Late, but no skimping on quality - 06/07/99

Well, firstly sorry for my tardiness, we were away until last night, so did not get an opportunity to mail until now.
All things being equal, even by Tuesday morning, I should be telling you of the progress of the first test, but alas, it was all over in a mere three days. 21 wickets fell on the second day, and even though most of those were English we lost the test in three days. All talk of us winning all four tests immediately became fodder for the ridiculous pile, and drawing the series now looks our best bet. What a pack of wallies.
In other news, Tank Commander Spice continued to try to match new shoes to her ear-rings (foot in mouth disorder remains uncured). She has been accused of breaching privilege a few times now, getting boring.
Police shot and killed a man last week after a chase of four men whose stole beer and a car, then crashed the car. No mention of whether they spilled the beer. The dead person waved a gun at the police. He was shot in one arm, then the other, and still waving the gun, was shot in the chest. The 18th person to be killed by police (notice this number is less than police killed in line of duty, should really be the other way around if you ask me). Turned out later the guy was a real bad-ass, had hurt himself really badly whilst crashing another stolen car some years ago. Broke his hip. He was about to launch a pressure group wanting more safety features for stolen cars. Turned out the gun he waved was a fake. What a guy, certainly Darwin Award material. Wave a plastic gun at police, and don't put it down after being shot in each arm and being asked to drop it. Doh!
The Warriors lost to Canberra, after being up at half time. Hopefully the woofters that started talking of making the semis will shut up now.
New Zealand A beat ACT in high scoring game I did not see. Some scuffle got three all blacks into problems with the fuzz, no charges were laid. We play South Africa in Carisbrook this weekend, the country is supposed to all wear black.
Pete Sampras beat Agassi, bit of a shame. Davenport beat Steffi, also a shame. Koos was there for the women's final, will forward any comments he has.
Peter Ellis, convicted Christchurch Crèche molester, appealed again. They (commentators and talking heads) widely seem to think he is innocent, and he refuses parole as he maintains his innocent.
Ben & Olivia trial continued. The jury went for a trip to the area of their disappearance. General feeling is that it could be hard to convict the guy without bodies.
We were allowed to go away because there was no soccer, due to school holidays.
We went away for the weekend, to Kath's parent's bach up at Coopers Beach. We haven't been since Rory was about four months old, and they have sold the original bach and half the section, and built a new one since. A nice bach, well appointed, with more gear than one would expect for what was described as a garage by some. Lesson I learned, don't take a torch up there. There was four I spotted around. Won't bother giving them a torch for a present, or perhaps I should. We supplemented facilities with a PlayStation and video, and needed it the first full day, it rained heaps. Saw a boat with a side knocked out up on hard in Mangonui Harbour. Looked pretty knackered. Had the obligatory fish and chips at Mangonui. Found a really nice restaurant at Taipa, believe it or not. Hannah dropped her dessert plate on the floor and it broke, Rory decided to snort pepper, much to his regret.
Sunday was the Big Adventure. Drove up to Cape Reinga, took photos at the lighthouse, then drove back down ninety mile beach. Was a few hairy moments. We walked around a few of the sand dunes, which were fun, then down a stream to the beach. We teamed up with another 4WD family from Hobart that were over here on contract for three years, for moral support. Had gone less than ten kms, gingerly, wallowing in sand here and there, until a bus screamed past. We followed him, and picked up speed. At least until we hit an incoming wave which just about ripped the wheels off. Learned our lesson and avoided deep water then. We got up to speeds of nearly 90k's. Afterward, we got off at the Awanui end (Ahipara is further south). We hosed the car down for $5 at a place which had five jets facing up on the ground, and sideways ones. Then hosed down the rest, car is still a bit sandy but we sprayed it heaps. We filled up with gas at Kaitaia, the pump attendant asked where we had been, and I told him. I mentioned how the bus went pretty fast. He goes "Phoaw, no speed cameras there, eh? Only the pipis and they won't tell anyone." Lovely guy.
Was utterly stuffed after the drive, was concentrating pretty hard during the drive on the beach, spent a bloody long time driving all weekend, except for the wet Saturday. We made it down to the actual beach once, and Hannah strip mined the beach of shells. Speaking of driving. We saw a cow killed by a trailer or after falling off one, couldn't tell. We saw a trailer that lost its load of roofing iron. We saw a whole bunch of coloured plastic balls like the kids play in down the side of the Northern Motorway. No major prangs. There were a massive pile of accidents this weekend, with about 23 being injured.
During the week, Hannah ripped a tooth out of Rory's mouth with a facecloth. So now we know it is possible. Assault with a dangerous piece of linen is now to be added to the list in the latest amendment to the crimes act.
My grandfather spent some time in hospital last week. I went to visit him on Wednesday. He was dosed up on morphine. Had to help him decide about treatment he was going to have. Was kind of yuck. Plan was to nuke an area of his spine to reduce pain. He has since discovered that much of his skeleton and marrow is cancerous, and they decided the radiotherapy was not a happening thing. So he has now made the big call about no resuscitation etc. Now it is just a matter of time. Getting pretty used to the idea now, I have to say. At least I should get a good 20 year break before I have to start worrying about my parents (or maybe more, Mum? You better look after yourself for a while).
The Goodin household is the new house of mucous, with poor baby Thomas suffering considerably. They took last week off and spent the whole time sick. Oh, welcome to our world, you guys. We have personally avoided the nasty Australian 'flu that has been racing around the countryside, and hopefully will do so completely with the holidays nicely placed to interrupt the spread.
Kids have been playing hard, being on holiday and all. A dazzling array of birthday parties, Rory went to circus school one day, learned to unicycle and juggle. Haven't seen the juggling yet, but he practiced in his room a lot the day he went.
Not really feeling like facing the new week. Have heaps to do, including the toy thing. Will be busy, I suspect.
Hope everyone is in better shape than my grandfather, although he is on morphine and therefore is probably having quite a lot of fun at times.