Home!! That Sydney to Joburg flight in cattle class, especially if not graced with an isle when of my gargantuan proportions, is not for the feint of heart!! But survived that, together with the trans Tasman hop to get things going, and the Jhb – CT link to finish off a solid 27 hour travel stint …
A magnificent and life changing trip to a World Cup at the heart of rugby union comes to an end … But it us just tremendous to be home. We live in a great country …
A few snippits from yesterday’s New Zealand Herald to finish off then …
Almost half of the entire New Zealand population tuned in to watch the All Blacks vs Australia semi final on TV …
Tv viewership:
Tv one: 659 400
Tv3: 397 800
Maori tv: 262 700
Sky: 653 300
The above represents the number of people, aged over 5, who tuned into a channel for at least a minute.
Source: Nielsen TAM
Bringing the total TV viewership to 1 983 000. Throw in live scoring on the internet, updates on Twitter and Facebook, people at the actual game, and the total reach for the game is stated as being 2.2 million viewers!
Betting:
Punters spent $1.9 million on the semi final, beating the $1.8 million spent on the soccer world cup final last year. Biggest ever was $2.1 million for the David Tue-Lennox Lewis fight.
One fellow lost $100 000 on Wales in other semi final.
Tipping the scales …
Local waitress Victoria Liss collected a bill from a customer with a big “0” in the tip line and the following note: “You could stand to lose a few pounds” …
An outraged Liss uploaded a copy of the bill to her FaceBook page and using the fellow’s credit card details, identified him as Andrew Meyers.
As usual, Internet revenge ensued, but in thus instance, the wrong Meyers was publicly named and shamed – there being quite a few of them in Auckland it seems!
However, yet another Andrew Meyers came forward to pay a 100% tip on the bill – just to clear the Andrew Meyers name!
Balance of Payments …
The French players are getting NZ $241 364 each for making the final, and a further $310 383 if they win it …
No such luck for the All Blacks, who will get a bonus of $100 000 per player only if they win the tournament …
One does have point out that the All Blacks have centralized national contracts while the French make their daily bread and butter via their club contracts …
And a few final RWC trip snap shots …
View of Auckland and it’s cruise ships from a ferry to Waiheke Island, the many awesome yachts in the bay, the beautiful Waiheke island, and the beers they serve … Anthems at Eden Park, a t-shirt for my son, and one of the all time great chocolates …
Wow, I didnt expect such poor research from you. The Andrew Meyer story is from the USA.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/10/seattle-waitress-exposes-rude-tipper-online-nabs-wrong-guy/
Apologies … As said, mine was taken from the New Zealand Herald, and they made no mention of it being American. Still quite a fun story …