Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast (The Red Queen)

Here's my six inconceivables for today:

1. Abdulla (one of my Arabic Studies teachers) can have a conversation with me that doesn't include sexual references.
2. Arsenal will go undefeated for the rest of the season (and thereby win it all - Carling Cup, FA Cup, Champions league and Premiership).
3. In Season Five of Grey's Anatomy, Izzie Stevens can really have sex with Denny (who died in Season Four).
4. The Eurozone financial packages (50% debt write off included) will stop countries like Greece living beyond their means and make them become fiscally responsible.
5. Macca (bass), Ringo (drums), Sean Lennon (rhythm guitar) and Dhani Harrison (lead guitar) will perform as 'The B Beatles' with Yoko on vocals.
6. Jacky can go a day without looking at 'horses for sale' on Trademe.

Some things are apparently impossible.

Apparently.

Take your passion, and make it happen (Irene Cara)

My oh my - what a holiday! Where to start, where to start?

(Warning - travelogue with slides is coming).




AL AIN - DUBAI
The holiday was a bit of an epic - starting with a taxi to the free Emirates bus in Al Ain and then the bus trip to Dubai a few days before Christmas.

Jacky can sniff out equine interests much like I have a radar for Beatle products. The building behind her is an entrance to the Dubai metro station.

We had fun riding the Dubai metro (clean, quiet, efficient) from Khalid Bin Al Waheed station to the Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station, wandering around the giant Dubai mall, and walking past the Burj Khalifa on the way (it's the world's tallest building - so big it hurt my neck to look all the way up to the top of the building from the bottom).

The light from the sun behind the Burj left a weird surreal kind of shadow in its wake.

DUBAI MALL

The Dubai mall has some amazing features. I believe it's the biggest mall in the world - we spent a whole day in it and didn't see it all; it's, if anything, too big, in that we didn't know where to start and we got ourselves lost quite a lot

There are many specialist malls within the mall: for instance there is a gold souq and a fashion wing with all the swanky brands including a Stella McCartney shop with prices to match the exclusivity. If you want to buy some fine art this is also the place to go (Picasso anyone?).

There are the usual things like children's fun parks (Sega Republic), cinemas, food courts but vast areas are also devoted to various arty installations like the divers going down the waterfall. The photo above shows just part of a massive waterfall wall. It is staggeringly beautiful and effective, in that it induces calm and how's that serenity amid the consumer orgy happening all around it. The mall's bookshop is worth talking about. It's the size of a mall in itself with, it seems, ever book known to mankind. I took Jacky in just to show her the enormity of it. Amazing.

The bookshop contains its own coffee shop/restaurant with a fabulous view over the lake and fountain area.

This one is for Samantha (she would have loved to roam around the Converse shop).

This one is for Ross - a huge model shop containing some huge models (the scale is provided by the tiny human in the background)!

Jacky and I ventured into the aquarium and underwater zoo at the mall - the aquarium is a very impressive fish tank (can you picture a tank holding 10 million litres of water? In a mall??), that contains a huge number of fish (over 33 thousand), including sharks of all varieties, various rays and the odd scuba diver vacuuming its floor.

DUBAI - LONDON
All the while in Dubai we kept an eye on the UK weather. Heathrow was closed and the snowfalls looked like they may put our trip in jeopardy. We crossed our fingers and hopped on the plane to London.

Flying into Heathrow on Dec 23 was no problem in the end - the snow had stopped falling and although the ground was frozen, we landed safely.

HEATHROW - HIGHBURY/ISLINGTON
Phase 2 was the trip to Highbury/Islington station via the underground. By the time we got there it was night time and cold. We had no cell phone reception to ring Patrick nor could we find a taxi so we lugged our cases through the snow and ice to Ferntower Rd (aka The Shire) - Randy and Pat's fantastic home that is minutes away from the Emirates stadium. Thanks so much for allowing us to stay and share your ohfabuloso Christmas with us!!

First point of business was a walk to Emirates to stock up on shirts, a tie and hopefully tickets to the Chelsea/Arsenal game later in the week. Sadly the game was a sell out so we bought our stuff (Patrick not only entered the Armory but bought some (holy) water as well) and planned on seeing the game at a local pub instead.

CHRISTMAS IN THE SHIRE
Christmas eve and Christmas day are a bit of a blur (especially for Jacky who had a severe migraine on Christmas eve).

Breakfast on Christmas morning in the Ferntower kitchen.

Randy and Pat are great social bizzy bees with a large network of friends. The house was buzzing with people for two days and we had a triffic time meeting everyone. Meals were provided by one of their friends - Sean - who is one of London's top chefs. I chatted to him as I cleaned up dishes and peeled potatoes and prepared Brussel Sprouts for him (mmm - you read that right) and was awed to hear him talk about cooking for Kate Moss, Heather Mills and Paul McCartney!!!!! (I'm furiously fanning my face even now). I-stood-next-to-someone-who-stood-next-to-Paul-McCartney!!!

The man who stood next to Macca preparing our Christmas repaste.

My before and after plate tells its own story.

Of course there were presents aplenty to unpack for Wozza, Randy and Pat and the various guests:







Pat and Randy promised us a fun Christmas and they didn't let us down. It was like no other Christmas I've ever experienced. For one thing our own families were missing (they had already celebrated their day while we slept through Christmas Eve night) and that was weird. We've never had a Christmas away from Keegan, Adam, Samantha, Jade and the inlaws.

Although we were missing them, thanks to Pat and Randy and their fabulous friends we had a great Christmas day anyway.

Pat and friend Presley thrust us all into a sing song around the piano (note the Taranaki landscape in the background) and we sang, laughed, played games and were very merry indeed. Presley is blessed with an amazing voice - Jacky and I loved listening to him.

Later in the evening we repaired to the red lounge to exchange secret Santa gifts (the most stylish/ornate/fascinating secret Santa EVER undertaken) and to then watch a movie chosen by friend Stewart - Mommie Dearest!!

Stewart knows the film reasonably well. After about 40 viewings (by his reckoning) he is able to recite the dialogue along the way (not just some, but ALL the dialogue). As Pat said to me - this has got to be your gayest Christmas ever, to which I replied, "No contest".

Oh BTW - did I mention I won the gay quiz? Seems my knowledge of Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Mel Torme, Madonna, Judy Garland and Gloria Gaynor has finally come in handy. Pat reckons I'm only straightened on the gayometer by my love of football and Ted Nugent.

BOXING DAY
Boxing day was a late breakfast and a trip to Oxford St to check out the sales. There was a tube strike on that day but Oxford St and the buses were jammed! Without having phones Jacky and I got ourselves separated for a few hours which was very unsettling so, when finally reunited, we decided to find a Carphone Warehouse and get some SIM cards. It was then back to Highbury to watch the game. In another first - Jacky watched the whole game with me in the Nobody Inn pub with a noisy crowd of fellow gooners. We won 3-1 and happily spilled out of the pub towards the shire (about 50 yards away!).

LONDON TOWN
Being in London I had to visit FOPP and HMV (the Virgin Megastores have closed up shop) HMV in particular was manic. I had to head to the bottom floor's jazz and classical section to get some quiet thinking time.

We decided to see some shows while we could; and hummed and haaaed before plumping for Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Flashdance (they seemed appropriate and we wanted to keep the theme going). Pat said we'd love Priscilla and so it proved to be - a riot of OTT visuals, music and terrible risque jokes! Flashdance isn't in the same camp - more dancing and an attempt at a dramatic story (which Priscilla doesn't even pretend to have) and excellent in its own way.

After all this excess (and I haven't even mentioned the orgy of mushy peas and cod dinners I got through) we took our last tearful journey on the tube (I LOVE the tube) to Heathrow and home via another stopover in Dubai. We left London at night and not sleeping on the plane meant that I missed a lot of zzzzs.

An awesome holiday and today I'm back at work - feeling a little shattered to be back in the saddle after a surreal trip back to blighty.

Now I have a fresh load of CDs and DVDs to plow through over the next few months (see the music blog for details).

Love and peace and why does Santa have three gardens? (because he needs to ho ho ho) - Wozza

P.S. If you've read this far you deserve a treat: so here's a nude shot of Wozza and Pat and Randy's cat - Tiki - having fun in the bath!

Games without frontiers, war without tears

A mixed bag from all of my teams over the last few days to report on.

Arsenal, of course, got thumped. We didn't take our chances, momentum shifted yada yada yada. It didn't help that Arsenal old boy Adebeyor stomped on Van Persie and anybody else he came close to in a red shirt. And in a disgusting display he scored and raced down to the Arsenal away supporters section at the opposite end of the ground to celebrate. What a jerk!! We'll move on...Rochdale had a good 2-1 win. Wahoo!!

The All Blacks, of course, got thumped. I had an idea we would. This is not a good year for us - the only saving grace is that we beat the Australians and retain the Bledisloe Cup. I would much rather we win this than the tri-nations. The Jarpies are definitely the best in the world at the moment. This is painful to write. We'll move on...

The Pittsburgh Steelers ground out a win to start their season as I wrote about last time. Amazingly the San Francisco 49ers also won and so did the Seattle Seahawks (I keep an eye on them for Clay). Wow!! The 49ers were playing this year's Superbowl finalists so it was a very encouraging win. Jesse, Michael and Fanfa will be excited no doubt.

Love and peace and hup hup - Wozza

And all the world is football shaped

Lots of activity on the footy fields of late - Jesse will be thrilled that Chelski beat the damned United in the charity shield. Rochdale picked up a point away in their first league 2 game of the season - good start! And Arsenal gear up for our first game away at Everton this coming Saturday. The gunners have had a pretty good pre-season, winning the Emirates Cup and scoring some great goals, including this wonder goal by Arshavin.



Samantha reports that she is flatting with Liverpool and Chelski supporters but I think she can bet on some good results for the Arsenal this year.

Here's a picture of Chunky and his mum to finish. He's a week old - that's why I called him Chunky.




Love and peace - Wozza

Inspiration 6

In case you hadn't noticed I'm a football fan. This post was inevitable then - it is my tribute to the beautiful game. And right off the bat let me acknowledge two things - 1) that not many of you share my passion, even less are the Arsenal fans amongst you (just Keegan, Adam, Jade, Samantha and me I believe), at least one of you is a Spurs fan (well he's my dad so I have to still talk to him), Tina Ballerina is (it pains me to say it) a MUFC supporter, two of you are Liverpool fans (Tom and Lewis), and five of us are Rochdale devotees (Fran, Tom, Lewis, Christine and me). I think that's about it - if you want your affiliation listed on my blog you'll need to get in touch. The rest of you are either rugby minded (you can't escape it living in NZ) or don't care. And 2) I can't write about football like Nick Hornby (who can?). His blog is full of incredibly insightful things about football in general and Arsenal in particular and I want to be like that when I grow up.

My love affair with football began when I was four. I have no idea why. Maybe dad could fill in the details. Whatever the prompting - I stuffed a couple of pairs of socks into my boots and wandered off to Seymour Park in Royal Oak, Auckland. Eden FC was the club and I was a good player - I went through all the Auckland rep grades until it was time for Mt Albert Grammar to enjoy my cultured left and right foot. I was captain of the first eleven and played at that level for three years, ending up as a school-boy Under 19 Auckland rep. That sounds pretty impressive huh. I loved football and was a dedicated player but in truth if, by quirk of fate, I'd been playing in England I wouldn't have emerged on any scout's radar. After the University years I coached and played at New Plymouth Boys' High before going back to Eden FC where I played socially with some old friends (Grant and Graham King) for a few years. Since then it's been a steady decline as the knees took umbrage and the social football ended when I left England in 2007. I must say I really miss football injuries. That feeling late on Saturday and all day Sunday when shins or thighs or whatever ached is a delicious one.

Why Arsenal? In 1971 my grandfather (Harry Purdy) did a return to England tour with my grandmother (Christina). They stayed with relations - even met Christine and David and Irene I think - and in BnBs. One such in London was with an elderly Arsenal fan. 1970/1971 was, of course, the great Charlie George goal-against-Liverpool-lying-on-his-back-to-celebrate season. Harry brought me back oodles of football stuff but the one mystical artifact was a Daily Mail celebration magazine that contained that photo and...that was all it took. Actually that's not strictly true - the Arsenal name, the uniform, the Arsenal badge, the place - Highbury - sounded otherworldly, the pictures of George Graham and George Kennedy et al all combined to hook me and make me a gooner forever.

Why Brazil? Pretty much similar reasons really - the 1970 world cup put the seal on it. Football from another planet - Pele and his mates running rings around the world. They seemed to be, and were, so exotic. I remember watching a news report of Pele practising volleying the ball into the net. My memory is a tad shonky but I seem to recall that he never missed. The ball was being played through to him at about chest height - he'd volley it in the air while falling to the ground, get up, do it again and again. It was the most extraordinary thing! This clip is the closest I could find - the one I remember must be out there somewhere though.



Why Rochdale? I was always aware of our Rochdale roots. Harry, his brother, Eddie (Suzanne's g/dad), and father (William Nugent Purdy) emigrated to New Zealand when the two boys were young. They settled eventually in the house I knew in Mt Eden, Auckland - in Reimers Ave by Eden Park. At the front gate was a pergola type structure that had roses on it (and Ross and I when we visited). Etched into the plaster was the word 'Rochdene'. When I asked I found out the connection. Again when Harry/Christina returned from that UK tour in 1971 they brought back a name and address - Christine Purdy in Lancashire. I started writing to Christine - I think when she was still actually living in Rochdale (you can correct me Christine). And...she started writing back. The fact that Rochdale was always in the old 4th division and Arsenal always in the old 1st division helped and seemed right. I'd get my football magazines each week from grandma and follow their belated progress. NZ is always months behind the UK in things that matter - Mojo and football magazines (unless you buy the really expensive airfreighted versions) and Coronation St (we're over a year behind the UK) - so the news was always out of date but the pictures were great.

Why Zico and Paul Merson(both on the top left Inspirations column) and Denis Bergkamp? Pele was awe inspiring but I was too young in 1970 (age 12) to really appreciate his genius. Plus the TV didn't carry the games - this was still in the black and white early NZBC days of one channel that started at 5 pm and closed down in early evening. No way were they covering football from Brazil! So it wasn't until colour, two channels, more viewing time arrived and the 1982 world cup finals rolled around that I witnessed Falcao, Socrates (pictured) , Eder and Zico in action. Wow and double wow! Not just the names, not just the uniform, but the way they played with no concern for gravity, convention, respect was breathtaking. They even played New Zealand at those finals - we were in a group with Scotland and Brazil. I was living in Hastings during the winter term of '82, staying with a mad Scottish family while doing a teaching practice at Havelock North High School. It was the first world cup that I remember getting a huge amount of coverage. Paul Merson was the same kind of inspirational player to me - he'd hare off with the ball at his feet in very characteristic strides and there would usually be a flourish and total commitment to him that I loved. Thierry Henry was like that, Theo Walcott may be like that in years to come (please please please let him stay at Arsenal for a bit longer!). at the moment he's a genius in the cocoon stage.And finally Denis Bergkamp. Denis was just a joy - wouldn't it have been great to witness Cezanne and Monet doing their bit? Well Arsenal fans had Denis. Let me repeat - he was a joy!

Currently grooving to Evermore (a great song - The Light Surrounding You - is on high rotate). Okay - must dash - about 30 pages left of 'London' to read - bye fer now.

Love and peace - W