All black in Austria
By Vincent Heeringa,
I’ve just touched down in Vienna to pick up two texts about the terrible World Cup quarter final results. Last I heard we were 13–3 up with one Frog knocked unconscious. I was feeling quite good until then but the news has really sent me for six. And damn those Pommy tossers won too. Merde!
Hopefully it’s not an omen. Though the Herald asking for an ‘inquest’ sounds a little bit like it was a war crime.
It’s hard not identify with a loss like this—is this what we Kiwis do—prepare, practice and choke? We can’t afford to. On the LA–Frankfurt leg I sat next to a highly qualified American nuclear energy engineer. New Zealand’s nuclear free stance was lost on him, mostly because he confessed to not knowing that New Zealand is actually a country, let alone where it is or what it’s energy sources are. We can blame the US education for that particular gap in his knowledge but it highlights the point: we don’t get many chances to succeed on the international stage.
The flight into Vienna airport passes over dozens of windturbines slowly turning the breeze into power. Austria is passionately anti-nuke and is turning with haste to alternative energy sources. A potential area fo collaboration? Alternative energy is certainly an area New Zealand is naturally blessed with and we're slowly waking up to its potential. Let's hope our rugby curse is not contagious. (BTW, is Richie McCaw really crying on the front page of Herald?)
Comments
ericpoe
Hi,
I am the person who picked up Vincent at Vienna airport. Obviously the 24 hours of net flight time did not impress him at all. I was really glad to see him in such a great shape after this trip. In
the taxi on the way to the hotel Le Meridien he said: "Eric, something really sad has happened…" Another sad thing is that I was expecting to get an introduction to Rugby rules from an him - and that will not happen either. It´s too stressful to mention the word "rugby" under these circumstances.
Matt Cooney
We'll get over it, Eric … it'll just take, uh, a while. Vincent can just be thankful that he's not in Cape Town, London or Paris at the moment!
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