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.