update!

hello!
i doubt it that anyone is still reading this blog, but to keep my conscience (spelling???) clear, i'll keep on posting! nothing exciting has been happening the last weeks. it's been training most days and the rest of the day it's been wedding admin and honeymoon admin. now to anyone out there thinking of getting married, just a few words of advise......it's alot of hard work!! but i'm sure its worth every minute of it!
no other new exciting news really, looking forward to 7's in george next week, the IRB sevens that is, look out fot the big TURBO banner! haha!
have a blessed weekend! keep emailing me and if you dont have my address, ask!! hehe

back on home soil....

hello to who ever is still reading this post! anyway, it's been one week that i'm back in SA and it's been quite an adjustment for me! as expected i do only have limited internet facilities and the blog page wont be updated as regularly as usuall! have a blessed week!! looking forward to hear from YOU!! :)

The last one...

Hello to all my beloved readers of this blog page. It is with tears in my eyes that i'm typing this very last post from the comfort of my flat's floor. The flat that became my home away from home, my outpost, my barracks, my Osama Bin Laden's cave, my shelter. I'm all packed up and ready to go, all set for the Groot Trek to auckland tomorrow morning. My flat looks empty and nondescript..... BUT I am so looking forward to be spending time in the big city with tom, tanya and the kids! One last week of "holiday" before i head back to Afrique du Sud. Yay!!

Depending on my internet accessibility back in the Republic, i will try my best in keeping this blog page updated! I wish you all a Happy Happy Christmas and a Merry Merry New Year! :)
I'll finish my last post from palmy with a well-known Irish Farewell Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

final days....

Kia Ora!
it's with mixed emotions that i'm entering the last week of my stay here in palmy. Happy to know that i'll be seeing chantelle and family soon, but sad to leave the place that became my new "home town". No other news to tell. Have been playing golf over the weekend (yip, the weather finally cleared up) and been watching some rugby league on sat night (its a whole new concept to me, rugby league, but something i'm starting to enjoy watching). Have a blessed week! There might be something exciting in the pipeline for next year, but i'll officially announced that later on! Cheers!

Latest update!

hello everyone!
So the latest update is the following.....
there is no update! haha
enjoy yr w-end!

KKK

Whats up everyone?!

i wouldve thought that after my earthquake experience this past monday, my post would be full of concerning comments asking whether i'm okay and stuff, but i guess i was wrong.

anyway, we had our End-of-Year Function for the Turbo's last night and it was nice to see all the boys again after the 2 week lay off. We are officially back training this coming wednesday and it should be fun what Hammer has in store for us. (he's our fitness trainer) We also got presented with our match jersey last night and hopefully it's the first of many turbo's jerseys to come! This weekend sees the final of the Air New Zealand Cup between wellington and waikato and also the second test between the kangaroos and the kiwi's in the land of Oz.

Now if you dont know what's happening in the above picture, let me give you a hint....look at what hat this guy is wearing on the operating table, now who agrees that he's chances of walking out there alive is very slim?

have a good weekend all of my fellow earth people, go to church on Sunday, let go and rest our for next week!

for those who wants to know what my special thing is, i'm starting today by putting cryptic clues into my post's as to what it is i'm doing! :)

(allrighty, i'm just joking bout my opening sentence, by now you should all know that as soon as i start typing this post's of mine, sarcasm is at the order of the day, not always but sometimes, love you all and enjoy da weekend! )

I

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!