Poor old Russell and Rory's birthday -02/08/04

LOCAL NEWS

A builder was in a six metre deep trench when it collapsed in Auckland on Thursday. Family were not happy with how long it took to get gear there to rescue him. He died before they got him out, they don't know how quickly yet. It was reported that they could see his head but couldn't communicate with him, which would suggest he died pretty fast.

The farcical pseudo-charity fight for life was this week, and the World Shearing Champion was flattened by some TV presenter in a miserable bout. The highlight was the promoter (who pockets about a third of the revenue for his efforts) got beaten by former All Black Mark Cooksley. I don't normally enjoy boxing but that was fun.

Jonah Lomu received an anonymous kidney and is out of hospital now.

America's Cup traitor Russell Coutts has been sacked by Ernesto Bertorelli, a few days after he changed the rules so Coutts couldn't sail for anyone else. Coutts will be fighting it in court.

A divorced Maori builder has married an insignificant British Royal. I am not sure why this is news.

WORLD NEWS

The coverage of the democrat convention has been over the top. How can they justify the cost of such an event?

There was a big gas explosion in Belgium that killed about 15 people.

REAL SPORT

Rory had water polo this week. His team muscled the opposition, winning 15-1. Rory scored three, maybe four goals, and set up heaps of others. He played really well. His friend Zak played his first game of the season (he broke his arm at the beginning of the season) and struggled hugely. You need to be a strong swimmer, and he just isn't. It will be interesting to see if he keeps going, I think he would be better off in team 3 where he wouldn’t stick out so much.

Hannah's team played a team just below them on the table, but it has beaten a team that beat us. It was a hard fought match, with lots of activity in the middle on the park, on a very uneven pitch. At one point, one of the girls thought the ball was dead and went to pick it up, realised she shouldn't have and let it go. It should have been a penalty but the ref gave it as a direct free kick instead. The girls formed a wall and defended it. The field markings on the field were so bad I don't think anyone else realised it happened in the penalty area. I seven years of soccer I don't think I've seen a penalty given, so it would have been pretty harsh. In the end, it was a nil all draw, our first draw of the season.

Rory's team played a team that they had previously beaten that was bottom of the table. They made a hash of it, and Rory scored an own goal when trying to clear a ball (his first). Luckily, it didn't change the result (although it was close) and they won 3-2.

It's funny. Rory's team have scored more goals than anyone else in their competition, but have also conceded a lot too (about fifth on goals conceded, where first is a bad thing). Hannah's team are quite the opposite. They have scored only three goals, and conceded only six, and are about third lowest on both. Their total isn't even ten goals, yet every other team has one or both in double figures.

SPORT

The Poms beat the Windies in the second test.

The Aussies beat the boks in the tri-nations game. They lost in the last minute like against the ABs.

The Olympics are coming soon, but I am not sure I care.

After all the fuss about Russell Coutts being sacked, it turns out Ernesto Bertarelli has lent money to Team New Zealand for their America's Cup challenge. That just sounds weird, loaning money to a team so they can challenge to take the cup off you.

MY SAD LIFE

Peter Evans, one of your photos was published in the first issue of D-Photo (a new digital photography magazine). It ran an extract from my book, in which the photos look better than in the book. There is also a photo of Symon's in there, and a photo of Thomas Goodin. I will get some copies for interested people.

I have been basically miserable all week. Eyes improving, but cold turned into a cough. Not sleeping, feel very tired. It is awful when you are sick, you want to do all sorts of things and can't. Rory and Hannah have both had it since, although they are under control and didn't get it in both eyes like I did (having drugs on hand helps).

We had teacher interviews for Rory and Hannah this week, on consecutive days. Nothing major to report, they are both doing fine. Two of the teachers seemed a little defensive when we asked questions (when Diana asked questions, to be honest). I bet they hate those interviews.

I received a letter from New Zealand Soccer telling me I have been "deemed competent" as a Junior Club Coach. Given that they barely even knew who turned up to the refresher course, I am underwhelmed with their confidence in my dubious ability.

Did the radio show again, but with a cough. Lasted about 55 minutes without coughing then nearly choked at the end. I was sucking on a special vocalzone thing, drinking water, you name it, but I survived. Sounded very croaky for a while on air, though.

The right honourable mayor of Auckland, John Banks, has bought the company that Diana works for. We didn't even vote for him. It just feels icky.

Children continue to work on their speeches, they should be out of the way this week. Rory got distinction in an Australian science exam, but I reckon the answer for one question was wrong.

RORY IS NOW TWELVE

Well, we had a weekend of festivities. Saturday was reasonably quiet but he opened a few presents (they were small in number but large in pricetag this time). He finished the playstation game (Spiderman 2) the same day (he'd already rented it once and had saved it) but he is still going on it. The Robosapien was billed by him as a "five minute wonder" but is growing on him. He was pretty pleased with the water polo ball from Sarah and Scott. He has scored a fair amount of cash from the kids at the birthday party and is trying to figure out what to buy. He may just get some US$ for the trip. We had lasagne at home on Saturday night, with Gavin and Elsie.

The party on Sunday involved me and Gavin taking ten boys to laser force where you run around shooting each other. All ten plus Gavin went on one team, I went on the other (great, put the sick one on the other team). Their team wasted my team, who were largely useless, although I did come first in my team in the last game (something about soaring like an eagle when you work with turkeys is appropriate). They all had fun, then came home and trashed everything. Food fight, threw lemons at each other, ball tiggy, etc.