A funny old week, more rain than anything else.
LOCAL NEWS
The Jewish section in a Wellington cemetery was severely vandalised (something like 90 headstones broken or pushed over). Someone seriously has a problem with the Jewish community and is treated vandalism as a fitness regime (it must have taken a long time for one person).
A trans-tasman rowboat that was abandoned about two years ago has washed up on the coast of Queensland.
The Pacific Forum has been happening in Samoa, excellent because it exports Helen for a while. The wrestler known as "The Rock" showed up (he lived in Samoa until he was 14) and upstaged the forum big time.
News this week that immigrant scam arrests are up 900%. The roundness of the number suggests that there was 1 last year and they have found 9 this year. Then the news comes that the cost of expelling immigrants was $3m (which suggests that the figure of 9 is not far from the truth).
There's been lots of ice in the central north island. A large truck slipped off the road and a chunk of State Highway 1 was closed most of Sunday to get it back onto the road.
REAL SPORT
Grudge match for Rory's water polo team against Ponsonby 3 (he is in Ponsonby 2). One of their key players was out, so pressure was on. Rory went in goal in first quarter, made two awesome saves and they led 2-0 at the end of the quarter. He was off in the second quarter and they were under pressure. Team 3 scored one goal. In the third quarter, Rory's team did a bit better and I think ended the quarter 4-3. In the fourth quarter the other team was all over them, there was one weird decision where Rory was about to take a free throw and had the ball stripped (seems the coach thought the person passing the ball to Rory had already taken the throw). Team 3 scored again, and Georgia did well to deflect another one over the bar. Final score 4-4. Rory had a great game, but missed David (who also does a good job in goal).
It was too wet for training so we took the girls to an indoor cricket venue and played inside the nets. This became known as the "bouncy walls" place and Hannah now wants her birthday party there. We shall see. I think we will be going there again, somehow.
Hannah's team were up against the top of the table team. It was always going to be tough. The other team didn't know the game had been transferred and got to the field about 15 minutes late (technically we could claim a default win, but I didn't think that was sporting so we didn't). We lost the game 5-0, we did pretty well, but a couple of the goals were pretty soft, I think 2-0 would have been a fairer reflection. Regardless, it wasn't our worst result and certainly wasn't their best.
Rory's soccer game was cancelled, so he played for Team 2, who also had two guys from Team 3 play for them. They have struggled for numbers most weeks and only had one win this season, they needed the help. Their numbers were low at kickoff so Hannah played as well. Then two finally arrived (but she came back on a couple of times and did pretty well, was certainly not the weakest player in the team). They are bottom of the table and were playing a team that is third. The other team scored two early goals before they woke up, then they started to come right and were trailing 3-2 at one stage. The continuing pressure kept resulting in goals at the wrong end though, and the final score was a 2-6 loss. Rory looked really good out there (I haven't seen him play for weeks), and the guy from Team 3 who thinks he should be in a better team did okay but found it harder against quicker opposition.
SPORT
The Wallabies beat the All Blacks 23-18 so the tri-nations is not yet decided.
The Olympics start this week and I am not sure as many people care as the sponsors would like to think. We can predict the sort of news we will get:
- The cyclist from Lesotho who trained on a penny farthing in a minefield who comes cold motherless last but the media can't stop talking about him.
- The drugs cheats from just about everywhere.
- The swimming star disqualified for a false start.
- The record set by someone who sets a mark way above their personal best.
- The American 100m sprint relay team will drop the baton.
- The cute Ukranian female runner who is tripped in the 1500m by some Canadian woman that everyone hates.
- The dodgy decisions from the Russian Mafia funded rhythmic gymnastics judges.
MY PICK FOR THE OLYMPIC CEREMONY
Nana Mouskouri will make a spectacle of herself (is she still alive?).
MY SAD LIFE
The girls in Hannah's team are all getting their names on their jackets. They look awesome.
The kids both delivered their speeches this week. Rory has gone through to semi-finals. Homework seems to be a non-issue, that can't be good.
This coming Friday is our 16th wedding anniversary. I don't think I should say anything else at this point, in the interests of staying out of trouble. Except that I suppose we are really old farts.
It was a sad day on Saturday. We pulled down the playground (including the climbing wall) that has been in the back garden for nearly as long as we have been living in this house. It is going to the Bambi's for Sasha to play on. There were sixteen posts concreted into the ground, but because the ground was so damn soft it wasn't too hard to get them out. We got the concrete off the posts and put it back in the holes and covered it with dirt. It looked like the moon, an attack of gophers, or a new set of hedgehog traps for a while. There is lots of empty space out there now. I then attacked the greenery that had gone made behind the main slide thing the next day. It is a rite of passage in a way, the children are too old for it now. I am worried Diana is going to want to put something like a pergola out there now.
Naturally, I was utterly knackered after all that, but wasn't too sore the next day. I took the kids to the flea market at Avondale Sunday morning, Diana kept the bed warm. We got rained on a bit, but it was okay. Hannah was pretty grumpy about Rory coming (she wanted it to be just me and her, as soccer hadn't been just me and her because Rory's game started much later than hers). They actually were quite nice to each other, despite that. The kids were really funny later on Sunday, really annoying and bouncy. On the way home from the video store we made them get out and run home (from the other side of the school, so not that far). That calmed them down a bit.
Mum got back from England/Ireland this week with lots of photos.
It's only about six weeks until we go to California and destroy Paul's peace and quiet. We are starting to get some plans together but still utterly vague and disoriented.
Koos, what's happening?
Heidi, you back from holiday now? Must be.
THE CATS SAD LIFE
The cats have largely been behaving themselves, doing nothing too noteworthy.
Ollie was on the roof of the house this morning, when it started raining hard. The pitiful cries were loud and (you guessed it) pitiful. He made it down and was particularly wet.
I saw Pandora chase a cat off the section but couldn't tell if it was a police action or playing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment