A giant leap for catkind. (Spent Saturday on the end of a jack hammer destroying (Symon came and helped, Paul) the unused back steps and now the cats have to jump to get to the cat door, you have to admit the phrase sounds appropriate). This means we are starting to actually do stuff on the house.
We are gearing up for APEC slowly, with signs up everywhere warning of delays on the 13th. Lots of people are contributing with meanings for APEC in their advertising and cartoons.
- Another Pathetic Excuse for a Conference
- All Politicians Excrete Crapola
- Always Puerile Especially Clinton
- Ambiguous Pronouncements Endlessly Chanted
You get the idea. Some sound like cryptic crossword clues.
America's Cup village is continuously getting ready. Bit of a stink when TAB Sports Cafe personnel invaded one compound to check out their boat. They manage to stay in the news on a regular basis, mostly rubbish (AC not TABSC).
My desk clock has gone stupid. Guess I need a new battery (it was given to me when Clear opened their computer centre in May 1991 so I guess I can't complain too much).
A toilet cleaner (person not product) found the Taihape public toilets full of carrots over the weekend. Not just a toilet full, but cubicles full. Police think (and this is fair dinkum) that it may be the work of a reformed vegetarian. The "carrot-age" was done by someone who they think got carroted away. I think it was just someone trying to ensure George Michael couldn't use them.
Real happy day on Thursday, on my way to the last training session for the soccer season and I spent two hours getting from East Tamaki to Western Springs. Left at 3:30 and got there at 5:30, so wasn't exactly peak all the way. Two trucks went splat on the Cook St flyover about 2:30 and wasn't cleared until after 6:00. I spewed big time, was not happy about letting the guys down. Diana covered for me and Joseph's step-dad stepped into the breech and got them going. They didn't want to stop at 6:00, was quite funny.
We got a game on Saturday, last official game of the season. Played at Ellerslie, the Moas, who were extinct before they ran on to the pitch (a bit like the all blacks but I am not talking about them yet). Rory nudged a ball into the goal early into the game to make it four for the season, moving him into third place in the goal scoring for the team (behind Harry with about 10 and Joseph with about 22). They all played well, Harry and Liam played for the other side for the first half and we were outnumbered 8 to 7 for the first half. 2-0 up at half time. Harry came back for us after half time, having had some blistering cracks at our defence. Liam tried to save a goal with his hand in the first half (the old Maradonna "hand of god", we aren't supposed to have a goalie) but it still went through in the top corner. Logan and Harry got themselves goals, and of course Joseph got himself another two. We finish the season with 11 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss.
Started practising cricket in the back yard with Hannah yesterday, in between gardening work.
The Warriors, whom I now choose to discuss in depth, had their player of the season type stuff on Thursday. Stacey Jones was back of the season, and some other guys got stuff but I forget who. The Aussie guy who was injured last season, forget his name. I was wrong, they had one more game, burying Wests 60-16, it was their last game before they merge and Tommy Radonicus, or whatever his name is, is a big loser. They have won four in a row, their best result ever. They came 11th in the competition, don't know out of how many. Sydney City came fourth, I hear.
Auckland beat North Harbour in NPC, Southland were unlucky to only draw with Otago after being ahead, Waikato thumped Canterbury in Christchurch 20-6, Wellington beat Counties 46-28, Taranaki whacked Northland 57-21. Auckland at top of table, three points clear of Otago, then one back to Canterbury and Waikato.
Rob Waddell, NZ single sculler extraordinaire, retained his world title over the weekend. His wife also rowed at the champs. Now he is married, shouldn't he be a married sculler?
A soccer ref was headbutted in Whangarei during a soccer match, by a defender who had just been warned about dangerous play, obviously the guy didn't understand the ref wanted LESS dangerous play, not more. The player has been given a black card - banned from the club for life.
The guy who went all funny in the 50k walk at Kuala Lumpur made it at the world champs, came 8th as he predicted, some suspicion there. Beatrice Faumuina came 5th, which was disappointing for her, she was the incumbent champ.
The records kept falling at the Pan Pac swimming, with Thorpedo doing his bit. I am glad I am not in Australia this week.
Five people died on the roads. A while back they pointed out that the Waikato region is responsible for a full third of fatalities.
It is 25 years since Norman Kirk died this week.
So, the All Blacks. Biggest loss to Australia in 97 years. Woe and misery on the news, RadioSport (surprise), and everywhere. Saw a sign outside a pub yesterday that just said "Ouch!". Much misery on RadioSport, feel sorry for people who went over to be there. Everyone was way too cocky in the news here. Hope we turn it around bloody quick, the World Cup kicks off in about a month or two.
I don't care, my real team won, and more importantly they played well. I said to Rory and Jarod yesterday (in an interesting reversal of the statement in the movie Fever Pitch) "Well guys, who would you rather win, the All Blacks or the Orcas?" They said, in unison, "Orcas!". We have our priorities right.
We went out to Karekare in the afternoon yesterday with the Elliott's (Jarod's family, Lynne, Bruce, and sister Rachael whose tyro soccer team came 5th out of 8 in their first season). Awesome weather, no cloud, watched the sun set over the water right on the dot of 6:00pm. Was a nice finish to the weekend.
Saw baby Thomas in the morning yesterday, helped Ross remove the spa pool. We kind of chopped it in half then it still came out in one piece. So now Thomas can play safely in the back yard. Charles, you better start thinking about sending a present over for his birthday, only about two months to go.
Hannah's first visit to school was a success. Henry, a friend from kindy leaped to his feet when the teacher said "I was you to pick someone you can look after". He grabbed Hannah with one arm and put his other in the air to ensure there was no doubt. Hannah was very happy to be there and didn't really care whether Diana was in the room or not. One girl there wouldn't let go of her mum's hand and this was her fifth visit. Henry spent playtime trying to track Hannah down, she was having too much fun to need looking after. Fifteen sleeps until her birthday.
30 August 1999
23 August 1999
You may or may not get this - 23/08/99
Problems with our link to the outside world meant trouble late last week and now. When you get this you will know it is going again.
We were never destined to play soccer this weekend. After a non-committal phonecall to the club coordinator midweek, the F##king other team manager rang me Friday night to say they weren't going to turn up. Had been fine most of the week and the fields were likely to be okay in the morning. I was spewing. Not enough time to arrange any sort of alternative.
The next morning it started hosing down at about 8:15, and although we were officially on, we had nobody to play. Was going to let them play against each other, but it was way too horrible (raining hard and cold). That was it for soccer. Other teams who had people to play also didn't. One more game proper, then a friendly on opening day (should it not be rained out), then that is it for another season. Sad. Did a look at the statistics over the weekend. Joseph has scored two goals in every game, except one where he scored 1 and one where he scored 3. Not hard to calculate his average. Rory is third equal goal scoring wise, with 3. Not much of a hope of him catching Joseph this year, not that this would be important.
On the bright side, Man U kicked the Arse 2-1 at the Arse. Don't know about Newcastle or Liverpool. Wonder who Watford played this week.
Over the weekend, the final cricket test was not looking at all promising, Sunday morning didn't get the scores until about 11 but it didn't sound good. England 92 for 2 needing about another 140 runs. Then, woke up this morning to jubilation and happiness. The poms went for about another thirty runs them collapsed with nobody else scoring more than 12. We won by 83 runs and the game was all over after about 90 minutes play. No troubles with tail enders or anything. Very happy cricketers, only second test series win in England, ever, and takes us off the bottom rung of the test playing nations ladder. Sticks one up the pommy press who called the team mediocre and questioned us being givent the honour of four tests. Don't often win a series after being one-nil down, so was pretty good really.
Greg someone (a kiwi) won an indy car light race this morning, his first, led from start to finish. Those are the boring races in great big circles, silly really but good-oh. I believe he wasn't actually driving the car on his own, someone had left "the club" on the steering wheel and he just did the gears.
Merlene Ottey somehow tested positive for a drug she can't even spell the name of and couldn't possibly have taken. The indignant denial of these athletes seems to be a little bit too repetitive.
Waikato won the national netball championship, beating Auckland convincingly. Silver Ferns weren't taking part. Wellington had a hard time as a team mate died on Tuesday of a brain haemmorhage (Leilani Read, former Silver Fern and played for Samoa as well). Coverage of that continued most of the week.
The Warriors were thumping the Newcastle Knights about 36-0 at one point, didn't hear the final score. Was Stacey Jones' 100th game for the warriors. Maybe they will do better next year, don't know. Heard Sydney City lost to StGeorge/Illawarra. I think that was the last game of the season for those not in the finals, but not sure. Sounded like Brisbane lost as well. Sad.
Saw sod all of the rugby. Auckland beat Northland, Taranaki gave Otago a run for their money but lost about 16-40, Counties lost to Waikato in a very muddy Shield challenge, Wellington just beat North Harbour, Canterbury must have played Southland, I assume they won.
Seville held track and field world champs, we didn't do well. Beatrice Faumuina is in the final of the discus, others all crapped out. Chris Donaldson, our best sprinter for years (without the asistance of a policeman) didn't make the final, perhaps he lost his drugs.
The death toll odometer kept clicking over after Turkey's little tremor on Tuesday. Every bulletin the number was different. I think we started at 300 and last I heard was over 11,000. NZ has donated over $100k. We took pity on them and didn't send them Don McKinnon, they have suffered enough. Koos knows people that left Turkey just in time, and someone who is still there although not in the bad bit.
As I suspected, Koos went to see the eclipse, and it turns out he was one of the long haired weirdos wearing a white caftan trying to ward off the great pink pixie with a device resembling the sexual equipment of an excited bull elephant with syphilis. An extract from his email:
"I did go down to Cornwall to see the eclipse. It was a total eclipse of
the sky by thick rain cloud. It was still very freaky though. It got
about as dark as it is right now at 9:10pm and cloudy, with a faint glow
on the horizon. Except it came and went much more quickly. I enjoyed it.
I don't know if Patrick Moore enjoyed it under his umbrella. The BBC
were broadcasting from St Anthony's Head, where we were watching, so we
got to see the proper views transmitted from the Hercules on the TV
crew's monitor. I wonder what Patrick was hoping to view through his
monocle? It wasn't even tinted. Perhaps he knew it was going to be
cloudy all the time?"
News this week that we paid $25000 for 8 East Timorese to vote. Democracy at any price. Should be National's new campaign slogan.
Winston Peters gained huge amounts of kudos, credibility, and publicity after some decisions of the winebox enquiry were effectively overturned. Fantastic timing, now he could be back in the race for the election. You just couldn't get a better result for him. I am sure many of the people dumb enough to vote for him before will go back to him now. Why they couldn't defer their decision until after the election, I don't know. If he holds the balance of power again, I am definitely leaving.
Jenny did her foot and mouth thing again, this time over a government owned company, Timberlands, spending government funds on lobbying government about logging native timber. Brilliant.
Murder of a Tauranga woman found at the bottom of a cliff under a mattress near her car with three bullets in the head, she was a bit of a druggy, police suspect an underworld job, and are convinced it was someone with a gun that had at least three bullets.
The Scott Watson/Ben and Olivia trial is supposedly going to complete the prosecution's case this week. They pulled two witnesses who were cellmates of Scott Watson while in remand prison, about as reliable as a $2 G-Shock watch I suspect. Still not much doubt he is a creep, stuff all else. They had about 450 witnesses to call. I wonder how many the defense will have?
We have had a quiet week mostly. Rory is working hard on earning enough stickers in his class to win some sort of imaginary competition. Only Adam stands in his way. I take him to school so he gets there early enough to put down the chairs to get extra ones (the teacher never gives me any stickers, though). Seem to be doing that about four days a week. Once in a while I take Hannah as well. She has a proper school visit this Thursday and will now start school this term as her teacher will be there in time (advantage of having a parent on the PTA).
We sold his bike midweek and bought him a new one. It is pretty cool, red and black, with six gears. Took both kids down to the school yesterday to have a crack at getting Hannah off training wheels and let him have a go on his bike. She doesn't need them but isn't really ready for the commitment. The night he got it he met a 6yo kid from up the road, Chris. Could be handy to have a boy so close of similar age.
Managed to get out to Mission Bay during a break in the weather yesterday afternoon. Kicked a ball around, walked up to the MJS memorial, was quite windy. Kids had ice creams and expensive and not particularly appetising fish and chips.
Baby Thomas has been sick with bronchitis, was getting better but had a small relapse over the weekend.
The house was invaded by Diana's book group on Tuesday night, kids were not happy. I didn't like going through the coven in the lounge to the kids room and back, have to admit.
I am stuck on one scenario in Driver, and can't get the last monkey on Ape Escape. We have been playing Playstation when stuck inside.
I think the Lanes are back as of yesterday. Welcome home.
We were never destined to play soccer this weekend. After a non-committal phonecall to the club coordinator midweek, the F##king other team manager rang me Friday night to say they weren't going to turn up. Had been fine most of the week and the fields were likely to be okay in the morning. I was spewing. Not enough time to arrange any sort of alternative.
The next morning it started hosing down at about 8:15, and although we were officially on, we had nobody to play. Was going to let them play against each other, but it was way too horrible (raining hard and cold). That was it for soccer. Other teams who had people to play also didn't. One more game proper, then a friendly on opening day (should it not be rained out), then that is it for another season. Sad. Did a look at the statistics over the weekend. Joseph has scored two goals in every game, except one where he scored 1 and one where he scored 3. Not hard to calculate his average. Rory is third equal goal scoring wise, with 3. Not much of a hope of him catching Joseph this year, not that this would be important.
On the bright side, Man U kicked the Arse 2-1 at the Arse. Don't know about Newcastle or Liverpool. Wonder who Watford played this week.
Over the weekend, the final cricket test was not looking at all promising, Sunday morning didn't get the scores until about 11 but it didn't sound good. England 92 for 2 needing about another 140 runs. Then, woke up this morning to jubilation and happiness. The poms went for about another thirty runs them collapsed with nobody else scoring more than 12. We won by 83 runs and the game was all over after about 90 minutes play. No troubles with tail enders or anything. Very happy cricketers, only second test series win in England, ever, and takes us off the bottom rung of the test playing nations ladder. Sticks one up the pommy press who called the team mediocre and questioned us being givent the honour of four tests. Don't often win a series after being one-nil down, so was pretty good really.
Greg someone (a kiwi) won an indy car light race this morning, his first, led from start to finish. Those are the boring races in great big circles, silly really but good-oh. I believe he wasn't actually driving the car on his own, someone had left "the club" on the steering wheel and he just did the gears.
Merlene Ottey somehow tested positive for a drug she can't even spell the name of and couldn't possibly have taken. The indignant denial of these athletes seems to be a little bit too repetitive.
Waikato won the national netball championship, beating Auckland convincingly. Silver Ferns weren't taking part. Wellington had a hard time as a team mate died on Tuesday of a brain haemmorhage (Leilani Read, former Silver Fern and played for Samoa as well). Coverage of that continued most of the week.
The Warriors were thumping the Newcastle Knights about 36-0 at one point, didn't hear the final score. Was Stacey Jones' 100th game for the warriors. Maybe they will do better next year, don't know. Heard Sydney City lost to StGeorge/Illawarra. I think that was the last game of the season for those not in the finals, but not sure. Sounded like Brisbane lost as well. Sad.
Saw sod all of the rugby. Auckland beat Northland, Taranaki gave Otago a run for their money but lost about 16-40, Counties lost to Waikato in a very muddy Shield challenge, Wellington just beat North Harbour, Canterbury must have played Southland, I assume they won.
Seville held track and field world champs, we didn't do well. Beatrice Faumuina is in the final of the discus, others all crapped out. Chris Donaldson, our best sprinter for years (without the asistance of a policeman) didn't make the final, perhaps he lost his drugs.
The death toll odometer kept clicking over after Turkey's little tremor on Tuesday. Every bulletin the number was different. I think we started at 300 and last I heard was over 11,000. NZ has donated over $100k. We took pity on them and didn't send them Don McKinnon, they have suffered enough. Koos knows people that left Turkey just in time, and someone who is still there although not in the bad bit.
As I suspected, Koos went to see the eclipse, and it turns out he was one of the long haired weirdos wearing a white caftan trying to ward off the great pink pixie with a device resembling the sexual equipment of an excited bull elephant with syphilis. An extract from his email:
"I did go down to Cornwall to see the eclipse. It was a total eclipse of
the sky by thick rain cloud. It was still very freaky though. It got
about as dark as it is right now at 9:10pm and cloudy, with a faint glow
on the horizon. Except it came and went much more quickly. I enjoyed it.
I don't know if Patrick Moore enjoyed it under his umbrella. The BBC
were broadcasting from St Anthony's Head, where we were watching, so we
got to see the proper views transmitted from the Hercules on the TV
crew's monitor. I wonder what Patrick was hoping to view through his
monocle? It wasn't even tinted. Perhaps he knew it was going to be
cloudy all the time?"
News this week that we paid $25000 for 8 East Timorese to vote. Democracy at any price. Should be National's new campaign slogan.
Winston Peters gained huge amounts of kudos, credibility, and publicity after some decisions of the winebox enquiry were effectively overturned. Fantastic timing, now he could be back in the race for the election. You just couldn't get a better result for him. I am sure many of the people dumb enough to vote for him before will go back to him now. Why they couldn't defer their decision until after the election, I don't know. If he holds the balance of power again, I am definitely leaving.
Jenny did her foot and mouth thing again, this time over a government owned company, Timberlands, spending government funds on lobbying government about logging native timber. Brilliant.
Murder of a Tauranga woman found at the bottom of a cliff under a mattress near her car with three bullets in the head, she was a bit of a druggy, police suspect an underworld job, and are convinced it was someone with a gun that had at least three bullets.
The Scott Watson/Ben and Olivia trial is supposedly going to complete the prosecution's case this week. They pulled two witnesses who were cellmates of Scott Watson while in remand prison, about as reliable as a $2 G-Shock watch I suspect. Still not much doubt he is a creep, stuff all else. They had about 450 witnesses to call. I wonder how many the defense will have?
We have had a quiet week mostly. Rory is working hard on earning enough stickers in his class to win some sort of imaginary competition. Only Adam stands in his way. I take him to school so he gets there early enough to put down the chairs to get extra ones (the teacher never gives me any stickers, though). Seem to be doing that about four days a week. Once in a while I take Hannah as well. She has a proper school visit this Thursday and will now start school this term as her teacher will be there in time (advantage of having a parent on the PTA).
We sold his bike midweek and bought him a new one. It is pretty cool, red and black, with six gears. Took both kids down to the school yesterday to have a crack at getting Hannah off training wheels and let him have a go on his bike. She doesn't need them but isn't really ready for the commitment. The night he got it he met a 6yo kid from up the road, Chris. Could be handy to have a boy so close of similar age.
Managed to get out to Mission Bay during a break in the weather yesterday afternoon. Kicked a ball around, walked up to the MJS memorial, was quite windy. Kids had ice creams and expensive and not particularly appetising fish and chips.
Baby Thomas has been sick with bronchitis, was getting better but had a small relapse over the weekend.
The house was invaded by Diana's book group on Tuesday night, kids were not happy. I didn't like going through the coven in the lounge to the kids room and back, have to admit.
I am stuck on one scenario in Driver, and can't get the last monkey on Ape Escape. We have been playing Playstation when stuck inside.
I think the Lanes are back as of yesterday. Welcome home.
16 August 1999
Well, eleven years is a looooonng time - 16/08/99
Bit of a quiet week in many respects.
Had the anniversary on Friday, black Friday. Seemed quite appropriate, wedding anniversary with all television channels running horror movies. Who'd have thought it would last that long, eh? Anyway, took both Rory and Hannah to school and kindy in the morning, Hannah wouldn't let me leave. Had a coffee with Diana back at home, then went to work. Met her for a comedy show that I was attending for work reasons in the evening (free food, free Deutz for Diana, needed to carry her out almost) then we went to see "EVEREST" at IMAX (caps denote size here). I have already seen it, but was happy to repeat. After reading the book Paul lent us (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, worth a read) about the disastrous trip up with Rob Hall, the movie sort of added to it but the book is still pretty good.
Finally got training with the team on Thursday, although down four players. It was wet, so we had a practice game against the Polar Bears and it got real muddy. I gave permission to the Polar Bears to get dirty and Andy (their coach) gave the Orcas permission (this way, the parents couldn't tell us off). Told them the winners could roll around in the mud, they had a wonderful time. Took some parents about ten minutes to get the kids into a condition were they were prepared to let them into their car to take them home.
Then, we managed to get a game amongst the showers on Saturday. It was "school of origin", Pt Chevalier against St Francis (the private school at the other end of Pt Chev). School against School, Cool against Fool, we won two-nool. (sorry)
The field was not particularly level, in fact very uphill. I maneouvred the Orcas to the downhill end for the first half. Torrid first half, with a good shot that nearly scored for the other team, stopped by Joseph's foot just in front of the goal. Nil all at half time, most time spent in our half with a few short forays into theirs. Second half, we were on the downhill stretch. We were tired but ready for the second half, we had Denham, one of the kids from the other team, given to us as the numbers were 10-8 to them. We spent the second half in their side, and Joseph nabbed two good goals. Missed a few opportunities as well, and Rory was very unlucky with a shot just stopping on the line in the goalmouth. He did some good work but camped in the enemy goal a bit towards the end. Adam was player of the day, excellent defense including a goal saver in the second half.
Diana took some photos with the Mavica camera I have at the moment, including a goodie of Rory in action surrounded by the team.
I went to see Paul Chambers play at Avondale, last game of their competition. They were playing Onehunga, and won 7-0. Paul got a goal, and played well and for most of the game for a change. Saw Ross Hickey at the school, said hello to him, he is a DP now (and about four million years old). The team came second in their competition, I think.
In other sport, was the kickoff of the NPC. Auckland thumped Wellington 45-6 (most results approximate), Otago just beat Northland 21-14, Waikato drew with North Harbour 18 all (Botica played well, with zimmer frame and everything, rumour last week Ridge was going to join Harbour along with Botica and Mark Ellis, the ex-Warriors). Counties beat Southland 31-10, Canterbury beat Taranaki 34-16, no surprises there.
Big news, the Springboks beat the Wallabies 10-9 over the weekend so the AB's win the Tri-Nations with a game in hand. Didn't see the game, apparently riddled with errors, wind may have played a part. AB's have to win the last game in Sydney in two weeks to regain the Bledisloe Cup, but the Tri-Nations is theirs, regardless.
Man U won, Watford beat Liverpool, Newcastle lost (again, three in a row now I think). Quinn will be sad, so will Peter.
Warriors beat North Queensland, but that is like kissing your sister. 40-16 or something.
Dunedin Technical and Waitakere will meet for the Chatham Cup final. Dunedin Technical came second last season.
Cricketers are in trouble in a meaningless county game before the last test kicks off on Thursday night.
In other news, a woman was appointed head of Telecom. 37 year old Teresa Gattung is now the new boss. Putting a woman in charge of a phone company is a bit of a worry, luckily they have developed call waiting for that eventuality.
News this week was pretty pathetic. A millennium concert for Gisborne with David Bowie and Split Enz and Kiri was struggling for numbers, then in trouble, then defunct. Tickets went from $400 each to $150 to nothing. Now Bowie and Enz are going to play at Bastion Point, hang on, no that's off too. Yawn.
I have been thinking about what I want to do for the millennium. Be the first to do something for the new millennium. Choices include:
- first and fastest 100 metres (even if for a very short while)
- first bluescreen crash in NT (should be pretty quick)
- first orgasm (hard to prove)
- first faked orgasm (is proof even necessary?)
- first obscene phone call to a female chief executive of a phone company
- first soccer game
- first royal flush
- first to install Windows 2000
- Fastest lap of the test ring in Gran Turismo
- eat the first pizza
- the first to watch Casablanca
Others that were discarded as too many others will be claiming them include:
- first kiss
- first chunder
- first pint of beer drank
- first pint of chunder drank
- first to kiss a pint of chunder
- first to chunder whilst kissing someone who had just had a pint of beer
I will keep working on the list. I think I need to lobby the Guinness people to restart their book of records for the new millennium. Perhaps everyone in the world should be allowed to nominate one thing they can do first, and we all get our names in the Millennium book, compiled electronically over the web. All six billion of us can have a moment of glory for being here.
The people in Hawaii, being last to see the new day, will have to do things like:
- first to juggle five diesel powered chainsaws running a little rich whilst gargling a raw free-range egg and singing the Marseilles backwards out of tune whilst wearing the Watford away strip with matching soiled Liverpool underwear, cross-eyed, with broccoli in your ears, while standing on a pink morris oxford with unmatched mag wheels and fluffy dice.
As you can see, things are going to start getting a little desparate. Better get in early.
Did anyone of you folks actually see the eclipse? We saw artists impressions for days beforehand, then the eclipse from England, France, Turkey, Eqypt, India, Pakistan, and some little island. An Australian woman was interviewed who went to England just to see it (well, clouds in front of it).
Griffins unveil their millennium biscuit today, I have heard it is a mallowpuff with ecstasy in.
Phil Raffills continues as a National Party candidate for Roskill, despite having leukaemia.
A woman was acquitted of raping a boy. Sounds like it might have been completely fictitious but would it have been dismissed so easily if the genders were reversed?
Kiwifruit vines are now growing like weeds around Te Puke.
The trial of Scott Watson with the Ben & Olivia murder continues. Election stuff happened, nothing interesting.
Big fight in town on Saturday night, one seriously injured. There were about 20 people involved, none were NRL players.
A trial of an obsessive compulsive boarder that put industrial strength insecticide in the drinking water and nearly killed her landlady was abandoned, after it was pointed out the OCD sufferer was trying to kill germs.
An Anti-porn activist who was filmed paying for six lap-dances in what many would term "incredibly dedicated research" has been made to pay $6000 in costs to the company he sued for invading his privacy with the filming. He visited on 15 occasions. "Such commitment to the furthering of our countries morals is laudable" said Patricia Bartlett. "even if not particularly plausible" says everyone else.
It is becoming clear that student loans are driving students out of the country once qualified. I hope you feel guilty Jono (by the way, thanks for letting me know Steph is pregnant - not!)
Oh, yes, Thomas had an ear infection, Charles, and was a pretty unhappy chappy on Friday night. How I don't miss that sort of thing.
Had the anniversary on Friday, black Friday. Seemed quite appropriate, wedding anniversary with all television channels running horror movies. Who'd have thought it would last that long, eh? Anyway, took both Rory and Hannah to school and kindy in the morning, Hannah wouldn't let me leave. Had a coffee with Diana back at home, then went to work. Met her for a comedy show that I was attending for work reasons in the evening (free food, free Deutz for Diana, needed to carry her out almost) then we went to see "EVEREST" at IMAX (caps denote size here). I have already seen it, but was happy to repeat. After reading the book Paul lent us (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, worth a read) about the disastrous trip up with Rob Hall, the movie sort of added to it but the book is still pretty good.
Finally got training with the team on Thursday, although down four players. It was wet, so we had a practice game against the Polar Bears and it got real muddy. I gave permission to the Polar Bears to get dirty and Andy (their coach) gave the Orcas permission (this way, the parents couldn't tell us off). Told them the winners could roll around in the mud, they had a wonderful time. Took some parents about ten minutes to get the kids into a condition were they were prepared to let them into their car to take them home.
Then, we managed to get a game amongst the showers on Saturday. It was "school of origin", Pt Chevalier against St Francis (the private school at the other end of Pt Chev). School against School, Cool against Fool, we won two-nool. (sorry)
The field was not particularly level, in fact very uphill. I maneouvred the Orcas to the downhill end for the first half. Torrid first half, with a good shot that nearly scored for the other team, stopped by Joseph's foot just in front of the goal. Nil all at half time, most time spent in our half with a few short forays into theirs. Second half, we were on the downhill stretch. We were tired but ready for the second half, we had Denham, one of the kids from the other team, given to us as the numbers were 10-8 to them. We spent the second half in their side, and Joseph nabbed two good goals. Missed a few opportunities as well, and Rory was very unlucky with a shot just stopping on the line in the goalmouth. He did some good work but camped in the enemy goal a bit towards the end. Adam was player of the day, excellent defense including a goal saver in the second half.
Diana took some photos with the Mavica camera I have at the moment, including a goodie of Rory in action surrounded by the team.
I went to see Paul Chambers play at Avondale, last game of their competition. They were playing Onehunga, and won 7-0. Paul got a goal, and played well and for most of the game for a change. Saw Ross Hickey at the school, said hello to him, he is a DP now (and about four million years old). The team came second in their competition, I think.
In other sport, was the kickoff of the NPC. Auckland thumped Wellington 45-6 (most results approximate), Otago just beat Northland 21-14, Waikato drew with North Harbour 18 all (Botica played well, with zimmer frame and everything, rumour last week Ridge was going to join Harbour along with Botica and Mark Ellis, the ex-Warriors). Counties beat Southland 31-10, Canterbury beat Taranaki 34-16, no surprises there.
Big news, the Springboks beat the Wallabies 10-9 over the weekend so the AB's win the Tri-Nations with a game in hand. Didn't see the game, apparently riddled with errors, wind may have played a part. AB's have to win the last game in Sydney in two weeks to regain the Bledisloe Cup, but the Tri-Nations is theirs, regardless.
Man U won, Watford beat Liverpool, Newcastle lost (again, three in a row now I think). Quinn will be sad, so will Peter.
Warriors beat North Queensland, but that is like kissing your sister. 40-16 or something.
Dunedin Technical and Waitakere will meet for the Chatham Cup final. Dunedin Technical came second last season.
Cricketers are in trouble in a meaningless county game before the last test kicks off on Thursday night.
In other news, a woman was appointed head of Telecom. 37 year old Teresa Gattung is now the new boss. Putting a woman in charge of a phone company is a bit of a worry, luckily they have developed call waiting for that eventuality.
News this week was pretty pathetic. A millennium concert for Gisborne with David Bowie and Split Enz and Kiri was struggling for numbers, then in trouble, then defunct. Tickets went from $400 each to $150 to nothing. Now Bowie and Enz are going to play at Bastion Point, hang on, no that's off too. Yawn.
I have been thinking about what I want to do for the millennium. Be the first to do something for the new millennium. Choices include:
- first and fastest 100 metres (even if for a very short while)
- first bluescreen crash in NT (should be pretty quick)
- first orgasm (hard to prove)
- first faked orgasm (is proof even necessary?)
- first obscene phone call to a female chief executive of a phone company
- first soccer game
- first royal flush
- first to install Windows 2000
- Fastest lap of the test ring in Gran Turismo
- eat the first pizza
- the first to watch Casablanca
Others that were discarded as too many others will be claiming them include:
- first kiss
- first chunder
- first pint of beer drank
- first pint of chunder drank
- first to kiss a pint of chunder
- first to chunder whilst kissing someone who had just had a pint of beer
I will keep working on the list. I think I need to lobby the Guinness people to restart their book of records for the new millennium. Perhaps everyone in the world should be allowed to nominate one thing they can do first, and we all get our names in the Millennium book, compiled electronically over the web. All six billion of us can have a moment of glory for being here.
The people in Hawaii, being last to see the new day, will have to do things like:
- first to juggle five diesel powered chainsaws running a little rich whilst gargling a raw free-range egg and singing the Marseilles backwards out of tune whilst wearing the Watford away strip with matching soiled Liverpool underwear, cross-eyed, with broccoli in your ears, while standing on a pink morris oxford with unmatched mag wheels and fluffy dice.
As you can see, things are going to start getting a little desparate. Better get in early.
Did anyone of you folks actually see the eclipse? We saw artists impressions for days beforehand, then the eclipse from England, France, Turkey, Eqypt, India, Pakistan, and some little island. An Australian woman was interviewed who went to England just to see it (well, clouds in front of it).
Griffins unveil their millennium biscuit today, I have heard it is a mallowpuff with ecstasy in.
Phil Raffills continues as a National Party candidate for Roskill, despite having leukaemia.
A woman was acquitted of raping a boy. Sounds like it might have been completely fictitious but would it have been dismissed so easily if the genders were reversed?
Kiwifruit vines are now growing like weeds around Te Puke.
The trial of Scott Watson with the Ben & Olivia murder continues. Election stuff happened, nothing interesting.
Big fight in town on Saturday night, one seriously injured. There were about 20 people involved, none were NRL players.
A trial of an obsessive compulsive boarder that put industrial strength insecticide in the drinking water and nearly killed her landlady was abandoned, after it was pointed out the OCD sufferer was trying to kill germs.
An Anti-porn activist who was filmed paying for six lap-dances in what many would term "incredibly dedicated research" has been made to pay $6000 in costs to the company he sued for invading his privacy with the filming. He visited on 15 occasions. "Such commitment to the furthering of our countries morals is laudable" said Patricia Bartlett. "even if not particularly plausible" says everyone else.
It is becoming clear that student loans are driving students out of the country once qualified. I hope you feel guilty Jono (by the way, thanks for letting me know Steph is pregnant - not!)
Oh, yes, Thomas had an ear infection, Charles, and was a pretty unhappy chappy on Friday night. How I don't miss that sort of thing.
9 August 1999
Spring is on the way - 09/08/99
Hi folks, welcome to another riveting installment of life according to Rob.
Addendum to last week. The excellent second goal by Brazil against NZ (they beat Saudi Arabia 8-2 in the semi by the way, Brazil not NZ) was from Porto Alegre, Hayden's current home town (my cousin and recipient of this little publication). He didn't name him, but he was probably called ronaldino-rivaldo-pele or something like that.
Final of the Confederation Cup was Mexico versus Brazil, it was a butt-clenching final few minutes with people getting yellow cards for timewasting and one getting a red card. Mexico prevailed 4-3, at home, very happy crowd to say the least.
No real soccer over the weekend, although we had our team photo last week. Awesome weather all weekend, just too wet underfoot. Bloody Michaels Ave played, we played there the week before when everyone played. It is a bloody curse. It was our second and last chance to play another Western Springs 7th grade team, the Grizzlies. Bugger it. Was very disappointed.
Even Paul didn't play on Saturday, the team they were playing defaulted.
As a substitute, we went out to Cornwallis to see the new wharf that has been built at the far end. "We" consisted of us, Mum, Jared (Rory's friend) and the entire Chambers family. This is something of a novelty. With Nicola now denying that she is a teenager (she is 18), Paul 15, and Emma very nearly 13, we hardly ever see them in the same room at the same time. It was really great, Paul and I played soccer with Jared and Rory for a while, two on two. Hannah played with Emma, just a few kicks. We kicked a ball to the other end to check out the wharf, Rory kept calling Allan "Shearer" (as in the Newcastle player). We half-arsed tried fishing off the end of the wharf with two drop lines, and a couple of oysters I murdered, and some bread that basically fed a couple of seagulls when it blew off the wharf. We were all pretty stuffed when we got back, so me and Allan had a game of squash, and I was even more stuffed. Great day though, outside in the crisp spring air. We even got a little burnt. Of course this morning we had the heater on inside and could still see our breath.
In terms of news in the real world, there was another shooting by police of a person who attacked them with a knife. Not quite as stupid as that guy a while back. Is actually still alive, despite getting a glock slug in the chest.
More attacks on armourguard vans, but this time they caught the culprit. Apparently has been five in recent months. High excitement as the culprit was captured in downtown Pt Chevalier, near 3 Guys.
The cancer curing mussel byproduct sold out, was taken off the shelfs, then people decided other things in these mussels caused cancer. By the end of the week last week, you were left wondering whether or not the whole thing was a hoax to increase sales ($2m in a couple of days isn't bad) or perhaps if they were about to announce that parts of this mollusc would be a wonder new paint stripper or household cleaner.
They caught a few people for the assasination in Samoa. Son of another cabinet minister has confessed. Death penalty is still in effect there. Allan reckons nobody can call themselves civilised if they kill people. In the paper this morning, the dead man's son pleaded for the killer to be spared. Very christian country, Samoa. Whole thing is kind of weird.
Latest poll suggests that Labour will get 55 seats (out of 120), Nat 46, Alliance 12, ACT 7. This puts Labour well in with Mad Jim's assistance. Better than the Winston scenario, who is down to 2.2%.
An NZ man is accused of running a child-sex ring out of an indian brothel. We really are good at finding niches, aren't we?
News today that Phil Raffils has leukaemia. He is (now past tense) principal of Avondale College, where Nicola, me, Koos, and Jono went to school. He is also an Auckland Councillor and was going to stand at the next election, will probably be lying down at best by then.
Sporting weekend results were pretty good.
We beat the Springboks in Pretoria, 34-18. Not enough tries for a bonus point so we have to beat Australia in two weeks to win the Tri-nations if they beat the boks next weekend. However, to keep, or rather get, the Bledisloe Cup back, we need to win anyway. Cullen scored the only two NZ tries, 7 penalties (northern hemisphere dork ref, Ed Morrison) and Jeff Wilson got a drop goal. The boks played a lot better than many predicted they would, so they could just get their shit together in time for the World Cup.
News that Larkham and Eales won't return in time for the game against NZ gives us some hope.
In the cricket, we are in a strong but possibly likely-drawn position in the 3rd test. Astle got a ton, as did McMillan. Weather stopped play last night, after we declared at about 496/9, poms got 199 in their first go. They were 112 for 2 when rain stopped play and it could stop the last day as well. Bet we end up with the poms having 1 wicket in hand when play is stopped for bad light on the last day. Damn it all, they deserve a win. Harry (Chris Harris) took a couple of wickets and ran someone out, after finally being allowed into the squad. Our number 11 batsmen this time (Vettori) has a century to his name so batting is not really a weakness at the moment. We don't often get 496, that's for sure.
Waikato handed Hawkes Bay an 86-0 lesson in a ranfurly shield game, in what many would say was a little one-sided.
Not much else to report, really. Been fooling around with a Sony Mavica digital camera. Way cool fun. 14x zoom. Take a photo without having to leave your armchair. Straight onto floppy disk.
Had some sort of horrible bug on Wednesday, thought it might be the flu, but bounced back by the end of the day.
Rory lost another tooth on Friday, finally. No more for a while, Hannah will be next. She starts school visits next week, Diana reckons. He has spent his hoard of money a hundred times, has just over a hundred bucks now. Announced the other day he wanted to buy me something (Star Wars lego). Nice move. Got to admire his thinking on that one.
Some discussion last night as a result of me filling out the recommendations for awards for the soccer. I had to be straight up with him and say he wasn't up for anything. He wasn't happy. Problem is, he is close, but not close enough to deserving something. Wasn't a real fun conversation. We watched Empire Strikes Back afterward with his new lego Snow Speeder he got from Ross and Kath for his birthday.
Charles - we saw Thomas and have done some digital photos so you should get one or two shortly.
This could be just about my last mail to the Lane's in Canada. They leave for a slow trip home. Have fun on the trip home, guys. It is going to be weird when you return. (Iris is coming to see Diana, today, by the way) We will then say - "Hey, who is that driving around in Jan and Doug's car?" (something of a turnaround on a year ago).
Anyway, better go do some work, the mail server is up now, so I can send this. Everybody pray for sun, we only have three games left in the season. Have to start organising the cricket team, I guess.
Addendum to last week. The excellent second goal by Brazil against NZ (they beat Saudi Arabia 8-2 in the semi by the way, Brazil not NZ) was from Porto Alegre, Hayden's current home town (my cousin and recipient of this little publication). He didn't name him, but he was probably called ronaldino-rivaldo-pele or something like that.
Final of the Confederation Cup was Mexico versus Brazil, it was a butt-clenching final few minutes with people getting yellow cards for timewasting and one getting a red card. Mexico prevailed 4-3, at home, very happy crowd to say the least.
No real soccer over the weekend, although we had our team photo last week. Awesome weather all weekend, just too wet underfoot. Bloody Michaels Ave played, we played there the week before when everyone played. It is a bloody curse. It was our second and last chance to play another Western Springs 7th grade team, the Grizzlies. Bugger it. Was very disappointed.
Even Paul didn't play on Saturday, the team they were playing defaulted.
As a substitute, we went out to Cornwallis to see the new wharf that has been built at the far end. "We" consisted of us, Mum, Jared (Rory's friend) and the entire Chambers family. This is something of a novelty. With Nicola now denying that she is a teenager (she is 18), Paul 15, and Emma very nearly 13, we hardly ever see them in the same room at the same time. It was really great, Paul and I played soccer with Jared and Rory for a while, two on two. Hannah played with Emma, just a few kicks. We kicked a ball to the other end to check out the wharf, Rory kept calling Allan "Shearer" (as in the Newcastle player). We half-arsed tried fishing off the end of the wharf with two drop lines, and a couple of oysters I murdered, and some bread that basically fed a couple of seagulls when it blew off the wharf. We were all pretty stuffed when we got back, so me and Allan had a game of squash, and I was even more stuffed. Great day though, outside in the crisp spring air. We even got a little burnt. Of course this morning we had the heater on inside and could still see our breath.
In terms of news in the real world, there was another shooting by police of a person who attacked them with a knife. Not quite as stupid as that guy a while back. Is actually still alive, despite getting a glock slug in the chest.
More attacks on armourguard vans, but this time they caught the culprit. Apparently has been five in recent months. High excitement as the culprit was captured in downtown Pt Chevalier, near 3 Guys.
The cancer curing mussel byproduct sold out, was taken off the shelfs, then people decided other things in these mussels caused cancer. By the end of the week last week, you were left wondering whether or not the whole thing was a hoax to increase sales ($2m in a couple of days isn't bad) or perhaps if they were about to announce that parts of this mollusc would be a wonder new paint stripper or household cleaner.
They caught a few people for the assasination in Samoa. Son of another cabinet minister has confessed. Death penalty is still in effect there. Allan reckons nobody can call themselves civilised if they kill people. In the paper this morning, the dead man's son pleaded for the killer to be spared. Very christian country, Samoa. Whole thing is kind of weird.
Latest poll suggests that Labour will get 55 seats (out of 120), Nat 46, Alliance 12, ACT 7. This puts Labour well in with Mad Jim's assistance. Better than the Winston scenario, who is down to 2.2%.
An NZ man is accused of running a child-sex ring out of an indian brothel. We really are good at finding niches, aren't we?
News today that Phil Raffils has leukaemia. He is (now past tense) principal of Avondale College, where Nicola, me, Koos, and Jono went to school. He is also an Auckland Councillor and was going to stand at the next election, will probably be lying down at best by then.
Sporting weekend results were pretty good.
We beat the Springboks in Pretoria, 34-18. Not enough tries for a bonus point so we have to beat Australia in two weeks to win the Tri-nations if they beat the boks next weekend. However, to keep, or rather get, the Bledisloe Cup back, we need to win anyway. Cullen scored the only two NZ tries, 7 penalties (northern hemisphere dork ref, Ed Morrison) and Jeff Wilson got a drop goal. The boks played a lot better than many predicted they would, so they could just get their shit together in time for the World Cup.
News that Larkham and Eales won't return in time for the game against NZ gives us some hope.
In the cricket, we are in a strong but possibly likely-drawn position in the 3rd test. Astle got a ton, as did McMillan. Weather stopped play last night, after we declared at about 496/9, poms got 199 in their first go. They were 112 for 2 when rain stopped play and it could stop the last day as well. Bet we end up with the poms having 1 wicket in hand when play is stopped for bad light on the last day. Damn it all, they deserve a win. Harry (Chris Harris) took a couple of wickets and ran someone out, after finally being allowed into the squad. Our number 11 batsmen this time (Vettori) has a century to his name so batting is not really a weakness at the moment. We don't often get 496, that's for sure.
Waikato handed Hawkes Bay an 86-0 lesson in a ranfurly shield game, in what many would say was a little one-sided.
Not much else to report, really. Been fooling around with a Sony Mavica digital camera. Way cool fun. 14x zoom. Take a photo without having to leave your armchair. Straight onto floppy disk.
Had some sort of horrible bug on Wednesday, thought it might be the flu, but bounced back by the end of the day.
Rory lost another tooth on Friday, finally. No more for a while, Hannah will be next. She starts school visits next week, Diana reckons. He has spent his hoard of money a hundred times, has just over a hundred bucks now. Announced the other day he wanted to buy me something (Star Wars lego). Nice move. Got to admire his thinking on that one.
Some discussion last night as a result of me filling out the recommendations for awards for the soccer. I had to be straight up with him and say he wasn't up for anything. He wasn't happy. Problem is, he is close, but not close enough to deserving something. Wasn't a real fun conversation. We watched Empire Strikes Back afterward with his new lego Snow Speeder he got from Ross and Kath for his birthday.
Charles - we saw Thomas and have done some digital photos so you should get one or two shortly.
This could be just about my last mail to the Lane's in Canada. They leave for a slow trip home. Have fun on the trip home, guys. It is going to be weird when you return. (Iris is coming to see Diana, today, by the way) We will then say - "Hey, who is that driving around in Jan and Doug's car?" (something of a turnaround on a year ago).
Anyway, better go do some work, the mail server is up now, so I can send this. Everybody pray for sun, we only have three games left in the season. Have to start organising the cricket team, I guess.
2 August 1999
Well, I am the father of a seven year old - 02/08/99
Happy birthday to Rory. It was just over seven years ago that I got my first practical, and yet unplanned, midwifery lesson. I cannot remember a time when I wasn't a dad. He is soooo old now. Practically a teenager. Well, okay not quite but seems like he is growing up so fast.
In his own words, "It just doesn't get any better than this".
Well, the big day was Saturday. Much excitement, all round. Tried to make it a reasonably fun day, didn't get very carried away though. Opened his presents in the morning, was pretty happy with the bedside light for his room, got Ape Escape (PSX game), the fourth slizer to make a big one (lego technic thing, semi-transformer), couple of books, more lego, shelf for his rocks, a box with a secret opening, a transformer (we got it ages ago and thought he may not be keen on it now, but seemed happy enough). Then, we actually had a game of soccer!
We were playing at Michaels Ave, the only ground that hasn't been closed the last two weeks, on a week when all groounds were open. Not that I am bitter or anything. We gave the other team Mathew, as they needed an extra. He defended really well for them, probably their best player to be honest. stopped at least two or three goals. We won five nil, but best of all, Rory bagged himself two goals, bringing his tally to three for the season. But two on his birthday was pretty good and he was pretty bloody happy with himself. Then we came home. He didn't want to go anywhere, as he had so many toys to play with. Diana and I left the kids with the grandmas and we went to see Paul Chambers play, they won 2-0 against Kings. They missed some reasonably promising chances but the second goal was a scorcher from a free kick that the kicker admitted wasn't actually supposed to go there. A slight deflection from a head on the way in was the only influence on an otherwise damn good shot at goal.
We returned with my sister Sarah, to find that the kids had been to shop with Nanny, a normal event.
Birthday cards arrived from Penny & Craig and Nanny also arrived in the morning, all of a sudden Rory was busy figuring out what he could buy with his money. He also wanted to go change the Aussie $ straight away.
We mellowed out in front of the All Whites playing Brazil (they lost 2-0, but did pretty well and missed a couple of good chances) whilst assembling some lego. Then Rory played his new game then we went out to dinner at Prego. I organised for a single candle to be put on his ice cream for dessert, and I wish I had readied the camera. His face lit up like you've never seen before. He couldn't stop smiling and he instantly bonded with the waiter. He asked "How did he know it was my birthday?". I blew it by explaining, but he was sooooo happy. Naturally, he read a little in bed before going to sleep.
On Sunday, we had the party, down at the Rocknasium, a rock wall climbing place. It was a combined event with Liam who's birthday is 1 August. With a whole bunch of common friends it was a pretty fun time. Rory's friend Tyler was spiderboy, but most of the others went up and down often. Then, after more presents, many of the kids came back to our place (seven boys juiced up on adrenalin and food colouring). They played soccer on the back lawn and generally made considerable amounts of noise. They played on the playstation for a while. Quinn, a boy who's family supports Newcastle and was going to get a number 9 on his Newcastle shirt when they went back there a little while ago, earned Alan Shearer a yellow card, which upset him, but then he got him to score a goal against Brazil, so he was pretty pleased. Quinn plays for the dreaded Tigers, the nemesis of the Orcas. Nice kid, despite that. Kids didn't go until about three. Then Rory and I went for a bike ride to Tyler's house to swap some PSX games and buy some milk. He must have been stuffed, I know I was after hanging on to ropes with kids dangling from them.
Altogether, a pretty happy weekend for him. A two-day birthday weekend was not bad going, excellent strategy I think.
I took him to school again this morning, last week I took him three times because Hannah was unable to go anywhere, he was pretty happy getting to school a bit earlier than normal.
Hannah really bounced back for the weekend. She was so miserable most of the week. She improved visibly (and visually) by Thursday night, but still has spots on her face. She is looking forward to going to kindy this morning. At least we are now heading out of the Chicken Pox phase of our lives, and it appears we haven't infected baby Thomas.
Well enough of the birthday, sorry about all that. Now we have to concentrate on Hannah's in six weeks time.
No major rugby to speak of, except the under 21 tournament in Argentina. After beating the Australians in the semi by about 12 points after being 2 behind them with a couple of minutes to go, we did the same with the South Africans in the final, except in reverse, losing by two points due to a converted try in the last minute.
I think the AB's play South Africa next weekend in Pretoria. After the sacking of Gary Tecihmann (SAF Captain) and the injury of Honiball, they are not looking good, although at altitude and at home, they won't be easy.
Cricket was just a boring county game over the weekend, third test starts on Thursday night. We won the second test but I think I mentioned that last week. All Whites are all finished at the confederation cup, conceding 6 goals and scoring 1 in three games. Not bad, really. Brazil scored two goals on Saturday, so did Rory, heh heh.
Ridge did his bit for the Warriors, two weeks after finally coming back, tripped a Melbourne player and was sent off. No other word for him, f#%kwit, sums him up. No idea. He is like Mike Tyson, an old war horse that has lost his sense of reality. Spitting, "facials", ref pushing, now tripping. I don't think he actually wants to play league at all. Dork. Big time. Hope he gets done for the rest of the season. Possibly best ever. Anyway, the Warriors lost, by two points. If there were points for getting close, like in the Super 12, the Warriors would have heaps more.
Well, what an interesting day on Wednesday. Parliament voted to drop the drinking age to 18. Yawn. But also, tragedy in Switzerland where a bunch of Contiki toursists were swept away by a flash flood and killed. 13 Australians killed, 2 New Zealanders. First time Australia had outscored NZ for about a week (sorry, that was a bit rugged). Some South Africans were on the trip too, but no mention of their body count. If anything like their rugby team, probably was nil. Seeing no Kennedy died, we went on about this even all week in the media, ad infinitum.
Peter Smith knows the family of a 14 year old girl who threw herself off the Waiheke ferry on Sunday of last week and was found dead later on the island. A bit of a tearaway. Some other girls saw her fall but didn't say anything until they got home, nice one.
Another poll during the week, looks like National + ACT is approximately the same as Labour + Alliance. Good one. Now looks like our dear friend Winston will hold the balance of power again. Voters need to make a concerted effort to cut this bozo out of the power equation. I don't know if I care which side wins, just as long as NZ First isn't part of government. A year of having a crippled minority government scared to do anything has been bad enough. We need someone to start to make changes or we will be in deep shite. I am sorely tempted to campaign as such. Vote for one side or the other, just don't vote for Winston. What a shame it can never make any difference.
Over the weekend a couple of blokes rescued a 68-year old who backed into the water at Westhaven. Three teenagers got killed after a party in the Wairarapa, got the drinking age thing going again before it stopped. A total of seven died over the weekend, five were teenagers. Saved us a lifetime of dole payments, I suppose. It seems a little strange they keep killing themselves off given that teenagers we know, like Nicola Chambers and her friends, are pretty anti any sort of drinking and driving.
Relations of the industrial sort in the fire service don't appear to be improving after the departure of Roger Estall and friends. Taupo Fire Station has installed close circuit cameras because they think the staff have been sabotaging the gear.
Guilty verdict for four people on manslaughter, for the death of intelectually handicapped woman Angelina Edwards. One got name supression and still has it, not sure why, once you are guilty that should be it.
News that greenlipped mussels can kill cancer cells. Now they are worried about others getting our product. Bet you won't be able to afford to eat them any more.
So, that about sums it up. Pretty quiet this week by comparison. Only about four more games of soccer left in the season. Wedding anniversary at the end of next week. What are the chances of Diana doing the jewellery announcement in the next 12 days? Pretty slim, I suspect. Then on to Hannah's birthday.
In his own words, "It just doesn't get any better than this".
Well, the big day was Saturday. Much excitement, all round. Tried to make it a reasonably fun day, didn't get very carried away though. Opened his presents in the morning, was pretty happy with the bedside light for his room, got Ape Escape (PSX game), the fourth slizer to make a big one (lego technic thing, semi-transformer), couple of books, more lego, shelf for his rocks, a box with a secret opening, a transformer (we got it ages ago and thought he may not be keen on it now, but seemed happy enough). Then, we actually had a game of soccer!
We were playing at Michaels Ave, the only ground that hasn't been closed the last two weeks, on a week when all groounds were open. Not that I am bitter or anything. We gave the other team Mathew, as they needed an extra. He defended really well for them, probably their best player to be honest. stopped at least two or three goals. We won five nil, but best of all, Rory bagged himself two goals, bringing his tally to three for the season. But two on his birthday was pretty good and he was pretty bloody happy with himself. Then we came home. He didn't want to go anywhere, as he had so many toys to play with. Diana and I left the kids with the grandmas and we went to see Paul Chambers play, they won 2-0 against Kings. They missed some reasonably promising chances but the second goal was a scorcher from a free kick that the kicker admitted wasn't actually supposed to go there. A slight deflection from a head on the way in was the only influence on an otherwise damn good shot at goal.
We returned with my sister Sarah, to find that the kids had been to shop with Nanny, a normal event.
Birthday cards arrived from Penny & Craig and Nanny also arrived in the morning, all of a sudden Rory was busy figuring out what he could buy with his money. He also wanted to go change the Aussie $ straight away.
We mellowed out in front of the All Whites playing Brazil (they lost 2-0, but did pretty well and missed a couple of good chances) whilst assembling some lego. Then Rory played his new game then we went out to dinner at Prego. I organised for a single candle to be put on his ice cream for dessert, and I wish I had readied the camera. His face lit up like you've never seen before. He couldn't stop smiling and he instantly bonded with the waiter. He asked "How did he know it was my birthday?". I blew it by explaining, but he was sooooo happy. Naturally, he read a little in bed before going to sleep.
On Sunday, we had the party, down at the Rocknasium, a rock wall climbing place. It was a combined event with Liam who's birthday is 1 August. With a whole bunch of common friends it was a pretty fun time. Rory's friend Tyler was spiderboy, but most of the others went up and down often. Then, after more presents, many of the kids came back to our place (seven boys juiced up on adrenalin and food colouring). They played soccer on the back lawn and generally made considerable amounts of noise. They played on the playstation for a while. Quinn, a boy who's family supports Newcastle and was going to get a number 9 on his Newcastle shirt when they went back there a little while ago, earned Alan Shearer a yellow card, which upset him, but then he got him to score a goal against Brazil, so he was pretty pleased. Quinn plays for the dreaded Tigers, the nemesis of the Orcas. Nice kid, despite that. Kids didn't go until about three. Then Rory and I went for a bike ride to Tyler's house to swap some PSX games and buy some milk. He must have been stuffed, I know I was after hanging on to ropes with kids dangling from them.
Altogether, a pretty happy weekend for him. A two-day birthday weekend was not bad going, excellent strategy I think.
I took him to school again this morning, last week I took him three times because Hannah was unable to go anywhere, he was pretty happy getting to school a bit earlier than normal.
Hannah really bounced back for the weekend. She was so miserable most of the week. She improved visibly (and visually) by Thursday night, but still has spots on her face. She is looking forward to going to kindy this morning. At least we are now heading out of the Chicken Pox phase of our lives, and it appears we haven't infected baby Thomas.
Well enough of the birthday, sorry about all that. Now we have to concentrate on Hannah's in six weeks time.
No major rugby to speak of, except the under 21 tournament in Argentina. After beating the Australians in the semi by about 12 points after being 2 behind them with a couple of minutes to go, we did the same with the South Africans in the final, except in reverse, losing by two points due to a converted try in the last minute.
I think the AB's play South Africa next weekend in Pretoria. After the sacking of Gary Tecihmann (SAF Captain) and the injury of Honiball, they are not looking good, although at altitude and at home, they won't be easy.
Cricket was just a boring county game over the weekend, third test starts on Thursday night. We won the second test but I think I mentioned that last week. All Whites are all finished at the confederation cup, conceding 6 goals and scoring 1 in three games. Not bad, really. Brazil scored two goals on Saturday, so did Rory, heh heh.
Ridge did his bit for the Warriors, two weeks after finally coming back, tripped a Melbourne player and was sent off. No other word for him, f#%kwit, sums him up. No idea. He is like Mike Tyson, an old war horse that has lost his sense of reality. Spitting, "facials", ref pushing, now tripping. I don't think he actually wants to play league at all. Dork. Big time. Hope he gets done for the rest of the season. Possibly best ever. Anyway, the Warriors lost, by two points. If there were points for getting close, like in the Super 12, the Warriors would have heaps more.
Well, what an interesting day on Wednesday. Parliament voted to drop the drinking age to 18. Yawn. But also, tragedy in Switzerland where a bunch of Contiki toursists were swept away by a flash flood and killed. 13 Australians killed, 2 New Zealanders. First time Australia had outscored NZ for about a week (sorry, that was a bit rugged). Some South Africans were on the trip too, but no mention of their body count. If anything like their rugby team, probably was nil. Seeing no Kennedy died, we went on about this even all week in the media, ad infinitum.
Peter Smith knows the family of a 14 year old girl who threw herself off the Waiheke ferry on Sunday of last week and was found dead later on the island. A bit of a tearaway. Some other girls saw her fall but didn't say anything until they got home, nice one.
Another poll during the week, looks like National + ACT is approximately the same as Labour + Alliance. Good one. Now looks like our dear friend Winston will hold the balance of power again. Voters need to make a concerted effort to cut this bozo out of the power equation. I don't know if I care which side wins, just as long as NZ First isn't part of government. A year of having a crippled minority government scared to do anything has been bad enough. We need someone to start to make changes or we will be in deep shite. I am sorely tempted to campaign as such. Vote for one side or the other, just don't vote for Winston. What a shame it can never make any difference.
Over the weekend a couple of blokes rescued a 68-year old who backed into the water at Westhaven. Three teenagers got killed after a party in the Wairarapa, got the drinking age thing going again before it stopped. A total of seven died over the weekend, five were teenagers. Saved us a lifetime of dole payments, I suppose. It seems a little strange they keep killing themselves off given that teenagers we know, like Nicola Chambers and her friends, are pretty anti any sort of drinking and driving.
Relations of the industrial sort in the fire service don't appear to be improving after the departure of Roger Estall and friends. Taupo Fire Station has installed close circuit cameras because they think the staff have been sabotaging the gear.
Guilty verdict for four people on manslaughter, for the death of intelectually handicapped woman Angelina Edwards. One got name supression and still has it, not sure why, once you are guilty that should be it.
News that greenlipped mussels can kill cancer cells. Now they are worried about others getting our product. Bet you won't be able to afford to eat them any more.
So, that about sums it up. Pretty quiet this week by comparison. Only about four more games of soccer left in the season. Wedding anniversary at the end of next week. What are the chances of Diana doing the jewellery announcement in the next 12 days? Pretty slim, I suspect. Then on to Hannah's birthday.
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