Reaching 50

As some readers will know, a couple of years ago I had a target of reading 50 books over the year. I fell frustratingly short at 49 after I didn't finish reading the last book by New Year's Day. The nice old lady in Wales was part of the reason!


This year I've had more time to read, both when I've been travelling around and generally in Wellington. I just finished what I thought was my 50th book. It actually turns out to be number 51, as I failed to mark one as complete earlier in the year. There's plenty more books I'm planning to read this year, it's just nice to hit this milestone along the way.


The full list is below for those who are interested. They're roughly in the order I finished them in. First, here are a couple of things:

• I use Shelfari to keep track of what I'm reading. It's a really handy website and I've now got nearly three years of books on my bookshelf. I've just added a widget to the right hand side of my blog that shows the latest things I've added
• Political books, particularly NZ politics feature pretty heavily in the list
• I read too many really trashy thrillers, although my list isn't quite as damning as I thought it would be on this front
• Lots of the books are recommendations from friends, colleagues, etc. Please keep these coming as they're gratefully received
• The worst books were definitely Londongrad (No. 17) and The Weight (No. 31) they're the kinds of book that make me wish I could leave a book half read
• It's harder to say what I consider the best books. I particularly enjoyed One Day (No. 1), Armadillo (No. 12) and Freedom (No. 51), which I've just finished

1. One Day by David Nicholls

2. The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe by Douglas Rogers 

3. A Journey by Tony Blair 

4. The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry 

5. The Righteous Men by Sam Bourne 

6. The Bear and the Dragon by Tom Clancy 

7. Restless by William Boyd 

8. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown 

9. Hard Landing by Stephen Leather

10. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

11. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope 

12. Armadillo: A Novel by William Boyd 

13. The Sand Café by Neil MacFarquhar 

14. Redemption by Lee Jackson 

15. Bullshit, backlash & bleeding hearts : a confused person's guide to the great race row by David Slack 

16. The Dark Art of Politics by Simon Carr

17. Londongrad by Reggie Nadelson

18. Two titans : Muldoon, Lange and leadership by Jon Johansson 

19. Moral Hazard: A Novel by Kate Jennings

20. Pipeline: A Novel of Suspense by Peter Schechter 

21. Helen Clark : a political life by Denis Welch

22. Long Stay in a Distant Land: A Novel by Chieh Chieng

23. An Accidental American: A Novel by Alex Carr 

24. Our Game by John le Carré

25. Tomorrow's Schools 20 years on                                                             

26. Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

27. 61 Hours (Jack Reacher Novels) by Lee Child

28. The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King 

29. The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth 

30. The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland 

31. The Weight by Andrew H. Vachss 

32. Depths by Henning Mankell

33. The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

34. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 

35. We the Living by Ayn Rand 

36. Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward 

37. The Night Killer by Beverly Connor 

38. Hellfire by Ed Macy 

39. The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult 

40. The Hollow Men by Nicky Hager 

41. The Janson Directive by Robert Ludlum

42. Political Animals: Confessions of a Parlimentary Zoologist by Clifton Jane

43. Final Approaches: A Memoir by G. C. Hensley 

44. After-heat : a novel by Keith Stewart 

45. Cut Out by Patrick Lennon 

46. God's Own Country by Hugh Ross 

47. Seeing Further by Bill Bryson 

48. Any Human Heart by William Boyd 

49. A film by Spencer Ludwig by D. L. Flusfeder 

50. The Larnarchs by Owen Marshall

51. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

World Champions

So, after an incredibly tense game against France the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup last night.


The last 6 weeks in New Zealand have been absolutely dominated by the Cup. The only other story that's got prolonged attention is the MV Rena container ship running aground on a reef in the Bay of Plenty. Fortunately, the Cup has been happier news here, particularly after last night.


Going back a week, the All Blacks soundly beat Australia 20-6 in the semi-final. I actually went to this game up in Auckland with my flatmate Matt and two other friends. Auckland city was even more lively than when I went up for the England v Scotland game. The atmosphere at the Eden Park Stadium itself was absolutely electric. For reasons I can't quite remember, I didn't take any photos.


France just beating Wales in the first semi-final set up a match between two teams who met in the final in the 1987 World Cup, which was the last time the All Blacks one the Cup. Although no-one wanted to risk saying it, based on form through the tournament the All Blacks were expected to easily win. It turned out much closer, with the All Blacks holding on to a single point lead for most of the second half. That made it an absolutely thrilling game to watch.


I went to a BBQ with a load of friends in the afternoon and then we headed to a bar called The Cambridge to watch the game. The place filled up as kick-off came closer and the tension was only just being held at bay by large amounts of beer.


As soon as the game finished the bar, and the whole of Wellington, erupted in cheers with everyone hugging each other and going wild. They'd obviously put together a playlist in preparation for the win, it would be interesting to know if they had an alternative one just in case, although I have no idea what they'd be able to put on it.


After a couple more drinks we left and headed into town. The central streets were closed off and full of people wandering from bar to bar and partying outside. An incredible atmosphere of celebration and relief as it sunk in for everyone that the trophy belongs to New Zealand for the next four years.


The last six weeks of the tournament have been absolutely brilliant. I was expecting to follow the proceedings, particularly England and the All Blacks. I hadn't expected to get as swept up in it all. Somehow it has seemed like the whole country has been involved in playing host, probably because of the size of the country and huge part that rugby plays in the kiwi identity. It's going to be tough for England to top the welcome that New Zealand has shown the World come 2015!


I've posted a load of pictures from last night on Facebook, here are a of them.

Rugby World Cup travels

Another long hiatus since my last post. The last month has been absolutely full of rugby. The pool stages of the Rugby World Cup have meant games almost every day, as well as pre- and post-game analysis and a myriad of other activity linked to the tournament.


It's also meant a couple of trips over the last two weekends to see England play in pool matches.


The first was to Dunedin, to see England play Romania. I travelled down there with Helen, Harry and Angela. Dunedin is towards the bottom of the South Island and it's the further south in the world I've been (45.9°S).


We arrived Saturday lunchtime and the match was on that evening. After a pretty big night out we had a gentle start on Sunday morning. We headed out of the city to visit Larnach Castle, the only 'castle' in New Zealand, built by a politician in the 19th century. Later in the afternoon, we took a tour round the Speight's Brewery, one of the major breweries in NZ. The tour guide was quite a character and strangely proud of the fact that the brewery had been bought up and was now part of a global conglomerate, it ended on a high note with a self-pouring opportunity to sample the whole range of brews.


We had taken Monday off work, giving us a nice relaxed and extended weekend. In the morning we took another tour, this time of the Cadbury's factory. Helen, Harry and I then had to hit the road as we hadn't flown directly to Dunedin, but instead to a town a few hours away called Timaru. On the way we stopped off to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are a surreal site. They are spherical boulders of different sizes dotted along the shore. I won't try and explain how they formed, wikipedia has an explanation. 


After a short 4-day week I was off again, this time to Auckland. I'd visited Auckland before back in July with Tyra and we hadn't been that excited by the place. The atmosphere was much livelier this time round due to the World Cup. In the morning I met up with an educationalist and Aucklander who I'd been put in touch with, he kindly showed me round a few hidden gems including a great coffee shop and the art gallery. 


Then in the afternoon I met up with Kris, a friend from the Department in England, who I was going to the game with. We were staying at a backpackers hostel in town and in the random way of hostels as we walked in we ran into a couple of Germans and an American who were going to the game and demanded we tell them the British national anthem so they could write it on their hands before the game. 


This time I was flying back on Sunday afternoon. In the morning we did have time to walk down to the waterfront and visit the giant rugby ball. This is a travelling exhibit that has been round the world advertising NZ and the World Cup. Inside a show is projected onto the interior of the ball along with a live presenter, it was really pretty impressive.


Rugby


I've deliberately left any description of the rugby to the end so anyone who isn't interested can skip over it.


Dunedin has a new stadium build for the World Cup. It's got a permanent roof and is really impressive. The seats are banked steeply meaning you feel close to all the action. Because it's enclosed the atmosphere was great during the match.


The Romania game was an easy 67-3 win. In fact it's the only game in the pool stages where England actually looked in control rather than under threat. It was great seeing 10 tries scored. Although they still made too many errors there were a few nice touches to the English game.


The Scotland game in contrast was torture to watch. All England needed to guarantee qualification was to lose by less than 8 points. Seemed like an easy task against a Scottish side that looked dreadful in their first three matches. But oh no, we couldn't make it that easy. Scotland took an early lead and their defence held firm against anything we could throw at them. At every opportunity we gave Johnny the chance to kick for a penalty and his kicking was dire, missing even straightforward kicks. It wasn't until the last 5 minutes, with Toby Flood on, that Chris Ashton broke free and got a try to shift England into the lead, with the final score 16-12. An incredibly close game and hardly a good omen as we go into the knock-out stages.


This weekend is the quarter-finals. England is playing France on Saturday. The other three matches are Wales v Ireland, Australia v South Africa and All Blacks v Argentina. I'm staying in Wellington this weekend. Then next weekend I'm off to Auckland again to watch the semi-final between the winners of the third and fourth quarter-finals - I'm guessing this will be Aus and the All Blacks and it should be an awesome game.


Dunedin photos

England v Romania

Angela, Helen and Harry on the tower of Larnach Castle

Inside the Speight's brewery

A Moeraki boulder

Boulders on the shore

Our flight home

Auckland photos

Red - outside Auckland Art Gallery

England v Scotland

Inside the rugby ball -