2013- Thank you India…

It is the last day of 2013… so you better start working on all the new years resolutions that you planned this time last year… time is running out to make a success of this year!

I have this bad habit of thinking too much on days like this… leads to nights like this, leads to love like this… Get out of my head, David Blunt! You too, Alanis Morrisette, for the title of this blog post!

• In any case- I am really grateful to the great nation of India. Why? Except for their wonderful food and beautiful girls, they have an AWESOME cricket team… It was so sad to see the Indian team without Sachin Tendulkar!  And then our great hero also decided to step down from test cricket.  What is really, really special, is that the Indian team stood a guard of honor for Jacques Kallis when he stepped onto the pitch for his last test match ever…

Photo from- http://sports.ndtv.com/south-africa-vs-india-2013-14/news/218790-jacques-kallis-gets-guard-of-honour-from-dhoni-and-co

Well, MS Dhoni and the team- THAT was AWESOME! Sportsmanship at it’s very best. Thank you for that!  It is also so good to see India versus South Africa on the cricket field. It is so good to see power against power, and it provides 30 hours of great fun! The Americans would not get it… sorry about that. But the Aussies would!  Another great nation!

So, on this last day of 2013- Thank you India!

•  Thank you Australia! My wife and I have only 1 television program that we do not miss. It is Australian Masterchef. We are a year behind on the schedule, tonight we will see the finals of your 2012 season. We love the way the Aussies do cooking competitions! We got to love the competitors, and me and the boys really hoped for the two physiotherapists to be at the top, but then Kylie and Mindy made it to the top 6. We could not help ourselves, we sneaked a peak on the internet who won, and we like the winner a lot. But the positive, uplifting style of competition we love a lot. Not like the Americans in Chopped…  Now the Aussies need to get that positive competition spirit going in the Rugby!  (Just joking, you are worthy advisaries!)
• Thank you New Zealand!  What would world Rugby be without the All Blacks!  They always set the benchmark in Rugby, and it is always a great battle when Springbok and All Black meet…
• Up till now the Americans don’t have a clue what I am rambling on about. Only the British Commonwealth took notice. So: Thank you USA! For giving Charlize Theron a job! Thank you for Barack Obama’s great speech at Nelson Mandela‘s Memorial Service. I know a lot of Americans don’t like the guy, but we would love a president like that… the one we got- maybe you heard the crowd boo-ing our beloved president Zuma.
• Thank you Germany for my lovely BMW R 850 R!  What a bike!
•  Thank you to the heaven’s agricultural department for the sun and the rain, which makes my vegetables grow so lovely this year. What inspired this post was when I went to my garden to harvest today’s crop. The first tomatoes of the season is now ripe- only two today, but hundreds nearing the goalpost!
  

Today’s crop…

•  My daughter left her scanner here for a few days, so I misused it to scan hundreds of old photos from my past. I also scanned our wedding photos. And one  of the biggest thank yous go to my wife- I really got to marry the girl of my dreams! And we are nearing our 24th anniversary…
  
  
• Thank you for 4 beautiful kids, even if they are teenagers and don’t like me…
  

  This IS the happy face!

  Thank you to my church, where I spent nearly half my life already- next year on the 10th of May I will have been in town for 20 years

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• Thank you Daniel Silva, I discovered your books this past few weeks and can’t put them down.  George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame can really learn a lot from this guy about a story having an end…
• Thank you to the New College  Oxford’s Choir, for Agnus Dei- the soundtrack to the excellent Stephen Ambrose series Band of Brothers (thanks for that one Steven Spielburg and Tom Hanks!)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwhkBAeheM
  Thanks to the Babel Sosaties for Word Riders… it was a highlight of my year with you guys!
•  Thanks to all my friends- I really do have some excellent people in my life!
•  And thanks to you all, reading my blog. The Rider was born this year, and I am amazed by the 1200 followers and   39 244 hits on my blog since February. Thanks so much!
•  I had a very good year in 2013!  Of all the tears and the bad times- there were a lot, but I am going to flush those memories down the toilet today…

May 2014 be the best year ever so far in all our lives…

Related articles

• Jacques Kallis bids adieu to Test cricket in fairytale script (dnaindia.com)
• Cricket: Kallis hits ton in final Test (edition.cnn.com)
• Kallis hangs his Whites (thecricketdesk.wordpress.com)
• Kallis bids adieu to Test cricket in fairytale script (ibnlive.in.com)
• Memorable moments of 2013: Sachin Tendulkar’s last innings (theguardian.com)