I have been unwell this week, largely confined to bed for about four days.
LOCAL NEWS
Ten "white collar" people were arrested for their involvement in drug trafficking. This included two former sports stars. Sounds like people wanting to get rich quick. Speculation on the "stars" has been rife, their names are suppressed but rumour seems to be spreading over a number of different combinations of names.
Forgot to mention a youth/man was arrested for damage to mosques after the London thing. Muslims are planning "Islam Awareness Week" to promote tolerance. I really don't think tolerance is the right word. I mean, you tolerate pain during a trip to the dentist (if barely). They need a better word, or perhaps a cluster of words. Like understanding and awareness.
Interesting moral dilemma this week, in the news. A young prisoner, about 24, dying from cancer. Mum wants him home, Justice Department not so keen. Reality is he is in hospital anyway, not jail, not sure home is really an option. Is the mercy of justice strained? Do bad people that are dying deserve some compassion that they may not have given their victims?
A husband and wife team who were found guilty of making false advertising claims of their "body enhancer" product are still under fire. The Commerce Commission want to fine them $2.6m, near the top of the range of penalties and the largest so far.
Pre-election campaign vitriol has been running hot, with some dubious tactics in use. Promises of tax cuts seem to be a major issue, but nor sure why. Everyone would like to pay less tax, but cutting excessive government spending is fundamental to affording tax cuts.
The election date has not been set yet, Labour are being really coy and immature about doing so. I think this could cost them votes.
The Maori Party wants Maoris to qualify for pensions at 60 because they don't live as long. Given that most reasons for them dying younger are lifestyle related, it’s hardly going to encourage them to change.
David Lange, New Zealand Prime Minister during the eighties, is not well and is probably on his way out. Not particularly old, he has had some health issues for a while.
The Frigate HMNZS Wellington is being prepared to be sunk for divers, and they are auctioning off fittings. It is attracting lots of interest and therefore lots if excessive bidders.
WORLD NEWS
The second round of failed bombs in London was big news, as you would expect. The cornering of a suspect and then shooting five times by police, was a bit rugged. The fact that he turned out to be completely innocent is hugely embarrassing for the Metropolitan Police, and so public, and pretty clearly unnecessary. Ones assumes there will be an official review, police are not supposed to be judge, jury, and executioner.
The explosion in Cairo was another reason why quiet old New Zealand feels safe.
There was heaps of coverage of a car in Germany running into six Australian women cyclists, killing one and seriously injuring a couple of others, it was quite big even here in New Zealand.
Schapelle is back in the news. They want someone to come from Australia to come and testify (by admitting guilt) but won't do so unless he gains immunity. Surely anyone could come forward and do that on that basis.
James Doohan, the actor that played Montgomery Scott on the original Star Trek, died this week. Scotty has been beamed up for the last time. He could not change the laws of physics. It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim. He was 85.
REAL SPORT
Hannah's team were playing a relatively weak team this week. The other team was short a player so we found an extra for them. It was mostly one-way traffic. We were 2-0 up at half time and final score was 5-0.
I didn't see Rory's team play, because they started right after Hannah's game across town. They were playing a very strong team, with low numbers from the start of the game. Miraculously, they led 2-0 at half time but ran out of steam and finally lost 3-2, still a good result given that four defenders were away.
Rory had water polo trials this week, two sessions. We find out tonight if he is in the team. If he is he has a tournament in Rotorua at the end of August and our life will be a logistical and planning nightmare for the next month.
SPORT
The Warriors won again. They need to win 3 from last 5 now.
I think South Africa beat Australia in the rugby but not sure.
Ashes cricket was bizarre, with 17 wickets lost in the first day (you need like 8 per day to get a result). There was no chance of a draw with only five wickets left by the end of day 3 and a record total required for England to save the test. They didn't get it, McGrath cleaned up the tail on day four, which was shortened by rain, but not enough to help England.
Tiger won the British Open and Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France, who is the better athlete? Who cares? Armstrong gets massive amounts of support from whole cycling team, not sure it can be compared.
MY SAD LIFE
I came down with a similar illness to that which Diana suffered, started about Tuesday and was pretty bad for a couple of days. Improving but still not match-fit. Not feeling sick enough to want to be in bed, but not enjoying being up sufficiently to stay out of bed.
The kids worked pretty hard on their rooms. Rory's room has been sorted out in a major way, and the walls painted. It certainly has a less cluttered look to it now.
Rory went snowboarding at snowplanet on Friday night, 9-12, with some friends. He let himself in, we didn't wait up. He was pretty tired for the rest of the weekend.
We got a postcard from Peter Evans, from Pitcairn Island of all places. Not sure when he is returning to England from his transpacific sailing adventure.
Brett should be home from his mystery holiday by now.
I heard this week that the Walkers are coming to New Zealand to live in August. They were here for about a year three or four years ago. Billy played in Rory's soccer team, the Orcas, while they were here.
Rory and two associates went down to the primary school to "play" on Thursday. A little while later, I got a call from the Deputy Principal who had observed one of them taking shots at the lights, and recognised Rory (not holding the slingshot at the time). The three Mums were busy gossiping out on the deck, so I dragged myself out to them and informed them that their sons were all behaving inappropriately and perhaps they would like to go have a chat with them. They thought it was hilarious, tracked them down, and made them go apologise to her (and removed the slingshot from their possession). I did point out, perhaps too subtlely to the ladies, that between the three of them they should be able to exercise at least some parental supervision (fun being pompous when you have done nothing wrong).
Rory turns thirteen this coming Sunday. No idea what to get him for his birthday. He has show rehearsals all weekend so don't know how we will celebrate it.
25 July 2005
18 July 2005
This Line Intentionally Left Blank - 18/07/05
LOCAL NEWS
There's been plenty of rain in southern Coromandel, we drove through some pretty wet places on our way home yesterday.
No election date yet, Labour not looking too flash. There are about three political parties look like they will disappear from the map, which I think would be an excellent result. The election has to be within the next two months, not sure why.
I am beginning to think this will be the tax cut price war election. They are making a massive fuss about how they will cut taxes and yet there are other ways to make households better off that don't cost the government as much (like reducing what they pay for market rents in government housing, which would reduce rents elsewhere and reducing interest rates).
It was confirmed this week that a 26 year old New Zealand woman died in the London bombings.
Continuing to prove that "personality" counts for little (compared to what station you are one) the former dominant force in current affairs, Mr Paul Homes, had less people watching than go to a Warriors game (that's saying something) this week. Meanwhile, TVNZ seem to be losing confidence in the replacement of the mother of our nation (Judy Bailey) as their newsreader.
A policeman was shot at from a passing car on the Northern Motorway.
Air New Zealand has had to cancel 85 flights because of strike action. Won't be good for the share price.
A new theory on the colonisation of the Pacific is that they were trying to run away from a nasty form of Malaria. It is an interesting concept, not sure if it will ever be proven or disproved.
WORLD NEWS
It is pretty impressive that the authorities have figured out who did the London bombings, although it is quite disturbing that they were all England-born. Saturation coverage continues. Some doubt now exists as to whether they were suicide bombers, however some of the reasoning seems to be a bit of a stretch.
The release of the new Potter book shows what happens when the press begin to believe their own publicity. Yes, some people were probably looking forward to it, but not in the sort of numbers that some would suggest.
REAL SPORT
No real sport this week. Not even training. Rory has two water polo trials this coming week and we have soccer this coming Saturday (if the weather improves). Found out that he could have a tournament down in Rotorua at the end of August.
SPORT
The Aussies beat the Poms resoundingly in the third ODI match (or did I mention this last week). I think the Ashes starts this coming weekend.
New Zealander Michael Campbell stayed in the hunt in the British Open golf, but ended up 5th equal with five other players. Tiger won by a good fives shots, his first major for a while.
Argentina knocked Australia out of the Davis Cup in the quarter finals, which was a surprise.
Not sure if there has been any rugby on. The reinvented Kingz, now the Knights (local soccer team) lost their first game 2-0. The Warriors won a game, they need to win every game for about five games to make playoffs.
MY SAD LIFE
The kids were unsupervised quite a lot this week, as Diana had to work because she hadn't worked the week before. One day Diana came home from work about 12:30 to find Rory hadn't yet eaten breakfast and was sitting watching TV in his underpants (don't go there, really). He went to megazone for a whole day. He, and then Hannah, discovered an online game called puzzle pirates. I have an eMac to review and they were both on a computer playing whenever they could. It was pretty geeky, but at least it stopped fights over whose turn it was.
The trip down to Rotorua took a lot longer than we expected. We stopped a couple of times on the way, which broke up the journey and made it interesting. Our first stop was Candyland, a factory in the middle of nowhere (Gordonton) that makes lollies. I have been there once before with Hannah, but Rory and Diana had never been there. The kids really enjoyed it, we picked up a few things. The kids were given a budget of $2, and the lollies were sold by the gram. Rory managed to get exactly 200g (he checked it several times). We then continued on to Ti Rau, where we stopped for toilets, an antique shop, and a toy museum in a castle. Then we pushed on to Rotorua, picking up Ross's computer, filled up with gas, got a late lunch, and finally on to where we were staying. The resort is on the opposite side of the lake from downtown Rotorua, which is nice spot with the lake and a canal on two edges.
We stayed three nights in Rotorua. We almost did lots of things, like zorbing, jetboating, and quad biking. We chose not to because they weren't cheap and they were over very quickly. The zorb trip lasted 30 seconds, which didn't seem worthwhile. We actually did do a few things, too. We explored and multi-layer wooden maze, which took us around an hour to do. We went to the aquatic centre one morning, when it was raining heavily. It has an outdoor 50m pool and we did some lengths in that (very hard, double the normal pool we swim in). It was also pretty cold out of the water, so you could feel the cold on your arms at the top of the stroke then they would warm up in the water. There was also a pretty strong wind, and the splashes from your hands entering the water would hit you in the face when you breathed when you were swimming against the wind. The complex was quite good, much bigger than the one we go to at home, and very reasonably priced. We played quite a lot of tennis at the place we stayed, there was a tennis court near our room. The kids really enjoyed it, and I did too, it's a long time since I have played much tennis. Hannah was really in to it, we played doubles for a while. We met up with some friends on Saturday night and had dinner with them (Matt used to be in Rory's soccer team).
I should have mentioned last week that the choice of high school has been made, and it is the local school that we are in zone for. After all that fuss and bother, we are in exactly the same position as if we had been utterly slack and not bothered looking around. Not sure I am convinced but Rory and Diana are pretty sure. There are lots of kids there that he knows, and it will be easy to get him there (we walk past it when we go for walks, well, when we used to go for walks).
The kids are redecorating their bedrooms this week. Should be interesting.
There's been plenty of rain in southern Coromandel, we drove through some pretty wet places on our way home yesterday.
No election date yet, Labour not looking too flash. There are about three political parties look like they will disappear from the map, which I think would be an excellent result. The election has to be within the next two months, not sure why.
I am beginning to think this will be the tax cut price war election. They are making a massive fuss about how they will cut taxes and yet there are other ways to make households better off that don't cost the government as much (like reducing what they pay for market rents in government housing, which would reduce rents elsewhere and reducing interest rates).
It was confirmed this week that a 26 year old New Zealand woman died in the London bombings.
Continuing to prove that "personality" counts for little (compared to what station you are one) the former dominant force in current affairs, Mr Paul Homes, had less people watching than go to a Warriors game (that's saying something) this week. Meanwhile, TVNZ seem to be losing confidence in the replacement of the mother of our nation (Judy Bailey) as their newsreader.
A policeman was shot at from a passing car on the Northern Motorway.
Air New Zealand has had to cancel 85 flights because of strike action. Won't be good for the share price.
A new theory on the colonisation of the Pacific is that they were trying to run away from a nasty form of Malaria. It is an interesting concept, not sure if it will ever be proven or disproved.
WORLD NEWS
It is pretty impressive that the authorities have figured out who did the London bombings, although it is quite disturbing that they were all England-born. Saturation coverage continues. Some doubt now exists as to whether they were suicide bombers, however some of the reasoning seems to be a bit of a stretch.
The release of the new Potter book shows what happens when the press begin to believe their own publicity. Yes, some people were probably looking forward to it, but not in the sort of numbers that some would suggest.
REAL SPORT
No real sport this week. Not even training. Rory has two water polo trials this coming week and we have soccer this coming Saturday (if the weather improves). Found out that he could have a tournament down in Rotorua at the end of August.
SPORT
The Aussies beat the Poms resoundingly in the third ODI match (or did I mention this last week). I think the Ashes starts this coming weekend.
New Zealander Michael Campbell stayed in the hunt in the British Open golf, but ended up 5th equal with five other players. Tiger won by a good fives shots, his first major for a while.
Argentina knocked Australia out of the Davis Cup in the quarter finals, which was a surprise.
Not sure if there has been any rugby on. The reinvented Kingz, now the Knights (local soccer team) lost their first game 2-0. The Warriors won a game, they need to win every game for about five games to make playoffs.
MY SAD LIFE
The kids were unsupervised quite a lot this week, as Diana had to work because she hadn't worked the week before. One day Diana came home from work about 12:30 to find Rory hadn't yet eaten breakfast and was sitting watching TV in his underpants (don't go there, really). He went to megazone for a whole day. He, and then Hannah, discovered an online game called puzzle pirates. I have an eMac to review and they were both on a computer playing whenever they could. It was pretty geeky, but at least it stopped fights over whose turn it was.
The trip down to Rotorua took a lot longer than we expected. We stopped a couple of times on the way, which broke up the journey and made it interesting. Our first stop was Candyland, a factory in the middle of nowhere (Gordonton) that makes lollies. I have been there once before with Hannah, but Rory and Diana had never been there. The kids really enjoyed it, we picked up a few things. The kids were given a budget of $2, and the lollies were sold by the gram. Rory managed to get exactly 200g (he checked it several times). We then continued on to Ti Rau, where we stopped for toilets, an antique shop, and a toy museum in a castle. Then we pushed on to Rotorua, picking up Ross's computer, filled up with gas, got a late lunch, and finally on to where we were staying. The resort is on the opposite side of the lake from downtown Rotorua, which is nice spot with the lake and a canal on two edges.
We stayed three nights in Rotorua. We almost did lots of things, like zorbing, jetboating, and quad biking. We chose not to because they weren't cheap and they were over very quickly. The zorb trip lasted 30 seconds, which didn't seem worthwhile. We actually did do a few things, too. We explored and multi-layer wooden maze, which took us around an hour to do. We went to the aquatic centre one morning, when it was raining heavily. It has an outdoor 50m pool and we did some lengths in that (very hard, double the normal pool we swim in). It was also pretty cold out of the water, so you could feel the cold on your arms at the top of the stroke then they would warm up in the water. There was also a pretty strong wind, and the splashes from your hands entering the water would hit you in the face when you breathed when you were swimming against the wind. The complex was quite good, much bigger than the one we go to at home, and very reasonably priced. We played quite a lot of tennis at the place we stayed, there was a tennis court near our room. The kids really enjoyed it, and I did too, it's a long time since I have played much tennis. Hannah was really in to it, we played doubles for a while. We met up with some friends on Saturday night and had dinner with them (Matt used to be in Rory's soccer team).
I should have mentioned last week that the choice of high school has been made, and it is the local school that we are in zone for. After all that fuss and bother, we are in exactly the same position as if we had been utterly slack and not bothered looking around. Not sure I am convinced but Rory and Diana are pretty sure. There are lots of kids there that he knows, and it will be easy to get him there (we walk past it when we go for walks, well, when we used to go for walks).
The kids are redecorating their bedrooms this week. Should be interesting.
11 July 2005
New Zealand still feels like a pretty safe spot from where I sit - 11/07/05
LOCAL NEWS
Four men were found guilty of rape committed sixteen years ago. Two still have name suppression. A surprising result given the time since the event and the complainant against four people.
A man was found in a cinema in cardiac arrest, they could not move him to perform CPR (I assume he was pretty solid). Police are treating it as "unexpected death in a public place". The way they put it, it sounds like it is a 374, and they have a list of events like this. Prizes may be offered for the funniest police situation (see below).
After copping flak for being in a position to choose who governs for the whole of New Zealand, Winston Peters has announced he will select a running partner in three weeks time. An interesting ploy to keep the profile up. However, this does give strategic voters the chance to vote for the party that he won't go with in an effort to weaken his chances of being king again.
The self-styled Prime Minister of Aotearoa has been remanded in custody and her "police" have been slowed down a lot.
A psychiatric patient wants compensation for being let out (and killing his father).
Sadly, in an apparent reaction to the London bombings, four mosques in Auckland were attacked on Saturday night, with slogans like "RIP London". Not quite sure what the perpetrators hoped to achieve, given that it is unlikely anyone attending mosques in Auckland was involved in the bombings. Mind you, hard to see what the bombers in London were hoping to achieve. Thing is, it could even be some disgruntled Lions supporter and we'd never know.
No official date yet for the election, although a Labour party candidate wanted help to deliver pamphlets the weekend before the election, and his notice wanted them on September 10th. This suggests that the election with be September 17th.
A New Zealand boy died after a statue in a Bali hotel fell on him. Described by some as a freak accident, I would not be so sure. Apparently the boy had only just started to climb up the statue when it toppled on to him. Coincidence? I think not.
Some youth spent Friday and Saturday night on a smashing spree in the Eastern Suburbs of Auckland, attacking anything that had windows from cars, bus stops, soccer club houses, and so forth. Police reckon the cost will be $50,000.
Twenty years on, they are still whinging about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. I wish they'd let it go.
I think it is sixty years since the end of the war in some respect but not sure how or why. Too late for VE day (was in May) and VJ day was in August. The Queen did things and so did Prince William here in New Zealand.
WORLD NEWS
News of London's success for the 2012 Olympics was followed the next day with six blasts in bus and rail. My first reaction was that the Paris bidders were behind it. I caught some of the coverage early one while they were still figuring out what was going on. Early on they were trying to discourage speculation it was a terrorist attack but six separate blasts was unlikely to be an awful lot of accidents. Then six blasts became four. Still too many for coincidence. We got all the usual stories, you know, how many New Zealanders were killed (none), how many were hurt (a few), and how much Tony Blair was helped by a reassuring phone call from Helen. The list of New Zealanders near or in the blast areas has grown from one man from Timaru to about four separate people who all have told their story. There does appear to be one New Zealand woman missing still, and her family has gone to try to track her down.
Paranoia in England continued, with evacuation in Birmingham. What a massive waste of money this all is, in terms of additional futile security measures, and a waste of time for travellers.
At times like this, as the coverage of certain events reaches super-saturation, whether there is something wrong with focusing too much on one event and basically ignoring bombings in places like Iraq because they are more common than Tupperware parties. Bear in mind that the English road death toll is about ten people per day.
At least 7/7 won't cause confusion, because lots of people here think 9/11 happened in November.
REAL SPORT
No water polo this week, although Rory attended one and a half training sessions.
Rory's soccer was cancelled (which was good because they were missing four players) and we thought Hannah's would be, but it wasn't. This was bad news. Five of the Sirens were away or sick. That meant we had no subs and not enough to field a full team. Saturday morning I did some negotiation and had Hannah and Miranda play for the Furies (the team we played last week) for the first half of their game. Then they came to our game and after the Furies game finished, two of them came to play for us for the second half (the two games were a half hour drive apart). We had two friends of the players play for us, both of whom hadn't played this season, which gave us one sub in the first half. We also had an official referee, who was very young. I don't know how old he was but the girls were all looking at him and one said "I think I look older than you do", which was very funny but not really appropriate. It was nil-all at half time, we'd had some chances but also had some work to get the ball away. Then, in the second half the cavalry arrived and we had three subs (luxury). We scored one goal, then Helena made a gutsy save in a one on one situation to stop the opposition equalising. The Sirens scored a second goal before full time, so they won 2-0. Great result for a depleted team, their first win of the championship (Sirens were cold motherless last on the table this week, not somewhere they were happy to be).
SPORT
The Lions mid-week team beat Auckland 17-13, I did think Auckland might win. The dirt trackers won every game.
The Lions decided to stay on and play the third test, post bombings. It would have been a bit of bad luck if they didn't.
Auckland narrowly beat Hawkes Bay in the basketball final 69-68. Bit of a shame really as the Bay doesn't win many national titles.
The third test was a better game in many respects than the previous two, although the All Blacks had two players sinbinned so play 20 minutes of the game with 14 players. Final score 38-19 to the Abs over the Lions. They did a minute's silence at the beginning for London.
Australia beat South Africa in the Nelson Mandela Cup (rugby, in case you were wondering) 30-12. Sounds like they are playing each other two extra times this year and possibly in future years. You would think they would be sick of playing each other already with the tri-nations every year.
MY SAD LIFE
Diana was sick for a few more days this week. She surfaced once or twice but basically disappeared until Thursday, then finally went to work on Friday. She still took a sleep in the afternoon though, even on Saturday. She is still spluttering a bit. It was a busy week with all the things going on this week. Hannah had a school show three nights, which required drop off and pick up. The kids helped a fair bit, Hannah more than Rory.
After the whole (non-sick) family helped with the science project, he got a merit and that was it. Total waste of time, really.
Rory was practicing his debate a lot this week. Culminating with practices over the phone to his team-mates on Thursday night. There is no denying they worked pretty hard on it. Rory had a good day at school on Friday, his debating team won and he later won a game of chocolate bingo (the best kind of bingo to win, apparently), and it was the last day of term. The kids are now on holiday for two weeks. This means a holiday for us from homework, too. We are going to go to Rotorua for a few days this coming weekend.
Rory seems to be planning on seeing almost every movie that is on during the holidays. Both the kids seem to have rediscovered a number of computer games, as they just haven't had the opportunity to go near them during the term.
Hannah was fizzing all weekend, despite having a cold, not sure why but I think she was very pleased with herself on Saturday with soccer.
Brett is away, somewhere warm I presume, but no idea beyond that where he has gone (normally he is in Perth).
I didn’t really achieve very much this week, although went into paranoia mode about my office. Finally had a new lock installed and have re-keyed the back door to be the same as the office and front door of the house. Not used to it yet, but pleased that it is done.
A PRIZELESS COMPETITION
The phrase "unexpected death in a public place" got me going. The way they put it, it sounds like it is a 374, and they have a list of events like this. Prizes may not be offered for the funniest police situation. I ask you for your ideas. As a starter:
622 - excessive diarrhoea in a confined space
754 - extreme act of stupidity involving an umbrella and a can of non-dairy whipped cream
641 - suspicious activity behind the bike sheds
647 - death by statue responding simultaneously to the forces of gravity and stupidity
Four men were found guilty of rape committed sixteen years ago. Two still have name suppression. A surprising result given the time since the event and the complainant against four people.
A man was found in a cinema in cardiac arrest, they could not move him to perform CPR (I assume he was pretty solid). Police are treating it as "unexpected death in a public place". The way they put it, it sounds like it is a 374, and they have a list of events like this. Prizes may be offered for the funniest police situation (see below).
After copping flak for being in a position to choose who governs for the whole of New Zealand, Winston Peters has announced he will select a running partner in three weeks time. An interesting ploy to keep the profile up. However, this does give strategic voters the chance to vote for the party that he won't go with in an effort to weaken his chances of being king again.
The self-styled Prime Minister of Aotearoa has been remanded in custody and her "police" have been slowed down a lot.
A psychiatric patient wants compensation for being let out (and killing his father).
Sadly, in an apparent reaction to the London bombings, four mosques in Auckland were attacked on Saturday night, with slogans like "RIP London". Not quite sure what the perpetrators hoped to achieve, given that it is unlikely anyone attending mosques in Auckland was involved in the bombings. Mind you, hard to see what the bombers in London were hoping to achieve. Thing is, it could even be some disgruntled Lions supporter and we'd never know.
No official date yet for the election, although a Labour party candidate wanted help to deliver pamphlets the weekend before the election, and his notice wanted them on September 10th. This suggests that the election with be September 17th.
A New Zealand boy died after a statue in a Bali hotel fell on him. Described by some as a freak accident, I would not be so sure. Apparently the boy had only just started to climb up the statue when it toppled on to him. Coincidence? I think not.
Some youth spent Friday and Saturday night on a smashing spree in the Eastern Suburbs of Auckland, attacking anything that had windows from cars, bus stops, soccer club houses, and so forth. Police reckon the cost will be $50,000.
Twenty years on, they are still whinging about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. I wish they'd let it go.
I think it is sixty years since the end of the war in some respect but not sure how or why. Too late for VE day (was in May) and VJ day was in August. The Queen did things and so did Prince William here in New Zealand.
WORLD NEWS
News of London's success for the 2012 Olympics was followed the next day with six blasts in bus and rail. My first reaction was that the Paris bidders were behind it. I caught some of the coverage early one while they were still figuring out what was going on. Early on they were trying to discourage speculation it was a terrorist attack but six separate blasts was unlikely to be an awful lot of accidents. Then six blasts became four. Still too many for coincidence. We got all the usual stories, you know, how many New Zealanders were killed (none), how many were hurt (a few), and how much Tony Blair was helped by a reassuring phone call from Helen. The list of New Zealanders near or in the blast areas has grown from one man from Timaru to about four separate people who all have told their story. There does appear to be one New Zealand woman missing still, and her family has gone to try to track her down.
Paranoia in England continued, with evacuation in Birmingham. What a massive waste of money this all is, in terms of additional futile security measures, and a waste of time for travellers.
At times like this, as the coverage of certain events reaches super-saturation, whether there is something wrong with focusing too much on one event and basically ignoring bombings in places like Iraq because they are more common than Tupperware parties. Bear in mind that the English road death toll is about ten people per day.
At least 7/7 won't cause confusion, because lots of people here think 9/11 happened in November.
REAL SPORT
No water polo this week, although Rory attended one and a half training sessions.
Rory's soccer was cancelled (which was good because they were missing four players) and we thought Hannah's would be, but it wasn't. This was bad news. Five of the Sirens were away or sick. That meant we had no subs and not enough to field a full team. Saturday morning I did some negotiation and had Hannah and Miranda play for the Furies (the team we played last week) for the first half of their game. Then they came to our game and after the Furies game finished, two of them came to play for us for the second half (the two games were a half hour drive apart). We had two friends of the players play for us, both of whom hadn't played this season, which gave us one sub in the first half. We also had an official referee, who was very young. I don't know how old he was but the girls were all looking at him and one said "I think I look older than you do", which was very funny but not really appropriate. It was nil-all at half time, we'd had some chances but also had some work to get the ball away. Then, in the second half the cavalry arrived and we had three subs (luxury). We scored one goal, then Helena made a gutsy save in a one on one situation to stop the opposition equalising. The Sirens scored a second goal before full time, so they won 2-0. Great result for a depleted team, their first win of the championship (Sirens were cold motherless last on the table this week, not somewhere they were happy to be).
SPORT
The Lions mid-week team beat Auckland 17-13, I did think Auckland might win. The dirt trackers won every game.
The Lions decided to stay on and play the third test, post bombings. It would have been a bit of bad luck if they didn't.
Auckland narrowly beat Hawkes Bay in the basketball final 69-68. Bit of a shame really as the Bay doesn't win many national titles.
The third test was a better game in many respects than the previous two, although the All Blacks had two players sinbinned so play 20 minutes of the game with 14 players. Final score 38-19 to the Abs over the Lions. They did a minute's silence at the beginning for London.
Australia beat South Africa in the Nelson Mandela Cup (rugby, in case you were wondering) 30-12. Sounds like they are playing each other two extra times this year and possibly in future years. You would think they would be sick of playing each other already with the tri-nations every year.
MY SAD LIFE
Diana was sick for a few more days this week. She surfaced once or twice but basically disappeared until Thursday, then finally went to work on Friday. She still took a sleep in the afternoon though, even on Saturday. She is still spluttering a bit. It was a busy week with all the things going on this week. Hannah had a school show three nights, which required drop off and pick up. The kids helped a fair bit, Hannah more than Rory.
After the whole (non-sick) family helped with the science project, he got a merit and that was it. Total waste of time, really.
Rory was practicing his debate a lot this week. Culminating with practices over the phone to his team-mates on Thursday night. There is no denying they worked pretty hard on it. Rory had a good day at school on Friday, his debating team won and he later won a game of chocolate bingo (the best kind of bingo to win, apparently), and it was the last day of term. The kids are now on holiday for two weeks. This means a holiday for us from homework, too. We are going to go to Rotorua for a few days this coming weekend.
Rory seems to be planning on seeing almost every movie that is on during the holidays. Both the kids seem to have rediscovered a number of computer games, as they just haven't had the opportunity to go near them during the term.
Hannah was fizzing all weekend, despite having a cold, not sure why but I think she was very pleased with herself on Saturday with soccer.
Brett is away, somewhere warm I presume, but no idea beyond that where he has gone (normally he is in Perth).
I didn’t really achieve very much this week, although went into paranoia mode about my office. Finally had a new lock installed and have re-keyed the back door to be the same as the office and front door of the house. Not used to it yet, but pleased that it is done.
A PRIZELESS COMPETITION
The phrase "unexpected death in a public place" got me going. The way they put it, it sounds like it is a 374, and they have a list of events like this. Prizes may not be offered for the funniest police situation. I ask you for your ideas. As a starter:
622 - excessive diarrhoea in a confined space
754 - extreme act of stupidity involving an umbrella and a can of non-dairy whipped cream
641 - suspicious activity behind the bike sheds
647 - death by statue responding simultaneously to the forces of gravity and stupidity
4 July 2005
Family survives despite risking scurvy whilst Diana is ill - 04/07/05
LOCAL NEWS
The big news all week has been the New Zealand cricket team going to Zimbabwe. Every time we get news about someone being crushed in the cleanup over there or whatever, the rhetoric swells back here. New Zealand Cricket are contractually bound by an agreement with the ICC and cannot pull out without clear reason. It's getting ridiculous, the Greens have floated a bill in Parliament to outlaw contact with Zimbabwe on human rights grounds. This is bizarre given that we still trade with Zimbabwe, and countries with considerably worse situations.
On and off recently, there has been news of a man by the name of Shane William Pritchard who continued to be confused with another Shane William Pritchard born 23 days apart in Mosgiel and Milton (two very small places in the South Island). The law abiding Shane has bemoaned the number of times his accounts have been frozen and he has been sent summonses and things. This week, the less respectable Shane said that he was sick of it to. Like the time the bank gave him access to the other Shane's account with $9,000 in it (he thought he has received an ACC payment for losing a finger in a fight).
The right reverend Graham Capill, former leader of the Christian Heritage Party and Police Prosecutor, pleaded guilty to various offences against young girls. He will be sentenced in July/August. A friend of his was quoted as saying that Capill had the right to being protected from attack in prison(!) Of course, he must, as a person who abused a position of power and made a stand against the things he secretly did in private, be protected from common criminals in prison who mete out their own form of justice on paedophiles. Like heck. Sounds like an eye for an eye to me.
Prince William is visiting for the rugby, mainly. This has distracted some of the English press.
Political polls are coming out more often, and usually with contrasting views. There is only one that counts.
Somebody in Wellington is spreading nails on roads, causing considerable problems although nothing fatal yet.
Some people have been dressing themselves up as policemen of the government of Aotearoa and demanding money (sounds very much like a protection racket) in various instances in Gisborne.
WORLD NEWS
G8 and Live8 were big news, with more texts than ever before (it was American Idol that held the record previously, so it isn't much of an achievement, but funny how both are at least vaguely musical). Have to say I missed Live8 completely. Don't even know if it was on the telly here, I presume it was.
REAL SPORT
Blue team were short on Friday so players from Red (Rory's team) and Gold (my adopted team) helped out. Wasn't happy for Gold players to play because they aren't the fittest in the world and didn't want them too tired for their game. Conversely, didn't mind wearing out the Red team before they played Gold (isn't self-interest a wonderful thing). Blue won 16-0 over a team that wasn't very strong (Rory scored ten goals, played all four quarters (one quarter in goal), which was probably a bit mean but it wasn't me in charge). A Blue team player whacked an opposition player in the game, not good, suspect there will be repercussions from that. Other team were having a fit about it. I didn't see it, apparently victim was holding the player's arm (which Rory says is actually legal). That's the second time a Ponsonby player has done that in about four weeks (different teams, but never happened last year).
Gold team were winless from five games, second from bottom on goal difference, they knew they had little chance against Red, but they wanted to try to put up a fight. I coached them last week against Blue, and helped out again. They held Red out for a while but still conceded five in the first quarter. It was relentless, even with carefully keeping some defenders back, the Red players were just too fast and went around Gold. When Gold did get the ball, their throws just weren't accurate and gave Red too many opportunities. In the last quarter I snuck an extra player on for Gold (was funny, Red were getting grumpy about people not marking their players, difficult when you are outnumbered by one). It lifted Gold and they had three attacks on Red but just couldn't get one in the goal (it was sooo close). Final score 20-0. Was kind of funny being on the receiving end of Red, whenever Red team got the ball I knew we were in trouble.
Rory scored 14 goals in two games, played seven quarters and was thoroughly buggered but very happy. Grading rounds are now finished, there will be three divisions. I think I have no doubt that Gold will be in third and Red in first.
After losing three girls to holidays and things we managed to get 12 players to the game, meant we had one sub. It was the game of the season, against another Western Springs team, the Furies. The local derby had classmates against each other, team-mates against each other, we all knew players on both sides. It was a very tight game. Hannah made an awesome shot on goal, high, the goalie just pushed it up to bounce on the crossbar and back in to play. We had more chances than they did, but they kept us out, final score 0-0.
By the time I got there, Rory's team were down 0-2 to a team they lost 1-2 to when playing with only ten men. They then scored five unanswered goals to win 5-2. Stephen opened their scoring just before half time with an awesome corner that went straight into the goal.
SPORT
The Lions beat second division Manawhatu 109 points to 6 on Tuesday, which cheered them up a bit. Whinging about the injury to Brian O'Driscoll continued for days.
The big game on Saturday started with the Lions scoring an early try, the All Blacks looked a little shaken then settled down. It became one-way traffic after a while and the final score was 48-18 to the All Blacks, a record score against the Lions (for any team, ever).
The Silver Ferns beat Australia in Sydney for the first time in 24 years. Score was 50-43, they won every quarter.
Roger Federer and Venus Williams won Wimbledon.
Michael Campbell came back to earth, although he did make the cut he came 18th in the Irish Open (I think).
England and Australia tied (not drew) the final in the ODI cricket triangular series.
MY SAD LIFE
We went and saw Rory's Romeo on Tuesday night. He did very well, there were a few kids that did a good job and he was certainly one of them (all parental bias aside). Some of his friends really had fun doing with their performances. We saw a Maori myth (that seemed utterly pointless), MacBeth, and Romeo & Juliet inside of forty minutes. Always leave your audience wanting more.
It is Heidi's birthday this week, on the 8th. Was Paul Chambers' birthday on Saturday (now 22). On the 7th it is two years since Dad died. It would have been my friend Barbara's 52nd birthday this coming Sunday. (busy week).
Friday was a big day for me. Started work at a client's office at 6:30am and got home after 6:30pm. Was home about forty minutes before going to water polo. Did manage to go swimming between appointments (took my gear with me) which was good, made me a little less-stressed.
Diana got sick on Friday afternoon, was fine in the morning. She stayed home in bed, didn't come to water polo. She has been there ever since. The kids have been pretty good, helping around the house, especially Hannah. Rory had Science Fair (on teaching dogs to ring a bell for food) due today so we spent basically all Sunday working on it, Hannah helped too. The text was largely done already, but trimming things, sticking on to backing, printing photos and graphs, and so on all took time. I had to go buy some brasso (to polish the bell) and brown paper (to make paw prints).
Consumption of vegetable matter is not high in the house at the moment.
The kids and I went to the Smiths to see the rugby on Saturday night, left Diana home in bed. I was pretty tired but a change of scene was good.
The big news all week has been the New Zealand cricket team going to Zimbabwe. Every time we get news about someone being crushed in the cleanup over there or whatever, the rhetoric swells back here. New Zealand Cricket are contractually bound by an agreement with the ICC and cannot pull out without clear reason. It's getting ridiculous, the Greens have floated a bill in Parliament to outlaw contact with Zimbabwe on human rights grounds. This is bizarre given that we still trade with Zimbabwe, and countries with considerably worse situations.
On and off recently, there has been news of a man by the name of Shane William Pritchard who continued to be confused with another Shane William Pritchard born 23 days apart in Mosgiel and Milton (two very small places in the South Island). The law abiding Shane has bemoaned the number of times his accounts have been frozen and he has been sent summonses and things. This week, the less respectable Shane said that he was sick of it to. Like the time the bank gave him access to the other Shane's account with $9,000 in it (he thought he has received an ACC payment for losing a finger in a fight).
The right reverend Graham Capill, former leader of the Christian Heritage Party and Police Prosecutor, pleaded guilty to various offences against young girls. He will be sentenced in July/August. A friend of his was quoted as saying that Capill had the right to being protected from attack in prison(!) Of course, he must, as a person who abused a position of power and made a stand against the things he secretly did in private, be protected from common criminals in prison who mete out their own form of justice on paedophiles. Like heck. Sounds like an eye for an eye to me.
Prince William is visiting for the rugby, mainly. This has distracted some of the English press.
Political polls are coming out more often, and usually with contrasting views. There is only one that counts.
Somebody in Wellington is spreading nails on roads, causing considerable problems although nothing fatal yet.
Some people have been dressing themselves up as policemen of the government of Aotearoa and demanding money (sounds very much like a protection racket) in various instances in Gisborne.
WORLD NEWS
G8 and Live8 were big news, with more texts than ever before (it was American Idol that held the record previously, so it isn't much of an achievement, but funny how both are at least vaguely musical). Have to say I missed Live8 completely. Don't even know if it was on the telly here, I presume it was.
REAL SPORT
Blue team were short on Friday so players from Red (Rory's team) and Gold (my adopted team) helped out. Wasn't happy for Gold players to play because they aren't the fittest in the world and didn't want them too tired for their game. Conversely, didn't mind wearing out the Red team before they played Gold (isn't self-interest a wonderful thing). Blue won 16-0 over a team that wasn't very strong (Rory scored ten goals, played all four quarters (one quarter in goal), which was probably a bit mean but it wasn't me in charge). A Blue team player whacked an opposition player in the game, not good, suspect there will be repercussions from that. Other team were having a fit about it. I didn't see it, apparently victim was holding the player's arm (which Rory says is actually legal). That's the second time a Ponsonby player has done that in about four weeks (different teams, but never happened last year).
Gold team were winless from five games, second from bottom on goal difference, they knew they had little chance against Red, but they wanted to try to put up a fight. I coached them last week against Blue, and helped out again. They held Red out for a while but still conceded five in the first quarter. It was relentless, even with carefully keeping some defenders back, the Red players were just too fast and went around Gold. When Gold did get the ball, their throws just weren't accurate and gave Red too many opportunities. In the last quarter I snuck an extra player on for Gold (was funny, Red were getting grumpy about people not marking their players, difficult when you are outnumbered by one). It lifted Gold and they had three attacks on Red but just couldn't get one in the goal (it was sooo close). Final score 20-0. Was kind of funny being on the receiving end of Red, whenever Red team got the ball I knew we were in trouble.
Rory scored 14 goals in two games, played seven quarters and was thoroughly buggered but very happy. Grading rounds are now finished, there will be three divisions. I think I have no doubt that Gold will be in third and Red in first.
After losing three girls to holidays and things we managed to get 12 players to the game, meant we had one sub. It was the game of the season, against another Western Springs team, the Furies. The local derby had classmates against each other, team-mates against each other, we all knew players on both sides. It was a very tight game. Hannah made an awesome shot on goal, high, the goalie just pushed it up to bounce on the crossbar and back in to play. We had more chances than they did, but they kept us out, final score 0-0.
By the time I got there, Rory's team were down 0-2 to a team they lost 1-2 to when playing with only ten men. They then scored five unanswered goals to win 5-2. Stephen opened their scoring just before half time with an awesome corner that went straight into the goal.
SPORT
The Lions beat second division Manawhatu 109 points to 6 on Tuesday, which cheered them up a bit. Whinging about the injury to Brian O'Driscoll continued for days.
The big game on Saturday started with the Lions scoring an early try, the All Blacks looked a little shaken then settled down. It became one-way traffic after a while and the final score was 48-18 to the All Blacks, a record score against the Lions (for any team, ever).
The Silver Ferns beat Australia in Sydney for the first time in 24 years. Score was 50-43, they won every quarter.
Roger Federer and Venus Williams won Wimbledon.
Michael Campbell came back to earth, although he did make the cut he came 18th in the Irish Open (I think).
England and Australia tied (not drew) the final in the ODI cricket triangular series.
MY SAD LIFE
We went and saw Rory's Romeo on Tuesday night. He did very well, there were a few kids that did a good job and he was certainly one of them (all parental bias aside). Some of his friends really had fun doing with their performances. We saw a Maori myth (that seemed utterly pointless), MacBeth, and Romeo & Juliet inside of forty minutes. Always leave your audience wanting more.
It is Heidi's birthday this week, on the 8th. Was Paul Chambers' birthday on Saturday (now 22). On the 7th it is two years since Dad died. It would have been my friend Barbara's 52nd birthday this coming Sunday. (busy week).
Friday was a big day for me. Started work at a client's office at 6:30am and got home after 6:30pm. Was home about forty minutes before going to water polo. Did manage to go swimming between appointments (took my gear with me) which was good, made me a little less-stressed.
Diana got sick on Friday afternoon, was fine in the morning. She stayed home in bed, didn't come to water polo. She has been there ever since. The kids have been pretty good, helping around the house, especially Hannah. Rory had Science Fair (on teaching dogs to ring a bell for food) due today so we spent basically all Sunday working on it, Hannah helped too. The text was largely done already, but trimming things, sticking on to backing, printing photos and graphs, and so on all took time. I had to go buy some brasso (to polish the bell) and brown paper (to make paw prints).
Consumption of vegetable matter is not high in the house at the moment.
The kids and I went to the Smiths to see the rugby on Saturday night, left Diana home in bed. I was pretty tired but a change of scene was good.
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