LOCAL NEWS
Police established what caused the toilet burns a while back, but won't say what it was. This is because it might encourage copycats (let's not consider that not telling doesn't throw down the gauntlet to challenge idiots to do something worse). They did say it was something that was common around the house. I wonder if some cleaner forgot to dilute some industrial cleaning product and that was the cause.
Political scandal has woken the political commentators from their Christmas slumber as news broke that Winston Peters got a free dinner at a restaurant that was partially owned by a guy that is involved in the Scampi Fishery Select Committee, of which Mr Peters is a member. This is a simple case of being independent in appearance as well as fact, and really would have blown over at any other time of the year.
Another man drowned, and a fisherman went missing, so drowning continues to be news.
Burma, one of the two elephants at our local zoo, escaped into Western Springs park (where Diana and I walk when the kids are at school) on Friday morning, the same day that everyone (except me) went to the zoo. Diana said there were four news crews wandering around (another slow day). She put a log over an electric fence then went over the wire, with an XXXXXXXL balaclava on her head, broke through a gate, and went for a walk.
Forgot to mention a policeman who got engulfed in fire when his ride-on lawnmower caught fire. He survived but was burned seriously.
Eastern Beach is the victim of people stealing sand. They must be stealing a bloody lot.
A stunt rider hit a spectator at Meremere after doing a fairly big jump.
WORLD NEWS
Former Australian test cricketer David Hookes was bashed outside a Melbourne hotel and subsequently died. They have arrested a hotel bouncer - either he took his job too seriously or it was related to "the hairy backed sheila" that Hookes referred to when he was defending the honour of Shane Warne in the matter of the South African woman who claimed to be harassed by him a year or so back. Accolades, etc, have been pouring out of all the media. One headline "Hookes felled by a lethal bouncer".
An Australian club cricketer was struck dead by lightning whilst batting, they didn't say what his entry on the scoring sheet said. Retired hurt? I assume the match was abandoned.
The capsized boat in Norway was nasty, it trapped about twenty people in it, in pretty calm conditions 200m from shore. It went very fast, was loaded with rocks, must have had the heavy ones on the starboard side.
The American Presidential Primaries have started for the Democrats. I don't completely (barely partially) understand the process, I assume GW doesn't have to because he is standing again?
SPORT
The Men's hockey team has beaten Poland 3-0 in a series.
The Kingz had a rare 2-1 win, after playing with 10 men for a lot of the game. Their second win of the season.
India and Aussie keep playing Zimbabwe, it's like a cat playing with a mouse.
Man Utd are leading 3-0 in their FA Cup match against Northampton. Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Swansea are all though.
MY SAD LIFE
Well, our cat, Amber, made her last visit to the vet on Friday. She just didn't look right when we returned from the Goodins. It was about time for her annual checkup anyway, but we had a sinking feeling it might be her last. Her kidneys had failed, she was in the last stages of it, dehydrated and not too good. We had to go next door and tell Jim, our neighbour, who has been probably Amber's favourite person. There's a photo of the two of them in the book, with him sweeping her with the broom. Hannah was especially unhappy. This is the first time we haven't had a pet in the house for about 17 years.
I forgot to mention Brett's return from a holiday in Vietnam. He played with an AK47 and hit the target twice in five shots (better than most). He also checked out the regular stuff in Vietnam, but didn't see the cute hand-powered torches that would be my reason to go there. Brett can rest assured he doesn't need to get pregnant to feature in this, but it would certainly get my attention.
We saw Roger, Shin, and Ben the bump, on Wednesday along with the rest of the family. She was wearing an electric thing around her tummy that makes the baby regular or improves it's ability to do calculus (or make yoghurt, I don't know). Roger left the flash cards at home because he thought I would be rude about them. We had a nice barbecue, sat out the back of the house, saw a spectacular double-rainbow (and Olwyn pointed out that the second set of colours were in reverse order, hadn't noticed that before). Amber (our cat) hung around a lot, and I slipped her some tidbits from the barbecue and the pavlova.
Talked to Allan last night, he said he saw Paul and Roger and others on the plane to Nelson. He was going for a funeral, the Grant's for a wedding.
Penny, Craig, Ben, and baby Matt are over at the moment. They stayed with us a couple of days, and they went to the zoo the day the elephant escaped but too late to catch the excitement. Matt is a pretty happy little boy, he chuckles and laughs now and again.
We committed my Father's ashes to the ground at a memorial park on Saturday. I can't say it was a lot of fun, it brought up everything again, but we went to the Puhoi pub and I had four beers (they were really small glasses) and then had lunch at a vineyard. I have to face a similar thing for Ross Cole some time soon.
I've been auctioning some of Ross Cole's things on trademe, to help cover some costs.
We went for a little walk around Western Springs on Sunday, tried to find evidence of the escaped elephant's trip (ie large piles of dung) but could not. The kids were very entertained by a large stone friendship circle (don't ask me what that is). It was a nice thing to do, just the four of us.
Rory starts school tomorrow, Hannah starts on Thursday. It will be interesting.
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