Grown men cry..

The All Blacks, pride of NZ, are currently getting a thorough and probably prolonged nasty roasting by the sports media. The low-brow jokes are coming thick and fast and I don't think the boys will ever be able to come home.

"What is the difference between the All Blacks and a teabag?"
"A teabag stays in the cup longer"

Oooooo.. that's gotta sting. Of course the Aussies may want to adapt this joke to apply to their own team, that have performed similarly. Both teams out of the Rugby World Cup at the quarter finals. I feel the national angst brewing. Who do we cheer for now? Argentina?

I myself am not terribly addicted to Rugby, but living in NZ it's impossible to live in ignorance. For example, this morning I was awakened by true swearing coming from the lounge. I think the wallpaper nearly curled up from the force of it and my man is not usually a swearing kind of a guy. You have to understand. The Jase spends a long time preparing for a decent rugby experience. The sourround sound balance is tweaked just so, to better simulate a stadium atmosphere. There is beer and black jerseys. It's like church, everything has to be right. Just to rub it in hard I walked into the room just in time to catch Ritchie McCraw blubbing on tv and Jase (very nearly) blubbing on the couch. It was obviously a bad moment, so I backed out slowly. I try to be sensitive and not say upsetting things at such a time. I really wanted to say 'at least the Black Ferns can win a world cup', but I didn't say it.. until much later in the day. Apparently womens rugby is just not in the same league. Not as hotly contested, not so much tough competition...
Ok, I can tell he's still feeling it. But I say, our female rugby players are world champions, even if they don't go around showing of their abs in an underwear commercial like Dan Carter (but if they did, that would certainly get some attention).

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Week 7 of my challenge is going very well. I'm focusing on compliance this fortnight. One thing I know is that it's impossible to judge if your program is working, if you are not working your program. If I have an extra free-meal, skip a workout and slip into denial about what is actually going into my mouth, then I can't really say if what I'm attempting to do is getting results, because.. well... I wasn't really doing it. Again, this is a simple point that it took me about 5 years to really grasp. I've had my niece staying because you may remember that her mum has a lumbar disc injury. She is two and a slavedriver of a PT. I was doing my cardio and she was standing on the couch looking over the back of it at me (the stat. bike is behind the couch). When I slowed down for my rest interval she screwed up her face and yelled 'more, Aunty Sara! FAST! MORE!'. Today doing pullups she told me 'no chair!' and pulled away the chair I stand on to reach the bar. It was a tough session! My current advice to reach a new level of fitness? Borrow a 2 year old. :O)