At The Going Down Of The Sun

... and in the morning, we shall remember them.

Today was ANZAC Day in New Zealand and Australia, a public holiday commemorating, particularly, the military disaster that was Gallipoli, as well as their war dead in lots of other actions.

I had booked a couple of nights in a random hotel in Napier, with the only condition that it should have a sea view. It (the Te Pania Scenic Circle) turns out to be across the road from an NZ war memorial, the scene at dawn today of a service of remembrance, one of hundreds across the country and in Aus.

I was up before dawn to catch the sunrise - Napier is the easternmost city and therefore the first to see the new day - and to catch Justin Masterton's MLB debut, a convincing performance screwed royally by the walking wounded who are the Sox bullpen at the moment. Little Manny in particular apparently looked like death warmed up (by the seventh I'd given up on a flaky mlb.tv and was listening to Joe C and Dave O'Brien on WRKO radio) and Justin's 2-run lead was pissed away.

Napier was flattened by an earthquake and subsequent fires in 1931 and rebuilt mostly in Art Deco style which led to buildings like these:

which has absolutely nothing to do with anything but they're pretty!

Tomorrow's game in St Pete is a more civilised early lunchtime start for me and I've decided to find an Internet cafe to watch the game, in an effort to resurrect my ALDS and ALCS mojo.

Oh, and 15-9, leading the division, Papi getting his groove back, Manny about to reach 500, the kids looking awesome. What's not to love about the 2008 Red Sox?