1 March 2004

Well, a week is a bloody long time for a kitten - 01/03/04

NEWS

The Oscars are today, the excitement in New Zealand is tedious. I have a serious amount of doubt about whether the Academy Awards are meaningful of anything, and wonder why people who live in a high-profile world need even more recognition for what they do. Nevertheless, there are some New Zealanders in the running, and I wish them luck I suppose (not that they would care either way). A couple of my clients are closing the offices at 2pm to watch it.

Labour has been going in circles, after doing a humongous number of u-turns on policy this week in an attempt to recover their popularity. News has been full of it, and quite repetitive.

Rain and wind has been hammering us in the northern north island the last few days. We just about have water lillies growing in puddles. There has been flooding, the Tongariro river burst it's banks in Turangi, over a 1000 homes lost power in Howick, trees down everywhere. Nasty. They're still getting over the last one in the southern North Island, I don't think they go it so bad this weekend.

The thing with the police has gone quiet, but a judge has been accused of something now, from a couple of years ago. Not sure if it is credible. I don't know if it is people seeking publicity or what. It doesn't seem related to seeking justice.

Reactions to the polls and possible racial tensions are in the news but that is mostly bollocks. There are no racial tensions as such on an interpersonal level, the tension is more between idiots that don't care what colour people's skin is.

WORLD NEWS

It's big Tuesday in the presidential primaries, but John Kerry looks like he'll do the business.

SPORT

The Black Caps won again mid-week, taking them to a 3-1 lead. They have never beaten South Africa in an sort of series (ODI or tests). Their fifth game was on Saturday in Auckland but was postponed to Sunday and shortened to 33 overs because of weather. The South Africans needed 31 off the last over, scored one run off one ball, needed 30 from five balls. Got another single. That meant they could not win, barring extras. So Kyle Mills bowled a no-ball which was hit for six - giving them seven runs and still four balls to go - all of a sudden, they could do it. They got two sixes in the next two balls. Down to 11 runs off two balls. The next ball was worth a couple, so he had to just bowl straight and properly and he did. Killer final over, still could have lost on the second to last ball. They have now won their first series against the South Africans and they did it without too much assistance from the weather (if the game on Sunday had been cancelled they would have had an unbeatable lead of 3-1 with one game left). They are winning the series 4-1 now with one game left.

Man United blew a 1-0 lead to salvage a disappointing 1-1 draw at Fulham. The cat enjoyed the game, though (Pandora) - she tried to hit the ball and the players for about fifteen minutes. Arsenal beat Charlton so Man United are knackered this season. This morning Leeds drew with Liverpool, who are having a shite season. Newcastle drew with Portsmouth.

The Blues came from behind to win against the Crusaders at Jade Stadium on Friday night. Not sure what else happened in the Super 12, but the Blues were the only team to get a win so it isn't going well.

MY SAD LIFE

Been a hell of a week for one of our kittens. By Wednesday it became clear that Ollie was ill. He went to the vet Thursday and then stayed there Friday night, feline enteritis probably and very, very, unwell. Lost 10% of his bodyweight in 24 hours. But Saturday we got the call and it was okay to pick him up. We weren't confident we were going to see him again on Friday night. On Sunday he was eating well and much happier, he hadn't purred for a couple of days. Diana has worked really hard on looking after him, and the rest of us have helped out. It was close to the worst of when the kids were sick (even when Rory had the coughing thing and couldn't keep food down when he was about three).

The kittens made their first forays into the outside world on Sunday, Ollie handled it quite well, Pandora goes quite scatty. I got her down from one tree and she was generally hard to get hold of to return inside.

Gavin has been looking at buying or starting a gaming-style store. He's been doing research in the last couple of weeks and a decision might happen this week. Been picking Ross and Kath's collective brains, doing numbers in Excel, looking at all sorts of things.

Still no sign of Koos.

My friend Matt returned from Orlando, Florida, with a small package for me - a life-size rubber head of an alien from Bad Taste, Peter Jackson's first film. It's way cool. I will try to build a head for it to go on. Diana won't wear it to bed, don't know why. We got to see Ivanka's VW Beetle, it's a revolting pale lime green colour (it's a colour used in a lot of art-deco stuff, note I am not using "gay colours" if you use words like revolting in describing a colour it's okay.

Rory finally got a chance to have a crack at a hundred timestable questions at school and completed it in 2:16, not a bad time. It's about as good as he has done at home.

Saw the Goodins over the weekend for the first time since Penny went home, we've all been busy I guess. The kids have noticeably grown, Catie's sentences are getting longer and more prescriptive. They had a bath at our place because their hot water turned off in the storm (ripple switches react wrongly, happened to Gavin last weekend). Thomas brought over this weird stuff that you make dinosaur skeletons out of (they went to the dinosaur exhibition at Te Papa last weekend).

Hannah went shopping for clothes with a friend on Saturday, returned with some funky blue hipsters and toe-socks. She's already started the "let's go to the mall" thing.

Rory and I braved diabolical weather on Saturday night and went to see Timeline together. A good movie, I read Paul's copy of the book. Not true to the book but well done, nevertheless. It was nice to do something with him, I feel like I've hardly seen the kids lately.

Off for a quick walk with Diana now, if she can get organised....

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