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".