31 January 2000

Finals Week with Louis Vuitton - 31/01/00

Eve of Finals, Monday
Some bank has been running a teaser about how only one bank in the world is different. Taranaki Savings Bank run a full page in the Herald that suggests it's them. It wasn't, it was ASB, they must have been pissed off. Clever.
Excitement builds.

Day One, Tuesday
Crap weather, race cancelled, big swell, Devlin relieved as was going to be on boat with doughnutters and he gets seasick.
Peter Doone (Police Chief) resigns, golden parachute in form of another job. Opposition slow to oppose, still new at this.
Some dork gives away marijuana outside court in Wellington.
Indians win their first game in ODI series in Oz against the Pakis.

Day Two, Wednesday
Nice Weather, spent day in meetings for TNAS, Prada wins over America One despite getting a penalty requiring them to do the do-se-do (a turn). Led by around 20-30s at each leg.
Farmers concerned about protecting themselves against trespassers who grow dope on their farms. Pressure building, legalisation seems to be coming inevitably.
Took Hannah, Rory, and Logan to Kingz game, second placed Perth Glory, Wankers. Got two sent off, very jerk-like. We won 4-1. Rory interviewed for Kidz Kingz show on TV. Sound guy likes Metal Gear Special Missions too. Kicked a ball into crowd at half time. Three games in a row he's been on the pitch. Logan stays the night.
A farmer was found under a tractor, trapped, had been there five days. Likely to lose lower left leg.

Day Three, Thursday
Could never quite get the hang of Thursdays. Weather couldn't cope either. Racing finally started, A1 in lead, Prada took over, A1 tore a spinnaker, Prada struggled with spectator boats, A1 won despite being well back earlier. Score one each, best of nine.
Aussie set record of 320 in ODI.
Man woken by cellphone ringing was trapped in car that had rolled for six hours, saved his life. Said he was dead glad to have a long lasting battery. Farmer lost lower leg. Must be a week for getting trapped under things. Kept Diana away from me the rest of the week ;-)
Pensioners get a pay rise, no means testing, could have done both at once. Wankers.

Day Four, Friday
After the equaliser yesterday, hope of a quick result faded.
We have too many Cullens. Two Christian Cullens (horse and rugby player) and now Michael Cullen (an atheist, I hope). When some headline says "Cullen Rates Higher Than Expected" are we talking interest rates, betting odds or what?
No wind, no racing. Dull.
Got a new cellphone, my 2110 was driving me nuts. As was the fact that Diana wouldn't answer hers as the ring wasn't loud enough. So I got her a little vibrating thing she clips to herself, and now that drives her nuts (it does it every time a cellsite handshake happens, as well as when the phone rings). However, whenever she hears a cellphone ring, instead of saying to herself "I wonder what that noise is" she will be able to tell by the vibration in her trousers that it is her phone. I got a 3210 and it plays Darth Vader music when it rings.
Some idiot from Timberlands was recommended via-email that people harass Helen Clark. Perhaps they could grow more garlic. Anyway, he resigned. Hawkesby back in news, court ordered settlement between 2 and 5 million. TV3 seem to enjoy bringing news about that (given what their current newsreaders get, they should be bloody unhappy. Campbell announced on radio sport that his wedding was not for sale (offered $15000 by woman's day). I have decided to boycott anything that Andy Haden is that manager for on principle (Russian sailor with youthful assistant has hired him now), still whinging about millennium baby - like anyone cares.

Day Five, Saturday
First day of swimming pool sitting. took Rory for a walk to Takapuna. Rory was on the telly, Kidz Kingz, first interview. Then Hannah and Logan as well in the background (and me, holding Hannah's blankie, that won't help my reputation). Forgot all about the race. America One popped a spinnaker in dramatic fashion. Score 2-1 to Prada. Spent a lot of time wandering around Shore City. Hannah went to Brittany's party.

Day Six, Sunday
Rory fell asleep on me, on the couch, so I watched the whole race in between brief bits of boxing. What a rip off. The coverage started at 2:00pm, Tyson Fight starts at 3:45 with coverage due to end at 4:00. Not a good sign. waste of time that was. Me and Tony Clare both agree we could have lasted longer than that pathetic pom. If David Tua doesn't get a decent fight this year I will ignore him completely (like he will care).
Anyway, the big race, America One all the way, until near the second mark, lost a spinnaker again. But this time they had luffing rights (anyone who understands this term, you are a sad arse). Somehow, with their spinnaker billowing in the air, they stayed in front. For the rest of the race they did as well, then somehow Prada hauled them in on the last leg, when I had basically given up hope. Then A1 incurred a penalty and although they crossed the line first, they came second because of the penalty. Prada winning 3-1, rest day tomorrow. Also watched Agassi beat Kalashnikov (or AK-47, whatever his name is). Saw some highlight of Davenport winning.
No decent soccer on Sky all weekend, no Kingz even delayed (lost 3-1 to Brisbane, away, on Saturday) Man U beat Scunthorpe (Watford or someone useless) 1-0, so top of table over Leeds on goal difference, game in hand. Drew with the Arse 1-1 earlier in the week.
A 4x4 came off the Cook St viaduct and landed next to a petanque tournament. Driver (Dad) died, the mother died later, teenage daughter still in serious condition (more likely unhappy condition when she finds out she is an orphan). Nasty. Missed the cochonnette so the petanque people kept going.

Day Seven, Monday
Watched some of the SuperBowl. What a load of crap. Ads for Africa and nothing ever happens. Takes about three or four hours and I am that the Wallabies would beat them (won't mention that other team yet).
Michael Campbell wins golf in WA. 3rd win in seven tournaments, not bad.
Weather crap, probably wouldn't have raced anyway, regatta a non-event. Tried to go to Devonport, cars jammed solid, gave up, went to Takapuna beach instead, via Tony&Marian's house. Diana entered with the kids into a block building competition on the beach, I was busy chatting. I found Sue, Tony, Amy, Jared, Kev, and Braden. Told them they were late for lunch. I took over from Diana when I got there well after it had started. They couldn't separate third and fourth so awarded two third prizes, not us. Then second prize, which I thought was pretty good. Not us. Then First. That was us !!!! Me and Rory won first prize! Cool. A 600 piece bucket of blocks. Rory did an ostrich, I told him to call it a kiwi (patriotism never hurts). I did a kind of rocket thing that was quite tall. We won even after we gave everyone else a head start. Rory says it was the kiwi that did it. Anyway, then he shot off with the bucket to go show Braden and Jared back at the house, so we had to follow. Only just managed to keep blocks in the bucket.

Decided that I must have bleached a bit from all the time in the pool. Kids knackered. Both spent less than an hour in there this morning. Two swims daily, plus snuck one in on Friday night. Pool not lonely at all. Ross & Kaths house is huge. Kind of knew that already. Reckon squatters could live there and not be spotted. Wouldn't take Diana a coffee in the morning on the basis that it would be cold by the time I got there. I think they should get a table tennis table, pinball machine, and perhaps put in a squash court. Never saw the cat once. You have to think about what you are going to do, as an extra return trip is best avoided. Kids just yelled, but we spent half our time trying to tell where people were. I think I need to offer to tune the TVs properly, too. Channels are different on just about every telly. Didn't want to do anything without consulting them, though.

As if my wish has been answered, Christian Cullen the horse is knackered so one less to get confused about. Unless the rugby player hurt his fetlock and is going out to stud, but that seems unlikely.

So, sorry no final result to report. A1 in trouble, need four to win, Prada only need two. Racing in earnest tomorrow. Then it will be all on.
Kids back to school tomorrow, finally. I am taking Rory, Diana is taking Hannah. Will be hard going to get them organised in the morning.
Ciao for now, may do an LV special once the winner is known.

24 January 2000

Trouble, the Wondercat - 24/01/00

Got photos and video of Trouble on Friday, with his head stuck in a bag of whiska's cat biscuits. Will send off to very limp Kiwi video show where the kiwi videos are so limp that a video of a toddler falling over while walking wins a packet of crisps (the prizes are limp too). He obviously feels underfed.
In other groundbreaking events, I managed to be the first person of the millennium (damn, I said the M word) to first have a flat battery then a flat battery charger. Once I started the car, I drove forward, over the charger. Doh! Looks kind of stuffed now, or actually the stuffing has come out, more accurately.

Not sure if I mentioned a landlord who found a plant growing setup in their houses basement. Very "Scarfies" situation. Full of Marijuana plants in various stages. Been in the news a couple of time, could only get down into the basement through a panel in the kitchen cupboard.
The new tunnel for power cables broke through during the week, now they have to get it ready to go. Runs from Penrose into town about 30-100m under the motorway.
Some idiot Japanese immigrant drove out onto Auckland Airport's runway last week, and a landing 767 had to abort and come around. He said he was just trying to find a park. Then on Thursday he was arrested out there again, as a court order had banned him from the airport. He was trying to buy a ticket to an unknown destination. He is now undergoing psychiatric assessment. Authorities are still trying to figure out where he left his car.
Research shows that high school kids school bags are too heavy, with books, gym gear, and musical instruments. A lack of lockers is being blamed. OSH are now preventing students from taking cello and piano lessons due to the weight of their instruments.
Waitangi day preparations seem to consist solely of arguing about whether women will be allowed to talk. Hard to stop someone like Sandra Lee, I guess, but we shall see. Major no-no in Maori tradition. Not a problem for Helen Clark because the rule only applies to the living, not the undead. She is allowed to speak on Bank's Peninsula, now. Just don't tell the Christchurch skinheads as they are into dead people and stuff.
Reserve Bank Governor Don Brasch and new Finance Minister Dr Michael Cullen locked horns over interest rates this week. Brasch raised them slightly because of inflationary fears and then the inflation rate was announced to be about 0.5% (sod all, for those of you who didn't do economics) and so he was wetting his pants over nothing. Will be interesting to see who signs our bank notes by the end of the year. Anyone but Sue Bradford or Nandor.
Still people going on about the billionaire who had his name suppressed. Apparently it was released on the web, but don't know where, couldn't find it. Closest I got was an NBC story about it with no name. Still going on about the Police Commissioner, and the "that won't be necessary" drink-driving test. Picture of his "partner" in the paper, one heck of a lot younger, bit like the Russian sailor situation. Speaking of which, his wife is due any day now. Anyway, this morning front page news: he is thinking about his future (whoop de doo). Cabinet meet tomorrow to discuss.
Big Day Out was a music thing for teenagers on Friday, weather good, sold out (45,000 people). Seemed to go well.
Te Papa, the new museum in Wellington, lost 17m for the year. Auckland Museum will like that.
4yo in a coma since 28th Dec woke up. First thing she said should have been "Mummy, why wasn't I wearing a seatbelt?".

Auckland City Council are clamping down on street numbers. People are no longer able to change their number to a lucky one or whatever. I didn't know you could do this. Apparently you could write in and say "dear council, I want to live at 8769 Dignan St, not 36" and they would allow it. Causes some difficulties for emergency services and visitors. Some people thought it would confuse Jehovah's witnesses, one person changed their number to 666 to scare them off. However this decision only affects new housing subdivisions, so the number 13 will start appearing again. How utterly pathetic. I can't believe we had to wait until now to do something like this. Just imagine if people didn't want unlucky IP addresses. So now we have old streets without 13 and new ones with. How exactly is that going to help anyone?
Really bucketed down with rain on Wednesday, was down in Hamilton so missed most of it. Kind of stopped a cricket game in Auckland where Daniel Vettori scored 50 off 27 balls. Apparently "La Mama" has something to do with it. At least it wasn't La Bamba, which I never liked, probably rains Spanish guitars or something. Whose idea was it to use Spanish names anyway? Sooner or later all weather people will be called El Loco or something equally pathetic.

Feels like sod all sport at the moment.
The under-23 Olympic soccer team lost to Sth Korea 1-2, although they were up 1-0 at half time. The Sth Koreans had not conceded a goal in previous three games, including 3-0 win over Australian u23, Egypt, and someone else who I forget. The All Whites lost 0-1 to Sth Korea proper, a scorching goal from outside the penalty area that was very lucky and wouldn't have happened if Mark Atkinson hadn't been a dork in clearing the ball.
In the second match, they drew 0-0. The Olympic side lost 5-2.
(Rory is on the www.kingzfanz.co.nz website, under kidz kingz, photos for those who I haven't already told).
Warriors beat Canberra 22-8 in a warmup match.
Still constant moaning about new rugby jerseys. Get used to it. Even if the Blues shirt looks like Sheffield Wednesday, so what? Saw a photo of some family where everyone was wearing a different version of the same jersey. Can't see why they are complaining, no law saying they have to buy them.
Local lad Michael Campbell won the NZ golf open. in a playoff with another kiwi. Australians had led the previous rounds and there were eight aussies in the top ten after the third, but somehow the locals got their shit together. Maybe it won't be like last year.
Louis Vuitton finals kickoff tomorrow I think. We got to see under the skirts last week, bulbs and wings and stuff. Prada versus America One. Paul Cayard is pretty good, think it might not be Prada.

Fun with my email address continues. Some of it is really sick. I can log in to a dating agency as a woman now. There are four guys on it with pictures, in Auckland, looking for a one-night stand. Was thinking about having some fun with them. There aren't any non-smoking lesbians looking for long term commitment in Auckland. Sometimes you can't help yourself with this stuff. Some people are real morons.
We've sort of muddled along. A full week of work for me, last week. Kids spent some time with Granny on Wednesday, she went home Saturday for a rest. We spent the afternoon yesterday at Thomas's house, he is quite happy in the pool and really starting to make talking attempts. No troubles getting his point across. Pointing works well. Rosscoes dad is not well, going to have his bladder removed in four to six weeks.
Kids have one more week of holidays. Jess and Michael came for lunch on Friday, and went to live in Wellington on Saturday. It wasn't something I said. Michael was lead strike bowler in the cricket team, and Jess was supposed to play, but didn't. Sad to see them go, but we have someone else to visit in Wellington. Rory went to Jared's party at Waiwera, Friday night, came home knackered, three long droopy tired faces in the back of the car. He's never been before, then goes twice in a fortnight. Did more painting of the ceiling (about time) so now we can start on the walls in the bathroom. Tadpoles continue to evolve, although a few have escaped (two now). Had lots of fun doing a bit of land for them in the terrarium yesterday. Saw Double Jeopardy on Saturday, not bad I guess, not too "Fugitive"-like. Rory seems very keen to learn to play tennis, something that I am happy to encourage. Problem is then Hannah wants to as well and she isn't really up to it. Last time they played together he hit her above the eye and she went to the a&e.
Long weekend this weekend, biggest regatta of them all, supposedly. Ross & Kath & Thomas are going to visit his Dad, so we are going to make sure their pool is okay, so next week's mail could be a day late.

17 January 2000

Back to work today - 17/01/00

Drudgery really starts here. Peter is away so I am on my own.

Firstly, goodbye to Hayden, who has now returned home from Brazil. Losing the South American link seems kind of sad.
Jono - when is steph due? I assume you will let me know when she isn't due any more.

Did some holiday stuff this week, which was good. This week Peter is away so could be up to my funny looking ears in it.
Wednesday, climbed Rangitoto with the kids, Diana, and Sarah. It was the day of her 21st birthday, and she was at a loose end. Agreed to a trip to Waiheke. I changed our minds. Kids both did really well. Made the trip up and back in reasonable time, about 2 1/2 hours. Not too much whinging (but a little). The trip down was a problem, they both fell over twice. Nothing like that on the way up. Not sure why, think they skidded to easily on the gravel. We held their hands all the way down after that. Were stuffed afterward but Hannah made me wrestle that night before she went to bed. I was knackered. Diana was a wreck (she wasn't wearing socks and her first time wearing new shoes). Some pretty big blisters, I have to say. Quite impressive, she limped a bit but held on stoically. Must be that girlie child bearing, pain thing. Cross one thing off my list for the year (yippee).
Thursday was Waiwera. Kids really wanted to go, we were considering staying there a couple of days but didn't (good move as we discovered, pretty small place). Had a ball in the pools, on the slides. Rory did one of the big ones, twice, and Hannah did the small one a zillion times. No hassles there, a little sunburn.
Friday, quiet day, went to the library, then checked into Sky City hotel for the night. Surprise for the kids, they didn't know until we were going there in the car. Got into the room, went for a swim after Pokemon, then went out to dinner in a disappointing little italian place (run by disapointing little Italians). At least we got to see the reverse bungee thing across the street. Then went up the Sky Tower to watch the sun go down. Spectacular sunsets the last few days. Waited for dark, kids ran around the top bit a lot, complained it was hot. In the morning we did breakfast and then swam again. Pool really nice. They didn't charge for the kids for breakfast even though they said they would. Breakfast and two adult tickets for sky tower in the price of the room.
Saturday, got home, kids went to see Toy Story 2 with Granny. Me and Diana just sort of farted around. Picked up an aquarium thing for the tadpoles. One has front legs and is like a frog with a tail now. (Koos, bumped into Russell Liddell, said hello, he has a vet's clinic in Epsom, lives in Titirangi now).
Sunday, didn't do much. Mostly domestic stuff. Cleaned glass aquarium thing for tadpoles. Went to Thomas' house to see Charles, back in Auckland after a whirlwhind tour of Glink's Gully, goes home to Saudi tomorrow. Good to catch up. Kids had their swim, as is required. Thomas is racing around the place, and he had a swim too! First time I have seen him in the big pool. Changes so much at this age (14.5 months). Been slack in not mentioning him last week or two, so Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. Not really a baby any more.
Kids have had some classic moments (sorry to be boring you). The best was Hannah's. She is trying to stop sucking her thumb at night, so we got the stuff for nail biting. She says "it doesn't taste bad" and sticks the thumb into her mouth. After a while, takes it out, looks stricken and says "I'll just go have a glass of water". Then the face crumpled. Hilarious.

Seems to have been sod all sport on, all of a sudden.
Tennis men's final in Auckland with great name from yesteryear Michael Chang losing in the final to Magnus Norman (another great name).
Fiji beat NZ in the latest final of the Seven's, now two wins each. Wellington could be crucial.
Windies lost 5-0 in the end in the ODIs.
Stars & Stripes out of the finals, after looking like they had a good chance. Lost crucial race to America True, girlie team with many that he abused rudely in 1995. Bit of poetic justice there, Lesley Egnott was not unhappy about the win. They didn't qualify but stopped him. He was the one person I couldn't stand winning the cup. Do you guys overseas ever hear about the America's Cup on the news? I somehow doubt it. Finals towards the end of the month then the big races really start.
Big news about murder in Paengaroa, mainly as nobody in NZ knew the place existed.
Barrels of Hydrochloric Acid were found dumped in a public place on the banks of the Waimakiriri River. They went to great pains to explain how dangerous acid was. How the grass had died (leave a barrel of water on the grass a couple of days, water must "burn" grass too).
New Super 12 jerseys made the sports news, that gives you the idea. NZ soccer playing in China, lost 1-0 to China over the weekend. Half the team weren't allowed in for various reasons, from too many stamps in their passport to one who had stated publicly he preferred Indian takeaways to Chinese. About three team members where second choices because of that, including the goalie. Anyway, we play Jamaica tonight.
News that Ronaldo wants to join Man U may be just a rumour, but could be kind of cool if true.

In local news, a 32yo man was taken into custody after a 3yo boy died of injuries, 7yo boy taken into care, CYPFS under fire again.
A man was shot in Te Puke on Friday, farming father and son being questioned. They seem to think it is marijuana related at this point. The whole marijuana issue seems to be getting a lot of coverage, suspect that we will get legalisation in some form soon.
Reports that Police Commissioner Peter Doone said "that won't be necessary" to the rookie cop when his partner was going to be breath tested have caused some comment. He says he may take action, as he maintains he didn't say it. Everywhere else, the phrase is becoming something of a catchcry. People are wondering why they didn't use the phrase themselves when being breathalysed. Radio people finding lots of laughs. The guy, even if innocent, has buggered up the image of the police force at the very least.
The Russian 40-odd year old who sailed here with a young girlie, has been caught out with news reaching his wife (who paid for the trip). Sounds like she is kind of pissed off.
Name suppressed billionaire has a daughter and grandchildren living here. His name was on the internet, but I didn't look.
Bill Gates stepped down this week as CEO. Still waiting for that phonecall, Bill.
Auckland Hospital going to start doing live liver transplants. They decided dead livers weren't too good. But seriously, they take half a liver and connect it up and then both halves grow back. Like worms, I guess. Maybe you get worms in your liver and that is how it works. If there are complications, sometimes the donor ends up being dead anyway (1 in 250 so far).
Housing NZ are going to provide barbecues for tidy tenants. They are planning on supplying messy ones with vacuum cleaners and paint brushes. This is bizarre. How about this: "You want state subsidised housing, then look after the damn house or you get a shoebox on the side of the road next time".

10 January 2000

What I did on my holidays - 10/01/00

We all enjoyed the New Year stay at Muriwai. There were eight families. Five of the kids there were survivors from the Pt Chev Kindy Ski Trip, Rory, Jeremy Thompson, Marina, Ariella, and Nicola Mitchell. We got a photo of them together at the water hole. Occurred to me that Hannah and Guy and some of the younger siblings were also present at the ski trip, but too late for the photo. The kids ran around heaps, me and Barry (Marina's Dad) played a fair bit of table tennis (about three games every two hours, roughly). Reckon we must have played 40 games all up, including the trans-millennial game we started before midnight and finished after midnight including the trans-millennial rally. As soon as midnight happened, I raced outside (in the rain) and ran the length of the football field to be the fastest man of the millennium over that distance (officially 100m, unofficially more like 78).
We played a game of soccer on NY Day, Rory scored two goals for our team. Robbed of a hat-trick. Went for a walk in the bush, up to the pine forest, to a Pa which looked like a lump of dirt. Our kids behaved pretty well, not many tears. One kid tried to brain Rory with a Super Soaker 50 (challenged him to a water fight, Rory pulled out two SS100's).
We pulled out the portable and let the kids play Pokemon on it, kept them very quiet. One melt-down from a woos over not getting a turn, he balled for about an hour (needed a bloody good slap if you ask me). Rory was pretty good about sharing it, although needed some encouragement at times. We played cricket, T-ball, got my arse whipped at backgammon.

The big game at the Kingz on Monday. Rory said early in the day he wouldn't be mascot again, changed his tune by the end of the game. Spent an hour with the players, on the field for warm up. Introduced to the captain of the other team, the ref, stood out in the middle for the national anthem. Awesome. Heaps of people there to see him, Allan & Jackie, with Paul and Nicola, Paul's friend Brendan (the offside merchant) and his mum, Nanny, Granny, John, Peter and Jeremy Smith, and us of course. We took photos and video of the occasion, a collectors video will be released shortly, send your orders to me with five pound attached. Even better, the Kingz won 3-1, but Canberra were crap. We had a man sent off with about 25 minutes to go, it was after that when Canberra scored. Rory had his name in the program, and got one signed by the team, which is going to be kept.
We said goodbye to the kids after the game and they went off with Granny and John. The following morning, free of children, we painted the ceiling (we really know how to live, don't we). After that, we did a late breakfast, wandered around Victoria Park, argued about me wanting to buy stuff for the kids, wandered around Takapuna, went for a curry, went home and collapsed.
We both missed the kids heaps for the three nights we were without them. We wanted to do all sorts of things we can't normally do, couldn't think of anything really. Couldn't go into a toy store without someone whinging (I was still there, after all). We got dirty (painted the ceiling in the bathroom). Diana dragged me around some shops (would rather be anywhere than there). It was okay, but glad to have them back. Nice that I miss them, I guess.


In a shocking amount of journalistic honesty, TV3 announced at 6pm on the 4th that there was no news, and a repeat episode of Hogan's Heroes ran in it's place. But seriously, we had a repeat story about Peanuts being retired that we had heard a good week earlier, and other slow news day stuff. No mention of my achievement on the football field, despite emails to all the major news services. Have been to check my picture out on the idg site about four times to see if it is still there.
The Black Caps won the first ODI in Auckland (just, if you ask me) on the second, and the second easily in Taupo on the 4th. The third was pathetic with Windies all out for 159 (should have been less). First two were rain shortened. Cairns smacked a pretty good 70-odd in the first and was 27 not out in the second, dubious loss of wicket in the third. Vettori did some good work with the ball, Fleming finally got over fifty. The WIndies are winded if you ask me. Kind of lost interest a little, now four nil, with yesterday's total reached with loss of two wickets (Astle and Twose scored the runs) by the 36th over. We have batted second in every match so far.

Couple of kids drowned when they were sucked out to sea by a freak wave at a beach near Waitara. Road toll was up to 14, not sure what the final high score was for the holiday period (18). Some youths were taking potshots at motorists and pedestrians in Taupo with an airgun. The bus company is now sending out security guards with the buses in South Auckland. The attack I mentioned a week ago has spawned another four or five.
The first baby of the new millennium had a heart problem, a west-Auckland boy who's parents have signed with Andy Haden as an agent. Bloody hopeful if you ask me. Now, a Tongan baby reckons it was first (Tonga moved to daylight saving time late last year to be one hour ahead of us). Why would anybody care? They seem to think this baby is going to be news for the rest of it's life. Not for me it isn't.

People keep tipping out of wakas, a prison inmate died in Rotorua after 14 were tipped by a 2m wave. Morons for going out in that kind of weather. To my knowledge, Gavin was not involved in any capsized wakas.
A woman doing the samaritan thing got her hand caught when two boats drifted apart and her hand was wrapped in it (duh). Surgeons tried to reattach the hand.
A boatie who ran over a diver was found to be innocent of wrongdoing. The diver came up nowhere near his boat and there was no flag and he was on his own. Too many things can go wrong when diving. Dork.
Another diver was rescued 18km from his boat. What is it with people on holiday? Do they want to die?
One piece of wonderful news, no murder/missing young person from New Year's Eve. We had Ben & Olivia, then Kirsty. At last we can return to normal (this has also made work harder for the news people).
An 18yo died when he ran into a powerpole after a chase with police. Frankly, I can't see why the police should copy any flak over that. If a police car kills some innocent third party whilst chasing a perp then yes, that is not good. But if someone who has been stealing tyres fails to stop, and then kills themselves, saves the justice system from putting them in jail, far as I can tell. I reckon the sentence should double if someone fails to stop within say 60 seconds, and double again for every minute beyond that. Would discourage high speed chases. Should also allow the police to use forward mounted heat-seeking missiles. That would really discourage this behaviour. Another stolen car crashed almost as soon as a police car put on their siren and lights in Wellington on Friday. No fatalities this time.
Some brilliant criminal minds decided to pinch a bottle of bourbon from an East Tamaki Liqour Store. A 5ft woman attacked with a baseball bat as they attacked her husband. They got away but were caught minutes later with the bottle.
News about a chap who had an abscessed tooth and died from that weird disease in Holland, they blamed the hospital (his mother) but it is not nice. Necrophiliac poliomylitis, or polarising mastitis or something.
Stars & Stripes winning in the semi-finals so far, racing cancelled Tuesday. Prada generally crapping out to start with. Broke a mast one day. japs seem to be falling to pieces too. Racing most days, hard to keep up. Not sure when the semi's are finished. Now looks like AmericaOne and Prada may come through. They have raced 6 now, not sure how many are in the semi's (five would have made sense).
The Kingz drew 1-1 after an extra time goal from Carlton. Harry Ngata (who was captain and really nice to Rory the previous game) scored the goal from a corner and a defender's deflection.
Manchester United are out of the world club soccer champs (thought it had already been won in Tokyo) when they lost to Vasco de Gama 3-1 (thought he was an explorer, not a football team).
Aussie lost to Pakistan in a one day match with the banned bowler Shoaib Aktar being allowed to play.
NZ beat Fiji in the seven's final in Uruguay, NZ now leading the points table.
No mention of the mercedes driving actor speedster, but a billionaire drug guy was given name suppression and bail and told to wander around the harbour and have fun. Poor chap.

My friend Tania had a baby girl on Saturday, Alexa, 7lbs 1oz. Steve sounded pretty happy. Was long and painful from what I have heard, although actual labour was about three hours. Visited her at the Cornwall Suite at National Women's yesterday. Very nice. You can pay extra to have a room there. Was where Diana and Rory went the night he was born, they were delivery rooms then.

Big weekend, with a 21st party for my half-sister Sarah. Her parents didn't come. Great amounts of preparation for a couple of days beforehand. Utterly knackered ourselves tidying, weeded the petanque court (hasn't been done for a while), cleaned out the building detritus from the cobbles. Can't say it was a spectacular night, but I think she was happy, not sure her parents are going to do anything for her birthday. We met Scott's parents and one brother. Parents are really nice, they used to live around Pt Chev. Brother was a bit shy, but into computers in a big way. Met some of Scott's friends, nice bunch of guys (not many had women with them).
Rory went off to the speedway that night with Ryan, had a good time, was pretty late by the time he got home. He was home well after everyone had gone (we started at 2pm). Think the party was a success, was certainly not stressful, perhaps not the flashest.
Oh yes, Koos, Sjaan dropped in yesterday with Helen (you didn't tell me her Dad died) with her two kids (they are really cute).
One last thing. I am sooo sick of the M word. Rory keeps saying things like "this is the first time I have had butter on my toast this M, century, decade, year, week, day, hour, minute, second, millisecond, nanosecond, picosecond, etc". All advertising is y2k this, M that. AAAarrrrrggghhh!
Well, that about wraps up the first ten days of the new year. Hope everyone is over their new year activities.