Well, life is tough when you get a four day weekend.
LOCAL NEWS
An elderly woman got bashed for money about a week ago and then died of her injuries this week. It was a bit suspect because she had $7000 in travellers cheques and Euros on her, which is more than what an average pensioner would carry. Cause of death was heart failure, but family felt it was brought on by injuries (she was in hospital for nearly a week so should have been recovering, you would think). I reckoned it had to be someone she knew (they drove away in an old red BMW, so they might have been a sharebroker in the 80s).
A handicapped man who built a rifle into a crutch took his 8 year old son hunting based on his memory of a trip 30 years earlier, surprisingly got lost in the bush for two nights in cold conditions. They didn't say whether he was physically or mentally handicapped, but I think it is safe from the evidence to assume both. Why the idiot wasn't slapped with a whopping great bill for the search, I don't know. I have a real problem with the lack of user pays with surf, sea, and bush rescue.
An Easter Show worker died when he fell off a ride while checking the tracks. Funnily enough, the ride is now closed. I suspect patronage of other dodgy rides will have been higher because of the added danger. The Easter Show has been going for 161 years, and much of the sideshow equipment doesn't look a day over a hundred and fifty.
Someone in Kawerau (small town in Bay of Plenty) won the Lotto powerball, to the tune of $14.5 million. Even in New Zealand dollars, that's not bad. I just wish the full page story on it would mention that people bought $126.4 million worth of tickets to create that prize, and maybe point out your chances of winning it are so low that it is more likely you will bury a dog pooh in the garden and dig it up ten years later and find a nugget of gold (well, if you live in South Africa, maybe).
Auckland City Council parking wardens are now posting parking infringement notices to car owners. I am not sure that's particularly fair when they do it to people sitting in their cars - who are supposed to be asked to move along before they are ticketed.
WORLD NEWS
GW seems to be gearing up for his re-election. It will be interesting, quite embarrassing for him to not get back in after his efforts for the free world. News that they were warned about 9/11 will do nothing to help his chances. Funny thing is, if they had prevented it, nobody would have really cared or believed what might have happened. It would have been a non-event.
Meanwhile, Iraq appears to be turning into GW's Vietnam, Watergate, and pork cigar controversy all at once. I wish him all the best for re-election, I really do.
REAL SPORT
There was no real sport due to Easter.
SPORT
The Blues won 56-19 over the Bulls, the Brumbies thumped the Highlanders 50-18, the Sharks beat the Crusaders and the Chiefs lost to someone. Not a great weekend for the New Zealand teams.
Man Utd had a win, Arsenal drew 0-0 with Newcastle, Chelsea had a draw too. Leeds are now third from bottom but on the same points as Portsmouth and Blackburn (but behind massively on goal difference). There is hope for them, after all.
The Warriors lost again. That's one win from five.
MY SAD LIFE
Rory hurt his finger on Monday, little finger, left hand, suspected break but probably very minor. He has it taped up but couldn't go to water polo on Tuesday. Good timing in that soccer would not have been a goer and we have a break from it anyway.
Diana was suffering from the 'flu for most of the week, not really bad, but enough to slow her down. It took ages for her to make dinner (joking, sort of). I think I had it a little but not too bad.
I heard from Helen in Geelong that she has bought a house and moves in some time in May. She mentioned something about sitting a fan in front of a block of ice (to keep cool, I presume). I've never heard of such a concept, but maybe it works. Might try it next summer.
Charles is over here, visiting his mother and acting as the consulting engineer on the Goodin Barbecue Construction project. This took quite a bit of effort. There was confusion as to which model it was, the instructions continuously said things like "attach this if you have a Monaco" and "don't forget to connect the grommet if you have the Beelzebub". We found out what model it was when someone pointed out it was written on one of the last pieces to go on the sodding thing. It looked like it might take pride of place in the garage, usurping the beetle, but that was short-lived. The kids made a kitty playground out of the cardboard boxes which kept them entertained nearly as long as the barbecue building entertained Ross, Charles, and I (and considerably longer than it entertained the kitty). We test-fired it and nothing exploded, so that was good. It is a six-burner plus wok-thingy so needs a gas bottle the size of a Mini. It takes about four minutes to walk around it and three people to lift it over steps. Charles felt the brakes on two wheels were rather superfluous as it required considerable effort to make it go anywhere, he had a point. Ross isn't sure he has enough friends to justify a barbecue this big, which is practically visible from space (like the fence he once built).
We met Judy's new puppy on Sunday. She is a beagle, and is going to be called Sophie (I think). Very cute, huge tummy, short legs, massive ears, sharp teeth. Goes mad for a while, chews everything in reach, luckily reach isn't that good yet. Then it runs out of power. It's bite is definitely worse than it's bark. It's funny to see a puppy so soon after seeing kittens. The differences are quite marked, but the pre-programmed behaviour in puppies versus kittens is quite funny to observe (like how dogs pull on things with their teeth and cats sharpen their claws, it's just things they do).
Gavin's not going to be buying a business and has sensibly reached the conclusion that starting from scratch would be lower risk than buying from someone else.
Hey Jono, how are you going? You've been quiet.
Peter is away again this week, so work will be murder. He scored a goal on Saturday, for the other team (I hate it when that happens).
Gavin's flatmate is babysitting so I expect to see him today for some refuge time.
Our cats have started using the cat door so things are a bit easier, they come and go as they please and we don't have to get them inside before we go out any more. Ollie is making a habit of eating Pandora's crickets, it happened again yesterday morning, very quickly.
Kids are on holiday for the next two weeks so no quiet time for me and Diana, and probably no walks.
Well, this feels very low-key this week. I will pull my socks up next week.
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