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!