The New Frontier - 18/10/99

Well. A variable week, I must say. Thursday was the low, really shitty day, nothing went right. Lowest ebb was when I grabbed the tomato sauce at dinner, realised I really wanted the parmesan, put the sauce bottle down (after managing to valiantly resist the temptation to hurl it across the room), ran my fingers through my hair, and in doing so pioneered the use of tomato sauce as a hair treatment.
Then, later on, when all hope had long gone, the f*&king things in my new office started to work. I hadn't done anything other than un-install the program on the client PC and it started to work (don't even go near trying to figure that out, it works so be happy for me).
In news, god knows. There was a parade for the America's Cup on Friday (racing starts today in the Challenger series and the defenders are starting to race too). Peter Montgomery must be wetting himself in anticipation (Peter calls him Peter MontCommentary).
Build up to rugby NPC semi-finals. Harbour lost to Auckland and Wellington beat Waikato. Final at Eden Park this weekend, Michael Jones' last game.
We just beat the Aussies in the League on Friday night. Up 24-4 at half-time, finished 24-22. It was closer than it should have been really, think they were knackered after the first half. Pretty happy though. Would have been such a bummer to lose to the Aussies again so soon after the netball.
B-Team ABs beat Italy 101-3, Jeff Wilson now highest try-scorer in NZ history. The signed Action Man Jeff went up in price, although Thomas's saliva does seem to dissolve the ink.
Samoa upset the Welsh, Graham Henry demoted from God-position. Fiji have to play England to get to the quarter finals after being robbed of a try by a pathetic Paddy O'Brien (NZ ref, normally decent).

Been stuff in the news but nothing really grabs me. Pakistan was big with the Indian test going on with NZ (we salvaged a draw after blowing the position we were in on Day one, could have easily lsot so not a bad result really).

Max Bradford, education minister, took out a protesting student with a hand to the throat. Made the news for a couple of days. Looked good, have to admit. I think he was attempting the Vulcan death grip. Many think his fend should mean he was called up to replace Carlos Spencer rather than Bruce Reihana. As for the student, well, his little dive has earned him a nomination in the NZ Film and TV awards, Drama category and a contract with an Italian football club. Was funny at least.
More bus strikes are threatened, apparently there was some road chaos but I never saw it.
A student working part time at a BP station risked life and limb by jumping on a 4wd that took off without paying for $5 worth of petrol. Dork. Anyway, who would buy $5 worth of petrol, use more getting into the station and out again. Price did drop last week, after a series of three rises in recent weeks. Price of bread went up in reaction, no mention of it dropping now that petrol has gone down....
Nothing newsworthy election-wise. Tempted to put up some billboards of my own saying things like "Hi there from Rob" and make a noise about how rude they are and who gave them the right to put them up and how come the Resource Management Act hasn't got some sort of relevance.
Ansett say they have just about got things sorted, but I think they are mostly screwed now. Will have lost heaps of customers.

After the hard slog on Saturday last week, my back and shoulders were really sore. Monday night this became almost crippling and I could barely move.
Diana massaged me and it made a big difference, defying all expections that we both had. Drove to Hamilton for Tuesday, achieved most of what was required, and despite four hours of driving my neck.shoulders were improving. Was my first trip to Hamilton since my grandfather died. Spent Wednesday working on installing a new mdaemon and wingate server for a client (dry run for my fun on Thursday). Hard but eventually rewarding in that it worked.
Shoulders etc were better so I played squash and pulled a muscle in my forearm (doh!). My hopes of being in reasonable shape for the move on Saturday were not so good.
Then Thursday, please, don't mention Thursday. Not a good one at all.
As Arthur Dent said in HGTTG - "This must be Thursday, I could never quite get the hang of Thursdays"
Nothing went right, people misunderstood other people and rang me. Then the people they misunderstood rang me. Then people who barely spoke English from somewhere like Singapore wanted to explain to me stuff I already knew. All during which I was trying to make something work. I was stressing and freaking and wondering if I would ever receive email ever again. Good fun all round. Notice this has been sent with a new address. No idea if it will change permanently.Could be a quiet week for email this week.
Friday went much better. Looks like the 0800 thing will actually start off again. Give me something fun to do.
The weekend was kind of mixed. Did sod all helping Symon. Moved the toys out of the office to a lock up on Saturday morning with help from Allan, Colin (Emori's bro-in-law and a complete stranger to me), Emori (supplier of truck, known him for about seven years, works at a clients, he is Fijian), Gavin, Peter, Ross, Scott and Sarah. The truck was great, needed two trips but heaps of room in the second haul. Was home soon after 12. Diana finished the cleaning in the office and was home by about half twelve.
Spent the afternoon stuffing around with cables and things. Have three power boards on the wall. Have two shelving units now elevated above the desks and on the wall. Wired for sound and all sorts. Server, desktop, fax, hub, modem, zip drive, Psion cable, three phones, cellphone charger, monitor switchbox, you name it. Got caller-id on the main phone. Wired. Did a bit on Sunday two, powreed it all up last night, it actually worked! First time and everything. Who would have thought.
Went to Ross & Kath's Sunday morning, no actual evidence of Thomas walking, but rumours continue. Went for swim in their slightly heated pool (just under 20 degrees). Kids froze, I was okay after inital acclimatising.
Went to see Sixth Sense on Saturday night. Hard going to start, but worth it in the second half.
Highlight on Sunday was going to my first match for the Football Kingz (let's not mention the Z okay). Took Hannah with me, plus Paul Chambers and friend Allesandro (Rory went to a birthday party). They played South Melbourne, who are in the world club challenge, and won 1-0 !!! Their first win, and we were there. Cool. Awesome. Rory wasn't happy, I let Hannah wear his ManU outfit and I wore my shirt. And Man U beat Watford, something Liverpool couldn't manage.
So, anyway, today is my first day working form home. No more commuting to the office. I can charge someone for going anywhere in my car now.
Have a happy week, I just hope this one is better than the last one as far as I am concerned. Note the new email address may be temporary (did I mention that already?)