It's been cold, and wet. And quite cold. Bit short this week, sorry, been busy.
LOCAL NEWS
There was a relatively small fire at Pasadena Intermediate (a local school, we know heaps of kids that go there including kids in both Hannah and Rory's soccer teams).
Telecom lost two parts of it's network in the lower north island on Monday, which stuffed all sorts of things up. Mobiles were out in the South Island, EFTPOS failed, it was a mess.
An Australian tourist died when he went for a walk in sub-zero conditions in Fjordland, he was found buried in snow a few hundred metres from safety.
A man has been arrested for the murder of the dairy guy last week.
Helen Clark was ejected from the chamber this week, so Don Brash got ejected too (so she wouldn't get the limelight on her own). Electioneering is ramping up considerably.
WORLD NEWS
Princess Maxima, the wife of Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday, who starts life as the third in line to the Dutch throne. Will Nissan name a car after the baby? Only time will tell.
Shane Warne has announced that he is separating from his wife Simone. I think it must be because she prefers bald men and he has been recently cured by some thing that he advertises. Does this mean we won't hear about his extra-curricular activities any more?
REAL SPORT
The water polo team started with Rory on the sideline in the first quarter, they conceded a goal but fought back to about 4-1 at the end of the first quarter. It just got worse for the other team from then on. Final score was 20-1, Rory got six goals. He was very happy. The opposition team had two players who were clearly experienced water polo players (we haven't seen many so far) and worked well but the rest of their team struggled. There is one grading game left. Don't think they will play either of the other unbeaten teams. They've now scored 91 goals in five games. I then coached Ponsonby Gold against Ponsonby Blue and despite Blue only having six players (a team is seven in the water) and Gold leading 3-1 in the first quarter, they lost 8-5. Gold hasn't won a game yet, and this was their big chance.
The weather caused all soccer to be cancelled. Meant Hannah's team missed out playing a team that they should have beaten and Rory's team missing out playing a team that should have beaten them.
SPORT
Well, Michael Campbell won the US Open Golf Tournament. This is very big news in a country like New Zealand. He is the second New Zealander to win a golf major (the last time was before I was born) and it is about as likely as an New Zealander winning a grand slam tennis event or New Zealand winning the World Cup in anything (except maybe rugby and netball). Ranked in one paper as the 3rd biggest sporting achievement in New Zealand, he is a shoo-in to win the sportsman of the year award.
The golf made the build-up to the first Lions test a bit muffled but it gained momentum. The game itself wasn't very close, although the atrocious conditions made open flowing rugby somewhat difficult. I don't remember seeing hail in a test match before. The final score was 23-3. Clive Woodward is whinging about how Brian O'Driscoll was taken out in the first minute, but I can't see that as being a deliberate All Black tactic.
New Zealander Sean Marks plays for the San Antonio Spurs, although wasn't playing in the finals, got a ring when they won the championship. Kind of slack in a way, you'd think they'd let all the players on their roster play at least a bit.
MY SAD LIFE
The name the baby competition hasn't done very well, so far. Frankly, I blame the parents.
We did the school tour with Hannah on Tuesday. She wanted Rory to take us but it was better to get someone else's view of the school. Phoebe is in Rory's class, and I know her from tennis. We got a female view of activities and I went places I have never been (I hang around there often enough, if you ask me).
Gavin returned from Ekatarinberg on Thursday, not Wednesday. Even though he told me he was arriving Wednesday. I managed to figure out that he didn't know what day it was and went to the airport at an ungodly hour on Thursday (and not Wednesday) to pick him up. I have to say that removing the chairs at the arrival area is a stupid thing to do. It was good for the arriving person's self-esteem to see a bunch of people waiting expectantly for you (as long as you didn't notice their disappointment as they all realised you weren't their mum/brother/long lost twin/main squeeze/parental unit/etc).
We went out to lunch for Diana's birthday. We got into her car, and I looked in the rear vision mirror and Ollie was sitting on the parcel shelf behind the back seat, seemed to want to come with us.
Elsie, Diana's Mum, has had some problems with her knee lately. This week she got a disabled parking permit, which means we can take her places in the car and park closer so she has less walking to do. On Saturday morning, to test it, I took Elsie and the kids out for a trip. We parked in three disabled spots, it was great.
Things I learned:
1 disabled parking is free and without time limit
2 they let other disabled people use the parks so they aren't always empty
3 if you have a disabled permit, you can still park in regular parks
4 they have them outside schools
5 but not outside libraries
6 being able to park right outside some shops can prove costly
7 but they can be a lot of fun.
We went to my mother's concert on Saturday. About twenty odd singers accompanied by a piano. The children weren't too keen, and I have to admit it wasn't high on my list either. However, it went quite well. Mum did a good job, in front of about 150 people. I really enjoyed the piano solo (not because there was no singing, but because it was a technical piece that the woman played very well). The kids were playing a funny hand game during it and I took a photo of them doing it on Mum's camera (talk about caught in the act). I noticed that lots of older women have short hair, like almost all of them.
We have lots of school tours this week for Rory. And a performance of Romeo & Juliet (he is half of Romeo). He had three rehearsals for the other show last week.
GAVIN'S EXPERIENCE IN RUSSIA (as interpreted by me)
He said the only piece of news he recognised in Russia was the words "Michael Jackson" and "not guilty" (interesting that they didn't translate the not guilty into Russian). Apparently half the top 20 music is regular music in English and the other half is Russian. He found very few people that spoke English in Ekatarinberg, and one that felt that speaking German would work because it was also a foreign language (even her friends thought she was mad, but she persisted. Gavin didn't even realise she was talking to him half the time because broken German in a Russian accent sounds pretty much like Russian to someone who speaks neither language). He has experienced the manly joy of being whipped with a stick in a bath house, and doing some whipping (although it is very hard work at 83 degrees Celsius). Some of his photos of grotty apartment buildings show what we should expect to see in Auckland in some areas where we have new grotty apartment buildings.
20 June 2005
Never trust a twelve year old with money in a supermarket, let alone four of them - 20/06/05
This week's edition carries an insanity warning.( Anyone reading this may doubt my sanity.)
LOCAL NEWS
Police arrested a 52 year old man over the double murder in Feilding. Surprisingly, he was a sickness beneficiary.
Two women were found dead at a beach near Wellington, one in the water, the other one the shore. They turned out to be jointly accused of a murder, results will be interesting.
Worker in a dairy was shot and died in Morningside in central Auckland last night, this sort of thing is pretty rare in New Zealand. When I saw the paper and it said "dairy", I actually thought they meant a milk factory, but it was a convenience store.
The New Zealand High Commissioner to Canada has apologised for a number of derogatory comments made about early Maori, Asian migrants ignoring laws for gathering shellfish, and other things which although wild generalisations are not completely untrue. Interestingly, he wasn't required to return to New Zealand to apologise, but then wasn't allowed to come home for the funeral of Sonja Davies, who was a close friend of his. Interesting double-standard going on there.
Sonja Davies was remembered with a huge gathering of powerful women and a few token men.
Jonah Lomu is out of rugby for the season after hurting his shoulder at his comeback match. He needs to retire. There were tons of jokes about how he could play for the Maoris (because his new kidney came from a Maori).
Brian Tamaki held the ceremony to turn himself into a bishop. No news on promotion to pope or archbishop yet. Apparently his church takes EFTPOS.
New figures show that New Zealand is going from earning about $400m in carbon credits to owing $600m. That's quite a change. The Kyoto protocol is based on getting carbon output to 1990 levels, which is tricky for countries that have grown. You'd think a country like New Zealand with lots of trees would do okay, but apparently not.
WORLD NEWS
Michael Jackson was finally found not guilty. Not sure what to think. You'd think guilty verdicts take longer than not-guilty. One hopes he will keep his distance from small boys. It shouldn't be that hard for him to figure out.
Dutch for No is Nee (pronounced Nay), in case you were wondering (I know I was, thanks Heidi).
The Australian hostage in Iraq was freed.
Lots of news about the Whaling summit, where Japan was more, and New Zealand wants less. Not sure what I think about this, either way. You sort of think the whalers would want sustainable levels but not completely sure they will be that responsible.
REAL SPORT
Well, the water polo was one-sided again, although Rangeview scored two goals against them it was 20-2. The team is now averaging nearly 18 goals per game and one against. They play another pretty weak team this Friday, although they are actually fourth on the table.
Hannah's soccer team was facing the top of the table team. It was appalling conditions, heavy rain. Hannah is well and truly back, played very well. We conceded two goals in the first half, but kept them out in the second, final score 0-2.
Rory's team was 0-1 down in the first half, and then it all went horribly wrong, final score 0-6. The other team was very aggressive, the parents were hideous (I used a variation of the old pickup line when referring to one scary woman that bellowed from the sideline - "Hell must be missing a harridan."). Despite that, many of the lads enjoyed getting filthy in the rain and mud.
SPORT
The Lions won their midweek match against the Wellington team (also called the Lions, there were plenty of sad attempts at humour about that) 23-6. They beat Otago on Saturday night, convincingly in the end.
The first Lions test is this coming Saturday.
NSW beat Queensland to level state of origin 1-1.
The New Zealand Badminton team seem to now be called the "Black Cocks", which I just don't think is in good taste at all.
The Aussies are slowly building up to the Ashes series in England. The big news is that Bangladesh best them in a ODI. The Aussies scored 249/5, which seemed a tough enough target. They got there in the last over, with four balls to spare, in a nail biting finish (got a six on the first ball of the last over which made it easier). This came only a week or two after Warnie said that Bangladesh shouldn't be playing test cricket (which I have to admit I largely agreed with). The odds for them winning were like 180-1 and some guy put 20 quid on them.
The Aussies then lost to England in an ODI. Wonder if they are trying to improve the odds for the Ashes series?
Michael Campbell was leading the golf this morning, when I wrote this. Tiger Woods is breathing down his neck, two shots behind.
MY SAD LIFE
I coached the Year 8 team at the inter-school soccer on Tuesday. They lost the first game 0-1, and as they only had two pool games I thought that meant they would be out regardless of the result in their second game. They won that 2-0, which was surprisingly enough to get them through as top of their group (the team they beat beat the team they lost to). They then won the semi-final 2-0. In the final they conceded a goal and then were down 0-1, but equalised with a great corner from Rory. They lost in golden goal extra time, which was pretty sad, they were sooo close. I took Rory and three others back to school, stopped at the supermarket and gave them some money to buy themselves an ice cream. After about ten minutes, I was beginning to worry so I went in. They were at the checkout, using a ladies card to get a discount, and had bought two, two litre containers of ice cream, and some plastic spoons! Little buggers. They ate some on the bench outside the supermarket and then gleefully ate the rest whilst sitting outside the classrooms (see, this is the kicker, they not only got to eat an excessive amount of ice cream, but they couldn't go back to class until they were finished). It was so funny, I couldn't bring myself to tell them off. They even gave me change.
Hannah had her dance exam on Tuesday. She got honours (sounds like almost everyone did), it's good she didn't miss out completely. Rory got a call-back for the auditions, where he struggled with saying the word "Irish" and went into welsh-accent. He got the part he wanted, Dandy Dan, which is one of the lead parts.
From the "even I can't believe I am that sad" department. Diana and I had a debate some time ago about what constituted the top end of Meola Road. She seemed to think it was obviously the Westmere end. I thought that there wasn't one but if there was it was the Pt Chevalier end. She then (foolishly) said that her reasoning was that it was higher at the Westmere end, and I had to take the contrary view (I am her husband, that is my job). Well, despite getting Paul to bring his GPS over in January (we forgot to do it) and being unable to measure accurately enough with the altimeter in Diana's car, I finally did it with a GPS this week (I know, let it go, Rob). Well, turns out the Pt Chevalier Road is about three metres higher (32 to 29) than the Westmere end. So I was right. I did admit to Diana that I was actually surprised and thought it was going to be pretty close or maybe the other way around. All this to point out that sometimes the "top" of a given road isn't necessarily obvious to everyone (are we talking altitude or distance from CPO?).
Rory had a school dance, the theme was "bling". He went covered in shiny chains. He looked like a very pale and skinny version of Mr T. On Sunday, Thomas wore it all and said "Yo, my dog" (we all thought he said "oh my god" at first). The Goodins seemed in good shape, we had coffee with them on Sunday morning, Ross' cough has improved (so has mine).
We went to Muriwai with Koos and Sjaan on Sunday, Diana got to ride in Koos' new car. It's a silver one. As usual, kids didn't want to go, made a big fuss, then had a lovely time there. We played giant mega-vortex darts, which involves making a giant dartboard on the sand and throwing the vortex from the top of a sand dune. We made a ladies one as well (because Hannah and Diana throw like girls, a bit like ladies tees in golf). It was silly, but fun.
Gavin is still in Ekatarinberg. Sounds like there aren't many English-speakers there (not like Holland, for example). He's due home on Wednesday. My camera seems to be okay. If he brings any of those nesting doll things back, I will leave him at the airport.
It is Diana's birthday this Thursday. I guess I have to find a present or two.
Heidi, I did remind Koos that he should be posting your present any day now. Didn't seem to take any notice.
Hannah has a school tour of Ponsonby Intermediate tomorrow. Life has become incredibly hectic. The schedule for dancing, rehearsals for the show, showcase (a thing at Rory's school), water polo, soccer, school visits (for both children) and so forth seems overwhelming. I might have to go have a bit of a lie down.
RANDOM PHRASE OF THE VAGUELY INDEFINITE TIME PERIOD
Well, I used to do a word of the week, but that got to be dull. Not sure how often this will happen, hence the title.
In the car, on the way back from Muriwai, I wondered aloud whether anyone would ever use the phrase "under exaggerated" which seemed oxymoronic, at best. Well, I googled the phrase and there are 1010 instances of it on the internet so I suppose it does get used. However, the phrase "over exaggerated" has more than 32,000 and remove the space and you pick up another 8,000. This is sad, given that exaggerated already means "over stated" you would think adding the "over" to it would make little difference.
I apologise for the excessive use of speech marks in that.
LOCAL NEWS
Police arrested a 52 year old man over the double murder in Feilding. Surprisingly, he was a sickness beneficiary.
Two women were found dead at a beach near Wellington, one in the water, the other one the shore. They turned out to be jointly accused of a murder, results will be interesting.
Worker in a dairy was shot and died in Morningside in central Auckland last night, this sort of thing is pretty rare in New Zealand. When I saw the paper and it said "dairy", I actually thought they meant a milk factory, but it was a convenience store.
The New Zealand High Commissioner to Canada has apologised for a number of derogatory comments made about early Maori, Asian migrants ignoring laws for gathering shellfish, and other things which although wild generalisations are not completely untrue. Interestingly, he wasn't required to return to New Zealand to apologise, but then wasn't allowed to come home for the funeral of Sonja Davies, who was a close friend of his. Interesting double-standard going on there.
Sonja Davies was remembered with a huge gathering of powerful women and a few token men.
Jonah Lomu is out of rugby for the season after hurting his shoulder at his comeback match. He needs to retire. There were tons of jokes about how he could play for the Maoris (because his new kidney came from a Maori).
Brian Tamaki held the ceremony to turn himself into a bishop. No news on promotion to pope or archbishop yet. Apparently his church takes EFTPOS.
New figures show that New Zealand is going from earning about $400m in carbon credits to owing $600m. That's quite a change. The Kyoto protocol is based on getting carbon output to 1990 levels, which is tricky for countries that have grown. You'd think a country like New Zealand with lots of trees would do okay, but apparently not.
WORLD NEWS
Michael Jackson was finally found not guilty. Not sure what to think. You'd think guilty verdicts take longer than not-guilty. One hopes he will keep his distance from small boys. It shouldn't be that hard for him to figure out.
Dutch for No is Nee (pronounced Nay), in case you were wondering (I know I was, thanks Heidi).
The Australian hostage in Iraq was freed.
Lots of news about the Whaling summit, where Japan was more, and New Zealand wants less. Not sure what I think about this, either way. You sort of think the whalers would want sustainable levels but not completely sure they will be that responsible.
REAL SPORT
Well, the water polo was one-sided again, although Rangeview scored two goals against them it was 20-2. The team is now averaging nearly 18 goals per game and one against. They play another pretty weak team this Friday, although they are actually fourth on the table.
Hannah's soccer team was facing the top of the table team. It was appalling conditions, heavy rain. Hannah is well and truly back, played very well. We conceded two goals in the first half, but kept them out in the second, final score 0-2.
Rory's team was 0-1 down in the first half, and then it all went horribly wrong, final score 0-6. The other team was very aggressive, the parents were hideous (I used a variation of the old pickup line when referring to one scary woman that bellowed from the sideline - "Hell must be missing a harridan."). Despite that, many of the lads enjoyed getting filthy in the rain and mud.
SPORT
The Lions won their midweek match against the Wellington team (also called the Lions, there were plenty of sad attempts at humour about that) 23-6. They beat Otago on Saturday night, convincingly in the end.
The first Lions test is this coming Saturday.
NSW beat Queensland to level state of origin 1-1.
The New Zealand Badminton team seem to now be called the "Black Cocks", which I just don't think is in good taste at all.
The Aussies are slowly building up to the Ashes series in England. The big news is that Bangladesh best them in a ODI. The Aussies scored 249/5, which seemed a tough enough target. They got there in the last over, with four balls to spare, in a nail biting finish (got a six on the first ball of the last over which made it easier). This came only a week or two after Warnie said that Bangladesh shouldn't be playing test cricket (which I have to admit I largely agreed with). The odds for them winning were like 180-1 and some guy put 20 quid on them.
The Aussies then lost to England in an ODI. Wonder if they are trying to improve the odds for the Ashes series?
Michael Campbell was leading the golf this morning, when I wrote this. Tiger Woods is breathing down his neck, two shots behind.
MY SAD LIFE
I coached the Year 8 team at the inter-school soccer on Tuesday. They lost the first game 0-1, and as they only had two pool games I thought that meant they would be out regardless of the result in their second game. They won that 2-0, which was surprisingly enough to get them through as top of their group (the team they beat beat the team they lost to). They then won the semi-final 2-0. In the final they conceded a goal and then were down 0-1, but equalised with a great corner from Rory. They lost in golden goal extra time, which was pretty sad, they were sooo close. I took Rory and three others back to school, stopped at the supermarket and gave them some money to buy themselves an ice cream. After about ten minutes, I was beginning to worry so I went in. They were at the checkout, using a ladies card to get a discount, and had bought two, two litre containers of ice cream, and some plastic spoons! Little buggers. They ate some on the bench outside the supermarket and then gleefully ate the rest whilst sitting outside the classrooms (see, this is the kicker, they not only got to eat an excessive amount of ice cream, but they couldn't go back to class until they were finished). It was so funny, I couldn't bring myself to tell them off. They even gave me change.
Hannah had her dance exam on Tuesday. She got honours (sounds like almost everyone did), it's good she didn't miss out completely. Rory got a call-back for the auditions, where he struggled with saying the word "Irish" and went into welsh-accent. He got the part he wanted, Dandy Dan, which is one of the lead parts.
From the "even I can't believe I am that sad" department. Diana and I had a debate some time ago about what constituted the top end of Meola Road. She seemed to think it was obviously the Westmere end. I thought that there wasn't one but if there was it was the Pt Chevalier end. She then (foolishly) said that her reasoning was that it was higher at the Westmere end, and I had to take the contrary view (I am her husband, that is my job). Well, despite getting Paul to bring his GPS over in January (we forgot to do it) and being unable to measure accurately enough with the altimeter in Diana's car, I finally did it with a GPS this week (I know, let it go, Rob). Well, turns out the Pt Chevalier Road is about three metres higher (32 to 29) than the Westmere end. So I was right. I did admit to Diana that I was actually surprised and thought it was going to be pretty close or maybe the other way around. All this to point out that sometimes the "top" of a given road isn't necessarily obvious to everyone (are we talking altitude or distance from CPO?).
Rory had a school dance, the theme was "bling". He went covered in shiny chains. He looked like a very pale and skinny version of Mr T. On Sunday, Thomas wore it all and said "Yo, my dog" (we all thought he said "oh my god" at first). The Goodins seemed in good shape, we had coffee with them on Sunday morning, Ross' cough has improved (so has mine).
We went to Muriwai with Koos and Sjaan on Sunday, Diana got to ride in Koos' new car. It's a silver one. As usual, kids didn't want to go, made a big fuss, then had a lovely time there. We played giant mega-vortex darts, which involves making a giant dartboard on the sand and throwing the vortex from the top of a sand dune. We made a ladies one as well (because Hannah and Diana throw like girls, a bit like ladies tees in golf). It was silly, but fun.
Gavin is still in Ekatarinberg. Sounds like there aren't many English-speakers there (not like Holland, for example). He's due home on Wednesday. My camera seems to be okay. If he brings any of those nesting doll things back, I will leave him at the airport.
It is Diana's birthday this Thursday. I guess I have to find a present or two.
Heidi, I did remind Koos that he should be posting your present any day now. Didn't seem to take any notice.
Hannah has a school tour of Ponsonby Intermediate tomorrow. Life has become incredibly hectic. The schedule for dancing, rehearsals for the show, showcase (a thing at Rory's school), water polo, soccer, school visits (for both children) and so forth seems overwhelming. I might have to go have a bit of a lie down.
RANDOM PHRASE OF THE VAGUELY INDEFINITE TIME PERIOD
Well, I used to do a word of the week, but that got to be dull. Not sure how often this will happen, hence the title.
In the car, on the way back from Muriwai, I wondered aloud whether anyone would ever use the phrase "under exaggerated" which seemed oxymoronic, at best. Well, I googled the phrase and there are 1010 instances of it on the internet so I suppose it does get used. However, the phrase "over exaggerated" has more than 32,000 and remove the space and you pick up another 8,000. This is sad, given that exaggerated already means "over stated" you would think adding the "over" to it would make little difference.
I apologise for the excessive use of speech marks in that.
13 June 2005
The Lions lose their first match and Russell Crowe enters the Olympic Phone Throwing event - 13/06/05
LOCAL NEWS
The road toll for the holiday weekend was a record low then not as someone died on the last night.
There was a story about a guy who used DNA testing to prove he wasn't the father of a child he had been paying child support over a period of 21 years (although I think it started 21 years ago, can't see how it would need to last 21 years). He had got a refund from one agency, but not another, and was pretty unhappy about it. Then it turned out that the total amount he had paid over 21 years was $18,000. That's not a lot of money (ignoring the fact that the guy wasn't actually liable) for helping sustain a child.
Another bizarre story this week was that someone wanted to fine people who don't remove graffiti from their properties. It sounds a bit like fining murder victims for bleeding in public places. I wonder if they have thought about stringing up the little buggers that do the graffiti in the first place, then there wouldn't be any to remove.
A man was found lying in a bus stop in pretty bad shape in Manukau City. He was unidentified, but had suffered head injuries.
The Reverend Graham Capill has faced more charges including rape. This former leader of the Christian Heritage Party was apparently a Crown Prosecutor (which I didn't know until this week). A gamekeeper that turns poacher is particularly distasteful. His parish is praying for him, although I really don't know why.
Legendary New Zealander Sonja Davies died this week. She campaigned for women's rights, disarmament, and the labour party.
WORLD NEWS
Russell Crowe was in the news a disproportionate amount locally, over his telephone throwing incident. It must have been a quiet news week or something but generally people seemed to think it was a good thing that everyone thinks he is Australian (but he actually is, isn't he?).
The G8 nations are forgiving debt of third world nations that are considered to be less corrupt than others. It is an interesting move, but it remains to be seen whether it will noticeably help them.
The jury in the Jackson case seem to be enjoying the full extent of the hospitality of the Californian justice system.
REAL SPORT
Rory did not get in to the 14A team. He was disappointed but I think it was probably best. Really didn't want him playing 16 year olds. He should get in easily next year. We don't find out what club team he is in until the end of June (B or C, but I think it will be B).
Rory's school team were up against a team that wasn't looking too scary. With results posted on the web, you can tell how good teams are pretty quickly. Rory's team was missing three players, including one good player and one moderately good player. Rory scored the first four goals of the game in just over two and a half minutes. That really set the other team up for a bit of a hiding. He eased back and started passing it around. Rory did actually miss one shot at goal (his first miss in twelve goals) but ended the game with six, final score 20-0. Ponsonby Red have now won three from three with 51 goals for and 2 against. They need to play tougher teams. There are only three unbeaten teams in the league out of twenty teams now.
Hannah's team should have done all right but they didn't play very well. Down 0-2 in first half, we drew 1-1 in the second half (meaning a 1-3 loss). Hannah's first game in about three or four weeks, she did pretty well. I think it is going to be a tough season. We have a group of girls that work very hard and a group that don't and really don’t seem very interested. It's a shame.
Rory's team was against a team that was above them on the table in the grading, but they hadn't played them. They should have beaten them, and they did. Low scoring game, 2-0 win with a goal in each half. But to be honest, Rory's team weren't playing very well. Funny moment was when a shot at the opposition goal missed and went into the women's toilets behind it. The goalie had to go in there to get it and both teams found it to be amusing.
SPORT
Taranaki failed to beat the Lions, although they were leading 7-6 at half time they lost 14-36.
The All Blacks played Fiji, people were more interested in the Lions versus Maoris. ABs won 91-0. Nasty.
The Lions played the Maoris, it was a close game, but the Maoris won. This is the first time the Maoris have beaten the Lions since the first time they played 75 years ago. The Maori team had a few guys that could be in the All Black team, it was a pretty strong squad. The score was 19-13.
The Waikato Magic beat the Southern Sting in the final, convincingly, 65-39. That is a great result. Until now, the Sting had won five of last six finals.
There were other one-sided rugby internationals over the weekend. Wales thumped Canada, Australia dismembered Samoa, and South Africa gave Uruguay an absolute hiding (Uruguay are ranked 11th in the world, I think they would be more like 23rd if you added the Super 12 teams, who I am sure would all beat Uruguay).
Mike Tyson looks to have finally done his dash, I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
MY SAD LIFE
A funny old week. Short because of the long weekend. Not sure that it went particularly fast.
Gavin left, as predicted, for Russia on Tuesday. We heard (briefly) from him Saturday morning. He made it to Ekatarinberg, and said that internet cafes were not easy to spot. No mention of whether he is looking after my camera or whether he has bought me a T62 tank.
Hannah had her cross-country race, she did okay but nothing special (not surprising given that she couldn't walk for a couple of weeks). Her speech contest was not Friday, but August (bit of a change).
Charles came over for the Australian Queens Birthday weekend. We saw him on Saturday. Ross was pretty sick, so didn't attend his own birthday dinner.
With the election coming up, I think someone needs to start a "forget the tiddlers and choose a proper party" campaign that would encourage people to not waste their votes with the small parties and hopefully enable one of the major parties to govern confidently. I am not bothered which party wins, but the minor parties are starting to make governing quite difficult and they then get a disproportionate influence on policy. That worries me.
Rory has inter-school soccer tomorrow. They had the boss of Mount Albert Grammar soccer academy come to see them at school on Friday morning. Rory said it was fun.
I got something in the post from Brett (thanks, I will read it and pass it on).
Rory spent some time over the weekend rehearsing lines for an audition for the school show. He did it in about six different accents. We had quite a lot of fun with it, he had to do it in an Italian-American Tony Soprano type voice.
The kids didn't want to come swimming with me on Sunday (the only day they go with me at the moment) but I made them and as usual they had a great time.
Diana and Rory disappeared for half the day on Sunday testing dogs for the Science Fair. It is progressing very slowly, but the hypothesis seems to be being proven. I worry about the science in such a small sample (six dogs) but it is going to be difficult to do many more.
NAME THAT BABY
The Bambi's haven't named baby 2.0 yet (eight weeks old, doesn't come when she's called). They want a name that goes with Bamberger (not that easy, let's face it) and preferably ending in "a" (like peter, lisa, sasha). You may get a prize if you suggestion is chosen (might not be very exciting though). They've considered a lot, believe me, they are just hugely indecisive.
The road toll for the holiday weekend was a record low then not as someone died on the last night.
There was a story about a guy who used DNA testing to prove he wasn't the father of a child he had been paying child support over a period of 21 years (although I think it started 21 years ago, can't see how it would need to last 21 years). He had got a refund from one agency, but not another, and was pretty unhappy about it. Then it turned out that the total amount he had paid over 21 years was $18,000. That's not a lot of money (ignoring the fact that the guy wasn't actually liable) for helping sustain a child.
Another bizarre story this week was that someone wanted to fine people who don't remove graffiti from their properties. It sounds a bit like fining murder victims for bleeding in public places. I wonder if they have thought about stringing up the little buggers that do the graffiti in the first place, then there wouldn't be any to remove.
A man was found lying in a bus stop in pretty bad shape in Manukau City. He was unidentified, but had suffered head injuries.
The Reverend Graham Capill has faced more charges including rape. This former leader of the Christian Heritage Party was apparently a Crown Prosecutor (which I didn't know until this week). A gamekeeper that turns poacher is particularly distasteful. His parish is praying for him, although I really don't know why.
Legendary New Zealander Sonja Davies died this week. She campaigned for women's rights, disarmament, and the labour party.
WORLD NEWS
Russell Crowe was in the news a disproportionate amount locally, over his telephone throwing incident. It must have been a quiet news week or something but generally people seemed to think it was a good thing that everyone thinks he is Australian (but he actually is, isn't he?).
The G8 nations are forgiving debt of third world nations that are considered to be less corrupt than others. It is an interesting move, but it remains to be seen whether it will noticeably help them.
The jury in the Jackson case seem to be enjoying the full extent of the hospitality of the Californian justice system.
REAL SPORT
Rory did not get in to the 14A team. He was disappointed but I think it was probably best. Really didn't want him playing 16 year olds. He should get in easily next year. We don't find out what club team he is in until the end of June (B or C, but I think it will be B).
Rory's school team were up against a team that wasn't looking too scary. With results posted on the web, you can tell how good teams are pretty quickly. Rory's team was missing three players, including one good player and one moderately good player. Rory scored the first four goals of the game in just over two and a half minutes. That really set the other team up for a bit of a hiding. He eased back and started passing it around. Rory did actually miss one shot at goal (his first miss in twelve goals) but ended the game with six, final score 20-0. Ponsonby Red have now won three from three with 51 goals for and 2 against. They need to play tougher teams. There are only three unbeaten teams in the league out of twenty teams now.
Hannah's team should have done all right but they didn't play very well. Down 0-2 in first half, we drew 1-1 in the second half (meaning a 1-3 loss). Hannah's first game in about three or four weeks, she did pretty well. I think it is going to be a tough season. We have a group of girls that work very hard and a group that don't and really don’t seem very interested. It's a shame.
Rory's team was against a team that was above them on the table in the grading, but they hadn't played them. They should have beaten them, and they did. Low scoring game, 2-0 win with a goal in each half. But to be honest, Rory's team weren't playing very well. Funny moment was when a shot at the opposition goal missed and went into the women's toilets behind it. The goalie had to go in there to get it and both teams found it to be amusing.
SPORT
Taranaki failed to beat the Lions, although they were leading 7-6 at half time they lost 14-36.
The All Blacks played Fiji, people were more interested in the Lions versus Maoris. ABs won 91-0. Nasty.
The Lions played the Maoris, it was a close game, but the Maoris won. This is the first time the Maoris have beaten the Lions since the first time they played 75 years ago. The Maori team had a few guys that could be in the All Black team, it was a pretty strong squad. The score was 19-13.
The Waikato Magic beat the Southern Sting in the final, convincingly, 65-39. That is a great result. Until now, the Sting had won five of last six finals.
There were other one-sided rugby internationals over the weekend. Wales thumped Canada, Australia dismembered Samoa, and South Africa gave Uruguay an absolute hiding (Uruguay are ranked 11th in the world, I think they would be more like 23rd if you added the Super 12 teams, who I am sure would all beat Uruguay).
Mike Tyson looks to have finally done his dash, I don't think anyone will be disappointed.
MY SAD LIFE
A funny old week. Short because of the long weekend. Not sure that it went particularly fast.
Gavin left, as predicted, for Russia on Tuesday. We heard (briefly) from him Saturday morning. He made it to Ekatarinberg, and said that internet cafes were not easy to spot. No mention of whether he is looking after my camera or whether he has bought me a T62 tank.
Hannah had her cross-country race, she did okay but nothing special (not surprising given that she couldn't walk for a couple of weeks). Her speech contest was not Friday, but August (bit of a change).
Charles came over for the Australian Queens Birthday weekend. We saw him on Saturday. Ross was pretty sick, so didn't attend his own birthday dinner.
With the election coming up, I think someone needs to start a "forget the tiddlers and choose a proper party" campaign that would encourage people to not waste their votes with the small parties and hopefully enable one of the major parties to govern confidently. I am not bothered which party wins, but the minor parties are starting to make governing quite difficult and they then get a disproportionate influence on policy. That worries me.
Rory has inter-school soccer tomorrow. They had the boss of Mount Albert Grammar soccer academy come to see them at school on Friday morning. Rory said it was fun.
I got something in the post from Brett (thanks, I will read it and pass it on).
Rory spent some time over the weekend rehearsing lines for an audition for the school show. He did it in about six different accents. We had quite a lot of fun with it, he had to do it in an Italian-American Tony Soprano type voice.
The kids didn't want to come swimming with me on Sunday (the only day they go with me at the moment) but I made them and as usual they had a great time.
Diana and Rory disappeared for half the day on Sunday testing dogs for the Science Fair. It is progressing very slowly, but the hypothesis seems to be being proven. I worry about the science in such a small sample (six dogs) but it is going to be difficult to do many more.
NAME THAT BABY
The Bambi's haven't named baby 2.0 yet (eight weeks old, doesn't come when she's called). They want a name that goes with Bamberger (not that easy, let's face it) and preferably ending in "a" (like peter, lisa, sasha). You may get a prize if you suggestion is chosen (might not be very exciting though). They've considered a lot, believe me, they are just hugely indecisive.
6 June 2005
Hostage dramas in sleepy Auckland - 06/06/05
Weather has continued to be variable, plenty of intermittent rain. It is the 61st anniversary of D-Day today.
LOCAL NEWS
There was an incident where three people were taken at gunpoint in their car from St Lukes mall and they cruised around up the North Western Motorway. Rory and I saw the motorway shut, north of where we got on at Te Atatu, and the traffic was particularly jammed but we were luckily heading away from the trouble. Nobody was hurt, but the car chase was quite sad and the footage of the chase from a helicopter looked like a slow version of OJ's non-escape.
A Te Aroha man and his son were critically ill after eating night cap mushrooms. Sad, try to save a few dollars and end up needing a new liver. Very silly. The 3 year old boy will recover. Whilst it reminds one of the joke about the husband not eating his mushrooms, it isn't funny. The man was a recent immigrant from Vietnam, although what he did to deserve living in Te Aroha, I don't know.
A 13 year old boy held up a lotto store with a bb-gun and then bragged about it to his friends and got caught. The owner of the store was Helen Clarke (with an e, so not the prime minister).
Meanwhile, the real Helen Clark has been visiting China and Japan and places Eastern.
Iraqis have been fighting back against Winston, which reveals him to be sniping at anyone Iraqi with little proof. Not sure it is enough for voters to see sense.
A new poll has National just ahead of Labour. Not sure when the election is to be held yet, but could be anytime between about September and November. General feeling is that Labour has had too many blunders and are starting to pay. Meanwhile the Greens are looking particularly stupid and vulnerable and a couple of other parties are risking falling below the 5% they need to survive.
A couple that sell a dodgy weight loss product called "body enhancer" have been found guilty of breaching fair trading rules. I don't really know whether this sort of rubbish should be banned or people should be allowed to buy any old industrial waste that is meant to enhance your lifestyle.
The magnitude of the Lions tour became more obvious when it was revealed that the Barmy Army had hired a thousand Maui campers (mobile home things) for the tour. That is a lot of campers. Rory's reaction was funny when I told him they were going to Rotorua for the first game - he said we should drive there and then turn around and come back the other way (in car cricket, campers are worth six points, so you'd get a pretty high score).
WORLD NEWS
The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra was "attacked" by a "biological agent" (meaning they were posted an envelope with washing powder in it). This was in reaction to the Schapelle Corby sentencing. Brett said her brother just got charged for drug offences, too. She's either as guilty as buggery or a victim of Australian baggage handlers. Shame we can't find out either way for sure.
Brett said there was an amusing article in this week's Bulletin about a scenario of President Bambang of Indonesia coming to visit Australia and being 'caught' with drugs, firearms, porno, and a panda in his suitcase - and his subsequent treatment. His 'trial' would involve Australia's finest narcoleptic magistrates, and a jury randomly selected from Bali bomb survivors, East Timorese refugees, and Corby family relatives.
The "Non" vote on the European constitution made big news here, as did the same thing in Holland (except I don't know Dutch for no).
The revealing of deep throat this week was also big news, although somewhat late in the piece. Not sure it was keeping me awake at night.
A Chinese guy defected in Australia, very publicly. He said he feared for his life but not sure about telling the world. Maybe he was hoping that the publicity might protect him.
REAL SPORT
There was no real sport this week at all, due to Queen's Birthday weekend (water polo) and fields being closed (soccer).
Rory has been trialling for club teams in water polo, the first session was nearly two hours in the pool, he was knackered. Because he hasn't done much swimming in the last couple of weeks because he has been sick. He had another session on Sunday and another this afternoon. This is to see whether he gets in to U14 A or B team. I think the B team will be pretty weak, not sure that getting in there will be a good result for him, we will probably know by the end of the week what is happening.
SPORT
We've had rugby coming out our ears but they are all non-event games with a probables versus possibles (all black trial), Maoris versus Fiji, Lions versus BOP. Some won, some lost. Nobody really cares.
MY SAD LIFE
I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but 1st June marked nine years in our current house.
I somehow sprained my right arm lat weekend, which made swimming difficult for a couple of days, but I recovered sufficiently to keep do my weekly swimming. I did a hundred lengths in 24 hours over the weekend, which knackered me.
The inorganic rubbish was collected quite quickly, early in the week, so the curb crawlers went away. Didn't quite get everything out that we wanted to but certainly did get a fair bit.
Hannah's leg is improved, but she missed the exam on Wednesday. The family health has improved, although I am still coughing, but things are much better. Hannah has her speech thing this coming Friday. In between water polo trials, Rory has been busy with homework, but not really busy enough.
It is Ross' birthday on Thursday and Craig's on Friday. That means Diana's birthday is soon, so bollocks, I suppose I need to find a present.
Paul is back from Kiev. Gavin leaves for Ekatarinberg on Tuesday. He flies via Hong Kong and Moscow. It is just East or the Ural mountains, which is a sodding big mountain range.
Well, I am sure I have missed something important, but can't think what it is so this will have to do.
LOCAL NEWS
There was an incident where three people were taken at gunpoint in their car from St Lukes mall and they cruised around up the North Western Motorway. Rory and I saw the motorway shut, north of where we got on at Te Atatu, and the traffic was particularly jammed but we were luckily heading away from the trouble. Nobody was hurt, but the car chase was quite sad and the footage of the chase from a helicopter looked like a slow version of OJ's non-escape.
A Te Aroha man and his son were critically ill after eating night cap mushrooms. Sad, try to save a few dollars and end up needing a new liver. Very silly. The 3 year old boy will recover. Whilst it reminds one of the joke about the husband not eating his mushrooms, it isn't funny. The man was a recent immigrant from Vietnam, although what he did to deserve living in Te Aroha, I don't know.
A 13 year old boy held up a lotto store with a bb-gun and then bragged about it to his friends and got caught. The owner of the store was Helen Clarke (with an e, so not the prime minister).
Meanwhile, the real Helen Clark has been visiting China and Japan and places Eastern.
Iraqis have been fighting back against Winston, which reveals him to be sniping at anyone Iraqi with little proof. Not sure it is enough for voters to see sense.
A new poll has National just ahead of Labour. Not sure when the election is to be held yet, but could be anytime between about September and November. General feeling is that Labour has had too many blunders and are starting to pay. Meanwhile the Greens are looking particularly stupid and vulnerable and a couple of other parties are risking falling below the 5% they need to survive.
A couple that sell a dodgy weight loss product called "body enhancer" have been found guilty of breaching fair trading rules. I don't really know whether this sort of rubbish should be banned or people should be allowed to buy any old industrial waste that is meant to enhance your lifestyle.
The magnitude of the Lions tour became more obvious when it was revealed that the Barmy Army had hired a thousand Maui campers (mobile home things) for the tour. That is a lot of campers. Rory's reaction was funny when I told him they were going to Rotorua for the first game - he said we should drive there and then turn around and come back the other way (in car cricket, campers are worth six points, so you'd get a pretty high score).
WORLD NEWS
The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra was "attacked" by a "biological agent" (meaning they were posted an envelope with washing powder in it). This was in reaction to the Schapelle Corby sentencing. Brett said her brother just got charged for drug offences, too. She's either as guilty as buggery or a victim of Australian baggage handlers. Shame we can't find out either way for sure.
Brett said there was an amusing article in this week's Bulletin about a scenario of President Bambang of Indonesia coming to visit Australia and being 'caught' with drugs, firearms, porno, and a panda in his suitcase - and his subsequent treatment. His 'trial' would involve Australia's finest narcoleptic magistrates, and a jury randomly selected from Bali bomb survivors, East Timorese refugees, and Corby family relatives.
The "Non" vote on the European constitution made big news here, as did the same thing in Holland (except I don't know Dutch for no).
The revealing of deep throat this week was also big news, although somewhat late in the piece. Not sure it was keeping me awake at night.
A Chinese guy defected in Australia, very publicly. He said he feared for his life but not sure about telling the world. Maybe he was hoping that the publicity might protect him.
REAL SPORT
There was no real sport this week at all, due to Queen's Birthday weekend (water polo) and fields being closed (soccer).
Rory has been trialling for club teams in water polo, the first session was nearly two hours in the pool, he was knackered. Because he hasn't done much swimming in the last couple of weeks because he has been sick. He had another session on Sunday and another this afternoon. This is to see whether he gets in to U14 A or B team. I think the B team will be pretty weak, not sure that getting in there will be a good result for him, we will probably know by the end of the week what is happening.
SPORT
We've had rugby coming out our ears but they are all non-event games with a probables versus possibles (all black trial), Maoris versus Fiji, Lions versus BOP. Some won, some lost. Nobody really cares.
MY SAD LIFE
I don't remember if I mentioned it last week, but 1st June marked nine years in our current house.
I somehow sprained my right arm lat weekend, which made swimming difficult for a couple of days, but I recovered sufficiently to keep do my weekly swimming. I did a hundred lengths in 24 hours over the weekend, which knackered me.
The inorganic rubbish was collected quite quickly, early in the week, so the curb crawlers went away. Didn't quite get everything out that we wanted to but certainly did get a fair bit.
Hannah's leg is improved, but she missed the exam on Wednesday. The family health has improved, although I am still coughing, but things are much better. Hannah has her speech thing this coming Friday. In between water polo trials, Rory has been busy with homework, but not really busy enough.
It is Ross' birthday on Thursday and Craig's on Friday. That means Diana's birthday is soon, so bollocks, I suppose I need to find a present.
Paul is back from Kiev. Gavin leaves for Ekatarinberg on Tuesday. He flies via Hong Kong and Moscow. It is just East or the Ural mountains, which is a sodding big mountain range.
Well, I am sure I have missed something important, but can't think what it is so this will have to do.
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