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.
No comments:
Post a Comment