LOCAL NEWS
A wealthy Chinese lady was kidnapped and ransomed for a million dollars. Not sure if they paid up but she was recovered intact. The three perpetrators were not immediately apprehended, but police were pretty happy that she was okay.
The mother of a prem baby found in a sewer has been identified and is being counselled. Not sure why. Probably doesn't need to be reminded about it.
They found the Unimog about 100m downstream from where it hit the water. Haven't got it out yet.
Major tornado thing hit Greymouth in the South Island. Buildings were very heavily damaged, walls removed and lots of roofs peeled off. The video store had records withdrawals in one day, although takings were down. Nobody was seriously hurt, which is pretty surprising. There has been some looting since, which has really pissed people off and there is talk of a posse rounding them up (things are still a bit old-fashioned in Greymouth).
A survey revealed that a quarter of university graduates leave NZ to live. Apparently more of NZ's graduates leave than any other OECD country. We have talent in Australia, Britain, USA, Canada, and the Netherlands (in decreasing order of quantity). No mention of there being any talent of note in Singapore, KL, Germany, or Dubai (sorry guys, nothing personal).
It appears that the right honourable John Banks is going to run for Parliament for the ACT party. I used to think ACT had some potential but that would end it for me there and then. Problem is, the choices for voting are pretty bad. I haven't a clue who we can vote for.
Big fuss this week about NZ cricketer Darryl Tuffey in a video with a couple of English tourists and a milkshake. They are holding an enquiry. Best not think about it. They didn't say what flavour the milkshake was.
There was a 6.1 quake off the west coast of Wellington but it wasn't very serious. No mention of large waves anywhere.
WORLD NEWS
Can somebody please teach GW a facial expression other than smug? I can't believe anyone other than his mother actually voted for him. I guess that is the power of PR and advertising.
The dwarf in the pope suit is recovering. It's just cruel. Give the poor guy a break.
REAL SPORT
Hannah's soccer team is now known as the Sirens. Very apt. A group of girls that entice their victims in close with song and then eat them. Also a loud piercing noise that is a warning to others.
They had a game on Sunday, a friendly. Only six per side this time. Hannah scored three goals, but they lost 4-3.
SPORT
First test started Thursday, and was better than expected but still felt like waiting for the hammer to fall. Day three gave some hints of what the Australians were capable of batting. Day four showed that NZ wasn't. It was all over too quick.
Crusaders thumped Reds, Highlanders beat Bulls who couldn't score a point, the Chiefs upset the Blues, Hurricanes won third on the trot although the Sharks nearly came back at the end scoring two late tries but it wasn't enough.
Auckland City beat Waikato 3-2 in the club soccer final.
Man Utd, Newcastle, Blackburn, and Arsenal are through to the next round of the FA Cup. Man Utd crashed out of the champs league this week.
The Silver Ferns are playing England and England aren't very good. We beat them by less than Australia did.
MY SAD LIFE
Okay, explaining the dishwasher thing. It started wetting itself and the kitchen floor. We always said if it became incontinent or couldn't clean the dishes any more, we would have to put it to sleep. Well, it did that over the weekend. It took some effort extracting it, and all the while Diana was busy making deals with appliance retailers for the dish drawer she has had her eye on for quite some time. When we put it on the trailer I noticed a pipe had come off a connector. Probably the reason for it's incontinenence. You should have seen Diana's face. It was like her much loved pet that had become a right pain had come back to life. Rather than facing connecting it again and the prospect of reperforming the job every time the pipe came off, I suggested maybe we give the dishwasher the dignity of leaving having done a good job and with some self-respect intact. Diana readily agreed (no arm-twisting required) and she disappeared off to see her new best-friend Mav (who made her an offer she couldn't refuse) before anyone changed their mind. We have had this dishwasher since before Rory was born, it is thirteen years old, it's had a good run. It's going to live on a farm with open spaces and lots of country-style food to remove from good solid pieces of crockery.
The kids were severely traumatised by the lack of a dishwasher. They can't believe what we used to do in "the olden days".
Hannah worked really hard in the swim sports but didn't make it to inter-schools. She made the final in about three events, but just missed out. I think she was pretty disappointed but I didn't want to make too much of a fuss about it.
I got two emails from Charles (possibly a record in one week). He said Penny's house was way nicer than a hotel. Also said Ross was a little bit traumatised by the gay mardi-gras. I understand he is coming back for Easter.
Haven't heard from Ross but I thought Barry was in town. Maybe that's next week.
Spent all day Saturday working on Rory's homework. Gavin and Diana helped as well. We constructed a mannequin of a character from a book. The skeleton was made of plastic pipe, which works pretty well. We arrived at the plumbing supplies shop to find out local plumber there and so he got us the "plumber discount" (it's a lot, trust me). It hasn't been glued so we can recycle it for another project. We basically finished it on Saturday (not due for another two weeks, but there is plenty more things due). He's also made good progress on another thing. He handed one thing in early last week because we thought he had swim sports and on the Thursday night he had calls from about three people asking what was required for something due on the Friday.
Hannah and Diana went to Pasifika on Saturday morning, a festival of Pacific Island-ness. Hannah entered a bottom waggling competition, but a gay guy won. They bought a raffle ticket and won a $200 hamper. They entered lots of competitions.
I am worried about Gavin, he has registered himself on trademe and is starting to get carried away. He did warn me.
Rory's interschool swim sports this Thursday. Swimming in 50m free and breaststroke and 100m freestyle.
Hannah has school camp this week, she is away Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Allan is due to arrive in San Francisco any time now, comes home later in the week. I could be responsible for any excess baggage charges he incurs.
Is it just me or are these things getting quite long?
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