Saturday 16 August 2008

Tenpin bowling

Another day, another goal. I haven't bowled in years but had always enjoyed it, so added it to my list: goal #26 - go tenpin bowling. We had a couple of other options for tonight, but neither really appealed, so we booked dinner and bowling at Strike Entertainment Centre in Petone. Both the restaurant and bowling offer Entertainment Book deals (a main for a main at the restaurant, and a game for a game with bowling).

First off, dinner. Pretty bad all-round service. Average meals. Not too bad if you can block out all the screaming kids (even on a Saturday night) and try to get someone to actually serve you. We won't be dining here again.

The bowling was fun, though. I started well with my one and only strike! Ok, so it was all downhill from there, but I'd achieved what I wanted: a strike. One game really wasn't enough to warm up get into the swing of things, but it was exciting to watch the NZ rowing teams in some of their Olympic finals at the same time. Mahe Drysdale managed to score a bronze, as did Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater.

On the way home, we popped into Pak N Save (a really exciting activity for a Saturday night, I know). There was a crappy screen in the beer section, and before we knew it a small crowd had gathered to watch the women's double sculls final. There was disappointment and disbelief all round as we saw Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell win silver, then made our way mumbling towards the checkout.

Or so we thought. Once we got home and turned on the tv, we were wondering why the flag for the silver medallist was in the middle of the podiums. It wasn't until we heard the last line of the national anthem, "God defend New Zealand" that we realised that the Evers-Swindell twins had actually won gold instead! That photo finish was unbelievably close; the commentator didn't know how to call the final result, and none of us thought that it would be any different to how it looked on screen as we watched it live. What a night!

3 comments:

Kelly said...

My boyfriend and I are completely sports adverse but we were glued to the screen screaming at the top of our lungs for the girls. They did so well - I even got a bit teary! But hey, if 1/100 of a second is good enough for Michael Phelps to win his 7th gold this Olympics with, it's good enough for the twins!

Waiting patiently for the cycling now where Hayden Roulsten is guaranteed silver minimum.

Caffeinated Weka said...

We were on edge watching Hayden Roulston's race, especially after waiting up late for it to start. Silver is still a pretty darn amazing achievement ... go black!

Nisha said...

wow, that's great you have entertainment books there too. we use ours all the time! i used to go bowling fairly regularly in college (that doesn't mean i was good though. haha), but not so much anymore. after reading your post, i may go this or next weekend. :)