Well, nobody died this week, thankfully - 19/07/99

Well the funeral went down without any hiccups. I stood up and said a few shaky words. One piece of advice I give you all, free of charge, live a life that means they won't have to lie about you at your funeral. Not saying that anyone did, but some of the eulogies on the web I saw made pretty fictional reading. Thanks to those of you who offered your condolences. Logic is such a weird emotion. Even though you know it is a good thing, doesn't always feel okay. All done now, though.
Saw Penny off at the airport on Tuesday, after having lunch at Prego. I actually had a glass of wine! Wow. That would bring me up to nearly 15 drinks this year. Will have to drink that port on New Years Eve, it is a 1978 that I have been saving for about ten years, this means I can't completely go on the wagon yet.
Forgot to mention a while back that news came through that the Buzzy Bee wasn't actually an NZ invention. The widow of the guy that made them pointed out that he never said he invented it. He saw one brought in from the states and copied it. May still be an icon, but not really ours. The day of the lamb tariff announcement the US Ambassador opened his press conference with comments about a pre-emptive statement of impending litigation about the claims to the buzzy bee, which was kind of funny. He better not give up his day job.
Also, keep forgetting about a weird case down in the south island. Someone was cutting power pylons and taking pot-shots at a helicopter that was inspecting the lines. There was a risk that one would fall over if too many cuts were made. They arrested someone, think they were a disgruntled employee.
The Ben & Olivia trial continues monotonously. With something like 500 witnesses, we are already bored and the jury must be getting danger money by now. By now, there seems little doubt that the accused, Scott Watson, is a complete creep. He was drunk the night they disappeared, and either goosed, approached, insulted, or attempted one of Arnold Rimmer's never fail, guaranteed to get you in the sack, pick-up lines (example, Would you like a worm-do?) on every eligible, non-eligible, attractive, ugly, battleship mechanic, librarian, or super model, female (or could be mistaken for female) in the general area. Three women that were there were not approached, but they had been dead for years. A fourth dead woman was approached but she arose, and then turned him down, too.
However, being a complete jerk, creep, etc, does not make one a murderer. With the small number of conflicting stories from some people there must be sufficient doubt. All it would need is one other person who was in on it to provide some non-corroborating evidence and the whole thing will be a waste of time.
Allocations of money from Hillary Commission and Sports Foundation were announced this week, as were advertising budgets for political parties. Seems silly to give rugby any money when Adidas are giving them $90 million or so. Other more self-sustaining sports got money that don't seem to need it, like cricket and netball. Other sports that need help missed out. Soccer didn't do well. In the party thing, it seems we will have to stomach about an hour of free crap on telly from political parties. Shame it isn't all at once at 3am opposite an R18 movie.
News from Christchurch Health that a machine for cleaning a thing for looking through veins (forget the name of it) was not working and about 1200 people have a risk of being infected with HIV, tuberculosis, or hepatitis. Nice one.
Was a fatality on Grafton road Saturday before last that was interesting. Car hit a truck at the bit where they go up onto the motorway. Peter Smith (my business partner) saw it on the way to a client, well just afterward. Doug Lewis, the Canadian Fireman, was there trying to cut this guy out of his car. His last words were "I tried to beat the truck". Another Darwin award entry. Another free piece of advice, don't try to beat the truck.
It was revealed over the weekend that Temuera Morrison, who played Jake the Muss in Once Were Warriors, admitted guilt in a punch up with a teenager in a late night bit of argy bargy. A group of teenagers set fire to a real estate sign outside his house and he smashed this persons head into a fence. Not quite sure who is at fault, but I am fairly sure setting fire to stuff that isn't yours is a bad thing.
NZ First had their conference this weekend. Hmmm. All their voters attended.
Work and Income NZ (WINZ, formerly sort of dept of labour I suppose) had a scrap when an employee hired a jet for $65000 to take staff to a conference. Now it is revealed their latest ads are costing $1.3 million. Personally, I don't think any government department should advertise without approval from very high up.
Tommi Makinen won the rally of NZ, and two more finns came second and third. Possum Bourne came fifth, which was a pretty good showing for someone not in a works team.
Classic scene near Mt Eden prison I saw on Thursday. Three hoods hanging around on the street opposite, one on a cellphone. Lady at the place I was at (Paterson Trading, do taps) called the police. Turned out the car was the wrong colour for the number plate. Then, two raced across the road, over the fence, across the railway lines. Then one started throwing large 2 litre bottles over the wall. One got caught on the barbed wire and was leaking but they biffed it again anyway. Then they took off. Copcar arrived shortly afterward, then the police helicopter Eagle. No idea what was in the bottles, but probably some sort of booze I think.
Cops chased a suspected drunken driver onto the Cook St off ramp, killed himself reasonably quickly. Later on Saturday police announced they are looking at this as a new method for keeping jail numbers down. Sunday morning, some brilliant Massey man managed to run himself over. Car stopped, got out to look under the bonnet, was thinking to himself "did I put the handbrake on?". Last thing that went through his mind was the diff.
Samoan Minister of Works or something was assasinated in Samoa yesterday. Shot through the heart, the PM was there. Guarantee there was some fraud going on behind the scenes, having seen a lot of that sort of thing in Fiji, Tonga, and Tuvalu. The search for JFK junior's plane hit our 6pm news last night. Already knew about it from the web, my homepage has top ten news stories.
Watched the last couple of holes in the British Golf Open just now, with the Scot Paul (?) Lawrie winning. Jean Van Der Velde blew it big time, needed to get no worse than 2 over on the last hole to win and managed 3 over. Three-way playoff for the title. Local lad was very popular. Kept his cool despite having scratched a spot on his forehead and needing a towel to mop up the blood as he walked down the fairway of the 18th. Only interviewed from the other side.
Manchester United played Australia twice during the week. They beat them 2-0 and 1-0. Saw highlights of the first match and it looked reasonably relaxed. Watched Paul Chambers team play on Saturday, they went down to Rangitoto (Diana's old school) 3-0, all the goals were scored in about four minutes halfway through the first half. The NZ team lost 1-0 to Egypt, last game before the confederation cup that kicks off in about a week.
The Warriors lost to the co-leaders, the Sharks, by two points. The Roosters had a bye, the Warriors preferred method of getting two points. The Warriors Chief Executive has applied for the Warriors to have 20 byes next season.
Rory came down with Chicken pox on Monday night, so couldn't attend the funeral, and stayed off school all week. No sign of it on Hannah yet, but won't know for sure until the end of the week. He is back to school today.
Absolutely shocking night on Thursday, rained heaps, traffic Friday sucked. Ruined chances for soccer on Saturday. It was the big game, the Orcas against the Tigers, the only team that beat us last year. We had practice without Rory which seemed really weird. Glad we didn't have to play without him.
Saturday night was farewell party for Canadians. They said a few words. First time I ever saw Jan say less than Doug (common thing with most couples, from my experience). Missed half the rugby because of it, but wasn't a great loss (although it was for the Springboks who were handed their second worst loss, after last weeks. Now three in a row for them, having lost to Wales, NZ, and Australia (by more than England lost by), they must be about fifth in the world by now).
Soccer festivities for yesterday were also postponed to next Sunday. In the morning, went for a bike ride with Rory delivering birthday invitations, then we went to Allan & Jackie's and went for a walk around Titirangi through some old haunts of mine. Just managed to get outside on the rare occasions when it wasn't raining. Weather will need to improve considerably for any of the soccer to happen this weekend.
No missive could be complete without the big news of the weekend, Thomas crawled on Saturday!! Not in reverse this time, but forward. Obviously the gearbox is developing, and now Ross and Kath have higher gears to look forward to.
Hope everyone is happy