Late but not forgotten - 02/07/98

Well, what an awesome game of soccer yesterday, penalty shoot-out after extra time. Felt very sorry for the England team. Watched it before going to work the day we got back (slack arse). A weekend of quarter finals coming up, should be able to see most of them with luck.
The Orcas won their game without Rory and their coach 7-0 (their best result so far). Don't know who feels more inadequate to be honest (probably me). Training cancelled due to rain tonight. Buckets of rain since returning home. Floods in BOP, Nelson, nothing major but enough to stop people watering their gardens.
Kids had a day off yesterday and Rory woke really late this morning, but they have recovered reasonably well. Hannah started wanting to go home on Monday, asked her if she missed Craig and she said "no, Penny". Later she said she missed everyone that had visited. It did feel kind of quiet on the Monday after everyone went home.
For those who weren't there, we had a real blast at Movie World. Definitely worth going to. Weather was cold for a couple of days but didn't rain until the Monday. I went to the airport an average of once per day for eight days, will kind of miss Coolangatta. Went to bird sanctuary, wandered around, fooled around on the beach for a little while, swam in the pool heaps. Someone put bubblebath in the Spa so that was knackered for a couple of days. Scored two adult passes (from an Uncle of a boy in the soccer team who recognised me)for what we thought was DreamWorld, turned out to be anything but. Went to SeaWorld instead. Kids saw the dolphin show which was very good, and the Team Extreme water skiing and stuff. Went on a couple of things then raced home wet and tired about 1:30pm. Weren't really prepared for rain. Went to a mall and let the kids fool around in the playground with some other kids - they enjoyed that, think they were feeling children deprived. Wouldn't have been too happy with Sea World if we hadn't saved about $70 on the fee. The whole swimming pool complex was closed, which was about a quarter of the park.
Bit of a funny day on Tuesday, without much of a plan. Went out to breakfast, the kids and I had a final swim. Then we tried to go see a movie at Australia Fair then Logan Hyperdome, both were chock-full so we flagged it. Went to Daisy Hill Koala sanctuary on the way to the airport and that turned out to be a bit of a find. Cost was nothing (unlike everywhere else). We saw two young Koalas eating, sleeping, then playing like puppies or kittens. Then we went for a walk on a nature trail and I spotted a couple of Kangaroos. Couldn't see any koalas in the trees, got a really sore neck just looking for the damn things. Saw a couple of Kookaburras too. Was quite windy and a bit cold, but we spent a couple of hours there. In the end we only just got to the rental place in time to get a lift back to the airport so we timed it well.
Didn't hear about the England-Maoris game until I got home. England went on to South Africa without a win (work it out yourself). People calling the second test a close result (40-10). Wankers. We beat them, they lost, it wasn't even slightly close. Major panics on Radio Sport here.
I don't think I have mentioned Radio Sport yet. It is sort of a new channel, or more like an old channel with a new format. Sport only, all the time. 6:30am to 10:00pm or so. Play recorded stuff all night except when something is live overseas. They play sport news on the hour, then other news and then weather. Got their priorities right these guys. Not much advertising (so far), but pretty popular. Couldn't live without it. Missed it while I was away. Anyway, the talkback is all about how the All Blacks are in trouble and Australia will win. Be interesting to see what the odds are compared between Australian and NZ TAB.
Marc Ellis is joining North Harbour, leaving the team I promised not to mention this year. He was a bit expensive to sit on the reserve bench for the reserve grade for $300,000 per year.
While I was away we lost two of NZ's hookers. Come back Sean! I think they are going to call in the women's hooker. Hopefully they will find these guys again.
Jonah looked like crap on Saturday, will be interesting there. Big news that Australian team is same for fourth test in a row when they play NZ in Melbourne in two weeks. Could be the upset of the season that game unless the AB's sort themselves out. Mind you, neither side has played anyone decent yet.
In other news, we are officially in a recession with Asia being the big contributor. Exchange rates have improved slightly and interest rates dropped a little but everything is very changeable. Government continuing their do nothing policy for the moment until the sub-committee on procrastination gets around to re-convening.