The Ranfurly Shield is a rugby trophy you can only win by beating the holder at their home ground. Many unions have not held the shield for many years (like 30 or 40) and some have never won it.
The Olympics are a vortex of non-achievement. You see a race and you just have to watch, you get sucked in and can't escape. People are being drawn to couches all over the world for 16 days.
LOCAL NEWS
A big week for crime and accidental death in New Zealand.
An accident in Golf Road (near Titirangi, where I grew up) killed three people one night this week.
Two women sexually assaulted another woman. Not often that this happens, so it makes the news.
I was a little confused about an item that said ski field blasting caused avalanche. I thought they blasted on mountains deliberately to cause avalanches. Apparently this caused an avalanche in an unplanned place, and the skiers had to ski-daddle.
Interest rates are slowly rising, and exchange rates are doing okay. Unemployment is pretty damn low, skilled labour is short. In theory New Zealand is doing all right.
An IRD employee resigned and then threw himself off the Auckland Harbour Bridge last week. He survived, but apparently the stress of the job was getting to him. There are many people out there that would hope this was the start of a trend and lots of IRD people would do the same thing.
Controversial Cambridge High School became the first school in New Zealand to be issued with a compliance notice (whatever that means, it isn't good). The head master resigned later in the week. They were doing something dodgy in the "achievement recovery room". I think it was basically where the pupils with little hope of success were sent to wait until they were old enough to leave.
There has been a murder in Northland near Kaikohe and a woman was missing (sounded like a husband got the boyfriend and the wife if laying low or in similar shape to the boyfriend, but proved untrue). Police are considering a charge of abduction against the man. The dead man was the guy's boss.
A car was stolen with a four year old girl in the back seat near Coromandel. The community used cell phones to track him down and the girl's Uncle ran him off the road and they apprehended him until police arrived.
A wounded police officer shot and killed a man in Pakuranga. Shame it wasn't Maurice Williamson (an MP). Instead, it reduced the number of Iranian immigrants by one. He was threatening to kill his wife.
Two New Zealand soldiers died when their truck went off the road on Banks Peninsula near Christchurch (we went there on our little trip). Usually the reason given is falling out of a jeep.
There was a tornado in Taranaki, killing one, injuring three and destroyed a farmhouse which failed to land on a wicked witch.
WORLD NEWS
Some 15yo lad in England discovered he had a broken neck, and it had been broken for up to ten years. He only went to hospital when he went a but numb after being pushed by a friend. The guy's name is Liam Careless (ironic, really).
Further dismay in England when 1 in 20 respondents in a test said that Gandalf the Grey defeated the Spanish Fleet. I wouldn't panic, I suspect it's just people who hadn't a clue trying to cheer themselves up. Other questions about when the Battle of Britain was and the Roman occupation of England was unknown. I think it is stupid to measure young people on the knowledge of the old. Our kids haven't a clue about many things that were widely known in our youth. Times change, people move on (and forget).
REAL SPORT
In water polo, they were playing my old school (Glen Eden Intermediate). They trailed 0-1, caught up, then trailed 1-3. In the third quarter they scored one goal and the opposition went nowhere near their goal. Rory was supposed to be in goal in the 4th, but we changed that as he was doing great work out in the field. In the last quarter they scored twice, nearly three times, but two was enough and the final score was a hard fought 4-3 win. Rory didn't score but defended very well and got the ball forward a lot.
Then Rory played for Team 3, scored two goals, but the team lost 7-3. He also missed a penalty. He asked if Team 1 needed any players (they didn't). No wonder he is tired on Saturdays.
Hannah's team were playing a Metro team just below them on the table. The other team attacked pretty hard, we spent a lot of time in our half of the field, didn't get to their end of the field until about the last ten minutes of the game. They defended very well, and competed hard for the ball. However, despite all that, we were rock solid in defence again, and final score was 0-0. This should be enough to guarantee we don't finish bottom of the table, which may not sound like much of an aspiration but being sure of that already is pretty good.
Rory's team were also playing a Metro team, just above them on the table. They played at the same time as Hannah's team but two fields away at the same ground (so I couldn't see any of it). It was 0-0 at half time, final score 1-1. Diana watched half of each game.
SPORT
Bollocks to the Olympics. The murdering boxer is out after boxing like a bar room brawler (he spear-tackled his opponent once and tried to do it a second time). He should never have gone to the games, I doubt many people cheered for him.
The Bay of Plenty beat Auckland in a historic Ranfurly Shield challenge yesterday. After Auckland beat two challengers and scored 100 points against both, it wasn't looking good for the Steamers. I think Waikato challenge this coming weekend, if they win, Auckland challenge for it again the week after.
Wellington won their opening NPC match against Canterbury. Don't know about the other games.
All Blacks lost 26-40 to South Africa. So far everyone has won their home matches in the tri-nations.
MY SAD LIFE
Heidi and Ad have been eating puffins in Iceland. Everyone in our house agrees that is icky, they are too cute to eat. Heidi says, in her defence, that there are an awful lot of the buggers (like six million), but they are still cute. Lambs are cute, but people eat them. Bunnies are a pest, but hardly anyone eats them. Being cute creates a protective field around potential food.
Koos, where are you, you rude bugger.
Charles, are you alive? (Charles who?)
Rory did his speech for the semi-final, no news on result yet. He didn't practice at all, lazy bugger.
Hannah has interschool soccer this Thursday. Rory has an interschool Mathex competition this Thursday night. Hannah has another tap dancing exam this coming Sunday. It's all go around here.
Went to see "Chronicles of Riddick" on Saturday afternoon with Gavin, Matt, and Kristy. Rory and Elliot came too, they were shocking. Would have happily left them behind, it was then that I realised having them sit somewhere else in the theatre was possibly a good thing.
We went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate out anniversary (seeing we went to water polo on the day). We had a nice dinner just up the road, haven't been out to dinner since we went to Christchurch. I was going to do a little "memorable moments of marriage" thing, but I don't really have time and you'd all get bored or throw-up (or both). I don't think either of us can remember life before marriage, much, and it is certainly hard to remember life before children. Interestingly, there is no "material" for the 16th anniversary (you know 1st is paper, 2nd is cotton, 14th is aluminium, etc). There is a modern list where it seems every second one is diamonds or gold, promoted by jewellery stores I suspect - and developed in an age where the duration of marriages isn't long enough to have a decent shot at a good gift. I think there should be a blokes one (1st is hammer, 2nd is chisel set, 5th is power drill, etc). Anyway, I figure I don't have to get Diana anything until 20th (which is when the next one is on the list).
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