LOCAL NEWS
A Dunedin man fell into a cement silo, but was rescued successfully. He was breathing through a tube for 40 minutes. I would hate to think what his bogies were like.
A 24 hour children's hotel has opened in Auckland, subject to much controversy. Basically, it is a round the clock crèche, with a one week time limit. Not sure of the cost of it.
The unbundling of the local loop was huge news on Wednesday. A move from the Government, planned to be announced in the budget, was leaked the day it was signed off. Telecom's share price plunged.
Police here have been filmed spraying pepper spray at a customer that was already handcuffed. Doesn't look good at all.
An earthquake near Tonga caused some tsunami concern on the east cost of New Zealand at about 2am during the week. The local civil defence decided it wasn't a problem but the BBC continued to report that we were about to get very wet. So as people were being phoned by concerned relatives overseas and heading for the hills, we saw film of a guy happily pumping gas for everyone as they left (with no concern for himself, you wonder if he didn't deserve a bravery award). Finally, about 7am, civil defence released a media statement to inform everyone that they weren't in danger.
There was some controversy about netball hero Irene Van Dyk wanting quite a high payment to play for her local team, but it seems like the agent was getting ideas. Seems to be all over now.
A somewhat inebriated woman was apprehended driving North on the Southern motorway, having had all four tyres go flat (how would all FOUR go flat at once?) and burned off the rubber and wore out the rims of the wheels.
WORLD NEWS
The miners trapped in Tasmania. Where do I start? We’ve had regular, tedious updates in every news bulletin and paper the whole week. We have been repeatedly told how big the hole is that they are fed through, what they have had to eat, we've been given a feel for the type of music that was loaded into the iPods that were sent in. Despite there being a "tiny" 10cm tube, they get only energy bars, even though you could slip a big mac down that easily. But none of the detail we really want to know, like:
- who was the first one of the pair to succumb and go number twos? Where did they do it?
- or did they both go involuntarily when the cave-in initially occurred?
- they are supposed to be trapped in a small box, where did the other guy look?
- what did they wipe with?
- how bad does it smell in there?
- have they sent kitty litter or adult continence products in to help the situation?
- and two clothes pegs?
- and perhaps some air freshener?
- dentists are concerned that there has been no mention of their dental hygiene, why haven't they been sent toothbrushes and floss?
- have they run an extension cord in to supply power for the iPods?
- are they getting on okay with each other?
- what on earth do they talk about?
We heard from some guy in Huntly who was trapped for 20 hours in a mine, as he knew exactly what the miners were going through. I am surprised we didn't hear from some guy who was stuck in a wardrobe organiser for ten minutes.
Even this morning, they are still working on digging them out. An Australian journalist collapsed and died outside the mine, shame there was only journalists and nobody useful there like a doctor.
I think the most distasteful aspect of the miners fuss is that the media are now squabbling over who will get the exclusive story. They just don’t get it. I think the vast majority of people don't give a toss.
Keith Richards is still being cared for. He has had brain surgery.
REAL SPORT
Hannah's soccer team got their first real points of the season with a 1-1 draw. The goal from the other team was utterly ridiculous, a free kick was given when the ball hit the armpit of a player (and if the ball hits the shirt it isn't supposed to be a hand ball) and he gave a direct free kick when it should only have been an indirect (meaning another player had to touch the ball before it goes in the goal). He kind of made up for it by giving us a penalty for a hand ball at the other end, even though it was another dubious call. The goalie saved it. At least they equalised a bit later on. Hannah was very solid, except when she ducked out of the way of the free kick.
Hannah had a training session with a tournament team she is playing in (soccer, that is). She is young for it, the tournament is under 14, but it will be great experience.
Hannah is also trialling for the school soccer team, so she is getting a lot of soccer at the moment.
SPORT
The Crusaders had a much needed win over the Bulls 35-17, the Blues lost 33-34 to the lowly placed Cats, Highlanders impressed with a win over the Brumbies 28-26, the Chiefs surprised everyone by beating the Waratahs 37-33. Hurricanes beat the Reds 26-22. One round left before semi-finals.
The Kangaroos thumped the Kiwis in the Anzac test that was held nowhere near Anzac Day 50-12.
Wayne Rooney's inability to form articulate sentences has become widely known as a result of the injury to his foot.
The third cricket test was all over pretty fast. Each innings successively resulted in more runs, but New Zealand batted first so it wasn't great. The South Africans needed 217 to win and they got there with four wickets spare.
Didn't mention the All Whites playing in Chile. They lost first game 1-4, second game 0-1. They play Brazil in Switzerland soon.
The last week of the premiership this week, Arsenal had a win 4-2 over Wigan, Man Utd 4-0 over Charlton, Newcastle beat Chelsea 1-0, Liverpool beat Portsmouth 1-0, Sunderland lost again, to Villa 0-2. The season has finished with the top four, in order, being Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, and Arsenal. Poor old Sunderland head South at cold motherless bottom with half the points of second to last. They go down to Division 1 next season. Now we wait for the World Cup to start.
MY SAD LIFE
Rory got his arm back on Wednesday. It was kind of strange. His wrist is quite weak, because it hasn't done anything for a month. The bone that was broken seems to be fine. He is having to work it to try and improve function, can't play water polo yet. Regardless of the broken bone, he just can't throw the ball. He has trials starting on 20th of May, which should give him enough time to recover.
We had another crack at the house, with the help of Paul and Gavin and Mum. Basically finished the bulk of it with undercoat going on some other bits. Still some to do but getting there. Also did more gardening and tidied a few things up. At least we didn't do it after swimming this time.
Gavin had a lasagne construction lesson from Diana on Saturday night. That was kind of odd. Didn't watch too closely, was way too knackered.
I have had an interesting time dealing with Dell over some PCs for a client. One simple mistake, a misleading order, and a company that is utterly hopeless to deal with. I am not impressed. I won't be ever buying Dell again. The whole process has been bizarre. They make their living by doing the same thing over and over again. Shame PCs are more complex than that.
Rory's weekend texting was noticeably low-key this weekend, which was really good. It gets to be way too much at times. He also discovered this week how he accidentally rings people on his mobile if his earphone is plugged in (just touch the button on the microphone twice and it calls the last called number) and it basically leaves a meaningless message until the credit runs out. Expensive lesson.
Been trying to encourage Hannah to read more. She hasn't been a real fan of reading, and she needs to in the interests of just building her vocab if nothing else. She was sitting in the sun yesterday chuckling as she read a book, was very good to see.
Rory's hair deserves a mention. He saw a photo of the back of his head the other day and realised what everyone else knew - there is too bloody much of it. He doesn't brush it. It has got to the point now where he is 178cm dry, and 172cm dripping wet.
I have been thinking all week about a set of encyclopaedias that Tony Clare has in his possession dated around 1906. I would love to see what it had to say about a world before communism, the free market, any Wall Street crashes and depressions, the World Wars, aeroplanes, telephone, and so forth. I really must go visit him before they get packed away.
SOMETIMES YOU REALLY HAVE TO WONDER ABOUT A PERSON'S SANITY
If it is not already apparent from these emails that I often think too much about some things, the next bit must surely confirm it. I decided that I had a problem when trying to have multiple cups of coffee during an audio conference. The problem is that I can take the plunger and cup into my office but milk is a problem. So I froze milk in six cubes in an ice cube tray (which Diana thought was lemon juice and then diluted by pouring water in the rest, the inventor's road is a rocky one). I chose six because I was not sure how much liquid was held in one cube, and six meant I could experiment with 1, 2, and 3 cubes (no, I didn't test the capacity of the cubes, which would have been easier).
See, I like milk in my coffee, a lot by most standards, it makes it cooler and I can drink it sooner. Coffee without milk is simply not an option. The benefit of the ice cubes is that I could use less milk because the lower temperature of the milk would make the coffee cooler with less milk (we are talking 0 degrees compared to 4 degrees, not sure if that actually makes a difference with water that is probably 60 degrees). The concept of what impact a cold substance has on a hot one could be interesting, in itself (but probably not to you, so I won't go there).
Well, on Friday I finally tried putting them in a cup of coffee. I quickly realised that one, two, and even three cubes wasn't really enough. The coffee with three cubes was awful, not enough milk. Next step was trying the remaining three, in a smaller cup, to improve the milk to coffee ratio. That was awful too.
I think it is time to admit defeat.
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