It started off with a gorgeous sunrise. I tried to fiddle with this photo, because it looked more pink and less orange to my eye, but I couldn’t get it any better, so there you are.

Then I headed off to play in the Alliance Française pétanque tournament with my semi-regular partner Wayne. As an homage to Auckland’s world famous infestation of orange road cones, we called our team the Coneheads. I’m reasonably sure nobody at the event had heard of the SNL coneheads, so that part of the joke didn’t land. And I came up with what I thought was a pretty good French pun about road cones (cônes) and idiots (cons) but I didn’t quite make that one work either. Luckily, traffic cones is such a ubiquitous comedic bit that everyone thought the costumes were great. Kudos to Wayne for upping the ante with the hats.

On the one hand, this isn’t a serious tournament. No national ranking points or anything like that. Many players are trying it for the first time or nearly so. They are somehow affiliated with the Alliance or one of the sponsors. But… many of them are French. French people know how to play pétanque the way people from the Kenyan highlands know how to run fast. So, winning this un-serious day still takes some skill.

Mid-morning, the heavens opened up. We finished the second game in the rain, and then took a break while the deluge stopped and the terrains dried out. The rest of the day got steadily nicer. Auckland in spring (and really all the seasons).

We didn’t win, losing in the semifinals to the eventual winners (a couple of random French people we might not ever see again). We did win the consolation match, though, so third place overall. Best I’ve done!

The prize was 2 VIP tickets for an Auckland Philharmonia concert next year, sponsored by the Alliance, and featuring Ravel’s Bolero as the headline piece. Wayne thought Lee would enjoy it more than him, and I am positive that’s true, so she and I will be getting dressed up and going downtown next April.

Nice!