Well, I suppose the big news is that election day is the 27th of November. Those of you interested may be able to vote, not sure how many of you will bother. It seems that 18-39 year olds are a bit apathetic about the whole thing. Given the performances over the last three years it is not very surprising. Our parliament had more defections than Russia during the cold war. Mind you, it is full of defectives so hardly a great shock. Wish someone would stand up and say "hey, if we all vote for Labour (or whoever) then we can keep mad Jim and wacky Winston out of the show".
News late last week that growth for the last quarter was so low it was actually shrinkage. Perhaps the economy had spent too much time in a cold swimming pool. This sort of news does not help those with a rather shakey grasp of what remains of power. Realistically there is little doubt that the Nats are going to be leading the opposition at best come November 28th. Just want to avoid the nightmare scenario which would include Winston holding the balance of power whilst desperately trying to balance his ego in the other hand.
So, we have about nine weeks of full-on election coverage, as compared to pseudo election coverage for the last couple of years. Can hardly wait. Already I see billboards everywhere telling me that Donna Awatere can ACT, and Jim hasn't lost touch with those poor people who work for a living.
I will not mention Timor, except that I have half a mind (some would say less than that) to complain to the broadcasting standards authority about coverage of it. We get hanged people and dismembered bodies on the TV, and they talk about it on radio bulletins. Not much fun trying to explain it to Hannah or Rory, have to try and turn the radio off. They could just be descriptive, you know the sort of thing "more evidence of atrocities found" and so forth. Not "We have found 2000 body parts in a well, won't know how many dead are in there until we have pieced them all together". Can't they just shut up, and count the fingers and divide by ten?
Some woman who reckons she hasn't eaten for five years is causing some sort of trouble, not sure how she relates to NZ, but she lives on light. Name must be Daisy I suppose, has a greenish pallor I shoudn't wonder. Written some books and inspired a whole bunch of anorexics.
Squabble over sport between TVNZ and Sky continues, pathetic really. We have coped without Sky for more than a week now. We did without Playstation for a week too, that was probably harder.
Another Waikato rugby player died, James Sweetman, in a car accident. After Aaron Hopa dying last year, all other James Sweetman's are changing their names just in case.
Didn't catch the AFL final, no idea who won. Watched a chunk of the NRL Grand Final, which was a good game. Melbourne were well behind at half time, 14-0 or thereabouts. They snuck in at the death to win 20-18 after a penalty try which I don't think anyone in St George/Illawarra could whinge about. It was very most likely going to be a try until a St George player tried to rip the guys head off. It is Melbournes second season in the NRL and they have already got some major silverware (or is it bronze). Two NZ players are in the Melbourne team, Tawera Nikau and Stephen Kearney. Missed the dying minutes of the game for the first episode of Futurama, the new cartoon from Matt Groening. Should be fun.
Netball World Championship is well underway. NZ beat Sth Africa 68-39 or thereabouts. Wasted Canada 80-12 and creamed a few others. Not a very even competition. Australia is the big threat, they just beat England by about 5 goals, and had a big scrap with Jamaica who are pretty good. Jamaica had someone sin-binned in that game.
The AB's left for the World Cup which starts in about a week or so. Auckland beat Waikato, Counties beat Northland, Harbour beat Taranaki, Canterbury beat Otago, and Wellington beat Southland 61-3. Auckland well clear on top, with Canterbury and Waikato next. Then Wellington, Harbour, and Otago all in fourth equal place.
I hear the yanks won the Ryder Cup (Golf) this morning. Devlin said it must be the yanks because a bunch of Barbie lookalikes ran onto the green. Apparently all the American players except one have partners with long blonde hair (one is Willie Nelson, but otherwise they are female).
The Football Kingz (I hate the z) have their first match, NZ's first professional game of soccer, on Friday night. I may not be going. I have a dinner to go to. Hmph.
I finally succumbed to pressure from Peter Smith (my business partner, a diehard Liverpool supporter), after his harassing of Rory twice during the week, and bought myself a Manchester United shirt. Rory picked it out for me. Didn't want the away strip. We are now scum.
Rory came in on Wednesday to help fill a jumbo bin, in preparation for moving the office home. We are ahead of schedule on that front. Paul Chambers came too. We've filled one 3 metre bin and painted the sleepout. Spent Saturday running cables under the house with Rory. Ran three - ethernet, phone, and security for a PIR - all at once, before we gibbed the laundry. We now have it mostly gibbed and the new linen cupboard door is on. Symon spent most of the weekend working on it. Think he achieved most when I wasn't there. I got distracted in the afternoon at a birthday party, a joint one with Adam from the Soccer team and Quinn, from the Tigers (he's a Newcastle supporter). It was at the kindy, with a rather unsubtle Star Wars theme. There were six Orcas there, plus a few others I knew. Me and Mick did very badly in the three legged race (Mick is Quinn's Dad, described by Quinn at Rory's party as a boozer and a pig, really nice guy in reality).
Rory and I rode down to Western Springs yesterday morning, another beautiful day, and met up with the girlies. Diana got majorly pissed off with what I have known for ages were inadequate trainer wheels on Hannahs bike. Anyway, I took them off and gave Hannah a little push, and she rode about thirty metres in a straight line on her own. YIPPEE!! Starting off is a bit of a problem, she needs to work on that, but she can ride her bike properly now. She was a very tired but happy girl.
Snuck off from work about 10am on Friday and went to a picnic at Coyle Park with a few other families. I played cricket, soccer, frisbee, mega-howler, forceback, even let some of the other kids play. I took a few down to the beach and we checked out rock pools. What was supposed to be morning tea lasted about five hours. Gary Lane spotted his wife's car and stopped with his fire engine. The kids all got in, and Matthew and Brittany (his kids) gained heaps of kudos. Was a good way to spend a Friday, completely stuffed afterward.
After Rossco got full of ear infection, he gave it to baby Thomas (now a seasoned air traveller after his weekend in Sydney). So now Ross has guilt as well as a sore ear. We seem to know heaps of people who have had ear infections. Maybe some GM activist has been using germ warfare in the factory that makes cotton buds.
Happy birthday Hayden, I hear you turned 18 on Saturday.
Kids are on holiday for another week, Hannah can't wait to get back to school. They have heaps of birthday parties to go to, so entertaining them won't be hard.
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