London Irish v Leicester Tigers

On cold crisp morning, a outing to London Irish's home they share with Reading was rewarded with a pleasant afternoon watching what turned out to be a very competitive Sunday Rugby match. Given the host team and the sponsor of the league, a black theme to the ground was inevitable!

Madejski Stadium is an impressive stadium, some how more compact that I expected for the home of a Premiership Football team - but even half full for a Sunday afternoon Rugby match there was a good atmosphere - although the generous hospitality from Sun probably contributed to that!

England showed up for the first half....

A full house at Twickenham for the first match of a Six nation championship, and a hopeful Saint George flag leaving the pitch. World Cup finalists, England, took the lead at half time by a health 16-6. But the England team, who had improved so much during the World Cup, failed to show up for the second half, and a resurgent Wales dominated the second half to run out a deserved 19-26. For you amusement - can you spot the ball as Wales hammer the nail in the English coffin?

Madness at O2

Suggs and others rotated in the middle of the O2 - a great way for everyone to get a good view. Even from the vertigo inducing 4th tier - where, once you stand up and up the chair up, there is room to grove the night away.

Paying Homage to Pelehonuamea

I couldn't fly all this way without paying a visit to the worlds most active volcano - although all visible activity had stopped a few months earlier. Having said that a new eruption had started on Thanksgiving Eve - the VOG we drove through was evidence of that!

There have of course been many visitors before me - some more famous than others! When Mark Twain visited the caldera was a lake of molten lava - that must have been quite a sight. Enough to inspire an entire mythology amongst the original Hawaiian population!

Some remarkable views above and below the lava fields.

Aloha from Waikiki

The sun is out and all is very relaxing - the view from my balcony is great. From what I'd read, I was expecting Waikiki to be more commercial and built up - but there is lots of green around - even the pink of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel next door, in front of me, seams to fit. Given that more than half the view is the wonderfully blue Pacific Ocean - it would be hard to build hotels on! It is too shallow for anything bigger than the couple of catamarans that do short trips from the beach to navigate - so no cruise liners moored too close - having said that the occasional large freighter does cross the near horizon. The current headline news here in Hawaii is about containers on one of these visitors to the islands that have brought unwanted visitors to the state in the form of yellow backed wasps in a shipment of Christmas trees! The fact that that is headline news indicates how worry free the atmosphere is!