New Prediction.....

Brazil vs Netherlands Final..... GASP!

Firstly Id like to thank the readers that are logging in every Wed to check if I've put a post up yet, you are also at the very top of my apology list :( Sorry for not being prompt, I shall blame 'World Cup Fever'...

So here is my Oranje Rants from over the last few weeks, so you can see my very quick decent into full-blown Netherlands supporter status ;) Actually, by reading my first status report, I'd say I was already there to start with....

Sat June 14th

0700 - Hup Holland! Got my KNVB top on and my supporters scarf. Let's get this rematch underway! — watching Spain vs. Netherlands.

0744 - Goal!!!!!

0831 - Wooo, the Spanish are not happy... 

0842 - Yeah, don't think anyone was expecting this... :)

0900 - Well don't think anyone expected that hiding! The Spanish defence and attack was certainly lacking, can't say the same for the Dutch — feeling proud.

1522 - hehe after that awarded penalty this morn, I certainly thought about this....

   

June 17th

1630 - I could wait til blog day, but its too good, must share now. Just to help you understand a little better about the amazingly good mood that all your dutch friends were in last Tuesday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Iwc-s9i-I Ja, we een beetje gek

June 18th

1930 - Lizzie and I with our Oranje nails, Hup Holland!

 

Thur June 19th

0400 - Hard to get up for this one, hope it's worth it... — watching Australia vs. Netherlands.

0430 - Yay a Robben goal, if Netherlands progress enough we may have a golden boot contender Must say I'm impressed with the Aussie play, they are being careful, and I'd say they've done their research, they deserve the current tied score. Also I have picked my most hated player of the cup Martins Indi, way to hotheaded and hollywoody....

0455 - Not sure how I feel about Cahills yellow, seemed a little harsh... Sad that he misses the next important game. And if Martins Indi is actually injured I feel a 'little' bad for bad mouthing him before...

0600 - Yeah, well done Aussie, hope you give it to those Spaniards next game! Now 0600, so back to bed til Lizzie gets me up

0855 - So Spain's out.... Didn't pick that 

Tue June 24th
0355 - Oh wow, the support runs deep, forgot to set my alarm but still woke up in time! — watching Netherlands vs. Chile.

0405 - My goodness Medel, If you are gonna complain about getting whacked in the face, at least hold the right part....

0430 - Compared to previous games, this ref seems little light on the whistle (both ways)

0440 - I'm always impressed with Robbens sure-footedness, he very rarely seems to take tumble

0555 -What a surprising and beautiful end to the group stage! A very decisive group B winner. — feeling excited. Now to see who we play... Well back to bed for a couple of hours first 

1000 - Mexico it is!

So next game is 0400 on Monday morn (getting sick of the 0400 games :(...) It should be a tough one, but Im expecting it to be enjoyable and hopefully present a victorious Dutch side :) Plus will be good to have the "Flying Dutchman" RVP back. And well done to dutch fans! You make the world cup a brighter place :) http://www.buzzfeed.com/danoshinsky/netherlands-fans-are-awesome

For those of you more interested in other news - 

Strider (4 month puppy) gets his pin out of his leg 2moro, we are excited, but also not looking forward to the cage rest again :(

Lizzie (daughter 3 on Aug 1st) is successfully toilet trained (finally), and we are looking forward to seeing the plans for her tiny (smaller than our bathroom) bedroom 2moro night.

I pulled a muscle from pushing myself a little to hard over the weekend, midwife thinks I need to slow down a tad (hard to do tho), took Monday off work to recover, but looking forward to finishing up in 5 weeks :D 

 

 

ORANJE!

Well we are quickly approaching the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup! Opening ceremony is early in the morning tomorrow here. The first match I will be watching is the Netherlands vs Spain game at 0620 Sat morning NZ time, (its hard for a pregnant woman to rise at that time, but hey, its better than 0300...) This game will be the the ultimate re-match from last world cup (the less than satisfactory 2010 final, where I am ashamed to say that Spain deserved to win it more, the desperation on the Dutch team lead to some down-right dirty and embarrassing play). This first dutch match will ultimately decide for me, how passionately I support them this time round, if they win or even draw, I may have to change my mind on my belief of them being knocked out by Brazil in the first finals round. 

You may now be wondering, why I have chosen to support the Dutch team (only if you don't know me very well anyway....) New Zealand being the country of my birth and residence would be my natural team to support, but as it is, they have only qualified for the World Cup twice, 2010 being the second. The whole country, myself included rallied behind the team lead by Ryan Nelsen under Ricki Herbert and enjoyed what we would call a successful campaign, no loss, all draws! The team was celebrated as heroes, that's how we do things in little old NZ. This time, sadly no dice.

In 2010 I was lucky enough to also support the land of my grandparents, The Netherlands! It was one of their very successful campaigns. Now we get to see if van Persie can keep a level head and his team in check this time round. They certainly have a very hard road to victory.

Sorry to disappoint, but my call for the final is much along the lines of the TAB, Brazil vs Spain, with Brazil coming out on top due to home crowd advantage. Argentina 3rd and Germany 4th. I would love to however be pleasantly surprised by the ORANJE!

Strider & The Ewoks

So, my daughter is quickly approaching 3 years old, and while complaining that she doesn't yet like Wolverine and the X-Men (and hoping that our Due Sept son shares my comic book passions) I realized that I have imposed many of my interests and beliefs on her. Am I wrong for doing so?

The picture here is of our most recent family addition, he is now 4months old, a Neo-mastiff, Bull mastiff, staffy cross named.... Strider, this is the name that eventually won out on a list that included such gems as Vlad, Xavier and Hagrid amoung other equally geeky names, some more obvious than others. While at the local video store (what are we supposed to call them now anyway? They clearly no longer stock videos...) We were picking out a selection of Dvds for the week (these included; Warm Bodies, In Time, The Grey, Paranorman, Cloud Atlas, The Rum Diary & One of the various Dora dvds they have available, if you were at all interested, maybe I will write some reviews, maybe not...) when my daughter says "Look Daddy, Strider!", My husband failing to look says "Oh is there a puppy movie is there?", But then catches me doing my little fan-girl giggle.... My darling daughter was pointing to Aragorn/Strider on the cover of LOTR - The Two Towers. Mummy very proud and impressed :D Daddy however while impressed she recognized the character, thinks that I have hammered it into her (if it was something he was interested in, say, Cricket, he would've been over the moon... as it is she already says "Yay, Cricket!")

So anyway, here I am questioning myself, we take our daughter to Armageddon (NZs much smaller equivalent to Comic-con) where we dressed her as an Ewok and had her photo taken with Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper, She has seen most of the Harry Potter series (except for the very scary parts) and occasionally pretends to be Hermione and casts spells on us all, she can identify most LOTR characters (occasionally calling Gandalf, Dumbeldore) including that Mummies one ring replica is either "Frodos Ring" or "The Ring of Power, makes invisible", and knows who Spiderman and Batman are... Is this too much geek culture for such a young formidable mind? Or is it healthy to teach and show our kids what we are passionate about? We certainly don't force anything on her, it just happens to be about, but should we instead clear out our posters & action figures to replace with Mickey Mouse, Barbie and Dora (which by the way she also loves)?

As parents we try to do our duty, she can say the alphabet, identify most letters, count past 20 and almost spell her name. We get complemented on her vocabulary and clarity of speech daily, and she also shows signs of being very musical. Admitadley, she is not the best behaved child (she is mostly toilet trained, but sometimes isn't very happy about using it) she has a wicked temper and can be incredibly bossy, but I guess all toddlers have their days. But is that our fault? Maybe she does watch too much TV... :(

We try to give her well rounded opinions, showing her both sides of things, for example when making Easter baskets I dumbed down the Christian story of Easter and also the Pagan Spring Celebration to versions that a young child could understand. I figure she needed to understand what the Rabbit was all about....

Ohwell, things to think about without answers, will I change my parenting technique with another one on the way, or is the impulse to buy Wolverine T-shirts and costumes too great?