Posts by Paul Williams
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Fark, this story, is exactly what we don't need. There's dickheads on both sides of the Tasman who take the rivalry too far, Quade Cooper's one of them, but I reckon as hosts, it needs to be reigned in, off the field at least.
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Busytown: Sons for the Return Home, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Australia shares an almost identical language - including colloquialisms and slang, it's increasingly hard to tell young Australians and New Zealanders apart beyond Australasia even when they open their mouths, we share a media, common values, an economic zone (NZers are the only people who can register a company in Australia offshore as domestic), a military history, matching legal systems and more. There is no other place in the world we can say that about.
I tend to agree. There's certainly some significant cultural differences in professional life, particularly if you work in government, but less so in social life.
One of the curious things I learned is that, professionally, sometimes the apparent similarities obscure real differences. I often found myself coming out of discussions thinking I knew what had been agreed and finding that I'd misunderstood. That said, I got my first job very very easily which reinforces your main point (and which represents a major threat to NZ).
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Jolisa, I too found your writing wonderful and very familiar. I constantly think about returning to NZ, possibly for the wrong reasons, and you have named and identified many of the things that both trouble and excite me albeit with so much more clarity. Although I've been away nine years, it has been in Australia, a far more familiar place, I suspect, than New Haven. Still, when last in Auckland, the place I spent my first 19 years, I felt very dislocated.
A Yew Topiarian vision.
Genius.
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+1 Sacha. I look forward to the show.
Foreskin's Lament was the first grown-up play I saw. I think, but am not absolutely certain, it was at His Majesty's and had Kelly Johnson as lead and Roy Billing as the coach?
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Has anyone observed particular hostilities to Australians? Cooper's copping it 'cause he's a git, but in the space of 24 hours I've heard of two stories of Australian supporters being subjected to OTT abuse - once in Hamilton, once in Akl. It'd be a hell of a shame if we were poor hosts. I prefer this approach to trans-Tasman relations.
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Hard News: Chill out: it's a party, in reply to BenWilson,
Yesterday I was a bit bummed about Samoa losing. This morning I chatted to my elderly Samoan neighbor, and said "Sorry about the Wales game, bad luck, eh?". He just laughed and said "Nah, Wales played good and hard. And we've still got the All Blacks".
There was a great tweet mid-way through yesterday's game about the oddity of a Samoan player with a Welsh name, my namesake, playing a Welsh player with a Samoan name... however it was Faletau who's Tongan.
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Speaker: Party Central, structures and silos, in reply to Dave Patrick,
Dave, although I agree that Key is a crap PM, I actually think he picks the mood well for the majority of people. I was disappointed that he used no Te Reo in his speech, it was a glaring omission, however I thought the speech was otherwise fine. He seems genuinely enthusiastic and that's not a bad thing at all. Pity he's a policy lightweight and is doing nothing to lead the country on matters of long term importance.
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However, putting it right gives a chance to work closer together and to forge a more united purpose.
Which is why Len Brown's approach to the situation is infinitely superior to McCully's. McCully appeared interested only in the political optics, not on working with all the interested parties to solve the problem.
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to BenWilson,
Yeah, and I'm picking Wales will cope less well with the Samoan game that the Africans... that said, in the past people have commented that Samoa have been one dimensional, but I doubt that's still the case.
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Field Theory: Straight for the throat, in reply to recordari,
Samoa should be good to watch.
I'd love it if the Samoans could again make it past the pool stage which, I think, means they have to win on the weekend.