Sorry for the large real sport section. It felt like we had an awful lot of water polo.
LOCAL NEWS
School NCEA exams start today.
The search for the missing helicopter grew, involving 20 helicopters. Over this week, efforts have been scaled back, no helicopter has been found. One wonders what would happen if they lost another one during the search. To lose one is unfortunate, to lose two is considered careless….
A man died when he rolled a stolen car into a power pole mid-week in Onehunga. So much better for society than having to pay for his incarceration.
A bus drove into a house Wednesday, then a car drove into another house and landed on another car. The number of housing fatalities is bound to rise at this rate.
Apparently 600 new born babies die in New Zealand each year. I think they should ban being born as it is far too dangerous.
An Australian man who faked his own death and came to live in New Zealand has been discovered. Also turned out he had a new wife. Wonder if she faked anything.
A Lotto shop owner told a customer a ticket had won $17 when it had actually won $60,000. This is a massive betrayal of trust and breach of his duty. When your job is to help your customers, this is beyond the pale. The customer took back the ticket and went to the Lotteries Commission directly. The man is no longer a Lotto shop owner.
They reckon the property market has cooled off, as prices rose 14.4% as compared to 14.9% the previous year. Not really much of a cooling off if you ask me.
Rod Donald died of a viral myocardial thing. A heart attack induced by disease. He was buried in a recyclable pine box and transported by foot during services.
HMNZS Wellington was ceremoniously sunk over the weekend to begin its life as a reef.
WORLD NEWS
I thought New Zealand was political correctness gone wrong, but Australia are doing their best to catch up. Their latest crisis is that there is concern that photos of children at the beach could end up on dodgy web sites, so photography at the beach is about to become illegal. They seem to have failed to recognise that sufficient photos of such things already exist and stopping people taking more won't really have much of an impact.
Riots in France have settled down, but it did look like Beirut on a bad day for a while.
The 11th of the 11th was the anniversary of the end of World War I.
REAL SPORT
Friday night was busy, but not as protracted as some weeks. It was all done in about two hours.
Rory's Red team were up against Waitak Invitational 1, a team made up of identified players (many of which play for under 14 and 12 club teams). Rory was off second quarter and they slipped to 1-4 down (was 1-1 end of first). Rory came back on third and they stepped it up, they had equalised within about three minutes, by then end of third quarter they were up. In the fourth quarter Red locked down, and got out to 6-4. Then Waitak got one back, with about a minute left and Ponsonby looked after possession and let the clock run out. Final score 6-5. This was last game in league, Waitak won with Ponsonby Red coming second by three goals on goal difference (both on 34 points). That is big result for Ponsonby, who have a semi-final next week. Rory scored four goals and got player of the game. Rory came out of the pool and said to Diana "God, I love water polo".
Hannah's team (Waitak 2) played Ponsonby Green. Very tricky. Wanted Hannah to do well but wanted Ponsonby to win too. Hannah was in goal for half (I was going "Shoot Jane, um not too hard" was very confused). She let in no goals and her team was up 1-0 end of first half. But in second half Ponsonby came back and Sinead in Hannah's team was obviously too thick to know the rules because she wasted three free throws by shooting when she had to pass. Final score 2-1 to Ponsonby, but Hannah played in all four quarters and was pretty happy.
Rory then played for Western Springs, always a challenge. The opposing team had an under 16 club player who was all over the Springs team (Rory was in goal first quarter but just a waste of time). Once Rory came out, he marked the under 16 and shut him out of the game. He got two goals for them but they lost 8-3. Rory got two goals.
Rory then played for Ponsonby Blue. Only one quarter, the last one, in goal. Blue were down about 0-6, Rory opened the scoring for Blue (from goal, described as a gimp goal by the ref, Joe, who we know quite well) and they got one more so lost about 2-7.
Rory had another game on Sunday afternoon. It was against Northsport A, the best team in the league and was never going to be pretty. Only six guys arrived, when the minimum is seven, so they took the default (a 0-5 loss) and played a friendly match with some ring-ins, including their coach. It was a very good game, really good for the six players there because they had a bit more structure and tactics. Far better than a 0-20 loss or something if they had managed seven players (it would have been, in all honesty). Rory got himself a nice goal, but missed two others. They won 12-9. Rory got a goal in each game, he is very proud of that.
SPORT
The All Blacks named a completely different starting line-up from the previous weekend. There was much controversy about that, but it is to develop depth. There was some question about whether it would put the Grand Slam at risk (which is a far easier Grand Slam to win than in golf or tennis, but don't go there). They beat Ireland 45-7. They play England next weekend. Scotland is unlikely to provide much of a challenge.
The Kiwis lost miserably to Great Britain 12-38 in the League. After praise was heaped on the coach recently, he won't be so popular.
Aussie lost to England 16-26 in the rugby, their seventh loss in a row, that is not good.
England came back from behind to beat Argentina 3-2 in a soccer friendly.
MY SAD LIFE
Three birthdays this week, Helen J, Caitlin, and Nanny, all on Sunday (and it is still Sunday somewhere in the world). The 13th of November was obviously a big day.
Heidi said she is thinking of visiting Paris. I recommend taking a rental car and lots of insurance.
Popped in to see Koos and Julie and Marissa on Sunday after water polo. We got to meet Magic the cat, who has now had his second knee operation. He is large, black, and fluffy, with a red mane and both legs partially shaved. The left has regrown a fair bit, and other is very pale. Looks like he is trying to become a poodle. They had a pomegranate, I've never seen one before.
Big week coming up, with Scott and Sarah's wedding this coming Saturday. The Tuckers arrive Thursday. Went with Hannah for final fitting of dress. Other wardrobe items being sorted.
We went to see the show Big Boys Toys on Friday. Paul and I snuck off with the kids early Friday to beat the rush. We had a good time. Paul and I got free chocolate, beer, and condoms.
We have been battling to fit homework in around water polo, because Rory has some due the Monday after the wedding, and not much will be achieved next weekend.
Paul came with us to the water polo on Friday night and took a lot of photos. Haven't seen them yet but should be cool.
Diana went to Jacqui Chambers' 50th birthday party. The usual suspects were there, Allan and Paul wisely kept a low profile (it was girls only).
SCENES WE MISSED FROM LAST WEEK
Guy Fawkes. I wanted to have a bit of a rant about sodding Guy Fawkes. We celebrate what was actually a terrorist act. While the Americans have 9/11, we in New Zealand have been celebrating 5/11 for a long time, despite the fact that it is never really acknowledged in England (where it actually happened back in 1605). Beyond this fundamental idiocy, we imported 1700 tonnes of explosives this year so that:
- fire-fighters and hospitals can work overtime for ten days
- pets can get distressed
- vets can sell more tranquilizers
- people can get hurt
- we can release tonnes of noxious greenhouse and poisonous gases
- we can talk to our insurance companies more about property damage
- kids can't get to sleep
- people who start work early in the morning can under perform
- the additional money spent of fireworks can help to further wreck the country's balance of payments deficit
- families that can ill-afford them spend their lotto, booze, cigarette, and drug money on fireworks instead
- people can spend time picking up the litter created by others
As you can tell, I have thought about this way too much. But I cannot see any compelling reason that we celebrate an event from 400 years ago (nobody mentioned once in the media that this year was the 400th anniversary, which shows how much anyone really cares about the purported original event) that happened on the other side of the world.
Ollie was nowhere to be seen when we got home on Sunday night. Just before I went to bed I called him outside, and heard a faint squeak. It could have been a tree branch rubbing on something, but I checked the office. Nothing. Called again. Squeak. I checked the car, nothing. Squeak. Opened the garage, and out comes a black fluffball, rubs past my legs and takes off for the food section of the kitchen.
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