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.
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