Did you miss me? I just couldn't manage doing this while I was away, we were too busy.
Weather has been pretty ordinary, although nice and sunny yesterday.
LOCAL NEWS
There was a fuss about a mother and grandmother leaving their six year old daughter in the car park at a casino. Why don't casinos run a free crèche for customers?
There are two young women that have gone missing, one in Arthur's Pass in the South Island, the other in Piha in Auckland. Doesn't look good for either of them. Not often that two occur at once. What really irritated me was the "significant developments" in both cases on Wednesday, which turned out to be very minor (like the family has appealed for help and the police are convinced she isn't in Arthur's Pass any more). One "insignificant development" was that the Piha woman called police on a 111 line and they asked a taxi to go pick her up (by the time the taxi got there, she was gone). Then the taxi union were up in arms about taxi drivers being sent in to potentially dangerous situations (which is fair enough).
Fuss over local body elections and the fact that new Auckland Council isn't keen on V8 race. I am not bothered either way on the race, but closing key streets in the city for three days should be for a pretty good reason given the number of people that would be affected. Dick Hubbard won, by the way, and Banks is history (good).
Big business news was a number of former shareholders of Tranz Rail (the national railway company) have been charged with insider trading (they sold shares early on while shares declined from about $4 down to 30 cents over a couple of years).
An Australian man tried to steal $2 million from the Ministry of Health using some sort of computer program (it sounds like it was a simple transfer using Westpacs electronic banking system). He was discovered very quickly and the MOH began running around like a chicken with head cut off trying to make sure everything was safe.
Minister John Tamihere has had some bother over a severance payment that was not taxed, and has resigned as a Minister (not sure if temporary or permanent). Sounds pretty blatantly bad, it's not just one thing.
The police are considering giving people the option of paying fines or losing demerit points when they are snapped by a speed camera. They reckon this will discourage people who are worried about losing points and getting disqualified. Really? Won't they just choose a fine if they are running low on spare points and when the points expire they'll starts choosing points again? Or will they give the motorist the option and then make them choose the opposite of their choice.
On Sunday, a body was found in Arthur's Pass by trampers. Chances are it is the missing woman (that police were convinced couldn't be in Arthur's Pass any more, but was able to be found by trampers who weren't looking for it).
WORLD NEWS
Superman actor, Christopher Reeve, died this week. He was pretty much knackered after he broke his spine when he fell from a horse, but he fought pretty hard to regain some mobility. He looked pretty bad in a documentary I saw a while back. For a while there it looked like grim determination and bags of cash could overcome paralysis, but it wasn't to be.
Michael Jackson has taken offence at an Eminem video which shows someone who looks remarkably like Wacko Jacko burning his hair (which happened during filming of a Pepsi commercial a few years back), his nose falling off, and sitting on a large bed with a few young children bouncing up and down. Whilst it all may be in dubious taste, I think Mr Jackson is probably better off having a laugh and ignoring it.
REAL SPORT
Rory's team won their game while he was away, in fact all three teams won. I thought they would all be wrecks after camp, but clearly that was not the case.
Rory played in a tournament this weekend. I ended up being the coach because Erin was away with Glandular fever. Rory was one of two Year 7s in the top team, and one of four players from the regular team 2 (frankly, the four from Team 2 were the better players with the exception of one other). On the Friday night we won our first game 8-4, although it was tied at the end of the first and second quarters. Our second game we lost 0-6, but they beat the other team 15-0 so it wasn't too bad. We conceded four goals in the first quarter (when Rory was off), none in 2nd and 3rd quarters, then two in the last quarter, so we had our moments. JP broke a tooth in the 4th quarter (but it was a cap already so not so bad). This put us in the middle draw (Cup, plate, bowl, I think).
On the second day we drew 2-2 in our first game, and lost our second game 9-2. The team we drew with lost too, but lost better than us so we went into the playoff for 5th and 6th the next day. The Ponsonby B team played soon after, we watched them, they got a bit of a thumping.
The third day was the play-off for 5th and 6th. I put the four from Rory's team out together in the first quarter (for the first time in the tournament) and they did pretty well. They looked good but didn't score a lot. We won the game 8-4, I think. Good to finish with a win, put us at 11th of 18 in the Division 1 competition. The other team had lost all three other games, they played soon after us so we stayed to watch. They played their best game of the tournament and won 5-2 (I think). It was good they did it, without any help from our team. Rory's team finished with two wins, two losses, and a draw.
SPORT
England beat Wales in a soccer world cup qualifying match. I wish Ryan Giggs played for England, he will never get to a World Cup playing for Wales. Maybe he just wanted a rest.
England also beat Azerbaijan in another qualifier (as they should).
Wellington beat Waikato for the first spot in the final of the NPC. Canterbury thumped BOP for the other spot.
There is cricket going on in the sub-continent. Aussie playing India and New Zealand playing someone else. Aussie is struggling (Sunday morning they were about ten runs ahead with four wickets down in their second innings. This morning India needs 229 to win on the last day.
In the league test, the Kiwis drew 16-16 with the Aussies.
MY SAD LIFE
Rehabilitation into normal society took a bit of doing. I think I had recovered to normal sleep patterns pretty quickly, but had trouble being useful in the afternoons all week.
Paul, Ruapehu is 9076 feet high, and is the highest in the North Island.
It was Paul's birthday on Saturday.
Olwyn, we need to drop some things off for you.
The Goodins have returned from their holiday and are back in action. Thomas turns six in about ten days.
I hear that Charles is coming in two weeks for a visit. The Goodins are running away to Melbourne, which is just rude.
After polo on Sunday I managed to remove considerable crap from my garage, and then made space in my office. Heaps to go yet, but the beginning at least (cardboard boxes come in handy, but not when you have like twenty of the buggers just in case you need them). The display shelves are starting to become more of a mission as I consider storage requirements. Rory said that if we made this much progress in the garage every Sunday we should have room to park a car in it in about 4,000 years. Rude bugger.
We took Rory's Science Fair thing to the inter-school competition yesterday, after water polo. He is there today and we have to bring it home Thursday. He got merit for his art while he was away, we don't even know what it looks like.
Hannah has another dance exam tomorrow morning.
WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY
I am not really sure you want to know the detail, there is plenty of it (believe me, I have notes on every day for three weeks). I think you don't really deserve that, nobody does (especially Paul).
I will summarise it very briefly. We explored San Francisco, including Alcatraz. Then we left early on a Saturday morning, spent the day at Yosemite (up to 9960 feet up), and most of the evening getting to Lone Pine. Then we drove through Death Valley (Ian, air con was fine this time, much to our relief) to Vegas. From Vegas we did the Grand Canyon in a lightning storm (but it didn't rain very much), and went through Zion National Park as well. We did a few Vegas things, shows, etc, but only about ten minutes gambling for me (I lost two dollars). People by the pool were vast. We visited Hoover Dam on the way to LA. Once in Santa Monica we did Universal Studios, La Brea Tarpits Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Getty Museum (and some other bits and pieces, including the Wildlife Zoo that is attached to San Diego Zoo). Then we went north to San Simeon for Hearst Castle, and Monterey (did the aquarium), then home to SF. Back in SF we watched the navy come in for Fleet Week, saw performing aerobatics, and a national robot battle tournament. We did 2500 miles in about 12 days, averaging five hours driving a day (although some days we didn't go near the car, much).
We thought we lost a visa card, and then Hannah (same night, I think). We got a parking ticket. Beyond that, there were few dramas.
Lots of photos were taken. One roll of film and about twenty memory cards were filled. Many pixels were made to work very hard. Something like 3,500 photos all told, over a hundred a day. We saw a ton of scenery, went up and down in altitude more feet than we did in the two plane trips, saw a number of National Parks, National Monuments, American Wonders of the Engineering World, and were educated in many museums.
It was, as hoped, the trip of a lifetime in many, many respects. And it will take about that long to pay off the visa card.
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