Well, my first game was rather a tasty one, last night, France v Japan and didnt Japan do well!! The entre stadium was pretty much behind them - even some of the French supporters wanted them to do well (not sure quite that well, but still...) and the atmosphere in the stadium was immense! People were dressed as Geisha's and Ninja's, Japan flags everywhere and generally just lots of fun!

I was sat next to a South African guy and his girlfriend who was from Auckland and I was talking to them at half time about the best way to get back to Birkenhead as there were no direct buses and a taxi would have been around $40 which I didnt fancy, but as the weather had dropped from around 20 degrees in the day to about 6 degrees at night I didnt really fancy waiting aorund in the cold either. Anyway, we worked out that I'd need to get about 2 or 3 buses to travel roughly the distance between Witney and Oxford, I wasn't best pleased.

The game finished and although Japan lost it was a great party atmosphere and it was brilliant to be there, there was also loads of volunteers everywhere, even the surrounding areas all around the stadium on hand to help out and as I was walking back to the bus depots, I asked one guy which would get be closest to Birkenhead and he said best bet was a bus to Takapuna - so off I went.

As I was queuing I noticed that some of the Takapuna buses were run by Birkenhead Transport company (the depot is just around the corner from Dae and Jacquelines house) so I decided to test my luck....I got on the bus and the conversation went like this:

Me: Hi there, I was wondering if you could tell me the best way to get back to Birkenhead?

Driver: Birkenhead?

Me: Yes... *big grin*

Driver: Well you could get a connecting bus at Takapuna or into Auckland....

Me: Right, is there nothing direct at all....*big grin*

Driver: *laughing* well if I'm not needed back here I will be going back to the depot

Me: Ooo really, that'd be great!

Driver: Go on hop on, sit there and I'll take you back with me, only if im not needed back here.

Me: Excellent!!

SCORE!!

Turns out he wasn't needed back at the Stadium and so I managed to get him to drop me off at the top of the road and I was back home 5 mins later and had only just missed the start of the Argentina v England game!

All round a VERY successful and VERY enjoyable day.

Bring on more big engined things and more Rugby games!