My cures for the wintertime blues

As the shortest day of the year approaches, and with the shows on TV getting more unbearable as the days get colder, here are five things I'm looking forward to to get me through the winter...

The World Cup

I was one of those keen young nippers who converted from rugby to soccer when the All Whites made it to the World Cup in Spain in 1982. Not that I was very politically minded when I was 10, but because of the bad PR surrounding the Springbok tour the year before, the exodus to soccer was even more exaggerated.

The novelty of soccer soon wore off for me, and not long after I was back playing rugby and New Zealand was once again a rugby-mad nation. But over the next month the oval ball game, and any of rugby's other bolshy, like-minded offshoots for that matter, don't stand a chance with the World Cup starting on Saturday night.

It's not that I'm a big follower of soccer like my football-mad mates who passionately support an English premiership side and sulk if they lose. However, all I know is that it's an elegant and flowing game - if the Hollywood dive antics are kept in check - which is why over the next four weeks you will find me sitting bleary-eyed watching this beautiful game.

The A-Team

Forgive me for reminiscing about being young again but at school in the mid-80s the teachers didn't really like us using the expression, "Shut up, fool". We blamed B.A. Baracus from 80s action-comedy series The A-Team, which makes a comeback this week with a new - and by the looks of the trailer, improved - movie version.

B.A. (played by mohawked toughie Mr T.) used the line to silence A-Team member "Howling Mad" Murdock, who played a chopper pilot in the series which, like Knight Rider and BJ and the Bear, was a formative TV show for many teenage lads like myself. Though the film looks like it's been given the spit-polish US action movie treatment, which, unlike the TV series, could make it a touch humourless, it gets a cracker review. I'm there.

The new Twilight film

Just kidding.

Drop Dead Diva

If you thought Cougar Town was over-acted and mindless (and you'd be right), then try this Ally McBeal-meets-L.A. Law-meets-Boston Legal show about a model who is killed and brought back to life in the body of an intelligent and overweight lawyer. It starts on July 31 on TV2 and keep an eye out for my upcoming interview with - guys, don't go into cardiac arrest - April Bowlby, best known as Kandi from Two and a Half Men, who stars in the show.

Also returning is True Blood (on Prime within the month), Outrageous Fortune (on TV3, mid-July), and, of course, season two of Jersey Shore kicks off soon on MTV. Okay, so I'm also kidding about the latter, but for some of the trashiest yet riveting television ever made you can't go past Snooki, The Situation, JWoww, and the rest of the guido and guidette crew.

Metallica

When I saw Metallica in 1997 at the Mt Smart Super Top I can't remember the first song they played. I was too busy watching in awe and alarm as hundreds of fans scuttled up the tent supports like rabid monkeys trying to get a better view. Soon afterwards the owners of the tent put metal obstructions on the uprights, kind of like possum-proofing on a tree.

That's the sort of unhinged passion a band like Metallica incites, which is why their two sold-out shows at Vector Arena in October will be big - especially since the band is playing off the back of their best album in nearly 20 years.

Now, the only question remaining is who will be supporting them? Mastodon perhaps?