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.