A soccer dominated weekend for me - 14/06/04

As I write this, I am watching England play France in Euro 2004. England are 1-0 up so far.

LOCAL NEWS

The woman that drove a car into party goers was sentenced to seven years in prison. Family and friends of the injured and dead all (not surprisingly) felt it wasn't enough.

Three people died in a car accident as they left a funeral at a cemetery near Wellington. The funeral director made a good performance about how the intersection needed work (despite it having got him three new customers). The three were found by the daughter of the person who's funeral they had been to. As if she didn't have enough on her plate already.

A very large methamphetamine factory has been uncovered in Suva with enough raw material to make nearly a billion dollars worth of the drug. Most of it was made for export to other countries as the Fiji market isn't very big. The facility is larger than anything they have found in New Zealand.

A media satire show did a piece on the accidental butchering of that sodding sheep Shrek. Although I thoroughly approved of such sentiment, it was a little too graphic for my taste. There was much furore over the incident and they lost about nine viewers because of it (around 20% of the audience).

A meteorite crashed through a house in Ellerslie and hit the couch on Saturday. They reckon it could be worth good money. Lucky nobody was on the couch at the time.

A South Auckland man has been charged with some sort of cruelty offence after microwaving a cat.

A man that was late for work arrived to find a truck in his office on an unplanned basis.

I have a real problem with what the Herald considers to be front-page news. They ran yet another story on Saturday on Damon (the guy I know that hanged himself two years ago in preference to spending time in the big house). Then, this morning it was front page news that rugby players punched referees in three different incidents over the weekend.

The Act party have chosen Rodney Hide as their new leader.

New employment law has meant that people rostered to work on a Sunday or public holiday get paid penal rates even if they are sick. Heaps of people have been calling in sick and causing problems for employers.

WORLD NEWS

Big news in New Zealand, although it happened in France. A Matamata veteran got lost when he hopped on the wrong bus at the D-Day commemorations in France, ended up in the wrong place. President Mitterand gave him a big greeting and gave him a lift on "Airbus Un", the French Presidential Jet, back to Paris.

The ongoing Reagan thing reminds me of how stupid it is that they make a massive fuss of someone ten years after they became brain-dead (some would suggest it happened in about 1981). Nobody seemed to care about him the last ten years or so.

In England, a man has outrun a horse for the first time. It was over 35km. The horse was carrying a rider, so I think the horse would have won if Huw Lobb had been carrying a horse.

REAL SPORT

Rory's team won their water polo 9-4. Rory only had one quarter up front (one on defence, one in goal, one on sideline). He scored one goal and made two good saves.

Hannah's team practiced with some help from Penny Chapman, a National Secondary Schools rep, this week. We played a team that has won all their games so far, and scored 12 against the team Hannah played for last weekend. They worked really hard, but defence was a bit quiet a couple of times and we lost 3-0. Was disappointing because the last goal was an own goal and 2-0 would have been much better. I would have settled for 5-0 before the game, so wasn't too bad.

Then Hannah, Greta, and Zippy (Chelsea number 2) played for a 13th grade team (this is girls that are 12 and 13 years old). Zippy didn't get subbed in either game so she played for like 110 minutes. She deflected a hard shot into their own goal in the second game, which wasn't her fault. All three girls did a great job, big confidence booster for them playing so well in an older game. Hannah defended solidly for the second half and got them out of trouble a lot, Zippy had a huge match. Hannah's confidence is rocketing skyward.

Rory's team started short, and couldn't get their act together, but two late goals got them a 2-2 draw. They played in Manurewa the same time as Hannah so I didn't see any of it. Rory is playing well, at the moment.

SPORT

Former New Zealand cricket player Craig Spearman scored a record 341 for Gloucestershire, beating the record set by WG Grace.

Nobody predicted that the All Blacks would win, let alone by 36-3 over England on Saturday night. Graham Henry is God for the moment.

The Black Caps again spent one day well placed and another fighting to save the test. It's so dull when they play on the other side of the world. They capitulated on the fourth day and England cruised for a clean sweep win. The only good news was that Cairns got a good haul of wickets (about eight in the match) to add to his total in his last test match before retirement.

The Euro 2004 tournament started this weekend. Greece beat Portugal 2-1, wouldn't have predicted that. In fact, the night before the game we got pizza from a Greek guy who reckoned they had a good chance and I said I thought he had already had too much Ouzo. Spain beat Russia 1-0. In the 90th minute, Zidane nailed a free kick to equalise, then James fouled a French player in the box to concede a penalty that Zidane kicked to win the game 2-1. I can't believe it. Am thinking about buying a French shirt. Am actually thinking about buying a few and wearing only soccer shirts during Euro.

MY SAD LIFE

Forgot to mention that last week was the eighth anniversary of living in this house in Point Chevalier. Hannah wasn't two and Rory turned four just after we moved in. They really don't remember the other house, which we lived in for eight and a half years. By the end of this year we will have lived here longer.

Hannah had two dance exams on Wednesday. Had some excitement around it, had to get her there and pick her up. I had an audio in between, which I did from my car. Then the car wouldn't start, I kind of suspected the battery was failing. Called for a battery guy, and then got the car started (turned off all the accessories and waited a while) and went to Peter's house (he lives just up the road from the Dance Studio). Then, while I waited for the battery guy, I borrowed Peter's car to get Hannah. What an awful bloody car, it's an XJS. I couldn't change gear (it's an automatic). Getting in was impossible, there was just nowhere to put my left foot, I ended up tucking it under my right leg. Hannah was somewhat surprised when she was picked up in a different car. We went back to Peter's and swapped back. I then had another audio in the car on the way home. Diana took her to the second exam in the afternoon. Hannah was insufferably perky that night, very pleased to have them out of the way, I suspect.

Ollie climbed Darth Vader on Thursday and killed him. He broke at the hips and his helmet cracked when it hit the ground. Hannah and Diana both said "well, it wouldn't have happened if Vader wasn't there". The correct polite response is "well, if I don't take my foot out of Ollie's backside I will only need to buy one slipper". Ollie also caught a sparrow on Thursday. Both cats are behaving like spoiled 18 year olds, they seem to think they can do whatever they like. He was chewing the aerial on my car on Friday.

The microwave oven died on Thursday, as well, and the laundry toilet stopped flushing on Sunday. This house is full of clapped out things. Both failures caused stress. One toilet is not enough on days when Diana is working.

Forgot both Ross and Craig's 40th birthday this week. Didn't call either of them. Diana remembered on Friday. I plead that I, too, am getting old, and my brain isn't what it used to be.

Spoke to Koos on Friday, at least I think it was Friday.

Jono, saw Steph on Tuesday. She seems well. Cassie must be quite old now.

We spent a chunk of Sunday doing homework, again, it is getting exceedingly tedious. Rory has something major due every week at the moment.

Hannah and I made a chocolate pudding for dessert last night. It's funny, Hannah's spending a lot more time with me these days (while Rory does homework). We practiced soccer in the garden yesterday while Rory did homework, too.

Diana and I managed a late walk in the fog this morning after the soccer finished. Only about ten days until her birthday (did you know that 40 in binary is 101000? In Hexadecimal it is only 28). We are going to Christchurch this coming weekend, without the kids. We get home Monday so next Monday's email will be late.

Well, coffee time before I have a shower.
Have a better week this week that I did last week.