1)The All Blacks scrummaging issue

2)The handball by Thierry Henry when playing for France against Ireland.

My opinions are :-

1) Paddy O’Brian apologised to the All Blacks for the referee display by Stuart Dickenson, because the Italian tightheads were scrummaging illegally. 

He was saying that the they were dropping their bindings and pushing down with their right shoulders, when they should have been binding up and pushing straight.  

Well I have to say that I agree that it was against the rules, but I do feel that the AB’s props should be able to deal with this. 

I remember when I used to play, both loose and tighthead (not at the same time!), and this happened every week.  

At my level, social drinking team, we learned to deal with this, and we had some pretty useful props against us now and then. 

So my question to the coaches would be, if we could deal with it at our level, why can’t professional international level players deal with it?  

Yes, they are playing against better quality and fitter players, but hey so are they at that level. Therefore their clash is similar to mine in that the props I came up against were at the same level as me. 

Come on All Blacks put up and shut up…get it sorted out and deal with it properly.  Responsibility rests with the players and coaches to sort it out, it’s not the ref’s fault. 

I do feel the ref’s should be more trained more to deal with scrummaging issues, as clearly their knowledge is pretty poor.  They should be able to experience what goes on very quickly…just give them one training session with a seasoned scrummager!

Let’s not get like football, where everything that goes wrong is blamed on the ref, let’s take responsibility for it and sort it for ourselves within the game.

2) Thierry Henry’s handball against Ireland in the World Cup qualifier.  There are a number of arguments about this, however I would like to say that I agree with Roy Keane, Ireland just have to accept it and get on with it.  It’s not a good situation, and he definitely handled it,  but hey it happens all the time in football and in very important situations. 

I, also, agree with Arsene Wenger when he says that this is the most supported and popular game in the world, but yet it still has problems like this that could be sorted out very quickly by using video ref”s!

I don’t feel that Henry or the ref should be blamed for this.  Henry really couldn’t win either way.  If he admitted it on the pitch then he would have been lambasted by the whole of France, and now he has done what he has done i.e. said that he didn’t do it on purpose, and that it was up to the ref to spot it, then he will be lambasted for being a cheat. 

The ref’s can’t be expected to see everything in real-time.  They don’t have the advantage of instant replays like we do, and this is where they should have.

The only way we can have a go at Henry is if we can honestly say that we have not cheated in anything that we have done before ourselves.  I can’t say that, and I know a lot of the people I have come across can’t say that either.  In fact you see it all the time in sport…everyone tries to get away with everything they can, and that in itself is a form of cheating.

So come on get real…the people that we should have a go at is the governing body, and it should be that it’s about time video evidence should be used to make decisions.

And to Ireland, well I know how you feel, I am old enough to remember the ‘hand of God’ incident with Maradona, and how much that hurt.  But you will get over it, and live to fight for another day.  (By the way I thought you were the better team).

Let’s hope FIFA make the right decision and bring in video evidence for the future.

 Watch on this link:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7pbKT37QjY

The earthquakes in Samoa and Sumatra, followed by Tsunami’s all across the Pacific, could be a warning to us to clean our act up i.e. reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere. 

We heard that environmental experts have said that the Antarctic sea is turning into acid due to greater concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Which means that more of the gas becomes dissolved in the seawater, increasing its acidity.

If we don’t stop polluting the world, then the sea will form into acid.  

The world economies discuss the ‘Green Effect’, but worryingly enough they cannot reduce carbon emissions by too much as it will affect trade between countries.

To my mind we have to save the world first and worry about trade agreements later, however our highly paid politicians think differently. If we don’t do anything about it then there won’t be any trade to do anyway.

On happier notes the clocks went forward, and there are lighter evenings.  It feels nicer, and summer is on the way.   

And as they say ‘Tomorrow is another day’.  I hope we can say that for a long time yet.

Went to see another film today called ‘Young Victoria’.  Yes it’s about Queen Victoria!

I enjoyed it, but you need to be able to enjoy costume drama’s, like the ones you used to get on a Sunday night on the BBC a long time ago.   It’s a period setting from the middle 1800s…in fact I can tell you exactly when…it started in 1819, and went through till around 1860.

For me, being English, it was great, makes you feel very patriotic.  It showed a glimpse, albeit a writers impression, of what it was like to be the queen.

Emily Blunt is great as the young Victoria, and Rupert Friend is Albert.

Very Stirring.

And did it make me homesick…No!  The weather was portrayed as raining all the time, and as we have quite good weather here, I wasn’t homesick at all!.

Well that’s it for today…just wanted to get going again.

This is a film which makes you think.  Around 28 years ago Aliens made contact with earth, and ‘parked’ their spaceship above Johannesburg in South Africa.  Humans waited for an attack which did not come.  Instead, humans ‘broke into’ the spaceship and found that there were around 1 million alien refugees aboard.

The Aliens were given a camp called ‘District 9′ to live in temporarily.

Then to present day, patience with the Aliens living there has run out, and they want to move them.  So a guy from Multi National United (MNU), Vikus Van Der Merwe (Shalto Copley) is charged with going onto the camp to head the operation.  By this time the Aliens were scavengers, and there were illegal human (Nigerians) gangs running the camp.

MNU, which is a privately owned company, stands to make huge profit if they can make Alien weaponry work.  Aliens are the only ones who can work them, so they are doing experiments on Aliens to try and work out how to do it.

Vikus, in the meantime, catches a mystery virus which holds the key to MNU’s problem.  The only place for him to go to escape is ‘District 9′

Can’t say too much more!  Directed by Neil Blomkamp, and produced by Peter Jackson, it was an interesting and well acted film, providing action and drama all the while.

Picture from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/

There is a lot to write about from local community issues to the world at large, but how do you know what to choose and where to sell it to.  I guess I’ll find out late in my course, but at the moment it’s frustrating because I want to get on with it.

Another thing is what to specialise in i.e. Politics, sport, education, human rights etc etc.  Again at the moment I’m looking at everything and everyone.

Then of course you have to think about a job.  What do I want to do, and who do I want to work for, or do I want to be freelance?   Loads to think about and I’m only doing a certificate in Journalism (Introductory).   

Writing is fun, but it’s also hard work.  For a story there’s quite of lot of background information to find out, and of course the headline has to make readers read your story.  Blogging is a good way to start to writing as it may attract a following that may also provide you with feedback to what is written, but again it seems you have to specialise.   I don’t know yet what I want to write about, as at the moment everything is interesting.

I’ve just been invited onto Linked In, which appears to be a business networking site.  The chap who invited me, Chris, is some I met at Volunteer Coastguard, and is a senior producer for an afternoon show in Radio NZ.  I’m thinking of contacting him to get some kind of work experience between courses.  Unfortunately that maybe unpaid work, but it could turn out to be valuable if I eventually get a job from it.   It’s not what you know it’s who you know.

Well, that’s about it for now.  I’m going back to trying to find my stories with everyone I speak to.

Cheers

So today, as it was Friday, I had the day off, and what a lovely day!   It was shorts weather.  

In the morning I showed Lucy, no not my Lucy, around the area, taking her on a tour around all the lovely bays around Wellington.   I had met Lucy in the Mount Vic park on Monday on the way home.  She is a nurse from Wakefield, Yorkshire, and had only been here for a week.  It’s funny, but I seem to be able to just talk to anyone!  Anyway, when I was talking to her I said that she should phone my Lucy when she starts work, as she will be working in the same hospital.  Then consequently out of the blue I got a text, so I arranged this tour.   I should be a tour guide, as I seem to know a lot about the city and surrounds!

This afternoon I went to the cinema, which seems to be the new thing in my life as I seem to be going a lot.   I went to see ‘Public Enemies’ which is a film about John Dillinger, who was a notorious bank robber in Chicago.  It starred Jonny Depp as Dillinger,and Christian Bale (who played Batman, and actually comes from Bournemouth) as Melvin Purvis, with Marion Cotillard as ‘Billie’ who is Dillingers lover, and Billy Crudup as  J.Edgar Hoover.  It seems that according to the film, that the FBI had trouble at this time (1933) getting any kind of support for the new investigations service, with local councillors (or state controllers) feeling that they were not required.  Anyway, they were the ones who eventually go Dillinger, gunning him down outside a cinema.

Another enjoyable film, full of action and good acting.  In fact within the film there was a scene in a cinema showing a Clark Gable gangster film, andyou really do notice how much better the acting is nowadays.  As we all know Dillinger was eventually caught, in fact he was brutally killed by FBI agents, but what was surprising to me was the way he was portrayed as a caring kind of guy.   He had fallen in love with his mistress, Billie Frechette, and was shown as a very loving chap!  Exceot for his victims of course, but the film wanted to show his character as someone who didn’t want to kill particularly, and was just interested in getting a better life for himself with the money he stole.  The film is obviously just a snapshot of his life and is shown from the eyes of the writers and directors, but is good value all the same.

There are a lot of good films coming up, and the next two I want to see are from New Zealand.  One is by Tom Scott, who is a cartoonist on the Dom Post (a Wellington paper), called Separation City, and the other is called ‘Under the Mountain’ written by Maurice Gee (the novel) and Mathew Grainger(the screenplay).

Watch this space for a brief synopsis after I have watched them.

Well I’ve written over six hundred words so that’ll be it for now.  The weekend beckons, and we have our round of Rugby, Netball and Hockey tomorrow, along with an extra helping of Rugby on Sunday as Alistair is in a tournament.   You never know there maybe time for Lucy and me to do something we would like to do, but don;t count on it!

Normally I don’t bother going to any films at these type of festivals as they generally sound a bit quirky!   However I managed to get to two films last week.  The first one was ‘ Flame and Citron’ and the second one called ‘Rachel’.  I enjoyed both films.

Flame and Citron is a film from Denmark and Germany in 2008, and is a story of the Danish resistance in Copenhagen during World War II.   This film was a massive hit in Denmark, and has the distinction of being the most expensive one there too!

Mads Mikkelsen, who played alongside Daniel Craig in Casino Royale’ played Citron, and Thure Lindhardt (who looks uncannily like Danial Lewis) played Flame.  Citron, who initiall was sickened by murder, eventually becomes a vicious killer of Germans who he has been told are Nazi’s.

Flame was a red headed assasin who became unsure of whether he was killing ‘Nazi’s’ or German Intellectuals.   He became suspicious of the orders he received, and also got involved with a girl who was also sleeping with the Head of the Gestapo.  No wonder he was becoming unsure about things!

It’s a story where Smuggled British pilots back home by night, and killed Nazi’s by day.   What kept them going was the thought that the Germas would leave one day.

They were undoutbtably heroes, but they were let down by contradicting orders from the British, and their own superior officers.  It became apparent that there some who were more interested in themselves more than in their country.

It is a complex, and difficult thriller, but acted superbly.  Based on a true story it shows what happens when faced with the situation of having un-invited guests in your control of your country.  Some stay loyal, and others do not!   Worth watching.

Follw this path for a preview:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRkb5jlVXDs

 Rachel is a film about American activist Rachel Corrie.   Her death is investigated by French and Belgian Film Makers.

Corrie died in Gaza in 2003 trying to prevent a bulldozer knocking down a house that belonged to her Palestinian friend.   The film interviews most of Corries friends and activists to try and get more information of what happened.

It’s a sometimes sad, sometimes brave portrayal of a young women trying to do good in a place where it looks so bad.   All the houses had  thousands of bullets holes in the side of them, and every day a man, a women, a boy or a girl is killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The lasting impression that is left is that a Caterpillar Bulldozer killed Corrie by running her over.  Somewhat ironic as Caterpillar are made in the US, and Corrie was a US Citizen.

It does make you want to make things right which are wrong, and leaves you with an empty feeling.  But the the viewer is left with the thought that Corrie’s death was spread all over the news in papers, television, radio etc etc, however whilst she was being attended to in the hospital a man was brought in who died from his wounds.  No-one knew his name, and it was not reported in any way.   How many more were there like that?

      Picture of Rachel Corrie.   You can see a short interview with her on You Tube, just type her name in the search.

Writing the news sounds very easy, but there’s a bit more to it than simply copying news from a ‘News ‘ website.  Writing and reading are two very different things, and a lot of time what looks good written is not so good when reading.  Emphasis has to be put on certain words when reading the news, so as to make it interesting.   I did have a go last week, but I guess due to the fact that I have been asked to read it again may mean that my qualities are elsewhere!

I have now started on my other course ‘writing for the web’, and my first assignment is a team effort, where we have to critique certain websites.  This is done using a number of guidelines.  Anyway, we’ll see how it goes!

One of the stories is to do with the wind turbines at Makara.  Apparently they make a lot of noise, and as there 42 of them I suppose that they do!   The residents are not too happy, and it seems that Meridian Power are none too concerned!   We’ll see how that pans out.

Well that’s it for now……..going back to writing today’s news!

The stage at the Town Hall for the Forum on the Rugby World Cup 2011

Friday 24th July.

I read the news bulletin at 5pm on Wellington Access Radio yesterday.

WAR is a community radio station, and relies on voluntary contribution to run effectively. 

It was a lot more difficult than I imagined, and it took me about forty minutes to get a five minute report completed!

The report centred around news in Wellington, so the following sites were used to source information:-

www.stuff.co.nz – this is the Dominion Post site, which is the Wellington produced national paper

 http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/ - an independent news resource site.

The information was already drafted for me, and I just had to read it a few times, and feel reasonably comfortable with it before recording it.  I got to the studio at about five to three, feeling a little nervous, having worried about it since the morning when I was asked to do it. 

 However it was all very relaxed.   I was ushered into a recording room by Laura,  who is a programme manager.  There a microphone was set up so it was positioned about 3 inches away from my mouth.  As these things are quite large and have long metal arms to them, it made it difficult to read the report as they seemed to get in the way. 

Laura would be doing the recording, and I would be reading.  She would direct me as to when a phrase, sentence or word had to be read again.   So, when I was comfortable, and had had a sip of my freshly made instant coffee, Laura said we should make a start.

She gave me my prompt and we began.  I started to read the words, and suddenly realised that my mouth forgot how to work!  It felt like I was reading something from Harry Potter, with long words and phrases which you don’t understand.

However on looking at the sentences they were all simple words, but just not written by me in my style. I have found that trying to read clearly using a piece of writing written by someone else can be quite difficult, no matter what type of words are used.

The whole idea of simply reading the News sounds very easy, especially on the radio.  But there is a certain art (for which I don’t currently have) required to make each news piece serious and interesting.  It does come with practise, Laura told me, but I’m not sure how much practise I’ll need! 

Anyway, I struggled my way through the reports, making mistakes all the way.  The beauty of it was that it was recorded, and not live, so I could stop every now and then to catch my breath or go over anything I needed help with.  

Some of the problems I had were with local Maori place names, and Pacific Island names. There is a certain way of saying them.  Your ‘r’s have to be rolled, and whereas the British pronounce it  ‘Mauw rie’, they pronounce it more like  ’Moe ri’.  I’ll get there on the end.

Apart from that, and a few tongue twisting sentences, it seemed to go alright.  Unfortunately I didn’t listen to the finished article, but I guess it must have been ok!   For my first piece of radio journalism, I felt quite pleased.

After this Laura asked me if I could write the news on Tuesday, for someone else to read, which I agreed to do.  I did a trial run today to see what writing the news was all about.  Again, it’s more difficult than you think, and you have to read it out aloud to yourself to make sure it sounds good.   The secret is to start with a Headline, which will be a short sentence summarising an event.  This needs to be ‘punchy’, so as to generate interest from the listener.  Then you need to state the facts, perhaps have a quote from and expert, and then state the outcome.  So I had a go and after a few re-writes, and changes to grammar and spelling I submitted it to Laura at the studio.   I’m still waiting for feedback, but I’ll listen to the radio at 5pm to see if they have included any of my pieces!

Also, last night, was a meeting of the Wellington council and the Rugby World Cup 2011 Chief Executive.   This was to present current progress to key stakeholders and local business’ around Wellington.

Wellington has been chosen to stage seven games, with two quarter finals.  Knowing how fervent Kiwi’s are about loyalty to where they come from, you can imagine that there may have been some jealously for Auckland as they have the semi’s and the final.  But listening to the council last night, it seems that they are happy to be behind Auckland, and understand that they would be further up the pecking line, so to speak.

My only disappointment is that England play all their games away from Wellington, and even in the quarters they won’t be coming here.  Still I guess it’s an excuse to go on a trip to the South Island for a few days of drinking and Rugby!

The only teams that will be here in Wellington from the North will be Wales, France, and possibly Ireland or Italy depending on whether they make it through to the Quarters.  Yes, I know that the AB’s will be playing here, and I guess that’s important for Wellington, but it would have nice for me to have seen our lads with the Red Rose on they shirts playing here too! 

Anyway, this forum was a good place to do some networking and get to know people, which I did, and I came away with a few contacts in Government positions and within the council.   Not to mention there was a very good  buffet spread and assortment of refreshments afterwards!   I found the whole thing very interesting, with the concept of making this event a countrywide concern, and trying to get everyone involved being a great idea. It gives me a warm feeling inside when I think about it!

There were a some slogans that backed up what they are trying to do, and which we all might see more of in the next couple of years:-

1) One Stadium – Four million people – There was a video shown where the outside of a stadium formed a wall which ran along the whole of the coast of NZ, and inside were the people of NZ trying to make sure that the tournament is a success.

2) Success is not the work of one, but many -  Another reference to get everyone involved, because it is felt that a tournament such as this can lead to bigger and better things in business, and future growth as a whole.  It may open doors to hold further bog events in future years, such as the Commonwealth games, and possibly the Olympics one day.

3) Absolutely Positively Right by Your Side (Wellington RWC 2011 Slogan)

There were presentations made by the mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast, the Chief Executive of RWC2011, Martin Sneddon, a senior lawyer at the Ministry for Economic Development, Rob Rendell, and the chief executive of Wellington Council, Gary Poole.

The overall message is that they are working tirelessly on getting everything in place to make it a great tournament, and the emphasis will be on including as many local residents and business’ as possible.   They want to entice supporters to come to NZ in the first place, and they want them to leave with a favorable impression when they leave.  For more information visit www.wellington.govt.nz/services/events/rwc/rwc.html

After all this excitement and information I was ready for refreshment, and I have found a great little place in Newtown that provides beer like we get in England.  That is, fairly warm and flat!   They do give it to you in a really cold chilled glass, but hey it warms up after a while, and it has a real hoppy, earthy, English beer taste!   Well done Tuatara, which just happens to be a local brewery! Perhaps a future brewery trip may be in order, or buying shares in the form of beer vouchers?