Monday, September 15, 2008
Travelling to Intervarsity and Mum and Dad
Well I am sorry for the long wait between emails but have been busy but is not an excess. Well my family has been and gone and I loved the experience of having them here (we still got on each others goat but i think that’s normal:). We headed up to Zambia and saw the Victoria falls and also walked with lions and got photo’s up close with the lions (even cuddled them:)0)
Anyway the falls were amazing and so was hanging out with the lions but probably the most amazing thing for me, was cruising up the zambeze river on a cruise with free food and drink and seeing 3 elephants crossing the river, and hippo’s and all:) But ofcourse when I go o the toilet Mum and dad tell me the saw a heard of elephants running do the side of the river bank! I missed it:( but happy for them.
While in Africa we went to a lion farm and a thme park but the name of gold reef city, and Mum was pretty scared of everything so dad and I stayed with her and didn’t go on all the rides as we thought we better;)
At Gold Reef city, we went down an actually gold mind (We were only around 250m under ground, but the mind was actually close to 2km’s deep when in use:/
We also headed up to Rustenburg to a PUK 1 senior match and following that, Mum and Dad traveled up to Pilansberg and Sun city for 2 nights and from what they said, they really enjoyed which was great for them.
Anyway apart from that, we spent alot of time at rugby and Dad enjoyed the experience of a professional enviroment, so any questions he can now explain what I’m up to and all if anyone want to know in more detail :)
Anyway apart from that, the past 2 months have been full of rugby matches and training which has been nice as we have contiunally over this season trained a hell of a lot and not played much. Today we are off to Intervarsity in Blomfortein to play against our arch rivals. We haven’t lost to this team at any stage in the past 4 years (9games) so i’m hoping nothing changes on Saturday.
However we didn’t have the prefect finish to varsity cup which is the major competition at the start of the season, so I don’t think the boys are thinking about that record at all and are just really to prove a point to themselves and the public of South Africa that under currie cup, we are still the best side in the country :)
It is a pretty awesome experience so far and even though it is all professional and business for our side (Really just our side), it is still cool to see all the cars parked on the side of the road partying in groups as they head to Blomfortein as well to support us and for the big party tomorrow night!
See for us, it’s not just a match with regard to intervarsity. If we win, our bonus for every player and team management will be close to $2000nz so here’s hoping :)
Well I am about to turn off my computer, but just wanted to let you
S know what I been up to and that I am well and all :)!!!!
Well hope everything going great back home for everyone, and everyone is keeping well :)
Keep in touch, lots of love
Chris Brown
Anyway the falls were amazing and so was hanging out with the lions but probably the most amazing thing for me, was cruising up the zambeze river on a cruise with free food and drink and seeing 3 elephants crossing the river, and hippo’s and all:) But ofcourse when I go o the toilet Mum and dad tell me the saw a heard of elephants running do the side of the river bank! I missed it:( but happy for them.
While in Africa we went to a lion farm and a thme park but the name of gold reef city, and Mum was pretty scared of everything so dad and I stayed with her and didn’t go on all the rides as we thought we better;)
At Gold Reef city, we went down an actually gold mind (We were only around 250m under ground, but the mind was actually close to 2km’s deep when in use:/
We also headed up to Rustenburg to a PUK 1 senior match and following that, Mum and Dad traveled up to Pilansberg and Sun city for 2 nights and from what they said, they really enjoyed which was great for them.
Anyway apart from that, we spent alot of time at rugby and Dad enjoyed the experience of a professional enviroment, so any questions he can now explain what I’m up to and all if anyone want to know in more detail :)
Anyway apart from that, the past 2 months have been full of rugby matches and training which has been nice as we have contiunally over this season trained a hell of a lot and not played much. Today we are off to Intervarsity in Blomfortein to play against our arch rivals. We haven’t lost to this team at any stage in the past 4 years (9games) so i’m hoping nothing changes on Saturday.
However we didn’t have the prefect finish to varsity cup which is the major competition at the start of the season, so I don’t think the boys are thinking about that record at all and are just really to prove a point to themselves and the public of South Africa that under currie cup, we are still the best side in the country :)
It is a pretty awesome experience so far and even though it is all professional and business for our side (Really just our side), it is still cool to see all the cars parked on the side of the road partying in groups as they head to Blomfortein as well to support us and for the big party tomorrow night!
See for us, it’s not just a match with regard to intervarsity. If we win, our bonus for every player and team management will be close to $2000nz so here’s hoping :)
Well I am about to turn off my computer, but just wanted to let you
S know what I been up to and that I am well and all :)!!!!
Well hope everything going great back home for everyone, and everyone is keeping well :)
Keep in touch, lots of love
Chris Brown
2008 National Senior Club Champions, 13,09,2008
Hey everyone, I am about to attach a letter I wrote about a month ago on the way to intervarsity against the university of Blomfortein. Following this letter we won intervarsity 21-20- The Johannesburg senior club Competition over the University of Johannesburg- and on Saturday following a week in which 4 games were played in 7 days at the university of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, we became National club Champions.
There were 16 teams from all over South Africa and every round is a nock out and we played a small provincal team first and won 43-5 or something close to that. Following this we played Uni of Joburg (same team as in provincal final) and won 17-11 after some brilant wet weather rugby:), and then played defending champions and Varsity Cup holders (Varsity cup: we played at start of season and lost in Semi: top 8 university competition)23-20. and played the top Natal (Durban) team college Rovers and won 17-12 in the Final:)
We played some really great rugby through the week but the final we tried our best to throw away but couldn't quite do it lol ;)! But very proud of the boys! Have NEVER SEEN A GROUP OF PEOPLE TRAIN SO HARD:)
Well Love you all and hope things are great back home and I'll see you's soon
Love Chris
There were 16 teams from all over South Africa and every round is a nock out and we played a small provincal team first and won 43-5 or something close to that. Following this we played Uni of Joburg (same team as in provincal final) and won 17-11 after some brilant wet weather rugby:), and then played defending champions and Varsity Cup holders (Varsity cup: we played at start of season and lost in Semi: top 8 university competition)23-20. and played the top Natal (Durban) team college Rovers and won 17-12 in the Final:)
We played some really great rugby through the week but the final we tried our best to throw away but couldn't quite do it lol ;)! But very proud of the boys! Have NEVER SEEN A GROUP OF PEOPLE TRAIN SO HARD:)
Well Love you all and hope things are great back home and I'll see you's soon
Love Chris
Sunday, March 16, 2008
PUKKE VS MARTIES: CLASSED AS THE BIG ONE
This is our home stadium & as you can see, the boys are well supported on campus. What a night this was!!!!!!!
CAMP TOWN: VS UCT
Wors (Sausage in english) to my left & me
Our first trip: we took off 3 times but had to return because of the plane: only in Africa
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Varsity Cup in full swing
Dear family and friends, I apologies for the long break between updates, it’s just been so busy and with the Varsity Cup up and running for the last 4 weeks, my schedule has been pretty full on. Anyway I have had a couple of days off this week so I have been trying to catch up on a few things (mainly sleep) and I thought I would try and update what I have been up to.
Well in the past 4 weeks I have been to Cape Town, Port Elisabeth & this coming week we travel to George. All of the places above are on the east/south coast, so it has been really nice and I’m really looking forward to this coming week! Well I was until this week I found out myself, Matt (coach) & Mev (Manager) have to drive to George in a Van because we didn’t book enough flight tickets so I’m gutted (We are taking 3 extra players because we have 3 games in 5 days and they forgot to add them on). Anyway everyone keeps telling me, you’ll love it, getting to see the country! (Well I think I’ll enjoy the first 2 hours but I don’t know about the other 9).
Our team has had 3 wins out of 4 and the only loss we had was to the bottom team (crazy a!). Anyway hopefully we will have a few good wins at this 3 game tournament weekend before heading into semi’s and finals (touch wood we make it).
Apart from rugby, I haven’t been up to much apart from socialising (a lot lol), but I’m really enjoying the experience and have made a few really good mates. Dad, I look forward to introducing you to Frikkie Maartens as he plays openside and is a really good player. He’s from Namibia so I told him if he doesn’t make the South African team for the 2011 world cup, he must play for Namibia. Anyway he’s really keen on coming to NZ following the completion of his Honours in Bio-kinetics next year because of the great fishing, he tells me lol.
On that, last Friday afternoon I, Frikkie & Jean Teidt (no9), headed down to the river (bout 30mins away) to go fishing. Anyway once we got there, they brought out these long as and flash as roods and I was like OK? Anyway they were proper fly fishing roods so that was cool J (and I better get up to date as well with my fishing). Once I was shown how to do it properly I was away and without a word of a lie, following Frikkie’s instructions I caught a 3kg cat fish on my first cast lol! That was about it for that day of fishingJ! I really enjoyed the afternoon and I think I must get into it a lot more when I return to NZ.
Well Shooting back to the rugga’s, we beat the University of Cape town (UCT) (now in 1st place) in a wind ridden match and then following the loss to TUT (Pretoria) we beat Marties (Top Uni side in the country for many years in the pass) and Nelson Mandela memorial the following week in port Elizabeth. Cape Town itself, was very windy and I didn’t really enjoy the place, but Port Elizabeth was beautiful and very similar in a way to Whangamata (just with a bigger city) (I was told it was always windy there too but for most of the time I was there, it was nice). Anyway I took one of the coaches’ guitars down and played on the night of the game and on the way home (really miss this part of home, so really enjoyed it). At the Port Elizabeth airport we had quite a wait, so I started playing the guitar in the waiting area and everyone started to move around (reminded me off the good old busking during the summer back home).
Well apart from that I haven’t really done a lot apart from rugby, training, fishing & trying to improve my golf (I tell ya what, I’m the master of the greens at the momentJ. Doesn’t seem to last that long though)!
Well I hope everyone is well and everything back home is ticking along? I miss ya all and look forward to catching up sometime soon. I will attach some new photo’s of our games and where I been soon as possible.
Take care and keep safe
Chris (15,04,08)
Well in the past 4 weeks I have been to Cape Town, Port Elisabeth & this coming week we travel to George. All of the places above are on the east/south coast, so it has been really nice and I’m really looking forward to this coming week! Well I was until this week I found out myself, Matt (coach) & Mev (Manager) have to drive to George in a Van because we didn’t book enough flight tickets so I’m gutted (We are taking 3 extra players because we have 3 games in 5 days and they forgot to add them on). Anyway everyone keeps telling me, you’ll love it, getting to see the country! (Well I think I’ll enjoy the first 2 hours but I don’t know about the other 9).
Our team has had 3 wins out of 4 and the only loss we had was to the bottom team (crazy a!). Anyway hopefully we will have a few good wins at this 3 game tournament weekend before heading into semi’s and finals (touch wood we make it).
Apart from rugby, I haven’t been up to much apart from socialising (a lot lol), but I’m really enjoying the experience and have made a few really good mates. Dad, I look forward to introducing you to Frikkie Maartens as he plays openside and is a really good player. He’s from Namibia so I told him if he doesn’t make the South African team for the 2011 world cup, he must play for Namibia. Anyway he’s really keen on coming to NZ following the completion of his Honours in Bio-kinetics next year because of the great fishing, he tells me lol.
On that, last Friday afternoon I, Frikkie & Jean Teidt (no9), headed down to the river (bout 30mins away) to go fishing. Anyway once we got there, they brought out these long as and flash as roods and I was like OK? Anyway they were proper fly fishing roods so that was cool J (and I better get up to date as well with my fishing). Once I was shown how to do it properly I was away and without a word of a lie, following Frikkie’s instructions I caught a 3kg cat fish on my first cast lol! That was about it for that day of fishingJ! I really enjoyed the afternoon and I think I must get into it a lot more when I return to NZ.
Well Shooting back to the rugga’s, we beat the University of Cape town (UCT) (now in 1st place) in a wind ridden match and then following the loss to TUT (Pretoria) we beat Marties (Top Uni side in the country for many years in the pass) and Nelson Mandela memorial the following week in port Elizabeth. Cape Town itself, was very windy and I didn’t really enjoy the place, but Port Elizabeth was beautiful and very similar in a way to Whangamata (just with a bigger city) (I was told it was always windy there too but for most of the time I was there, it was nice). Anyway I took one of the coaches’ guitars down and played on the night of the game and on the way home (really miss this part of home, so really enjoyed it). At the Port Elizabeth airport we had quite a wait, so I started playing the guitar in the waiting area and everyone started to move around (reminded me off the good old busking during the summer back home).
Well apart from that I haven’t really done a lot apart from rugby, training, fishing & trying to improve my golf (I tell ya what, I’m the master of the greens at the momentJ. Doesn’t seem to last that long though)!
Well I hope everyone is well and everything back home is ticking along? I miss ya all and look forward to catching up sometime soon. I will attach some new photo’s of our games and where I been soon as possible.
Take care and keep safe
Chris (15,04,08)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Well it has been a long time since a last posted a desent letter so I thought I would sit down today and have a look at what I have been up to for the past month.
Well now I have been here for over 3 months and things at the moment are great! I'm really enjoying what I am doing at the moment as we get closer to the start of our big competition on the 18th of FEB (Varsity cup).
Well I haven't been doing to much outside of work in the pass month as now we are full on and about to hit our season head on. We are one of the favourite sides to win the Varsity cup as we were last year the top Rugby Academy in the Country, however we have struggled in our first towarm up games, only just beating the Natal Sharks academy (17-10) and had a tough trial game against the 2nd 15 which we actually lost but 5.
We have alot of players at the same level and coach (Matt) is still struggling to determine his starting line up especially following the lost to the 2nd 15. We have a god mid field combination with regard to Defence and I honestly believe if (Paul Boosh) our top centre would concentrate on attack a little more he would fit into the Taranaki NPC team quite nicely. We have found a new fullback that is lighten quick, quite big and has quite good vision for an South african. We have a big tight 5 with out tight head moving to hooker for this season and atleast this is one aera we can dominate as (scrumaging). Our openside is quite classity too but we are really lacking at 9 & 10 at the moment as our star player had two ops on his groins. But anyway hopefully we pick up our preformance and with a few changes from the 2nd side hopefully we'll be on our way to win this competition (I hope so as if we make the final we get around $3,000NZ and if we win another $4,000NZ on top of that so here's hoping).
Well we are off to Cape town on Sunday morning so it should be nice to see that area as I have been told how nice it is down there. I have just got myself a camera and you can probably tel from the new photos so I will try and get some good ones.
Well Mum can you send my some of the photo's from the Zoo that Ashlee gave to you as I haven't seen them yet (Thanks), and if you got a few photo's on Taranaki send them through as you should see frikkies eyes when we talk about NZ as he loved fly fishing and is determine to come over following the competition of his studies, lol.
Well I don't have to much more to report on apart from I have finally moved into my place on Campus and it is nice but I must get some ear plugs for the thursay and Saturday nights when I'm home and the students are so loud lol :).
I will hopefully catch up with a few people following the completion of the Varsity Cup in April as I am hoping to shoot home for 14-16 days to see the beautiful girl friend, Country and ofcourse family and friends so keep in touch and hope to see you's soon. But in the mean time I'll keep putting up a few photos to let ya's know what I have been up to.
Well take care and email me sometime to say hello.
Take care
Well now I have been here for over 3 months and things at the moment are great! I'm really enjoying what I am doing at the moment as we get closer to the start of our big competition on the 18th of FEB (Varsity cup).
Well I haven't been doing to much outside of work in the pass month as now we are full on and about to hit our season head on. We are one of the favourite sides to win the Varsity cup as we were last year the top Rugby Academy in the Country, however we have struggled in our first towarm up games, only just beating the Natal Sharks academy (17-10) and had a tough trial game against the 2nd 15 which we actually lost but 5.
We have alot of players at the same level and coach (Matt) is still struggling to determine his starting line up especially following the lost to the 2nd 15. We have a god mid field combination with regard to Defence and I honestly believe if (Paul Boosh) our top centre would concentrate on attack a little more he would fit into the Taranaki NPC team quite nicely. We have found a new fullback that is lighten quick, quite big and has quite good vision for an South african. We have a big tight 5 with out tight head moving to hooker for this season and atleast this is one aera we can dominate as (scrumaging). Our openside is quite classity too but we are really lacking at 9 & 10 at the moment as our star player had two ops on his groins. But anyway hopefully we pick up our preformance and with a few changes from the 2nd side hopefully we'll be on our way to win this competition (I hope so as if we make the final we get around $3,000NZ and if we win another $4,000NZ on top of that so here's hoping).
Well we are off to Cape town on Sunday morning so it should be nice to see that area as I have been told how nice it is down there. I have just got myself a camera and you can probably tel from the new photos so I will try and get some good ones.
Well Mum can you send my some of the photo's from the Zoo that Ashlee gave to you as I haven't seen them yet (Thanks), and if you got a few photo's on Taranaki send them through as you should see frikkies eyes when we talk about NZ as he loved fly fishing and is determine to come over following the competition of his studies, lol.
Well I don't have to much more to report on apart from I have finally moved into my place on Campus and it is nice but I must get some ear plugs for the thursay and Saturday nights when I'm home and the students are so loud lol :).
I will hopefully catch up with a few people following the completion of the Varsity Cup in April as I am hoping to shoot home for 14-16 days to see the beautiful girl friend, Country and ofcourse family and friends so keep in touch and hope to see you's soon. But in the mean time I'll keep putting up a few photos to let ya's know what I have been up to.
Well take care and email me sometime to say hello.
Take care
MY APPARTMENT: STILL NEEDS A BIT OF WORK
Well This is my new place and please don't feel shy, come for a visit and everyone is most welcome to stay for a while
My Deck: got a Braai today for myself
My Deck: got a Braai today for myself
G
ot my TV today
My NZ ROOM
My room
ot my TV today
My NZ ROOM
My roomMy king be
d
d
My Brand new Bathroom: th
is is nice. Look how big the shower head is lol
is is nice. Look how big the shower head is lolMy Kitchen
My front door
The stair way up to my place
Me and a few of the boys socialising before having a braai (BBQ) & my new car!
Paul, Me , & Willem relaxing while watching a movie
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
MY OWN FITNESS CENTRE: I"M THE BOSS LOL
Following the completion of our team session
Myself and Matt explaining a drill: look at their concerntration lol
Ashlee catch me un-aware
Our star player called Jean Teit
Our number one grand stand, (if you can see it is being exstended on both ends for the semi professional comp
our no 1 field
Matt taking charge
10 x 100m in 15-17secs following 2 600's and 6 400m
Speed and agility training
I'm a little pussled I think? lol
Willem & me: our team captain: no8 man dad. would be good for Inglewood
Rubberband speed training
Oh isn't he a looker (words from ashlee's mouth lol)
Our sport science department for testing and we have around 1000 athlete's (international) with us at the moment which is pretty cool even though they are full of themselves. But I'm learning a bit from some of there training
our fitness centre: I'm not allowed to take photo's of the athletes so it was hard to get good ones
Ice bath and swiming pool: I asked them if I could take the photo: one weirdo got out and said wait lol
Olympic area: there 3 set ups in the gym like this for these activities
Lloyd & Lolo (our wingers)
Myself and Matt explaining a drill: look at their concerntration lol
Ashlee catch me un-aware
Our star player called Jean Teit
Our number one grand stand, (if you can see it is being exstended on both ends for the semi professional comp
our no 1 field
Matt taking charge
10 x 100m in 15-17secs following 2 600's and 6 400m
Speed and agility training
I'm a little pussled I think? lol
Willem & me: our team captain: no8 man dad. would be good for Inglewood
Rubberband speed training
Oh isn't he a looker (words from ashlee's mouth lol)
Our sport science department for testing and we have around 1000 athlete's (international) with us at the moment which is pretty cool even though they are full of themselves. But I'm learning a bit from some of there training
our fitness centre: I'm not allowed to take photo's of the athletes so it was hard to get good ones
Ice bath and swiming pool: I asked them if I could take the photo: one weirdo got out and said wait lol
Olympic area: there 3 set ups in the gym like this for these activities
Lloyd & Lolo (our wingers)
Me taking control lol
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