Winter Messes

I received my Visa for working in New Zealand the other day. Now I won't be turned away at the Auckland airport and flown directly back to LAX, 5 months before my return flight. Great. Colin told me the other day that he and Rania have gotten multiple responses from farms in the Canterbury area that are positive, and that for the first week we will stay in Auckland while making plans to travel south.

The Christmas Sevens rugby tournament was held earlier today in Hanover County. Eight teams showed up, including two from Richmond, two from VCU, James River (the hosts,) a NOVA social side, William & Mary, and perpetual victory machines ECU.

As I had only attended two practices prior to the tournament, I played with Richmond's B-side (Killer B's) versus VCU Alumni, NOVA, and William & Mary. Earlier in the week I took a knee to my thigh in practice that wasn't helped out by the sub-freezing temperatures. Add to that compensating for the charley-horse in a full sprint and you wind up with two pulled quads by the start of the second match. Rare form, to be sure.

In our first match we scored first versus NOVA, but lost our steam for some reason and ended up getting soundly beaten. The next game was better, and the ground even thawed! Playing alongside Matt Baker, another Guilford alum, I was able to both score a try and assist in one of his. We carried our momentum into our final match versus W&M and spanked them rather soundly. I scored three tries from the outside and converted one, bringing my total to 22 points on the day, which I am very pleased with. However, I was also beaten on the outside on no fewer than two occasions, so I still have a lot of work to do. Highlight of the day for me: getting wiped out and slammed by a NOVA player before the ground thawed.

Tomorrow I'm driving up to D.C. to visit for a while. All I've been able to do in Richmond to stay busy is eat, lift, sleep, and practice, with few hangouts. It will be nice to have company for an extended period again. Then on the weekend it's back down to the Carolinas with Guilford alumni and kids for more rugby sevens. This entire thing should become much more interesting to work on once I get my camera running.