Avoid beach holidays in Sri Lanka - 27/12/2004

The weather has not been good, lots of rain and very little sunshine, temperatures very mild.

LOCAL NEWS

The "what happened this year" stuff got me utterly bored, so I won't subject you to it. I wasn't interested in shrek the sheep, ever, it's just a sheep with long hair. Images of Olympic success and other things dribbled out of the television and onto the pages of our newspaper the whole slow-news week. The remarkably similarity of topics between the Herald and television would suggest they were either completely correct in their summation of the year or mind bogglingly unoriginal.

The crossbow killing was "self-defence" against one of three people who seemed intent on burgling a property. The guy was charged with murder (which seems a stretch, manslaughter would be better, it was hardly pre-meditated).

News of a fatal accident this week on a stretch of road where there have been eight fatalities in five years. Given that you spend about five minutes on it each time you pass through, you have about a one in 500,000 chance which isn't too nasty.

A woman and her two children were found dead near Taranaki. Was described as murder, then became murder suicide. They say it's twice as bad at Christmas, I don't think anything is twice as bad as taking the life of anyone else, especially your own children.

The whole "this is doubly bad at Christmas" thing, which might be relevant for problems at car rental companies and airports, or having to work unexpectedly, but I don't really see why bad things are worse at Chrismas.

Three girls died when a van (also in Taranaki, not a good week down there) they were in lost control and went into a river. I hope the driver is charged appropriately, there is no excuse for careless driving when you have a van full of people, especially if you are related to the passengers.

WORLD NEWS

The Tsunami that killed nearly 10,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and Thailand must have been very big. It's one thing being 30 feet high, but how wide was the bugger.

The cloning of a pet cat for a Texas woman was interesting. I like the name of the company (Genetic Savings & Clone). As for the concept, it doesn't sound good, especially with such a large percentage failing to survive 30 days (do owners think about how many "fluffies" had to suffer and die for one apparently healthy one?).

An Australian barricaded himself into a Gold Coast hotel room with hostages that weren't there. The siege ended peacefully.

REAL SPORT

Still no real sport happening, going into withdrawal. Rory might play water polo on the 16th. Must make it to then.

SPORT

After nothing for most of the week, Sunday blossomed with various cricket fixtures.

The Black Caps comfortably beat Sri Lanka in the first ODI, winning in about the 33rd over, only needing 142 or so to win.

The Pakis looked like they were in trouble again in the second test against Australia at about 80 for 3 but a good partnership got them to over 300 for 6 at stumps on day one. The result is inevitable but at least they are having a go.

Man Utd beat Bolton 2-0, Man City lost to Everton 2-1, Chelsea beat Villa 1-0, and the Arse won 2-0 at home to Fulham.

MY SAD LIFE

The kids cruised this week, achieved sod all, forgot to eat breakfast most days. They got pretty stir-crazy with the weather keeping them inside. We went swimming a few times, took Paul along a couple of times. I did another full length under water, which I was pleased to do.

It seems like there are a series of trips to shops every Christmas where you say "right, that's the last time I go" and then you go again for something else.

Rory and I watched our favourite Christmas movies in the lead up to Christmas Day (Die Hard 1, 2, and 3, although technically number three isn't set at Christmas, somebody does sing part of a Christmas Carol).

There was some last-minute activity around the house, preparing for Christmas Day. This included putting up a picture from Sarah, hanging some christmas cards, doing the doorstop on the bathroom door (which I still hadn't done after the painting episode), constructing a cat playhouse with Hannah (much tougher than the last one), and general tidying.

Christmas Day in our house was very relaxed and low stress. We had a nice lunch then a very quiet afternoon. The kids were pretty happy with their haul, and hadn't even tried everything by the end of the day.

I am sure little Ben's first Christmas included getting more than his weight in presents. We met up with everyone down at Mission Bay on Boxing Day, where Roger, Paul, Rory, and I threw a mega-howler around a bit and we all had Thunderburgers for lunch. Nobody went in the fountain, which was surprising (it's been closed for a while for refurbishment).

Well, that will do for this year. Be sensible for New Year, and stay away from waterfront areas if you hear about an earthquake.

Boring stuff follows that you don't have to read.
Rob

2004 - how I did.
Not attend any funerals - I don't remember going to any.
Enjoy myself a bit more - wasn't hard compared to last year.
Avoid stress - mostly managed.
Take more walks with Diana - some weeks we manage quite a few, I think we made the grade.
Do something exciting - well, we got to the US, that counts.

2005 - what I want to achieve.
* I am going to adopt a no-bullshit approach to what I cover in news next year.
- If the opposition disagree with something the government does, I won't talk about it unless there is a reason (other than "because they did it and they are the enemy").

- If someone dies and everyone says how wonderful they were, it won't get mentioned. Same goes for family saying that someone is innocent.

- People dying in Iraq is not news, people not dying in Iraq is news.
I really wish our news services would think about this.

* I want to keep swimming, we are all enjoying it and I would like to carry on through winter if I can.
* I honestly don't know what else I want to do, I've not really thought about it much, perhaps I will come up with something before next Monday.

Five sleeps to Christmas - 20/12/2004

I apologise to those who received three copies of my email last week, and those who got none (possibly the lucky ones). There was a situation with my email server and Outlook and it decided it hadn't been sent and kept re-sending. Most unusual. Send requests for refunds to youhavegottobedreamingpal@email.co.nz where your applications will be dealt with appropriately.

LOCAL NEWS

The weather has been bizarre. It hailed on Saturday, so much that Rory was making snowballs out at Muriwai (on the west coast). They were quite big balls, nearly marble size. Damage was done to some aging plastic roofing in some places, but I think strawberry crops in Auckland will be knackered for Christmas.

Judy Bailey, mother of our nation, newsreader, and professional talking head became one of the highest paid people in the country when her pay doubled from $400,000 to $800,000. Our state broadcaster is going to cop considerable amounts of flak over this one. At the very least, any unions at TVNZ should be pushing for payrises of similar percentages. They are obviously running scared with Holmes going over the fence but I thought they had already realised that the person mattered not.

A light plane landed on an unplanned basis in Cable Bay (near Coopers Beach, up North). One person died, others were hospitalised. It made a big splash.

A ceiling collapsed in the Auckland International Airport check-in counter, fifteen people were hit by falling ceiling tiles and bits of aircon ducting. A couple were a little serious, two people didn't get on a flight as expected. It was in a new part that had been opened the same day.

Still no sign of the guy that drove off the kaimai range in a ute. I reckon he's hiding and he's in trouble for something (maybe a massive gambling debt or fraud).

A 13 year old child in "care" was found dead down a cliff whilst on a camp. They waited four days to report him missing. Not sure that "care" is the right word as there didn't seem to be any.

A ferry ran aground in the Bay of Islands, but nobody was seriously hurt.

Someone was shot and killed by a crossbow on Sunday. What is this country coming to? Can't we even afford guns?

Two santas were arrested during a santa pub crawl involving thirty santas in Auckland on Sunday.

WORLD NEWS

That new bridge in France looks pretty cool, but I don't see why a road wouldn't have done the trick.

The premier in Istanbul of a horror movie resulted in 150 being hospitalised, five seriously, as a result of smoke inhalation from a fire. Wonder what happens when they screen "Blazing Inferno"?

Two people have been eaten by sharks while surfing in Australia. I don't think I will take up surfing. Apparently, Australians tase like chicken.

SPORT

The results New Zealand had against Australia in the tests don't seem so bad after they demolished the Pakis by 491 runs, the 4th biggest loss in history, and McGrath took eight wickets in the second innings, including the first seven, which was awesome.

Man Utd won 5-2 over Crystal Palace, Spurs won 5-1 over Southampton, Chelsea beat Norwich 4-0, Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-1 this morning and the Arse squeaked a goal in to beat Portsmouth 1-0.

MY SAD LIFE

Rory was made a school councillor on the last day of school. They made nine kids councillors and there will be more created in the new year. Diana seemed to think Rory really wanted it, Rory seemed to think he was always going to be one (love that confidence). I am not sure whether it was Diana or Rory that wanted it the most. Regardless, it topped off a very good year for the boy.

Rory came with us for a walk on Thursday. Not surprisingly, he didn't want to. Once we got to the lake, he had a great time feeding the baby swans, geese, ducks, and pukekos. He kept disappearing and then showing up as he kept getting distracted. I bumped into a guy I know and had a chat with him. Then, as we left the park, a lady we see walking her dog there regularly gave me a christmas cake (she said it was for her friend who hadn't shown up). It was very nice of her, but quite unusual. I think she is dutch.

Hannah did the big show this weekend, doing four shows in two days. She did very well, but she was lost in the second dance when there was like forty kids on stage at once. She was awarded a prize last night at prizegiving for best in Jazz in her age group. She was pretty happy about that, as Rory has been hogging limelight lately.

I decided to clean out the VHS tapes. Have a huge box full, and just don't use them. Has created massive amounts of space in the entertainment unit which has now been filled by a pile of DVDs and other bits. Also started transferring video footage of the kids onto hard disk for transfer onto DVD. Lots of footage from 1997 when Hannah turned 3 and Rory 5. I really didn't like his hair back then. Interestingly, there was footage at the swimming pool and you could hear water polo whistles going in the background and I mentioned seeing water polo on the tape. Don't remember that at all.

Life will be a lot queter this week, I think. I am planning to do some serious garage tidying and reorganising over the break. It really needs it.

I heard from Johan the day I exchanged some emails with Heidi (Monday or Tuesday). He is buying a digital camera.

Basketball hoop continues to get used. It came off the mounting during the week, but we fixed it with a pair of new screws and were away again. They won't let me shoot underarm (I got ten in a row doing it that way, Rory says it's cheating). We only went swimming twice, but should manage more this week.

Happy birthday to Jono for Thursday (I hear you are coming over, and what is your blog site?). It's Linda's birthday too (is it 25th or 26th, I forget).

Paul arrives from SF some time this week, Tuesday morning I think.

Okay, that's about it. Have a really nice Christmas, don't eat too much, be happy that you made it though another year. It's been a much better one than last year, from where I sit.

An NZ Sporting Legend dies in Texas - 13/12/04

late today, had to go do some work first.

LOCAL NEWS

Arthur Lydiard was just about a household name, not quite Sir Edmund Hillary, but pretty close. He coached a number of people to win Olympic Gold including Murray Halberg and Peter Snell. His passing absolutely dominates news today.

Four separate homicide investigations began last Monday, wasn't a good weekend for three New Zealanders. It has to be something of a record. No murders since, so things calmed down a bit.

One of the four was a mother of six, killed by her estranged partner, who was the subject of a non-molestation order. I really don't get non-molestation orders, those that take notice of them don't need them, those that need them most are unlikely to heed them,

A local magazine has run an article on the fifty most powerful people in New Zealand. The list is bizarre. I don't think they meant powerful, possible visible, high-profile, perhaps even influential, but not powerful. It included the captain of the All Blacks, Black Caps, an Olympic gold-medalist, a dubious TV "personality", Paul Holmes (as the king of dodgy muzak?), as well as the PM and other people who genuinely might be in a position of some sort of power.

The Civil Union Bill passed into law, coming into effect on 1 April, I think. This allows people to formalise a union without actual wedlock. Not really sure why it was needed, but it seems that marriage is not an option for some people (happy for someone to explain what the difference is). It also allows gay couples to create a legal relationship which gives them rights as next of kin and so forth.

Ahmed Zaoui was freed on bail on Thursday, amid much fuss. I don't really understand why he wasn't deported two years ago if he was that dodgy. Every day since, he has been in the media doing something for the first time in two years - having a pint at the pub, going to a movie, buying parts for a weapon of mass destruction, christmas shopping, that sort of thing.

The 10th of December marked the change of law that meant smoking in the workplace is now illegal. It has issues for working girls (who can't smoke afterwards) and some are whinging about smokers polluting outdoors. I am not sure it will change much, and wonder why they don't just make smoking illegal.

A teenager who had $43,000 in fines turned into 300 hours of community service has been jailled as he has not done any community service. There was quite a fuss when he was let off the fines, but now they are back.

Masses of whinging about speedway noise. Personally, I don't care either way, but not sure why speedway fans have some right to ignore the law in pursuit of happiness. Yes, the people in the houses nearby should have known it would ge tnoisy now and then, but some of the vitriol about their complaints has been rather nasty.

Couple of nasty accidents blocked traffic on state highway 1 on Friday, one was truck versus car where truck caught fire and went over cliff. Other involved truck catching fire but nobody died.

The woman jailled for euthanasing her mother is out today after serving half her sentence of 15 months.

WORLD NEWS

The US troops in Iraq body count hit a thousand. This sounds a lot but consider that California alone has around 4,000 people die per year on the state's roads. For the number of troops over there and how long they have been there, it is surprising more haven't died falling out of their humvee.

News of poisoning the Ukrainian guy with dioxin is disturbing. I wouldn't go there for a holiday.

REAL SPORT

A whole week without water polo, although we have been swimming a few times. I swam a length underwater, which helped me prove to myself that I am not old and clapped-out (not yet). On Wednesday I drove there with my togs on inside out, so I drove home and put them on properly (didn't want to be seen in public like that, getting vain and unable to dress myself in my dotage). Rory did a length in 15.6s so he is improving slowly. He also cracked 100 lengths in one session (did 101) and I averaged 40 lengths for the three visits this week. Hannah came once and did about 34. We are still enjoying doing it, which is good.

SPORT

We lost second one day match against Australia and the third one was abandoned, which was disappointing.

The NZ Rugby Sevens team won the tournament in George, South Africa. The were bundled out in Dubai, not sure who by.

The men's hockey team are crap and finished last of six in a tournament where they got two draws but no wins.

MY SAD LIFE

I don't really feel like much has happened this week. The kids finish school in the coming week, Rory tomorrow and Hannah on Friday.

Gavin and I erected the basketball hoop on Saturday. Hannah seems especially happy (we did it while she was at dancing so it would be a surprise for her). (Sarah, she got it with her birthday vouchers). On the first test the aluminium bracket came off, so we screwed it on like Gavin suggested (I admit I was wrong, basketballs are quite heavy). It has been getting reasonably heavy use since, with lots of little shooting competitions. Hannah has bagged ten shots in a row, Rory seven. We'll see how long it lasts but it seems to be very worthwhile so far.

Hannah has been busy with dress rehearsals and photos and things in preparation for the show this coming weekend. She looks very grown up in her costume.

Brett has been "of no fixed abode" as he travels Australia, having been just about everywhere in the last month or two. I want to know where Ningaloo Reef is and why he went there when he hasn't been to see the stromatolites yet (although they aren't much to look at, the idea of seeing creatures 3.5 billion years old is pretty cool from where I sit, and Perth is practically next door to them).

Paul has been partying hard in San Francisco, including getting down with Tears for Fears (who? You ask, a two hit wonder band from the 80s).

Got a surprise package in the post from Amazon UK, which I assume was from Koos (it didn't say on it). Thanks, Koos, greatly appreciated and a nice surprise.

Pandora has been sick this week, wasn't eating for a couple of days, went to the vet on Saturday, but she is okay now, started eating normally on Sunday and bounced back quite quickly. Ollie has been eating abnormally (eating for two while Pandora wasn't eating and we hadn't worked it out).

The Christmas tree went up on Saturday, the kids were both excited. Ollie went mental and attacked it. Hannah keeps a close eye on the gifts under the tree, and thinks there should be more. Diana and I snuck off and did some shopping for the kids on Friday morning, we are nearly there.

An email from an old man - 06/12/04

Welcome to Paul and Rachel, who are working in a winter wonderland somewhere in the US, I think Paul is in Tahoe and Rachel is in Mammoth.

LOCAL NEWS

Two female cousins died when a tree was uprooted and landed on their car. Yet again the copywriters called this a "freak accident". This disappoints me. It might have been a low probability event, but it is safe to assume that when trees blow over near a highway that someone might get hurt if they are in the right place at the wrong time. A freak accident would be if the car swerved to avoid the tree, hit a power pole, which brought down half a dozen power poles, then an exposed cable lands on a pensioner's mobility scooter which then shoots off at speed and as he gets it under control is knocked off a bridge over a gorge by 4,000 litre water tank that had been blown off it's trailer at the top of the steepest hill in Dunedin.

A pod of pilot whales beached near Pauanui on the Coromandel, very soon after another pod beached in Tasmania. Seems awfully coincidental. One of them had dolphins as well, which is quite unusual.

A plane landed on an unplanned basis on Mt Taranaki. The weather had closed in which hampered searching. They eventually found them 20m from the summit, what a bugger. I guess they call that a "nearly miss" in piloting circles.

Bizarrely, the same day, a ute went through a wall and over a cliff in the Kaimais, dropped 250m, and the driver was nowhere to be seen. Again, weather hampered searching for him/her. We went past the scene on the way to Tauranga on Saturday, they still hadn't found anyone by then. As we had a look, we realised it would have been nearly impossible to drive through at the angle he did, accidentally (you would have to turn off to the rest area, corner, then swing around into the wall). The newspaper suggested the same thing subsequently. Driver not yet found.

A teacher accused of sexual assault of students was cleared on all counts. He's a bit grumpy.

Three young women who were jailled for something they were subsequently cleared of, were offered about $140,000 each in compensation. They want more. They were in jail for about eight months, and were 14 or so at the time so still studied. Not sure where I stand on this one, as it sounds like they weren't exactly squeaky clean and they may have got off on something of a technicality.

For some reason, the sacking of Team New Zealand's Tom Schnackenberg was considered major news on TVNZ, but nowhere else.

WORLD NEWS

Nasty little reverse-rambo event in US where a laotian immigrant hunted deer hunters and took out six of the eight of them. Seems to have been sparked by redneck remarks from the hunters, but the survivors outnumber him two to one.

Bob Geldof has committed another crime against humanity by redoing Band-Aid. I can't believe this is possible but the new version is actually worse than the original, and I don't recognise hardly anyone in the video. The only hope we have is that nobody plays this song on the radio.

REAL SPORT

Rory's team played two friendly games on Monday, and again on Thursday. They beat the Waitak B team then lost to the Waitak A team on Monday, on Thursday they lost to the Waitak A team and the Waitak Girls A team (narrowly). They became the Waitak B team for the tournament and the Waitak B team became the C team.

At the tournament, they scraped past the Waikato team 4-3, then beat the Marist team comfortably. The qualified top in their group. They played Waitak B/C in the semi-final and it was very confusing for everyone. The semi was very close and was 2-2 at full time, so they played a fifth quarter and finally won 4-2. They didn't play very well in that game, they expected they would win after beating that team twice before. The final was against Northsport, a team that beat Waikato 22-0, and were very good. It was never going to be close, down 0-3 in the first quarter, held at 0-4 at half-time, but the floodgates opened in the third and the final score was 1-12 (at least we got one off them). Four games in five hours, including a long semi-final, and the guys were stuffed. Rory's extra swimming paid dividends, he was still slogging hard in the last game. He slept in the car on the way home, and was a bit sunburnt (the venue was an outdoor pool). Coming second in the tournament wasn't too bad, they got silver medals.

SPORT

I didn’t want to mention cricket, but then the Black Caps pulled off a win against Australia in the first ODI, by the skin of their teeth.This gave them some much needed self-respect. When the slow guys did the sprint at the end of the test they did it in dodgy lycra outfits and it wasn't pretty.

Chelsea thumped Newcastle 4-0, Arsenal beat Birmingham 3-0, Everton had another win 3-2 over Bolton, Liverpool only managed a draw with Villa. Man Utd won 3-0 over Southampton.

The ABs beat the Barbarians but so what.

MY SAD LIFE

I took the Pajero out on Monday night to test Diana's theory about whether Meola Road's highest point is the Pt Chevalier end or the Westmere end. It didn't prove much. Paul (G), can you bring your GPS with you when you visit next and I can test it with that? It's a long story, and involves street direction nomenclature. At least it gives me something to think about. The kids and I did notice on Saturday that the street numbers start at the Westmere end, but that has nothing to do with elevation.

There was a lot of noise in the house at 2am Tuesday morning. Pandora had caught a mouse. Not sure if it was caught inside or out, hoping it was out. Ollie has a new collar and the bell is very noisy, he played with it at 4am. I didn't wake up, Diana did.

Went to a press do this week as a Dphoto person, not a PC World person. That was weird. A new guy from PC World sat opposite me, which was also weird.

I survived my birthday, and seem to be coping with fortyism. We went to dinner with Ross & Kath, Gavin, Bambi, Matt, Allan & Jacqui, and Peter & Michelle. I depressed them by pointing out that I have known more than half of them for more than half of my life. I also got a few emails and phone calls from all over the planet, but I have to say that a larger letter box was not required.

We drove to Tauranga on Saturday for a water polo tournament on Sunday. The weather wasn't good, and the venue is outdoor. The place we stayed was nice enough, one of the other players stayed in the same motel, David Hoskins (who was also in Team 2). They fooled around in the pool for a while, and we all played table tennis. In the morning we played more table tennis, then a round of mini-golf and then went off to the tournament.

Better go, have a good week. Only 19 days until Christmas.

What's shaking in New Zealand - 29/11/04

A depressingly small number of days until Christmas. Our paper didn't arrive this morning, we are disoriented.

LOCAL NEWS

There was an earthquake in the South Island on Tuesday, it registered 7.2 on herr Richter's scale, 33km below the ground. Nobody was hurt. People felt it as far north as Rotorua.

An HIV-positive man who admitted having unsafe sex has been charged now with criminal nuisance when he had safe sex with someone else without admitting his status. It seems this guy gets around, and I have to say that the woman seems guilty of poor judgement. However, this does appear to be a poor use of police time and the courts.

There's been a pseudo-scandal for the last week or two about the SIS supposedly bugging maori activist type people and possibly some MPs. I am not really sure why, they are unlikely to say or do anything interesting.

Been lots about the Mt Erebus air crash this week, it is 25 years since nearly 300 people died in Air New Zealand's biggest accident (and NZs largest loss of life event).

There's been debate about a V8 race in Auckland for weeks, it got knocked on the head, and now other cities want it. I know that I don't care about motor racing, and you could argue I have a selfish view, but I don't really see why I should be upset about it when it would cause traffic mayhem for three or four days in the city. They reckon it would bring $300m into the city but I suspect I lack enough altruism to be bothered about it. Naturally, other cities are poking fun at Auckland for not doing it. Gives them something to do, I suppose.

People in NZ who have had non-custodial convictions can now not mention them after they have been out of trouble for seven years. I suppose that is a good thing, not sure what that means with travelling to US and such, apparently they have had "fading chalk" on the slate in Australia and England for a while.

WORLD NEWS

Iran narrowly escaped the justice of Team America this week.

REAL SPORT

Rory's Water Polo C team drew 8-8 on Monday night with Sacred Heart White. They should have won.

The North Island Intermediate School Tournament started on Thursday. Rory's Year 7 team had two very tough games (like 15-2) in pool play in the tournament and a very close game that they lost 2-3. Their first game was against Bruce McLaren that won the Div 1 final the week before (and they should have been playing in the A competition, it was pretty cheap that they didn’t). They then went into the plate round. They won their first game by default (other team didn't arrive). Then they won their second game against Glenfield, who looked good but didn't really fire. Then we were going to play a friendly against Glen Eden (who's opposition didn't show up either, same team I think) but then we realised we were due to play them the next day so we made it the real game (which gave us Saturday off). We won that game too. We lost the playoff for top team in the plate to the team we lost to on the first day, 2-3 (same result, too). We led until the fourth quarter, so annoying.

Tournament in Tauranga this weekend for the club team.

SPORT

We don't mention cricket.

We mention rugby, because the ABs won their game against France, convincingly (45-6) and we needed some good news.

We mention Man Utd winning 3-0 over West Brom, Chelsea beat Charlton 4-0, at half time Liverpool were up 1-0 over the Arse, they equalised, then Liverpool snuck one in during extra time to get a win 2-1. Chelsea lead table by five points.

MY SAD LIFE

With one lot of water polo finished, Rory had less training than usual (in fact, no training this week at all, only seven games). We went to the pool to swim four times this week, and although they closed earlier than expected one day, he swam nearly 5km this week. I swam 4.5km, which is pretty good. I reckon 182 lengths in a week is more than I do most years. Hannah has been coming now and again, did 55 on Saturday and was buggered, but a pretty good effort.

I finished two books this week. That is quite big news given that I have been reading one since Father's Day in September (A Complete History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson). It was funny because I told Diana I thought I was getting close to the end (on page 573, with about a hundred pages to go), then I looked at the pages that remained and they were all index and references and I was on the second to last page. Then I finished the book I was reading before I got it. Then, on Saturday, I got out another book from the library that I only half read (The Scientests, very long and hard to digest).

My friend Babara is slowly improving. Her fractured leg is the main problem now, but she is having cataract surgery this week (she needs it, believe me, she can barely see).

I heard from Jack this week.

Paul has been to Yosemite with Paul Chambers and Rachel. They are both working in skifields over winter in US.

Ben turned four on Saturday.

It is Charles' birthday on Saturday. It is mine on Friday, turning forty doesn't bother me, I just won't answer any more surveys. I like Judy's idea of changing from birthdays to anniversaries. I don't want hair dye or wrinkle cream for my birthday, in case you are wondering.

The cats both lost their collars this week. Ollie is able to remove his new one easily and Pandora decided she wasn't going to be the only one with a collar.

This next bit should be "Gavin's Sad Life"

Gavin's dog Shushi broke the bottom glass panel of his front door in the week leading up to Guy Fawkes because she is scared of the noise and she forces her way through the cat door (she's too big for it). It cost Gavin $160 to repair it. Then, while he was out on Saturday night, someone let off more fireworks - bang, there goes the door again. Gavin's been working long hours lately (like 55 hours a week) and earning overtime, which has been funding the replacement glass and his dental work. The second time, he wasn't too happy, especially when he worked out how many overtime hours it too to replace the glass panel. On Sunday, I suggested he use plywood or something else, thicker glass or perhaps perspex that would stand up to it better. Anyway, on Tuesday he had it replaced with thicker glass. Tuesday afternoon there was a thunderstorm, and she broke it again (miraculously, with glass everywhere, she doesn't actually hurt herself). The new glass had been in less than five hours (which is less time than it takes to earn the money to pay for the replacement. Poor Gavin was not feeling too happy, so I sent him a text message which went like this:
Glass: $85.
Labour: $75.
Having a friend that doesn't take the piss about his stupid dog: priceless.
I found out later the glass is cracked but intact so doesn't require immediate replacement, although the dog arguably might.

Well, bye for now. I have to install a larger letterbox to handle all the gifts.

Some good results all round - 22/11/2004

Welcome to Rory Hughes, residing in Adelaide. I have known Rory since before our Rory was born, and although little Rory wasn't strictly named after big Rory, he was part of the inspiration for the name via a friend of Diana's. Only thing is that I am wondering how soon we have to swap titles, as little Rory is five foot six and gaining fast.

LOCAL NEWS

The dreaded seabed and foreshore legislation has been pushed through parliament this week. I try to insulate you from it all, to be honest I am not sure of many of the details. It seems many Maori feel they should own the whole coastline, which isn't going to happen.

The republic debate has come up again, but again seems like it will take years before action. I really don't understand why it is an issue at all.

Huge news late in the week coming from our courts. Firstly, Donna Awatere Huata was found to have no justification for staying in Parliament after being expelled by ACT. Secondly, on the same day, the father of a (basically brain dead) five month old girl was acquitted of murder. This was a strange case. He had admitted suffocating her, and so I don't really understand how he could be not guilty. The girl was diagnosed as having the brain development of a 14 week old foetus (which qualified her to run for Parliament) but her outlook was not good and would have been better of if she had not survived. It creates all sorts of issues about disabled people, however, and a number of other ethical conundrums. Many groups were not happy with the verdict.

An NZ woman was in the paper this week, because she has been breastfeeding a puppy. Yuck.

Another NZ woman was attacked by a jaguar in South Africa whilst filming a natural history documentary, she should be okay.

WORLD NEWS

The shooting of a wounded man in Fallujah was not good PR for the US. However, stories of guys popping out of doorways with video cameras three times then popping out with a missile on their shoulder suggests they aren't fighting too clean themselves. It is not something the US are going to get out of gracefully.

Margaret Hussan seems to have been killed by kidnappers who haven't got much of a sense of discretion or appropriateness. What a mess.

The test scramjet was way cool, hitting nearly Mach 10 and going about 11,000 kilometres an hour. A plane with those engines would get you from Auckland to LA in about eight hours (one hour flying, one sitting on the runway, one hour standing in queues at each end of the flight, four hours waiting around pointlessly in airports).

REAL SPORT

(sorry it is so long today)

Rory's U14C team played their own club's U14B team on Monday night. The boys were expecting to lose, although the coaches weren't so sure. They got an early lead, 5-1 at the end of the 1st quarter, but were pegged back to 9-9 by the end of the 3rd. In the fourth, U14C powered ahead and won 12-9, a very good result and their first win. Rory asked Henry (who changed from C to B) if he was still happy he moved, which was not very nice but pretty appropriate. Rory scored one goal. They play a Sacred Heart team tonight.

Friday it was announced at school that Rory (& David) won a petanque competition (they called themselves "balls of steel". Rory didn't seem to know there had been one.

Friday was also the big night of finals for the Western Intermediate Water Polo League. Team 3 played first in the playoff for third and fourth, we came early to support them, they were up against an under strength Glen Eden side, and won 7-3. Team 2 then played for the Div 2 final against St Dominics. It was close, I have to tell you that, but they won 3-2 (Rory scored one, and set up a second). The score went 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, it was damn close. The kids were absolutely stoked that they won.

We all stuck around for the prize giving, which meant we got to see Team 1 play off in the final, too. They clung on at 2-2, but then drifted and lost 6-3, I think. So final results for Ponsonby were a 1st and 3rd in Div 2, and a 2nd in Div 1.

At the prizegiving, after handing out the trophies to the two winning teams, they gave out a few personal awards, and Rory was given Most Valuable Player for the whole of 2nd Division! He was pretty stoked, got a medal for his efforts. Matty from Team 1 got Most Promising in Div 1. If there was any doubt about it before, it was eliminated that night, Rory's preferred sport is definitely Water Polo.

He has a game tonight and a tournament over four days for school starting on Thursday.

SPORT

The first test between NZ and Australia started on Thursday. There was a general feeling it was always going to be tough (with our best three bowlers out with injury). There were lots of comments about whether it would last five days. It didn't. The fourth day wasn't pretty.

The Silver Ferns won the second netball test. They lost the third 51-53 and therefore the series 1-2.

The All Blacks played Wales and won 26-25, poor Wales haven't beaten the All Blacks in 51 years. France lost to Argentina, we play them next weekend.

Man Uted beat Charlton 2-0, Arsenal drew 1-1 with West Brom. Liverpool lost 0-2 to Middlesborough, Newcastle beat Crystal Palace 2-0.

The Kiwis lost to Great Britain, again.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah has a special role in her dance show, in the "We're in the Money" number. Very excited about it.

Pandora got shut in a kitchen cupboard. We wondered why Ollie was sitting, staring at a cupboard, then we heard a noise from within.

Then Ollie went missing on Saturday night, didn't show up for breakfast on Sunday (very unusual, loves his food). No sign of him by Sunday night. We were worried but tried to play it down because Hannah was worried and we didn't want her to be. My theory was he could be stuck in the garage next door, because they were out all day on Sunday. The kids went next door and asked, but the neighbours didn't actually open the garage to check. This morning, still no sign, and when I went to get the paper about 6am, Pandora seemed to be looking for him. Diana went and checked the boot of my car, and came inside disappointed. Just then, I heard a squeak, I sent Diana back out and he was at the back door just before 7am. The garage door next door was open, which suggests I may have been correct. He was hungry but not sure whether to cuddle Hannah or eat. His collar is missing, but that doesn't matter. Hannah is very happy, Diana and I are greatly relieved.

We had lunch with Scott, Sarah, and Judy on Sunday. It's Judy's birthday today (happy birthday).

The swimming continues. Hannah did fifty lengths on Wednesday, Rory did eighty. I did my highest on Sunday with 62 (over 1500m). Been trying to improve Rory's diving (he can't dive for nuts), it is improving.

Rory had to write a personal account for school, due to be handed in this week. He chose to do it on Ross Cole, who died a year ago tomorrow. It was very sad. A lot has happened in that year. The homework is starting to peter out as we get closer to the end of the year.

The winners of the architecture/maths thing at school were supposed to be announced last Friday, but they weren't. Rory thinks he has a shot at a mention.

You still have time to post me a birthday present if you are quick.

Goodbye Yasser, hello unknown warrior - 15/11/04

It rained yesterday for the first time in about two weeks. It's raining today.

LOCAL NEWS

Massive amounts of fuss in the media this week for the return of the "unknown warrior". Not an obscure league player, but the body of an NZ soldier from Belgium from the First World War. He arrived in Wellington, laid in state for a day, and was then interred in the National War Memorial in Wellington with much ado on the 11th of the 11th (Armistice Day). People cried, he was awarded a number of medals and an RSA honour (the guy could have been a deserter or an army bureaucrat for all they know). While I guess it is a nice symbol of the sacrifice made by the few for the many, it feels very orchestrated. Interestingly, there are some I know who felt that it was an important thing to do (Peter Smith has an Uncle who never returned).

The driver that survived when Possum Bourne was killed was sentenced to 300 hours community service and a $10,000 fine.

The Kawerau College school yearbook was recalled by the head master after discovering that some of the ambitions of the students leaving school included drug dealing and motor cycle gang boss. The editorial process seemed to have been somewhat lacking.

Five drivers involved in the excessively fast motorcade driving the PM a while back have been charged with various offenses including speeding and dangerous driving. Helen's assertion that she failed to notice the speed is bollocks. They averaged 128Km/h and it was not a 100Km/h zone the whole way so they must have been going over 140 in places. You'd notice.

A fourteen year old south Auckland girl has been missing for a week.

A man was run over by the car he just bought at a car fair on Saturday. He had just handed over $2000 when the vendor tried to leave the scene in the car he had just sold to the victim. The purchaser jumped on the car and was thrown from it.

The Northerner, an overnight train from Auckland to Wellington, has taken its last ride. After 95 years it is no longer, due to competition from cheap air fares.

A battle is erupting between Dick Hubbard, the new Mayor, and the deputy Dr Bruce Hucker who seems to have got enough councillors on his side to control every committee and vote from here to election day. Things are not comfortable at the council.

Labour held their conference over the weekend, and the polls seem to be favouring them. I am not sure there has ever been a three-term Labour government.

WORLD NEWS

Yasser Arafat's passing suggests the dwarf thing failed. Meanwhile, most people want to know how come his wife was so young.

Fallujah continued to be fought over all week. They seem to have control and are just cleaning out pockets of resistance now.

REAL SPORT

Team 2 had to play Team 3 in the semi-final, the nightmare scenario as playing your mates isn't fun. Rory had some divided loyalty because he has played so many times for them and many of Team 3 will be in his team next year. Diana said Rory should play for Team 3 but he didn't want to. The kids in both teams were very excited, much more so than normal. It was never going to be pretty.

We had the A team plus Bob out there in the first quarter, and Rory scored a couple of goals. By then second quarter, we were up about 6-2 and Rory had scored the first four of them. Third quarter, Rory was off and the team struggled. Poor defence and not enough passing, Team three scored and it was 6-3. Fourth quarter, Rory came back out and we scored four more times, final score 10-3. Rory got six goals, and at least three assists. He missed one sitter, but was devastating otherwise, possibly the best game he's played. Chloe got 3, David 1. He looked very good out there. Not that he was under any pressure, he had a lot of family there watching (Sarah, Nanny, and Granny all came as well as the rest of us). Diana was absolutely stoked, we all were, but very pleased to see him show what he can do, and that the training pays off (he has either played, trained, or swum every day for the last three weeks now).

We have the final this coming Friday and his development squad plays a game tonight against the B team from our own club (he is in the C team). Got news last Monday that we have a tournament on the 5th in bloody Tauranga.

SPORT

The ABs beat Italy 59-10. Not sure anyone cares.

Australia beat NZ 54-49 in the netball, reversing the results of the clean sweep earlier in the year.

NSW was all over the Black Caps in a warm up cricket match, not a good sign. First test starts on Thursday.

Arsenal beat Spurs 5-4 in what must have been a heck of a game to watch. Chelsea won 4-1 over Fulham, Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-2. Man Utd beat Newcastle 3-1.

MY SAD LIFE

Wednesday night, after dancing, Hannah came to the pool with Rory and I. Rory set a new personal best by swimming sixty lengths (1500m), I swam 40 lengths (1000m), and Hannah (who's previous best was 12) did 32 lengths (800m). We were all knackered but happy. Sunday afternoon, we went again, and did even more. Rory did 80 lengths, Hannah and I did 50. Given that Hannah is only swimming twice a week she is doing very well, she can be quite determined.

Both the kids had athletics at school, neither qualified for inter-school but both did pretty well. Hannah made the 200m final, Rory came fifth in the 100m final (I saw him race in a heat and he did it in 13.59 seconds, which is pretty quick but not sure how credible the timekeeping was).

Friday afternoon, I picked the kids up about an hour early from school, along with Rory's friend Jared (all supplied teachers with notes) and took them to Big Boys Toys to see the Honda Asimo walking robot. We also played with automatic weapons, a bazooka, the kids sat in the driver's seat of an armoured car, we played Halo 2, and scored the usual selection of stickers, posters, and condoms (remember the time we went, Koos?). Not only was it fun, but it was really fun because they missed school for some of it which made it even better. Naughty, I know, but the kids have been working hard and it was a good treat for them. It is really busy on the weekend and a weekday is heaps better.

It was Caitlin, Nanny, and Helen J's birthday on Saturday. It's Allan's birthday today, and Emma turns 18 tomorrow.

We saw lots of people over the weekend, it was quite social - in between the homework. Rory had to finish a maths (vaguely) thing on designing an apartment block. Rather than let him make futile sketches the size of a large postage stamp on grid paper for hours (he did a couple) the family constructed it from Lego. I suspect his work will be over the top, but we shall see. When we hauled it to school, the kids in his class seemed to make the right noises, while we saw a number coming to school with an A3 coloured piece of paper.

The Goodins don't have enough to fill their empty lives so they are tidying the house for sale, listed on Friday.

Oh well, just back from a walk, we got rained on a little, better do some real work now.

Holmes leaves TVNZ and Koos appears on the radar - 08/11/04

I have to say that stories of woe involving greed seemed to dominate this week.

LOCAL NEWS

The Melbourne Cup was Tuesday. The only day a year that zillions of Australasians give a toss about horse racing. I still didn't. Didn't watch it, didn't join a syndicate. The Goodins went to it. It rained.

The huge news locally this week is that Paul Holmes has left TVNZ after 15 years there. He has gone to Prime for more money (now $1m a year, although nobody can be sure how Prime can afford him). The great news is that TVNZ has lost their most expensive person, and maybe they will realise he wasn't the reason for the ratings. He has become a self-indulgent continuity announcer and it was time he moved on. It will be interesting to see if Prime get higher ratings when he starts in the new year, I have doubts. TV3 are making noises about having a go at the timeslot, which they have largely ignored since they started (they originally ran "The Golden Girls" every weeknight, with expected results, then tried "Hogan's Heroes", currently it is the Simpsons.) They stopped just short of not transmitting at all from 7-7:30 weekdays.

Following on from Holmes departing, Martin Devlin moved from Radio Sport to Radio Pacific (the station I do my thing on). I think he was probably disappointed with the coverage he received compared to Holmes.

Really nasty incident on Northwestern Motorway near here on Wednesday. A guy stopped his car on the side of the motorway then hid behind the bonnet of the car. He then stepped out in front of an oncoming truck. It was pretty clearly deliberate, but a pretty inconsiderate way to do it. Police found a dead 4yo boy in the car, later it became a girl. It was a truck from Gavin's work that hit him, the driver was not a happy camper. Adding to it all, the motorway was closed until around 8:30pm, disrupting all traffic. The overflow affected roads all around, and made it very difficult to get anywhere (it took Diana half an hour to get about four kilometres on way home from dancing with Hannah, then Rory and I had to go along all sorts of back roads to get to the swimming pool in Mt Albert).

A local lawyer is among a select group of depressingly greedy morons that got entangled in an example of the dreaded Nigerian Scam via some dear old lady who thought she was bona fide. He lost $400,000 in a bad property development project so decided to invest another $1.2million in an effort to recoup his losses. Clearly, he had never heard of the concept of throwing good money after bad. Part of me thinks they don't deserve to be named, because of the amount of public humiliation they would suffer, another part wants to know so I don't end up engaging such an obviously thick lawyer. Greed is an interesting thing, isn't it.

More dodgy dealings from John Tamihere this week, including an interest-free loan of $100,000 which was later forgiven. There seems to be an extensive laundry list of exceedingly marginal, if not strictly illegal, events where he got financial advantage from the Waiparera Trust. I think he has blown it big time and should be ejected from Parliament. You cannot do anything where there is any scope of fraudulent activity or tax evasion and expect to be an elected representative of the people.

And again, another example, this time for former personality Matthew Ridge. For the second time, a property development company of his has gone into liquidation, owing about half a million dollars. People have done things for him personally, or for another of his companies, but because the invoice is made out to the liquidated company they dip out. He revealed his true colours when he left Manly for the Warriors in the Super League days and didn't care about the contract, he felt it was enough that he would get more money at the Warriors so he just left. Selfish and with little regard for ethics and the law.

A man was found dead on Narrowneck Beach near Takapuna after fireworks festivities. They reckon he fell out of a tree. Another man died in guy fawkes celebrations in Wanganui, I don't think it has ever been quite this fatal.

A 22yo disqualified driver died when he tried to evade police but failed to evade a traffic island whilst not wearing a seat belt so he didn't evade the effects of gravity either.

WORLD NEWS

Ohio didn't want Kerry, so America didn't get him. This has been the best publicity for the state in many years.

Yasser Arafat is not in good shape, and has been in and out of a coma and according to some brain dead. If the brain dead part were true, he should have had a meeting with GW, they would have been well matched. There has been little news for a couple of days. I wonder if they are hollowing him out for a dwarf and a miracle recovery.

Big nasty train crash in the UK when a high speed train hit a car. Sounds like the driver was like our man on the Northwestern Motorway, and wasn't bothered about hurting other people or killing five others.

The murder of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands could mean a backlash against Muslims (it was a Muslim that did it). He was a descendant of Vincent, and a film-maker.

REAL SPORT

No water polo this week, but Rory has been swimming every day (now 14 days in a row, although he swam twice on Saturday the second time was just fun). I did 26 lengths yesterday, which was good. Felt I could do more, so I am improving. Rory's Team 2 has a semi-final this Friday, we don't know who they are playing yet.

SPORT

Black Caps looked to be blowing the first ODI against Bangladesh (94/5) then Cairns stepped up and made 70-odd quick runs and got New Zealand to 224. Bangladesh were all out for 86 after Kyle Mills took four early wickets. They struggled to get a small total (146) in the second match, but got there with a couple of overs to spare. The won the third and final one last night without too much bother, scoring 250 and the Bangladeshis got 167.

India managed to get Australia all out for 93 in their second innings in Mumbai to win the last test, but still lost the series 1-2.

Fulham beat Newcastle 4-1, how the mighty have fallen. Arsenal drew with Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are looking good. Man Utd drew 0-0 with Man City and got a man red carded in the 89th minute.

Kiwis were leading Great Britain 12-2 at half-time but managed to lose the tri-nations league test.

MY SAD LIFE

I finally got a new toner cartridge for my laser. You have no idea how happy that made me, I have been out for about a month and couldn't get one anywhere. Pathetic, isn't it. I've printed about three pages since.

My friend Barbara, who I mentioned a while back, is still recovering from her bout of illness. She shifted into Rehab Plus on Wednesday, where Judy went whilst getting over her back operation. It's just down the road from us. It was funny going there, it is very familiar to me.

Hannah got her Jazz result and was disappointed. She does well but wants high honours every time. She did as well as her friends, but that was not enough.

Jim, the guy next door that gets on very well with Pandora, had a burst pipe in his ceiling during the week. The next night, after a day of running dehumidifiers and things, the entire ceiling in the lounge and dining area collapsed. His house was a real mess, and will be for a while.

The trailer for the new star wars movie came out this week. I was asked to do an interview about it but refused.

We managed three walks this week, which was good. Twice we stopped at the lake and walked around three times on the way home from dropping off Rory. Somehow, being dropped off by two parents is exceedingly embarrassing, compared to only one being in the car. The concept that the parents have a life and are on their way somewhere is secondary to the fact that it somehow appears that he needs two parents to get him safely to school.

I actually heard from Koos (after hearing from both Peter and Heidi). Peter supplied a confirmed Koos sighting. Heidi wonders if he thinks she is still eating puffins in Greenland. Koos supplied less information than Peter, but at least I know he does continue to exist. He even rang last night and we had a chat.

Allan is back from Columbus, Ohio. He went to a big air force museum where they have a number of old "Air Force One" aircraft (he didn't realise there had been so many, neither did I). Apparently it is close to where the Wright Brothers flew (them being the first to fly, not Richard Pearse).

We went to a little do for Kath's birthday on Saturday night. It was interesting seeing the older kids, four of them aged 12-13, that stuck together like glue. Hannah didn't come, she was at a sleepover. They went down to the soccer club for a while. They are all starting to assert their independence, it is interesting to observe the changes in behaviour. At one point they were all mooching around the tv watching "transformers", a little later I noticed with was Thomas (6) and Fletcher (3) and Rory was still there watching. I made a little gesture and he looked around and realised they had all left and he hadn't noticed, he disappeared quickly.

It is Kathryn's birthday today.

Better go, have to play with my new notebook.

And the winner is..... - 01/11/04

Nothing too exciting happening this week.

LOCAL NEWS

The Auckland Council has tested dirt in various locations and determined that soil in parts of Panmure, Avondale, and other places are contaminated with chemicals from the days when there was market gardening done in the area. This worries me. Market gardening, where they grow fruit and vegetables for us to buy, makes the soil dangerous to grow fruit and vegetables in?

Two muslim women continue to argue about whether they can give evidence in court in their burqas. Winston Peters came out with something like "if they don't like it, they should go somewhere that accepts that as the norm." in his typically sensitive anti-immigration way. Then Diana said pretty much the same thing to me. To a certain extent, I must agree. You can't have a covered face in a passport or driver's license photo, and you can't enter a country with a paper bag over your head, so it isn't unreasonable that you uncover when giving evidence in court (otherwise, how does one know who is testifying?).

It was children's day yesterday, as well as hallowe'en. I think any day where they get to walk around the neighbourhood and score lollies is a children's day.

Les Mills, 15 year old grandson of the former Auckland mayor of the same name, was carjacked in Herne Bay. It isn't something that we associate with New Zealand, but I don't think we can consider it a problem yet. News of it will probably encourage some copycats.

A woman had her leg broken by a piece of number 8 wire that flew out of a lawn mower as her husband was mowing the lawn. The guy must have known something was wrong with the mower.

There are the usual spate of fires surrounding guy fawkes and the fact that fireworks went on sale during the week. I hate them.

WORLD NEWS

The election in the US finishes this week, we hope. It's gone on far too long. I wish the American people would see sense and elect Ralph Nader. I have to say that it is looking like Bush will stay there, but can't say that Kerry appears to be much better.

The big battle is about to commence in Fallujah. It has been coming for a while.

REAL SPORT

As expected, Team 2 did pretty well on Friday night in the quarter final against Bruce McLaren 2. We had the A squad plus Bob on in first quarter and led about six nil. Rory, Sam, and David were all playing well and they just unstitched them. Final score 16-0. No idea how many Rory scored but at least three. Rory then helped out with Team 3, again, who won 10-6. Team 3 actually plays with some smarter tactics than Team 2, but they need to as they are generally a weaker team. I don't know if Team 2 will play Team 3, don't know who they play next, it isn't for two weeks. Rory played three quarters in both games, so he was happy. Only two Friday night water polo games left(then a tournament).

We drove to Tauranga for Rory's first game for the under 14C team. We really didn't expect to win, as they are barely aware of each others names. They lost 1-5, but it wasn't too bad, 0-2 in first quarter, 1-1 in second, and 0-1 in third and fourth. I just hope the next game is closer to home.

SPORT

The second test between New Zealand and Bangladesh was another walkover. Stephen Fleming is now New Zealands most capped test cricketer, has scored more centuries (8, compare that to the average Aussie batsman), and scored more runs than any other New Zealander (about 5,500, again compare that to the Aussies).

Australia beat India in the third test to take the series 2-0, first time they have done that in India in a long time.

All Black touring squad was named Tuesday, Super 12 squads named Friday, why do people give a toss?

Man Utd lost 2-0 to Portsmouth, how could they. Arsenal nearly lost to Southampton but equalised in the 90th. Chelsea won, Liverpool drew 2-2 with Blackburn.

The ballot for tickets to games in next year's Lions Tour opens today. Chances of getting tickets are pretty slim. I wonder if some are entering the ballot with a view to scalping the tickets.

MY SAD LIFE

Diana and I actually managed to go for a walk on Thursday morning. It was good, we fed lots of ducks, geese, and swans (but only those with babies). The geese hissed at us but interestingly would not eat the bread, letting their babies eat first (neither the ducks nor swans saw the need to make any sacrifice). I think more highly of geese now.

Hannah is the only year 5 with a bunch of year 6s performing in a hip-hop thing for the end of the term at school, she is very pleased.

Gavin's Fire Fighting interview was supposed to be today, but they cruelly postponed it to Friday. Cruel, because he was ready to do it today, and because told him on Sunday morning and woke him up when they called. There were no fires the night he spent at the Fire Station.

Rory's enthusiasm for swimming (because of water polo) has meant that I have started going with him to the pool to swim. Hannah came along yesterday. Rory did forty lengths, I did twenty, Hannah did twelve. We had a lane to ourselves (the advantage of being a group on our own). I have been to a pool every day for the last week (but only swum twice myself). I will probably go swimming tonight at training as well.

As the local children visited for Hallowe'en we gave out the garlic jelly beans and some of the other flavours (grass, sardine, etc). This is the first time our kids haven't gone trick or treating for a long time. I think they have largely grown out of it (they only do it for the lollies, not really surprising). I suggested they say "No, trick AND treat" as they hand them out.

Rory's homework load seems to be back to normal, after a week or two of low pressure it's back up there. It seems to dominate any spare time he (and we) have. He is getting better at getting it done, but still takes too long.

I have resorted to talking to Johan to find out what Koos is up to. I bumped into him at water polo practice on Thursday night and had a good chat. I assume Koos has changed his email address or that he can't find his keyboard.

Work has been weird, mostly quite busy.

Rory, what are you doing Monday night, and do you have any matches? - 25/10/04

I will explain the subject later, it's funny.
It's Labour Weekend which means today is a day off.

LOCAL NEWS

Another woman disappeared, this time a 49 year old woman in Auckland. In the meantime, it was revealed how the police did not take the other Auckland woman's 111 call seriously, and it has been reported that two police officers made "inappropriate comments" about her call at the time (this is the one they sent the taxi to. I suppose they get plenty of calls from weirdos, but they blew it this time.

The 49 year old was found wrapped in a duvet floating in the Waikato River. No sign of Iraena yet.

John Tamihere continues to be in the news about his untaxed handshake.

Been a bit of controversy about a Vodafone-run chat room where older men were picking up underage girls. They shut it down a week ago.

Whinging about penalty rates for Labour Day as usual (café's charge extra on public holidays, even though large stores have to pay their staff more and have 20% off sales and things instead).

WORLD NEWS

Paul said that a pair of Japanese climbers got snap-frozen on the cliff on El Capitan in Yosemite and the snow has come. We were there about four weeks ago and it was warm and very dry. The road out is closed. Probably for the winter.

There was an earthquake in Japan. From what I've read lately, I wouldn't buy a house in Tokyo.

The US election approaches it's climax. With 270 million people, it can't feel like your democratic right is worth squat, no wonder so few Americans vote.

REAL SPORT

Rory didn't have a game this week, but trained three nights, two were with an under 14 development squad.

SPORT

Australia saved the second test by praying for rain.

New Zealand had their first test against Bangladesh. Why do they bother. They are expected to win, so if anything goes wrong it is hugely embarrassing (Bangladesh's best fast bowling figures were 1/72 before this test, and the guy had an average of 202 per wicket). McCullum got a ton, Vettori got six wickets in the second innings, and one New Zealand bowler got a hat trick (the 32nd in test cricket history, so they don't happen often).

The Red Sox came back from a 0-3 deficit to beat the New York Yankees 4-3. It was pretty hard going, but they did it. It made the sports radio here all week.

The Kiwis lost to the Kangaroos in Great Britain in the League.

Canterbury beat Wellington 40-27 in the NPC final, and Northland survived a relegation match.

Liverpool, Everton, Chelsea, and Aston Villa won. Oh, who am I kidding, I don't care about that. Man Utd played Arsenal, on the longest undefeated run in the history of the premiership, 49 games without a loss, until Man Utd beat them this morning 2-0. Arsene Wenger was unhappy, but I really don't give a toss. They are beatable, and Man Utd proved it. I am going to change my shirt in honour of the day.

MY SAD LIFE

Hannah had her dance exam Tuesday, and her school hiphop competition of Thursday (which has been a hotbed and politics worthy of a reality series (which, let's be honest, doesn't say much)). Her group did not place, there were schools from all over competing. Diana watched.

Rory did not receive any further honours for his science project. He seemed a little disappointed.

I did too much on Saturday, I regretted it Saturday night. I reorganised the office, extracted heaps of stuff, sanded, painted, and installed shelves, had help from everyone including Nanny (she did the curtain) and Diana (she bought the paint). Hannah used the electric sander - her first power tool experience. Rory helped Gavin put the shelves together. Then, we visited Granny and I had a swim. Then we raced back to Pt Chevalier and I went kayaking. My shoulders were burning. I was also the cleanest I have ever been, having had three showers and a bath in one day.

After we promised to stop asking Gavin if he had heard from the Fire Service, Gavin finally heard that he is on to the next step for the Fire Service, an two hour interview in a week from today. He left the news in a message on our phone on Friday and Diana said she could tell he had the good news before he said it from the tone of his voice. He was pretty happy. In preparation for this, he is staying at Avondale Fire Station tonight, which he arranged with Gary (Diana's friend who is a firefighter). As we talked about this on Saturday, Diana asked what would he do if there were no callouts, then he turned and said "Rory, what are you doing Monday night, and do you have any matches?".

My reorganisation is nearly complete, but the garage has suffered and needs another go.

Thomas turns six on Wednesday, at least I think it is Wednesday.

Allan Chambers is in Ohio.

Well, time to go, another day off looms and I think I need it.

Just when you thought it was safe to open your in box....I'm back! - 18/10/04

Did you miss me? I just couldn't manage doing this while I was away, we were too busy.
Weather has been pretty ordinary, although nice and sunny yesterday.

LOCAL NEWS

There was a fuss about a mother and grandmother leaving their six year old daughter in the car park at a casino. Why don't casinos run a free crèche for customers?

There are two young women that have gone missing, one in Arthur's Pass in the South Island, the other in Piha in Auckland. Doesn't look good for either of them. Not often that two occur at once. What really irritated me was the "significant developments" in both cases on Wednesday, which turned out to be very minor (like the family has appealed for help and the police are convinced she isn't in Arthur's Pass any more). One "insignificant development" was that the Piha woman called police on a 111 line and they asked a taxi to go pick her up (by the time the taxi got there, she was gone). Then the taxi union were up in arms about taxi drivers being sent in to potentially dangerous situations (which is fair enough).

Fuss over local body elections and the fact that new Auckland Council isn't keen on V8 race. I am not bothered either way on the race, but closing key streets in the city for three days should be for a pretty good reason given the number of people that would be affected. Dick Hubbard won, by the way, and Banks is history (good).

Big business news was a number of former shareholders of Tranz Rail (the national railway company) have been charged with insider trading (they sold shares early on while shares declined from about $4 down to 30 cents over a couple of years).

An Australian man tried to steal $2 million from the Ministry of Health using some sort of computer program (it sounds like it was a simple transfer using Westpacs electronic banking system). He was discovered very quickly and the MOH began running around like a chicken with head cut off trying to make sure everything was safe.

Minister John Tamihere has had some bother over a severance payment that was not taxed, and has resigned as a Minister (not sure if temporary or permanent). Sounds pretty blatantly bad, it's not just one thing.

The police are considering giving people the option of paying fines or losing demerit points when they are snapped by a speed camera. They reckon this will discourage people who are worried about losing points and getting disqualified. Really? Won't they just choose a fine if they are running low on spare points and when the points expire they'll starts choosing points again? Or will they give the motorist the option and then make them choose the opposite of their choice.

On Sunday, a body was found in Arthur's Pass by trampers. Chances are it is the missing woman (that police were convinced couldn't be in Arthur's Pass any more, but was able to be found by trampers who weren't looking for it).

WORLD NEWS

Superman actor, Christopher Reeve, died this week. He was pretty much knackered after he broke his spine when he fell from a horse, but he fought pretty hard to regain some mobility. He looked pretty bad in a documentary I saw a while back. For a while there it looked like grim determination and bags of cash could overcome paralysis, but it wasn't to be.

Michael Jackson has taken offence at an Eminem video which shows someone who looks remarkably like Wacko Jacko burning his hair (which happened during filming of a Pepsi commercial a few years back), his nose falling off, and sitting on a large bed with a few young children bouncing up and down. Whilst it all may be in dubious taste, I think Mr Jackson is probably better off having a laugh and ignoring it.

REAL SPORT

Rory's team won their game while he was away, in fact all three teams won. I thought they would all be wrecks after camp, but clearly that was not the case.

Rory played in a tournament this weekend. I ended up being the coach because Erin was away with Glandular fever. Rory was one of two Year 7s in the top team, and one of four players from the regular team 2 (frankly, the four from Team 2 were the better players with the exception of one other). On the Friday night we won our first game 8-4, although it was tied at the end of the first and second quarters. Our second game we lost 0-6, but they beat the other team 15-0 so it wasn't too bad. We conceded four goals in the first quarter (when Rory was off), none in 2nd and 3rd quarters, then two in the last quarter, so we had our moments. JP broke a tooth in the 4th quarter (but it was a cap already so not so bad). This put us in the middle draw (Cup, plate, bowl, I think).

On the second day we drew 2-2 in our first game, and lost our second game 9-2. The team we drew with lost too, but lost better than us so we went into the playoff for 5th and 6th the next day. The Ponsonby B team played soon after, we watched them, they got a bit of a thumping.

The third day was the play-off for 5th and 6th. I put the four from Rory's team out together in the first quarter (for the first time in the tournament) and they did pretty well. They looked good but didn't score a lot. We won the game 8-4, I think. Good to finish with a win, put us at 11th of 18 in the Division 1 competition. The other team had lost all three other games, they played soon after us so we stayed to watch. They played their best game of the tournament and won 5-2 (I think). It was good they did it, without any help from our team. Rory's team finished with two wins, two losses, and a draw.

SPORT

England beat Wales in a soccer world cup qualifying match. I wish Ryan Giggs played for England, he will never get to a World Cup playing for Wales. Maybe he just wanted a rest.

England also beat Azerbaijan in another qualifier (as they should).

Wellington beat Waikato for the first spot in the final of the NPC. Canterbury thumped BOP for the other spot.

There is cricket going on in the sub-continent. Aussie playing India and New Zealand playing someone else. Aussie is struggling (Sunday morning they were about ten runs ahead with four wickets down in their second innings. This morning India needs 229 to win on the last day.

In the league test, the Kiwis drew 16-16 with the Aussies.

MY SAD LIFE

Rehabilitation into normal society took a bit of doing. I think I had recovered to normal sleep patterns pretty quickly, but had trouble being useful in the afternoons all week.

Paul, Ruapehu is 9076 feet high, and is the highest in the North Island.

It was Paul's birthday on Saturday.

Olwyn, we need to drop some things off for you.

The Goodins have returned from their holiday and are back in action. Thomas turns six in about ten days.

I hear that Charles is coming in two weeks for a visit. The Goodins are running away to Melbourne, which is just rude.

After polo on Sunday I managed to remove considerable crap from my garage, and then made space in my office. Heaps to go yet, but the beginning at least (cardboard boxes come in handy, but not when you have like twenty of the buggers just in case you need them). The display shelves are starting to become more of a mission as I consider storage requirements. Rory said that if we made this much progress in the garage every Sunday we should have room to park a car in it in about 4,000 years. Rude bugger.

We took Rory's Science Fair thing to the inter-school competition yesterday, after water polo. He is there today and we have to bring it home Thursday. He got merit for his art while he was away, we don't even know what it looks like.

Hannah has another dance exam tomorrow morning.

WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY

I am not really sure you want to know the detail, there is plenty of it (believe me, I have notes on every day for three weeks). I think you don't really deserve that, nobody does (especially Paul).

I will summarise it very briefly. We explored San Francisco, including Alcatraz. Then we left early on a Saturday morning, spent the day at Yosemite (up to 9960 feet up), and most of the evening getting to Lone Pine. Then we drove through Death Valley (Ian, air con was fine this time, much to our relief) to Vegas. From Vegas we did the Grand Canyon in a lightning storm (but it didn't rain very much), and went through Zion National Park as well. We did a few Vegas things, shows, etc, but only about ten minutes gambling for me (I lost two dollars). People by the pool were vast. We visited Hoover Dam on the way to LA. Once in Santa Monica we did Universal Studios, La Brea Tarpits Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Getty Museum (and some other bits and pieces, including the Wildlife Zoo that is attached to San Diego Zoo). Then we went north to San Simeon for Hearst Castle, and Monterey (did the aquarium), then home to SF. Back in SF we watched the navy come in for Fleet Week, saw performing aerobatics, and a national robot battle tournament. We did 2500 miles in about 12 days, averaging five hours driving a day (although some days we didn't go near the car, much).

We thought we lost a visa card, and then Hannah (same night, I think). We got a parking ticket. Beyond that, there were few dramas.

Lots of photos were taken. One roll of film and about twenty memory cards were filled. Many pixels were made to work very hard. Something like 3,500 photos all told, over a hundred a day. We saw a ton of scenery, went up and down in altitude more feet than we did in the two plane trips, saw a number of National Parks, National Monuments, American Wonders of the Engineering World, and were educated in many museums.

It was, as hoped, the trip of a lifetime in many, many respects. And it will take about that long to pay off the visa card.

Not yet Monday, I apologise for any confusion - 19/09/04

This is early because I figured I would send it before we hop on the plane.

LOCAL NEWS

Access Brokerage failure continued to be in the news this week, and The Building Depot went into receivership.

Doctors at Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital have had to stop using botox on salivary glands (to prevent dribbling for kids with cerebral palsy) because they can't swallow for six months and had to be fed via tube. Is that a case of cure being worse than the complaint?

The South Island Kokako has been declared extinct but ornithologists will continue looking for it. And I thought being called a "trainspotter" was an insult.

A woman was admitted to hospital with head injuries after being attacked by an ostrich.

Meanwhile, Auckland Hospital is asking people to consult their GP as they can't cope with demand. They have also asked ostrich farmers to be more careful.

The Pope announced that New Zealanders should play less sport on Sundays and worship. Well, this is kind of bizarre. We know the midget inside the Pope has been getting ideas above his station lately, but this is ridiculous. Many people have pointed out that half the rugby clubs in the country are called Marist (very catholic) and this could be a problem. Our dear Prime Minister said something deep and not flippant like "maybe he should stick to worrying about Catholics around the world and leave the non-Catholics in New Zealand alone". Catholicism is running at about 14% in New Zealand and 40% have no religious allegiance.

WORLD NEWS

There were fires in San Diego, the kids were worried it meant we couldn't go.

REAL SPORT

Rory's team tried the new strategy. We put out the A Team first quarter to put some points on the board, and it worked. They were about 4-0 up in the first quarter. Then we went with weaker squad for second, only one goal, but did all right. Hard again third quarter (Rory on again) and went to 9-0. B Team got two goals last quarter for 11-0 win. He then played for team 3, who struggled, but Rory helped shore things up in the third quarter, and played in goal in the fourth (made one awesome save, let two in) and they won 6-4. Rory scored one goal in each game (was defending in first game).

SPORT

Auckland finally won a game of rugby, sadly they beat Taranaki (who I sort of wanted to win, even though I am an Auckland supporter). Taranaki remain top of the table. Otago lost to Waikato 27-39. Bay of Plenty beat Wellington 17-14 (a big upset, Wellington were going well). Canterbury thumped Southland 52-13 in their first Shield defence. Northland and North Harbour yet to play.

New Zealand lost to Australia in knockout cricket thing, and got knocked out.

MY SAD LIFE

As we disappear to San Francisco with Paul, Dave and Olwyn are off to see their grandchild, Ben. I think they might even see Roger and Shiyin while they are in Singapore but I bet Ben gets all the presents.

The Goodins are somewhere foreign, but you knew that already from reading last week's email.

Gavin made it through the first stage of fire fighting selection, then passed the second round of physical and mental tests on Saturday. Next thing is in two weeks. He reckons it is down to 60 people for 13 places.

Diana resigned from her job this week. Long story but the person she shares her job with resigned this week and we think life will be better without it. Then on Friday I found out the lady that gave Diana the job is leaving, too. Things aren't good there.

I wrote my first article for D-Photo magazine, finished it today. Another chapter in my life opens.

Rory gave Ross his old soccer boots on the weekend because he can't fit them any more. That's kind of funny. He isn't as tall as Ross yet, but the gap is closing.

Rory and his geeky friends have used observation of teachers entering passwords and installed a keystroke logger to get access to things they shouldn't. They don't know enough to do any real damage, and think they have crashed the server, but I doubt it was them. Ross asked Rory if he was going to improve his grades, the instant response was "we don't need to". Ross then suggested he do it for other kids for money and Rory went quiet. I think that was a very bad idea. He better not do it.

Rory got a very ordinary mark in a maths test this week, but got a prize for art. We think aliens have taken over his body.

Still no news on Hannah's dance exam, which is completely pathetic.

Barbara, the lady I had to cover for when she went into hospital a couple of weeks ago, came home on Tuesday then fell over Wednesday morning and dislocated her hip. I visited her in hospital on Saturday. She isn't in good shape but remains positive. She's one heck of a fighter.

Hannah had a sleepover birthday party last night and Ollie was not happy. He kept me awake from 3am and I gave up and got up around 4:30. I am on SF time already.

Stay tuned for an update Monday San Francisco time.

Happy birthday Hannah for tomorrow, go the 'naki! - 13/09/04

My grip on local affairs has not been very good this week, and I apologise for that.
Weather has been good.

LOCAL NEWS

Interest rates ratcheted up another quarter of a percent. Mortgages are not as cheap as they were and people with large ones must be feeling squeezed.

The mayoral race continues. Poor old Christine Fletcher has had her theme of "No Spin" changed to "No Spine" on signs all over Auckland. It's quite funny, because she is a bit wimpy, so the change is quite apt.

A mother, father, and baby died in a car crash. The baby was sitting unrestrained on the knee of the mother in the front seat. The lesson is if you are driving with a baby like that, consider staying on your side of the road. They killed someone in the car they hit, too.

The boss of a waste trucking company says Auckland should move the port out of the city to alleviate traffic. It's probably not a bad point, but it isn't just trucks that are a problem. It's the whining from everyone who commutes from one end of the city to the other.

New Zealand Idol runner up Michael Thingy released a song that was labelled an original, but it turned out it had even been nominated for a grammy when released by the band that wrote it a couple of years ago. Much egg on face.

A report on levels of dioxin in residents living near a former 2,4,5T plant in New Plymouth showed their levels to be three times that of normal. The plant ceased manufacture a good ten to fifteen years ago so the levels should have reduced in that time. Residents were not happy, to say the least.

WORLD NEWS

The bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta was big news. Technically, it is an attack on Australia, but it was outside the embassy grounds. There was one heck of a lot of broken glass.

REAL SPORT

Rory's team suffered from some bad planning and lost their game 3-7 on Friday night against the top of the table team. I think the mistake was that they didn't put the A team out in the first quarter and so they were playing catch-up for the rest of the game. Rory was in goal in first quarter, and off for second. It was 0-5 by then. We scored twice in the third (including one by Rory) and once in fourth but wasn't enough. In the third quarter we had the strongest team out there, and it showed. We know better for next time.

Soccer prize giving was on the same time as the water polo (or so I thought). It ended sooner than expected so I got to see the whole game, didn't think I would.

SPORT

Liverpool won 3-0 over West Bromich, Arsenal 3-0 over Fulham, Chelsea drew 0-0 with Aston Villa, and Man Utd drew 2-2 with sodding Bolton.

Auckland teenager Marina Erakovic won the junior female doubles at the US Open, first time in a long time that any New Zealander has won anything, and a first for New Zealand woman.

In NPC rugby, North Harbour beat Southland 35-16, Bay of Plenty beat Otago 44-16, Waikato beat Northland 41-21, Wellington beat Auckland 27-21, and the big news was Taranaki 30-23 over Canterbury for the first time in 26 years. Taranaki are top of the table with five wins from five, they only need one more to be sure to be in the semi-finals (one assumes none of the players live near the dioxin plant). Auckland are almost definitely not in the semis, as they have four matches left and only one win. Northland haven't won a game, and are the only team to lose to Auckland. The three "land" teams are still on the bottom.

England beat Poland 2-1, Wales had a 2-2 with Northern Ireland in World Cup 2006 qualifying.

MY SAD LIFE

Have had a very busy week (probably equivalent of a typical week for Penny or Goodins). I didn't enjoy myself. Barbara is still in hospital, although not really sick just having trouble sorting pain relief out. We have hired a contract accountant to cover for her so I can do other stuff next week. I did the equivalent of two weeks work in one week, that is a lot.

Rory had a school dance on Thursday night, I think that contributed to everyone in the water polo team being less than their best on Friday night, to be honest.

Much excitement this week in build-up to Hannah's party, which was on Saturday. It was a Fear Factor birthday party for 13 girls. I spent the morning making vomit and preparing everything, with loads of help from Rory while Diana prepared food with Nanny and Hannah. There was races for flags, putting face in water then flour to bob for lollies, then crawling through vomit minefield with part of an onion in your mouth. Nobody cried, nobody spewed. Hannah went first on the lolly bobbing, and after she did it I wondered if anyone else would, but they did, then I did. They all did really well, but it was chaos.

Then we had to carry washing machine outside to fix jam in impeller, and get up on roof to rescue a howler (with help from Gavin on both counts). No washing machine was disastrous having just used every face cloth and half the towels to scrape flour and water paste off 14 faces.

Granny returned from Australia this week. She came around yesterday and Hannah had a party with new clothing from Penny (thanks). Hannah walked past a mirror and she was stuck for hours.

We saw the Goodins briefly yesterday (except Thomas). They are off to tincan or ping pong or bintan or somewhere then Kuala Lumpur to visit Barry at the end of this week. We saw the photo of Tommys soccer team, they are so little, you forget so quickly.

Hannah turns ten tomorrow.

Rory organised for some friends from school to come over to watch a movie. It was the first time he has ever organised anything. I can't believe we agreed to it after just having had the party the night before, but it went okay.

If you want a GMAIL address, let me know. I have some spare invites.

THE TRIP

The next email will be from somewhere else, probably San Francisco. I will use my gmail address, so if you get something from robo42 at gmail.com it's from me, okay?

Planning is proceeding slowly. We did a dry run on suitcase with clothing yesterday, which was interesting. Should have tons of room and won't need extra cases. Coming home might be a little different.

Hopefully you will hear from me within a week