15 March 2004

Avoid Spain for a sunny holiday -15/03/04

LOCAL NEWS

It wasn't as if the reputation of the police force wasn't already in tatters, but anyway some of New Zealand's finest decided to confess to "inhaling" on the Holmes show and lying about it in court afterward. The way things are going, one wonders if we wouldn't be better off throwing all cops in the slammer and letting all those in prison who claim to have been set up go free.

Shock! Horror! Major investigation by the Building Research Association (BRANZ) into the misuse of heavily tanalised timber inside housing as a result of the kneejerk reaction from the leaky building thing using untreated timber. Apparently, the most dangerous use of H5 timber is in cat scratching poles, supposedly the users can present to their vet suffering from toxic shock syndrome but is often confused with the symptoms of feline enteritis. This only happens where the pole isn't thoroughly covered in carpet, so I don't have to worry (so there, Ross).

A 62 year old Canterbury man was jailed for 15 years for beating a friend to death after pleading guilty. No reason was given for the beating but the gossip is that the friend cheered for Auckland during the NPC final.

A four year old boy died in the housefire at a baby sitters house, they reckon he was hiding from the flames.

It was the round the bays run yesterday, we did not go. We never do. Helen Clark was there to remind them all that staying healthy prevents you from looking like her.

WORLD NEWS

The ten bombs in trains in Madrid were pretty nasty. The New Zealand men's hockey team were in Madrid for a tournament and had a game the morning they went off. They beat South Africa to qualify for the Olympics. Al Qaeda's supposed involvement creates more doubt, fear, and loathing.

The guy that gets people to pose naked in bulk for stupid photos you never see after the pathetic voyeuristic piece on the news did one of HIV positive nudies in Paris. Yawn.

A nasty little murder near San Francisco, with nine dead children of the perpetrator Marcus Wesson. There are rumours that he is the father of some of the children that he is also the grandfather of (think about it, would have saved on presents, I suppose). He gave himself up, which is pretty cowardly after giving his kids no opportunity for escape.

There is talk of a Lord of the Rings musical. I can't think of anything worse. Well, I hate musicals regardless. The very idea of people breaking into song as they go about their daily lives just turns me off. The Lord of the Rings was of marginal value as it was, without people singing and dancing. I hope they come to their senses.

REAL SPORT

Rory had two trials this week. It has become clear how much he has grown in that time. He is faster and taller. He is making noises about wanting to go in goal again, and actually showed promise in a session he spent in goal at the end of the second trial. He wanted to go show another goalie how to do a few things to be a better goalie, which was nice.

Hannah has her trial on Wednesday, sort of a mini-trial.

Have spent most of the week organising trials and bribing people to be coaches.

OTHER SPORT

The first test against South Africa faded into a dull draw. I don't think there was anything about it worth mentioning, except that they lost no time due to rain. No wonder the Americans can't believe a game can take five days and have no winner.

The Blues lost, the Hurricanes won, Highlanders lost. Chiefs and Crusaders had a bye. Blues are now tenth on the table and have lost three from four and have a bye next week.

I don't remember much other sport, except for ignoring a 1-4 lost to Man City by Man Utd. The FA Cup is all that is left in the season, except Euro in June, of course.

MY SAD LIFE

Wednesday was a killer. Went to see a client at 11:30 and had everything sorted by about 1pm, including spotting an impending problem. Then the geek from their office in Melbourne wanted to restart the server and it never came back up. Spent over five hours on a call with two Microserfs in US and in the end reinstalled the sodding thing. Got home just before eleven. After Tuesday night on the phone with soccer-related matters until about 10pm, it was a big day. I tried to take it easier on Thursday but had to cut a lump of wood for the dreaded project and had another soccer trial.

I did another radio spot on Sunday with Alice, although not confirmed yet I think I will be doing a monthly thing. It went fine, as usual.

Ollie, the wunder-kitten, disappeared on us on Saturday. We called for hours, Hannah waited on the lawn for ages just in case, and even went and knocked on neighbours doors. Four hours later, the little sod wanted to be let out of my office. Little bugger, I called for him in there three times. I don't know how he managed to hide in there, it's so tidy and all.

The project from hell was finally finished on Thursday night, in amongst soccer trials and so forth (including a talk about "growing up" at school on the Thursday night). It was nice to get it out of the house. We await the score, which is in two parts, one for the student and one for the parents. Actually, I think it was quite well done, with three stories from people Rory knows about war (Jim next door, Elsie, and Ross's grandfather's story of the lucky bullet). It looked good and was interesting as well. I have a theory, that nobody reads the content (kids in the class, I mean) and you could include instructions to open a flap for a free chocolate fish and nobody would get one.

Hannah and Diana are off to Camp Adair for two nights. Rory and I are pretty busy, have a packed program planned of not eating vegetables and wearing the same clothing for three days.....

Gavin's investigations and work continue on the purchase of a shop. We did an unofficial stocktake on Saturday and the quoted figure is quite a way off what we got. Ross thinks it's a bad idea, he went over the agreement and some issues with Gavin on Sunday. He is currently unemployed, starts a new job on Monday but not sure what to do about it.

Today will be a quiet day, with nobody around until Rory gets home.

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