Weekend social 13/05/2011

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 13th, 2011 - 32 comments
Categories: weekend social - Tags:

Christmas truce 1914

Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever.

No politics, no aggro, why can’t we all just get along?

32 comments on “Weekend social 13/05/2011 ”

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  1. TightyRighty 1
    13 May 2011 at 2:36 pm

    Dear The Standard,

    you know everything, so can you please tell me why I still get up at 3am, or come home from the pub early on a friday night, or weasel my way out of dinner parties on saturday night, basically put my life on hold, all to watch the god awful hurricanes lose again. Am I sucker for punishment? is it punishment for voting national? or lusting after loose woman? or only drinking domestic big brand beer?

    Please tell me if these things are the cause. They are the only things I will give up to have the hurricanes win. otherwise, fuck them and i’ll start watching rugby at the normal time of the year.

    Regards
    TR

    • r0b 1.1
      13 May 2011 at 3:03 pm

      Nah TR, you are being punished for your doubt. You just need to believe harder! Get up at 3am every night to stay in training! Buy a season ticket! Then your beloved Hurricanes will start winning again, and all will be right with the world.

      There you go now, don’t say we here at The Standard never do anything for you…

    • Mac1 1.2
      13 May 2011 at 4:17 pm

      TR, I’d blame the beer. Being a sucker for punishment and running after loose women is the same thing, after all, and nobody deserves the Hurricanes as punishment for voting National.

      Get a NZ craft brewery IPA into you, or a good porter or stout, being near winter and discover real life worth living. “The Hurricanes is only a rugby team but a good craft beer is a brew”, to paraphrase Churchill.

      • daveo 1.2.1
        13 May 2011 at 10:35 pm

        Or a Californian over-hopped red ale. Amerillo, cascade, mmmm. Goes nicely with lamb and/or brian jonestown massacre.

    • chris73 1.3
      13 May 2011 at 5:58 pm

      Don’t worry, the Highlanders will put the horrorcanes to the sword (again) this weekend

    • chris73 1.4
      14 May 2011 at 11:10 am

      Cough cough *ahem*

    • rosy 1.5
      14 May 2011 at 9:25 pm

      I was going to say at least you don’t support the Chiefs. But … nah 😀

      Start a petition to change your coach… look what Jamie Joseph has done for the Highlanders.

  2. Colonial Viper 2
    13 May 2011 at 4:19 pm

    Might get a couple of games of cards in tonight. And brewskis. Never forget the brewskis.

    • r0b 2.1
      13 May 2011 at 4:41 pm

      What’s your poison? 500? Bridge? Poker? Canasta?

      • Lanthanide 2.1.1
        13 May 2011 at 6:00 pm

        500 is fun, but it becomes a bit formulaic and predictable. Eventually, if you’re all good players, you can just put your cards down and decide who wins without even bothering to play. Never played bridge, though.
         
        I quite like Hearts with Jack of Diamonds. If you’re familiar with MS hearts, all the same rules, except Jack of Diamonds is worth -10 points. It makes a huge change to the dynamics of the game and it becomes really fun. Much more fun than 500 when you can drop the Black Lady on someone too. Shooting the moon with a poor hand is also much more thrilling than going misere in 500.

        • Herodotus 2.1.1.1
          13 May 2011 at 8:54 pm

          Also with 500 I always find that banning miser helps, as any hand you have can achieve, and the dominant caller will always as a last resort make this call just to take the kitty.
          At least the weather forecast is better than last week. Especially being fogged in for a plane trip that was cancelled and interferred with weekend activities!!!
          Sport wil be on so this is shaping up for a great weekend especially as we can all experience the 100% pure NZ !!!!
          On an aside any one else get annoyed with the soap dispensers that you buy from the supermarket, dispensing enough soap in one push to clean a family, well above what is required to wash hands???

          • Lanthanide 2.1.1.1.1
            14 May 2011 at 12:12 am

            It can be quite fun when you’re not in the mood to play seriously, to just bid anything to make sure you win the kitty every hand, even when you have complete trash. I’ve had games where one partnership would win the kitty 8-9 times in a row before they got to -500.

            On an aside any one else get annoyed with the soap dispensers that you buy from the supermarket, dispensing enough soap in one push to clean a family, well above what is required to wash hands???

            Yes. I normally only push the dispenser 1/3 to 1/2 down, sometimes only 1/4 if I just need a dot. Some brands of dispensers are much more amenable to this than others.

          • rosy 2.1.1.1.2
            14 May 2011 at 4:53 pm

            You use liquid soap!?

            Visit to the English bookshop this weekend, yay. That’ll use up a few hours 😉

      • Colonial Viper 2.1.2
        13 May 2011 at 6:09 pm

        Could be a poker night, not quite decided yet – maybe Texas Hold’m, maybe something else 🙂

      • r0b 2.1.3
        13 May 2011 at 6:38 pm

        You are persons after my own heart.

        My family plays vicious 500, with constant debates about the role of misere. And Hearts (with J diamonds, which we call Black Bitch). Canasta sometimes. Poker sometimes (especially the younger ones).

        I tried bridge for a bit, but the formulaic bidding systems turned me off. Give me a good 500 with 9 no trumps on the smell of an oily rag any day!

        • Mac1 2.1.3.1
          13 May 2011 at 7:26 pm

          For us the Queen of Spades was the Black Bitch, in ChCh at Uni in the sixties. The Jack of Diamonds was a positive point winner.

          A great game, Hearts- is he getting dumped on or is he going for the lot? A bit like life, really.

          Now, Jack of Diamonds is different. It’s a song, “The Cuckoo.”

          “Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Diamonds
          I know you of old.
          You’ve robbed my poor pockets
          Of my silver and my gold.”

          I sure lost more money than I won in Pontoon and Hearts. Never was a good “five bob capitalist.” Again, a bit like life. End of whimsical note.

          • joe90 2.1.3.1.1
            14 May 2011 at 12:37 pm

            We played 500 at home but I was introduced to the vicious variety in the fitters donko of the Wairakei power station. In a tiny donko built to accommodate twenty or so men there would be forty plus jammed in shoulder to shoulder with four or five six handed games under way and with ten minute smokos speed was all that mattered. If you didn’t cut the mustard you’d be chucked out of the game and replaced and you’d have to wait your turn to join another one.

            Thursday was flagon day so we’d put in 20 cents a week and at knock off we’d be shoe horned into the donko sorting out partners and setting up games and the melodious boing boing rattle rattle of the crates of flagons arriving and being carted up stairs would crank up the excitement levels. Once the flagons had arrived and drinks were poured it would be two hours, or until the beer ran out, of the most wonderful fun blokes could have.

            Today, 35+ years later, the sound of flagons rattling in a crate triggers the emotions and brings back memories of the fun I had being amongst men who were tough on us and were experts at tormenting us but who knew how to get the best out of a naive spotty teenager like me.

            . Sadness too because that way of life is long gone and knowing that todays naive spotty young fellas will never know the pleasures of the Wairakei donko card games, Waikato draught flagon beer and the company of and being educated by a large group of older men.

            • Mac1 2.1.3.1.1.1
              14 May 2011 at 5:52 pm

              I think the last point is very true, joe90. Older men certainly were influential with me and certainly socialising with a diverse group meant greater opportunities for education in the broad and social sense. I was influenced by old unionists, colleagues who grandfathered me and even older friends who were a bit wiser.

              Forms of socialising now seem to avoid the mixing of age groups. I love to sit down with a beer and a group of my daughters’ friends, infrequent though that be.
              But the old style 21sts, wedding parties, birthdays etc seem to be less of an item, to be endured, if held at all, before the young uns’ shoot through to other venues.

            • Deadly_NZ 2.1.3.1.1.2
              14 May 2011 at 9:27 pm

              Or the equally ‘nasty’ 3 or 5 handed cut throat euchre was fun , I played Canasta with my parents and 500 euchre or a little bit of acey ducy until they passed away.

  3. happynz 3
    13 May 2011 at 5:09 pm

    I like what I do at my job and my co-workers are pleasant, but by god the admin is a horror show. Plans for the weekend include watching the rugby down at the pub (don’t have SKY-TV) and drinking a few beers.

    Tomorrow morning my daughter and I will probably watch an old Mexican horse opera DVD. She doesn’t have any Spanish skills, but the stories aren’t real complicated like. Saturday night, more rugby and beer. Sunday for the weekly food shop and afternoon newspaper reading and maybe a snooze when the sun is at the right angle to shine through the bedroom window.

    Such is the weekend life at chez happynz.

  4. IrishBill 4
    13 May 2011 at 6:38 pm

    I’m changing the oil and filter in the ute, catching up with some old mates from out of town over a few drams and a lot of bullshit and maybe pruning some trees if the weather holds.

  5. prism 5
    13 May 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Just a small laugh in a hopefully happy weekend for all. This is a great dog item – where it tries to teach a statue of Alan Turing to play fetch.

  6. Herodotus 6
    13 May 2011 at 8:57 pm

    The guy on the ash can is impressive, perhaps try and learn how to play as he does, it would be great on weekend trips being warmed by a fire with a beer/wine or a single malt !!!
    These boys know what a great weekend is 😉

  8. Peter Bains 8
    13 May 2011 at 11:47 pm

    Gardening and kids sport. Watching Manchester United clinch the Premier League. The only red side I support:)
    Reading a great book called ‘Moscow Tram Stop’. About a German Doctor in the Invasion of Russia in 1941 about his experiences on the road to Moscow with Army Group Centre. I brought for $8 and have found out is is a rare book and is about $400. However, the bookstore is now rooted, it was on Manchester St, Chch:(

  9. jimmy 9
    14 May 2011 at 4:17 pm

    I had the pleasure of visiting Bushy Park which is just out of Whanganui today. We saw New Zealand’s largest Northern Rata, Saddleback, and a photogenic Robin among other glorious things.

    Well worth a look if you are in the area.

  10. locus 10
    14 May 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Rome Open and Eurovision song contest. Shaping up to be excellent weekend for armchair criticism