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
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