Update time

The broken nose wasn't mine (or Jake's). Our friend Jacob, who is the Head Prefect at school, had his nose broken in a game in Napier on Sunday. As soon as his head slammed into the back of our fullback's head, I knew his nose was broken. There's a quite different sound to head-on-nose, as opposed to head-on-head. A sort of crunchy, cartilage sound. I got to him just after he hit the ground, and the bridge of his nose was over by the corner of his eye! Not pretty! So I hauled him off to hospital. When we left our boys were losing 11-0. They won 28-16, so I clearly missed the best of the game.

It was a long way to go for 20 minutes of rugby. Four hour drive up on Saturday, and then back again on Sunday, once the morphine had kicked in and Jacob was comfortable enough to travel. Luckily, I have long since learned not to travel with van-loads of teenage boys (too tough on the sanity), so I had my own car.

Most of our rugby boys were billeted with the team they were playing. Severe culture shock on both sides - our predominantly Samoan team going off to stay with boys from a private school. It's funny to see our big tough 1st XV go all shy when meeting new people. One of the boys came up to me the next day and exclaimed over the fact the house had 5 bathrooms - ' do they shit in a different one every day?' he said.

I got to stay with our very good friends in Havelock North. On Sunday morning I went for a lovely walk around the hill suburbs and through the pretty (and well cared-for) cemetery - which made me think of you, Phil, as you enjoyed our Bolton St cemetery so much. When I got back I had some of the best coffee in the Hawkes Bay - our friends have recently closed their cafe and have their coffee machine in the kitchen at home!

I have my duathlon on Sunday, but I do have to admit to not being particularly fussed about it. I'm sure I will enjoy it, but it doesn't have the excitement of the triathlon, because that was such a milestone for me. I have also been having a lot of trouble with my left knee, so may yet decide to walk instead of run.

My brother got engaged last week - at the lunch they were having to celebrate his Masters' graduation. Very bravely, he proposed in front of everyone, including both sets of parents!

My eating has been pretty good this week - probably guilty of not eating enough, rather than too much, as I seem to have spent most of the time racing from one meeting to the next. Exercise has been a bit slack, but I should be taking it easy in an event week anyway. In case I haven't said this, I'm completely sold on NoCount. I can see why it wouldn't work for everyone, particularly people just starting out on weight-loss, but it's perfect for me at this stage in my journey. It also feels like it will work well for maintenance.

Really looking forward to Easter. I will have to do some work (I usually do in the weekends anyway), but I will make sure I have at least two days with no work at all. Now that's a real Easter treat! And then to have the extra day off the next week for ANZAC Day - absolute luxury...