Late and short, consider it a silver lining - 27/03/06

It has been raining. We really need it. The ground is just so dry.

LOCAL NEWS

After we had basically given up on Harmeet Sooden, the Americans (sorry, "International Force") stormed a building that contained Harmeet and two fellow hostages. Very big news for a couple of days, you know the sort of thing - it's his birthday tomorrow, it's his birthday today, he leaves to come home, he comes home, first night in his own bed, etc.)

Attorney General and Cabinet Minister David Parker resigned everything this week after it was revealed he faked a declaration to the Company's Office. It was a resolution to appoint no auditor (and he neglected to get the other Director to sign it, who was a bankrupt and played no further part in the business). If you ask me, this is ridiculous. I don’t know the man, didn't even know he was the AG, but the routine for appointing no auditor is a ridiculous formality that should be done away with. We have had to all sign a piece of paper stating that fact for something like fourteen years. We aren't ever going to hire an auditor. Whilst I do agree that the Attorney General position is one where you really need to follow the rules, it seems silly for him to lose everything. For this guy to be removed for what is a technicality, while others remain who seem to be considerably less well-behaved, seems quite inconsistent.

A Sri Lankan woman that was booted out of New Zealand has now got refugee status and Canada is taking her in. We look pretty bad, but some say new information has come to light.

A wanted man stopped for running a red light bit off the end of the policeman's finger. Police intend to fingerprint his stomach.

We are getting the end of cyclone Wati, which I think visited Australia.

WORLD NEWS

Reports of record increases in C02 levels last year will not be helped by the opening and closing ceremonies in Melbourne. They spent 58 million on the closing ceremony (and much of that would have been fireworks). What a waste.

REAL SPORT

Hannah is playing soccer in the 13 Div 1 team. It is going to be tough, as a lot of them are only 12th grade players. A guy called Keating is coaching. I am out of a job. Will be an interesting change for me after eight years of coaching at least one soccer team. They had a friendly on Saturday, that went pretty well. The won 2-1 I think. First game is this Saturday.

Hannah has intermediate trials for polo this Saturday, before soccer, not sure how we will manage that.

Rory played a game of underwater hockey on Tuesday night. What an absolute waste of time. Certainly not a spectator sport. Basically a ton of kids hang round a pool for two hours, occasionally the play (about 16 minutes in the two hours, that's two games). When the game is on you see nothing but bums, flippers, and snorkels and hear cow bells every time there is a goal. They seem to enjoy it despite being 0-12. I can't think of anything worse.

Rory's Junior Team didn't really fire on Friday. They are generally either inexperienced or not very good. Patrick was missing, he is a good player. They lost, I think about 5-8 (the scoreboard was down). It was the first time Rory hasn't scored a goal in a game for ages (he was busy defending mostly). The Senior Team, had a much better game, against a weaker team although we knew one player quite well from club. They won 5-1, and Rory got three goals, I think.

SPORT

Beatrice failed to fire. Valerie didn't fail. More fourth placings that you can poke a stick at but a few medals (33, more than all the medals we got). Kiwi Nick Willis won the men's 1500m final, which was good. Finished with the Silver Ferns winning the netball gold, which was a nice change after what seemed like a ton of silver medals from gold medal matches. Six golds in the end, 12 silver, 13 bronze.

Man Utd thumped the Brummies 3-0, Middlesbrough beat Bolton 4-3 in a nail biter with a missed penalty, and Charlton beat poor old Newcastle who aren't enjoying themselves, Liverpool beat Everton 3-1 in the local derby despite losing Gerrard in the 18th minute and playing with ten.

I think the Blues lost, Highlanders won, Hurricanes won, Chiefs lost. Not sure about Crusaders.

Third test with Windies has been mucked up by rain, end of day two they are about half way through the first innings. Will be a draw, I think.

MY SAD LIFE

I was very pleased with myself on Monday night, I swam 1.6 lengths under water. About forty metres. Rory had done 1.5 recently and reckoned I was past it. I showed him. Then on Thursday night Rory swam 2 lengths under water. Bastard. Now I am past it again. I bet that if I get 2 lengths he will just try for more. The world record is seven lengths. Not interested in that, thank you. On Sunday, Rory did a length underwater with one arm out in front, underwater hockey style. Then a length just kicking, then another length kicking breaststroke style. Bloody show-off. I did a length with a 3kg weight belt on.

It was Koos's birthday on Friday. He has been visiting Auckland to recover from illness and returns to Hong Kong today. He spent yesterday driving around Auckland in the rain with a bed.

Hannah and Diana went to Girls Day Out, not sure Diana enjoyed it but Hannah seemed to.

Rory spent the day on Saturday at Tauwharanui with Matt Edmond.

Tuesday night, Rory and I did a water polo refereeing course. I did it mainly because I would have sat out in the car for two hours otherwise. Was useful. Got some work to do, but may use it if I look after Hannah's water polo team at intermediate. Rory needs it so he can referee flippa ball and intermediate league games.

Wednesday was not a good day. I had about three things go wrong with our home network before 8am. It was awful. Then my email server started doing very strange things. I was not happy. Most of it came right without me doing anything obvious to fix it (which worries me in terms of re-occurrence). Every day after Wednesday was better, if it had been worse I would have stayed in bed.

Can't help but wonder what I have forgotten. This seems too short. And late.

Raoul erupts and we have the Games to contend with - 20/03/06

It may seem a little late, and is doubly so due to daylight saving. I blame the farmers.

LOCAL NEWS

Daylight saving time ended in New Zealand on Sunday morning. I think I have now changed 12 clocks. The easiest is my desk phone in my office, I just have to ring it up and the time updates. Cool, eh?

Text bullying has been the subject in saturation mode this week. What a waste of people's lives. I think it should be called textual harassment (you heard the term here first, folks).

There are a couple of cases being tried at the moment that are being reported on in glorious detail about things I really would prefer not to have thrust into my ears. I think child molestation and rape trials aren't actually something that we need details of.

An eruption on remote Raoul Island caught some DOC workers out, one is missing, they are going back to look for him today.

A 22 yo woman fell into boiling mud in a park in the Waikato. More disturbing, her partner looked older than me. That is just wrong.

We had the 40 hour famine this weekend, and the Round the Bays fun run. Not exactly compatible events. We had girls at the soccer trials who hadn't eaten for more than a day, which was bizarre. Diana thinks it is a stupid idea to starve yourself, and I agree.

Youth rate protests continue. Secondary schools are planning on letting kids out to protest about them. A couple of youths were interviewed on breakfast television this morning. "We should get the same moneys as what the big persons get." said nameless youth. "We got the sames skills as they haves, and we fink we works just as hard, eh?".

News this week that the postal service is delivering more packages than ever, and they think trademe is the cause. No kidding. That is only about two years after it became obvious to most people.

WORLD NEWS

The people that suffered multiple organ failure in England from testing a new drug included a New Zealander so we heard all about it. Two are still critically ill.

Apparently there is a restaurant in Germany where patrons can bring their dogs. However, they can't bring children. Interesting. At least kids eat something.

The "fairy tale" story of the autistic boy who played basketball in the US has been tortured beyond belief. Woefully mis-described, the boy was allowed to play in the last four minutes when the team already had an unassailable lead. He missed a couple of shots then got 20 points in around four minutes. GW had to meet him, and it was one of the worst pieces of corn-ball schmaltz I have seen GW commit. I can't wait to miss the movie.

Cyclone Larry is messing up things over in northern Queensland, Cairns getting a fair old blow job.

REAL SPORT

No water polo for Rory this weekend, which meant that we had less on the timetable which was good.

Sunday was busy for Hannah, though, with a water polo trial and a soccer trial back to back on Sunday morning. The water polo trial was a bit weird. They need about 12 kids for a mixed team. There were only ten players there, and only one was a boy. So not very big, and not very mixed.

The soccer was a larger affair with 28 girls at the trial required for three teams (a few didn't come along).

It appears that Rory's soccer career is in hiatus. Not only is he not playing for the club, but it seems his isn't going to play for school either. He is going to play underwater hockey instead. It seems that any sport on land "is just dry". We also realised this week that there are now none of the original Orcas team that Rory started in left playing at the club. That is kind of sad.

SPORT

The Commonwealth Games. Oh Dear. The opening ceremony proved yet again how a theatrical event opening seems to have almost no appeal to the people actually interested in the event itself. Flying trams. Good grief.

Then we finally got a gold medal on day 2 (Moss Burmester, 200m Butterfly, his brothers Mould and Fungus were so proud). By day 3 we were being attacked with meaningly drivel commentary, like "It's great to see Moss in action again" when it wasn't actually great, he was crap, he came 7th in the semi, it was completely disappointing, and it was said after the race. The media continues to saturate us with news of the games and medals.

New Zealand won the first test, just, by bowling out the Windies before they got the low target. We have two days left in the second test, and the Windies need another 60 runs to make the Black Caps bat again, and they are four wickets down. Not looking good for them, poor old Brian Lara not do very well.

The Warriors lost, again. So now anyone who hasn't won a game is still ahead of them by four points, any team who has won both is ahead by eight. All the talk about them winning a couple to get into the season was obviously bollocks.

Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-1, Man Utd beat Portsmouth 2-1, Arsenal beat Charlton 3-0, Chelsea played Fulham this morning, and lost to them 0-1! They are unassailably ahead on the table, I think - about 12 points clear. But Fulham are happy. Meanwhile Sunderland wallows at the bottom, poor Sunderland.

COMING FOURTH

I think it is very odd that people that get a bronze medal get so much more attention than the poor buggers who come fourth. I sort of understand first place, but the other two medal places are kind of strange when you think about it. It gets worse when you look at competitions like Hockey where losing the final wins you silver. You don't get anything for coming second in most tournaments, well maybe a certificate….

New Zealand seems to come fourth a lot at most games.

MY SAD LIFE

We worked on Rory's homework on Saturday. Went reasonably well, all chipped in to get things going faster. As a by-product of needing sticks and things the garden got tidied up as well.

Rory worked as a flippa ball ref again. He now has an official paying job. Not sure we are on to a winner given that we have to take him there and back, and he made me pay for a whistle for him. So in a week where people are whinging about youth rates, Rory gets a job doing something he enjoys and earns more than the minimum wage for doing it (a useful lesson, there).

Hannah borrowed Diana's leather boots on Saturday. It was pretty scary. She only went to the video store but even so. As for the boy, I measured him next to Mum and he must be about five foot nine now. The hair adds another inch or two. We are speculating as to how long a family of starlings could nest in there before he noticed.

Hannah lost her phone on Thursday, found it Friday. She then lost her sim-card for the weekend (as punishment). She powered it on first thing Monday morning and had seven texts over the weekend she couldn't answer. Rory received around 400 texts over the weekend. I hate free texting weekends. He even took his phone charger to a party on Saturday because the constant vibration wears out the battery faster. I think that is why many teenagers appear to have Parkinson's.

I got a surprise package in the post this week. It came from Brett and Allan while they were browsing in Australia. It is kind of cool getting something unexpected in the post.

No news of Koos. Possibly still in Hong Kong. I think Jacqui is in China still. I assume Charles went home on Wednesday as planned.

Actually saw Gavin. Diana saw him twice. But the first time doesn't count because he was in game world.

I didn't have to go anywhere in the evening for three whole days in a row. I couldn't handle it.

Rory has perfected a kind of lip curling thing that Diana reckons makes him look like Elvis. With the hair and the dreaded sideburns it isn't far from the truth. Not sure I want him to go any further. If he starts renting "Jailhouse Rock" I will start worrying, more.

Well, that'll do for now.
Rob

A RANT (THAT IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL FOR YOU TO READ)

I don't know if you have noticed, but I am becoming more and more frustrated with the news and commentary we get. It seems to be getting more and more ravaged with meaningless cliche, irrelevant comment (things like "I bet he wished he got that goal" and "I am sure that she is very disappointed that her cat has been run over by a freight train"). TV3 News, in particular, feel beholden to find the worst puns in the lexicon and bring them to us ad nauseum. I am beginning to wonder why we don't have regular awards for :

- stating the bleeding obvious
- making the audience feel intellectually superior
- frustrating the world with mindless non-observation
- the most pointless media beat-up over something that was always incredibly dull
- the most cliches used in a news item
- the worst pun
- the most heinous language crime
That sort of thing, you get the idea. Even worse, I am sure they do that utterly

Farmers get their own set of laws, Slobodan escapes the laws of man - 13/03/06

Sorry Jono, here it is. You started work early! Very unlike you.

LOCAL NEWS

A farmer was found not guilty of negligence in a case where his daughter was killed riding a quad bike. She was four years old. Farmers live by their own rules. I guess he will pay the price for the rest of his life. News then came out that the quad bike was woefully badly maintained (flat tire, wobbly wheel, faulty brakes, speedo didn't go (not that she could read it, at four), and it needed a jolly good clean, too). Seems the Taranaki farming set that were the jury voted out of sympathy (which is why jury trials aren't always representative of justice). I think the scumbag should burn in hell. There is no excuse, I am sorry, endangering yourself is one thing, a four year old child is quite another.

Lots of fuss made of "text bullying", which I find to be pathetic. It is a pretty tame form of bullying that is easily controlled (if you don't like it get a new number, turn your phone off, or complain to your carrier). Overreactions include the Government talking about legislating the minimum age to use a cellphone (well good luck on that one, Helen). The whole thing is beyond sad, but it is an excellent example of the media latching on to some buzzword and creating a mountain out of a molehill. Worse still, the publicity has probably inspired the less-imaginative bullies to get on the bandwagon.

A car rolled in a rally and smacked into a bunch of spectators, five were hurt, three hospitalised. I always say you should stand on the inside of the curve.

I wonder - is carving things out of margerine a waste of food? There was something this week where conference attendees were greeted by a statue carved out of 150kg of the stuff. Never liked margarine, myself.

Some guys raced across from Sydney to Auckland in a boat to beat the record by six hours, took about two days I think.

WORLD NEWS

Slobodan Milosevic has died. Poor bugger. Not.

One of Harmeet Sooden's co-hostages has been murdered, things not looking good on that front.

REAL SPORT

Hannah had softball on Tuesday. This was her first proper interschool competition. I stuck around for the day, the girls did quite well, winning four games and losing three, coming third over all. They were pretty happy with that. Hannah dropped one chance but took four catches, two of which were very impressive. She made it home a few times when batting, couple of great hits.

Rory's junior water polo team were way too powerful for the Parnell College Junior B team, we knew two kids in the team. It wasn't real pretty, final score 13-3 (Rory scored 4, I think). Rory said he wanted to hang around for the girls game, which was absolute bollocks. He wanted to try out this three-man slingshot that Patrick had. So I was left in the pool, watching games I had no real interest in, which was a bit rough. By the time the girls played, which was two hours after the boys finished, they didn't have an opposition. So Rory, Patrick, and Rhye got in and we got Jane (who plays for St Marys but we know) to help and they played a full game. Rory and Patrick had to use left hand to pass the ball, which cramped their style a lot. They enjoyed themselves and it was very good for the girls to get so much game time.

Rory's Senior Team beat Lynfield B 5-1. Was pretty hard fought game and very slow scoring. 2-0 at half time and 3-0 end of third quarter. They had a couple of good players that Rory and Patrick basically shut out of the game with close marking which really neutralised their attack.

Rory has Champ of Champs swimming today for school. No water polo this coming weekend as North Island Senior Sec School champs, Rory's school hasn't entered but will enter Junior ones (their senior team had four juniors in it last night).

SPORT

The first test against the Windies is staggering to an end. Neither side seems to be able to bat, pretty low scoring game with nobody getting more that 270-odd per innings.

The Aussies set a record score against South Africa, getting 434, only to be overhauled by the yarpies setting a new high score of 438. I don't think anyone had made 400 in an ODI before.

I am not sure that I am prepared to commit to following the Warriors every week, but they lost their first game. So much for trying to catch up on the penalty points they lost. They are now effectively four points behind second to last.

The Blues had a good result - they had a bye. Crusaders beat Chiefs, Hurricanes beat someone. Highlanders lost I think (in South Africa).

Man Utd beat Newcastle 2-0, I think, Liverpool had a 0-1 loss to the Arse (think it changed later to 1-2). English teams fared poorly in Europe Championship with only one team going through (Arsenal, I think).

MY SAD LIFE

Not sure if Koos is back yet, possibly not. You got Diana's camera cable?

Gavin is particularly quiet.

Charles is back in the country, his Mum has had three strokes, she seems pretty good considering, from what he said. Theoretically he returns to Melbourne on Wednesday.

We saw Charles, and the Goodins, on Saturday night. We also met Pipi (or Pippy?) the part retriever/poodle. Very cute dog, very much a puppy.

Rory spent a chunk of Sunday refereeing Flippa Ball (which is like beginner water polo, the kids can touch the bottom). This may become a regular thing.

On Saturday, Hannah went to the Pasifika festival with her friends. They sang the National Anthem in Maori on stage and won a CD (a pretty lame one). We didn't see much of her until we picked her up on the way to the Goodins.

On Saturday, Rory was doing homework. He has started building a model shelter for English (I thought we were through all that). He was building a cave out of kleen clay which is really cool stuff that I just happened to have lying around….

Jack, Diana said she heard from Frida. Things are going okay in Dargaville.

Worked out the other day how many things we have on in the evenings. A typical week, with normal commitments, means I leave the house between 4 and back some time before 9:30 every night of the week, except Saturday. No wonder I really like a quiet night in.

Rory has decided to grow his sideburns longer. We aren't really convinced that he needs to, but he seems to think it is important. Think he is hoping to start getting in to R18 movies or something. Texting continues without any contact in real world.

Hannah started pre-season soccer training this week. We have trials this weekend, the club has decided to create two uber-teams that will be developed. Hannah has a very good chance of making the 13th grade team, a year older than she is but I think she is capable. Sunday will be a big day for her.

Still having fun with the new camera.

Trademe sold and we get a quiet day on Saturday - 06/03/06

LOCAL

Big news today is that local auction web site trademe.co.nz has been sold for around $700 million to Fairfax group. I have met both Nigel and Sam, they are just regular guys with really big bank balances. Not even eBay has come close to trademe in New Zealand.

Slightly bizarre case in court this week. An American woman is suing former Olympic board sailor Bruce Kendall over an accident in Greece where his boat and her wind surfer collided. She was a bit of a mess. He claims she was going at speed, she claims she was stationary. However, when they applied to move the case from Wellington to Auckland, she claimed she was scared of Auckland (and apparently this was due to the accident, in Greece, not Auckland). Not sure how much credibility you have when you are scared of a city but also act as a witness. She is suing for $15 million, and representing herself.

David Benson-Pope continues to shine with an ongoing stream of denials, lies, changes of story, lost memories, and so forth. Now the teaching profession are all considering giving up teaching if they are going to be subject to ongoing battles over things in the past. Perhaps if they behaved appropriately, they would have nothing to worry about. Funny thing is, other politicians are calling for resignation, but because they demand it on a regular basis it lacks meaning (despite the fact that I thoroughly agree in this case).

A salmon farm escaped this week, not just a salmon. It was the size of a football field and it wandered off when moorings broke. Weather wasn't that bad, they subdued it. It had twelve people on board. Kind of funny.

The west coast town of Westport has made the news because it has nearly run out of water. It has been the subject of daily updates. They got some rain, which helped.

A guy that was caught in an industrial shredder is still in hospital, not surprisingly. He lost both legs and an arm. Hasn't he heard stories of people getting ties caught in office-sized ones?

Big nasty fire at a factory in Hastings, I think. Petrochem by products all over.

WORLD NEWS

Oscars today. Thou shalt not worship false idols.

REAL SPORT

The weekend was completely dominated by sport. Rory's game on Friday night was against St Peters. They won comfortably but leaked a few goals, final score was about 9-6 or so. Rory didn't score first, which was a shock. He did score a few. A number of kids in the team haven't played before, and Zach is in the team (formerly known as "Bob" in previous years).

Interesting conversation with a mother of one of the Western Springs Juniors on Friday night. Her son went to Rangeview last year (who did suffer quite a lot at the hands of Rory's team). She said every time that they played Ponsonby she wanted to check Rory's birth certificate. Now, that they are at the same school, she isn't too worried. Funny how point of view changes things. She also commented on how little Zach is, and I pointed out that he is a day older than Rory.

The kids then spent all weekend at a water polo camp. They seemed to enjoy themselves. They had a mix of pool sessions and theory. It finished with a game on Sunday afternoon. Hannah's team narrowly lost and Rory's team thumped the other team, despite being handicapped.

Rory had a senior game on Sunday afternoon (my third visit to the pool on Sunday). They were up against Mt Roskill, who have three club players, one of which is a national rep. They lost 3-5 which was a lot closer than I expected. Rory got two of the goals, I think. Patrick got fouled out of the game, which is first for a while.

SPORT

The Windies were 0-4 down before they won the final ODI. The tests start soon.

Crusaders thumped Blues. Chiefs beat the Reds, Brumbies thumped the Cats, Hurricanes suffered upset loss to Cheetahs.

Sarah Ullmer won a race in Wellington, by nearly four and a half minutes, it was a leg of the road cycling world cup.

MY SAD LIFE

Finally got my new camera last Monday. Have taken about 500 photos this week. Today I received a 300Gb external hard drive. There is a clear causal relationship between the two events - disk space on my notebook is dwindling exceedingly fast.

Hannah's swim sports were postponed on Tuesday, after walking to the pool in the rain, the got changed, then changed back, then walked back to school in sunshine. Rory had interschool swimming on Tuesday, which we found out about on Tuesday. He had an equipment failure in the freestyle, and despite finishing second in his heat there was no second chance as the determined winners on time without finals. His freestyle relay team won, he was the fourth swimmer.

On Thursday, I went along with the new camera, and supported Hannah. She looked beautiful as she swam (she always does, whereas Rory looks a bit like a malfunction in the spin cycle in a washing machine). She won her heats in 100m freestyle and 33m freestyle, qualifying 2nd fastest in 100m and coming third in the 33m free final to qualify. Later than evening, Diana asked if she got a treat from me after swimming. She said no. So Diana gave her some extra money when Hannah went to get milk at the dairy. Whilst there, I found out the plan, and pointed out that she didn't get anything after swimming, but got something DURING swimming (a material difference, in Hannah's world). She came home to find herself well and truly sprung.

Diana had her first full week at work (she had a couple of days the week before as a bit of a trial). She is tired but I think mostly enjoying it. We should enjoy the extra cash flow.

We continue to sort through old photos. Everyone seemed so much skinnier, hairier, and smoother of skin. Got some pretty scary ones of lots of people. Found a shot of a kid (Krusty) that was in Rory's class at intermediate and in his soccer team last year - taken in 1995, so he was about three years old. That was very funny, we didn't know him then.

Although it was hectic on Sunday, we had a quiet day on Saturday (only having to drop off and pick up the kids). We went shopping for me for pants, which I hate. We went out for lunch. The house was pleasantly quiet.