A great weekend

Gidday,

I've just had a very good weekend. It all started with a few drinks at our local pub, the Walters Arms, Friday night. This is a 'proper' English pub just 600m or so out the College gate. It used to be really smokey & not a pleasant experience at all, but it is ahead of it's time & went non-smoking last year (they don't HAVE to be non-smoking until this July). There tends to be a regular bunch of staff always there on a Friday night.

On Saturday morning I reffed my first ever proper rugby match at school. I had been told I had to do at least one this term, & wasn't looking forward to it. Despite my apprehensions, it went really well. The opposition coach was very complimentary & told me I did a super job, & that I was 'spot on', but that was possibly because his team won! There were a lot of parents from both teams watching, but they were really good & didn't give me any grief from the sideline which was nice.

That afternoon I went to watch London Irish (our local premiership team) play Newcastle at the Madejski Stadium, aka the 'Mad Stad' in Reading. It is also where the Reading Royals

premiership football team is based. My friend Claire had got me a ticket for my birthday, & Nicola was also over for the weekend, so

it was really nice to spend some time with my friends. It was a great game, Irish won 38-12, despite the presence of Jonny Wilkinson playing for Newcastle. He had a very ordinary game... Irish had the kiwi duo of Flutey & Mapusua to help them along. The premiership is full of kiwis! It was a lovely sunny afternoon, & we enjoyed a lot of running rugby & a lot of tries scored.

Nic stayed Saturday night at mine & cooked a nice 'birthday' dinner for

Will & I. I'm loving this birthday, it just seems to be going on for ever! On Sunday I had my rugby against Thurrock, who are top of the table. I didn't play them in the first round as it was when I was in NZ, but we got a hiding of more than 30 points. The score today was 5-3 to them. It was a really hard, close game. Conditions were absolutely awful. We've had a lot of rain lately, & the pitch was just a mud bath! After 5 minutes you could hardly tell who was in which team, we were all so muddy!!! I basically went into the showers after the match wearing all my kit... Nic & Will came & watched in the pouring rain, so I was pretty impressed!

No more news from me... This Saturday Will & I are having an engagement party which we are looking forward to. No doubt you'll probably hear all about it next week! It also conveniently doubles as a 30th birthday party...