22 May 2006

Who needs a life when you have children? - 22/05/06

I am not going to do justice to this week. Events of today have overtaken me and I have prepared insufficiently beforehand. For that I offer a full refund of the charge for this week.

LOCAL NEWS

Mark Inglis, the guy with two artificial legs, made the summit of Everest about Wednesday. Quite an achievement.

Well the dull old budget dominated news for a couple of days.

Rakon, the company Koos used to work for before he went to England and Africa, listed on the stock exchange and made people who managed to get shares about 47% on the first day. I tried to get some, I really did.

Christchurch doesn't seem to be a very nice place to live. A female jogger was stabbed in park, and they've had about three bus drivers beaten up by teenage girls. Not sure what is going on there.

The leak of the unbundling news to Telecom continued to be news, the leaker was named. The guy who was given the information was accused of taking a leak in public.

Someone in Kaeo won $18m on lotto. It is a small place in the middle of nowhere up north.

Some teenagers crashed in Pukekohe, and the police reckon they had broken off pursuit before they crashed (like 0.01 seconds before).

Continuing outages from New Zealand's largest ISP, Xtra, have resulted in a $4 credit being offered to acute sufferers.

WORLD NEWS

The two miners that survived in Tasmania are getting about $2.5 million for their story. The wife of the guy that died is getting about $200k in compensation. I guess this is a case of good news being rewarded.

44 miners are trapped underground in China but nobody really cares. They aren't Australian.

REAL SPORT

Well, there was plenty of real sport this weekend. Hannah had her first water polo game for intermediate. Her team was playing St Mary's, and although St Mary's scored first, it was one way traffic for a while, final score was about 8-2 to Ponsonby. Hannah was very happy. She didn't score but she played very well and was the last one to be subbed.

Rory had his first game back for school, semi-final against a team they lost 0-7 to the week before. Was 1-1 at the end of the third quarter but Avondale won 3-1. Rory seemed pretty disappointed.

On Saturday, Hannah worked very hard in their soccer match, she thought she was going in goal for the second half, so she held nothing back. Then she didn't go in to goal, and she was knackered. Final score was 0-0 draw but very high energy game.

Rory had two water polo trials on Saturday, he spent most of the day at the pool. He is in the A team for the Pan Pac tournament, which is not really a surprise.

Sunday, parts four and five of the weekends sport. Hannah had a soccer tournament. They drew their first game, and then won their next two and qualified top of their group. They then lost the semi-final 0-1. Was a pretty good day, they did very well. There are about six players from Hannah's regular team that played, they will be able to play in the same tournament next year, and the year after.

The final chapter of sport was the playoff for third and fourth for Rory's school team. After the close game on Friday night, we thought they had a chance, but it didn't pan out that way. Rory scored a nice goal to equalise at 1-1 but that was as good as it got. The other team, Auckland Grammar slowly edged away. Final score was 3-9.

I can't be at Hannah's interschool soccer this Wednesday as I have to go to Wellington for the day. I am quite disappointed about that. I hardly ever go there.

SPORT

The Hurricanes narrowly beat the Waratahs 16-14. The Crusaders convincingly beat the Bulls 35-15. The Crusaders are home to the Hurricanes in the final.

Barcelona beat the Arse in Paris for the Champs League final 2-1. The Arsenal goalie was sent off for a dodgy tackle early, in a controversial bit of refereeing when he blew the whistle too soon and failed to play advantage.

Local soccer team Auckland City has won it's way into the Club finals in Japan in December. We seem to get there regularly but get towelled when we get there.

Barry Bonds equalled Babe Ruth's record, but pitchers were walking him for days, not wanting to be the guy that let him get it.

MY SAD LIFE

Diana gave me the night off swimming on Thursday. Had been to the pool the previous four days in a row, had already done my weekly allocation of lengths by Wednesday (more than normal in fact). Rory signed up to the swim club on Monday and Thursday was club night where they time themselves etc. Rory enjoyed himself and it was first time Diana has seen him swimming for quite a while. I had Hannah in my ear pretty much the whole time they were out.

We saw Jack and Claudia (Jack is Diana's cousin, brother of Alex who drowned in February) on Saturday night. It was a good night. Jack had some stuff from their grandfather's brother who died in World War I, including his diary, medals, lots of telegrams and things. Allan and Jacqui also came over for dinner. Allan stayed with them in Stuttgart about four years ago.

The waste disposal got choked up on Saturday night, think it was solidified fat from the big roast we had. I didn't have time to really attack it on Sunday morning as I had to be at the soccer tournament by 8:15am. Got a text from Diana that I never thought I would see. Went something like this: "We don't need a plumber I have fixed it myself".

We discovered a non-electronic device to warn us when the laundry sink is about to overflow. It requires a washing basket, a bucket, and one sock. The sock blocks the sink. The bucket sits in the sink and begins to float. The laundry basket full of pegs falls off the sink and onto the floor making a hell of a noise, just in time to prevent disaster.

Rory started going to a swim school this week. His fitness is improving but I think is still lacking something compared to before the injury.

There would be more, but I am up to my ears.

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