Nearly the end of the holidays - 12/01/04

Weather hot but largely difficult to complain about. Little real news out there, still.

LOCAL NEWS

The Cyclone Heta has had the usual dramas in Niue. A mother died protecting her baby, was flown to Auckland, has be operated on, etc. An Airforce Hercules went up there, broke down, another went with spares. Niue is considering returning to New Zealand rule, not sure we'd want them. They reckon the population is about to drop to 1200 people. I bet it is a dump if it's anything like Tuvalu.

Nasty winds in Wellington on Friday, 100+km/h. Blew over three power transmission pylons somewhere around the Cook Strait link. A woman in a tent was killed when she was blown off a cliff or something.

The government is considering chemical castration for some sex offenders. Not sure what is wrong with the old mechanical castration method. (Brett knows my theory, a sort of two strikes you are out approach, you lose a testicle for your first offence, and another for your second, and there isn't likely to be a third).

I am thoroughly bored with continued mentions of LOTR and how many nominations/awards it has one in the Amateur Girl Guides of Tallahassee Randomly Selected Film Awards. Just let us know about the Oscars.

Lifeguards have been busy, and lost their first person for nine years at Muriwai.

Another helicopter is missing, the second in about two weeks, they haven't found the last one yet. Perhaps they go somewhere to mate.

A woman received burns from a public toilet seat that had been coated with something caustic. (see later for how idiots like that start their path to evil)

WORLD NEWS

People are still being extracted from the rubble in Iran, well they were earlier in the week.

Insiders now say Bush was bent on war (well, duh). He is obviously bent, and was gagging for a good war to ensure re-election.

SPORT

Man Utd won, Chelsea lost 0-1 to Liverpool, Arsenal had a 1-1 draw. Man Utd looking happy on the table.

Then Arsenal won and caught up. Man Utd needed to beat Newcastle this morning, but they had a 0-0 bore. Chelsea whipped Leicester 4-0 (but on ESPN only three goals were listed, weird).

Big news was record setting results for the New Zealand Under 21 World B Youth Curling Champs with big wins over well-known curling nation China and some of country that is practically on the equator. They keep records about Curling Championships in B grade youth tournaments?

Black Caps lost the second ODI to Pakistan then won the third. Next one is Wednesday, two to play, with Black Caps leading 2-1 so far.

MY SAD LIFE

My little sister Sarah turns 25 today. That means she is old. She's feeling old too, been sick all weekend. Best excuse for taking a sick day - "you don't want to know." - much better than saying you have the flu, people just don't want details.

My friend Bambi had his birthday yesterday (it's easy to remember the date, it can be expressed as 13 in binary - 1101, or 1011 in America which is only 11).

We've finally been painting some of the house that needs it, did a fair bit over the weekend, heaps left though.

Went to the city with the kids, gave Diana a day off (from all three of us). We bought some things with their Whitcoulls vouchers that they got for Christmas. They both bought a book and shared the cost of a DVD (Spy Kids 2). We went to Burger King for lunch as they were hungry and thirsty. Rory did one of his typical mix drinks (they have self-serve) so he had a bit of raspberry, fanta, coke, lemonade, etc) in the cup. Then he knocked it over himself from nipples to knees. I took him into the bathroom and he got rinsed down and dried himself under the hand blow-dryer. Then he started fiddling with the tomato sauce sachets. He wanted to bend one double and insert it between a toilet seat and the toilet so that some poor sod would get a tomato-flavoured surprise. I said no. He then needed to go to the toilet. I frisked him. It was in his armpit. Later, he wanted to go again, I frisked again, and found it in his sock. One day he will realise that if he hides two at once, I might stop when I find the first one. He also fails to remember I am an eleven year old with 28 years experience. He has become clever, and devious, but has not yet developed ethics or subtlety (see what I mean? Could be the beginning of Caustic Toilet Man #2).

Diana and I had dinner with the Goodins and Charles on Saturday, Charles went home this morning after another holiday at Glinks where they caught fish. Went to a restaurant in Mission Bay and sat on the pavement (well, at a table out on the pavement). Walked up the hill to the Michael Joseph Savage memorial in complete darkness then back along the beach. Spent a chunk of Sunday annoying the Goodins and Charles as well. Polly, the cat, went streaking through the dining room (with the lounge furniture in it) with a pink feather boa, was very funny. Apparently she found it somewhere else and brought it home.

We are cat-sitting at the Goodins on Thursday for a few days. Rory wants to train her to steal watches (see? No responsibility).

Beans, let me talk about beans for a minute. Gavin brought around a huge bag of polystyrene balls for filling the beanbag chairs that the kids got from Penny for Christmas. He warned us, he said do it in the bath, but we knew better. We (the kids and I) started filling Rory's one in the lounge. At first it was looking good, then we sped up a bit, and the beans started quietly flying everywhere. It was a huge mess (Diana was in the bedroom and didn't see it at it's worst, she'd have had kittens if she had). The next day, I attached rubber bands around the neck of the bag to a large piece of down pipe. Hannah and I filled her bean bag with it. It worked well, very little mess, but it just wasn't any fun. Hannah said as much. Those little beans are messy, but there's something about spreading them everywhere that just feels so right. I am toying with the idea of making an Airzooka (search on the web for more info, they rock) and loading it with polystyrene beans. That would be a bit of fun.

Diana and I might be going to try and sort out some of Ross Cole's things this week. Not really looking forward to it.