get going you dont stop, just keep on going! What made it worthwhile was after recovery i stopped at a garage to buy milk and the attendant came up and said that we played a good game last nite and that he's supporting us from now on. Makes it all worthwhile i tell you!

okay, enough deep stuff! on a lighter note, we had about 12 ooo people at our game last nite, yeah, i know for south africans it doesnt sound like a lot, but we had a full stadium (like 90%) and it was the biggest crowd since the early 80's. There was a really good atmosphere and it's better than playing at a big stadium with no people. The Manwatu Rugby Union in the beginning of the year expected/budgeted for an average crowd of 5000 people, the smallest crowd until now was 9000 people against taranaki. Things are picking up here in palmy and everything bodes well for the future!

This week is gonna be a "shorter" week in terms of training. We play this coming Friday nite against North Harbor. Hopefully i'll play against a former squad mate, south african born all black greg rawlinson.

Have a blessed week all friends and family and remember to live life with a grateful heart!

Latest update 30/08

Hello everyone!
Just a quick update on the latest news from palmy, NZ. I am on the bench again for this w-end's game against wellington lions. It's kind of disappointing, cause i really wanted to test myself against the wellington loosies, but i guess everything happens for a reason and i just have to keep on going and be ready for when i get my chance again. Went to ten pin bowling tonight for the first time in ages as a cell-group (from church) and really enjoyed it. Not a long post, just a quick update!
I spent all of my free time on my "new thing" i started last week and it's going better than i expected!
Have a blessed week!

Snow...Yeah!!!

Once upon a time, an Argentinean, a kiwi and a japie went to look for snow. Only the japie has never seen snow before, so this journey was especially exciting for him. They were away for days and when they finally returned, no one believe them that they actually reached the snow covered mountains. This pictures are their evidence!!
haha, i went to see snow for the first time in my entire life yesterday and it was an absolute fantastic experience!! it was freezing cold, but the scenery was very beautiful!
This past thursday also marked a "new something" in my life, but i wont be telling what it is, only that it's been something i've wanted to do for a long time now, and i finally started! I'm loving every moment of it!
have a blessed week and remember that in today's circumstances, it requires us to sometimes stand back from everything that's going on around us, and just give praise to the Holy One who created us and let us not forget Him!

Japanese Tourist

Hello everyone!
Sorry for this late posting of the w-end's update, but the last few days have been really busy and fun!! we left last friday morning for our game against Bay of Plenty. It was an 5 hour bus trip, with a stoppage to have a captain's run and lunch for about an hour. I cant describe the beautiful scenery i have seen on our way up to Rotorua, so i'll post some pics.
We drove past the snow covered mountains, the beautiful lake taupo and Rotorua itself, is a beautiful place to visit. We arrived early at our final destination, the
Rydges Hotel, and a few of us decided to go do some sightseeing. We ended up "go carting" at a place, close to the hotel. Friday nights are always "gambling" nights. There's a group of players that started to play a card game called "stop the bus" and you have to put down a predetermined "deposit" to be able to play and the winner takes all. In one of the pics you can see the boys in their robes getting ready to play some cards. Saturday was game day. I'm very disappointed in our loss. At the end what cost us the game, was 7min before half time when they scored 3 quick tries. At this level you cant afford to loose concentration for 1 min, otherwise you will get punished! Saturday night, after the game, we had a bit of team building, some sing along songs with the guitar and some "fines" for some players. Very good for team spirit and just having a laugh. Sunday morning we had recovery in the hotel's swimming pool and afterwards we headed back to Palmy. Apart from the game on saturday, a very enjoyable w-end, one of my best here in NZ! Have a good week all of you!!
PS. If you wondered about the title for this post, well, that is my nickname in the team, cause everywhere i go now, i take my camera with.

36 - 48 hours.....

That's the time span after a rugby game before it starts feeling like you've been in an accident and a train ran over your body. When you cant turn your neck to the sides, you cant lift your arms, when getting out of bed is too painfully and breathing normally is impossible. It is then that you wish you have your own jacuzzi and a full time masseuses!!
We lost our game this w-end 18-12 and we really could've pulled this one through at the end, but we didn't. I was so disappointed cause we are starting to play better rugby, its just at crucial times we turn over the ball where we should've scored. Personally I'm happy bout certain aspects of my game, but there's more things I'm unhappy about. I cant wait for the game when I bring the whole "artillery to battle" and using everything i've learnt up until now.
This week is very busy because we driving up to Roturua on friday morning for our game on saturday against Bay of Plenty and only coming back on sunday.
Not much other news. This is life at it's best and i'm loving every moment of it. (meaning top class rugby week in and week out.)
Hope you all having a good time!
God Bless