Week 47- Tackling Tackle

With the long weekend on Great Barrier Island week 47 was somewhat of a shorter week. I had physio first thing on Tuesday morning to get more exercises for my shoulder and he said it was progressing well. I spent the day drawing up a plan for my study and generally getting organised for the impending exams. I filled the rest of the day with messaging people in Hawaii to arrange a couch surfing host (couch surfing is a website where you message people asking to stay at their home for free and then in theory you pay it forward and have other people to stay for free at your own home). I cooked a casserole for dinner and Harry popped around to help me eat it!

Wednesday comprised of more of the same, studying and couch surfing, but in the afternoon my team had another game. We played far better than the previous week but we didn’t take our chances so the game finished 2-2. Thankfully we won on penalty strokes! At training on Thursday morning, we then worked on goal scoring and I was very happy with how it went. I really noticed that winter was starting to set in on my cold cycle home. I spent many hours studying and sorting out my couch surfing. To cap off the day I went to dinner with Mark, Jack and Clare at Le Garde Manger. It was absolutely delicious and we then retired to their home to have tea and play Bananagrams!

I had physio on Friday morning where I had more, rather sore, needling done and got the all clear to progress my strengthening though sadly was not allowed to go on a snow climb of Ruapehu. Cooper and Jack came around for cards in the morning and Cooper brought some pastries for us to enjoy. I did some writing in the afternoon and avoided studying as best I could. Harry stopped by to give me a stew he had made that he wouldn’t have the chance to eat and then he left for Ruapehu.

Ulysse had an exam on Saturday morning and as soon as it was over he got on a plane to go to the South Island for a week as his next exam wasn’t for 10 days! I went to 70 Symonds street to study and managed to get locked in the elevator but thankfully not for too long. Once home I made mash potato to go with Harry’s stew for our group dinner as that evening we were going to watch France play the All Blacks. Harry arrived back from his trip to Ruapehu just in time to have some food and put on some of the New Zealand frisbee gear that I had. We were all shocked when Harry walked in the door to see that he had shaved his beard and left only his moustache. Though we quickly remembered that it was on account of him having lost a bet a number of weeks prior! We departed for the free shuttle bus with our jerseys, snacks and tickets which we accidentally printed on A3 paper.

With the Haka setting the tone, the first half of the match was very tight with France leading 11-8 at the break so we all decided to switch allegiance and start supporting Les Bleues. There were some rather entertaining French supporters, complete with berets, baguettes, striped tops and drawn on moustaches. Ulysse would have felt right at home. There was also a great, although unplanned, half time show as a streaker made his way onto the pitch. He sprinted past the first line of defence as the security guard slipped and then made it to the middle of the pitch, unsure what to do next as I suspect he didn’t think he’d get that far. A chase ensued with tackle on full display before our hero was brought to the ground, covered with his flag-cape and escorted off the field to great cheers from the crowd. Thinking it’d be hard to beat that excitement, we were not disappointed in the second half where the All Blacks scored 44 unanswered points in the last 30min of play. It was terrifying to see them cut loose like that! Once home I watched Ireland play Australia which we rather disappointingly lost.

Sunday was split between holiday planning and study. I made a personal google map for Iceland where I inserted all the places that Sam had researched as worth visiting so it would be easier for us to navigate where to go once we made it to the rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I was studying on campus with Harry in the PhD area of the physics department. It was extremely productive so the two of us planned to do more of the same in future. We ate dinner together at my flat before Harry left for bed.