Posts by Simon Poole
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The last time I was in the USA (about 15 years ago), I met a Maine Coon and thought, one of these days I will share my place with one like you: he was a cat of considerable presence, and I dont mean just size-wise. I loved the fact that he enjoyed water, was not a bird-hunte
I am currently living with two Maine Coons, including Coonhaven Mystic Warrior (Listed on the site Bart gave as still belonging to the breeder) who is a 15kg whopper, with an amazing temprament. He is very affectionate - often looking to share a lap - and not bothered by water at all. I haven't seen him swim, however, and it is possible that the thickness of his coat means he just doesn't notice/care about any water he comes into contact with. He is a bit big to hunt birdlife, to be honest, but brings in the odd rabbit. Depite his very intimidating jaws/claws we haven't seen him deliberately strike out at a human, as we have so many other cats. He did get a fright once and left some fairly deep claw-marks on my mother-in-law.
But! we also have a female, who does hunt prolifically. She does not bring in much bird-life, but has brought in a Kereru *cringe* which we managed to free and release again. I'd hate to think what would happen if she was in a more bird-dense area.
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Yeesh, trust an article by Hadyn to turn into an argument about uniforms!
I was so gutted not to be there - even though it looks like RCRD got crushed. Sounds like the crowd had fun too!
Good to know what Fia Fasi Oi means - she stood out in a losing Mascara Massacre team the weekend before in Auckland - but I thought she was a Northland Nightmare, what's the deal Pirates?
LB: Auckland picked black and red as their colours long before RCRD was a league, just fyi. If they want to look like Cantabs, well... power to them I guess. Knowing how parochial actual Cantab supporters are, I do wonder what the Dead End Derby Dolls will be wearing for an inter-city bout.
Greg: Just quietly, I thought that the rules interpretation in Auckland was uhhh... a little 'different' to the way we'd been doing things, especially with a pack splitting up, or a jammer being chased down. Wish I'd been there to yell more obscenities at the officials :)
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Hadyn: You clearly missed members of both teams having a boogie at the start line while waiting for us to figure out who was meant to be in the bin!
That said, we're moving to the Waikato this week, so might just have to hook up with the Roller Ghouls for our derby fix. (Don't worry Richter City, we still love you #1, long time).
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As for having Sam in skates? Let's see if we can get him using shoes properly first. Skates will follow (closely)!
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Kyle: There are none suitable that I'm aware of. Upper Hutt is a long way to take 20 people for training twice a week (Although the surface is awesome, and there are often people up there for the Saturday open-skate) and is expensive as hell to hire for private use, and the surface in Kilburnie is that interlocking plastic-mat stuff. Not quite grippy enough for our purposes - polished concrete really is the best, if possible. Not quite sure how much Kilburnie was charging, but as they're a council-owned rec centre they had a pretty busy weekly schedule as it is.
Hadyn: Unfortunately not. Miss G was pretty furious that she couldn't go to the last bout, so I promised her that she'd get to ref the next one. And now it's at the TSB Arena. *facepalm* Here's hoping that #3 goes off big-time, because I'll be back for that!
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Sadly, I was rostered onto Dad duty before I found out we were switching to the TSB Arena, so if I'm lucky I'll get to be backstage.
Civil Offense is going to rock hard.
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The Mao kitschification thing is really weird. I can understand the appreciation for, say, the design aspects of Russian or Chinese propaganda posters, but the way you can get Mao on *everything* is odd.
I was given (as a sort of joke-gift, mind you) a Mao pocket-watch. It has a relief of him on the front, and when you open it (and it is wound up) his arm waves back and forth behind the watch arms to greet you. I can't quite imagine anything similar for Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot etc.
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...and holy shit - Richter City got sick of turning people away from their last bout so have moved to a bigger venue for the next two... the TSB Arena! I'm pretty sure this is the biggest venue ever for a derby bout in NZ, so bring your friends and pack it out.
We'll be there on the 10th of October and the 7th of November, so if you didn't get in last time make sure you check it out.
And Bevan, I have to apologise but I've just heard from Pirate City that they are selling tickets through www.undertheradar.co.nz including a $40 season pass.
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Bevan: Apologies, the Pirate City Rollers website is still showing the ad for their last bout, but I have had reliable word that they're aware of this and will be updating it shortly. The next bout is on the 4th of October and is called "Circus of the Scars". Tickets at Real Groovy
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Kyle: Cheers, I’ll take a look at the whistles, although first glance says $10 shipping to Wellington? For a whistle? Ouch.
The ones we were using are metal, and believe me I was blowing as hard as I can – there’s also not a lot of ambiguity when a jammer is calling off a jam. The crowd literally was that loud – we couldn’t hear the basketball siren that Megan had to wail a few times, and they’re designed to be heard over a crowd too. We’re thinking a fog-horn will be the best bet for her use next time, if that gives you any indication of the sort of noise we were dealing with at times.
Bevan: that was an article covering the Christchurch leagues (Dead-End Derby Dolls) first bout. The Pirate City Rollers (Auckland) also appeared in a 20/20 doco late 2007, which is what first got me interested, but apart from that there is not/hasn’t been a whole lot on TV about derby. Hamish McKay didn’t seem too keen on it during that TV3 segment either, but he’s a tosser so who knows if derby’ll get any more interest down the track. Currently, the only way to watch it is to buy a ticket – Pirate City are just kicking off their season, and as Hadyn mentions Richter City are selling tickets for their second bout now, so you should definitely check it out.