Due to inflationary pressures, I can't afford a subject this week - 08/08/05

LOCAL NEWS

The court case against Donna Awatere Huata began this week. She is charged with misuse of funds.

Another case began this week, against five men for excessive speed whilst driving Helen to Christchurch to catch a plane. The average speed of the entire trip was nearly 130Km/hr and top speed was estimated at 172Km/hr. Strictly speaking, a hearse should travel slowly, so this is really naughty. The timing of the case isn't good for Labour as the thing is constantly in the news as the case continues.

David Lange is in the news for both having a leg amputated and the release of his memoirs. Not sure he has long, but I think we should assume the leg removal wasn't a publicity stunt.

Despite the news of the speeding motorcade, the latest poll has Labour ahead of National by about 5%. Helen's reputation as the Teflon politician continues. The minor parties appear to be struggling. Getting rid of a few minor parties would be a great result, it makes it so difficult to get things through parliament.

A couple of the men in the drug bust last week were named, neither were "celebrities". I have a problem with name suppression. It should have nothing to do with profile, and should be about protecting the victims first, and possibly the family of the defendant second, but as long as an innocent verdict gets as much publicity as news of the charges I am not sure I see the need for suppression in so many cases.

News this week that men now suffer "early life crises" because of student loan debt.

WORLD NEWS

The space shuttle continues to be in the news, fix the tile, pull out the crap between the tile, and now we wait for it to land. The irony is that it seems like they went up to repair themselves so they could come back. All eyes will be upon it tonight as it returns about 9pm New Zealand time.

The trapped Russian mini-sub was successfully rescued. I didn't really hear about it until it was all over, but it sounds like it was in the news a lot.

Nothing happened on Thursday in London, although Al Qaeda seem to be promising more "excitement".

Two fire-fighters in the US died whilst trying to control a forest fire. Don't remember where, Florida maybe.

REAL SPORT

Water polo was a bit much for a person on Friday. Rory's Red team started against a top of the table team with only five players. The teacher that had the caps was nowhere to be seen, so I enlisted another parent, borrowed some caps, and got things under control. The referee gave me the opportunity to default (which meant an automatic 0-5 loss). I replied by saying no, but he should give the other team the same choice. End of the second quarter they were 2-4 down and two more players arrived (normally there are seven in the water). It was very nail biting, the final score was a 6-6 draw, which was a good result. Would have been a real shame if they had lost. Then we went for dinner at West City and came back for Blue's game. Numbers were better for them, it was a really close game, but they lost 6-7. Then I looked after Gold again, winless so far this season. I told Alice I would buy her an ice cream if she scored three goals and she scored four, they won 8-5. I pointed out to them that they were the only Ponsonby team to win that night, they felt pretty good.

Hannah's team was against a team that had beaten them earlier in the season. They didn't quite get it together, and every so often the pressure resulted in a goal. One of our key defenders was not well and went home after about ten minutes which didn't help. Final score was 0-3 loss.

Rory's team were against a team that wasn't doing very well this season, although well coached. They had heaps of chances, and led 1-0 at half time. I had to referee the second half and play went from one end to the other (believe me). They scored again in the second half, although they blew a few good chances, final score was 2-0 win.

SPORT

The second Ashes test started with a bang, with the Poms getting their highest score on the first day (407) in 65 years. Then the Aussies were a hundred runs behind in their reply. Last night the Aussies needed 107 runs to win with two wickets left. They nearly made it, losing their last wicket with three runs to go. That levels the series at one all. The next game is at Old Trafford this weekend.

The Black Caps were not doing well against Zimbabwe in their first test (113 for 5 at one stage) until Vettori (century in 82 balls) and McCallum (also a century)scored fast centuries. At stumps on day one they are 450 odd for 9.

The Boks beat the Abs in South Africa 22-16.

Warriors lost and are basically knackered for the season.

MY SAD LIFE

Very busy weekend. After soccer we had to prepare for Rory's party. The party itself was chaos. The lads had fun with our version of the "distraction" game show. The final task was to give an impromptu speech and they voted for the worst speech on the basis that the other finalist pissed them off. We then took them to Pizza Hut and that was considerably worse, completely out of control. An all-you-can-eat buffet and seven boys full of testosterone and sugar is a fatal mix. Hamish made an ice cream cone hand grenade (stuff it full of chocolate bits then use chocolate mousse for wadding). It got used outside in the car park, Rory got hit. We then took them to an amusement arcade in a bowling alley, which was considerably easier from a management viewpoint. We had an air hockey FA Cup tournament. Although I technically qualified for the final, I let two others play off.

Sunday, we went swimming in the morning (Rory had water polo training). Then straight from there to school to help construct scenery for the show. It went well, but worked really hard and after swimming as well I was utterly knackered. I had to design and then construct a piece of movable set that is triangular, one side with a concave curve, 2.4 metres high and long. It was fun, but really hard work.

Got news this week that Rory got high distinction in the University of NSW Science exam, particularly special as he was only year 8 (form 2) pupil in his school that did. He also played interschool netball on Thursday, they lost in the semi-final, but won every pool game.

Paul was up at 6am on Thursday morning to see a waka (traditional Maori canoe) arrive in San Francisco.

Believe it or not, B2 is still only known as B2, four months old and has no name. The Bambergers are not very focussed. Sasha has been quite ill, nothing too serious but they did go to hospital.

Both the kids have speeches this week, Hannah has inter school speech on Wednesday afternoon. Rory has a hacking cough so that isn't looking good and Hannah has a sore throat. She was sick at the school one, but we need her in good shape for Wednesday. Rory is staying home today, again.

The Goodins are off to, um, somewhere, next weekend for a fortnight. Thailand? Malaysia? Bali? Hell, I don't remember. Thailand I think.

Brett went to Germany and Holland. He visited Arnhem and Remagen.