babyFig!

It's going to be a boy!!!!!!!

Soccer Girl

Baby Fig!

Coming March 2010 to a rugby pitch near you!

5 years ago today I met my daughter for the first time! It literally all started "under a coconut tree" in the little village of Siumu! That day forever changed my life! Love ya Ari!

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.”

Miracles

Lil Fig and LDay

Miracles do happen! I witnessed the result of one last night when I saw two good friends holding their little girl. I see another when I look into my own daughters eyes! "......that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

Choice

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing. ... You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.

Walter's lesson

Here's the thing about the life of Walter Cronkite:

At every turn, he acted as if he had a responsibility to his audience. He didn't do the right thing because he thought it would help him get ahead and then one day he'd get his share. Instead, he always did the right thing because that's who he was. No sellouts, no political consulting, no false transparency.

That's the way it is.

Transparency works if it's authentic.

My baby is 5 years old today! Happy Birthday Ari!

Test Product for work

Do you matter?

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
• When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
• When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
• When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
• When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
• When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
• When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
• And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

For all you Social Stalkers out there.....

Excitement builds in Hamilton

Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina admits it is difficult to keep excitement at bay as his side eagerly awaits its first Rebel Sport Super 14 home semi-final to be played against the Hurricanes at Waikato Stadium on Friday night.

It will be the second time the franchise has ever reached the semi-finals and the pressure is on as rugby fever hits the streets of Hamilton and ticket-sales soar.

Muliaina was part of the Blues outfit that won the competition in 2003 but said for most of the players it will be their first taste of semi-finals rugby and they must stay focused ahead of Friday night's challenge.

"We've had to contain some of our excitement, obviously Hamilton being a very small town there are a lot of people here wishing us luck who are very excited about the occasion on Friday," said the 28-year-old fullback.

"We've got to try and contain that the best we can and not play the game yet, but it's pretty hard when it's your first home semi-final and I know the guys have busted their guts out to get this far.

"We're not content to make it just this far, we want to go all the way."

The Chiefs will want to repeat their performance of two weeks ago when they defeated the Hurricanes 16-8 in a top-of-the-table clash in Hamilton.

That game saw the Hurricanes blow several scoring opportunities and subsequently the win, so they are expected to be a much tighter unit come Friday evening and Muliaina knows just how tough they will be.

"We know that they'll come fired up because we probably had the edge on them at the breakdown last time we met so we know they're going to be a fired up team, they showed that against the Reds," said Muliaina.

"We had a day off yesterday [Tuesday] and that was good for the guys so now it's about getting our bodies right and getting the details right that we need to ahead of the game.

"We're certainly well recovered and we're honestly looking really forward to this opportunity."

The Chiefs have been hampered with some bad news ahead of the fixture however with star centre Richard Kahui opting out of the clash with a calf injury moving Dwayne Sweeney into the midfield.

Sweeney, whose defence has been questionable throughout his career, will have his hands more than full against the Hurricanes midfield duo of All Blacks Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith.

Sweeney however, is excited at being given the opportunity and is not overly worried about his defensive duties ahead of the match and is promising to hit back at the Hurricanes with some attack of his own.

"I'm excited to have the opportunity, it's obviously a big occasion for the team and Richie's obviously a massive loss for us," he said.

"I'm trying not to really worry too much about trying to repeat what Richie does and I'll try and bring my own influence to the game.

"Probably the biggest thing for us to do is to not get too caught up in what they're [Nonu and Smith] going to do and to try and put our own influence into the game.

"Obviously we'll be on our toes because they're both class players but we want to take the game to them a little bit as well."