I went to drop Rory off at school, came home and the power was off for five hours. Good excuse, I say. Weather hideous. Water washing over Tamaki Drive, the North Western Motorway causeway. Rory home early because school closed.
LOCAL NEWS
We had a terminally-ill P-addict on the rampage in South Auckland. This one-man crime wave of stupidity knocked over various dairies and gas stations before being apprehended over the weekend. He was taking 2 grams of P a day, which they say is a lot.
A man who raped or molested four women has been investigated by police and they worked out that he is a serial rapist (good work, guys). They did, at least, apprehend him. Not sure if this was before or after they worked out his status, serial-wise. I wonder how many it takes to become a serial murderer or other offender? Twice? Not really enough, could be just a bit of bad luck. I think perhaps three.
I think I have been unfairly not picking on Helen Clark. I think it is time to remind everyone that she is actually queen of the undead, a corpse that walks. Although how she manages to have an ego as a soulless one escapes me. This challenges my entire system of beliefs.
A man was found guilty of sedition. He is an utter fool, he was the one that attacked Helen's electorate office and then told everyone he had done it and incited others to rise up.
An accident on the Southern Motorway with a truck carrying petfood was quite messy. It was a slimy, smelly mass. At least it wasn't during rush hour. We had chaos on the motorway near Mt Wellington when a new shopping centre opened on Thursday. It was packed through the whole weekend. They are only shops, it's not like we don't have them elsewhere.
The Justice Ministry has been chasing dead people for unpaid fines. Due to the privacy laws, they can't say what the fine was for. The bureaucrats have gone mad.
A Saudi Arabian National has been deported because of supposed links to the 9/11 pilots. Then we got questions about why he was let it, why was he allowed to stay for four months, and the usual claims of innocence.
WORLD NEWS
The inhumation (being the opposite of exhumation) of Abu Al-Zarqawi is a mixed blessing. I am not sure I approve of "taking out" people, without a fair trial. And in this situation, the collateral damage is dubious (given that they took out a whole building, not sure how many joined him on his trip to paradise). It was also pretty disturbing how so many world leaders gleefully announced the result (including Koffi Anna, I thought the UN was peaceful).
REAL SPORT
There has been a lot, believe me. We had seven games played by our two children over the weekend. Feel free to skip through it.
Friday night - Water polo
Hannah played for Ponsonby second team, Marlins, first up. It was tight to begin with but Hannah and Miranda teamed well and began to dominate. By the fourth quarter they were well ahead, final score 12-3. I moved Hannah back (she scored four goals, her first goals in water polo, ever, I would add, and Miranda scored about another four) to give others a shot at scoring (couple of kids did, including Taylor who Hannah has known for many years).
Then Hannah played for her real team, team 1, the Sharks. They were playing Rangeview, who were using an interesting tactic. They had one player who can shoot from well inside their own half, very very accurately. They were up about four goals very quickly. Miranda Chase was told to mark him but she didn't have a clue how to (different Miranda from the first game). He had to be shut down, finally I got Hannah to mark the bugger really tightly (the score was 1-5 by then). She knows how to, her experience from the tournament in Tauranga showed. She gave him no room, he was pretty pissed off and couldn't shake her. Slowly the Sharks started to reel them in. They got to 5-5 when he got the ball on a restart about four metres behind the halfway and he scored again to make it 5-6. Hannah closed him down again and sent the ball forward to her team-mate when his team tried to get him the ball. They equalised. The last quarter was pretty tense. They drew ahead and then got themselves another goal as a buffer. Final score was 8-6 to Ponsonby, hard fought but a little bizarre. Hannah didn't score in this game but she won it for them, the other players just didn't have the ability to close someone down like she does.
During this second game, Rory played a club game against Northsport A. It was pretty tough, very physical, bit dodgy in places, and the final score was a 6-9 loss. Rory scored one goal I think. I didn't see it.
Finally, about three hours after we got there, Rory played for his school. Club player Patrick had pulled out of the team because he felt it wasn't up to his standard, which was completely lame. This basically left Rory as the most experienced player in the team, all juniors, in a senior competition (although C grade, but older opposition). Rory opened the scoring for Springs, it was the only goal in the first half. He scored again in the third quarter, giving them a 2-0 lead. St Peters came back and levelled at 2-2 in the fourth, with about two minutes left. Rory managed to dig the ball out in the hole (right in front of goal, usually very closely marked, and was being marked in this instance) and popped it in to give them the lead. They managed to hold off two attacks and the goalie Wyatt made one very important save to give them a 3-2 win (with Rory scoring all three goals).
That was Friday night, arguably the busiest of the three days.
Saturday - Soccer and water polo
Hannah's team were winless but it was second from bottom playing bottom of table for last game of grading. They scored pretty early in the first half, and again in about ten minutes. By half time they were up 3-0. Second half they were going in to the wind and up the hill. They had to work a lot harder, and weren't breaking through as easily. Finally, Hannah managed to get her name on the score sheet, with a nice goal. Final score was 4-0, a good win for the girls, which they sorely needed.
Rory also had a club game out at Sacred Heart in Glendowie against Marist. It was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter. They opened it up to 4-1 by end of third quarter. Marist clawed back to 4-3 and it was looking shaky, but Rory again did the back hand from hole and slotted it to give them a 5-3 lead with only ninety seconds to play. That was the final score, despite some pretty serious attacks in the last moments of the game. He may have only scored one goal but worked very, very hard. He did miss a couple but the feeds to him were not great.
Sunday was relatively low-key. Hannah was ball-girl at a club prem women's match, which took about two hours. They lost 2-3 but it was pretty close. Rory then had a school polo game against Westlake Boys, but they didn't show up, so they played St Peters again, who had just played a game. They fooled around a bit in first half shooting from miles away but it got more serious. Final score was 7-6 to Western Springs, Rory got four goals, was in goal one quarter. The game was very good-natured, despite having had such a hard-fought game on Friday night with the same team. It was good for St Peters, they got thumped by Parnell College beforehand so I think it restored they confidence too.
I would just like to say that I know other parents who had more sport to deal with than us. One family had five soccer games on Saturday, and five water polo games over the weekend (they do have three kids, but one didn't have any polo).
SPORT
The World Cup kicked off with a hiss and a roar. Six goals in the Germany-Costa Rica game, England game was disappointing despite them winning. I have set things up so my hard disk recorder can record all the games over night. Hannah keeps saying some of the players are "hot", which is definitely not a good sign.
The All Blacks Played Ireland, who led for a good chunk of the match before the ABs hauled them in won 34-23, but it was a lot closer than it sounds.
MY SAD LIFE
Yet another action packed week where I haven't often had time to figure out what the heck was going on. Didn't really do much other than take people to sporting events, watch sporting events, and come home from sporting events.
Ross had his birthday on Friday, then Craig did on Saturday.
Saw Charles on Friday, he is over to visit his Mum. No reports on how she is yet. Saw Ross as well. Tony was there too. I was careful not to give Charles a hug or anything. Then saw Bob on Saturday at the gas station, just so he didn't feel left out.
On top of the sport on Saturday, Hannah and I also watched another team play before her game, and she had two birthday parties, including a sleepover at Miranda's house (the girl that scored four goals in the first water polo game).
It was a pretty big 24 hours for Hannah, scoring her first goal of the season for the soccer team and her first goals ever in water polo. It was pretty cool, she needed to score in both, so she knew she could do it.
Rory had to get a science project thing in to school, the one on two elements (Carbon and Mercury, think I mentioned it last week).
Rory came home from school with three classmates. They couldn't play Xbox, PS2, watch TV. They found speakers that needed no power and added an iPod. They found the PSP to be reasonably fully charged. They survived without resorting to cards and monopoly. I suggested they go to the dairy, they weren't very keen. I point out that the dairy might be selling ice cream cheap before it melts. They disappeared.
GOT THE iPOD - STILL PAYING FOR THE ACCESSORIES
Diana and Rory went to Sylvia Park (the new shopping mall) on Sunday morning, early, to by an iPod, and bought two - one for each of them for their birthdays. We are now a one iPod family (one each). In the 24 hours since, Rory has purchased four items for it on trademe.
THINGS YOU DON'T OFTEN SAY - PART 3
From the man who brought you "Oh they are from Guam, that is why they are wearing pyjamas." I can now give you:
"Excuse me, I just need to go wash out the mashed potato from my eyebrows."
I was tired, really tired, so I did a faceplant in my dinner. I don't know why, but I felt better afterwards. It was Thursday. I never really got the hang of Thursdays.
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