Sam the bartender

Perin and I have been waiting to get TV, phone, and internet installed. Service everywhere isn't quite the same as in the US, but better than India. Only a 17-day wait for installation... Hopefully next week. Now I'm at an Internet Cafe downtown.

Perin and I live in a Brooklyn - a 10-minute commute to downtown Wellington. We have two pubs and I met Sam the bartender at the one closest to our house earlier this week. (I haven't been to the pub two blocks further away yet). Sam's young and fit so I thought he'd be the perfect one to ask about how best to join a sports team around here.

Sam: "What kind of sports?"

Paul: "Soccer and touch rugby."

Sam: "Touch rugby? No! You want to play tackle rugby."

Paul: "I don't know.... I'm kind of old to learn such a physical game. Mostly I'm worried that whichever team I try to join will make fun of pads in American football and try to inflict deep tissue bruising and probably break my nose at the first practice, just because."

Sam: "How old are you?"

Paul: "29."

Sam: "Yeah, they probably will, but only for the first practice. Then you'll be part of the team. If you get the ball or try to tackle somebody, just go in confident. Listen - in highschool I played rugby and broke my arm just below the shoulder. I couldn't lift it and it hurt like hell. But I kept playing. Do you know who Buck Shelford is?"

Paul: "Nah, not really."

Sam: "He's a famous rugby player for the All Blacks. See, raking in where players rake you with the bottom of their cleats. Usually, they go for your hands after you've been tackled and are lying on the ground. Well Buck Shelford got his crotch raked. Tore his scrotum open and he a testicle hanging out. Went to the sideline, the doctor sewed him up and he finished the game. I knew if he could play with that kind of injury, I could play with a broken arm."

Paul: "Oh."

You can read more about Buck Shelford here. Sam's nice and everything, but I'm still not sure tackle rugby is for me. And when I find out how to join a team, I supposed to let him know.