Rory reaches 14 in a sleep deprived state and a smurf crime spree in the South - 31/07/06

Weather still cold at times, but hasn't been a lot of rain and lots of crisp sunny days (except not this morning).

LOCAL NEWS

New Zealand gets new currency today, three smaller coins and no more 5c pieces.

There was a shooting in a gun shop on Thursday. The son of the owner defended himself when a man entered waving a machete. Interestingly, there are not many recorded instances of a single machete wielding psycho successfully taking control of a gun shop. Apparently the people that work in gun shops are quite familiar with, um, guns actually, and how to use them. The "victim" was shot in the gut, which slowed him down but wasn't fatal. I think the guy was pretty lucky, considering.

The Kahui twins' killer remains free. Meanwhile, a relative has been arrested for rape and has since been beaten up in prison. It just gets worse and worse.

Two drunken 19 year olds were arrested stealing a trampoline while dressed as smurfs. What can I say. Dunedin, the place where the unexpected can happen.

Former All Black Stephen Bachop was arrested in Tahiti for drunken misbehaviour on a plane.

Proof that ice cream is bad for you. A 17 year old woman died in a head on collision with a Mr Whippy truck just North of Rotorua. The truck driver was pretty badly hurt, too.

I think the journalistic community are both lazy and tedious as they continue to run "news" about the new version of the All Black haka. Get over it.

The opposition tabled a vote of no confidence in the Speaker of the House over the handling of Taito Philip Field (dodgy MP). It was an interesting move but not sure anything more will come of it, but it has not done Labour any favours.

WORLD NEWS

Israel continues to be responsible for useless journalists all over the world mispronouncing the word "Hizbolah". We've had "His bowler" a lot. Taking out the UN OP probably wasn't a great idea, I think the Israelis even admit that. A kiwi was supposed to be there but couldn't because of the shelling. Funny thing is, Hizbolah seems to have multiple spellings, just like falafel and hummus.

Brett pointed out that the American Medical Association has admitted that they are the third largest killer of Americans. That's under the knife, wrong medication, wrong diagnosis, and so forth. In New Zealand some 1500 people die as a result of medical care, three times the road toll. Now, this is kind of tricky, as I don't know if they count people who were going to die without surgery who died during surgery.

REAL SPORT

Much less going on this week. Only five games, practically a weekend off. I believe in some cultures people get weekends off.

Didn't see a lot of Rory's club game, they were playing just before Hannah's team and I needed to organise them. There was a bit of experimentation done during the game, the coach was trying to give some of the boys more game time. Rory only played two quarters. They lost 1-3.

Hannah's first game on Friday night was defaulted by the team they were playing. They therefore used a bunch of ring-in players (including one boy who isn't at intermediate any more). Was tough game, final score 5-11 loss, but the default meant a 5-0 win.

The Ponsonby Girls team were playing St Marys, a team that is loaded with girls we know. Three of them kept coming and listening to the girls while I was trying to get them ready to go. The girls themselves were so loud that I put my ear plugs in. The game was very tight, and the St Marys girls kept scoring in the last seconds of each quarter (like when the clock was 0, twice, one second later and neither would have counted). It was 3-4 to St Marys at half-time. Things came right in the second half as we changed the structure in the pool and we scored five goals in a row to win 8-4. Interesting how a structural change can make such a difference.

Soccer on Saturday was at Cox's Bay, where I don't think the girls have lost a game this season. It was against a team they had drawn 0-0 with during grading but were near the bottom of the table now. The Dudettes (Hannah's team) led 1-0 at half-time and scored towards the end of the second half to win 2-0.

Rory's school water polo team had a tough game on Sunday night, the team they were playing loaded with some very good club players (including two who trialled for the National U15 team). However, the Senior College team went to the wrong pool for some reason, so no game was played.

SPORT

The New Zealand netballers lost to Australia on Tuesday night, first time in a long time. They played with player selections which helped bugger it up.

The Warriors lost, they can't make the playoffs now. It was always going to be difficult starting with negative points.

The All Blacks beat Australia, narrowly 13-9. I have only just realised that the tri-nations now appears to be three games each, not two, which came as a surprise (and I thought we played those guys too often already).

Sri Lanka made a record partnership in their test against South Africa, over 600 runs I think. It looks like it now may be a draw.

MY SAD LIFE

I have been suffering all week with a cough that started without warning about Sunday night. I don't enjoy it, and Diana seems to think I deliberately cough at night to keep her awake (this is only partly true, at most, and only partially addresses the suffering inflicted in the other direction, I am sure). All sympathy should take the form of chocolate…...

We took Rory and his six friends to Paul's house for a sleepover (yep, I think he was mad too). The boys did not sleep at all the entire night, because sleeping meant the others would draw things on your face or remove an eyebrow. It was an…interesting evening. They were generally, well, behaved (commas in correct places, trust me). Nothing was destroyed, nobody needed stitches, nobody lost any eyebrows. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought, although worse in some places. Paul isn't talking to me any more (well, he hasn't replied to my email, at least). In quantity, they are pretty horrible, smelly, messy creatures. Actually, they are pretty horrible, smelly, messy creatures on their own, too.

Today, Rory turns 14 at about 6:35pm tonight. I say about because we aren't really sure of the time, because we didn't check watches as we were kind of busy. I am sure the current occupants of 20 King St would not appreciate a re-enactment on the bathroom floor. We have year until he starts making driving noises.

Paul Chambers is off to live in Lund, Sweden for six months. He is completing his last semester at university over there. It should be pretty cool. Had a bit of chat with him last night, gave him the tip about New Zealand 50c pieces which are supposedly the same as some high denomination kroner coin.

The mail box is going to be closely watched today as we are waiting to hear whether or not Hannah has been selected for the u12 Auckland Soccer Rep team. I am not allowed to open any letter that arrives. One girl she knows got the "no" letter on Saturday so we may have additional hope. Not entirely convinced that selection is actually a good thing (given extra training and so forth).

WARNING - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

I chew menthol chewing gum when I am coughing, it reduces the coughing a fair bit (so does drinking water, but too much water and I never get any sleep because I keep having to go). However, I made a discovery. Don't chew menthol gum while drinking Berocca. It tastes so disgusting, I cannot describe it. If even one person follows this advice, I will have achieved something with my life.

10 YEARS AGO

Well, there was a bit of a hiatus in this while we were away in Sydney for two weeks in 1996. I described it as a tour of Sydney playgrounds and sandpits. Hannah was barely walking and not talking much (aah, the good old days, I do miss them). She called Craig "Lisa", in fact almost anyone was "Lisa". We bought some wine in the Hunter valley, half of which I think we still have. We started installing the playground in the back garden when we returned (which was removed about a year ago). I went to a telecoms show with Bambi. He had a dodgy photo of Lisa in his wallet (from behind, but still..) and kept waving it around when he gave people business cards. I referred to Lisa as "Bambi's Girlfriend" at the time (funny how things change). It was the beginning of working with number portability (which I am still working on, ten years later, and most people still don't understand what it is and if they do why any sane person would want to work on it).

In the real world, Nelson Mandela recommended that everyone in Australia vote for Jim Bolger, which I thoroughly agreed with, however he remained PM of New Zealand - much to the disappointment of most New Zealanders.

Diana and I return to work for a rest. Cheap holidays at Club Med Beirut. - 24/07/06

Weekends, who needs them?

LOCAL NEWS

Forgot to mention that Jin the otter was recovered last week. New Zealand's most wanted fugitive was captured on Rangitoto island, in good health but weighing less than she did before she escaped.

Taito Philip Field, dodgy MP, had a report on his actions released this week. The report sort of exonerated him, in a rather sceptical and dubious way. It stated that the terms of reference prevented investigating the really dodgy stuff. The guy is guilty of using poor judgement, and abusing his position. The second bit is the worst, in my view.

Winston Peters seems to have completely lost the plot. He is up for the "most eccentric minister" award, without a doubt. He has been visiting dignitaries in the US (Condoleeza Rice and some guy, McCain I think, who could be next President). He has refused to tell media where he is going and why, he interrupted the guy mid-sentence to admonish the press and tell them to sod off. And he seems to be working on making his relationship with the media even worse.

Helen Clark doesn't see Winston's antics as any cause for concern. She thinks it is a problem with the media and them portraying Winston in a bad light. Bollocks, she needs to get a grip, I think she believes everything she says, and believes that everyone believes her. She then gave some claptrap about why Taito Philip Field should stay in parliament, and was not impressed when it was suggested that they need him to keep their numbers in the house. She needs to get in touch with reality and the living.

A police woman has been told that moonlighting as a prostitute is not considered appropriate. The media has not been able to talk about this one enough, as you may imagine. Prostitution now joins the list of banned second jobs (horse racing, TAB, and accountancy).

News this week that New Zealand is not considered a safe place to visit (like in top 5). Load of bollocks. I don't know how this is tabulated but I think it is ridiculous. We even have police working as prostitutes, can't get any safer than that. As for risk of car accidents, it's dangerous because of the tourists driving on the wrong side of the road, not knowing the rules, and falling asleep at the wheel.

A woman was charged with drink driving, five times the maximum blood alcohol, 427 mg/100ml. It was a wonder she was alive. She lost her license for two years (like that is going to stop her driving, if she drinks that much).

A possum has continued the tradition set by Jin the otter and hitched a ride in a container of onions to England. It is being released into an animal park.

Still no arrests for the Kahui twins murder.

WORLD NEWS

The situation in Israel and Lebanon is hard to comprehend. Hard to say whether it is just a few skirmishes or a complete war zone. It does not look good. Even with three murders in New Zealand on the weekend last week, I think we are still in a safer place (we didn't have any this week).

Tonga had a big funeral for the prince and princess that were killed in California on a freeway, very big event there.

REAL SPORT

Rory had a school game on Friday night, it was just awful. Most of the team were half asleep. Rory worked hard. Final score was about 2-8. Rory didn't score either goal but was instrumental in setting them up. It was like they were playing in jelly or something. Diana and I both wondered if Rory should play in a team that plays like that.

Hannah's water polo team won their first post-grading game in Division 1, 4-2. Hannah scored 2 goals. Played very well, we lost something when she came off.

Her second game was for Ponsonby Girls. We had three girls from each team (Div 1, 2, and 3) so we had a mixture of strong players, medium, and strugglers (although one of Div 3 girls is a pretty good player). Game was very tight, lead changed couple of times, Hannah powered through to score nice little solo goal (her only one in the game but she was awesome in defence and building attacks). Final score 8-8.

Saturday, the only sporting even we had was one soccer game, out at Huapai. Hannah set up a ball for Georgia to score in the first half. Led 1-0 at half time. In the second half we had the wind with us and were going down hill. Despite this, the opposition scored first. The girls worked hard and had a few opportunities, Hannah got a break with the ball but couldn't get it away before they caught her (she should have scored really). Then about six minutes from the end, they did score to make it 2-1 and record their third win in the championship round.

Sunday, Hannah was at a mini-tournament which was an Auckland rep trial. She played three games, and was not subbed off at all. They lost their first game 0-1 due to a dodgy penalty for an accidental hand ball on a pitch without a penalty area (should have been an indirect free kick at most). The won next game 2-0, and drew third game 0-0. The coach had strict instructions to ensure that all girls got to play four halves out of six. Hannah and Jesse (who is at Ponsonby and Hannah knows quite well) both stayed on the whole time, both were defending. Three other Western Springs girls were in the team, including two from Hannah's normal team. If the guy coaching the team has any influence I think there is a high chance she will got through to the next team.

Meanwhile, Rory was at a relay swim meet. It sounded like a shockingly silly waste of time, running more than half an hour late, and his team was not particularly fast (he was in u15 team and u16 when he could be u14). They were last in the first race, not sure about second. Two races in four hours, about four minutes apart. Life is too short for that sort of thing. He left early to get to his club water polo game in time, they weren't happy.

We had plenty of drama leading up to the club game on Sunday afternoon (Rory's gold medal winning U14 team are now playing Under 16C). Seven players from the team were competing in the relay event and getting a team in time for the game was going to be a battle. We did get enough, but it was tight for a while. They were playing Northsport C at their home pool. Was a very low scoring game, 2-2 with 16 seconds to go when Rory scored. They managed to defend their narrow lead for a win (second game in a row that Rory has scored winning goal against Northsport).

Then, we went across town to West Wave for another school game at West Wave against Mt Albert. The Mt Albert team includes four guys from Rory's club team, and two Marist club players, so Western Springs basically didn't stand a chance. It was a very good-natured affair. We brought Zane with us for the game and they agreed to swim butterfly for the first swimoff (the swimoff starts each quarter and the teams swim hard to the middle to get the ball first) which was pretty funny, they did breaststroke in the fourth. I was doing the scoring and there was no time clock so I had to call out how much time was left in each quarter (I'm not silly, I'm an alarm clock, "ring ring"). When Zane missed a sitter of a goal, everyone burst out laughing on both sides. It was 2-2 at one point, but Mt Albert settled and built a lead. They were ahead 6-3 at the end of the third quarter, when Rory went into goal. Putting Rory in goal is utterly stupid in his school team because he is so good at slowing down attacks. He let in five goals in the final quarter, but scored two goals from goal as well (pretty unusual). Final score 5-11 to Mt Albert, Rory scored all five goals for Western Springs. Was a much, much better game to watch than the miserable affair on Friday night.

SPORT

The Tall Blacks narrowly lost in Hobart, but in Melbourne they came back to win 79-71 to level the series two all. New Zealand won the Ramsay Shield because they scored more points (both losses were by very low margins and their wins were much higher). It was first ever win on Australian soil over Boomers.

All Blacks beat South Africa 35-17, not the whitewash that Aussie gave them.

The Silver Ferns beat the Australians in the first netball test 52-40.

Tiger Woods won the British Golf Open. He has never failed to win an open where he led at the end of the third round.

New Zealand Triathlete Cameron Brown won the German triathlon.

MY SAD LIFE

Rory has qualified as a level 2 swimmer, at club night on Thursday. Level 1 is best. I think I am level 7.

On our way out to the pool on Friday night, we saw a car stopped on the cycle path beside the motorway. Separated from the motorway by a chain link fence, the path is for people to cycle and walk alongside the North-western Motorway. The driver was out of the car and seemed to be wondering why the narrow brown road was about to get narrower at the Whau Creek bridge. There was a policeman on the motorway side who had obviously been trying to explain the problem to the motorist. He saw us laughing and shrugged and rolled his eyes. Was very funny.

Before Hannah went to soccer on Sunday morning, I had to get Rory to the pool for 8am for polo training. I had a swim and did my fifty lengths in 27.5 minutes. That is my best so far.

On Sunday, after soccer, Hannah and I came home. She was in a pretty happy place. I could tell because she carefully cleaned her soccer boots. She only does that when she is feeling good about soccer.

Rory's 14th birthday is next Monday. The party planning is well behind schedule, but we are working on it. Paul could be considered insane. I will explain next week.

No pigeons this week, although Ollie caught something a little smaller yesterday.

Whilst it could be said that our children do too much, and I don't think Rory will ever go near a relay swim meet ever again, we are not alone. We see a lot of the same people at some of these things. At least a couple of his team mates had exactly the same commitment on Sunday with training, relay meet, and two games in the evening.

Diana tried to remove the gate on Friday, with her car. She somehow caught it with her tyre and did no damage to her car, which was an achievement. Rory and I completed the job on Saturday and now we have way more room getting in and out of the drive way.

I am having a quiet day in the office. Doing audio conferences seems like a rest. Shocking stuff.

Big results in both water polo and soccer, population of New Zealand dropping fast - 17/07/06

You could be forgiven for thinking New Zealand is not a very safe place to live this week.

LOCAL NEWS

About three bodies have shown up around New Zealand this weekend. This includes a woman (thought to be a teacher) in a classroom, and a teenage shotgun victim in Otahuhu, and a teenager in Whangarei got a fatal bashing near a nightclub (who knew they had nightclubs up there).

There has also been an arrest in the case of the body found on a beach near Wellington about a week ago.

The Maori Queen went to hospital after suffering a heart attack on Tuesday, no mention of whether she was watching water polo at the time.

Jerry Collins had a wee on the rugby field at the game last Saturday against Wallabies, and that was in the news all week. Jerry took a Jimmy. Why is that so interesting?

Then, as if we hadn't already gone too far on the subject, the "streaker" who sold her bikini was in the news because she felt Jerry should be charged with something because she was. Now I am waiting for the patch of grass that he peed on to be auctioned.

Helen Clark apologised to Samoa for our treatment of them. Honestly, I didn't know New Zealand had done anything to Samoa beyond send them lots of KFC (which is certainly worthy of an apology). However, New Zealand did "rule" Samoa for 48 years and made a few dubious decisions (hardly surprising given the record at home). This week an illegal immigrant from the Pacific Islands received a transplant costing $500k, so I suppose that could be considered part of the apology.

Parliament has introduced a new security system that includes standard things used in airports (metal detectors, x-ray machines). Sadly, it operates between 9am and 5pm so you can bring your glock and explosives in at any time outside those hours (the building is open at 7am). And they don't want New Zealand to have a reputation as a hick backwater….

A member of the New Zealand paralympic shooting team died in a car accident in Switzerland.

A truck driver did a "superman" dive out of a truck into a river during an accident on a bridge. The river was only a metre deep and he broke both his wrists but survived. I am not convinced about the need to leave the truck, but anyway.

WORLD NEWS

Mumbai train timetables were massively disrupted after the six or seven bombs went off. You know I never saw a single woman in any of the videos of the event. Are the women not allowed out at all?

Israel have a new solution for problems in the middle east. They are hoping that shooting people near where the enemy might be should get the enemy and stop them from retaliating. Escalation seems to be the theme at the moment. It is not good.

REAL SPORT

Well, after the tension of the game that got them into the semi-final, the semi-final was quite tense. Was 1-1 end of first quarter, 3-3 end of second quarter. Sometimes behind by one goal, sometimes ahead. End of third quarter they were up 5-4, then they pulled the team apart in the final quarter and won 11-5 (scoring more goals in the last quarter than the other team did in the whole game). We thought this was stressful but then the girls team played, and that was 1-1 at full time, 3-3 at end of extra time, and they had a penalty shootout which was very tense but they won, finally. (we know many players in the girls team, some have played in teams with Hannah, others with Rory).

The next day the Waitak girls played their final first, while the lads were warming up and readying for theirs. The girls let it slip away from them and the final score was 1-4. This worried the boys a bit, but they steadied and focused. I won't go into too much detail of the game, but it was tight, both teams were ahead at times, but the game was tied at 5-5 and went into extra time. This was when our boys started to pull away, and it was 8-5 at one point, but they sort of relaxed a bit. With 1:30 left, the other team started to claw their way back. With 17 seconds on the clock, we had the ball and were still leading 8-7. Rather than ensure possession and run the clock down, they decided to have a go, and that was a very long 17 seconds. They held on though, didn't score, but kept their 8-7 lead to win the final.

This was the first time the Waitak club have won Pan Pac gold in any age group since 1998. The club is very, very happy. Even with this wonderful result, I am not entirely convinced it was worth it, it was a long haul.

Hannah's soccer match on Saturday was going to be tough. Playing a team that has won all nine of their games this season so far. Worse still, I had to referee the whole thing. This meant I couldn't take photos or say anything from the sideline. Hannah was moved back into a defensive role to minimise goal scoring opportunities for the opposition. Anyway, cutting long story short, the girls had a few chances but never quite managed to score. The other team had a few chances but also never managed to score. A nil all draw sounds dull but it was anything but, and it was a credible result for the girls, one of the best this season in some respects.

SPORT

I am thoroughly sick of hearing about Zidane and his little friend Matarazzi. The same thing over and over again. Boring.

I miss the World Cup though. A week after it finished and there is a definite gap in my life.

Tall Blacks have been playing the Boomers (Australian basketball team). Lost 79-81 first game, won 72-53 in the second.

The Wallabies beat South Africa 49-0 in the second tri-nations match. The second worst losing margin the boks have ever suffered. They appear to suck.

Warriors lost again. So much for their winning streak.

New Zealand women's hockey team finished last in a tournament in Holland, they scored one goal. They did only just qualify for this tournament.

MY SAD LIFE

So, six days running of attending water polo games finished on Tuesday. Wednesday promised to be quite stress free. It was, we even went swimming Wednesday night (for first time in about 12 days).

Ollie caught a bird. But not just any bird, a pigeon. A bloody great big, practically chicken-sized pigeon (they can weigh nearly half a kilo, which is a lot for something that flies). What the silly bugger was going to do with it, I don't know. How he talked it into coming into the house via the cat door, I don't know. Diana and Hannah released it. Ollie was very proud. I just can't see how he got it in the house, he couldn't pick it up. I think he just somehow followed it in or herded it. Is there such a thing as a pigeon whisperer?

Hannah hurt her tailbone on Monday, still couldn't run or kick a ball on Thursday but came right in time for soccer on Saturday.

The kids achieved very little in the holidays post-Pan Pacs. They went shooting with Bambi on Thursday. Rory spent a few days in nothing but underpants and a t-shirt. He did go to the movies with friends from Ponsonby Intermediate on Friday and stayed the night at Hamish's house so we had a semi-quiet house.

After a quite quiet weekend this weekend with only one sporting event, we think we have six water polo games, one soccer game, a swim meet, and possibly a soccer mini-tournament this weekend.

That about sums it up for this week.

The Italians do the job, Zidane loses his head and uses his head - 10/07/06

LOCAL NEWS

I am getting more and more frustrated with the sort of thing that is continued to be considered news. We get this continuing trail of items where they introduce an item, cross to someone who can't hear with pregnant pauses between them and the studio, just to get a garbled version of what the anchor just said. And even the canned stuff if not a lot better. I can't think of any way of remedying the problem. Ignoring them just doesn't seem to work. In the last week we have been told how many cars get stolen and never recovered, how many other crimes go unpunished (I am sure it is just as bad overseas, if not worse), and how police are busy catching speeding motorists. Meanwhile, still no arrest for the murdered twins (I think that is three weeks new). Not even the opposition are taking advantage of this apparent incompetence and lack of direction.

The case of the boy who dropped a concrete lump on a car, killing a man, continued to run this week. Despite the boy admitting he dropped the rock, he argued that he was not guilty of murder. Given that this, to my mind, meant the trial surrounded interpretation of the law, we still got witness testimony and the girlfriend of the dead man telling the jury how horrible it was. What a waste of court time. In the end he was found not-guilty of murder, then came news he had thrown projectiles previously and missed.

A train driver stopped traffic at a level crossing while he bought himself a pie for lunch. No traffic could pass for 20 minutes. An impressive bit of ignorance and selfishness.

There's been flooding in lower North Island, not as bad as about four years ago. Also been snow, again.

A New Zealander has been hurt whilst running with the bulls in Pamplona. He will live. The bull is seeking counselling.

In a custody battle (quite literally) a man had a knife inserted in the front of his face on an unplanned basis (like across the front, behind his nose). Not pretty. The handle broke off and left a six inch blade installed. It was removed far more carefully.

Interesting research by some agency and encouraged by someone called Meat and Wool Innovation shows chicken is full of campylobacter and making people sick. Given that this agency is sponsored by those selling beef, lamb, and pork, it isn't entirely surprising. However, there are some valid points made. They were saying frozen chicken is safer, because the freezing and then cooking tends to wipe out the bacteria.

With debate continuing about arming police with tazers, they pepper sprayed a five year old girl during a domestic disturbance. Not sure why the girl was getting in the way, but not a good look for the police.

WORLD NEWS

A New Zealander who was a renegade MI6 agent has been arrested in France. It's all far too intriguing for New Zealand to cope with and the press to cover adequately.

A Newcastle woman suffered a stroke and now speaks with a Jamaican accent. This is called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and there is a variation where immigrants start speaking in the local accent called Local Accent Syndrome. What a load of bollocks, how can you take medical people seriously with this sort of thing?

REAL SPORT

Sorry, but here is some of the detail from the PanPac Tournament

Waitak 14A vs QEII won 12-9 but were 1-5 down at one point
Waitak 14A vs Maranui won 6-4
Waitak 14A vs North Sport Blue won 9-3
Waitak 14A vs Rotorua won 12-0
Waitak 14A vs Marist Red won 6-5

They came from behind twice, in the first and last games. It has been tense stuff. They play in a semi-final today and a final tomorrow (with luck). Rory has scored about four goals, including last goal in last game. Playing very well, working very hard. Whole team has improved over tournament.

SPORT

The semi-finals were quite good, I thought. The Germans were pretty unlucky in a way, but they thumped the Portuguese in the 3rd/4th match. I don't agree that they should call the 3rd/4th match meaningless. It is far more meaningful than the last games in pool play where the teams going through are already known.

The All Blacks beat the Wallabies 32-12 in Christchurch, I am not sure there was a lot of interest, the World Cup has been way more interesting.

If you don't know Italy beat France in the Final on penalties then you must be living under a rock.

MY SAD LIFE

Both the children stayed at other houses Tuesday night. Our house seemed very quiet, peaceful. There was much less dirty dishes and dirty laundry Wednesday morning.

The Goodins have returned, they came along to watch Rory's game on Friday night at Millennium. Paul came too, we both took photos.

Gavin came and constructed lasagne on Wednesday. Paul came too, and we played monopoly with the kids. Was kind of fun. Gavin disappeared the next day, although he did call for instruction on lasagne on Saturday, so we know he is still alive.

It's hard to say what else has happened this week. Don't really feel like I've had time for anything, beyond water polo.

HOW DO YOU KEEP AN IDIOT IN SUSPENSE

Well, finally, I will spill the beans on my little surprise. It's not that exciting, really. Today is the 10th anniversary of this email. I have ten whole years worth of weekly emails. Now, I am not sure you are ready for a "Ten years ago" thing every week (nor am I sure that I am). It only went to Paul and Koos, and was not very long (about seven lines).

TEN YEARS AGO

Ruapehu was erupting, the All Blacks beat Australia (Michael Jones scored the first try and we won $60 when he did as TAB had just started sports betting). Gavin was looking for an agent to sell his book (Hmmmm).

Not sure that was worth the wait, really.

New laws for some, and the long arm of the law is extended for the wrong reasons -03/07/06

LOCAL NEWS

The stonewalling of police around the death of the twins continues to be reported, but with less interest. The police are being made to look pretty stupid, it has to be said. A disturbing incident is becoming considerably more so, and the messages that are being sent are all bad.

Big news on Friday is the re-exploitation of the Kupe gas field, which should give us 15% of our energy needs. That should help our balance of payments which has been abysmal.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has rejected the record 35 complaints about the "Bloody Mary" episode of Southpark. This shows that common sense can occasionally prevail.

Telecom announced the separation of the company into wholesale and retail arms. Nobody was too impressed or concerned.

Power returned finally to everyone in South Canterbury, 18 days after the outage. Poor buggers, it has been pretty cold.

Activist Tama Iti, displaying further scant regard for the law, has auctioned the flag he supposedly shot with a shotgun, to defray the fines for having shot the flag in the first place. It turns out the Crown also has the flag, and so does his tribe (so it sounds like he shot a couple of extras for posterity). This is bizarre. It was removed from trademe before it closed.

There was a piece in the news about five "prisoners" escaping home detention this year, including a violent offender. I wonder how many escaped jail detention? This is quite pathetic. Home detention must be like a "get out of jail free" card.

A police memo has been leaked that suggests that the police have a little competition for getting the most speeding tickets. The Ministry denies it of course. Despite evidence of clear monitoring of results in ticketing. However, if people speed less, how can they issue more tickets? Again, we have a situation where a very bad message is being sent to the public. If the press had their act together they would challenge the assertion that the memo was just someone going to far and ask some hard questions like "but how come it refers to end of year results and regional reports? Is that all fictional?".

WORLD NEWS

A New Zealand man has died in Thailand after being stabbed, supposedly for not letting the stabber have sex with the stabbee's girlfriend.

For some reason, the news of Warren Buffet giving the Gates foundation 80% of his considerable fortune has been repeated on the news over, and over, and over again. Either it has made a particularly big impression on news agencies or they are losing the plot.

Israel seem to be getting physical again, looking for a missing soldier. I hope he isn't just awol.

GW almost completed a coherent sentence in a speech.

The space shuttle launch has been delayed again.

REAL SPORT

Hannah came home very happy on Thursday. Her class was in the final of the class soccer tournament, and Hannah scored the only goal. Head very big after that.

Her soccer team were playing a team they should have beaten, but despite a number of chances just couldn't score. They lost the game 0-1 through a defensive lapse in a goal mouth melee. It was not pretty. Was disappointing after their beyond-expectations win the week before. No soccer next weekend due to school holidays.

Hannah attended a soccer trial on Sunday. It is for an 12th grade team for a tournament in October but with a mini-tournament on 23rd July. We should hear how she did in about a week. I think she looked pretty good, to be honest. Maybe a few players better but not many. We shall see if I am biased or correct.

PanPac tournament starts this Thursday for Rory. We go to the opening ceremony tonight.

SPORT

Big final of netball on Friday night, BOP Magic versus Southern Sting. Sting have won like seven titles in last nine years. Magic were defending champions. First final held in North Island for ten years or so.

England are out of the World Cup, again. Bollocks. I only want them to win for very historical reasons. I don't like the way they play and they have some complete tossers in the team (like Gary Neville). Rooney is a git for getting a red card.

Germany's win over Argentina was lame, like the England v Portugal game it showed that an open exciting style can be stifled by an ugly boring one. Italy showed that the Ukraine were lucky to be in the final eight.

The Warriors won again this weekend, fourth game in a row. Not sure it enough to get them into the finals but it is certainly helping improve their season.

Team New Zealand won a pre-America's Cup regatta, beating Alinghi in the final. There have been soo many. They lost in the pre-pre-America's Cup regatta, and so on. Not even sure when the real thing starts.

MY SAD LIFE

Got news on Thursday that Les Dobson had died overnight. Had been told the week before that he had been given six to twelve months. He was a client of mine, worked pretty closely with him for about four years. He semi-retired last year and I helped him sort out with his home network. He had been pretty sick, virtually had a new stomach constructed out of his intestine. In December he looked like his own grandfather, was a thin, pale version of his former self. Can't say I always got on famously with him, in fact one time I actually told him I was not prepared to take any more of his crap and resigned. Despite that, our working relationship continued for a couple of years beyond that event. They are holding a very quiet family only service in Wellington, where his kids all live.

Major revelation in Rory's world this week. He seems to have realised that parents actually don't have to spend their entire lives taking children places and helping with homework and they might even prefer to do other things. He seems to have begun to show some genuine appreciation of the effort we put in. This is quite a breakthrough.

I think Diana hates clothes pegs, or me. She throws washing into the dryer, starts it, then goes out. On Friday, I removed TWELVE clothes pegs from the dryer. In about seven attempts. I would restart the dryer then hear another one, stop it, remove it, and repeat. Got five the first time. It is damned noisy with twelve pegs in there.

We are seeing Gavin on Wednesday. Gavin is seeing Jana on Thursday. Gavin isn't seeing daylight until Monday.

Been working on a speech with Hannah this week for school. I emailed a guy on the web who's web page listed a play that was very much along the lines of the chosen topic, he emailed me back and a couple of days later he sent me a PDF of the play, which I thought was pretty cool.

This Friday it will be three years since Dad died.

Saturday is Heidi's birthday. Happy Birthday Heidi. Do the minties count as a present?

A VARIATION ON THE GLASS IS HALF EMPTY

A discovery in the pantry over the weekend (you remember, it's a big pantry). There were five jars of peanut butter in there. This is because Rory gets a jar to the point where there only enough peanut butter for about five or six pieces of toast, then moves on to the next one. You can't begin to imagine some of the things that I said when I made this discovery. I have removed the two most full jars until he uses the others. I am not even counting the jar of peanut butter he doesn't like in the five.

CONTRIBUTION FROM GUESS WHO

Just to let you know Hannah is the best daughter in the world and she rocks at her sports for soccer she got nominated for a rosebowl team which is made up of Auckland reps. Yesterday was the trials for this team and I think she is in the top five.

(this is what happens when someone gets to read the email before it is sent, no idea what else has been changed)

Next Monday I will reveal the surprise. I hope you are in suspense.