Alfa Romeo 159
Why on earth don’t they sell these in the U.S.? Why?
Sausage roll for lunch. Tasty.
Poor little Mike Catt. He just got run over by Jonah.
Canterbury 22, Otago 17
Went to see Canterbury defend the Ranfurly Shield tonight. It was a close game, but the home team came out on top in the end.
About two minutes from the end, my mother and another guy in the crowd performed CPR on a fan who passed out. We left when the St. John’s Ambulance people arrived and took over so we don’t know whether he was OK or not, but it didn’t look good.
Keep on the sunny side
Robert Falcon Scott’s 1912 expedition to the South Pole departed for Antarctica from Christchurch, New Zealand. The expedition was a complete, unmitigated disaster. They were beaten to the pole by the Norwegians and the entire team succumbed to the cold in a tent during the return journey. Actually, one of the party, Capt. Oates, famously preferred to die outside the tent.
A statue of Scott was erected in his honour beside the Avon River in Christchurch. It bears an inscription taken from his diary, written as he was freezing to death:
I DO NOT REGRET THIS JOURNEY WHICH SHOWS THAT ENGLISHMEN CAN ENDURE HARDSHIPS HELP ONE ANOTHER AND MEET DEATH WITH AS GREAT FORTITUDE AS EVER IN THE PAST
Given that attitude, I’m not surprised Oates decided to spend his last hours alone in the snow. I’m not at all convinced that it was a self-sacrificial decision, as it is commonly portrayed.
Morbid detail: the statue was sculpted by Scott’s widow.
Beef vindaloo for lunch. Hot.
