Well, certainly a big week in some areas.
Friday was quite a biggie, although I suppose all weekend was full-on.
Attended the annual PC World Awards, my tenth. Also completed my column on Friday for February, now have a career as a PC World columnist spanning three decades (started in Oct 89). I suppose, given the decade, it also spans two centuries and two millenia (well maybe in 2001).
It was the day that Scott Watson, convicted murderer of the much missed Ben & Olivia, was sentenced to 17 years without parole. This is the longest non-parole period given in NZ so far. In the US, where they do things so much bigger, the record is 4.6billion years.
Massive road clog on Friday, 400 litres of ink spilled off a truck on the harbour bridge about 1:30pm, cleared finally by about 8pm. 30km queues down the southern motorway northbound.
Prior to Friday, sod all happened. Labour looked like beating National by 10%. They leaked a few tidbits about various cockups during the week to keep the Nats on the back foot. Wednesday night, Immigration Minister Tuariki Delamere was sacked due to some shenanigans with letting Asians in only if they invested in Maori-related projects. Not good publicity for Tank Commander Spice.
Joke going around during the week:
They know who is going to win the election on Saturday - Australia, they have won everything else.
A 49yo samoan tatooist died from massive head injuries in South Auckland, a 53yo woman was arrested about a day later.
Went to the FIFA semi-final Wednesday, on the way to the game we heard the penalty shootout between USA and Australia which Australia won. Then Brazil and Ghana went to a shootout as well, which Rory was very happy about. Brazil won that. Some footage shown of the two teams in the tunnel, they were threatening each other - so much for FIFA Fairplay. Peter saw the Polish threatening to smack the NZ players so not a surprise.
NZRFU Chairman Rob Fisher announced he was stepping down, and a couple of others on the board are also doing so.
The Southern Traverse was won by Steve Gurney and friends, in about 76 hours, no real surprises. About ten hours ahead of second. The guy is an animal. (maybe next year, Rog?)
The Aussies pulled out of strife in the second test (?) in Tassie, after being in trouble they batted to win needing the third highest fourth innings score in test history. Typical. After first day they were pretty much on top of the Paki's in Perth, haven't heard since. Sri Lankan bowler got a hat trick of first three balls of the second over in test against Zimbabwe, should have retired then, pretty good figures. England were in trouble against SA and the Windies arrived here.
News during the week that Grant Dalton will race a big Catamaran at the end of 2000, around the world non-stop.
The election was pretty much as expected, late in the week I decided that it was time to admit Labour was ahead by nearly ten percent and vote by trying to minimise their need for coalition partners. This meant I voted Labour. Winston may have scraped in, with an election night majority of 323, and NZ First wallowing with 4.3% (5 is the magical mark). If he loses the Tauranga seat, then good night. The Greens were expected to get close to 5, they did - 4.9%. Their leader was supposed to win Coromandel too, but lost it narrowly (again, final counts to confirm this). Labour and Alliance together have 63 out of 120 seats. A pretty reasonably margin. Their first item on the agenda is legislation to prevent party hopping.
Major winners include Georgine Beyer, first transexual MP, and losers include Alamein Kopu (Manu Wahine party, couldn't get her list in on time, screwed up everywhere, first defector last time, scored around 300 votes total), Ian Revell of the parking ticket fiasco out in his electorate and not on the list. Marie Hasler lost in Titirangi, ACT candidate (my aunt) got 644 although the list vote in Titirangi was nearly 2000 for ACT.
Business community very anti-Alliance, supposedly very nervous. I know Clear wanted Labour to be in to loosen up telecommunications. Let's see what happens.
A boy died in Mangawhai after digging a sand cave in a dune. Evolution at work there.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Mt Erebus being damaged by an Air New Zealand aircraft, in what was a terrible environmental accident to a pristine part of the planet's conservation estate.
An Australian Amateur won the Aussie golf open (typical, now they have amateurs who are better than professionals).
Under 17 finals were great. Ghana played well to beat USA 2-0 in 3rd/4th playoff. Bet $10 on Australia to win against Brazil in Final, and they finally lost after nine shots each in a penalty shootout. This was my "emotional arbitrage", bet on the team you don't want to win, then if they do win, at least you get to spend some money. Not as exciting as the 3/4th game, but a big day in soccer in NZ. 22,100 people attended, including all of us (with Nanny). Was about eight hours from when we left to getting home again, long day.
We had cricket in the morning, the team lost narrowly. Other team was all pretty good players and we had three weakish ones in our squad. All things considered, not a bad game, lost by about 7. Rory got a wicket and hit a few good runs, but lost a wicket too. Hannah lost a wicket, snuck off when it rained, so only bowled one over. Only two batters didn't lose a wicket in our team. Rory nearly took an awesome catch, slipped through his fingers with a bit of a dive to his right, could have won us the game nearly.
ManuU lost to Fiorentina 2-0, but the Kingz beat Adelaide 3-2.
America's Cup - no racing, round 3 starts December 2nd. Prada well ahead with american syndicates behind.
Found out during the week that a client of mine, Tereza from Hamilton, stuck her hand in the chute on the lawnmower and knackered some fingers. The A&E cocked up, after four hour wait they used non-dissolving stiching on internal sutures, failed to notice broken bones. Two days later she goes to her GP and then straight to hospital. Last I heard on Friday she had been 36 hours with one meal waiting for an op to try to save the fingers. Nice. Safety tip - never assume the blade is not close enough to be a worry.
Rory finished reading "only you can save mankind" by Terry Pratchett last night. He wants novels about dinosaurs. Getting well into being able to read proper books. I suppose I will have to hide the Wilbur Smith (if there are any left). Hannah finally got a new outfit, after nagging about a dress she saw last Sunday. It was deafening.
We all went to Toy Story 2 preview yesterday morning, thanks to Mai FM. Took Jessie, Zurg, and Galactic Buzz. Saw kids with other toys there, including Woody. We had the only Jessie and Zurg (thanks to Paul). Spent the afternoon at home, quite knackered despite having only sat in a theatre in the morning.
Hard to tell there was any news on the telly last night, other than the election. As with the news last night, this morning's paper would make you wonder if anything else happened in the country.
Watching the election results on the web was good, first time for that, but was too stuffed to watch after waking at 4:30am so the following morning just printed off a summary to read. A glimpse of the future, sort of.
Talked to Ross yesterday, him and Kath saw an accident with a pretty sad looking person in, he didn't know if she was okay or not. Bit of carnage on roads with people who couldn't face a labour government. Thomas was asleep when we talked.
Well, we face a week of jubilant victors, gracious defeat, early moves to take over, the usual thing. I just hope someone discovers a cure for acne or something happens to distract the news readers.
Have a good week, less than a month to Christmas and 33 days until the big one.
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